Easy Spinach Dip Recipe

I finally got my hands on a super yummy spinach dip recipe.  Thanks, Momma Carol! 

1 packge of Knorr dried vegetable soup mix
8 oz of mayonnaise
16 oz sour cream
1 bunch of green onions, finely chopped
1 can of water chestnuts, finely chopped
10 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained on paper towels

Mix soup mix, mayo, and sour cream together.  Stir in green onions and water chestnuts.  Making sure all of the water is squeezed out, add the spinach a little at a time, stirring in between.  Let sit at least 4 hours but it's best when it sits overnight. 

Because of the consistency, this dip can be eaten with veggies, baguette slices, or even spread on a sandwhich wrap.

Key Lime Bars

Have you had these?  Oh. My. Gosh.  They were on sale at Harris Teeter last week (BOGO, I think) so I picked one up.  All of the muffin mixes were gone and only these and Lemon Bars were left.  (At our house, we like lime much more than we like lemon.)  I waited three days before making them and they lasted a whole two days in the fridge.  They were aaaaamaaaazing!
I searched allrecipes for a "key lime bar" recipe and got nothin'.  Does anyone have a recipe close to these babies?  That would be outstanding!
Thankyouverymuch!

Constipated Baby

I've become that woman...the woman that discusses her childrens' bowel movements.  Although slightly disgusting, this post is meant as a helpful tip for new mommies.
Today's tip:  a little Karo Syrup in your baby's bottle helps to relieve constipation.  Start with just a little (maybe 1/2 teaspoon) and adjust as needed.
With two babies on soy formula (soy is gentler on the stomach but has an awful side effect......) we use a lot of syrup.  We have found that 1/2 cup of Karo Syrup added to our 3 pint pitcher of formula does the job.  Light or dark syrup work fine, but remember the dark will turn the formula an odd shade of brown. 
I hope that all of my "mommy posts" can be used by someone like me, who might not know all the tricks and shortcuts to babying.  Always remember to consult your pediatrician for your baby's needs.   

Can't Help Falling In Love With These Cupcakes

January 8th would have been Elvis' 75th birthday, bless his heart.  I had to work so I couldn't celebrate too much, but at the end of the day I had the great idea to go home and make cupcakes in observation of the special day.  I left work and went straight to the grocery store picking up some bananas, peanut butter, and cake mix.  My plan was to turn a box of Duncan Hines into a dessert Elvis would die for.
The Pope was working nights so I had the whole house to myself.  I unpacked my groceries, set a stick of butter out to soften, pulled out my new mixing bowls, and went to the cabinet to pull out the bag of powdered sugar.  But there was no powdered sugar!  I ripped the cabinets apart looking for the sugar.  I am slightly OCD and know exactly where everything is in my kitchen at all times......the ketchup sits next to the mustard, in the fridge, right next to the salad dressings on the bottom shelf.
Apparently The Pope had used all of the powdered sugar a few weeks ago to make buckeyes and "crack balls."  So then an argument ensued.
I was not about to go out in 20 degree weather especially when The Pope should have let me know he used all of the sugar.  And he argued that we rarely use powdered sugar so he didn't see the reason to mention it.  I explained that when I have the urge to bake, cook, and create in my kitchen, I expect those staples to be there.  I went to bed with nothing to show for my love for Elvis.
I woke up this morning with a fresh 2 pound bag of Walmart brand powdered sugar laying on my cutting board.  The Pope is too sweet (pun intended).  So here's my recipe for Can't-Help-Falling-In Love-With-These-Elvis'-Belated-Birthday-Cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.

For the cupcakes I used a boxed yellow cake mix and added a few mashed bananas before pouring into cupcake tins.  I got the basics for my frosting from this recipe and tweaked it a little.

Peanut Butter Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened not melted (don't use margarine)
1 1/2 cups peanut butter (natural peanut butter has a stronger flavor)
2 cups powdered sugar
enough milk to make it creamy, about 1/4 cup
a little vanilla extract just 'cause

Cream the butter and peanut butter, then add the vanilla, sugar and milk a little at a time.  Remember only add enough milk to make it creamy.  This frosting would be absolutely yummy on some chocolate cupcakes or for the peanut butter fanatics try it on some peanut butter cupcakes.

Easy Quiche Recipe

I love allrecipes because when I have a taste for something I just pop over and type in "brownies." Then I have a plethora of recipes all rated with little stars so I know which ones are the yummiest.  Well Sunday morning I searched for quiche recipes and found this one of Donna's.  After reading several comments from other folks at allrecipes I chose to make a few alterations.  Below is my adaption of the original recipe.

2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 small onion, diced
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup fat free half and half
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried savory
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 (9 inch) pie crust (see this great made-from-scratch recipe)
• 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 3/4 cup Cheddar cheese, shredded
• 
  

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and saute until soft, about 3 to 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, half and half, basil, savory, salt and pepper.

Spoon the onions into the pie crust. Pour the egg mixture over the onions. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top.

Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into center of the quiche comes out clean, about 30 to 40 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving.


Of course The Pope is not a vegetarian so I fried up some bacon for him.  He suggested that putting the bacon in the quiche would be super tasty (he doesn't even eat eggs).

Herbed Potato Soup

Growing up, Paw would make potato soup for me when I was sick.  Well The Pope found this recipe online and has made it for me several times.

2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
2 cups water
1 large onion, chopped
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups milk

Place potatoes and water in a large saucepan; cook over medium heat until tender. Meanwhile, in another saucepan, saute onion and butter until tender. Stir in the flour, salt, thyme, rosemary, and pepper. Gradually add milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes. Add potatoes with cooking liquid; heat through.

Icebox Strawberry Pie

My blog may just turn into a huge recipe database. Maybe I should change the name to "Fat Chick That Likes to Eat."

I got this recipe from the container of organic vanilla yogurt.

Icebox Strawberry Pie
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1-8 oz package cream cheese
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup diced strawberries
1-9" graham cracker crust

In a medium size mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese and sugar. Blend yogurt and vanilla extract into mixture and fold in strawberries. Pour filling into graham cracker crust. Freeze for 2-3 hours or until set. Place pie in refrigerator for 15 minutes before serving.
I prefer making my own graham cracker crust with sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and melted butter.

Walnut Basil Pesto

I have several favorite kitchen tools, most of which were wedding gifts. It's great to gain a husband and super kitchen stuff!

I love my Caphalon pots and pans (thank you Momma and Daddy). I love my cutting board and Henckel knives (thanks Aunt Kerry). I literally use them everyday. I also love my mini food processor. This little gadget is small enough to fit nicely under the counter and not a pain to use or wash. I use it to make my homemade salsa and to make quick, yummy walnut basil pesto.

To make my walnut basil pesto I blend together walnuts, fresh basil (compliments of my garden!), olive oil, minced garlic, salt, and pepper. I sort of just add things until they taste good. I don't tend to follow recipes exactly, prefer to make it my own. Serve your pesto with a good pasta that will hold the pesto well.

Disclaimer: my combination of ingredients tend to come out the color of tuna, unlike the pretty green pesto you might be use to.

Cilantro Hummus

1 cup canned garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained, rinsed
1/8 cup tahini
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 pinch paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Place the garbanzo beans, tahini, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, garlic powder, and paprika into a blender. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of water, lemon juice, and the cilantro. Puree until smooth.

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com. Love that website!

Mexican Pizza

I have been craving mexican food for a few days now and decided to try my own version of Taco Bell's mexican pizza.
This is basically how my recipe went.....

2- 8" flour or corn tortillas
can of black beans
cilantro
lime
onion
salsa
diced tomatoes
chopped green onions
chopped red bell pepper
black olives
cheddar cheese













First I made some homemade salsa (tomatoes, onion, cilantro, lime juice, salt) in my mini food processor and placed in a bowl. Then I toasted the tortillas in the oven for a few minutes. While they toasted I pureed the black beans, lime juice, cilantro, and onion. I took the tortillas out after a few minutes and spread one tortilla with the black bean puree. I placed that one black bean tortilla back in the oven for a few minutes. While that was heating up, I chopped my veggies and grated the cheese. After a few minutes I removed the tortilla from the oven and placed the toasted, naked tortilla on top of the black bean tortilla. Then I put lots of cheese on top of the naked tortilla and put it back in the oven. After the cheese was really melted, I took the tortilla sandwich out of the oven and topped it with my veggies, salsa, and more cilantro.
Next time I might try pepper jack cheese or add corn to the top of the pizza. Jon and I even just enjoyed the black bean puree as a dip with nacho chips.

Camp Food For Vegetarians

The Pope and I are going camping this weekend on an island in the ICW with some friends. We have to pack light since we are taking our canoe over to the island. We are also thinking of going up to Pilot Mountain for some more camping for our first anniversary, June 28.
You probably know that I am a vegetarian but this vegetarian likes to eat (maybe too much). So all this camping got me thinking about some convenient, easy things I could pack to eat. I found several nifty ideas online, things that I hadn't considered.

Ramen noodles, just add hot water
rice and beans
Fantastic Foods makes tons of "just add water" items (I like their hummus and sloppy joe mix!)
one of Jon's favorite camp foods (besides smores) is trailmix
instant oatmeal
pancakes (they even make just-add-water-to-a-bottle-and-shake-mix now)
single pack drink mixes (Crystal Light or others)
hot chocolate mix
REI has a whole section of vegetarian food options

The Pope also found this website for camping recipes. Don't eat the Margarita Cheesecake!

The thing to remember with processed camp foods is the high sodium content. Read your labels, folks!

Banana Nut Muffins

.....except for when you forget the nuts.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat muffin pans with non-stick spray, or use paper liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. Combine bananas, sugar, egg, and melted butter in a large bowl. Fold in flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Scoop into muffin pans.
3. Bake in preheated oven. Bake mini muffins for 10 to 15 minutes, and large muffins for 25 to 30 minutes. Muffins will spring back when lightly tapped.

*I add vanilla extract and cinnamon to my recipe.

Peanut Butter CUPCAKES

I christened my Kitchenaid stand mixer with this recipe. It makes an amazing, beautiful dough.

2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup peanut butter (natural pb has a stronger flavor)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 pinch salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a cupcake pan with paper liners, or grease and flour cups.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the brown sugar, shortening and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt; stir into the batter alternately with the milk. Spoon into the prepared muffin cups.  (I always spray paper liners with a non-stick cooking spray.  It helps peel the paper off.)
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top of the cupcakes spring back when lightly pressed. Cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

I served my cupcakes with store bought chocolate icing. (I didn't make my own because I had too much else going on.)

Greek Antipasto Pita

Here's another yummy recipe from my Simple Suppers cookbook. I like this one because it's made with all fresh stuff. And wow is it good!

2 T olive oil
1 T red wine vinegar or cider vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 T chopped fresh dill (or 1 t dried dill or oregano)
1 celery stalk
1 large tomato
1/2 red bell pepper
1 cucumber
1/4 red onion
8 pitted kalamata olives
salt and pepper
4 pita breads

In a bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, garlic and dill. As you prepare the vegetables add them to the bowl: dice the celery, tomato, bell pepper, and cucumber, mince the red onion, chop the olives. Toss well. Add salt and pepper to taste. The filling tastes best if it sits at room temperature for at least 10 minutes. It will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of days.
Cut the pitas in half and toast them lightly. To serve, stuff each pita half with filling.

*I usually leave out the celery, and sometimes I substitute roasted red pepper for the bell pepper. I also sprinkle feta cheese on top right before serving (remember feta can be salty so if you serve it with feta, watch the salt in the recipe).

Christmas recipe numero uno

Jon and I are heading to Augusta for Christmas. Yay! I will go down on December 21 to hang out with my family, get ready for Christmas, and help cook for the whole week. I wanted to try a few new recipes for Christmas dinner. Here's the first I've decided on. I found this recipe in The Nest magazine.

Warm Apple Tart
Preheat your oven to 375
Peel, core, and eighth 6 fuji apples with 1/2 cup store-bought caramel topping
Line a shallow baking pan with parchment paper and a (roughly) 18" sheet of frozen puff pastry
Arrange the apple-caramel mixture on pastry
Combine 6oz cold butter, 6oz sugar, and 6oz flour until crumbly and sprinkle on apple mixture
Bake 40 to 45 minutes. Cut into slices.
The Nest suggests serving it with butter pecan ice cream.

broccoli cheddar soup

Back in Augusta, I LOVED Panera Bread's broccoli cheddar soup in a bread bowl. Sadly, there is no Panera Bread in Wilmington. So I searched on allrecipes.com and found this recipe for broccoli cheddar soup. (I didn't puree the soup like the recipe suggests. I just chopped the broccoli into tiny bits.)

1 head fresh broccoli, chopped
1 (2 ounce) package dry leek or potato soup mix
3 cups water
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

In a medium sized stock pot, over medium heat, combine soup mix and water, stirring constantly until well mixed.
Add broccoli florets, partially cover and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes stirring often.
Once broccoli is tender, place soup in a food processor or blender and puree. Once blended return soup mixture to stock pot, add milk and stir.
Add cheese to soup mixture keeping 1/2 cup set aside. Stir soup until cheese is melted and then sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup cheese on top of individual soup servings.

Steph the chef

We got several cookbooks as wedding gifts. One of those cookbooks is Simple Suppers, The Pope's best man and his wife gave it to us. One day I sat down to label a few recipes I wanted to try and happily realized the whole cookbook is vegetarian!
One of the recipes from Simple Suppers I tried was roasted ratatouille (see recipe below). We loved it!
Then, while looking for recipes online I found the website allrecipes.com. I've tried the following recipes from there: mmmm...brownies, carrots with dried cherries, and vegetable orzo. I plan to make some "granola" bars for The Pope, too, oaty cereal bars.
The coolest thing about allrecipes is they let you save your favorite recipes on their site in your "recipe box." They have another feature "ingredients" where you type in the items you want in your recipe or the things you don't have in your pantry. It automatically pulls up all of the recipes that fall into that category. Pretty darn cool.

Roasted Ratatouille
1 zucchini
3 onions
1 eggplant (peeled)
2 tomatoes
2 red, green, yellow bell peppers
6 garlic cloves
1/3 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup packed fresh basil leaves
grated Romano or Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Cut all the vegetables into 1-inch chunks and place them in a large bowl. You need between 12 and 14 cups total. Coarsely chop the garlic. Toss the vegetables and garlic with the olive oil, salt, and pepper, and spread on a baking sheet. Roast for 15 minutes and then stir the vegetables. Continue to roast for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring again after 20 minutes, until the vegetables are fork-tender and juicy.
While the vegetables roast, chop the basil. When the vegetables are done, put them in a serving bowl and stir in the chopped basil.
I served my ratatouille with crusty bread, but you can also serve it with rice or salad.

what do you serve with coffee?

I have really gotten into coffee lately...making it at home. Jon bought a french press that we use everyday, and I've been using my cappuccino machine a lot, too.
I really like those $.99 muffin mixes and the scones at Starbucks. I wonder what everyone else serves with their coffee. Please forward recipes, too. Thanks!

K9 Peanut Butter Cookies

Feylan and Charlie LOVE these.

1 cup millk
1 cup natural peanut butter
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder

This dough isn't like other rolling dough , it works if you squish it with your hands and then roll it out. Roll out to about 1/4 in. thick and cut with dogbone cookie cutter. Bake on a greased cookie sheet for 20 min. at 375. Makes about 2 doz. biscuits.
Watch them carefully so they don't burn.

I used soymilk instead of regular milk because that's what I had on hand. Maybe I should check to see if soy is bad for dogs. It didn't seem to affect our puppies. I'll get back to you....

Homemade K9 Biscuits

I made these the other night for Charlie. I think he knew I was making something for him because he laid on the kitchen floor with Jon's dog Feylan (Border Collie). The biscuits were cheap and easy to make. And I like knowing what is in what I'm feeding him.

LEO'S COOKIES (an original recipe from Pilar Passmore)
1/2 brick regular or low-fat cream cheese
2 cups whole-wheat flour
6 ounces carrot baby food
3 ounces olive oil
splash of vanilla

Mix the ingredients; mash, knead and flatten. If you don't have a bone-shaped cookie cutter, use the baby food jar to make round cookies. Place cookies on a baking sheet, and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Turn off the oven, and leave the cookies inside until the oven cools.
Yield: about 21/2 dozen cookies. A batch generally keeps for about two weeks.