Green Smoothie

Last night at enrichment we learned how to make a delicious and healthy smoothie...but it's green. A little scary but surprisingly delicious! You can determine the amount of each ingrident depending on how much you want to make. 

Ingredients:

canned pineapple w/ juice

banana (s) (I used about 3/4 of a banana for one smoothie)

frozen orange juice concentrate (just a couple spoonfuls)

a little water or milk (if it's too thick with just the pineapple juice)

spinach leaves (you can't really taste it...but makes it food for you)

ice

First blend everything except for the spinach, then add the spinach and blend some more (if you put the spinach in first it won't blend very well)

Enjoy!

Arroz con Leche

Another food I've grown up on....I think it's pretty good. p.s. arroz con leche means rice and milk. 

rice (already cooked)

enough milk to cover rice about half way

cinnamon 

sugar

butter

dash of salt

put all ingredients into a pan and cook it until most of the milk is absorbed into the rice

It's really easy...and really good. 

Nasi

So here is another classic food that I have always grown up with. It also is one of the recipes that no matter how many times I call my dad, I never remember how to make it. So this is just my guess. I really like Nasi and it makes great leftovers so I decided to make a big pan of it, now I'm set for the next week for every meal. 

1/2 head cabbage

onion powder

rice (cooked)

hamburger

bacon 

salt

pepper

1. cook up some rice

2. chop up cabbage into small pieces and cook in pan until soft, also add in the the onion powder, salt, and pepper

3. in a different pan cook bacon, take out of pan, let cool, crumble

4. cook hamburger

5. add bacon and hamburger to cabbage, then add rice, mix it all together. 

6. fry up in a frying pan

7. put a fried egg on top, just to make it extra delicious

Egg Fried Rice

So yesterday I made some teriyaki (I'm not going to write about how to make that cause it's pretty much just chicken and mr. yoshida's sauce), anyway, so I had leftover rice that I wanted to eat for lunch today. My dad always made fried rice with peas and eggs...I like it..so I decided to give it a shot. I don't think I made it right...but it was worth a try. 

about a cup of rice

about 1/4 frozen peas

1 egg

dash of milk

mr. yoshidas sauce

salt

pepper

1.Heat up the rice in a frying pan (it was leftovers...hence the reason I didn't cook it...again)

2.put the peas in a bowl with a little water and microwave a couple minutes

3.pour the cooked peas into rice (it's ok if there's still a little water in the peas, I think it makes the rice reheat better) cook until hot. 

4. whisk an egg, a dash of milk, some mr. yoshidas sauce, salt and pepper together. pour over the rice and fry it up until it's all cooked. 

5. add a little more yoshida's sauce right before you eat it. 

Chicken enchiladas with some greenish sauce?

So last time I went grocery shopping I was feeling crazy and decided to get some food that I had never made before...So I bought some tomatillos and some peppers. I have never cooked with these and I had no idea how. So I decided to make something sort of like the recipe that Aunt Pam commented on Linda's recipe blog with. It was inspired from this..but not like it at all...so....I just made stuff up.  It actually turned out really good for being unfamiliar with these ingredients...mmm mmm good! Here's what I did...

1 chicken breast (boiled and shredded)

2 tomatillos

2 peppers ( I don't know what kind they were...but it was pretty spicy...haha...)

1 tablespoon butter

about a tablespoon flour

about 1/2 cup milk?

3 tortillas

shredded cheddar cheese

spices.... garlic, onion, salt, pepper

1. put peppers under broiler until skin chars, peel skin off and seed the peppers

2. blend tomatillos and peppers until well blended

3. pour into pan, add spices,  and let simmer about 5 minutes

4. in another pan make white sauce (melt butter, pour in flour until smooth, slowly add milk, cook until sauce thickens stirring constantly)

5. combine white sauce, tomatillo mixture, set a little bit of the mixture aside to pour on top.

6. add shredded chicken to the sauce and mix well. 

7. put mixture into tortillas, add some cheese, roll them up, and put them in casserole pan

8. after all tortillas are in casserole pan pour the set aside sauce on top, and more cheese.

9. cook on 350 until cheese is melted. 

sugar and spice muffins

At the beginning of the school year my mom bought me a big bag of Krusteaz pancake mix from Costco. It is a great "just add water" food to eat whenever I have no other food. To mix it up a bit I decided to look up some recipes that have pancake mix in them. Here's the one that I tried that was pretty good. 

batter:

2 1/2 cups krusteaz buttermilk pancake mix

2/3 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil 

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

topping: 4 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

preheat oven to 400 degrees. For batter: In medium bowl, stir together pancake mix, water, sugar, vegetable oil, egg and nutmeg until blended ( do not overmix). Spoon batter into lightly greased or paper-lined muffin pan, filling 2/3 full. Bake 12-14 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. For topping: melt butter, set aside. In small bowl, stir together sugar and cinnamon. While muffins are warm from the oven, dip in melted butter followed by cinnamon and sugar mixture. 

makes 1 dozen muffins

When I cooked these for 14 minutes they were still gooey on the inside....so I cooked them longer and the top was slightly more than "golden brown". But other than that they were good. 

Baked Potato Soup

So this may just be one of my favorite recipes that I have made in a long time. If I were you I would definitely try it. It's sort of amazing. I'm not sure if I stuck exactly to the recipe with the measurements, but it turned out good. 

12 slices bacon

2/3 cup margarine ( I actually used butter and the bacon grease from the bacon, I never said this was the healthiest recipe

2/3 cup flour

7 cups milk

4 large baked potatoes, peeled and cubed ( I just boiled the potatoes)

4 green onions, chopped

1 1/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1. place bacon in a large, deep skillet. cook over medium heat until browned. Drain, crumble, and set aside

2. in a stock pot or dutch over, melt the margarine over medium heat. Whisk in flour until smooth. gradually stir in milk, whisking constantly until thickened. Stir in potatoes and onions and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. 

3. reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Mix in bacon, cheese, sour cream, salt and pepper. continue cooking, stirring frequently until cheese is melted. 

Cinnamon Rolls

So this recipe isn't really quick or easy, but it's dang good! I decided to make it the other day for fun, and it turned out pretty good, and I guess it wasn't too hard either. For the dough I use a basic refrigerator rolls recipe that could be used for all sorts of things. 

Refrigerator Rolls:

1 c. hot water

1 t. salt

1 1/2 T. shortening

1/4 c. sugar

1 T. yeast dissolved in 2 or 3 T. warm water with 2 t. sugar (make sure water isn't too hot or it will kill the yeast)

1 beaten egg

3 to 4 cups flour

1. combine hot water, salt, sugar, and shortening in a bowl. cool to luke warm. 

2. prepare yeast, water, and sugar and set aside. 

3. add yeast, softened in warm water (into bowl from step 1)

4. add the egg and half of the flour and beat well. 

5. Stir in more flour--enough to make stiff (not hard) dough

6. knead in the bowl 8 to 10 times

7. put dough in oiled container and refrigerate (if not using dough right away), take the dough from refrigerator 2 to 3 hours prior to forming into rolls. 

8. shape into desired variation (aka cinnamon rolls)

9. let rise 30 to 45 minutes or until double in size

10. bake at 350 or 375 degrees around 15 minutes or until desired browning. 

Cinnamon Rolls:

Roll dough into a rectangle 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. pour melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon over entire piece of dough. Roll up dough and put seam on the bottom. Cut with dental floss or sting and place on oiled cookie sheet. Glaze with Butter Icing: 2 T. soft butter, 1 1/2 c. powdered sugar, 1/2 t. vanilla and 2 T. milk. Beat together until smooth. 

Creamed Garden Potatoes and Peas

I'm in Idaho so I LOVE potatoes....this recipe is really good and super easy. 

1 lb small red potatoes but into one inch pieces

10 oz. package (1 1/2 cup) frozen peas 

2 T. butter

1 T. chopped onion (I use onion powder)

1/8 t. pepper

1 1/2 c. milk

1/4 to 1/2 t. dill weed (I don't have any of this at my apartment so it's ok to not add it, but it tastes even better if you do have it.

2 T. flour

1/4 t. salt

1/2 t. sugar

cook potatoes in boiling water for 20 to 25 minutes or until tender, drain, set aside

while potatoes are cooking, cook peas as directed on package. 

Cook onion in butter until tender.

blend in flour, salt, pepper, dill weed, and sugar. 

Stir in milk, heat until mixture boils and thickens, while stirring constantly

add potatoes and peas, heat through

Spaghetti

Spaghetti is one of my favorite things ever! When it's cold outside spaghetti is the best comfort food you can get. I think it's the first thing I ever really learned how to cook, but it's definitely one of my favorites. 

Ground beef

1 can of tomato sauce 

1 can of diced tomatoes

spices

salt 

pepper

oregano

basil

garlic

onion powder (I usually use onion powder instead of onions just because it's way easier)

Spaghetti noodles

Brown Hamburger and season with salt and pepper

add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and the spices

Heat until it's Hot

Cook Spaghetti noodles 

It's pretty much the best stuff ever. Sometimes if I have it I'll put some parmesan cheese into the sauce for extra goodness. 

Chicken and vegetable stir fry

I make this way too much, but it's just so dang easy and I really like it. Sometimes I will use whole wheat spaghetti or rice instead, but due to the fact that I am in college usually ramen noodles are the winner. 

chicken breast

Ramen noodles

Frozen stir-fry vegetable mix

mr. yoshida's gourment teriyaki sauce ( I live off of this stuff)

1. cube the chicken breast and cook it all the way in a frying pan, at the same boil and cook ramen noodles. While the noodles are cooking I just pour the vegetables in the water with the noodles so they could cook through. 

2. Drain noodles/ vegetables and pour them into frying pan with chicken

3. pour a little bit of mr. yoshidas sauce on top while frying the mixture together

This is one of my favorite easy recipes and I think it's quite delicious!

Cooking in College

In college you tend to have insufficient time and money to be able to really make yourself anything good to eat. I like eating good food, so that means I have to cook it, luckily I really like cooking. This challenge of cooking on a budget really helps me to explore new recipes and try new things. A lot of the time I don't really have real measurements for my ingredients either...so hopefully that doesn't get too confusing.  This blog is mostly just to remind myself of things that I have made and actually liked. So here it goes...