Vanilla Granola

I made this a few nights ago and it was so delicious, I had to add it to this dusty old blog. Here's the link to where I got it from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/vanilla-granola/detail.aspx

And here's the recipe for my records:

• 6 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• some slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup flaked coconut
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a large bowl, toss oats, walnuts, coconut and almonds. In a saucepan over medium heat, cook oil, honey, brown sugar, water and vanilla until well mixed. Pour over oat mixture and stir to coat evenly. Pour into two greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pans. Bake at 275 degrees F for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool, stirring occasionally. Store in an airtight container.

Bermuda Triangle Spinach Salad

Obviously I have been on a cooking craze. At the beginning of this week I determined to plan out the meals and try new things. And I did it! One whole week of planned meals and lots of food in the house and no "it's five o'clock and I have no idea what to make for dinner AGAIN" moments. Yay. :-)

Well this salad is fantastic. I found the original recipe here, and below is my rendition of it. They had a brilliant idea for how to boil eggs (put the eggs in BEFORE you put the water in----practically GENIOUS!). And this dressing is divine. So lovely. Makes way more than you'll need for the amount of salad, great leftover!

SALAD: Boil the eggs. Cook the bacon, then crumble/chop. Chop the mushrooms. Wash the spinach.

Assemble everything in large bowl. Serve with dressing (below).

6 eggs

1/3 lb of turkey bacon

1-2 pounds of spinach

sliced fresh mushrooms

DRESSING: Blend the following ingredients

1 chopped onion

2/3 cup white sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp celery seed

1 Tbsp mustard (preferably Dijon)

Enchiladas

Made these tonight for dinner....yummy

Saute some onions, then add in a can of spaghetti sauce (24 oz). Add in some chili powder and oregano. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Take a pan (I used a 9x13 "), fill the bottom with half the sauce. Take flour tortillas, fill with refried beans (1/3 cup per torilla) and cheese. Roll, place in pan flap side down. fill up the pan in this manner (I used 6 tortillas total). Cover with the remaining sauce and 2 cups of cheese. Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes (or until hot through).

So good!!

Vegetarian Chili

This is one of my new faves. Especially if you have a lot of RANDOM vegetables in your fridge that are on the edge of going bad....(maybe you're not one of those people, but I sure am).

Ok, here's the basic recipe (although this one is really fun because I totally improvise it whenever I make it):

-beans (this last time I used the refried beans I made the day before)

-other types of beans (garbanzo, kidney, black, whatever you have/want)

-cooked corn

-tomatoes (this one is important)

-green/red bell pepper

-chopped onion

-chopped garlic

-zucchini/squash

-green onions

-chili powder

-cumin

-salt & pepper

Serve with fresh bread or tortillas. Top with cheese.

Refried Beans

Apologies for the delay in posts.... :-) I've been doing other things besides cooking it seems. But this week I pulled myself together and decided to plan out a full week of meals. Man does it ever feel good to have leftovers in the fridge and food on the shelves and not have to scrounge and wonder what to make for dinner....spaghetti again? Ah, c'est magnifique.

I shall begin with:

REFRIED BEANS

(from scratch)

These were actually surprisingly easy (when planned in advance). Last time I tried to make them, I didn't plan it ahead and it took FOREVER and was way way way more work. So, note to self (and to you, reader), plan this one ahead.

(Day Before): Soak pinto beans overnight (2.5 cups water to every 1 cup beans)

(Day of) : Simmer beans (in water from night before) for 2- 3 hours (yes, hours). Once soft, add in 1/2 cup of lard/hot bacon grease/butter (or a combo of the aforementioned). Add in salt if desired. Simmer for a while longer (until it seems adequately mixed) and most of the liquid is absorbed, then mash beans with a potato masher (or a fork/spoon if you don't have a masher). If it's still runny, let it sit for a while. Yay! Makes a LOT of beans.

Malaysian Chicken Curry (Gulai Ayam)

It's been a while....

I am no longer able to cook boring meals without the great world wide web knowing, due to my absence in posting an exciting meal.

But, fortunately for you, I stepped beyond the mundane easy meals and attempted something new last night. Well, not exactly new. But worthy of a post at least.

So here we go.....today I bring you: CURRY (from scratch!).

Before you decide it sounds much too hard, I would like to say, it really isn't that hard. Does take about 45 minutes to get everything going but once you do, it just cooks itself.

Recipe:

-Cut chicken pieces (2 large) into bite sized pieces.

-Blend 5 Tbsp curry powder into 1 cup water

-Pound 6 shallots, 4 cloves of garlic, and 3 cm piece of ginger (or if you don't have a mortar and pestle, like myself, you can chop/grate them; also, I used ground ginger because I didn't have a piece of it)

-Heat 1/2 cup oil and fry the pounded ingredients until fragrant. (optional: add in chopped chili pepper if you want it to be spicy). Add in the curry powder and fry further until fragrant.

-Add the chicken with a little bit of water.

-Add star anise, cloves and cinnamon stick.

-Stir slowly and add the coconut milk (2 cans), potatoes (5 chopped), and salt.

-Simmer until potatoes are cooked.

(I also added in chopped squash, which I added in once potatoes were slightly tender).

-Serve with rice and steamed green beans.

-Selakan makan!

Turns out I forgot to take a picture of the end product, but let me assure you that it is a delicious curry, not spicy (unless you add in a lot of chili peppers). Feeds about 10 people. Lots of leftovers.

Spinach Lasagna

see original recipe here.

-Mix 2 eggs, 16 oz of lowfat cottage cheese, 10 oz. chopped spinach, 2 cups of mozarella cheese, and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.

-Pour thin layer of spaghetti sauce on bottom of 9x13'' pan. Layer 3 (cooked) lasagna noodles followed by half the cottage cheese mixture. Repeat layers (spaghetti sauce, noodles, mixture). Top with 3 noodles, a bit of sauce, and 1 cup of mozarella cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.

-Bake 45 minutes at 350 F.