Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

You'll need:

2 1/2 cups flour (I use whole wheat)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 Tbsp instant coffee mixed with 1 Tbsp hot water
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Mix well and set aside.

In another bowl, cream margarine and sugar until fluffy.

Add egg, coffee liquid and mashed bananas.

Combine with dry ingredients.  Fold in chocolate chips.

Spoon into muffin tins.

Bake at 400F for 20 minutes

Saucy BBQ chicken Sammies with Pepper and Scallion Potato Salad

This recipe is from Rachael Ray's 365 No Repeats cookbook and this one is a for sure MAKE IT AGAIN.  It was sOOOOO tasty!!!

Cook the chicken, make your sauce, then pull the chicken apart into pieces, then heat with the sauce and put on the bun, yum yum!



Chunk up 2 pounds of potatoes, play in pot of water and boil until tender 10-12 minutes

While potatoes are cooking bring the stock and beer to a simmer in a small or medium skillet. 
Add chicken breast and poach for 10 minutes (turning once)

Heat a second skillet over medium-low heat.  Add 2 tablespoon EVOO and garlic and onions.  Once it's cooked through turn off heat.

Potatoes should be by now, drain and return to pot. add 1 ounces of hot peppers(chopped), 1 small red bell pepper (chopped) and 4 scallions (chopped) to the pot.  Add splash of hot pepper juice and 3 tablespoons of wine vinegar.  Toss to combine, drizzle with EVOO season with salt and pepper.

Combine 2 tablespoons or worcestshire sauce, 1 tablespoon of hot sauce, 2 tablespoons or grill seasoning, 3 tablespoons of dark brown sugar and 4 tablespoons of tomato paste in a bowl.

Add 2 ladles of the poaching liquid to the bowl and mix well.

Transfer chicken breasts to the bowl and use 2 forks to pull the chicken apart.  Add the shredded chicken into the pan with the garlic and onions and combine well.  Reheat for 5 minutes.  You can add more poaching liquid to make it as saucy as you'd like it.

Add to buns and enjoy!

Italian Stoup with Toasted Floaters

I got this recipe from Rachael Ray's No Repeats cookbook - it was DELISH!  Sooo tasty.  



Place a soup pot on stove and preheat to medium high.  Add 2 tablespoons of EVOO and 3 links of sausage (take sausage out of the casings) and then mix it up and crumble.  Drain off excess fat then add 1/4 p ound of pepperoni (diced) and 1 ham steak (diced).  Cook for 2 minutes then add 1 green bell pepper (sliced) and 1 onion (sliced) and cook for 3 minutes.  Add 1 can of diced tomatoes and season with salt and pepper.  Add chicken stock (6 cups) and bring to boil.  Stir in 1 cup of pasta and cook for 8 minutes.

While the paste cooks, heat 1/4 cup of EVOO in a skillet over medium heat.  Add garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Add the bread cubes, toss and toast for 5-6 minutes.  Season with 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes, 1/2 teaspoon of oregano, 1/2 cup parmigiano-reggiano cheese.

Stir in 4 cups of arugula (trimmed and chopped) before you serve the soup.  Then add floaters on the top.

Julia Child

"The measure of achievement is not winning awards. It's doing
something that you appreciate, something you believe is
worthwhile. I think of my strawberry souffle. I did that at
least twenty-eight times before I finally conquered it."
 
-- Julia Child

Turkey Noodle Casserole

I was going to give this one 2 stars out of 5 until Ben took his first few bites and was making noises "mmmmmmmmmmmmmm"   "awwwwwwwwwwwwww"   "so goooooooooooooooooood"  and I said are you being sarcastic?

NO! This is amazing my favorite yet!

Apparently we have very different opinions in what makes a good meal LOL

So Ben gives this one "Over 5 stars"

Even Lily and Owen ate it up.

I, however, found it dry and the sauce wasn't thick enough.




My Recommendation:
After you cook the meat and you are about to add the sauce ingredients - I recommend adding 2 tablespoons of flour to the meat, cook it for 1 minute THEN add the ingredients for the sauce.  That way the sauce will be thicker.

Either way - it does have a nice TASTE to the dish, I just didn't enjoy the texture.

Meatball Pizza!

Ok. So I skipped 2 recipes...We were sick and tired of Mac N Cheese LOL  I'll go back and do the ones I skipped.  So we did pizza tonight.  Meatball Pizza (Rachel calls for italian popcorn on the side but we didn't make that).



I made my own pizza dough using the recipe found at this website
http://www.annamariavolpi.com/pizza_recipe.html

Great recipe and has pictures to follow along to help ya out.

I used whole wheat flour - a touch of healthy right?!

I also added mushrooms to the recipe.  Pizza came out DELISH!  For sure try this one out!

Mac n Cheese Festival!

Alrighty...So Friday I made Mac N Cheddar with Broccoli.



It was DELICIOUS!  Lily loved it....Here's Lily blowing on hers to cool it down



SATURDAY

Ben and I made Mac N White Cheddar with Cauliflower and Smoked Almonds



Which was also yummy and not something I would have thought of making on my own at all.  So it was great to try something new.

Tomorrow  - TEX MEX MAC N CHEESE!