Broccoli Cauliflower Salad

This is always a hit at our various family occassions/parties. This broccoli cauliflower salad is my mom's signature salad she brings to potlucks or gatherings and has been asked for the recipe several times. Try this!
*This is a great salad to assemble the night before and just add the last 3 ingredients just before serving!
Ingredients:
1 bunch broccoli, cut
1 head cauliflower, pieces
1/2 medium red onion, chopped
1/2 lb bacon, crumbled (can use turkey bacon if desired)
1 c shredded cheese

small can sliced olives

sliced mushrooms

8 oz light mayo

1/2 c sugar
4-5 T vinegar
Directions:
1. Fry bacon and cut into pieces.
2. Combine first 7 ingredients in large serving bowl.
3. Mix last 3 ingredients and add to salad just before serving.

Pineapple Coconut Zucchini Bread

Tonight I spent my night making this bread and decorating noise-maker milk jugs for the USF vs. UND game tomorrow in Grand Forks. We (me, my parents, Trevor's parents) are taking off tomorrow a.m. and heading north for the first-ever USF-UND match-up, so it should be interesting! It will be nice to be in a dome and not frrreezing!

On to the recipe... I get bored making the same zucchini bread, brownies, or bars, so I tried to find something different to try. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. I like finding recipes on there and basing my choice off of the reviews from people who have tried it and gave their rating. This was a 5-star rated recipe and I agree. I like the combo of coconut-pineapple-zucchini-and a little pumpkin spice. The texture of the coconut and moist chunks of pineapple make this bread special. Gets my stamp of approval and I will definately make it again.

It made enough batter for 2 loaves+some..so I made 2 mini loaves from the remaining because I wanted to use the mini-loaf pans I got from my grandmother's collection. Too cute!
















Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour (Original called for just 3 c all-purpose-I subbed in 1 c whole wheat instead and couldn't tell @ all)
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil (again the original called for 1 c oil, but I used 1/2c and 1/2c applesauce-worked great)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup white sugar (I used about 3/4 c)
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups grated unpeeled zucchini (I peeled mine!)
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, well drained
1/2 cup shredded coconut
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease 2 9x5 inch loaf pans. Stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice in a medium bowl until well blended; set aside.
2. Whisk eggs, oil, white sugar, and brown sugar together in a large bowl. Stir in sour cream, vanilla, zucchini, pineapple, and coconut. Stir in the flour mixture, mixing just until moistened.
3. Divide batter between the prepared loaf pans.
4.Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove and finish cooling on a wire rack.














These are the mini loaves..CUTE

Mom's Pork Crockpot Roast

I've realized with my posts that I am in need of a better camera..as far as for food photography anyway:) Ignore the dim lighting and my lack of photography skills if you can..because this is a great stand by recipe for a pork roast. Can't take credit for this one though..my mom made this roast this week for supper, just like she has many times before and it was, as always, deeelicious. It's hard to beat a roast that has been cooking all day in a crock pot. It makes the meat really tender and these few ingredients my mom adds to it makes it melt-in-your-mouth good. Try this, I dare ya! You will be glad you did!

Ingredients:

4-5 lb loin end pork roast (*can use any cut of pork--shoulder, loin, or whatever is on sale:))

Salt, Pepper

1 large clove garlic

1 onion sliced into rings, not chopped

2 bay leaves

1 whole clove

1 c hot water

2 T soy sauce

Directions:

Rub pork roast with salt/pepper. Make tiny slits in meat and insert slivers of garlic. Place roast in broiler pan and broil 15-20 mins to remove excess fat.

Put 1 sliced onion in bottom of Crock Pot. Add browned pork roast and remaining ingredients. Cover and cook on LOW until done-about 10 hours.

To thicken gravy: Remove roast to serving platter. Blend 2 T cornstarch w/2 T cold water to form paste. Set on HIGH and pour in paste. Stir well and let come to boil-about 15 mins-until thickened. (depending on how much liquid is left in the crock, you may need to continue to add more cornstarch mix to reach desired thickness).

Instant Black Bean Soup

I have been a little slow on posting recipes lately..I guess that is because I haven't been doing much cooking lately! My latest plans are to relocate to Lincoln, NE so I have been busy job hunting for Dental Hygiene openings there. I had a couple interviews this week, so along with traveling to Trevor's football games, I haven't been home much!

This recipe is from Cooking Light. I love beans:) So much so that Trevor calls me black bean..haha, odd I know, but I can't help it! Anyway..it's getting cold outside and it prompted me to attempt a black bean soup. I found this recipe on Cooking Light's website and decided to try it after reading some of the 43 positive reviews by people that had made the soup. I really did like the result, and my parents said they did too (even though they were very skeptical at first). However, I would change a few things about the recipe if I were to make it again. It was too runny, which some of the reviews had stated. So next time I plan to use much less broth and maybe drain some of the liquid from the beans, which it says not to do. All in all though, this was a good black bean soup and is done in no time at all. Oh..I sauted onion and garlic in the saucepan before beginning the recipe, because what soup isn't better with onion and garlic added to it?

Ingredients:

2 (15-ounce) cans no-salt-added black beans, undrained
1/2 cup bottled salsa
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 (16-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth (would use less!)
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese
5 tablespoons low-fat sour cream
5 tablespoons minced green onions
2 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (didn't add b/c I don't like cilantro;))

Directions:

Place beans and liquid in a medium saucepan; partially mash beans with a potato masher. Place over high heat; stir in salsa, chili powder, and broth. Bring to a boil. Ladle soup into bowls; top with cheese, sour cream, onions, and cilantro.

Nutrition Info:

Calories: 212 (21% from fat)
Fat: 4.9g (sat 2.6g,mono 1.2g,poly 0.5g)
Protein: 14.7g
Carbohydrate: 28.7g
Fiber: 5.4g
Cholesterol: 13mg
Iron: 2.9mg
Sodium: 411mg
Calcium: 163mg

Apple Turnovers

This recipe had my dad written all over it. He loves every and any type of turnover ever created. I thought I would take a stab at making homemade apple turnovers because I knew he would be in favor. I saw this recipe on a few different fellow bloggers' websites, (I think it was a recipe in some baking club called TWD--but I still haven't figured out what it stands for or what it actually involves:)). Anyway..These are worth the time it takes to make and roll out the dough, because they can be frozen for like ever and then just pulled out of the freezer and popped straight into the oven for fresh baked turnovers in a very short time. This recipe has to be made in stages, however. (you have to refridgerate the dough a couple times before cutting into rounds for the turnovers).

Ingredients:

DOUGH-

1 c sour cream

1/2 c sugar

4 c all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

3 sticks unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (I used a little less)

FILLING-

1 T all purpose flour

1/2 c sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

4 large apples, peeled, cored, chopped

3 T cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 large egg, beaten with 1 tsp water (for egg wash)

Sugar, for dusting

FROSTING: optional

I mixed powdered sugar+milk+vanilla

Directions:

For dough:

Stir sour cream and sugar together; set aside

Whisk flour and salt together in large bowl. Toss butter bits into flour. Working with pastry blender, or a fork, cut the butter into the engredients until resembles course meal. (don't be too particular about this part-better to have uneven mix than overworked dough). Switch to a fork and gently stir in sour cream. Dough should be soft--this is the point where I had to change the recipe. My dough was far too crumbly and not moist enough, so I just added water by Tablespoon fulls until a moist dough was formed.

Divide dough in half. Put each half in a piece of plastic wrap and use the plastice to shape into a rectangle. Wrap the dough and refrigerate for @ least 1 hour or up to 2 days. (I left it in over night)

Remove one piece of dough from fridge and roll into a large rectangle. (@ least 9x13) I rolled it between two sheets of the plastice wrap dusted with flour. Fold the dough into thirds, like a business letter, wrap and refrigerate again. Repeat with 2nd piece of dough and refridgerate for @ least 2 hours or up to 1 day.

Filling:

Whisk flour, sugar, cinnamon together in large bowl. Add apples and toss to coat.

Preparing to bake:

Position racks to divide oven into thirds; preheat to 375.

Roll out 1 piece of dough to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. (make sure it's pretty thin). Cut 4 1/2 inch rounds with a large cutter (I used a small pot lid). Repeat with second piece of dough. I gathered the scraps of the dough back into a ball and refridgerated again to make use of the extra. Then I brought it back out later and make more turnovers from the leftover scraps.

Place 2 T of apples into center of each round; dot with butter. Moisten the edges of each round w/ a little water and fold in half, sealing edges with fork tines. Use the fork to poke steam holes in each turnover(I forgot to do this and they turned out fine). **This is the point where the turnovers can be individually wrapped in plastic, placed in an airtight freezing container and frozen for up to 2 months. When ready to bake simply add a few more minutes to the baking time if frozen. Otherwise..Place turnovers on a sprayed baking sheet. Bake them without frosting.

Brush the tops of turnovers with a little egg wash and sprinkle each one witha pinch of sugar. Bake for about 20 minutes. When done, the turnovers will be puffed, firm to touch, and golden. Gently transfer to racks to cool.

I opted to drizzle the turnovers with a simple powdered sugar frosting mixture of milk+powdered sugar+ vanilla and sprinkled with cinnamon.

Oreos and Cream Rice Krispie Bars

I think it is pretty safe to say that everyone liked rice krispie bars right? I know in my opinion they rock! I combined a few recipes I found on other blog sites to make these gooey, oreoy, rice krispity bars:) They are a standard rice krispie recipe with added mini oreo cookies and then the tops are dipped in melted white chocolate. Mmmm...

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 bags marshmallows (I like them gooey)

4 T butter

6 cups rice krispies

8oz bag mini oreos

5 oz white chocolate

Directions:

1. In large pot, melt butter over low heat.

2. Once melted, add marshmallows and heat until combined. All the chunks of mallow will be gone...careful not to burn them. Stir constantly

3. Add cereal and cookies; stir to combine. **reserve about 6 cookies and finely chop to use later for the crumb top of the bars

4. Press mixture into greased 8x11 pan. (I used this smaller pan to have thicker bars; can use 9x13 also). PS: a buttered spatula, spoon, or wax paper helps a lot in this step!

5. Let bars cool completely.

6. Meanwhile, chop chocolate.

7. Once bars are cooled, cut into squares.

8. Place chopped chocolate into small bowl and microwave on high at 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval, until melted.

9. Dip the tops of each bar into chocolate, then into reserved cookie crumbs.

**These keep well in a air tight container for a long time.