Baked Oatmeal

I only had baked oatmeal for the first time this summer when my mum cooked at camp.  Just recently I went searching for a recipe that might be similar and found an amazing recipe on food.com.  Here it is with some Lisa mods.

3 cups quick-cooking oatmeal (not instant) 
1 cup brown sugar 
2 teaspoons baking powder 
1 teaspoon cinnamon 
1 cup milk 
½ cup butter or margarine, melted 
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 handful of almonds (perhaps ½ cup)
¾ cup blueberries


I mixed this all up in a 9 x 9 glass dish (yay for less cleaning) and baked it for 30 minutes at 350F


Serve with more brown sugar and milk. 

Orange Balsamic Chicken

I discovered a YUMMY chicken recipe in a Rachel Ray cookbook.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs orbreasts or any combination of light and dark meat
• Salt and coarse black pepper
• 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
• 2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves chopped
• 1/3 cup orange marmalade
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 2 scallions, whites and greens, finely chopped

PREPARATION

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high to high heat.

Season the chicken liberally with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. When the olive oil ripples, add the chicken and brown for 5 minutes, then turn and sprinkle with rosemary. Cook until the chicken is tender and cooked through, about 5 minutes more.

In a small bowl, stir together the marmalade, vinegar and stock and pour over the chicken. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce has thickened and becomes a thin glaze. Arrange the chicken on a serving platter and serve topped with the glaze, and scallions.

Sausage Pepper Spaghetti

I adapted this recipe from a Catelli spaghetti box.  It is such a quick, easy meal!  Serves four.


Heat in a heavy sauce pan:
½ cup olive oil
½ tsp chili pepper flakes
1 tsp dried rosemary (a sprig or two fresh)
Cook for 15 minutes, strain and discard solids.


Meanwhile, prepare your favourite pasta - I used whole wheat spaghetti.


In a large skillet saute for five minutes:
The flavoured oil you just made
1 each sliced red, orange and yellow sweet peppers
1 diced length of farmer sausage (6 or 8 inches worth)

Add and saute briefly:
4 cloves of garlic
Juice of 1 lemon
A little lemon zest

Toss with spaghetti, garnish with Parmesan

Lime Sherbet

I was given an ice cream maker for a mother's day gift.  I was SO excited.  Now I had an easy way to make inexpensive, healthier ice cream.  The machine came with several recipes for sherbet as well.  This is my favourite.


2 cups whole milk
1 container frozen lime concentrate (softened)
3 T sugar

This is mixed together and placed in the ice cream machine.  Prepare according to your machine's directions.


I like a tart sherbet.  The raspberries I paired with this dessert were sweeter than the ice cream!  It was so good and refreshing.  You may want to add more sugar.  You may also want to add a bit of food colouring to make it 'lime' green

Mexican Casserole

:

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and adapted it for our family's taste.  We really enjoyed it.


brown:
1½ lb ground beef

add:
1 cups salsa
Simmer until most of the liquid is gone


add:
1 can kidney beans, drained
warm through


Grease a 9 x 12 casserole dish
Spoon beef mixture into bottom of the dish


Spread on top:
1 cup sour cream

Layer on top:
½ cup green onions
½ cup diced tomatoes

Last layer:
Grated cheese (I used Tex-Mex)

Bake in oven for approximately 30 minutes at 350F or until bubbly.

If your family enjoys olives, add them to the onion / tomato layer.  The original recipe called for crumbled tortilla chips on the bottom, but I found they got lost once the casserole was baked.  We enjoyed scooping up the casserole with tortilla chips instead of a fork.

Gooey Caramel Popcorn

I have this distressing habit of throwing stuff together to see if it works.  When it does, I have to guess what my proportions were so I can repeat my success.

So I've "thrown" this together a few times and it's always yummy.  This is my best guess for amounts.

¼ cup butter
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup mini marshmallows

Melt those together in a saucepan.

I'm too impatient, but almonds or pecans and a tsp of vanilla, mixed in after the sauce is off the heat, would be really yummy.

Mediterranean Pasta Salad

This recipe is adapted from a pasta-less recipe in Canadian Living's Rush Hour Cooking.  The Smaller One and I inhaled this.  The other two had reservations.  *rolls eyes*


Boil and chill your favourite pasta.  I think I used about three cups dried.

In the bottom of your large salad bowl, toss:
1 T minced fresh basil (I've been using freeze dried and I'm loving it)
2 T minced red onion
1 cup of cherry tomatoes, cut in half if they are larger
Feta cheese, diced (the original recipe said 2 oz.  I did not measure)
If you toss these together first, they will start making their own little yummy heaven.  The smell is so good.  I have a feta-ish (haha) for tomatoes, basil and feta.


Add to bowl:
1 chopped coloured pepper (yellow / orange are best for colour contrast)
1 chopped cucumber
People who enjoy olives may want to add ½ cup of black.  Shudder.


Salad Dressing (mix in a measuring up)
1 T red wine vinegar
1 T lemon juice
3 T fresh minced basil
1/3 cup olive oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
40 turns of the pepper mill
2 green onions, chopped
The dressing should resemble a runny pesto with all the yummy basil in it.


Take your now-chilled pasta from the fridge and toss it and the salad dressing with your veggies.  The ratio of veggies to pasta should be at least 1:1.

Enjoy.  This is seriously yummy. I'm telling myself not to run to the fridge to devour the leftovers.