Baked Ham and Egg Cups

This is what Katrina made for Dad's birthday breakfast, and it was very delicious.  Thanks, Katrina! 

8 eggs
3/4 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
1/4 c. cottage cheese
5 oz. frozen spinach, defrosted, squeezed of water, and roughly chopped
1/3 c. roasted red peppers
1oz. finely diced ham, Canadian bacon, or crumbled bacon (about 1/4 to 1/3 c.)
1/4 c. chopped green onions
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1/2 tsp. hot sauce (like Tabasco)
12 slices lunchmeat ham

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a bowl, combine all ingredients (except ham slices) and stir well.

3. Spray a muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray and place one piece of ham in each well to form a bowl.

4. Evenly divide the egg mixture between the 12 muffin wells (about 1/4 c. each) being careful to keep ingredients evenly distributed. You want to fill them right up to the top.

5. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. The tops should be puffed and just barely set on top. Eggs will sink after cooling.

Easy Stroganoff

Back by popular demand . . . :)  Modified slightly from Valley View Ward Relief Society cookbook.

~1 lb. hamburger
1 onion, diced
2 T. flour
2 beef bouillon cubes
2 c. water
3/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1 T. mustard
1 T. worcestershire sauce
1 T. ketchup
1 c. sour cream

Saute meat and onions; add remaining ingredients except sour cream. Cook until thickened and bubbly; add sour cream.  Serve over noodles or rice.

Fancy grilled cheese

So I was looking on pinterest today for yummy things to eat.  I saw a recipe for grilled cheese (it was probably actually a panini) with cream cheese, jalapenos, and bacon.  Since I didn't have any of those things, I made a grilled sandwich with cheddar cheese, artichoke hearts, and spinach.  It was really good.  Then I made the kids grilled cheese sandwiches with ham.

Anyway, if you want to throw some vegetables in something yummy (Melissa), there's another thing for you to try.  Just make sure there's cheese between all the layers so they don't fall apart.

Fluorescent Yellow Food Day

So for FYFD this year I tried a few new recipes.  I pretty much just googled "yellow food" and made the recipes of the things that looked good.  I thought I'd post links here because some of them were amazingly good and I want to be able to find them again.

http://www.seletsucre.com/egyptian-yellow-lentil-soup/

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/06/pineapple-mango-salsa/

Yellow Hummus

For Fluorescent Yellow Food Day I made this yellow hummus.  It's pretty good.  I think it'd be awesome on some flat bread, but alas, I don't have any.  http://www.chowvida.com/2012/08/curried-hummus/
I actually added a lot of water to it to get it to work in my blender and it's still quite stiff.  I put in a pinch of paprika, too.  Good stuff.

Mac and cheese

I thought this was totally yummy.  I hadn't made it in a while, but then I needed it again so I re-googled it the other day.  I figured I'd post it here so I could find it again.  I doubled it using a package of bowtie noodles and 6 cups of milk.

http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/high-five-recipe-creamy-mac-and-cheese

Yummy Soup

So I made this soup for the cake auction potluck this year because I recently found the recipe in one of my notebooks from Illinois.  It's one of those that you can make the mix in a quart jar.  I basically lived off this stuff my first semester at Ricks.  And it's so good.

So, without further ado...

1/2 cup split peas
1/3 cup beef bullion
1/4 cup barley
1/2 cup lentils
1/4 cup dried onions
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 cup rice
1/2 cup macaroni (I use the little alphbet macaronis)
1 lb ground beef
1 30?oz can tomatoes
3 quarts water

Cook the ground beef and then simmer everything except the macaroni for 45 minutes and then add the macaroni and cook for another 20-25 minutes.

It is way yummy, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend three timesing it.  That makes a lot.  A lot.

Happy souping.

Molten Chocolate Lava Cake

****    This is a four star recipe from Mom! 1 C butter 1 C Xylitol ¼ tsp salt 6 lrg eggs 2/3 C flour ¾ C rich dark cocoa Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Generously butter a standard muffin tin. Dust with Xylitol, and tap out excess. Set aside. In the bowl of your stand-type mixer and with the paddle attachment, cream the 1 C butter, 1 C Xylitol, and salt together. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each. Add the flour and cocoa and beat until just combined. Divide the batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Bake just until the tops of the cakes no longer jiggle when the pan is slightly shaken, 8-9 mins. Remove from oven and let the pan stand for three minutes. To remove the cakes, place a cutting board over the top of the pan with the cakes. Grasping the edges of the pan and cutting board together, invert the pan, hold the inverted pan atop the cutting board, and drop the pan and cutting board from a height of six to eight inches. The cakes will pop loose onto the cutting board. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream. Yields 12 servings.

Cabbage Salsa

Has anyone else tried this?  It's so yummy!

1 head cabbage, finely chopped or shredded
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
juice of 1 or 2 or 3 limes
2 or 3 small tomatoes, diced (optional)
salt to taste

Mix it all up and eat it with chips right away.  You might eat it all.  Or you can save some for later.  It's good then, too.

Raw Fudgesicles/Chocolate Pudding

1 avocado, peeled and pitted
1 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup raw agave
3 Tbs cocoa powder

Blend all ingredients together, add more agave to taste.

Notes:  To reduce the taste of avocado - use a small one, or just half.  To make it less healthy, you can add whipping cream.  The full amount of cocoa powder will give it a dark chocolate flavor, so adjust accordingly.  I always just make it and eat it with a spoon, but you can freeze it up.  Use fresh coconut milk (found in the dairy aisle next to the almond and soy milks) NOT canned.

Top Nutrient Dense Foods on the ANDI Scale:

1. Kale
2. Collard Greens
3. Bok choy
4. Spinach
5. Brussels Sprouts
6. Arugula
7. Cabbage
8. Romaine
9. Broccoli
10. Cauliflower
11. Green Peppers
12. Artichokes
13. Carrots
14. Asparagus
15. Strawberries
16. Pomegranate Juice
17. Tomatoes
18. Blueberries
19. Iceberg Lettuce
20. Oranges

Did Iceberg lettuce surprise anyone else? 

Tuna & Mixed Greens with Lemon Dill

Organic spring mix and arugula
1 can or pouch of tuna
1-2 lemons, juiced (or equivalent lemon juice)
dill to taste
dash of salt and pepper
1 tsp or more of olive oil

Top salad with drained tuna.  Mix all other ingredients in a bowl and whisk.  Pour over salad.

*I got this recipe from a girl at work, and I make it all the time now.  It's really yummy! 

Cucumber Soup

So I don't have any measurements for this recipe, but it's my favorite thing to eat in the summer, so I thought I'd share.  I learned to make it from my Bulgarian companion on my mission.  I learned later that she was incredibly picky and there were actually a lot of other ingredients that she left out because she didn't like them, but this was how I learned it and it's so yummy that we'll just leave it like this.

Ingredients:
1 cucumber
Plain yogurt
Salt
Water

Grate the peeled cucumber into a bowl about this size and put a bunch of salt on it:

The bowl is one of the big Corelle bowls (not a cereal bowl).  And I use a big spoon (like a table spoon) to make it with.

Put about three large spoonfuls of yogurt in.  Add some water and mix the yogurt in by kind of smooshing it against the sides until it's runny.

Then add more water until it looks roughly like this:

Then eat it like this:

Until it's all gone like this:

And then have a cute baby that thinks she needs the camera, like this:

You can refrigerate it for a while (I think you're supposed to), but I always just make it with really cold water and eat it when I finish making it.  I'm impatient like that.

It shouldn't taste like yogurt--if it does, it probably needs more salt.  If it's too thick add water; if there's not enough substance add more yogurt--it should be fairly runny, though.  There'll probably be undissolved salt at the end (at least if you use Himalayan crystal salt.  I know the directions are really bed, but you should try it anyways.

Questions?

Jicama Salad

We made a jicama salad the other day that was really good. Of course, the recipe was modified a bit - I didn't actually measure anything, the matchsticks were fudged a bit, and I just used bottled lime juice and no zest, and regular chili powder, and olive oil instead of canola. And no jicama. But, it was good, so you should try it!

Jicama Salad 
1 large jicama
2 large carrots, peeled and shredded
1 red pepper, cut into very thin matchstick slices
1/2 cup radishes, shredded
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into very thin matchstick slices
juice from three limes
1 Tbsp. lime zest
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. ancho chili powder
2 Tbsp. honey
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely minced
kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper to taste

Use a vegetable peeler or a paring knife to peel the jicama. Shred finely using a box grater or the shredding blade of a food processor. Place shredded jicama, carrots, red pepper, radishes, and cucumber in a large salad bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk together the lime juice, lime zest, rice vinegar, ancho chili powder, honey and canola oil. Stir in the cilantro and season with salt and pepper. Pour over the jicama salad. Allow the flavors to marinate for about 15 minutes at room temperature before serving.

Serves 6. Per serving: 280 calories, 19 g fat (1 g saturated fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 28 g carbohydrate, 11 g fiber, 3 g protein, 115% vitamin A, 122% vitamin C, 4% calcium, 9% iron

**Just for the record, we did buy a jicama for this - but it was funky. I'm sure it would have been even better with a good-tasting jicama.

(This is Monica's write-up from a couple of years ago. I decided we needed to move it to the recipe blog so I stop having to search through years of blog posts to find it. We've made it at least a dozen times and I eat almost all of it in one sitting every time I make it--it's really good. Anyways, there you go.  Oh--and I just grate everything.  Including the cilantro, because I have the coolest grater in the world.)