Salmon Packets-Healthy Alert!

Wrap fish in foil with veggies and oil, wine plus lemon juice

Bake until fish is flaky, serve... soo quick, healthy and delicious!
Salmon Packet

This recipe is adapted from Giada De Laurentiis' Italian Fish and Veggie Pockets.

This is my quick fix meal that is super healthy.

Ingredients

2 salmon filets {I prefer fresh}

1 red bell pepper, sliced (Don't substitute green pepper, doesn't taste good)

Sugar Snap Peas {I use one handful per pack}

Salt & Pepper

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Lemon Juice

White Wine

Directions

Heat oven to 400F.

Tear off sheets of aluminum foil for your packs. Fold edges up to prevent liquid from spilling.

Slice bell pepper and put half in one packet, half in the other.

Place handful of peas in each packet.

Season with salt & pepper.

Drizzle olive oil (about a tsp) on top of vegetables.

Pour 1 tbsp of wine on veggies.

Pour 1 tsp of lemon juice on veggies.

Place salmon, skin side down, on top of veggies.

Season with salt & pepper.

Drizzle olive oil (about a tsp) on top of salmon.

Pour 1 tsp of lemon juice on salmon.

Fold edges of tin foil in. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until salmon is flaky and no longer pink.

This will serve 2. You can adapt the recipe as needed.

Snickery Squares

For the record, this took longer than I anticipated and was a little difficult with as many steps as it has. Plus time it took! BUT, it was sooo good!

Snickery Squares

For the Crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
2 TBSP powdered sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten

For the Filling:

½ cup sugar
3 TBSP water
1 ½ cups salted peanuts
About 1 ½ cups store-bought dulce de leche

For the Topping:

7 ounces bittersweet(I used semi since hubby doesn’t like bittersweet), coarsely chopped
½ stick unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a 8 inch square pan and put it on a baking sheet.

To Make the Crust:

Toss the flour, sugar, powdered sugar and salt into a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Toss in the pieces of cold butter and pulse about 12 times, until the mixture looks like coarse meal. Pour the yolk over the ingredients and pulse until the dough forms clumps and curds-stop before the dough comes together in a ball.
Turn the dough into the buttered pan and gently press it evenly across the bottom of the pan. Prick the dough with a fork and slide the sheet into the oven.
Bake the crust for 15-20 minutes, or until it takes on just a little color around the edges. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool to room temperature before filling.

To Make the Filling:

Have a parchment or silicone mat-lined baking sheet at the ready, as well as a long-handled wooden spoon and a medium heavy bottomed saucepan.
Put the sugar and water in the saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Keeping the heat fairly high, continue to cook the sugar, without stirring, until it just starts to color. Toss the peanuts and immediately start stirring. Keep stirring, to coat the peanuts with sugar. Within a few minutes, they will be covered with sugar and turn white¢â¬â€keep stirring until the sugar turns back into caramel. When the peanuts are coated with a nice deep amber caramel, remove the pan from the heat and turn the nuts out onto the baking sheet., using the wooden spoon to spread them out as best you can. Cool the nuts to room temperature.
When they are cool enough to handle, separate the nuts or break them into small pieces. Divide the nuts in half. Keep half of the nuts whole or in biggish pieces for the filling, and finely chop the other half for the topping(I kept mine whole).
Spread the dulce de leche over the shortbread base and sprinkle over the whole candied nuts.

For the topping:

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Remove chocolate from the heat and gently stir in the butter, stirring until it is fully blended into the chocolate.
Pour the chocolate over the dulce de leche, smoothing it with a long metal icing spatula, then sprinkle over the rest of the peanuts. Slide the pan into the fridge to set the topping, about 20 minutes; if you’d like to serve the squares cold, keep them refrigerated for at least 3 hours before cutting.
Cut into 16 bars.

Source: Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Mini Meatloaf's in Muffin Tins

saute onions, garlic and carrots together with a little bit of olive oil.

add meat to onion mixture and spoon into muffin tins, put ketchup on top!

I had extra that I put into a separate pan ... for more meatloaf!
Mini Meatloaf's in Muffin Tins

Sit down to a meat loaf in a half hour with this recipe. Serve with steamed green beans and roasted potato wedges for an at-home version of a blue-plate special.

Yield

6 servings (serving size: 2 "muffins")

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/2 cup finely chopped carrot
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup ketchup, divided
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef, extra lean (raw)
• 1 cup finely crushed fat-free saltine crackers (about 20)
• 2 tablespoons prepared mustard
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 large eggs
• Cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion, chopped carrot, dried oregano, and minced garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Cool.

Combine onion mixture, 1/2 cup ketchup, and the remaining ingredients except cooking spray in a large bowl.

Spoon the meat mixture into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Top each with 2 teaspoons ketchup. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160°. Let stand for 5 minutes.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

276 (28% from fat)

Fat:

8.6g (sat 3g,mono 4g,poly 0.8g)

Protein:

28.7g

Carbohydrate:

21.7g

Fiber:

1.8g

Cholesterol:

131mg

Iron:

3.9mg

Sodium:

759mg

Calcium:

48mglau

This is a very moist and easy recipe, it really takes about 30 minutes and the prep is about 10 minutes max. When you add green beans and a baked potato on the side, this is a wonderful hearty little meal. You can serve it the next day as meatloaf sandwiches, which Daniel loves!

Meatball Subs

Yummy!



I found this recipe from : Mommy I'm Hungry Blog

Meatballs:
1 lb lean ground beef or italian sausage
7 button mushrooms, diced finely (If you don't like mushrooms, omit, but you can't really taste them)
1/4 sweet yellow onion, diced finely
1/4 cup of Italian style breadcrumbs (I used homemade breadcrumbs w/extra Italian seasonings)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 egg
1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
1/2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp fennel seed, crushed (I omitted)
2 cups Romano Cheese
Sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper
1 tsp olive oil (for cooking)

Put the onions, garlic and mushrooms in a food processor to chop, otherwise chop them as small as you can. Combine all ingredients (except for olive oil) together gently. Form into small meatballs and set aside (I used my small scooper). Once the meatballs are prepared. (I then baked them at 350' for 20 minutes on a large baking sheet) Heat a skillet over medium heat with 1 tsp olive oil. Cook the meatballs until golden brown on all sides. Remove from skillet and place the cooked meatballs in your marinara sauce and serve on Homemade Hoagies.

Homemade Sandwich Rolls

Recipe courtesy of Recipezaar

Ingredients

• 5 teaspoons dry active yeast (2 pkgs)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups water, about 110 degrees
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 6-7 cups all-purpose flour
• cornmeal (I omitted)
• 1 egg white
• sesame seed (optional)

Directions

• Dissolve sugar in water & add yeast to proof.
• Rest one to two minutes.
• Melt butter.
• Stir melted butter & salt into yeast mixture.
• Mix in flour, 1 cup at a time until desired consistency is reached (not too sticky to the touch but with plenty of give)
• Knead until VERY well developed, about 10-12 minutes (important!)
• Cover with plastic wrap and let stand until doubled in bulk (approx 40 minutes).
• Lightly dust a small amount of corn meal over well-greased pans/Silpat, roll your dough into long, thin "logs" & place about 3" apart on the pans.
• Slash each loaf every inch & a half with a knife, brush with egg white & sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired.
• Let double in size.
• Bake in a 400°F oven until golden brown.

Horseradish-Parmesan Crusted Fish

Place fish on foil-lined baking dish
Serve with Spinach salad!


Horseradish-Parmesan Crusted Fish

4 Whitefish Filets (Tilapia, Orange Roughy, halibut, etc.) I used Orange Roughy
1/2 cup Roberts Reserve Onion Blossom Horseradish Sauce (I found this at HEB in the fancy food section of specialty sauces) you could use any horseradish cream sauce.
1/2 Cup Panko Japanese bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1 tbsp Cajun Seasoning

Rinse fish with cool water and pat dry, season with Cajun seasoning.
Place on foil-lined baking sheet.
Preheat oven to 425 F. Spread Horseradish sauce over fish, top with breadcrumbs and cheese. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Serve over rice or with salad and a vegetable.


This was the best fish recipe I had ever had! Honestly this is my new go-to fish recipe! The only problem for those of you who don't live where they have HEB, I don't know if you will be able to find the onion blossom horseradish sauce which makes it sooo very good, so hopefully you can!

St. Patty's Day Cupcakes

St. Patty's Day Cupcakes

1 box of French Vanilla Cake mix
Wilton Food Coloring *Green
Green decorating sprinkles

Icing recipe:
Cream Cheese Icing
1/2 c. butter (softened).
8 oz. pkg cream cheese (softened)
4 c. (1 lb) confectioner's sugar
1 tbsp lemon extract

Cream butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and extract. Beat on high speed until smooth, light and fluffy. Frost cupcakes by cutting a hole in ziplock bag, in the corner of the bag, stuff frosting in the bag and circle around to make design on top of cupcake!

Honey Oat Bread

Honey Oat Bread (Who Bread)

WHO Bread
(bread machine recipe here)

1 1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons butter @ room temperature
1 tsp salt
3 cups of flour (we do 2 cups unbleached white, 1 cup whole wheat pastry)
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (or, one package)

Pour 1 1/4c. warm water (about 110 degrees F), honey, sugar, and yeast into a bowl. Whisk until well combined and mixture is frothy. Set aside to proof while you mix together the other ingredients. In a separate large bowl stir together, flour, butter, salt, rolled oats, and cinnamon. Pour yeast mixture into flour mixture, and mix until thoroughly combined. (I like to do this with my hands.) Place dough into a lightly oiled bread pan. Cover with a damp towel and leave in a warm spot to rise for about an hour (45 min. if you'€™re impatient!). Punch down dough and let rise a second time for 45 minutes, covered with a damp towel. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove towel from top of dough and place pan in the center of your oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Done!

Turned out delicious! Daniel and I ate it for breakfast several mornings and the girls LOVED it!

Rainbow Cake

This was hard to ice, because it was so tall, it kept falling, you really need to wait until it has cooled for hours before you ice it, or make sure the icing is stiff to keep the layers in place!
All the different cake batters...
Baked and ready to stack~!
A hot little mess this was...
It was soooo good, I made the icing lemon cream cheese icing and it was so good! (and I don't even like cake)


I have seen this cake on so many different people's blogs and have always wanted to try it, I never thought I'd be ambitious enough, but I was, and it wasn't that hard. So, if I can do it, you can do it!

Rainbow Cake
From Mommy I'm Hungry-Adapted by Me


Double batch of boxed white cake mix -2 boxes (or homemade if you prefer minus the egg, water, oil below) I used French Vanilla cake mix
6 eggs
1 c. water
2/3 c. vegetable oil
Zest of 1 orange + 2 T. juice
Zest of 1 lemon + 2 T. juice
Zest of 1 lime + 2 T. juice
1/2 c. fresh or frozen raspberries, mashed
1/2 c. fresh or frozen blueberries, mashed
1/2 c. fresh or frozen blackberries, mashed
Wilton's gel icing colors in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple

6 bowls
6 disposable round 8" foil cake pans (square pans would be fun too)

Make the batter for the cake as directed using the eggs, water and oil. Scoop 1 Cup of cake batter in each of the 6 bowls.

In the first bowl, mix raspberries and 1/4 tsp. red coloring in the batter.
In the second bowl, mix orange zest and juice, and 1/2 tsp. orange coloring.
In the third bowl, mix lemon zest and juice and 1/4 tsp. yellow coloring.
In the fourth bowl, mix lime zest and juice and 1/4 tsp. green coloring.
In the fifth bowl, mix blueberries and 1/4 tsp. blue coloring.
In the sixth bowl, mix blackberries and 1/4 tsp. purple coloring.

Prepare six 8 inch cake pans by greasing and flouring each generously. Using a spatula, spoon and spread each color of batter into its own cake pan. Bake in an oven, preheated to 350 degrees for 17-20 minutes, or until tops spring back when touched lightly. Allow to cool completely. Frost.


Cream Cheese Icing (For this cake, I doubled it -to the right)
1/2 c. butter (softened) -1C.
8 oz. pkg cream cheese (softened) -16 oz.
4 c. (1 lb) confectioner's sugar -8 C. (2 lb)
1 tsp Vanilla or lemon extract ( I used 1 tbsp of Lemon Extract b/c I like things strong)

Cream butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and extract. Beat on high speed until smooth, light and fluffy. Frost cake.
Stack each layer, frost, then frost the outside... decorate how you prefer! Put in fridge to cool and set before cutting into.



Daniel had some friends over and we all enjoyed this cake, I loved the fruit taste and the icing was to die for! Worth making again for sure!

Lola's Hot Enchilada's

Line Enchiladas in baking dish... each are rolled with cheese and chicken...
Top with remaining sauce and cheese....
Bake in 350 oven for 45 minutes or until cheese is bubbling and brown!
Serve and enjoy!


Lola's Hot Enchilada's

2 cans Rotel Tomatoes (1 original, 1 mexican)
2 cans Cream of Chicken soup
4 Cups of Colby Jack Cheese or Cheddar Cheese
15 tortillas
1.5 lbs of cooked shredded chicken


Boil Chicken, shred. Mix Rotel and Cream of Chicken soup, spread 1/2 that mixture on the bottom of the baking dish. Take tortillas and put cheese and chicken and line them in the baking dish. On top of tortilla's pour remaining sauce and top with 2 cups of cheese. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Can use the extra sauce when cooked and dip tortilla chips in it, very yummy!

H.O.T. Fresh Apple Dumplings

Peel and cut up 2 Granny Smith apples....
Roll apples in 2 cans of crescent rolls, line up in pan....

Pour butter/sugar mixture on top, dump in Mt. Dew and then top with cinnamon...
Bake and serve with ICE CREAM..... Blue Bell Vanilla! :)


Apple Dumplings

Granny Smith apples
2 cans crescent rolls
2 sticks butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla
cinnamon
1 small can Mountain Dew

Peel and core apples. Cut apples into 8 slices each. Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll. Place in a 9 x 13 buttered pan. Melt butter, then add sugar and barely stir. Add vanilla, stir, and pour over apples. Pour Mountain Dew around the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve with ice cream, and spoon some of the sweet sauces from the pan over the top.

Daniel loved these dumplings even though he isn't usually a fan of hot fruit, these changed his mind! :)

Chicken, Spinach & Mushroom Stuffed Jumbo Shells!

Cook shells as directed on box

Saute the mushrooms, onions, garlic and spinach together..

Mix veggie mixture with ricotta cheese and stuff the shells.... pour alfredo over top!

Top with cheese and bake.

Serve.... yummy!

Chicken Spinach & Mushroom Stuffed Jumbo Shells

INGREDIENTS
8oz. white mushrooms, sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 large vidalia onion, diced
1/2 bag of fresh leaf spinached, sliced thin
olive oil for cooking
2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, shredded
kosher salt
1 tablespoon italian seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 tub of ricotta cheese
1 box jumbo pasta shells, cooked
1 jar alfredo sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese


DIRECTIONS
Cook pasta shells as directed.
Boil chicken breasts until cooked through.
Cool chicken breasts and shred.
In a saute pan, saute mushrooms, onions, garlic and spinach in olive oil under cooked through.
Place veggie mixture in a large bowl.
Add shredded chicken to bowl.
Add spices/seasonings to bowl.
Add ricotta cheese to bowl.
Toss to combine.
In a 13 x 9 baking pan, lightly grease with cooking spray.
Fill cooked pasta shells with filling & place in greased pan.
Continue to fill all pasta shells.
Once baking pan is full, pour alfredo sauce over the top of the filled shells.
Top with shredded mozzarella cheese.
Bake at 350 for 45 - 60 minutes.