Valentine's Day Supper

Pan Fried Pork Temple Cutlets with Cream Gravy, Coleslaw, and Greenbeans

1# Pork temple cutlets
4T minced white onion
1/4t minced garlic
butter
salt & pepper
2c milk (I used whole but 1%-2% would work)
1T corn starch
2T corn starch
1 can green beans
1 bag coleslaw
1/3c sugar
celery seed
3/4c miracle whip
lawrey's seasoning salt

1. Make the coleslaw.
1. I like to combine the miracle whip, celery seed, sugar, salt and pepper, and from 1/2- 1c of milk in the bowl and stir it all together. Just eyeball the milk, you'll know what consistency you'd like better than me.
2. Then I stir in a little bit of the coleslaw at a time, seems to work better at combining that way.
2. Season the raw temple cutlets with lawrey's seasoning salt and pepper.
3. Heat 2 pans (one large & one small) with nonstick spray and butter. Mince the garlic and onion. I put most meat in one pan and then like 6 pieces in another small cast iron pan so that I'd get the brown bits from the meat for flavoring the gravy.
4. Once the meat in the small pan is browned, transfer to the large pan, add water, cover & let steam.
5. Sautee the onions and garlic in the small pan with a little more butter. Add 1/2c milk and let it cook.
6. Make the slurry of cornstarch and water & SLOWLY WHILE STIRRING add the cornstarch. I didn't need all the slurry so don't dump it all in!
7. Let the gravy thicken, I had to add more milk to thin it back down so whatever you feel is the consistency you like go, with that.
8. Time for the green beans. We put our's in a microwave safe bowl, drained of course. Add a T of butter and sprinkle of lawrey's seasoning salt and microwave on high for 2min.

By then everything should be done. Put the gravy over the cutlets and enjoy. :)
I would've loved to have some delicious fudgy brownies with ice cream but we have neither so just popsicles is what we get I guess!

I DONE GOOD.

Tacos for supper.

I made that guacamole of course and let it meld for 6 hours or so but make sure to leave the seed in the guacamole to help prevent browning in an air tight container!

Taco Meat:
3/4lb ground beef
3/4lb ground pork
2c of water
2 taco seasoning packets

I cooked the meat together (I don't think Brad even realized I used pork!), then strained it. Then I put the water and taco seasoning in the pan and mixed it up and added the meat back after draining for 5 minutes. Cooked until sauce had thickened. Brad didn't like there being that much sauce so he strained his but I liked it so you may need to adjust your water amounts based on your preferences.

Spanish Rice:
1/2 small white onion, minced
3T diced red bell pepper
1/4t (pinch) of minced garlic
1T butter
1/2c minute rice
1 1/2c of pureed tomatoes & enchilada sauce (equal parts)
2c water
1/2t salt
1T sugar (the canned tomatoes were a little bitter for my taste)
1/4t black pepper
1 shake of crushed red pepper flakes

Sautee the onion, pepper, and garlic in butter until browned.
My tomato mixture was frozen from another time so I had to put that in the pan until it was melted.
Add seasonings.
Add the rice and water and bring to boil. Boil for 5-7min, shut off burner and cover. Let sit covered for 10-15min stirring a few times.

This rice was a little liquidy too but I don't mind it so I enjoyed it. Brad doesn't like sticky rice so we cook our rice like pasta (1c rice to 4c at least of water, then we strain it). With the amounts of liquids I had for this rice there wasn't a lot of excess liquid but I'd rather have it that way than dry!

Optional toppings:
doritos
lettuce
diced tomatos
red bell pepper (add a nice crunch and sweetness!)
sour cream
cheese
taco sauce
guacamole

For my salad I layered it:
crushed doritos
lettuce
tomatoes & peppers
meat
rice
cheese (so it melts better on top of the hot items)
taco sauce
guacamole and sour cream

This was delicious!!!!

Oh and as you can see the guacamole didn't brown over the 6 hours of "meld" time with the pit in it! :)

EASIEST & MOST DELICIOUS GUACAMOLE EVER!

My version:

Probably one of the best guacs I’ve ever made.

For some reason I rarely make it the same twice? IDK.
1 avocado (Brad hates avocado and guacamole so I don’t need a lot) plus I found these different types of avocados, they’re not Haas but some other type so they were pretty huge compared to the usual size.
1/2 roma tomato
1/4 minced garlic (I just sprinkled some in because I buy it in a jar)
1/2t salt (VERY IMPORTANT)
1/4t black pepper
3T sour cream

It’s delicious ok. I usually add lime juice but I forgot to buy one but I like this version without it better personally. Another typical ingredient is cilantro but the store had crappy cilantro, I don’t use a lot of it or often enough to buy it and it tastes like dish soap water to me so I didn’t add either of those.

A nice tip I learned tho is put the avocado pit in the guacamole to help the avocado from turning brown. :)

EDIT: I had to mash all this up with a hamburger masher (it’s like this kind of hard plastic fan pin wheel thing, worked really well actually) then I had to stir it with a baby spoon. I did get the dishes in the dishwasher tho so we will have normal eating utensils at supper time. :)

Carrot Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

2c flour

2c sugar

2t baking soda

2t cinnamon

1/2t nutmeg

2t baking powder

1t salt

1 1/2c oil or 1c oil & 1/2c applesauce**

4 eggs

3c carrots (grated)

2 brown bananas

1/2c chopped nuts (I used walnuts cause I had them on hand)

1/2c shredded coconut

Frosting:

1 (8oz) cream cheese block

1/2c butter (softened)

2t vanilla

1c (adjust to your preferences) Powdered sugar

Mix dry ingredietns, stir in oil, eggs, carrots, and bananas. Mix to moisten and pour into greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350F for 45min. Cool completely.  Frost with cream cheese frosting and top with coconut if desired.

A few notes.  It's a denser cake because I didn't have enough oil for the cake so I only got half cup of oil and put in about a cup of applesauce. The banana kind of overpowered the carrot but that's ok cause banana cake is delicious too! So, maybe just use one banana if you don't want as much banana flavor, my mom had them on her counter browning so I used them up! I also used up coconut on the top of the cake because mom had some left over and we don't use coconut very often! Tasted great on the cake! Hope you like it!

The Easiest Bread You Will Ever Make

BEER BREAD.

It has always been my favorite homemade bread I think. It's 3 ingredients ok. 3. THAT'S IT. This recipe is from a neighbor from when my mom was a child. I wish I could hug this woman!

Ok.

3 cups of self-rising flour
2T sugar
1 can of luke warm beer

Stir together until just moistened, don't overmix.
Put in a well-greased bread pan.
Then make an egg wash of 1 egg and 1T water, pour over top of the bread.
Bake at 350F for 1 hour.



This bread is AMAZING toasted! Or fried in a pan. Or even just cut right off the loaf with some butter! I hope you like it, cause I clearly do!

Oh, we let this cool on a wire rack out of the pan until it's completely cooled then store in a ziplock baggy in the fridge cause it can mold just like any other homemade bread.

Lemon Yogurt Cake

I used the recipe from HERE

I'm sorry I didn't take a picture, I was pretty busy freaking out to take a pic because Royce started eating dirt just after I took it out of the oven! lol.

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients

• 1  1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt, I had to use Oikos, Greek Yogurt
• 1  1/3 cups sugar, divided
• 3 extra-large eggs, I only had small eggs so I used 4
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons), I had 4 small lemons so I zested them all.
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the Glaze

• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, I just eyeballed this with the larger amount of juice I had.
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, used all the juice from the lemons, so probably a 1/3c.*******

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease and flour the standardized loaf pan.
2. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. 
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, lemon zest and vanilla.  
4. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it’s all incorporated.  
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes – until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
6. Cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear – set aside.*******

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes.  Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in.  Cool the cake. I stabbed the cake a few times to make sure the glaze soaked in.

For the glaze, combine the confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice and pour over the cake.

Ok a few notes, I seemed to misread the 6th step and I never did it. I just made the powdered sugar glaze with all the lemon juice. Ehheheh. Whoops. Still nice and lemony! This cake seemed very dense and not very crumby. I don't know if that's because of the thick yogurt or if I over mixed it. I'm not sure. But it did have great flavor!!

 

Royce's & My Cauliflower Cheese Soup

1 head cauliflower, cut up into bits, remove as much stem as possible
4c water (or can just use all chicken or vegetable broth but omit the bouillon cubes)
1 potato, peeled and cut up into a small dice
2 chicken bullion  cubes
A few dashes of:
Salt
Pepper
Crushed red pepper flakes
Garlic powder
Onion powder
1/4t minced garlic
1/2 block cream cheese




Directions:
1. Put everything in a pot except for the cream cheese. Boil for 20min or until the cauliflower & potatoes are tender.
2. Once veggies are tender, put them thru a ricer, I just used a spider whisk and did it right over the pot until I got all the pieces  picked up. If you don't have a ricer or just don't want to do it this way, a blender would work great as well, just be sure to allow the steam somewhere to escape or you'll have soup everywhere.
3. Check seasonings.
4. Add in the cream cheese once everything is all riced/blended.
5. Cook for another 10 minutes to heat thru.


Serve.
I topped mine with croutons.


Notes: 
This would be also great with carrots in it too! Just cut those up into small pieces like the potatoes. OOO! 
Add a dollup of sour cream too!
My cream cheese was right out from the fridge and I had issues breaking it down so either get it to room temp or just nook it for a little bit to soften it. 
I also had too much water in the end (I have adjusted the recipe)
 so I made a slurry (broth & corn starch) but if you follow the recipe you should be alright. :)