Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin Mix Bread For The Bread Machine

It's STILL COLD...I know, not as cold as you Northern States are experiencing...but I can't get warm!

Tonight, I tried a couple new recipes, one was a flop (Fiesta Turkey Soup) and the other was a success!

I was given a bread machine a couple years ago by my dear friend, Michele. After a few flops ( I think I was using old yeast), I gave up for a while but broke it back out last fall and had success! I've made English Muffin bread, cinnamon bread, and a few different white sandwich breads.

I came across this recipe a few weeks ago in a copy of Bread Machines for Dummies. I am not a dummie...but I love this series of books...

You can use any muffin mix in this recipe, I plan trying blueberry next. This bed was sooo good. Would be excellent for a quick breakfast, it pretty much became our dinner after the flop soup. The bread is a perfect cross of white bread and a muffin. Holds together like a bread, but has the texture of a muffin.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin Mix Bread

(For a 1 1/2 pound loaf)

1 cup + 2 tablespoons water

1 package (6 to 8 ounces) muffin mix

1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten

2 cups bread flour

1 tablespoon bread machine yeast/fast acting yeast

Place all ingredients in order listed into bread machine. 

Select fast cycle (my machine doesn't have fast cycle, so I selected the quick bread cycle and just checked it 30 minutes before the time was up...it was done. Just keep an eye on your bread!)

Let it cool on a cooking rack to prevent condensation from making bread soggy!

DIG IN!

Super Awesome Knock-Your-Socks-Off Zucchini Casserole

Happy Saturday Night!

It's cold in Florida...currently 46 degrees. But for some reason , I still want some chocolate ice cream. Last Saturday night it was warm and we were sitting at picnic tables enjoying waffle cones. Craziness.

Anyway...this recipe has been hanging out in the archives of my computer/note card stash since Thanksgiving. I should have shared it much sooner, it's MAGIC I tell ya, but lack of a good picture of it has kept me from doing so. So please, just trust me when I tell you it's amazing.

Here's a picture of it sitting on a plate....

And here's a picture of it sitting on my parent's stove with other side dish goodies...it's on the left back corner of the stove...

It's a zucchini casserole, but not the standard mixed with cream-of-something soup and bread crumb kind...this one takes A LOT of prep and it's so worth it. Take it your next family function or pot luck and people will be BEGGING you for the recipe.

Remember to allow time for prep...like at least an hour, especially if you doubled it like I did. I am lucky enough to have a food processor with a grater plate, so that saved a ton of time for me. You grate almost every ingredient in the casserole.

Anyway...the first thing you need to do is coarsely grate 1 1/2 pounds zucchini. Place in a colander and mix with some salt. I placed a plate on top of the colander, topped with some cans to squeeze out the moisture. Every once in a while I would press down on the top of them to help remove more.

Squeeze it between your hands too to help get our more moisture. Don't stress if you see a lot of water when you start mixing everything together. I did too, tried to scoop some out, but ended up just leaving it and hoping for the best. It came out great. 

While this is happening, saute your onions and mushrooms. (Notice my candle, I was trying the burn a candle to help keep onions from making your cry trick)

NOW...it's time to grate the potatoes, mix em with the eggs and seasoning. I don't have a picture of that...what I do have a picture of is some cheese...Gruyere cheese to be exact. You'll have to grate this stuff too. 

Now you'll mix together everything, minus some of the cheese to put on the top. Spread it out in a casserole dish, sprinkle with cheese and bake! Remember, mine was doubled, so yours won't need a pan this large. 

I also didn't get a picture of it out of the oven because we were LATE for lunch at that point...

So again, it's SO GOOD...make it, love it, brag about it...

Super Awesome Knock-Your-Socks-Off Zucchini Casserole

1 1/2 pounds zucchini

2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 medium onions

2 ounces baby bell mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

12 ounces baking potatoes

3 large eggs, well beaten

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Pinch of ground red pepper

1/2 cup grated Gruyere cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 10x8 baking dish. 

Coarsely grate zucchini, remove to colander, stir with salt and drain for 30 minutes. Press between hands or use plate to crate a press in the colander, draining as much liquid as possible. 

Meanwhile, thinly slice onions an saute in 2 tablespoons of olive oil along with mushrooms and 1/2 teaspoon of salt until onions are soft, but not browned, about 20 minutes. 

Meanwhile, peel and grate potatoes. Put potatoes in bowl and immediately stir in eggs, black and red pepper. Stir in drained zucchini, onion mixture half of the cheese and scrap into casserole dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and drizzle with olive oil. 

Cover with foil and bake until set, about 1 hour. Remove foil to brown the top. Let stand for at least 20 minutes before serving. 

Dig in, because there won't be leftovers....

Sort of Enchiladas Suizas

We still have no functioning oven, but I do have a hot plate so I can boil pasta now. Woot! We are trying to decide on saving up a bit longer or just getting one of those 100 buck mini convection oven things. We could get by for a while with it and it would cost less to use it on the energy bill!

This was one of the last things I made before the oven died. Enchiladas Suizas traditionally have olives in them, I left those out and altered a few other things. This is a great recipe and is even better served as left overs.

Sort of Enchiladas Suizas

3 cups shredded cooked chicken, white or dark meat

1 can of Rotel, drained

3/4 Salsas Verde (I used Pace Garlic and Lime)

1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies, drained

1 teaspoon cumin

2 1/2 cups heavy cream

3/4 teaspoon salt

8 large flour tortillas

2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese 

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, combine Rotel, salsa verde, green chilies, and cumin. Stir in chicken.

In a pie pan or other shallow dish large enough to dip tortillas in, combine cream and salt. 

Dip both sides of tortillas in cream, top with about 1/2 a cup of chicken mixture. Roll up and place seam side down in a greased 13x9 inch baking dish. Pour remaining cream over top and sprinkle with cheese. 

Cover with foil and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until heated through. 

Dig in! It's SOOOO GOOD!

Blah

Long time no post, huh?

Our oven died in January so no wonderful new recipes have been created or tried. BUT that was not the end of it.

We decided to put off buying a new stove until income tax, just use crock pots, the George Forman and possibly get a toaster oven. Last Thursday, on Valentine's day...our refrigerator died. Argh. We couldn't live without a refrigerator. We got ice for the cooler to get us by until Saturday when we could go buy one and it was finally delivered last night, almost a week later. I love it. It's so shiny and pretty and new and un-smelly. Our old one was an ancient Magic Chef. We guessed it was around 30 years old.

We also got a leak in the laundry room and a completely stopped up sink over the weekend. I felt so gross in our house. My wonderful grandfather snaked the pipes for us on Monday and did something to keep the laundry room from leaking, thank the Lord. I mopped yesterday and it now feels like a new house! Woot!

I currently have the first meal in the crockpot I've cooked in over 2 weeks. Chicken Fajitas. I will share the recipe another time.

We also had a big scare with Cooper 2 weeks ago. He has asthma and when he gets sick it hits his little lungs and he is hospitalized 95% of the time. This time it was REALLY bad and he had to be air lifted to a bigger hospital in Tampa. It was the scariest night of our life buy luckily our little turned toward the better as quickly as he went to the worst. He spent a few days in ICU on oxygen but was home 4 days after he was admitted.

February has not been a good month to us. Come on March!

Hot Wing Joes

Phew....Christmas is over. We had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you had one too! It was an exhausting couple of weeks. Our family came down with what we called the plague and was out of commission for about 8 days. Started with a cold that attacked me HARD and moved onto a stomach bug with the menfolk of the house. Joy...fa la la la la...no.

We recovered in time for Christmas and got busy. My brother and his girlfriend were in town so it was wonderful to see them. He has a couple fancy camera's so he took some photos of us the Thursday before Christmas...Cooper was less than cooperative for most of them....

But we did get some really good shots....

We had a get together at my Grandma's that night to exchange presents with my brother. We all brought premade party trays and it was SO easy....so much easier than cooking a big dinner and 1/4 of the clean up!

I usually over do it with food on holidays. I try to make something super complicated an overwhelm myself. This year we had a taco bar at my best friend's, which was so much fun and easy. Christmas morning we hosted our first family get together in our new house and I made casseroles that required overnight fridge visits and just had to pop them in the oven Christmas morning. I am SO glad I did that instead of trying to get up that morning and stand over the stove to make a big meal. Christmas was so easy and relaxed. Cooper had such a good time and we had such a good time just watching him open his gifts and play!

His big gift this year was a train table and lots of train sets and accessories to go with it. It's positioned in our dining room now so he likes to play with it while I'm cooking or cleaning in the kitchen. 

We ate way too many take out and fast food meals during the 'plague' and Christmas week. Last night I cooked our first dinner in weeks....well our first non-Stoufer's related dinner. Hot Wing Joes. These were super yummy and will go into our regular rotation. The recipe is easily doubled and makes excellent lunches for the week. There are veggies in the sauce, so don't feel too guilty if you just eat it with chips!

Chop up a small onion, half a celery rib, and a large garlic clove. Shred up a small carrot. I like to saute my veggies a bit before adding in the ground chicken so they aren't too crunchy. 

Add the ground chicken, cook and crumble until chicken is done. Drain and add in sauces. 

Simmer until sauces thicken a bit. Serve on a bun topped with blue cheese crumbles. 

Hot Wing Joes

1 pound ground chicken

1 small or half of 1 large celery rib, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 small carrot, grated

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 cup canned tomato sauce, about half a can

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/8 cup hot sauce (I used Crystal)

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Dash of black pepper

Hamburger buns

Blue cheese crumbles

Saute veggies and garlic in a little bit of oil until just turning tender. Add in ground chicken and cook until no longer pink. Drain. Add in tomato sauce, chicken broth, hot sauce, brown sugar, red wine vinegar, Worcestershire and pepper. Cook until heated and thickened slightly. 

Serve on hamburger buns topped with blue cheese crumbles. 

Dig in!

2 Weeks After Thanksgiving, Pumpkin Cookie Bites

It's been 2 weeks since Thanksgiving. I made a couple of recipes I wanted to share, but was trying to decide on posting them now in the off season, or sharing them next year BEFORE Thanksgiving. I guess they could be made for Christmas...but anyway. I decided to go ahead and share one of them today and another one sometime in the next few days while it's all still fresh in my typically mushy mind.

(I'm sitting here watching an Ninja infomercial and wanting to go out and buy one)

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving by the way. We did. It was hectic. Thanksgiving day at my Dad and Step-mom's. A full house at around 18 guests. There was so much dessert we call could have sat down with our own individual pies I think.

Part of the desserts and turkey...

I went Black Friday shopping that night with my friend and to my Grandma's on Friday for 2nd Thanksgiving. I was pretty exhausted by Friday night.

The recipe I am sharing with you today was  HUGE hit. I can't take credit for the recipe myself. Our local grocery chain, Publix, has a program called Aprons. They do cooking demos in store and pass our recipes. I was wondering around aimlessly one night trying to figure out what to pick up for dinner and the smell of pumpkin pulled me in...these little delicious guys were baking and lucky me got to try a sample.

My brother chased me to the car to get a few more before we went home, had more at my grandma's the next day and asked for more at our house Saturday night.

I hope you enjoy them as much as we did! AND they are SUPER easy, bonus!

Pumpkin Cookie Bites

Start with 2 packages of 24 count premade refrigerated cookie dough squares break apart things. Technical terms, I know. I used the Immaculate brand Gingerbread and Sugar cookie variety. I try to use Immaculate brand baking products as often as possible. They are convenient and don't have all of the crap in them like the other brands. When living in Tampa, we had a larger variety at the grocery stores. We don't have as many options in a smaller city now, but I am slowly seeing their brand pop up in stores. 

Anyway...take them out of the fridge while preheating the oven and mixing everything else together to soften up a bit. BUT only take 1 pack out at a time if you only have 1 mini muffin pan to work with.

Meanwhile, mix together egg, pumpkin and dulce de leche caramel. I found this in the International food isle with the Mexican foods.

Press dough into greased mini-muffin pan to form little cups. 

Fill and bake! Let cook a bit and pop out with a spoon to cool completely on a cooling rack before storing. 

Pumpkin Cookie Bites

1 egg
1 cup canned (not pumpkin pie spiced) pumpkin
2/3 cup dulce de leche caramel
2 (24-count) packages refrigerated cookie dough (gingerbread or sugar are preferred), softened

Preheat oven to 375. Spray mini-muffin pan with cooking spray.

Whisk egg until blended. Stir in caramel and pumpkin until evenly blended.

Separate and press dough into muffin pan to form cups. Fill each cup with about a teaspoon full of pumpkin mixture. Bake for 25 minutes until crust is golden. Cool for 10ish minutes in pan and pop out with spoon to cool on cooling rack completely.

Dig in!

Down Under Potato Soup

23 days until Christmas....I have a very excited little boy. He is almost 3 and this is the first year he kind of 'gets' it. He knows he's going to have his picture with Santa and say CHEESE! He wants to leave Santa chocolate cookies and chicken. His words, not mine. I am excited to see his face Christmas morning.

Last night we spent the evening in our city's downtown area. We dined at Palace Pizza and walked around the park. It's decorated with lights and Coop had a blast!

Now this recipe has NOTHING to do with Christmas...but I wanted to share pictures with you of my adorable child. :)

NOW, onto the food. A couple of weeks ago I checked out one of those Restaurant Copy Cat books and copied down a recipe for Outback's Walk-About soup. I haven't actually HAD the soup in the actual restaurant, but the recipe sounded like it would be MAGIC. When trying to decide to what to cook for dinner for us tonight, I came across the index card it was written on and decided to give it a whirl. I altered it a bit to bulk it up for a main course and changed the name. It was SO GOOD. I cannot press that info on your enough. I don't know if this is how the cook it 'down under', but they should. 

First, start with 3 or 4 smallish to mediumish potatoes. Peel them and dice them up. Boil them in water until nice and tender. Drain and set aside. 

Meanwhile, dice up 3 small onions and saute in butter until tender.

When onions are soft, remove from heat and add flour, paprika, salt and pepper. 

Add milk and stir until smooth. Return to heat and add broth. Simmer until thickened and hot. Add in cream and cheddar. Add the potatoes. 

Serve garnished with mozzarella and green onions. YUMMMMMMY!

Down Under Potato Soup

3 to 4 small to medium potatoes
4 tablespoons butter
2 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 pepper
3 cups milk
4 cups vegetable, chicken or combination of each broth
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar
1/2 cup heavy cream
Chopped green onions and shredded mozzarella cheese for garnish

Peel and dice potatoes. Place in pot, cover with water and boil until tender. Around 20 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, chop onions and saute in butter until tender. Remove from heat and stir in flour, paprika, salt and pepper. Return to heat and add milk, stirring until smooth. Add broth and stir until combined. Simmer until thickened slightly. Add cream and cheddar cheese. Stir until smooth and add potatoes.

Serve with green onions and mozzarella.

Dig in!