Juicer Pulp Quick Bread

Apparently, when incorporating the pulp from your new juicer into quick bread so that you're not wasting anything, all recipes are not created equal. Yes, I realize that kale doesn't work well in sweets (thought some of the blogs made it sound like substituting anything into zucchini bread would work), so that's probably part of the reason the stuff tasted a bit off, but still...

I honestly don't have the recipe anymore and I probably wouldn't share it if I did (under this useage anyway). While I'm sure it makes great carrot or zucchini bread, it didn't work for me...which was actually very disappointing. I've never really made quick bread, but, as I said earlier, I wanted a way to use all of the leftover pulp (since we don't currently have a garden to put it in as compost), so I searched for close to an hour for a recipe that had ingredients I already had.

Yes, I know what you're thinking, I should have done this before going to  the store....and well, I had. I had gone spelunking through the internets to find a variety of things I could do with all of this mush and it seemed like most of what I was missing was  honey, so I did make sure to get that....but when I sat back at the computer, it was like all of those recipes decided to up and play an unscheduled game of hide and seek on me. Oh well, I'll just have to try again, maybe with a sandwich bread, flat bread or cracker recipe.

I guess the main point of this post, if you clicked on this hoping to find that perfect recipe, is to pay very close attention to what you've juiced (I did figure this would be an issue, but I thought I'd throw that worry to the wind on my first time around in order to test that very hypothesis) and what kind of recipe your using (ie, if it's supposed to be savory, sweet, salty, etc.) Hopefully soon I'll be able to tell you whether or not paying attention to all of that actually helps.

Happy Holidays!

Gingerbread Cookies Cooked with Applesauce?

Last week was pretty slow in the culinary department, with Thomas working late, his dad sick, and his sister staying with her mom. With only really two and a half people to cook for, I wasn't really feeling the inspiration for cooking any full-on meals. Because of that though, I randomly got the urge to make gingerbread cookies. I didn't have molasses, so that originally set me back, but I was ready to hit the web hard and find a recipe without it.

 The problem I came up with then was, sure, there were tons of substitutions(corn syrup, butterscotch pudding, etc.) but I had none of them either! I ended up settling with the first one here, which called for something called golden syrup...which I replaced with regular Hungry Jack Maple Syrup (I figured they mainly just needed the gooey texture to keep them together.)

 The next issue that came up was that I had nowhere near enough butter to pull this thing off, so I again went searching for substitutions. What I found came as a shock (though it shouldn't be for you, because you know... the title); a healthy alternative for butter (in baking only I believe) is applesauce, which apparently makes them more moist to boot (which I'll never complain about).

Everything else went pretty much as planned, though I admittedly didn't really follow the order of how to mix the ingredients and I accidentally put baking powder in instead of baking soda (so I had to accomodate for  that when it happened). I did frost a few, but I realized late in the came that I wished I'd have nixed that idea altogether because it left them a bit too sweet for me. The cookies, on their own, have a nice subtle taste to them (that would be great with tea or coffee), so you're definitely free to ice them if you wish, but I wish I'd at least made my own icing instead of using the leftover frosting from the fridge (prepackaged Pillsbury stuff). I solved the problem pretty easily however, I just gave most of them to my husband to take with him to work (where they were apparently promptly devoured).

Just as a last little thing, this recipe makes like two and a half cookie sheets worth of goodies (much more than I expected), so just be wary of that.

Happy Nomming!

Ginger Fried Chicken Salad

All today I battled over whether to make something new or just go with something I made a few days ago/weeks ago that wasn't really anything special. I wasn't sure if salad counted as a recipe...and I still don't...but it turned out pretty well, (and it's honestly pretty new to me), so here you go.

What you need:

• Chicken Tenderloins
• Ground Ginger
• Salt
• Breadcrumbs
• Lettuce (we had the fancy hydroponic kind from Costco)
• At least two Bell Peppers (ours were both red)
• Olive Oil
• Carrots
• Ginger Dressing
• Eggs

What you do:

1. First you need to make sure your chicken is completely thawed. I have a horrible habit of waiting to do this until much too late and, believe me, you don't want to work with frozen chicken on this recipe...you're fingers won't like you too much. 
2. Take out at least two plates for breading the chicken. I can't remember if I've gone over this in the past or not, so if I have, bare with me. Fill one with your egg and whisk it around a bit (no whisk required, I just use my fingers) and the other with a mixture of breadcrumbs, ginger, and salt. I have honestly no clue as to how much I used of which, as usual, I just sort of wafted my way to the perfect mixture.
3. Go ahead and put your pan on the stove with some olive oil so it'll be hot and ready for you when you're ready for it to be. 
4. In the past I've gone with the pattern of roll all of my chicken and then fry it all, but the last few times I've ended up with super burnt chicken. My strategy this time around seemed to work much better. I took one tenderloin, coated it with egg, rolled it in the breadcrumb mixture, and then laid it in the oil (it's very important that there's enough oil to properly fry the stuff, but not so much that it'll splatter up and attack you...it just takes some practice to get there...and you'll probably have to add more throughout the process so it doesn't run out and burn the chicken). You watch chicken until it's white halfway up and then flip. Then you add your other pieces. This way, you know that once your new pieces are halfway cooked, your older ones should be done...though I'd still make a slice halfway through to make sure. I saw on Ramsay's F Word once that you only want to flip it once and then my husband confirmed that's how they did it at the Four Diamond restaurant he used to wash dishes at. It's nice and juicy that way)
5. After that's through with (or while you're waiting to flip), break up your lettuce, cut up your bell peppers, shred your carrots, and toss it all in a light coating of ginger dressing. 
6. Serve on a plate with a few pieces of the chicken over it and there you have it, a relatively healthy way to have your fried chicken and not feel so bad for it. 

P.S.- I'll hopefully start having pictures after Christmas. Also, I think I like this format. I'm still playing with things, but I think this is on the right track. 

Banana Nut Bread

A month or two ago, we had an annoying fruit fly infestation that forced me to immediately freeze our bananas since we couldn't really keep them on the counter and no one was eating them after a day or so. Thomas has been intent on me trying out either Banana Nut Bread or Banana Pudding, so today, when I had a minute (knowing I needed a recipe for this post), I hit google and went with my first find (surprisingly, I didn't have to go searching all over kingdom come for a recipe that had just the ingredients I had at hand).

Property of SimplyRecipes.com

• Prep time: 5 minutes
• Cook time: 1 hour

INGREDIENTS

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

METHOD

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Yield: Makes one loaf.

After reading through the comments, I thawed out my bananas (I went with four) and set to work. I went ahead and just used my masher to not only mash the bananas, but mix the entire thing, step by step, as well. Everything went perfectly and I even added in some steel cut oats (I was running low on rolled oats and didn't have any nuts) and some nutmeg for a little something extra. The only issue I had, honestly, was that I didn't have an appropriate bread pan, so I just went ahead and made them into muffins, following a commenter's lead (it made 11 for both of us and took 35 minutes instead of an hour for them to be nice, brown, and ready to eat).

I've been really wanting to find more healthy alternatives to all of the junk we eat as a family, so hopefully this is another step into the right direction. 

Pulled Pork, You're that easy?

So, I'm sure you remember my escapades with crock pot pork chops (it was only two weeks ago after all). Well, I was determined to do them right this time, and turn them into pulled pork.

A few weeks ago we went to Costco and got a huge package of pork chops, pork chops that were like two or three times as thick as the ones you get from Walmart. We also made sure to grab some actual barbecue sauce (someday I'll make my own work, but not again yet) to make sure things went according to plan.

So, when the day came, I emptied in my two bottles of sauce, put in my three pork chops, and let it go on low for about 8 hours or so. By the time it was dinner, the chops were perfectly plump and ready for the eating. I wasn't quite sure how to pull them though, so I just grabbed two forks, and went to town, trying to rip them apart (which turned out to be pretty easy).

We ended up going out to eat for a friend's birthday, so I didn't eat the pulled pork until the next day, but I think it turned out great (plus we had enough to eat for several days of barbecue sandwiches) . We liked it enough that we got some different sauce yesterday to try out this week. I definitely suggest trying this recipe. It's super easy and pretty delicious.

Simple and Delicious Salmon

So, I've been staying pretty far away from fresh fish. Though I'd love to have some sort of strong moral argument as to why, it's really just because I'm horrified of ordering from the seafood counter at Publix (what can I say, I'm shy). Costco saved me though, because they have a ton of fresh fish ready and waiting for me  to buy.

On our last few shopping trips, I've been eyeing their salmon filet (all 2.2 lbs of it), so we finally snatched it up on Sunday to take it home and become good friends with it. After deciding that it would make three well portioned meals, I divided it up, saran-wrapped the portions, and put two of  them in the freezer for later. For the last third I:

1) Preheated the oven for 350 degrees.
2) Placed the three pieces (a serving is supposedly 3 oz) in a glass dish, coated them with extra-virgin olive oil, squeezed out a bit of lemon juice on them, and then sprinkled on a tad bit of salt and a healthy bit of dill weed (we're trying to watch our sodium intake).
3) The fish goes into the oven for a quick 15 minutes and voila, it comes out perfectly cooked.

There's nothing I'd change about this recipe...except, of course, the spices every now and then. The original recipe called for butter, but, in an attempt to be healthier again, I opted for the olive oil.

I served it over campanelle pasta that was tossed with some olive oil and a few cooked bell peppers and spinach.  Overall, a great meal, if I do say so myself. I hope you enjoy it too!

Happy Eating!

A Second Attempt at Butternut Squash

Happy Halloween Everyone!

I can't, for the life of me, remember if I posted my original attempt at butternut squash (and I'm too lazy to go check at the moment) and I know this is a day late, but even so, here I go:

The last time I tried out this lovely gourd, I was very much a novice when it came to cooking things in the oven (especially thickly skinned things like these buggers). I forgot to add a tad bit of salt to off set the sweet and it was just...not good. I had pretty much decided I was never going to try again.

However, I'm not one to give up so easily. So, knowing that this family as a whole needs a good bit more nutrition in their diet and butternut squash has plenty to give, I figured I'd try again.

So what did I do?

Well, I took

• One butternut squash
• some thyme
• a pinch of salt
• brown sugar
• cooking oil

and

1. Peeled the buttenut squash (a regular peeler works fine, but you'll have to go over it a few times before you get to the good stuff) and cut it into cubes.
2. Did my normal, coat the cubes in oil, sprinkle the spices, and then mix it all together with my hands thing.
3. Popped it in the oven 

Now this is where it gets tricky. I put it in for 25 minutes at 350 because I was pretty sure that's what the recipe online said (I know the time is right at least), but all of the cubes were still pretty hard (no fork was puncturing them with any sort of ease). So, I decided to up the temperature to 400 and left them in for at least thirty more minutes. I can't remember the exact time though, so you'll just have to keep an eye on things.

Overall, I found it to be pretty tasty, but I'm not positive the whole family shared my opinion...so we'll have to see when and if I attempt to conquer this veggie (or fruit?) a third time.

Barbecue Pork Chops

It's not that I was getting tired of my normal pork chops per say, but I think it's probably good to know how to cook meat in more than one way, so yesterday, I went in search of a way to cook them in the slow-cooker (I was feeling pretty lazy).

Basically, everything just said to put them into the slow-cooker covered in a bottle barbecue sauce   and whatever additives you want (with possibly a little extra water so they don't dry out) and cook them on low for 6-8 hours. It sounded simple enough. I was even reassured that, if I wanted to, they'd be tender enough to make into pulled pork...something I will be trying, but not with four little pork chops.

Anyway, I got all excited and got my stuff together, only to find that the barbecue sauce we had went bad in May (whoops). So, I tried to make my own...meaning the pork chops were basically cooked in tomato soup mixed with a variety of spices and several random sauces/condiments. For what they were, they were actually pretty good, but I definitely learned to make sure you have everything before you start cooking (a lesson I think I've already been taught once or twice in the past...I'm just hard to calm when I get excited and intent on something).

I'll definitely be trying this again and if I get around to it, you can bet I'll tell you how well it works for pulled pork.

Homemade Pumpkin Pie

Ever since I was in the 7th grade (we're talking somewhere around 12-years-ago) I've been making this sweet potato pie recipe (sometimes as many as 12 at a time during the holidays). What I hadn't made however was a pumpkin pie.

A few weeks ago, I asked my culinarily gifted (and certified) friend Jeremy what recipes he knew for pumpkin. His reply was that I could really take any recipe that called for sweet potatoes or butternut squash and replace it with pumpkin. So, when one of my other friends asked if I wanted to make a pumpkin pie from scratch this year (it would be her first time too), I jumped at the chance and knew just what to do.

One thing I was worried about though, is the fact that I've always used canned yams for my pies, which already have a ton of sugar and what-not added to them. I was scared that maybe that was why my pies worked out each time. So, we bought two medium-sized pie pumpkins, gutted them, halved them, and put them in a dish with about an inch of water; but before we baked them for an hour, we added several spoonfuls of brown sugar (oh yeah, to be healthy, we were also substituting brown sugar for the normal white sugar) to the water in hopes that it would get soaked up into the pumpkins as they baked.

Once they were finished, we scooped out the pumpkin, made three pies (I should note that doubling the recipe actually produces enough for 3 pies, not just 2), and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves once they were cooled off. Next time, I want to make my own crust too. I normally make a good graham cracker crust, but we just went with the pre-made kind to save time this time around.

Sorry if this seems rushed, I'm just feeling it after staying up most of the night last night, entranced in my book. Happy baking! Night!

Hamburger Steak with Surprisingly Easy Brown Gravy

When I woke up this morning, I didn't think I was going to have a recipe to blog...besides maybe eggs in a basket. Around five o'clock though, I got lucky. You see, this weekend we went to Costco, and in trying to learn how to buy in bulk, we bought 7 pounds of ground beef (that I later had to divide up and repackage in cling wrap--fun stuff). That's all the meat we had in the house too, so unless I wanted to eat pasta (which we also bought in bulk on our trip before last) every day, I needed to come up with something else.

Thomas has always said that my hamburger steak is his favorite dish that I make, and I used to love making it, but lately it's become a hassle because we don't have near the amount of spices I used to have when I lived with my dad and I've lost my knack for making it on the stove without it turning into the smallest chunk of meat ever. So, I peered around online and found this recipe:

Now, if you know me, I generally don't take recipes as is. For the Hamburger Steak, I toasted two pieces of bread, ripped them up into a big bowl, squirted in some A1- Smokey Mesquite and some ketchup, and then hand mixed in about a pound of ground beef. I divided it into three patties, covered it in the soon to be mentioned brown gravy, and then baked it for about 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees.

For the gravy, I actually followed the directions (because I was out of my element), except I substituted a beef bullion cube for the salt to taste. Up until now, I've been using the packaged brown gravy (you know, the kind that stays lumpy), but no more! I also had enough left over to go on some rice (or you could just as easily make mashed potatoes or mashed cauliflower). 

Overall, I was very happy with it. The steak was cooked perfectly and though the gravy was actually a tad bit sweet, it wasn't the overpowering kind you can get stuck with. 

Happy Eating!

Those Mini Pumpkins aren't just for decoration

So, if you've talked to me in the last week or so, there's a GOOD chance that I've told you all about this new revelation of mine...which is, as you can guess, that you can easily cook and eat those little pumpkins everyone always buys for decoration and then never really figures out what to do with. This enlightenment came about early last week when I decided that, since it was fall, it was about time I had something pumpkin (yes, I'm one of those people who flocks to coffee houses so they can partake in pumpkin spice lattes or pumpkin bagels with pumpkin spice cream cheese).

Anyway, while I was at the store, I double-checked that they were edible (and not, for some ungodly reason, poisonous), and happily threw a bag of 4 or 5 of them into my cart. After I got home, I found and put into practice (for a single pumpkin) this recipe:

Ingredients
-Mini Pumpkin
-Brown Sugar
-Cinnamon
-Butter
-Apple Sauce

What to do
1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Wash the pumpkins, cut off the tops (but save them), and clean out the seeds and strands.
3. Spread a layer of butter on their insides.
4. Mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and apple sauce in a separate bowl. As always, just add enough spice to satisfy your own tastes.
5. Fill the pumpkins with the mixture you just made.
6. Put the tops back on/in.
7. Place them in a container with about an inch of standing water and then bake for an hour.
8. Once the pumpkins are soft enough to be poked into with a fork, take them out, cut them in half and enjoy scouring out the warm goodness.

Salmon Loaf?

Okay, so I remember growing up with my gran's salmon patties, but I have to admit, when my father-in-law suggested making salmon loaf with the rogue can of salmon that's been hiding in the back corner of our pantry, I was a momentarily grossed out. Together, those two words didn't immediately bring to mind the arguably healthier meatloaf alternative I ended up making. So, I figured I'd do some research and eventually make the loaf at some much later date. Wouldn't you know though, I found myself without a meat the next day and no time to go get some more before dinner. So, I did my research and found that I had everything needed (except butter, which I replaced with peanut oil) for this recipe:

 Ingredients 
(14.75 ounce) can salmon, undrained
1/2 cup crushed saltine crackers
1/2 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons melted butter

 Directions 
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the salmon, cracker crumbs, milk, egg, salt, pepper, and melted butter. Mix thoroughly.
3. Press the salmon mixture into a lightly greased 9x5 inch loaf pan.
4. Bake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes or until done.

 I read several comments saying that, alone, this recipe is a little bland, so I added a small can of corn and quite a bit of my husband's favorite spice (creole seasoning). The finished product was delicious, though it did take much longer than 45 minutes to cook (I want to say it was almost an hour and a half and it still wasn't fully sliceable not chilled). I'll have to try it on a higher temperature next time...and I might add some cut-up bread or fully substitute it for the saltines like a lot of the other recipes I found did.

Frozen Yogurt Dots

A few weeks ago, I saw this recipe for frozen yogurt dots on One Good thing by Jillee, a site I think I'm a little addicted to. Anyway, I saved the steps away on Pintrest and accidentally forgot about them until another yogurt recipe came  across my dash today (dipping strawberries in it and freezing them). So, I set to work: I got out the strawberry yogurt I keep forgetting to eat, took out the cookie sheets, and decided to try dipping some already frozen blueberries in it since I didn't already have strawberries. Here's what I learned: 1) Don't try just covering the blueberries with yogurt using a spoon. It kind of flows everywhere. The Ziploc bag really is a must for keeping things clean. 2)The dots should be larger than you initially think they should. I made a TON of small ones and, combined with the unrealized heat from the dishwasher going below and the dots' lack of ability to keep their temperature at that size, and they were almost all melted by the time I scraped them all up to put them in the mason jar I was planning on keeping them in. 3)The blueberries worked out great. They didn't melt a lick while I was trying to jar them (or while I was eating them) and they tasted great. I can't wait to try this again (when I'm fully prepared) and make them right (I really do need to look at the directions some times). (Sorry for the short post again. I was going to do a different recipe, but I need to try it out another time or two before I write about it.)

Things don't always go as planned...

Apparently everyone else liked tonight's meal, but it didn't turn out as fabulous as I was hoping it would. I almost came up with another recipe to talk about, but then I thought, well, I can't always just be praising myself. I'm not some master cook who knows everything; I'm just a girl trying a bunch of stuff out and seeing what doesn't go wrong. Tonight I wanted to sort of combine what I did with the ham last week with the pepper sauce I made a few weeks back. I was hoping for this tangy/salty/sweet combo that was going to knock the guys off of their feet, but one or two excess ingredients later...here I am. I think I started out okay. I cut up the chicken and coated it with the mustard/brown sugar sauce, put the bacon in the oven, and diced up some peppers and put them, with some olive oil, in a pot. When I switched out the bacon for the chicken, I noticed there was a ton of oil, so I figured, why not add some of it to the peppers. I thought it'd add a little bit of flavor....but I honestly think this is what screwed things up. If there is a next time, I'll just leave it at the bacon itself. Every time I tried to add mustard to the pot to give it the same sauce as the chicken, it kept breaking up in the oil and not really doing anything. I tried adding a pinch of ginger, some salt, and even a chopped up apple, but nothing would fix it (I had already added brown sugar alright, but I didn't want it to be too sweet). Also, while I was trying to fix everything, the apple and pepper cooked down so small, you would have barely known they were there. Like I said though, everyone else seemed to think it was really good. I guess I just couldn't get past the lack of  the particular flavor I was going for and the excess of bacon grease aftertaste.  At least I didn't have to scrap the whole thing! That would have been a real punch to the cooking confidence. Though, as Alton Brown says in my newly acquired I'm Just Here for the Food 2.0, "if you do mess up a few dishes in the name of education--hey, it's only food."

Super Simple Brown Sugar and Mustard Glazed Ham Steak

So, I've never been a huge fan of ham steak, but my family loves it, so I decided to figure out a way to make it a little more exciting. I sifted through quite a few recipes, originally wanting just a brown sugar glaze that might make it a tad bit like honey glazed ham, but instead I came across something called brown sugar and mustard glazed ham. All of the recipes were a lot more involved than my lazy self felt like doing today though (and included more ingredients than I had on hand), so I decided to go bare bones and see how it would turn out. What I did: 1) Preheated the oven to 350 degrees. 2)I took a good hearty squirt of yellow mustard, a handful of brown sugar, and just enough apple juice to make it a nice, thinner consistency. 3) Brushed both sides of the ham steak liberally. 4) Baked it for around 25-35 minutes (you want the glaze to be good and soaked in and for the ham to be browning, but not burnt). It was pretty delicious if I do say so myself. You should definitely try it!

Mashed Cauliflower

Okay, I apologize for being short, but I just had a fiasco in the kitchen with the pork chops and skillet getting into a fight, causing the whole downstairs to fill with smoke, so I'm a little burnt out (yes, sad pun intended). Tonight I made mashed cauliflower, something I've been dying to make ever since I 1) learned about it and 2) my husband filled me in that cauliflower was like his second favorite vegetable (I wasn't sure that was possible...sorry cauliflower). Anyway, follow this video and you should be good. It's a nice recipe because the texture and the taste of the cauliflower are sort of cut by that of the potatoes. Also, I didn't know what braising was, so now I do. The only things I really changed were that, in trying to clear out the smoke, I didn't get the chance to drain the water, so, since the ignored cauliflower and potatoes were already getting mushy, I skipped the milk and just put all of it in the blender with some cheese.  

Simple Oven-baked Pork Chops

So, last week, I was feeling pretty lazy, so I decided that, instead of standing at the stove for forever, I'd just make a few simple things that could go into the oven. I was originally going to post about the cauliflower I made, but the recipe didn't turn out as well as I hoped it would, so instead, I'm sharing the pork chops. They were the best part of the meal anyway. What you need: -shredded cheese -garlic salt -1 egg -pork chops (I had 4) -bread crumbs What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Break the egg on a plate or in a bowl and whisk it around a little bit to break up the yolk.
3. In another bowl, mix together a lot of breadcrumbs, a few handfulls of shredded cheese, and the appropriate amount of garlic salt.
4. Take each pork chop, coat it in egg, and then, coat it in your breadcrumb mixture.
5. Place in an oven safe container or on a cookie sheet.
6. Leave them in for 1 hour.
7. Enjoy!

Sweet Carrots

So, have any of y'all gone to some of those somewhat generic Asian restaurants and wondered how they get those carrots so tasty? I was personally convinced that they boiled them in super-sweet tea or something like that; and my father was once told by a waitress that you wouldn't want to eat them if you saw how much sugar they were cooked in; but it turns out you can make them, or at least some that are darn close, with just some water, a little brown sugar, and butter. I seriously want to credit the recipe I took most of this from (since I know people who've been searching too), but, for the life of me, the page suddenly eludes me (and my search history, which I just looked through somewhat extensively). Anyway, here's what you do:

1. If you're using full-grown carrots, peel them and cut them into two-inch pieces. If you're using baby carrots or anything else, you should be fine to use them as is (washed of course).
2. Place your carrot bits into a pot with boiling water and cook them until they are soft enough to be cut through with your utensil, but not so soft that they are easily mashed.
3. Strain the pot and then replace the water with a few table spoons of butter and your desired amount of brown sugar (remember, you only want to use it to somewhat coat the carrots, not soak them, so you probably only need a cup or a little more....I don't remember how much I used because I honestly just poured some out of my huge glass container until it felt right).
4. Leave your carrots in there for, at the most, five to ten minutes. You're just adding flavor, not trying to alter the overall physical state of the carrots. During this stage, you can add a little bit of salt and pepper to combat the sugar. The sugar smell was getting a little too sickeningly sweet for me, so I ended up adding a tad too much salt (not a horrid amount though), so I'll have to reign myself in next time.
5. Chow down.

Veggies without the fuss

So, one thing I've learned that really saves time when you have dinner to prepare and not enough hands, is cooking veggies in the oven. What you do: 1) Pick a vegetable. 2) Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees. 3) Peel each piece and cut them into the size you want (the peeling can be optional, depending on what you've chosen). 4) Place on a non-stick pan or in an oven safe container. 5) Drip over enough of your favorite cooking oil to coat each piece (I just mix it around with my hands until it's completely spread around). 6) Season to your liking and then mix again. 7) Put the pan/container in for 25-40 minutes, or until you can poke into it a bit with a fork. 8) Serve and enjoy.   A few suggested combinations: -potatoes with green onions, salt, pepper, dill weed, and cheese. -thinly cut potatoes with any seasoning (creole, oregano, salt and pepper, etc.) for fries. -carrots with dill weed and salt. -asparagus with parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper.    

An Attempt at Fast Food (without the fast, but hopefully with more health)

If there's one good thing that's come out of the whole Chick-Fil-A fiasco, it's that a ton of copy-cat recipes have come out online. Now, I'm not necessarily one for cheating or stealing, but I'm also trying to provide my family with healthier, cheaper, home-cooked alternatives to all of the crap we waste our money on on a daily basis. Anyway, after I bought my coconut oil from good ole Trader Joe's, I immediately started searching the web for recipes to use it in, during which I found this website. Their "coconuts" apparently, always posting new recipes for things with coconut oil. Well, since I didn't have all of the seasonings needed for this other non-knock-off recipe, I bought some chicken and got to work. You'll have to be proud of me. This was probably the first recipe that I actually did the prep work for. Usually I rush stuff or I just don't do that recipe if it has something like "let it sit for 2-4 hours"...plus, I generally just dip my chicken in egg and then cover it with whatever bread crumbs or what not I'm using when I fry it. It's also just a miracle I thought to do it before it was time; usually time creeps up on me and before I know it, it's too late to do the recipe I wanted. Anyway, so the only ways I deviated from the recipe were that I put half pepper/half paprika instead of a full teaspoon of pepper and that I figured I wouldn't go through the hassel of buying or making powdered sugar for two tablespoons of the stuff (which I do think might have affected it). Overall though, it was pretty good. They didn't quite have that Chick-Fil-A taste, but that's okay. I also paired it with (a can of veggies-*gasp*and) fries that were simple cut and peeled potatoes; coated in olive oil; sprinkled with parmesan cheese, salt, rosemary, and sage; and placed in the oven on a cookie sheet for 35 minutes at 450 degrees. So, though it all didn't turn out exactly the way I planned, it was much cheaper than taking the family out for dinner and hopefully a tad bit healthier (the fries weren't fried and I used coconut and olive oils instead of whatever they use at the restaurant. Until next time, Happy Eating!

Spaghetti Squash is Magical

About a year ago now (or so I think)my brother told me about spaghetti squash, something he'd gotten several times in his local CSA basket. I was honestly very skeptical, but I kept it filed away in case I ever ran into the things, which happened about a month ago at the Farmer's Market. I didn't have a recipe or anything then, so I waited until last week, when I was fully prepared, to get the husband to bring home a nice four and a half pounder for the family to chow down on. So, according to one of the nice posters on Cooks.com you:

"Cut squash in half, remove seeds. Bake cut side down in baking pan containing small amount of water. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. After cooking, pull strands free with a fork. Toss with small amount of butter and season to taste. Or serve with your favorite spaghetti sauce and grated Parmesan cheese."

Just so you know, the squash doesn't magically turn into noodle like strands that you just pull out, as I'd somehow convinced myself it did. I pulled the halves out of the oven, expecting some magical transformation and do you know what it looked like? It looked like squash. Amazingly though, when I started running the fork through the inside of the squash, it fell easily apart into little, noodle like strands (and not because the fork was carving them out). I don't know if you're the kind of person to get excited by something like this, but I sure am. I continued to happily scour out the two halves. For that particular night, I tossed the strands with a bunch of butter, salt, and a few shakes of parmesan cheese; and then topped it all off with ground turkey and vodka sauce. It was absolutely delicious (it even impressed my 12-year-old little sister-in-law).There are tons of other recipes out there for spaghetti squash, both as side dishes and as main courses, so get out there and try some! Just a little warning though, if you haven't had it before, like me, the strands are slightly crunchy and do have their own distinct flavor. I'd definitely taste them before going through with anything improvised. So, long story short, this is definitely a veggie I hope to eat more of in the future.

Easy Healthy Pasta

For the second time, my original recipe plans have been foiled, so my journey into the world of spaghetti squash will have to wait until next week. Today, I'll just go over one of my favorite ways to make pasta, with olive oil (or really any type of cooking oil). So, while it's easy to just brown some meat and mix it with some pre-made sauce, sometimes it's best to think outside of the jar. Growing up, a favorite dish of my dad's was penne, spinach, olive oil, chicken, and Zatarain's seasoning; a really simple dinner that I've also adopted over the years. However, I never thought to expand upon it until this past year. Basically, all you need is a pasta (or theoretically spaghetti squash), some sort of seasoning, some veggies, and an optional choice of meat. I've done it with a pack of frozen veggies, salmon, and lemon pepper; shrimp, peppers, onions, salt, rosemary, sage, and basil; and with the chicken, as I explained before. There's really no limit, as long as you have the right spices. I'm sorry if this week was kind of lame, but hopefully next week will pick back up.   **edit** I should note that you only need to use as much olive oil as to coat the pasta and veggies lightly. Unlike with tomato sauce, nothing should be swimming in it.

Blueberry Crescent Rolls

So, this is a recipe of my own creation. I had blueberries that were on the verge of turning  and crescent rolls that I'd bought in "bulk" on sale, so I figured I'd combine the two, with a little sugar for taste, to make a quick, treat. All you really need is:

• a greased cookie sheet
• fresh blueberries
• a few pinches of sugar
• a roll or two of Pillsbury crescent rolls

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Unroll each crescent on the tray.
3. Place a jumble (maybe about a spoonful) of blueberries in the thickest part of the triangle.
4. Sprinkle some sugar over the blueberries (as much as you see fit).
5. Fold those two edges (the ones closes to the jumble) in and then wrap the longer portion around the entire roll. Pinch the edges where blueberries are peaking through so that they won't fall out while it's baking.
6. Top off the crescents with another sprinkle of sugar.
7. Put it in the oven until the rolls seem golden brown and cooked all of the way through.
8. Let them cool.
9. Enjoy!

Before

After

Roasted Butternut Squash

I'll openly admit that this was my first time eating, let alone cooking, butternut squash; so my results may be a complete reflection of that. A few months back, my mom told me a quick recipe for butternut squash on a night that I just couldn't, for the life of me, think of what to cook. I ended up not using it and sadly lost it, but when I saw that butternut squash was now in the rounds at the farmer's market, I did a quick search on my phone and found this, from foodnetwork.com, which seemed very similar:

Ingredients

• 2 medium butternut squash, halved lengthwise and seeded
• 4 teaspoons butter
• 4 teaspoons brown sugar
• Salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place butternut squash halves on a large baking sheet flesh side up. Place 1 teaspoon butter in the middle of each squash. Sprinkle brown sugar over each squash. Season with salt and black pepper. Roast 25 minutes, until flesh is fork-tender. Reserve 2 halves for future meal.

  Things didn't go as smoothly for me as that sounds. First of all, all of my butter and brown sugar seeped off of the squash and turned to charcoal on the bottom of the pan. Also, as I would have found had I read the comments on the recipe, it takes more like an hour to properly cook the things. I did 25 minutes and they were still hard...so I tried to wait another 10 or 15 and found that, though they seemed cooked on top, they were definitely still undercooked. If you take the wrong time in account though, I'm sure it'll turn out fine. While flipping through my homemade baby food book, I found that butternut squash is actually a good first food for babies, so I may just try this out one more time (or at least the veggie itself).

Tomato Okra Gumbo: A Family Heirloom

Since I didn't get the chance to take pics of the food, here's a candid with my Gran from around 2007. So, if you haven't realized already, this also satisfies item number 20 on the list. Back when I was in middle school, I used to hang out at my Gran's during the summer, helping her prepare meals and tend the garden. Well, one such meal was her Okra Tomato Gumbo. I couldn't get enough of the stuff, which apparently runs in the family, because I remember her telling me it was my late Granddad's all-time favorite dish. It's been years since I've had her gumbo, years speckled with several sides of the dish from Jesstines Kitchen on Meeting Street (which is delicious by the way). Part of the reason I haven't gone for the recipe before now is because my husband had a horrible run in with boiled okra (slime, slime, and more slime), but when I was making this list I figured he could take one for the team. I wanted to learn the recipe before I may not get the chance. Two weekends ago we had lunch at EVO Pizza with my dad and grandmother and, with the list so fresh on my mind, I figured that was as good of time as any to ask about the recipe. I hinted to her that I'd love to come over and learn the secrets of the dish and what I got in return was the intel that you basically just put as much okra as you want, as much tomato as you want, onions, and a cube of beef bouillon into a pressure cooker and fire away until it's done. So, the next chance I got to stop by the grocery store, I grabbed some beef bouillon (my stock had run dry) and some okra; and then I ran around to my dad's house to grab the tomatoes Gran had given him to give to me (there are seriously no tomatoes like hers). I also grabbed some peeled shrimp to add to the recipe in hopes to divert my husband's taste buds from the okra slime. I did do a lot of research to find out how to not make the okra slimy and what I found was that you want to put the okra in the frying pan (I don't know how to use a pressure cooker, so I was altering things a bit) before everything else, along with a little bit of olive oil, and just cook it until all of the slime seems to go away. Then, I chopped up the tomatoes and onion into large chunks and dumped them in. I actually added a can of tomatoes I had in the pantry as well, but only to get rid of them and take advantage of how much juice was in the can (some of my fresh tomatoes were eaten before I could cook the dish). During my pregnancy, I read all about how bad canned tomatos are for you, so they've kind of been chilling in the back of the pantry for months. After all of the juices really started to come out of the veggies, I added two cubes of bouillon (there was a lot of juice), some paprika, creole seasoning, and the shrimp. After a few minutes, it was ready to be served over rice and devoured (which I promptly did). This isn't a strict ingredient by ingredient recipe, so if you're someone who needs one, I'm sorry. I really just went off the cuff with this one since that's what I was given (my Gran doesn't really do recipes either). I suggest, if this isn't enough guidance for you, check out some of the recipes online. They all sounded pretty darn tasty while I was doing my slime research. If you're open to anything though, definitely play around with it and find a happy medium for you.      

Who Knew Healthy Jello was THIS Easy?

So, this is one of the new installments on the site in relation to my 99 in 999. I decided I need to work on my blogging skills, as well as my cooking...so logically, I figured I'd pull a very tame and non-Julia-Child inspired Julie Powell and blog about new recipes I've tried (or at least one a week). Unfortunately, the recipe I was hoping to talk about (my gran's Okra Tomato Gumbo) had to be pushed back a little because of the mixture of constant storms and a horrible memory that lead me to forget to grab my gran's tomatoes from my dad's house. So, today, I figured I'd show you a very easy jello recipe that I discover from one of my new favorite youtube channels, Mama Natural.     When I was growing up, getting jello to set always alluded me like some secret dark art. With this recipe though, I've found that, depending on the size of the jello (whether it's single servings or a whole container), you can put it in the freezer once you're done and then move it to the fridge once it seems settled/before it begins to freeze (you HAVE to keep an eye on it). Lastly, I like to add some chopped up fruit to mine. It really adds to the taste and the refreshing feeling you get as you pop a spoonful in your mouth. Until Thursday (probably), Cheers.