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13
Nov
40 Things I’m Thankful For
Lanel

10.  Snow.  No, I’m not prepared for it. In a few months I’ll be ready for it to end.  But, tonight it’s just so beautiful looking out the window watching it fall.
11.  Weekends
12.  My stamping friends
13.  A new bank and the nice people who work there.
14.  The new recipe I tried tonight (which I’ll share because it was that good).

Peas and Pasta

Ingredients:

1 onion, diced
1 T olive oil
10 oz bag frozen peas
½ t Italian seasonings, salt/pepper
16 oz heavy cream
4 oz Parmesan cheese
12 oz whole wheat penne pasta

Procedure:

In large skillet, heat onion in oil and cook until very tender and slightly carmelized. Add peas, italian seasons, salt & pepper to taste. Cook for several more minutes. Slowly add heavy cream and parmesan cheese, stirring constantly until cream begins to thicken. Remove from heat. Cook pasta according to pkg directions and serve with cream sauce.

So, that’s the official recipe. However, I left out the Italian seasonings because I HATE oregano and didn’t feel like adding anything else.  I also had a 16 ounce bag of peas and I used most of it, next time I’ll probably use all of it.  Also, next time I’ll add sliced mushrooms to it.  Other than that, it was DELICIOUS.

till-later

Category: Random Holidays, Random Recipes  Tags:  One Comment
29
Jul
Ask me what this is…
Lanel

peach dessert

Nevermind, I’ll just tell you.  It’s a piece of Peach Heaven.

I wanted something sweet tonight (I deserved it after slaving in the kitchen baking brownies and chocolate chip muffins for a bake sale then making a salad for a BBQ tomorrow night).  So, I made this creation.  I searched the pantry for ideas and came up with it.

It’s a winner.

Peach Heaven

Saute frozen peaches in 1 tsp butter and 3 tsp brown sugar.

Pour that mixture into a small oven-safe bowl and top with 1 tsp rolled oats and 1 tsp brown sugar.

Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes or whatever.

OMG.  Yummy deliciousness.

I’m going to get some berries and make it with them now. Well, not now, like next time I decide to make this.

till-later

Category: My Random Life, Random Recipes  Tags:  One Comment
17
Jun
It’s my party
Lanel

but no crying here.  :)

I hosted a Pampered Chef party tonight.  I was so much fun.  It’s been so long since I’ve been to one and had a great time.  Didn’t have a lot of people show up but the ones that were here were great.  :)

Here’s a picture of what we made (and ate).  YUMMY.  :)

trifle

Doesn’t that look good!?!?  It’s a fruit trifle.  Layered white cake, vanilla pudding/whipped cream mix, pineapple, cake, pudding, strawberries, cake, pudding, blueberries, with whipped cream on top and garnished with pineapple and a strawberry.  It was so yummy. :)

Now, to all my friends who couldn’t make the party, guess what, you can still get something.

MOM — DID YOU HEAR THAT?  YOU CAN STILL GET SOMETHING.

It’s been a while since I’ve been to our had a Pampered Chef party, they are AWESOME.  If you can’t make it to the show (because you live to far away MOM) or because you have other plans you can order online and have it shipped directly to you.  The reason I know this is because 1.  I had to place my order online when I couldn’t make it to the show I was invited to and 2. One of my friends in CA placed an order today that will be shipped directly to her.  How stinking easy is that?

MOM — YOU COULD DO IT YOURSELF…IT’S SO EASY.

All you have to do is go here and click on how to purchase and enter my name.  So easy, and it’ll show up on your doorstep in just a little while.

Before my party I had to eat dinner and I thought it was so pretty that I took a picture of it.

dinner

The picture doesn’t do it justice.  It was pretty and it tasted REALLY good.  I’m sure you’re dieing to know what it is, right. :)   Well, I had leftover chicken from last night.  So, it’s romaine lettuce, with the chicken chopped up, blueberries, and honey mustard dressing.  It tasted Y-U-M-M-Y.

I guess I could tell you how I made the chicken since that was so good.  :)

I dipped chicken tenderloins in a sauce of dijon mustard mixed with honey mustard dressing.

Then I dipped that in almond flour mixed with some rosemary, lemon pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and Mrs Dash.

Then baked.  It was so good I could have eaten it all.  Last night and today for lunch I had it over cabbage.  Tonight it tasted good with the blueberries and romaine lettuce.

I really like when I get the cooking bug.  :)

Well, it’s late and I need to get some sleep.

Till later…

Category: My Random Life, Random Recipes  One Comment
08
Jun
Yummy dinner
Lanel

with a Thai twist. So, I’ve been sitting here being lazy today and decided I’d make dinner. I was going to make Pad Thai but by the time I got to the kitchen I’d changed my mind and decided to make my Spicy Thai Peanut Stirfry (besides, I didn’t feel like looking for a Pad Thai sauce recipe and didn’t want to use jarred). I love, love, love this dish but was distracted cooking it and overcooked the noodles (timer DORK) and I made too many noodles which I added to the dish because I dumped without really paying attention to what I was doing (again DORK). But, it’s still yummy and hopefully you won’t goof it up like I did tonight.

Spicy Thai Peanut Stir-fry

Cook noodles according to package directions. I used Rice noodles,  but have also used angel hair pasta) Go very VERY easy on the amount of noodles you use. You’re not eating spaghetti…you’re eating the stir-fry. Often I skip the noodles all together.
Sauce:
1/3 Cup Natural Peanut Butter (I prefer Maranatha Organic Peanut Butter just DON’T use the processed stuff)
1/4 Cup Low-Sodium Soy Sauce
1/4 Cup Water
Chili Sauce (I like Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce)

Mix the Peanut Butter, Soy Sauce, and water until blended well.  Add the Chili Sauce a little bit at a time tasting after you add each time to determine how hot you want it.  Trust me, add a LITTLE at a time, a little goes a LONG way.  (Also, you can make this and keep it in the refrigerator for a short time — it makes it even easier if you want to make a quick lunch, not that this is hard.)

Stir-Fry
This is really up to you.  I use what I have.  So, use what you have or add what you want.  I like:

Chicken cut into bite size pieces
Broccoli Florets
Carrots (julienned or cut thing — I’m lazy, I usually cut thin rounds)

Other ideas that I’d add if I had them (maybe sometime I’ll plan for this and actually have the ingredients that I want to add):  onion, scallions, cabbage, celery, mushrooms, mung bean sprouts, shrimp.  Whatever, use your imagination

Stir-fry in minced garlic.  After you stir-fry add the sauce and heat thoroughly.  If  you are adding noodles then just add about half the sauce here then add the noodles, mix and add the rest of the sauce.

You could garnish with some crushed peanuts if you wanted.  Lime juice also tastes GREAT squeezed on top (although I rarely have limes so I never get to add it).

The big thing here is SKIMP on the noodles unless you just want a plate of noodles which I don’t like, personally.

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21
May
More yummyness (in 15 minutes or less)….
Lanel

I was watching the news tonight, don’t usually do that, and realized how bad the flooding around here really is. I haven’t been near any of the local lakes or rivers to see for myself but I guess it’s really bad. You know, all that snow we got has to go somewhere…well, it’s hitting the rivers which hit the lakes and none are prepared for the huge amounts coming.

But, onto something more exciting…my dinner. :) Yes, I know that might not be exciting to you but it was to me. I like to cook. :) And, I really like when I cook something that tastes delicious. Lately I haven’t been in a cooking mood so I’ve been eating frozen stuff…nothing exciting there. :( Tonight I decided to cook and it was pure YUMMYNESS.

I had:

Grilled Honey Mustard Chicken
Parmesan Broccoli
Salad

I’ll share my recipes because all of these I came up with on my own. From the bottom up…

Salad LOL Nothing super exciting…some lettuce (Italian Mix) with some sunflower seeds and Red Wine and Olive Oil dressing.

Parmesan Broccoli. I steamed it in the microwave, drained the water then tossed with some fresh grated parmesan cheese.

Not, the real yummy part.

Grilled Honey Mustard Chicken.

Chicken Tenderloins (use the Tyson’s Natural — less sodium
Prepared Honey Mustard (I had some in a bottle, you can make your own)
Almond Meal (prepared or grind your own almonds — today I used my own coarse ground almonds)

Make sure the Honey Mustard is warmed…you might even warm it in the microwave otherwise it’s really thick and hard to coat on the chicken. First coat the chicken in the Honey Mustard then in the Almond Meal. I grilled mine on my George Foreman Grill.

Now, here’s the cool part…the whole thing START to FINISH took me 15 minutes (and I had to defrost the chicken). Here’s the time schedule:

Put the chicken in the microwave to defrost (it was late…I hate defrosting in the microwave unless I have to but…)
While the chicken is defrosting preheat the grill (you can put the honey mustard in the microwave with the chicken now)
While the grill is preheating prepare your bowls with the honey mustard and the almond meal.
After the chicken is defrosted coat in the honey mustard then roll in the almond meal and put on grill
Prepare the broccoli to heat
Prepare your salad
Prepare your plates
When the chicken has about 4 minutes left put the broccoli in (I do mine for 2 minutes)
Take the broccoli out, drain and toss in the cheese add to plate
Toss your salad
Chicken’s done, plate it.
Of course, throughout this process all my dirty dishes are put directly in the dishwasher (yes, we all know I’m neurotic) so all I have to do at this point is leave the grill open to cool and when I’m done eating I rinse the grill plates and put in the dishwasher with my dinner plates and dinner’s done but oh so YUMMY!

Oh, and for dessert (this didn’t get done in the 15 minutes but could have if I’d planned right) will be Strawberry Shortcake (I say will be because I’m not ready to eat it yet LOL). It would have been fresh strawberries but Tween-He and Tween-She ate them all when they were here but it’s OK, I had frozen in my freezer. I’ll have it in a bit when my DVR is far enough along in American Idol that I’ll watch it. (Although, I’m not sure why I’ll have watched exactly TWO episodes this season…last nights and tonights….but there’s nothing else on….or I might watch a movie…either way, I’m eating STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE!)

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