February Menu

As I mentioned in a previous post, I prefer to do one big grocery shopping trip a month and small trips each week. I also hit up Sam's once a month to replenish the items I like to purchase there such as bread, meat, veggies, and fresh fruit. During my big grocery shopping trip, I buy all the ingredients I need for all the dinners I plan to cook during that month. How big the list is, depends on what's in the pantry, fridge, and freezer. I like to buy in bulk. Things I always like to have in my freezer are: individual boneless chicken breasts (Sam's), cooked cubed and shredded chicken (Bilo when they have $.99 split chicken breasts) cooked ground turkey (Sam's and Walmart), Salmon (Walmart), Tilapia (Walmart), Shrimp (Harris Teeter's, my grandma gets this for me when it goes on sale in Nashville), pork tenderloin (Sam's), and frozen vegetables (Sam's-mainly broccoli and green beans, but others as well). These are the things I buy in my big shopping trip to Walmart and Sam's. I also buy the things needed to fix each meal and sides to go with them: rice, potatoes, pasta, etc. Sometimes, I stock up on these items on my weekly trips to grocery stores such as Bilo and Publix. So, sometimes I don't need much of these items. I always stock up on cereals, snacks, etc. when they are on sale, so again, if it's in the pantry, I don't have to buy it during this big trip. I call it my big trip because I'm buying everything I need to cook dinner for a month. There is no way I could only go shopping once a month, we go through at least 4 gallons of milk a week, and we must replenish that or my 3 year old will have a breakdown in front of the fridge. All this to say, I like to plan. When I say plan, I don't mean plan a meal for each specific day, I make a menu. I put it on the fridge, and we choose what we want for dinner off of the menu. I know that I have enough stuff to fix what's on the menu, plus a lot more, because like I said, I like to plan. If I start to get low on ground turkey (which means I only have 2 bags of it left, I buy more. I don't like to not have something when I need it.) I am able to do this because we do monthly budgeting. A lot of people I know, do weekly budgeting. Being able to have all of these meats in my freezer, ready for me to prepare, helps me significantly. I don't have to worry about going to the store, or thinking what's for dinner. Well, I do have that thought each night, but at least I know I have food to cook, always. I am thankful for that! I'm going to start posting my monthly menu for our family. I will put the number of meals for that month, but that doesn't mean we will cook them all. We may go out to eat, I hope we go out to eat. I love to eat out! Which is probably why I'm always trying to duplicate something I had at a restaurant. Any who, here is what I plan on cooking for the month of February. I will link to the recipe I'm cooking if it is already on my blog, and if it isn't, I'll post it once I prepare it. Hope this helps you and didn't confuse you. I'm really good at confusing people! There are 28 days in February, so here are my 28 dinner options on our family menu below.

February Menu

*Disclaimer- If I choose to add a recipe that isn't on here this month, I have the right to do so!

Sweet and Sour Chicken, Steamed Broccoli, and Easy Fried Rice

Homemade Chicken Strips, Mac and Cheese, and Green Beans

Pecan Crusted Tilapia in Rum Butter Sauce, Mashed Potatoes, and Veggies

Baked Spaghetti and Garlic Bread

Homemade Pizza

Tender Grilled Salmon, Pasta/Rice, and Veggies

Spicy Oven Fried Chicken, Potato Wedges, and Green Beans

Alice Springs Chicken, Potatoes, and Veggies

Marinated Flank Steak, Hot Crash Potatoes, and Broccoli

Chicken and Corn Chowder with Homemade Bread

Homemade Pizza

Crock pot tenderloin with potatoes and carrots

Shrimp and Grits

Jambalaya with chicken and sausage

Chicken Enchiladas with yellow rice

Meatloaf with roasted potatoes and green beans

Crab cakes with veggies and macaroni and cheese

Kung Pao Shrimp and Scallops with fried rice and steamed broccoli

Chili with homemade french bread

Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

PW's Ranch Style Chicken with Potatoes and Veggies

Tacos with Homemade Seasoning

Lasagna with homemade french bread and salad

Dirty Rice and Green Beans

Chicken Casserole with Stove top Topping

Fettuccine Alfredo with Grilled Chicken

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup with homemade bread

Hamburgers with potato wedges

Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls

I love sweets! I love them at any time of the day, especially at breakfast. When I first received The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook in December, I knew I wanted to try these cinnamon rolls first. I first made them for a play date brunch at my house I had for friends to celebrate Christmas.That's when I realized her original recipe makes 7 tins of cinnamon rolls! I have halved the recipe here, and put PW's original recipe amounts in parentheses and italics. I also made these for my family on Christmas morning and for my neighbors as Christmas gifts. If you think these look too involved, they are worth the trouble. And in actuality, they weren't that much trouble at all. It does get messy, but once you're eating these delicious rolls, you'll have forgotten all about the mess you had to clean up! At the end, I have added a tip about freezing these cinnamon rolls so you can enjoy them weeks after your initial hard work.

Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls

from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Ingredients:

Dough:

2 cups whole milk (4 cups)

1/2 cup vegetable oil (1 cup)

1/2 cup sugar (1 cup)

1 package active dry yeast (2 packages)

4 1/2 cups all purpose flour (9 cups)

1/2 heaping teaspoon baking powder (1 tsp)

1/2 scant teaspoon baking soda (1 tsp)

1/2 tablespoon salt (1 tsp)

Filling:

1 1/2 sticks melted butter, plus more as needed (2 cups)

2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon for sprinkling, plus more as needed (1/4 cup)

1 cup sugar, plus more as needed (2 cups)

Maple Icing:

2 cups powdered sugar (4 cups)

1/4 cup whole milk (1/2 cup)

3 tablespoons butter, melted (6 TBSP)

3 tablespoons strongly brewed coffee (1/4 cup)

dash of salt

1/2 tablespoon maple flavoring or maple extract (1 TBSP)

Directions:

Dough:

For the dough, heat the milk, vegetable oil, and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat; do not allow the mixture to boil. Set aside and cool to lukewarm.

Once lukewarm, sprinkle yeast on top and let it sit on the milk for 1 minute.

Add 4 (8 cups) cups of the flour. Stir until just combined, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and set aside in a relatively warm place for 1 hour.

Remove the towel and add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and the remaining 1/2 cup (1 cup) flour. Stir thoroughly to combine. Use the dough right away, or place in a mixing bowl and refrigerate for up to 3 days, punching down the dough if it rises to the top of the bowl.

Filling:

To assemble the rolls, remove dough from the bowl. (If you're making the full recipe, you will only pull out half of the dough and use half of the filling ingredients for each section of dough.) On a floured baking surface (I used my counter top), roll the dough into a large rectangle, about 30x10 inches.

To make the filling, pour melted butter over the surface of the dough. Use your fingers to spread the butter evenly.

Generously sprinkle the ground cinnamon and sugar over the butter.

Now, beginning at the end farthest from you, roll the rectangle tightly toward you. use both hands and work slowly, being careful to keep the roll tight. This is the tough part. Butter and sugar start oozing out of the sides, but keep rolling.

When you reach the end, pinch the seam together. When you're finished, you will have a long dough "log."

Transfer to a cutting board and with a sharp knife, make 1 1/2 inch slices. One log will produce 20 to 25 rolls.

Pour a couple of tablespoons of melted butter into the desired pie pans or baking dishes and swirl to coat.

Place the sliced rolls in the pans, being careful not to overcrowd. Halving the recipe will probably produce 4-5 pans of cinnamon rolls.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cover the pans with a kitchen towel and set aside to rise on the counter top for at least 20 minutes before baking. Remove the towel and bake for 13 to 17 minutes, until golden brown. Don't allow the rolls to become overly brown.

While the rolls are baking, make the maple icing.

Icing:

In a large bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, butter, coffee, and salt. Splash in the maple flavoring. Whisk until very smooth. Taste and add in more maple, sugar, butter, or other ingredients as needed until the icing reaches the desired consistency. The icing should be thick, but still pourable.

While the rolls are still warm, generously drizzle icing over the top. Be sure to get it all around the edges and over the top.

As they sit, the rolls with absorb some of the icing's moisture and flavor.

*Freezing Tip- I originally froze these rolls before baking. I have had a hard time getting them to rise as they did when I baked them fresh. I suggest baking the rolls, icing them, letting them cool, wrapping them tightly with foil, and then freezing. PW suggests that once ready to eat them, pull them out of the freezer and warm them in a preheated 250 degree oven for 15 minutes.

After scalding the milk, oil, and sugar, set aside until lukewarm.

sprinkle yeast on top and let sit 1 minute.

Add 4 cups of flour (8 cups for full recipe), cover with towel and let sit for 1 hour. After 1 hour, dough will have risen and look like this.


Punch it down, and add remaining flour, baking powder and soda, and salt. Stir thoroughly until combined.


turn dough out onto floured surface and pour melted butter on top. Spread it evenly with fingers.



sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top. Roll the dough towards you, and then cut into 1 1/2 rolls.

Place in baking dish or pie dish/pan. Below are my first attempt at the rolls, they didn't turn out looking so great, so I made a cinnamon roll casserole. It was delicious! Cover with a towel for 20 minutes to rise.



Baking.

Make icing. Whisk together all icing ingredients.

Pour on top of warm rolls. Serve warm.

This is a look at my second attempt at making the rolls. They still aren't perfect, but they at least look like rolls this time!

I forgot to take a picture of my finished product, here is Pioneer Woman's finished product. Yum!

Chicken Corn Chowder

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to a soup and salad lunch at some friends house. The host served corn chicken chowder. It was delicious. She told me she had found the recipe on The Food Network, under Paula Deen and had added chicken to it. Paula Deen calls it Chef Jack's Corn Chowder. I made some changes and below is what I came up with. If you wanted to make this a vegetarian dish, just omit the chicken. This soup is creamy and oh so perfect on these cold winter nights. Both my boys ate it, without the broth part of the soup. They make way too much of a mess with the liquid part of soup, so I just give them the meat of the soup. I made this last night and served it with bread.

Chicken Corn Chowder
adapted from Paula Deen's Chef Jack's Corn Chowder

Ingredients:
6 TBSP butter
1/2 onion, diced
1 small carrot, finely diced
1 small celery stalk, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cans corn (I used bi color white and yellow)
1 1/2-2 cups cooked chicken, cubed (I used 3 chicken breasts.)
3 cups chicken broth
1 can evaporated milk (12oz)
Pinch nutmeg
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic, and saute for 2 minutes. Add the flour and stir to make a roux. Cook until the roux is lightly browned; set aside to cool to room temperature. I poured the mixture into a glass bowl so it would cool faster. Then used the unwashed pot for the next step.

While roux is cooling, combine the corn, chicken, and chicken broth in saucepan, and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. Pour roux into the corn and chicken mixture(a little at a time), whisking briskly so it doesn't lump. Return the pot to the heat and bring to a boil. The mixture should become very thick.

Stir evaporated milk into the thick corn mixture. Add the nutmeg and salt and pepper, to taste. Return to boil and simmer for 5 more minutes. Serve with homemade french bread.

melt butter in pot.

Dice onion, celery, and carrot.

cook and cube chicken

Melt butter, and cook celery, carrot, garlic, and onion in butter for 2 minutes. Add 1/4 cup flour and simmer until roux is browned.

Simmer broth, chicken, and corn for 10 minutes, then add roux to this mixture, whisking briskly to prevent lumping. Add 1 can evaporated milk return to a boil and simmer 5 more minutes and serve with warm bread.

The day finally came: I got to meet The Pioneer Woman herself! (repost from my other blog)

YES! The Pioneer Woman! Who in the heck is the pioneer woman you might ask? She's an "accidental country girl" as it says on the cover of her new cookbook The Pioneer Woman Cooks. She's a fellow blogger, but she's quite a bit more famous than me and my little munchkins and food experiments I blog about. You can read her entire bio here. She's pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. She's just an everyday wife to her love Marlboro Man, mom to four punks who are home schooled, loves photography and loves to cook, it just so happens she lives in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma on a ranch. But most of all she is so very funny! I love to read her stuff, and I bet if you take a look at her site, you'll be addicted too.

It all started when I called my mom a couple of months ago and said, "Clear your calendar for December 8th, 7pm, we're going to meet The Pioneer Woman!" I proceeded to tell her she was on a cookbook tour and was coming to Davis Kidd in Nashville for a book signing. Mom went on to tell me she was already planning on buying me the cookbook for Christmas, so it sounded like a good idea. So we were set, I was coming in town in December to meet PW!

I called mom sometime in November to tell her I had found out that we would need line tickets to get to meet The Pioneer Woman so she would need to go and pick up tickets for us. She got our tickets sometime before Thanksgiving, and we were in group 2. We would find out this was phenomenal once we got to the book signing.

We started our night out by doing some Christmas shopping for me, new jeans from Gap. I must say, if you haven't been in to try on jeans at Gap lately, you should! I've been wearing Long and Leans from Gap since they started making them over 10 years ago, but this year is by far the best! I even got to go down a size! YAY! Anyway, back to our night. After buying jeans for myself, thanks mom, we went to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. YUMMO! Mom and I both got chicken dishes. We should have shared dinner, the portion size is ridiculous there, and got some cheesecake for dessert, but we opted for individual dishes and no cheesecake. Still very good. Then we headed over to Davis Kidd which was a MAD HOUSE! It was packed for the PW!

There were people everywhere!

Here comes the good news. We overheard someone say they were in group 18! Yes, I said group 18! Now for this to mean even more, there are 25 people in each group. So multiply that by 18, and yes you get a very large number. Mom and I were so pleased to be in group number 2! YAY mom! While waiting in line we took a few pictures. Met some fellow PW fans, took pictures for them, etc.

Yes, I am that excited!

Mom and me

And then the moment came, The Pioneer Woman entered the building! YAY! I was so excited!

She did a short Q & A (sorry for the bad quality pictures)

The first question was "Where's Marlboro man?" She told us someone had to take the punks home and do the homeschooling! She brought her sister, Betsy, and best friend Hyacinth with her. She also brought super cute PW book tour t-shirts for everyone who was at the signing! It honestly has become one of my favorite t-shirts.







Finally it was my turn! "I just love your blog, yadda, yadda, yadda."


"I read your love story to Marlboro Man in one day, yadda, yadda, yadda. My favorite recipe is your homemade chicken strips. They have changed my life! haha yadda, yadda, yadda."

Me and Ree- The Pioneer Woman


Oh yes, mom loves your blog too, yadda, yadda, yadda (like you haven't heard that before)


Oh wait, did we tell you that we love your blog? haha

Ree, me, and mom

We had a blast! And guess what, we were in our car and leaving Green Hills Mall by 7:38! Way to go mom on getting out line tickets early! Thanks Ree for sacrificing time from your family to come and meet your fans! I know how hard it is to leave my own family even for only a few hours. You rock! Does anyone else feel like Ree is your best friend? =)

Spicy-Sweet Glazed Salmon

I love salmon! When I was first married though, I had no idea how to cook it, unless it came in a can. I started looking for recipes and I found this one on All Recipes. I usually cut it in half it and it turns out perfectly. It is one of my favorite ways to prepare salmon. It is a must try! Below is the full recipe, but it works just fine halved. My kids don't go crazy over salmon fillets, but they will eat this. My toddler really enjoyed it when I dipped it in the marinade and then gave him his bites.

picture from this mommy cooks

Spicy-Sweet Glazed Salmon from All Recipes

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds fresh salmon fillet with skin removed (I used 1/2 pounds or 2 steaks.)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons chopped fresh cilantro ( I used parsley instead)
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
salt and ground black pepper to taste


DIRECTIONS:
Place salmon in a shallow, flat dish, and set aside.

Combine the vinegar, olive oil, soy sauce, water, lemon juice, red pepper flakes, onion powder, garlic powder, cilantro, and brown sugar in a bowl. (I used a whisk.) Blend until brown sugar dissolves.

Pour the marinade over the salmon to cover evenly. Cover the dish, and refrigerate at least 2 hours. (I marinated for almost 4 hours, turning once.)
Line a broiling pan with foil. Remove salmon from marinade, and place on prepared broiling pan.

Transfer remaining marinade to a saucepan.

Turn on broiler to low.

Broil salmon about 6 inches from the heat for 5 minutes; brush with remaining marinade. Broil an additional 5 to 10 minutes, brushing 2 or 3 more times with additional marinade. Salmon is done when fish is no longer bright red and can be flaked with a fork.

**I placed a piece of tin foil on my grill and put the salmon on that and cooked it on the grill. I flipped it at 5 minutes and brushed it with the marinade.**

Meanwhile, cook the remaining marinade over low heat until it thickens and reduces by one-third, 5 to 10 minutes. Use cooked marinade as a dipping sauce or drizzle over salmon just before serving. Adding the marinade on top makes this salmon even better!

Amber's Alternative Pizza

I don't know about you, but I love pizza. We had our favorite pizza place in Memphis, but when we moved two years ago, I still haven't found a comparable pizza joint. So in the quest to find my perfect pizza, I recently started making my own pizzas. And I have mastered my favorite type of pizza, the alternative or white pie pizza. It's basically a pizza with no sauce. Mine actually doesn't have a lot of anything besides cheese. But this mommy loves cheese! In addition to how I make this pizza, you can add fresh cut tomatoes on top, but I'm not a big fan of can't chunks of tomatoes, so we'll stick to just cheese, please.

Amber's Alternative Pizza

from this mommy's cooks

Ingredients:

1 pizza dough crust (go here for the recipe)

3 TBSP olive oil, plus more for drizzling on the pan.

2 TBSP minced garlic

1 TBSP dried Basil

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

2 cups or more mozzarella cheese, shredded

2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. Drizzle small amount olive oil onto desired pan, I use a regular cookie sheet. Using your hands stretch dough into desired shape on a pan. Drizzle the 3 TBSP oil on dough, spread across dough. I use my new silicone baster, I love it! Sprinkle garlic, and spread evenly. Sprinkle 1/2 TBSP basil on crust, with crushed red pepper. Cover dough with mozzarella and then feta cheese. Sprinkle remaining basil on top. At this point if you want to add tomatoes, you could. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes until light brown.

Southern Savers

Yesterday, my friend and I went to a couponing workshop held by Jenny from Southern Savers. I've been following Southern Savers for almost a year now, and I still learned a few things. Jenny really knows how to save a buck and she makes it easy for others to save too. All you have to do is go to her website. I don't think I'll ever get down to what she spends on groceries each week, but that's because I am picky about what I buy for us to eat. I don't buy just whatever is on sale (including a lot of unhealthy options) and I don't plan my meals around the weekly sales. I usually make one big trip a month to Walmart and Sam's to buy meat and other things I don't see on sale at the grocery stores or have a coupon for. And then each week, I supplement my pantry with items from Publix and Bilo depending on their weekly ads. I also usually hit Walmart weekly to replenish milk and produce. I have one very close to my house, so that's why I choose Walmart. After the workshop yesterday, I have decided to try and save the most money I can in February and keep really good track of it. I've been saving over the last year, but I haven't really kept track of each penny spent on what, so I'm going to try that out next month. So I'll let you know how it goes! Southern Savers definitely saves me money each time I go shopping! If you haven't checked out her site, you should.

Grandma's Pumpkin Bread

I love my grandma's pumpkin bread. When I was in college, it seemed like she would always send me back with a loaf of pumpkin bread, among other things. There are quite a few spices involved, but all are easy to find and you will be happy you did when your enjoying this bread. Another great thing about this bread, is that it freezes well. Just wrap it tightly and store it in your freezer up to 6 months. When your ready to eat it, thaw it and enjoy!

Ingredients:
3 cups sugar
1 cup oil
4 eggs (beaten)
1 can pumpkin
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2/3 cup water

Directions:
Combine oil, sugar, and eggs. Add pumpkin and mix well. Sift together dry ingredients and add to pumpkin mixture. Add water, mix well and pour into 2 greased and floured loaf pans. (Can also use mini loaf pans) Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes for large loafs. Bake mini loaves 30-45 minutes. When toothpick comes out clean when inserted, bread is done.

Mini Berry Cobblers

Tonight I made these mini berry cobblers to celebrate my youngest's half birthday. These were easy to make, with very few ingredients and a hit at my house. As I mention below, these stick terribly to your pans, so I would advice using Crisco to grease your muffin tins prior to adding the batter. You'll be happier with your finished product if you do. My cobblers stuck to the pan and had to be pried out with a spoon. They tasted wonderful, but didn't look very pretty. Check out Pioneer Woman's link below to see how hers turned out.

Mini Berry Cobblers

from Pioneer Woman Cooks

Ingredients:

1 cup self rising flour (if you don't have self rising, add 1 and 1/4 tsp baking powder to all purpose)

1 cup sugar

1 cup milk

1 stick butter, melted

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup frozen or fresh berries

extra sugar for sprinkling, optional


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour with sugar (and baking powder if using it), then whisk in milk. Whisk in melted butter and vanilla. Pour 1/4 cup batter into greased muffin tins. These stick to the pan very badly! I used cooking spray and mine had to be scraped out of the pan. Next time I will use Crisco to grease each cup. Sprinkle a few berries on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown and crisp around the edges. Invert onto a cooling rack and serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Makes 12 mini cobblers.

Self Rising Flour Substitute

I don't know about you, but I don't have room for a bunch of different types of flour at my house. I usually buy all purpose flour and assume I can use it for everything. Well today, I made something that said to definitely use self rising flour. Since I didn't have any, I googled what a substitution would be. For every one cup of self rising flour needed, add 1 and 1/4 teaspoon baking powder to 1 cup all purpose flour.

1 cup self rising flour= 1 cup all purpose flour + 1 and 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Meal Preparation Tip

It's 5 o'clock. You're making spaghetti or chili, or something else that requires browning meat. Want to take 20 minutes off of your cooking time? Brown your meat ahead of time and freeze it. I got this wonderful tip at one of my MOPS meetings, and let me tell you, it has significantly helped on those nights when I don't want to cook or need to cook quickly. Here's the game plan: When you get home from shopping with all of your raw meat, instead of throwing the ground hamburger or turkey in the freezer, throw it in a big pot and brown it all at once. I put a lid on my pot to speed up the cooking time. Drain off the excess fat, let cool slightly, and divide into Ziploc freezer bags. Label each bag with the date and pop in the freezer. Next time you want to make anything with ground beef or turkey, don't fret! Just pull the cooked meat out of the freezer and thaw. You can thaw it in the microwave if your in a time crunch, in a bowl of water, or in the fridge if actually remember to pull it out in the morning. Today, I also prepared meatloaf to freeze. I added all the ingredients to the meat, mixed, and wrapped in plastic wrap and foil. When I'm ready to cook it, all I have to do is pull it out and pop it in the over. Easy!

Red Lobster's Garlic Cheddar Biscuit Recipe

Have you ever had the garlic cheddar biscuits at Red Lobster? If you haven't you're missing out, they are absolutely delicious and totally worth every calorie! I make these often, and my family goes nuts over them! This recipe makes a lot, so I usually half it. These biscuits also freeze well. I just put them in a Ziploc freezer bag and pull out a couple at a time, defrost in the microwave and they are ready to eat!

Red Lobster's Garlic Cheddar Biscuits

original recipe found here

Ingredients:

Biscuit:
2 1/2 cups Bisquick (I use the heart healthy kind because it is healthier)
3/4 cup whole milk
4 TBSP butter
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 heaping cup cheddar cheese

Topping:
2 TBSP butter, melted
1/4 tsp dried parsley flakes
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Pinch of salt

Directions:
Combine Bisquick and cold butter with pastry cutter or two knives. There should be small chunks of butter in the mix. Add remaining ingredients and mix until just combined, be sure not to over mix. Drop spoonfuls onto cookie sheet (a silpat is great for this!) and bake at 450 for 15-17 minutes until slightly browned and cooked through. My oven usually cooks these in about 10 minutes, so make sure to check yours throughout cooking. While these are baking, mix the ingredients for the topping together, and then brush on the tops of cooked biscuits. Delicious!

Spinach-Apple Salad with Maple Vinaigrette Dressing

I first had this salad at a gathering for dinner at a friends house. It was delicious! Since I don't make very many salads, mainly because I only know how to make a regular salad with lettuce and vegetables, I asked for the ingredients and stuffed it in my recipe book. Fast forward six months to last night. We had dinner at a friends house and we brought a salad. I decided to try my hand at the salad from the summer. It was an absolute hit! My ingredient portions make a very large salad, so if you're just making it for your small family, you may want to half it. I also forgot to take a picture last night, and the left overs don't look very pretty, so no picture this time around! We had this with lasagna and bread last night, and went perfectly! By the way, my kids, like most, don't like salads. The good thing about this one, is my kids like most of the ingredients. They don't eat the spinach, but were able to eat the apples, craisins, and walnuts.

Spinach-Apple Salad with Maple Vinaigrette Dressing

from my friend Mandy

Ingredients:

Salad:

Fresh Spinach (approx 5 cups)

1/2-1 cup craisins

1 cup toasted walnuts

5 oz feta cheese, crumbled

2 Granny Smith apples, chopped in bite size pieces

2 TBSP lemon juice

Wash spinach thoroughly, and pat dry. I do this even if the bag says washed and ready to eat. Place in a bowl. Chop apples into bite size pieces, toss in 2 TBSP lemon juice and add to spinach. (This prevents the apples from turning brown.) Dump feta cheese, walnuts, and craisins into the salad bowl and toss. Once ready to serve, pour prepared dressing over salad and toss one more time.

Dressing:

2 TBSP Maple Syrup

2 tsp red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp Dijon Mustard

2 TBSP Olive Oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper (If you don't like a lot of pepper, half this to 1/4 tsp)

Combine dressing ingredients in a bowl with a lid. Shake ingredients until emulsified. Pour over salad just before serving and toss salad in dressing.

Sticky Coconut Chicken

Tonight I made this chicken for dinner. I thought it turned out really well. Below is what I did when I cooked it due to preference and ingredients on hand. You can click on the link below to get the original recipe. I served it with seasoned red potato wedges (recipe to come soon) and green beans. Both boys enjoyed it. Its new name at our house is coconutty chicken. I will warn you, it does have a little bit of a kick. So, if you're family doesn't like a lot of spice, you may want to half the red pepper flakes. But I think it is a perfect blend of sweet and spicy.

Sticky Coconut Chicken
adapted from My Kitchen Cafe

Ingredients:

4 boneless chicken breasts
1 cup canned coconut milk
1/2 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1 tsp. red pepper flakes

Marinate chicken in coconut milk, ginger, pepper and red pepper flakes at least one hour (It is better to let it marinate for about four to five hours). Grill on barbecue.

Glaze:
3/4 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. red pepper flakes

While the chicken is grilling, bring above ingredients to a boil over medium-high heat and cook until mixture is reduced and thickened, about 8-10 minutes. Be patient because it takes a little while. But once it starts getting really thick, immediately take it off the heat! Glaze both sides of chicken the last few minutes of grilling.

Earth Fare Pantry Makeover

Do you have an Earth Fare health food store where you live? They recently opened one here in Chattanooga, TN. I'm all for healthy and organic food, but sometimes I find it too pricey for my budget, so I don't visit supermarkets like this one often. But I was convinced to give it a try after talking with one of my friends. They have a program on their site for a FREE Pantry Makeover! Now this doesn't mean you can trade in everything in your pantry, but you can bring in five designated items (whether they are almost empty or full) and trade them in for the same five items, only the Earth Fare healthy version. I'm not one to pass on anything that is free, so I last week, I tried it out. Let me first start off by saying that Earth Fare is beautiful inside; very clean, colorful, and the employees seemed knowledgeable and happy to be there. I brought my printed voucher (see below) and a box of Froot Loops (about a handful was left in the bag), an almost empty container of Peter Pan peanut butter, half of a 2 liter of flat coke, salad dressing I didn't like anyway, and a half used jar of jelly. I left with a bottle of vitamin water, a full size jar of organic blueberry jelly, a box of organic granola cereal, a full size jar of organic peanut butter, a bottle of organic salad dressing, and a jar of brown rice syrup (this wasn't included in the pantry makeover, but I have been looking for it for a recipe and Walmart doesn't carry it, so I was thankful they had it!) all for under $6 (since I had to pay for the brown rice syrup)! I think that is a pretty good deal! Earth Fare also has a weekly, or biweekly "boot challenge" where you take a survey of which item, based on the ingredients, you would "boot" from your pantry and then they give you a voucher to print out to bring in your old item, and get a new one. All you have to do is go to the Earth Fare website, and create an account, and they will give you access to the pantry makeover form and everything else. I also noted that when their items are on sale, the prices aren't outrageously priced. So, this mommy may just make another trip there in the future. Especially if they keep sending me coupons for free stuff!

Easy Granola Bars

I recently posted a recipe for granola that my family loves. I decided to try and make that recipe into bars so my children could more easily eat it. Below is what I came up with. The secret ingredient? Brown rice syrup!

Easy Granola Bars

Ingredients:

4 cups oats

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1/4 cup oil

1 tsp vanilla

4 TBSP chocolate chips, divided

3 TBSP brown rice syrup *I may use 4 TBSP next time so they hold their shape even better.

honey

craisins

any other ingredient you like in granola bars

Directions:

Mix oats, salt, and chopped pecans in a bowl. In a measuring cup, mix syrup, oil, and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well. Add 3 TBSP brown rice syrup to bowl and mix well. Add 2 TBSP chocolate chips (I use mini semisweet chips) or more to granola and stir. Spread mixture evenly on a cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake in 350 preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until browned and crispy. When granola is cooked, remove from oven, sprinkle remaining chocolate chips and craisins on top. Drizzle honey on top and immediately cut into bars. Place entire cookie sheet into fridge for 15 minutes. Once cooled, remove from cookie sheet and place in an air tight container.

Chop pecans

mix dry ingredients in bowl


mix liquid ingredients in measuring cup and add to dry ingredients.

Add brown rice syrup to the mix and stir well.

Add chocolate chips and mix well.

Spread evenly on cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Once granola is cooked, sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips and craisins, drizzle with honey and cut into bars. Place cookie sheet in fridge for 15 minutes and then remove bars and place in air tight container.