Chicken Fajitas

Background: At the bridal shower hosted by my mother-in-law, she had each person write one of their favorite recipes on a 3-by-5 recipe card. This recipe comes from the book she made up of all the recipe cards.

Originally from: Sophie Hamberg

Serves ~4
Approximate time, from prep to table: ~2.5 hours (due to a 2+ hour marinade)

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 clove garlic
1.5 tsp. seasoning salt
1.5 tsp. ground cumin
1 T. chili powder
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 T. vegetable oil
2 T lemon juice

Sliced Vegetables:
1 yellow pepper
1 red bell pepper
1 green pepper
1 onion
1-2 green onions (or more if desired)

tortillas
sour cream

Directions:

Preparation:
Cut chicken into thin strips; add garlic, seasoned salt, cumin, chili powder, red pepper, oil, and lemon juice and mix thoroughly. Marinate at least 2 hours or longer.

Cooking:
Cook chicken until done in fry pan; set aside. Cook vegetables in fry pan with 1 T. oil and cook, covered, until done. Then add chicken and cook together for a few minutes.

Serve: Put on tortillas and serve with sour cream.

Note/Tips: Someone gave us a set of the sizzling platters that they use at restaurants. If you like this recipe, I highly recommend getting a couple of them and heating them in the oven until time to serve. They add that "wow" effect for guests. I wouldn't recommend marinading the chicken all day; it can become too strong.

Trivoli Casserole

Background: At the bridal shower hosted by my mother-in-law, she had each person write one of their favorite recipes on a 3-by-5 recipe card. This recipe comes from the book she made up of all the recipe cards. When I first got married, I didn't think I liked casseroles...now this is a family favorite!

Originally from: Christy Vollink

Serves ~6
Approximate time, from prep to table: ~an hour

Ingredients:

Group 1:
2lbs ground beef
1 green pepper
1 medium onion
celery & salt & pepper to taste

Group 2:
1 can cream-style corn
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can tomato soup

1 package penne pasta
4 c. sharp cheddar cheese (can be reduced)

Directions:

Start boiling water for the pasta so that you can cook it during step 2. Drain. (step 1)
Fry ingredients in group 1 until brown (step 2)
Add ingredients from group 2 to the fried ingredients (step 3)
Mix noodles and 2 cups of the cheese with other ingredients (step 4)
Put into a 9-by-13 baking dish and cover with the remaining cheese (step 5)
Bake @ 350 for 45 minutes (step 6)

Note/Tips: Great for leftovers.

Pasta Salad

Background: I found this recipe in the coupons from my newspaper. I made it last week and this week and it is so glorious with some leftover baked chicken for lunch!

Originally from: Marzetti Dressing Coupon Recipe

Serves ~ 4-8 (depends on whether this is a side or part of a lunch)
Approximate time, from prep to table: ~25 minutes (pasta has to cook)

Ingredients:
8 oz rotini pasta (Barilla Whole Grain is awesome)
1/2 - 3/4 Cup Ranch or Italian dressing (I prefer non-dairy Italian)
1/2 Cup grated Parmesan cheese (non-dairy substitute works well)
Choose from among these vegetables:
1 Cup broccoli florets
1 small can (6-8 oz) artichoke hearts, quartered (look for glass containers in the canned veggies section)
1 zucchini, quartered lengthwise then sliced
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 Cup frozen peas, thawed
1 Cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 Cup asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 Cup carrots, quartered lengthwise then sliced
1/4 Cup pitted and halved kalamata olives (I get mine from the "olive bar" at Meijer)
small can chickpeas

Directions:
Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, cut the broccoli into florets and put into strainer. Prep the rest of the veggies above and toss into a large bowl. Drain cooked pasta over broccoli (this will bring out the nice green color). Run cool water over the pasta and broccoli and drain well. Pour the drained pasta and broccoli into the large bowl. Add Parmesan cheese and dressing. Toss gently to coat. Serve or store covered in fridge until serving time.

Note/Tips: This has kept well in my fridge for 4 days. It tastes yummy and you just feel good after eating it--it is such pure, vegetable goodness! You could probably substitute olive oil and red wine vinegar for the Italian dressing if you wanted to. Experiment with which combination you like best!

Carrot Cake

Background: I am feeling like spring and so I want to post this wonderful carrot cake recipe. It is originally from one of my Mom's friends. This is what I made for Evan's first birthday party in July. It was the only non-fruit sweet he had ever had until we put one Froot Loop in each of his 10 Easter eggs this past week, which he inhaled when he figured out how to open the Easter eggs. Poor, deprived child.

Originally from: Mary Nadzum

Serves ~15
Approximate time, from prep to table: ~ 2 hours, including cooling time

Ingredients:
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking soda
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 Cups sugar
1 1/2 Cups canola oil
4 eggs

3 Cups grated carrots
(Optional: 1/2 Cup chopped pecans)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients, add oil, and blend. Add eggs one at a time (mixing in between). Add carrots and nuts. Blend well. Pour mixture into a 9x13 pan.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Although I have never made it, if you are feeling very Susie Homemaker, here is her homemade cream cheese frosting recipe:
8 oz cream cheese
1 box powdered sugar
1 stick butter
2 tsp vanilla
(Optional: 1 can coconut)
1/2 Cup chopped pecans

Beat thoroughly. (May make half of the recipe.)

Note/Tips: I just bought a cream cheese frosting when it was on sale and I thought the cake turned out wonderfully. Pour Evan didn't even get frosting, though, because it contained dairy. (Note little piece without cream cheese frosting above.) I hope that he grows out of his allergy so that he can indulge in the glory that is dairy!

Easter Egg Bread

Background: My mom made this bread a few times when I was little and I decided to make it myself this year. It was just as good as I remembered it! It is a wonderfully chewy bread. Grant said that it reminded him of Hawaiian bread. I altered the recipe slightly based on my mom's old recipe, which makes 4 times as much bread (which explains why she made it only a few times--imagine kneading 4 times as much dough at once!).

Originally from: my Mom, as well as here

Serves ~8 (one 1-lb loaf)
Approximate time, from prep to table: ~3 1/2 hours

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted and divided (plus up to 1 extra cup for kneading)
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast (or 2 1/2 tsp)
2/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter (canola oil could also work)
2 eggs
Canola oil to coat bowl
5 whole eggs, uncooked, dyed if desired
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons butter, melted ( or 1 egg and 1 Tbsp milk)

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, salt and yeast; stir well. In a small bowl, sift 1 1/2 cups of flour for future use. Combine milk and butter (or canola oil) in a small saucepan (or dish for microwave if you want less pans to wash!); heat until milk is warm and butter is softened but not melted.

Gradually add the milk and butter (or canola oil) to the flour mixture; stirring constantly. Add two eggs and 1/2 cup flour; beat well. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, dust it with flour and turn it out onto a heavily floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. You will need to add up to another 3/4 Cup of flour while kneading, so don't be shy with the flour!

Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into two equal size rounds; cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Roll each round into a long roll about 36 inches long and uniformly thick. Using the two long pieces of dough, form a loosely braided ring, leaving spaces for the five eggs. Seal the ends of the ring together and use your fingers to push the eggs down between the braids of dough.

Place loaf on a baking sheet, coated with cooking spray, and cover loosely with a damp towel. Place loaf in a warm place and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes. After about 30 minutes, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Brush risen loaf with melted butter (or egg and milk, whisked) and bake in preheated oven for about 25 minutes, or until golden and bread sounds hollow when tapped with hand. (Or you could experiment with a pizza stone that has been heating up for at least 25 minutes.)

Note/Tips: This bread is best when fresh out of the oven, but it keeps well if stored in an airtight container. I made this twice on Holy Saturday--one bread with five twists and one with 10 twists. I like the 10 twists better, with an egg in every other twist. Push the eggs deeply into the bread, as I had one egg roll out onto the pan during the baking! The eggs are supposed to hard boil with the bread, but I found that they barely soft-boiled (due to the drastically reduced amount of time needed from the above referenced recipe) and we did not eat them when they came out of the oven. I think that perhaps hard-boiling them beforehand would be best, but am not sure if they would then be over-cooked. I would just consider them a nice Easter decoration and discourage people from eating them. I don't think this bread should be stored in the refrigerator, so I would not recommend eating the hard-boiled eggs after a few hours, anyway. I also do not like that the color on my eggs chipped a little bit during the baking. I think that this is from the perspiration of the cooking eggs, so warm pre-boiled eggs might also solve this dilemma. I like the egg and milk coating best because I think it seals the bread better and the bread will dry out less (if it lasts more than one day, that is).

Veggie Pot Pie

Background: This is one of Grant's favorite dinners. If I mention we're having this for dinner, I usually get a "sweeeeeet" or "cha-ching." I've modified the recipe slightly to include more protein and more nutritious flour. If you're a meat-eater, I think that chicken would go well in this. Just increase the stock or water or milk to get the correct filling consistency.
Originally from: Skinny Bitch

Serves ~4
Approximate time, from prep to table: ~1:30
Crust Ingredients:1 Cup Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 Cup margarine/butter; sub vegan margarine as needed
2 Tbsp milk; sub unsweetened non-dairy milk as needed

Directions:Blend the flour and salt together in a small bowl. Add the margarine and mix by hand until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add milk and knead until well combined and dough forms. Remove the dough, roll into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour prior to using. Prep below ingredients while dough is in refrigerator.
Filling Ingredients:1 small onion, chopped1 Tbsp olive oil
1-2 celery stalk, chopped (depending on how much you like celery)
1 large carrot, chopped
1 medium potato, finely chopped
1/3 Cup frozen peas
1/2 Cup red lentils
1 1/4 Cup vegetable stock (I use 1 tsp Better Than Bouillon and 1 1/4 Cup water)
1 1/2 tsp Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 Cup milk; sub unsweetened soy milk as needed

Preheat oven to 400F.

Lightly oil a deep dish 10 inch pie plate or an 8x8" baking dish (or even a casserole dish) and set aside.
In a large, deep saucepan over medium heat, saute the onions in oil until translucent. Add the celery and carrots; saute for an additional 2-3 minutes. Add the potatoes, peas, lentil, stock, and spices. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Cover with lid and simmer for 4-8 minutes or until lentils are soft. (You should have a hard time seeing a particular lentil--they blend in rather well when ready. It is sort of like how a dry grain of rice is very defined while cooked rice almost seems out of focus...if that makes any sense at all.)

Stir in the flour and milk and simmer until sauce begins to thicken.

Transfer cooked vegetables to baking dish. Roll out dough and place evenly over top of vegetables and bake for 20 minutes, then broil for 1-3 minutes, until crust is lightly browned.

Note/Tips: I highly recommend the Whole Wheat Pastry Flour from Bob's Red Mill and using Mrs. Dash as a short cut for the below spices. All-Purpose (as in the above photo), Bread, or Whole Grain flour should work just as well. I usually roll the dough out between two pieces of saran wrap (re-using the one it had been wrapped up in) so that I don't have to wash my rolling pin or mess with the dough sticking.

*Can instead use: 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp ground black pepper, 1/4 tsp sage, 1/4 tsp thyme, and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper.

Coconut Bean Soup

Background: I met my friend Morgan in high school, where we pretty much had all the same science classes. Our friendship continued as we both decided to go to Michigan, do the whole pre-med thing, and major in Cell and Molecular Biology. We bonded over more than just science, though. We both enjoyed all things 80's, which lead to many great 80's parties (and once even an Early 90's party), sitting in coffee shops, procrastinating and food. Once, sometime during senior year, we decided that we were going to find one weird-sounding recipe to make per week, and turn the project into a cookbook. Our first recipe was for a Garbanzo Cake. We had to take the thin little skins off of about 1,000 garbanzos, and the cake wasn't really that good, but hey, it sounded weird. We printed the recipe, and even drew a picture of the cake decorated with pineapple slices, using Morgan's fat Crayola markers. Though clearly we were destined for greatness in cookbookery, this is where our project ended. We graduated, and my would-be coauthor went off to Kenya to be a Peace Corps Volunteer before going on to med school. In the meantime, I went to grad school, got married, and adopted a baby. When Morgan came back from Kenya about a year and a half ago, Jeff and I invited her over for dinner. Not only was I excited to see her again, but we also wanted to hear all about her post-Peace Corps travels around Ethiopia, since we would soon be travelling there ourselves. The night she came over was just a couple weeks before our trip, so it was a ridiculously busy time. Though I would never ask a dinner guest to bring the main course (my mother taught me better than that!), I quickly accepted Morgan's offer to bring over one of her favorite Kenyan dishes, Coconut Bean Soup. It sounds weird, and would have definitely make the cut for our cookbook. However, unlike the Garbanzo Cake, it is delicious. It's rich, hearty and nice and coconutty. Morgan described how to make it, and from her verbal instructions, after a few tries, I have a working recipe. Morgan adapted the recipe for American kitchens and ingredients, which basically means that we're allowed to use coconut milk instead of fresh coconut. This is good, because the one time I bought a fresh coconut, which had a blue ribbon tied around it proudly proclaiming "E-Z Open" or some such thing, was a disaster. It was far from easy to crack open. About an hour and a few dozen tools and kitchen utensils after I started working on it, I had shards of coconut covered in little bits of brown peel from the outside...totally not worth it. Despite her two years in Kenya, Morgan never mastered the coconut either. Whenever she wanted to eat coconut, or make coconut bean soup, she would take her coconut over to the neighbors' house, where their 7-year old daughter would deftly split open the coconut for her with a machete. Canned coconut milk is a wonderful thing. Due to our last-minute dinner plans (did I mention that Morgan and I are great procrastinators?), Morgan made this for us using canned beans, but when she gave me the recipe, she highly suggested that I use dried beans instead...it takes longer, but she was right, the results are definitely worth it. The beans actually cook in the coconut, which adds to the complexity of the dish and just makes the whole thing a lot more interesting. And perfect for nights like this, when the weather is far from Kenyan.

Originally from: Morgan's Kenyan friends

Serves ~4
Approximate time, from prep to table: ~1 day plus 2 1/2 hours (you need to soak the dried beans overnight)

Ingredients:
1 pound dried red kidney beans
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 tomato, diced
1 Tablespoon curry powder
8 cups water
1 can coconut milk
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:
The day before you're going to make the soup, rinse the beans and pick out any stones. Place beans in a large bowl, cover with cold water, and let soak overnight.

When you are ready to cook, drain the beans. Heat olive oil in a stockpot over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper and carrot, and cook until they begin to soften, about 5-7 minutes. Add chopped tomato and curry powder, and stir for about a minute. Add beans, 8 cups of water, and half the coconut milk. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. At this point, the beans should be tender. Add the rest of the coconut milk, and salt and pepper. Using a potato masher or fork, mash about half the beans in the pot, to thicken up the soup. Simmer for another 1/2 hour, stirring occasionally.

Note/Tips:
-I usually serve this over rice, but it's also great with a good crusty bread.
-To make the shortcut canned bean version, just cook the vegetables as directed, then add a couple cans of beans, a can of coconut milk, and as much water as you need to get the consistency you want. Mash some of the beans, bring to a boil, and serve. I really recommend making this with dried beans at least once though...it's definitely worth it.
-This makes great leftovers...the flavors meld together more the longer they sit.
-I once did a google search the suggests that this recipe is actually originally Tanzanian. Not surprising that it would have found its way across the border into Kenya. I'm going to keep thinking of it as Kenyan, since that's where Morgan learned it, but feel free to call it Tanzanian, which may or may not be more accurate.