Turkey Stuffed Peppers

photo credit here

These were good.  Filling and not lacking in flavor.  There wasn't anything extra special about them, but it was a tasty dinner.


1 lb ground turkey
1 garlic clove, minced
1 small onion, minced
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste
3 large sweet bell peppers, washed
1 cup chicken broth, divided
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
grated cheddar cheese



Heat oven to 400°.  Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large saute pan on medium high.  Add onion, garlic and cilantro to the pan.  Saute about 2 minutes and add ground turkey.  Season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cumin.  Cook until meat is completely browned.  Add tomato sauce and 3/4 cup of chicken broth.  Mix well and simmer on low for about 5 minutes.  Add cooked rice and mix well.

Cut the bell peppers in half lengthwise and remove all seeds.  If the pepper half won't lay flat, use a sharp knife to cut off a paper-thin slice, giving the outside edge a flat surface.  You just need a very small spot so it will rest evenly and not tip back and forth.  Spoon the meat mixture into each pepper half, filling it as full as you can.  Place all stuffed pepper halves in a large pyrex baking dish and pour the remainder of the chicken broth on the bottom of the dish.  Cover tight with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes.  Remove foil and top each pepper with grated cheese.  Bake, uncovered, for 7 more minutes.  Finally, broil on high for 1-2 minutes, or until cheese is fully melted and starts to brown.  

Apple Steel-Cut Oatmeal in the CrockPot

Another point for the crock pot.  Typically, the last thing I want to think about before I go to bed is what I'm going to serve my family for breakfast in the morning.  You want to eat?  Again?!  But I've been trying to get more creative (and save some pennies) than our standard cereal and milk.  And since I did plan out breakfast the night before, and gave this recipe a try, the four of us enjoyed a delicious and hearty bowl of special oats first thing in the morning with minimal prep on my part, which is never a problem for me!


3/4 cup steel-cut oats
1/2 cup coffee cream (1/2 & 1/2)
2 Tablespoons raw cane sugar, brown sugar, or maple syrup
1 medium apple, washed and grated
1/2 cup apple sauce or apple butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups water


In a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup*, mix together all the ingredients except the water, and combine well. Add the water and slowly mix to combine.  
*You'll see below that I used two glass jars instead of a large pyrex cup (I never get rid of peanut butter jars!).  Before adding the water, I divided the oat mixture between the jars.  It worked out to be about 1 cup per jar.  Then I carefully mixed one cup water into each jar.


Place the measuring cup in the bottom of a slow-cooker and nearly fill it with room temperature water. It should come up the edges of the Pyrex cup to the same level as the oatmeal.  Cover slow-cooker and place on Low. Cook for 6 hours.  My oatmeal ended up cooking for eight hours and was still good.

Don't mind the nasty film on the water.  There was some paper residue on the outside of one of the glass jars . . .

In the morning, carefully remove lid and take out the Pyrex cup. Give the oatmeal a good stir, then portion into four bowls. Serve with cream, fresh chopped apples and toasted walnuts.

Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bars

Look out!  These were decadent and delicious!  I definitely played the "eating for two" card when it came to these cookie bars (I may have even pretended I was having twins and ate for three).  The salted caramel layer in the middle was a perfect addition to the already yummy and chewy chocolate chip cookie.

2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips
10 ounces caramel candy squares, unwrapped
3 tablespoons heavy cream
Sea salt, for sprinkling over caramel and bars

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Spray a 2-quart baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.  I used an 8x8 glass dish.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the melted butter and sugars together until combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix on low, just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

In a large microwave safe bowl, combine the caramels and heavy cream. Microwave caramels on High until caramels are melted, stirring every 20 seconds. This will take about 2 minutes, depending on your microwave.

Divide the cookie dough in half. Press half of the cookie dough into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with the spatula. Pour hot caramel over the cookie dough. Sprinkle caramel with sea salt. Drop spoonfuls of cookie dough over the caramel and spread dough with a spatula until the caramel is covered. Sprinkle the bars with additional sea salt.

Bake cookie bars for 30 minutes or until the top of the bars are light golden brown and the edges start to pull away from the pan. It took my bars a full 40 minutes before they were done.  Cool bars on a wire rack to room temperature. Cut bars into squares and serve.

Balsamic Honey Pulled Pork Sandwiches

How many different ways can you cook meat in a crock pot to make a delicious sandwich?!  I don't know, but this is another great slow-cooked meaty sandwich that my family and our guests loved.  I served them with Ramen Cabbage Salad.


2.5 - 3 pound boneless pork shoulder roast
1 large onion, chopped
1 medium bell pepper, chopped
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 cup chicken broth

1 cup balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup ketchup
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp dijon-style mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
buns or small dinner rolls for serving
sweet pickles, cole slaw, and/or relish for topping, optional


In slow cooker, combine onion and bell pepper.  Add meat; sprinkle with thyme and rosemary.  Pour broth over meat.  Cover and cook on low for 9 to 10 hours or on high for 4 to 5 hours.

Meanwhile, make barbecue sauce.  In a medium saucepan, combine vingar, ketchup, brown sugar, honey, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, garlic, black pepper and salt.  Bring to boiling; reduce heat.  Simmer, uncovered, for 20 to 25 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally.

When meat is done cooking, transfer to cutting board and shred with two forks, discarding fat.  Strain vegetable mixture, discarding liquid.  Return shredded meat and strained vegetables to cooker.  Stir in barbecue sauce.  Cover and cook one more hour on low.

To serve, spoon meat mixture onto bun bottoms.  Top with coleslaw and pickles.  Add bun tops!

No-Knead Bread

*I've posted the recipe at the very bottom without all the picture breaks (and added verbiage!).  As well as the recipe I tried - and liked - to make cinnamon raisin bread.

My mother-in-law gave me this for Christmas.  Bless her!

I've bought one loaf of bread since December 25th.  One.  (Ok - not counting special breads, like ciabatta rolls for a certain sandwich or a warm baguette for . . . um . . . eating as I walk home?!)  

  

When I saw this post, I thought that if I was ever going to consistently make my own bread, this is how I would probably do it.  I tried out the recipe in my old dutch oven, found it to be super simple and doable, but was a bit uncomfortable with the risk in baking teflon at such a high temperature.  So I asked for the cast iron dutch oven for Christmas and have been baking delicious bread since.  The bread is certainly not like what you will buy in the store, but in my opinion, it's better.  It's dense, a bit more chewy, has a sturdy crust and is full of flavor.  So here's how it's been working for me . . .

1/2 tsp. active yeast

1/2 cup warm water

3 cups warm water

6 cups flour (you can either use all-purpose for all six cups, or use up to two cups whole wheat as a combination.  I almost always use 4 cups all-purpose and 2 cups whole wheat)

3 tsp. salt

I've only ever made this using my Kitchenaid stand mixer.  I'm sure it'd be fine if you just put some elbow grease into the mixing.

Sprinkle yeast into 1/2 cup warm water.  Let sit while you take care of the other stuff (which will take all of about one minute!).

Put water, flour, and salt into large mixing bowl.  Add yeast and water combination.  Mix until everything is evenly moist.  It will look something like this:

If the bits on the side make you a little nutty, just scrape them down with a spatula to form a more uniformed looking ball of dough.  You don't have to do this.  But I can't handle the chaotic look.  Yes, I admit I'm weird.

Cover the bowl with a large plate.  Let rise for at least four hours, or overnight.  Sometimes my "overnight" is six hours.  Other times it's eight.  It always works out.  Don't freak out if, in the morning, you find that your dough looks like a science project determined to take over your kitchen.  Just scrape everything back in and go with it:

Put your dutch oven (with the lid on) in the oven and turn on to 500F.  Set timer for thirty minutes.  (Your oven should be done preheating to 500 before your timer beeps)  Read comments on the original post about using a pot that isn't cast iron.  It seems to work fine.

After thirty minutes, carefully take the pot out of the oven - it's super hot!  Remove lid and dump your dough into the hot pot.  Place lid back on pot and return covered pot to oven.  Set the timer for thirty more minutes.  I do this step as quickly as I carefully can because 1) I don't want to lose the heat from the pot and 2) preheating the pot cooks the seasoning oil inside, so when I lift the lid a large billow of smoke rises.  The dough helps keep that at bay, but if I've forgotten to turn on the hood vent before lifting the lid - our sensitive smoke alarm might go off.  I'm just sayin'.

After I've dumped the dough and put the pot back in the oven:

When your thirty minutes of baking are up, your bread is ready to be dumped onto a cooling rack.  Don't let it sit in the pot for too long or it might start to stick.  I've only had that happen once. 

This is the hardest part for me.  You should really let the loaf cool almost entirely before cutting into it.  Releasing too much steam by slicing it early can make the center a bit doughy.  But I almost never make it. Warm bread and butter is just too irresistable!  Enjoy!

No-Knead Bread

1/2 tsp. active yeast

1/2 cup warm water

3 cups warm water

6 cups flour (you can either use all-purpose for all six cups, or use up to two cups whole wheat as a combination.  I almost always use 4 cups all-purpose and 2 cups whole wheat)

3 tsp. salt

Sprinkle yeast into 1/2 cup warm water.  Let sit while you take care of the other stuff (which will take all of about one minute!).

Put water, flour, and salt into large mixing bowl.  Add yeast and water combination.  Mix until everything is evenly moist. 

Cover the bowl with a large plate.  Let rise for at least four hours, or overnight.  Sometimes my "overnight" is six hours.  Other times it's eight.  It always works out.  Don't freak out if, in the morning, you find that your dough looks like a science project determined to take over your kitchen.  Just scrape everything back in and go with it.

Put your dutch oven (with the lid on) in the oven.  Turn oven on to 500 F.  Set timer for thirty minutes.  (Your oven should be done preheating to 500 before your timer beeps) 

After thirty minutes, carefully take the pot out of the oven - it's super hot!  Remove lid and dump your dough into the hot pot.  You can scrape the bowl clean if you want to.  Place lid back on pot and return covered pot to oven.  Set the timer for thirty more minutes.  

When your thirty minutes of baking are up, your bread is ready to be dumped onto a cooling rack.  Don't let it sit in the pot for too long or it might start to stick. 

Let the loaf cool entirely before cutting into it.  Enjoy!

Cinnamon Raisin No-Knead Bread

1/2 tsp. yeast

1/2 cup warm water

3 cups warm water

6 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of ground nutmeg

pinch of ground cloves

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp sugar

1 cup raisins, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes then drained completely

Follow directions as written above, adding all the ingredients in before mixing to make the dough.

Roasted Shrimp and Broccoli

This is is definitely going to show up again on our table soon.  Easy.  Quick.  Delicious.  Nutritious.  Everyone was a fan.  I added mushrooms because I had some on hand and Ryan and I both agreed you really need jasmine rice to make the meal.



2 pounds broccoli cut into florets (I like some stems attached)
4 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp salt, divided
1 tsp pepper, divided
1 lb. shrimp, shelled and deveined
lemon zest from one medium lemon
cooked jasmine rice

Pre-heat oven to to 425.

On a large cookie sheet, toss together broccoli, 2 Tbsp. olive oil, coriander, cumin, salt and pepper.  Spread into a single layer and pop into the oven for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, toss together one pound large shrimp with remaining 2 Tbs olive oil, lemon zest from one lemon, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper in a bowl. When the broccoli has been in the oven 10 minutes, add the shrimp to the broccoli and toss.  Put back in the oven for another 10 minutes.  Serve over a steaming bowl of jasmine rice with lemon wedges.

Hot Mushroom Dip

Who doesn't love a good dip?!  This was delicious.  I first served it with crackers and then again with fresh veggies.  Both worked well to get the tasty dip where I really wanted it - in my mouth!


2 Tbsp butter
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
3 cups chopped mushrooms
8 oz. cream cheese, softened and cut into pieces
1/2 tsp seasoned salt (I used Lowerys)
1/2 tsp dried dill
pepper, to taste
1 1/2 cups pepperjack cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise


Preheat oven to 350.

In a large pan, melt butter on medium high heat.  Add onion, garlic and mushrooms and cook about 10 minutes, or until liquid is gone and mushrooms are beginning to brown.  Remove from heat.

Into the pan, add cream cheese, salt, dill and pepper.  Stir until cheese is melted and thoroughly mixed in.

Finally, add pepperjack cheese and mayo.  Mix well until cheese is melted.  Spread into an ungreased pie plate.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  Serve with pita chips, tortilla chips, fresh veggies, or spoons!

Bacon and Chicken Ranch-flavored Mac and Cheese

I didn't end up getting my own picture of this, but didn't want to wait to share it with you because it was so deliciously yummy!  I made this for my family on Valentine's Day.  It was an act of love: extra bacon for my daughter, no onions for my son, and didn't skimp on the cheese for my husband.  Be careful who you make it for - they'll love you forever!

• 8 ounces uncooked elbow macaroni
• 4 slices bacon, chopped
• 1-2 chicken breasts,  cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 Tbsp oil
• 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/3 cup condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
• 3/4 cup shredded six-cheese Italian blend (such as Sargento)
• 1/2 tsp onion powder (I used onion salt and omitted the salt below)
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp chopped fresh dill (I used 1/4 tsp dried)
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded colby-Jack cheese

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt; drain.
2. Cook bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving drippings in pan; set aside. Increase heat to medium-high. Add chicken to drippings in pan; sauté 6 minutes or until done.
3. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat; sprinkle flour evenly into pan. Cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a whisk.  Gradually add milk and soup to saucepan, stirring with a whisk. Bring to a boil; cook 2 minutes or until thick. Remove from heat; let stand about five minutes. Add Italian cheese blend, onion powder, garlic powder, dill, and salt, stirring until cheese melts. Stir in pasta, chicken, and bacon.
4. Preheat broiler.
5. Spoon mixture into an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle evenly with colby-Jack cheese. Broil 3 minutes or until cheese melts.

Coconut Chicken Tenders

My family loved this!  Everyone had second helpings . . . what's not to love about chicken dipped in sweet flavorings and fried to give it some crisp?!  I've actually made something very similar and would probably go the baked route next time - not only for the health factor, but also to avoid the lingering smell that frying leaves!


2 lbs of chicken tenders
1 1/2 cups of panko bread crumbs
1 cup of shredded sweetened coconut
1 egg
1/2 can of condensed milk
1/2 cup of orange juice
salt and pepper to taste
oil for frying 


Season chicken with salt and pepper on both sides. Set aside.  


In a medium bowl, mix orange juice, condensed milk, and a beaten egg until your “wet” mixture is well incorporated.  In another bowl, mix coconut and panko crumbs.

Heat oil in a medium pan or skillet on medium-high heat. Fill pan to about 1/2″ of oil. Dip and fully coat each tender in the egg mixture first and then the panko/coconut mix.  Fry each tender for 6-8 minutes until golden brown. 


Serve with Honey Mustard dipping sauce (see below). I think Thai chili sauce would also be a yummy dip for these.


Honey Mustard: I only used about 1/2 cup mayo and just eyeballed adding the other stuff without using horseradish or orange juice.  I also didn't chill.  The result was still delicious.  

3/4 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1 tablespoon lemon juice or juice from 1/2 lemon
Horseradish, to taste (I didn't use any)
2 tablespoons orange juice (more or less as needed)

Combine all ingredients except orange juice; stir well. Thin to pouring consistency for dressing or dipping consistency for dips with orange juice. Cover and chill for 2 or 3 hours.

Sweet Potato Rosemary Biscuits

We loved these!  They are best warm and went well with a hot bowl of chili.  I thought they were just as good toasted again the next day.

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 cup diced roasted sweet potatoes (I threw the raw bites in a skillet with some olive oil and tossed for about ten minutes)
1 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 450.  

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the minced garlic and fresh rosemary. Mix in cold butter with your fingertips or use a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add roasted sweet potatoes and gently stir. Pour buttermilk over all of the ingredients and stir with a spatula until just combined.

Drop round spoonfuls of dough, about four tablespoons, onto baking sheet. Brush biscuits with melted butter. Bake 15-17 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Remove from oven and serve warm.