Bacon Wrapped Chicken Breast

For a fancier way to present chicken breast wrap it up in bacon.

I defrosted (speed defrost on my microwave) frozen chicken breasts for 6 minutes.

They were defrosted just enough so I could cut each chicken breast in half

The chicken breasts are easier to wrap when still partly frozen.  Start with the bacon on one end of the chicken  and wrap around the chicken at an angle so it covers the entire piece. You may have to stretch the bacon abit to make it fit; then use a wooden tooth pick to secure the bacon to the chicken.

Set the oven to 425.  Place the wrapped chicken onto a pan that has drain holes, so the bacon fat drips away while baking. These were left in the oven for 35 minutes.  You could set the oven to 350 and leave bake them for an hour if you have more time to prepare supper.

The Bacon wrapped chicken was served on a platter.  I also had some dipping sauces available.

Another option was to cut the wrapped chicken breast into slices and put atop a Ceasar Salad.

I served Romaine lettuce leaves and Bacon Carbonara Pasta (I used a pkg mix this time) with the bacon wrapped chicken breast.

Take a chance and try combining two common ingredients together to create something you will probably ENJOY.

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

This muffin is somewhat dense in texture, but it is a good breakfast muffin or satisfying snack.

Blend together with a whisk:

1 cup Flour

1/2 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup oat bran

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

(Variation-if you want lighter muffins omit the oatmeal and oat bran and increase the flour to 3 cups)

In a separate bowl combine and mix until smooth:

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup yogurt

1/2 cup oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 cups mashed banana

Measure and set aside 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I like mini chips)

Gently fold the wet ingredients in with the flour mixture, add the chocolate chips when half combined.  Do not overmix, otherwise your muffins will have tunnels.

Fill greased muffin tins and bake at 375 for 25-35 min.

I sprinkled a bit of brown sugar on top.

To make it easier to bake for breakfast, before you go to bed. Measured the dry ingredients together in one bowl. In another bowl measure and whisk together the wet ingredients (and place in fridge overnight).  In the morning, all you need to to is combine the two and add the chocolate chips, fill the greased muffin tins and bake. Of course when you take them out of the oven you must immediately take a warm muffin and ENJOY!

Cabbage Rolls

Cabbage Rolls, a little labour intensive, but well worth it.

Served here with Garlic Bread.

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Next, from a head of Green Cabbage, remove 12 individual whole leaves. Try not to rip them (any that you rip you can chop up for cole slaw later). 

Put the whole lettuce leaves into the boiling water. I blanched 2 at a time for about 3 minutes (just to soften) then remov the leaves from the boiling water and plunge them into ice water. This will stop the cooking process and cool the leaves so they are easier to handle.

The meat filling includes:

1 pound lean ground beef

1/2 cup uncooked instant rice

1/2 cup tomato sauce (removed from one 15 oz can - you need the rest for the sauce)

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1/2 cup finely chopped onion (1 medium)

1 tsp minced garlic (or 1-2 cloves crushed)

1 can mushrooms finely chopped (do not drain - add liquid)

Mix together until well blended

The assembly process: 1.  Place one cabbage leaf on a flat surface.

2. Place a generous 1/3 cup onto thicker end of leaf.

3. Carefully roll cabbage leaf around meat mixture. Tuck in the sides as you roll

4. Place the filled cabbage rolls into a baking pan.

Mix the remaining tomato sauce (remember, you removed 1/2 cup tomato sauce from a 15 oz can you just opened - use the rest) add 1 tsp sugar and 1/2 tsp Frank's Red Hot Sauce (or 1/2 tsp lemon juice). 

Then pour this mixture over the cabbage rolls in the baking pan. Place pan into a 350 oven for about 40 minutes or until the meat mixture is cooked with a temp of 170 or higher.

Here is the Cabbage Rolls out of the oven....don't get too excited, you are not finished yet.

Now, either carefully drain off the liquid, or remove the cabbage rolls from the baking pan and place into a casserole dish and pour the liquid into a sauce pan. 

Mix:  1Tbsp of cornstarch with 1 Tbsp of cold water, stir this mixture into the liquid. Heat this mixture while stirring until it boils, then after a minute remove from heat.  Pour thickened liquid over the cabbage rolls and serve.

Now you are probably wondering what is next.  I doubled the ingredients when making the meat mixture. I  put about 1/2 cup of mixture into each cabbage roll but still had left over meat mixtue. I then formed it into a meat-loaf shape and placed it into a baking dish.

I was debating whether to pour Catelina Salad Dressing or Russian Salad Dressing (I didn't feel like using ketchup) over the meat mixture, I went with the Russian. 

I baked this at 350 for about 30-40 minutes (I'm not exactly sure as I overbaked it a bit).  I let it cool (I guess you could eat it as meat-loaf at another meal) and then sliced it and used it in sandwiches.  It was very good, so now you need to go and

ENJOY!

Bread Stuffing

Before beginning this recipe (or any recipe) please read it completely, so you can gather all the ingredients together.  There is lots of chopping - the vegetables can be cut up the night before and stored in the fridge. The measurement for the vegetables were done after I chopped and put them into the pan. If you have a little more or less, it won't make too much difference

1 3/4 Bread loaves cut into cubes (can be stale bread)

Put bread cubed into a very large bowl.

In large fry pan or sauce pan saute the following until carrots are medium tender:

1/2 cup unsalted butter (if using salted, decrease added salt by 1/4 tsp)
1 1/4 cup minced sweet onion (1 medium)
1 1/4 cup minced celery (3 medium stalks)
1 1/4 cup minced carrot (3 medium)
1 cup minced mushrooms (8 med)
Add to mixture, during cooking:

1 Tbsp + 1 tsp poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt (decrease if using salted butter or margerine)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp powdered ginger
3 Tbsp chicken soup mix (bulk), (or 3 bullion cubes)
1 tsp dried parsley flakes
1/2 cup water
Remove from heat, to help cool down the mixture add:

5 ice cubes (1/2 cup water) 

When cooled down enough (you don't want to cook the egg) add:

4 large eggs, beaten (x-large okay too)
Stir mixture well, it will not look very pretty, and will be very strong to taste. 

Pour mixture over bread cubes and start combining.  The easiest way to do it is with your hands.  When you are just about finished,

Add (this is optional):

1 cup chopped up cranberries (1 cup chopped = 1 cup whole berries)

If you add the cranberries too early, the stuffing will turn pink - not very appetising (unless you want pink stuffing).  Add them just at the end, and mix gently. The cranberries give the stuffing a nice taste, but you don't have to add them if you don't like cranberries.

Your bread stuffing is complete.  Now you can use it to stuff a turkey, or chicken or even pork (you can substitute the cranberries for bits of apple when stuffing pork), or bake it in a pan and slice it.

Please ENJOY!

Pumpkin Pie

Shown above, Pecan Crunch Pumpkin  Pie, Pumpkin Pie and Crustless Pecan Crunch Pumpkin Pie. I used the recipe x 2 (each done separately).

Adding the ingredients which included:
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar (I mix the first 2 ingredients together)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
16 oz pureed pumpkin (one can or 2 cups)
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk

Adding the evaporated milk

The pumpkin pie filling ready to pour into the pie plates.  I put the pie plates in the oven, and filled the uncooked pie crusts with batter.  I had too much pumpkin pie filling left over, so I just poured that into a greased pie plate and placed into the same oven.

This is the finished Pumpkin Pie.

This is the Pecan Crunch Pumpkin Pie.  The only differnce is that a topping of 1/3 cup chopped pecans, 1/3 packed brown sugar and 1 Tbsp butter were mixed together to resemble a coarse meal and then spread over the Pumpkin pie and put back into the oven for the last 10 minutes of baking time.

Here is a piece of the crustless Pumpkin Pie, essentially it is like a custard, with a bit of whipped cream - very yummy, so now go and ENJOY!

Spaetzle and Beef Goulash

Beef Goulash is beef chunks browned and cooked until tender.

 Use any kind of Beef cut (or pork if you prefer); cut the meat into cubes.  The meat I used was partially frozen, it is easier to cut into uniform pieces. Any cut of meat is okay, a chuck steak works very well as it has a good flavour and you can brown the meat and finish cooking it in a slow cooker, or simmer in a pot on the stove until meat is tender.

I mixed 1/3 cup flour, salt, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and some chili powder together and dredged the meat pieces.

I only put 1 tbsp of oil in my fry pan and then added the meat pieces and browned them on med high.

I added water to the pan with the meat and scrapped up all the bits, the flour that was coating will help thicken the sauce.  Since I didn't leave myself very much time to get supper on the table, I had to short cut.  I added some Beef Soup powder to the liquid. You could use beef broth instead of water. 

I then put the whole mixture into a smaller sauce pan and simmered the meat until tender.  To thicken the sauce, I added a little water to the remaining flour in the dredging bowl and then added it to the cooked meat. It thickened the liquid to make a nice gravy.

Making Spaetzle:

1 cup flour

1 cup wheatlets

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

3/4-1 cup milk.

Mix dry together in a flood processor, then add the wet and let food processor mix until it thickens a bit.  The dough should not be runny, nor too thick.

Spaetzle is a southern German noodle.  Most recipes only call for flour, but our family has been putting wheatlets inthe dough.  It gives it texture, and is very filling.  I have a Spaetzle maker (noodle press) but there are other methods to make the noodle.  (This is where you will have to do your own search on-line to discover them)

Into a pot of salted boiling water I press the Spaetzle slowly.  They cook for 3 minutes and then remove from pot and drain.

I put the noodles into a bowl and mix in parmesan cheese.  On this occasion I made a double batch.  One bowl didn't contain any parmesan; this was so I could sprinkle on sugar/cinnamon and have breakfast.

Wheatlet are cream of wheat uncooked.

Lots of gravy is nice with Spaetzle, serve it with colourful vegetables and then you must ENJOY!