For a party-

1 pkg marzipan (almond paste)
1 bag white chocolate chips, melted
about 1/2 c. dried cranberries
about 1/2 c. pistachios, chopped

Divide marzipan into 4 equal sections. Roll each of them out into a thin layer like cookie dough. (Use powdered sugar to keep it from sticking instead of flour.)
Then layer marzipan, melted chocolate, cranberries and pistachios.
Do this over and over. Put it in the fridge to harden.
Once it's firm, cut it into little squares.
Serving them cold is best. They're firmer that way.
These are great to take to a party because they are easy, but look pretty. The pistachios are a little greener in person than in the picture. Very festive with the cranberries.

Anyone have holiday recipes to share? or more easy dinners?

Aloha Pineapple Chicken

1/2   8oz. can crushed pineapple in juice
4 1/2 tsp. honey
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
salt and pepper to taste


Whisk Pineapple with its juice and honey in a bowl until combined.
Season chicken cubes with salt and pepper and place in plastic bag covered with 2/3 of the pineapple sauce. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Place chicken on foil lined baking pan and broil on midle rack for 6-8 minutes each side, or until cooked through. For dipping sauce: while chicken is broiling, put the remaining sauce in a saucepan and cook over medium heat for 1 minute or until thickened. 


I don't make the dipping sauce with this, I just serve over rice and vegetables and we all love it.

Penne Rustica

so there's always an exception to every rule, right? this is the exception. i make this dish very infrequently. it's not healthy and it takes a good bit of prep. but, you can do everything beforehand, refrigerate or freeze, and then do just the last step when you're ready to eat it. i usually make it on a special occassion or for a party or when i'm feeding a lot of people because it's easy to multiply and just about everybody enjoys eating it. so in response to requests for the recipe, i'm posting it here for ease of access.

Penne Rustica

1 lb. penne pasta
3 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
2 t. butter
1 t. garlic, chopped or pressed
1 t. dijon mustard
1 t. salt
1 t. dried rosemary or 1 T. fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 t. chili powder
2 bottles alfredo sauce
2 oz. bacon, chopped
1/2 C. butter
2 green onions, sliced
shrimp - as much as you want, opt.
pepper to taste
1 C. parmesan cheese, divided
paprika and parsly, opt.

1. Cook pasta in a big pot according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

2. In a large frying pan, cook chicken until just white on all sides. It will finish cooking in the oven. Add to pasta.

3. Melt 2 t. butter in pan. Add garlic, mustard, salt, rosemary, and chili powder. Cook a few minutes until aromatic. Add alfredo sauce. Mix well. Add to pasta.

4. Add 1/2 C. parmesan and pepper to taste to pasta.

5. Cook bacon in frying pan until it begins to brown. Add green onions and cook until soft. If you have uncooked shrimp, add with the onions and cook until just barely pink. If you have cooked shrimp, add it into the pasta or stir into the butter after onions are soft. Add all to pasta. Mix pasta well.

6. Pour into 9x13 pan or individual serving dishes. Top with remaining parmesan cheese and sprinkle with paprika and parsley if desired.

7. Bake in 475 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. Serve.


Helpful Hints:

On step #1, I usually just return the pasta to the pot and add the rest of the ingredients as I go through the steps. Just throw them on top and mix it all one time at the end.

I find it easy to scrape or quickly rinse the frying pan and use the same one for each step... they're all going to the same place anyway, right? And less dishes.

On this recipe, since there are several ingredients, it's easier and faster for me if I measure and prep the ingredients before starting to cook. So, for example, while the pasta is cooking, I put all the stuff (minus the butter) for step #3 in a bowl. I chop the bacon and green onions and have them together on the side with a stick of butter. Then when I'm done cooking the chicken, I just melt the butter and dump the spice bowl into the pan. After the sauce is done, the bacon is ready to go, etc. It seems to go a lot faster if I don't have to stop and prep in between steps.

chocolate muffins

with school starting up again, i'm trying to get back into the swing of things, menu and meal preparedness wise... today i tried out two new muffin recipes. i always try to make them healthy but there's a fine line that i have to balance on because let's face it, the kids still have to want to eat them.

the poppy seed muffin recipe was a bust. even i didn't like it.

the chocolate muffin recipe was great. maybe more great because of the poppy seed muffin failure. we'll see how great it really is the second time i make them. i'm still kind of border line with the chocolate muffins because it is after all, chocolate for breakfast. but they are made with all whole wheat flour and they're lowfat because i used applesauce instead of oil. i'm putting down the recipe the way i made it - with all the substitutions.

chocolate muffins

2 C. whole wheat flour
1/2 C. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 C. white sugar (could possibly reduce even more to only 1 C)
1/2 t. baking soda
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 1/4 C. skim milk
1 egg
2 T. applesauce (could also use pumpkin puree)
1 t. vanilla extract
1 C. semisweet mini chocolate chips

directions:

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees. spray muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.

2. in medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda and powder, and salt. in mixing bowl, combine milk, egg, oil and vanilla. (i got sidetracked and let the kitchen aid go for a while and the egg got a little foamy - not sure if that helped lighten the muffin but they turned out good). mix dry ingredients into wet. beat well. add chocolate chips. stir well.

3. fill muffin cups. (original recipe also calls for nuts - 3/4 c. chopped walnuts added with the chocolate chips and 1/3 c. whole almonds on top of unbaked muffins. the girls don't do nuts well so i left them out.)

4. bake for 20-25 minutes, or until tester inserted into middle comes out clean.

Chicken Zucchini Chili

2 cooked chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
1 (15 oz) can black beans
1 (15 oz) can pinto beans
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (16 oz) jar salsa
1 cup frozen or canned corn
1 medium zucchini sliced in 1/4's
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin

Combine all ingredients in a pot and simmer until zucchini is soft (about 20-30 minutes). Garnish with cheese, avocado, and LIME tortilla chips.

Beef Broccoli and Sesame Noodles

This month, for one of my freezer meals, I put together my grandmother's recicpe for beef broccoli and added a great sesame noodles that I got off the Pioneer Woman website. We love these noodles and they are so easy to make with things we normally have on hand.

Beef Broccoli:

1 lb broccoli (you can either parboil some fresh or used frozen)
1/2 lb steak, sliced thinly (the recipe calls for round steak but you can use whatever you like)

Marinade:
2 t. sugar
1 T. soy sauce
1 T. cornstarch
1/8 t. grated ginger
salt and pepper, optional (I usually leave out since soy sauce has plenty of salt)

Marinate meat for 5-10 minutes and then cook until done.

Sauce:
1 beef buillon cube
1 C. water
1 T. cornstarch
1-2 T. soy sauce

Dissolve buillon cube in water. Allow to cool and add cornstarch or dissolve cornstarch in a little cold water. Add soy sauce. Add sauce to meat in pan and cook and stir until thick and bubbly.

Stir in broccoli. If the sauce is too thick, add in 1/4 C. water. If you want it thicker, dissolve more cornstarch in some cold water and add to meat mixture.

To prepare for freezer, combine uncooked meat and marinade in one bag. Prepare sauce and choose the option to allow buillon and water to cool. Add in cornstarch and soy sauce - this goes in another bag. I use frozen broccoli in another bag. Put all a big ziplock so they are all together and easy to grab when you make this meal.

Prepare from frozen by allowing all the ingredients to thaw. Follow the steps above, skipping the marinating time since it already got that while thawing and reincorporate corstarch in the sauce before adding to the hot pan. You might also want to microwave the frozen broccoli if it's not as soft as you'd like to eat it by just thawing.


Sesame Noodles :

12 oz. spaghetti noodles
1/4 C. soy sauce
2 T. sugar
3-4 cloves garlic (the more the better, I say!)
2 T. rice vinegar
2-3 T. sesame oil
4-5 T. canola oil(I usually use half this amount and don't miss it)
3-4 green onions, sliced
2 T. hot water

Cook noodles according to package directions. Mix the rest of the ingredients and pour over cooked noodles. Toss and serve.

For my freezer meal, I just put all the sauce ingredients, minus the hot water into a baggie. Keep the pasta on hand in the pantry.

Prepare from frozen the same way as above, allowing sauce to thaw first. Add in hot water and whisk sauce before adding cooked noodles.

Herbed Roast Chicken

I saw this one on Rachel Ray and decided to try it. While it was cooking it smelled so good! I loved using all these fresh herbs and it really is a pretty simple recipe.

1 Whole Chicken
Fresh herbs like tarragon, parsley, thyme, etc.
Butter or Olive Oil

Roasting Veggies:
Potatoes
Carrots
Onions
Fresh Basil (optional)

Rosemary Garlic White Sauce:
3T butter
2T flour
1 C cream or milk
chicken stock
2 bulbs of fresh garlic
about 1/2 C fresh rosemary, chopped

Chop up your fresh rosemary. Slice about 1/4 of the bottom of the garlic bulb off (the rest of the bulb will stay in tact). Smash the side of bulb of garlic that you cut off into your rosemary pile and then drill liberally with olive oil. Wrap it in tin foil and roast it in the oven for about an hour. You will make the sauce with this later.

Prepare your potatoes - if you can find small ones, pour them on the bottom of you roasting pan. If not, cut them into the size of pieces you'd like. Cut the carrots into about the same size as your potatoes. Same thing goes for the onions, if you can find small ones, great, if not cut the onions into the same size pieces as your potatoes and carrots. Mix all this in the bottom of your roasting pan. I also added some fresh basil in the mix.

With the chicken, pull the skin away the meat (around the breast and also the legs) a bit and slip in your fresh herbs in between the skin and meat (I only had fresh tarragon and I loved it). Rachel Ray said to rub your bird down with butter - you probably could use some olive oil - and then salt and pepper. Place it on top of the veggies and cover with tin foil.

Bake at 375 for about an hour or till the juices run clear. Remove the tin foil after about 40 mins to allow the chicken to get some color. (I put my garlic in to roast at the same time as the chicken.)

Once the garlic is done, gently squeeze out the roasted garlic/rosemary into a bowl and set aside for the sauce.

For the sauce:
Melt 3 T butter in a sauce pan. Add about 2 T flour and cook to form a ball for about a minute. Slowly add 1 C of cream (or milk) while stirring. After that, add in chicken stalk until you reach the desired consistency of sauce you'd like. Add the garlic rosemary and stir into the sauce for about another minute.

Prepare:
Remove and cut your chicken into pieces. If you want to add some fresh spinach to your veggies and toss it around for a side salad you can. Top your chicken with the sauce.