Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Tips for cooking

Ok so Makana asked me to give 10 tips that I have for cooking so here they are:

1.Since I first got married I have bought the family packs of hamburger and cook it up in a big pan, drain the grease and add the spices then put the hamburger in tupperware to easily grab when I'm making tacos, sloppy joes or other meals. All the mess is done in one day for the month and it use to be cheaper for the meat. I like to add brown sugar, tomato sauce, chili powder, salt, pepper,onion,garlic powder, and sometimes I'll add cumin and oregano.
2.Bring in all my green tomatoes before the frost and put in my windowsill to ripen. This extends the growing season 2 months. Then bag up the other veggies and freeze them for soups, etc.
3. I keep my powdered milk in the pantry to use for every cooking item that calls for milk. So much cheaper and helps rotate my food storage.
4. I buy only when items are on sale. If sour cream goes to .50 cents I buy 10-20 cartons and freeze them. The same goes with cheese, yeast, whipping cream, bread, milk, seeds and meats.
5. I'm addicted to wheat. I cook and make wheat berries for breakfast and add a little to my hamburger. I have a great wheat chili recipe that has no meat. It's the best I've ever had.(courtesy of Ora Christensen)
6. Get a coffee grinder not a wheat grinder. Mine only cost $29.00. Can't go wrong with that.
7.I buy a large can of chicken bouillon and use that in place of chicken broth savings about 90%. I open the can and put some in a mason jar in my spice cabinet.
8.I cook beans in my crockpot and then mash them and use them in place of butter and oil in any recipe. The food tastes better and its healthier and 99% less calories.
9. Don't throw away ripe bananas they make the best banana bread.
10. I like to double or quadrouple my soup recipes and freeze the extra to pull out when I need a quick meal.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Tomato-Avocado salad


Ingredients:
*Cherry Tomatoes
*Avocado
*Cucumber
*Onions (optional)
*Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Directions:
*Cut cucumbers, cherry tomatos, Avocado, onions
*Cook onions in brown Vinegar till soft
*Add onions to the cucumber, cherry tomatoes, avocado mix
*Pour Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing over the top to liking. 
{note: wait to put dressing over the top till right before you serve it}
*Enjoy

Friday, October 7, 2011

Makana's Kitchen tip

1. Flash freezing. Flash freezing — the process of spacing items out on a tray, freezing them until they are firm and then storing them in more space-efficient freezer bags — is the single most revolutionizing concept I have adapted into my cooking repertoire, because it allows us to freeze uncooked dumplingsgnocchibiscuitsscones and even scooped cookies without them become one doughy mass.source
I LOVE flash freezing. It keeps everything nice and individual. Here is a good tutorial with pictures too.

2. with love, ziplock.
When chicken goes on sale or is on clearance, it is usually for the fresh kind. Not frozen. After spending a LONG time defrosting a WHOLE pack, I realized it would be so much easier to just put them in individual baggies when I get home with them in the first place. I label them by type and quantity and marinade. This allows me to make a variety of dishes. (this goes for anything I end up getting a lot of. Cheese, meat, breads)
source

and your chicken tip for the day via Racheal Ray: DO NOT MICROWAVE your chicken to thaw it out. It makes for really dry chicken.  AND bone in chicken is not only usually cheaper but also a lot moister.
Since I haven't been able to eat meat for a while, I realized the times when I have been able to it is due to the fact of how moist and flavorful the meat is. 

3. Meal Planning.
Obvious right? Since working I have seen a HUGE difference in how I feel about cooking dinner when I have a plan vs not having a plan. Shandra blog is a good resource for someone who does it for you or you can download/make one yourself. Do I stick to it always. no way. But it makes my head feel better knowing I at least have a plan

4. Don't have meat at every meal.=BRANCH OUT
Not really a tip here. Just a way to get outside of the box of the normal hum-drum cooking I fall into. That's one reason I enjoy this blog so much is that these recipes that you add have been tried and true and good enough to put up. This place is also a good resource for ideas. We used to work together in the bakery at BYUH. With that said, we also have really simple meals. That is something I had to adjust to recently. I like dinners to be big and filling and lots of options. One option is worlds better than none.

...welp, thats all I got. Not many tips. But these have really made a difference for us.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

BJ Brewhouse Avocado Egg rolls

Text:
Friend: Want to join us for a birthday dinner tonight?
Me: Sure! BJ brewhouse?
(and this is where I realize that it is probably rude to suggest a dinner place to someone else for THEIR birthday)
Luckily, they wanted to try something new. And I sure do LOVE BJ's. We go probably ONCE a year and I wish I could go once a month. Why? Mostly for the Avocado Egg Rolls. And then I found this...
... now I can get fat and die happy

The original recipe is found here but I made a few changes per the reviews

source

egg rolls



dipping sauce



Directions:


  1. 1 Stir together vinegar, tamarind, honey, and saffron in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave for 1 minute.
  2. 2 Stir until tamarind is dissolved.
  3. 3 In a blender, Puree tamarind mixture, cashews, 2/3 cup cilantro, garlic, onions, sugar, pepper, and cumin.
  4. 4 Pour mixture into a bowl and stir in oil.
  5. 5 Refrigerate until ready to use.
  6. 6 Gently stir together avocado, tomatoes, onion, 1/2 teaspoon cilantro, and salt.
  7. 7 Distribute filling evenly onto center of each egg roll wrapper.
  8. 8 Position a wrapper so that a corner is pointing toward you; fold the bottom corner up, 1/4 of the way over the filling.
  9. 9 Brush remaining corners and edges of the wrapper with egg, roll up from side to side, fold top corner over all and press to seal.
  10. 10 Repeat with remaining wrappers.
  11. 11 Continue by deep-frying the egg rolls in 375 degree oil for 3-4 minutes, until golden brown.
  12. 12 Drain on brown paper bags.
  13. 13 Slice egg rolls diagonally across middle and serve with prepared dipping sauce!
  14. 14 ENJOY!

Friday, September 16, 2011

Meals from Shandra

Deals to Meals is quite a spectacular blog- Shandra is great and  I just recently signed up for her program and I think its great. She is also doing a sun over giveaway! Hence me talking about her blog and how much i really do love it. I check it all the time for recipes and ways to use my food storage items to make meals.

So right now we are up to our ears in zucchini and while I was looking around on her blog, I found this amazing recipe: Chocolate Zucchini bread- (who doesn't want chocolate with their zucchini?) and decided to try it out.
So you can be proud of me at this moment because I practiced my food storing skills.
I whipped out my wheat that I've had stored away (that I've had for years and never opened...)
 and after about 2 hours of trying to pry off the dang lid, and finding out later that there is a tool to open bucket lids... I was good to go.  
I then pulled out my hand grinder, that i've also opened for the first time in years.
 and after an half an hour of turning the wretched crank, my arms where happy we had got enough ground wheat to bake the bread.

Then for the main course for dinner, we tried Shandra's  Tortilla White Bean Soup
It is made quite easily with food storage items and it is a soup that will get your taste buds a'dancin. 

Basically I've loved knowing about Shandra's blog, I have got so many ideas for recipes and grocery saving techniques. If anything you should take a look at her blog and see all the yummy recipes she comes up with.





Thursday, August 18, 2011

Just Peachy

Since today is my anniversary and I am away from my lover, I thought I would share a fancy looking and EASY dessert. If we were together and I had peaches and crepes on hand, you betcha I would be making these babies.
Check out out here. And you can thank me later

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Macaroni Pasta Dish

Okay so this is super easy and I actually found this on the back of DaVinci Macaroni Pasta. I never know whether to trust those things but I tried it out and oooh is it DeliCious!

2 c. diced tomatoes
2 c. tomato paste
1 c. water
2 cloves finely chopped garlic
1/2 c. finely chopped onions
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 c. chopped parsley
1/2 tsp pepper
1 lb of ground beef
1/2 lb pasta
4 ounces cream cheese
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 c. grated swiss cheese (or cheddar)

Combine tomatoes, tomatoe paste, water, garlic, onions, pepper, salt, sugar, parsley and oregano in a pot. simmer for 1 hour on medium heat. Saute ground beef until done. combing with tomatoe mixture and simmer on low heat for 15 to 20 mins. Use 9X13 pan. Layer pan with sauce. Add a layer of cooked pasta. add a tbsp of cream cheese in each corner. scatter grated parmesan cheese and swiss cheese over pan. repeat. Bake for 30 mins @ 350. Scatter any remaining cheese on top and cook for 5-10 mins.

My own way of doing this. I didn't have ground beef the times I made it so I just added more cheese and the cream cheese you can add as much or as little as you want it worked better for me to put little chunks all over. I'm sure it tastes wonderful with the beef and I even thought about when i make it next to add spinach to it. Yum.

Enjoy

Chicken Piccata

This is another recipe i got from a sister in-law. It is mouth watering. I didn't have mushrooms so i left those out, (I tend to leave alot of ingredients out of recipes lol)

4 chicken breasts cut into strips
1/2 cup flour
salt and pepper
4 slices swiss cheese
2 cups of chicken broth
1 package mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic
2 lemons
Fresh parsley

Dredge chicken into flour/salt and pepper mixture. Brown in a skillet until it is cooked through. In a separate pan...saute sliced mushrooms and minced garlic until brown and tender. Lay the swiss cheese over the chicken to melt. Pour chicken broth and lemon juice into the pan with the chicken. The cheese will sort of start to become part of the sauce. Add mushrooms and garlic to the skillet so you have one big mixture. Let simmer for 5 minutes until the sauce thickens.  If the sauce doesn't seem thick enough...sometimes I add a little cornstarch/water mixture to move things along. Add fresh chopped parsley and serve over white rice. Delicious!

Yummy Cookie Bars

So here are some to die for Yummy Cookie Bars! My sister in-law Jen had these had her house when we helped her move and I think I had about 3 at least. Scrumdidilicious



2 cubes butter, softened
2c brown sugar
2 eggs
1T vanilla
1 3/4c flour
1t soda
1/2t baking powder
1t salt
1 3/4c oats
1 3/4c Rice Krispies
3/4c coconut
2c chocolate chips

can add nuts if you like them.  I don't so I don't put them in.

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.  Spray 9x13 pan with Pam, add cookie dough.  Use your fingers to push the batter down and make it even.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Done when golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.