Easter Breakfast Casserole

Posted in breakfast, extras, sweets, things we like to eat by mydaughterandiblog

Easter is such a great holiday and such a wonderful time of year! We often go to a sunrise church service and by the time we get home, we are all ready for a delicious breakfast. This breakfast casserole is so simple and delicious and we all love it! At Christmas time, this recipe was our most popular post ever and I can understand why.

You mix the casserole up and leave it in the refrigerator overnight and then pop it in the oven the next morning. We serve ours with fruit and either muffins or cinnamon rolls. Listed below are a few of our favorite breakfast sweets. Enjoy your Easter!

1./ Blueberry Muffins 2./ Fresh Blackberry & Lemon Cake 3./ Apple Crisp Muffins

Easter Breakfast Casserole

4 cups of shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed
10 eggs
8 pieces of cooked bacon,chopped
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/3 milk
4or 5 green onions, chopped
Hot sauce to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup of additional shredded cheese for top of casserole

Mix all the ingredients together except the 1/2 cup of cheese. Pour into a greased 9×13″ pan. Top with the shredded cheese. Cover and put into refrigerator overnight. Let sit on counter for 5 to 10 minutes and then bake uncovered at 325* for about 45 minutes or until the eggs are cooked.

Cindy

9Apr2014

Rainbow Peanut Noodles

Posted in extras, main dishes, salads, side dishes, things we like to eat by mydaughterandiblog

I made this dish on Monday night and it was a hit! It has been HOT here – summer-like weather, so we are definitely onto our summer recipes! There definitely aren’t any soups, stews or roasts happening around this house!

When I saw this recipe on Gimme Some Oven I knew I would love it! I love peanut sauce – I think I could actually eat it with a spoon. I also love pasta – and really I love veggies — so this dish was made for me. This will be a great staple meal for us- especially when we have a bunch of veggies coming out of the garden. I made a few minor changes, just to suit our tastes, or what we had on hand. We had some asparagus so I used that instead of the edamame. The colors were beautiful! It was great for dinner and then I ate it the next day, cold, for lunch and it was delicious.

Ours turned out a bit dry- next time I would follow the recipe a bit better and add the pasta water. I also doubled the recipe, so it was a bit difficult to get everything stirred around. The peanut sauce called for fresh ginger, which I had never used before. I loved it. The smell was incredible and fresh smelling, but when you tasted it – it was refreshing and a bit spicy. It was a wonderful addition to the recipe and I would use the fresh ginger again. I was thinking about trying it in my morning smoothie! Weird? Maybe!

Rainbow Peanut Noodles

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Yield: About 4-6 servings

Ingredients

12 ounces whole-wheat pasta – since I doubled the recipe, I did half whole wheat, half regular pasta
1 Tbsp. peanut oil (or olive oil)
1 red bell pepper, cored and julienned (thinly sliced)
1 yellow bell pepper, cored and julienned
1 large carrot, peeled and julienned
1 cup shredded red cabbage
1 cup shelled edamame or asparagus or green beans — whatever you have!
topping: thinly-sliced scallions (green onions), toasted sesame seeds and chopped peanuts

Peanut Sauce Ingredients:

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. honey
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
1 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger
2 tsp. sesame oil
1 clove garlic, peeled
(optional) 1 tsp. sriracha hot chili sauce, or more to taste

Cook pasta al dente according to package directions.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add bell peppers, carrots, cabbage, and edamame, and saute for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain it, but reserve 1/4 cup pasta water on the side. Add the pasta and peanut sauce to the saute pan of veggies and toss to combine. If the sauce is too thick, add a tablespoon or two of the pasta water until the sauce reaches your desired consistency.

Serve immediately, topped with scallions, sesame seeds and peanuts if desired.

How To Make The Peanut Sauce:

Pulse all ingredients together in blender or food processor. I tried to mix by hand in a bowl and I couldn’t get it to mix together. I finally poured it into a saucepan and heated it a bit and that worked.

Cindy

12Mar2014

Eggless Cookie Dough

Posted in extras, sweets, things we like to eat by mydaughterandiblog

I considered titling this post Eggless, edible, ready-in-ten-minutes, make-it-now-and-eat-it-all-in-one-sitting cookie dough, but I felt like the amount of punctuation could be a bit overwhelming. I mean HYPHENS.

But, seriously, this stuff is amazing. I am such a huge fan of regular cookie dough, that it takes a lot to convince me that an eggless version is just as good as the real deal. Oh, but it is! I wasn’t able to tell the difference between our original chocolate chip cookie recipe and this one- which is quite impressive. In order to keep myself from eating the entire batch, I wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap, put it in a Ziploc bag, and stuck it in the freezer.

^^^All wrapped up and ready for the freezer.

The fact that the whole recipe took about 10 minutes to whip up makes it that much more dangerous. So what are you waiting for? You’re ten minutes away from a bowl of totally delicious cookie dough.

Eggless Cookie Dough

1 stick butter, softened

6 Tbsp brown sugar

6 Tbsp white sugar

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 Tbsp milk (I used 2%)

2/3 cup chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate, but milk chocolate would be great too)

Beat butter, sugars and vanilla in a stand mixer. Add flour, baking soda, and salt to wet ingredients and mix well. Add milk and mix until dough is firm and smooth. Fold in chocolate chips.

Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

recipe credit to: Kailley’s Kitchen

Jordan

5Feb2014

Affogato

Posted in extras, sweets, things we like to eat by mydaughterandiblog

After church last Sunday, my mom and I went down to the beach and had coffee and lunch at one of our favorite coffee spots. We went for a bike ride around the harbor and then returned to the same coffee shop for this amazing dessert. Coffee + beach side biking + gelato and coffee?? Best. Day. Ever.

It was the first time that we’d had Affogato and we were completely enamored and began figuring out how to recreate it almost immediately. Affogato means drowned in Italian, so this is literally drowned ice cream. It is amazing and so easy- just gelato, whipped cream and espresso. Needless to say it’s one of our new favorites.

Affogato

gelato or ice cream (we used coffee chocolate chip gelato)

2 shots of espresso

whipped cream or Cool- Whip

Prepare the espresso. We made ours with instant espresso powder, but if you have an espresso machine, even better! Make enough for two shots per serving.

Scoop gelato into mug or small bowl and dollop some whipped cream on top. Pour hot espresso over the top and enjoy!

Jordan

31Jan2014

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Posted in extras, main dishes, salads, side dishes, sweets, the important stuff, things we like to eat by mydaughterandiblog

Unless you have been living in a cave, you probably know that the Super Bowl is this Sunday. The Denver Broncos are playing the Seattle Seahawks. Exciting times! It is also the day we celebrate my husband’s birthday and this year he is turning 50! Wow – he is old! 🙂

Is it just me or does it seem like the Super Bowl people are leaning a bit more toward a feminine audience this year? I heard that they are having an opera singer do the national anthem and Bruno Mars is doing the halftime show. Also I heard that they are having two different Greek yogurt commercials. Seriously, is yogurt that big of a market? Who knew? Oh and I heard a rumor that David Beckham will be making another appearance in his underwear. In Jordan’s words: “Most guys really do not want to see David Beckham in his underwear. Girls on the other hand….”

I personally “watch” the Super Bowl just to eat the food. So here are a few of our past recipes that we think would be great additions to your Super Bowl line up. GO BRONCOS!

Kalua Pork