Notes about Zucchini Bread

Ok...so the bread...I found this recipe years ago on the Taste of Home website. You cannot find it there now...trust me...I've searched many times because at many times during the years, I've lost the recipe card for this...and I've gone nuts looking for it...only to not be able to...some how though, when I least expected it, the recipe card shows up. The last time, I found it while unpacking. You would think after losing this recipe so many times, I would have made this the first recipe on here...but no...I didn't...that would make sense.

I love this recipe because it has baking powder, but no baking soda. I've found that in breads, baking soda adds a strange...baking soda like flavor. Plus, I love this recipe because you can make it into two loaves, which seem more dense...or make it into one nice fluffy loaf.

PLEASE NOTE...when attempting this recipe...IT TAKES ABOUT AN HOUR AND HALF to make one big loaf...trust me...I just made six of these...and it took that long to make each one...I staggered and at one point, had four going at once...

I make these breads for aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends around the holidays. I prefer to make the applesauce version...tastes good...less oil...but I do make this AlOT for us during the year too. the kids just love this recipe.

Zucchini Bread

Zucchini Bread

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil (or split ½ cup oil, ½ cup applesauce)

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

2 cups shredded zucchini

½ c. chopped nuts (opt…I never use)

In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs and sugar. Beat in oil, vanilla. Combine the

dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl, add to sugar mixture and mix well. Stir

in zucchini and nuts. Pour into two greased 9 in x 5 in x 3 in loaf pans (or for fuller

loaf, mix into one). Bake at 325 for 55-60 minutes (or longer for one loaf) or until

a toothpick comes out clean.

Chex Muddy Buddies

By request, I'm posting this because I make these every year and a few people would like the recipe. You can usually find it on the Chex website...they even suggested if you like extra peanut butter, use peanut butter chips instead of chocolate. I used dark chocolate chips this year...and I used Cripix cereal so they look like diamonds...The kids LOVE to help with this recipe. In years past I put some mix in a bag with the sugar and let the kids do it.. (Very ziploced). This year, I mixed it in a huge soup pot...then I poured the sugar in...put a lid on it and went outside to shake the pot...it worked...so here it is...Chex muddy buddies

9 cups of Rice Chex, Corn Chex or Chocolate chex (or Crispix) cereal

1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter (or almond, hazelnut, ect)

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Measure out cereal and put it into a large bowl. In a microwave safe bowl (or small saucepan) melt the chips, peanut butter, and butter. Microwave on high 1 minute, stir, then microwave for 30 seconds or until smooth...I always use a saucepan and stir constantly on low heat until smooth). Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2 gallon resealable food storage plastic bag. Add powdered sugar, Seal bag, shake until well coated. Spread onto waxed paper to cool (I don't always do this). Store in an airtight container in refrigerator.

Veggie Wellington

Two years ago, I had surgery. I didn't request a meal from my mom's club because Kevin stayed home with him. One friend, however, was kind enough to bring me a meal because the surgery was around my birthday. She told me "It'll be vegetarian, is that ok?" I told her it was more than ok. The meal was excellent and I so want to share it with you because it's easy as anything. Sadly, my old computer ate the recipe...but I know it by heart...however, measurements escape me. Honestly, this is one of those recipes...you just need the ingredients...or an idea...and you got it...

Veggie Wellington

1 sheet of puff pastry (You can double this recipe easily if needed)-thawed

4 oz of goat or feta cheese

4 oz of sundried tomato pesto (you can opt this out)

Mixture of fresh vegetables (for example, I like to use broccoli, asparagus, and/or mushrooms, onions).

1 large Egg (opt)

homemade or jarred sauce.

Preheat oven to 425. Spray a baking sheet (or 2) with cooking spray. Chop up desired veggies. Mix in a bowl with cheese and pesto. Set aside. Roll out dough....cut into four triangles (per sheet if using multiple sheets). Pile on veggie mixture on each triangle. Make sure you can seal the triangles. Seal the triangles and place them on the baking sheets. If desired, beat egg and brush onto tops of triangles. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until triangles are golden and puffy. Heat sauce and serve on top of pastry. Enjoy!

Recipe edit - Slow cooker Indian Chicken

Sorry! The proper name for the Tastefully Simple Spice is Flavors of India - Season Salt...Sorry!

-J

Indian Chicken - Slow Cooker

For the lack of a better name...I name this dish Indian Chicken...I'll get to why in a minute...

This dish is a classic example of how you play with a recipe and come out with something totally different. This recipe was morphed from Taste of Home's Slow Cooker Chicken Curry. Slow cookers rock!

So back to how I changed this dish. I've been wanting to mess with curry. I thought I had curry in the pantry...but I c did not...however I DID have Tastefully Simple's Flavors of India Season Salt. The original recipe also called for Peach salsa...I realized as I went to make the dish that I had regular. Then my eyes caught onto some cherry chutney my boss gave me before I moved. There were tomatoes in that...so again, I substituted...In the end...the dish came out great and even Kevin loved it. Added bonus, with the Halloween madness, I went to serve the dish and realized I didn't make a veggie...but no worries...there were kidney beans in the recipe...yeah!

Slow Cooker Indian Chicken

Chicken breast halves (bone in, bone out...whatever you fancy, I did bone out) - package

1 can (15 oz) white kidney or cannellini bean, rinse and drained

1/4 cup thinly sliced sweet onion (or red gives it an extra kick, I did red)

1 cup cherry (or any other flavor) chutney

1 TBSP Tastefully Simple's Taste of India Season Salt (ingredients are sea salt, tumeric, dehydrated garlic, spices in case you don't have on hand)

1 cup Aborio (risotto) rice

1 1/2 cups water

1 TBSP butter (opt.)

Place Chicken, kidney beans, and onion in 4 qt slow cooker. Combine chutney and Taste of India Season Salt in a bowl; pour over top. Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours.

Bring water to a boil in a pot. Add rice (and 1 TBSP of butter - if desired). Simmer rice for 20-25 minutes (covered) or until water is absorbed. Serve chicken over rice.

Santa Fe Soup

My friend Heather gave me this recipe a few years ago. I don't know where she got it from, so I can't quote any site or anything, but I will say it's not mine...and I will tell you what I did differently.

First off...if you want to make this vegetarian, feel free to put in vegetarian crumbles instead of ground beef. I, personally, am not a fan of ground beef. I like beef, don't get me wrong...but we do not eat beef on a daily basis in this house. I think it's just not good for the body to include beef in the daily diet. I do like to make a winter stuff over winter and I do keep burgers in stock for my husband, but I only occasionally eat beef.

Second, the recipe says to dump all the cans into the put without draining. It was my own choice to drain and rinse the beans. I really don't like the liquid in a bean can...I think it's...yick...Also tonight, I happen to have forgotten the pinto beans...it came out just fine...just not alot of beans. You could play with what beans you use too...use black beans, use different color kidney beans.

Third, if you do not have taco seasoning, no fret...as long as you keep some cumin (at the very least) and Sazon in your pantry (if you don't, you should), you're good. One to two teaspoons of cumin and a packet of sazon (only if you have it) and it should give the same flavor. My friend, Heather, also recommended, you could change up the ranch dip for onion dip.

Finally, as a side note, I had some extra green onions kicking around, so I chopped them up and threw them in. Added a nice touch and some color. This soup is really just a watery chili...but as the nights get colder, if you add some cornbread...it could be a nice comfort food.

Oh and one last note...I cooked the turkey in the soup pot in some olive oil...using my pampered Chef Mix and Chop. Now, I only plug stuff that works...but I think the Mix and chop is awesome when cooking ground beef...it crumbles and helps cook the food nicely. Then after the turkey was done, I just threw the rest of the ingredients in one pot...total dishes dirtied...three...the pot, the mix and chop and the cutting board...ok four...the knife...whatever...

Ingredients

1lbs ground beef (or turkey or veg crumbles) - cooked/crumbled

3 cans diced tomatoes

1 can pinto beans (or black)

1 can kidney beans

1 can whole kernel corn

t packet taco seasoning

1 packet ranch party dip (or onion)

In a medium/large soup pt, combine all ingredients (do not drain any of the cans), heat thoroughly, simmer 20 minutes.

Mushroom Calzones

I may have said this with the Strawberry Gooey Butter cakes, and I am sure I will say it again, but let me say now...I play with recipes...cooking doesn't always mean you have to follow the recipe every time. The recipe is a guide. Sure, there are times when I am first trying something (ie cheesecake) that I have to follow the rules this one time...but luckily for recipes such as calzones...it's not a perfect science.

This recipe is a perfect example of that. The mushroom calzone recipe here was found in my Vegetarian times magazine. You are supposed to use the previous post to make the filling. Since the Mushrooms are a filling, you can play with the recipe. You want to like what you stuff the calzone with...right? and sometimes, if you are cooking on the fly, you may not always have stuff on hand or be able to pick it up in the store.

In this recipe...when I made it, I replaced the roasted red peppers with sundried tomatoes (I LOVE SUNDRIED TOMATOES), I didn't use the red pepper flakes (I was afraid the kids wouldn't even tried it if I did). Gruyere cheese is hard to find for me...so I didn't bother...between the goat cheese and the parmesan cheese, this recipe was good. Finally, I could not for the life of me find whole wheat pizza dough balls, let alone regular pizza dough balls. Lucky for me, I have a bread maker and a husband that likes to make pizza dough. He made the dough, so it turned out the be a family effort to make this. Kevin ended up loving this recipe and he felt that one was plenty enough for him.

So enjoy!

½ recipe Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms, or 3 roasted Portobello caps

6 3oz balls whole-wheat pizza dough

1 ¼ cups jarred roasted red peppers, rinsed, drained, and chopped

¼ cup grated low-fat Gruyere cheese

1 tsp. Red pepper flakes, opt (very optional)

2 TBS. Grated Parmesan cheese (opt)

Place oven rack in lower one-third of oven, and preheat oven to 450. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray. Cut stuffed Portobello mushrooms into 1-inch pieces, and set aside. Roll dough balls into 7-inch rounds on floured work surface. Divide roasted red peppers among centers of dough rounds, and sprinkle each with 1 TBS. Gruyere cheese. Top with mushrooms. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes (opt), then 1 TBS. Gruyere cheese and tsp. Parmesan (opt). Brush edges of circles with water, and fold over filling. Press edges to seal, and roll slightly upward to form rope shape. Transfer to prepared baking sheet and bake 12 minutes or until golden-brown.

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms - 1st veg recipe!!!

I got this recipe from my Vegetarian Times mag...and I'll share with you my tweeks and such. You need this recipe to make tomorrow's post. It's not too hard...a lot of steps involves...but it's very tasty...

First off...I did not include the pine nuts...I replaced leeks with green onions cause damn if I could find a leek at Safeway...

6 4 inch diameter Portobello mushrooms, stemmed

4 tsp olive oil, divided

2 leeks (or green onions if your grocery store is lame), white and pale green parts thinly sliced (2 cups)

6 cloves garlic, minced (2 Tbs)

1 ½ Tbs. Chopped fresh thyme or go with crushed dried

1 lb fresh baby spinach

4 oz fresh goat cheese, softened (feta works too!)

2 Tbs pine nuts (op.) (very optional)

Preheat over to 400. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper (or spray with

cooking spray. Spray mushroom caps with cooking spray, and sprinkle gill sides with

salt and pepper, if desidered. Arrange mushrooms gill-sides down on prepared baking

sheet. Roast 10 minutes, or until mushrooms begin to soften. Turn mushrooms over.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tsp. Oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add leeks, garlic,

and thyme, and sauté 4 minutes or until leeks are tender. Add 2 large handfuls spinach

at a time and cook 8 to 10 minutes, or until spinach is wilted and most liquid has

evaporated, stirring often. Stir in goat cheese and pine nuts (op.) until cheese is melted.

Remove from heat, and season with salt and pepper, if desired. Fill mushrooms with

spinach mixture, mounding on top and packing filling down with hands. Bake 25

minutes or until browns on top and mushrooms are fork-tender. If you are making tomorrow's recipe I wouldn't even bother cooking to be honest...

Raspberry Pork Chops

Ok...I've had alot of request for this recipe. I originally found it in one of my Taste of Home magazines. The original name was "Strawberry Pork Chops". However, the only thing strawberry about it was the fact that it was garnished with strawberries. It's marinated in raspberry vinaigrette, not strawberry. So, hence, after taking out the strawberries (was a pain to do) and making some tweeks, I changed the name.

I must also note, we LOVE brown sugar in this family. Any opportunity to add more than required, we do it. It's not great for you, but makes things taste so much better. I'm going to present this recipe as I've made it. Not as I originally made it. Feel free to look up "Strawberry Pork chops" on Taste of Home's website. However, these pork chops, I can honestly say are way better, and even easier to make. After making this recipe for myself and friends for a few years, I kept wondering how the recipe would taste if I made it in a crock pot. After doing so, I have vowed to never go back.

I make this recipe alot for moms in my moms groups that have just had babies. It's something different from chicken (which seems to be a popular thing for people to make someone when making them a meal) or your typical casserole meals. Plus now that I make this in the crock pot, it's not too difficult to make an additional meal when I have to make a meal for church or mom's group.

So here you have it...Raspberry Pork Chops.

3/4 cup of raspberry vinaigrette

2 tablespoons of chopped green onion

1/4 cup of brown sugar

1/4 tsp of paprika

2 tsp of rosemary

1/2 tsp - 1tsp of pepper

Dash of Worcestershire sauce

4 bone-in pork loin chops (1 inch thick/6oz each)....seriously, I use a package of no bone, thin cut chops...use what you want...

In a small bowl, combine the vinaigrette, onion, brown sugar, paprika, and Worcestershire sauce (or combine in the measuring cup to save dishes), set aside. Combine rosemary and pepper, rub over both sides of pork chops (or if you are lazy, put chops in the crock pot, and then just shake over them...). Put Chops into crock put, poor vinaigrette mixture over them. Set pot for desired cooking time (6 hours on high/8 hours on low). Serve chops with desired sides (I usually serve mine with brown rice and string beans).

Enjoy!

Strawberry Gooey Butter Cake

I should feel silly about posting a recipe that has absolutely no nutritional value. However, if I didn't start off with this recipe, a ton of people would be pissed. I first made this for my old MOMS club yard sale shortly after I joined. After that yard sale, I had alot of friends! Everyone asked me for this recipe.

Gooey Butter Cake first came into my life after I met my husband. It is his favorite dessert. He likes traditional vanilla (BORING!). My mother in law gave me the recipe after we were married because she wanted to make sure I could make this for her boy. Sadly, when I went to make it, I couldn't find her recipe. So I turned to the queen of butter, Paula Deene. The first time, I made it, I used as much confectioner's sugar as she called for. While that made for an awesome gooey part of the cake...it was a bit much...and the dust from the sugar stuck around for a while...so after some tweeking and adding of strawberry, I came up with this...

Ingredients:

2 sticks of butter

1 package of strawberry cake mix

3 eggs

8 oz of strawberry cream cheese

2 cups of powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 13 x 9 inch pan (very important to use this size pan!).

In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, 1 egg, and 1 stick of melted butter. Stir until well blended. Pat mixture into prepared pan, set aside.

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add the remaining 2 eggs. Lower the speed of the mixer, and add the powdered sugar. Continue beating until ingredients are well mixed. Slowly add the remaining 1 stick of melted butter and the vanilla. Continue beating until smooth. Spread the filling over cake mixture in pan. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Be careful not to overcook the cake (it will have brown top though...don't fear...it's still delicious). The center should still be a little gooey when finished. Let cake partially cool on a wire rack before cutting into pieces.

Feel free to play with this recipe. Besides vanilla gooey butter cake and this strawberry, I've made chocolate, holiday spice, and lemon.

Welcome! Not posting recipes today!!!

Hi!

My name is Jessica and I started this blog because I love to cook. Because I love to cook, I'm always getting asked for the recipe of what I've cooked. So I started this blog to share a bunch of recipes I've been asked for over the years. I also hope for this to be a place for my family to find certain recipes that they love.

I hope for this blog to be a more productive way than Facebook to keep in touch with people and I hope for it to share with people not just some great baking recipes I have, but share some healthy recipes too. I challenge myself every week to cook vegetarian/vegan three times a week. I've also challenged myself to make a homecooked meal every day of the week. That being said, I also fully believe in cooking simple. My recipes are never too difficult. If I'm going to post a difficult recipe, I'll let you know. But that will be rare...

So keep your eyes out...I have enough recipes to keep me busy for a while posting!!!

Jessica