To Cook, or not to cook?

Ok, if you love food then I'm seriously about to make your day! Now since it is summer, I cook quite a bit. This is probably the worst time of year to want to cook, but I can't help it. I'm off during the summers, so when 5:00 rolls around I'm not exhausted. Thanks to some help from some really AMAZING neighbors we have, I now have a ceiling fan in my kitchen instead of an ugly florescent light. This definitely cools things down a bit. We also recently had our air conditioner repaired. We couldn't get our house to cool below 85 degrees back in May. I was not about to head into the dead heat of summer like that. NO WAY! I called our American Home Shield Warranty people (totally thankful that we had this) and asked them to come out and see what was wrong with our AC. Any time they come out it is a $75 service fee, but I pay no other costs if whatever needs to be repaired is covered under our warranty. I only pay $48 a month for this warranty. To make a long story short, we had an awesome repair man who told the warranty people that we basically needed a whole new unit up in our attic and some additional freon. This would have cost us thousands of dollars had we not had this. Since we did, I only paid the service fee, $150 disposal fee, and $135 for them to replace the duct work in our attic. These were not covered by our warranty. If anything else goes wrong, it would probably be our compressor outside, and that is covered too! So now I am enjoying much cooler days in my house, provided my husband keeps the filters changed. Believe me, we found out a couple of days ago that makes a difference.

So enough of my plug for AHS and how my house is summer ready....let's see what I've been cookin'!

How many of you love the crockpot? HELLO! Best invention ever....or at least one of them. I made some really simple crockpot balsamic chicken and veggies

This is one of those recipes where you can just throw everything in the pot. Just slice your veggies first.
Ingredients

• 3-4 chicken breasts
• 2 tbs worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 c of balsamic vinegar
• sliced veggies of your choice

I used zucchini and onion. You could also use squash and assorted peppers. Throw ingredients in the crockpot, pouring the vinegar and worcestershire on top of chicken and veggies, and cook on high for 4 hours. This recipe was found on pinterest from a blog called "keepnupwithjen".

Now with this dish, I served mini stuffed portabello mushrooms stuffed with bacon, spinach, and feta cheese. These were a big hit with my husband (who says he doesn't like mushrooms).

This was my finished product. Remember, I did say I was going to work on the whole "step-by-step" thing as I go.

Ingredients

• 8 slices of bacon, chopped
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup onion, chopped
• 6 cups baby spinach, raw
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 Tbsp almond flour
• 1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled
• salt and pepper to taste
• 16 mushroom caps, brushed of any debris

Instructions

• In a medium saute pan, cook the bacon until crisp. Add the butter and onions, cooking until softened, 3 – 5 minutes. Add the spinach and cook for about 2 minutes, or until wilted. Remove the pan from the heat and add the nutmeg, almond flour, and feta cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cool. Stuff filling into mushroom caps and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees (F) or until the mushrooms are tender. Alternatively, grill the mushrooms for about 6 – 8 minutes over medium heat. Serve hot. 

* I used regular flour instead of almond flour since I don't necessarily need this to be gluten free. I found this recipe on pinterest from a blog called "I breathe, I'm hungry"! Ha, now that is an awesome title.

Now, my parents came the weekend I made this, so I made sure to have dessert on hand. Ok, truth? I would have had dessert on hand even if my parents hadn't been in town. Say hello to "Orange Dreamsicle Fudge". This is a Taste of Home recipe I found on pinterest.

Makeover Marbled Orange Fudge Recipe

• Prep: 30 min. + chilling

30 30 Ingredients

• 2-1/2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup butter, cubed
• 1 package (10 to 12 ounces) white baking chips
• 1 jar (7 ounces) marshmallow creme
• 3 teaspoons orange extract
• 12 drops yellow food coloring
• 9 drops red food coloring

 

Directions

• Line a 13-in. x 9-in. pan with foil and coat with cooking spray; set aside. In a small heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, evaporated milk and butter. Cook and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat; stir in chips and marshmallow creme until smooth.
• Remove 1 cup and set aside. Add extract and food coloring to the remaining mixture; stir until blended. Pour into prepared pan. Pour reserved marshmallow mixture over the top; cut through mixture with a knife to swirl. Cover and refrigerate until set.
• Using foil, lift fudge out of pan. Discard foil; cut fudge into 1-in. squares. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Yield: about 2-1/2 pounds.

  This was really easy to make! I had a hard time keeping my husband out of it. It is very sweet!

Now, last week I wanted mushrooms again. This time, I was going to stuff the huge portabello caps!

Vegetable stuffed portabello mushrooms from a blog called "Taste, Love and Nourish".

4 large portabella mushrooms, wiped with a damp paper towel and stalk trimmed
2 T. olive oil
1 large sweet onion, diced
2 medium zucchini, diced
1 roasted red pepper, diced
4 – 6 sun dried tomatoes, chopped
2 – 3 cloves garlic, minced
large handful of spinach
pinch of dried oregano, crushed between your fingers
dash of crushed red pepper flakes
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/4 C. dried breadcrumbs
1/4 C. grated Parmesan
1/4 C. mozzarella cheese (I use the mozzarella made with 2% milk)

Line a sided baking sheet with parchment paper. Rub each mushroom with a bit of olive oil and set them on the sheet, stalk side up.
In a 12″ sauté pan over medium high heat, add the olive oil then the onions. Sauté for 3 or 4 minutes, then add the zucchini and continue to cook as the zucchini begins to soften. Next add the red pepper and tomatoes. Cook for another few minutes. When the onions have become translucent and soft, add the garlic. Cook for one minute and add the spinach.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Once the spinach wilts, remove the pan from the heat and add the rest of the ingredients, up to the Parmesan. Stir to combine.
Divide the mixture in four; I spread the mixture out evenly in the pan and using my spoon, just slice through like a pie to divide equally. Stuff each mushroom with a quarter of the mixture.
Bake in the oven for about 35 to 40 minutes. Now, top each with about 1 tablespoon of the mozzarella and continue baking for another 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cheese is just beginning to get golden on top.

*Thoughts and suggestions from me: I added the parmesan cheese into the veggie mixture before stuffing the mushrooms, then cooked them before I topped with mozzarella. I also had some left over imitation crab meat, so I through that into the mixture as well. Here is a bit of a warning, the red pepper flakes really heat this dish up. So if you don't like a lot of spice, you may want to omit this ingredient (I know I will next time). Also, I really felt that the sun dried tomatoes really overpowered everything else. Next time I will either omit them all together or cut down on them.

Here is what the final product looked like for dinner that night:

Healthy Pasta option

• cook a pkg of whole wheat pasta, drain, then place in large serving/mixing bowl
• toss with olive oil, bread crumbs (I used roasted garlic flavor), garlic powder, salt, pepper, parsley, and grated parmesan cheese (the kind in the bottle)
• I didn't measure out any of these ingredients. I just added until I got the flavor and consistency I wanted.

And there ya have it! Stay tuned because I have some pretty awesome 4th of July desserts that I'm gearing up to make this week:)