Faux Great Harvest Bread

Andy and I have fond memories of walking around the Thanksgiving Point farmers market eating samples (which were really not sample sized at all, we're talking fat slices of deliciousness) of Great Harvest Bread. One of our favorites is the White Chocolate Raspberry bread.(Sadly for us there's not Great Harvest near us)

Last week I formed my bread loaf by rolling it out in a rectangle then and rolling it, instead of just forming it into a loafy blob. When I told Andy about my new loaf technique (which makes beautiful loafs, btw) he was a little excited saying that this opens up so many bread possibilities. Enter Great Harvest Bread inspiration.

 So today we experimented with some bread of our own. I used my regular bread recipe (found here). When it was rolled out we spread some cream cheese mixture on it (cream cheese softened and mixed with a little powdered sugar to taste), and we were really crazy and did half the loaf with cinnamon and the other half spread with homemade strawberry jam.

I baked it for about 5 minutes longer than my recipe called for, I was worried with all the goo that the bread dough would take longer to cook. Not sure if it really needed the extra 5 minutes, but it was cooked all the way through.

In the end, the loaf didn't last long. We loved it and between the 4 of us we gobbled it up in an afternoon.

We're excited (and a little scared for our waist lines) for all the different flavors we can try!

*Sorry, this isn't really in recipe form. It's just to inspire you to try your own filling. Enjoy!*

Delicious Chicken Curry

So, I got this WONDERFUl recipe from my good friend Kelly, and she gave me permission to post it on here. I absolutely ADORE this recipe. It just hits the spot for me, every time. Now, this is one of those recipes that changes every time... when my friend Kelly gave it to me, she literally just had me watch what she did, and write down what I saw. For example, at one point she said, "Put salt in your hand, dump in half, then throw the rest away." (If you are reading this Kelly, I love you!) I tried to find out what the exact measurements were for some of the things, but, you're just going to have to have fun with this and experiment. You really can't go too wrong... unless you put something in there that really doesn't go... like, fish... or something. :) My changes are in purple!

Anyway, here's the ingredient list: 

(This is based on a big group recipe... try halving it if you don't want so much.)

4 chicken breasts 

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup water

Poultry seasoning

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

abt. 3 cups rice (or however much you want)

4 Tbsp. butter, sliced into 1 Tbsp. pieces (I used 3 Tbsp. margarine)

Curry powder, mild- 2 dashes

nutmeg- 1 dash 

ginger

1 can apricots (I used lite apricots)

1 can coconut milk, sunluck

 (I also used light coconut milk, and it wasn't the sunluck brand)

1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

2 Tbsp. cornstarch 

coconut, toasted

Directions: 

Take chicken breasts, put them in a large skillet and cook in water on high. Adjust your water amount based on how much chicken you are cooking. You will be using the liquid later, but you don't want too much liquid. It should just cover your chicken so it can cook. After cooking a few minutes, take chicken out and chop into bite sized pieces. Put them back in the skillet, and put a light layer of poultry seasoning on the top and cook until no longer pink. When no longer pink, place chicken and all liquids in a bowl until later. Don't rinse skillet!

Start cooking your rice. 

I wanted to use brown rice, but wasn't able to, so if anyone does brown rice, tell me how it tastes!

Put skillet back on heat and cook the onion and garlic in the butter until transparent. Put in the 2 dashes of curry powder, 1 dash of nutmeg, then add ginger. LOTS. I put a light layer on the chicken, stirred, then did it again two more times. Cook until fragrant... This is the part that you play with. I have done this before, and I know that I've put a little more ginger than I did this time, and it still tasted good. Go with what smells good to you... follow your nose!

Dump the bowl of chicken and broth/water back into the skillet and fold it in. Partially drain the apricots and add; then the coconut milk. Add the cinnamon, salt and brown sugar; stir. 

Put the cornstarch in a small bowl and add small amounts of water, stirring vigorously until it's a liquid. Then add to the chicken curry while continuously stirring. Turn heat down and let thicken. 

You can then add the toasted coconut and enjoy! Serve over rice. 

I didn't add the toasted coconut, but I have had it with toasted coconut and it tastes yummy.

My 2 year old son was "helping" me... very difficult to cook dinner when you have a 2 year old "helping". :) Cute though. 

Well, I hope that this is a recipe that works out for everyone. I really enjoyed it... even with the changes that I made. I like the original version better, but even with the lower fat options that I tried, it still tasted good. 

Lemon Chicken and Rice

This is a delicious and easy crock pot recipe! I borrowed the recipe from This website but I am always out of atleast a couple of the main ingredients! Good thing I like to improvise!

Lemon Chicken and Rice

5 small chicken breast

1 c Flour

1 T Salt

Olive Oil

Sauce:

6 T Brown Sugar

6 T Ketchup

1 1/2 c Lemon Juice

2 T White Vinegar

Cut the chicken into strips and toss in a bowl with the flour and salt. Lightly brown the outside of the chicken. Just enough for the flour ,mixture to stick. Put the chicken into the crockpot. Mix the ingredients for the sauce together and pour over the chicken. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6-8 hours. Enjoy over lemon pepper rice!

Chicken Bacon Pizza Biscuits!

This recipes was inspired by Our Best Bites, I love their site. However, again I did not have all of the ingredients so I improvised!

Chicken-Bacon Pizza Biscuits!

2 medium Chicken Breast
1/2 package Bacon
2 packages Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits Phil says they taste better with butter flavored biscuits!
2 cups shredded cheese
Parmesan Cheese




Cook the chicken and chop into tiny pieces. As small as you can get them. Add the bacon to the cooked chicken and cook together.



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cut the biscuits in half and using a rolling pin flatten them out a little bit. Not too much you still need them to stretch around the toppings. Sprinkle Parmesan Cheese, Shredded cheese and 1 T. Chicken mixture.



Fold the biscuit around the filling and flip upside down onto a greased pan. Cook for approximately 12 min or until done.



Enjoy with your favorite pizza dip or eat them plain. Either way they are delicious!!!

Warning! Diet ruining recipe!

I could not figure out what I wanted for a snack this afternoon! I wanted chocolate but the only kind we had was hot chocolate, I wanted peanut butter but all we had was plain old peanut butter! The only thing I could do was combine them and drink it up!

Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate!
Single serving

1 cup Milk
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp Peanut butter
3 heaping Tbsp Favorite Hot Chocolate

In a small sauce pan pour milk and heat on medium low, when it gets warm put in reamaining ingredients. Stir continually until well mixed. Continue to heat for 2-3 minutes being careful not to boil. Remove from heat, pour into a mug. Gently lift to your lips and blow a couple times. Drink!

Let me know what you think!

Banana Shake with Rice milk

Lately I have been trying to find yummy dishes that don't use dairy. It is really hard to find any that my kids will eat. I did however create a dessert that they will eat. If you make it let me know how it turned out for you.

Banana and Rice Milk shake

4 ripe bananas
1/2 cup Rice Milk
10-20 ice cubes
Vanilla

Cut up the bananas into pieces and put them in the freezer. Leave them in there for a couple hours or until frozen. Put all the ingredients into a blender or food processor and mix until well blended. Enjoy!

When I made this last night I did not add vanilla. The kids relaly liked it but my husband and I thought it needed more flavor. Before pouring this into your cup taste it and add more flavoring if you need it. I was also thinking it might tast good with some chocolate syrup on it!

Mashed Potato and Black Bean Soup!

I got this recipe idea from Our Best Bites! I love their site. They have all sorts of yummy stuff!
Anyway, I wanted to make it but I did not have several ingredients and for some reason my baked potatoes did not turn out the way I thought they would so they ended up mashed!

Baked Potato Soup
Recipe by Our Best Bites


3 Tbs butter I love butter which I think is part of my down fall so I added an extra Tbsp
2-3 cloves garlic, minced I ran out of this ingredient so I ended up using 1 small chopped onion and some Garlic salt with parsley. Then I sauteed it all together.
1/2 C flour
4 1/2 C milk (low fat works great)
1 14oz can chicken broth
4 medium baking potatoes (about 2 1/2 pounds) baked* I used 6 potatoes
2 C grated cheddar (or sharp cheddar) cheese, divided
1 1/2 tsp. salt More Garlic Salt!
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 C sour cream (low fat is fine), divided
1/2 C chopped green onions, divided
8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled, divided
2 cans Black Beans

*don't have time to bake potatoes in the oven? Just pierce them with a fork a few times and then pop them in the microwave. Cook in 5 minute intervals until a knife easily pierces through them. It usually takes 5-10 minutes. To bake in the oven, pierce each potato with a fork and place directly on oven rack. Bake at 375 for 45-60 minutes.

Melt butter in a stock pot over medium heat. Add garlic or onions and saute for 30-60 seconds until fragrant. Add flour to pan. At this point I mixed the flour in with the onions and let it cook for one minute. It makes it so you don't have to worry about chunks of flour. Slowly add milk a little at a time while whisking constantly to eliminate lumps. Whisk until smooth and then add chicken broth and Beans so the beans will become soft. (Now, if you get to this point and don't have a smooth liquid. Stop! Save your soup by popping the mixture in the blender, then continue.) Bring soup just to a simmer and heat until thickened, stirring often, about 5 minutes.

Once soup is thickened, turn heat down to medium-low. Cut potatoes in half length-wise and use a spoon to scoop out potato flesh into the pot. Use a wooden spoon to smash potatoes, breaking up large clumps. Add 1 1/2 C grated cheese and salt and pepper and stir until cheese is melted. Remove pan from heat and stir in 3/4 C sour cream, 1/4 C green onions, and 4 strips of the crumbled bacon. Add additional salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls and top with each serving with the remaining sour cream, onions, cheese, and bacon.
Now, I love bacon and if you do too I would double the amount of bacon you put into the soup.

Enjoy!!!!

Baked Chicken Taquitos!

I found this extremely good recipe for Baked Chicken Taquitos from Our Best Bites. They have the most wonderful food imaginable! Of course I changed the recipe a bit to fit our particular needs, but it was still delicious! Delicious enough that Phil was excited to take them to work for lunch!


Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos

1/3 C (3 oz) cream cheese
1/4 C green salsa
1T fresh lime juice Did not use
1/2 t cumin
1 t chili powder
1/2 t onion powder I did not have this so I used dried chopped onions. It worked just as well.
1/4 t granulated garlic, or garlic powder I only had Garlic Salt, I didn't notice a difference
3 T chopped cilantro
2 T sliced green onions
2 C shredded cooked chicken (for extra yumminess, use grilled taco chicken!)
1 C grated pepperjack cheese I used fiesta shredded cheese

small corn tortillas (and actually, flour ones are really good as well) I used small flour tortillas I liked them much better
kosher salt I did not have this either
cooking spray

Heat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly coat with cooking spray.

Heat cream cheese in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds so it's soft and easy to stir. Add green salsa, lime juice (I forgot to add this but I think it was a good idea since there was lime in the dressing that I made), cumin, chili powder, onion powder and granulated garlic. Stir to combine and then add cilantro and green onions. Add chicken and cheese and combine well.

You can prepare up to this step ahead of time. Just keep the mixture in the fridge.

Work with a few tortillas at a time and heat in the microwave until they are soft enough to roll without cracking. It helps to place them between damp paper towels. Usually 20-30 seconds will do it, We put it in a plastic bag and warmed them up for 20 seconds then flipped them over and warmed them for another 20 seconds. If you find yours are cracking when you roll them or are coming unrolled right away, just try heating them longer and try the paper towel thing.

Place 2-3 T of chicken mixture on the lower third of a tortilla, keeping it about 1/2 inch from the edges. We did a little more of the mixture cause we like a lot! It did spill out while cooking though.




Roll them up as tight as you can. Place seam side down on the baking sheet. Lay all of the taquitos on the baking sheet and make sure they are not touching each other. Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray or an oil mister and sprinkle some kosher salt on top.
Place pan in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until crisp and the ends start to get golden brown. I do live at a high altitude so I don't know if that made a difference or my oven is just weird but I only needed ot cook them for 10 minutes and they were perfect!

Creamy Lime-Cilantro Dressing: This dressing is also from Our Best Bites

This is the dressing I used for dipping. It was a little too thin so I added Cream Cheese. I think next time I will do cream cheese instead of the mayonnaise.

1 pack (1oz) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix ignore the directions on the packet
I used Italian dressing mix.
1C mayo if you want it to be thick like a dip use cream cheese instead
1/2 C milk
1 lime I would only put in 1/2 a lime. It wa way too limey!
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped again, we only had garlic salt it was still good though.
1/2 C roughly chopped cilantro since I put this in the blender I did not chop this up. The blender did it for me!
1/4 C green salsa* I doubled this but only to cover up most of the lime flavor
hot sauce I did not use this, I don't like it too spicy.

This is tough folks. Place milk, mayo, and ranch mix in a blender. Juice the lime in there too, you should get about 2T juice. Toss in the garlic, cilantro and green salsa. Blend 'er up. Sample it and add hot sauce to taste. Make it several hours ahead of time to allow it to thicken.

I hope you enjoy this recipe! We did!

KFC original recipe copycat!

This recipe is so good! It's not too oily/greasy that way I can type this and eat it at the same time!! The kids even like it!

2 envelopes tomato soup mix, preferably Lipton cup-o-soup brand (each envelope is about 1 oz each or roughly 1/4 cup) We did not use this ingredient
2 envelopes Italian dressing mix (one envelope is about 3/4 oz.)
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons dried chervil (optional, but makes a huge difference in taste) I did not use this. I don't even know what it is!
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 teaspoon instant chicken bouillon powder I crushed 2 chicken boullion cubes
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon tarragon I could not find this anywhere therefore it was not in my chicken mix
1/2 teaspoon sage
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 cups pancake mix, preferably Bisquick brand (self-rising flour can be substituted, but won't taste as good)

Enough buttermilk to soak the chicken Instead of buttermilk I put 1 T lemon juice for every 1 cup of milk.


Instructions for Making the Original KFC Recipe

Blend all of the Kentucky Fried Chicken ingredients for the coating in a blender.

The fried chicken coating is enough for a whole chicken, cut up. Soak the chicken pieces in buttermilk for at least one hour in the refrigerator, we just did about 15 minutes. Remove chicken from buttermilk and roll in the chicken coating mixture above. Let chicken sit at room temperature while waiting for the oil to get hot.

We deep fried them so the oil was about 325 degrees


Deep fry if possible for the most authentic copy of the original Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe. If that is not possible, use a cast iron skillet. Do not crowd the chicken when placing into the skillet. Use lard or shortening if you really want that original Kentucky Fried Chicken taste. If you're making this chicken recipe, chances are you weren't looking for low-fat, healthy recipes. ;)

Brown the chicken in the skillet on high heat. Then turn down the heat and cover the pan. Cook until the fried chicken is done, about 30 minutes. During the last 5 or 10 minutes, uncover the pan and turn up the heat. This will crisp up the fried chicken. Be careful not to burn the chicken during this last step.

Remove the fried chicken and drain on paper towels. Serve while still hot


ENJOY!