Breakfast Burritos

This is a yummy and easy protein filled breakfast! I make these frequently and everyone loves them. Have a blessed thanksgiving!

Breakfast Egg Burritos

Ingredients
4 eggs
1 cup shredded raw cheese
3 Ezekiel corn tortillas
Butter
Optional: avocado slices, hot sauce, pico de gallo

Instructions:
Scramble eggs, soften tortillas in skillet with a little butter, sprinkle tortilla with cheese, then put scrambled eggs on tortilla. Roll up burrito and dip in hot sauce or pico de gallo. Makes three tacos.

Smothered Patties

Ingredients
1 lb hamburger meat
1 Onion
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 t Salt
½ t pepper
¼ t Minced garlic
Olive oil

Gravy: 1 cup milk, 2 T spelt flour, 1 cup beef broth, 2 T butter, salt and pepper

Instructions:

Mix hamburger meat with Worcestershire, salt, pepper, minced garlic. Form into 4 patties, add 2T olive oil to skillet and cook on medium/high heat. Slice onions and add to skillet and cover. Cook until done. Remove from skillet. Do not clean out skillet.
Gravy: In the same skillet, melt butter then add flour to the butter. Whisk together on Medium heat to form a paste (this will be very thick). Slowly add the beef broth and whisk constantly until well incorporated, then slowly add the milk. Whisk constantly. Simmer until thick. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add patties to gravy and serve!

This is a quick easy meal and is so very tasty. I hope you all enjoy it as much as our family does. I served it with stir fried zucchini and squash.

I'm Back

For those of you who wondered where I have been or why I have not posted any new recipes in four months, let me update you. I had a baby boy in August and then we moved when he was only a month old. Life has been crazy since he was born, but we are now settled a little more. There is never a dull moment around our house with three boys. Hopefully I will be able to give you some great recipes in the upcoming weeks.

Chicken Pot Pie

One of our wonderful employees brought us a yummy chicken pot pie meal when the baby was a week old and it was absolutely divine. So, thank you Lisa for this recipe and I know that everyone will enjoy it. This is definately time consuming to make, but well worth the time and effort. I suggest making the pie crust dough a day before you make the recipe. This saves you some time.

Perfect Pie Crust Recipe

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
***or 2 ½ cups gluten-free all purpose baking flour & 2 tsp. xanthan gum***
1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
4 to 6 Tbsp ice water

Instructions:
1. Cut the sticks of butter into 1/2-inch cubes.



2 Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor; pulse to mix. Add butter and pulse 6 to 8 times, until mixture resembles coarse meal, with pea size pieces of butter. Add ice water 1 Tbsp at a time, pulsing until mixture just begins to clump together. If you pinch some of the crumbly dough and it holds together, it's ready. If the dough doesn't hold together, add a little more water and pulse again.

3. Remove dough from machine and place in a mound on a clean surface. Gently shape into 2 discs. Knead the dough just enough to form the discs, do not over-knead. You should be able to see little bits of butter in the dough. These small chunks of butter are what will allow the resulting crust to be flaky. Sprinkle a little flour around the discs. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour, and up to 2 days.

4. Remove one crust disk from the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes in order to soften just enough to make rolling out a bit easier. Roll out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface to a 12-inch circle; about 1/8 of an inch thick. As you roll out the dough, check if the dough is sticking to the surface below. If necessary, add a few sprinkles of flour under the dough to keep the dough from sticking. Carefully place onto a 9-inch pie plate. Gently press the pie dough down so that it lines the bottom and sides of the pie plate. Use a pair of kitchen scissors to trim the dough to within 1/2 inch of the edge of the pie dish.

*bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees

5. Add filling.

6. Roll out second disk of dough, as before. Gently place onto the top of the filling in the pie. Pinch top and bottom of dough rounds firmly together. Trim excess dough with kitchen shears, leaving a 3/4 inch overhang. Fold the edge of the top piece of dough over and under the edge of the bottom piece of dough, pressing together. Score the top of the pie with four 2-inch long cuts, so that steam from the cooking pie can escape.

Bake pie at 350 until edges begin to brown and pie is heated through. If the edges are browning but the filling is not hot, put foil over the pie to protect the crust from burning.

Tips: I find it helpful to roll the crust on wax paper with a little flour and once its ready to put in the baking dish, roll the crust on the the rolling pin. Then unroll the crust on top of the pie filling. The gluten free crust can be crumbly and this helps keep it together. You may need to piece it together if it tears or falls apart.

Filling:

Ingredients

2 large carrots-diced (apx 1 cup)

1 large potato-cubed (apx 1 cup)

1 cup frozen peas

2 ears of corn (apx 1 cup)

5-6 boneless skinless chicken thighs or 3 chicken breasts-cooked

1 1/2 cans of organic cream of mushroom soup or organic cream of chicken

salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Peel and dice carrots. Peel and cube potato. Boil potato and carrots until slightly tender. Cut off the corn from the cobb. Lightly coat the chicken with olive oil or grapeseed oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake chicken at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until done on cookie sheet. Combine corn, potatoes, peas and carrots into a bowl. Add cream of mushroom/chicken soup, salt, and pepper. Stir together. Pour in dish with already cooked pie crust. Top with second pie crust. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool for at least 15 minutes.

Tips:

* This recipe tends to be a little runny when you first cut into it. After it sits for a bit, the juice absorbs into the filling.

*you can use 3 Tablespoons of cornstarch with 24 ounces of chicken broth instead of cream of mushroom/chicken soup. You can simply heat 3 Tablespoons of butter in a skillet and then add the cornstarch. Wisk together and add chicken broth. Stir until it thickens.
*As I said before, this recipe is worth taking the time to use fresh vegetables. You can use frozen veggies, but the flavor and taste is totally different. If you have little ones running around the house and getting owies every 30 minutes, and you are changing diapers, potty training, and wiping runny noses all day...(as this is my life right now) I suggest working on the recipe through out the day. You can make the pie dough one day and refridgerate it. Then the next morning you can cut up the veggies. Then later cook the chicken etc. I know that you will enjoy this yummy home cooked meal this week.

Crab Topped Orange Roughy

OK, so I didn't realize that I had not posted a new recipe in almost a month. My sincerest apologies to my faithful followers!

We were invited to eat dinner at some friends house a few weeks ago and they treated us to a wonderful gourmet meal of orange roughy. It was so tasty and I asked her for the recipe. I confess that I don't cook fish enough. Matter of fact, until I received this recipe, the only fish we ate was tuna and salmon both to make salads out of. So thank you to Christina and Brandon for the yummy meal and helping me find new fish recipes. I made a few changes from the original recipe and I hope that you all enjoy this as much as we did. Bob and Jane, I hope I don't let you down with this recipe!

Ingredients:

3-4 orange roughy fillets

1 cup fresh crab meat ( I actually found a crab cake at our HEB (in the cafe on the run area), that I like to use. It has lots of flavor and you only need one crab cake for this recipe)

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup organic mayonnaise

paprika, optional

1/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted

Directions: Place fillets in greased dish. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 18-22 minutes or until fish flakes easily with fork. In a separate bowl, combine crab (or crab cake), Parmesan cheese, mayo, and lemon juice. Drain cooking juices from baking dish, spoon crab mixture over fillets. Broil 5 inches from the heat for 5 minutes or until topping is lightly browned. Sprinkle with paprika if desired and almonds.

Enjoy this for dinner tonight!

Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

3-4 Chicken breasts (cooked and diced to desired size)

10-15 baby carrots (finely chopped)

2 stalks of celery (finely chopped)

1 T natural Italian dressing seasoning (Good Seasons ITALIAN ALL NATURAL package)

2 T cup Brianna's poppy seed dressing (optional)

1/4-1/2 cup organic mayonnaise or omega three mayonnaise

toasted walnuts or slivered almonds (optional)

*please note that the poppy seed dressing and mayonnaise are not necessarily Makers Diet friendly, but the omega three mayo is.

Directions:

First, I drizzle olive oil and sprinkle a little salt and pepper on the chicken. Bake chicken breasts in the oven on 350 degrees for apx 20 minutes or until done. Dice up into desired size. Chop carrots and celery and add to chicken. Add Italian dressing seasoning and stir to combine. Add poppy seed dressing and mayonnaise to the chicken and stir well.

You can serve this chicken salad a few different ways. I enjoy it over a bed of spinach with sliced up strawberries and slices of avocado. You can serve it as a sandwich as well.

Helpful Tip of the Week:

I enjoy jelly on toast but typically jellies have tons of refined sugars added to them. I was so thrilled when I discovered a jelly that does not contain these sugars but instead is sweetened with fruit pectin and fruit juice. You can find this at HEB in the jelly section and the brand is St. Dalfour. It does cost a little more than other jellies, but it is well worth the price difference!

Easy Stir Fry

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OK, this is quite possibly the easiest meal I have come up with yet. You cannot mess this one up and it is so very tasty. I know that you will enjoy it as much as my family has.


Easy Stir Fry
Feeds 3 adults or 2 adults and 2 small children

Ingredients:
3 large chicken breasts (diced)
1 red pepper (diced)
1 onion (diced)
2-3 stalks of broccoli
1/2 cup Annie's organic teriyaki stir fry marinade
1/8 cup organic soy sauce
1 t minced garlic
1 t salt
4 T olive oil
1/4 cup water
brown rice
optional veggies: water chestnuts, snow peas, shredded carrots

Lightly grease saute pan with olive oil and turn heat to med/high. Dice chicken, peppers, onions, and broccoli into desired size and add to heated pan. Stir fry until chicken is lightly cooked. Sprinkle with salt and add 1/4 cup water to pan and cook a few more minutes. Add soy sauce and marinade and cook for a few more minutes. Cover and turn heat down to finish cooking until chicken is done. Serve over brown rice

Tip of the week: Have fun cooking
So many people have a bah humbug attitude about cooking. I think that most are several reasons for this thinking. Maybe you can find yourself in one of these excuses!

1. "I don't know how to cook"
2. "Its easier to eat out"
3. "I'm not good at cooking"
4. "It takes too long to cook"
and the list goes on and on and on.

Here are my thoughts to each of these excuses

1. Its not rocket science.
2. Um, taking kids to a restaurant is not my idea of fun!
3. Hum....practice makes perfect
4. Plan ahead and you can make cooking a time efficient adventure for you and your kids

Change your way of thinking about cooking! It can be so much fun. Some of my favorite memories are cooking with my3 1/2 year old. He absoluely loves to help me cook and I have learned to become more patient! Yes, they make a mess but it is a great teaching opportunity. Here is a sweet picture of Cason making pancakes at the lake house last summer.








Too funny! So, have fun cooking with your kids and enjoy this easy recipe this week.

Lebanese Chicken

There is not a picture this time of the entree! The meal is not attractive at all and I didn't want to deter you from cooking it! The dish is super yummy and easy though! Enjoy

Ingredients
8 boneless chicken thighs
½ c chopped onion
1 clove minced garlic
2 t finely shredded orange peel (optional)
¾ cup orange juice
¾ cup chicken broth
½ t salt
¼ t ground allspice (optional)
½ t cinnamon
2 T honey
Spelt spaghetti noodle, brown rice noodles, or couscous

Instructions:
Cook chicken in large skillet with onion and garlic in butter over med heat about 6 minutes or until chicken is brown.
Add orange peel (optional), juice, and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat. Cover and simmer 5 minutes. Sprinkle cinnamon and allspice(optional) onto chicken, drizzle with honey. Simmer uncovered for 5-7 minutes or until chicken is tender and no longer pink.

Hints: I serve this over spelt spaghetti noodles or brown rice spaghetti noodles. Couscous would be fine as well.

Help from my blog followers:
I want to have a gauge on each of my recipes telling how easy or difficult the recipe is. Does anyone have any suggestions? I would like to have three levels and would love to use some funny and creative titles for the gauge. Let me know your thoughts!