ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

I decided to make our dinner of party foods while watching a documentary about Barack Obama. Tried a couple of new things while having some things we know we love.



Recipes:

Fondue Queso
Melted Velveeta with salsa on the stove and transferred to fondue pot

Li'l Smokies and Hot Dogs
Put smokies and cut up hot dogs into slow cooker with a bottle of bbq sauce. Turned on high for about an hour.

Fruit kabobs
Pretty self-explanatory. I used strawberries, cherries, blueberries and grapes this time.

Hot Pizza Dip
Made almost this exact recipe and so easy as only the microwave is required. I did use turkey pepperoni instead of regular pepperoni. Served with breadsticks.

Peanut Butter Cup Brownies
Prepare boxed brownie mix according to directions but pour into mini muffin tin using muffin cups. Fill just half way and then press peanut butter cup into the batter. Bake at 325 until done. Mine took 20 minutes. You can also make them using a regular sized muffin tin but the ratio of brownie to peanut butter cup is better in the smaller size (to me anyway).

My mom's famous punch recipe
I cut my mom's punch recipe to 1/3 of the normal serving since there were just 4 of us and it ended up being a good amount and let us have several refills. These are the amounts I used.

1 3oz. jello (I used strawberry to make it red punch but my mom has used all flavors to change the color according to the occasion)
1 c. boiling water
2 c. cold water
1 c. sugar
1 large can unsweetened pineapple juice
Ginger Ale

Mix jello with boiling water and stir until dissolved. Add cold water and stir. Add sugar and stir. Add pineapple juice and stir. Freeze in containers (I just used one mixing bowl this time but using a few smaller ones is easier sometimes). Thaw 4-6 hours ahead of time in refrigerator. Put some in punch bowl when ready to serve, break apart into smaller pieces and add Ginger Ale.

One of the benefits of my crazed energy is that I've been cooking everyday and making things that take quite a bit longer than a weeknight meal normally would. I made this Bacon-Wrapped Chicken, Chickeny Chicken Rice and corn for our dinner tonight. It was really good but the others in my household didn't agree.

Side note: we eat too much corn. Fresh green beans being added to the grocery list for this week.

This is what our dinner looked like after Payton threw it at Andy's face. Food throwing: a new habit of the teenager.


This is what it looked like before being thrown.

One of the benefits/odd things about stockpiling food is that I often just have a large assortment of things to choose from and so I seek out recipes that will allow me to use some of my 5 pounds of ground turkey, tortillas and corn (that was tonight anyway. Last night was broccoli and chicken ingredients I wanted to use which resulted in a great stir fry.). I end up making new things which is fun. Surprisingly enough, Blake's been loving the new recipes.

This recipe is for Mexican Turkey Burgers which involves putting several ingredients into the ground turkey, baking them and serving on a tortilla with lettuce and corn (and if you're me, fat free sour cream as well).

Herbed Pork Roast

Crash Hot Potatoes

Corn

Apple slices

I've never really liked pork but letting this pork loin marinate all night in the spices made it so yummy. Love all of the flavors of the foods together. Yummy dinner.

The lack of recipe posts hasn't been because I stopped posting them - it was because I stopped cooking. Summer got too busy so we ended up eating a lot of Mr. Goodcents and "fending" - the kids favorite thing to do. However, I'm back to cooking especially as the temps get a bit cooler and my mind automatically switches into nesting mode.

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup topped with crushed (baked) tortilla chips and (2%) shredded cheese. I think it will be even better after the spices have a chance to marinate a bit more and we eat it reheated. So easy to do - open several cans of beans, tomatoes, and corn and let it cook! Easy, healthy and yummy.

Sunday was a bit more laid back. Andy and I got up and ran and the temps being in the 60s plus having 3 tracks/trails near my parents' house made it fun to do as we ran loops around each one. After a shower, Andy and I headed to get stuff for our trip - tiny toiletries (we aren't checking our bags this time), gifts to leave for the kids, etc.

After lunch at my parents', we headed over to Andy's mom's house to spend the afternoon with Maria and her family. It wasn't even 80 degrees so there was no way I was getting in the pool.




We left so I could go start dinner at my parents' house. We had a lot of produce at home when we left so I packed it in a cooler and brought it with us so we could make use of it.

Tonight's dinner was marinated chicken breasts, chicken kabobs, deviled eggs, fresh corn on the cob, celery with peanut butter and Crash Hot Potatoes (recipe I've been wanting to try for a couple of weeks - delicious!).

Some time playing the yard including some baseball practice...

(I took a picture of our dinner and the baseball playing but my memory stick got messed up and had to be reformatted.)

Once again, we all got to bed early. Monday is our last day before our trip so it's all of the last minute things and then we're off!

Made chocolate chip pancakes (used this recipe but used whole wheat flour in place of white flour), turkey bacon, scrambled omelet (using Egg Beaters) and fruit. Everybody had seconds. Was very yummy!

I get all of my healthy recipes where any normal person does - from the MySpace account of my favorite TV actress. These brownies are so good and she says they are 88 calories.

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (semi-sweet)
Butter-flavored cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x8 inch non-stick cake pan with spray.

In a medium mixing bowl, using a sturdy whisk or spatula, mix the applesauce, vanilla, egg whites and sugar until they are well combined.

Add the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder, and salt. Stir the mixture until it is just combined and no lumps remain. Pour it into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the chips evenly over the top. Bake the brownies for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry (a few crumbs are okay).

Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and allow them to cool 5 minutes. Cut into 12 equal brownies. Makes 12 (1 brownie) servings.

Each brownie has: 88 calories, 2 g protein, 19 g carbohydrates, 1 g fat, less than 1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 1 g fiber, 133 mg sodium

I've been making these fajitas for years. It's pretty easy and healthy and it got my dad to start liking fajitas. We're only home 1 evening this week and I have to be quick if I want to cook dinner so the onions and bell peppers were purchased pre-cut, the guacamole was store-bought and Payton had started the chicken marinating before I got home. As a result, dinner only took about 15 minutes to get together which is good because our A/C is broken and the temp in the house reached 86 at dinnertime.

Chicken fajitas, Weight Watchers cheese, wheat tortillas, sides of guacamole, pico de gallo (made by Andy over the weekend), baked Tostitos and taco rice.

Since we were outside doing some things (see previous post), we had take out for dinner. I did make dessert though and this is the recipe for that.

Fudge Puddles
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fudge-Puddles/Detail.aspx
My suggestions: the chocolate makes wayyyy too much so reduce that portion of it. I only used semi-sweet chocolate chips and not the milk chocolate and it was still a lot. Very rich and yummy!

We had a mini-Thanksgiving dinner tonight. Small turkeys were on sale (and I think they are in many places right now, post-Easter) so we had a turkey dinner.

Slow Cooker Turkey
I washed the turkey, coated it with olive oil and then rubbed Italian seasonings all over it. Put it in the slow cooker on medium (high for crock pots) for an hour and then on low for 6 hours. Meat thermometer should read 180 degrees when it's done.

Dressing
I have tried a bunch of different dressing recipes and I never really like them too much. The one I used this time was this one. It came out a little too dry so I would probably add some chicken broth to it next time.

Gravy
The turkey made so much juice that I decided to make some gravy to go with our dinner. Poured the drippings into a skillet and slowly added 4 tablespoons of flour which made a perfect consistency and added a lot of moisture to the dry dressing.

Also served: mashed potatoes, corn and rolls

Very yummy and we have leftovers to eat for lunch the rest of the week!

On Wednesday, we had breakfast for dinner and everybody ate a ton. On the menu:

• Scrambled omelet - made like an omelet but instead of letting it set, scramble it. This goes over much better than omeletes w/my family. I put 6 eggs in a bowl, at least a cup of shredded cheese, green peppers, onions and ham. Salt and pepper to taste.
  
• Pancakes - made with Bisquick but when you add the eggs, put the yolks in the mix and keep the egg whites separate. Beat the egg whites until frothy and then fold in with the rest of the pancake mix. This makes the pancakes more light and airy and yummy.
• Fried Potatoes
• Cinnamon rolls - canned, refrigerated kind

I intended to also slice up the pineapple to have as well but forgot. Overall, very yummy and not too hard!

Although I went to dinner w/friends, I made dinner for Andy and the kids before I left. Only two more days to go in my promise to cook our food everyday! Today's recipe was for enchiladas. Andy said they were good so I'll take his word for it since I wasn't here to eat it.

Slow Cooker Enchiladas
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slow-Cooker-Enchiladas/Detail.aspx
My suggestions: cook them in the oven for 90 minutes at 350 or so and use only one can of soup.

Chicken and Bacon Shish Kabobs
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-and-Bacon-Shish-Kabobs/Detail.aspx
My suggestions: this recipe is great as is and is the best tasting chicken ever! We actually did it in the oven instead of the grill and it worked well.

Apple Cinnamon Turnovers
http://recipes.tasteofhome.com/eRMS/recp.aspx?recid=10868&r_d=y
My suggestions: we were out of applesauce so I replaced it with butter. I'd prefer to have used the applesauce but it worked well w/the substitution.

After not cooking at all last week, I cooked this weekend and vowed that we won't be eating out at all until Friday. Here are two recipes that I made.

Shrimp Etoufee
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Shrimp-Etoufee-III/Detail.aspx
My suggestions:

• Instead of water, use chicken broth.
  
• It probably won't take the whole 20 minutes for the celery/green pepper mixture to get tender. I only cooked mine for 10 minutes.

Cabbage Rolls
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cabbage-Rolls-II/Detail.aspx
My suggestions:

• Double the sauce mixture.
• Before taking the leaves off of the cabbage, either freeze it and let it thaw overnight (this wilts the leaves and makes them easier to work with) or steam the cored head of cabbage (leaves will be softer and easier to work with).
• Serve with mashed potatoes and corn, using some of the tomato sauce over your mashed potatoes.
  

Amanda, Suzanne and Cindy came over tonight and I fixed an early Thanksgiving dinner for all of us. I forgot to snap pics but we had turkey*, dressing**, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, homemade pumpkin pies*** and they brought raw veggies, deviled eggs, paper goods, and wine. It was soo good and we had so much fun talking and laughing hysterically at the DVD we watched afterward. I miss workin w/the girls but it's fun to get together occasionally and catch up.

*add more veggies and wine than the recipe calls for
**reduce chicken soup to one can and only use enough chicken broth to make it moist
***double the spices shown in the recipe

I often get asked for recipes of things I've cooked so I thought I'd start posting them as I make them. Dinners from this weekend....

Saturday:
Engagement Chicken
Roasted potatoes
Steamed fresh green beans
Iced tea

Sunday:
New York Strip Steak
Candied Carrots
Corn
Fajita Fries