Cheese Dip

Norris made this cheese dip and it's so good! I laughed as I typed this because it reminds me a lot of his chili recipe--buffalo sauce and other random things--but both his chili and his cheese dip are excellent!! I actually got him to sit down and write the recipe out, so here it is.
This is the best cheese dip I've had, definitely! It makes a LOT.

1 large block Velveeta
1 can of pinto beans
1.5 lb. ground beef, cooked and drained
1 pkg chili seasoning
1 pkg taco seasoning
1/4 cup buffalo sauce
2 tsp hot sauce
1/2 cup spicy V8
1/2 tbsp Creole seasoning (Tony C's)
3 cups milk (used skim)

Begin to melt cheese in crockpot as you measure everything else.
Mix taco seasoning and chili seasoning in a bowl with 1 cup water, then add to melted cheese.
Add in all other ingredients and let the crockpot do its thing!

Chicken Mushroom Quesadillas

Not much of an update, just pointing you to a recipe to try if you like quesadillas as much as we do! I had kind of forgotten about our quesadilla maker, and I've pulled it out twice in the last week after I remembered how good they are!
Stephanie posted Ellie K.'s (from Food Network) recipe for healthy chicken mushroom quesadillas, so I gave them a try and they are great--both of us agreed!

I calculated it to be around 175 calories if you eat half of the whole quesadilla (one tortilla)--I used La Tortilla Factory low carb whole wheat small tortillas.

"Cinnabon" rolls= best cinnamon rolls I've ever made!

There have been Spangles commericals on recently for Yoder cinnamon rolls. If you have ever been to Carriage Crossing, you know how excellent they are, and now we can conveniently get them right down the street! Temptation for sure! We both thought that sounded pretty good, so I searched a while for the perfect recipe, and found what seemed to be a good one with good reviews on AllRecipes. They're amaaaaaazing! I will go ahead and call them the best homemade cinnamon rolls I have ever had (sorry if I've had yours..I am sure they were good too:) Gotta try these!

Do go buy bread flour just for these. There is a protein difference--if you can only use all purpose, use a bit more all purpose. But it's worth the trip for the bread flour. Also, the original link shows you how to make them in a bread machine. I adapted the recipe for my bread machineless household.
I really couldn't care to position this in the most flattering way because I was too excited to eat it!

Cinnamon Rolls

from allrecipes, adapted for my equipment!

1 cup warm milk (2% or higher will be best here...I heated in microwave for about 1 minute 15 seconds)

2 eggs, room temperature

1/3 cup margarine, melted

4 1/2 cups bread flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup white sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons yeast (1 pkg)

filling:

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1/3 cup butter, softened

raisins, optional

icing: (they call for cream cheese icing..the man of my house doesn't eat that, so we did glaze)

powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla (combine the right amounts to get a good consistency..I probably start out with around 2 cups of powdered sugar, 2 tbsp of milk, and a tsp of vanilla and adjust from there)

Directions:

Combine yeast with milk and 1/4 cup of the sugar. Let yeast dissolve for about 10 minutes. It should be frothy. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200 F. Also, put some water in a heatproof dish and bring it to boiling in the microwave (or if it's an ovenproof pot, on the stove).

Add the egg, melted margarine, salt, and sugar. Mix in the flour, then turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead (will have to add in more flour during this process) for approximately 10 minutes. Grease an ovenproof bowl or pan and place dough in it.

Turn off the oven and place the water on the bottom rack of the oven and the dough on the top rack. Let rise for 1 hour...it should double.

After dough has doubled, turn out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.

Roll dough into a 16x21 rectangle (or a little larger for more, smaller rolls). Spread dough with the softened butter then with the brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle raisins, nuts, or whatever other filling you want to now!

Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. (I made 15 out of this. If you want to make mini rolls, just roll a wider rectangle!) I cut with fishing line--slide under the roll, pull both sides around like you're going to tie it, but don't tie it--it will cut. Place dough in a lightly greased 9x13 pan (I also needed an additional small pan) just a little apart from each other. Cover and let rise until almost doubled (about 30 minutes).

OR at the point you are supposed to cover and rise again, you may put them in the fridge overnight, which is what I did, and will pick up from there. That way, you don't have to get up 3 hours before breakfast to have fresh rolls!

In the morning, I turned the oven to 350, took the plastic wrap off the rolls, and put them straight into the (non-preheated) oven so they could warm up with the oven. Baked for about 25 minutes (~27/28?). As they baked, I made glaze, dumped it on top while warm, and devoured! Um, I mean, I put them on a plate and politely ate them with a fork and knife and absolutely did not scrape any of the good stuff from the bottom and eat it with a spoon.

Hope you like them as much as we did! (if you're still with me at this point!)

Potato Soup

During the holiday season, my mom and I went with a good friend and her mom to a Holiday Galleria at Ag Hall, where there were lots of vendors set up trying to sell holiday items and lots of great finger foods to try! We stopped by the Pampered Chef table...where I found a great garlic press that comes with its own removable cleaner, and my parents got me for Christmas!

Oops, sidetracked...they passed out a couple of recipes, one of which was for "Loaded Baked Potato Chowder" Now of course their recipes call for using a bunch of their gadgets, of which I have none, so I used my own gadgets and methods and this soup was excellent!

I used low fat cream cheese, skim milk, and that healthier version of plant margarine stuff (whatever that is...), so it changed the nutritionals quite significantly. It also was designed to be a microwave recipe (click the link for the original!) but I wanted stovetop. So, here's the way I made it:

Loaded Baked Potato Chowder

(although I am pretty sure I didn't make it loaded...the instructions suggest bacon bits, onions, more cheese, etc. I topped with sliced green onions!)

from Pampered Chef

Ingredients
3 baking potatoes large (about 2 1/2 pounds)
3 1/2 cups skim milk, divided
4 ounces 1/3 less fat (Neufchatel) cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons margarine/butter/something like that
1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper


Directions
Put a pot of water on to boil.
Meanwhile, peel and chop potatoes, then cook until tender.
While the potatoes cook, soften the cream cheese
After the potatoes are cooked, mash them coarsely with 1/2 cup of the milk. Return to low heat.
To the cream cheese, whisk in the rest of the milk until the mixture is smooth, then add to potatoes. Add the butter to pot also.
Heat thoroughly. It took a while for this step for me because I also wanted it to thicken up, which takes longer with skim milk.
Garnish however you like. I loved it with steamed broccoli! I mixed in the broccoli and it was so good!
This tasted even better heated up for lunch the next day as it was much thicker. I ate it all before I got a picture in!

Makes 6 servings, with about 250 cals per serving.

Apricot Balsamic Vinaigrette

I made this a separate post so it would be easier for me to search for later, because I think I'll be using this recipe again! I am already brainstorming to decide what else it would be good on...

Apricot Balsamic Vinaigrette

(for pork chops...or whatever you want to put it on!)

3 T extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup 100% apricot fruit jam

1 t dijon mustard

2 t balsamic vinegar



Heat olive oil in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Add remaining ingredients, heat and mix thoroughly. Pour 2 Tbsp of sauce over each pork chop.



This is around 150 calories to add to your chop cals.

Panko Crusted Pork Chops

This is another recipe from my cousin Carianne--I've almost tried every recipe she's given me and I've enjoyed them all! The only thing I changed was to bake them instead of pan fry them. I have had them stovetop before though and they are excellent that way, too!

Like she said, less smoke in the house this way, too! I served these with apricot balsamic vinaigrette (also from Carianne) and my favorite apple spinach salad.

Panko-Crusted Pork Chops

2 egg whites

1 whole egg

1 c whole wheat panko bread crumbs

2 T olive oil (if you are cooking stovetop)

4, 4 oz pork chops

Mix egg whites and egg on a large flat plate. Place bread crumbs on another large plate.
(If cooking stovetop, heat pan and olive oil. If baking, preheat oven to 400 F). Coat pork chops with egg mixture then bread crumbs and cook in pan for eight minutes on each side or in the oven for about 30 minutes, flipping halfway through. I used my pizza crisper pan to make sure to get crispy on both sides. The underside always crisps first, so don't be fooled because your top isn't crisp--go ahead and flip halfway through! Check with meat thermometer that you're eating fully cooked pork!

Serve with apricot balsamic vinaigrette.

I calculated these to be 282 calories per chop. (if you bake them)

Fun day in the kitchen!

On Sunday, I was feeling a little ambitious about getting some things done in the kitchen. Don't know why, but I did, and it was fun! So combined with Saturday's afternoon experiment, I spend most of the weekend in the kitchen.

• I made a batch of baked oatmeal to have for breakfasts all week.
• A batch of stuffed shells for my friend Molly and her husband to have--they just had a baby today!! I figure if I promise to bring dinner I have a better chance of getting to see the baby soon, right?:) I made them until the point of baking them, then put them on a cookie sheet and froze them. I will give them some spaghetti sauce and mozzarella cheese with instructions to pour sauce in bottom of 9x13, place frozen shells in, then pour sauce on top and sprinkle cheese. Bake for 35 minutes or so at 350 and they're good to go! I changed them up--used ground turkey, some turkey pepperonis, about 3 oz of 1/3 less fat cream cheese, pizza seasonings, and mushrooms. Pretty much stuff them with whatever you have around! Easy fast homemade dinner to pull out of the freezer anytime.
• Made a double batch of Cook's Illustrated Thick and Chewy chocolate chip cookies (the same recipe we sell at school every week!) to bring to the new parents and for Norris and Russ who have been finishing the garage all day!
• A new pizza crust recipe, which (again!) is a new favorite. Used 50% wheat, 50% white flour and a tiny bit less olive oil. Crispy and delicious.
• A loaf of English muffin bread for Norris' breakfasts and to have with my roasted vegetable soup.
• Roasted Vegetable Soup for this week's lunches

I think that's it? It was fun and very productive! And snuck in a trip to the gym! For some reason, when I'm in the kitchen all day working with food, I feel like I've been eating all day and wind up not eating much. Just working with the food makes me lose interest in actually eating much that day. Maybe I should work at a restaurant so this could be true every day? :)