Spaghetti Sauce

Please note this picture was taken after the sauce had been added to ground beef and is not consistent with the recipe as written.

Some things are worth making from scratch this is one of those things. Since this is labor intensive it is a fairly large recipe. If I'm actually making spaghetti this is COMFORTABLY 2 meals for my family of 5 (one being a baby) and HALF of the sauce is frozen.

Usually I do this with meatballs but today I wanted to bottle it and was unsure how hamburger bottles (I kind of don't think it does) anyway that's so you know it can be adapted to use with meatballs or even just ground meat (your choice I've used turkey and beef with great results).

Start with tomatoes lots of diced tomatoes if lots of tomatoes (and I've never counted how many just lots) are unavailable you can substitute and use
1 can (64 oz) of tomato juice
2 cans (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 can (6 oz)tomato paste
1 can (12.5 oz) stewed tomatoes

If you used tomatoes your going to want to kind of mush the diced tomatoes up while they are being cooked (on low so they are just below simmering about 1 hour). When the skin of the tomatoes starts going transparent it's time to add the spices (this is adjustable to fit your own taste this is just my suggestions).

4 minced garlic cloves
1/3 c dried onion flakes
2T Basil
3T Oregano
2T Garlic Powered
3T Chili Powered
2t Dried crushed red peppers
5T Italian Seasonings
4 Bay Leaves
1t Salt
1t Black Pepper

Simmer that for 20-30 minutes and then add in the veggies (all of which are optional if you want a smooth sauce).

1 small can of sliced mushrooms
1 grated carrot (optional)
1 Green bell pepper diced
1 red bell pepper diced
2 Stalks of celery diced

Simmer all of that until the whole mixture starts to darken (about 4 hours). If it is not the thickness you like add 1/4-1/2c water or add 1-2Tcornstarch (make sure you mix the cornstarch into some of the sauce in a separate bowl so it mixes in).

All that is left once you get it to the consistency that you prefer is to serve it over hot noodles or bottle it (if meat was added freeze don't bottle).

Oh one more thing to give you a better idea of the size of this recipe I got 7.5 pint bottles when I made it.

Wheat Zucchini Bread

OK my neighbor and I decided that we were going to share our gardens this year. However my garden plot got attacked by snails and so the snails have had all the benefit till recently when we fixed the problem and are just now enjoying yummy food from our garden plot as well. Luckily my neighbor had the foresight to also plant zucchini in her garden and it has created beautiful monster zucchini perfect for making lots and lots of bread. She has a recipe that she loves to make that she got from her mom. I suggested that we use half whole wheat flour, olive oil and omit the salt. All in an effort to make it healthier. We have been impressed with the outcome.

Here is our combined effort recipe.


Ingredients:
2 cups zucchini
3 eggs
1 cup olive oil
2 cups sugar
3 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix first 5 ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix the remaining ingredients. Make sure to mix the dry ingredients together breaking up any lumps in the baking soda and powder. Add dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients and beat on low for 1 minute and on medium to high for 2 minutes or until all ingredients are fully blended together. Place in middle of preheated oven and bake for 1 hour. Test with toothpick inserted in middle of bread, if toothpick comes out clean bread is done. If toothpick comes out not clean return to oven for 10 more minutes. Cool and Enjoy!
You can serve this plain or with cream cheese.

We also thought that it would be fun to add carrots to it as well. So we did half our loaves that we made with 2 cups added carrots minus 1 cup zucchini. This was yummy and like we said a way to try and make it healthier.

Grilled Greek Chicken Sandwiches

Ok we had this for dinner tonight and it was great. I got it from Pillsbury and I loved it. I am a huge fan of Greek food. It is a Chicken Gyro. And as you look at it you can tell I just copy and pasted from the site.

INGREDIENTS: Cucumber Sauce 1/4 cup Yoplait® Original Fat Free plain yogurt 1/3 cup finely chopped seeded cucumber 1 medium green onion, sliced (1 tablespoon) 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel Dash salt and pepper Sandwiches 2 teaspoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon olive or vegetable oil 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts 1 pita (pocket) bread cut in half 1 small tomato, sliced 2 thin slices red onion DIRECTIONS: 1. Heat gas or charcoal grill. In small bowl, mix sauce ingredients; set aside. (Sauce may become watery if it stands longer than 30 minutes.) 2. In another small bowl, mix lemon juice, oil and oregano. Brush lemon mixture over chicken, coating all sides. If desired, sprinkle with salt and pepper. 3. Place chicken on grill over medium heat. Cover grill; cook 15 to 20 minutes, turning once, until juice of chicken is clear when center of thickest part is cut (170°F). Wrap pita halves in foil; place on grill 1 to 2 minutes or until warm. 4. Place chicken, tomato and onion inside pita pockets. Top with sauce, or serve sauce on the side for dipping.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

OK so I posted another Whole Wheat Recipe on here. And I like it but it was a recipe that I had to acquire a taste to. This one I LOVE and everyone else has loved it to. The best part is that it is easy and quick to make. I adapted it from a recipe that I found on "A Barefooters Quest To Find A Better Way"blog, which she adapted from a recipe that she found in a book called Artisan Bread in 5 minutes A day. When I say adapted I use it loosely in the sense that I added honey and figured out the baking time. I'm a Genius. :0) Also said loosely. So I am going to give you step by step instructions. With pictures so there is no confusion to the ease of this recipe. I used a Kitchen Aid with a dough hook. It could also be done by hand just use oil on your hands so as not to add too much flour to the recipe. This bread is perfect with jam and is so moist and yummy you will hardly believe it is whole wheat bread.

Ingredients:
2 cups water
1 T yeast
1 T salt
2 T honey
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

Directions:
In bowl add first 4 ingredients let sit for 1 minute.

Then add flour all at once.

Turn mixer on speed 1 for 2 minutes. Then up the speed to 4 for 1 minute. Last turn it on to speed 8 for 2 minutes. Let run on high until it clears side and looks like picture below.

When you remove the dough hook this is what it looks like.
Sticky and wet. Perfect.

Leave in bowl like this and cover with towel. Place in warm, dark spot. I put it in my pantry and closed the door. Allow to rise for 1-2 hours.

I use PAM spray and sprayed my counter and dumped the dough on my counter top. Then I sprayed dough and formed into a football shape. And spray loaf pan.

It should look like this in the pan. I put it in upside down first and coated the top then flipped the dough so if you have a seam it is on the bottom.

Cover pan with clean dish towel or I even use a clean washrag.

Let rise till it reaches past the top. I let it rise till this point as in picture below.

Place in cold oven and turn temperature to 365 degrees. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove bread from pan and tap lightly on bottom of bread. If it makes a hollow thump bread is done. If you are unsure return bread to pan and cook for 5 more minutes and bread should be fine. Although 35 minutes has always made the bread perfect for us.

Flip bread over on cooling rack allow to cool and enjoy!

Plain and Garlic Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes

Per recent request I am adding a mashed potato recipe.
First the basic recipe and then my Garlic Cream Cheese mashed potatoes. I generally leave the skin on mostly because it is easier. But I do like them peeled on occasion. The picture is the Garlic Cream Cheese potatoes and well the taste good enough on their own they don't need gravy.


Ingredients:
8 medium sized potatoes
1/2 cup butter(I like unsalted)
1/4 cup milk

Directions:
Peel and/or wash potatoes, dice then place in pot and cover potatoes with water. Boil on high until fork tender(meaning when you stick a fork in the potatoes there is no resistance and usually break from sticking the fork in), usually 20-30 minutes. Strain water from potatoes and dump potatoes into a bowl. Next mash potatoes or if you have a beater beat potatoes. Then add butter and mash/beat. Then add milk and continue to mash/ beat. Voila you are done. The amount of milk should vary based on the consistency you are looking for.

Garlic Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:
8 medium sized potatoes
8 oz cream cheese
3 T garlic salt
1T garlic powder or wet minced garlic
1/4 cup Milk

Directions:
Peel and/or wash potatoes and dice. Place potatoes in pot and cover with water. Boil on high for approx. 20-30 minutes until fork tender. Strain water from potatoes and place potatoes in bowl. Mash/beat potatoes. Add Cream Cheese, garlic salt, and garlic. Mash/beat till mixed. Add milk and mash/beat till thoroughly mixed. Enjoy!

Shrimp Burritos

This recipe comes from allrecipes.com So because I'm lazy the ingredients and directions are copy and pasted, I've added my own thoughts in Italic. Oh this does serves 6.

* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1/2 cup chopped onion
* 3/4 cup long-grain white rice UNCOOKED
* 3/4 teaspoon cumin
* 3/4 teaspoon garlic salt
* 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
* 1/2 cup canned diced tomatoes
*
* 1 (16 ounce) can refried beans
* 3/4 teaspoon garlic salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
*
* 12 ounces frozen cooked shrimp without tails, thawed
* 2 teaspoons minced garlic
*
* 1/2 cup plain yogurt OPTIONAL
* 1/2 cup mayonnaise OPTIONAL
* 2 teaspoons pureed chipotle peppers in adobo sauce OPTIONAL
*
* 6 (10 inch) flour tortillas, warmed
* 3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
* 1/3 cup salsa


1. Heat the vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, and cook until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in rice, and season with cumin and 3/4 teaspoon of garlic salt. Cook and stir until the rice is lightly toasted, about 5 minutes. Pour in the chicken broth and the diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then cover and cook over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until all of the liquid has been absorbed.

2. In a small saucepan, stir together the refried beans, 3/4 teaspoon of garlic salt, and black pepper. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally until heated through. I thought this made for a lot of dirty pans so I added this step in with the rice.

3. Place shrimp in a bowl, and stir in garlic until shrimp is coated. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat, and coat with cooking spray. Saute shrimp until heated through and lightly browned. We added 1 precooked and precubed chicken breast with the shrimp when we coated the shrimp in garlic. I'm not a fan of shrimp and my children are hit and miss with it. Once our shrimp/chicken was warmed we added that too with the rice. Honestly all this did was make the pictures kind of "what-in-the-world-is-that"ish. But as you can see it wasn't nasty looking.

4. In a small bowl, stir together the yogurt, mayonnaise, and chipotle peppers until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use. We skipped this. I wasn't in the mood for spicy. But thinking about it now I think the yogurt and the mayo would of really cooled the chipotle peppers down. I kind of wish we had done this.

5. Place about 1/4 cup of cheese onto each warm tortilla. Then place about 1/2 cup of shrimp on the cheese. Top with 1/4 cup of beans, and 1/4 cup of rice. Spread on about a tablespoon of the chipotle sauce, and salsa to taste. Roll up, and serve. Umm, yeah the the way I put together a burrito is very important. Whatever. Besides we saved on dishes and mixed everything together. Oh, my DH (Designated Husband) did think sour cream was a fabulous addition.

Overall my impressions were VERY positive (fabulous, yummy, winner all come to mind). My picky 4 and 2 year olds cleaned their plates. We will definitively be making this again.

Blueberry Muffins

I recently got a windfall of a couple of large bags of frozen blueberries, so I have been looking for ways to use them. I had to try a couple of muffin recipes to find the right one, but this one hit the spot! It comes from the food network kitchens, the only change I made was putting in 1 1/2 cup blueberries vs. the 1c. the recipe calls for. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup milk
  
• 1 egg
• 1 3/4 cup sifted flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 tablespoon flour

Directions

Cream butter and sugar. Add milk and egg and beat until smooth. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to creamed mixture. Mix until moistened. Toss blueberries with flour and fold into batter. Fill a well-greased muffin pan 2/3 full with the batter. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.