Parmesan Vegetable Bake

A couple of weeks ago my roommate and I were sitting around and decided to resuscitate our blogs, with the commitment that we would write at least one post a week, by Sunday night.  It's Sunday night.  Tah-duh!  Post.  Feel free to hop over and check out Samantha's blog.  She lost her computer cord though so she's getting a pass on blogging until she gets a new one.

To get things kicked off I'm writing about a couple of new dishes I added to our family's Christmas dinner this year.  Recipe posts are easy, and every one likes to read about food, right?  I have a couple of more kick-off posts lined up, so come on back in the next couple days.

Recipe #1:  Parmesan Vegetable Bake

Ingredients

• 1 medium-sized yellow squash sliced lengthwise and then into ¼ inch slices 
• 2 medium-sized zucchini, sliced lengthwise and then into ¼ inch slices 
• 1 large tomato, in bite-sized chunks
• 1/3 red onion, sliced and diced up
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves or ½ tsp dried thyme
• 2 eggs
• ⅓ cup sour cream
• 1 cup crumbled feta (not tightly packed)
• 2 T grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup Italian blend or other preferred cheese
• 1 T lemon juice
• salt and pepper - to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray a large casserole dish with nonstick spray.
2. Prepare the vegetables.  You want them all to be in bite-sized pieces.  Heat oil in a large non-stick frying pan.  Add the squash, garlic, and thyme. Saute and stir just until the squash, zucchini, and onions are starting to soften slightly.  Don't overcook. Remove from heat and add tomatoes.
3. Beat together the eggs, sour cream, cheeses, and lemon juice in a medium sized bowl.  Place half of the vegetable mix into the bottom of the casserole.  Sprinkle on some salt and pepper then spread ½ of the egg mixture over the top.  Repeat with remaining vegetable and egg mixture.  Top with 1 cup of other cheese choice.  
4. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the mixture is bubbling and slightly set.  Serve hot.

Recipe #2:  Goat Cheese Peppers

I was easily only one of 2 people who ate any of these at Christmas.  I love goat cheese; my family however does not.  Notwithstanding, they were amazing and I will make them again.  

Ingredients

• 1 package 12 ounce mini sweet peppers
• 1-2 tablespoons oil of choice
• Salt and pepper
• 8-10 ounce package of soft goat cheese
• 3 pieces of bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1 tablespoon fresh chives, sliced

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Line baking sheet with foil.
2. Slice the tops of the peppers off, cut in half, and remove seeds.  Lay halved peppers in a single layer on a baking sheet and drizzle with oil.
3. In a small bowl, mix salt, pepper, and goat cheese until smooth.  (You can add other herbs or spices as you see fit.)  Fill each pepper with cheese.
4. Bake for 10 minutes.  Then broil for 1 minute until cheese is brown.  Remove from oven and top with bacon and chives.  
5. Serve hot or at room temperature.  

What I Made for Dinner (Last Night)

I love to cook.  But not for just myself.  Ugh.

I'm trying to get over my cooking-for-one animosity by sheer will, so I buckled down and cooked enchiladas for just me last night.  This is the second time I've made this 4 ingredient enchilada recipe.  It's simple and you can use any salsa or any cheese, but I think the tomatillo salsa and pepper jack cheese combination is a keeper.  I think it would be a good crowd-pleaser.  Simple and only a few ingredients. I probably have everything I need to make it most of the time.

Note:  I don't like enchiladas at restaurants because I don't like enchilada sauce that much.  But since this recipe just uses salsa, it doesn't have that flavor to it.  If you love traditional enchiladas, I don't know how you'll feel about this.

4-Ingredient Enchiladas

• 1 (16 oz) jar Salsa
• 2 cups shredded cheese (so far salsa verde and pepperjack cheese are my favorite combo)
• 3 cups cooked, chopped or shredded chicken
• 8 medium flour tortillas
• Optional:   any toppings you may want such as sour cream or green onion.  

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 baking dish. Coat the bottom with a thin layer of salsa.
2. Mix chicken, 1 cup salsa, and 1 cup cheese in a bowl. Spoon about 1/3 cup of this mixture down the middle of a tortilla. Fold sides over and place seam side down in baking dish. Repeat for all 7 tortillas.
3. Top with remaining salsa and 1 cup shredded cheese. Bake uncovered for 20-30 minutes.
4. Top with optional toppings.  

What I Made for Dinner: Apple and Sage Pork Chops

Pork chops were on sale at Kroger this week.  Having never cooked them before, I thought this would be the golden opportunity to try the McCormick recipe I've had my eye on.  Since corn was on sale too, we got a great dinner for 3 for only $8, and we had leftovers.  Win-win.

Apple and Sage Pork Chops

Ingredients 

• (You can buy a McCormick seasoning packet with all of the spices in it in the baking aisle.)
• 1 1/2 tsp. Rubbed Sage
• 1 tsp. Minced Garlic
• 1 tsp. Thyme Leaves
• 1/2 tsp. Ground Allspice
• 1/2 tsp. Paprika
• 1 tbsp. flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4 boneless pork chop, 1 inch thick (about 1 1/4 lbs)
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 2 red apples, sliced
• 1/2 cup apple juice
• 1 tbsp. brown sugar

Cooking

The recipe calls for you to fry everything, but I grilled it instead.  So here's my audible:

1. Mix all of the spices, salt, oil, apple juice and flour in a small bowl.  
2. Lay pork chops in the bottom of a container.  Spread most of mixture on top.  Layer on apples and then onions, spreading remaining mixture on top.  Cover and let marinate in the refrigerator.  
3. Grill.  Shouldn't take more than 10 minutes on a hot grill.  I grilled the apples and onions in my beloved grilling pan (pictured below).  If you don't have a grilling pan you can just but them on foil.

It was great!  We all loved it.  It's a keeper.  

If you like to grill and don't have one of
these, it is worth the investment!  World Market.  

Breakfast Tacos!

So, I really need to write another post, so today I bring you... Mexican breakfast!

I bought a Mexican cookbook a couple of weeks ago and the first 2 recipes I made from it were breakfast meals.  It's been fun, and the Mexican eggs are easy, different, and yummy.

Breakfast Tacos

It's hard to do an ingredients list for this, because you can really just do it anyway you want.  But here's the gist:

1. Start with either a tostada shell, or a soft taco shell.  I used a soft taco shell, and heated them in a pan until they were warm and a little crispy.
2. Make your eggs however you like.  This recipe works well with the over easy/medium/hard variety, but you could probably do them any way.
3. Start with your shell, add your egg on top, and then top with your favorite salsas:
• Regular salsa will work just fine, but if you're feeling adventurous you can try it with green salsa too (salsa verde).
• I added pico di gallo to ours too.  It was great.
• Like it hot?  Add jalapenos.
4. Top with feta cheese.  Yes, feta cheese.  It's so good.  
5. Wrap 'em up or just eat them like they are.

One great thing about this recipe is that it only takes about 3 minutes to make it, and it mostly uses stuff I normally have around the house.  It's a nice deviation from bagels and cream cheese, fo sho.

What I Made for Dinner

Tonight's dinner is brought to you by the grill.  I didn't get any pictures of the finished food (it went too fast!), but I do have some good recipes for y'all.

The Ultimate Chicken Burger

What I Made for Dinner

Tonight I made Easy Crock Pot Chicken Stroganoff for dinner, mostly because it's easy, cheap, and yummy-enough.

Easy Crock Pot Chicken Stroganoff

Ingredients

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, frozen

1 can cream of mushroom soup

16 ounces sour cream

1 envelope onion soup mix

Egg noodles

To Cook

1. Put frozen chicken in bottom of Crock Pot
2. Mix soup, sour cream, onion soup mix.  Pour over chicken.
3. Cook on low for 7-8 hours
4. Cook egg noodles as directed.  Serve over egg noodles.  Serves 4-6.

Thoughts:

• You can add whatever veggies you like into the crock pot; a lot of people add mushrooms (but I don't like 'em)
• If you use fat-free sour cream and low-sodium cream of mushroom soup, the recipe is only 4 Weight Watcher's points (not including how many ever egg noodles you choose to eat). 
• If you 've never gotten slow cooker liners, I think they might be worth their weight in gold.  

Cake o' the Week: Chocolate Marble Gooey Butter Cake

I'm heading to a Women's Retreat with some friends from work, so I thought I would bake a cake to take along.

*Warning:  This cake is not for the faint-of-heart.  Seriously, it has a lot of butter in it, so if you have heart issues, you probably shouldn't eat it.  

Ingredients

Crust
1 package (18.25 oz) plain yellow cake mix
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted
1 large egg

Filling
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, at room temperature
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted
3 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 package (6 oz.; 1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips

Baking

1.  Place rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Set aside an ungreased 13- by 9- inch baking pan.

2.  For the crust, place the cake mix, melted butter, and egg in a large mixing bowl.  Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 2 minutes.  Stop the machine and scrape down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula.  The batter should come together in a ball.  With your fingertips, pat the batter evenly over the bottom of the pan, smoothing it out with your fingers until the top is smooth.  Set the pan aside.

3.  For the filling, place the cream cheese in the same mixing bowl that was used to make the crust, and with the same beaters (no need to clean either), blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds.  Stop the machine and add the eggs, vanilla, and melted butter and beat on medium speed for 1 minute.  Stop the machine and add the confectioners' sugar.  Beat on medium speed until the sugar is well incorporated, 1 minute more.  Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

4.  Place the chocolate chips in a small saucepan over low heat.  Cook, stirring until the chips are melted, 1 to 2 minutes.  Measure out 1 cup of the cream cheese filling and fold it into the chocolate mixture, stirring so the batter becomes well combined and all one color.  Set aside.

5.  Pour the remaining filling on the crust and spread with the rubber spatula so that the filling covers the entire surface and reaches the side of the pan.  Drop spoonfuls of the chocolate batter over the top of the filling, then swirl them with a dinner knife so the top of the batter has a marbled effect.  Be careful not to cut through the crust.  Place the pan in the oven.

6.  Bake the cake until it is well-browned but the center still jiggles when you shake the pan, 25 to 45 minutes.  Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool, 30 minutes.  Cut into squares and serve.

*Store this cake, covered in aluminum foil, at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the refrigerator up to 1 week.  Or freeze it, wrapped in foil, for up to 6 months.  Thaw the cake overnight in the refrigerator before serving.  

Cake o' the Week

I really like to bake cakes.  I think it's partially because I love hospitality, and a good cake is like hospitality on the go.  I bake a lot of cakes, so I thought I could start doing a cake o' the week. I'll even share my recipes.  The biggest downside is that I won't get to hide things up my sleeve... but, hey, blogs slowly kill the element of mystery in life anyway.

This week's cake:  Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake

Not a great picture, but I was in the middle
of watching the Super Bowl.

Ingredients

1 box yellow cake mix
1 box vanilla pudding
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water
3 eggs
8 oz. sour cream
6 oz. chocolate chips (mini chips work well in the recipe, but are not necessary)

Baking

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease bundt pan with cooking spray or butter.  Lightly dust with flour.
-Mix cake mix, vanilla pudding, oil, water, eggs, and sour cream until thoroughly blended.  Stir in chocolate chips.
-Bake 35-45 minutes, until cooked through.  Let cake cool in pan for about 30 minutes, or until you can touch the pan with bare hands.  Remove promptly.  To make it as moist as possible, wrap in plastic wrap when you remove it from the pan and refrigerate overnight.   

Variations:
-You can add nuts, coconut, or peanut butter chips when you add the chocolate chips.
-You can also use other flavors of pudding instead of vanilla (banana makes it fun for breakfast).
-At Christmas I dye it green and bake it in this fun Christmas-tree shaped pan that my friends the Davises and the Hatchers got me.

What I Made for Dinner

Tonight for dinner I made Rosemary Roasted Chicken with Potatoes.  I thought I'd pass along the recipe because it's one of my go-to recipes if I have guests, even though tonight I'm just cooking for my roommate and me. I like it because it's simple, has ingredients most everybody likes, and you don't feel all icky and gross after you eat it.

Note to Self:  Photographing Food=Very Difficult.
I will stop giving the picture menus at Chinese
restaurants such a hard time.  

Rosemary Roasted Chicken with Potatoes

(thanks McCormick for this recipe)

• 6 bone-in chicken thighs, skin removed (you can also use boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  The important thing is to have around 2lbs of meat)
• 1 1/2 lbs small red potatoes, cut into 1-in. cubes
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 tbsp. paprika
• 1 1/2 tsp. crushed rosemary leaves
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper (course ground if you have it)

Mix oil and spices in a large bowl.  Add chicken and potatoes and toss to coat well.  Arrange chicken and potatoes in a single layer on foil-lined pan sprayed with cooking spray.

Roast in preheated over at 425 degrees for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked and potatoes are tender.  Feeds 4-6.