My Sister's Granola

My sister sent me a canister of granola she had made a few weeks ago and I am now addicted to the stuff.
   I love it on yogurt with fresh blueberries and strawberries.  Umm... good.

Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:

2/3 c water
3 c brown sugar
2 c vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract (optional...I used both)
9 c rolled oats
3 c Rice Krispies
2 tsp salt
1 c slivered almonds or sunflower seeds
*any dried fruit, chocolate chips, coconut, or other desired ingredients you wish to add

Directions:
1. Boil water and brown sugar for 2 minutes in a sauce pan stirring constantly.
2. Add vegetable oil and vanilla extract (and almond extract)
3. In a mixing bowl, mix together oats, Rice Krispies, salt, and sunflower seeds.
4. Add liquid and mix together
5. pour onto large cookie sheet (I suggest a jelly roll pan, or something with edges, to avoid granola spills in your oven-it is messy!)
6.Bake 1 hour at 250* turning twice with a spatula
7. After baking and cooling, add any dried fruit or candy/chocolate chips you desire

Birthday Feast Recipes

My Husband just had his 30th birthday and since that is about when his family has their metabolism slow down I made him his last feast.  From now on we have to both be more careful about what we eat.

We started out the morning with:

Pecan Stuffed Waffles and Bacon

    These weren't fabulous after-all so I'm going to play with the recipe before I post anything.

Then for dinner I made him

Teriyaki Chicken and Veggie Kabobs-

      Just cut up how ever many breasts of chicken up into big chunks and marinade in your favorite teriyaki sauce overnight.  Then skewer on kabob sticks and grill for about five minutes on each side with the lid of your grill down.  So good!

(Sorry, about the picture.  These are the day after leftovers.)

     For the veggies I cut up a red onion, peppers, zucchini, and potatoes into chunks, skewered them, drizzled them with olive oil, sprinkled them with kosher salt, and grilled those.  They take a little longer than the chicken does. 

Fruit Kabobs with Nutella Dip

Nutella Dip

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Nutella

1 package cream cheese

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 cup whipped cream, whipped

Beat the Nutella and cream cheese together until smooth.  Then add the powdered sugar and then the whipped cream.  Serve with any type of fruit, pretzels, bread, or cookies.  I had a friend at dinner who ate a grilled zucchini and onion with it.  Anything goes good with Nutella.

Pasta Salad with Feta-

    I kind of based this recipe off of a pasta salad, but I can't find it on the person's blog anymore.  I changed it so much because we like different ingredients.

You'll need:

     1 12 oz. package tri colored pasta, cooked and drained

     1/2 cup red onion, finely diced

     1/2 cup  fresh Parmesan cheese

    4 Tbsp. basil pesto

     1 small jar marinated artichoke hearts (about 1 cup)  Mine were a little big so I cut them in half

    2/3 cup Caesar dressing

     Feta Cheese to sprinkle on top (optional)

Cook the pasta and then coat with Caesar dressing and pesto while its warm.  Then just add the rest of the ingredients and serve immediately.  Its really better warm.  Other ingredients you could add are: olives, diced Roma tomatoes, or toasted pine nuts.

    

Cheesy Garlic Bread Swirls

        These are courtesy of the blog Best Bites.  Seriously one of my favorite food blogs.  They have the best food on there.  They are also hilarious.  The only thing I have to say about these Rolls is they don't say how much of the spice to use... don't use the whole spice recipe!  I did the first time with disastrous results.  I just spread the butter on the dough and then sprinkled the garlic spice mix lightly on top, added the cheese, and rolled it up and they were amazing this time!

Following with:

Chocolate Mousse Cake

    Another Best Bites recipe.  My husband doesn't like toffee though so I sprinkled the top with chopped up Oreos instead.  I also didn't level the cakes because I'm lazy.

The Mousse was tricky.  Follow the instructions exactly!

Two Recipes- Wild Rice Potato Soup and Linguine with Garlic Sauce

Potato Wild Rice Soup

Adapted from Taste of Home cookbook Simple & Delicious

Ingredients:

1 package long grain and wild rice mix

2 cups diced potatoes (I used Yukon Gold)

½ cup diced onion

2 cups chicken broth

2 cups milk

1 can cream of mushroom soup

8 ounces Velveeta, cubed

½ pound bacon cooked and diced

In a large saucepan cook potatoes, onion, and rice mix in the chicken broth for as long as the instructions on the rice say and until the potatoes are tender.

Add milk, cream of mushroom soup, and Velveeta.  Stir until smooth.  Serve with bacon as a garnish.

I also added cooked corn to mine, but you don’t have to.

Linguine with Garlic Sauce

Adapted from Taste of Home cookbook Simple & Delicious

Ingredients:

Small box of uncooked linguine

½ pound cooked bacon, diced

5 cups fresh baby spinach

½ cup chopped ion

1 tsp. minced garlic

1 1-4 cups milk

1 package of cream cheese, cubed

2 Tbsp. butter

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. ground nutmeg

¼ tsp pepper

1 small jar artichoke hearts (optional)

Cook linguine according to package directions. 

Meanwhile, heat 2 Tbsp. of olive oil in a small pan.  Sauté the spinach, onion, and garlic until tender.  About 2 minutes.  Add the milk, cream cheese, butter, salt, nutmeg, and pepper.  Stir until smooth.  Stir in the bacon and the artichoke hearts. 

Drain pasta and toss with sauce.

Easter Nests

Easter Nests

Its just a no-bake cookie with dyed coconut and jelly beans.

To make the No-Bakes...

Mix in a saucepan:

2 cups sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1 stick of margarine

Boil for one minute.

Remove from stove and add in:

3 cups oats (I prefer the regular over the instant.)
1/2 cup peanut butter

Mix well and drop in 1/3 cups onto waxed paper to make circles.
 Let it sit for a few minutes and then use a spoon to make indentations in the center to make nests.

 To dye the coconut put in a plastic bag. Squirt a few drops of green food coloring in as well and shake until dyed. Lay out for 1/2 hour to dry on waxed paper.

 Assemble by putting coconut on the cookie and then jelly beans or chocolate eggs.

Raspberry Cheese Danish and a mini adaption

  I discovered this recipe a while back and its one of my husband's favorites.

    It makes four loafs and it also freezes well so its easy to store. I recommend making the whole recipe and then freezing the leftovers.

My husband had a great idea this week to try to make the individual size and I think they turned out great and are even easier to freeze and store.  Instructions at the bottom.

    Raspberry Cheese DanishAdapted from a Taste of Home magazine
What you need:

2 packages yeast (about 2 tbsp.)
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup butter or margarine cubed
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 cups flour

For the filling:
One 8 oz. package of cream cheese and one 3 oz. package
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 can (21 ounces) raspberry pie filling

Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions:

   In a large bowl dissolve yeast in warm water.

In a saucepan mix the sour cream and cubed butter over medium heat to about 110 degrees. I used my candy thermometer. Stir often.

Add this to the yeast mixture. Then add sugar and eggs. Mix well.

Gradually add flour and mix well. Do not knead.

Cover and refrigerate overnight. I only put it in the fridge for four hours and it turned out fine.

For the filling: beat the cream cheese, sugar, egg, and extract until it is smooth.

Take the dough out and divide it into four equal sized balls. Roll onto a floured surface to make a 12x8 inch rectangle.

Spread a fourth of the cream cheese mixture into middle

and then 1/4 of the pie filing on top of that.

  Fold over the edges.

 Then fold it into thirds by folding over one flap.

  And then the next.

 Pinch the seems together and flip over onto on a well-greased cookie sheet or a Silpat. Cut with scissors or a knife to make diagonal cuts into the loaf.

 Repeat three more times. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour. I put mine in the oven without the heat on. Then bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. Careful that you don't burn it. They seem to brown quickly.
 Then drizzle on the glaze while its still warm. Cool and refrigerate leftovers or freeze it in aluminum foil when completely cool. Enjoy!

 To make them individual sized just roll out the dough and cut out about 6x3 rectangles.  Then dollop in the middle a Tbsp. of each of the fillings and then fold like you do the bigger ones.  Don't overfill or this happens...

 Or it just squeezes out the bottom. 

They take about 10-15 minutes to bake at this size.  Then just wrap them in foil to store in the freezer.  When you want one pop it in the microwave for a minute and drizzle on the glaze. 

Dad's Dutch Oven Chicken

My dad used to Dutch Oven this Chicken every time we went camping.  It is so good!

Dad's Dutch Oven Chicken (re-done in the crockpot)

4 chicken breasts
1 8 oz. bottle of Russian Dressing (this can be tricky to find, but Wish Bone makes one I found at Walmart)
1 cup Apricot Jam
1 package onion soup mix

Place chicken in a crockpot or dutch oven.  Mix the dressing, jam, and soup mix together in a bowl and then pour over the chicken.  Bake for 4-10 hours depending on the highness of the heat.  I did it for four hours on high on the crockpot.  Then it still wasn't falling apart to my satisfaction so I put it in a saucepan for 20 minutes and then it was perfect.

When you serve it make sure to spoon copious amounts of the sauce on top.  Soooo good!

*The recipe says to bake it in the oven at 350 for an hour and 20 minutes, but its just not as good as doing it in a dutch oven so I do it in the crockpot.  But if you really want to do it right do it in a dutch oven!

Hot Salad Chicken Sandwiches and a Pocket Possibility

Hot Chicken Salad Sandwiches
This is the best sandwich!  I'm usually not a fan of stuffing, but this sandwich is great!

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked and cubed chicken
2 cups diced celery
2 cups small croutons (or I prefer to just use a stuffing mix)
1 cup mayo
1/2 cup slivered almonds
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. minced onions (instant)
1/2 tsp.salt

    Mix all together and then place on rolls or croissants and bake at 450 for 5-10 minutes until golden.

I couldn't find croissants at the store so I just made some rolls to put them on.  I forgot how good these rolls are!  They are amazing!

This time we used it as a pocket filling.  My husband's idea.