Going Greek

Good morning! How is everyone? Have you recovered from Thanksgiving yet? I had such a great Thanksgiving. It was wonderful seeing family and friends and eating a ton of food! What did you eat this year? Did you make anything new or just your normal line up? I had the normal food and it was all delicious and I wish there was more. 

I am excited about Christmas coming up and starting to plan a few meals with my family when I see them. I am also switching into Christmas mode and trying to take care of a ton of things like decorating and finishing up my planning for my holiday baking. I never finished planning it all out because I decided to change a lot of the cookies that I make to try new cookies. It will be an ongoing process that I will be keeping you updated with.

Today I wanted to give you guys something healthy after this thanksgiving. A egg mug! I did one of these in August but I wanted to revisit this one because I have a great take on it. A Greek Egg mug! Yes if you love olives, and feta cheese you will love this one!

Greek Egg Mug

1 tbs of chopped olives

¼ cup of frozen veggies (onions, celery, bell pepper…your choice)

3-4 eggs or you can use egg whites

1-2 tbs of feta cheese

a pinch of dried oregano 

Salt and pepper to taste

Put everything into a mug, mix well. Put in microwave for 3-4 minutes, stirring about half way through the cooking time.  Take the mug out of the microwave, check the bottom of the mug to make sure there is no liquid. If there is  a little bit of liquid, microwave for about 30 seconds, if not enjoy!

I hope you guys try this it is so good. Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving! Quick Treat revisited Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Hello and Happy Pre-Thanksgiving! The big day is just a day away and I have been cooking and baking left and right. I really challenged myself this year with my Aunts Perogies which was a recipe passed down from her mother in law from Poland, and I have been working on a Paula Deen cake.  I have to finish up everything today so I hope I can do it. 

I wanted to repost a recipe from a year ago because they were so good and so simple and a perfect treat for Thanksgiving. Pumpkin Whoopie Pies! You get that great pumpkin flavor and a delish cream cheese filling. You don’t need a special pan just put about one forth of cookie batter one the pan and bake.  Make sure you have a even amount so you can make the right amount of bottoms and tops. These are super delicious and make a great treat for after your Thanksgiving dinner. I hope you guys like them and have a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving!

Recipe from Rachael Ray magazine found here.

I'm Behind and Mac ‘N Cheese Jalapeño Poppers

Hi and greetings to all. It is Thanksgiving week and do you guys have all your holiday plans set? I will be cooking and baking up a storm this week and I also have been requested to make a cake for someone’s birthday. It is going to busy, busy, busy, but I am going to love every minute of it.

So I know I was suppose to update last week with sides and appetizers for Thanksgiving, but I had some car trouble, major trouble, and then my roommate’s car started acting up. Last week was a rough week to say the least. I hope you can accept my apology.  Things are ten times better now and I am back to blogging.

Here is a another appetizer, but it kind of doubles as a side.  Mac and cheese stuffed jalapenos.  I followed the recipe pretty much to a T. The only thing I would do is roast the jalapenos or blanch them for a few minutes to soften them up. Mine were a little too crunchy. Remember to remove the seeds and ribs to take the heat down. I also had left over Mac and Cheese and served that as a side and it was amazing. This is a must try! Very cheesy and fun. I hope you guys like this!

It is from Rachael Ray and the recipe can be found here. Enjoy!

2 Year Anniversary and Appetizers Stuffed Spinach and Artichoke Mushrooms

It’s a new week and another Monday. I hope everyone had a good weekend. I loved having the weekend off but it went way to fast. The weather has been so crazy this weekend too! The wind could have blown me away yesterday and today there was reported tornado in the area! Wonderful November weather.

While I was looking at my site this weekend I noticed that it has been two years since I started this blog! I started in November of 2009. How exciting! I gave the blog a slightly new look, and hope to do a few more things to the blog in the near future.

I have been planning my Holiday Extravaganza this weekend and have been challenged to make new and exciting cookies, bars, and pastries. I am always up for a challenge so I can’t wait to see what I can do.  I am narrowing down the list and going to start soon.

Since Thanksgiving is very close I wanted to give you guys some quick and fun side dishes and appetizers. This post was one of my first posts I did for my blog in 2010, but it’s a great appetizer. Stuffed Mushrooms! These are actually stuffed spinach and artichoke mushrooms. They are super simple and if you loved spinach dip you will love these.

clean those shrooms!

take out the stem

getting ready to chop the artichokes

Mix your cheese's, spinach and artichokes

stuff those mushrooms

yummy goodness

 I found this recipe on Taste of Home found here. I hope you guys try these this year. I lighted it up a bit. See my notes in ( ).

Stuffed Spinach and Artichoke Mushrooms

• 1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened (low fat)
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise (I used Olive Oil Mayo)
• 1/2 cup sour cream (low fat)
• 1 can (14 ounces) water-packed artichoke hearts, rinsed, drained and chopped
• 1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1/3 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 4 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese, divided
• 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 30 to 35 large fresh mushrooms
• Breadcrumbs added to top, about 1/2 cup

In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese, mayonnaise and sour cream. Stir in the artichokes, spinach, mozzarella cheese, 3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese and garlic powder and salt and pepper.

Remove stems from mushrooms (discard stems or save for another use). Wipe mushrooms with a damn cloth, do NOT run them under water, otherwise they will become rubbery. Fill each mushroom cap with about 1 tablespoon of filling. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs.

Place on foil-lined baking sheets. Bake at 400° for 16-20 minutes or until mushrooms are tender

These are so good and tender and whats even better it really only takes about 10-15 minutes to whip together. Also you can place filled mushrooms in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake them. Just cover them while in the refrigerator.

First snowfall, Pumpkin Gingersnaps and Holiday Extravaganza

Hello! Happy Friday and TGIF! I am really excited because I have the weekend off! It’s been a few weeks and now I get to enjoy the weekend. I don’t have much planned just a little bit of cooking and relaxing as much as I can.

 Yesterday we also had our first snowfall! It was crazy seeing the stuff again, but I guess its that time. Did you guys have any snow by you?

So I have been talking about my holiday extravaganza for awhile now and I can’t wait to share it all with you.

Last year I made 16 different types of cookies/bars/treats for the holiday. I wish I had better pictures of all the cookies. I don’t know what came over me, but I started my normal holiday baking and I kept reading more food blogs and food magazines and I just went over the top. My biggest problem was I didn’t keep better track of the treats I made. The same goes for my Thanksgiving treats last year. I know I made Gingerbread cake balls, a Pumpkin Roll and a Jell-O pumpkin dessert but I can only find one picture of them.

Anyways this year is totally different. I am planning and  watching the paper for good sales and coupons. I’ve bought a TON of butter already and plan to buy just a few more. I found an amazing deal on butter so I have been stocking up (1.99 to be exact and if you know butter prices this is a steal). I use real butter so it’s a bit more expensive so I have to watch for sales on it. I also bought my sugar and would like to get two more bags but I really have to concentrate on my chocolate and flour now. 

I have dug out all my holiday baking books, have bookmarked a ton of different cookies and I starting the planning. So far I have the usually on the list, Fudge, Peanut Butter Balls (two batches), Rolo cookies and snicker cookies. These always fly off the dessert plate first. I will share more as the week goes on and I should have my list narrowed down by next Friday along with planning my side dishes I am bringing to my friends for Thanksgiving (more on that next week).

Since I have been talking about baking so much I wanted to share a cookie with you. This comes from one of the food blogs I visit Two Peas and their Pod. They have a ton of good recipes and I saw this one and really wanted to try it. I really love the taste of ginger and I saw these pumpkin gingersnap cookies. I had to try these because I thought the two flavors would be amazing. The result was a super moist cookie that was amazing. Mine didn’t have two much of a pumpkin taste to it, so if you are afraid of it, don’t be.  One thing about these cookies, don’t take them out of the oven too soon. My inflated and as soon as I took them out they flattened. Don’t be afraid to bake them an extra minute or two. Since these are from another blog here is the link to find their recipe. I hope you guys try these and enjoy!

Everything I go through, plus more!

mmmm cookies, Two Peas and there Pod had better pics, but mine were still good!

Pumpkin Gingersnap cookies recipes found here

Middle of the Week Chicken Dinner-Chicken Saltimbocca

Hello everyone! How is it going?  I'm hungry lol. I am always hungry to be honest. I LOVE food. I know I show you guys a lot of food (or try to), but I love talking about it, showing you guys and hoping you guys try and enjoy these foods. This is one reason why I wanted to blog. I can talk about food all I want and hopefully someone out there is enjoying reading or making this food. I also want to invite you guys to please comment if you want to start a conversation. I would love hearing from you. You can write on this page or on my Facebook page. 

Now to the food. First let me say I will talk more about my holiday extravaganza this Friday. I wanted to show you guys  a great and tasty chicken dinner. Its great to add more chicken recipes to your collection. Now first I know this recipe calls for prosciutto di Parma. It can be expensive, well seem like it is expensive. When I went to the store to get it, it was 7.99 a pound. I almost died.  I really wanted to make this dish so I decided to go with it. I asked for 12 slices cut extremely thin. My total only came to $1.12! So don’t be worried when you see the price of this. I also skipped on the sage leaves because the  price was a little higher than what I wanted to spend.  I served this up with my corn chowder pasta. It was very good, and I loved the flavor that the prosciutto gave to it. Its almost like having bacon wrapped chicken breast, but this is better. It did splatter a little bit so please be careful. 

Wrapped, dredged in flour and ready to go.

Please be careful, it does splatter

Serve with Pasta if you like

Chicken Saltimbocca

Recipe adapted from Rachael Rays Date Night-ChickenSaltimbocca

Chicken breast cutlets pounded to 1/8-inch thick

Salt and pepper

12 very thin slices prosciutto di Parma

Whole Wheat Flour, for dredging(you can use white flour no biggie)

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), divided

Season the chicken pieces very lightly with salt and evenly with finely ground pepper on both sides. Cover the chicken carefully with prosciutto.I wrapped one side. You don't have to do both depending on the size of your chicken. Mine were smaller pieces of chicken breast.

Lightly dredge the cutlets in flour, and then heat 2 tablespoons EVOO in a large pan over medium heat. Once the EVOO is hot, cook four cutlets a couple of minutes on each side to light golden. Place the cutlets on the warm platter and cover loosely with foil. Wipe the pan, add the remaining 2 tablespoons EVOO and and cook the remaining chicken.

Once all your chicken is done, serve up and enjoy!

Corn Chowder Pasta

Hello everyone! How is your Monday? I worked all weekend so it flew by and cannot wait until Tuesday because I have a day off to relax. I am super excited about my baking extravaganza that I mentioned a few days ago. In preparing to making everything I have planned I bought 5 packs of butter! Oh yes, 5 packs. I need more too.Thankfully a store had them on sale for dirt cheap which allowed me to get that many.  I go all out for my baking extravaganza, but I will talk about this more this week.

I overdosed on candy again this weekend, I even worked out and had a cupcake after lol. I love my sweets. I tried eating healthy most of the weekend though. I have a super healthy dinner even though it says Chowder in the title. I used whole wheat pasta and chicken broth instead of cream. This pasta tasted so fresh and had a nice cream to it due to the corn. This was really good and a great recipe if you are looking to get more whole grains and veggies in your diet. Rachael Ray made this a few times and I was so glad I tried it. I hope you guys try it it makes a ton!

Look how HUGE this was!

chopped veggies

a few things you will need

brown up the bacon, careful it liked to splatter a bit

No milk here, corn and chicken stock

Its such a beauty, serve right out of the pan

Corn Chowder Pasta

Adapted from Rachael Ray-Summer Corn Fettuccine

Ingridents;

1 pound Lingine
Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), for drizzling
12 slices Canadian bacon,(if using the smaller size)  chopped (you can omit this)
6 ears corn on the cob, shucked
1 Onion finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 to a 1 cup chicken stock, depends on how thick you want it
2 ts Dried Thyme leaves
A few dashes of hot sauce or 1-2 pinches cayenne pepper
1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Bring a large pot of water to boil over medium heat. Salt the water, add the pasta and cook to al dente.
While the pasta is coming up to a boil, scrape your corn kernels off the cob, making sure you are getting the juices from the ears of corn.

Add about three-quarters of the scraped corn and any corn liquid to the pan with the bacon. Add the onion and bell pepper and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook until the vegetables are tender, 5-6 minutes.

Add the remaining corn and chicken stock to a food processor (or blender) and puree until smooth.
Pour mixture into the veggies and simmer over low heat. . Stir in the thyme and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently, to thicken. Add the hot sauce or cayenne and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Drain the pasta and add it to your veggie mixture, stir, top with Parmigiano Reggiano.

I actually served this as a side dish to chicken or it can be your main dish. Hope you guys try this.

Enjoy!

Recovering from Halloween…Still

How was everyone’s Halloween this year? I know I have talked about getting trick or treaters and I actually had some! I had about 20 trick or treaters. My first one was Darth Vader.  Something that happened that was interesting was a few kids asked me for more candy! I never had that happened. I was giving out about two pieces per kid. I had some princesses, Harry Potter, Jack Sparrow, a ladybug, and a few dead doctors and princesses.

Over the past few days I have eaten way too much. I always say everything in moderation, but I went overboard. I normally like to be careful and watch what I eat, but not this week.

I also started planning my Holiday Baking Extravaganza. More on this to come, but I am excited because Walgreens is have a good sale on baking goods this Sunday so I am excited, but more on this next week.

I have a really easy recipe and it is pretty light. This is also a great one for the summer on those hot days but easy enough to make when your low on time or need a light meal.  Its BLT Pasta salad. This is a really light salad that is good and good for you.

Here is what you need

1 Pound Whole Wheat Pasta

2 bags of lettuce or to taste

1 pint of Cherry tomatoes or 4 tomatoes diced

1 bag of Bacon or 6 pieces of Bacon cooked

Evoo

Salt and Pepper to taste

Parmesan Cheese to taste

Bring your pasta water to a boil, add salt and pasta cook to al dente. While the pasta is cooking, put your two bags of lettuce in a large bowl. Chop your Cherry tomatoes in half or add your diced tomatoes. Sprinkle in your bacon. Add your cooked pasta to the bowl and mix. Toss with a little EVOO, salt and pepper, Parmesan cheese and enjoy!

I hope you guys enjoy this and I can’t wait to share more with you guys!

Enjoy