Mediterranean Salad

So, as I was searching for recipes to make with my zucchini, something struck my eye.... what about a mediterranean salad!?!?! It looked really good in the pictures, so I thought I would try it (well, a variation of it).

Ingredients:

• Zucchini
• Green Pepper
• Cucumber
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• ricotta cheese
• shredded mozzarella cheese
• basil
• salt and pepper
• minced garlic
• garlic salt

I mixed it all together and added more seasonings to taste. It turned out fabulous! Next time I will add tomatoes, carrots, and broccoli.

The original recipe called for feta cheese, but all I had was ricotta and I had some mozzarella from a previous recipe to use up. MMMMMMMM.

A WHOLE CHICKEN!

Yes, I bought a small, whole, chicken. I didn't know how to cook it, but I was going to try. I bought some of those wonderful oven bags, bought the chicken and went home.

I took some of my favorite spices and rubbed the outside of the chicken and then put some in the middle where it was carved out. My favorite spices: parsley flakes, basil, pepper, Uncle Tony's cajun seasoning, and minced garlic. I rubbed those spices evenly all over the outside of the chicken, put some spices in the middle, stuck it in the oven bag (following directions on the oven bag box, of course) and then stuck it in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. It turned out AMAZING! I have made it again since it was soooooo good. Here are a couple pictures of how it turned out.

Turkey Burger and Mushroom Pizza

Last night I made some homemade flat pizza. I bought a tube of Pillsbury pizza dough, some pizza sauce, mushrooms, and turkey burger.

I put the pizza dough on a cookie sheet and baked it for 8 mins because I like my pizza crispy. I also cooked the turkey burger and when the crust was done, I spread pizza sauce on it, then sprinkled with oregano. Added the turkey burger on top, along with some mushrooms. I topped it off with low-fat mozzarella cheese. Baked it for about 8 more minutes, and presto... homemade pizza! It was delicious!

Here is a picture:

Chicken with Asparagus and Roasted Red Peppers

The other night I made chicken with asparagus, it was great!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup chicken broth
1 pound boned and skinned chicken breast halves
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces
1 fresh red pepper, chopped
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies (hot)
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar, or to taste
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Heat the broth in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper, and place in the skillet. Cook 15 minutes, until chicken is almost done.
   
2. Place asparagus, red peppers and garlic in skillet. Continue cooking 10 minutes, or until chicken juices run clear and asparagus is tender. Place tomatoes in skillet during last 2 minutes of cook time. Sprinkle with vinegar. Top with mozzarella cheese to serve.

Here are a couple photos:

Merry Christmas!!!

On Christmas Eve, my mom, sister and I made Christmas cutout cookies and decorated them.  I don't have the recipe but I'm sure most people have made cutout cookies before.  :-)

So here is just a picture of some of the cookies we made and decorated.  (My mom made the ones with the white frosting, my sister and I wanted colored frosting and took more time on them.)

On another note, for a Christmas gift to my sister and mom, I found all of my grandma's recipes (or almost all of them) thanks to some assistance from my uncle and made a cookbook for them both.  I also added some pictures to make it a little more personal and fun.  Anyway, after 5oo+ pages, it was complete.  They both loved them and we all 3 cried.  It was a great gift for them both.  Here is a picture of the front cover.

Chicken Pot Pie

My friend Zac and I decided to get together and cook like we used to do before he got married to a wonderful woman and had a beautiful baby girl.  (Wife and baby were with her family early for Christmas... hi Erin and Addy!!)  Zac and I researched a few things and finally decided to make Chicken Pot Pie.  Looked fairly easy and very good!  Here is the recipe they had on allrecipes.com and then I will tell you the modifications we made.

Chicken Pot Pie

1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed

1 cup sliced carrots

1 cup frozen green peas

1/2 cup sliced celery

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup chopped onion

1/3 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon celery seed

1 3/4 cups chicken broth

2/3 cup milk

2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts

1. In a saucepan, combine chicken, carrots, peas, and celery.  Add water to cover and boil for 15 mins.  Remove from heat, drain and set aside.
   
2. In another saucepan, over med heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent.  Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed.  Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk.  Simmer over medium-low heat until thick.  Remove from heat and set aside.
   
3. Place chicken mixture in bottom pie crust.  Pour hot liquid mixture over.  Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough.  Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.
   
4. Bake in the preheated oven (425 deg F) for 30-35 mins, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly.  Cool for 10 mins before serving.
   

OK, as for our changes.  We didn't add onion or celery.  We added more peas and carrots and chicken instead.  We added more flour, chicken broth and milk so there would be more liquid.  We also used 2 regular 9 inch crusts and 2 deep dish.  We used the deep dish ones to actually hold the pie and used the regular ones for the top crust.  We also used chicken bouillon instead of chicken broth.  The last change was the temperature, we set it on 375 deg and baked it for about 40-45 mins instead.  (After reading some of the reviews, we didn't want it to burn.)

The pies turned out absolutely fabulous.  As Zac said, "That chicken pot pie was AWESOME!"  I will definitely make this one again, it wasn't difficult either.  I told Zac I would add broccoli next time though, but I like broccoli.

Here are some pictures from our cooking evening.

Zac shows me that the pies are ready to bake!

Here is one of the pies, ready to go in the oven:

YUM!!!  All ready to eat!  Doesn't that look delicious!

Mexican Casserole

Tonight I didn't want to go shopping and get ingredients to make brown sugar meatloaf, even though it is a favorite of mine, so instead, I decided I would make something with things I already had at home.  I must have been feeling very creative because what came out, sounded great together, so I figured... why not?

Anyway, so here is what I made:

Mexican Casserole

Ingredients

1 lb hamburger

1 can stewed tomatoes

4 stalks green onions

1 can corn

1 can cream of mushroom soup

Salt

Pepper

Oregano

Crushed Red Peppers

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Brown the hamburger and put in the bottom of a 9 x 12 baking dish.
3. On top of the hamburger, add the green onions.
4. Next layer is the stewed tomatoes.
5. On top of the tomatoes, add the can of corn.
6. The last layer is the cream of mushroom soup.
7. Then season with salt, pepper, oregano, and crushed red peppers to your taste.

I baked for about 30 minutes.  Long enough that it was heated through.

Anyway, here is a picture of what came out.  Next time, I may try putting tator tots on top.