Easy 10 min Caramel Popcorn

 Easy Caramel Popcorn

3 cups mini marshmallows

½ cup butter

½ cup brown sugar

2 bags of microwave popcorn ( no butter )

1 cup peanuts (optional)

Bring marshmallows, brown sugar and butter to a boil. Pour over popped corn. I add one bag of the popped corn to a bowl then pour 1/2 the sauce and 1/2 the nuts over it. Toss and add the remaining corn, sauce and nuts. Let cool and eat! This takes less then 10 min!  

Baked Chili Relleno Casserole

Ooey, gooey, cheesy, and chili roasted goodness.

Its the end of the harvest season and I found myself with a bunch of Anaheim Peppers (and some random others) from the garden. Since I am trying to keep my weight gain with this pregnancy down I didn't want to fry them in batter. I did some research and found a recipe for baked Chili Rellenos. I did my own modification and this is what I came up with! 

6 - 8 Roasted peppers

8 oz Mexican cheese shredded

6 eggs

1/3 cup milk

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

Raise the top rack of your oven and turn the broiler on. Lightly coat the peppers in oil and place on a baking sheet (I have a sprayer that I can add my own oil to. I gave them a light spray of Olive Oil - pictured above) . Broil for about 5 minutes a side, flipping 2 times to char each side of the peppers. Remove from the oven and place in a Tupperware then seal. Let sit for about 15 minutes to steam the skin and become cool to the touch. Once the peppers have cooled, hold them by their stems and gently peel off their waxy skin. Pull off the stem and gently cut a slit through one side of the pepper, taking care not to cut all the way through. Using a spoon, gently scrape the membrane and seeds from the peppers. Chop into 1" chunks.

Mix the eggs, milk, flour and baking powder. Grease a baking dish. Add the shredded cheese and chopped peppers to the dish and fold in the egg mixture. 

Bake at 350 for 30-40 min until its set in the center. 

This is more like a Spanish souffle. Its still has the flavor of a Chili Relleno without all the grease from frying. It would taste delish with some red sauce drizzled over the top. Since I didn't have any red sauce on hand I served it with some of my homemade salsa and chips. The guys LOVED this for lunch on a cold rainy fall day! 

Skinny Greek Yogurt Parmesan-Crusted Baked Chicken

 This is such an EASY dish. Its low fat and can be served with so much stuff. I served it with a risoto type pasta and my Summer Bruschetta.... its such a fresh flavor. I use Greek Yogurt in place of Mayo A LOT its a great low fat alternative.  

Skinny Greek Yogurt Parmesan-Crusted Baked Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

3/4 cup fat free Greek yogurt

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I used ½ graded and ½ canned junk)

1. Preheat oven to 425.

2. Place Greek yogurt and cheese in a small bowl and mix

3. Cut chicken breasts in half lengthwise

4. Put chicken breasts on baking sheet

5. Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes or until meat thermometer reads 165F.

6. Top with Tzatziki Sauce 

We use this sauce for almost EVERYTHING. Its a wonderful refreshing sauce for sandwiches and dips. Very versatile and a great alternative to Mayo based dips and sauces.  

Tzatziki Sauce

2 cups Greek PLAIN yogurt

1 cup sour cream

3 tablespoons lemon juice (or juice of one lemon)

3 garlic clove, minced1 large cucumber,Minced (seeded and cut into chunks)¼ Cup fresh Cilantro

1 tablespoon olive oil

I add the Olive Oil, garlic cloves, cucumber and cilantro in a food processor or blender. I blend till its smooth then put in a Tupperware. In the Tupperware I add the remaining ingredients and stir. Let sit in the fridge for an hour and wallah! Delish!

The last Garden Harvest of the season .... till next year delicious tomatoes :(

HOLY GREEN TOMATOES BATMAN! 

The last harvest of the season always makes me sad. I love having herbs and veggies handy to pick and use. Buying those bland tasteless tomatoes at the grocery makes me sad. I usually store a portion of my green tomatoes till they ripen and make a delightful Green Tomato Salsa with the rest. I have been meaning to make a large batch for weeks but have been slacking. This baby I am gestating is sucking the energy out of me :( ! 

Ingredients

• 5 lbs green tomato (chopped small as you prefer for salsa)
• 6 yellow onion (chopped 4 cups)
• 3 jalapenos (chopped with seeds 12 cup)
• 4 red bell peppers (chopped 2 cups)
• 6 garlic cloves (minced)
• 1 cup fresh cilantro (chopped)
• 1 cup juices (lime)
• 12 cup vinegar
• 1 tbsp salt
• 12 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp dried oregano (leaves)
• 2 tsps pepper
• 14 tsp cayenne (optional to taste)
• 1 12 tsps sugar

This is a link a recipe very similar to the one that I use:

http://www.yummly.com/recipe/external/Green-_Un-Ripe_-Tomato-Salsa-for-Canning-Food_com-116303

I will add the photos once I get off my lazy butt and make it, hopefully this weekend 

What do you do with your green tomatoes? 

Delicious Oatmeal Molasses Bread

I modified a recipe that I found for Oatmeal rolls that I had come across and this is what I ended up with. Its a light fluffy bread that is wonderful for sandwiches and can be made into rolls or loafs

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups boiling water

1 cup old-fashioned oats

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 teaspoons salt

3/4 cup cold water

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup molasses

2 1/4 teaspoons active-dry yeast

5 cups all-purpose flour

In mixer - Mix together boiling water, oats, vegetable oil, and salt. Let side for about a minute; add cold water. Stir until slightly cooled.

Add brown sugar, molasses, and yeast. Add 1/2 the all-purpose flour and beat till smooth (you can use the dough hook for the whole process) Add remaining flour and continue beating until the dough comes together. Allow the mixer to knead the dough for 6 - 8 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Transfer dough to a large oiled bowl. Cover and allow to rise for about an hour, or until doubled in size.

Divide into what ever portions you would like, place in greased pan/pans. Cover and let rise for another hour, or until doubled.

Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes, or until browned. Brush with butter as soon as they come out of the oven if desired.

My kids LOVE this recipe! 

Easy Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

6 cups (there is acutually a little more but I am rounding to what I will use) in the soda $3.25 a box rounded to $.55 a batch

9 cups in the borax (Once again a little more then that) $3.40 a box rounded to $.40 cents a batch

$.50 cent for a bar of soap ( I usually can pick up a double pack of bar soap for $1)

So that is about $1.45 for 2 gallons of laundry soap. Using ½ cup per load. So that is a little over $.02 a load.... It took me about 30 min including clean up.....  

1 bar of soap (I would have used Ivory since that is what I use for stain removal but I had a bunch of hotel soaps that I used in place of a large bar)
1 cup of Borax
1 cup of washing soda
a big pot ( that holds more than 2 gallons – I picked mine up this morning at a yard sale for $3 NEVER use it for anything other then the laundry soap!)
a grater
a funnel
a long spoon (you want to keep this ONLY for soap in the future)
2 empty gallon Milk jugs

Grate your bar of soap, fill up a milk jug full to the top of warm water and dump in with the soap. Bring this to a boil. Make sure the bar of soap is dissolved then add the cup of Borax and the cup of Washing Soda. Turn down the heat and mix it all together until its all dissolved. This will coagulate (thicken) when it does that turn off the heat and add in a 2^nd gallon of water, make sure its cool this time. Stir it together. This should be cool enough to funnel into to jugs! 

My jugs are lacking a little product... I had a tragic pouring accident.  

Walla! It was that easy!! 

70's era Salton Yogurt Maker - They just made things better back then!

A very simple design that is very simple to operate!

I always use a pint of plain organic yogurt to start the process

You can keep it like a sourdough starter

I prefer the older models because of the glass jars. Its hard to find a newer yogurt maker that actually uses glass! 

below are the instructions that I was able to find online

there are lots of things that can be added to make a variety of different types! Since its fall and I have lots of apples I was thinking apple pie yogurt! 

I do have an extra one of these available and would be willing to part with it for $20, please message me if you are interested in it :)

Harvest Pumpkin Bread - Great for the cool fall weather!

Pumpkin Bread

This is a very EASY recipe! 

It doubles well! ( I ALWAYS double the batch. If you double it will make 9-10 mini loafs )

1 cup pumpkin (canned or cooked fresh - fresh cooked is ALWAYS better )

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup cooking oil

Mix all this together for about 3 min ( I use my Kitchen Aid for this)

Add the following:

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder 

1/2 tbsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg 

1/2 tsp cloves

Mix together about 3 min

You can add in things like nuts, chocolate chips or even some shredded zucchini and its amazing!

Divide into greased baking pans ( I prefer the small loaf pans, I freeze them then pull them out as we eat them ) Bake at 350 until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean about 30 min. 

Remove from oven, remove from pans and let cool on a wire rack. If you are making a double batch re-grease pans and re-refill. Bake as before. 

My house always smells amazing when I bake this! 

This bread tastes amazing with a cream cheese glaze!