Andy's Granny came into town tonight. I've known about this visit for weeks, but I still hadn't pre-thought dinner. After work, I ran home before picking up Celia and Charlie to fix something really quickly. Luckily, I had a whole ham thawed out. My friend Leighanne had given me a 2 liter of Cherry Coke Zero the other night. I looked at the ham, I looked at the soda and I thought hmmmm....
Baked Ham and Sweet Carrots
Ingredients:
1 Ham (mine was 6lbs)
1 Pound of Carrots
1 Medium Onion
3/4 Cup of Cherry Coke Zero (or regular Cherry Coke)
1/4 Cup Jelly (use a berry or grape based jelly, I used black currant jelly)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Put ham in a large roasting pan.
3. Peel and chop carrots and onion into large chunks. Put around ham.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together jelly and Cherry Coke Zero. Pour over ham and veggies when finished.
5. Bake in the oven for 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours. Dish is finished when carrots are tender.
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I love the weekends. It's so fun to make my family new and interesting breakfast dishes. This weekend I stuffed regular canned biscuits to make something different. They must've been a big hit because a couple of hours later Celia came up to me and said she wanted some more of those biscuit balls. Sadly, I had to tell her she had ate them all. Next weekend I'm going to stuff the biscuits with ham and cheese. I can't wait to see if everyone will like that version as much. I was able to figure out the calories and fat for this dish. Each biscuit has about 70 calories and 2 fat grams (I rounded up a bit), so you can enjoy more than one :)
**If you want to double this recipe, don't double the egg. One egg is enough to dip two cans of biscuits in. I used black currant jelly, but feel free to use any kind of jelly your family likes. Or, stuff the biscuits with ham and cheddar cheese, or mushrooms and goat cheese if you want to get fancy. The possibilities are endless, yet so easy to make!
Black Currant Stuffed Biscuits
Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 Oz Cream Cheese (I used neufchatel cream cheese)
1 Tube Small Biscuits
1 Egg
Jelly (I used Black Currant Jelly)
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray baking sheet with non-stick spray.
2. In a small bowl, beat egg.
3. Cut cream cheese into the same number of small squares as your biscuits. (My tube of biscuits had 10, so I cut my cheese into 10 small squares.)
4. Put 2 biscuits between a piece of wax paper. Roll them out flat with a rolling pin. Put a piece of cream cheese in the middle of the biscuit. Put a spoonfull of jelly (1/4 to 1/2 tsp) on top of cream cheese. Roll biscuit up. Then fold sides up to form a little ball. See pictures of how to do this. Try to close seam as tightly as possible so jelly doesn't ooze
out too much.
I love when the unexpected turns out great. Yesterday Andy and I wanted to have an easy dinner without a lot of fuss. He was talking about Taco Bell, but I had just gone major grocery shopping the other day. Plus, ever since we've made friends with our neighbor Mathilde, Taco Bell just doesn't sound that great. Mathilde's authentic Mexican food is to die for! So I talked Andy out of Taco Bell and set out to make something easy. I knew I needed to use up some ham, but I was tired of my regular leftover ham recipes. Instead, I looked around and came up with this curry noodle dish. It was amazing: one of the best pastas I've ever made and oh so simple. The egg noodles have great substance and the scent of the curry powder will make your house smell great! If you want yours to have a little more bite, add some red pepper to your dish. Enjoy!
Curry Noodles with Summer Squash
Ingredients:
8 oz Egg Noodles*
2 Cups Chopped Ham
1 Medium Yellow Squash
1 Medium Zucchini
1 and 1/2 Cups Water
1 TBSP Dried Minced Onion
1/2 TBSP Curry Powder
1 and 1/2 TBSP Cream Cheese
3 Oz Plain Yogurt
2 Chopped Roma Tomatoes
1. Put water in a medium sized soup pan on stove top and bring to a boil.
2. While water is starting to boil, chop ham, squash and zucchini. Put in a separate medium sized soup pan. Add water, dried onion, cream cheese, yogurt and curry powder to pan. Turn heat on high right before putting egg noodles into boiling water. Bring to a boil and turn down to medium heat. Continue stirring while cooking so sauce won't burn on the bottom.
3. Follow directions on egg noodles. Cook until al dente. When finished cooking, drain water and put back into pan. Turn stove off under noodles.
4. Right before mixing sauce in with noodles, take out a large spoon full of sauce and mix a teaspoon of flour with liquid to form a paste. Pour paste back into sauce and bring sauce to a boil, stirring frequently. (This will thicken your sauce up a bit.) Pour sauce over noodles, turn heat back on and bring to a boil, stirring. Turn off heat and let sit covered for 5 to 10 minutes.
* I used specialty, dried egg noodles (from Aldis). If you don't have these, I reccomend the type you buy from the freezer.
With Spring here and fruit and vegetable stands popping up all over the place, I'm in the mood for some salad. For the first time ever, I've planted some plants. Hopefully this summer, we'll have a ton of peppers, lettuce, onions, and raspberries. Celia and Charlie had a great time helping me plant the seeds. Now I just have to keep them out of the dirt long enough to let my little plants grow! Here's a deliciously fresh tasting Balsamic Cucumber Tomato Salad. I used dried basil, but if you have fresh basil, it will taste even better!
Balsamic Cucumber Tomato Salad
Ingredients:
3 and 1/2 Cups Chopped Tomatoes (I used Roma and Cherry tomatoes)
1 Large Cucumber
1/3 Cup Diced Onion
4 oz Diced Mozzerella Cheese
3/4 TBSP Dried Basil
1 TBSP Minced, Refrigerated Garlic
1 TBSP Honey
2/3 Cup Balsamic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
Salt (optional)
Pepper (optional)
1. Chop tomatoes and cucumber. Put them into a medium-sized bowl. Dice onion and cut mozzerella cheese into cubes. Add to bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together basil, garlc, honey and salad dressing. Pour over salad and stir.
3. Salt and pepper to taste.
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We had some awesome enchiladas at the birthday party we went to this past weekend. Our host, Kimberly, sent us home with some, but they're never as good reheated as they are originally. Instead, I made them into a really creamy casserole. Your family won't even know that this dish has leftovers in it, if you don't tell them!
Enchilada Casserole
Ingredients:
4 Large Enchiladas
1 Can Beans, drained (I used black eye peas, but any kind of beans would work)
1/2 Cup Mexican Rice
1/2 Cup Salsa
1/3 Cup Cream Cheese
1 Egg
1 Can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 and 1/2 TBSP Taco Seasoning
1/4 Cup Mayonnaise
3 to 4 Roma Tomatoes
1/4 Cup Chopped Onion
1/2 to 1 Cup Cheddar Cheese
Lettuce
Fresh Cilantro
Diced Tomatoes
1. Preheat oven to 35o degrees. Spray a square (8x8 or 9x9) glass baking pan with non-stick spray.
2. Cut enchiladas into 1/2" circles. Place circles on bottom of baking pan, touching each other.
3. In separate bowl, mix together beans, rice, salsa, cream cheese, egg, cream of mushroom soup, taco seasoning and mayo. When finished, pour on top of enchilada circles.
4. Cut tomatoes into thin slices. Sprinkle onions on top of casserole. Put tomato slices on top of onions.
5. Chop up some lettuce, cilantro and tomatoes. Mix together and set aside.
6. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, pour a layer of cheese on top and broil for 5 minutes. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. Top individual servings with lettuce mixture. Serves 4 to 6 people.
Last night Andy and I got to go out and hang out with other adults and play games- Woohoo! Woohoo! We had a fabulous time at our friend Mike's surprise birthday party. We left Celia and Charlie at home with a sitter. I wanted to make sure they had a special night too, so I made them a yummy dessert, which took me a total of 7 minutes to make!!!! It was great. You can easily serve this at a large party by doubling the recipe. I put my Fluff on top of slices of angel food cake, but it would also be really good on those dessert cups or pound cake. Let me know what your family thinks when you try this recipe :)
Sweet Cream Fluff
Ingredients:
1 Cup Fruit Cocktail in Pear Juice (Use fruit and juice)
1/2 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/2 Cup Vanilla Soymilk
1 Pack Instant Vanilla Pudding
2 Cups Chopped, Fresh Strawberries
1. Mix together fruit cocktail, sweetened condensed milk, soymilk, and instant pudding.
2. Add chopped strawberries and mix.
3. Put Fluff onto large slices of Angel Food Cake and serve. Makes enough for 6 to 8 cakes.
I think when you have children, your idea of relaxation changes. At least this is what has happened to me. Before children, to relax, I used to sleep in late, watch movies, get a pedicure, go out to eat, even go on vacation. All of this has changed! Today to relax, I'll drink a diet pepsi on the back porch while Andy gives the kids a bath. Or, I'll go get the mail, BY MYSELF :) I like to walk around my house and look at plants I never would have noticed before I had children. Anything for five minutes of quiet. Instead of watching movies, we now watch episodes of shows on Hulu. They don't take as long. This applies to my cooking too- I'm always thinking fast and easy. But I also want my cooking to be delicious, economical and kid friendly. That's quite a list to fulfill for every meal, however this recipe fits it to a T. Creamy Sausage and Potato Supper. It's a one pot meal that I served with a side of strawberries. It's healthy and delicious. I hope you and your family love it!
