Rice Pilaf

From Your Homebased mom

Rice Pilaf

1 C uncooked rice (I use a long grain)

1/2 C vermicelli (real skinny spaghetti)

1/3 cube/stick butter

1 can chicken broth adding enough water to make 2 cups

1 tsp minced onion

1 tsp salt or I prefer 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp Lawry’s seasoning salt

In a pan melt butter and brown the broken up vermicelli. Stir often as this will burn easily. Cook until the noodles are well browned. Add chicken broth, onions and salt and bring to a boil. Add rice and stir once. Cover and simmer slowly until cooked through (15-20 minutes)

Serves four but is easily doubled

Cheesy Chicken

So here’s our favorite – Cheesy Chicken! From "Homebasedmom" blog

Cheesy Chicken

8 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Sauce:

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/3 can beef broth

1/3 C Parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp poultry seasoning

1/4 tsp pepper

1 Tbsp parsley flakes

Mix sauce ingredients together.

1/3 cube/stick of butter, melted

2 oz. whole cashews

1 lb. grated Monterey Jack cheese

Melt butter in 9 x 13 dish. I used my heavy roasting pan. Lay chicken over butter. Cover with 3/4 of sauce.

Bake 1 hour at 325. Add rest of sauce and cashews. Top with cheese. Turn oven off. Leave in oven for 5 more minutes.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

4 Chicken Breast halves
2 15 oz cans stewed tomatoes
2 15 oz cans black beans
1 can salsa
4 oz. can chopped green chilles
1 14 1/2 oz. can tomato sauce
1 bag tortilla chips
2 or more cups grated cheese

Combine all ingredients except chips and cheese in large slow cooker. Cover and cook on low 8 hours. Just before serving remove chicken breast and slice into bite sized pieces (or shred). Stir back into the soup. To serve, put a handful of chips in each soup bowl. Ladle soup over chips. Top with cheese and sour cream is optional.

We just had this soup at Kathy and Seth Little's. Kathy's sister in law gave her this recipe! YUM

Italian Sausage Bake

YUM YUM!

Ingredients:
one package of spiral noodles
1 lb. of Italian sausage, (cooked, chopped)
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
1/2 of a green bell pepper
1/2 of a red bell pepper
a lot of mozzarella cheese

instructions:
preheat oven to 350. & grease 13x9 pan
cook noodles according to package
cook sausage and peppers together until cooked thru.
in mixing bowl, mix drained noodles, sausage, peppers, & spaghetti sauce.
Pour into greased pan, and top with lots of mozzarella cheese.
Bake for 20 min.


VERY EASY, VERY CHEAP, VERY GOOD!
Even my toddler loved it!

Tim's Chocolate Cake

This recipe was given to me by Tim Morganson. He is a GENIUS! He and his brother owned a restaurant for a lot of years. This recipe is the closest thing I've tasted to Magleby's chocolate cake. So delicious!

Tim makes this cake in a full sheet, but I only have 9x13 pans, so this is a recipe for 9x13. The frosting is for the full sheet, hence his note by that recipe.

CAKE

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Blend the following ingredients together:

2 cups sugar

1-3/4 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1-1/2 Teaspoons baking soda

1-1/2 Teaspoons baking powder

3/4 Teaspoon salt

Stir in:

1/2 cup melted salted butter

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

3 Teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat on medium speed until well incorporated then turn mixer to slowest speed and add:

1 cup boiling water

Pour into buttered and floured 9 x 13 baking pan.

Bake until done? (Tim's note: I have never done one this small. I would guess about 30 min. If you gently insert a wooden tooth pick and it comes out clean it is done. Don't be alarmed if the cake appears to fall just a bit, that is normal and can be filled with frosting. You know my motto when it comes to cake. "A cake is only as good as its frosting is thick!") Cool cake completely before frosting.

FROSTING

(Tim's note: I use this recipe to frost the one of the cakes I usually make. If you make it all up you can save what you don't use in a plastic bag refrigerated for along time. Good for brownies, sugar cookies, graham crackers, and some of us consider it finger food.)

Gently blend together

2 pounds powdered sugar

3/4 cup cocoa

In small pieces add:

1/2 pound (2 squares) softened butter

Add:

3 Teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/2 to 2 cups of heavy whipping cream (This will depend on the thickness of the cream.)

Turn to high speed and whip for approx. 3 minutes.

Big Fat Chocolate Chip Cookie

I got this recipe from your homebased mom It is really good!

I baked these a couple of days ago and slightly over cooked them. If you over cook cookies you can put a bread crust in the cookie jar and that will soften them so they are not to hard.



2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups chocolate chips (I use 1/2 white and 1/2 milk chocolate)
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
Bake for 15-17 minutes (depending on size of cookie) in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

"Bajio Sweet Pork Salad" Copy Cat

I made this salad last week and it was DELICIOSO! I found these recipes online. The one for the sweet pork was from our local ABC 4 news who had one of the big wigs from Bajio on their show to present, so I thought it would be a pretty good recipe and it sure was!

So the layers in a salad you would get at Bajio (or Cafe Rio) include:

1- Tortilla (I used the uncooked 'tortilla land' brand you can find at Costco or most grocery stores by the milk, butter, etc. for sure at Walmart, smiths, maceys)

2- Sweet Rice (recipe below)

3- Black Beans (I just opened a can of seasoned black beans)

4- Corn

5- Sweet Pork (recipe below)
6- Chopped romain lettuce

7- Cheese

8- Any additional toppings you like: sour cream, guacamole, pico, salsa, etc

9- Tortilla strips (instructions below)

10- Creamy Tomatillo Ranch (recipe here)

And that is one dreamy meal.. and those you are serving it to will think you are the BEST!

Recipe for:

Sweet Pork

pork

3 lbs pork roast 

2 quarts water 

4 cups sliced white onions

1/4 cup salt

1 cup sugar

Marinade

Simmer together the following ingredients for 1 hour

4 cups enchilada sauce

1 cup brown sugar

2 cups soda water or coke/dr pepper

1 Tbs taco seasoning to taste

1 small cans pineapple juice (I added this to original recipe to try to reduce the spiciness of the taco seasoning because I had overdone it with almost 3 Tbs, my sis-in-law Birgitta recommended the pineapple juice and it was sooooo good that I'm always going to use it)

Cook pork in crock pot until tender enough to shred (about 8 hours). 

Drain pork and shred with fork, keeping pork in original cooking pot

Pour hot marinade over shredded pork

keep warm

Recipe for:

Sweet Rice

1 Tbs oil

1/2 of a white onion, chopped (add more or less to your taste)

1/2 bunch fresh cilantro chopped

1 1/3 c. white rice

3 c. chicken broth

1/4  c. white sugar
heaping 1/2 tsp salt (1/2 tsp salt per cup of rice)

Put a little oil in bottom of pan

Saute chopped onion until translucent

On the side, combine the chicken broth and sugar, letting sugar dissolve (get this ready before you add the cilantro so it's ready to pour)

Add rice, cooking it until it is brown (be careful not to burn)

Add chopped cilantro (no big stems) to your onions and rice and saute 30 seconds more or so

Pour in broth with sugar, add salt, combine, and bring to boil

Cover and let cook on low/med low until rice is done, about 20-25 min

Fluff with fork before serving.

Tortilla Strips

Use tortillas of your choice (white corn, yellow, corn, flour)

Cut into thin strips

In large skillet, heat vegetable oil and fry up your strips, adding plenty of salt for deliciousness. Fry until light to golden brown.

Enjoy! You will be stu-uffed.

Heather Please Post....

....the pork recipe! Please! Thanks again for dinner. That pork salad was the best! It seriously tasted like Bajio!

B

Cynthia Davies Whole Wheat Bread

Cynthia Davies Whole Wheat Bread:
5 1/2 cup hot tap water
11 cups whole wheat flour (I used 14)
3 T SAf instant yeast
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup honey
1 1/2 T salt (did I say I followed it exactly? I put in 2 T)
1/2 cup gluten flour (you can get it a health food store or Walton Wheat)
Turn over on to 200. Pour water into mixer and add 3 cup whole wheat flour and yeast. Mix well. Add 3 more cups flour. oil, honey and salt. Mix well. Add gluten and the rest of the flour while mixer is mixing. Add flour only until dough pulls away from the bowl, cleaning sides . Knead 10 minutes in the mixer.

Turn oven off. Divide dough into four parts and shape into loaves on a lightly oiled surface. Put dough in sprayed pans and raise in the over about 20-25 minutes. When loaves are almost raised, leave them in the oven and turn it on to
350 degrees. Bake for 45 minutes. (My oven is hot and so I cook it on a lower temperature for 40 minutes.

Butterfinger Brownies

This is awesome. Very easy... We had them on Father's Day.

Ingredients:
Your favorite brownie mix
6 mini butterfinger bars or 2 full size bars
1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Directions: Prepare the brownie mix as directed. Fold in the chocolate chips. Spray pan and pour batter in 9x13 pan. In a ziplock bag, put your butterfinger bars in. Take out your frustrations, and beat it with a rolling pin to crush them. :) Then sprinkle on the top of the brownie batter. Bake as directed on the box.. And wha-la, you have yummy butterfinger brownies!