Leftover Sandwiches...

Ingredients:

1T butter

2T Leftover guacamole

2 slices of turkey or ham or roastbeef, whatever.

1 egg

2 slices of Monterey jack cheese

2 slices of toast

Directions:

Melt 1T of butter in a pan.

Add egg (I’m going to make it an over easy, you can make whatever style you prefer.)

Add turkey.

Flip egg, flip turkey, add cheese to turkey.

Toast the bread.

Take the egg and turkey out, put on a plate.

Put guacamole on the toast.

Add turkey and egg.

Wahla! Leftover Sandwiches! :)

Guacamole

Ingredients:

2 ripe avocados

1 plum tomato, deseeded, small diced

1 lime, juice

¼ of a red onion, minced

1/4t finely minced garlic

3T sour cream

1-2T Salsa

Directions:

1.      Chunk up avocado.

a.       If you’ve never had or cooked with avocados, a way to judge a RIPE avocado is by the look and feel of it. The skin should be brown and the avocado should give slightly when you squeeze it.

b.      If the store only has green ones (like my store did today), I suggest waiting a day or two to make the guacamole, put the avocados in a paper bag and leave on the counter to ripen.

c.       The best way to cut an avocado is with your knife, cut the flesh until you hit the seed, then carefully maneuver your knife around the seed and then twist the avocado until one-half releases itself from the other.

d.      To get the seed out, use your knife and hit the seed with the blade of the knife, twist and the seed will come out, pull the seed off CAREFULLY and throw it away.

e.       Use a spoon to scoop out the meat of the avocado.

2.      Dice the seeded tomato, along with the red onion and minced garlic.

3.      Combine in a bowl, mashing with a fork.

4.      Juice lime into bowl. The lime also adds flavor but it’s primary purpose is to prevent the avocado from browning. Avocados are like apples and turn brown quickly. If you have avocado left over from something else, put the avocado in a plastic baggy, put a ton of lime juice or lemon juice in the bag, and take out the air and store in the refrigerator.

My guacamole looks weird. I know. The avocado was not ripe, AT ALL. So, I had to use a food processor, and since the avocado was not ripe, the guacamole is grainy. It still tastes fine, it just looks REALLY weird compared to usual.  The version you make will look entirely different if you get a ripe avocado.

When storing the guacamole, I prefer to add just a touch more lime juice, and put into a plastic baggy, or leave in the bowl and put cling wrap directly on the guacamole then put the lid on the bowl or another layer of cling wrap. When you have leftovers the next day and there is some browning, don’t worry! You can either stir it into the rest of the guacamole  skim it off the top and throw it away. :) Not too big of a deal but I don’t need people freaking out if it turns brown. Hope you like it!

Pollo Ala Crema!!!!!!!!

Ingredients:

Chicken-

4 chicken breasts (I used frozen)

Salsa

Garlic Powder

Cumin

Salt

Pepper

Paprika

            Cream Sauce-

                        ¼ Red onion

1T Butter

1 pints Heavy whipping cream

                        4T Salsa

                        1T tomato paste

                        Salt/Pepper/Paprika

                        1 jalapeno, deseeded and deveined.

Directions:

1.      Preheat an oven to 350F.

2.      With the chicken ingredients, lightly sprinkle the spices on the chicken.

3.      Put in oven and cook for 30-35min, IF CHICKEN IS FROZEN. If not, may want to check earlier.

4.      When the chicken is done (inside temp of 165F), let it rest for 10min covered with foil, this will allow the chicken to suck in those yummy juices and keep it moist.

5.      Now, once the chicken rests, you can chunk or shred it. I prefer chunking.

6.      While the chicken is chillaxing, melt the butter in a sauce pan and caramelize the red onion.

7.      Add the cream, salsa, salt, pepper, paprika.

8.      Let the cream boil for just a few minutes, watching it very carefully, then turn the heat down to low.

9.      If the cream isn’t reducing/thickening like you want, make a slurry.

a.       A slurry- cornstarch and water. You would probably want a teaspoon of cornstarch with water, you want it thin, not goopy.

b.      If you DO make a slurry, make sure to whisk CONSTANTLY when adding the slurry, otherwise it will clump on the bottom and be extremely yucky and not what you want.

c.       Let the slurry take affect for a few minutes and you should see it thickening.

10.  Add the chicken to the cream sauce, heat thru.

11.  Serve with typical taco toppings if you like. I will be serving mine with Spanish rice, cheese, tomatoes, red onion, salsa, sour cream, lettuce, tortillas/chips, & guacamole.

Enjoy!

The background of this dish is from my local Mexican restaurant, “Plaza Mexico”. Now, they didn’t share THEIR recipe, so I tried to duplicate it to the best of my knowledge.  I LOVE Mexican food and the flavors of it. :) I’ve made this a few times before so I’m trying different ways to see if I can get a better end result than the chicken soup I was talking about before. Lol! Hope you all like it! :) 

Vanilla Star Cookies

Ingredients:

1.      1 1/2c ap flour plus extra for dusting

2.      1 stick and about 2 ½-3T butter, cut into small pieces, plus extra for greasing

3.      3/4c sugar, plus extra for dusting

4.      1t vanilla extract

5.      1/2 t orange zest

Toppings:

6.      1/2c sliced strawberries

7.      1/4c sugar

8.      1 tub whipped cream

Directions:

1.      Sift the flour into a large bowl.

2.      Add the butter and rub it in your fingertips until the mix resembles fine bread crumbs.

3.      Stir in the superfine sugar (I used regular), vanilla extract, and zest and mix together to form a dough.

4.      Roll out the dough on a lightly floured counter to a thickness of 1”. (I didn’t roll out that thick, but just go with what you feel.) :)

5.      Stamp out the 12 hearts* with a heart-shaped cookie cutter measuring 2” across and 1” deep.

6.      Arrange the hearts on a lightly greased cookie sheet.

7.      Bake in preheated oven at 350F for 15-20min until golden brown.

8.      Transfer vanilla hearts to wire rack and let cool completely.

9.      Dust with super fine sugar OR strawberries and whipped cream.

Topping Directions:

1.      Slice strawberries.

2.      Put into a bowl.

3.      Add sugar to strawberries.

4.      Let sit on counter until ready to serve vanilla hearts.

You OBVIOUSLY don’t have to use a heart cookie cutter. For SOME reason, my mom didn’t have any cookie cutters so I had to use a sandwich star cutter. : ) Use what you have. You could even change this up around the holiday seasons and even add food coloring to make them more interesting! :) These cookies came out a hard cookie, so I’m not sure if I did something wrong but the picture in the book looks like a donut heart almost, but oh well, once adding strawberries and whipped cream it will soften.

I got this recipe from Cupcakes, Muffins, & Baked Goods, A Collection of easy and elegant recipes. From my aunt Shelley. It is a lovely book.  I’m having these with my  pollo ala crema. The cookie dough is egg free *whispers* “so feel free to reserve some cookie dough for eating!”. Haha! It really is very good.  And the orange zest adds such a fresh zing to the dough! You could use even use lemon and lime zest!

My cookies spread A LOT compared to the picture, obviously I don’t care cause they’re still yummy! If anything I will use them as sandwiches with the strawberries and whipped cream! 

Homemade Lasagna!

Hello hello hello! Now, I know I said I was going to make pollo ala crema BUT the weather was bad today so I was unable to get groceries so I had to use what I have on hand. Which was the makings of lasagna. My lasagna was water this time because of the sauce being really thin, if you just use the crushed like I said, it should be fine but I mean really? Runny lasagna will never prevent me from enjoying it! :)

A note about the noodles and sauce. I did not have crushed tomatoes on hand so I used diced and stewed whole tomatoes so I pureed the tomatoes in a food processor, that’s why it looks thinner.  And the noodles, of course you DO NOT have to make your own noodles (or even sauce) you can use regular grocery store dried noodles and canned sauce, do whatever you feel comfortable doing. If you DO use dried noodles, the cooking time needs to be extended. :)

In my family, if there isn’t enough meat in a dish, there will be words exchanged!  We live in Iowa and we have a beef cattle farm, so we have (luckily) an abundance of beef and meat, you can increase or decrease the amounts how you like.

I only made 4 sheets of pasta for 2 layers, figure 2 sheets of pasta for one layer, so, if you want more layers, cut the dough into 6ths or 8ths.

Hope you like it!

Ingredients:

a.       Sauce-

                                                              i.      2 1/2c crushed tomatoes

                                                            ii.      1t garlic salt

                                                          iii.      1t basil

                                                          iv.      1t oregano

                                                            v.      1 1/3c beef broth

                                                          vi.      1 jalapeno (seeded and deveined)

                                                        vii.      1T sugar

                                                      viii.      1t kosher salt

                                                          ix.      1t pepper

b.      Noodles-

                                                              i.      2c flour (I did this with 1c ap flour and 1c whole wheat flour)

                                                            ii.      1 egg

                                                          iii.      1c water (give or take)

c.       Filling-

                                                              i.      1# ground beef

                                                            ii.      1# pork sausage

                                                          iii.      Cottage cheese

                                                          iv.      Salt

                                                            v.      Pepper

                                                          vi.      2c mozzarella cheese

                                                        vii.      2c Colby jack cheese

                                                      viii.      Garlic powder

Directions:

1.      Cook pork, beef, onion, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

2.      Drain grease.

3. Add flour, egg, and water (add slowly) to make dough in a mixer/food processor/by hand.

4.      Add tomatoes, beef broth, salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano, basil, and sugar to another pan, cook until heated through and well combined.

Making the noodles:

1.      Cut into 4ths. Roll out into see thru sheets.

2.      Set aside on thin towel with some flour on them, cover with another towel.

Assembly:

1.      Grease 9x13 pan.

2.      Cover bottom with 1/3 of sauce and 1/3 meat mix.

3.      Then noodles (2 sheets, it’s ok if they overlap)

4.      Then sauce, meat, and 3 cheeses.

5.      And repeat until used up all ingredients.

6.      Cook in oven at 350F for 40 min. (cover with foil).

7.      Uncover and cook for an additional 10 min to finish melting cheese.

8.      When the noodles are cooked through, turn on your broiler to low and brown the cheese (if not already) KEEP YOUR EYE ON IT, IT WILL BURN QUICKLY!!!

9.      Let rest for 10-15 min (this is so all the sauce won’t run)

Serve with salad and garlic cheese bread.

The lasagna came out runnier/soup like this time for me. But that is only because of the thin sauce, so if you stick to the crushed tomatoes, you should be fine. And the noodles were just a little doughy/raw still, so I will end up cooking mine more tomorrow for supper, but that didn't stop me from eating it because it was still yummy!