Roasted Potatoes with Rosemary

This recipe is a variation of one I make often. I am addicted to sweet potatoes. You might be thinking..Eh...Sweet potatoes..Blah, but if you haven't ever tried roasting sweet potatoes I highly recommend it. This time I used both regular Yukon gold potatoes and sweet potatoes, so any variety of potato can be used. Personally, I just like the flavor of sweet potatoes, but also found out they are suuper good for you and packed with vitamins. Let's take a moment to honor the sweet potato shall we?
Sweet Potatoes:
A nutritional All-star, sweet potatoes are loaded with vitamin A, vitamon C, potassium, caratenoids, and fiber. Despite the name, sweet potatoes are very low in sugar (unlike other starchy vegetables) so they are known as a low glycemic food. This means, sweet potatoes do not send a spike in your blood sugar when eaten. Sweet potatoes are high in anti-oxidants and high in folate. Regular sweet potato consumption has even been shown to strengthen the body's immune system and are great for muscle cramp prevention. Because of their ability to prevent muscle cramps, sweet potatoes should be a regular part of athlete's diets. This makes me remember a comment I heard from Usain Bolt (the sprinter that recently ran the fastest of any human in the 100 and 200m races) after asked what his training secret was. He responded with something like.."I've been eating a lot of sweet potoates."
So, I guess it should be..."A sweet potato a day keeps the doctor away."

Now on with the recipe:
Ingredients:
2 sweet potatoes
3 regular potatoes
2 T olive oil
3 cloves garlic (the more the better in my opinion)
Ground pepper
3 sprigs Rosemary

**Have fun experimenting with different seasonings/herbs. In the past I have used parsley, basil, oregano, garlic, black pepper, Mrs. Dash..in all sorts of different combinations. However, I think garlic, black pepper, and olive oil are the three essentials when roasting potatoes.
Directions:
1. Dice uncooked pototoes
2. In large bowl, coat potatoes with olive oil.
3. Add garlic, pepper, rosemary. Stir to coat.















4. This time, I grilled the sweet potatoes on the charcoal grill using a new grill basket. However, every other time I have baked the potoes on a cookie sheet. Either way works great. (Slightly more olive oil may be needed when grilling than in the oven).

5. If grilling, place potatoes in grill basket, or in a foil packet. Grill for 30-40 minutes.

6. If baking in the oven, spread potatoes evenly on a cookie sheet. Bake @ 375 for about 45-55 minutes.

Mini Turkey Meatloaves

Who doesn't love meatloaf?! Well..on second thought I can think of a few that don't...but, that is beside the point..I LOVE meatloaf! When I think of comfort food, meatloaf is definately one of the first things that I think of. This recipe is made with lean ground turkey that is very flavorful, is the perfect portion size, and looks too cute to eat...almost:) The mini meatloaves are packed with spinach, onions, and finished with a sweet and spicy glaze. This recipe comes from the TV show Cook Yourself Thin on Lifetime. I changed the glaze, because I didn't have any hot sauce (which the recipe calls for), so I used cumin instead. The glaze was wonderful! I made the comment that I plan to make the glaze in the future just to dip stuff in. Along with these meatloaves I made some roasted potatoes, which is also posted.
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
Ingredients:
1 slice whole-wheat bread
1/2 cup skim milk
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 onion, diced (I only used 1/2 a yellow onion and it was plenty!)
5-ounce bag baby spinach leaves
1 1/4 pounds ground turkey
2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

For Glaze:
3 tablespoons ketchup
2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/8 tsp ground cumin (go easy on it..a lot goes a long way)
Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Grind the bread in a food processor until fine crumbs form. Transfer to a large bowl, and pour milk over crumbs.
3. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a large skillet, preferably nonstick, over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and golden, about 5 minutes. Add spinach, and stir until just wilted, about 30 seconds. Transfer to bowl with soaked crumbs. Add the turkey, cheese, egg, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Combine the mixture with your hands until well mixed; it will be quite wet.

4. Pack 1 cup of the mixture into a 1-cup dry measuring cup. Invert the cup onto a rimmed baking sheet, gently shaking the cup to release the mixture. Gently pat the mound to smooth its shape. Repeat three times with remaining mixture. Bake mini meatloaves until cooked through and golden, about 40 minutes.

5. While the meatloaves are cooking, make the glaze: In a small bowl combine the ketchup, cumin, and worcestershire. Brush over meatloaves with about 10 minutes remaining in the cooking time.














Calories per serving, meatloaves: 227

Bert's Easiest Apple Pie

Next time you get a batch of apples or have a craving for an apple pie here is a great, eeeaasy recipe to try! This pie is great warm from the oven, with a lot of cinnamon and a sweet, buttery crust topping that's great all by itself or with some whipped cream or ice cream on top. Mmmm. .

But, the best part...there is absolutely NO rolling out of a crust for this pie!! Oh! and this recipe comes from my Grandma (Bert) and is a recipe we use again and again. Thanks Grams
Ingredients:
1 c flour
1 c sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 stick butter, melted
1/4 c cinnamon
1/4 c sugar
Apples-sliced, pealed (Amt depends on size of apples and pie pan-enough slices to fill pie pan 2/3 full)
1 greased pie pan
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. Mix flour, sugar, salt, vanilla, egg, butter in a medium bowl.





























2. Fill greased pie pan 2/3 full with peeled, sliced apples.















3. Mix cinnamon + sugar

4. Sprinkle apples with cinnamon+sugar mixture. (Reserve about 1/2 T to sprinkle over crust before baking).

5. Cover apples with flour mixture.

6. Sprinkle dough with reserved cinnamon + sugar.
7. Bake @ 350 for 45-50 mins. Do not overbake

That's it! A simple recipe for a classic homemade apple pie. Enjoy

German Chocolate Cookies

This recipe comes from the Better Homes & Garden Magazine, from a section called 'Healthier Chocolate Desserts.' I've always loved the combo of coconut + chocolate and these didn't dissappoint! They are quick to make (only take about 9 mins to bake) and taste really chocolatey! They use dark baking chocolate and leave the option of adding flax meal (I didn't because we didn't have any..)
MAKES 35 COOKIES

Ingredients:
1/4 c butter, softened

1/4 packed brown sugar

1/2 tsp, baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2/3 c all-purpose flour

2/3 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup flax seed meal (optional)

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3 oz dark of sweet baking chocolate, chopped (I used half and half semi-sweet baking chocolate and chopped dark chocolate chips, b/c it's what was in the pantry!)

1/3 c flaked coconut

1/3 c chopped pecans

Optional- chopped pecans/coconut for top
Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 350

2. In large mixing bowl, beat butter with electric mixer on medium for 30 seconds.

3. Add brown sugar, baking soda, salt. Beat until well combined, scraping sides occasionally.

4. Beat in egg, vanilla until combined.

5. Beat in flour.

6. Stir in rolled oats, flax seed.

7. Stir in cocoa.
8. Stir in chocolat, coconut, pecans. Dough will be thick.

9. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets. If desired, sprinkle tops with chopped pecans, coconut.

10. Bake @350 for 8-10 minutes. (edges will feel a little firm, not much)

11. Let cookies cool on sheet for 1 min. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Storage:

Keep for 2 days at room temp or freeze for up to 3 months

Nutrit. Info:

84 cal, 4 g fat, 45 mg sodium, 11g carb

Makeover Banana Bars

A banana recipe? What a shocker. These bars are aaaamazing! Use this recipe next time you have a few over-ripe bananas lying around.. you won't be sorry. I brought a few of these to the dental office I worked @ today and everyone loved them! They are really moist with a creamy, sweet cream cheese frosting. The recipe comes from the Healthy Cooking Taste of Home Magazine and is one we make often at my house. Whenever I bring these anywhere, I often get asked for the recipe. YUM
MAKES 3 DOZEN
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar (I used half sugar, half Splenda)
2 eggs (I used 1/2 c egg beaters)
1-1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Dash salt
FROSTING:
**I made half of the frosting and it was plenty! What is below is the full batch**
1 package (8 ounces) reduced-fat cream cheese
1/3 cup butter, softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions:
1.In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until crumbly, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the bananas, applesauce and vanilla.














2.Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into butter mixture just until blended.














3.Transfer to a 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan coated with cooking spray.
4. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack.














5.For frosting, in a small bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla; beat until smooth. Frost bars. Refrigerate leftovers.

Matthew's Chicken Ladas with Green Chilis

This recipe comes from Denny and the Matthews family. Don't let the green chilis scare you! As I said before, I am pretty scared of anything spicy..So when I say this recipe has just enough spice for a really good flavor, I promise it won't be too much! I remember going over to my friend Megan's house and having her dad (Denny) make his specialty chicken enchiladas. I think that's saying something if I remembered last having this recipe when I was about 14 yrs old!
P.S.-for any Sioux Falls natives- this reminds me of Mama's Ladas enchiladas!!
*Also...ignore the puke-yellow colored stove in the background of the pics-this was made in Trevor's lovely Patterson Hall residence;)














Ingredients:
4 medium-large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thawed
1 pkg taco seasoning mix + 1 cup water
1 (16oz) container light sour cream
2 (10.5 oz) cans cream of chicken soup
2 (2oz) mini cans of green chilis
1 (6.5oz) can black olives, chopped
12 (or so) Flour tortillas
1 pkg shredded cheese
Optional topping-
Shredded lettuce, tomato, sour cream, salsa
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
1. Bring medium pot of water to a boil
2. Add chicken
















3. Allow chicken to boil about 1/2 hour or until cooked through.
4. Meanwhile, combine sour cream, soup, chilis, olives in a medium bowl.















5. Once chicken is cooked, drain.
6. Shred/chop chicken.
7. Return chicken to pan.
8. In a small bowl or measuring cup, measure 1 cup water.
9. Add taco seasoning packet to water.















10. Add taco seasoning/water mixture to the chicken.
11. Add HALF of the sour cream/soup mixture to the chicken. Stir-this is your enchilada filling
12. Fill tortillas w/the mixture and fold burrito style before placing them seam-side down in a 9x13" pan.














13. Spread remaining 1/2 of sour cream/soup mixture over enchiladas.
14. Sprinkle w/shredded cheese.
15. Bake @ 350 until cheese is melted and edges are bubbling. (About 30 mins)

Banana Stuffed French Toast w/Nutmeg Sauce

I told you I reeeaally like bananas:) I have often made stuffed french toast similar to this one, but just alter the fruit filling each time. For this recipe I wanted to make the Nutmeg sauce that I remembered learning how to make in High school home ec class..so I came up with this similar sauce from scanning different recipes on the internet.

When I made the stuffed french toast this time, I think there was too much cream cheese filling, so for the recipe I will halve the amt used.
MAKES 3 SERVINGS (Random # of servings, but made it for my parents and I)
Ingredients:
FRENCH TOAST-
6 slices whole wheat bread
1/2 c egg beaters
1/4 c egg whites
1/4 c skim milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups crushed cereal (I use rice krispies b/c it's what we had-can opt for corn flakes)
FILLING-
2 oz fat free cream cheese
2 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 T milk
1/4 c splenda
Sliced bananas (2-3)
SAUCE-
1/4 c butter
1/4 c packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Directions:
For Filling:
1. Soften both cream cheeses.
2. Add milk, vanilla, splenda.
3. Stir to combine; set aside.
4. Slice bananas; set aside.
For french toast:
**Preheat griddle to 350 degrees.
1. Place cereal in ziploc baggie. Crush w/ rolling pin.
2. In shallow bowl, combine egg, milk, vanilla, cinnamon for the toast egg wash.
3. Dip bread first in egg, then in cereal.




























4. Place toast on griddle.
5. Grill one side until golden brown, then flip.














For sauce:
(This only takes a couple minutes, so wait until one side of french toast slices are browned to start heating the sauce).
6. While french toast is browning, place small saucepan on stove top and add butter, brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon.














7. Over low heat, melt mixture; stirring often.
8. Once fresh toast is browned, remove from griddle and spread cream cheese mixture on one piece.
9. Layer banana sliced over cream cheese.
10. Top w/ second piece of french toast.














11. Slice
12. Drizzle with sauce, sliced bananas, powdered sugar.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

This recipe comes from the Lifetime TV show Cook Yourself Thin.
Can you tell Trevor and I like chocolate chip muffins? 2 of my first 6 recipes are chocolate chip muffins..(Not to mention I had a c.c. muffin flop in there that I chose not to post haha)

Both these and the zucchini muffins I put on here earlier are winners. Of course I modified this recipe b/c there were WAAAY too few chocolate chips in the recipe..I guess that's why it was on a Cook Yourself Thin show :/...It only called for a total of 2 T chocolate chips to sprinkle on the tops of the muffins. Are you kidding me? So I chose to put dark chocolate chips in the batter and then sprinkled some mini chocolate chips on top. Muuuch better.
Ingredients:
1 c all-purp flour
1 c whole wheat flour
1/2 rolled oats
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 ripe banana, mashed
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 c brown sugar, packed
2 T vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 1/4 c reduced fat buttermilk (I didn't have any so used 1 T vinegar+skim milk instead)
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 c chocolate chips (can sprinkle w/mini chips if desired)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400
2. In large bowl, combine flours, oats, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt + mashed banana. Blend on low 2 mins
3. Add walnuts, brown sugar, oil, eggs, buttermilk and stir to combine.
4. Add vanilla and stir.
5. Use ice cream scoop to portion the muffins out into the tin. Bake for 15 mins. Remove and let cool.

Garden Vegetable Skillet Medley

This recipe comes from a local magazine (Cooperative Connections) and was in a recipe section called Garden Creations. It was a perfect recipe to utilize a bunch of vegetables and fresh rosemary from my mom's garden. This is definately a budget friendly meal! It's full of vegetables and gets a lot of flavor from rosemary and a package of tomato pesto flavored tuna..Easy!

This meal was definately a taste of summer!

Ingredients:

1/4 c olive oil

2 c diced red potatoes (make sure to dice fairly small to ensure they get fully cooked)

1 onion, sliced julienne strips

2 c fresh green beans, trimmed

2 yellow squash, sliced

2 zucchini, sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced

Dash of salt..to taste

2 tsp fresh rosemary (more to taste)

2 (4 oz) packages Starkist Albacore Creations-Tomato Pesto

-->The recipe called for 2 cans Bumble Bee Sensations Sundried Tomato Basil Tuna

undrained, but our grocery store was out of that..The Starkist brand worked great!
--> I also chose to add a few sprinkles of Mrs. Dash tomato basil seasoning

Directions:

1. In large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat.

2. Add potatoes, green beans. Saute 6 mins, turning frequently

3. Add remaining vegetables, garlic, salt, rosemary.

4. Add tuna. Cook mixture for approx. 10 mins.

5. Serve from skillet

Olive Chili

Today was a "chili" day for August, so we had chili for supper tonight. I hope "You Love" this chili as much as "Olive" this chili...(super cheesy, I know, but really there are olives in it). You may be thinking..."Olives? And Chili? And Mushrooms??" (that's what Trevor says about it), but I promise you it's good! It's a sweet chili, because my fam is pretty wussy when it comes to spice, and it's loaded with a lot of 'chunky' stuff!

Ingredients:

1 can tomatoes

1 can kidney beans, drained

1 can cannellini beans, drained (for these first 2 cans of beans you can use any kind you like!)

1 can Bush's pork n' beans

1 lb browned hamburger

1 medium onion, chopped

green/black olives or both

mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 tsp cumin

1 1/2 tsp chili powder (more to taste)
pepper to taste

salt to taste (I usually leave this out)

shredded cheese/sour cream for topping (optional)

Directions:

1. Throw it all in the crock pot!! Put on Low for @ least 8 hrs (8-12hrs)

We had this chili with some sweet corn from my brother-in-law's parent's garden and "Old Mom's Cukes." -->(Recipe for the cukes is posted earlier)