Blueberry Bagels

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I used a recipe from “Tammy’s Recipes” Blog and we loved it!! Only change I made was adding half a bag of thawed frozen blueberries.

Home Made Bagels

Festive Blueberry French Toast Casserole

So my BFF made a wonderful dish. It looks delicious. I hope you like it too!!

~Amanda

Festive Blueberry French Toast Casserole

1 1/2 hours / 20 min prep

3 slices of bread cut up into quarters
2 slices of bread (whole)
4 oz of cream cheese (cut into 1/2 inch cubes)
1 can of blueberry pie filling
2 eggs
1 cup eggnog
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

optional

1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon of wheat germ
a dollop of  homemade whipped cream

Set oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray or butter baking dish.

Arrange all the quarter pieces of bread in dish and top with blueberry filling add cubes of cream cheese on top.

Using cookie a cutter cut out some fun shapes with the 2 reaming slices of bread. Arrange cut out bread on top of blueberry / cream cheese.

Whisk together the eggs, eggnog, vanilla and spices. Pour mixture over bread, blueberries and cream cheese in dish.

Optional sprinkle wheat germ over casserole.

Cook at 350 degrees covered for 30 minutes then uncovered for another 25 to 30 min until center is firmed and lightly brown

Serve with warm with a dollop of whipped cream and enjoy

Chelle

I just kind of threw this together tonight…

Doesn’t that just look yummy?!

I don’t have a printable for this yet, but I will soon.

Tonight I had the house to myself. (Yea me!) So as I do with these so few times I have with no picky eaters, I made something loaded with veggies! 

Heat 1-2 tablespoons olive oil in a pan (I’m partial to my frying pans. usually my cast iron but it wasn’t available). I diced a whole onion and added it to the pan. I let that cook as I washed and diced half a green bell pepper. I added that to the pan the a little salt and freshly ground pepper and then took a look in the fridge, I had some tomatoes, so I seeded and diced them and added them to the mix. Back to the fridge… The other night I’d made cabbage rolls (I’l post that after I’ve tested a few more recipes for it) so I had some leftover leaves. Those soft tender inner leaves. I chopped up a few and added them to the pan. I added the precooked shrimp (about 10 shrimp) I’d defrosted from the freezer (bought on sale of coarse) and let is cook just a minute or two to warm the shrimp through. I turned off the heat, and added about 1 tablespoon of minced garlic which I mixed through, letting the warm veggies heat the garlic. I served it over brown rice (leftover from the cabbage rolls). And I had enough for lunch tomorrow as well. (Yea me again!)

Doesn’t that just look wonderful? Let me tell you, it tastes as good as it looks!

Home-made French Bread

French Bread (Betty Crocker picture cookbook 1950) printable

1 c luke warm water
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cake compressed yeast (I believe a cake of yeast was the equivalent of a packet of dry yeast, so that’s what I used.)
1 tbsp soft shortening
3 1/2 to 3 3/4 cups sifted flour

When dough is ready for shaping, after second rising, follow directions.

roll into 15×10 oblong. Roll up tightly toward you…. beginning with wide side. Seal edge by pinching together.
with a hand on each end, roll gently back and forth to lengthen loaf and taper ends. Place it diagonally on lightly greased corn meal sprinkled baking sheet.
make 1/4″ slashes in dough at 2″ intervals, or 1 slash lengthwise. Brush top with cold water. Let stand uncovered about 1 1/2 hr. Brush again, and bake.
Bake 10 minutes in hot oven (425 F). Remove from oven and brush again. Reduce temperature to 375 F and bake 10 minutes more. Remove from oven and brush again. Sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds. Continue baking 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown.

Notes: This is a heavy dough so requires maximum rising time.
For more glaze, less crustiness, use egg white wash. (1 egg white slightly beaten with 1 tsp water

Now tips from me
when you grease your bowl use solid shortening. I keeps the dough from drying out without making it to greasy to handle
when dough is rising boil a kettle of water, put a 9×9 baking pan in the bottom of the oven and fill half full with boiled water. The steam from the water will warm the oven, helping the dough rise, as well as keeping the dough from drying out.
also instead of all that taking the bread out of the oven to brush with cold water, fill a spray bottle with cold water, open the oven door and spritz the bread. As well as keeping the pan of water in the oven while the bread bakes.

This recipe turned out soooooooooooo yummy!!!! The whole family loved it!!!

Who wants cocoa???

Baby, it’s cold outside!!!

Deano had it right, and I don’t know about you but when our weather report says its going to drop to 29 degrees and it feels that way just from looking out the window, there’s no remedy like home made hot cocoa. And if you are like me and a little more aware of how much you are spending verses how much you are trying to save you may have notice that Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Cocoa runs (at the cheapest I found) $2 a box. A box having a maximum of 4 envelopes. (ouch! I know!) So I decided to take a family favorite recipe and adapt it to make “Momma’s Dark Chocolate Cocoa Mix” Oh yeah!

Now before posting the recipe I want to mention a few things. The original recipe my family fell in love with 3 years ago can be found at a wonderful site called “The HillBilly HouseWife” This lady know how to tighten a budget and still keep you on that path from your man’s stomach to his heart!! I’m not sure who this quote is by, but they really are words to live buy. “Face powder may catch a man, but baking powder will keep him” ~_^

Anywho I’ve side tracked, know that you know where to find the original recipe, I want to mention a few other things about powdered milks. My youngest is lactose intolerant, I buy her Whey milk powder, because its high in protein and low in lactose. My friends daughter is allergic to milk protein (this would be the whey mentioned before) there for we make her mix with Soy milk powder, now my friend’s son is allergic to milk and soy so for this kind of allergy you’d want to use Rice milk powder, and those of you watching your waist lines you could also sub my fattening milk powder (which you can find in the ethnic section in your grocery, its called Nido and made by Nestle) with non-fat instant dried milk powder. (notice I provided links to these products so I don’t look like I made it up.)

And finally if you or someone you will be serving this beverage has allergies, please remember to leave out the pudding mix (its really just there for thickening).

Momma’s Dark Chocolate Cocoa Mix (printable version)

• 2 Cups powdered whole milk
• ½ Cup Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Cocoa powder
• ½ Cup powdered non-dairy creamer
• ½ Cup Sugar
• ¹⁄₈ Teaspoon salt
• 1 Package (serves 4) instant Vanilla pudding mix

You’ll want to mix all of these ingredients together and store in an air tight container. I would HIGHLY suggest sifting the cocoa powder to prevent clumps in your cup, or even just dumping all the ingredients in your food processor and giving a few pulses.

The Printable version of this recipe has all of the powdered milk information (minus the links of coarse) for reminders.

And the Marshmallows are for fun but if you really want to treat yourself, whip up some cream with a tad bit of vanilla..

SouthWestern Chicken Noodle Soup

Now if that doesn’t scream fall, I just don’t know what does!! I look forward to the colder climates of the year, not to mention the comfort foods that go with them. My idea of heaven, is snow on the ground, sweater and slippers, and of coarse a hot bowl of soup with fresh home made breads.

SouthWestern Chicken Noodle Soup (printable version)

• 4-5 Bone in Chicken thighs (skinless cuts down on the fat content)
• 3 Large carrots, chopped
• 4 Celery stalks, chopped
• 1 Large onion, chopped
• ½ Cup frozen corn
• ½ Cup frozen peas
• ½ Cup frozen green beans
• 2 TBSP minced garlic (I think that’s around 3-4 cloves)
• 1 Can diced tomatoes in juice
• 2 Qt water
• 1 TBSP salt
• 2 TBSP Mrs. Dash “Original” seasoning
• 1 Tsp black pepper
• 1 TBSP Mrs. Dash “SouthWestern” seasoning
• ½ LB. Fettuccine, broken into thirds

I just threw all of this into my crock pot on high for 6 hours this morning (with the exception of the pasta, I boiled that before serving, drained and added it to the soup). And I wanted to add that I used fettuccine pasta because it doesn’t bloat like other types of noodles. Its holds its shape and texture and really bulks up the soup making it more hearty.

Now my families’ favorite bread recipe is Anitra’s Bread Recipe. I make it into a multigrain recipe. My changes are Red Palm oil rather than vegetable, 6 grain rolled cereal rather than rolled oats and I also add 2 TBSP Flax Seeds (the dark brown ones) and 2 TBSP Sesame Seeds. But other than that I follow her recipe exactly. I have a printable version of the recipe that will only take one page to print here. And by clicking on “Anitra’s Bread Recipe” above you will be taken to her website, where you can watch her video “Bread start to finish” and if you so chose print a transcript of the video.

Comfort Food At Its Best!

It took me years now but I’ve finally made a goulash that tastes like my grandmother’s. I’ve been trying for so long because my grammy can’t make it herself anymore. With the neuropathy in her hands and feet and the diabetes changing her diet, her recipes are but memories of comfort foods long ago….

Grammy Dixie’s Goulash. (for printable version, click here)

red bell pepper (seeded, deveined and roughly chopped)

4 c diced tomatoes

1/2 lb hamburger

1/2 diced onion

1 tsp minced galic

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp italian herb seasoning

1`tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

2 Tbsp tomato paste

other veggies (optional)

heat olive oil on low and add onions, cook until browned and translucent. Add garlic and heat to flavor onions and oil.

while onions are first cooking put your tomatoes, red bell pepper and herb seasoning into your blender and blend until thick and you can no longer tell the difference between the peppers and the tomatoes.

Add to the onions and and the salt, pepper and tomato paste. Then let simmer on low with the lid on.

in another pan cook up the beef until well browned and no longer pink. Drain grease and add to the sauce. Allow to keep simmering for another 20 or so minutes.

Serve over whatever pasta you have on hand. Great with macaroni noodles.