Citrus Dressing and Pear spinach salad

I finally got the recipe to that salad we had (for those who live here in Des Moines) at the Stake Relief Society Broadcast. So delicious.......makes my mouth water!

Citrus Dressing
(from claim jumpers)

3 cups soybean oil
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup corn syrup
3/4 cup honey
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 ounce dehydrated onion
1 1/2 teaspoons dry tarragon
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 teaspoons fresh garlic
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon onion powder

Pear Spinach Salad
( I don't have exact measurements for the salad because it can be as small or as big as you want it and as much of the stuff as you want in it....you'll understand!)

Spinach
Romaine
Pears
Dried Cherries
Pecans
Bacon

Put the greens in first then drizzle the dressing over it then top the salad with the remaining ingredients.....its the dressing that makes this salad!

Vegetarian Lasagna

Hi everyone! Mindy just invited me to join, so I thought I'd post something now while I'm thinking of it. And why not post my best dish? Now I love to cook, and I think I have found some good recipes, but at our house we really love this vegetarian lasagna. In fact, I've never met anyone who doesn't (even the most die-hard meat eater around won't be able to complain). That being said, it's also good with about a 1/2 pound of cooked spicy sausage if you really want it in there. Also something to note: this is not a fast meal. I only cook it on days when I'll be able to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, but it's worth it. Enjoy!

Sauce:
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper (any color, or a combination), chopped
32 oz. crushed tomatoes
2 8-oz. cans tomato sauce
2 6-oz. cans tomato paste
2 Tbsp. parsley flakes
½ c. red wine, cranberry juice, or water
4 garlic cloves, pressed
1 Tbsp. dried oregano
½ tsp. dried thyme
½ tsp. dried basil
¼ tsp. black pepper
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
2 tsp. sugar
1-2 tsp salt (to taste)

rosemary (opt.)

About 8-10 lasagna noodles
Baby spinach, washed

Cheese filling:
1 egg
1 lb. small-curd cottage cheese
1 lb. ricotta cheese
½ c. freshly-grated Parmesan cheese
1 lb. mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced or grated

Directions:

1. Sautee the onion and bell pepper in a little olive oil. Add the rest of the ingredients for the sauce and stir to mix. Simmer until it cooks down to about ½ of the original volume (about 1-2 hours).
2. When the sauce is ready, cook the lasagna noodles according to package direction.
3. Combine the ingredients for the cheese filling.
4. Put a small amount of sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13-in pan. Add a layer of noodles (half of the noodles cooked). Add about ½ of the cheese mixture on top of the noodles. Then add a layer of spinach and cover that with sauce.
5. Arrange half of the mozzarella cheese on top. Now add another layer of noodles (the other half), the remaining cheese mixture, spinach and sauce.
6. Place in a 375° oven for 20 minutes. Place a layer of mozzarella cheese on top. Continue to bake until the sauce is hot and bubbly and the cheese is melted. Cool for 10 minutes before cutting or it'll be sloppy beyond all belief.

Olive Garden Salad

This is so yummy! I found this on another recipe blog. Click here

Olive Garden Salad Dressing:
½ c. mayonnaise
1/3 c. white vinegar
1 tsp vegetable oil
2 Tb. corn syrup
2 Tb. Parmesan cheese
2 Tb. Romano cheese
¼ tsp garlic salt – or one clove garlic, minced
½ tsp Italian seasoning
½ tsp parsley flakes
1 Tb. lemon juice


Salad:

1 large head romaine lettuce
slices red onion
black olives
2-4 banana peppers
2 small tomatoes, quartered
½ c. croutons
freshly grated Parmesan cheese




Mix all dressing ingredients in a blender until well mixed. If this is a little too tart for your own personal tastes, add a little extra sugar.
Chill one salad bowl in freezer for at least 30 minutes. Put lettuce in bowl. Place on top of lettuce red onions, black olives, banana peppers, tomatoes, and croutons. Add some freshly grated Parmesan cheese if you like, and add plenty of Olive Garden Salad Dressing on top.


For homemade croutons:
4 slices sandwich bread
1 clove garlic, minced
3 Tb. butter
salt and pepper
dried parsley flakes

For the homemade croutons:
Cut off crusts of sandwich bread, and cut bread into cubes. Melt butter in small saucepan and add minced garlic. Toss sandwich cubes in the butter and spread out in a pan. Sprinkle salt and pepper and parsley flakes to taste. Bake for 15 minutes at 350°, turning half way through baking.

Apricot Chicken

I use the crockpot almost every week, especially for Sunday dinner. You can cook potatoes in them which I love. You peel potatoes whole and place them in enough salted water to cover them and cook on high for a shorter time, or low for a longer time for mashed potates. I put them in in the morning before church and they are ready to mash when I get home. I also cook my roasts in them. I like to brown my roast then add a package of lipton onion soup mix. and roast to the crockpot with a small amount of water. The soup mix makes the gravy very flavorful. Sunday dinner is ready to go as soon as we get home. You can also bake potates in the crockpot. Wash and wrap whole potatoes in foil and place in crockpot. Same principle as for mashed, high for a shorter time, low for all day. You may have to experiment with your own crockpot as sometimes potatoes may become too done, so just watch them the first couple of times you try them so you can gage how long it takes them to cook with your crockpot.

I also love this easy recipe for Apricot Chicken

4-6 Chicken breats-boneless or bone-in
1 8 oz. bottle of russian salad dressing (Wishbone brand has one)
1 jar of apricot jam
1 pkg. onion soup mix

Place ingredients in crockpot and cook as desired. High for 3-5 hours, low 4-6 hours. Chicken cooks fast so it doesn't take that long for this recipe to cook. I serve it with rice. Enjoy!!!

Granola

Granola
(I half this recipe)

8 cups oats
1 pkg. coconut
1 t. salt
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2-1 cup water
1/4-1/3 cup oil
2 t. vanilla
cinammon to taste
1/2 cup each of whatever nuts and/or fruit: i.e. almonds, pecans, raisins, craisins
or whatever you like (I like slivered almonds and crushed pecans)

Stir together above ingredients together. PLace on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degress for 20-30 minutes stirring every 10 minutes to desired crispness. Store in airtight container.

Parmesan Breadsticks

This isn't a crockpot recipe but it does go delicious with any pasta dish!

Any amount of frozen Rhodes Rolls you want(Texas rolls make them really big, and regular rolls a little smaller)

Thaw out for a couple hours,until the dough is soft
Pull them to make a breadstick shape.
(I like to fold them over a little bit so they have a little bit of a divet in the center and the butter runs into it so you have extra butter)

Dip the whole thing in melted butter
Put on greased cookie sheet
Sprinkle Parmesaen Cheese on to your liking
Let rise for 30 min and bake on 375 for 12-15 min or golden brown.

I got this recipe from Kyle's aunt and they are so delicious! You can also sprinkle a little bit of garlic powder and pizza seasoning on to add a little bit more flavor.
I'll post a picture next time I make them so it makes a little more sense! But if you understand it then enjoy!

Crock Pot Cookin!

I'm always looking for new crockpot recipes! So, please post your favorite one! I know we had a lot of delicious crock-pot dinners brought to us when I had our baby. Here's a couple of my favorites:

WHOLE ROTISSERIE CHICKEN
Whole chickn (without gizzards, unless you are going to eat them)
Crock-Pot liner bag
Seasoning

Place whole chicken in Crockpot. Sprinkle with desired spices (Mrs. Dash, Seasoned Salt, Salt and Pepper, etc.). The chicken will produce enough juice you do not need to add water! Cook on high 4-6 hours, or low 8-10. If you do not wish to eat the gizzards, the chicken will cook better with the gizzards removed, or buy chicken that has already had the gizzards removed. If the chicken is frozen, add two extra hours of cooking time.
*Clean-up Hint, Cook the chicken in a Crockpot liner, so when the chicken is done, you may discard the leftover bones. It's a breeze!! Serve with potatoes, fries, or your favorite side.


Caramel Rolls (From book: 101 Things to do with a Slow Cooker):

2 Packages (8 oz each) refrigerator biscuits
¼ Cup melted butter
½ Cup brown sugar
½ Tsp Cinnamon

Mix sugar and cinnamon in small bowl. Dip individual biscuits into melted butter and then into cinnamon and sugar mixture. Place each covered biscuit in greased 3 ½ to 5 qt cooker. Cover and cook on high 2 1/2-3 hours, or until rolls are done. You can check rolls in the center after 2 hours for doneness. These are great when you want to have Breakfast for dinner, or for any occasion!

Swiss Chicken

It is a delicious recipe and I just made it for the Janke's, they said they loved it!

4-6 chicken breasts
4-6 slices of swiss cheese
1 box of chicken stuffing mix
1 can crm of mushroom soup
1/4 cup milk
1/4 c. butter

Preheat oven to 350* Spray a 9x13 pan and lay chicken breasts in pan. Place a slice of swiss cheese on each piece of chicken. Mix milk and soup together and spread over cheese and chicken. Then spread around the stuffing mix on top of the soup mixture. Then melt the butter and drizzle over stuffing. Cover with foil and cook anywhere from 50-65 minutes or until chicken is done.

Babies!!

Since it is the time to have babies (at least it is in our ward!!), I thought it would be fun to post your favorite recipe to take to someone when they've had a baby.

I'm also getting SUPER excited for FALL, so feel free to post your favorite Fall recipes!!

Spicy Chicken Alfredo

This recipe was given to me from Ashley Webb. It has made its way around our ward, and everyone seems to love it, so I decided to post it here! Enjoy!

Spicy Chicken Alfredo

1 box penne pasta (cooked and drained)
1 Jar Alfredo Sauce
1 Can diced tomatoes with basil and oregano (with juice)
2 T. Italian Seasoning
1 t. Crushed Red Pepper
Cooked Chicken (I like mine shredded or diced, and I like it cooked in the crockpot so it is super tender)

Mix everything together but the pasta (to ensure that the chicken gets some of the sauce). Simmer for 10 minutes. Add the pasta, mix, and serve! Easy and delicious!

Sicilian Beef

Sear one 4lb rolled rump roast in 3T oil until brown.
Combine: 1 Chopped Onion
1T Parsley Flakes
1 1/2t Oregano Leaves
1t Basil Leaves
1/2t Minced Garlic
1/4t Pepper
1t Salt
1/2C Water
1 can (32oz) Whole Italian Tomatoes

When meat is seared take it out and put the above mixture in. Bring it to a boil and add the meat. When tender, 3 hrs., remove meat to a platter and thicken the juices (scant 1/2C water and 2 heaping T flour or cornstarch softened in the water). Serve with large shell macaroni. Can also cook in crockpot. After searing meat, place all ingredients in slowcooker and cook on high for 3-4 hours. Remove meat and thicken juices as directed.

Zucchini Bread

Here is a good recipe for regular zucchini bread. To make it extra good, coat your loaf pan with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar and then sprinkle the same mixture on top of the bread before you bake it. YUM!! This is also good with chocolate chips added to it.

3 eggs
1 cup oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 t. vanilla
2 cup flour
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. baking powder
3 t. cinnamon
1 t. soda
1 cup chopped nuts

Beat eggs till foamy. Add sugars and zucchini. Add remaining ingredients and Bake at 325 degrees 1 hour. Makes two loaf pans. Cool in pan 15 minutes then turn out and cool completely.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

If you don't know what to do with your zucchini that seems to multiply overnight, this is a good recipe that is more like cake than bread. It is a family favorite every year!!

Beat together 3 eggs. Add-2 cups sugar, 1 cup oil. Mix well.
Stir together 6 T. cocoa and 2 T. melted butter.
Add--2 t. vanilla, 2 cups grated zucchini, 1 t. salt, 1 t. cinnamon, 1/4 t. baking powder,
1 t. soda, 3 cups flour, 1 1/2 cups chopped nuts. Mix well. Pour into 2 9X5 well greased loaf pans or 3 smaller loaf pans. Bake 325 degrees for 1 hour. Cool 15 minutes and turn out of pans onto a rack to cool completely. You can frost with plain or cream cheese frosting, or for extra chocolaty bread, add chocolate chips.

Homemade Magic Shell

Ok, so this isn't for a barbeque, but since I finally had the motivation to post something I figured I would post this one as well.

Magic Shell Chocolate Sauce

4 1/2 ounces high quality dark chocolate (use 60% cocoa or higher), chopped
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon carmel, ornage, or raspberry flavoring (optional)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon ground espresso beans (I just left this out when I made it)

Melt the chocolate slowly in a double boiler. Once completely melted, add the remaining ingredients one at a time, stirring slowly after each to avoid air bubbles. Place a scoop of your favorite icecream in a cone or dish. Take the pan out of the double boiler and, while resting it on the stove top, tip it a bit toward you. Quickly dip your icecream cone in the chocolate mixture, or use a spoon to drizzle it over icecream in a bowl. Within a few moments it will harden and form a thin shell on the icecream. Recipe serves 4.

I put some extra in the fridge and after heating it just a little bit was able to use it again a few days later. Easy and quick to make.

Fruit Salad

Fruit Salad

1 can pineapple chunks (drain juice and save)
1 can mandrin oranges (drained)
Slice 2 bananas and put in pineapple juice
10 oz. frozen strawberries thawed or 1 container fresh strawberries
1 can peach pie filling

Put pineapple, oranges and bananas (without the pineapple juice) in a bowl. Mix in peach pie filling (I use the peach pie gel. It is usually found with the strawberry gel over in the produce section. If you are using this I only use 1/3 of the container).
Add strawberries on top or can mix in with rest of fruit.

Can add other fruit if desired.