Meatballs Stroganoff

I didn't even know what stroganoff was until I was about 21 and the first taste I had was of the Hamburger Helper variety. I was hell bent on having a homemade version of it. I had some frozen meatballs that I substituted from the normal ground beef (HH style) or sliced beef strips from original recipes.

Ingredients

10 meatballs
10 oz of sour cream
1 medium yellow onion
2 tbsp onion powder
2 tsp olive oil
1lb egg noodles
salt
pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large and deep skillet, heat 1 tsp olive oil over medium high heat. Brown meatballs on all sides. While meatballs are browning, bring a pot of water to a boil. Transfer meatballs to an oven safe pan and finish cooking in oven, about 15 minutes. Add egg noodles to boil water, cook until tender about seven minutes. Drain thoroughly and do not rinse. Heat remaining tsp of oil in pan and add onion. Cook until golden and translucent, about 7-10 minutes. Turn heat to low, add sour cream and onion powder. Stir frequently to keep cream from burning.

Add meatballs and coat with sauce. Serve meatballs and sauce over egg noodles.

Warm Bananas and Rum Sauce

Oh. My. God. These were heaven in my mouth! I have to thank my husband's Major for leaving behind half a bottle of Captain Morgan Private Stock Rum. We're not big rum drinkers but I've found it a wonderful ingredient for my desserts recently (I used it to make The Best Apple Pie You Will Ever Have). I had some extra bananas left over from the muffins I made earlier this week and this dessert was born. Enjoy!!

Ingredients

2 bananas, sliced
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 shots of dark rum
1 tbsp of butter
1/4 cup of pecans

Directions

In a skillet over medium heat, add sugar, rum and butter. Stir until melted and smooth, about 3-4 minutes. Add bananas and pecans. Coat with syrup.

Serve hot over ice cream or pound cake.

Beef and Noodles

When it comes to Asian food, I love sushi. The husband on the other hand does not like any form of fish or seafood and much prefers beef and chicken Chinese dishes. (It makes me so sad that he doesn't like fish but he does at least try everything once.) We've been trying to stop eating out or getting take out recently so I wanted to give the husband a homemade version of the Chinese food he loves so much. We both really liked this dish and it was a quick and easy meal to make, it would be great for a weekday meal.



Ingredients

1 lb of beef, cut into thin strips (London Broil would be great for this dish)
1 package of Udon noodles
1 small bell pepper, sliced
1/4 lb of snow peas or broccoli
Marinade
1tsp of garlic, minced
1 tsp of sesame oil
3 tsp of soy sauce
1tsp of Worcestershire sauce
salt
pepper
Sauce
4tsp of soy sauce
2 tsp of sesame oil
1 tsp of chili powder

Directions

Combined marinade ingredients in a 9 x9 dish. Add beef slices, cover and refrigerator for at least 4 hours, best if over night.



Heat a large skillet or wok over medium high heat, add beef to hot skillet. Do not add the marinade. Cook until no longer pink, about 7-9 minutes. Remove beef and keep warm. Add peppers, snow peas and/or broccoli to hot pan, cook until tender. While vegetables are cooking bring a pot of water to a boil. Add noodles. The noodles will cook in about 5-7 minutes. Drain, do not rinse. Once vegetables are tender, add all ingredients for sauce. Add beef and noodles and mix until coated with sauce.

Serve immediately.

Banana Pecan Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp of baking soda
4 bananas
3/4 cup of brown sugar, packed
1 tsp of vanilla
1 1/2 sticks of butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup of pecans, chopped
2 eggs

Directions

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl, roughly smash two bananas and set aside. With an electric mixer, beat two remaining bananas until they are smooth (about 2 minutes on high). Mix in the brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, butter and additional bananas. Slowly mix in the flour and baking soda. Fold in the pecans.

Pour into batter into muffin tin. (I pour batter to the top for an extra big muffin top.)

Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Serve warm from the oven or slice open and toast.

Chicken Bacon and Caramelized Onion Pizza

This pizza was inspired by an appetizer I made recently (that I have yet to post). It has everything we love: chicken, bacon and onions. It requires a little bit of effort if you don't have the ingredients leftover from another meal but it's still so worth it.

Ingredients

1 pre-made pizza crust
4 oz of tomato sauce
10 oz of fresh whole milk mozzarella, sliced
2 chicken breasts
6 pieces of bacon
1 yellow onion
2 tsp of sugar
olive oil
1 tbsp of butter

Directions

Heat the oven to 425 degrees.

Cook bacon and cool. Once cool to handle rough chop.

Slice the onion (no wider than 1/4 inch). In a large saute pan heat a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter over a medium heat. Add the onions and saute for approximately 15 minutes or until slightly golden brown. Add the sugar to the onions and continually stir onions to prevent sugars from burning. Cook for another 5 to 10 minutes or until onions are a deep golden brown and smell sweet. Remove from pan.

If you don't have left over chicken, season two chicken breasts with garlic powder, onion powder, salt & pepper and saute in a pan with olive oil until just cooked through (about 5-7 minutes on the first side and 2-4 minutes on the second side). Remove from pan. Slice chicken into even strips.

Roll out the pizza dough onto an cookie sheet. Spread tomato sauce evenly to the edges. Place half of the cheese on top of the sauce; add the chicken and onions. Top with cheese and bacon. Sprinkle with oregano if you desire.

Bake for 15-17 minutes or until cheese and crust are golden brown.

Serve immediately.

Belgium Waffles

My husband loves waffles but he says he always forgets that we have a waffle iron to make them at home. I was in the mood for brinner (that's breakfast for dinner) and decided to treat us both to some delicious waffles and bacon. I used an Emeril Lagasse recipe and sweetened it up a bit.

Ingredients

2 cups cake flour (if you don't have this remove 4 Tbsp from your measurement)
2 teaspoons of baking powder
4 large eggs, separated
4 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
4 tablespoons of butter, melted
2 cups of milk
non-stick cooking spray

Directions

Heat the waffle iron to medium high.

In a medium bowl sift together flour and baking powder; set aside. In a large bowl, beat together the egg yolks and sugar until sugar is fully dissolved. Mix in the vanilla, butter and milk. Slowly add the flour mixture and mix until combined.

With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites on high for about two minutes or until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the batter until thorough incorporated.

Spray the waffle iron with cooking spray and pour batter onto iron until just covered. Close iron and cook waffle. Waffle will be done when steams slows to almost a stop (about 4 minutes).

Serve hot with warm butter and syrup or whipped cream and fruit.

The picture above is of a pecan waffle topped with bananas and more pecans. I also made chocolate chip waffles for my husband. Just had your filling before closing the waffle iron.

Lemon Chicken

Recently I have been all about citrus. I cannot get enough of it and I keep finding different ways to use it in my cooking. I grabbed some lemons and made this delicious and simple lemon chicken. It was fresh and flavorful.

Ingredients

4 chicken cutlets
1 14 oz. can of low sodium chicken broth
2 lemons
2 tbsp olive oil
flour for dredging
4 cloves of roasted garlic, smashed into a paste (you can substitute fresh garlic, half the amount)
salt
pepper

Directions

Heat the oil in a large skillet set to medium heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Dredge chicken in flour until lightly coated. Saute chicken in hot oil until just cooked through (5-7 minutes for the first side; 3-5 for the other side). Remove from pan and place on a paper towel or tray for any excess oil to drain. Heat garlic in pan for 3 minutes. Add the juice from both lemons to the pans along with chicken broth. Let sauce reduce by half. While sauce is reducing, slice lemons. Once sauce is reduce add the chicken back to the pan along with the lemon slices. Cook until just warmed.

Serve hot with sauce and lemons as garnish.

Citrus Sangria

We hosted a Twilight viewing party at our house a few weeks ago. Long story short, this is the only way my husband and some of our guy friends will watch the movie. I decided it would only be appropriate to have vampire themed food. The sangria filled the blood requirement and it was so good! If blood actually tasted like this sangria I'd be a vampire in a heartbeat.



Ingredients

2 bottles of red wine (I used Yellow Tail Merlot)
2 limes, sliced
2 lemons, sliced
2 oranges, sliced
1/2 cup of simple syrup
ice

Directions
Mix all the ingredients together in a large pitcher and chill for at least 4 hours or overnight. Garnish each glass of sangria with fruit from the pitcher.

The Best Apple Pie You Will Ever Have

I was calling this Apple Rum Pie until the husband and I sat down and each had a slice. All we kept saying was "This is the best apple pie I have ever had!" I'm not much of a baker mostly because it requires precision that I just don't have the attention span for. I threw this pie together without so much as a measuring spoon so all the measurements are estimations. Just go with your gut and your taste buds on this one.



Ingredients

Pie
1 premade pie crust (I prefer Pillsbury)
4 Granny Smith apples, thinly sliced
3/4 cup of brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
2 shots of dark rum
lemon juice (to keep the apples from browning prematurely)

Topping
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
butter, room temperature

Directions
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly dust the bottom of a pie plate with flour. Place pie crust in pie plate, press around plate. Trim the excess edges. In a medium bowl mix brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, allspice and rum. Add apples and coat with sugar mixture. Transfer apples to pie crust pouring excess rum mixture into the pie. Bake for 15 minutes.

While pie is baking, mix flour and granulated sugar in a small bowl. Cut butter into mixture one tablespoon at a time until mixture forms crumbles. Remove pie from oven after 15 minutes of baking. Raise oven temperature to 425 degrees. Cover top of pie with crumbles and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until crust and crumb topping are golden brown.

Serve hot from the oven or room temperature.

Dijon Cream Sauce

Whenever I make this sauce my husband always says "Yes! You're making the sauce!!". Needless to say I make this for a lot of different dishes. It's so simple yet it tastes so decadent and can be used for a plethora of dishes.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup of heavy cream
• 2 heaping tsp of Dijon mustard
• 2 tsp of ground mustard
• 1/2 tsp of thyme (optional; I add or omit it depending on the flavors of the meat I'm working with)
• Salt
• Pepper

Direction

In a heavy sauce pan, whisk all ingredients together and heat over medium-low heat. Let the sauce reduce by half and serve hot.

Out of the Blue Chicken Cordon Bleu

Out of the blue (no pun intended) I was craving this. I scrounged around in the fridge and was able to find all the ingredients that I needed without having to run out to the market. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 4 chicken cutlets, pounded thin
• 4 wedges of Laughing Cow Swiss Cheese (I use the low fat version)
• 4 slices of thin sliced ham (I used the ham we make our sandwiches with)
  
• 2 Tbsp of canola oil
• Flour for dredging
• Salt
• Pepper
• You'll need toothpicks to secure the chicken rolls
  

Directions

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spread each cutlet with a wedge of cheese. Top with a slice of ham. Roll each cutlet up lengthwise and secure with two toothpicks. Heat oil in a large skillet. Season flour with salt and pepper. Dredge each roll in the flour. Once the oil is hot, place the rolls in the skillet. Brown each side (about 5 minutes a side). Remove from oil and place in an oven safe dish. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for approximately 15-20 minutes. (Always use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of the chicken. You're looking for a temperature around 145-150.) Remove and serve immediately.