Egg in a Basket

During my last 2 pregnancies this is all I could eat for breakfast. I recently tried this and I realized I enjoyed it when I was not pregnant to. And well since it looked so fun I had to take a picture and share this easy recipe. I also use olive oil usually instead of butter and I love the taste of the Cajun Seasoning but you can use Seasoned Salt if you want to.

Ingredients
1 slice of bread
1 egg
2 T butter
1/4 tsp Cajun Seasoning or Seasoned Salt

Directions
Heat on your skillet on medium and add butter. Meanwhile, take a cookie cutter any shape and cut a hole in the middle of your slice of bread. Crack egg in a cup and remove any shells. Place bread and extra piece of bread in skillet separately. Pour egg gently into hole in bread. Cover skillet for 30 seconds. Uncover skillet and flip both pieces of bread over. Cook for 30-45 seconds more. Plate and enjoy!

Raspberry Filling

Ok so I have had a request for this recipe by a few people so here it is. I use this as a filling for my white cake. That I then top with my Cream Cheese Frosting found here. I usually will just by a regular Super Moist White Box Cake and put this in between 2 8" round cakes. I have also used this for a freezer jam by cooking a tiny bit longer and as a syrup by using any berries on hand and even peaches and cooking a little less. The sky is the limit.

Ingredients:
12 oz fresh raspberries
1 cup sugar
2-3 T vanilla

Directions:
Put all in a sauce pan and boil on high constantly stirring until it starts to thicken. Then take off and let cool. Add to cake for filling or put in a container and freeze it works great as a freezer jam as well. Enjoy!

Chicken Pot Pies and Pie Crust Recipe

So I copied this including the picture since my camera does not work from Our Best Bites . That should be a link directly to this recipe for more pictures of hers. It was delicious. I admittedly did not do any variation of rotisserie like her I used what I had and fried 3 chicken breasts to get what I needed for the recipe. If you want to cut back on some work, my suggestion is go to the super market and get a rotisserie chicken and shred it for this recipe and freeze what you don't use for other easy recipes. Also I used plain potatoes for this and not the red and peeled them since I planned on feeding the insides to my 1 year old and I didn't want him to choke on the skins. I will post my own pie dough recipe for those that would like an easy no fail crust. On the site where I got this she also has a pie dough recipe or if you want you can just buy buy dough at the store pre-made. I hope that you enjoy this as much as we did.


Ingredients:
2 unbaked pie crusts

1 lb. chicken chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 12-16 oz. bag of peas and carrots or mixed vegetables, thawed
1 onion, minced
1 Tbsp butter
5 medium-small red potatoes, diced
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt (more or less, to taste)

Ground black pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400. Bring a large pot of water (salt optional) to a boil. When ready, add potatoes and boil until tender. Meanwhile, heat about 1 Tbsp. butter in a medium skillet. When the butter is bubbly, saute the onion until it's translucent and fragrant. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine cream of chicken soup, chicken, vegetables, onion, and potatoes. Season to taste.

Now...the pie can be done a couple of ways. Normally, I make one family-sized chicken pot pie like Dani does, but my most recent adventure in Chicken Pot Pie-Land involved little individual mugs/ramekins of chicken pot pie. It was a big hit! The baking directions are exactly the same, except that the mug pies ONLY have a crust on top (which cuts down on the fat; in fact, you could get away with 1 pie crust if you do it this way).

ANYWAY. If you're making one whole pie, place one pie crust on the bottom of a pie plate, transfer the filling to the pie plate, and then top with the other pie crust. Crimp the edges and then cut a few vent holes on top.

If you're making individual pies in oven-safe jars, mugs, or ramekins, fill the dishes with the chicken mixture and then top with a piece of pie crust slightly larger than the opening of the dish. Crimp the edges, and cut some vent holes. Place pie plate/individual pies on a baking sheet and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to stand for a few minutes before serving.

No Fail Pie Crust

I got this recipe from Mormon Cooking Authentic Recipes Cookbook I bought a few years back. Love this recipe. It has not failed me yet. I have substituted the vinegar with lemon juice and the shortening with butter at times. I also now make this in my food processor. I put the flour in with the salt and pulse it a few times and avoid the sifting. Then add everything else according to directions and turn it on at the end till it forms into a ball. So Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 1/2 C sifted flour
1 C shortening
1/4 Cold Water
1 Tbsp Vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 Large egg, beaten


Directions:
Sift together flour and salt, cut in shortening until mixture resembles small peas. In a mixing bowl combine water, vinegar and egg. Pour into flour mixture and mix lightly until all flour is moistened and pastry forms a ball. Divide dough as desired, roll out onto floured surface; line 9 inch pie plate, fill with favorite filling or bake as a pastry shell for 10 minutes at 450 degrees. Makes 3 single pie crusts.

Leftover Veggie Tray Stir Fry

I hosted a MoveOn.org party over the weekend and was left with a sizable veggie tray, and since most of the veggies are too hard for Crystiana to eat (Carrots, Broccoli) I thought it might be good to cook them up with some chicken. The result was wonderful, and I just had to share.

3-4 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 c. Broccoli
1/2 c. Sugar Snap Peas
approx. 10 Baby Carrots sliced
1-2 stalks Celery cut diagonally
2 c. Cooked Chicken Breast (I used rotisserie chicken breast meat from Costco)
1 tbsp. Minced Garlic
2 tbsp. Lemon Juice
dash pepper
season to taste (I used some of the garlic bread seasoning from Costco and Soy Sauce to finish)

Put the EVOO in a skillet and heat, then add veggies, chicken, garlic, seasonings and lemon juice. Stir and cover. Let simmer 10 min on med-high heat. Remove from heat, stir and serve!

So simple, and extremely tasty!

Tangy Chicken

From some random recipe I saw online and now can't find again.

INGREDIENTS:

Chicken (3-4lbs)
1 (8oz) can tomato sauce
1/2cup soy sauce
1/4cup brown sugar
2 garlic cloves minced

DIRECTIONS:
Combine all ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for 4-5 hour is cubed or 8-10 hour if bone remains in chicken.
Serve over hot rice.

Impressions from me. I LOVED this however when I make it again I'll add something to thicken the sauce a little.

Upside-Down Hot Chocolate

OK as strange as this might sound it was very yummy. I found the recipe online at with the Fox 13 recipes. You know the ones they do during the afternoon news hour. It was very easy and lots of fun. My family and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So I thought that I would share. Well I also just used some white chocolate chips and it still turned out well. On the picture I used a small mason jar simply so that you could see how it looks. Enjoy!

White Hot Chocolate:
1 cup heavy cream
4 cups half and half
1 cup white chocolate, chopped (use a good quality)
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine white chocolate and heavy cream in a sauce pan and cook over medium heat.

Stir continuously until white chocolate has completely melted.

Stir in half and half, and vanilla.

Continue cooking until heated through.

Pour into cups and top with chocolate whipped cream and garnish with chocolate shavings and a Pirouette cookie!

Chocolate Whipped Cream
1/2 cup of heavy cream
1/4 cup of sugar
2 Tbs. or two squirts of chocolate syrup

In a mixing bowl beat cream until it starts to hold its shape, then add sugar and chocolate syrup.

Continue mixing until all ingredients are combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.