Fab Food Feb : Chicken and Pineapple Quesadillas

I don't remember where we got this recipe, but it is super yummy and reminds me of spring/summer which I want so badly to be here.

Oh, a quick google search reminded me that this recipe came from Pioneer Woman. Here's the link!

This is the last installment of Fab Food Feb. It hasn't gotten great traffic. The whole theme thing is cool, but it limits what you can write about and I don't like that. It's nice to have a fall back when you don't know what to write about, but meh, probably won't do a whole month long series again.

Hope that you've enjoyed the recipes, though!

Fab Food Feb : Beef Stroggie

This recipe is one that we use on a pretty regular basis. We pretty much know the recipe by heart and only have to pick up a few things at the grocery store to make this meal happened. It is really quick to make which is helpful when you have a baby crawling around everywhere.

Ingredients:
12 ounce package of egg noodles
6 ounces of mushrooms, sliced (I think we use more though because we love mushrooms!)
1/4 cup of butter
2 pounds of ground beef
One cup of sour cream
Worcester, salt and pepper to taste

First cook the noodles to package directions and drain. While the noodles are cooking, cook the mushrooms in 2 tablespoons of butter, until soft. Remove from pan and set aside.

Melt the remaining butter and cook the ground beef until browned. Add the mushrooms back in and stir in the sour cream. Season to taste and serve over at noodles.

Fab Food Feb : Linguine with Basil and Bacon

I got this recipe from my new Giada cookbook, but I changed things up a bit. We're not big fish/seafood eaters in our house so I took out the shrimp and added chicken and it was still delicious.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound linguine (you can use whole wheat linguine, if you prefer)
• 1 pound thick-cut bacon, chopped into  1/2-inch pieces
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with juice
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3/4 cup chicken stock
• 1 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 lbs. chicken (we just buy the stir fry chicken that is pre-cut)

STEPS

1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
2. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain and transfer to a large serving bowl.
3. While the pasta is cooking, put the bacon in a large skillet. Turn on the heat to medium-high and cook, stirring frequently, until the bacon is brown and crispy, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the bacon to a plate lined with a paper towel. Then, cook the chicken until done. Remove and set aside.
4. In the same skillet, add the garlic and cook about 30 seconds.
5. Add the tomatoes with juice, the cream, chicken stock, 1/2 cup of the basil, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.
6. Bring to a boil and with a wooden spoon, scrape up the browned bits that cling to the bottom of the pan.
7. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes, until slightly thickened.
8. Add the chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, until mixed well and warmed through.
9. Add the bacon and simmer until warmed through, 1 to 2 minutes.
10. Pour the mixture over the cooked pasta and toss until coated.
11. Season to taste with salt and pepper and garnish with the remaining basil.

Fab Food Feb : Spiced Applesauce Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing

This recipe came from the newspaper of a tiny Texas town. It looks overwhelming, but I'm pretty sure this is one of Jim's favorite desserts. Okay- top 3 (he just said that nothing beats a good Chocolate Chip bundt cake or Kahlua Cake) BUT IT'S GOOD. You'll need an 8x8 or 9x9 square pan.

Cake Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp.cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/8 tsp. ground clover

1 stick unsalted butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce

Frosting Ingredients:

5 oz. cream cheese

3 tbsp. unsalted butter

1/4 tsp. vanilla

1 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt & spices

2. Beat butter, brown sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer on high until fluffy (2-3 minutes). Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then, beat in applesauce.

3. Spread batter evenly in pan and bake until golden brown, 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees.

5. For the frosting, beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla with an electric mixer until fluffy. Sift in sugar and cinnamon.

Fab Food Feb : Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today's post is short and sweet. Really- it's sweet treats.

Homemade Chocolate Chip cookies- so easy and so worth it. Here's what you do: buy a bag of Nestle Chocolate Chips and and use that recipe. Way better than chips ahoy or whatever.

While you're at the store- pick up some parchment paper. Line your pans with it and it will change your life on clean up.

Fab Food Feb : Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

I had these for the first time a couple of years ago while hanging out with some friends! (Hey Em!) She gave me the recipe and I started making them anytime I was required to "bring something" to a dinner or other event. I'm not a huge fan of snickerdoodle cookies, so I was skeptical, but they're SO GOOD.

Here's the link to the recipe. And of course, today's kitchen gadget will be my favorite way to top cupcakes. I actually prefer making mini-cupcakes; it's better icing to cake ratio if you ask me. I keep a package of Wilton Pastry bags and the coupling and big star tip to make icing cupcakes mess free and quick! (PS: Found this good post on how to do this!)

Fab Food Feb : Meatball Subs

This recipe was one we kind of made up to use up what we had. Well, we didn't make it up, but it was a "what can we cook with this, this and this?" Every once in a while, I love getting a messy meatball sub from Subway. So, when we had some extra hamburger meat and homemade tomato sauce that needed to be used, we found a recipe for homemade meatballs in "How To Cook Everything" and stopped for some hoagie rolls on the way home and voila!

 Here's a link to the recipe for the meatballs! Get some hoagie rolls, jarred (or homemade) tomato sauce, some good cheese and make yourself a yummy sandwich!

Hope you and the ones you love have a Happy Valentine's Day! Since it's a work night (and I work until 7 tonight) we'll find some other time to celebrate. Valentine's Day is fun, but honestly, Jim does a fantastic job of making me feel special all throughout the year, not just on specific holidays. But who doesn't love another day to shove candy in your mouth and get some extra treats?

Fab Food Feb :: Chicken Parm Wraps

Pinterest and I are kind of on a break. I know that taking a break from various things is a little bit cliche, but it's what I must do to maintain moderation in my life. (I've also taken "breaks" from Twitter and Facebook. PS: If we were friends on Facebook, you'll have to refriend me on my new profile, as the old one got irreversibly hacked!)

Back to Pinterest- one reason for the break was that I had so many pins and was doing NONE OF THEM. A lot of the pins were food items. So, I started picking at least one on most weeks and giving them a try. Chicken Parm Wraps were a delicious success.

Here is the original post so you can have the recipe for yourself.

A few things:

• We just bought a Rotisserie chicken that was already precooked at our market. I was needing fast, easy dinners. We just shredded it with a fork and moved on.
• I couldn't find egg roll wrappers at my store, so I bought Phyllo dough and used 5-6 sheets. You could also use crescent rolls.
• We usually make our own tomato sauce, but you could easily buy jarred marinara.

The cooking gadget/tip that I have to share with this is to have a nice size sheet pan (we have a cuisinart from Jim's Mom that is my new favorite!) and cooling racks that you can place inside of it to keep the heat circulating around them in the oven and also not sticking!

Fab Food Feb : Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake

This is probably one of Jim's favorite desserts. It uses some unconventional "cake" items but it makes the cake super moist and yummy! The tool I use? Definitely my Kitchen Aid Mixer! Maybe this next year I can explore some more attachments to the mixer (pasta making anyone?).

Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake

1 (4.5 oz) package instant chocolate pudding

1 (4.5 oz) package instant vanilla pudding

1 pkg. Devil's Food Cake Mix

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup milk

3 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup of water

1. Mix dry ingredients; add all other ingredients and mix for 3 minutes.

2. Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan.

3. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar

Fab Food Feb : Honey Glazed Chicken Stir Fry

Jim and I have always been huge stir fry fans. We would just buy the bags of frozen stir fry veggies and serve over rice or pasta. When we found this recipe (which I remember we cooked for the first time when Jim's uncle was installing our new bedroom ceiling fan- I know, that's random) we had to try it to give a new spin on a dish we liked and love it.

We got the recipe from a friend, but I found it here.

Our favorite things to use to chop veggies for stir fry (when we don't use frozen)? Rachael Ray's knife set that I got Jim for his birthday last year (similar one found here) and then a bench scrape to gather everything together and toss into the pan!

Fab Food Feb : Crock Pot Lasagna

It's Day 1 of Fab Food in Feb and I'm sharing a recent find that has become a dish we could more than once a month. It's super easy to prepare, cooks in a crock pot and is so good. I've even served it at a shower luncheon I hosted in December because it was something that I could make gluten free for a friend that would be attending.

I found it on a blog I read, so if you want to see the recipe, click here!

Crock Pot Lasagna

Recipe type: Crock Pot Entrée

Author: Mandi Ehman

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 26 ounces pasta sauce
• 1 cup water
• 16 ounces ricotta cheese
• 2 cups italian cheese
• 1⁄4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoon dried parsley
• 8 lasagna noodles, uncooked

Directions

1. Brown meat and drain. Add pasta sauce and water and mix well.
2. Hint: I like to buy ground beef in bulk, brown it and freeze it in 1-pound portions to make preparing this (and other meals) even easier!
3. In a separate bowl, combine ricotta, 1-1/2 cup mozzarella, parmesan, egg and parsley.
4. Add 1 cup of the meat sauce to the bottom of the crock pot. Break up four of the noodles to cover the bottom. It’s okay if they overlap. Cover with half the cheese mixture and 2 cups meat sauce.
5. Repeat layers.
6. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese and let sit for 15 minutes until melted.

We have a pretty basic crock pot, but it gets lots of use. If you want to avoid the possibility of having to clean burned cheese off of your crock pot, you could always use crock pot liners. We don't have a dishwasher, so any help is accepted.

Fab Food in February

I thought I'd try something this month- a theme for my posts. And, because I don't want to get too crazy, I picked an easy theme. FOOD. I'll still be updating my blog weekly with Project Life and taking one post to talk about Jacob's party. But, the rest of the days will be recipes that I love.

Outside of life updates (Project Life and Jacob updates) February is Fab Food Feb. Each day not devoted to Project Life of Jacob, I will share a favorite recipe and tool that I use. I've already shared two recipes (Taco Soup and Missouri Cookies recipes can be found here) so I hope you'll try them and share some, too!