Pear Pomegranate Spinach Salad

I made this salad for a Christmas party we were invited to. It was really good.

Salad:
2 Packages baby spinach
2 pears sliced
1/2 cup cranberries
1 cup pomegranate arils
2/3 cup walnuts
3 oz. feta

Dressing:
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 1/2 Tbsp honey
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3 Tbsp. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all dressing ingredients and toss with salad just before serving.

Greek Salad

This is another salad recipe I made for Christmas dinner this year. It was a huge hit!

Salad:

Cherry tomatoes sliced in half

1 cucumber thinly sliced

1 red onion thinly sliced

Romaine lettuce (as much or as little as you desire, the salad dressing recipe makes a lot)

Olives

Pepperoncinis

Feta

Dressing:

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

2 tsp. garlic minced

2 tsp.  shallots minced

2 tsp oregano

2 tsp. basil

1 T. Dijon or whole grain mustard

1 1/2 c olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Sloppy Joe

Ingredients:  *I believe this is a 1/2 recipe, but enough to make 8 hefty Sloppy Joes, I often double it and freeze the leftovers*1 lb. Hamburger 1 tsp. Garlic Salt 1/2 C. Chili Sauce 8oz Tomato Sauce 1/4 C. Brown Sugar 1 Tbsp. Mustard 1/2 tsp. Pepper Buns Instructions:Brown hamburger with added garlic salt.  Drain fat.  Add all ingredients (minus the buns…) and let simmer for 2-5 minutes.  Serve and Enjoy! Can be made ahead, or in a crock pot!

This was pretty good, I don't have a go to sloppy joe recipe so I found this on Pinterest. I liked it :)

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread

I made this recipe today and it was really good. The Germans put shelled pumpkin seeds (pepitas) on bread and it is delicious! I cut the sugar in half and added 1 cup wheat flour in place of some of the all-purpose flour. Here is the website I took it from: http://www.girlversusdough.com/2014/09/29/pumpkin-zucchini-bread/

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread

AUTHOR: ADAPTED FROM SIX SISTERS' STUFF

PREP TIME:  10 MINS

COOK TIME:  50 MINS

TOTAL TIME:  1 HOUR

YIELDS: 2 9-BY-5-INCH LOAVES

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups shredded zucchini (about 2 medium zucchini)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 3 eggs
• ½ cup rough-chopped pepitas, for topping (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 9-by-5-inch loaf pans (or spray with baking spray).
2. Place shredded zucchini in a colander. Cover with a layer of paper towels to absorb some of the liquid and set aside while you prepare the batter.
3. In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a separate large bowl, whisk together sugars, pumpkin, vegetable oil, vanilla and eggs until combined.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients; stir until just combined. Add zucchini and stir until just incorporated.
5. Divide batter evenly among prepared loaf pans. Sprinkle tops of loaves with pepitas, if desired. Bake 50 minutes to 1 hour until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Whole Grain Waffles with Peaches

I went on a girls' weekend last week and my friend made these waffles. We put sliced peaches and buttermilk syrup on top, and they were to die for. I fed them to Emrie for three straight meals the other day. They were so good!

Here is a link to the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/whole-grain-waffles/

We used regular wheat flour and sweetened applesauce, so there were some minor differences, but they seriously are so good...especially if you have some extra peaches that you need to use up like I do!

Couscous Salad

Soon after we arrived in Germany our neighbors invited us to grill with them. Germans take their grilling very seriously. In the US there is usually only hot dogs and hamburgers at a BBQ. Here when there is a "BBQ" everyone brings their own meat to grill and salad to share. Our neighbor made this salad and I thought it was really good.

1 onion

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1 cup water

1 cup couscous

2 tomatoes

2 bell peppers

3 green onions

1/2 bunch parsley

4 Tbsp oil

3 Tbsp lemon juice

salt, pepper, paprika to taste

lemon slices

Dice onion and saute in oil. Add tomato paste and water and bring to a boil. Cut tomatoes, peppers, green onions, parsley and mix with couscous. Add 4 Tbsp oil and 3 Tbsp lemon juice, salt, pepper, and paprika to taste.

On the side/on top of the couscous she served a yogurt garlic sauce. Basically just plain yogurt, minced garlic, and salt. Also, she squeezed fresh lemon on each individual serving. It was really good. 

Whole Wheat Pancakes

These were really good. It might have been because I cooked them with butter melted on the pan...they don't have pam here. Not sure if I can go back to pam when I get back to the states! ;)

5 from 1 reviews

FLUFFIEST WHOLE WHEAT BUTTERMILK PANCAKES

Save

Print

Prep time

12 mins

Cook time

13 mins

Total time

25 mins

Serves: 10 pancakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 and ¼ cup whole wheat flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 and ½ teaspoon light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
• ½ cup blueberries or chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Combine 1 cup milk with vinegar in a medium bowl or a 2 cup measuring cup and set aside for 5 minutes to "sour". Add the egg and melted butter to the soured milk and using a fork or whisk, beat lightly until mixed.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. No need to sift. Stir milk and egg into flour mixture in 2 batches. Set aside for 10 minutes. Add the 2 tablespoons of milk and stir.
3. Heat a nonstick griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately ¼ cup for each pancake. Dot the pancakes with blueberries or chocolate chips as preferred before flipping. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Asian Salmon with Noodles

I actually haven't made this yet, but I don't see how this recipe could be bad. I put it on the menu for this week. There is a fish store nearby that gets fresh fish from Hamburg. I have been avoiding small shops because I am sure they don't know English, but I am guessing with some pointing and nods we can communicate. :)

Asian salmon and noodles

Total Time: 40 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

Ingredients for noodles:
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 5 green onions, chopped
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 7-10 regular button mushrooms, sliced, or 1 Portobello mushroom, sliced
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon Sriracha sauce (substitute with any other hot sauce if you don't have Sriracha)
• 60 snow peas, ends trimmed (sorry, I didn't have a scale, so I counted them :)). I think it's about 2 or 3 cups
• 1/2 lb pasta, preferably Fettuccine (half a pound)
Ingredients for salmon:
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 pound salmon
• salt & pepper
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

Instructions

Noodles:
1. Heat sesame oil in a large frying pan on medium-high heat. Add chopped green onions and sesame seeds and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add sliced mushrooms and cook for another 2 minutes on medium heat. Remove the pan from the heat, and add soy sauce, honey, chicken stock, Sriracha - mix everything well to combine.
2. In a separate pan, boil snow peas 3-5 minutes until tender but still crunchy. Drain.
3. In another large pan, bring water to boil and cook pasta for 10-12 minutes or longer (according to pasta instructions) al dente. Drain.
4. Add drained snow peas and pasta to the vegetables and sauce in the large frying pan with vegetables from step 1. Mix everything well and heat everything through on medium-low heat.
To cook salmon:
5. Preheat broiler. Heat large skillet on high heat. Season salmon on non-skin side with salt & pepper, generously. Add oil to the hot skillet: the oil should sizzle. Add salmon to the skillet non-skin side down (skin side up) and sear for 4 minutes, moving the fish around the skillet to make sure oil coats the surface of the fish and that the fish is not sticking to the pan while searing.
6. After these 4 minutes, turn the fish over to the skin side and sear for another 3 minutes on high heat. After searing on the skin side, you can actually remove salmon skin easily at this point and discard, if you don't like to eat it.
7. Mix honey and soy sauce together, heating it a little bit in microwave or on stove top to soften the honey. Brush top of salmon with the honey-soy sauce. Place salmon under the broiler for 3 minutes, watching carefully not to burn salmon. Brush with more sauce midway through broiling, if desired. Broil for a total of 3 minutes until the top of salmon becomes a little charred.
8. At this point, salmon is ready to be served. Or, you can keep salmon covered until you're ready to serve. If your salmon is a little bit undercooked in the middle, then keeping it covered for several minutes before serving will also allow the salmon to continue cooking and it will be perfectly done and not dry when you're ready to serve!

Peanut Butter Cake with Chocolate Icing

I made this cake for Dad for Father's Day. It was really good. I think every dessert recipe The Pioneer Woman makes is yummy. :) Mom wanted me to post it so she can make it again. Make it for a large gathering because it is huge!


Here is the link to the recipe. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2013/11/peanut-butter-cake-with-chocolate-icing/

Recipe

Peanut Butter Cake with Chocolate Icing

Prep Time:

 10 Minutes

 

Cook Time:

 30 Minutes

 

Difficulty:

 Easy

 

Servings:

 16

Print Recipe

Ingredients

•  Cake
• 2 cups All-purpose Flour
• 2 cups Sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 cup Buttermilk
• 2 whole Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1-3/4 stick Butter
• 1/2 cup Peanut Butter
• 1 cup Boiling Water
•  Icing
• 1-3/4 stick Butter
• 4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa Powder
• 6 Tablespoons Milk
• 1 pound Powdered Sugar, Sifted
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, and salt. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, melt 1 3/4 sticks butter. Stir in peanut butter until smooth. Add boiling water, let the mixture bubble up for about 10 seconds, then remove from heat.

Pour the peanut butter mixture over the flour/sugar mixture and stir until halfway combined. Pour in the buttermilk mixture and stir gently until the batter is smooth. Pour the batter into a sheet pan or jelly roll pan and smooth the surface. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove it from the oven.

While the cake is baking, make the icing: Melt 1 3/4 sticks butter. Stir in the cocoa powder, then the milk. Remove from heat and add vanilla and powdered sugar and stir until smooth. Add more powdered sugar if you want it a little thicker.

Pour the icing over the warm cake right out of the oven and smooth the surface. Allow to sit for 10 minutes before cutting into squares and serving warm.

Grandma Gilbert's Potatoes

You guys have to make these! They are seriously delicious. I had forgotten about them until we went to Colorado and then mom made them one night. I made them for dinner today and almost ate the whole pan myself. They are pretty easy to make and super good, so you might want to double the recipe so you have leftovers for the next meal.

Ingredients:
6–8 potatoes sliced (if you have one of those nifty slicers like mom's use it, but be careful!)
1/2 an onion sliced
6 pieces of bacon cut into pieces using kitchen scissors
1 can cream of mushroom soup

Directions:
Cook bacon and onion in a large skillet. Leave the grease in the pan and then add the sliced potatoes and cream of mushroom soup and mix it all together. I like potatoes crispy, so once everything is mixed, you don't have to stir it that often. I cooked mine like this for about 10 minutes.

At this point you have a choice. You can either continue cooking them over the stove top until the potatoes are soft and ready to eat, or you can put them in a baking dish, cover, and bake at 350º F for 15–20 minutes.

Either way, they turn out really good...and I think since it is a family recipe it means it is fat free!

Thanks Grandma Gilbert for the delicious recipe and Mom for teaching it to me.

Rocky Mountain Pancakes

This is Mom's pancake recipe.

Pancake mix
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup oats
1/2 cup powdered milk
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt

To make pancakes add
2 cups mix
1 cup + 2 TBSP water
1 TBSP oil
1 egg

Santa Rosa Rice Salad

This is the recipe I made for the Mother's Day BBQ. I doubled the recipe.

Santa Rosa Rice Salad

1 Box Long Grain Wild Rice (Uncle Ben’s-not the minute rice…cook with seasoning)
Juice of 1 Lemon
3 Chicken Breasts, cooked and diced
4 Green Onions, chopped
1 Red Pepper, chopped
¾ Cup Asparagus, chopped (or chinese peapods or green beans)
1 Avocado (Diced-firm, not soft)
1 Cup Chopped Pecans & Toasted (I don’t always toast them)

Dressing:
2 Cloves of Garlic, minced
1 TB Dijon Mustard
½ tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Sugar
¼ tsp. Pepper
1/3 C. Rice Vinegar
1/3 C. Vegetable Oil

Combine dressing ingredients and set aside. Cook rice according to package directions. Cool.

Toss rice together with all salad ingredients, except the avocado. Refrigerate for 3 to 4 hours before serving. Combine salad with dressing and chopped avocado just before serving.

Crispy Coconut Chicken Strips

http://thecozyapron.com/a-cozy-appetizer-coconut-crunch-chicken-strips-and-letting-love-be-the-inspiring-guide/

These are really yummy, they are a two person job though :)

Creamy pesto

http://www.randrworkshop.com/2013/03/pesto-chicken-pasta.html

Fiesta Burritos

3 chicken breasts
1 can corn (drained)
1 can black beans (drained)
1 can rotel tomatoes and green chilies
Packet of taco seasoning
4 oz cream cheese
Avocado for topping

Put everything EXECPT THE CREAM CHEESE in a greased crockpot. Cook for 3 hrs on high, 4-5 on low. Shred chicken, add cream cheese until melted. Put in tortillas.

Makes a lot and is really yummy

Crockpot Parmesan Chicken

http://www.chef-in-training.com/2012/01/crock-pot-chicken-parmesan/

Very yummy

Country Wheat Bread

There is a really yummy bakery here called Zingermans. My friend Heather and I took their Whole Grain Class. It was awesome! I left with 6 loaves of yummy bread and hopefully the skills I need to reproduce the recipes they taught us. :) I thought I would share one of the recipes here.

 Ingredients:
1 cup potatoes (boiled and mashed)
1 3/4 cup milk (whole, room temperature)
1/4 cup butter (room temp)
1/4 cup honey
2 tsp. instant yeast
5 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/2 tsp. sea salt

Preheat the oven 375 F 20 minutes prior to baking.

Mixing the dough

1. Boil the potatoes until they are fork tender.
2. Remove potatoes from water. Mash the potatoes and let them cool.
3. Once potatoes have cooled put them in mixing bowl. Add the milk, butter, honey, instant yeast, and half the flour. Stir until the mixture looks like a batter.
4. Add the rest of the flour and salt. Stir until the mixture comes together into a dough. (the dough is pretty crumbly at this point. Don't add more liquid. They have handy little paddles for us to use while kneading. At home I use a rice paddle to gather up the loose pieces and my other hand to knead. It works pretty well.)
5. Scrape the dough from the bowl onto your work surface.
6. Knead the dough for 8 minutes, until it feels nice and strong and doesn't tear easily when pulled upon.
7. Put the dough in a spray bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
8. Ferment for 1 hour.
9. After the hour, give the dough a fold: turn the dough out of the container onto a lightly floured surface. Fold it towards you about 2/3 of the way, then away from you. Then fold it in the same manner from left to right or right to left.
10. Once folded, let the dough rest in the bowl again for 30 minutes, covered with plastic.
11. After 30 minutes, divide the dough into 2 pieces of equal size. Shape each piece into a loaf shape and place in a sprayed load pan.
12. Cover with plastic wrap and let ferment for 60-90 minutes, or until the loaves are 1 1/2 times their original size.
13. When ready, bake for 30-35 minutes, or until loaves are nicely browned. Remove from pans and cool on wire rack.

Baked Beans

I have a lot of beans I need to use. I soaked pinto beans all morning. This afternoon I cooked them on the stove for a few hours. And then I used this recipe to make baked beans. I did not put the bacon on top but I did put the bacon crumbled. I also did not bake them in the oven I just used cooked them on the stove. They were yummy. I have always loved baked beans. I tried to get mom's recipe but she didn't answer. This is a really close second to mom's recipe :-)

http://addapinch.com/cooking/2013/05/21/southern-baked-beans-recipe/#axzz2vsObSDg1

Hamburger Buns

Our last two months here I am trying to use up all our food storage. I had to be very creative with meals. Last night I made hamburger buns from scratch. They turned out really good and they were very easy. Here is the recipe.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/beautiful-burger-buns-recipe

Swiss Chicken

Not super healthy but really yummy

http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2013/03/slow-cooker-swiss-chicken-recipe.html

Chicken Avocado Taquitos

http://recipesweet.net/chicken-and-avocado-taquitos/

Brandon really liked these

Enchilada Pasta

http://www.number-2-pencil.com/2013/12/09/one-pan-enchilada-pasta/

Fast, easy, and yummy!

Guest Blogger: Dad's Man Camp French Onion Soup

Today's post comes from up north...way up north. Like North Dakota North. It is cold up there. Like really cold, and when it is cold there is only one thing to warm you up: Man Camp French Onion Soup. Ask Dad, he knows! It is pretty easy if you have the ingredients listed below and a red dixie cup.

Ingredients:
3/4 C water
1 package beef Ramen Noodles (broken up before opening package)
1 small onion sliced into rings

Fill a red dixie cup with 3/4 cup water. Boil in microwave for three minutes. Add Ramen spice pack and onoins. Microwave for an additional minute. Add Ramen Noodles and let set for 2 minutes. Enjoy

(For a low sodium option, use only 1/2 the package of seasoning!)

So here is to a warmer winter for us all.

Happy Snow Down 2014...If anyone wants to join our ants in the pants, let us know asap!

Our Best Bites's Thai Chicken Salad

After Christmas I started looking for healthy lunch options. I found this one and gave it a shot. I thought it was really good. The first time I made it felt like a lot of work because I had to cook the chicken, cook the quinoa, and prepare all the veggies. But then I had all the ingredients ready it was easier the second time and makes a tasty lunch!

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2014/01/healthy-thai-chicken-salad-for-1/

Super Soft Play Dough

I got this recipe from a lady in my ward. I am pretty sure that it originally came from Pinterest somewhere, but I have no clue where.

This play dough is not only super soft, but it smells good too (though judging by the amount of salt we put it in, I don't think it would taste good).

So here it is, the recipe for the softest play dough on the planet!

KOOL AID PLAY DOUGH 1 cup flour 1 pkg unsweetened Kool Aid 1/4 cup salt 2 Tbl cream of tartar 1 cup water 1 Tbl vegetable oil

Mix flour, Kool Aid, salt, and cream of tartar in a small pot.  

Add water and oil.  

Stir continuously over medium heat—about 4 minutes.  

When mixture forms a ball in pot, remove and cool a few minutes.  

Knead until smooth.  

Place in plastic ziplock bag and let cool completely.

Play!

It is super fast to make. I made Emrie and I two colors this afternoon...hopefully it distracts her from destroying the house for at least a little bit!