Tilapia Parmesan

I had frozen tilapia fillets in my fridge and wanted to cook them without just using a premade sauce. I searched allrecipes and found this winner. Brent loved it! I am always thrilled and surprised when that happens. :) I only wanted to do 4 fillets and made the whole recipe. It was plenty to go around. Definitely wrap your pan in aluminum foil.

Also, my broiler doesn't work so I baked the fillets without the sauce for 15 minutes at 450 and then spread the sauce for the last couple of minutes until it browned.


Ingredients:
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/8 cup butter, softened
3 tablespoons light mayonnaise
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
   
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon celery salt
2 pounds tilapia fillets
Directions:
1.     Preheat oven broiler. Grease broiling pan or line with aluminum foil.
2.     Mix Parmesan cheese, butter, mayonnaise, and lemon juice together in a small bowl. Season with dried basil, pepper, onion powder, and celery salt. Mix well and set aside. Arrange fillets in a single layer on prepared pan.
3.     Broil a few inches from the heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Flip fillets over and broil for 2 or 3 minutes more. Remove fillets from oven and cover with Parmesan mixture on top side. Broil until fish flakes easily with a fork, about 2 minutes.

Pumpkin GInger Snaps

These are the ultimate Christmas cookie.  They are soooo soft and yummy and I could eat a million of them! Plus, pumpkin is on sale right now!

Pumpkin Gingersnap Cookies

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

Cook Time: 10-12 minutes

½ cup of butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar, plus more for rolling the cookies
½ cup of pure pumpkin (I used Libby's canned pumpkin)
¼ cup of molasses
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

directions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until creamy and smooth. Add the pumpkin, molasses, egg, and vanilla extract, mix until well combined.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until combined. Refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 1 hour. The dough can be chilled for 2-3 days.

3. When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper. Place sugar in a small bowl. Roll tablespoon-sized balls of dough in sugar until well coated and place on prepared baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10–12 minutes, or until cookies look cracked and set at the edges. The cookies will still be soft. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a 2-3 minutes after removing them from the oven, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Honey Butter Pull Apart Rolls

Okay, I made these tonight for my hubbies birthday and YUM!  I love how they look and taste.  The butter and honey is slathered in and on them before you bake them.  I also thought these were much easier than they look, bonus when bringing a dish to someone's house!  I will be making these little gems for years to come!  Give them a go sometime soon...

Honey Butter Pull Apart Rolls

http://www.highheelsandgrills.com/2012/10/honey-butter-pull-apart-rolls.html

1-1/2 cups hot water {as hot as you can get it out of the tap.}

1 Tbsp. active dry yeast

2 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 tsp. salt

3-1/2 to 4 cups bread flour {or all-purpose flour is fine)

3/8 cup (3/4 stick) salted butter, melted

3 Tbsp. honey

3/4 tsp. salt


*Note: I did this in my stand mixture with my dough hook and it was the easiest thing ever. Hand mixing should work well too, but I highly recommend it in a stand mixer if you have one!*


Spray a large bowl with cooking spray; set aside.

In a small bowl, mix together water, yeast, and sugar; let stand until frothy, about 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine the oil, salt, 2 cups of flour, and the yeast mixture until well combined.

Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough has pulled away from the sides of the bowl and is no longer sticky.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until elastic, about 8 minutes.

Place the dough in the greased bowl and cover with a damp cloth; let rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

After doubled, punch down dough and lay on floured surface.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Roll dough out until about 20 inches by 12 inches.

In a small bowl, combine butter, honey, and salt.

Brush dough with half of the butter mixture.

With a pizza cutter, cut dough lengthwise into sixths and crosswise into twelfths.

Make stacks of 4 dough squares and place each stack into a greased muffin tin cup.

Brush with the remaining butter mixture.

Bake for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve warm.

Chipotle Tamale Pie

I apologize for my absence lately.  It really is quite easy to get so swamped with life and endeavors that you want to pursue.  Currently, I'm pursuing the development of an App.  Yep, be excited for a really sweet App for both Android and Apple to come your way just before Christmas.

Even with this App excitement I have been baking and cooking.  I can't let my family go hungry.  Last week I made my Chipotle Tamale Pie.  This is a fabulously hearty, delicious, and nutritious meal.  Enjoy!

Chipotle Tamale Pie
From my Diabetic Cooking Cookbook (No, I'm not diabetic, and I'm not sure where I got the cookbook from.  However, there are some good ones in here)

1 lb of ground turkey or ground beef (I use an entire pkg of of the Jennie-O ground turkey so I believe that is 20oz)
1 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 cups of diced bell pepper (choose whichever color pepper you prefer)
4 cloves minced garlic
2 tsps ground cumin
1 can (15 oz) pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 can of stewed tomatoes, undrained (the recipe says 8 oz, but I use the big can which is 13.75oz or something)
2 canned chipotle chilies in adobo sauce (minced)- You can do more here if you like it super spicy
1-2 tsp of adobo sauce from the canned chilies (the more you add the spicier it will be)
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup of cilantro chopped
and whatever ingredients you need for cornbread whether that is a jiffy mix (egg, milk, and the mix) or your own

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Cook turkey, onion, bell peppers, and garlic in a large skillet over medium heat until meat is cooked through.
3. Sprinkle cumin on top of skillet mixture and stir it all in.
4. Add beans, tomatoes, chilies, and adobo sauce; bring to a boil over high heat.  Then reduce heat to medium; simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.
5. Remove skillet from heat and stir in cheese and cilantro (sometimes I don't do cilantro, or I used dry cilantro).
6.  I spray a 13x9 baking dish with nonstick spray.  Then I pour the skillet mixture into the baking dish.
7.  Finally, I make my cornbread (I have a great recipe that I'll share later) and pour the cornbread over the over the turkey mixture.  If you use a jiffy mix for cornbread then just one box of jiffy mix will work great.
8.  Cook the dish uncovered for 20-30 minutes until the cornbread is a beautiful golden brown.

I hope you enjoy this dish.  It is one of our family favorites!

Megs

Pumpkin Carrot Harvest Bars

First, sorry that all of my posts are out of order. This is another recipe from the recipe party I had the other night. There is one more recipe I need to add from the party. Second, sorry for the recipe bombing this morning. As I said in an earlier post, I fell a little behind.

These are my all time favorite fall recipe. I love everything pumpkin and I also love cream cheese frosting! This recipe has both of those! Hope you love these bars just as much as I do! Finally, sorry, but I don't have a source for this recipe because I really have been making it for years.

1/3 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup Brown sugar

Beat together the butter and sugars until they are crumbly. Then add wet ingredients:

2 large eggs
2 egg whites
1-15 oz can Pumpkin puree

Blend until well combined. Add dry ingredients:

2 cups flour (or 1 1/2 flour and 1/2 almond flour)
2 1/4 tsp Pumpkin Spice
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda

Stir in:
1 cup finely shredded Carrot
1/2 cup Craisins, optional
1/2 cup pecans, optional

Put batter into a 13x9 pyrex. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350.

Once the bars are cooked and cooled add your favorite Cream cheese frosting. 

Apple Pie Oatmeal

Now that it is the fall and finally apple season again, I have been cooking a lot! One of the first Pinterest recipes I wanted to make was this one. I already love oatmeal and who doesn't love hot apple pie?! This recipe is one of those that perfectly combines two things that I already loved: you get the comfort factor of the oatmeal combined with the hot apples and syrup that make apple pie so yummy. I also love that since this is oatmeal, I don't get hungry before lunch like I do when I eat cereal. Although this was originally a Pinterest recipe, I have changed it here because the original recipe cooked the apples and oatmeal together, but I couldn't get them cooked right at the same time so I make the two parts separately here.

Here's how I make it:

1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
1 cup water
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 TBSP butter

I bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the apples, spices and sugar.  Saute everything over medium-low until the apples are soft but still have a little bite. Add your oat to the water. Add more or less water depending on the consistency that you prefer. Top with apples and syrup.
 That's all there is to it. Serve it with a splash of milk if desired.

Note: Ethan and I both liked this with lots of apples, so I make one apple for the two of us. This recipe also duplicates really easily, so I like to make two apples worth and then store the leftovers for later in the week.

Hamilton Chili

Sorry, that it has been so long since I have posted, but we are back from vacation, and back in the swing of making new recipes. Before I jump into the recipe I wanted to give Christina a shout out and thank her for being an amazing friend and letting us come to visit them in SF. Hopefully someday we will be back close again. We miss you guys already!

Now, for the Chili!! It is fall so, even here in Texas, we can finally start making some of our favorite comfort foods. We originally got this recipe from a book called "Come Home to dinner", but since then we have made a lot of little changes to make it our own. One of the changes that we have made is to add the kidney and black beans. Ethan and I love lots of different beans, so we added them, but feel free to take them back out if you don't like either kind. Finally, sorry for forgetting to take a pic, but it pretty much looks like every other chili.

Chili

1 lb. Ground Beef
1lb. Sausage, Mild or Spicy both work
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1-28 oz can Diced Tomatos, undrained
1-15 oz can Tomato Sauce
1-15oz can Black Beans, rinsed
1-15 oz can Kidney Beans, rinsed
1-32 oz can Chili/ Pinto Beans, rinsed
2 TBSP Chili Powder
1 1/2 Tsp Ground Cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Toppings:
Shredded Cheese
Sour Cream
Fritos
Corn Bread
This chili is also yum served over rice.

Brown the ground beef and sausage in a skillet, drain grease and add to slow cooker. Rinse all beans and then add to cooker. Add the rest of the ingredients. Let cook for 6-8 hours, on low. As with most chilis, feel free to let this simmer away on low all day!

Creamy Chicken Pockets

Okay, this is one of the recipes from the recipe party I hosted the other day. Thanks you Amber for bringing these super yummy pockets! Also, I made a huge mistake at the grocery store and accidentally  bought country biscuits instead of the crescent rolls. Although the biscuits turned out a lot thicker, they still made good pockets. So, if you get home and realize you have the wrong canister for this recipe, still give it a try. 

Yield: 24 pockets
4 TB olive oil
2 chicken breasts, diced (8 tenders or 2 big cans of canned chicken)
1 cup minced onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 TB butter, softened
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
4 tablespoons milk
3 (8 ounce) packages refrigerated crescent rolls/ or 3 pastry sheets (each cut into 8 squares)
2 TB butter, melted
Bread crumbs (Italian seasoned or Panko)
Preheat oven to 375˚F.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the chicken with the onions and garlic.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese and 2 tablespoons melted butter until smooth. Stir in the cooked chicken, onions and garlic. Add the salts, pepper and milk. Mix well.
Separate the crescent roll dough into the eight triangles or cut into eight squares. Dollop a tablespoon of filling into the center of each triangle and fold the corners up to seal. Press and seal firmly. Place on ungreased baking sheet or stone and repeat with the remaining dough and filling OR use greased cupcake pans. Brush the tops with the melted butter and sprinkle with the bread crumbs (optional).
Bake for 11 – 13 minutes, or until golden brown.
Recipe Note: To heat up leftovers, bake in a preheated 350˚F oven for 10 minutes.