Kool-Aid Playdoh

So this is really easy, fun and smells a lot better than the original homemade playdoh. I am not sure how long it lasts though, we just made it today. Good for winter days and sundays when you need something for sunbeams to do!

1 c. flour
1/2 c. salt
3 tsp. cream of tartar
1 pkg kool-aid in the color you want

Mix in pan. Add:
1 c. water
1 Tbsp. oil

Mix over med. heat until smooth and thick, 6-7 minutes. Stir constantly so it doesn't burn.

Makes enough for good size portions for 4 kids. It is edible, but not very tasty. Andrew prefers eating the name brand store bought playdoh to the warm, homemade berry blue playdoh!! Go figure...

Cranberry Chicken

This is in the oven cooking for dinner. It is SUPER easy and delicious. Curt's mom gave me the recipe.

2-3 large chicken breasts
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 onion soup mix package
1 cup Russian or French dressing


Defrost chicken and cut into chunks. Mix other ingredients together and pour over chicken. Cook at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until chicken is done and sauce is bubbly. Serve over rice.

Vegetarian Fajitas

This is my favorite meal lately. I like that I can just make the seasoning for this myself because I never remember to buy those fajita seasoning packets. The mushrooms in this are delicious! I got this recipe from my friend's blog: www.thevegetablecollaboration.blogspot.com. We eat it with refried beans and fresh salsa on corn tortillas.

Ingredients
2-3 bell peppers
1 large onion
1 carton mushrooms

Mushroom Marinade
1 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 lime, juice
3 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp. cumin
3/4 to 1 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. paprika

Stir marinade ingredients together. Cut mushrooms into slices and pour marinade over, tossing to coat. Let marinade for 20-30 minutes.
Cut up onions and bell peppers. Saute onions 4-5 minutes, then add mushrooms and bell peppers at same time and let cook until they are as soft as you want them.

Have you ever tried corn tortillas? We never had them until we moved here and they seem to be the tortilla of choice. I like them better than flour. You just have to make sure you heat them up or they break apart really easily when you try and fold them up.

I like to make fresh salsa with this too:

Cut up 2-3 tomatoes. Add a 1/4 of a bell pepper and either 1 green onion (with all the green part too) or some really finely diced regular onions. Add minced garlic, lemon/lime juice and salt and pepper to taste. If you have some cilantro, add some of it too.

Survival recipes?

Hey my amazing cooking sisters, and mother, out there!! I want to know what your survival recipes are? What do you cook when you don't know what to cook? What will your kids always eat, or your spouse always eat?

I was trying to think what my survival recipes would be and this is what I came up with:

Brushetta Sandwiches

slices of tomato
slices of moz
a plate of sauce mixture: olive oil and balsalmic vinegar, minced garlic and sald and pepper
fresh basil if you happen to have it, which we never do
french bread

dip one side of the bread in the sauce and pile on the tomato and cheese
eat...use lots of napkins cuz it's messy but it's easy and yummy. No cooking!! Easier than making regular brushetta cuz there is less cutting involved.

Pesto noodles

lots of the same ingrdients, but still good and easy
cook some noodles
add pesto sauce while still hot
eat with diced tomatoes, moz and or frozen/fresh spinach.
Even Elsa will eat this and Leah loves it...and Casey now loves it too.

Easy Honey Garlic Stir Fry Sauce

Recipe from kimskitchenconcoctions.blogspot.com

I've been looking for an easy stir fry recipe and this is very easy and pretty tasty.

Honey Garlic Stir Fry Sauce

2-4 cloves minced garlic
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp black pepper

To make sauce alone: put all ingredients in sauce pan and simmer until thickened. Stir fry vegetables of choice and pour sauce over them.
To make marinade: mix sauce, pour over cut up meat in resealable container. Refrigerate for a few hours. Scoop out meat, and cook in pan until almost cooked through. Then add rest of sauce and let finish cooking. Add stir fried veggies and eat.

New favorite coleslaw recipe

Here is an easy yummy salad!!

1 bag coleslaw mix
slivered almonds
craisins
poppyseed dressing

Toss together and serve!!!

Picnic Cake

This cake is really yummy. I found the recipe on a blog somewhere. Try it out:

1 3/4 cups boiling water
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 bag chocolate chips, divided
1/2 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour boiling water over butter and oatmeal. Let sit for 10 minutes. Add sugars and mix with a spoon. Add eggs and mix. Add dry ingredients and half of chocolate chips and mix. Pour into greased 9x13 pan. Sprinkle remaining chocolate chips on top and the 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Bake for 30 minutes.

P.S. Anyone have a good idea to organize recipe cards? Mine are all over the place.

Mexican Super Rice!

Well, I threw together this casserole kind of meal for the past two Thursdays and we love it. Anne and I decided to make Thursday nights our Fiesta nights and eat mexican food. Anne and I dubbed it "Mexican Super Rice!!"

Open one can refried beans and smooth out on the bottom of a casserole dish

Layer salsa, cheese, rice, salsa and more cheese.

Warm it up in the oven or microwave.

Then we had lots of lettuce and tomato and sour cream in separate bowls to put on top, so if we did not eat it all we could just save it and add the fresh stuff the next time we at it.

Leah loved this meal and it was quite a hit with me and Anne too. Still working on Elsa, but she never eats anything these days. (sigh!!!)

Homemade Chinese Take-out

I found some great Chinese recipes this weekend! We love getting Potstickers and I never thought that making them would be so easy, although it is a little time consuming. Worth it though!  And here is an easy Orange Chicken Sauce recipe too!

Potstickers
1 lb. ground pork or turkey
1/2 bunch green onion, sliced
1/4-1/2 white or red onion, minced
1/2 head green cabbage sliced thinly
salt, pepper, ginger powder (abt 1/2 tsp. each)
1 pkg. won ton skins

Dipping sauce
1 t. sesame oil
3 T. brown sugar
3 T. soy sauce
1 T. water
1/2 tsp. ginger powder

Finely chop green onion, cabbage and onion. Fold veggies in a clean dish towel and squeeze out extra liquid. Combine raw pork, veggies and seasonings. Place spoonful in the middle of the potsticker skin and fold in half. Seal sides with water. Heat 2-3 T. oil in saute pan and saute potstickers until golden brown on both sides. Turn heat to low and add 2-3 T. water and steam covered until potstickers are cooked through, like 5 min.  (NOTE: I used turkey and the orig. recipe called for 1 head cabbage, but I think that would be way too much. So use your judgement)

This recipe made about 50 little potstickers, I froze most of them and will let you know how cooking the frozen ones turns out. I think maybe with frozen ones I will steam them first and then saute.

Mix sauce, and dip and enjoy! These are awesome!


Orange Chicken sauce
3-4 cloves garlic minced
4-5 green onions sliced
Saute in oil til tender.
Add:
3 T. soy sauce
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. orange juice CONCENTRATE
1/3 c. vinegar
Heat till bubbly and then add 1-2 tsp. cornstarch to thicken. I use popcorn or other breaded chicken that I have baked in the oven and have rice on the side! Talk about yummy!

Sorry I don't have pics, you'll have to use your imagination!

Chocolate Fondant Cake

So the name of this cake is really lame, but it is pretty much like chocolate fondant/chocolate cheesecake-tasting mix of chocolatey yumminess. I was not able to get it to flip out of the pan onto a plate (it broke in half so no picture for you) but I think it is really good and I ran out of cocoa to dust the pan with so maybe next time it will work out better.

Flourless Chocolate Cake II (allrecipes.com)

• 4 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease an 8 inch round cake pan, and dust with cocoa powder.
2. In the top of a double boiler over lightly simmering water, melt chocolate and butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, cocoa powder, eggs, and vanilla. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Slices can also be reheated for 20 to 30 seconds in the microwave before serving.

SOMETHING CHOCOLATLY FOR CHOCOLATE DAY!

TRIPLE CHOCOLATE BLISS CAKE!
WARNING: KINDA HARD TO MAKE BUT VERY YUMMY!
Pic is just from internet but you get the picture :)







Ingredients-
1 package chocolate cake miz
1 cup Sour Cream
1 pkg. Jell-o chocolate flavor instant pudding and pie filling
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water
3 cups cool whil
1 package semi sweet baking chocolate
1 1/2 cups raspberries

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease bunt pan. Beat all ingridients except whipped cream, chocolate and raspberries in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed untill moistened. Beat on medium speed 2 min. Pour into pan.
2.Bake 50 min. to i hr. Cool 10 min. Loosen cake from side of pan with something and remove cake, cool it completly. place on serving plate.
3.Put aside 2 tbsp of whipped cream. microwave remaing with chocolate on hight 1-2 min. Drizzle over cake. Immediatly drop reserved whipped cream ,with teaspoon, around top of the cake, you can make cool star shape by drawing with a wooden toothpick.:) Spoon raspberries into center of cake.

NATIONAL CHOCOLATE CAKE DAY

January 27th- national chocolate cake day. Need I say more? What a great holiday that is definitely marked on my calendar! So, here is the challenge- lets all put up a couple of favorite chocolate recipes to share! Then we can all make something chocolatey, decadent, rich,  and scrumptious on January 27th!

Here is my first one, I love this frosting recipe! It turns out great every time!

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting

1/2 c. melted butter or margarine
2/3 c. cocoa
3 c. powdered sugar
1/3 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix melted butter and cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating  on med. speed til spreading consistency. Stir in vanilla, more milk if needed ( I have never needed more). Makes 2 c. frosting. This frosts a bundt cake nicely with a little bit to spare- i.e. a snack for the next few days!!

Caramel Frosting

Well the sugar rush of Christmas is over, but I thought I would share this yummy frosting recipe for next year?!? I got this off of the internet somewhere, not sure where. I had a not so good attempt at cinnamon rolls last week and I think this is the only thing that made them pretty good--darn yeast not rising properly!

Caramel Frosting
¼ cup butter
½ cup brown sugar, packed
2 Tbsp. milk
¼ tsp vanilla extract
dash of salt
½ to ¾ cup sifted powdered sugar

In small saucepan, heat butter until melted. Stir in brown sugar and milk. Cool over medium-low heat for 1 minute. Transfer to a small mixing bowl and cool mixture slightly. Stir in vanilla, salt and powdered sugar. Beat with an electric mixer until well blended. If necessary, add more powdered sugar for desired consistency.

The Smell of Christmas

Last week I found a recipe for The Smell of Christmas!! Yummy!!

3-4 cinnamon sticks
1 Tbsp. whole cloves
1 Tbsp. allspice ( I didn't have this and it still turned out well)
orange rind (or 2-3 clementime rinds!)
3 c. water

Put in sm. pan on stove on LO. Simmer and enjoy!! Add more water when it gets low. I bet you could put in your crockpot too! Merry Christmas!

Rahm Sauce spiced up

...well, it is not spicy but it is just a different way to make it and it is AWESOME!

two boxes of the Rahm sauce powder mix
500ml of water
one diced onion
half an apple diced
some olive oil

pasta
spinach

On the small boxes of sauce (the ones that have like 2-3 tablespoons of powder mix) there is a recipe for Apple and Spring onion Rahm sauce. You just sauté diced onion and some diced apple in olive oil until the onions are cooked and then add the powder and water like normal and mix well, let it boil and there you go! It is an interesting smell when you are cooking the onions and apple, but it works so well.

We just ate this over normal pasta and then had some spinach on the side that ended up getting mixed in and it was soooooooo good. I think it is better than the normal Rahm sauce.

*this made enough for the two adults and the girls and we still have left overs for lunch for today...I am so excited!

Spinach and ham Frittata

6 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 oz cheese
salt and pepper
1 1/2 cup spinach (I used the frozen kind)
1/2 cup cooked ham cubed
(1/4 cup cream fresh) not in recipe, but I added and it was great
Pour into greased pan and bake 20 minutes on 375 degrees

Eat with French bread and a salad.

** Even Elsa likes this. I made it for the first time tonight and decided I love it and it will be in my rotation of weekly meals!!!

This makes enough for 4 people

Creamy Spinach Veggie Soup

Well, this recipe is a knock off of Grandma Jackson's Cream of Potato Soup. I was trying to make that but I did not have like half of the ingredients so I had to improvise and it turned out awesome. (As shown in the picture of Leah overjoyed at eating it and smearing it all over herself)

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup flour
3 cups chicken broth
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
4-5 cups milk
spinach
peas
broccoli
potatoes
carrots
one onion
grated cheese, if you have it

Melt 1 cup butter in large pot, add 1 cup flour and mix well. Add 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp sugar. Mix up some chicken broth (or if you have the cans, add one can or so) I think I added 3 cups of chicken broth. Mix well and let thicken. Add some milk to desired consistency, I added about 4 cups of milk. It needed more than that but that is only how much my tiny pot could take.

Add some spinach, I had the frozen kind, just a few handfuls or as much as you want really. Add cut up broccoli and one cup frozen peas and take off the heat.

Boil water and cook desired veggies- I did carrots, onion and potatoes. Add cooked, drained veggies to sauce mix.

The recipe then called for cheese, but I forgot, it still turned out very creamy and awesome.

This made too much sauce for my small pot to hold with all the veggies added so I just froze the cream sauce with the spinach in it to use for something later.

This makes very good bread dipping soup! It made about 6-8 servings.

Serch for a recipe

Does anyone have a good stir fry recipe? I tried one last night that I just made up with what I had. It was ok but not really worth trying again.

How about crock pot recipes with ground beef??

Oh so yummy Southwest Chicken Rolls

So anyone had those southwest rolls from Chilis? Well, these are pretty dang close to those and very delicious. I made them in big tortillas for dinner, but they would be good appetizers if you bought so of those cute little tortillas and did those instead. I got the recipe from http://www.melskitchencafe.com/-- and I really like this cooking blog, so if you need some more ideas.

Southwestern Chicken Rolls

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow or red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 (about 1 1/2 pounds) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1 green or red pepper, diced small
1 jalapeno pepper, membranes removed, seeded and finely minced
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
10 ounces frozen, chopped spinach, defrosted and liquid squeezed out (wringing through a kitchen towel works great)
1 can corn
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 cup freshly chopped cilantro
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2-3 cups shredded cheese
Tortillas

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheets with foil and lightly grease with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a large 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and saute for 3-4 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add the cubed chicken breasts and peppers and cook over medium or medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add the rinsed and drained black beans, spinach, corn, cilantro and seasonings. Mix well and cook until the mixture is heated through. Add the cheese and stir well, cooking, until the mixture is hot and cheese is mostly melted.

Place some of the filling on each tortilla and roll up tightly, egg-roll style, folding in the edges. Place seam side down on the prepared baking sheets (secure with a toothpick if needed).

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, until the rolls are lightly browned and heated through. Serve immediately with dipping sauce-- sour cream, guacamole or salsa are good.

Edible finger paint and playdough

...well I have not tried these recipes yet but I think they will be awesome. Stella, I know you have been dying to find a good finger paint recipe!! hehe. If you get around to trying it before me, let me know how you like it.

Edible Finger Paint:
1/2 cup flour
2 cups cold water
Stirring constantly, bring to simmer
Add 2 TBS cornstarch and 4 TBS cold water that has been mixed together previously.
Cook until to a finger paint consistency (a few minutes)
Allow to cool then add small amount of food coloring as desired.

Makes 2 1/2 cups of paint. Can store in fridge for a few days...so use it up fast and make a beautiful wall mural!

Perfect Play dough
1/2 cup water
1tsp cream of tartar1/4 cup salt
1/2 cup flour
1/2 TBS veg. oil
few drops food coloring
Put all in a pot and cook over med. heat, stir constantly until pulls away from sides. About 2-3 minutes. Knead until smooth

Keeps indefinitely in an airtight container.

Makes enough to put in a snack size Ziploc bag.

** Both of these recipes came from this blog:
http://toddlerteachingthemes.com/
It is a toddler teaching blog. Very cool blog, you should check it out.