Jill's easy breadsticks

Finally made these last night

Bread Sticks

1 Tablespoon instant yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 Tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon salt

4 cups flour

Mix together and knead in mixer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile melt 1/2 cup butter or margarine in a cake pan in the oven. (I always use half the amount of butter and use a cookie sheet). Be careful not to scorch the butter. When dough is ready, roll it out into a rectangle similar in size to your pan. Cut into 1 inch strips. Place in pan, turning so all sides are coated with melted butter. Sprinkle with garlic salt and Parmesan Cheese Let rise about 15 minutes. Bake 20-25 minutes at 425 degrees

*We also tried half the pan with Johnny's garlic spread (big seasoning jar from Costco) 

From Jill’s blog “quick and easy breadsticks”

Ckn VEGGIE and MUSHROOM pasta

We left the chicken out of this when we made it last night. I really enjoyed it! Next time we are going to use 1/4tsp like Jill did. Also, we feel we should cut back on the cilantro just a little.

Chicken veggie and mushroom pasta (copied from Jill's blog)

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 lb boneless/skinless chicken breast, sliced crosswise
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon olive oil
6-8 cloves of garlic, crushed (I just use the minced garlic from a jar if I don't have fresh garlic)
1/2 lb mushrooms, quartered
1/2 cup green onions, sliced
3/4 cup red or orange sweet peppers
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes (undrained)
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper (I used 1/4 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups dry bow tie pasta- cook as directed
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
Parmesan cheese, grated

1. Fry chicken in oil over medium heat until done. Sprinkle with salt and remove from skillet. Keep warm.
2. Cook garlic in oil until golden. Add mushrooms, green onions and peppers- cook 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, broth, red pepper, cornstarch and salt. Heat to boiling then reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. Combine chicken, hot mixture, pasta and cilantro. Sprinkle with fresh Parmesan to your liking and enjoy!
*Use less crushed red pepper to make it mild. Also, I add the peppers when I have them on hand- zucchini and squash are delicious too.

Chicken Picante

This really hit the spot today. It passed the make again test. I even said, "it's good enough I'd take it to somebody" and Lance liked that it wasn't really "Mexican".

Chicken Picante
4 frozen boneless/skinless
1 cup medium chunky salsa (I used Shirley's)
1/4 Cup Dijon Mustard
2 Tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 cup sour cream
1 lime sliced into 4 segments
Chopped Cilantro for garnishing

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a baking dish with foil.
2. In a bowl mix salsa, mustard and lime juice.
3. Place frozen chicken breast in a pan. Top with salsa mixture. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes.
4. Remove foil and continue cooking until center of the largest piece of chicken reaches 170F, about 10-15minutes.
5. Remove chicken to serving platter.
6. Place 1 tablespoon of sour cream on each breast half and top each with a lime segment. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

*I got this from the back of our bag of frozen chicken (Foster Farms)

We had this for lunch today and since I got the recipe from the bag I had to get it down before throwing it away. We really enjoyed the flavor of it and the roasted veggies (a small butternut squash from dad/mom's garden, approx 1/4 of an onion, and 3 potatoes chopped up too). I didn't follow the recipe I found on Jill's blog for it but I did use the spices listed --but just sprinkled on whatever I felt like.
I skipped the last two steps since we're not big fans of cilantro. We thought the lime juice in it was enough and kept our other lime for another day. We also put the sour cream on the side.
Weight Watcher points = 7 points w/out the T sour cream or 8 with it on top.
My mouth is very satisfied.
It may have tasted so good because I made myself wait until it was done (no snacking) and therefore was really hungry. But a BIG part of it was that it was new and different. It was nice to get out of the rut.

Also: someday we want to try this in a crackpot. It was a really fast oven dish but crackpots are always nice. It has enough liquids, I'm sure it would work out. Luckily it was moist enough w/out cooking it in a crock-pot ....that's always a must for Lance.

Brown Sugar Muffins

WW = 4pts w/out nuts 5pts with

Brown Sugar Muffins

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup milk

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup nuts

Mix together, do not over stir! The batter should be lumpy. Bake at 350 until golden brown 15 minutes -/+ depending on muffin size. Mini muffins 10-12 minutes.

I doubled this recipe and got almost a full 3 dozen

Rainbow Pasta Salad

Rainbow Pasta Salad
1 pkg (16 oz) Tricolor spiral pasta
2 cups chopped broccoli florets
1 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup tomatoes
1/2 cup cucumber
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 can (15 oz) whole kernel corn, drained
1 jar (6.5 oz) marinated artichoke hearts (optional! I never have used them-don't typically have them on hand.)
1 bottle (8 oz) Italian Salad dressing

Cook the pasta according to package directions; drain and rinse in cold water. Place in a bowl; add remaining ingredients and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Sole Amandine

Sole Amandine (pg 246 Betty Crocker Cookbook, from BYUIS class)

Prep: 15min Bake 2 min

6 servings

A French term, amandine means “garnished with almonds” and is often misspelled as “almondine.” If you own a gratin dish, (a shallow oval-shaped oven proof baking dish), use it to bake this classic dish.

1 ½ lb sole, orange roughy or other delicate to medium-texture fish fillets, about ¾ inch thick

½ cup sliced almonds

¼ cup butter or margarine, softened

2 tablespoons grated lemon peel

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon paprika

2 tablespoons lemon juice

  Heat oven to 375F. Spray 11x7-inch glass baking dish with cooking spray

 Cut fish into 6 serving pieces. Place in baking idsh (if fish has skin, place skin sides down). Tuck under any thin ends for more even cooking.

  In small bowl, mix almonds, butter, lemon peel, salt and paprika; sppon over fish. Sprinkle with lemon juice.

Bake uncovered 15 to 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily with fork.

1 serving: CAL 210 (cal from fat 115); FAT 13g (SAT FAT 5g); CHOL 75mg, SODIUM 330mg; CARBS 2g (FIBER 1g); PRO 21g

%Daily Value vit A 6% vit C 2% calc 4% iron 4%

Exchanges: 3 lean meat, 1 fat carb choices 0 

A year later ....exactly :D
We tried this again, only with wild caught cod. We finally gave up on getting sole from our local grocer (diff of CA vs UT) and that's how it just so happened to be one year later. Fun coincidence. Anyway, NOT a big fan of the cod + it had bones in it still. Sole is definitely the way to go (besides, at least in Utah for the 2nd go around, it was $1 cheaper). 

Fluffy Ricotta Pancakes

Hey all,

Last night I asked Lance if he knew why tomorrow was special. He didn't so I explained "because it's our first Nov 8th together :D!" and he laughed. But I really did have something in mind to make this Monday special.

If you'll recall, last week I made some gnudi. It was not or favorite, but I still had some ricotta cheese left. Going w/the waste not want not idea I decided I'd try the recipe on the back of the container. However last night/this morning while worrying about scout business [rechartering] I some how got worried about putting ricotta cheese in my pancakes. I did a little research and decided to try this recipe instead of the one on the container. It was a hit with Lance. I was a big fan of the strawberries I put out to unthaw last night. Yep, we're still eating our first ever half flat of strawberries. There sure are a lot of first in this first year of knowing each other/1st year of marriage. This really is our first Nov 8th [together/knowing each other] ever. Isn't that crazy!? Enough about "1st"

Since I couldn't sleep anyway, Lance woke up to a wonderful meal. He won't be so lucky next "semester" [at least not on Mondays :P] since I will be rushing to get ready and heading off to work w/the elderly.

Anyway, enough of my gibber jabber. If you're like Sister Gunter (shout out to Texas!) then you might appreciate a way to use up the rest of your cheese from trying the gnudi recipe.

Love you!

Kim (and Lance, my official taste tester)

We cut the recipe in half and still got 6 pancakes out of it (perhaps I made them too small ?).

Fluffy Ricotta Pancakes
makes 8
1 cup ricotta cheese
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
pinch salt
3/4 cup milk
3 eggs, divided
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

FYI - Also I added 1/4 tsp lemon juice (so 1/2 tsp if you make the full batch---which most of you probably will need)

Set ricotta in a fine mesh strainer before you start cooking, to drain off excess liquid. I also push on mine a few times in between other steps and rotated. I did not let it sit 30 mins like the original recipe called for.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Combine ricotta, milk, egg yolks, and vanilla in a separate bowl.

Beat the egg whites in an electric mixer until stiff. Add the dry ingredients to the ricotta and milk mixture, stirring gently until just combined. Whisk in a small amount of the egg whites to lighten the batter, then fold in the remaining whites.

Heat a griddle over medium-high heat, and brush the surface with butter (I just sprayed canola oil on our little frying pan). Use a ladle or measuring scoop (we used a 1/3 cup measure) to pour batter onto the griddle. Cook pancakes for about 3 or 4 minutes, then flip, cooking until both sides are golden brown. (I tried to stick with the bubble method :-) before flipping)

AND here is the link if you'd like to go to the original page = http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/breakfast/recipe-fluffy-ricotta-pancakes-048085