School Lunch 1/12/12

Here is Miss V's lunch

Dark Chocolate Dreams on a whole wheat Goldfish

Apple slices

Sliced cucumber

Carrots

Chewy Granola Bar

Colby Jack Cheese Stick

Florida Naturals Fruit Nuggets

Breakfast on the Go, Berries and Cream packet

Smartfood Popcorn

Lime Jello

Horizon Vanilla Milk

Thursdays are now her long day at school so I packed a few extra snacks.  I am sure she will be starving on the ride home.

Margaritaville Coffee!!

Last night a little birdy showed up on my door step with gifts!  I love gifts!!! 

I have four bags of the Margaritaville Sunrise in Paradise (light/medium roast) and two bags of Latitude Attitude (medium roast).

I just made a pot of the Latitude Attitude for my husband and ooooh weeee it smells good but a little strong for my taste.  I prefer light roasts and did you know that lighter roasts have more caffine?.  I will have him give me he thoughts on it later today.

Lunch 1/11/12

Here is Miss V's Lunch

Peanut butter and Strawberry Jelly on a Whole Wheat Goldfish
Sliced cucumber
Carrots
Fresh Florida Strawberries
Horizon Chocolate Milk
Chewy Granola Bar
Colby Jack Cheese stick
Cheez-It package
Berry Jello
Florida Natural Fruit Nuggets

School Lunch 1/10/12

Here is Miss V's lunch:

Horizon White Milk
Peanut butter and Strawberry Jelly on a Whole Wheat Goldfish
Fresh Florida Strawberries
Ants and Red Ants on a Log
Sweet n' Salty Trail Mix
Colby Jack Cheese Stick
Chewy Granola Bar
Florida Naturals Fruit Nuggets
Berry Jello

Plum Sauced Chicken in Tortillas

I just happened to be flipping through an old cookbook called Better Than Most Slow Cooker Recipes from Better Homes and Gardens and spotted a picture of this recipe.  So I decided to make it for dinner last night.  My only problem was trying to find canned plums.  I couldn't so I just bought 1.5 pounds of fresh plums.

32 oz. can whole, unpitted purple plums, drained
1 cup hot-style vegetable juice
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
4 1/2 tsp. quick-cooking tapioca
2 tsp. grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp. 5-spice powder
1 lb. skinless, boneless chicken thighs (I used boneless skinless breasts)
6 x 7-8 inch flour tortillas
2 cups packaged shredded broccoli or packaged shredded cabbage with carrot

Remove pits from plums. Place plums in a blender container or food processor bowl. Cover and blend or process until smooth. Transfer plum puree to a 3 1/2 or 4-quart crock pot. Stir in vegetable juice, hoisin sauce, tapioca, ginger, ad 5-spice powder. Cut chicken into strips. Stir chicken into crock pot.

Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 4 to 5 hours, for 2 to 2/12 hours. Remove chicken from crock pot, reserving juices.

Spoon about 1/3 cup from the chicken mixture onto each warm tortilla just below the center. Drizzle with the reserved juices. Top each with 1/3 cup shredded slaw mix. Roll up Tortillas.

Number of Servings: 6

I served this with rice and pineapple chunks.

These were pretty good.  Miss V kept saying how the house smelled to spicy and wouldn't try it.  I told her that she would have to try it before she could eat her pineapple.  Well she tried it and liked it...

They did smell "spicy" but not like a hot spicy if that makes sense.  I don't normally cook with 5 spice powder and I think that is what she was smelling.

School Lunch 2/9/12

I have noticed that if I don't about Miss V's lunch daily, I forget to do it on the weekends.  So back to my regular daily school lunch posts.

Ham & Cheese on a Goldfish thin.  Normally I would not buy them since they are kind of pricey, but they were BOGO last week at Publix.
Florida Strawberries
Carrots
Simply Go-gurt
Chewy Granola Bar
Sweet & Salty Trail Mix
Horizon Chocolate Milk
Berry Jello
Florida Naturals Fruit Nuggets

Jello....Miss V likes certain kinds of jello, but they don't sell the already made cups.  So I got smart and made up the jello and then poured it into 6 snack size gladware containers and put in the fridge.  It also saves a little money too.

Parmesan Twists

I pulled out my old Betty Crocker Best Bread Machine Cookbook on Saturday and decided to make a batch of Pamesan Twists to go along with dinner which was Pasta and Sauce with Italian Sausage.

3/4 cup water
2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon bread machine or quick active dry yeast
1/3 cup margarine or butter, softened
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese


MEASURE carefully, placing all ingredients except margarine and cheese in bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer.

SELECT Dough/Manual cycle. Do not use delay cycles.

REMOVE dough from pan, using lightly floured hands. Place dough in greased bowl, and turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in warm place about 30 minutes or until double. (Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.)

GREASE cookie sheet. Punch down dough. Divide dough into 20 equal pieces. Roll each piece into 10 to 12 inch rope on lightly floured surface. Pinch ends of 2 ropes together, starting at pinched end. Place twists on cookie sheet; tuck other ends under. Mix margarine and cheese; brush over twists. Cover and let rise in warm place 20 to 30 minutes or until double.

HEAT oven to 400°. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm, or cool on wire rack.

Mine only made 9 and I HAD to sample one before I took the picture.  Oh these are super yummy!!!

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Mix (sorta copycat)

I threw this together last night since I am always running out of the packets.  Also there has been many times I see the box in the pantry and think, "oh I don't need to buy any this week" only to find out that the box is empty and didn't get put in the recycle bin.  I figure I can keep better track with it being in a clear container.

Ingredients:

5 cups of quick oats

1 cup of brown sugar

2 (or so) tsp of ground cinnamon

1 bag of dried apples, chopped into small pieces

I shook the container up to mix, but noticed that the apples still were stuck together.  I separated the apple bits with my hands and made sure that they were coated with cinnamon/sugar and then they were mixed in well.  You could also add a bit of salt to bring out the flavors better.

It came out great!!! 

Chocolate Cheerios - Review

Have you seen these?????

I am normally very strict about the kinds of cereals.  But lately Miss V has been having some issues of not being hungry or things just don't taste very good.  We go through this a few times a year.  When this happens, I loosen up a bit.

Anyway she spotted these a few weeks ago and had a coupon so into the cart they went.  The next morning she tried them and really loved them.  She had them a few times and the only thing she didn't like was that it turned the milk to chocolate milk. 

So she now prefers to have these as a little snack, but will eat them dry and have a cup of milk on the side.  Personally I loved them even the chocolaty milk.

Baked Potato Soup

This morning I posted on my Facebook profile that I was looking for a good potato soup recipe since it is chilly and I have lots of potatoes that need to be used up.  I made potato skins for New Years Eve and had a lot of potatoes that were already baked.

A few of my iVillage Moms and friends posted a recipes.  I picked this one from one of my iVillage Moms for Baked Potato Soup.  It was perfect because I could use the already baked potatoes.

4 baking potatoes (about 2 1/2 pounds)
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
6 cups 2% reduced-fat milk
1 cup (4 ounces) reduced-fat shredded extrasharp cheddar cheese, divided
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup reduced-fat sour cream
3/4 cup chopped green onions, divided (I just used vidalia onions)
6 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
Cracked pepper

Preheat oven to 400°.

Pierce potatoes with a fork; bake at 400° for 1 hour or until tender. Cool. Peel potatoes; coarsely mash.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Place flour in a large Dutch oven; gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly (about 8 minutes). Add mashed potatoes, 3/4 cup cheese, salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, stirring until cheese melts. Remove from heat.

Stir in sour cream and 1/2 cup onions. Cook over low heat 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated (do not boil). Ladle 1 1/2 cups soup into each of 8 bowls. Sprinkle each serving with 1 1/2 teaspoons cheese, 1 1/2 teaspoons onions, and about 1 tablespoon bacon. Garnish with cracked pepper, if desired.

This came out so good!!!

Tai Pei Vegetable Egg Rolls - Product Review

Every year for New Year's Eve, we love to stock up on "junk" food.  This year Miss V saw these at Walmart and wanted to try them.

They were really good!!!  The sauce was pretty good too!  I would certainly buy them again.

Cauliflower Gratin

I made this to go along with dinner.  It is from Ina Garten and it came out great!!!

1 (3-pound) head cauliflower, cut into large florets
Kosher salt
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, divided
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups hot milk
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
3/4 cup freshly grated Gruyere, divided
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Cook the cauliflower florets in a large pot of boiling salted water for 5 to 6 minutes, until tender but still firm. Drain.

Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter (I accidently used the full 4 tbs and it came out fine) in a medium saucepan over low heat. Add the flour, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes. Pour the hot milk into the butter-flour mixture and stir until it comes to a boil. Boil, whisking constantly, for 1 minute, or until thickened. Off the heat, add 1 teaspoon of salt, the pepper, nutmeg, 1/2 cup of the Gruyere, and the Parmesan.

Pour 1/3 of the sauce on the bottom of an 8 by 11 by 2-inch baking dish. Place the drained cauliflower on top and then spread the rest of the sauce evenly on top. Combine the bread crumbs with the remaining 1/4 cup of Gruyere and sprinkle on top. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and drizzle over the gratin. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the top is browned. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Panera Macaroni & Cheese

Miss V love Panera's Macaroni & Cheese and I was determined to find a copy cat recipe.  Well all of the recipes I found all talked about microwaving the roux.  That just seemed weird to me, doesn't that seem weird to you??

Anyway about two weeks ago I found a recipe from the Panera website.  You can check it out HERE along with the Chef's story. 

1 (16-ounce) package of medium shell pasta
¼ cup butter
½ cup all-purpose flour
2½ cups milk (I used whole)
6 slices white American cheese, chopped
1 cup (8 ounces) shredded extra-sharp white Vermont cheddar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon hot sauce (I used Frank's)

Prepare pasta according to package directions.

Melt butter over low heat. Whisk in flour and cook 1 minute, whisking constantly.

Gradually whisk in milk (or cream); cook over medium heat, whisking until mixture thickens and bubbles. Remove from heat.

Add cheeses, mustard, salt, and hot sauce, stirring until cheese melts and sauce is smooth.

Stir in pasta and cook over medium heat for 1 minute (or until thoroughly heated).


Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Would I make this again?  YOU BET!!!!

Maple Breakfast Casserole

The second recipe she picked out was a bit more savory.  We found it on the Jimmy Dean website.

2 large Golden Delicious apples, peeled, chopped
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
8 eggs
3 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 cups French bread cubes (¾-inch pieces)
1 pkg. Jimmy Dean® Maple Flavor Pork Sausage Roll, cooked, crumbled, drained
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese, divided

Preheat oven to 325°F. Toss apples with sugar and cinnamon; set aside.

Beat eggs, milk and vanilla in large bowl with wire whisk until well blended. Add bread cubes, sausage, apple mixture and 1-½ cups cheese; stir gently until evenly coated.

Spoon into lightly greased 13x9-inch baking dish; top with remaining ½ cup cheese.

Bake 40-45 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting into 12 squares to serve.

Cook’s Tips: Make-Ahead Maple Breakfast Casserole: Assemble casserole as directed. Refrigerate overnight. When ready to serve, uncover and bake 50-55 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Serving Suggestion: Serve with warm maple syrup.

Well this recipe also was a disappointment.  The apple just really threw off the flavor and the texture was just mush.  Would I make this one again?  No....

I will go back to our family favorites that have more flavors and texture.

Baked French Toast Casserole with Maple Syrup

The other day Miss V helped me to find some new breakfast ideas for Christmas.  First one she picked was this one.

Ingredients

1 loaf French bread (13 to 16 ounces)
8 large eggs
2 cups half-and-half
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Dash salt
Praline Topping, recipe follows
Maple syrup

Directions
Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1-inch each. (Use any extra bread for garlic toast or bread crumbs). Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9 by 13-inch flat baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a rotary beater or whisk until blended but not too bubbly. Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. Spoon some of the mixture in between the slices. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Spread Praline Topping evenly over the bread and bake for 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden. Serve with maple syrup.

Praline Topping:

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well. Makes enough for Baked French Toast Casserole.

Well I must say this was disappointing.  The texture was just mush and really didn't have much flavor besides the topping.  Would I make this again?  No.....

Melted Snowman Cookies

I first spotted these on Pintrest and like so many other bakers, knew that I would have to try them this year.  I followed a few Pins and found a great tutorial on Truly Custom Cakery.  Here are some other links about the cookies, first is Crazy Domestic and one from the creator at The Decorated Cookie.  Those absolutely beautiful, but I am feeling lazy and not wanting to whip up some fondant.

I am using a sugar cookie recipe from Wilton.  One that you do not have to refrigerate.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter , softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon No Color Almond Extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In mixing bowl, cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Mix flour and salt; add to butter mixture 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition.

Do not chill dough. Divide dough into 2 balls. On a floured surface, roll each ball into a circle approximately 12 in. wide and 1/8 in. thick. Dip cookie cutter in flour before each use.

Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet 6-7 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.

For the frosting I made royal icing, but didn't get it runny enough.  I also just used black icing in the tube and Miss V had fun with my edible markers.

Snowman Soup 2011

Miss V made her snowman soup on Thursday night for her classmates and teachers.

This year I found the cute snowflake bags at the dollar store.

In each bag you put:

One packet of hot chocolate mix.  I like using the Land O' Lakes since the package is prettier than the white paper of other brands.

One candy cane, can be mini size or full size

A handful of Hershey Kisses

A handful of mini marshmellows (I like to put them in a snack size ziploc baggie)

Then attach a cute poem.

I like to print 4 of them on a sheet of white cardstock.

After Miss V handed them out, one boy said he remembered them from last year and it was so good!

Miss V's class entry into the Gingerbread House Contest

I have to say how proud I am of Miss V's class and all the hard work that they put into making the Tropical Themed Gingerbread House.

We were given the pre made pieces for the house.  The rules stated that it could not be edible and it was suggested that we use a hot glue gun for stability.  The rules also stated that it must fit into a space that was  12 inches deep, by 11 inches wide and 12 inches high.

Here are some of my favorite parts of the house.

A few of the boys rolled out blue fondant for the Gulf of Mexico and then we glued on milk chocolate rocks along the waters edge.  One student worked hard at making tootsie roll sharks teeth.  The city where Miss V's school is located is famous for sharks teeth.  Some of the girls had a fun time making colorful shells from fondant and gum paste.

We made palm trees out of skewers and tootsie rolls.  They were poked and glued into the cardboard base that was the exact dimensions from the rules.  The palm fronds were gum paste tinted green and cut out with a flower cookie cutter and dried over night.  Some of the girls also gave the Teddy Bears bathing suits and made towels and floats from fondant.

Here you can see that one girl made a cute flamingo from pink gum paste.  A couple of other girls made presents to go at the bottom of one tree.  Some of the boys make little strands of colorful lights from fondant and put them onto fishing line.

I love the texture on the palm trees.  Oh and notice the the little bows on the presents?

One side view of our Tropical Gingerbread House.   The roof is plain shredded wheat.  We didn't use the frosted because it would have looked like snow and we certainly do not get snow down here in SW Florida.  The beach sand is actually a box of graham cracker crumbs.  It was funny all day long a little boy from 3rd grade would walk by and say he hoped that we would win.

Here is our completed house!  The class was so excited and we all thought it looked fantastic. 

While putting it together, I made sure to measure with a ruler how high the palm trees were.  I did not want to go over the 12 inch high limit.

You could also purchase the houses. One of our friends texted me while we were heading to the mall to tell me that someone bought ours.  We met the new owner and she was so nice.

We did not win in our age group and (I probably sound like a sore loser), but Miss V noticed that some of the winners did not stick to the size guidelines and were a lot bigger than the specs.  Maybe I have watched to many Food Network specials and have seen pieces disqualified for their sizes.  Anway that did not seem very fair.  Then we found out that for people's choice you could vote on your favorite.  What was not stated in the paper work was that it was $1.00 a vote. 

The following Monday the little boy from 3rd grade asked if we had won and I told him that we didn't and he said that he thought ours was the best!

We may not have won or placed 2nd or 3rd, but I am very proud of our class and will have reward them with an ice cream party or something.

Glazed Eggnog Spritz Cookies

I had been searching for a new cookie recipe for this year's cookie swap.  I finally settled on this recipe from the Betty Crocker website.  I did have to make two batches.  The first batch only made about 50 cookies.  Not sure if it was because of the disc I used.  Either way they came out really well and are soft and delicate.

Cookies
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons rum extract
1 egg
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Rum Drizzle
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon rum extract
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg, if desired

Heat oven to 350°F (if using dark or nonstick cookie sheet, heat oven to 325°F). In large bowl, beat granulated sugar and 1 cup butter with electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Beat in vanilla, 2 teaspoons rum extract and the egg until smooth. Beat in flour and 1 teaspoon nutmeg.

Place 1/4 of the dough at a time in cookie press. On ungreased cookie sheet, form desired shapes with dough.

Bake 6 to 10 minutes until edges are lightly browned. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

In small bowl, stir all glaze ingredients except nutmeg with spoon until smooth and thin enough to drizzle. Pour mixture into small resealable food-storage plastic bag; cut off tiny corner of bag. Squeeze bag to drizzle glaze on cookies. Before glaze is set, sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg over cookies. (I skipped that last step.  I do not like using ground nutmeg and I think fresh would have been a bit to strong.)

White Chocolate Cranberry Blondies

I spotted this recipe a while ago in one of my Taste of Home Fall Baking magazines.  I made it last night for my meeting.  They came out really well and I believe everyone loved them.

I haven't taken a picture of them yet, but I will tomorrow and upload it then.

For the crust
3/4 cup butter, cubed
1-1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup dried cranberries
6 oz white chocolate chopped (I used 1/2 bag of white chips)

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar
6 ounces white baking chocolate, melted (used the other 1/2 bag of white chips)
1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped

In a microwave, melt butter; stir in brown sugar. Transfer to a large bowl; cool to room temperature. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; gradually add to butter mixture. Stir in cranberries and chopped chocolate (batter will be thick).

Spread into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Bake at 350° for 18-21 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (do not overbake). Cool on a wire rack.

For frosting, in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar until blended. Gradually add half of the melted white chocolate; beat until blended. Frost brownies. Sprinkle with cranberries.

Drizzle with remaining melted white chocolate. Cut into bars. Store in the refrigerator.

Yield: 2-1/2 dozen.