~Rachel Ray Recipe Recommedation

Try saying THAT 5x fast! ~Rachel Ray Recipe Recommedation~Rachel Ray Recipe Recommedation~Rachel Ray Recipe Recommedation~Rachel Ray Recipe Recommedation~Rachel Ray Recipe Recommedation

Rachel made this recipe on the show Wednesday, It looked yummy and I had all the ingredients here so I gave it a test run last night. Yummmmy! And it smelled heavenly! I highly recommend this one. So do Duane and Cody. I love my boys! They totally don't mind that I'm always experimenting in the kitchen, and they usually eat & like my creations too :-) Now Courtney on the other hand.........she's not willing to try much-she's too much like me at her age. I didn't try much (even coffee!) until I was about 30!!! Now that I'm a coffee addict and killed all my tastebuds, I eat all sorts of crazy things :-) I add spinich, edamame, sweet potatoes or flaxseed to anything I can. I added emamame to this recipe too-it just seemed to need a little more color. who would think butternut squash, dates and chicken go together?......not me!!! But it works. Try it!

Baking the butternut squash

simmering the chicken and spices

the finished product and almond citrus couscous

eatin' time!!!!!!

Spicy Chicken with Dates and Butternut Squash

Ingredients
1 butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds), seeded, peeled and cut into bite-sized cubes
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)l, divided
Salt and ground black pepper
2 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts and thighs, chopped
1 large onion, quartered and sliced
12 dried pitted dates, coarsely chopped (about 1 cup)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
1 bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick
3 tablespoons flour
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup cilantro or flat leaf parsley leaves (a large handful), roughly chopped
Preparation
Pre-heat oven to 400ºF. Arrange the squash on a baking sheet, drizzle with 2 tablespoons EVOO and season with salt and pepper. Toss to evenly coat and roast in the hot oven until tender, about 30 minutes.While the squash is working, place a large, high-sided skillet over medium-high heat with 2 turns of the pan of EVOO, about 2 tablespoons. Add the chicken to the pan, season with salt and pepper and cook until golden brown and almost cooked through, 6-7 minutes.Add the onion, dates, spices, bay leaf and cinnamon stick to the pan, and continue cooking until onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the pan and cook for about 1 minute. Add the stock to the pan and bring up to a bubble. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until thickened and dates are plump, 5-6 minutes.Remove and discard the bay leaf and cinnamon stick from the stew. Stir in the roasted butternut squash. Garnish with the cilantro or parsley and serve with Citrus Couscous alongside.

Citrus Couscous

1 tablespoon butter
1 cup slivered almonds
2 cups chicken stock
Zest of 1 lemon or orange
2 cups couscous
Preparation
Place a medium saucepan over medium heat with the butter. Add the nuts to the melted butter and toast until golden brown, 4-5 minutes.Add the stock and zest of the lemon or orange to pot and bring the liquid up to a bubble. Stir in the couscous, cover the pan and remove from heat. Let couscous sit for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork and serve. *add more liquid if needed, mine was a lil dry.

~Buckeye heaven

Here's my favorite holiday candy recipe...... It's an absolute must have for Christmas! And now that it's been requested I've been craving them BIG time! I actually meant to do this blog way back when I made them for Angie's birthday, even took step by step pics, but I got sidetracked. I get sidetracked ALOT and very very often :-) It's a honking miracle if I ever post something on time. I know this is 2 days late but here ya go angie :-)~num nummy!!!

P.S. ~ you better double or triple this recipe cuz they won't last long!!!!

Buckeyes:

1 1/2 Cups of creamy peanut butter

1 stick butter, room temp

2 1/2 cups confectionery sugar (more or less)

melting chocolate (I prefer chocolate almond bark, it's near the chocolate chips)

Mix together pb, butter and sugar. You may have to use your hands because it gets pretty thick. You may have to add more confectionery sugar. The dough needs to be nice and stiff but not crumbly and definately not sticky.

Roll dough into 1" balls and set them on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper and store them I the freezer until very very firm. (20-30mins should do it) (hint: you can fit lots and lots of pb balls on a cookie sheet but when you start dipping them they'll need more space so they don't touch)

Melt chocolate (I microwave it in 30 second intervals until smooth and runny, stirring every time I check it)

Get a few of the pb balls out of the freezer (hint: I only get about 10-20 out at a time because if they aren't really good and frozen, they start sliding off the toothpick and plop into the chocolate) Using a toothpick, dip them in the melted chocolate. Make sure to leave a bit of the pb showing at the top like a real buck's eye or buckeye nut. Place them back on the wax paper and into the fridge or freezer until the chocolate is set. Store in the fridge.

dip them just 'so far'

give them a spin to get the excess chocolate off ~yes there really is such a thing as "too much"

TA~DA!!!!

Now go store them in the freezer under the frozen veggies where the kids never look :-)

I usually have leftover melted chocolate so I dip mini pretzels, nuts, ritz crackers sandwiches with pb in the middle, oreos or crushed up starlight mints. Or you can dip 3/4 of a pretzel rod then roll it in sprinkles, the kids love those. My fav to dip is marshmellows and cashews~together :-)

And if you really wanna go into sugar shock try this OMGosh!!! Isn't it beautiful?!

Buckeye Cheesecake:
1 (8x8-inch pan size) package brownie mix

3 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened

1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)

1 (10-oz.) package peanut butter chips, melted

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons butter-flavored shortening (or butter!)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare brownie mix according to package directions. Spoon batter in a greased 9-inch springform pan. Bake 20 minutes. Cool. Reduce oven temperature to 325.
In large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in the sweetened condensed milk. Mix in the melted peanut butter chips, eggs and vanilla. Pour filling over baked brownie. Place pan in a larger baking pan with 1-inch hot water . Bake at 325 degrees for 50 to 55 minutes or until center is almost set. Turn oven off; remove baking pan with water. Let cheesecake cool in oven 30 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven; chill 1 hour. Remove side from pan. Melt chocolate chips with shortening; stir smooth. Spread this glaze over top and sides of cheesecake. Chill 3 hours. Garnish with buckeyes.

............and now that I'm drooling all over the place, I'm dipping a spoonful of peanut butter into chocolate pudding--isn't that pitiful!?! It's all I've got at the moment :-( sooooo sad.

~Yummy salad

I made this lovely spinach, edamame, shrimp salad just now with balsamic vinaigrette and then proceeded to put my "fancy" salad in a used coolwhip bowl! So classy eh? I had just rinsed the bowl out to recycle and it was the closest thing to me LOL I just can't bring myself to take a pic of my lovely salad in it's equally lovely bowl :-) anywho, here's a really simple basic recipe for the vinaigrette (below). I sauteed some shrimp in olive oil, threw some spinach in my bowl and grabbed some edamame out of the freezer and threw it in the pan when the shrimp was done (which helped defrost them + cool the shrimp off quicker) then ta-da! it's lunch. Easy breezy! I also had a spinach/mango/strawberry smoothie - no, I take that back - I had 2! Cody's not here and he usually halves it with me. So I HAD to drink it all heehee. And now I'm full as all get out!!! (whatever that is!)

Roast Garlic Balsamic Vinaigrette
1/2 head garlic
1/2 t. honey mustard
1/2 t. honey
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 T. olive oil
salt and pepper
2 T. water
Heat oven to 400. Slice 1" off top of garlic. Exposing cloves, wrap i foil and roast until soft and fragrant- 40-45 minutes. Cool slightly. Squeeze cloves into a mini chipper or processor. Add remaining ingredients and 2 T warm water blend until smooth. Refrigerate up to 7 days.

I have to admit tho, I was in a big honking hurry today, because it was already 1:30 and I was starrrving, so I just grabbed some minced garlic out of the fridge to make the vinaigrette :-) It's not considered cheating if you're starving to death. Didn't you know that?

~Findings

#1 I've been having trouble finding a whole wheat bread recipe I'd like to be loyal to. So this morning on the Today Show, Mark Bittman made an Easy, Fast, No Knead version that I'm going to try this afternoon. I'll let you know how it goes...........


#2 Goodwill has their own freaking website! Whoa--now you can buy other peoples junk, ebay style!

#3 I found sweet potato chips that I love (and so does the hamster!) at Walmart. We don't have a Whole Foods store within 50 miles of us, so when I find an item like this I get happy :-) Ya for only having 2 ingredients!!! Farm fresh food is easy to come by out here in the country during the summer/fall, but winter is creeping up fast, I'll have less access to the store and fresh foods so I'm turning into a lil chipmunk and stocking up on food, at least I put up some beans and corn already so I can have that 'straight out of the garden, yet slightly frozen cuz it's winter' taste during the snowy weather :-) I have a feeling I'll be eating alot of these....



#4 I found this super comfy dress yesterday, so in true Kasmira style I had to try it on a couple different ways and take piccies. I'll be honest, I've got brown patterned tights to go with, I was just being too lazy to put them on over my pastey white legs :-) And I plan on getting black fishnets to go with the black boots, I actually had my leggings on in that pic because I was getting ready for bed LOL Did you notice I have on 2 different black boots? The one on the left is regular tall boots, the one on the right is my warm cozy snow boots-at least I can dress them up and still get out in the snow this winter. So what do you think, love it or hate it? (let me repeat: it's SUPER comfy) It also comes in grey, black and dark purple.



#5 Left over chunks of chicken/mushrooms from last nights wraps taste mighty good with cucumber and swiss. LOL can you tell that was an after thought and I'm eating right now ?

~This week

Lets see....... this week we are keeping busy. Last Friday and Saturday we (liz & I) had a garage sale. Did pretty good, we made enough to buy our plane tickets to FL next December for our 'moms only vacation' with Alisha and Missy :-) Didn't have much junk left by the time it was over, which was the goal :-) We had oodles of Amish come the first day, one of the oddest things any of them bought was a computer print shop program LOL not sure why....but hey, it was money so I'm not complaining. It rained in the morning but the sun actually came up in the late afternoon so my sleepy sister went out to sit in the sun. With the blanket on, doesn't it look like she's some patient at the hospital that got wheeled outside for fresh air and fell asleep? hahahaha I don't know how she slept with the horses in the driveway jingling their bridles and an amish lady that kept playing with a barbie toy that says "wow!"+"cool!" over and over and over LOLFriday night my In-laws came to stay the night and "help" with the garage sale the next day. (they ended up going shopping at other garage sales). Then they took the kids home with them to spend the night, Courtney and Grandma went to the Mother/Daughter banquet and courtney made a lovely straw hat for me. Cody and Gramps mowed the lawn at the church and did "guy stuff". Then they hung out with the amish neighbors, went to get ice cream and Cody got to drive the buggy home LOL wish I had pics of that!!! Duane & I got to go on a date!!!! We went out to eat with Lizard and Craig (who we reallllly like) and went to see Iron Man which we also realllly liked. I had no interest what so ever in the movie before, but it was surprisingly good! Got to see Sarge's new army office too, with the new furniture they just got, you can't really see it but there is a really big flatscreen tv in there.. ooooooh aaaaaaah I can't wait till he get all his stuff hung up on the walls (and out from behind my loveseat)
ANNNNNNNNNND I ate chicken wings for the first time. Sarge decided to make them on the grill for dinner and insisted I try them. I'm NOT a big fan of gnawing meat off a bone, like a dog.... Kinda makes me feel creepy. The only reason I gave in was because he smoking a cigar at the time and for some reason I find it cute. I think cigarettes are nasty, but Cigars I find sexy. I guess because the only time he usually smokes a cigar is at Army formals.........when he's in dress blues. And if you know what dress blues are you'll know what I mean :-) My SIL (and family) are here for a few days because Sarge's Dad is in the hospital (ICU!) Not sure what's going on yet, but he became violently sick & Migrane-y (i made that up) shortly after we picked the kids up at church. Hope my kids didn't drive him nuts!!! They are running all sorts of tests, MRI's and such, so hopefully we'll find out something soon. But at least we get to spend time with Cristy for the next few days :-) Duane's parents were suppose to be going to visit her in MI this weekend, and my FIL says they are still going!!!! The man is still in ICU and he thinks he's going up to MI in a few days to help Craig and Cristy WORK on their house!!! LOL The guy never stops working!!!! Hmmm maybe this is God's way of telling him to slow down????? Pray he'll feel better soon, they'll figure out what's wrong AND that he will learn to slow down and rest.

~Menu Monday

Jumping on the "menu plan monday" bandwagon! I just went grocery shopping today so I have 2 weeks worth of groceries. I'm trying to find a nice balance between healthy food and food that Courtney will eat so I don't torture her every night---nooooot so easy to do. I try to make sure every meal is served with steamed veggies or grilled corn on the cob to help achieve the 'healthy' part. I love all the steamer veggie packs they have now in the frozen food aisle. Even tho I'd rather have the veggies straight from the garden. And I love the prettttty new grill Duane got last week, it's so easy to turn on. I'll be grilling alot this summer + no more worrying about burning off my eyebrows ;-)

Monday~BLT's

Tuesday~Turkey Tacos

Wednesday~White Chicken Chili + homemade bread

Thursday~Grilled Salmon

Friday~Pizza

That's as far as I got because I know that I cook whatever I'm craving at the moment, so the menu can't be "planned" for next week yet or it will surely change and then I would feel like I was lying. I keep a handy list of "main dishes" "side dishes" &"desserts" that I have ingredients for, so I just pick a main dish that I'm in the mood for (or have time for) and then figure out which side I'd like. If the kids are lucky I'll even make dessert.

next week we will be having:

meatloaf, crockpot chicken, breakfast for dinner, burgers, pork chops, speghetti, and pizza on Friday.

~St Pattys Day Dinner

This Irish stew and bread was delicious!!! I'm feeling more Irish already.
What makes it "Irish" stew? It certainly wasn't made in Ireland and neither was I. (I do have that Irish blood running thru me tho) But the fact that I threw a bottle of Guinness in it does!!! I was going to make the bread myself but time didn't allow for it--so I ended running to the store to fetch some. I couldn't decide which one to get there were so many that looked yummy-so I ended up with 2 loafs. And I ate most of it all by myself :-) When I came home with it Duane said "yay! crusty bread I love crusty bread!" So I definately want to MAKE some for him when I have time.
I found the stew recipe here: http://www.gumbopages.com/food/irish/stew.html
(look, you can still see snowlady in the yard!)

~The Big Green Flop

Ahhh the importance of following directions & staying OFF the phone while cooking. Last night I was GOING to make chickpea burgers......................
the recipe can be found here:
http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/hamburger-recipes/vegetarian-chickpea-burgers/article.html



I was so excited to try it, but I choose a bad day to try something new (did ya read the post below??? My head was not exactly screwed on straight) and I had too much chaos going on around me (the kids had friends over, the phone kept ringing, I was trying to make too many different things at the same time). I didn't have flat leaf parsley leaves so I threw spinich leaves in the food processor (cuz i throw spininch in practically everything!) But that made the whole mixture very green.


So I added some worchestershire sauce, browning sauce & liquid smoke to try to make it a little "browner". Which didn't really work :-(



So I decided to try cooking them anyways, I mean, just cuz they're green doesn't mean they won't taste good right? Besides it's almost St Pattys Day.




After cooking them for about 10 minutes each side and they still didn't firm up, I realized that I had added the oil that was meant for the skillet to the mixture while I was on the phone with a neighbor! They were waaaay too moist. oops! So I tried putting them on a cookie sheet and baking them in the oven. Thankfully I thought of making alternatives while I was making this. I had hotdogs in the oven on a cookie sheet, seasoned potatoe wedges and then I put frozen burgers in a skillet once I realized that the great green goo was not going to get eaten for dinner.


Funny thing is they did eventually turn brown---and Duane asked me why I was throwing away 3 hamburgers LOL Fooled him :-)

I sauted garlic and mushrooms to top the burgers with onion buns and it was really pretty good, even tho I practically burned the shrooms while I was on the phone with Duane. He calls every night to make sure the Cavs game is being DVRed Grrrrrr :-(

~Where'd this come from?

I was so excited the other day while grocery shopping when I found "Brownulated sugar" I thought it must be something new. I seriously despise working with brown sugar, I don't know why, it's not like it's that difficult. I just don't like the packaging, having to find something to put it in or something to clip it shut so it stays fresh, I hate when it gets hard, I don't like when I put my hand in the bag and get all sticky. I know, I'm strange :-) So when I found this brown sugar that has the consistency of dry sand I was over the moon thrilled! I've been using it for marinades, for sauces, for sweet potatoes, for baked bananas, everything!!!! I love it. There goes my "cut back on sugar" rule...right out the window....bye bye, it's gone. Like I said I thought this stuff was new, so I come home and research it and it's been around longer than I have!!!! Where on earth have I been? Oh well I'm just glad I found it, this stuff is fun! Yes I know I'm crazy for getting all excited over sugar but that's what happens when you're a stay at home mom :-) I also jumped up and down with excitement, then bawled like a baby when my hubby & kids gave me a kitchen aid mixer for mothers day LOL

~Pizza Mia

I found 3 interesting "pizza-ish"recipes the other day and wanted to experiment but didn't have all the ingredients to make any one of them. One was for chicken & fennel on flatbread--one was red pepper hummus pizza, and the other was carmalized onion and white bean flatbread. So I used my creativity and made my own gourmet pizza. It was WONDERFUL, and Cody & Duane gobbled it up. Courtney is a super picky eater so I just put BBQ sauce, chicken and cheese on a whole wheat pita and called it a day--she did end up eating it all which shocked me, since she's not a big fan of anything "different" but she'll usually eat anything with BBQ sauce :-)

I didn't measure anything so I can't give you exact portions but here's what I did:

Combine roasted red peppers, white beans or chick peas, olive oil, garlic in food processor to make a "sauce". Spread it on flatbread or pitas. Then chop some spinich leaves (i did it in the FP) and sprinkle it on top. Then add a little cheese. I wanted to use provalone but didn't have any. One of the recipes called for feta but I don't like it so I didn't have any. I ended up using mozzerella. Then add mushrooms, tomotoes, peppers, and chicken (I cooked it in greek seasoning-sooo goood!) and brush it all with garlic and olive oil and sprinkle with oregano. Then pop in the oven on about 350 for maybe 10 mins. I really paid no attn to time or temp so you'll have to guess.

ha just now I found a couple recipes that are similar

http://www.eatbetteramerica.com/recipes/dinner/white-bean-and-spinach-pizza.aspx

http://www.metrokc.gov/health/nutrition/recipes/whitebeanpizza.htm

it's a chicken night

Chicken stew: I'm not much for following recipes, I like dumping. SO.... here's what I dumped in the pot: chicken broth, 3 shredded chicken breasts, fresh parsley, parsnips, carrots, spinich, red onions, green onions, sweet potatoes, white potatoes & black beans. and greek seasoning. Basically anything that looked like it could be put in stew. Of course i knew that courtney wouldn't touch it but the rule is "you eat what I make" so I saved some of the chicken out for her to eat as nuggets, with uncooked carrots and some potatoes i took out of the stew. The lil vermit wouldn't even try the chicken nuggets, even tho i used her fav cereal to bread them :-(

breakfast

yummy breakfast! banana, strawberry, spinich,
yogart, wheatgerm, blueberry & mango smoothie
flaxseed pancakes, turkey sausage & spinich scrambled eggs
well 3 of us enjoyed this. Courtney would only eat the sausage. I swear if it's greasy, she's drawn to it! It's like she has some high grease, high sodium radar implanted in her. (or she's just being a kid) Since I've been making more of an effort to eat better, when I do eat crap food, it now makes me sick. Over the weekend we had pizza (i only order chicken, but i still didn't feel so well), no chips, duane still buys sodas but he's the only one drinking them. I only eat one piece, 2 at the most and if I get hungry I go make a smoothie or eat fruit/veggies. Doing good so far. Except when we went to cleveland on Saturday and I had a few sips of soda cuz they made me throw away my water at the door :-( We didn't have time for dinner on the way up there so we grabbed what we could find while Duane was gassing up the car. Duane wasn't hungry, had he been hungry I'm sure we would have found time for dinner :-( The kids were more than happy to be allowed to pick out their own junk food. I found a ....... banana & circus peanuts LOL ok that's not exactly healthy is it? So I am now going to go research "eating healthy at a gas station"

ah ha I'm not alone in my search for what to eat while on the road..............
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/healthy-eats-at-a-gas-station/

dinner

I'm not putting this on here to bore you. lol my SIL asked for ideas. So here they are.
seasoned steamed veggies,
baked sweet potato with pecans,
chicken marinated in white wine & herbs


This smoothie was Delicious! It seriously tasted like sweet tarts :-) I drink a smoothie of some kind everyday to curb my craving for sweets and it's working, i've actually been craving veggies instead of sugar lately :-) btw I don't actually measure-i'm a dumper so these measurements are just guesstimates

1/2 mango
1 c strawberries
1/2 c vanilla yogart
flax seed
orange juice

The Ten Best and Worst Foods
Posted in: Healthy Eating
I found a really interesting article today about the ten best and worst foods.
What made the BEST list:
1. Sweet Potatoes
2. Grape Tomatoes
3. Fat Free or 1% Milk
4. Broccoli
5. Wild Salmon
6. Crispbreads
7. Brown Rice
8. Citrus Fruit
9. Butternut Squash
10. Spinach or Kale
And what made the worst? Well, a Starbucks Caffe Mocha was called a 'Quarter Pounder with Cheese in a cup', cheesecake was called a 'prime rib for dessert', and Campbells’ Tomaoto soup is a salt nightmare. Read the full article here.


I love everything on the list except maybe brown rice, as I'm still not really sure what to do with it, I'm kinda a "rice hater".
I LOVE that Sweet Potatoes are top of the list, because I was sitting here eating a baked sweet potatoe as I read it! I'm trying to get the whole family to switch over, so last night a made a few white baked taters and a few sweet baked taters, intending for everyone to have 1/2 of each, but the lil punks refused :-( If they would just taste them, they would see that they taste awesome and well.... sweet. I didn't even need to add butter or anything to mine. But I did rub a lil honey butter on the skin before I cooked it. mmmmm yummy. I have always been a potatoe freak. but i would add like 2-3 T. of butter to my baked potatoe and now when i think of that it makes me cringe. So watch out Sweet Potatoes .... here I come.....with my fork.

Tofu guru

Ok so i'm not a guru, i'm a newbie, but I really like the word guru. It's just fun to say Guru Guru Guru, kinda like tofu tofu tofu :-) I found this recipe while searching for a sesame chicken recipe and we tried it and loveee it! I haven't tried tofu in over 10 years and must say i'm in love with it's versitility. The boys are embrassing our new eating style, my lil punk girl however, is NOT. But that can be a whole other post.






marinating the tofu:




Sesame Tofu Bites
Ingredients
1 lb firm tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 crushed garlic cloves
2 tbsp. grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp. soft brown sugar
1/3 cup soy sauce
Directions
Mix this up in a shallow dish or in a plastic container with a lid, stir in tofu and put in fridge for 2 hours...or more if you want to marinate it for a long time.
Drain well. Combine in a bowl about a 1/2 cup sesame seeds, 1 tbsp. cornflour, 2 tbsp. wholemeal plain flour (I just used whole wheat flour and cornmeal). Add the tofu cubes and toss to coat.
Heat 1/4 cup of oil in a frying pan (I used veg oil or you can use a bit of sesame oil) and cook till golden. Drain on paper towels. Enjoy!

thursdays dinner

I'm starving right now, waiting for Duane and Cody to come home with the pizza (it's friday night pizza/movie night-no cooking for me!) So absolutely everything is making me hungry. I grabbed my camera to look at the pic of Thursday's dinner and now I'm reeeeeeeeally hungry. It was darn good. Salmon, steamed beans/carrots, and loaded mashed potatoes. Mmmmmmy!!!