1. Cook tortellini according to package. After the pasta is tender, drain the water and set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan on medium heat, combine fat free evaporated milk, ranch dressing mix, garlic salt, and Parmesan cheese. You will need to constantly stir the mixture, so it won't stick to the pan. Stir until it thickens (about 10 to 15 minutes) and then add the sweet peas and tortellini. Turn down the heat to low and add two tablespoons of milk and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Serve warm.
I need some suggestions. I have pretty much come to an end with my recipes that I planned months ago. I would love to hear back from my followers of some things you would like to see on the blog. Remember, for you sadistic followers, Brandon HAS TO EAT everything I cook for the blog. Please help out---samwilliams929@gmail.com
1. In a medium size container, combine the chickpeas and Italian dressing. You will marinate the chickpeas for 10 hours. Once the marinating is done, cook in a 350°F oven for 40 minutes.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add lettuce and all remaining ingredients. Stir up all ingredients with clean hands or forks. Serve with Lite Caesar dressing or your favorite dressing.
Side note: I made my own croutons. It's super easy and it's also nice to get rid of bread that might be growing mold soon. I preheat the oven to broil. Cut the 3 slices of bread in cubes and dip each crouton in olive oil (I add a few dashes on pepper and garlic salt). Bake on broil for about 10 minutes. You will have to stay nearby, because the croutons can burn quickly.
We crossed a new bridge in The Great Cooking Objective today--Brandon ate a white onion. He didn't notice it at first because the lettuce was so crispy anyway. Half way through the salad, he figured out my little trick and asked, "Are there onions in here?" I hesitated. I was feeling another "bug" reference coming. I nodded my head and he shrugged he shoulders and said, "Hmm, it's pretty good. It adds a lot to the salad."
Yes, you read correctly...he actually liked it!? Both of us were shocked. Anyway, in other news...
Just in case you didn't know, September has arrived. It's time for pumpkins and apples dishes.
But ya know, I'm not really all that excited about fall (SARCASM)
1. Turn the stove top on medium heat and place a pan with a tablespoon of olive oil. While the oil is getting warm, you can start preparing the sandwiches. For the sandwiches assembly start on one piece of bread:
1 Tbsp cream cheese
1/4 c. spinach
2 Tbsp hummus
1 slice Swiss cheese
2. Place the sandwich in the hot pan and cook on both sides of bread until golden brown.
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. In a medium saucepan on medium heat, melt peanut butter into the syrup.
2. Once the peanut butter is melted, combine remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl. Make sure the syrup is covering every bit of the oats.
3. Spread the thin layer of mixture on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes and take out and flip with spatula then bake for another 7 minutes.
4. Let cool for about five minutes, then add to your favorite yogurt and Voilà! You know have your very own homemade granola that will save you a couple of extra bucks from buying it in the store.
2. In a food processor, puree the blueberries until no more chunks. Place the peaches and puree blueberries in a oven safe dish that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.
3. In a medium size bowl, combine all remaining ingredients. Mix together-- you will have lots of small crumbs, but that's alright, it's what we're shooting for. Sprinkle all the dry ingredients over the fruit mixture.
4. Turn down the oven to 350°F and bake for 45 minutes.
5. Serve hot. It will go great with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream!
1. Whisk together milk and eggs and combine all other ingredients. Stir until well blended (a few clumps are ok).
2. Heat a skillet on medium heat. Spray with non stick spray and begin the process of making pancakes. Measure out a 1/4 cup batter per pancake. Cook on both sides for about two minutes or until pancakes are easy to flip. Repeat until all batter is gone.
3. Top each pancake stack with one tablespoon of peanut butter and enjoy them while they are hot.
******REVIEWS*****
I had a guest judge this week. Who do you think it could be? I was really pleased with my guest judge's and husband's response.
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In food processor, combine thawed spinach and cream cheese. Mix until well blended.
3. Mix all other ingredients (minus the breadcrumbs) in a mixing bowl and combine the spinach and cream cheese. Pour into an oven safe dish and bake for 30 minutes.
4. Remove dish from oven and sprinkle bread crumbs and a few sprinkles of shredded mozzarella. Bake for another 5 minutes.
5. Serve hot with your favorite chips.
It's easy to say that we both enjoyed this recipe; we ate the entire dish in one sitting. Brandon enjoyed it until he came across the peppers. Usually he enjoys mildly spicy stuff but the spinach mixed with peppers meant there was going to be some problems later on in the evening, as he told me. This blogger is slowing learning that cheese makes Brandon happy. But still, it's so much fun to watch him eat (or try to eat) stuff I know he won't like. I think this was his favorite thing I've fixed from the blog. I hope you enjoy it too!
1. Boil water for pasta. Cook pasta until tender and drain. Rinse out the pot and use for later.
2. In a food processor, combine spinach and green peas. Process until well blended.
3. After the pasta is drained, pour pasta back into pot along with the spinach and pea mixture, kidney beans, garlic salt, and Italian dressing. Mix all ingredients until the pasta is covered. You can serve warm or cold.
This is a fairly simple recipe but it has some really involved and exciting flavors. Brandon has an opinion about involved and exciting flavors though. I guess I should've known that before preparing this for him. Well, actually, I did. I have a lot of fun cooking this stuff knowing that he has to eat (or should I say try) everything I make.
What's Brandon's opinion you ask? Well, here you go...
Another unsuccessful dish. I guess the key is to keep some kind of cheese in the recipes. It seems I can usually win with the cheeses.
Well, as you can see, we made it back safely from New Orleans. Brandon had the opportunity to attend a library conference in New Orleans last weekend, so I thought I would join him in the big city. Most of Brandon's classes got out early therefore we had more time to explore the French Quarter. When we first arrived at our hotel we realized that parking was going to be too much of a hassle so we stayed around that area (where the hotel and conference was held) all weekend. It was nice to get away for a few days and Brandon and I made some great memories from eating hot Beignets to watching a live street dance at 10pm. I think everyone should visit New Orleans at least once although I was a little disappointed with the foul smells of built up trash in the French Quarter and the constant feeling that you yourself smell like trash.
Our trip started very early on Friday morning. I made a very rigorous and detailed agenda so we got an early start. We arrived on Magazine Street around noon. Now, Magazine Street is filled with unique shops and adorable cafes and it was probably my most favorite place to visit. We grabbed lunch at Cafe Rani and enjoyed our meal under a shady tree. Cafe Rani was voted the best outdoor dining and best hamburger in New Orleans. (Shh...we cheated on the vegetarian diet and shared a delicious burger). And of course, we just had to add feta cheese to the burger when we saw that it was available. The burger was served on a wheat ciabatta bun and that gave the burger a really sweet taste. Also, one dish that Brandon and I can't live without is spinach dip. Cafe Rani's spinach dip was very flavorful, and full of surprises. It seemed like a much healthier version to the ones we've had before though it wasn't as creamy as other dips. It could possibly make our list (Mellow Mushroom has the best).
After walking in the hot sun, we checked into the DoubleTree Hotel and were greeted with a mouth-watering chewy chocolate chip cookie. Two thumbs up for any hotel that gives you a chocolate chip cookie upon arrival. For dinner, we adventured back out to the French Quarter and grabbed a five cheese brick oven pizza from Louisiana Pizza Kitchen. I didn't get any pictures of the pizza, but it was extremely delightful and filling...trust me.
One of my goals was to not get coffee at Starbucks and try local places there. PJ's coffee was started in New Orleans and now it has multiple locations across the states. I enjoyed a strong caramel cappuccino that I thought I might be regretting later, but I slept like a princess on Friday night with hotel air-conditioning blasting out. I hate to admit it but when we're not paying for it, we keep it freezing in the room. Brandon loves sleeping cold.
We woke up early Saturday morning because Brandon had his first class at 8am. It wasn't too hard to get up knowing that I would be eating at the famous Cafe Du Monde very shortly. Brandon got out of his class early, yet again, and we made our way to Cafe Du Monde. It was about 9:30am and there was already a huge line outside. The line didn't seem to be not moving very fast, so we decided to walk around the shops nearby hoping the line would die down. We arrived back in line around 10:30 and it seemed to be moving faster than before. While in line, a gentleman was playing his trumpet to some well known hymns; signature New Orleans. You just have to soak it in because you don't get that anywhere else. When we were seated, our table still had the previous guest's plates covered with powdered sugar - I was so glad I didn't wear black, because it would have been very noticeable where I had been. Brandon, busy taking off his polo shirt in fear of powdered remnants, and I put in our order for six Beignets, Cafe Au Lait, and waters. It was pretty chaotic with the amount of people sitting under one roof, but no one seemed stressed or upset about the wait for the Beignets. Finally, we got the mouth-watering donuts. All I can say is ...wow. You could hardly see the them in the mess of powdered sugar covering them and the plate.
We didn't really eat a lunch on Saturday, so mid-afternoon we began searching for dinner options. Since we didn't have access to our car, we walked everywhere. Italian seem to be what our taste buds were wanting and we heard about an Italian restaurant called Mona Lisa off of Royal Street. The location was at the end of the French Quarter and kind of a hole in the wall. We ordered spinach dip and fettuccine alfredo, of course. But it wasn't the best fettuccine alfredo. The flavors didn't seem to come out; however, the spinach dip had magnificent flavors. This creamy concoction was filled with sour-cream and cream-cheese.
After dinner, we were on a search to find a unique dessert place, but we didn't have luck. While searching, we came across street party with a live band. It was an amazing experience. It made me realize how great life is and it was awesome to see all types of people coming together and having a wonderful time. This is what New Orleans is all about. The street party was a great event to end the night.
On Sunday, Brandon attended his last conference and sadly we realized that our weekend get-away was coming to an end. We checked out of the hotel around 10am and stopped by the New Orleans Museum of Art before heading home. I had done a little bit of research of the museum and I wanted to check out the Sculpture Garden. The garden was very fascinating, because it had numerous unique sculptures in a small area. It was really nice but it was just too hot to stay outside for very long. So we jumped back in the car and made our way home.
Once again, New Orleans was a great place to visit and somewhere everyone should visit at least once or maybe once every ten years. Some people say the trashy-ness is the charm of the city but after unpacking, I found it kind of annoying. It's no wonder this city is ranked number one dirtiest city of the U.S. http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-40390415
Oh, by the way, we got to see a newly-wed couple leaving their ceremony venue accompanied by another street band. Check it out!
Preheat oven to 325°F. Place broccoli in food processor and chop until hardly any chunks. For the egg mixture, combine all ingredients including the broccoli and whisk together until well blended. Pour mixture into casserole dish and bake for 60 minutes at 325°F. Let cool for about 10 minutes before cutting and serving.
I am probably a horrible wife because I know that Brandon doesn't care for quiche (much less eggs) and still, I fixed this dish. But all I'm asking for is just one bite. Will he finish it or not?
Next week Brandon and I will take a trip to New Orleans for a long weekend. I am going to try and blog next Friday, but it might not happen because I'll probably be too excited packing. For you followers, you will have something to look forward to the following week with tons of pictures and reviews from our first trip together to N'awlins! Even though I have never been to Cafe Du Monde, I can already taste the beignets!
Oh, and if you would like to commission a challenge, email me at samwilliams929@gmail.com
6 slices Italian three cheese (provolone, asiago, and mozzarella)
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 Tbsp olive oil
crumbled feta cheese
1. In a food processor, combine the mushrooms and spinach. Once the mushroom and spinach is chopped finely, pour in the olive oil, pepper, garlic salt, and onion powder.
2. The process for the panini:
-on each half of bread, spread 1 Tbsp of mushroom and spinach mixture.
-on one half lay one slice of Italian three cheese and sprinkle a few crumbles of feta.
-place the halves on top of each other and you are ready to grill.
3. You could either use a skillet or some type of grill for the sandwiches. I used our George Foreman grill :)
Place the sandwiches on the grill for about 6 minutes and serve hot.
Again, feel free to use any type of bread that you want but I prepared this recipe with fresh rosemary focaccia in my bread maker. I think that everyone should own a bread maker because there is really nothing like fresh baked bread. The bread that I make is one of Brandon's favorite things and I guess I take a lot pride in that. Now here are some words of wisdom from Brandon:
1. Heat black beans, corn, chicken broth, and taco seasoning oven low heat for about 20 minutes.
2. Warm tortillas in microwave or oven, so the tortillas will be easy to fold.
3. Assembling of one taco:
-1/4 c. shredded cabbage
-2 Tbsp black bean and corn mixture
-1 Tbsp ranch dressing
-1 Tbsp cheddar cheese
4. Roll the taco and serve warm.
My idea came from my love for fish tacos. Although, Brandon was disgusted by the cabbage, I was impressed how the tacos turned out--Brandon doesn't know what he is missing out on :) Cabbage is good for the heart!
2. Boil water for pasta and cook until pasta is tender. Drain pasta.
3. In food processor, puree the spinach and onions until smooth.
4.Combine the spinach and onion mixture, eggs, feta cheese, broth, garlic salt, pepper, and rosemary into a mixing bowl. After a good stirring, pour into a oven safe dish.
5. Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top of dish and bake for 25 minutes at 350°F.
Prepare yourself for Brandon's review. I must warn you, he was in a silly mood:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. On stove top, fill a large pot with water and wait for it to boil. Once the water starts to boil, place all your chopped squash and zucchini in the pot. Cook the vegetables until tender.
2. Prepare rice according to directions on the package.
3. Puree the squash, zucchini, and onions until no chunks.
4. In a mixing bowl, combine cream of mushroom, cream cheese, garlic salt, and pepper. Once those ingredients are blended, then pour in the puree vegetables. Lastly, mix in the shredded cheddar cheese and pour all ingredients into a casserole dish.
5. Bake for 40 minutes on 350°F. Pull the casserole dish out of oven and sprinkle a small amount of cheddar cheese. Bake for another 5 minutes.
Although Brandon didn't seem to enjoy it at first, he did go up and get seconds. So, who knows? But I enjoyed this dish and hope you do too!
I apologize for the blog not being up earlier. For some reason the blogger website wasn't working this morning.
I'm pretty happy about this post because I was able to answer one of my most difficult viewer challenges yet. Do you remember?
"Long time reader, first time challenger. I CHALLENGE you to make something Brandon will like that has absolutely nothing cheese-like in it!"
I have to admit, I was pretty panicked about this one. I kept myself "Will Brandon like it if it doesn't have cheese?" Finally, I landed on an idea that I thought he might enjoy: a vegetarian chicken pot pie.
Chick pot pie
1/2 c. chopped onion
12 oz. frozen bag Lima beans
1 can sliced potatoes, drained
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 cans 98% fat free cream of mushroom
1 cup vegetable or chicken stock
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Crust:
The crust can be your special touch to the pie. I will give my suggestions, but really you could use any kind of pancake batter and truly make it your own.
3/4 c. Krusteaz pancake mix
3/4 c. water
1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients and make sure the cream of mushroom is thoroughly mixed in with all the ingredients.
3. Spray a casserole dish with non-stick spray and pour the ingredients into dish. Bake at 425°F for 30 minutes.
4. For the crust, mix together the pancake mix with water. Take the casserole dish out of oven and place spoonfuls of mixtures all over the top. Bake for another 20 minutes, until the crust is golden.
Now, Brandon isn't a fan of chicken pot pie but I think I won him over with this recipe. Halfway through the dish I noticed him staring down at his spoon as he was dissecting all the ingredients.
"This has onions in it."
"Yeah, it does."
"Hmm...it's pretty good."
And there you go readers; mission accomplished. I remember not too long ago when he thought theonions tasted like bugsand now there's really no telling where I can take him next.
In celebration, I decided to be festive and prepare a Mexican dish. This week, my ideas came from a viewer challenge:
"You know how KFC has those Chicken bowls that are really good (and really bad for you)? Well last night my wife made some chicken, black beans, and brown rice and I put it all in a bowl and put some cheese on top and it was mighty tasty. I don't know how good that was for us, but could you come up with something like that that would appeal to those with taste buds who are trying to lose weight? Also, maybe something you could substitute for the chicken since you guys are trying to be vegetarian? "
I agree that my follower prepared a healthier option to the KFC chicken bowl and I decided to use similar ingredients but added some taco seasoning and onions for a variety of flavors. My version has a little bit of a kick to it!
1 c. dried brown rice
1 packet reduced sodium taco seasoning
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. chopped yellow onions
1 can kernel corn, drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c. shredded reduce fat cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare brown rice according to package. In the same saucepan as the rice, mix in chopped onions, taco seasoning, and 1/2 cup of water. Let simmer for about a minute.
Next in the saucepan, combine the corn, black beans, cream of mushroom and spices and mix until well blended. In a medium size casserole dish, pour in the Mexican rice and bake at 350°F for 20 minutes. Lastly, take the casserole dish out of oven and sprinkle cheddar cheese on top and bake at 400°F for 10 minutes. Serve with fat free sour cream and more cheddar cheese.
Speaking of viewer challenges, this is going to be an interesting one...
"Long time reader, first time challenger. I CHALLENGE you to make something Brandon will like that has absolutely nothing cheese-like in it!"
That's going to be a difficult one. That boy loves his cheese. And here's cheesy boy now with a review:
Brandon and I are planning to celebrate Cinco de Mayo tonight at a local taco shop. I guess we will have to say Seis de Mayo. Do you or your family have any traditions for Cinco de Mayo?
This week, I decided to take a break from cooking and post pictures from our recent trip to Nashville. Brandon's birthday is April 15th and mine is April 18th and we usually try to get away from home and plan a little something to do in celebration of our birthdays. One of our favorite restaurants to go to is Maggiano's Little Italy and guess what...the closest one to us just happened to be in Nashville, TN. We are die hard fans of Maggiano's and we will travel any distance just to get a taste. With our work schedules, we were only able to stay in Nashville for one night so we carefully planned our time together and really made the best of it! We left Oxford at 6am (and drove with the rain all the way there) and arrived to clear skies in Nashville sometime around 10am.
Brandon got Fettuccine Alfredo and I decided on the four cheese ravioli with pesto Alfredo sauce. I hope no one was watching us because they probably would've been disgusted at how fast Brandon scarfed his food down and thought us rather odd for the huge grins we were sporting the entire meal. To top of the meal, Chocolate Zuccotto cake came right to our table. The cake is massive and extremely rich, but you can demolish it in minutes without thinking about what just hit your taste buds. Layers of chocolate mousse between chocolate cake and frosted with chocolate Ganache. Oh la la!!! We are planning a trip to St. Louis in October (for our anniversary) and just try and guess what was one of the main reasons we picked that city? (Ok, I'll tell you- they have a Maggianos) I can't wait!
I found a great deal on a one night's stay at the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel. Of course, the hotel had tons of music decorations and memorabilia and Brandon was pretty excited when he saw some of Bob Dylan's handwritten lyrics on display in the lobby. The hotel was conveniently located closed to downtown.
On Friday afternoon, we adventured out to the farmer's market. They had a huge selection of fresh produce and I just want to kick myself now for not getting anything and being so frugal.
I am huge coffee fan and sucker for cute, unique coffeehouses. Well, I found Frothy Monkey and it was packed at 9am on Saturday morning. Belmont University is nearby, so the majority of customers were college aged students staring at laptops. I decided on oatmeal with fresh pineapple and granny smith apples. Along with my oatmeal, I sipped on a tasty mocha and the workers even put a pretty design in the froth. Hopefully, I'll learn to do that one day...
The oatmeal looked so pretty once it came to the table, but I forgot to take picture. But I did snatch a picture really quick before I devoured it.
Later on, before we left Nashville, Brandon was reminded by a good friend that Saturday was Record Store Day. I've never seen so many people in one record store before. It was truly an experience. We drove all over Nashville just trying to find a record store that wasn't packed out into the streets. Brandon did go with me to the farmers market without complaining so I was happy to be able to do something for him and watch him search for hours in old, black milk cartons for that one special record.
Thanks for taking the time read my blog and coming back week after week. I'll cook up something yummy for you next week!
