Potroast

Pot Roast!!!

I was craving some of my mom's pot roast.  She was out of town, so I had to make it for myself.

20 oz baby potatoes quartered
12 oz baby carrots
8 oz sliced mushrooms
6 oz celery cut in bite size pieces (you could use more. This is all I had!)
1 medium purple onion sliced into 1/2" rings
2 lb roast (eye of round was on sale)
2 T minced garlic
2 T (reduced sodium) Soy sauce
2 T Worchestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup of coffee.  (I used a bit of Starbucks Via (instant coffee) instead, as I am not a coffee drinker)

Place all ingredients in sleeve of crock pot.  Refrigerate over night to marinade.  In the crock pot on high for 2 hours.  Then,  crock pot on low for 5 hours. About 5 servings.

This really hit the spot!!!

Proper pork meal.

Some days I enjoy making a complete cohesive meal and serving it to others. The hard part some days is to find that victim, I mean someone, to feed.  Last night, I trapped Kate!  

The menu?  Marinated pork loin, asparagus, chevre and chive mashed potatoes, finished with baked apples and vanilla ice cream. 

Marinated pork loin:

I started out by sneaking a peak at this recipe.  It seemed pretty easy, but as always, I had to tweak it a bit!

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup soy sauce (I used reduced sodium)

1 T minced garlic

1/4 cup yellow mustard

1/4 t maple syrup extract

1/4 t pumpkin pie spice

1/4 cup sugar (more or less, regular or substitute)

2 lbs pork loin - roast or steaks

Mix top 7 ingredients in a ziplock bag large enough to hold meat.  Taste test.  Add more sugar as needed.  Put pork in, being sure to coat with the marinade.  Set in fridge for several hours to overnight.  Preheat over to 350F.  Reserve leftover marinate.  For steaks, bake 20 to 30 minutes (roast bake a bit longer), flip, add leftover marinade.  Cook 20 to 30 minutes more, or until center no longer pink.  Serves several (around 6).

Asparagus:

There is no real "recipe" to this. I snap off the ends of the asparagus (which Cocoa the dog immediately begs to eat!), start some water boiling, throw the asparagus in and boil for 7 minutes.  Drain, add a tiny bit of salt, and enjoy!

Chevre and Chive Mashed Potatoes:

1 lb potatoes

1/4 cup sour cream 

1/4 cup milk

2 oz goat cheese 

Chives to taste

Pinch powdered garlic

salt and pepper to taste

Dice potatoes.  Boil 15 minutes or until very tender. Drain off water.  Mash.  Add sour cream, milk, salt, pepper, garlic powder.  Chop chive. Mix chive and goat cheese in.  Serves 2 to 3.

Baked Apples:

Preheat over to 350F.  Peal fresh picked apples. Core and slice apple into large chunks.  Place in covered baking dish with small amount of water.  Sprinkle sparingly with sugar and pumpkin pie spice.  Bake an hour or so, until soft.  Half way through baking, vent lid to baker to thicken apple syrup in bottom of pan.  Once baked, allow to cool, then top with ice cream and enjoy!

 

I am the worst blogger ever!

Yet again, a huge span of time has gone since I updated.  You know that I have had to have been eating and experimenting since then. So, here is yet another long update.

Almost Weight Watchers Chocolate Cake

1box devil's food cake mix
1/2 cup water
1 can pumpkin
2 T cocoa powder
3 T sugar
instant coffee (enough to make an 8 oz cup - I used a package of starbuck's via)

Topping: powdered sugar, milk and dark chocolate chunks (I used a Hershey bar and part of a dark chocolate Easter bunny!)

Preheat oven to 350F. Grfease 9x13 pan. Mix all cake ingredients for 2 minutes. Bake according to box instructions.  While still warm, top with milk and dark chocolate chunks.  Once cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar. Refrigerate. 

This recipe is quite versatile.  I made a "Fall Cake" with the basics.  1 vanilla cake mix, 1 can pumpkin, 1/2 cup water, 2 medium apples pealed and chopped, 3 T sugar (I didn't add this, but should have!), 1 1/2 T each almond extract and pumpkin pie spice.  Bake according to instructions.  Top with slivered almonds and drizzle made of milk, almond extract, and powdered sugar!

Comfort food chicken bake:  Is it pot pie or is it chicken and dumplings?

3 cups diced potatoes
2 cups diced chicken (canned is very easy!)
1 bag frozen mixed veggies
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Topping:
1 1/2 cups bisquick
1/2 cup milk

In a 9x13, mix top ingredients.  Bake at 350 until warm.  Poor bisquick on top. Bake until fluffy and warm.  Serve.  Eat.  This goes fast!

Personal Pie:

Filling:
2 medium apples or peaches pealed and cored/pitted
1/4 cup blueberries if desired
3 T sugar substitute
1 t sugar
1/4 t cinnamon
1 T cornstarch

"Crust"
1/2 cup bisquick
3 T sugar substitute
1 t sugar
1 T butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 6" pie pan.  Using a fork, combine crust ingredients.  Press half of the crust into pie pan and bake for 10 minutes.  While baking, toss filling ingredients together.  Place all of filling in pan and top with remaining crumble.  Bake 45 minutes, until fruit is soft and bubbly.  Refridgerate until cold.  Enjoy!

I have been making far too many mini pies recently, thanks to the bountiful apple and peach crops!


Krispie Kream Bacon Cheeseburgers

My sister, Heather, takes the credit for getting me to do this one.

2 Krispie Kream original doughnuts
1 burger patty (cooked to your heart's desire)
1 slice cheddar cheese
several slices bacon
burger toppings as desired: lettuce, tomato, onion, mushroom
pickle (we forgot it!  Major error)

Layer all and eat.  Be sure to have an AED nearby... 

Pizza Buns

I had this semi genius idea for a new way to eat pizza!  Rolled up like a cinnamon bun and dipped in pizza sauce!  Why not? :)

Cinnamon roll dough - I used this one
3/4 cup softened butter
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 T garlic powder
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Pizza toppings as desired

Follow cinnamon roll dough instructions including rising times.  Roll out dough.  Mix butter, parm, and garlic.  Spread over the dough.  Add mozzarella and other pizza toppings.  Roll and slice in 1.5 inch slices

Place in greased pans.  Allow to raise until doubled.  Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until no longer doughy. 

Serve with pizza sauce for dipping!  Enjoy!!!!

Playdough Ice Cream

They said it couldn't be done! 

Come to find out, blue moon ice cream is only sold in the Great Lakes Region.  While in North Carolina, I got the craving to eat some, and none was to be found. After much research, I was not having any luck for a recipe.  So, I went to the store, bought some extracts, and hoped for the best!

Vanilla Ice Cream
Lemon Extract
Raspberry Extract
Almond Extract
TONS of blue food coloring
(For Playdough Ice Cream, you will need sugar cookie dough and food coloring. Add food coloring to dough and combine. Your hands will change color. Roll into little balls and freeze)

Now, this is no where near how a real ice cream place does it, but in a pinch it will do!  In a large bowl, empty a carton of vanilla ice cream.  Start mixing ice cream to soften it.  Add several drops blue food coloring and equal parts of each extract, starting at about a teaspoon.  Mix until ice cream is a unified color. Taste test.  If it is not there, continue adding equal amounts of extracts and blue food coloring. Trust me, it will get there.  Then, once it tastes like blue moon, drop in sugar cookie bits and stir. Freeze immediately.  Once firm, enjoy!  This is not going to be soft and fluffy. It will be very dense. But, it is still good and will do in a pinch!

More mish-moshes of food!

Yet again, I have been a bad blogger and gone a bit to long without updating. I apologize!  In the next few weeks, there will be some fun, crazy foods to be made, so, be prepared!  For now, here are some more food thoughts I have had!


Dine with Nine:

My church has a program that is called "Dine with Nine".  Groups of 9 (go figure) or so, are paired together. As a group, you decide how/when you would like to meet over a period of a year.  Our group did a brunch at my house recently - potluck style!  I made a few things for it:

Egg bake

I love this recipe, because I can come straight from the grocery store with frozen foods, throw it in a pan in about 5 minutes, refrigerate over night, and bake the next day!

In a 9x13 pan, spray the bottom of the pan with pam.  Pour out a layer of frozen diced potatoes and sprinkle seasoning salt or southwestern seasoning.  Pour a thin layer of frozen onions and green peppers.  Layer on thinly sliced mushrooms.  Use an entire bag of shredded cheese.  Take a package of frozen sausages (10/pack) and thinly slice.  Throw this on top.  Pour 2 containers of Southwestern style Egg beaters...(I use the 16oz size cartons).  Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate over night.

When you are ready for your get-together, put the casserole in the oven (covered in foil), set at 375F, bake for an hour to 1'15".  Remove the foil for the last 30 minutes or so.  Delicious!

 

Cinnamon Bun Monkey Bread

Monkey bread is one of natures finest foods... Ok, there is absolutely nothing natural about it. I love to eat it when made with the original recipe. But, as always, I had to take it one step farther.

Ingredients:
2 cans refrigerator cinnamon rolls (not the fancy huge rolls, the cheap, skinny can)
1/2 cup white sugar with2 T cinnamon mixed in
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup pecans

Preheat oven to 350F.  Spray bundt pan with cooking spray.  Put pecans in bottom of pan.  Cut each bun into quarters.  Toss in cinnamon sugar to coat (either in a zipper bag or bowl).  Put all pieces in bundt.  In a small saucepan on medium heat, mix butter and brown sugar.  Stir until nicely melted.  As soon as melted, poor over top of cinnamon bun pieces.  Bake for approximately 35 minutes.  Cool a few minutes. Using a knife, go along edges of bread to release from pan.  Flip onto plate.  For an extremely insane treat, serve along with the cinnamon bun frosting that comes in the package! YUM!

Funnel Cake

Alright, I didn't actually make this.  Recently, my sister and I went to the fair and experienced some amazing funnel cakes.  Later, I saw a commercial for IHOP funnel cakes.  I searched the internet to see if anyone could tell me if they were as good as fair funnel cakes.  Every site I found was for pregnant women. Don't other people like funnel cakes? I like them, and I am NOT pregnant.  So, my sister and I ventured out to IHOP.

They are so good!  We asked for them with toppings on the side.  It was a good idea as the toppings were much to sweet.  They are quite a bit smaller, but you get 3 in a "serving" - just don't look up the nutrition informations!  In this instance, IHOP, you have created FOOD!

Onion ring success!

After thinking about my onion rings a bit, I started questioning myself.  My biggest question was "What seasonings are there in a usual fried onion ring recipe?"  I found a recipe online that used just salt for seasoning.  As I was reading the reviews (there were at least 600, and the recipe still had 5 stars), I saw someone wrote that they had followed the fried onion ring recipe and baked it instead!  I was sold!  With my final vidalia onion, I embarked upon what would later be called a successful gastronomical (Yeah, that is a real word. Look it up) journey.

Onion Rings 3.0

1 vidalia onion
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup egg (or egg substitute)
2 T milk (I used 3T and that was too much)
1/2 cup bread crumbs (Which was my final 1 1/2 high fiber hamburger buns)

Preheat the oven to 400 F.  Grease a cookie sheet with cooking spray.  Cut ends off onion.  Slice into 1/4-3/8" rings.  Put onion rings, flour, baking powder, and salt all in quart to gallon sized zipper bag. Shake to coat.  Pour out flour into small bowl. Add egg and milk and mix well.  Pour back into the zipper bag and fully coat rings.  Set up a wire rack over paper towels (I just put it over my plastic cutting board since it is washable).  Place all rings on the rack and allow to drip.  Once they stop dripping, toss in the bread crumbs.  Lightly coat tops of rings with more cooking spray.  Bake 12 to 13 minutes, flip, and bake another 12 to 13 minutes, until golden brown and delicious.

***  First thing I noticed:  These actually smelled like real onion rings!  Second thing: They taste like them, too.  I think that next time I will add 1/2 teaspoon salt to the bread crumbs.  I made up a batch of zesty sauce for these, but realized that took away from the flavor.  They were awesome on their own.  Very delicate, though.  I will make these in the future!  Maybe tomorrow.  I just need to run to Meijer first and stock up on more hamburger buns (or bread) and onions! ***

The onion ring blogging chapter of my life is over.  I feel a little sad now.  What is next?  Give me ideas!