A New Challenge

Okay, so as most of you know, I'm cutting out refined sugar from my diet. Like totally. I will spare you the details, but even the smallest piece of sugary cereal makes me incredibly sick. I do okay with brown sugar, but no white sugar at all. Right now, I know there's probably more that I can't eat, but the only thing I've been able to pin down for sure is sugar.

Having been raised in this family, I'm sure you can all see the problem this presents. So I need recipes that don't use sugar.

Ready go!

Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos

I made this last night, and Tom said it was better than the storebought ones he loves. I may try making lots next time, and freezing them. They were a hit, though. I got them from www.ourbestbites.com, which is my favorite cooking blog. They have recipes that taste good, and can be cooked by the normal person.


Here's the link, because I'm lazy like that. (Actually, for some reason, I just haven't been able to copy and paste it here, and I don't have time to type it out.)

Variations on a theme

Crazy Holidays. I wonder, if we didn't manage to find time to post while the holidays were not in full swing then how will we ever post stuff during the month of december?

Not to mention that we already posted all the beloved standards last year...

But lets make a quick musical analogy. What do great composers do when they get bored or run into a creative block? What always brings a smile to the audience when 21st century composition is just too much effort (both to write and hear) and yet we've all heard Beethoven's 9th a few to many times to be really thrilled by it (unless Osmo Vanska is conducting, of course)? It's easy. Take a familiar tune and warp it just a little. Elaborate here, throw a disney tune mash up there, make Mozart sound like Rachmaninoff for the rest of it, and voila! The musically discerning audience is thrilled with your cleverness and their own ability to appreciate it! They leave the concert saying pridefully pompous things like "the baroque flavor in that exposition reminded me of Whitacre's Cloudburst as if set by Jean-Baptiste Lully!", and "I felt that the coda in the style of Brahms was the perfect commentary on the Schubert-style quartet, especially considering Clara!" Yes, Variations on a theme are always a crowd pleaser.

I submit to you all that baking is not so different than music. Just consider Mom the Osmo Vanska, who recreates the classics with perfection. And the rest of us could become the discerning audience, who whines unless Osmo is conducting, or we could create our own variations on the theme.

So post some ideas you have and let's see if we can work through them. Or post the whole recipe and we'll applaud wholeheartedly. I've recently begun to love lime flavored things, do you think lemon bread could become key lime bread? This summer I made quite a few trifles, and now that fresh fruit is hard to come by, I wonder if I could pull one off using brownies and coconut. Emma and I were discussing oreo truffles the other day and I realized that I could quickly alter a cookie dough recipe to create cookie dough truffles, dip them in brown chocolate, and mix them in with the oreo truffles for variety in gift giving.

This is more of a quest for creativity than it is a challenge in the kitchen. Let's see what we can come up with!

Chicken Nuggets

go to the freezer section.

buy a bag of frozen chicken nuggets. (I personally prefer the dino shaped ones)

follow the directions on the back.

wait...no...

So, this recipe is AMAZING! And it is super easy. Me and me roommates eat dinner together on sundays, and my roommate Megan offered to do it this past week. We were all a little skeptical because her idea of domestic is slapping some pre-made cookie dough on cookie sheets, and waiting for someone (usually me) to remind her that they are done, and making an incredibly large mess in the process. How you do that with pre-packaged cookie dough, I don't really know. But it happens. Bless her heart. :)

It turned out to be one of the BEST dinners ever! And you cannot just skip the honey mustard sauce with these. In fact, if your going to choose between the nuggets and the sauce, pick the sauce. It makes the whole recipe worth while.

AND its gluten free. thats important in my apartment :)

All thanks and compliments go to our dear southern friend, Paula Deen.

Ingredients

• 2 cups crushed sour-cream-and-onion-flavored potato chips
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 6 chicken breast fillets, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• Honey Mustard, recipe follows

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Spread the crushed potato chips in a shallow dish. Beat together the egg and milk in a shallow bowl. Dip the chicken cubes into the egg mixture and then dredge them in the chips. Place the chicken nuggets on a baking sheet and drizzle with melted butter. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until golden brown. The chicken nuggets can be frozen after baking. Serve with your favorite sauce, such as honey mustard or ranch dressing.

Honey Mustard:

3/4 cup mayonnaise

3 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons yellow mustard

1 tablespoon lemon juice or juice from 1/2 lemon

Horseradish, to taste (We didn't put this in, because we all think its gross)

2 tablespoons orange juice (more or less as needed)

Combine all ingredients except orange juice; stir well. Thin to pouring consistency for dressing or dipping consistency for dips with orange juice. Cover and chill for 2 or 3 hours.

Yield: 1 1/4 cups

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: None

Ease of preparation: Easy

6 girls and 1 guy finished them all off, with more room to spare, although we all had a sufficient amount to eat.

Halloween Layer dip

I had requested spider recipes, and Amy called and gave me a few suggestions, ( I think this was at the point when she couldn't post because she had forgotten her password or something....) Anyways, she suggested layer dip with olive spiders, and I decided to give it a try. I piped on sour cream to make the web and cut up jumbo black olives to look like the spiders. I think it turned out pretty awesome.

Aaand, lets get a close up of my creepy friend in the middle there....

Aaron's Chili

This is a good chili… a nice gentle burn that sets in slowly, and a definite deep flavor to it.

2 Yellow Onions Sauteed in Olive Oil
2 Lbs Ground Meat (Pork & Beef combined, coarse grind is best) Browned

28 Oz Crushed Tomatoes
28 Oz Tomato Sauce
12 Oz Tomato Paste
15 Oz Beef Broth

4 x 15 OZ Dark Red Kidney Beans

Heaped TBSP Each of
Cocoa Powder (Unsweetened)
Ground Cumin
Cayenne (Red Pepper)
Garlic Powder

Cumin and and Red Pepper are of course a critical constituent of any chili. The Beef Broth and the Cocoa are the 'secret' ingredients. Cocoa sets off the Cayenne nicely. It does not make the chili ‘chocolatey’, although if you know it is there you can detect it.

The balance isn’t perfect yet, it didn’t win the office competition, but I had three bowls of it myself, and my coworkers had kind things to say about it (even the ones who don’t report to me directly)…

French Dip

I decided to use Melissa's French Dip recipe a couple of weeks ago, in response to her challenge (2 points). I just didn't upload pictures from my camera until now.

I have never made French Dips before (5 points). And this is not a dessert (1 point). I did make a few changes to the recipe, basically because I had a roast in the freezer (from a quarter beef we bought a few months ago - food storage - 1 point) and I didn't want to buy au jus in a packet, for digestive reasons I'd prefer not to get into. For starters, I put sliced onions and chopped garlic in the crock pot,

threw the roast on top of it, added a little water, salt and pepper,

and let it go all day. So, it wasn't exactly sliced roast beef - more like shredded, but it was fabulous. I'll mention here that the onions were some transplants from Amy's Worthington house's garden that I grew in my garden this year (1 point). They are terrific in a roast. The garlic was also grown in my garden (1 point).

The second great part of this plan was that I didn't have to buy a packet of au jus. It was a natural by-product of making the roast myself.

The hoagies were store-bought. I had originally thought to make my own, but didn't get to it that day. Next time, I'll make them myself. They cost a fortune at the grocery store.

We melted mozarella on them (from our deep freezer - food storage - 1 point). They were really good. It is funny how a meal this good could have escaped my brain for so long. I think this will be at least a monthly dinner item in our household. Yum!

And if I can claim 12 points when I didn't really follow her recipe all the way, I'll take it!