Spinach Bacon Quiche

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I love quiche in general, but never found one that had a lot of vegetables in it so I made one. It is a family favorite for any meal. Sometimes we eat if for breakfast and other times we eat it for dinner. I have removed the vegetables and just made Bacon Quiche.

Ingredients

3 frozen Pie Shells
10 large eggs, beaten
8 oz Cream Cheese at room temperature
1 cups heavy cream
2 cups chopped fresh baby spinach, packed
1 cup Bacon Real Bits
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
1/4 cup dried Onions
1 tsp Minced Garlic
1 cup Mozzarella Cheese Shredded
1 cup Swiss cheese Shredded

Directions

Prepare the pie shells as per the directions on the package for a non-baked pie. Remove from oven and turn oven to 425 degrees.

Beat together eggs, whipping cream and cream cheese. Stir in remaining ingredients. Divide in to the 3 prepared pie shells evenly.

Bake at 425 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes until medium brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Variation

1- Use refrigerated pie crust cut and press into a large casserole dish (approximately 11×14). Bake as directed on the package for a non-baked pie.

Yorkshire Pudding

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My father-in-law is from England, so Yorkshire Pudding was a staple in their home. I know there are several recipes for it, but this is the one I learned from my Mother-in-law.

Ingredients

2 cups Milk
3 Eggs
1 1/2 cups Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
About 1/4 cup rendered beef or pork fat, olive oil or melted butter

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. In the mixer beat together milk and eggs. Add flour and salt and blend until smooth. Batter should rest for 2 house in the refrigerator in a non metal container.  In muffin tin place 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon of fat. Heat muffin tin with the fat in it for 5 minutes. Remove batter from refrigerator and stir with a wooden spoon. Pour batter into hot tins, filling each tin 3/4 full. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with gravy.

Variation – Toad in the Hole

Brown 1 lb Sausage in a cast iron skillet. (We prefer Irish Sausage) Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Remove batter from refrigerator and stir with a wooden spoon. Pour batter into hot tins, filling each tin 3/4 full. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with gravy.

 

White Chocolate Lemonade Cookies

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I love Lemon flavored desserts, so I decided to create a cookie. It has become a favorite of family and friends.

Ingredients

1 cup Butter
2 cups Sugar
3 Eggs
1/4 cup Sour Cream
2 tsp Lemon Juice
25 drops doTerra Lemon Essential Oil
1/4 cup Cornstarch
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
4 cups Flour
1 12 oz Bag White Chocolate Chips

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together butter and sugar, Stir in eggs, sour cream, lemon juice, and lemon essential oil. Sift together dry ingredients and mix into wet ingredients. Stir in White Chocolate Chips. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes.

 

Citrus Popcorn

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I grew up with my mom making candied and caramel popcorn for picnics and summer holidays. As I have gotten older I still crave them, but often find them too sweet. I created this recipe to meet my craving with out being overly sweet.

Ingredients

1 Bag Popcorn Kernels – 36 cups of popped popcorn
1 14oz Bag  Yellow Candy Melts
1 14oz Bag  Orange Candy Melts
1 14oz Bag  Green Candy Melts
50 Drops doTerra Lemon Essential Oil
40 Drops doTerra Wild Orange Essential Oil
40 Drops doTerra Lime Essential Oil

Directions 

Air pop 12 cups of popcorn for each color/flavor place in large bowl. In a glass or ceramic microwave safe bowl melt one color of candy melts at a time on half power for 2 minutes. Stir and return to the microwave on half power for an addition 1-2 minutes until melted. Add the essential oil and Stir. Lemon in yellow. Wild Orange in orange. Lime in green. Pour candy melts over the 12 cups of popcorn and stir until all of the popcorn is coated. Pour out on to waxed paper. Repeat for the next to colors. Allow 20 – 30 minutes for the candy melt to set. Combined all three flavors together. 

Clearly this is a VERY LARGE batch. You can make one flavor rather than all three our you can divide the batch as follows:

1/2 Bag Popcorn Kernels – 9 cups of popped popcorn (3 cups per flavor)
3.5oz  Yellow Candy Melts
3.5 oz Orange Candy Melts
3.5 oz  Green Candy Melts
13 Drops doTerra Lemon Essential Oil
10 Drops doTerra Wild Orange Essential Oil
10 Drops doTerra Lime Essential Oil

Chicken Zucchini Casserole

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I grew up with my mom making a Zucchini Casserole as the vegetable side dish. Like many of our family favorite dishes Joseph and I discussed how we could make it better. As we made various changes we would discuss what we liked as well as how we could continue to improve upon it until we came up with this recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup Diced Onions
1 cup Shredded Carrots
1 T Minced Garlic
2 T Butter
2 cups Cooked Cubed Chicken (I have used grilled, smoked, and pan fried)
2 – 10 oz Cans of Cream of Chicken Soup
1 cup Sour Cream
2 cups Cubed Zucchini
2 cups Yellow Squash
1 bags Cheese Croutons
1-2 cups Shredded Cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degree. Melt butter in skillet over medium high heat. Once the color starts to brown add in onions, carrots, and garlic. Cook until the onions are translucent.  Pour into a 9X13 Casserole dish. Stir in zucchini and yellow squash. Stir in chicken, soup and sour cream. Top with croutons. Bake for 25 minutes. Top with cheese and continue baking for 5 minutes.

Variations:

  • 4 cups Zucchini rather than 2 cup Zucchini and 2 cups Yellow Squash
  • Stir Croutons in to the mixture.
  • Add cheese prior to topping with croutons and bake for 30 minutes.

 

Carrot Cake

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We LOVE Carrot Cake. I can’t even remember when I started making it. We love it thin in a sheet pan, layered with frosting in the middle, but our all time favorite is in Ice Cream Cones.

Ingredients

2 cups All Purpose Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 tsp Salt
1 1/2 cups Grape Seed Oil
2 cups Sugar
4 Eggs
10 oz Crushed Pineapple
2 1/2 cups Carrots
1/2 cup Coconut Flakes
1/2 cup Chopped Pecans or Walnuts (optional)
1/2 cup Raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl cream together oil, sugar and eggs. Add into dry ingredients and mix well. Add in carrots, pineapple, coconut, nuts, and raisins. Pour into Greased and floured pan. Bake for 40 – 60 minutes depending on the size pan.

3 – 9 inch round cake pans
2 – 1/4 sheet pans
1 -19 x 12 inch pan
60 Ice Cream Cones

Allow to completely cool. Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.



Chicken Zucchini Pan Fry

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We found a recipe for Zucchini Boats that had chicken, nuts, mushrooms and onions bake in zucchini. It was a lot of work and the flavor was good, but as usual we wanted to improve on it. After a couple of tries we landed on the following recipe which has become a family favorite.

Ingredients:

2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts Cubed
2 T Olive Oil
2 cups Zucchini Cubed
2 cups Yellow or Crookneck Squash
1 cup Onions Diced
1 cup Mushrooms sliced
1 cup Cherry or Grape Tomatoes cut in half
1 cup  Nuts (Walnuts, Pecans)
1-2 cup Crumbled Goat Cheese

Directions

In a large cast iron skillet. Grill cubed chicken over medium heat. Remove from a pan. Saute onions until caramelized.  Remove from pan and add to chicken. Saute mushrooms. Return chicken and onions to the pan. Stir in zucchini and yellow squash and cook for 5 minutes. Add in nuts and tomatoes. Cook 2 – 3 minutes. Stir in 1 cup Goat Cheese just before serving.  Sprinkle with additional Goat Cheese when serving. We enjoy it with Pita Bread.

Thai Chicken & Broccoli in a Peanut Sauce

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I love Thai Food with the spices and peanuts. I started playing around with different Thai Peanut Sauces, but didn’t find exactly was I was looking for. After playing around I came up with one I really enjoy. You can increase the spicy level by adding more chili flakes and chili oil. My basic recipe is mild. Serve over rice or noodles. This recipe doubles and triples very nicely.

Ingredients:

2 Chicken Breasts
2 T Peanut Oil
1 1/2 cups Smooth Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Soy Sauce
1 1/2 cup Water
1 T Chili Flakes
1 T Chili Oil
2-3 cup Broccoli
1/2 cup Dry Roasted Peanuts

Directions:

Cut Chicken Breasts into bit size pieces. Brown in wok with Peanut Oil.

Cut Broccoli into bit size pieces.

Add in Peanut Butter, Soy Sauce, Water, Chili Flakes, and Chili Oil, Stir until it creates a smooth sauce.

Stir in Broccoli and Peanuts and cook for 3-5 minutes.

Serve over noodles or rice.

 

Favorite Sugar Cookies

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I LOVE Sugar Cookies. Growing up my grandmother’s recipe was the one we used and it was my favorite. But I realized it was my favorite because it was the one I had the most. As time has gone on I have have cookies from several other places. I would find thinks I liked also things I didn’t. The text would be good but it lacked flavor. The cookie was good but I didn’t like the frosting. So for the last couple of years I have played around with recipes for myself. I have finally nailed it. We found that this cookies are best 2 to 3 days after making them. It gives the frosting and cookie to become one amazing flavor.

Ingredients

2 Cups Unsalted Butter
2 Cups Granulated White Sugar
1/2 Cup Whipping Cream
6 Eggs
2 tsp Pure Vanilla
1 tsp Almond Extract
4 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
6 – 7 Cups Flour or 4 – 6 cups Namaste Foods Organic Perfect Flour Blend

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugar. Whip together whipping cream, eggs, vanilla, almond extract, baking powder and salt. Cream together the two mixtures together until smooth. Stir in flour 1/2 cup at a time. You want the mixture to be thick but not dry.

DO NOT CHILL DOUGH. Divide into workable batch (2 to 4). Roll out on to floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out with cookie cutters. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes.

Frosting Ingredients

1/2 cup Unsalted Butter Softened
8 oz Cream Cheese Softened
25-30 doTerra Lemon or doTerra Wild Orange Essential Oil
1 1/2 – 2 lbs Confection Sugar.

Directions

In a mixer whip together butter and cream cheese. Mix in vanilla. Gradually add in powdered sugar to desired consistency.

Sweet & Spicy Apple Bars

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I love playing with recipes. Several years ago we went to Gardener Village in West Jordan, Utah and one of the shops had Carmel Apple Bars. This is a play off of that bar. The sweet is the caramel sauce and the spicy is the cinnamon and clove essential oil. There is a tart note that  comes for the Granny Smith Apple. This is a playful and tasty dessert.

CRUST

1 1/2 cups Unsalted Butter
1 1/2 cups Sugar
4 cups Flour

Combine sugar and flour in bowl. Cut in butter with a fork until crumbly. Press 3/4 of the mixture into a cookie sheet.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

FILLING

1/2 cup Water
1 cup Brown Sugar
2-3 drops doTerra Cinnamon
1-2 drops doTerra Clove Bud
6 Granny Smith Apples (approximately 3 cups)

Peel, slice, and cut apples. In a medium sauce pan combined water, sugar, and essential oils. Bring to a boil. Stir in Apples. Pour over crust. Sprinkle with remaining  crust.

Bake for 25 – 30 minutes until lightly brown.

Cool for 10 – 15 minutes and top with caramel sauce. Use your favorite or 1/2 of the recipe below.

Simple Carmel Sauce

1 cup Butter
1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 cups Brown Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan. On medium heat bring to a boil, stirring continually. Boil for 5 mins until thick. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.