Funday Sunday

Alright. Since I'm out of town and unable to be in the kitchen today, I thought I'd come up with a new regular post.(By the way, we thoroughly enjoyed yesterday's recipes Chicken Bierocks and Healthy Trail Mix on the road trip down!)

Here are some fun food stories from around the web.

Ever seen those mashed potato cakes? Well this is kind of a reverse.
Check out the surreal world of Pizza Cakes!

Ever heard of Stinking Bishop or Bubble and Squeak? Check out this hilarious article on the origins of some very funny food names!

Most people know about the La Tomatina Festival in Spain in which participants hurl tomatoes at each other until all are covered from head to toe in smashed tomato, but did you know there's a CHEESE-ROLLING festival in Gloucestershire, England? I'm not kidding!

Or what about the Battle of the Oranges in Ivrea, Italy? Now that has to hurt!
For more weird festivals go to Weirdomatic.com.

Ever wanted to eat your dinner in a Beijing Jail? What about eating your dinner on the porcelain throne? Check out this blog on Crazy Asian Restaurants.

So... what did you think? Should this become a regular thing? Post in comments below.

Day 6: Recipe 2- Chicken Bierocks

My mother-in-law suggested making Bierocks when I put out a request on facebook for recipes that travel well. I’d made them before and found them very filling… but the problem was that I didn’t have enough ground beef or sausage, as is the customary meat filling. So I came up with my own concoction and I think it turned out well!

Chicken Bierocks
What you’ll need:
2 large boneless chicken breast, cubed
1 green bell pepper, sliced
1 can corn
1/2 large onion, sliced
1 - 4 oz. can mushrooms
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 t. Paprika
1 T. Basil
pepper, to taste

Throw all of this into a CrockPot, mix well. Cook for 3-5 hours on high, stirring occasionally.


Dough

2 pkgs. yeast
1 t salt
1 c warm milk
4 c flour
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c warm water
1/4 c butter, softened

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Set in warm place. Add warm milk, butter and salt; let stand for 10 minutes with yeast mixture in it. Add flour and sugar and work together with fingers until all of the dry ingredients are worked in well. Let double for 50 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out dough into a 1/4” thick layer, then cut into 7” circles of. Take cooked chicken mixture and spoon desired amount into the middle of dough circles, then fold dough over and pinch edges down, ensuring all the mixture is contained within the dough. (It’s easiest to do this on a cookie sheet so you don’t have to transfer them once done.) Bake for 20-25 minutes until dough is firm and slightly crispy on the outside.

This recipe yields 6-8 bierocks.

Rating from the Expert*: Delicious! 9/10, only for the fact that I might like to try adding some Thyme and maybe add potatoes to the chicken mixture next time. The dough is sweet and tasty and the dish is very filling overall.

Day 6: Healthy Trail Mix

I found out we're making a bit of an unexpected road trip to Dallas this weekend through next week for my husband's work. Since I'm becoming more conscious about healthy food, I came to the succinct conclusion that Convenience Store Gourmet is not going to cut it for snacks. I did a little searching online searching for inspiration and came upon suggestions for trail mix, but I hate the sodium content in many of the processed trail mixes, so I made my own.


Healthy Trail Mix
What you'll need:
1 1/2 c granola or rice based cereal (I used Aldi's GetBalance Crunch)
1 c Cheerios
1 1/2 c Corn Chex
1 c Almonds
1 c Dried mixed berries (strawberries, cranberries, blueberries)
1 c Semi-Sweet chocolate chips

Put in a large container, shake until well mixed.

Rating from the Experts*: For a much healthier mix, no added salt, and some good sweet stuff I give it a 10/10. If my husband is any indication, he immediately came over and dipped his hand into the tupperware container and started scarfing it down, eliciting sounds of approval.

Day 5: Easy Peanut Butter Chicken

Thanks to a hectic day of a whiny toddler and a lab draw appointment, I was not much in the mood for spending a bunch of time in the kitchen. We tried something very similar to this dish before, but I found this recipe via Stephanie O'Dea's Blog, "A Year of Slow Cooking" and I couldn't be happier with how simple it is to throw into a CrockPot and leave it be, and yet it still tastes like you slaved in the kitchen for hours to make it!

(Easy) Peanut Butter Chicken

What you'll need:

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken, cut in chunks 

1/2 cup natural peanut butter (creamy or chunky, your choice)

1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 lime, juiced

1/4 cup soy sauce (use gluten free--La Choy or Tamari wheat-free)

1/2 cup chicken broth

It's suggested to use a 4-quart slow cooker, but you can use larger. Put the chicken into the bottom of your pot and add the peanut butter. Toss in the vegetables and cumin. Squeeze in lime, and add soy sauce and chicken broth. Stir as well as you can to combine (the peanut butter will be clumpy, and that's just fine). Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for about 4 hours. (Or if you have a larger cooker like I do, expect it to be done quicker! I have a 7 qt. crockpot. I set mine on High and it was done in just under 3 hours.)

Rating from the Experts*: 10/10 from Hubby! He loved it and actually found it delicious with no complaints. I give it 10/10 as well. Easy to make and awesomely good! Paired wonderfully with rice/vermicelli mixture.

Day 4: Leftovers Day

I didn't post any recipes yesterday because after cleaning up the diaper disaster of February 2011 in the morning, and being up for half the night thanks to lactose intolerance, I didn’t want to spend a bunch of time in the kitchen. We had muffin omelets for breakfast, creamy chicken enchiladas for lunch, then (for a rare date night) went out for dinner to our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Mekong River.

Day 3: Recipe 2- Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

This simple, delicious recipe was given to me by my mother. It's very easy to put together, but is packed with flavor. Two enchiladas was a bit much per person for us and the recipe yields 8 enchiladas, so it's a dish fit for a crowd.

Another wonderful thing about this recipe is that the ingredients are simple enough even if your cupboards are bare (much like mine today), you're likely to be able to scrounge up enough to fix this! This pairs wonderfully with Spanish rice.

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
What you'll need:
2 c cooked chicken, cubed
1 can low sodium Cream of Mushroom or Cream of Chicken
8 oz. low fat or fat-free Sour Cream
1 c picante sauce
1 c shredded cheese
2 t. chili powder
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. oregano
8 fajita size flour tortillas

Mix soup, sour cream, picante sauce, chili powder and oregano in a large bowl. Mix 1 cup of the picante sauce mixture, chicken and cheese. Spread about 1/4 cup of the chicken mixture down center of each tortilla. Roll up and place seam-side down in a 9 x 13" baking dish. Pour remaining picante sauce mixture over enchiladas and top off with extra cheese if desired. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.



Rating from the Experts*: Hubby rates it 9/10 (he doesn't like any part of the tortillas to be crunchy, preferring it to be completely smothered in sauce- picky, picky!) I say 10/10 for the fact that I would order it on repeated occasions if it was at a restaurant.

Day 3: Jam/Jelly Muffins

I've been craving carb-y sweets all week, so I found this lovely recipe to satisfy my appetite without adding inches to my hips. It's a very low fat recipe but it doesn't taste like diet food, which I like.

One ironic element is that despite this recipe originally being called 'Jam Muffins', I didn't have any jam, so I used the very last dredges from our grape jelly jar. (I really think it's time to go to the store considering we're out of nearly everything.)



Jam Muffins
What you'll need:
2 cups flour
2 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup skim milk
5 tsp jam (jelly) of your choice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat a 12-cup muffin tray with cooking spray. Beat egg whites, vanilla extract and sugar for 1 minute in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, add the baking soda to the applesauce and wait for it to froth up. When it does, add it to the egg/sugar mix. Stir in the milk. Fold in all of the flour at one time until just combined - don't beat as the muffins will be tough. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of mixture into each muffin cup, top with a 1/2 tsp of jam, cover with another dollop of mix, and bake for 15-20 minutes.

When reheating these muffins, just be careful because the jam/jelly filling gets hot. Yields about a 1 dozen muffins. 

Rating from the Expert*: 7/10. I'd probably make them again, but definitely worth getting a tasty jam. It's very much a breakfast dish, and should be warmed up and served slathered with margarine.