Zucchini Enchiladas!

We tried a new dinner a few nights ago and it was worth keeping! We used THIS idea as the inspiration, but our own mix for the filling- mostly because we were using what we had on hand. 

For our family of five, I got three skinny zucchinis, about 8 inches long. I know the inspiration recipe says wide, but I figured once it was full of stuff that would be plenty of food... I cut them lengthwise and scooped out the middle, just like doing a stuffed baked potato.
Then we made our filling. I diced up the scooped out zucchini, minus any seeds. We had left over lemon pepper chicken, which we cut into bite size, or smaller cubes. We had about half a can of black beans in the fridge. We threw in possibly 1/4 cup of a diced red onion, and about half a bag of frozen corn. Then we made our own enchilada sauce with THIS recipe, and my husband added an ice cube worth of frozen roasted hatch chiles. 

I drizzled olive oil in the baking pan and rolled the zucchini in the oil to kind of coat them. We roasted the zucchini "boats" I believe 10 minutes, then filled them, and put them back in the oven for 20 minutes I think, to heat everything thru and fully cook the zucchini. Then added cheddar cheese on top and broiled it a couple of minutes. And that was our dinner! 

The whole family liked it, except the youngest wouldn't eat the "boat" part, haha. She didn't know there was zucchini in the filling she happily ate, which is just fine. 

Ingredients:

- three whole zucchini, hollowed out, seeds discarded and the meat diced.

- 1 cup cubed chicken

- 8 oz black beans

- 1/4 cup red onion

- 8 oz frozen corn

- 2/3 cup enchilada sauce 

Bake hollowed zucchini in 9x13" baking pan, at 400* for 10 minutes. Fill with your enchilada filling of choice. Bake for another 20 minutes. Add cheese and broil for 2 minutes, watching closely. Serve a yummy and nutritious dinner! 

Oatmeal Pancakes

Original Variation Base Batch	Buttermilk Variation Base Batch
1 cup rolled oats 3 tbsp brown sugar 1/2 cup dry milk powder 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 2 large eggs 1/4 cup olive oil 1 1/2 cups water 2 tsp vanilla	1 cup rolled oats 3 tbsp brown sugar 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 2 large eggs 1/4 cup olive oil 2 cups buttermilk 2 tsp vanilla
Makes about 12 five inch pancakes

Original Variation 1 1/2 Batch	Buttermilk Variation 1 1/2 Batch
1 1/2 cup rolled oats 4 1/2 tbsp brown sugar 3/4 cup dry milk powder 3 3/4 tsp baking powder 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 3/4 tsp salt 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour 3 large eggs 1/3 cup olive oil 2 1/4 cups water 3 tsp vanilla	1 1/2 cup rolled oats 4 1/2 tbsp brown sugar 3 3/4 tsp baking powder 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 3/4 tsp salt 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour 3 large eggs 1/3 cup olive oil 3 cups buttermilk 2 tsp vanilla
Makes about 17 five inch pancakes

Put the rolled oats into food processor or blender with the brown sugar and process everything into a relatively fine powder. Should look mostly like flour when you are done. If there is room, add the rest of the dry ingredients in and blend everything together. If not, combine the ground oats/brown sugar in a bowl with the rest of the dry ingredients and whisk everything together to fully combine.

Combine the eggs and olive oil together and whisk to combine. Put in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk together. The ground up oats will prevent the flour from forming gluten, so you can whisk the batter together pretty well, but don't overdo it. When everything looks good and combined, stop mixing. Let the batter sit for 15 minutes before beginning to cook.

Heat up your preferred pancake pan to your desired temp and use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to produce pancakes that are roughly 5 inches round. Add bananas or blueberries while they are cooking in pan, not into the batter directly. Cook them as you like them.

If the batter seems a little thin still, add more all purpose flour a tbsp at a time until it is the right consistency.

Good tip: spray your oil into your pan, then use a paper towel to rub it all over the pan. That will create a smooth oil surface for your pancake to cook evenly on.

Avocado Toast

I know, I know, suuuper late jumping on this particular bandwagon. The thing is, even tho I like avocado, it also makes me gag, haha. My mom often slices up an avocado and puts the slices on bread for lunch. But I can't just take a bite of avocado... So in recent weeks I looked up what's so great about the super trendy "avocado toast".

I liked THIS LINK best, and I read somewhere that pomegranate goes great on avocado toast, and I do love pomegranate! So here's what I've been doing:

I use a stick blender to puree a whole avocado, plus a pinch of salt, some lime juice (maybe a tablespoon?) and some dried cilantro (roughly a tablespoon of that too). Then I store that in a container in the fridge. I like it better on toasted wheat bread for sure, but whatever is in the house works. I butter the toast, then sprinkle a tiny pinch of salt over both slices. I hold the black pepper grinder several inches above the toast and use two turns. Then I spread the avocado all over the bread. I sprinkle a bit of red pepper flakes over that (the photo has too much red pepper, haha!) and then some pomegranate seeds all over that! YUM! The mix makes at least 6 slices of toast. It's healthy, quick and yummy! Yeay for that!!

2 slices toast
butter
1 avocado
lime juice
cilantro
salt
black pepper
red pepper flakes
pomegranate seeds

Wingers Style Wings with homemade amazing sauce.

What you need:

• Raw unfrozen chicken wings. In the store you can get them bulk packs with about 20 to 30 pieces in them. When you are getting ready to cook them, they will need to be completely thawed out so that they will cook completely in the short amount of time they spend in the deep fryer without burning.
• A home deep fryer or a good size pot on the stove (cast iron is best) filled with oil up to the fill line for the fryer or about 3 inches worth in the pot.
• A fry thermometer or another food grade thermometer that can handle high temperatures. The fry oil needs to be at least 350 so that the chicken will cook up crispy and completely.
• A plastic bag with flour, just flour.
• A plate to put the floured pieces of chicken on as they come out of the bag.
• A plate or pan with a cooling rack on it to put the chicken after it comes out of the oil to drain.
• A good size bowl to toss the chicken pieces with the sauce in.
• A plate to serve everything on.
• Celery pieces cut to a preferred size.
• A little serving bowl with ranch or blue cheese dressing. I would recommend Litehouse brand.

Amazing Sauce Recipe

·       1 part brown sugar

·       ½ part apple cider vinegar

·       1 part honey

·       ½ part corn syrup (this adds thickness and sticking power to the chicken)

·       ½ part of a hot sauce that has a really good flavor

·       A hot sauce with some real firepower

·       Liquid smoke

In a bowl combine the brown sugar and vinegar. Stir all together until the brown sugar is dissolved in the vinegar. Add the honey, the corn syrup, and small squirt of the liquid smoke. Stir it all together until all of the ingredients are completely combined. If you don’t have corn syrup around, you can do this with just honey, but the vinegar is a pretty effective solvent and the sauce after you add the hot sauces won’t be as thick as I think that it should be. It will still taste great, but the thicker sauce will stick to the chicken a lot better. Once everything is combined, put in your hot sauces. Use the firepower one until it is hot enough for ya.

Making your wings

Okay let’s make some wings. Set-up your prep area so you can work in one steady flow. Get your oil in whatever you are using and heating. Take its temperature as often as you need to until it reaches 350 degrees. In the meantime, take your thawed wings and put about 3 or 4 into the bag of flour at a time. Toss them around so that they are lightly coated. Take them out of the bag and shake off any extra flour; they only need to be lightly coated. Put them onto a plate to rest and let the flour bind to the chicken a little before they go into the oil. Depending on how many you are cooking, work in batches of no more than 3 to 5 at a time. They will need to cook for about 6 minutes. When they are done, they should float to the top and turn golden. They will float before the time is up. Keep them in the full time so that you can make sure the chicken is completely cooked. Take them out, let them drain, and toss them in the amazing sauce until they are completely coated. Put them on a plate and serve them up with the blue cheese dressing and the celery. Drizzle any leftover sauce over them and enjoy! You are going to need lots of napkins.

Pumpkin Dip

I made this recipe several years ago for a small gathering. This year, after making pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, I had left over pumpkin and remembered this dip! It took me a while to find it again, so I'm sharing and saving it here so I don't forget. A friend blogged it HERE, and it was yummy!!

Her recipe is:

1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 15oz can pumpkin
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp pumpkin spice (or nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon)
1 tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate

In a medium bowl, blend cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth.
Gradually mix in the pumpkin.
Stir in the spices and orange juice until smooth and well blended.
Chill until serving. Serve with the best gingersnaps you can find for dipping.

Swedish Meatballs from Scratch

Fantastic recipe for Swedish Meatballs. Found it on a website called Damn Delicious. Here is the link to the original post on the website. Family loved it and it makes plenty for a family of five. Made a slight change from the original recipe by adding the dried parsley directly to the gravy instead of using it as a garnish.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound ground pork
• 1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

FOR THE GRAVY

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 cups beef broth
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley leaves

DIRECTIONS:
Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until onions have become translucent, about 2-3 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine ground beef, ground pork, Panko, egg yolks, allspice, nutmeg and cooked onion; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Using a wooden spoon or clean hands, stir until well combined. Roll the mixture into 1 1/4-to-1 1/2-inch meatballs, forming about 24 meatballs.

Add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to the skillet. Add meatballs, in batches, and cook until all sides are browned, about 4-5 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.

To make the gravy, melt butter in the skillet. Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in beef broth and cook, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in sour cream and then the dried parsley; season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Stir in meatballs and cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through and thickened, about 8-10 minutes.

Serve immediately by themselves/on buttered egg noodles with a salad or other vegetables on the side.

Sweet Pork Chili

This is one of those, "let's see what's in the fridge to make dinner with" kind of recipes that worked out well and tasted quite good.

So this picture is the version without the beans added in.
That is a mistake. The beans are really needed here as they
add substance and help to slightly thicken the end soup.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs Boneless Country Style Pork Ribs trimmed and cut into 3/4" cubes
• 4 tbsp oil
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 Green Bell Pepper chopped
• 3 stalks of celery chopped
• 1 healthy Pinch of Salt
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 1/2 to 1 tbsp of chili powder (depending on your level of heat tolerance)
• 1 tsp onion salt or 1/2 tsp of salt with 1/2 tsp of onion powder
• 1 tsp granulated garlic
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp curry powder
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 3 oz of tomato paste
• 14 oz of diced stewed tomatoes with juice, not drained
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 15 oz drained and rinsed red kidney beans
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

Instructions
Before beginning to cook, be sure to prep everything and have it ready and waiting next to the stove. When cutting up the County Style Pork Ribs trim off excess fat and any silver skin that you find. The silver skin does not break down in the cooking process and is really inedible. If you don't know what silver skin is, just google it. Turn your oven on and set it to 350.

Put a large oven safe soup pot or, preferably, a dutch oven on the stove over med high heat. Heat the 2 tbsp of oil in the pot until shimmering and then add the pork. Let the pork just start to brown and then add the 3 tbsp of soy sauce. Stir it all together until all of the pork chunks are browned, but not necessarily cooked all the way through. Take the browned pork chunks out the pan and set aside for the moment. Just in case you didn't know, absolutely do not clean out the pot before the next step. Leave any browned bits in the pot.

Turn the heat down to medium. Add 2 more tbsp of oil into the pot, let it heat up, then add in the chopped onion, celery, and green bell pepper (also known as the trinity) to saute. Add a healthy pinch of regular salt and saute the vegetables until they are softened, the onions are translucent, and are fragrant. It is also okay if they are browned a little too. Add in the minced garlic, stir to combine, and cook for about 30 seconds. Add in the spice mix of chili powder, onion salt (or the regular salt and onion powder), granulated garlic, cumin, curry powder, and red pepper flakes. Stir this to combine and cook for 30 seconds which will give the spices a moment to bloom and get fragrant. Now add the 3 oz of tomato paste, stir it in, and cook for about 2 minutes. This will caramelize the tomato paste and build flavor. Don't worry if it starts sticking to the bottom of the pan, just don't let it burn. Dark brown on the bottom of the pan is fine. Black is not so great.

After the mixture has cooked for about 2 minutes, add the chicken stock, 14 oz of diced stewed tomatoes, 15 oz of Dark Red Kidney Beans, and the 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Stir all up until it is combined, making sure that you scrape the bottom of the pot to get up any browned and caramelized tomato paste goodness. Add back in the pork chunks, cover the pot with foil and put on its lid to create a tight seal. Put it in the 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Be sure to scrape the sides of the pot when you take it out and do your final stir before serving.

Serve with whatever you like with your chili. Eat it straight or with a dollop of sour cream to mellow it out a bit.

Eggless Cookie Dough for One

My oldest daughter made this tonight for a treat that she could take to school. Worked well and tasted good, so we are adding it to the blog in case the original post disappears. Here's the link to the original recipe: Eggless Cookie Dough for One. It comes from the Like Mother, Like Daughter blog at https://lmld.org/

Eggless Cookie Dough for one is an edible chocolate chip cookie dough that you can whip up in minutes for a perfectly safe cookie dough treat!

Ingredients

• 2 TBS UNSALTED butter softened
• 2 TBS brown sugar
• 1 TBS sugar
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 1 TBS milk
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 6 TBS flour
• 1/4 cup milk chocolate chips

Instructions

**Microwave your flour for 30 seconds to 1 minute till it reaches an internal temperature of 160 degrees, to eliminate any risk of e. coli.

In a small bowl, cream together your butter and your sugars until mixed. Add in your vanilla and milk and stir to combine. Add in your salt and flour and mix until all combined. (Add a little more flour if mixture is too wet) Dump in your chocolate chips and stir them into the cookie dough.

Recipe Notes

**If you are also worried about the raw flour, its an easy fix. Put the flour on a pan and bake for 5 minutes at 350 degrees! Or microwave for about 1.5 minutes!

Enjoy this delicious cookie dough without the worry of eating raw eggs.

Country Gravy

1 lb ground sausage
1 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
4 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp seasoning salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil

Heat a 12-inch Skillet (preferably cast iron) over medium high heat with one tbsp of olive oil. Add the 1 lb of ground sausage to the pan and and break it up into small crumbles as it cooks. Brown the sausage until about 50% of the crumbles has crispy bits. Take the sausage out of a pan and put it in a bowl off to the side to be added back into the gravy later.

Lower the heat to medium and add the one tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp of olive oil back into the hot skillet. Once the butter and oil have melted and heated up, add the 4 tbsp of flour to the pan and whisk until it is combined. Cook the flour roux for about 1 minute then whisk in the 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock slowly. Stir the mixture with the whisk until it is smooth (no lumps) and thickened. Whisk in the 1 cup of milk until it is completely combined and the gravy starts to thicken again. Add all of the seasonings at once and whisk until combined.

As soon as everything is combined in the pan, and the gravy is the desired thickness, remove from the heat and serve.

Whipped Cream Cream Cheese Frosting

This comes from Allrecipes.com and is fantastic. Posting it here so I don't have to keep looking for it and in case it disappears. Here is the link to the original website.

"A decadent whipped cream and cream cheese frosting that has everyone asking if they can lick the bowl. It pipes very well."

Ingredients
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese

1 cup white sugar

A pinch of Salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

Directions
In a large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Add heavy cream and whip with whisk until stiff peaks form.

A new favorite salad!

We actually made this meal in October, but since it's a new year and we are attempting to eat healthier, it was time to share it. And it was SO. Yummy!!!

I found this recipe on facebook, at least a couple of months ago. I started following the page for healthy dinner ideas to throw into our mix- I don't follow the Whole 30 plan at all.

This is the photo that was shared with the recipe below.

Hawaiian Pineapple Salad - Whole 30 FB page 

Ingredients:
-mixed romaine greens
-grilled chicken breast
-fresh grilled pineapple slices
-diced avocado
-sliced cherry tomatoes
-diced purple onion
-lime wedges
-unsweetened coconut flakes

Directions:
1. Grill your chicken breast then slice after it is cooked
2. Grill your fresh sliced pineapple slices
3. Lay a bed of romaine lettuce on your plate
4. Then add the remaining toppings
5. Squeeze the limes over your salad as your dressing or you could add any whole30 compliant dressing you have. We love the lime with a little salt for a change up.
6. Sprinkle with shredded unsweetened coconut flakes

We have some picky eaters, lol, so we prepped the various ingredients and set it all out on the table for people to take what they wanted. I think we said something like lettuce and chicken plus at least two more things.

And I enjoyed it so much I ate it for lunch until all the ingredients were gone! We will definitely make this one again!
(and you can always grill your pineapple and chicken on the stove or under the broiler if it's too snowy at your house!)

2016 Christmas Goodies

Last year we tried two new recipes* to give as neighbor gifts. I typed this all up last year and never got around to sharing it! Now that it's Christmas again, it must be time! 
*Because you should always try new things when you want to share, haha....
(Actually, we made four different treats, but two are already on this blog.)
Fortunately they were both very yummy, and the recipes need to be kept!

The first recipe can be found HERE, and I'm copying the info to this blog in case it is ever deleted from the other. This one has a subtle flavor and should not be eaten immediately after the other treat, haha.... These are very light, and as stated in the original source, the perfect introduction to fall flavors. We've now made them twice since Christmas, so I'm okay eating it any time of year! This was possibly my favorite treat we shared this year.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies:
Ingredients:
8oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice*
1/2 tsp cinnamon
---
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs (for rolling the cookies in)
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice (optional)

*I don't have pumpkin pie spice. We did 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp ground cloves and 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Directions:
In a large bowl, stir together cream cheese, butter and pumpkin until smooth. Add the sugar and vanilla until combined. Add the flour, 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs, pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon. Mix until smooth. Scoop into balls and roll in the remaining graham cracker crumbs, which may include the optional pumpkin pie spice.
Place cookie balls on sheets lined with parchment paper (we use silpats). Bake for 15 mins at 350*. Remove from oven and flatten slightly, with your fingers or with the bottom of a glass. Bake three more minutes.
Allow to cool completely. Store in the fridge, just like cheesecake!
(the photo shows the dough balls rolled in chocolate graham crackers. Usually we've used regular. Both ways are delicious!)

The second recipe can be found HERE. It was possibly the family favorite. It has a much stronger flavor, and I wondered if my kids would even like it. HA. They definitely did!

Gingerbread Cookie Bars:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup molasses
1 egg
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

Cream Cheese Frosting (or just dust with powdered sugar)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1 lb (3 3/4 cups) powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350*. Cooking spray all over a 9x13 inch baking dish. (I covered it in foil, and sprayed the foil).
In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and molasses on medium speed until creamy. Add the egg and stir until completely incorporated. Add baking soda, flour, spices and salt, and mix until well combined. Spread dough into prepared pan, using clean hands or a rubber spatula to press the dough to the edges of the pan.
Bake 15-20 minutes, do not overbake! Cool in pan, on a wire rack.
When bars have cooled, frost with cream cheese frosting or dust with powdered sugar. Cut into squares to serve.
If using frosting: (I recommend it!!)
Cream together the butter and cream cheese. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla. Slowly mix on low and then beat on high til light and fluffy.

ETA 12/23/18: This was a huge hit all three years we've made it and I have shared this link more than a couple times. So here's some tips. It is a very tacky dough when it's ready to go in the pan. I start with a rubber spatula, but I have to use my hands to smash it into the corners. When you pull it out of the oven it is puffy and as it cools it kind of sinks down the way it looks above, leaving you plenty of space for frosting.

ETA 12/20/2024: It makes a LOT of frosting. I split it between two pans of bars...