Strawberry Lemonade Slush

Ingredients:
10 oz frozen strawberries, thawed
1- 12oz can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
1cup water
5cups Sprite, Ginger Ale, or Club Soda

Directions:
In blender, place lemonade concentrate and strawberries;
blend on high speed until smooth.
Pour into nonmetal freezer container.
Stir in water.
Cover and freeze at least 4 hours.

If mixture is frozen solid, let stand at room temperature about 15 min.

For each serving, measure 1/2 cup slush mixture into 8-oz glass;
stir in 1/2 cup sprite or ginger ale.

Serve immediately.

Pizza With Cauliflower Crust

Idea from Eat, Drink, Smile

Fun Pics from RecipeGirl

Ingredients:
3 Cups cooked cauliflower (Riced in your food processor or blender)
3 Eggs, whipped
3 tsp Dried Oregano
1 tsp Basil
3 tsp Crushed Garlic
2 cups Shredded Cheese
1-24 oz Jar of spaghetti sauce
Any toppings you like,
however your toppings need to be pre-cooked, pizza only goes into oven to melt cheese.

Directions:
Pre-heat Oven to 450 degrees.
Spray your pizza pan or cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.  Cut parchment Paper to fit your pan then place on after you spray.

Take your head of cauliflower and cut off the stems and leaves, then cut into sections and place in your food processor or blender to be riced. The cauliflower should look like grain when you are done pulsing it.  (If you do not have a food processor or blender then use your cheese grater to rice your cauliflower.)

Take the riced cauliflower and place it in a microwavable safe bowl and cook in your microwave for six minutes. (Time may vary, depending on power of your microwave)

In a large bowl mix together: the cooked cauliflower, eggs, oregano, basil and garlic.  When mixed well, spoon mixture onto your pizza pan or cookie sheet.

Use your hands to press the mixture about a quarter to half inch thick in the shape of a circle. If you make your crust too thin the pizza crust will not hold together and will fall apart.

Place pan in the oven for 15 minutes or until crust is lightly browned.

Remove crust from oven and cover with sauce, cheese and your choice of other already cooked toppings.

Place the pizza back into the oven and cook until the cheese is melted.

Curry Chicken Done Easy

Ingredients:
7-8 Frozen Boneless/Skinless Chicken Breasts
1 26oz can Cream of Chicken Soup

2 TBsp Curry Powder

Cooked Rice

Directions:
Put Crockpot Liner in Crockpot.
Add chicken and cook on Low 6-7 hours
You can either leave pieces whole or shred.
Add Soup.
Add Curry.
(I like at least a Tbsp or more, otherwise I just taste the soup and not the curry flavor)

I serve mine over Rice or Pasta.

*if chicken is thawed, it won't need cooked as long.

Creamy Bacon Crescents

I made these to take to my good friend Mindi's for a get-together.  Super Easy to make & yummy!

Ingredients:
3 cans of Crescent Rolls, 8count (I used Garlic Butter Crescents)
1 lb. of Bacon
2 - 8oz Pkgs. Cream Cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375'.  

Put both packages of Cream Cheese into a bowl, to soften while cooking bacon.  Cook the bacon till crispy, pat oil off with Paper Towels.  Crumble or tear bacon into small pieces.  Add crumbled bacon to the cream cheese & mix thoroughly with spoon.  I added some seasoning to the cream cheese as well, that's optional.

Roll out Crescent dough, slice each triangle in half long ways.  Each can will make 16 snacks.  Place a tsp of Cream Cheese Mixture at the wide end of each crescent and roll till u get to the skinny tip. Place each roll onto cookie sheet.  I was able to get 16 on a small cookie sheet.  Bake for 11-13min, until golden brown.

*you don't need to worry about cheese sticking out slight from sides, the dough will poof up slightly around it.

* I do 99% of my cooking in my Toaster Oven & CrockPot, I very  rarely use my regular oven.  Most of the time I do not preheat.  So for these I set my Toaster Oven to the Bake setting and put them on for 15min without preheating.  Came out perfect!

Cooking a pumpkin from scratch

UPDATED: 11/2/12

     

The first Jack-o-lantern was from 4 years ago & the 2nd one is from this year.

We usually wait until the day before Halloween to buy our pumpkin & then carve it.  We don't put it outside until Halloween night & then the next day or two after I cook it.  This is how I spent a good part of my day today.  I'm warning you... it is quite a process, but it is so worth the fresh pumpkin in the end.  So here's my process:

When I cut the pumpkin up I make sure to cut off the edges that were carved because they get a little dried out.  I also throw away the top & bottom parts where the stem is.  I cut it into large chunks & then with my sharp knife I scrape the "strings" off the inside as much as possible.

Add the pumpkin chunks to a large pot, fill with water, cover with a lid & bring the water to a boil.  Once it comes to a boil turn the temperature down to a medium-high level for about 35 minutes.

Then drain the water & run cool water over the chunks until they are cool enough to handle.  As you can see from my picture I filled the bowl with cold water, but the cool water got warm very quickly so I dumped it out & had to fill it again, so it's probably more effective to just run the water over the chunks in a colander. 

Once it is cool enough to handle, use your sharp knife to peel the skin off of all of the pieces.

Then mash the pumpkin, just like you would mashed potatoes, but make sure to get all the lumps out.  After I used my masher I then used a fork to make sure there were no chunks left at all.  You may see a little water in the pumpkin & that's ok, just leave it there.  

If you don't plan to use the pumpkin right away, then measure it out & put it in ziploc freezer bags.  I measure out 1.5 cups because that's how much I use to make 2 pumpkin pies so it's already ready to just dump into the bowl when you're ready to make your pie.

 

I actually cook the seeds too.  I wash all the "brains" off of them & then spread them out on a cookie sheet & salt them. They are a yummy, nutritious snack.  

I've never tried these, but here's a recipe for cinnamon-sugar pumpkin seeds.  You can also plant your seeds to grow your own pumpkin (I've never tried this either, although it sounds like something I'd like to do).

Check out my mother-in-law's recipe for Pumpkin Pie.  I've made these every year since the year 2000, when my in-laws left on their mission for our church & my mil wasn't here to bake them that year.  I had to call her & get her recipe because after you've had a homemade (from scratch) pumpkin pie, you can't go back (at least I can't).

Iva's Pumpkin Pie

Iva's Homemade Pumpkin Pie

(really it's mine, but it's my mother-in-law's recipe)

1 c. sugar

1-1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. of each of the following: salt, all spice, nutmeg & ginger

2 eggs, beaten

1-1/2 c. pumpkin (this is not the canned stuff, this is the real thing)

1-2/3 c. evaporated milk (tall can)

Mix all ingredients well. Fill crust half-way. Bake at 425 for 10 min. Then turn down to 350 & bake for another 40 min. more. You can see from my picture that these pies look very different from the "canned" ones. That's because these don't have all the preservatives in them & these are much more yummy!!! Enjoy!
This recipe makes 2 pies!

Note: I use the Shar's recipe for the crust (see post below). This is the yummiest crust I've ever had & it's very simple to make.

Crispy Chicken Tortilla Rollups

These looked so great when I saw them, that I had to share.  Head over to The Weekend Gourmet for the Recipe!  I plan to make them very soon!  She also has a recipe for Avocado Sauce which is made with Greek Yogurt!

Carrot Fries

I was making a Roast, Potatoes & Carrots for dinner tonight & as I was peeling the carrots.  Hubby says "hey those would be great fried" pointing at the top peels I was going to throw away.  So I threw the top layer away & peeled most of 2 carrots for him to experiment with in our deep fryer.  They were pretty thin, he just slightly salted them & they were so super yummy!  There were only a few but I devoured them to fast to think about a picture.  They came out looking like curly fries.  I will post a Good Picture when Darin makes a nice batch of them.

 These are ways you can cut them before frying.  Also make sure you blot them dry before putting them in the oil.

 

Cabbage Rolls

Check out my notes at the bottom.

Ingredients:
12 leaves cabbage
1 cup cooked white rice
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup minced onion
1 lb ground beef
1 1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground black pepper

Sauce:
1- 8oz can tomato sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Directions:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. I like to put a little Salt & Pepper in the water.  Boil cabbage leaves for approx 2 minutes; drain.

In large bowl, combine Ground beef & Eggs.  Add S&P and mix well.  Add Rice and mix.  Add onion & mix.  Add Milk and mix well.  I like to mix with my hands so everything is combined well. Make sure you wash your hands thoroughly before & after you handle the meat!

Place one Cabbage leaf in front of you on a cutting board with the Core side facing away from you, (Step 1 picture).  

Place a large tablespoon of meat mixture at the end of each cabbage leaf (Step 2).

Roll the flap closest to you forward. (Step3)

Fold both sides inward and roll away from you towards the core of the cabbage. (Step 4)

Place each Roll in slow cooker side by side but not overlapping. (Step 5)

In a small bowl, mix together Tomato Sauce, Brown Sugar, Lemon Juice and Worcester Sauce. 
Pour Sauce over cabbage roll.

Cover and cook on Low 8-9hours.

*I have a 6qt Crock pot, I am able to get 12 Cabbage Rolls in the bottom & I also double the sauce to make sure all rolls are covered nicely & because we love things saucy.  My Crock-pot cooks really well on Low, this recipe calls for 8-9 hours but I was able to cook for 4hours on Low and they turned out great!

Chicken Fried Chicken

Wow !  I haven't posted anything here for a very long time.  I guess that's what happens when you have 6 children & run 2 businesses.  It's been crazy at our house.  

However, last week we started a new way to organize our dinners.  Our girls are getting old enough to make a lot of meals themselves now, which has been very helpful for me since I have been increasingly getting busier with my photography & sewing businesses.

I decided that Kent & I will do dinner one night (which usually is a harder dish to make) & then each of the kids choose a night of the week & they also get to choose what are going to eat.   Of course, this means they get to make the meal (usually with help from mom ;).  This is not only helpful because I don't have to make every meal, but also we are eating better meals & our children are learning to make more meals.  I am not good with teaching my children in the kitchen, because of my OCD it drives me crazy (we've tried that & it didn't work-all it did was drive me crazy).   With this new plan the younger children get to choose simpler dishes & the older ones have to choose something a little more difficult (our girls are ages 18, 16, 14, & 12 & our boys are 10 & 8).

So on to the fun stuff, for dinner tonight our Miss C (our 16 yo.) with a little help from mom, made Chicken Fried Chicken, garlic bread (from scratch) & corn on the cob.  The chicken turned out amazing.   The chicken was a recipe we have never tried before.  We used this recipe from My Name is Snickerdoodle!  I also made the gravy from that recipe.  It was very clumpy, but I strained the clumps out & then added flour at the end to thicken it up and it worked great.  The only thing I would change is adding more seasoning.  I added salt & pepper, but it needed more.  Otherwise, it was a great meal!

I forgot to take a picture of the gravy, but it was yummy!

Enjoy!