Chocolate Zucchini Brownie Cake

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“Holiday Sauce”: a Christmas Breakfast Tradition

You can find this post over at my new blog JessicaMWhite.com. Click HERE to head on over!

Bumble Berry Pie

I love Pie. I don’t know many people who DON’T love pie, and I don’t know as I would trust someone who didn’t.

I’m always looking for new ways to remake old favorites. One of my favorite desserts was Krusteaz Raspberry Bars, so good, but then I figured out how to make them myself, which was so much cheaper AND so much yummier. Then another time I got a crazy-hair and decided that instead of just using raspberry jam, I would throw in a bunch of mixed berries…oh my…Bumble Berry Pie was born!

Here it is:

1 cup of butter
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of chopped nuts {pecans are divine in it; I’ve use walnuts in it too}
2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup of Raspberry Jam
2-3 cups of fresh or thawed, mixed berries {the skies the limit so use your imagination!}

Mix all of that together. Press about half of the dough in the bottom of a 9” pie dish {or a 9” square}. Spread with a little more than half of the jam, sprinkle with the mixed berries {even throw thin slices of apples in!}. Warm up the rest of the jam, so that it can be drizzled, and drizzle the rest of it over the berries.

Take the remainder of your dough and crumble it over the top of the pie. This doesn’t have to be beautiful.

Bake at 350* for 50-60 minutes, until golden brown on top and fruit is fork tender.
Allow to cool slightly before serving {otherwise it’s just going to run everywhere.

Serve warm with a heaping dollop of cream or vanilla ice cream. You can just scoop this out, or cut actual pie slices…we kind of do both, with a mix of keeping a fork in the plate to help ourselves.

*Unfortunately I did not get a straight out of the oven shot, since it was night and Matt and I wanted to eat it.

How to Make Your Own Freezer Pizza

We love pizza. We usually have pizza 2 Fridays a month, and it is never from a pizzeria. Usually on those Friday afternoons I’m busy throwing dough and slapping on sauce and sprinkling cheese, but sometimes it’s just not worth the work it takes to make a couple of pies. It’s certainly not an “easy dinner”.

And sometimes I would just throw a store bought freezer pizza in the oven, because I just didn’t feel like doing it {or I forgot to make the dough the day before}. And I said to myself, “Self. There has GOT to be a better way.” So I started experimenting.

The first time worked great! I did everything at once: Sauce, Cheese, etc, but instead of throwing it in the oven I threw it in the freezer. Let it firm up, then wrapped it in foil. One night I wasn’t home, Matt threw 2 pizzas in the preheated oven, and he had perfect pizzas in 12 minutes. The next time we tried freezing just the formed dough…that didn’t turn out so good. The dough cracked when we tried to remove it from the pan in the freezer.

Here’s what we do:

This is our go-to pizza crust recipe: Absolutely wonderful! It’s from Cook’s Illustrated and it’s perfection in a pie crust! I should know, I’m kind of a pizza afficionado ;-) A single batch of the recipe will make 2 good size {15”} pizzas. Now, when I’m doing this, I usually make a double or a triple batch of dough. It takes a bit more work, since I can’t fit it all in my food processor at once, but it’s worth it.

Follow the instructions for the pizza crust, just as you would if you were making fresh pizza.

Once your dough is ready to spread out, start spreading it out on a well greased {I use olive oil} freezer safe pan. If you want to do it on parchment paper or foil, that works too. You don’t want the finished, frozen pie to stick to your pan and break when you try to remove it {if you’re like me you don’t have cookie sheets that you can just leave in limbo in the freezer}.

Put on your sauce {about a cup of sauce per pie}, your pepperoni, your cheese, your granulated garlic and anything else you enjoy…even anchovies or sardines, although they don’t grace the pies in our home. If you’re going to throw things like eggplant and other high water foods on, I would hold off and throw them on just before baking them.

Pop the pies in the freezer! Let them get good and hard…a couple of hours usually does it. Once they’re done, let them sit on the counter for a few minutes {letting that grease warm up, because it’s probably hard too}. If you can safely remove the pies from the pans then wrap them up in foil, or plastic wrap, or whatever else you use, and throw them right back in the freezer.

Once you’re ready to cook them.  Turn your oven to 500* an hour before hand, have your stone in the oven all ready. Let the pies sit on the counter for about 5-10 minutes {you want them slightly thawed, but not so thawed that the dough isn’t hard}. Pop’em in the oven for about 12 minutes, checking that they’re getting golden, but not burnt. Pull’em out. Let’em cool. And eat’em up!

There are a couple of ways that this saves you dough {$$$}: One, you’re not ordering from a highly marked up pizzeria. Did you know that it costs less than $2 to make a pie (12.5C on the flour, 50C on sauce, and a $1 or so on the cheese)?! How much are you paying for a pizza? Even freezer pizza {if you can find it for less than $10} isn’t that cheap.

You’re saving money on the ingredients if you buy bulk; buy a 5lb block of mozzarella and shred it yourself: Which is what we do. You have completely control over the ingredients. You know what is in your pizza. For us, knowing what exactly we’re eating is a big deal.

There you have it! Now, that’s pretty easy isn’t?

What Inspires Your Menus?

I’ve gotten bored with our monthly menus. I kind of do the same things over and over, because I don’t know what each day is going to bring. I don’t know if on any given day how kids are going to be, what the weather will be (I do not want the oven on if it’s 80* in my house), or whether I’ll even feel up to trying a new recipe.
This creates a problem.

Or does it?

What about using our menu schedule not so much as a hard-and-fast-schedule, but as a suggestion?
What about creating a list of meals that you would like to try, but don’t know if/when you’ll have the time/desire?

That’s what I started doing.

Now, instead of feeling like we cook the same things day-in and month-out I can feel like there’s a bit of freedom. Of course this is obvious, but it’s so easy to just make up a meal plan and end up glued to it for the month, because you don’t have the time, you haven’t thought ahead, you don’t have the ingredients and there is no way in this world are you taking 4 kids to the grocery store….alone.

Please, allow me to present….




Everyone loves pinterest (or at least almost everyone loves pinterest): Let it work for you! I’m always seeing these fantastic meals that look awesome and think “Oh, I want to try that!” I pin it. And never look at it again.

I figured, why don’t I create a board of meals that are realistic to make and something we might actually have for a regular dinner. Maybe you’ve already figured this one out, but I’m a bit slow sometimes.
Now, when I’m feeling a bit adventurous, I can glance in one place and see a bunch of different recipes that might want to try and most likely have the ingredients for.

Another tip?

Don’t rely just on pinterest for your ideas. Add the “pin it” button to your browser toolbar. When a friend posts a delicious recipe…pin it! When you get that email list that you signed up for for healthy dinner ideas, look through it quickly. If you find a recipe….pin it!

And if you’re not into pinterest or don’t want to step on someone’s toes by using it, create a bookmark file on your computer for Dinner Ideas. Isn’t that what we used to do before pinterest?

What ideas do you have to help keep your menu from becoming boring?

Revamping Dinner Time

With the store now closed I've been forced to return to life without my own personal grocery store; meaning, I have to plan ahead. I can't just call Matt up and ask him to bring home steak or ground beef or chicken for dinner, because there isn't any, unless I want to start dealing with frozen stuff.For this I will miss the store.

Before we had the store I had started writing up a monthly meal plan, which was really helpful, because I knew what I needed and what was coming up on the calendar. Sometimes we deviated from it, but for the most part it really helped me to keep tabs on what we had in inventory, what we've eaten a lot of, and what would be a treat.

I created a section in my Home Management Binder specific to cooking: I'm actually now using it. I've created an entire list of meals that I can cook, both with and without recipes. There's about 50 or so recipes in my arsenal ranging from meals for company to throw-togethers. Now I can plan menus for the entire month within 10 minutes.

Matt and I sit down with the list of prospective meals and what we have in the house that needs to get used up and we fill out the calendar with significant things that are going on and then plan the meals accordingly.

I can't tell you how much easier it is to not sit there every day and think "What am I going to cook tonight?" Matt always jokes that I call him for two things during the day, to see how he's doing and what he wants for dinner.

Oh, and there's a little trick I want to share with you: Plastic page protectors and wet-erase markers! I print the current months calendar from word, slip it into the sheet protector and go to town with the marker. It doesn't just wipe off, but I can easily make some changes with a damp tissue (I don't recommend your thumb with spit, it doesn't come off of skin so easily, that's just what I've heard ;-).

The other thing that planning ahead really helps me with is that I can make sure I have the groceries I need on hand. Obviously, I don't get out much: 1) The grocery stores are now 45 minutes away and 2) there is no way I can take 4 kids grocery shopping with me (I can't pull 2 carts full of kids, while filling a 3rd cart). I have to plan for someone to come over and stay with the kids for the day so that I can go out and restock.


If you're really interested in trying to plan ahead it will save you lots of time and actually some money too, because when I go shopping now it's with a mission and I only go once, so there's less chance of me buying things we don't need (like peanut butter Oreos and jars of Nutella). There's also a great book to help you with figuring out the best way to create a monthly meal plan and shopping trip.

Go ahead! Try it! You won't know if it works for you unless you do.

Do you have any tips or advice that you follow to help with the "what's for dinner" hum-drums?

Buffalo Chicken Wraps

I love me some spicy food: Good spicy, not make you run for a fire hydrant spicy. The kind of spicy that stays with you for a bit. Almost everyone loves buffalo wings, except me. I don't like them. I don't like wings to begin with; it just seems like so much work for a little bit of meat.

At the county fair my MIL serves Buffalo Wings, with her own secret sauce. I've been working the fairs for 12 years now and keep meaning to try it with chicken breasts (my preferred cut of chicken)...I still haven't tried it.

I saw the idea on pinterest a couple of weeks ago for Buffalo Chicken Wraps. The other night I tried to make them, but my own way.

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
Hot Wing Sauce

Got that? Easy right.
Throw it all in a pot (or crockpot), with enough sauce to almost cover the breasts, and cook it low and slow, until chicken can be shredded. I did mine on the stove top on low for about 3 hours.

This is the part that makes this so deliciously awesome, my MIL's {secret} wing sauce recipe. Now, I could swear you all to secrecy, but honestly this is online, I don't think that's going to happen.

1lb butter
1/3 cup flour
3 T granulated garlic
3 T sugar
15 ounce tomato sauce
3 cups hot sauce (Frank's Red Hot or something along those lines)

Melt butter on stove top in medium sized pan. Add in flour, garlic, sugar, tomato sauce and hot sauce. Stir until all mixed together (it doesn't have to boil or anything). It makes a lot: I froze some of it, but my MIL just keeps it in her fridge, it's been there for 9 months and hasn't gone bad.

What we did? Took a tortilla wrap, put some lettuce in, the shredded buffalo chicken, a bit of the wing sauce, some blue cheese dressing and crumbled blue cheese. Roll it all up and voila! Instant and delicious meal!

Deutsch Laugenbrötchen

(aka Pretzel Rolls)
Growing up visiting my grandparents in The City one of the highlights was the breads that we could get. On the weekends my grandfather would go to a certain bakery and wait in line to get us Pretzels. There is nothing quite as wonderful as a hot, fresh pretzel dripping with butter for breakfast. Eventually the bakery came out with Pretzel Rolls: What was this culinary fascination? There was no way it could be as good as a Pretzel. Boy, we were wrong!

Pretzel Rolls: So much more surface to slather with butter, so much more tastiness!

A few years after the arrival of the Pretzel Roll my grandparents moved from The City to our town. Of course this meant there were no more Pretzel Rolls. When we would go back to The City to visit other family we had every intentions of splurging on some deliciousness, but the bakery was no longer open. We were devastated!


Many, MANY years later after questing high and low for Pretzel Rolls we found that one of our purveyors carried imported Pretzel Rolls. They arrived frozen and after a 10 minute session in the oven they were every bit of yummy goodness I remembered: Whether dripping with butter or cold with liverwurst and onions.


Then we stopped doing business with our source. Once again I was at a loss.


Then along came Pinterest with all of it's terribly good and devious items.


Low and behold, the Holy Grail was there! Just waiting for me to find it, to Pin It!

Pretzel Rolls! {click for recipe}

One word: YUM! These taste just like the ones I got as a kid, and really they weren't too hard to make. I did make them smaller and got about 30 rolls the size of one's fist. If it were 15 they'd be great for burgers or sandwiches.


Enjoy!

Recipes

Back in the days before Pinterest I had this habit of clothes “pinning” recipes to our pot rack hanging above the kitchen counter. It’s where all the favorite recipes and new found goodness went; recipes hung crinkled and messy, easily lost, easily ruined, sometimes never to be found again, but usually not before I had pretty much committed them to use.

If you want to see what deliciousness I pin you can visit my 2 food boards on Pinterest: All Things Savory & All Things Sweet. {Recipes with a * will take you directly to the original source of the recipe.}


~*~Breads~*~

Growing up we made our own breads quite frequently: It was a particular treat when my dad would make his award winning bread (top prize at the County Fair), or my mom would make homemade rolls for sloppy joes. Matt is also a wonderful bread maker. So as you've probably guessed bread is a basic mainstay in our house.

No-Knead Bread * (make ahead 24 hours)
Molasses Brown Bread *
Biscuits
Orange Cranberry Scones *Irish Soda Bread
Honey Whole Wheat Rolls
Pop-overs
Pretzel Rolls

~*~ Dinners & Sides~*~

Who isn't looking for something delicious, easy, and something EVERYONE will like!

Pizza (make ahead 24 hours)Remy's Ratatouille
Honey-Glazed Chicken
Curry Chicken Salad
Crockpot Pot Roast *Maple Glazed Squash
Stuffed Chicken Breasts
Creamy Chicken with Rice and Spinach
Sloppy Joes
My Oma's Spaetzle and Goulash
Spinach Quiche
Corn Pudding Burgundy Beef Stew
Pork Loin with Fig Sauce
Buffalo Chicken Wrap - with Secret Wing Sauce

~*~Desserts & Sweets~*~

I don't know of many people who don't like the magic that occurs when you add butter to sugar. These are some of my go-to recipes when we're having company or I need to bring something special to share

Apple (or Pear) Galette
Swedish Creme
Best Ever Chocolate Cake {and frosting} *Fudge Brownies *Oat-RAGEOUS Chocolate Chip Cookies
Maple Bread Pudding *Concoction
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Mom's Lemon Squares
Molasses Crinkle Cookies
Sugar Cookies
Raspberry Cheesecake Bars

Yummy Beef Stew and Popovers!

I've been looking around the internet for different crock pot recipes. I honestly don't use my crock pot much, because it's still a lot of work to make anything with a crock pot, especially when I have to pull it out of the cabinet and then use pliers to turn the knob (mine broke off and cuis.inart doesn't carry replacement knobs).

Anyways....

I got an email the other day from BHG that had a bunch of slow cooker recipes. They had a recipe for Burgundy Beef Stew which sounded pretty good. Of course I couldn't follow a recipe and had to do my own thing.

I took 2 lbs of stew beef and floured it, along with salt and pepper, browned it in some olive oil, then threw it in the crock pot. Then I chunked a large onion into 1/2" segments (about the size of my fist) and cooked that until it was soft and golden in some butter, tossed in 4 cloves of minced garlic. Then threw all that in the crock pot.

I added in 1 cup of Cab Sauv wine, that Matt had made in 2008, and about a cup and a half of beef broth.

Set that all to cook on low for 4 or 5 hours, then about an hour and a half before we were ready to eat I cut up carrots and threw them in, and some small new potatoes.

While that was going I put a couple of slices of bacon in the toaster oven (I hate the smell and mess of bacon on the stove) then crumbled that in the stew, and poured the drained fat in as well.

Then an hour before we were ready to eat I made popovers (aka Yorkshire Pudding) to go with our stew: 4 eggs, 2 cups milk, 2 cups flour, and a 1/2 tsp salt. Beat it all together and pour into 16 greased muffin tins, bake for 25 minutes at 450* then bump it down to 350* for 15 minutes (or golden brown).

Oh my goodness, this was such a yummy stew. I do think I could've added more water and a little less beef broth, especially since I had added bacon fat, because it was a touch on the salty side. We had enough to put in the freezer for another dinner!

First Recreated Pin!

I keep pinning things on Pinterest but have yet to actually DO any of the thing's I have pinned. Until yesterday......

There was this pin, which I thought was awesome! I love making sugar cookies, but never have any creative ideas to do with them, besides icing them and then they're too sweet to actually enjoy.

Unfortunately, the original pinner did not pin the actual project, but a website. I looked for a while, found what they were talking about, but there were no instructions on how to do this, or a recipe. Obviously the HOW is pretty simple, you color some of the dough different shades and use leaf cookie cutters.

I'm always looking for a sugar cookie recipe, I've had lots of good ones, but never seem to be able to keep track of them long enough to say "this is the recipe I use". I found this recipe, which gave a really nice, not super sweet cookie, but it made 5 dozen cookies. I don't know about you, but I seriously don't want 5 dozen sugar cookies in the house with me and a 2 year old. I halved it to this:

Rolled Sugar Cookie Recipe
* 3/4 cup butter (softened)
* 1 cup white sugar (or xylitol)
* 2 eggs
* 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
* 2 1/2 cup all purpose flour
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp salt

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely

Here's our dough all set and ready to roll out. I made small little balls of dough on the counter and kind of mushed them together by hand (they weren't rolling together with a pin the way they should). I rolled it to my desired thickness, about 1/4", then we used our leaf cookie cutters to cut them out.

Some of the people who commented on the original post for the cookies were worried about the colors becoming muddled over progressive rollings; I actually liked the dough BETTER the more mixed up it got, because the leaves began to have more variations in them.

I also managed to make these with Ave helping, my trick: I did all the dough while she was napping. Honestly, she was more interested in playing with the dough and cookie cutters than she would have been in any of the prep work. Oh, I also use gel food coloring: I bought an 8 pack of different colors (blues, oranges, browns and purples already mixed).

These were fun cookies to make, definitely something to do again...maybe red and white for candy canes at Christmas.

Irish Soda Bread - My Favorite Recipe

You can find this post on my new site JessicaMWhite.com, click HERE.

Pork Loin with Fig Sauce

In trying to keep with my new recipe a month thing, that I started back here, last night we had Pork Loin with Fig Sauce, a la Giada De Laurentiis. I just have to mention....I know that Sophia Loren declared "Everything you see I owe to spaghetti" and Giada has about the same motto...but seriously?! If I ate pasta constantly and ate the way she cooks I'd look more like this woman (which, now that I look at that picture....I already do).

Anyways.....this was super easy and super delicious. The fig sauce would be great in anything...particularly cookies.

I didn't have any port, but Matt had a bit of his concord mead left so I used that and made up the difference with a bit extra water.

Here it is: Mange!

I served it with roasted asparagus and acorn squash with honey: Yum!

Corn Pudding

This recipe was introduced to us, by our sister in law, at our Thanksgiving day rehearsal dinner (6 years ago). None of us had ever had something like this...so yummy and delicious! Seriously, try it!

1 can cream corn

1 can whole kernel corn, drained

2 eggs beaten

1 box jiffy mix corn bread mix

1c. buttermilk

1 stick butter, melted

Combine and put in greased casserole dish. Bake at 350F for ~30 min.

Enjoy!

Honey Glazed Chicken Breast

I'm not even sure where I found this recipe anymore....all I know is that I have a beat up copy that I printed out from my email several years ago. This is such an easy and tasty meal! What's great is that it can be served with anything!

6 chicken breasts or leg with thigh
1/3 cup worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
2/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup olive oil

In 1 gallon resealable bag combine combine all ingredients, but the chicken. Seal bag mixing up ingredients. Add chicken parts and seal bag; turn to coat all surfaces of chicken. Place in fridge and allow to marinate for 1hour.

Heat grill 45 minutes before cooking. Remove chicken from marinade, shaking off excess.

Grill skin side down, about 15-18 minutes. Turn and baste cooked side with marinade. Grill other side 6 to 10 minutes longer.

Heat remaining marinade in small pan, until boils. Simmer 3 to 4 minutes. Spoon over chicken before serving.

Makes 6 servings.

Enjoy!

Lemonade Bars

Growing up my mom made these for almost every occasion, and I didn’t like them. No idea why, other than I was a foolish child who didn’t know any better. Now, these are one of my Spring/Summer go-to desserts: There is so little involved in making them! The slightly tart filling is balanced by the sweetness of the cookie crust, sheer Summer perfection!
Lemonade Bars

For the Crust:
2 cups Flour
1/2 cup Confectionery Sugar
1 cup Butter
Mix all ingredients and press into 9x13 pan
Bake at 350* for 20-25 minutes until lightly brown

For the Filling:
4 slightly beaten Eggs
2 cups Sugar
6 tbsp Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp Baking Powder

Combine filling ingredients and pour over baked crust {no need to let the crust cool}. Bake until filling is set and golden around edges. Once cool dust with confectionery sugar.

Enjoy!

Farmer’s Cake

This is one of my favorite cakes: It is very dense, but moist and so many delicious flavors. It just says SPRING! to me. It’s also happens to be one of my father in law’s favorites. I have no idea why it’s called Farmer’s Cake, but it’s also know as the traditional Carrot Cake.

 

Farmer’s Cake {AKA Carrot Cake}
1/2 cup Oil {I use melted coconut oil} *
1 cup Sugar *
3 Eggs
2 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Nutmeg
2 tsp. Baking Soda
2 tsp. Vanilla
1 tsp. Salt
2 cups Flour
1 cup Chopped Nuts
2 cups Shredded Carrots
1/2 cup Crushed Pineapple

 

Mix first 3 ingredients until combined; add in remaining ingredients. Pour into greased {I also line the bottom with parchment paper} pans. You can do this as a thick 9x13”, 2 – 8” rounds, or a bundt cake…just be sure to adjust your time and check frequently toward the end.

Bake at 350* for 50 minutes…check periodically.

Cream Cheese Frosting
3 (8 ounce) packages Cream Cheese, softened
3/4 cup Butter, softened
3 cups sifted Confectioners' Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.

 

Assemble and frost cake, as desired, when cool.

 

*The original recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of vegetable oil and 2 cups of sugar, but after baking this numerous times I decided it was a touch greasy and very sweet. You can safely add in as much or as a little of sugar and oil {whichever oil you prefer}, within my measurements and the original recipe’s measurements without any issues.

Concoction

Monday night we had friends of our's over to dinner before they head back to school. Dinner was the same as Sunday (steak, potatoes, and salad), but I made cheddar biscuits (recipe to follow) to go with dinner and "Concoction" for dessert.

Concoction?! What's that, you ask? Concoction is my "own" creation (it's not original, but the name is!). It's delicious and it's beyond easy!
Recipe
1 Box Brownie mix
1 Package of Instant Chocolate Pudding
1 Pint of whipping (Heavy) cream

Prepare brownies as per directions, baking in a large pan (9x13) so that brownies are no more than 1/2" deep. Allow to cool.

Prepare Chocolate Pudding according to directions on box:
Whip cream until the consistency of whipped cream, soft peaks.

I used a trifle bowl to assemble the Concoction. You can use anything: You can even leave the brownies in your pan and just top with pudding and cream.

Cut brownies into 2 or 3" squares. Line the bottom of your dish. Pour 1/3 of the pudding over top of the single layer of brownies, make sure to get the pudding between the brownies and all over them! Dollop 1/3 of the whipped cream on top of the pudding: Carefully spread around, you don't want to mix the chocolate into your whipped cream. Repeat until all the brownies, pudding, and cream are gone. Top with some chocolate shavings. Serve chilled. .
Enjoy!

Spinach Quiche

I'm not a quiche fan (the whole egg thing...don't like'em), but this is an awesome recipe! I did make a few changes to the recipe though from the original. This recipe is really great to add any kinds of cheeses and meats too because it is so basic. Also, it's nice because it has less eggs in it than some quiches.

I follow this recipe for the crust:

Ingredients

• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 1 Onion chopped
  
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 (16 ounce) package cottage cheese
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup crushed croutons

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9 inch pie or quiche pan.
2. Place onion in pan with a dash of oil, cook until soft. Add spinach and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until soft. Drain off any remaining liquid (you might have to squeeze the spinach). Stir in eggs, cottage cheese and Cheddar cheese. Pour mixture into prepared pan.
3. Bake uncovered in preheated oven for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with crushed croutons. Return to oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes, until eggs are set.
4. Allow to rest for 10-15 minutes before cutting.
   

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 231 | Total Fat: 14.9g | Cholesterol: 144mg

Enjoy!

Creamy Chicken with Rice and Spinach

The other day I had a few ingredients that all needed to get used up and I had no idea how to combine them or anything else. If you've never visited www.kraftfoods.com I highly recommend their site: They have a great search engine feature. You put in your 3 main ingredients and it gives you recipes.

We got this one; which I did end up changing a bit.

Ingredients

1/4 cup Salad Dressing (I had House Italian...it's just to give it a bit of flavor)

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips (I did 3 large breasts)

2 cups cooked white and wild rice (from The Market Place)

8oz cream cheese, cubed

1 pkg. (8 oz.) baby spinach leaves

1 large tomato, chopped

2 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese
Milk, as needed

Prepare 2 cups cooked rice in chicken broth, put aside.
Cook chicken strips through, in salad dressing.
Add cooked rice to chicken, stir.
Add in cream cheese stirring to melt and combine.
Add baby spinach, put lid on and allow spinach to wilt....stir.
At this point you might want to add some milk to up the cream factor.
Add chopped tomatoes and serve!

We really liked this meal, and actually ended up with enough for a second dinner! It was great...everything in one pot and relatively healthy and certainly delicious!

Enjoy!