A Summer Recipe

I know I've already posted a recipe like this crustless quiche, but it is a favorite and so delicious.  Would you believe that my four-year-old and my almost-two-year-old inhaled their pieces!  I was so proud.  Here it is:

Image via flickr

Crustless Quiche
4 whole eggs beaten
1 cup skim milk
5 asparagus spears cut in 1 in pieces
1/2 yellow bell pepper cubed
1 chicken breast cooked and cubed
1/3 onion diced
1/3 C. shredded cheese plus more for topping.
1 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 tsp. celery salt
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp rosemary

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Beat eggs and milk until thoroughly mixed.  Put in your additions and gently fold with a spatula.  Put the mixture in an 8 X 8 square glass pan or a pie tin will work too.  Sprinkle your cheese on top.  Cook for 30-40 mins. (Mine cooked for about 35)

 Image via Got No Milk

Note:  You can make this healthier by doing 3 egg whites and 1 whole egg.  Also you can omit the cheese.

Quiche

I'm a huge fan of crustless quiches using egg whites for dinner. 

Image via Examiner

I just happened to have a premade pie crust in the refrigerator and thought, "Hmmm...I'll bet my husband would love the 'Real McCoy' quiche."  Luckily I have roasted vegetables left over from Sunday dinner.  As it is, broccoli is what's mostly left.  So, my quiche would actually look more like this.

Image via My Recipes

Here's my own recipe:
1 9 inch pie crust
2 egg whites
2 whole eggs
1 Cup of skim milk
1 Cup cooked vegetables
1/3 Cup mozzarella
1 tsp Rosemary
1tsp Thyme
1/2 tsp garlic salt
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients (except the pie crust, obviously).  You can add any other meat or veggies if you want.  Place uncooked crust in a greased pie pan and cover any overhanging crust with tinfoil to prevent burning.  Pour in your egg and veggie mixture and sprinkle more cheese over the top.  Bake for about 45 minutes to an hour.  I actually check it at the half hour mark because my oven is so hot!

Image via Suburban Homesteading

Enjoy!

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.

My husband's family is coming over tomorrow night for dinner.  In a hasty and frazzled attempt to run to the grocery store in between gym time and visits to my mother's house, I got a great deal on a pot roast!  Walking to my car, I quickly thought about spitting my dissolving gum out on the road, but quickly thought, "Wow that's rude of me," and "I wouldn't want someone to step in it."  After gathering my children and stepping into my car I noticed the gum (not mine).  It was stuck to the carpet of my car.  Yep, my good deed was punished by an inconsiderate idiot!  Sigh. Lucky me, I found this great recipe for Barbeque Beef Sandwiches from My Recipes.  I'm hoping this will be a no-fail recipe.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Ingredients

• 1  (3 1/2-pound) eye-of-round roast, cut in half vertically
• 2  teaspoons  salt, divided
• 2  garlic cloves, pressed
• 1  (10-ounce) can condensed beef broth
• 1  cup  ketchup
• 1/2  cup  firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2  cup  lemon juice
• 3  tablespoons  steak sauce
• 1  teaspoon  coarse ground pepper
• 1  teaspoon  Worcestershire sauce
• 12  Kaiser rolls or sandwich buns
• Dill pickle slices

Preparation

Sprinkle beef evenly with 1 teaspoon salt.
Stir together remaining 1 teaspoon salt, garlic, and next 7 ingredients. Pour half of mixture into a 5 1/2-quart slow cooker. Place beef in slow cooker, and pour remaining mixture over beef.
Cover and cook on HIGH 7 hours.
Shred beef in slow cooker with two forks. Serve in rolls or buns with dill pickle slices.

The First Step to Recovery.....

is admitting that I have a problem.  So, here it goes, My name is Lila and I'm addicted to pumpkin foods in every variety.  Every year I put myself on a strict diet in order to justify my indulgence of my pumpkin obsessions.  "Why would you do that?" you ask?  Well, the one year I didn't, I gained 10 lbs in one month.  Yep....that's me. But, I do enjoy my pumpkin foods.  So if you're like me, here are some inspirations for your cooking days!

Stuffed Pumpkins

Ginger Pumpkin Soup

 Pumpkin and Cream Cheese Muffins

 Caramel Pecan Pumpkin Pudding

 Mini Pumpkin Cakes

 Pumpkin Goat Cheese Cheesecake

 Pumpkin Biscuits

 Pumpkin Chips

 Pumpkin Fudge

 Pumpkin Roll

 Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Images and Recipes from Southern Living and Country Living

Is your mouth watering yet?  I know that mine is!

Happy Weekend!

My Sunday Dinner Delights!

Twice Baked Potatoes 

Image and Recipe via Food Network

and roasted salmon with a dill yogurt sauce

Image and Recipe via Chow.com

After having the flu over the weekend and on my son's birthday, I'm finally up to taking care of my family again!  Thankfully, my awesome neighbors just got back from Alaska and brought us fresh King Salmon!  Woo hoo!  

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday and enjoy your meal as much as I will!

Random pics for the pre-vacation

My family vacation is coming up and I'm a wreck trying to organize and pack everything.  Being one child out of seven means that there are a ton of people because almost all of my siblings have spouses and children.  Each little family is assigned a meal.  I decided to make shredded BBQ chicken sliders with salad and either french fries or chips. 

Image via laaloosh

As ambitious as I am, I already made the chicken and have it waiting in the freezer.  What I haven't made is a dessert and I discovered a list of things that I'm needing to get other than food.  We are a hiking, rafting, outdoors-ey kind of family and most everything I need has to do with that!  For example:

Little Girl Tennis Shoes

Stride Rite Tennis Shoe via Zappos

Hiking Child Carrier

Kelty backpack via REI

My Traveling Attire

 Images via Forever 21

That's just the basics.  I'm still working on a dessert.  Maybe I'll make kiss cookies! 

 Image and Recipe via Grandma's Desserts Blog

YUM!  But, I really am excited to be with my family.  Regardless of all the stressful details and having a boat-load to do,  

THE FAMILY IS ALL THAT MATTERS!

World Cup Weekend

For the World Cup this weekend, my husband invited about a million people over.  I decided to try a new CC cookie because there are so many good ones!  I found this recipe for Grandma's Cookies from Jamie Cooks It Up Blog. My only change was that I wish it was a little bit saltier and I used less butter.  It was perfect!   Let me tell you, I halved this and it was plenty.  I got about 3 and 1/2 dozen and it was gone between 8 people in two hours.  Oh yeah, that good!

Grandma's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: 72 cookies

Time: 1 1/2 hours

Recipe from Jill Eskelson

1 1/2 C butter, softened

1 1/2 C sugar

1 1/2 C brown sugar

4 eggs

1 t salt

2 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

2 t vanilla

5 C flour

2 bags Guittard Milk Chocolate Chips

1. Cream butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla together for about 3 minutes. You want the mixture to be well incorporated.

2. In a separate medium sized bowl mix the dry ingredients.

3. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed ingredients and mix until all the flour is incorporated.

4. Add the chocolate chips and mix.

5. Roll into balls and place on a cookie sheet.

6. Bake at 350 for about 8 minutes. Do not over bake. You'll want to take the cookies out of the oven when they start to crack, then let them stay on the hot cookie sheet to continue cooking for about 5 minutes.

My other recipe this weekend is roasted potatoes to go along with my mom's greek yogurt chicken shish-ka-bobs.  Since I have six siblings, and almost all of us have children and spouses, I always have a recipe to feed a crowd.  Since this is my own recipe, I'm guessing at measurements for "normal" sized families!

 Lila's Roasted Potatoes

2 lbs unpeeled potatoes

2 T. dried Onion

2 tsp. dried Rosemary

2 tsp. dried Thyme

1/4 tsp. Garlic Powder

Olive Oil 

Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut potatoes in uniform chunks. Place in shallow baking dish.  Pour olive oil, salt and pepper just enough to cover the potatoes.  Add other ingredients and bake uncovered for 45 mins or until fork tender. Stir occasionally.

Easy as pie!  Hopefully you enjoyed your weekend eating!

Images via Jamie Cooks It Up and Food Network

 

Chicken Philly Deliciousness!

Have you ever had an excess of a couple particular foods  and you're thinking, "What the heck am I going to do with all of this?!"  Well, I had a couple bags of frozen chicken breasts and a huge bag of green bell peppers, which I rarely even eat!  So, when life hands you chicken and green peppers, you make Chicken Philly Sandwiches!

Can I tell you?  These are freak'n awesome!  My husbands siblings came over for our monthly get-together and I made these. 

I made the topping and had everyone put their amount on their choice of hoagie or roll.  I then put on their choice of cheese and put it under the broiler. 

When it came out toastie and ready to eat, everyone put on more toppings (lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, etc.).  Maybe it's not traditional, but it used up my extras!  I paired it with a salad and fruit.  MAKE THIS!  Recipe and image taken from hardware forums.

Ingredients:

• 1Tbsp butter (real butter, not margarine)
• 2Tbsp olive oil (preferably extra virgin)
• 1 white onion, 1/2 diced, 1/2 sliced
• 2 bell peppers (preferably green), sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• Dash of salt
• Generous dash of ground black pepper (fresh ground for best results)
• Liberal dash of crushed red pepper (to taste)
• 2tsp cayenne pepper, fine ground
• 12Tbsp Worcestershire sauce (or to taste, but don't leave it out)
• 20oz chicken breast, chopped
• 16oz portobello mushrooms, chopped
• 8 slices cheese (preferably Swiss, Muenster or similar)
• 4 French sandwich rolls (wheat or other hearty bread recommended)

Directions:
In a large skillet or griddle, melt butter in olive oil, topping with black pepper. Once melted add chicken, bell pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. Let simmer, stirring occasionally until bellpepper is slightly pliable.

Add the mushrooms and onions. Top with the garlic, crushed & ground red pepper, and salt. Continue to simmer until all the liquid has evaporated from the pan, stirring sparingly. We want caramelization here, so slow & heavy browning should be encouraged. Be sure to scrape the caramelized goodness off the bottom of the skillet occasionally, mixing with the rest of the ingredients; this is a source of much of the Philly's savory flavor.

When the mushrooms and onions begin to caramelize, make sure that the chicken's juices are running clear (no blood; raw chicken is no good). Turn down (or off) the heat to the skillet, then lightly toast the bread either on the skillet or in a toaster oven. If you choose to toast the bread on the skillet, you may want to add a small amount of extra butter to the skillet first. Add 1 slice of cheese per half to each hot bread roll.

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Oh the weekend....it brings me such joy. I love weekends for a couple of reasons: 1) I get to eat a sweet. After following a pretty strict diet all week, Friday comes and I literally leap out of bed with excitement that I can have a treat. 2) Sunday I get a break from the gym! I'll admit it, I'm a gym rat purely for vanity's sake. But, when Sunday hits and I can just relax....ah......love it. So.... I made some banana chocolate chip cookies with toffee bits! I love these cookies because I don't add butter due to the fact that bananas are pretty fatty on their own. This doesn't mean that you should consume 7, that's right, 7 cookies. Sigh. No self control. My sister and her husband came over and we had some delicious Pizza Factory bread sticks. If you are near a Pizza Factory and haven't had one, take advantage, I urge you! They are huge, fluffy, delicious, and sinfully good. My sister made a delicious salad with mixed greens, goat cheese, and sugared nuts. I made grilled chicken (which I have every single darn night.) with dried onions and Laury's seasoning. So after everyone left and we had such great food (I was actually good dinner-wise, dessert was clearly another matter) the hubs and I got to talking. "I can't believe how many cookies the four of us ate!" He says to me. "Me neither!" I respond disgustedly. So......this morning we wake up and I hurry and drink my protein shake and get both kids fed and ready for the gym. This is where I realize the difference in priorities and thought processes between the hubs and myself. I'm thinking, "Wow, I've got to get to the gym because of all those cookies I ate." I realize my hubs is not ready and he says, "I ate too many cookies last night and they've just weighed me down! I'm going to take a break from the gym today because I'm just so tired!" "What?" I asked as I'm thinking, "Is he really serious? Taking a break?" Oh well, I hope he enjoyed HIS break. After my two hours of working my guts out, I head home and remember that we have a family dinner tonight. The hubs' mom is coming from England and I've got a dessert assignment. Dang it! Why?!!!! Why did I eat so many damn cookies when I had promised to make heath bar blondies! Serenity now!!!! .....sigh...I'm over it. Lesson learned: Do NOT gorge on desserts before thinking through your other delicious options over the weekend. I hope you all have a more promising weekend than me!
Images via The Delicious Life, One Family. One Food, Bunrab Blog Spot, Kara's Kitchen Creations, The Food Network, and Glamour.