Tag Archives: recipes

Family Movie Night & a Recipe: Homemade Hot Chocolate

7 Dec

ORIGINALLY POSTED DECEMBER 9, 2011

It’s a Friday and for us Friday nights are sometimes Family Movie Nights. It’s the end of the week and it’s often a wind-down night as well. We look forward to it.

In the winter, our Family Movie Night movie is usually “The Polar Express” at least once.

I got this book in 1993, before there even *was* a movie!

We have the hardcover version of the Chris VanAllsburg book, and it’s even autographed. We also have the special bell from the story as well as the cd of the story from a gift set that we received a few years back. You can find the book and the movie here on Amazon.com.

There are several bell crafts you could do to go along with “The Polar Express” if you’d like.

Cups, pipe cleaners, stickers and glitter make for an easy jingle bell craft. If you have a real jingle bell, you can put it inside so that the bell actually rings.

You could:

1) Cut out a bell from construction paper and decorate it with glitter or other materials,

and

2) Turn a styrofoam drinking cup upside down, put a pipe cleaner through the top (gold works well) turning it into a bell that way, decorating it on the outside any way you’d like.

During the winter months, Family Movie Night often includes a special treat: Homemade Hot Chocolate. My kids LOVE this recipe and it came from a cookbook I received as a gift from one of my Stampin’ Up! customers several years back. The cookbook is called “Old Fashioned Holiday Recipes.” It was full of many great recipe ideas, but this one has always been a favorite find and perfect for our Family Movie Nights. It would go especially well with the “Krispie” Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe from yesterday!

Two mugs of hot chocolate

Hot off the stove tonight!

Creamy Hot Chocolate
INGREDIENTS

1 (14 ounce) can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk (NOT Evaporated Milk)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 1/2 cups hot water
Marshmallows, optional

DIRECTIONS

In a large saucepan over medium heat combine Eagle Brand, cocoa, vanilla and salt; mix well.

Slowly stir in water. Heat through, stirring occasionally. Do not boil.

Top with marshmallows (optional.)

Store covered in refrigerator. Makes about 2 quarts.

Hot chocolate can be stored in the refrigerator for up to five days. Mix well and reheat before serving.

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Chicken & Asparagus Penne

5 Dec
The finished product!

Nice and easy for the pre-holiday season!

Simple, affordable, healthy ingredients make this recipe a keeper!

Simple, affordable, healthy ingredients make this recipe a keeper!

During the holiday time, it’s easy to over do it when it comes time to eating. There’s lots of special food, lots of rich holiday food. It’s also a busy, busy time; lots to do leading up to the holidays.

That’s why, when I first saw this recipe on Pinterest for Chicken & Asparagus Penne, I was drawn to it because of both the simplicity and the affordability of it. It would be a good, easy dinner that we could use over and over again and all of the ingredients were on my shopping list at Aldis on a regular basis. There’s not much to it as far as prep and ingredients, and that’s exactly what I need this time of year. I can’t need to exert much more energy than I already am.

This recipe was linked over from Pinterest to GoodnessGracious.com but even she got it from somewhere else! I love how everyone shares, especially during the holidays! Thanks Goodness Gracious, for sharing!

CHICKEN & ASPARAGUS PENNE

Ingredients

  • 1 lb Asparagus- Steamed
  • 12 oz Smart Taste Penne- Cooked
  • 1/4 Cup Olive Oil
  • 1 lb Chicken Breast- Cubed and Cooked
  • 1/2 Cup Shredded Parmesan

Instructions

  1. Add all ingredients into a 9 x13 pan and stir to combine.
  2. Top with Cheese and Broil for 5 minutes or until cheese is golden.

Notes

Calories 383 Total Fat 14.5g Sat. Fat 3.2g Cholest. 50mg Sodium 273mg Carb. 45.9g Fiber 8.2g Sugars 3g Protein 25.4g

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Five Thumbs Up: Apple Butter Bars

30 Nov

Caroline loves using the pastry cutter to cut the butter into recipes. This one provided a perfect opportunity to use it!

I’ve got a great new recipe for you, and it got all thumbs up from everyone in my house this week! That almost never happens!

I originally found this recipe for Apple Butter Bars on Pinterest, but it’s from the site Three Many Cooks.  I pinned it because my kids love apple butter. Overall the recipe seemed somewhat healthy: no eggs, no white sugar. Apple butter is healthy in itself, so other than the stick of butter that helps to form the crust and topping, it’s not so bad for you, I don’t think.

Caroline made these herself and it was a very easy recipe to follow. If I could change any one thing about it, I’d double it! It makes an 8×8 dish, but with five of us, it didn’t leave many leftovers to last into the next day(s).

Here is the recipe from Three Many Cooks. Enjoy!

Apple Butter-Cinnamon Bars with Oatmeal Crumble

Makes 16 bars

Relatively healthy ingredients makes for a keeper on my list!

INGREDIENTS

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted
1 cup apple butter
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Spread the apple butter between the layers.

DIRECTIONS

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position, and heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8- by 8-inch baking pan with vegetable cooking spray, then line pan bottom and up and over 2 sides with heavy-duty foil to facilitate removal of bars from pan. Coat foil with vegetable cooking spray.

Mix flour, oatmeal, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in butter with a fork until well mixed and clumps form. Spread half the oatmeal mixture over pan bottom and up the sides about 1/4 inch, pressing to form a thin crust. Mix apple butter and cinnamon in a small bowl; spread mixture over crust and then sprinkle remaining oatmeal mixture over apple mixture.

Bake until crisp and golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes. Set on a wire rack and cool to room temperature. Use foil “handles” to remove bars from pan. (Can be double wrapped and frozen for several months.). Cut into squares and serve.

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Seasonal snack mix: Pumpkin Pie Crunch

26 Nov

A new after school snack for the kids with a seasonal flavor!

My kids are always on the lookout for new recipes for me to try. They read magazines, pour through cookbooks, and even check the backs and sides of cereal boxes, always looking for the next great recipe. They love it when they find out that I’ve tried “their” recipe. I love surprising them.

Most recently, Elizabeth stumbled on the jackpot: a Chex cereal box with three recipes on the back of the box. She found one she wanted me to try, and it had a seasonal flavor to it, just in time for Thanksgiving. One Monday afternoon I decided to give it a try because I had everything I needed on hand with the exception of one type of Chex cereal. It called for three different kinds and I had three, just not the exact three. You’ll see what I mean in my notes below.

Lots of recipe options to choose from!

The other thing I liked about this recipe, besides the fact that it was fast, is that it was a microwave recipe. No need to preheat the oven. In just five minutes in the microwave, it was done.

Here is the recipe for you to try too! This one was found on the back of the Honey Nut Chex cereal, which also happens to be gluten free.

Three bowls of ingredients: cereal, spices, liquids.

CHEX PUMPKIN PIE CRUNCH

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1/4 cup butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups Cinnamon Chex cereal

2 cups Wheat Chex cereal (I had Rice Chex cereal instead)

2 cups Honey Nut Chex cereal

8 oz. pecans

Make sure your bowl is big enough and is microwave safe!

DIRECTIONS

1) In small bowl, mix brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice; set aside.

2) In small microwave-safe dish, microwave butter on high about 30 seconds or until melted.

3) Stir in vanilla.

4) In large microwave bowl, mix all cereals and pecans. Pour butter mixture over cereal mixture, stirring until evenly distributed.

5) Add sugar and spice mixture and stir until coated.

6) Microwave uncovered on high 5 minutes or until mixture begins to brown, stirring every minute.

7) Spread on wax paper or a cookie sheet to cool.

Store in an airtight container.

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Happy Veteran’s Day

12 Nov

Patriotic waffles as we remember our soldiers today!

As I type this, it is Sunday, Veteran’s Day 2012.

It’s a day to remember our veterans, those who have served so that we can be free.

I attended a wonderful Veteran’s Day ceremony on Friday at one of the schools I visited and I literally had goosebumps as the whole room pledged allegiance to the flag.

We often take our freedoms for granted, and I am grateful today for the opportunity to remember why we are free.

Thank you to all who serve and all who have served!

Since I’m posting a picture of our patriotic waffles, I will re-post a recipe for waffles that I posted a while back, too.

Enjoy them as you remember why we have the day off today!

All-American Waffles

serves 2-3

INGREDIENTS

1 egg, separated (put yolk in two quart bowl and white in small bowl.)

1 cup plus 2 TBL milk

1 tsp. vanilla

2 TBL canola or vegetable oil ** I recently earned that you can substitute the same amount of nonfat plain yogurt for the oil!

1 cup plus 2 TBL flour

4 tsp. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS

Separate the egg,  putting egg white aside in small bowl.

In larger bowl, combine the egg yolk, milk, vanilla and oil. Blend together, by hand, with wire whisk.

Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to the liquid ingredients and blend with wire whisk. (There will probably be some lumps.)

Beat the egg white with electric mixer until stiff. Fold into the batter with wire whisk until just blended.

(Do not beat egg whites into batter,  just fold in.)

When waffle iron is ready, drop batter into the four squares and use according to directions.

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Chicken and Dumplings

7 Nov

Don made Chicken and Dumplings for us, for the first time ever.

Recently I wrote a post showing our dinner in the Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker, and I mentioned that I’d show you what we did with our leftovers, one day soon.

Well, today’s that day.

Don had been dying to try making Chicken and Dumplings when we had some leftover roasted chicken, and this last time we made it, that’s exactly what he did.

As an aside, we try to plan a roasted chicken or turkey at least once a month during the fall/winter months because that equals two meals for us and even sometimes chicken salad for lunch. When you’re on a tight budget, you try to stretch your meals as much as you can.

Since Don had never made dumplings before, he looked up a recipe and found this one on Food.com that looked appealing to him.

Caroline did the dumplings all on her own.

He put Caroline in charge of making the dumpling batter while he put together the rest of it.

Here’s the recipe. Keep in mind that we used our leftover roasted chicken, but I’ve left the entire recipe here as is, in case you don’t have leftover chicken but still want to try this out.

Let me know how you like it! It’s a great alternative for leftover roasted chicken!

CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS
INGREDIENTS

1 large broiler-fryer chicken, cut up
2 celery ribs, sliced
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 medium onion, diced
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can chicken broth
2 tablespoons dried parsley
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2-1 teaspoon pepper
water
DUMPLING INGREDIENTS
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
4 tablespoons oil

Dumplings right into the sauce to cook.

DIRECTIONS

Combine chicken, celery, carrots, onion, chicken broth, parsley, chicken bouillon granules, salt and pepper in a large pan or dutch oven; add enough water to cover chicken.Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer for 2 hours or until chicken is done.Remove chicken and let stand until cool enough to handle.Remove skin from chicken and tear meat away from bones.Return meat to soup; discard skin and bones.Add more salt and pepper to taste, if desired. (Don made a roux to thicken his soup, using equal parts flour and melted butter.)Return soup to a simmer.In a mixing bowl, combine dumpling ingredients and mix well to form a stiff dough.Drop by tablespoonfuls into simmering soup.

Cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.

Serve immediately.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

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Pumpkin Palooza Recipe of the Day: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 Nov

Originally posted on: November 16, 2011

OK seriously, what could be more perfect than the combination of pumpkin AND chocolate chips!? Last year I made these for a school party and the kids loved them.

At the time, I wrote on Facebook that a friend of mine posted this recipe and she got it from Allrecipes.com. I can’t remember who the friend was though! What I do remember is they were delicious!

I did double it when I made it last year. I didn’t even use my standup mixer, I used a wooden spoon. You could use one though if you have one.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies III
from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

  • 1 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 egg
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon milk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts ( I did not use walnuts)

Directions

  1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
  2. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.
  3. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Sam’s Sizzling Tofu with Green Onions and Sugar Snap Peas

31 Oct

I’d never had tofu before, and I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I loved Sam’s recipe!

One of the cool things about our DC trip for the Kids’ State Dinner in August, was being exposed to things we hadn’t had before. Some things were regional, some things were just new and different for us, but so far there hasn’t been one thing I haven’t liked that I tried from that trip.

Sam’s Sizzling Tofu is my latest winning recipe to try.

I’ve slowly been going through the cookbook making a new recipe every now and then, and Sam’s Sizzling Tofu recipe was next up on my list, simply for the fact that I’d never had tofu before and this sounded good to me.
Sam is ten and he’s from Maryland. His mom, Paula, makes him this recipe for lunch often because he doesn’t like sandwiches. Paula is also the person who made the Pumpkin Soup that I posted a couple of weeks back.

Sam and I have something in common, if you remember my post last spring, because I don’t like sandwiches either, which makes lunchtime a tough time for me each day.  I do however, like brown rice, scallions and sugar snap peas, so if I liked tofu, then I’d like this too.

We tried Sam’s recipe on a Sunday afternoon and I loved it, I even had the leftovers for lunch during the week following.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle…..

I wish I could have photographed the way Sam’s Sizzling Tofu really did sizzle. It was so cool!

Here is what Sam had to say in the cookbook about his recipe:

“Well, I don’t really eat sandwiches very well, so my mom has to find other things for me to eat for lunch,” says Samuel.

“One day I tried tofu and I liked it, so my mom got it. Then my mom was asking me what I wanted for lunch, and I asked her for the tofu. She made it and put it in a thermos. My friends wondered what it was, and a couple of them tried it and really liked it too!”

I’d definitely make Sam’s Sizzling Tou with Green Onions and Sugar Snap Peas again, and if you’ve never had tofu, I encourage you to try it too! If you are already a fan, then this recipe is for you as well. Give it a try, it’s a great side dish for your dinner and a great lunchtime recipe!

SAM’S SIZZLING TOFU WITH GREEN ONIONS AND SUGAR SNAP PEAS

Tofu…got it!

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
¼ pound firm tofu, cut into small cubes
1 garlic clove, minced
2 scallions, white and light green parts
only, chopped
1 cup sugar snap peas, cut into thirds
½ cup cooked brown rice
DIRECTIONS

1. In a large sauté pan over moderate heat, warm the oil.
Add the tofu and cook, stirring often, until golden brown,
about 15 minutes. Add the garlic, scallions, and sugar
snap peas, and cook 5 more minutes.

I served mine with a squirt of soy sauce on top too, yummy!!

2. While the vegetables are cooking, warm the rice in the
microwave for 1 minute on high, then serve the sizzling
tofu on top.

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: “Roasted” Chicken Recipe and Product Review

24 Oct

Two chickens, two features today, it’s double the fun for you!

Today you get a bonus: a recipe and a product review from one of my favorite Pampered Chef products!

One of my very best friends has been a Pampered Chef consultant for many years, and every so often I pick one item I really, really want and I save up and buy it. I’m not talking a spatula for a few dollars, I’m talking about some of their higher priced items.

Their Deep Covered Baker is one of those items. It’s a product out of their stoneware line and it’s on the pricey end of the spectrum, but I can honestly tell you that it’s well-worth the money.

The Deep Covered Baker is a lifesaver when roasting a chicken! No more all day bake times!

I can also honestly tell you that the very first night we owned ours, we broke it.

I say we.

I won’t say exactly who.

Thankfully, Pampered Chef has a fantastic warranty program for their stoneware.

We have used our baker twice in just a few weeks’ time and this past week we “roasted” two small chickens in it, in the microwave, using my favorite Pampered Chef recipe. That’s the recipe I’m including for you below. You literally “roast” your chicken in the microwave for 30-45 minutes depending on the size, and you’ve got dinner on the table in less than an hour. When we made ours this week we also had stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce and homemade gravy, all of which we made while the chicken was roasting in the microwave.

We had plenty of leftovers left to make chicken salad for lunches, and last time we did this we made a new meal with our leftovers, one which I’ll share with you in the future. For now, here’s today’s recipe.

Throw it all in, throw it all in the microwave, throw it all on the table.

Thirty Minute Roasted Chicken
INGREDIENTS

4-5 pound fryer chicken (or two smaller ones as we did here)
1 stick butter
3 celery stalks, 3 whole carrots
4 cloves fresh garlic (I was out so I used minced)
1 whole yellow onion

DIRECTIONS

Spray the baker and lid with oil (I used no stick spray).

Place chicken, breast side up in the baker.

Melt butter in prep bowl and press garlic into butter. Spread over chicken with a brush.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Be sure that your chicken has reached the proper temperature!

Cover and microwave for 30 minutes or until meat thermometer reaches 165 degrees (we usually need 40-45 minutes).

Your chicken comes out cooked, moist, and ready to eat! Be sure to check the temperature before serving.

You can use your drippings to cook up a homemade gravy to go on top and serve the veggies that you cooked in the dish, on the side as well.

Oftentimes we will throw our chicken in the oven either on bake or broil on a separate baking sheet, just to crisp up the skin a little more, but it’s not necessary to do so. You can bake with your covered baker in the oven as well, but you cannot broil in it.

(Should you want to make your roasted chicken in the covered baker in your oven, bake at 400 degrees for 70-80 minutes or until chicken reaches 165 degrees, with the cover on. Remove the cover for the last ten minutes to crisp up your skin.)

A cookbook is available from Pampered Chef for the Deep Covered Baker as well, featuring twenty recipes you can use your Deep Covered Baker for, utilizing both the oven and the microwave. It was my very next purchase once I had the covered baker itself!

Enjoy!

A perfect fall dinner that doesn’t need to wait for a time when you have the entire afternoon to make it!

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What’s for Dinner Wednesday: Paula’s Pumpkin Soup

17 Oct

Fantastic for fall!

I’m actually eating Paula’s Pumpkin Soup as I type this post today. It’s my lunch on this autumn day, and it’s a perfect fall crock pot recipe!

Paula is a new friend of mine from the Washington DC Kids’ State Dinner trip. Many of us have kept in touch since the trip through a Facebook page. Paula has been a great friend and a fan of The Whole Bag of Chips. I’m thrilled to feature her recipe on here today.

It’s fast and easy and it was great for our day this past Sunday, which was filled with an afternoon of family fun at Don’s school, followed by a later afternoon of football, laundry and errands. Having dinner cooking in the crock pot on a day like that, couldn’t have been more helpful. I also threw a beer bread in the oven to go with it, since I can’t picture having a thick, hot soup such as this one, without a slice of beer bread to go along with it.

Here is the recipe for Paula’s Pumpkin Soup. Just to note, I doubled this recipe, using two quarts of stock and a 29 ounce can of pumpkin.

Thank you Paula for passing it along!
Enjoy!

I loved the added flavor that the sausage and onions gave to the soup.

INGREDIENTS

One quart chicken broth (low sodium and low fat)
One can pumpkin puree
1/2 TSP nutmeg
One half an onion
Garlic to your liking
Sweet italian turkey sausage
1 – 1 1/2 cups brown rice and quinoa
DIRECTIONS

Sauté the sausage, onion and garlic in olive oil until the sausage is done.

Put everything but the brown rice and quinoa in the crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours.

Add the cooked brown rice and quinoa 30 minutes before serving.

If you prefer, orzo also makes a nice addition to this recipe.

Nothing like crock pot cooking on a busy day!

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