Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

This recipe is from Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. Great recipe book to incorporate veggies and/or fruit into recipes. I highly recommend this book! As usual, I'll write the recipe as originally written, and then I'll add my variations at the end. I made these for a Mary Kay get together last night, and everyone seemed to enjoy them, especially Ella.

nonstick cooking spray

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar

6 Tbsp trans-fat free soft tub margarine spread, chilled

1/2 cup banana puree

1/2 cup zucchini puree

1 large egg white

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat two baking sheets with cooking spray, or line with cooking parchment.

In a bowl or zipper-lock bag, combine flour, oats, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and shake or stir to mix.

In a large bowl, beat the sugar and margarine with a wooden spoon until just combined; do not overmix. Add banana and zucchini purees, and the egg white, and stir just to blend. Add the flour mixture, raisins, and walnuts, if using, and stir to combine.

Drop the dough by heaping tablespoonsful onto the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch in between. Bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 4 to 5 minutes, just until they are firm enough to handle, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Notes:

I didn't have whole-wheat flour, so I used white.

I normally reduce sugar in recipes, but since this was the first time I made this specific recipe, I left it at 3/4 cup. Next time I'd cut back to 1/2 cup, maybe even a bit less.

I used butter. 6 Tbsp comes to 0.375 cup, so that's just over 2/3 cup.

I didn't have zucchini, so I did extra banana instead.

I didn't have eggs in the house, so I used ground flax seed. (1 Tbsp ground flax, soaked in 3 Tbsp water)

I rinsed the raisins in hot water a couple of times before putting them into the batter.

Ham Casserole

I don't know for sure, but I think this recipe is from my friend Melissa Cosens. I love a nice casserole for breakfast and this is what my family made for me for Mother's Day. It's also a good brunch potluck dish. It would be great with eggs on the side, and coffee of course.

4 cups frozen shredded hashbrowns
1 1/2 cups chopped ham
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 sm. onion, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 tbsp. butter or margarine, melted

Mix hashbrowns, ham, cheese & onion in 1 L. casserole or 9X9 cake pan. Mix sour cream, milk & pepper lightly & pour over hashbrown mixture. Combine crumbs & butter, sprinkle over casserole. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Notes:

Melissa's comments: I often don't bother with the ham & sometimes I add a can of corn. I don't either usually do the bread crumbs. Sometimes I find you need a little more of the sour cream/milk sauce & I usually add more cheese than it calls for.

My comments: I'm not a bread crumb topping kinda person either

I have not tried a can of cream soup, but I imagine you'd have a wide variety of options if you tried it. Cream of mushroom would be good. I'm not a fan of cheddar cheese soup, but I suppose that could work. Or swap out the ham for chicken and use cream of chicken soup. I imagine it would work well!

Thai Chicken Pizza

Obviously this will be unlike any pizza you've probably ever tried. Fantastic! It's a bit of work to pull it together, but so worth it! I don't remember where I got this recipe... but it's kinda Rachael Ray, isn't it?

1 pizza dough, any brand
1/2 cup duck sauce or plum sauce
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 package shredded provolone or Monterey Jack cheese (2 cups)
1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 rounded tablespoonful peanut butter
2 teaspoons hot sauce
2 teaspoons grill seasoning (such as Montreal Steak Seasoning) (eyeball it)
4 chicken breast cutlets, 1/2 pound
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar or cider vinegar
1/4 seedless cucumber, peeled and cut into matchsticks
4 scallions, chopped
1 cup bean spouts, a couple of handfuls
Palmful cilantro leaves, chopped
1/4 cup chopped peanuts, 2 ounces

Pre-heat oven to 425°F.

Form pizza crust on pizza pan or cookie sheet. Top with duck or plum sauce - spread it around like you would pizza sauce. Sprinkle the pizza with some crushed red pepper flakes then top with cheese and peppers. Bake until golden and bubbly, 15-17 minutes.

Pre-heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Combine vegetable oil, soy sauce and peanut butter with hot sauce and grill seasoning. Use the microwave to loosen up peanut butter if it is too cold to blend into sauce, 10 seconds ought to do it. Add chicken and coat evenly with mixture. Let stand 10 minutes then grill chicken cutlets 2-3 minutes on each side, until firm. Slice chicken into very thin strips.

While chicken cooks, mix honey and vinegar and add the cucumber. Turn to coat evenly.

Top the hot, cooked pizza with chicken, scallions, sprouts and cilantro. Drain cucumbers and scatter over the pizza. Garnish pizza with peanuts, cut into 8 wedges and serve.

Raspberry Summer Sensation (Frozen Dessert)

This is from Kraft Cooking magazine (summer 2005).

2 cups (1/2 of 1-L container) raspberry sorbet or sherbet

1 cup cold skim milk

1 pkg (4-serving size) vanilla fat-free instant pudding

3 cups thawed Cool Whip light topping

1 cup raspberries

Line 9x5 inch loaf pan with foil. Spoon sorbet into pan; freeze 10 minutes.

Pour milk into large bowl. Add dry pudding mix. Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes or until well blended. Gently stir in whipped topping. Spread pudding mixture over sorbet in pan.

Freeze 3 hours or overnight. To unmould, invert pan onto plate; remove foil. Top with raspberries just before serving. Let stand 10 to 15 minutes to soften before cutting into 12 slices.

Notes:

I made this with mango sherbet and topped it with chopped mango.

I used real whipped cream (with sugar and vanilla) instead of Cool Whip.

I didn't go fat-free or light or anything. And it was good.

I think it would need more than 15 minutes to thaw and be soft enough to slice.

Endless possible variations on this one!

Mediterranean Burgers with Fattoush Salad

This is Rachael Ray too. I've made this a couple of times, but not recently.

*March 23, 2013 update: This recipe is gluten-free if you don't use the pitas. But always check ingredient lists for yourself.

3 pita breads, torn into pieces

1 1/2 pounds ground chicken or ground lamb

1 cup full-fat plain yogurt

3/4 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves (a couple of handfuls), chopped and divided

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tablespoon ground cumin (a palmful)

1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano (half a palmful)

1 1/2 teaspoons sweet paprika (half a palmful)

1 tablespoon grill seasoning (a palmful)

1 pinch ground cinnamon

Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), for drizzling plus about 3 tablespoons for dressing

1 seedless European cucumber, diced into bite-size pieces

1 red or green bell pepper, seeded and diced into bite-sized pieces

4 ribs celery with leafy greens intact, chopped

1/2 large red onion, chopped

2 vine ripe tomatoes, seeded and diced

1/2 pound feta, crumbled

1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives, coarsely chopped

6 pepperoncini (light green peppers), chopped

Juice of 2 lemons

Yields: 4 servings

Preheat oven 375°F.

Arrange the torn-up pieces of pita bread on a cookie sheet. Transfer to the oven and toast until crispy about 5 minutes.

While the pitas are toasting up, start the burgers: Combine ground chicken with yogurt, 1/4 of the parsley, 2 chopped garlic cloves, cumin, oregano, paprika, grill seasoning and cinnamon. Score the meat in 4 equal portions then form 4 patties about 1-inch thick. Preheat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat, add a drizzle of EVOO to the skillet to coat the bottom in a thin layer. Once it ripples, add the patties and cook 6-7 minutes on each side.

While the burgers cook, combine cucumber, bell pepper, celery, red onion, remaining chopped garlic clove, tomatoes, feta, olives, hot peppers and the remaining chopped parsley in a bowl for the salad. Squeeze the lemons and drizzle about 2 tablespoons of EVOO over them, season with some salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Add the toasted torn pita breads and toss again. Let sit while the burgers finish cooking. Taste to adjust seasonings. Top salad with patties and serve.

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Green Eggs and Ham

Here's a Rachael Ray recipe. It sounds strange, but it's so delicious. This recipe could be gluten-free if the deli meat is gluten-free.




1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1 tablespoon butter
2 large shallots, finely chopped
1 box frozen chopped spinach (10-ounce), defrosted in microwave and liquids drained
1/3-1/2 cup heavy cream, (eyeball it)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
8 slices deli ham or prosciutto di Parma

8 eggs

Preparation

Pre-heat oven to 375°F.

In a medium skillet over medium heat, heat the EVOO and the butter and sweat the shallots a few minutes. Add the spinach and stir in the cream, season with salt, freshly ground black pepper and a little grated nutmeg. Cook the spinach, stirring occasionally, until the cream has thickened, 5 minutes. Adjust seasoning to your taste.

Fold each slice of ham or prosciutto in half and line the nonstick cups with 1 slice of meat each. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of the cooked spinach into each of the cups, then crack an egg into each, making sure it stays whole (hint - if you're worried about breaking the egg yolk, crack the egg into a small bowl first, then pour it into the muffin cup). Season the tops of the eggs with salt and freshly ground black pepper and bake in the oven until set, about 15 minutes. Allow the baked eggs to cool in the muffin cups for a couple of minutes before removing them from the pan. Serve immediately.

Chinese Happy Family

This is from allrecipes dot com. I wanted some sort of stir fry recipe, and I have yet to find one that I'm capable of turning into something yummy. This is my inspiration and of course I made many variations. As usual, I'll post the original recipe and then note my changes at the end.

3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into strips
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cubed
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and cubed
1 (15 ounce) can baby corn, drained
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 (16 ounce) package frozen stir-fry vegetables
1 cup water
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon soy sauce

This is the top rated review on the recipe: That is a good start. But to have a true happy family you need to add a few things more. You need to have shrimp, scallops and chicken. Also needed is some pea pods along with the veggies. How I make mine is to start with onion, garlic, a little ginger, water chestnuts stir fry together. Add some mushrooms, and green pepper. Remove all items as you fry them in a wok and store them in the wok cover. Stir fry some carrots, and a little celery. removing as they are fried and keep in cover to allow flavors to visit. Stir some mushrooms of your choice and put them in the wok cover then stir fry the chicken, remove to a bowl, add the scallops remove to same bowl, then stir fry shrimp. Add scallops and chicken to wok and continue to heat. Add a mixture of corn starch and chicken broth and bring to boil and let thicken. when thickened, add the items in the wok cover back to make one big happy family. Served over sticky rice. All these flavors are sure happy to be together and they will make one happy family sitting at that dinner table. 

Notes:

I used only one chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces, tossed in cornstarch and fried.

I used half of a small onion, 1/4 of a red pepper, no yellow pepper or corn, I added a thinly sliced carrot, garlic, and broccoli.

As noted in the review above, I fried the veggies in small batches and set them aside to "visit".

Instead of water, I used low sodium chicken stock.

I sprinkled in maybe 1/4 tsp ginger powder into the chicken stock.

After all of the vegetables and chicken were fried and set aside, I heated up the pan, added a small amount of oil and when it was hot, dropped all of the stuff in it to get it steaming hot. I cranked up a pot of water and dropped in noodles to cook for 2 minutes. I dumped the soy sauce, cornstarch, and stock mixture into the veggies to simmer and thicken. I dropped the cooked noodles into the veggies and sauce and mixed it and served it immediately. And it was delicious.

Roll Kuchen

This is from the white recipe book, but I believe originally from the Mennonite Treasury. If you roll them quite thin, they are very crisp. If you prefer them softer, do not roll them too thin. Also good served with a tart jam or syrup.

4 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup sour cream

1 cup milk

4 eggs

Sift flour with salt and baking powder into mixing bowl. Make a well in the flour and put in the rest of the ingredients, mix well with hands. Add more flour to eliminate the stickiness of the dough, approximately 2 cups. 

Knead on a floured board or counter top, roll out, cut into 2"x4" strips, cut one or two slits in each strip. Fry in deep fat, turn when one side is completely done, then brown the other side. Good served with watermelon. 

One recipe is plenty for one meal plus leftovers.

Popsicles

For some reason, this was sitting in my "drafts" box for the last year! Not sure what happened there.

Okay, this is going to be a heap o' spaghetti (for those familiar with the Men Are Like Waffles, Women Are Like Spaghetti book). Last summer, my friend Christal (Giesbrecht) Barkman emailed me this recipe. It was one of those recipes that I've made many times (lots of years ago) but I don't have on file anywhere and I had completely forgotten about it. Christal and I were neighbours when we were kids and we made and ate these all the time! She says the recipe was from my Grandma Schmidt, someone who wasn't related to us but she was our nanny the first five years after my Mom got sick. Now she is someone I need to write a blog entry about! Anyway. Not an ounce of healthy

1 pkg kool-aid
1 pkg Jell-O
1/2 to 1 cup sugar
2 cups boiling water
2 cups cold water


Mix Kool-Aid, Jell-O and sugar in boiling water until dissolved. Add cold water. Pour into popsicle holders and freeze.

Brie - Pepper and Pecan

And this one was sitting in my "drafts" box for ages too. Oh well. Better late than never.

I got this recipe from my Pampered Chef lady. It's amazing! The one I made most recently was spicy because I intentionally left the seeds in the pepper. Mmm! Also great when served with Wheat Thins crackers.

Don't look at this as a complicated recipe because it's SO simple and people just can't get enough!

Tangy Pepper-Pecan Brie

1 jalapeño pepper, stemmed, seeded and chopped

¼ cup (50 mL) apricot preserves

1 4-in. (10-cm) round (8 oz/250 g) Brie or Camembert cheese with rind, room temperature

½ cup (125 mL) pecan halves, coarsely chopped

1 loaf (16 ounces/500 g) French baguette

Vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C). In Small Batter Bowl, combine jalapeño and preserves; mix well.

Cut Brie in half horizontally. Place one half of Brie, cut side up, onto center of Large Round Stone. Spread half of the apricot mixture over bottom half of Brie. Top with half of the pecans and remaining half of Brie, cut side up. Spread remaining apricot mixture over Brie; sprinkle with remaining pecans.

Using Bread Knife, cut baguette on a bias into twenty-four ¼-inch-thick (6-mm) slices. Arrange baguette slices around Brie; spray with vegetable oil using Kitchen Spritzer. Bake 8-10 minutes or until baguette slices are golden brown and Brie begins to soften. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes before serving. Serve using Bamboo Spreader.

Yield: 12 servings

If you need anything from Pampered Chef, Kelly is awesome!

Kelly Evans

Independent Advanced Director

237-6948

Kel.evans@shaw.ca

www.pamperedchef.biz/kellyevans

Burgers with mushrooms

Another delight from Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. It's called "Burgers 2" in the recipe book. I should have helped her name her recipes.

1 lb ground lean turkey or sirloin

1/2 lb white button or (stemmed) shiitake mushrooms, trimmed and finely chopped

1 cup whole-wheat or Italian (seasoned) breadcrumbs

1/4 cup chopped or grated zucchini

1 Tablespoon Worshestershire sauce

2 Tablespoons ketchup

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

nonstick cooking spray

1 Tablespoon olive oil

16 whole-grain hamburger buns

The recipe says these are baked. Why? But I'll write it as listed, but they're amazing on the grill.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix the meat, mushrooms, breadcrumbs, zucchini, Worchestershire sauce, ketchup, salt, and pepper until well combined. The mixture will be moist. Form into 16 patties and place them on a sheet of waxed paper or aluminum foil.

Coat a large nonstick ovenproof skillet with cooking spray and set it over medium-high heat. When the skillet is hot, add the oil. Add the burgers and brown on one side for 4 to 5 minutes. Turn the burgers, then slide the skillet into the oven. Bake for 4 to 5 minutes longer, or until the burgers are no longer pink in the center. Serve each burger on a bun.

Notes:

Delicious! So moist! For some reason our grocery store didn't have zucchini, so I threw in one egg for a double batch of meat.

And about putting ketchup in the meat. Why not just use barbecue sauce? I used that instead of ketchup.

Greek Chicken with Feta Tzatziki

This is what's for dinner tonight.... as Rachael Ray would say. I'm really excited to try this!

• 4 pieces chicken breast
• Poultry seasoning
• Salt and pepper
• 3 lemons, 1 sliced, 2 halved for juicing
• 3 to 4 cloves garlic, 2 chopped, 1 clove pasted or grated
• 1 red chili pepper, seeded and finely chopped
• 2 sprigs oregano, finely chopped
• 2 sprigs rosemary, chopped 

 

• 1/3 cup EVOO – Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1/2 seedless cucumber, peeled and grated or shredded
• 1 cup Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup Greek feta crumbles
• A small handful of dill
• A small handful of parsley 

• Greek vegetable salad: (use a combo of all or some!) diced seeded tomatoes, cucumber, red onions, bell peppers, light green small Greek pickled hot peppers, parsley tops 

• Flat bread, pita or Naan bread 

Season chicken with dried poultry seasoning, salt and pepper. Add to a bag with sliced lemon, chopped garlic, chili pepper, oregano and rosemary. Marinate several hours or overnight. 

Bring to room temp then cook on a hot grill or grill pan over medium-high heat 12-15 minutes. Let rest then slice on angle, douse with juice of 1 lemon.

For sauce, salt shredded cucumber and drain in strainer for 20-30 minutes. Press out all the liquid you can and transfer to food processor with yogurt, feta, dill, parsley, salt, pepper, juice of remaining halved lemon and grated or pasted garlic, and process until smooth.

Grill bread. 

Slather grilled bread with sauce, top with sliced chicken and some diced vegetable salad. 

Notes:

I forgot to get real garlic so I have garlic powder in the chicken marinade. Hard to compare real garlic with a powder, but it'll have to do for now.

I also have honey Greek yogurt.... so I'll have to think about going with the honey OR going back to the store for plain.

Delicious! Even Tava gobbled it up! 

I used what I had on hand, which means tortillas instead of pitas or Naan, but it was still good. I lightly grilled the tortillas to warm them up.

It always seems to me that Rachael Ray adds salt constantly, so I didn't add s+p to everything... but I should have. 

The honey in the Greek yogurt turned out okay. I think. I've never made tzatziki and I've only had it a couple of times, so I'm not all that familiar with what it should taste like. It was really tasty though.