Pad Thai

I absolutely love pad thai and have not been able to find a recipe that tastes like what I find at restaurants. The sauce always ends up tasting too much like peanut butter, but not this recipe! It tastes just like the pad thai at Pei Wei or P.F. Chang's. A couple things you need to know:

1. The recipe calls for rice noodles. These can be found at almost any grocery store and are found in the Asian aisle. Do NOT cook them like regular pasta noodles or they will turn to mush. They simply need to be put in warm water and will finish cooking in the skillet.
2.  If desperate, using angel hair pasta will work fine. Just cook the noodles according to the package and then add to skillet.

Ingredients:

Update

• 8 oz rice noodles
• 3 - 4 garlic cloves (minced)
• 2 green onions
• 6 sliced mushrooms
• 1 chicken breast thinly sliced

Sauce Ingredients (I loved the sauce so much I doubled it!)

• ½ cup chicken stock
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 -3 tablespoons natural-style peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon garlic chili sauce

Directions:

1. Place noodles into a big bowl of warm water. Let soak while you work on the rest.
2.  Place 1Tbsp olive oil or butter in large skillet over medium - high heat. Melt and then add chicken. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and other veggies. Continue sauteing until soft.
3. While sauteing, stir together vegetable stock, soy sauce, peanut butter, honey, ginger, coriander, red pepper flakes in a small sauce pan.
4. Cook over medium heat until peanut butter and honey melt and sauce is heated through.
5. Add noodles to stir fried veggies and meat in skillet until soft. Add sauce and mix thoroughly.

Banana Bread

This is my mom's recipe for banana bread and I have great memories of her making it when I was younger. The smell alone will make you seem like an awesome cook!

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup sour milk (Just add 1 tsp vinegar to milk)
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 cups flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Cream together shortening and sugar
3. Add eggs, milk and bananas
4. In a separate bowl, mix baking soda, baking powder, salt and flour
5. Slowly combine dry ingredients into banana mixture.
6. Use extra shortening to grease bread pan and dust with flour
7. Pour batter into pan
8. Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out of the middle clean

Glass Cookies

Need a easy and creative idea for Christmas??

Make your favorite sugar cookie dough. Make sure you have the same shape cookie cutter in two different sizes. Cut out the larger size with the smaller size in the middle. Place on cookie sheet. 

In a Ziploc bag, place jolly ranchers of the same color. Use a meat tenderizer to pound the jolly ranchers until crushed. Place crushed candy into the middle of each cookie. 

Bake according to sugar cookie recipe and enjoy!

Raspberry Almond Thumbprint Cookies

These cookies melt in your mouth and are to die for!!! 

Ingredients:

Cookies

• 2 cups butter, softened
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 4 cups of flour
• 1 cup raspberry jam (I use Smuckers)

Icing

• 1 cup of powdered sugar
• 3 Tbsp of milk
• ½ tsp almond extract

Directions

1. Combine butter, sugar and extract in a large bowl; beat at medium speed, until creamy
2. Reduce to low; add flour
3. Beat until well mixed
4. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour
5. Shape into 1” balls
6. Place 2” apart on ungreased cookie sheet
7. Press thumb into each cookie. It’s okay if the edges crack.
8. Fill each cookie with ¼ tsp jam
9. Bake 15 minutes at 350 F
10. Let sit on cookie sheet 2 minutes
11. Remove from pan and let cool completely
12. Mix 1 cup of powdered sugar with milk and extract. The consistency should be runny. You may need to add more sugar or milk.
13. Drizzle over cookies.

Healthy Pasta

This is my version of a recipe that I found in the magazine, Cooking Light. It's quick and easy and tastes gourmet. You could substitute any vegetables for the asparagus. I might suggest zucchini or mushrooms. If you're not a fan of shrimp, ground beef or Italian sausage might be a good substitute.

Shrimp, Asparagus Penne Pasta

Ingredients

• ½ package (16 oz) of penne pasta (We use whole grain pasta)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 cups asparagus (We use the whole bundle at the grocery store)
• ½ cup chopped onion
• 1-2 garlic cloves, minced or 1 tsp bottled minced garlic
• ½ pound cooked, medium shrimp, thawed
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• ¼ - ½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano, undrained
• ¼ cup Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain when finished
2. While pasta cooks, heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat
3. Add asparagus, onion and garlic; sauté for 5 minutes
4. Add oregano, pepper flakes and tomatoes
5. Cook over medium-low heat 5 minutes or until heated through
6. Stir in pasta
7. Sprinkle with cheese and enjoy

This heats up great the next day!

Risotto Time!!!

Risotto is an Italian dish made from Arborio rice, which turns very creamy when cooked. Traditionally this dish is cooked on the stove-top slowly and it must be stirred often. This recipe uses a slow-cooker. It turns out great and is really easy. I tried to include a few notes that would make it easy to decide what to add to make this dish your own!


In case you have not used shallots, here is what they look ..........

 

Risotto

Ingredients

• 1 slow-cooker plastic liner (This isn’t necessary, but great at clean-up! The rice gets really sticky)
• ¼ cup olive oil (If you have basil olive oil, use it! But it will work fine with regular olive oil)
• 1-2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 shallots (small, purple onions that look like a garlic bulb) or 1 medium yellow onion, minced
• 1 ¼ cups Arborio rice (This is sold in the rice aisle. It may seem expensive, but 1 container lasts me a year)
• ¼ cup white wine (I have used savignion blanc or pinot grigio)
• 3 ¾ cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup of parmesan cheese

Optional Ingredients

• Shredded chicken, cooked (1-2 chicken breasts is plenty)
• Shrimp
• Mushrooms
• Corn
• Fresh basil
• Any other protein or vegetable

Directions

1. Heat ¼ cup olive oil in pan over medium heat and sauté until the shallots softened
2. Put an extra 1-2 Tbsp of olive oil into the liner and rub around. Place liner in slow-cooker
3. Add sauted shallots and oil from pan into the liner
4. Add the rice and mix around with the shallots/oil mixture
5. Stir in the wine
6. Stir in the chicken broth
7. Add the salt
8. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours or until all liquid is absorbed
9. Just before stirring add cheese and any other ingredients desired. Leave in slow cooker just until warm. Be careful not to let it over cook (dry out)

 This is a great dish when its cold outside and you need a little comfort food!