Homemade Oatmeal cookies

Oatmeal is GREAT for reducing bad cholesterol. Rather than reaching for the chocolate chip try these! You can substitue butter for low fat margerine to further reduce fat.

Oatmeal cookies

½ cup butter, softened (not melted)                         1 cup flour
½ cup sugar                                                                     ½ tsp baking soda
½ cup packed brown sugar                                          ½ tsp salt
1 egg                                                                                1 and ½ cups oatmeal
½ tsp vanilla extract     
1 and ½ cups oatmeal                         
you can substitute the ½ cup of Oatmeal above for ½ cup of granola but STILL add the 1 cup of oatmeal!
**Optional** ¼ cup raisons 1/4 cup chopped pecans

1.    In a medium bowl, cream (mix) together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in oats (and granola and/or raisons if desired). Cover, and chill dough in freezer or 15 min.

2.    Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls, and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Flatten each cookie with a large fork.

3.    Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Pizzapalooza

Homemade pizza at home is cheaper and better than dominos! Here is how to do it:

Preheat 425 degrees

8 oz. sauce
½ tsp. oregano – crushed
½ tsp. basil – crushed
¼ tsp. black pepper
½ tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. salt

1 Tbs. parmesan cheese
1 tsp. sugar

Combine in saucepan and simmer for 5 Minutes to blend flavors.

 Dough:

1 pkg. active dry yeast OR 1 TBS from jar                               
1 c. very warm water                                                            
1 tsp. sugar                                                                 
1 tsp. salt                             
2 ½ cups flour + more for kneading

      1. Dissolve yeast & sugar in warm water in medium mixing bowl.

2. Stir in remaining ingredients. Mix well. Dough will be soft & sticky. Dust countertop with flour. Place dough onto counter and KNEAD until smooth and elastic. (About 5 min.) add a little flour if its sticking to the countertop.

3. Place dough on lightly greased pizza pan. Let rest 5 min. Then spread crust onto pan.

4. PREBAKE crust until golden brown ( 5-7 min) Remove from oven and spread pizza sauce on crust and add toppings.

TOPPING CHOICES: (what ever you want if your making it at home!)

Cheese                     Pepperoni                     Pineapple                      Onion

Bake another 10 minutes or until cheese melts.

 

Sausage Egg and Cheese Biscuit Sandwich Goodness!

Sunday breakfast, snacktime or anytime! This biscuit recipe is great with sausage, butter, jelly or honey!

Homemade Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons butter, cubed

3/4 cup milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 400
In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together. Cut butter into mixture with dough blender until it begins to look like peas.

Make a hole in the center of the flour mixture and slowly add a little bit of the milk into the middle of the flour and mix until all of the milk is added. Roll out dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to about 1 inch thick.

Cut rolled out bisquit dough with biscuit cutter. Spray a cookie sheet with spray oil and place bisquits on cookie sheet and bake until the bisquits are golden brown (about 12-15 min)

 

Quesadillas and Cross-contamination!

Cross-contaminawhat?? 

What do you get when you cross raw foods and RTE foods? A possible food born illness and/or a parasite!  No thank you!  How do you prevent cross-contamination you ask?  By keeping raw and uncooked meat and dairy items far away from foods that no longer need to be cooked to eat (RTE- Ready To Eat foods); like cheese and cooked flour tortillas in our recipe this week. 

Watch this clip for more on cross-contamination:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBgfRPkxSKI

Aaaaand here is your recipe: 

Chicken quesadillas

2 Chicken Breasts and 2 Tsp oil

3 tbs onion sautéed and 1 tbs oil

Grated cheese

Cooked flour tortillas

In a large skillet heat oil over medium high heat. Add chicken and cook for 4 to 6 minutes per side  until chicken no longer sticks to pan and is light brown on both sides.  Place chicken in a casserole dish or sheet pan and place in a PREHEATED 350 degree oven.  Cook for 6-8 minutes check for an internal temperature of 165. 

Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.  Place on cutting board and with butter knife and fork shred chicken and set aside.

In a small skillet, heat 1 tbs oil on medium low heat.  Add 3 tbs onion and sauté until soft.

Pre heat griddle to medium. Once heated, take tortilla and add cheese, cooked onion and shredded cooked chicken, top with another tortilla and lightly spray griddle. Gently place tortilla on griddle and cook on one side for 2 minutes, using spatula, carefully turn on other side and cook until cheese is melted.  Cut into wedges and enjoy

Spanish Rice the MHS way!

Spanish Rice

o  1 cup of uncooked rice
o  2 tablespoons oil
o  1 tablespoon diced onion
o  1 tablespoon Tomato Chicken Bouillon
o  2 ¼ cups water

Dice onion to a small dice.

Preheat small sauce pan to 5-6 (medium high) add oil and sauté onion and rice till rice is a light golden color.

Add tomato bouillon to rice and mix in.  Add water, stir then cover with lid cook till water is simmering then lower heat to 2-3 (medium low heat).

Make sure you keep the lid on so the rice will steam. Check every five minutes and gently shake pan to redistribute water. Cook for a total of 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes of cooking, remove from the heated burner and let the rice stand with lid on for an additional 15 minutes to continue steaming.

Breakfast Burrito Shuffle

Sausage, Potato, Egg and Cheese breakfast burritos:

 

 

 

Follow these simple steps and you'll be doing the kitchen shake!

 

1 Potato – peeled and diced

1/2 cup Pork sausage or Chorizo

(Optional) ¼ cup diced onion

1 egg per person in your group –

1 tablespoon water

1 cup grated cheese

2 tablespoon oil for potato

1 tablespoon oil for cooking egg

 

Pre heat skillet to 4 ½  Pour in 2 tablespoons oil till hot.  Add diced potato and onion (if you are using onion) cook till potato is soft and brown and onions (if using) are soft.  Add sausage and cook till done. For Chorizo cook about 2 minutes. For Pork sausage cook about 4-5 minutes and drain some of the grease before adding eggs.

In a large bowl crack in all eggs (make sure you don’t have pieces of shell in the egg.  Add 2 tablespoons of water and whisk till mixed.  Set aside.

 

 Once you have your tortillas made, add egg to skillet with potatoes and sausage and cook till eggs are firm.

 Serve eggs in equal portions in tortillas and add cheese and picante sauce (optional)



Popcorn Goodness!

Quick little fun treat to beat the rainy weather blues or in our case, 6 week exam blues!

Popcorn balls

   

Pop 1 bag of popcorn

In a large microwave safe bowl add the following:

• 2 cups of marshmallows 
• 2 tbs chocolate chips 
• 1 tbs butter

Microwave for 1 minute

Add popped popcorn making sure to omit un-popped kernels

Using rubber scraper mix and form balls