Best Broccoli

I found this recipe on Pintrest awhile back and ever since, I have not made broccoli any other way.  In fact, we have broccoli AT LEAST once a week now because of this delicious recipe!!

-Take 4-5 pounds of broccoli (I use two bags of the pre-cut, pre-washed) and toss in about 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil.
-Place on a foil-lined pan (I also spray the foil with cooking spray).
-Shake about 1-1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper and 4 minced garlic cloves over the broccoli.  (For this recipe, I actually don't use fresh garlic.  I use the dry minced garlic from the spice rack and I use about 1/2 tsp.)
-Roast the broccoli in the oven at 425* for 20-25 minutes or until the broccoli is crispy.  Some parts of the broccoli will be browned.  (I like to stir it up a bit halfway through the cooking time to get it even.)
-When you pull it out of the oven, toss the cooked broccoli with about 1-1/2 olive oil (don't saturate it!!), 1 tablespoon lemon juice and about 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese. 

I love love love this crispy broccoli so much that I cook mine for a little bit longer than the recipe calls for.  I also have tried asparagus like this now, too, and that was super good as well.  Enjoy!!

Crock Pot Chicken with Stuffing

I found this recipe awhile ago on allrecipes.com and just so happened to have all of the ingredients...

I took a really neat picture of the ingredients sitting next to my crock pot, but of course I can't find it now, so I apologize for the lack of picture!! 

I cannot express to you how very very easy this recipe is.  Just take a pound of chicken breasts and put them in the crock pot.  Pour a can of (condensed) cream of chicken soup over the chicken.  In a bowl, mix 1-1/4 cups water, 1/4 cup melted butter and 1 (6 ounce) package of corn bread stuffing.  Pour stuffing mixture over the chicken and the soup and cook on low for about 4 hours (or until chicken is cooked through).

Instead of corn bread stuffing, I used a box of regular Stove Top chicken flavored stuffing and it turned out wonderfully.  The chicken wasn't anything super special but the stuffing really made this great.  My kids will eat chicken without complaining so I knew that would be okay with them, and they ended up loving the stuffing so much that it was gone in a flash.  The comments on this recipe stated that sometimes the "inventor" of the recipe puts two cans of soup in.  I think I'd try that next time with double the amount of stuffing, since that was the real hit in our house.  Enjoy!!

Dutch Apple Bread

 My family loves banana bread and other sweet breads like that, so I try to make them every so often and even freeze a loaf or two.  I happened to have a lot of apples recently so I looked up a recipe for an apple bread.  I found a great recipe on Allrecipes.com (which is always a good back-up site to check out if you're looking for a recipe of pretty much anything).  I've linked the actual recipe site to the title but here's what it entails:

Dutch Apple Bread

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup chopped, peeled apple
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
• TOPPING:
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine

Directions  

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Fold in apple and nuts. Pour into a greased 9-in. x 5-in. x 3-in. loaf pan. For topping, combine the first four ingredients; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over batter. Bake at 350 degrees F for 55-60 minutes or until bread tests done. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. 

I did not put in walnuts (because sometimes I have people over with allergies) and put about 1/4 cup more apples than it called for.  I actually doubled the recipe and put it into four smaller loaf-pans (as you can see from the picture) and I only had to bake them for 45 minutes.  I also chopped up the peeled apple with the Pampered Chef chopper and it was so easy!!  The crumbly topping really made this yummy, even though the end result was more cinnamon-y than apple-y (I was told by my taste-testers).  I'll definitely be making this a few more times in the fall when we go pick apples at the apple orchard.  

 

Meatballs in Red Sauce

I asked my family what they wanted for dinner tonight and they said "spaghetti".

(Sorry for the not-so-great picture and the cluttered kitchen counter.  Life was a little hectic today and my cell phone was the only camera within reach.)

I had all the fixings already (including a nice baguette to make garlic cheese bread) but I wanted to try something new rather than just browning some ground beef and mixing it with the sauce.  Then, I thought that meatballs might go over better with some members of my family, but here's the problem with that: I make a mean meatloaf but my meatballs are mediocre at best.  So, of course, I did a little bit of research online and found a great recipe from Emeril on the Food Network site.  (He also lists a recipe for making your own sauce, too, but I already had some jarred stuff that I thought I should use.)
Here's his meatball recipe:

Ingredients

• 10 cups Simple Tomato Sauce for Pasta, recipe follows, or store-bought pasta sauce

For the meatballs:

• 1 large egg
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup chopped yellow onions
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 1 teaspoon freshly chopped basil leaves
• 1 teaspoon freshly chopped oregano leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon Emeril's Original Essence, recipe follows
• 1/2 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano   

Directions:

Place the Basic Red Sauce in a large pot. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Place all the remaining meatball ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir well with a wooden spoon to combine, then form the meat into balls by rolling about 2 tablespoons of meat between your hands. Place meatballs on a plate as they are formed. (Hint: if your hands are slightly damp, the meatballs will roll more easily and will not stick to your hands!) When all the meatballs are formed, gently place the balls into the sauce 1 at a time using a long handled spoon. Be careful - bubbling sauce splatters! Simmer the sauce uncovered, and allow the meatballs to sit undisturbed for 10 minutes before stirring. Stir the meatballs into the sauce when they rise to the top.

Simmer for an additional 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent the sauce from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

I used regular grated Parmesan cheese, only 6 cups (or so) of sauce (that was the two jars that I had),  and 1/2 tsp. each of dried parsley, basil and oregano.  Also, I didn't have any of Emeril's Original Essence, but--luckily--he lists the recipe for that, too, on the Food Network site.  If you want to see what it's all about, here's the recipe for that:

Emeril's ESSENCE Creole Seasoning (also referred to as Bayou Blast):

• 2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme

Combine all ingredients thoroughly.

Yield: 2/3 cup

That saved me a trip to the store because I already had all of those spices in my very full spice cupboard.

Not to make this post any longer, but I also have to say that I had to do more googling after reading this recipe because I was baffled that cooking the raw meatballs in the sauce was correct.  As it turns out, that is a very authentic Italian way to do it, and I'm sure that's why my other meatballs have never turned out.  What the heck, I thought, let's give it a go!

So...what was the verdict?  A+!!  Everyone loved it!  The meatball-making process was SO easy and they turned out just perfectly.  I'm so glad to have another Italian meal to add to my repertoire and I give a big thanks to Emeril for sharing such a tasty and simple meal.  :)

Raspberry Mojito

The other night, I wanted to surprise my husband with a really fun drink.  Usually, he's the one who likes to experiment with different blender drinks, like pina coladas, etc, and, let's just say, I'm not a great bartender.  (My specialty is opening a bottle of wine.  Ta-da!!)  So, I thought part of the surprise would be that I would make a really fantastic drink that he'd love.  He already loves mojitos and it had been a long time since we made those, so I did a bit of research.  I looked through four or five raspberry mojito recipes, tried a couple and ended up combining them.  This is what I ended up with:

Take a bowl or something with a flat surface (I used a large coffee mug) and mash together two leaves of mint (NOT chopped up or torn into small pieces), six or seven fresh red raspberries, about 1 tsp. of lime juice and about 1/2 tsp. of sugar.  Once they are all mashed together, pour the mixture into your drinking glass.  Add ice (I used cubed ice but my husband usually uses crushed).  Over the ice, add two ounces white rum and about four ounces of tonic water (I used diet tonic water).  Stir a bit with a straw and you've got yourself one yummy summer drink.

Here's a not-very-fancy picture of what the end product looks like, cheap grocery store straw and all!

Tips:

*I only put about three ice cubes in each drink because I didn't want it to water-down while I was drinking it.  It might sound like a strong drink because it has just over a shot of rum in it, but honestly, the sweetness of the sugar and the flavor of the mint make you not notice the rum one bit.

*I'm kind of weird because I really love crushed up raspberries.  If you drink this through a straw, the raspberry seeds are going to be the first thing you suck up.  SO, if you don't want that, I would strain the "mashed up mixture" before you pour it into your drinking glass and just add a few whole raspberries for looks at the end.

*During the first attempt at making this drink, I tore up the mint before I mashed it.  The flavor was outstanding but when I drank through my straw later, I not only got the raspberry seeds but also chunks of leaves.  By keeping the mint in it's whole-leaf form, you still get lots of mint flavor, without having to eat the mint leaves later.  Just my opinion.

This all probably sounds a little novice to you drink-mixers out there, but as I warned you, I'm no bartender!!  :)

Pizza

My family loves pizza and we're no strangers to the pizza delivery places.  However, lately, we've been finding it much more fun to make our own.  Part of this was prompted by my MOMS Club, which used to have a monthly "take 'n' bake pizza" activity.  No one had hosted one for about a year, so I thought it would be fun to put it back on the calendar.  After taking some advice from my friends who are seasoned in the "make your own pizza" department, we got the hang of it.  Why did it get so easy all of a sudden, you ask?  I realized that I don't have to make the dough myself, which is what I was previously dreading.  You could get one of those pre-cooked crusts at your grocery store or get the roll-out dough from the can in your dairy section.  Here are two options that I like better:

1. Trader Joe's sells balls of dough (by the cheese/deli meat area, usually) and it's super cost-effective.  At my local store, it only costs just over $1 per ball of dough, which is pretty darn cheap for a pizza, if you ask me.  If you're going this route, I also suggest you invest in a dough-roller.  I like the Pampered Chef one and it works so well.  You can also just use your hands, but be sure to use a significant amount of flour and also know that it's going to take you a bit of time to get it right.

2. Schwan's now sells empty dough crusts already spread out on a bake-able pan.  Talk about easy!  If you don't want the mess of rolling your own dough but you want to make your own pizza, I highly suggest getting some of these.  There are two to a package and they end up being so tasty.

Here's the "before cheese" picture of our pizza the other night (with a Schwan's crust):

Everyone's got their favorites.  My kids wanted just alfredo with cheese (hence, the plain-looking side of this pizza) but my husband and I were in the mood for spinach, artichoke, chicken and some bacon bits.  Seriously, delicious.

Also, to make it even easier, go to your local grocery store and get a disposable pizza pan to roll your dough in.  It makes the whole process less messy, plus it's a quick clean-up after dinner's over.  I get my pans for $2.99 for a pack of three....and you can't really go wrong with that either.  Enjoy!!

Whole Chicken in the Crock Pot

The other week, I bought a whole Gold 'n' Plump chicken (think rotisserie-sized) for 99 cents.  I was pretty proud of myself because it involved doubling a coupon as well as taking advantage of a sale, and I threw it in our chest freezer for a rainy day.  This weekend was pretty rainy....so it got me thinking about how I was going to cook that darn chicken.  I decided that it would be oh so handy if I could just throw it in the crock pot and ta-da!!  But, come on---how is THAT going to work??  Well, let's just say, it worked wonderfully, thank you very much.

I googled a basic crock pot recipe and came up with this unique technique.  You're gonna think this is kinda cool so stick with me here.  :)

First, I took my crock pot and waded up a few balls of tin foil.  I put the tin foil on the bottom of the crock pot, like this:

At first I was like "This is kind of kooky..." but it all makes sense to me now that I've tried it.  One smart lady commented on the recipe that sometimes she wraps potatoes in the foil and cooks them with the chicken.  Who woulda thunk it, right?  Okay, let's carry on, shall we?

Next, I washed the chicken in cool water, sprayed it generously with olive oil cooking spray and sprinkled the entire thing (inside and out) with seasoning salt.  (I used regular old Lawry's.)  Also, note here that I left the skin on.  The recipe didn't say anything about taking it off and I think it helped moisten the chicken as it cooked.  Then, I put the chicken in the crock pot on top of the foil balls---back-side down.  (Not sure why that is important but, hey, I'm following directions here.) 

I was using my medium-sized 4-quart crock and it fit like a glove.  The recipe said to cook it on HIGH for 4-6 hours.  After four hours, I checked the temperature of it and it was done.  Thirty minutes later when I decided it was supper time, it was falling apart when my husband tried to take it out.  Perfect, if you ask me!  It wasn't dry, and it was just right.  Some of the skin was cooked like you'd see on a rotisserie chicken and some wasn't.  My husband commented that you could really do anything you want to this recipe and add whatever flavors you like.  He even wants me to try it just the same but with pouring a beer in the bottom of the crock so it kind of has a "beer-can chicken" flavor to it.  Definitely one to experiment with and I'll certainly be cooking this more often.  Also, keep in mind that the chicken was so good that it would also be perfect for pulled chicken sandwiches or using the chicken for a buffalo dip or a salad.  Really, the possibilities are endless and knowing how cost-effective this meal is, it's sure to be a hit with your family and your wallet.  :)