I've Been a Busy, Busy Bee...

Bzzzzzzzzzz.......

I felt like I was neglecting my cooking skills early in the week, so I wanted to make up for it and prove my cooking prowess.  

I was up at 5:30 a.m., showered and then read my daily devotionals.  Once I donned my faux purple crocs (they are my kitchen working shoes), I was ready to do some serious business.  

First, I prepared a rub for a pork roast I had thawing in the fridge.  The recipe for the rub can be found HERE and is absolutely awesome!  It says to marinate it 1 - 3 hours, I just do it in the morning and let it sit in the fridge all day and plop in into the oven when I'm ready to cook it.  Pork roasts, when found on sale, are a nice economical meal, but you feel like you are living "high on the hog" as my dear husband always says.  

Next on the list was scalloped potatoes.  I often neglect this recipe for some reason.  It's not difficult to make, especially if you have a food processor.  Dice up your onion with the chopping blade, then slice the potatoes with the slicing attachment.  Super easy and one casserole dish usually will last two meals.  I learned how to make these by watching my mom. Recipe follows the friendly potato chef...

Homestyle Scalloped Potatoes

• Potatoes peeled and sliced (amount depends on the number of people you want to serve; I did 6 potatoes)
• Onion finely diced
• Flour
• Butter
• Milk (I used skim milk)
• Salt & Pepper

1. Spray your casserole dish with cooking spray
2. Alternate layers of potatoes, onion, flour*, dots of butter, S&P until your potatoes are gone.  
3. Pour milk over the potatoes to cover
4. Bake covered for 60 minutes on 350.  Stir and remove lid.  Bake for an additional 30 minutes.
5. Remove from the oven and let stand for approx. 10 minutes.

*For the flour, I just use a spoon and sprinkle it over the potatoes.  You don't want to overdo the flour, it's just to thicken the potatoes as they cook.

Note:  You'll want to leave some room at the top of your dish as this casserole has a tendency to bubble over, and all over, the bottom of your stove.  :-)

Once I had the casserole complete, I covered it and put it in the fridge with the marinating pork roast.  Hubby felt like a king at dinner tonight and I had everything prepared by 7:30 in the morning. 

Joy in the "early bird catching the worm". 

HDP

Savory Zucchini Bake and Pie for Dessert

THIS........is Savory Zucchini Bake and let me tell you, it is YUMMY (in all caps)!


A nice Australian woman, who I met on Ravelry, sent me the below recipe.  It sounded really good, so I thought I'd give it a try.  My husband isn't too fond of me trying new recipes, but he was glad I tried this one!  I did cut the recipe in half from it's original and converted the ingredients from metrics to US measurements (she had done some of them already).  This conversion chart came in super handy. 

I served the dish with homemade rolls and sliced peaches. I will definitely be adding this to our family's favorites!

Savory Zucchini Bake
3 eggs
1/2 C All Purpose Flour
1 1/4 C Zucchini (grated)
1/2 onion (finely chopped)
1/2 C bacon (I used precooked real bacon bits)
1/2 C cheddar cheese (shredded)
1/2 carrot grated
2 T vegetable oil (I used Canola Oil)

+  Spray pie plate with cooking spray
+  Beat eggs in a large bowl
+  Add the flour and beat until smooth
+  Add zucchini, onion, carrot, bacon, cheese and oil; stir to combine.
+  Pour into prepared pan and bake in 350 degree oven for approx. 35 - 45 minutes or until cooked through.

Then for dessert, my son helped me make.....

Easy-Peasy Banana Pudding Pie
1 pre-packaged graham cracker crust
1 pkg Banana pudding (I used sugar free-fat free)
1 3/4 C Milk (I used skim milk)
8 oz container Cool Whip (I used lite)

Mix milk and pudding together as directed on box.  Pour into crust and refrigerate until set.  Put the Cool Whip on top before serving.  (I usually slice a banana and put it on the crust before I pour in the pudding, but I didn't have one on hand today.)


Joy for the day........my husband liked it!

HDP

Mom's Italian Meatballs

I think spaghetti and meatballs gets a bad rap anymore as a low budget meal.  While it is inexpensive to make, it can be a very tasty and wholesome meal.  Growing up, it was one of my favorites.

My mom always used to make her own meatballs.  They are simple to make and if you use a ground sirloin or a lean ground beef, they aren't too bad in the fat department either.  I do add Parmesan cheese to mine, I like the enhanced flavor.

I made my meatballs yesterday morning with my other baking since I had the oven on.  I'll either heat them on the stove top, or in the slow cooker with one of our favorite sauces later this afternoon. 

Mom's Meatballs
1 lb lean ground beef
1 egg (slightly beaten)
1/4 cup seasoned dry breadcrumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (shredded or grated, it doesn't matter)
Dash of Milk to moisten

Mix all ingredients together.  Form small balls rolling the mixture between your hands.  Cook in a slow oven at 300 degrees for approximately 30 minutes.  I usually have about 26 small meatballs from 1 lb of meat.  (I cook mine on a broiler pan so the excess fat is cooked out of the meatballs.)

That's it!  Super simple and they are delicious.  No need for the oven today.  I have an Italian Herb Bread going in the bread machine (from this cookbook) that I'll serve with our spaghetti and meatballs and there will be plenty left over for my husband to carry to work the following day.

Joy in cooking!

HDP

More Summertime Favorites

Last time I looked at the outdoor thermometer, it was 95 degrees outside (35C).  That's hot.  With that being said, my son and I spent the majority of the day inside.

So, I cooked.  I made Zucchini Bread with the leftover shredded zucchini that I had in the freezer.  My son and I had a little sampling of it and it is yummy!  It is lower in fat as compared to the chocolate version I made in July and uses applesauce for a portion of the oil.  It also calls for crushed pineapple, which adds a nice tropical flavor.  It did make two loaves, but I'm not sure how long this bread will last in my household.

To go with the bread, I made Southwest-Style Stuffed Peppers.  I can't share the recipe with you, but I can tell you where to find it if you are interested; Better Homes and Gardens New Dieter's Cookbook.  Don't let the diet in the title fool you, it is really good as are most of the recipes I've made from this book.

So even though it was hot outside, we stayed nice and cool inside.

My joy for today is in cooking and partaking of the fruits of my labor!  :-)

HDP

Summertime Favorite

Macaroni Salad....

This is my Mom's recipe for Macaroni Salad; I believe it was passed to her from my Grandmother.  It's a simple recipe, but a great and easy summertime side dish or meal.  We are having it tonight with chicken. 

Macaroni Salad
1 lb box macaroni noodles (boiled al dente, drained and rinsed in cold water)
3 hard boiled eggs chopped
1 (5.75 oz) jar sliced green olives with pimentos (drained)
3 stalks celery cleaned and sliced
1/2 a small onion minced
1 Cup light mayonnaise (I use Hellman's Light)
salt and pepper to taste

In large bowl combine all ingredients and stir until everything is moistened.  Sprinkle with paprika before serving.

Note:  To make a complete meal, you can add boiled, chilled and chopped chicken breast.  Or, if you prefer, you can add a large can of solid white albacore tuna.  My Mom would serve it this way with blueberry muffins for dinner. 

I'll often make a large bowl on a Friday or Saturday and we'll enjoy it with grilled burgers, grilled chicken breasts, or grilled Italian sweet sausages.  The above recipe lasts my family approximately three meals with enough for my husband to take to lunch a couple of days.

Enjoy!

HDP

Lazy Day Dinner

I didn't feel like cooking today, so I decided to do my "Lazy Day" dinner.  I try to keep the ingredients on hand for when the mood strikes.

• Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
• Light Italian Dressing (or Italian dressing of your choosing)
• Prepackaged Caesar Salad Kit
• Bakery Bread

Marinate chicken in salad dressing, at least 4 hours; longer if desired.  Mix salad together in large bowl, bake bread for 10 min. in oven, and cook chicken on outdoor grill.

Voila!

Instant dinner and so much better than fast food.  A lot less expensive I might add as well, at $2.56 per person.

Convenience is my joy for today! 

HDP
 

Crockpot "Fried Chicken"

Last year for Christmas, my husband gave me the cookbook, Make It Fast, Cook It Slow from Stephanie O'Dea's blog, A Year of Slow Cooking.  I like the book a lot and have made quite a few things from it.  The majority of the recipes are quick, easy and affordable to make.

Today I made "Fried Chicken".  I've made this particular chicken dish numerous times as both my husband and my son like it a lot.

The recipe for "Fried Chicken" can be found on her blog.  If you decide to make it, you should note she has increased the amount of Seasoned Salt to 1 Tablespoon as well as increasing the Onion Powder to 2 teaspoons. 

One of the nice things about cooking in the crock pot is how it frees up your day to do other things; fix it and forget it.  We'll be having potatoes and green beans with our chicken, which is easy enough to fix  right before my husband gets home from work.  Another benefit to cooking in the crockpot is how wonderful it makes the house smell.

Instead of chicken legs, I use bone-in chicken thighs and remove the skin.  For my small family, five thighs are plenty.  My chicken is usually done in just a few hours since there is less of it.  I also blot the chicken on paper towels before I serve it to alleviate the excess grease.

Joy for today is in easy, but yummy, cooking and satisfying the family's taste buds.

HDP

WARNING - Zucchini Bread

And, it's not diet!

I had a couple of large zucchini that I needed to use before they went bad.  Over sized zucchini squash are great for making the summertime favorite zucchini bread.  So I perused some on-line recipes and found one that looked absolutely scrumptious!  It's called Chocolate Zucchini Bread, and if you follow my link, it will take you to the free on-line recipe at Taste of Home's website. 

Once I got some housework settled this morning, I called my son into the kitchen to see if he wanted to help.  He loves to taste test everything, so he was game for the adventure.  First task was shredding the zucchini; a food processor with a grating blade makes this task a cinch.  I measured out what we would need for our recipe today, labeled the rest, placing it in ziploc bags for the freezer and future bread making use.

Measuring ingredients is fun with a four-year-old.  He likes to taste each item as it's being placed in the bowl.  I remind him that flour, by itself, does not taste good, but that doesn't deter the will of a child.  So I gave him a little taste and of course he said, "blah".  We went through this ritual with each new ingredient until we got to the sugar, and he said, "yum!".  Nothing like pure white sugar out of the bag to please his discriminating taste buds. 

So we followed the instructions on the recipe and our end result looks like this... 

 
My rating is the same as my son's rating to the white sugar, "yum!".  Very chocolaty and moist; sweet, but not overly so.  Keep in mind, this bread is very different from traditional zucchini bread and I'm glad I have more shredded zucchini to make that kind at a later date.  Down the road, if I make this recipe again, I think I'd add walnuts for a little texture.  It does make two loaves which is nice, one for now and one for later.

Joy in cooking!

HDP