Fallen, and Ham Fried Rice

I have fallen off the face of the earth. Lol - not really. I had a baby girl and have not made ANYTHING that is not already listed on this blog. I will try to get around to being creative again sometime... until then, try this one out!

HAM FRIED RICE

2 C. Water
1 C. Long Grain Rice
¼ tsp. Salt

Bring 2 cups of water to boil in a medium saucepan with a RIGHT-FITTING lid. Stir in rice, and salt. Reduce heat until mixture just simmers; with a fork, stir once. Cover pan and simmer WITHOUT STIRRING OR LIFTING THE LID, ABOUT 20 MIN.

2 slices thick Bacon (3-4 slices regular bacon)
2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
1 ½ tsp. Garlic Powder
½ Carrot, grated
1/8 Head of Cabbage, shredded
½ C. Chopped Ham
1 egg
1 Green Onion, chopped
½ C. Frozen peas

1. Cut bacon into small pieces. Cook in a large frying pan until browned and completely cooked. DO NOT DRAIN FAT!
2. Add to frying pan ham, grated carrot, shredded cabbage, sliced green onion. Heat ingredients until the cabbage wilts.
3. Scramble the egg and cook with vegetables.
4. Add cooked rice and peas to mixture and stir fry for 2 minutes.
5. Add soy sauce and garlic powder to mixture.

*1 ½ tsp of garlic powder makes it very strong. You can definitely taste the garlic. If you are not such a big fan of garlic, use less. (I like to use 1 tsp.)
*Vegetable fans - I love cabbage so I use ¼ a head of cabbage and it doesn’t make much difference.

Waffles

I woke up this morning craving waffles and decided that that is what we were going to have for breakfast. I started browsing a lot of different recipes but they all called for buttermilk which I don't happen to keep on hand at all time. I finally found this one and was so encouraged by the reviews and the ease of the recipe that I had to try it. It was fantastic! The picture doesn't really do them justice. I loved the unique flavor of the waffles and probably ate more than I should have. Jake really loved them too. The recipe says it only makes 4 servings, but this recipe could easily fill 4 people. (Unless you have an extra hungry husband. :-)) I made some modifications to the original recipe. My modified recipe is listed below, and here is the original recipe: Waffles.

WAFFLES (WITH NO BUTTERMILK)
From: Allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 eggs, separated
2 – 3 T sugar
2 – 3 tsp. Vanilla
1 cup fruit (optional)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat waffle iron. In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Stir in milk, oil, vanilla and egg yolks until mixture is smooth. (Blend in fruit, if desired.) In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold egg whites into batter.

Spray preheated waffle iron with non-stick cooking spray. Pour mix onto hot waffle iron. Cook until golden; serve hot.

Classic Family Chicken Noodle Soup

My dear sweet Jake is SICK! So after work let out I sent him straight back to our room to get in his jammies and to rest while I made a big pot of our classic Chicken Noodle Soup! It's really great tasting and Jake loved it. Hopefully he will be able to get some sleep now and get better! This recipe is really easy and doesn't require very many ingredients!

CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

1 1/2 lbs. noodles (I just use 16 oz.)
3 chicken breasts
1 package baby carrots
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
3-4 cubes chicken bouillon
Onion powder to taste

Cook chicken breasts in approximately 8 cups water with carrots and shake a bit of onion powder in. Start noodles cooking in a separate pan. Cook until carrots are soft. Take out chicken breasts and carrots but KEEP THE WATER. (Use a strainer on top of the pan). Add chicken bouillon and cream of mushroom soup to "juice." Cut up chicken and carrots to add to soup. Add noodles. Salt and pepper to taste.

*This recipe makes a HUGE pot of soup. If you have less people to feed cut the recipe in half, or even in fourths.

Key Lime Dessert

I made this to take to our cousin Tonya's baby's blessing. I wish I could have taken pictures because it looked SOOO pretty, but I felt really weird whipping out my camera and taking pictures of the dessert on my plate in the middle of a big family party. Can't imagine why, huh? (It looks like a green cake with a chocolate cookie crust and white frosting.) Anyway, this was a HUGE hit! Seriously, people SWAMPED it and it was devoured within 5 minutes. It is pretty rich but is super tasty. It was a little more involved to make so I would recommend making it on a low key Saturday when you can do a bunch of stuff in between steps. I don't remember exactly where I got this recipe but I think I clipped it out of the Deseret News C section one day.

KEY LIME DESSERT

CRUST:
2 cups Oreo cookie crumbs
½ cup sugar
½ cup butter

FILLING:
1 large box lime gelatin
2 cups boiling water
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
4 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed, divided

Combine cookie crumbs, sugar and butter and mix well. Press into the bottom of a 9-by-13-inch pan and set aside.

To make filling, dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Chill until quite thickened, about 1 hour. In a separate bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar on low with a hand mixer until fluffy. Beat in thickened gelatin. Fold in 2 cups whipped topping. Pour over crust and chill for several hours. Top with remaining whipped topping. Serves 12. (Or more when you cut it into smaller pieces which I recommend because of the richness of the dessert.)

Ranch Chicken Pizza

Yay! I'm back and with another great recipe! Jake and I love pizza - especially homemade pizza. I ran across a version of this recipe in my new Made Simple Chicken cookbook. I definitely made a lot of changes to it based on what I had on hand, so I will just post my altered recipe. We loved this pizza - hopefully you will too

RANCH CHICKEN PIZZA

PIZZA SAUCE and TOPPINGS

1/2 cup Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing

3 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 Tbsp. tomato paste

*2 chicken breasts, cooked, and cut into strips

2 cups mozzarella cheese

1 can olives, sliced

Blend together dressing, cream cheese, and tomato paste. Stir in cooked chicken. Spread on pizza crust. Top with mozzarella cheese and olives.

PIZZA CRUST

1 pkg. Dry yeast (2 tsp. = 1 pkg.)
2 Tbsp. Lukewarm water

Dissolve yeast in warm water.

1 egg
1 tsp. Salt
½ tsp. Sugar
1 Tbsp. Shortening or oil
1 cup boiling water
3 cups flour

Beat egg, add shortening, salt, sugar. Slowly stir in boiling water. Cool to lukewarm and add yeast mixture. Add ½ flour; stir (or beat with electric mixer) until smooth. Add remaining flour. Knead to soft dough. Roll to fit pan. Spread light coating of oil over dough on pan. Let rise 15 minutes. (You can spread on sauce and toppings while waiting for dough to rise.)

Cook at 425 for 15 - 20 minutes. (Check at 15 minutes.) HINT WHILE BAKING: Turn oven to BROIL for one minute at the very end of pizza cooking time. This gives the cheese a nice brown that is so delicious!

*NOTE: When cooking my chicken strips I flavored them with salt, pepper, onion powder, and a little bit of Worchestershire sauce - SO GOOD! We also folded mozzarella cheese into rolled edges of our pizza crust for the "stuffed crust" experience.

Explanation

It has been a really long time since I have posted any new recipes and I am sorry! I have been extremely sick and our kitchen is being remodeled right now so I do not have access to cooking opportunities! The kitchen should be done in the next few days so hopefully I will be able to get back to cooking scrumptious meals soon!

Crockpot Spaghetti

This is a great idea if you have a large gathering. I like my usual spaghetti sauce better - less ingredients, even easier to put together - but this does make a lot! It was a hit with our friends who came over to play some games. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it before Jake's boys gobbled it up, but it doesn't look any different than any other spaghetti sauce!

CROCK POT SPAGHETTI

1 lb. lean ground beef (raw)
1 c. beef bouillon
Minced onions
2 Tbsp. Minced parsley
¼ tsp. garlic powder
2 Tbsp. Brown sugar
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 tsp. Dried basil
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 tsp. salt
1 (8 oz.) can tomato paste
¼ tsp. Pepper

Mix all together and let cook all day on low. Boil spaghetti noodles until soft. Drain.