Cooking With Jilly

Saturday, August 6, 2011

More Peanut Butter Oatmeal

I had posted months ago about Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal. I made some again, last week at the beach for my family.

I wanted to make it fun so I put mini chocolate chips on 1/3 of it and rainbow sprinkles on another 1/3 of it. It was mostly just for the enjoyment of my niece Maddie. And it worked because she thought it was dessert for breakfast. She loves sprinkles (and cake pops!) See the picture below, she is attempting to give me a thumbs up.

Wanted to show off this breakfast/dessert & all it's glory. We had a great time at the beach and I enjoyed my day to cook.

MMMMMMMmmmmmmm! This was an amazing breakfast. Oatmeal & Sunflower Seed Pancakes with honey & bananas, Bacon, Onion, & Hashbrown Medley, & Ramen Noodle Quiche.

And you can't forget mimosas....Perfect start to the day!

What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)

Friday, August 5, 2011

Bacon, Onion, & Hashbrown Medley

Back in January I made this deliciously guilty hashbrown & bacon pie crust quiche over my Winter Vacation down in Myrtle Beach. I was attempting to make it again over my Summer Vacation but with a ramen noodle twist. However, I ran out of room in my quiche for the hashbrowns, so I decided to run with it and try something different.

You start by cooking about 6 to 8 slices of bacon in a medium frying pan. After they are cooked, extra crispy, remove the bacon. Break up into pieces. Then Place 1/2 a bag of frozen (thawed a lil) hashbrowns & 1 cup of diced onions in pan in the bacon grease and cook until heated through and crispy. Sprinkle garlic salt on hashbrowns while cooking. Remove from heat and mix in with bacon. It's not the healthiest breakfast choice, but it is delicious! (everything in moderation, right?)

What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Oatmeal & Sunflower Seed Pancakes

Fabulous breakfast recipe. Makes 8 to 10 pancakes.

Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats
8 tbsp low fat cottage cheese
4 eggs
4 tsp vanilla extract
8 tsp sunflower seeds (or more)

1-2 bananas, peeled & sliced
honey to top

Directions:
Combine oats, cottage cheese, eggs, & vanilla in a food processor.
Blend until smooth.
Mix batter in a bowl with sunflower seeds.

Head skillet over medium heat and spray with cooking spray.
Pour 1/4 cup (approximately) of batter in skillet, one at a time.
You may have to use spatula or fork to smooth and spread out.
Cook on each side 3 to 5 minutes until golden brown.
Top with bananas & honey to serve.

DELICIOUS!!!!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Ramen Noodle Quiche

I'm obsessed with quiche, this is nothing new. Love trying out different recipes. I recently saw one that included ramen noodles on the inside so I decided to give it a try. The results come out great, the ramen noodles make it fluffy & hearty. I made mine with spinach & bacon but you can make it anyway you would like.

Ingredients:

1 pillsbury pie crust

6 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 box of frozen chopped spinach, thawed & drained

1 cup onion, diced

6 to 8 slices of bacon, cooked & in pieces

1/2 package of beef flavored ramen noodles, crumbled with seasoning packet

1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, shredded

1 cup of cheddar cheese, shredded

salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Press crust into a pie dish and make the edges fancy looking.

Place bacon on bottom of dish.

Top with broken ramen noodles, then pour about half the seasoning package on top evenly over the whole pie.

Top with spinach, onions, and cheeses.

Mix eggs & milk in a small bowl, pour over top of pie.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

Creamy Tomatillo Dressing

I made this incredible salad and was so proud that I was able to make homemade dressing with it as well. The dressing made the salad complete. I didn't even know what a tomatillo was. (Looks like a small green tomato). But they actually had them at Walmart in the produce section.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup light mayo
1/2 cup fat free Greek yogurt
1/4 cup cilantro paste
3 small tomatillos, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 green onions, diced
1 tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp dried parsley flakes
1/8 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and mix until smooth.

What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Layered Mexican Shrimp Salad

This is an amazing salad. I take back my BEST SALAD EVER POST...this is really the best salad ever!

I found this on Gina's Skinny Taste, of course. I love Gina's website. She is one of my favorite bloggers. I haven't met a recipe on her site that isn't amazing. I steal a lot of recipes from her. Yum Yum Yum. I also had to steal the recipe for the dressing as well. I made creamy tomatillo salad dressing to compliment this layered shrimp salad. I was so proud of myself because I've never made salad dressing from scratch before and it turned out to be addicting.

Ingredients:

16 oz. cooked shrimp, tail shells removed

2 tbsp chipotle seasoning
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp cilantro paste or fresh cilantro

15 oz can of black beans, drained & rinsed

15 oz can of whole kernel corn, drained & rinsed

1 head of lettuce, shredded

1 small red onion, diced

2 tomatoes, diced
2 avocados, diced

2 cucumbers, diced

1 cup reduced fat, shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Thaw & rinse shrimp.

Mix shrimp in a small bowl with chipotle seasoning, lime juice, & some salt to taste.

In a separate bowl combine corn, beans, cilantro, & red onion.

Place lettuce in the bottom of large clear bowl or trifle dish.

Layer bean/corn mixture on top.

Then top with cucumber, then tomato.

Top with avocado. (I ran out of avocados so I just spread out the fresh guacamole I had in the fridge)

Then top with the layer of cheese.

Finish off with the shrimp on the top.

Serve with dressing!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Low Fat Crab Dip

I know this isn't the prettiest picture, but hey, it's life! Back in May we did a special Mother's Day Cooking Club event. We invited all our moms and did a "Year In Review" where we made a bunch of recipes that we had made throughout the year. It was awesome! I wanted to do my crab dip from our Costume Party but I decided to try to do a lower fat version.

Ingredients:

8 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed

16 oz of fat free (or reduced fat) cream cheese, softened

8 oz fat free sour cream

4 tbsp lite mayo

4 tbsp horseradish
2 tbsp garlic powder

2 tsp salt

2 tsp white pepper

1 onion, diced

1/4 cup worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp old bay seasoning

1 pound crab meat

Directions:

Preheat oven 350 degrees.

Heat frozen spinach in microwave safe dish for 5 minutes.

Drain liquid.

Mix cream cheese, sour cream, horseradish, and mayo in a large bowl.

Stir in seasonings.

Mix in the crab & spinach.

Spoon into casserole dish.

Back in oven for 30 minutes.

I like to serve this dish with bread, crackers, cucumbers, & pretzel crisps.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Watermelon Smoothie

I had a lot of watermelon chunks in the leftover from my parents at our beach house so I quickly froze them before they went bad. So glad I did! When I came back with my in-laws I made delicious & refreshing watermelon smoothies to go with dinner the night I served sweet potato pizza & cheeseburger soup.

Ingredients:
3 cups watermelon cubes, frozen
1 cup fat free plain yogurt
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
(may need to add additional yogurt or ice as needed)

Directions:
Place all ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth.

What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Cheeseburger Soup

So sad I didn't get better pictures of this! Ask my in-laws for verification. It was delicious!
Served this with the sweet potato pizza.

Ingredients:

4 tbsp butter

1/2 pound ground beef
3/4 cup onion, chopped
2 tsp parsley flakes
salt & pepper to taste
4 tbsp butter
3 potatoes, peeled & cubed
3 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1.5 cups 2% milk
1/4 cup sour cream
cubes of bread, homemade croutons, or crackers to top

Directions:
In a large pot, melt 1 of the tablespoons of butter over medium heat and mix in beef and onion.
Mix in salt, pepper, & parsley.
Add broth & potatoes.
Bring to a boil.
Then lower temperature and simmer for 10 to 12 minutes. You'll want the potatoes to be soft.
Melt the remaining butter in a medium microwave-safe bowl.
Stir in the flour with the melted butter. Make sure it's mixed in completely.
Add the milk to the butter/flour mixture.
Then add that mixture to the soup a little at a time. You want to be stirring constantly during this whole process.
Bring to a boil.
Then lower temperature and add cheese.
Keep at low temperature.
After cheese is melted, add the sour cream until melted through.
Serve with bread or homemade croutons.

What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)

Friday, July 29, 2011

Sweet Potato Pizza

This is an addicting dish. You've been warned! Perfect as an appetizer or an entire meal. I apologize for the sloppy pictures. I was on vacation!

Ingredients:
1 can of pillsbury pizza dough (or other pizza dough will do)
4 sweet potatoes, peeled & sliced into coins
2 tomatoes, cut into slices
1 15 oz. container of fat free ricotta cheese
garlic salt
olive oil or misto spray
3 cups of fresh spinach, arugula, or other type of lettuce (I used a big of spring mix)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Spread out pizza dough on pan.
Cover with ricotta cheese. You probably won't need to use the whole container, just enough to cover the whole area with a thin layer.
If you have a misto, skip the next step....

Toss 1 tbsp of olive oil with the sweet potato slices.
Cover ricotta layer with sweet potato and tomato in any combination you want. You can have them overlap or spread them out. See picture.
Spray with misto.
Sprinkle garlic salt over pizza.
Place in oven for 12 to 15 minutes. Rotate the pizza halfway through.
With one minute left, sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
Top with lettuce after you remove from oven. Cut & serve.

What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Thai Peanut Sauce

I made Vietnamese spring rolls and here are some of the dipping sauces that I served with them. Below are the three sauces: Chunky Peanut Sauce, Thai Peanut Sauce, & Fish Sauce blend. Lots of unusual ingredients were used. It was fun experimenting with all the different flavors.

For Chunky Peanut Sauce:
3 oz. salted peanuts< 2 tbsp canola oil

1 tbsp sesame oil

3 tbsp garlic chili sauce

2 tbsp soy sauce

4 tsp fresh lime juice

1 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degres.

Pour the peanuts onto a dry baking sheet in a single layer.

Bake for 7 to 10 minutes but make sure they don't burn or blacken too much.

Remove peanuts from the oven and let cool.

Place in food processor and pulse a few times so that they finely chop.

Add the rest of the ingredients and process until it's smoother.

The sauce won't be smooth, it should have some texture of the chopped peanuts.

For Thai Peanut Sauce:
2 cups creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup coconut milk
3 tbsp water
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp hot sauce
1 tbsp fresh grated ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced
Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

Teriyaki Sauce:

2/3 cup mirin

1 cup soy sauce

4.5 tsp rice vinegar

1 tsp sesame oil

1/3 cup sugar

7 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp fresh grated ginger

1 dash red pepper flakes

Bring mirin to a boil in a saucepan over high heat.

Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes.

Pour in soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and sugar.

Season with garlic, ginger, and pepper flakes.

Simmer an additional 5 minutes.

Pi Day Cake Pops

I feel incredibly guilty that I'm waiting until now to post about these awesome cake pops I made back in March! Every good math teacher should know what March 14th is. Pi Day! Get it? 3.14? When I ask my students what pi is they automatically answer 3.14. That's not actually the truth. Pi is the ratio of circumference to diameter of all circles. 3.14 isn't what pi is, it's an approximation of what pi is. It's an irrational number that goes on forever and blah blah blah. (It's summer, I don't want to talk about school anymore). To make pi day fun us math teachers do are part. Here are the awesome pi-inspired cake pops that I made. YUMMY!!!

My co-worker, Nicole, who helped me make all the cake pops also made these awesome pi shaped cookies. I have a nice pi cookie cutter. So fun! Our students loved all the treats!

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

I hosted Cooking Club back in April and the theme was Asian-Inspired food. I decided to make Vietnamese Spring Rolls. They were really fun to make (pretty easy too) and they came out healthy & delicious.

I experimented with different types and different sauces/seasonings. Not all of the ingredients could be found out my locker grocery store, Darrenkamp's. But Stauffer's has an AMAZING international section. I found a ton of my ingredients there.

You can switch up all types of ingredients. I used shrimp, but chicken would be great too or you can just do straight veggie. You can add different spices to the rice. You can also use as many different types of veggies as you like. Endless possibilities.

Ingredients:

rice wrappers

shrimp, cooked & peeled
2 - 4 oz. vermicelli rice
fresh spinach leaves
alfalfa sprouts
shredded carrots
diced cucumbers

Directions:

Cook vermicelli rice according to package instructions. (Boil for about 3 to 5 minutes until al dente)

Drain & set aside.

Next, prepare the rice wrappers. (this is the fun part!)

Fill a large bowl, pan, or dish with some warm mater. (It must be big enough for the wrappers).

Dip the wrappers in the water one at a time just for a few seconds so that it softens. It's really cool how the consistency changes and becomes pliable.