Cauliflower Pizza Crust

I have made this a few times now and used this recipe to make my cauliflower pizza crust.  This time I made this crust it turned our really great and tasted just like a pizza with a regular crust.  The pizza I made here is just topped with tomato, mozzarella and basil (Margarita pizza).  My Husband who hates cauliflower even loved this pizza!  I recommend that you add the exact amount of cauliflower the recipe calls for (I added more the first time so I wasn't "wasteful" since this is pretty much the only thing I use cauliflower for) and don't forget to pre-bake the crust! I've done both of these things before and the result was less than satisfactory.   The crust just ended up being somewhat soft and not like a regular pizza crust, it throws the flavor off a bit when you add too much cauliflower too. 

Bloody Cupcakes

I made these for Halloween a couple of years ago and I'm not sure what recipe I used for the blood, but they  were pretty cool!  Here is a recipe I found that sounds like the one I used or pretty close.  I used the liquid food coloring in the little plastic bottle that comes in a four pack.  I would really recommend using the gel food coloring instead so it's not as runny.    I made the cupcakes out of a red velvet cake mix for the full effect.

Jello Fruit Snacks

These fruit snacks are so quick to make and my little Davin loves them!

What You Need:


1 Mold (Bought at local Hobby store)
1 Pack of Jello (3 oz. regular size, Fruit Punch and Tropical Fusion is what I used)
1/3 cup of Water
2 (.25 oz) packs of Unflavored Gelatin




Directions:


1. Pour the water into a small saucepan, add the jello and gelatin to the water.


2. Grab a whisk and stir up the mixture, then place over medium heat until you have a liquid mixture and all gelatin is dissolved.


3. Carefully pour the mix into your mold, I placed my mold onto a baking pan just in case any of the mix overflowed in spots (which it did). 


4. Let the mixture cool for 20 minutes, then they are ready to eat.

Almost all of them should peel out together if you use this mold



Salad in a Jar

Making salad in a jar is so simple and can save you a lot of time if you like to take a salad to work or school everyday.  You can make however many salads you need for the week at 1 time then just line them in the fridge to grab and go as needed. 

Salad in a Jar

Ingredients:

Anything you want in your salad

Quart Canning Jars as needed

Directions:

1. Put your dressing on the very bottom of your jar.  Next I put in the cheese to separate the dressing from the lettuce and other ingredients.  Be sure to leave some space at the top of your jar so you can shake your salad up really good.  That's it!

Crispy Sweet and Sour Chicken

I haven't blogged in a few days or so but I made this yummy sweet and sour chicken for lunch today so I thought I would share the recipe.  The breading recipe that I use for this chicken is my all time favorite breading recipe, I use it on chicken fried steak and everything.  I love to use the Panko bread crumbs because they give a nice crunchy coating to your food.  Panko can be found at Walmart and most other grocery stores.  I buy mine in the International aisle at Walmart instead of the baking aisle because believe it or not, they have a different brand in each of those aisle but the one in the International aisle is cheaper for the same amount of bread crumbs.  Here is more information on Panko, how it is made and a recipe if you would like to make your own.

Crispy Sweet and Sour Chicken

Yields: 6 servings

Ingredients for Chicken:

2 lbs. Chicken Breast

2 1/2 cups Panko (Japanese Bread Crumbs)

2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour

2 T Onion Powder

2 T Garlic Powder

2 T Black Pepper

4 T Salt

Vegetable Oil as needed for frying chicken

2 eggs

Ingredients for Sauce:

1 1/2 cups Sugar

8 T Ketchup

2 T Soy Sauce

2 t Garlic Salt

3/4 cup Vinegar (distilled white or apple cider will work)

Directions:

1. First, in a large bowl you want to make your breading mixture by mixing together the flour, panko, salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder, set aside.

2. Now you will make your egg wash in a separate large bowl by combining the 2 eggs and 2 cups of water, whisk until it is completely mixed together as a liquid.

3. Cut all of your chicken into small bite size pieces and place them on a plate.

4. Now it is time to bread the chicken.  You will place a handful of pieces into the dry mixture at a time, making sure the pieces are completely coated.  Take the pieces out of the bowl and lightly roll them in your hand with your fingers slightly spread apart to shake off the excess.

5. Place the chicken into the egg mixture briefly but make sure all of the pieces are coated entirely.

6. Place the chicken back into the dry mixture and roll it around, then shaking off the excess just as you did in step 4.  Place the breaded pieces on a clean plate that is set to the side.  Continue this process until all of the chicken is breaded.

7. To make the sauce, place all ingredients for the sauce in a microwaveable bowl or a small cooking pot, stir and then heat until hot.

8. To cook the chicken, place enough cooking oil into your large frying pan so that it will come halfway up the side of your chicken once it is in the pan, you don't want your chicken fully submerged in oil.  Right now is also the time I would put my rice on (Perfect Quick Rice Recipe) and it will be ready just as the chicken is done frying.

9. Once your oil is heated to 375 degrees, start placing pieces into the pan one at a time, do not dump them all in at once.  Let the chicken cook for about 2 minutes on one side or until light, golden brown then turn them over.  I cook my chicken in about 2-3 batches and once a batch is done (golden brown on both sides) I place it on a plate that has paper towels on it to soak up any excess oil.

10. Once all of the chicken is cooked, the rice should be done steaming.  I like to place a scoop of rice into my bowl then top with some chicken and pour on some of the sauce.  I don't like tossing my chicken in the sauce because I usually have leftovers and I like to save the sauce in a separate bowl so I can use it on my chicken after I heat it up instead of mixing all the sauce into the chicken then heating it up and it is dried out.  It is up to you how you want to do it of course.



Perfect Quick Rice

I love the steamed rice I get from my favorite Chinese restaurant and this is how you make it.  It is very simple and takes about 5-10 minutes depending on the amount you want to make.

Perfect Quick Rice

Yields: 4 cups

Ingredients:

2 cups Jasmine Rice

4 cups Water

* When cooking rice, you will always have a ration of 1:2, so for 2 cups of rice you will need 4 cups of water, for 1 cup of rice you will need 2 cups of water etc.

Directions:

1. Combine rice and water into a small/medium size pot.  Stir the rice around a couple of times.

2. Turn the heat onto high and wait for your rice to start to boil.  Once the rice starts to boil give it one last quick stir, place a lid on the top of the pot, turn the heat off and remove the rice from the burner.

3. Your rice will now steam and all of the water will be absorbed.  This takes about 5-10 minutes.  Do not remove the lid until your rice looks like it is nice and plump (doubled in size) and all of the water is absorbed.  After your rice is done fluff it with a fork.  You can add some salt to it if you like or just use soy sauce.

Soft Pretzels

I found a great recipe for soft pretzels on Pinterest and decided to give it a shot the other day.  Oh my goodness are these pretzels delicious!  The recipe makes about 9 pretzels, maybe 10.  I didn't want to bake all 9 pretzels at one time because they taste best when you eat them immediately.  I ended up freezing the remaining 6 on some parchment paper on a baking pan.  I followed the recipe all the way to where you dip the pretzels into the baking soda water to rise some more, let them rise, then placed the ones I didn't want to bake until later, into the freezer.  When I went to bake the frozen pretzels I turned the oven onto 250 degrees.  When the oven heated to 250 degrees, I turned it off and placed a loaf pan on the bottom of the inside of the oven that was halfway full of water, then popped the tray of pretzels in to heat up.  This method creates a homemade proof box that you can also use to raise any bread with yeast before you bake it, instead of turning on the oven and setting the loaf pan on top to rise this is very quick and works great.  Here is the link to the recipe I used, there are great pictures to follow step by step.

These are the pretzels I made, they came out very soft and SO yummy!

No-Bake Cookies

Not only are these cookies so delicious but they are so simple and quick to make!  Who doesn't love chocolate and peanut butter?  These taste fudgey (is that a word?) and have just the right amount of peanut butter.  The cookies I made I only used 4 cups of oats but they were a little too wet so they didn't dry right away, so I bumped it up to 5 cups, which should take care of that.

Here's what you'll need to make them:

Ingredients                                                                              Yields: about 2 dozen cookies

1 cup Milk

4 cups Sugar

8 Tablespoons Cocoa

1 cup (2 sticks) Butter

2 teaspoons Vanilla

1 cup Peanut Butter

5 cups Quick Oats

Wax Paper

Steps:

1. Set out a couple sheets of wax paper (about the length of your arm). In a pot, mix together the sugar, milk, cocoa and butter. Place the mixture on the stove, and let it heat until it reaches a boil, boil for 3 minutes, no need to stir.

2. Next, add the oats, vanilla and peanut butter. You can either leave the mixture in the pot when adding these ingredients if it is big enough, or carefully pour them into a large bowl before adding the oats etc.

3. Mix all of the ingredients until completely combined, then quickly drop the mix onto the wax paper. You can make the cookies whatever size you want, whatever size you put on the paper is what size they will be when they harden. Now let the cookies cool so they will fully harden, which doesn't take long at all.

That's it!   Enjoy!

Homemade Valentine's Day Gift Idea

I did this last year and it turned out really great!  If you want to do something special for your loved one instead of buy candy, or even if you want to do both, it's a great way to show someone you care and took the time to MAKE them something this year!

Recipe For Homemade Chocolate Covered Strawberries, Pretzels and Rice Krispies Squares

The base for each of these things is all the same.  Whatever you want to add to make decorate it your own special way is up to you!

What you will need for the coating:

1 Package of milk or dark chocolate candy coating (or both!)
1 Package of white chocolate candy coating

NOTE: I got both of these in the baking section at walmart, they are also called chocolate bark or white chocolate bark.  I used the off brand kind, and it is microwavable.  You can use the name brand as well, just make sure you check if it is microwaveable or if you have to use a double boiler method to melt it.

What is the double boiler method?  This means you will need a medium sized pot, and a medium sized metal bowl big enough to fit your chocolate into.  You need to put water into the pot, and set the bowl on top of it, placing it on the stove.  You now have a double boiler!  Make sure that the water in the pot is not touching the bottom ove the bowl.  Turn the heat to high until the water begins to boil.  Place your chocolate inside the metal bowl and turn the heat to medium.  Stir the chocolate frequently with a rubber spatula as it melts until it is all melted.  Turn the heat down a little more and you are good to dip away!  You need one double boiler for each flavor of chocolate you are using.

The benefit of the double boiler method?  You can use the "better" chocolate, which sometimes cannot be microwaved.  Also, you do not have to keep re-heating your chocolate in the microwave, as you do with the off brand chocolate "coating" or "bark."

Items to chocolate coat and other tools:

1-2 packages  Strawberries, depending on how many you want.
1 King Size Rice Krispies Treat Bar
1 Bag of Pretzel Rods
Parchment Paper
Toothpicks
2-3 Metal spoons, 1 for each flavor of chocolate you are using

Anything else you want to sprinkle on the outside of the chocolate coating, if anything.  (Crushed up toffee, pecans, almonds, peppermints, or heart sprinkles, etc, be creative!)

Any other candies or sweets you want to cover! 

NOTE:  If you are considering candies that are small, like gummy bears, they turn out really good but it's gonna take awhile if you want them individually coated and they are a little more tricky to dip!

The Process:

 STEP 1:  First you need to prepare the foods you are coating before melting the chocolate.  I leave the stems on my strawberries because this is what I use to dip them in the chocolate.  For the rice krispies bar, i cut it into bite sized cubes.  The pretzels require no extra work!  Also, lay out a large piece of the parchment paper so you can immediately start dipping into the chocolate when it is melted.  If you don't have a lot of room then just get one big piece laid out.  If you have more counter space I would get a couple large pieces ready.   If the corners roll up just use something heavy like a soup can to hold the edges down.

STEP 2:  Now you need to melt the chocolate. 

Use the microwave- you need a bowl for each flavor of chocolate you have.  Break up half of each bar and place in its own bowl.  If you need to melt more you can always go back and break up more and put it in the bowl.  Heat up for about 30 second intervals, after each 30 seconds take out and stir with a spoon.  Continue to do this until it is all the way melted.

If you choose to use the double boiler method- or need to use this method, read above *what is the double boiler method*. 


STEP 3:  Now you are ready to begin!  Just dip the items into the chocolate and place on the wax paper to let the chocolate harden, easy as that!

Tips and Decoration Ideas

1.  For the rice krispies- use the toothpicks to dip these into the chocolate.

2.  For the pretzels and strawberries- 

 I dipped the pretzels halfway, that way they aren't so messy to eat. 

For both of these items, you can do the ribbon decoration method, as seen below in my pictures.  Do this after you have coated the strawberries and/or pretzels in the chocolate of your choosing and it has hardened.   Grab a spoon, and dip it into the a flavor/color of chocolate other than what the item is already coated in *I. E.  if it is coated in milk chocolate, use a white chocolate drizzle*.  The chocolate has to be runny enough to drizzle off the spoon, so make sure it stays heated/liquid.  Drizzle the chocolate back and forth across the strawberries and/or pretzels one at a time, the higher you hold the spoon the thinner and prettier the drizzle will be. 

Refrigerate strawberries.  Pretzels and rice krispies can be left out at room temperature.

ONE OTHER IDEA:

If you want to do this with your valentine, it's pretty fun!  And you can also do this fondue style, all you need is a fondue kit, which you can pick up at walmart as well!  It's another romantic idea! 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!