Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies


Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies
1 pkg. Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake Mix
1 egg
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 carton of cream cheese frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the cake mix, the egg, the flour, water and oil until well combined in your mixer. Roll in 1 inch balls of dough on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 9-10 minutes. Let them cool on a cooling rack and frost away! My husband likes lots of frosting, but I don't. So lather up as much as you'd like and ENJOY! 


Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Easy Lasagna


Looking for a simple and simply delicious meal for the fam!? Well this is my mother-in-law's recipe that I have grown to love - especially since my husband and daughter love it so much!

Easy Lasagna
8-12 uncooked lasagna noodles
1 (26 oz.) can of your favorite pasta sauce (Ragu)
1 lb. ground beef (or ground turkey)
1 (16 oz.) carton of cottage cheese
1/2 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese
Mozzarella

1. Cook the noodles according to package directions.
2. Cook the ground beef until it is completely cooked and no longer pink. Add the jar of sauce, and heat through.
3. In a small bowl combine the cottage cheese and Parmesan.
4. In a 9 x 13 greased dish put a layer of noodles (slightly overlapping), a layer of the cheese mixture, and a layer of the meat mixture. Repeat layers. Top with Mozzarella.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until the cheese begins to turn a golden brown and the edges start bubbling.
6. Let it sit for up to 10 minutes, to cool down, and to keep it from being too runny.

(You can also freeze the lasagna before you cook it. Just cover with tin foil and mark the directions. The day you want to eat it, let it thaw in the refrigerator and bake according to directions.)

Enjoy!!


Thursday, April 19, 2012

My Little Mini-Me

Last month a made a skirt and had some left over fabric. So I made a little dress my sweet little girl so we could be twiners! I loved going to church all matchy-matchy. 

 Livy, "showing my her teeth". 


Con'GRAD'ulations!

My brother-in-law just graduated from Brigham Young University, and so it was time to Par-tay! We had a yummy BBQ dinner, and I made this chocolate cake recipe (with applesauce instead of oil), and made it into cupcakes (baked for 12 minutes) for dessert! Added some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, a Hersey Bar, Dried Apricot, and M&M's to make little graduation hats! I stuck all the pieces together with a dab of peanut butter. Then made some little graduation cap confetti, a sign and some balloons. Nothing too special, but special enough. It's always fun to have a reason to celebrate and have a party. 




Saturday, April 14, 2012

Homemade Tortillas - Without Lard!

I had some left over cooked shredded chicken, so I decided to just have a taco night...but...I didn't want to go to the store. So I decided to try and make my own flour tortillas. Once I got searching for a recipe, EVERYTHING had good old fashioned fatty lard! I'm sure if I really used lard, the tortillas would be delicious, but I'm not too sure I'd enjoy them very much. So I improvised, and came up with this:

Tortillas
2 cups flour (next time I think I'll do 1 cup all-purpose flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour)
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cups warm skim milk (microwave for 30 seconds)

1. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt. 
2. Mix in the olive oil until completely combined (still very crumbly)
3. Slowly add the warm milk and stir until it's all mixed-in and there is a loose ball of dough. 
4. Knead about 100 times on a floured surface. 
5. Cover and let the dough rest (at least 20 minutes)
6. Pinch apart into about 8 small pieces. Roll into a ball. Let the dough rest again for about another 20 minutes, covered. 
7. Roll flat (it doesn't matter if they are a little abnormally shaped). I rolled mine so flat, like almost translucent flat. Because as soon as the dough hits the heat it shrinks up. 
8. Cook on a dry iron skillet on a medium-high heat. Each side needs about 30 seconds, the tortilla should puff up a little and will be easy to flip. 
9. Keep them covered or wrapped until ready to serve. Yummy! 

Friday, April 13, 2012

Hem Jeans with Original Hem

I just bought a pair of pants that I LOVE...but, they are way too long. I thought they'd be OK with shoes and folded up a bit. But they were driving me crazy, and the if they dragged they would just ruin way too quickly. Here's the before pics of my nice-long-bunched-up-dragging pants:

   
 1. The first step is to fold up and measure how much you want to hem. I needed to make them just under 2" shorter so that they just barely touch the floor. So I folded it just under 1" up so that they'd be 2" shorter.
 2. Pin in place. Make sure that it's the same measurement all the way around. Also make sure that each leg is measured equally (unless your legs are different lengths :).
 3. Then using your zipper foot, sew right along the edge of the original hem.
 4. After the hem is sewn, you could either cut off the excess fabric, or fold it inside (just in case you want to make them longer again some day).
 5. Use your iron to press the seam flat. You shouldn't see the seam, and your original hem is still there.
 6. To make sure the excess fabric stays in place, I took a needle and thread, and by hand I did a very small stitch every 1/4 inch - just grabbing a thread or two on the pant and the excess. By just grabbing a few threads, it will help keep in place, but won't show your stitches on the other side.
 7. All complete! Now I'll probably actually wear these pants now. :)


Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Honey Glazed Salmon with Mango Salsa


My husband said that this meal was "way dope". It was so full of flavor, so healthy, and so yummy. I'm so glad there was plenty of left over salsa. Maybe we'll do the same meal with chicken instead of salmon in a few days :) 

Honey-Glazed Salmon
2 fresh salmon fillets
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. brown sugar

Line a baking sheet with tin foil. Spray with non-stick cooking spray. Lay the fillets flat next to one another. Spray or drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Whisk together the glaze ingredients and glaze the salmon with about 5 minutes left of the baking time. The salmon should flake, and not be opaque at all inside. 

Mango Salsa
1 large mango, diced
2 Roma tomatoes, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, ribs and seeds removed, finely diced
1 small green pepper, diced
1/2 of an onion, diced
1/4 cup of chopped cilantro
The juice of 2 limes
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all of the ingredients. Place in the refrigerator and let the flavors marinate for a few hours before serving. Place on top of the salmon. Enjoy with some tortilla chips as well! 

Served suggestion: quinoa, and green beans.

Spicy Peanut Chicken Salad

(Photo courtesy of Lindsay on tastykitchen.com)

Thanks to pinterest, I found this lovely recipe, and it is to die for! I've been wanting to try a Thai Peanut recipe for some time. This was absolutely wonderful. The leftovers are a perfect lunch too. Even my toddler loved it and wanted more. I was inspired by this recipe. It looks like a lot of ingredients but I was able to whip it up in no time. Less than 30 minutes for sure. Here is what I did (not that much different): 

Spicy Peanut Chicken Salad
Salad:
1 Julienne Red and/or Yellow pepper
3 medium sized shredded or julienne Carrots
2 medium sized shredded Zucchinis
1 bunch of fresh broccoli, chopped
2 grilled chicken breasts, chopped or shredded
8 oz. whole wheat linguine noodles, cooked
Fresh cilantro as a garnish

Dressing:
5 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. peanut butter
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp. vinegar
1/2 Tbsp. honey
1 Tbsp. fresh ginger
1 clove garlic
1 tsp. sugar
1 whole jalapeno pepper, ribs and seeds removed
1/2 cup peanuts

Combine all of listed salad ingredients. 

Put all of the dressing ingredients in a food processor, except for the peanuts, and mix until nice and smooth. 

Pour dressing over salad ingredients and mix until combined. Add the peanuts, and garnish with cilantro. 

De-lish!