Toasted Almond Chicken

This recipe is so good, but definitely NOT low fat!

Menu:

Toasted Almond Chicken
Broth Simmered Rice
Salad or Green Beans

Toasted Almond Chicken

6 skinned and boned chicken breast halves
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
3 TBSP butter divided
1 ½ cups whipping cream
2 TBSP orange marmalade
(I take out the slivers of orange and just used the “jam” part
1 TBSP Dijon mustard
1/8 tsp. ground red pepper
1 (2.25 oz.) pkg. sliced almonds, toasted

Place chicken between two sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap, and flatten to ¼ inch thickness, using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Melt 1 ½ TBSP butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of chicken, and cook 2 minutes on each side or until golden. Remove chicken from skillet. Repeat procedure with remaining butter and chicken. Reduce heat to medium; add whipping cream and next 3 ingredients to skillet, stirring well. Add chicken; sprinkle with almonds, and cook 8 minutes or until sauce thickens. Serve over rice.

Source: Southern Living at Home – Easy Weeknight Favorites

Broth Simmered Rice

1 (14 oz.) can chicken broth
¾ cup uncooked regular long-grain white rice

Heat the broth to boiling over medium-high heat. Stir in the rice. Reduce heat to low. Cover the saucepan and cook for 20 minutes or until the rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed.

Source: campbellskitchen.com

Shoyu Chicken

My mom made this for us growing up. It's a wonderful meal that reminds me of home.

Menu:

Shoyu Chicken
White Rice
Salad or Veggies

Shoyu Chicken

5 lbs. of chicken thighs
2 cups sugar
2 cups shoyu (Aloha brand Soy Sauce)
2/3 cup cider vinegar
1 ½ inch length of ginger cut into 1/8" slices (remove before serving)
3 clove garlic - chopped
(or you can buy a jar of chopped garlic & use about ½ to 1 tsp. of the chopped garlic)

Place sugar, shoyu, & vinegar into a sauce pan and heat until the sugar
dissolves. Add the ginger & chopped garlic & stir. Place chicken (skin side up) in a large pan. Pour sauce over chicken. Cover with aluminum foil & cook for 1 & 1/2 hours at 350 degrees (uncover for last 1/2 hour). Remove ginger slices. Serve over rice with your choice of salad or veggies.

We have a rice cooker, so I always make my sticky white rice in there and don't have a stovetop recipe for it. Sorry.

Peanut Butter Pie

We had this last year for Ernest's birthday and it was great! This recipe is from Jeff's sister Julie, who's an amazing cook.

Peanut Butter Pie

graham cracker preformed pie crust (or make your own)
1 box instant vanilla or french vanilla pudding
1 cup milk
½ carton cool whip (save other half)
½ cup smooth peanut butter
¾ to 1 cup powdered sugar

Mix first 4 ingredients together and set aside. Mix peanut butter and powdered sugar until little balls form.

Layer in crust:
1/3 cup peanut butter mixture
Pudding mixture
1/3 cup peanut butter mixture
Other half of cool whip carton
Last of peanut butter mixture.

Chill and enjoy!

Tool of the Month - Measuring Cups

Odd Size Measuring Cups (from Williams-Sonoma)

I love that these measuring cups come in odd sizes, like 2/3 cup, 3/4 cup and 1 1/2 cups.

Sweet & Spicy Meat Loaf Sandwiches

(photo from bhg.com)

Menu:

Sweet & Spicy Meat Loaf Sandwiches
Potato Bread
Horseradish Spread
Potato Salad (Store Bought)

Sweet & Spicy Meat Loaf

2 eggs beaten
2/3 cup seasoned fine dry bread crumbs
1 cup onion – finely chopped & sautéed
½ cup ketchup
¼ cup milk
½ cup raisins (I use golden)
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 ½ lbs ground sirloin

1/3 cup ketchup
3 TBSP brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Combine first set of ingredients and cook in 9x5x3 pan for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Mix ketchup and brown sugar together and spread over meat and bake for another 5 minutes. Let sit for 10 minutes before slicing. Serve on potato bread with horseradish spread.

Horseradish Spread

1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 TBSP horseradish
Mix together until well blended.

My Notes:
This meatloaf is the sweet (cloves and raisins) and the spread is the spicy. It goes GREAT together. Also is great for leftovers the next day, or to take with you to work for lunch.

Source: bhg.com (with changes)

Pinkalicious Drink

Pinkalicious

Pinkalicious is Hannah's favorite story right now and we have the perfect drink to go along with her book.

Pinkalicious Drink

7up (or other lemon-lime soda)

Raspberry or Strawberry Sherbet

Put 2 scoops into a large glass or 1 scoop into a small glass. Fill with 7up and let it sit for about 5 to 10 minutes. If you are making this for a crowd, put about 8 to 12 scoops of sherbet into a punch bowl. Add 4 cups of ice and a 2 liter of 7up. Serve and enjoy!

You could also make this with lime sherbet for a green drink on St. Patricks day.

You can see it gets pinker when you let it sit and allow the sherbet to mix into the 7up.

Our Gingerbread House

Home Sweet Home

Hannah saw the gingerbread house contest at Winterfest and decided we needed to make our own. For our first attempt (having never made a gingerbread house before) I decided to go with the store-bought pre-baked house. Everyone helped. Takeshi was our architect and laid out the plans for our house to be built. I constructed the house and frosted the roof. Hannah decorated the roof and the sides of the house. Ernest added the finishing touches with gumdrop rings on our rooftop.

Hannah made these doors and windows all by herself.

She also placed these gumdrops on the side of the house by herself.

I think it's a pretty good 1st attempt. We might even do it again next year :)