Bunny Puffs

This recipe is from the Pillsbury Crescents small recipe book that you can buy in the check out line in the super market. Jen bought this a while ago because I looked at the coupons at the back of the book and the expire in 2008, so it is pretty old. These bunnies were not in the dessert category of the book, but I think they are a great dessert. There is one piece of candy and the rest, besides the tiny marshmallow and the M&M for the eyes.

Grade: B+

Bunny Puffs
1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
8 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cup candies, unwrapped
8 white miniature marshmallows, cut in half
4 pink miniature marshmallows, cut in half
16 blue miniature candy-coated semi-sweet chocolate baking bits (I used M&ms)

Directions
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line large cookie sheet with cooking parchment paper; spray paper with cooking spray.
2. Unroll dough and separate into 8 triangles. Place 1 peanut butter cup in center of 1 triangle. Gently stretch corners closest to and farthest from cup together at top of cup, pinching edges together to seal around cup. Pull up third corner; firmly pinch edges to seal. Place on cookie sheet; twist 2 longest tips of dough o make ears. If desired, bend down longer ear. Repeat with remaining dough triangles and peanut butter cups, shaping and trimming dough as needed for desired shape.
3. Bake 8 to 9 minutes or until puffs begin to brown. Place 2 white miniature marshmallow halves and 1 pink marshmallow half on center of each for bunny eyes and nose. Bake 1 to 2 minutes longer or until puffs are golden brown and marshmallows are slightly puffed.
4. For eyes, immediately place 2 blue baking bits on white miniature marshmallows for pupil; remove puffs to cooling rack.

Anna enjoying the peanut butter cup.

Emily thinks it is so funny to eat the bunny.

Sarah attempting to show you her bunny.

Lucy loving the ears!

English Muffin Pizza

This was a make your own “pizza” night at the Hall household. We let the girls make their own pizza on the toasted English muffin as you will see in the video.  The choices for the girls were pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, and sliced mushrooms. The videos are all under 30 seconds, but be sure to watch Emily take a bite out of her pizza before cooking it.

Taste Grade: B-

Fun for the girls grade: A+

Sarah

Anna

Lucy

Emily

Sarah digging in.

Lucy took forever to finish her pizza!

Emily finding out that cooked pizza is better than raw pizza.

Anna loves her pizza and she now likes mushrooms!

Breakfast for Dinner

Pink Waffles, Hush Puppies, Banana/Grape fruit salad 

Who doesn’t like breakfast for dinner? Not us, our girls would eat breakfast for every meal if they could. The truth about why we ended up having this for dinner is I promised the girls pink waffles for breakfast and was too lazy to make it in the morning. I saw the hush puppies on the next page from the waffles in the BHG cookbook and I thought, why not. I had never made hush puppies before, but like eating them whenever I had been somewhere that served them. I am not sure if they go with the breakfast for dinner, but who cares? Anna and Lucy did not care too much for the hush puppies (even though they love them at restaurants) but Sarah kept on eating the puppies throughout dinner. In fact, for dessert we had Popsicles and Sarah had a Popsicle in one hand and a hush puppy on the end of a fork in the other.

Grade: B

Waffles

1 ¾ cups all purpose flour

2 TBS sugar

1 TBS baking powder

2 eggs

1 ¾ cups milk

½ cup cooking oil or butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla

1.       In a medium bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and ¼ tsp salt. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside.

2.       In another medium bowl beat eggs slightly; stir in milk, oil, and vanilla. Add egg mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be slightly lumpy.)

3.       Pour 1 to 1 ¼ cups of batter onto grids of a preheated, lightly greased waffle baker. Close lid quickly; do not open until done. Bake according to manufacturer’s directions. When done, use a fork to lift waffle off grid. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve warm.

Hush Puppies

1 cup cornmeal

¼ cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp sugar

¾ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 beaten egg

½ cup buttermilk or sour milk

¼ cup sliced green onions (I omitted these)

Shortening or cooking oil for deep-fat frying

1.       In a medium bowl combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside.

2.       In another bowl combine egg, buttermilk, and green onions. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy)

3.       Drop batter by tablespoons into deep, hot fat (375) Fry about 3 minutes or until golden, turning once. Drain on paper towels. Serve warm.

Sarah eating her first hush puppy

Emily giving you a typical Emily face!

Anna opening her mouth double the amount that she needs for the tiny piece of food.

Lucy telling me to take a picture of Sarah.

Belgium and Butter Night

I am calling this meal a “Belgium and Butter” meal because of the Brussel sprouts, but I understand that is a stretch to say the least. Anyways, you might be saying, “Your girls ate Brussel sprouts!?” And the answer to that would be, yes we made them try at least one bite. For the most part they like them, but that was because of the excitement that I created before presenting them at the table.

When I came back from the store with my fresh Brussel sprouts, I called the girls together and I showed the sprouts to them and how they looked like little lettuce heads. They thought they looked so cute. This was around 3:00 and they kept coming downstairs hoping that it was dinnertime so they could have the Brussel sprouts. You have to do what you have to do to get your kids to eat healthy, right.

This meal looks/sounds healthy from the listing of food that is included, but it has a decent amount of butter when you combine all three. Maybe that is why it is so good! For the chicken, I took wheat-chex cereal, fresh basil, and oregano and put it into a food processor. I used this instead of breadcrumbs for the coating. I made an egg wash to dip the chicken in before rolling it around in the chex mixture. I set the oven at 350 degrees and put one stick of butter in an 9x12 inch pan and put it in the oven. Once the butter was melted, I put the chicken in a single layer and cooked it for 30 minutes. (Depending on the size of the chicken times will vary.)

The chicken was extremely moist, as it should be considering it was baked in a layer of melted butter.

I did not do anything special for the baby Yukon potatoes. Just boiled and salted and of course stirred around some butter!

Grade: A

Brussels Sprouts Recipe

INGREDIENTS

·         1 lb fresh brussels sprouts

·         4-6 Tbsp butter

·         1/2 onion, chopped

·         Salt and Pepper

·         1 teaspoon lemon juice or 1 Tbsp Meyer lemon juice, fresh squeezed

·         1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds

METHOD

1 Remove any ragged or old-looking outer leaves on the brussels sprouts and discard. Parboil the brussels sprouts (or steam them) for 3 minutes or until just tender. They should be almost cooked all the way through (split one in half to test). Strain the hot water and place the sprouts in a bowl of ice water, this will keep their color bright green. Cut the sprouts into halves.

2 Heat 2-3 Tbsp of butter in a large sauté pan on medium heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Add 2-3 Tbsp more of butter and the brussels sprouts halves. Increase the heat to medium high and cook for several more minutes. Salt and pepper to taste, while the brussels sprouts are cooking. Do not overcook! Overcooked brussels sprouts are bitter and are the main reason why some people don't like them.

3 Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and half of the toasted almonds. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place in serving dish and garnish with the rest of the toasted almonds.

Sarah making sure her chicken is not too hot!

Emily sticking as much of the chicken into her mouth as she can.

Anna pouting because she wanted to eat a whole Brussel sprout and I cut it!

Lucy just put something in her mouth, but I have no idea what it is.

French Night :-)

French night was a success. The chicken was extremely juicy and the asparagus and cream sauce was perfect. I messed up the sauce that goes with the chicken, but the chicken didn’t need the sauce anyways. Lucy did not eat the asparagus, no surprise there, but all the other girls ate more than one piece.

I personally am enjoying doing the different themes of food from around the world. We talk about where the country is that the meals are originally from. Fortunately because of the Wonder Pets, Dora, Diego, and other shows they are kind of aware of the countries. For this dinner we told the girls how to say hello, goodbye, and beached whale in French.

Grade: A-

French Chicken Breast with Orange Tarragon Sauce

 Ingredients

·         8 chicken breasts, skin on and wing bone attached

·         4 tablespoons butter

·         4 tablespoons olive oil

·         Salt and pepper

·         1/2 cup orange juice

·         2 cups chicken broth

·         2 sprigs tarragon

·         4 TBS unsalted butter, cut into bits

Directions                              

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Put 2 tablespoons of the butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a large skillet and place it over high heat for 2 minutes. Season the chicken breasts with a sprinkling of salt and pepper and place 4 of the breasts in the pan skin side down. Sear for 1 minute or until the skin is crispy and a golden brown. Turn the breasts and sear 1 more minute. Remove to a baking dish and repeat the process with the rest of the butter, oil and breasts. Place the baking dish into the oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

Add orange juice, chicken broth, and tarragon to the hot skillet. Cook until reduced by about 3/4 (sauce should coat the back of a spoon). Right before serving, whisk in the butter. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Serve the chicken with the sauce spooned over the top.

Asparagus in Tarragon Cream Sauce Recipe

 Ingredients:

·         2 tablespoons butter

·         3 ounces mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

·         1 shallot, finely chopped

·         1 teaspoon lemon juice

·         2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

·         2/3 cup vegetable stock

·         1/3 cup heavy cream

·         1 tablespoon chopped, fresh tarragon (1 teaspoon dried tarragon)

·         1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

·         1/2 teaspoon salt

·         1 1/2 pounds green asparagus, trimmed

Preparation:

In a medium size saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and sauté the mushrooms for 5 minutes. Add the shallot and lemon juice to the pan and cook the mixture for an additional 3 minutes.

Stir the flour into the mushrooms until completely incorporated, and then add the vegetable stock, stirring until the sauce becomes smooth and thicken slightly. Stir in the heavy cream, tarragon, and nutmeg, and then heat through. (Do not allow the sauce to simmer) Once the sauce is heated, remove it from the heat and cover with a lid to keep warm.

Bring a large shallow pan of water to a boil and salt it. Gently place the asparagus into the water, reduce heat, and cover with a lid. Cook the asparagus for 5-7 minutes, until it’s tender. Drain and serve immediately with the hot tarragon cream sauce.

Sarah digging into the asparagus.

Lucy giving me the evil eye as I take her picture.

Anna very tired during her trip to France.

Emily, in Jen's dress, enjoying her chicken.

Mexican Night

For our Mexican night, I made Cheese Quesadilla with a roasted sweet corn with coconut for the side dish. We went to Dairy Queen for dinner on our way home from vacation a month or so ago and Jen got a quesadilla. We noticed that they made their quesadilla using a waffle maker and we decided to try it. It works brilliantly! All you do is spray the waffle iron with a non-stick cooking spray and turn on. Put down the bottom quesadilla, add whatever you want into the middle, and add the top quesadilla and close the lid. When you hear the cheese melting it is finished. I used Mexican Cheddar-Jack cheese and it was the best tasting cheese quesadilla I have ever had. I highly recommend using the Cheddar-Jack for your Mexican cheese blend.

The roasted sweet corn/coconut was pretty good and easy to make. Because I was making it for everyone, I left the seeds of the jalapeno (which is fresh from the garden) out so it was not too spicy. In hindsight, I should have left some of the seeds of the jalapeno in the corn because with the lime juice it was a little too sweet and needed some spicy to counteract the sweetness. All of the girls tried the corn, except for Lucy and they liked what they ate. Well except Anna said it was too sweet (I think she heard me talking about it).

Grade: A

Roasted Sweet Corn with Coconut

Ingredients

·           Nonstick cooking spray

·         5 ears  corn, kernels removed (2-1/2 cups)

·         1 Tbs.  extra-virgin olive oil

·         1 Tbs.  minced jalapeno pepper, seeded if desired (optional)

·         2 Tbs.  chopped fresh cilantro

·         2 Tbs.  flaked or shredded coconut, preferably unsweetened

·         4 tsp.  lime juice

·         1/8 tsp.  salt

Directions

1

Preheat oven to 400 degree F. Coat a 15x10x1-inch baking pan with cooking spray; set aside.

2

Mix corn with olive oil and jalapeno, if using, in a medium bowl. Spread the corn mixture out evenly in the prepared pan. Roast corn, stirring once, until browned slightly and crisp tender, 10 to 15 minutes.

3

Scrape the corn mixture back into the bowl and mix in cilantro, coconut, lime juice, and salt. Serve warm.

Sarah showing you what she is eating.

Lucy is still working with chewing with her mouth closed.

Emily chowing down on the quesadilla

The Asian Christmas Meal

What is great to eat for dinner when it is 95 degrees and extremely humid outside? If you said steak stir-fry and a holiday cauliflower casserole you guessed what we had for dinner tonight. If you are thinking any of the following: “Those don’t go together!” “Why would you make that hot heavy dish when it is the middle of summer?” or “I don’t like Swiss cheese!” then you are thinking along the lines of what Jen was thinking when she saw what was for dinner.
I admit that this doesn’t sound like something I would want to eat on July 20th, but it was good. I made the cauliflower casserole because the girls ate cauliflower on Sunday and I wanted to exploit the fact that they will eat a vegetable that is healthy for them. Granted I put 1.5 oz. of Swiss cheese in with the cauliflower, but it still had something healthy, right?
When I make the Holiday Cauliflower Casserole again I will add some Cyan pepper or something to give it a little kick. It was good, but needed a little something extra. The stir-fry meat was a little overdone. I should have cooked it about two minutes less, but the sauce was good “even though I did not use all of the items that were in the recipe).

Grade: A-

Holiday Cauliflower

Ingredients
6 cups water
6 cups cauliflower florets (1 large head cauliflower)
1 4-ounce can sliced mushrooms, drained
¼ cup chopped green sweet pepper
¼ cup butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
2 cups milk
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese ( I used 1.5)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large saucepan bring the water to boiling. Add cauliflower; cook for 4-6 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain cauliflower; set aside.
2. For sauce, in a medium saucepan cook mushrooms and sweet pepper in hot butter until pepper is tender. Stire in flour and salt. Add the milk all at once. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat. Stir in Swiss cheese until melted.
3. In a 1.5-quart casserole layer half of the cauliflower and half of the sauce. Top with remaining cauliflower and sauce.
4. Bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Serve warm.

Sesame Orange Beef

Ingredients:
8 ounces fresh green beans, halved crosswise
2 tsp sesame seeds (didn’t do)
½ cup orange juice
2 TBS soy sauce
1 TBS toasted sesame oil (didn’t do)
1 tsp cornstarch
½ tsp finely shredded orange peel
Nonstick cooking spray
½ cup bias-sliced green onions (I used ¼ of white onion, diced)
1 TBS grated fresh ginger (used ground)
2 cloves garlic, minced
12 ounces boneless beef sirloin steak, thinly sliced
2 cups hot cooked brown rice
2 oranges, peeled and sectioned or thinly sliced crosswise

1. In a covered medium saucepan, cook green beans in a small amount of boiling water for 6 to 8 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain; set aside.
2. Meanwhile, in a small skillet cook sesame seed over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes or until toasted, stirring frequently. Set aside.
3. For sauce, in a small bowl combine orange juice, soy sauce, sesame oil, cornstarch, and orange peel; set aside.
4. Coat an unheated large nonstick skillet with cooking spray. Preheat over medium-high heat. Add green onions, ginger, and garlic to hot skillet; stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the precooked green beans; stir-fry for 2 minutes. Remove vegetables from skillet.
5. Carefully add oil to the hot skillet. Add beef; stir-fry about 3 minutes. Remove from skillet.
6. Stir sauce; add to skillet. Cook and stir until thickened and bubble; cook and stir for 2 minutes more. Return meat and vegetables to skillet. Heat through, stirring to coat all ingredients with sauce. Serve over hot cooked brown rice. Top with orange sections and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

Anna making sure there are no seeds.

Emily trying to squash the orange.

Sarah looking suspicious.

Lucy not sure what to think about the dinner.