Vegetarian Fare

B has decided to cut out the red meat and chicken for a bit so this has given me the perfect opportunity to experiment with some vegetables.  Plus people at work keep bringing tons of veggies in for me to have.

Jumbo green peppers were on sale at Harris Teeter last week so I decided to attempt some stuffed peppers.  I have only ever made stuffed peppers with ground beef in them so I decided to try something different.  I have been using Pinterest a lot lately and used it as an inspiration for my peppers.  I went for a Mexican theme and they ended up pretty good.

Mexican Style Stuffed Peppers
3 jumbo green peppers (or 4 regular)
1 cup instant brown rice
1 can tomatoes with green chillies
1 can black beans
1 envelope of taco seasoning
pepper jack cheese
salsa-optional

Preheat oven to 400.  Cook rice per directions.  Cut peppers in half and seed them and then microwave them for about 5 minutes.  Then in a sauce pan add rice, tomatoes, black beans and taco seasoning and cook until heated.  Put peppers cut side up in a baking pan and stuff each pepper with rice mixture.  Top each pepper with a slice of pepper jack cheese.  Then cover the whole pan with foil and cook for 15 minutes.  Take the foil off and cook for 5 more minutes.

These came out pretty good.  I would have liked my peppers to be a little softer (maybe microwave them more) but B really enjoyed them.  The next day I microwaved one of the leftover peppers with some salsa and extra cheese.  It was really good.

Yesterday Harris Teeter had lemon artichoke pesto on sale so I decided to make some pasta salad out of that.

Lemon Artichoke Pasta Salad with Veggies

1/2 box of shell pasta

1 medium zucchini

1 medium yellow squash

sun dried tomatoes

Parmesan cheese

lemon artichoke pesto

Cook pasta.  Slice and seed the zucchini and squash and then blanch them for a couple minutes.  Mix pasta, squashes, chopped sun dried tomatoes, some fresh Parmesan cheese and some of the pesto.  I also added in garlic salt, pepper and some red pepper flakes.  My vegetarian sister approved this recipe.

Do you use Pinterest?

What is your favorite vegetarian dish?

Potato-less Salad...

The other night I found myself with an abundance of cauliflower.  I was going to make this broccoli/cauliflower salad but the broccolli appeared to be pretty old so I tossed it.  So I was left with cauliflower.  I decided to 'google' it up and find something I could make with cauliflower and the stuff I already had in my house.  I really wanted to make this roasted cauliflower soup but I didn't have half of those ingredients.  Then I found this recipe.  To be honest with you, I thought it sounded kind of gross but it was pretty much the only thing I had most of the ingredients to make.  So I went for it.

It's basically a potato salad but instead of using potatoes, you use cauliflower.  I had to make a few changes and substitution (took out the hard-boiled eggs, cut the mayo down, etc) and I know many of you are going to think this is really gross but I actually ended up liking it.  I would definitely use it as a potato salad subsitution at a picnic or what not.

Cauliflower Salad (adapted from here )
1 head of cauliflower (rinsed and cut in to bite sized peices)
handful of frozen peas
1/2 red onion chopped
2 dill pickle spears chopped
1/2 cup of mayo
1/4 cup mustard (any kind but I used honey mustard because I like it a little sweet)
salt and pepper

1-Boil the cauliflower for 10 minutes until it's tender
2-Mix the mustard, mayo and salt and pepper together
3-Add everything else and mix

So, this wasn't bad for a kitchen experiement (again, I know some of you will think this sounds disgusting).  And I didn't have to waste my cauliflower. 

Have you ever made something weird just to use up ingredients you had in the pantry?

Impromptu Dinner Party

Me: What should we do tonight?
B: I dunno, what do you want to do?
Me: I dunno, what do you want to do?
B: I dunno.
Me: Well I don't know either.  Give me some ideas. 

Somehow this convo lead to me and B deciding to have people over for an impromptu dinner party.  Our two guests confirmed at 5 that they would be over at 7 so we headed off to the store to pick out food.   When I saw that salmon was on sale at the Harris Teeter, I went ahead a put B in charge of the main dish.  He made me this salmon on like our 4th date and it's his signature dish (really his only dish).  Then I decided I wanted to try this "healthy" mac and cheese recipe that I found online.  So we gathered up our ingredients and some dip for appetizers and of course some wine and headed home.

B's signature salmon dish is actually a Rachael Ray recipe (Oven Poached Salmon with Dill, Onion and Cucumber Relish).  From what I can tell, it's pretty easy and pretty much always ends up being good.  Here is the recipe.  Since I've never made it myself I am assuming he just follows the recipe.  The cucumber, onion, radish relish actually makes the recipe in my opinion.  Everyone liked it last night.

The mac and cheese recipe I found was from Ellie Krieger.  The thing that makes it healthy is the addition of winter squash in to the cheese mixture.

Macaroni and 4 Cheeses (adapted from Ellie Krieger's recipe,  I made a couple of small changes)

Cooking spray
1 pound elbow macaroni
2 (10-ounce) packages frozen pureed winter squash
2 cups skim milk
4 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated (about 1 1/3 cups)
2 ounces Monterrey jack cheese, grated (about 2/3 cup)
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon powdered mustard
pepper
2 tablespoons unseasoned bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon olive oil
another 1/2 cup of Cheddar or Monterrey jack cheese

-cook the pasta
-cook the milk and frozen squash in a separate pan
-mix all that together with the cheese, salt, pepper, and mustard
-grease the 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray and then pour the pasta mixture into dish
-top with a mixture of the Parmesan, bread crumbs and olive oil
-cook for 20 minutes
-add the rest of the cheese to the top and cook for about 5 more minutes on a higher heat to brown the top

I just added more cheese at the end because I thought it tasted a little too squashy.  It was pretty good.  I think everyone liked it and it has to be a little healthier than the traditional kind of macaroni and cheese.  I thought it could use a little more flavor but I'm not sure what I would put in it.  B said he liked it how it was.

So that was my impromptu dinner party.
Did you do anything fun this weekend?
Is it wrong to sneak vegetables into a classic like Mac and Cheese?

PS-Happy 10/10/10 everyone!

Wedding Week-Shrimp N Grits

Maybe you already know this from reading this blog, but I'm kind of in to food.  So for my wedding, food was on the top of my list for things that had to be awesome.  My brother had been to a bunch of weddings and he claimed that the best thing he'd had at any wedding were shrimp and grits.  Also, I like shrimp and grits.  So we decided to have a shrimp and grits station at our wedding (with martini glasses).  It was neat and people seemed to enjoy it.  We also had meat, potatoes, salad, chicken cordon blue bites, etc.  The food was pretty awesome.  I was very happy.

After our wedding I found this awesome shrimp and grits casserole recipe.  It is really good.  It's really just grits with a bunch of cheddar cheese and pepper jack cheese, some onions, peppers, rotel and shrimp.  Spicy and Tasty. I pretty much follow those instructions.  Sometimes I add in a little bacon and I usually use regular onion instead of green onions.

The wedding coordinator at the place I had my reception was all like, "you will not eat at your own wedding."   And I was like "uh, yeah I will."  And I did.  I also had someone save me a plate of appetizers from cocktail hour (that I missed because of photos).  I definitely recommend doing that.  Also if you make your bridal party take tons of pictures right after the ceremony, it's nice to have someone bring them drinks and food if possible.  I couldn't do this because I was at a Church but yeah, do it.  They will like you more.

So do people really hate grits?  I mean I get it if you are not super interested in plain grits.

But add a cup of cheese and they are delish.....

So in conclusion.....I really like food, I did eat at my wedding and grits taste great with tons of cheese.

Feelings on grits?
If you are married, did you eat at your wedding?
What is the best food you have ever had at a wedding?

MuckLuck-Another Dish Made with Vegetables (and some Meat too)

Apparently it's Vegetable Week here at Making Stuff is Fun.....  While perusing an issue of Southern Living (thanks mom) I found this recipe for Maque Choux.  According to wikipedia that is pronounced Mock Shoe or MuckLuck as B calls it.  Either way.  I thought it would be great to make since Farmer Gene gave me a bunch of okra and I have never really cooked fresh okra before.

I made a few changes to the recipe so here is my version.

Maque Choux with Shrimp (aka Muckluck)
2 links of Spicy Andouille Sausage (about 1/3 lb)-diced
1/2 medium sized onion-chopped

2 cloves garlic-minced
a little green bell pepper (it was all I had)-chopped
1 cup fresh tomatoes-seeded and diced
1 cup cut fresh okra-sliced in to small pieces
2 cups frozen corn
1/2 pound shrimp peeled and deveined (I always buy easy peel)
cumin
chili powder
lime juice
salt and pepper

1-Brown the sausage a little and then add the onion, garlic and pepper and saute until the veggies are tender
2-Add in the rest of the vegetables and cook until everything is hot (I think okra might take the longest) about 10-15 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.
3-While the veggies are cooking put cumin, chili powder and lime juice on shrimp and saute in a pan until they are cooked
4-Top the vegetable mixture with a few shrimp and enjoy!

I thought this was a really good dish especially with fresh vegetables in the summer.  Next time I'll make it with fresh corn too!  OK I think I'm veged out for a bit. 

Happy Thursday!  It's almost the weekend.  We can do this.

Amish Friendship Bread-Look Shanzie, I did it.

So this girl I know, we will call her Shanzie, is always making this stuff called Amish Friendship Bread.  It is supposed to be a secret bread started by the Amish.  You get a starter bag of liquid mix from someone (probably Shanzie) and then you have to do all these steps for the next ten days and then finally you bake it on the tenth day.  It seems super hard.  But Shanzie is always offering me one of her starter bags.  Last time I accepted one I totally failed at actually making it.  So did Beezus5.  Apparently the guilt from not making it was too hard on Beezus5 and she's decided to never accept  a starter bag again.  I have decided to go for it since Shanzie offered me some more this week.  Although I did make her hold it and do all the steps up until 2 days before I was supposed to bake it.  I forget stuff.  So she did the first few steps for me.

I can't really give you the recipe as I do not know what was in the starter bag since it's an ancient Amish secret.  But I did have to add a bunch of sugar, flour, pudding, cinnamon, and milk to it.  And it's pretty good.  Although I'm pretty sure it's actually cake as opposed to bread.  I added some chocolate chips to a few of them.  Each time you bake a starter bag it creates four new starter bags.

I wish I could send my starter bags through the Internet to everyone who reads this blog but I think that might get messy.   I will have to force them on my mom and maybe try to make Beezus5 give it another shot.  Also please note that if you are giving this bread to someone that you have recently started dating, you are allowed to call it Amish more-than-friendship bread.  (I mean if you want to)

So has anyone ever heard of Amish Friendship bread?

Have you ever made it?

Would you consider something with 3 cups of sugar in it a bread or a cake?

Shanzie are you proud of me?

PS-Breaking news...you can actually look up how to make a starter bag on the Internet.  Don't tell anyone I told you that though. 

Ice Cream Cake....Yes, you too can make your very own ice cream cake from the comfort of your own home.

One time I made up this easy ice cream cake.  People were impressed.  And by people, I mean my parents.  So I decided that this would be my contribution to the 4th of July cookout.  And I know you love my photo enhanced recipes, so here you go......

Ice Cream Cake Ingredients-

bowl

foil

a pound cake

a bunch of ice cream

chocolate syrup

Cool Whip

Step 1-Line a bowl (of whatever size you want your cake to be) with foil or wax paper.  Something.  If not you will not be able to get your cake out of the bowl and it will be stuck in there forever and you won't be able to eat it.  Do you want to deal with that kind of sadness?

Step 2-Take a pre-made pound cake from the bakery or frozen section of the grocery store (you can make your own if you really want to) and cut it into thinnish slices. Layer this on the bottom and sides of your foil lined bowl. Mash it down.  (How much pound cake do you need?  Enough to cover the bottom of the bowl and then enough to layer it on the top after the ice cream is inside.)

Step 3-Swirl some chocolate syrup on your pound cake then scoop in your ice cream.  I like to use 3 different flavors but you can do whatever you like.  This time I used Strawberry Cheesecake, Carmel Praline, and Mint Chocolate Chip.  I added layers of chocolate syrup swirls between the different ice creams.

Step 4-Cover the Ice cream with the remaining pound cake slices.

Step 5-Freeze this.  I did mine overnight this time which is probably a good idea.  Then flip the bowl over and remove the cake.  You should have a dome like thing as pictured below.

Step 6-Add on the whip cream icing.  I usually just use some Cool Whip.  Then you can make a lovely pattern with chocolate syrup or candy or fruit or whatever you have for decor.

And there you have it, your very own homemade ice cream cake.  Looks good with the flag.

People enjoyed this.  They enjoyed it a lot.  They ate multiple pieces and then went jogging the next day to make up for it while the other people just ate more for breakfast and did not attempt to jog.   

****And for a lower calorie/fat version of this cake you can use Angel Food cake (which I have done before) and fro yo and fat free Cool Whip.  I still think it would be good.*****

Who doesn't love a nice ice cream cake?

What's your favorite Ice Cream flavor?

Pizza!

Today I would like to discuss a controversial subject.....Pizza Toppings.  Now I know that some people will strongly disagree with this but I'm just going to say it.  I love Pineapple on my pizza.  I know many people hate this...Beezus5, everyone in my family, most other people I know.  But I love it.  I also like pineapple and pepperoni together on one pizza.  I also like pineapple, prosciutto, and blue cheese on a pizza.  My husband is ok with it.  Usually he doesn't care about the pineapple as long as there is some sort of meat on it.  I think he's growing to like it more and more.

I will eat a pineapple-less pizza though.  I also like just pepperoni.  Then there is sausage, pepper, and onions or the Elizabeth's Pizza Special aka pepperoni, sausage, green pepper, mushroom, and cheese.  I have enjoyed a nice BBQ chicken pizza in my time as well and I also like a nice Pizza Margherita. One time I had a pizza with potatoes on it.  It was pretty good.  Essentially the only thing I don't like on pizza is my least favorite food ever...the olive, and then probably also anchovies.  One time I met this girl in college who would only eat mushroom pizza.  She refused to eat a plain cheese pizza or anything with more than mushrooms.  She was weird.

So here are my pizzas I made the other night.

Pizza....
Fresh (whole wheat) Pizza dough from the pizza place in the grocery store
Pizza Sauce (I got canned)
Pepperoni
Canned Pineapple
Mozzarella Cheese

I split the dough in to three pieces to make 3 smaller pizzas.  I put a little flour on it so it's easier to work with and doesn't stick to everything.  I spread out the dough and baked it a few minutes until it was brown before adding the toppings.  Usually I do a layer of cheese, then a layer of toppings then another layer of cheese.  Sometimes I don't.  Then I baked them until the cheese melted.  Pretty good stuff.

Who likes pineapple on their pizza?

What's your favorite topping or combo?

What's the weirdest pizza you've ever had?

Do you ever make your own pizza at home?

Taco + Nacho + Burrito in Casserole Form = The Tachoritorole

I wanted to make some sort of Mexican or Taco casserole but I could not find an exact recipe that I liked, so I decided to wing it.  I ended up using components of Tacos (ground beef, taco seasoning), Nachos (tortilla chips and melted cheese) and Burritos (rice and beans) to make the Tachoritorole (patent pending). Pronunciation Key={Ta(co)+(N)acho+(Bur)rito+(Casse)role}

Tachoritorole

-1 quarter of an onion, diced

-1 pound ground beef

-1 envelope taco seasoning

-taco sauce or salsa
-2 cups instant rice
-1 can black beans
-1 can rotelle (tomatoes with green chilies or just diced tomatoes if you want)
-approx 3 cups shredded cheddar, Mexican blend or pepper jack cheese or a combo
-crumbled tortilla chips
-sour cream
-jalapenos

Ok you might want to read through this all first and make adjustments as I really did make this up as I was going.  We ate this for two dinners but I'd say it makes a good 8 servings.

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
-Saute the onion in a little olive oil or butter or whatever you have.  Add raw ground beef to this and then add taco seasoning and water according to instructions.  Add some salsa or taco sauce to this to make it saucy but not too saucy.
-Meanwhile, cook the instant rice.  Once rice is cooked, heat up the rice, black beans, and rotelle or tomatoes in a sauce pan.  Add a little salsa or taco sauce to this.
-Now layer the ingredients.  I put some of the rice mixture down on the bottom of the pans (I used two smaller square casserole dishes but this could be made in one big one).  I then sprinkled that with cheese then I added a layer of the beef mixture.  I repeated all this.  At the top I crushed some tortilla chips and then topped them with more cheese.
-I baked this for about 10 minutes or until all the top cheese was melted.
-I served this with sour cream, more taco sauce, and jalapenos.  You can even add the dreaded black olive if you have to.  I'm against that though.

My husband ate like 20 servings of this.  I think it would also be good with shredded chicken instead of ground beef.  If you make two casseroles and plan to save one for the next day, put the tortilla chips and cheese on right before you bake it. 

Which is your favorite; tacos, nachos or burritos?
Do you like Mexican food?
Have you ever make your favorite foods into casserole form?
Are my made up words dumb?

Don't forget to enter my blog-ive-away.  You've got until Thursday!

Eazy Peazy BBQ Chicken

As you may know, sometimes I buy a lot of chicken.  Then I freeze it.  Then I don't know what to do with it.  Then I get confused on how to thaw it.  Then I don't like the texture of it once I thaw it.  So I found this awesome slow cooker BBQ chicken recipe where you put frozen chicken directly into the slow cooker.  That is my kind of recipe.  It also cuts back on the amount of time I actually have to spend touching raw chicken.  The recipe is found here from Allrecipes.com.  I followed it pretty close (except for actually measuring the ingredients, I like estimating) and used Stubb's Spicy BBQ Sauce because it tastes good.  I also shred the chicken at some point during cooking when it just naturally sort of starts to fall apart.

And if you really want to, you can turn this in to a much healthier version of the traditional BBQ sandwich like I did here.  I'm pretty sure chicken breast bbq is healthier than pork bbq and then I made slaw using the pre packaged shredded cabbage and reduced fat mayo (I also actually cut the amount of mayo down).  I added a little extra vinegar for tang.  And then I used an Arnold's Sandwich Thins Bun which only has 100 calories.  Voila.  Healthier BBQ Sandwich.  And the leftovers of this would be great for these quesadillas.

Do you like Pork BBQ and/or BBQ chicken or is that just a North Carolina thang?

Do you have any recipes that you "lighten" up for healthiness?

Garlic Shrimp, Tomatoes, and Feta with Couscous

We have decided that we really like garlic over here.  Right?  So I went ahead and semi-made up this garlic shrimp recipe the other night.  It is similar to something that my mom may have made me before.  I think.  Sorry if I stole it.  I used a garlic theme for this one though.  And its not too bad for you or too hard to make.  This made about 2.5 servings, maybe more if you eat less!

Ingredients

3/4 pound of raw, peeled shrimp

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 teaspoon minced garlic (I use the refrigerated canned kind)

1 can of petite diced tomatoes

garlic salt

container of feta cheese (I used a reduced fat tomato and basil flavored one)

lemon

prepared couscous to serve with shrimp

-Preheat oven to 400. 

-Add olive oil and garlic to a pan on the stove and cook for a couple minutes before adding shrimp

-Cook the shrimp until they are light pink, not quite done

-Put the shrimp in a baking dish

-In the original pot, add the can of tomatoes and some garlic salt.  Cook until the tomato juice boils.

-Pour tomato mixture over shrimp and sprinkle with about 2/3 of the container of feta

-Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

-Serve over couscous and squeeze lemon on top before serving

Anybody got any other good shrimp and/or garlic recipes?

Last Chicken Post For Awhile aka How To Make Some Pretty Awesome Chicken Salad.........

I'm pretty sure that one of the reasons I am married today is because every now and then I take some time to rip apart a rotisserie chicken and make this delicious chicken salad for my husband. That sentence sounds kind of gross. I don't actually rip apart the chicken. I just tear pieces of the breast meat into small bits. I prefer to make this on New Years Day (my husband's Birthday) or on Sundays b/c Harris Teeter sells cooked rotisserie chickens for like $4 dollars (something like that) a piece. (This week I actually used regular chicken breasts and cooked them, ya know b/c of that HT chicken sale I keep talking about.)

Good Chicken Salad (adapted from a recipe that my mom got from somewhere)

-1 Rotisserie chicken (or a couple cooked chicken breasts)
-chopped celery (include some leaves, they add flavor)
-toasted almond slithers (you can buy a bag of almonds and toast them in a little butter or oil over the stove, get extra, I always, always burn the first round)
-dried cranberries
-mayo
-honey
-salt and pepper

Now I don't ever measure this exactly. But the idea is to get a bunch of chicken in a bowl. Then add however much of celery, cranberries and almonds that you like and then coat that with a honey mayo mixture. I would say about 2 parts mayo to 1 part honey. I mix these two things together until I like how it tastes. Also I like sweet stuff. Some people don't like sweet stuff that is traditionally savory (again, Beezus5, I am looking at you). So mix the honey and mayo together until you like the taste and then mix it in to everything else. Alter the amount depending on how "dressingy" you want you chicken salad to be. Add some S&P for extra flavoring.

So anyway, if you've been dating your boyfriend for like 3 years and he enjoys sweet savory stuff, make him this chicken salad and you are on the road to a happy marriage. Seriously. Or if you are single and ready to mingle go ahead and get some Tupperware and head on out to the bar with this. Or if you not in the market for a husband or are already taken just go ahead and take this to your next work function and or Easter Lunch.

****Disclaimer******-this stuff doesn't work on people who don't like "sweet" chicken salad

Do you like chicken salad?

Do you like sweet chicken salad?
Do you have a recipe that made your boyfriend propose to you?

Office Thursday...My Baby Shower Continues with PB & J Cupcakes

PB and J for PB and J!!!!
Did you watch my suggested video yesterday? If not, this post may not make sense. Oh well. Continuing with my baby shower for JAM (that's Jim and Pam of The Office, guys), I decided that the next step would be Refreshments! What would JAM like served at their baby shower? Then all the sudden it hit me. Cupcakes with Jam in them. Then it hit me even harder... Peanut Butter and Jelly cupcakes. PB and J. Pam Beesly and Jim. It's not a waste after all, Kevin.*

So, yes, to some people, PB and J cupcakes might sound gross. But actually they are slightly amazing. I found this recipe on the line and decided to go for it. I used my amazing tool from the other day to insert raspberry seedless jam in after the cakes had cooled. And then I made this peanut butter frosting. Good stuff. I just substituted creamy peanut butter for the crunchy.

OK, now on to the final part of my JAM baby shower....Games. Well technically just one game. And since it will just be my husband and me, we will NOT be decorating onesies or tasting baby food. Instead it will be an intense, high stakes game...winner take all. There is only one question.....

What is the sex of the JAM baby? And since B thinks I have secret Internet knowledge (which I do not) of gender I let him choose first and.....

B is saying GIRL.
And therefore I will be taking BOY.

If B is the Winner then I will make him a t-shirt of his choosing. If I'm the winner then B will buy me a "going out" shirt of his/my joint choosing (as he says I need something more exciting to wear out). B, if you agree to this please sign and date the form I left on your bedside table (I'm not letting this end like our 24 Tony Almeida dead or alive bet circa 2006).

Do my cupcakes look good?
Are you excited about the JAM baby?
Boy or Girl?

Do you think they will name it after me since I'm hosting their shower?

What is one of your favorite JAM moments**?

*Kevin's PB&J quote from the episode Fun Run when he is trying to determine if Jim and Pam are a couple. "Oh well, if they aren't together now, then they probably never will be. I thought they'd be good together, like PB&J. Pam Beasley and Jim. What a waste. What - A - Waste!"

**My fave is from The Job when it flashes back to Jim and Pam on the beach....and they said....
Jim: The real reason that I went to Stamford... was because... I wanted to be... not here.
Pam: I know.
Jim: And even though... I came back, I just, I feel like I've never really... come back.
Pam: Well, I wish you would.

Congrats JAM!***

***I know they aren't real people and that I'm still a big dork.