Chicky Muffins

Chicky is my Aussie friend (AKA Clarissa), and this recipe came from her experiments in healthy eating. Two teeny muffins make a great filling breakfast. They are high in fiber and very low in fat. Clarissa's are even healthier than mine, because I use the whole egg, but she uses just the egg white.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup oat bran
1/2 cup shredded or flaked coconut
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons Splenda Brown Sugar
2 teaspoons splenda
1 egg
1/3 cup nonfat milk
cooking spray or mini muffin cups.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Spray mini muffin tins with cooking spray, or line with muffin cup papers.
Combine all ingredients. Divide into 12 mini muffin cups.
Bake for 12 minutes, or until golden brown.
Cool on wire racks.

Roasted Potatoes

Everything is easy once you make it your own. I used to be intimidated by oven roasted potatoes until I realized it comes down to three basic parts. Mix and match to make your own favorites.

Ingredients:

• Potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces. These can be Idaho, Red, Baby Red, Yukon Gold, Fingerling...and potatoes you want. I've never met a potato that didn't taste good roasted! I usually use an average of 2 small or 1 large potato per person. You can always have leftovers!
• Cooking liquid, your choice. I've tried cream, white wine, broth, olive oil, other cooking oils or butter. You'll want about 1/4 cup of liquid for every 4-6 potatoes.
• Spices or herbs or flavoring. Almost anything you like the taste of will complement potatoes. Some of my favorites are: a packet of onion soup mix, a packet of Ramen spices, a few tablespoons of Mrs. Dash, and packet of Barbecue sauce spices. Get creative, it is almost impossible to mess this up!

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 
2. Put the liquid and the spice in a large ziplock bag and mix by agitating the bag.
3. Add potatoes, seal and shake to coat the potatoes in the seasonings.
4. Pour into a 9x13 oven safe dish. IF your cooking liquid is not oil based, it is best to spray the dish before you add the potatoes.
5. Bake for 30-45 minutes, or until you can mash a potato with a fork.
6. Allow to cool 5 minutes before serving.

This evening, my family had red potatoes, roasted with olive oil and onion soup mix. And if the empty dish says anything, it was a good choice! I'd love to hear your favorite combinations!

Don't Waste Gravy!

Time saver twist...If you make Tangy Pot Roast or any other gravy recipe, and are left with a bunch of gravy in the crockpot when the meat is gone, throw that gravy in a Tupperware and put it in the freezer for another night. Today I was caught unprepared when it came time to make dinner, and I ended up pulling off a pretty good meal anyway. The trick was my leftover gravy!

I grabbed some pork chops from the fridge, and the frozen block of gravy from the freezer. I could have used chicken, or steaks. I put the pork chops into a skillet to brown and microwaved the gravy to thaw it. After the pork chops were browned, I put in enough gravy to cover them, and covered the skillet. I let them simmer while I cut up and roasted some red potatoes, and threw some frozen peas under the hot tap to thaw and heat. Presto! Comfort food, ready in 35 minutes.

I'll throw my recipe for roasted potatoes up on the blog next. Like all my favorite recipes, it includes three ingredients!

Saucy Chicken and Peaches

As regular readers will know, I get many of my recipes passed to me from my sister, Mercy. She even sent me a whole cookbook put together by her church group. This is one of the gems I found in that cookbook, and it was submitted to the book by my awesome sister!  I had forgotten to post it to the blog until I was talking about it with my friend Carrie tonight.

Saucy Chicken and Peaches

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
• 1 teaspoon oil
• 2 c. canned peaches (1 large can)
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon basil

Directions:

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat until hot.
2. Add chicken, cook 4-5 minutes. Turn chicken over, cover and cook another 4-5 minutes until juices run clear.
3. Remove from skillet; keep warm. You can also cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces to cook more quickly and for better serving sizes for small appetites.
4. Meanwhile, drain peach syrup into glass measuring cup. Add water to make 1 cup of liquid.
5. Whisk cornstarch, brown sugar, vinegar, soy sauce and basil into peach liquid.
6. Pour liquid into hot skillet. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.
7. Gently Stir in Peaches and chicken.
8. Serve over hot rice.

Mercy's family likes the sauce so much, she makes double. Then she saves half of the peaches in custard cups for the kids to eat cold.

Banana Streusel Muffins

I've always been a big fan of banana nut bread, but when I needed to whip up a dessert for a recent potluck, I spied the very ripe bananas sitting on the counter and decided they needed to become a sweet, rather than a bread. I found a recipe for banana streusel muffins on food.com and altered it to create the recipe below.

Ingredients:
Muffins:

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3-4 bananas mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Topping:

• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat Oven to 375 degrees
2. Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with paper liners. I wanted bite size treats, so I used 36 mini muffin cups (without nuts, probably just 30-32).
3. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
4. In another bowl (or stand mixer bowl), beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Add nuts if desired.
5. Stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture.
6. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins. be sure to only fill cups 2/3 full. You need room to place the topping or it will fall off the muffin and caramelize the pan!
7. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, flour and cinnamon.
8. Add melted butter and stir until well blended.
9. Spoon evenly over muffins.
10. Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Kaiserschmarrn - Our Austrian favorite!

On the way home from picking up our Austrian exchange students, Danielle asked a barrage of questions of them, one of which was, "What is your favorite food?" Marcus replied "pizza". Florian though, replied "Kaiserschmarrn", and set us all giggling and asking "what?!"

We later did some research and found that Kaiserschmarrn (or The Emperor's Mishmash) is a kind of scrambled pancake, caramelized and served with plum preserves. Its not very hard to make, and it is always a crowd favorite around here. We change things up a bit for simplicity, so this is an Americanized version.

Ingredients:

1 cup milk
5 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup flour
pinch salt
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
jam, jelly or preserves (optional)

Directions:

In a medium mixing bowl, combine milk, eggs, vanilla, and sugar until well-mixed. Blend in flour in small amounts, until it is a smooth batter.

Heat a medium to large skillet to medium heat. Spray skillet with cooking spray. Pour 1/2 cup batter in to skillet and cook 5-6 minutes or until the pancake has set and the bottom is golden brown, usually about 4 or 5 minutes. Turn and cook 3 minutes more, or until this side is also golden brown. Remove to a plate and allow to cool while you cook more pancakes.

As pancakes cool, cut or tear them into bite sized pieces. Drop pieces into a large nonstick pot. When all pancake are cut and torn, stir in raisins, melted butter and powdered sugar. Heat on medium, stirring constantly, until hot and well mixed.

Serve topped with additional powdered sugar, and jam of your choice if desired. This recipe serves about 4.

In case you're wondering, the true Austrian version includes soaking the raisins in rum for half an hour and cooking them in the pancakes. And then it is served with Plum preserves.

Chicken Mozzarella

Easy Italian favorite!

Ingredients:

• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• 1 (14.5 oz) can pasta-ready chunk tomatoes w/ olive oil, garlic & spices
• 4 slices mozzarella cheese

Directions
Dip chicken breast halves in egg and dredge in bread crumbs. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken and cook for 3-4 minutes each side or until golden brown. Drain. Pour tomatoes with juice over chicken. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low. Cover; cook for 20-25 minutes or until chicken is tender and no longer pink inside. Place cheese slices over chickenand tomatoes. Cover. Cook 1-2 minutes more or until cheese is melted. Serve over rice or pasta. A side of steamed spinach makes a nice veggie addition.

Ham & Cheese Oven Omelet

This is a great dish for a brunch. I'm going to try it with bacon instead of ham, since my sweetie prefers the crispy stuff!

Ingredients:

• 8 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp seasoned salt
• 3 oz smoked sliced ham, beef or corned beef (maybe bacon, I'll let Sweetie decide if it works!)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 3 Tbsp finely chopped onion

Directions:
Beat eggs, milk and salt in medium bowl. Stir in other ingredients. Pour into greased 8x8 dish. Cook uncovered in 325 degree oven until omelet is set and top is golden brown.

Old Fashioned Beef Stew

Just found Stew meat on sale at my local supermarket, so I think it's a good time to prepare this classic winter favorite!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound Stew meat, cubed
• 2 Tbsp Flour
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp Tomato Paste
• 2 cups beef broth
• 4 cups sliced carrots
• 2 cups sliced celery
• 2 medium potatoes, thinly sliced
• 1 cup green beans
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 Tbsp cold water

Directions:
Coat beef with flour. Heat oil over med-high heat. Add beef, saute until browned, about 6 minutes. Place on a plate. Add onions to pot. Saute for 6 minutes. Add garlic, saute 1 minute. return beef to pot. Stir in tomato paste & broth. Add enough water to just cover, boil. Reduce heat to low; simmer until beef is tender, about 60-90 minutes. Add veggies; cover partially;simmer for 15 minutes. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and cold water; stir into stew. Increase heat and boil uncovered for 1 minute.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Similar to the dish at Chevy's by the same name, this spicy soup will clear out clogged nasal passages in a snap!

Ingredients:

• 4 (small) corn tortillas
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 12 oz.), cut into 1/2 inch chunks
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 cans (about 28-30 oz) chicken broth
• 1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies, undrained
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 cup shredded mexican blend shredded cheese

 Preheat oven to 400. Cut tortillas into 1/2 inch strips. lay out flat on baking stone. Bake 7-8 minutes or until crispy.  In a large pot, heat oil over medium high heat. Add chicken chunks and cook 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add onion and garlic, chili powder and cumin. cook and stir 2 minutes. Stir in broth, tomatoes and chilies. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.

Serve Soup over tortilla strips, topped with cilantro. sprinkle cheese evenly between bowls.

Makes 4 servings

Honey Walnut...Chicken

I usually see this dish prepared with Batter-dipped, Fried Shrimp, but since I'm not a big fan of shrimp, I made my own recipe for a similar dish. It's not as amazingly sinful as the entree from my favorite local Chinese place, but it's a bit healthier and every bit as tasty.

Ingredients:

•  1/2 cup mayonnaise
•  4 Tbsp honey
• 2 Tbsp Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 3/4 cup candied walnuts
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into small chunks 

Directions:
In a small bowl, combine mayo, honey and sweetened condensed milk. set aside. In a non-stick skillet or lightly oiled saucepan, stir-fry chicken pieces until no longer pink.  I usually cook them for 7-9 , minutes on medium high heat, and then cover, reduce heat to low and allow to cook through (about 5 more minutes). Combine with Candied walnuts and cooked chicken and serve over steamed rice topped with a handful of shredded lettuce.

Barbecue Pork Sandwiches

Here's a simple crockpot recipe for pulled pork sandwiches. Perfect for winter days like we've been having recently. You'll LOVE how yummy the house will smell when these are cooking.

Ingredients:

• 4 lbs. Boneless Pork Top Loin
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 can cola (can be diet if desired)
• 1 cup barbecue sauce

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a crock pot. Cook covered, on high for 5-6 hours, or until meat is very tender. Shred pork with two forks. Serve on rolls. These are great served with potato skins for a football party.