Banana Cream Pudding a la Sam

Sam is a wonderful husband and made this dessert while I was at work since we were going to a potluck party right when I got off work. He found just the perfect ratios of everything and it was all gone by the next night.

Banana Cream Pudding (Just like Golden Corral's)
2 (3.4 oz) vanilla pudding packs
1 (3.5 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
3-4 bananas
2 small containers Cool Whip
1 box Nilla Wafers
1 3/4-2 cups of milk

Combine pudding, cold milk and sweetened condensed milk. Let set in fridge for 5-10 minutes. Fold in one container of Cool Whip into pudding. Layer pudding mixture, Nillas and bananas in three layers. Top with second container of Cool Whip. Chill in fridge until chilled throughout.

Super simple and absolutely delicious!

Strawberry, Blueberry or Maple Brown Sugar?

Any idea what these flavors are referencing? . . . . That's right, Pop Tarts!!! I don't even remember how I came across this recipe but all I know is I love Pop Tarts and I wanted to make this homemade recipe so I couldn't justify buying them at the store. I didn't roll out the dough thin enough for my liking but this was because my blood sugar was so low at this point that I was shaking. Different story for a different time, or blog. Haha. Next, strawberry Pop Tarts are hands down the best ones so naturally I had to make that kind. While adding the homemade strawberry jam to the centers of my homemade Pop Tarts I decided to change things up. I made one pomegranate Pop Tart and two apricot Pop Tarts. I'm proud to say each of the jams or jellies I used were homemade and so tasty. :) I'm going to add extra jam next time to have more flavor. I made WAY too much icing. you need like a teaspoon of milk or less and just add powdered sugar till its the right consistency. I made half a cereal bowl full for 7 Pop Tarts. Opps. :S I didn't have any sprinkles but I seriously hope to have some around the next time I make these because it'll make them more authentic. :) They were pretty good right out of the oven but the best discovery was the next day when I toasted one and it tasted almost identical to the store bought kind! A little piece of heaven for breakfast? Yes please!

Homemade Pop Tarts

Makes 6-8 tarts depending on size (mine were about the size of a recipe card)

For the crust:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened and cut into cubes

3 Tbs cold water

For the filling:

Jam of any kind, about 1 heaping tsp per pastry

For the icing:

1 cup confectioners sugar, sifted

heavy cream, to thin (or you can use milk)

Procedure: (sounds so scientific, haha)

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or aluminum foil); set aside

2. Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Add butter and blend with a fork, pastry cutter or your impeccably clean hands. Blend until the mixture is fairly coarse. Add the water, bit by bit, gently mixing the dough after each addition, until the dough is cohesive enough to form a ball.

3. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll into a rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. Cut out rectangles approximately the size of a recipe (index) card, about 3x5 inches, or smaller if you prefer. Make sure you have an even number of cutouts.

4. On half of the rectangles, place a small spoonful of the jam of your choice in the center. You don't want it to be too thick or the top crust will mound on top of it.

5. Place the remaining rectangles of dough on top of the ones with jam. Crimp all four edges by hand or use a fork so the filling won't ooze out. I also poked the top of each with a fork to vent them, kinda like a pie.

6. Place the tarts on your prepared baking skeet, and bake for 7 to 8 minutes, or until light gold on the edges. Remove from the oven and let them cool completely.

7. While the tarts cool, prepare your icing; make sure its fairly thin but not so thin that it will just drip off. Once the tarts are cool, drizzle on top. Garnish with sprinkles.

Edible Easter Baskets

My mom found this recipe on BettyCrocker.com and I just made it for friends and neighbors for Easter. It turned out way cute, so I thought I'd share it:

(*Note: You can substitute your favorite sugar cookie dough recipe for the Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix pouch, butter, and egg)

(*Note 2: If you are like me and don't like candied coconut, you can use frosting [dyed green] to make the Easter grass on the top of the baskets)


Easter Basket Cookies


Prep Time: 1 hour 45 min
Total Time: 1 hour 45 min
Makes: 32 cookie baskets


1 pouch (1 lb. 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix
1 tablespoon Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
1 bottle (2.25 oz) Betty Crocker® pink or blue colored sugar
1 container (12 oz) Betty Crocker® Whipped fluffy white frosting
2 cups flaked coconut
Food colors
Assorted jelly beans
Pipe cleaners
1/4-inch pastel ribbon


1. Heat oven to 375° F. Grease or spray 32 miniature muffin cups. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, flour, butter and egg until dough forms.
2. Roll dough into 32 (1 1/4-inch) balls; roll in colored sugar. Place balls in muffin cups.
3. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until set and edges are light golden brown. Cool in pan 10 minutes; remove to cooling racks.
4. Add coconut to a 1-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag. Add 3 to 4 drops food color and shake until well blended. It may be necessary to add 1 to 2 teaspoons water to help disperse the color evenly or additional food color until desired color is reached.
5. Frost top of each cookie. Decorate with colored coconut and jelly beans. Tie a small ribbon bow on 5-inch piece of pipe cleaner; insert into each basket for handle.


For even baking, make sure cookie dough balls are of the same size.

P.F. Chang's Mongolian Beef

I got this recipe online and its definitely one of our new favorites! Super simple and it tastes SO good. I've never even been to P.F. Chang's but I've heard its good. Haha. So I bought the meat Monday (its now Friday) and when I took it out of the fridge today I could tell there was something wrong with it. I smelt it and the smell of sour cream is what I found. There were also tiny white spots on some of it. So, thanks to bacteria that Wal-Mart must have laced the meat with I had to toss the whole pound of beef and pull some frozen steaks out of the freezer. I was worried it wouldn't turn out because of this hiccup but it was great! I think next time I'll use the actual onion part of the onion instead of the green part like it asks for. Also, I didn't cut the meat exactly as instructed and it turns out fine so don't worry if you don't follow it to the T. I didn't use as much oil as it called for because I thought it was a little much and it still turned out great. Next time I'll buy the meat from a grocer instead of Wal-Mart and cook it that night instead of waiting a week. Oh and please excuse the crappy layout of the instructions. I just copied and pasted and I don't know how to change the layout so any tips on that would be great. :)

P.F. Chang’s (or Pei Wei’s) Mongolian Beef

serves 4, prep 45 min, cook 10 min, adapted from KSN TV

2 lbs flank or skirt steak

1/4 cup corn starch

2 tsp vegetable or peanut oil

1 tsp fresh ginger, minced

1 tbsp garlic, minced

1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce

1/2 cup water

1/2-3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup vegetable or peanut oil

8 oz button mushrooms, quartered if large

1 bunch green onions, green part only, cut in half

Trim all fat and silver skin from meat. Lay steaks out horizontally on the cutting board.The grain in running vertically. Make several vertical cuts to slice the slab into manageable sized pieces. Then cut the meat opposite the grain (horizontal) into two bite-sized pieces. Cut with your blade at a 45° angles to get wide diagonal slices.

Dust steak pieces lightly in cornstarch and set aside while preparing the sauce.

In a small sauce pan heat oil over medium high heat. Add ginger and garlic.

Add soy sauce and water to the ginger and garlic before it browns.

Add brown sugar and whisk until dissolved.

Bring sauce to a boil and simmer about 10 minutes or until slightly reduced and thickened. Remove from the heat and reserve.

In a large skillet or wok heat 1 cup oil over medium high heat.

Working in batches, add the steak a few at a time to the hot oil. Cook about 1 minute without touching the meat then flip each piece and cook 1 minute more.

Remove meat while still rare inside, and continue with next batch.

Once all meat is browned, pour off oil and wipe out skillet.

Heat skillet over high heat and add mushrooms.

Cook without stirring a couple of minutes or until mushrooms are slightly softened and browned. Reserve.

Add steak to the hot pan and cook about 1 minute.

Add sauce to the pan and simmer and toss meat and sauce about 1 minute.

Add mushrooms and green onions. Toss with steak and sauce and heat 1 minute.

Use tongs to remove meat and veggies to a serving dish, leaving excess sauce in the pan. Serve over rice.

Be sure to use a very light dusting of cornstarch when you bread the steak pieces. If there is too much cornstarch you will get a Swiss steak texture instead of a good sear. It is still delicious but the texture won’t be the same as the restaurant dish.

Homemade Chicken Nuggets

My sister in law created a family cook book for the family and it has great recipes in it. I think everything in it is made from scratch which ups the yumminess a bazillion points! I saw this recipe when I was planning my meals for two weeks and I just had to try them.

Chicken Nuggets

Makes 4 servings

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 cup crushed corn flakes

1/4 cups melted butter

Using a sharp knife or pair of kitchen scissors cut the chicken breasts into 1 inch squares. Set aside. In a plastic bag combine flour, salt and pepper. Shake to mix. Set aside. In a second plastic bag, place crushed corn flakes. Add chicken pieces to flour mixture and shake till each piece is completely coated. Dip floured chicken in melted butter and place in second plastic bag with corn flakes. Shake to coat. When chicken is covered with corn flakes place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.

*Variations: Use italian seasoning, garlic powder and salt instead of flour mixture above. Dip in spaghetti sauce. Or, use ground ginger, garlic, sesame seeds and salt instead of the flour mixture above and dip in teriyaki sauce.

These are seriously the best! They're made out of real, low fat chicken as opposed to whatever they use to make chicken nuggets at McD's or Wendy's. I think I might use egg instead of the butter next time to see which one makes the corn flakes stick better and eggs are less fattening than butter. :) ENJOY!

Oven Roasted Beef Brisket with Sticky, Sweet Glaze

So I totally didn't think to take a picture of this gorgeous meal I made last Sunday. I'd never cooked with a beef brisket and who knew it'd take me forever to find one the right size in Cedar. Haha. For those of you like me that aren't familiar with a beef brisket here's a picture:

It looks all white because it has what is called a "fat cap" on one side. You would think you'd cut this off but don't! It naturally bastes the meat making it really moist.

And here's where the brisket comes from:

I'm wierd, I know. I found this diagram helpful though. :) A word of caution: the chipotle chile powder is HOT so I think I'm only going to use half of what the recipe calls for next time. The meat was tender and juicy. The meat wasn't so spicy hot wasn't that it ruined the flavor so it made for a great dinner. I think I may add extra brown sugar next time too because I like things sweet. :) Here's the recipe

Oven Roasted Beef Brisket with Sticky, Sweet Glaze

Ingredients:

2-3 Tbs sea salt, to taste

1 Tbs freshly ground pepper

2 Tbs chipotle chili powder

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 Tbs smoked paprika (I just used regular paprika because I couldn't find smoked)

1 Tbs onion powder

2 tsp dry mustard

a small glug of Worcestershire sauce

3-4 lb beef brisket, fat cap left alone, bottom fat trimmed a bit

2 cups beef or veal stock

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees

-Make a dry rub containing the first 7 ingredients and taste to adjust the seasoning to the way you like it. Rub the brisket all over with a bit of Worcestershire sauce and pat the dry rub into all sides of the brisket. Place in a roasting pan (or 9x13 pan, like I did) with the fat cap facing up and roast, uncovered, for an hour.

-Add the beef stock and enough water to bring the liquid level up to about 1/2 an inch in the roasting pan.

-Lower the oven temperature to 300 degrees. Cover the roasting pan tightly with 2 layers of tinfoil, or a tightly fitting lid (if you have one), and continue cooking for an additional 3 hours, or until brisket is for tender.

-Let rest on a covered warm plate for about 10 minutes. Slice thinly across the grain and serve.

-Enjoy!!

Kick-A Cashew Chicken

I made this last night and it was awesome! My mom emailed me the recipe saying that she loved it and I can see why. Everyone should try this! We only did half the recipe and we still had enough for 4 people.

Cashew Chicken 3 large chicken breasts cut into strips 1 cup sliced carrots 1 cup sliced celery 1 cup sliced mushrooms 1 cup sliced bell peppers (any color) 1/2 cup sliced onions 1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained 2 cups cashews 1 to 2 cups chicken broth 3 Tablespoons cornstarch Soy sauce to taste Marinated chicken strips in 7-Up or Sprite for 4 hours. Drain 7-Up off chicken and season with you favorite asian seasonings (we used about a 1/4-1/2 cup of soy sauce, a good 1/2 teaspoon of garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of ginger, sesame seeds and just a drop of lemon juice) and let it sit while you cook vegetables. In a wok or large non stick skillet cook the vegetables in a little oil and in the following order: -Carrots and celery together until just tender but still crisp. Take out -Onions and peppers next, take out -Water chestnuts, take out -Mushrooms, take out Cook the chicken until white all the way through. Put all the vegetables back in the wok with the chicken. Add the cashews. Mix the cornstarch into the chicken broth till smooth and pour over chicken and vegetable mixture. Stir until heated through and the sauce is thickened. Taste and add more seasonings if needed. Serve over hot rice. Enjoy!!