Watermelon Otai Drink

Where has this drink been all my life??? I think this might turn into one of my favorite summer drinks, why? Because it has tropical written all over it and it is very refreshing. This is a recipe my husband got from one of his Tongan companions while he was serving a mission for our church. He has always talked about "making" me some for years and never got around to it until tonight! He is in trouble for keeping this recipe from me for so long....just kidding, I love him no matter what!

This is how he makes it: (the simple way, I will tell you the authentic way he was taught down below).

* 1 Pineapple

* 1/4 medium seedless Watermelon
* 1 can of Coconut milk
* 2 TBS sugar, (more to taste, if needed)

* 1 cup of water

 Put everything in the blender and blend it all together, chill for a couple of hours, pour and enjoy! 

The only thing you do different with the "authentic" way is use a fresh Coconut for Coconut cream, we just used a can of Coconut milk. My husband says it tastes the same either way. So whatever you prefer. Also you could use canned Pineapple if you didn't have a fresh Pineapple. This is so simple and refreshing. Please don't forget to follow my blog :)

Best Ham Fried Rice EVER!

Today I would like to share with you my families FAVORITE Ham Fried Rice recipe. I guess I can't say it is the BEST EVER because I haven't tried all of them out there but, this is my families favorite. We like it better than any take out we have had. Here is what you need to make it:

* 3 cups of cooked white rice (I cook mine in my rice cooker)

* 3 TBS of Sesame Oil

* 1/4 cups of Soy Sauce

* Frozen Peas and Carrots

* 2 eggs scrambled

* 1 small onion sautéed

* 2 tsp of minced garlic

* Diced ham (I get mine at the store already chopped by the lunch meats)

 

I like to add everything in this order: Sauté Onions and Garlic in a skillet, than add eggs, frozen peas and carrots, last add the diced ham and mix all together until the veggies are tender. In another skillet have all the cooked rice and mix in the Sesame Oil and Soy Sauce and add all the other ingredients together with the rice. You now have made MY families favorite Ham Fried Rice. I will also be posting our favorite Avocado Egg Rolls soon that go perfect with this dish. ENJOY!

 

BBQ Black Bean Salsa

I am all about simply things and let me tell you this is so simple and so delicious. I get the Kraft Foods magazines and this was in one a few years ago that I love to make.

Here is what you need:
1 can (15 oz.) black beans, drained and rinsed
1 to 1.5 cans of corn
3/4 cup BBQ sauce
1/2 cup Pace chunky Salsa
That is it!! Told ya it was simple :-)

Mix it all together

Dive in with a chip and give it a try...I couldn't help myself, so yummy. You do want to chill it in your fridge for about an hour before you serve it. Enjoy!

Crispy Cheddar Chicken

Whatever you are planning on making for dinner tonight change it and make this simple dinner!!! This will make your tummy so happy! I got the inspiration to this recipe from this site. I did a couple things different.

Here is what you need:

4-6 large chicken breasts (cut all the yucky white parts off)

2 sleeves Ritz crackers crushed into small pieces

1/2 C milk

3 C Mexican blend cheese, grated

2 pinches of Dill

1 handful Panko Italian blend bread crumbs

First dip the chicken into the milk, then into the cheese, then into the crushed crackers with the dill and Panko bread crumbs. (make sure you press it all into the chicken so it will stick.

Put into a 9x13 pan and bake at 400 degrees for 35-45 mins. Cover with foil.

Once it is done I like to broil it for a few minutes to get a nice golden crust. Just like that!!

To top it all off you NEED this sauce. SOOO YUMMY. I double the recipe because it is so good! Warm it all together on the stove.

2  10 ounce can cream of chicken soup

4 T sour cream

2 T butter

Sprinkle in some Dill

Awe yes....I can eat the whole dish all by myself. This is a must make for dinner. You can serve it with rice and use some of this yummy sauce in the rice too. Enjoy!!!

Whole Wheat Bread

When it comes to homemade bread I have only made it about a five times or so. I am not an expert at all when it comes to baking bread. That is why I loved this recipe I came across from one of my cookbooks that I have around the house. It is super easy and moist. If I can make it, I promise you can too.
Here is what you need:

1 TBL yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2-1/2 cups hot tap water
6-7 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup apple sauce
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 TBL salt

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm water, make sure the water is REALLY warm. Then I sprinkled 1tsp. of sugar over it to help it dissolve quicker.

If you have a KitchenAid start adding the hot tap water (again make sure it is really hot). Then add and mix in 3 cups of whole wheat flour, salt, oil, applesauce, sugar, and the yeast mixture. (If you don't have a KitchenAid just use a big bowl to mix it all together)

Than you need to Mix in 2 more cups of whole wheat flour. Let it kneed for about 3 mins on a low speed. Add in 1-2 more cups of flour. I use 1 1/2 cups. Don't over flour your dough!! Kneed for 8 or so mins on low. If you don't have a KitchenAid then flour your counter and kneed it by hand.

Form the dough into a ball shape and place in a large bowl coated with cooking spray and place a dish towel over the dough to let rise for about 1 hour or until double in size.

Spray a large area on your counter top with cooking spray. Dump the dough ball onto the counter and divide into sections for bread pans. (This will make 2 loafs) Punch out any air bubbles and divide and shape for the bread pans.

Cover the bread pans with the dish towel and let rise for another 45 mins.

Bake at 350 for 25 mins. Once it is done brush it with a little oil or melted butter and sprinkle a little salt on top! Nothing better than homemade bread! It has such a higher fresher quality taste to it. Something that goes PERFECT with homemade bread is my homemade freezer jam CLICK HERE for the recipe. Enjoy!!

My Top 10 Snacks under 100 Calories

Summer is just around the corner and if you are like me I want to look good in my swimsuit :-) These are my top 10 foods/snacks that are under 100 calories. Yummy in my tummy....

1) 2 cups of Watermelon

2) 1/2 a baked potato

3) 1 Large Egg

4) 1 Apple with the peel

5) 1 slice of whole grain bread

6) 2 cups of Popcorn with a little butter

7) 1 sweet potato

8) 1 handful of almonds

9) 2 1/2 oz of baked salmon

10) 20 unsalted Pistachios

 

 

 

Salad Perfect for Summer BBQ's

 

This is my Grandma's recipe, it isn't your typical salad but my oh my, I LOVE it! It is nice and light and super delish! Kid approved also which is a bonus :-) The nice thing about this is, you can add a bunch of different things to it. I will share with you today how my Grandma and I make it with some other ideas as well. Here is what you need to make this AMAZING Salad!

 

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup of Apple cider vinegar (cold)

1 purple onion

1 bag of frozen peas and carrots

1 pepper (any color)

Bag of frozen petite corn

celery (about 5 chopped really small)

water chestnuts

 

Add the sugar and vinegar, stir it all until it is dissolved. Chop onion into very small pieces. Dump in all the frozen veggies. Cut up the celery into small pieces. Chop the pepper into small pieces. Drain the water chestnuts and chop. Stir it all together. So simple!

 

This is something you would want to make in the morning or day before you would eat it to allow all the veggies to be defrosted before you dig into it :-) Plus a day of marinating makes it even sweeter. You could add any type of bean to this just make sure you drain and rinse them really well before you add them to the salad. With Spring and Summer just around the corner, this is something you could bring to all the BBQ's instead of the typical green salad. Everyone will love it. ENJOY!! 

 

Thank you for all who have been following my blog, it means a lot to me.  I will be having give aways soon for all who follow :-)

 

Must Try Lunch!

So some of you may think this sounds/looks gross but TRUST me it is heavenly! Here is my own version of the strawberry avocado open sandwich :-)

2 pieces of bread with butter on both sides
1 ripe avocado smashed with salt and pepper
cut up strawberries to fill up both sides of the bread
drizzle of Balsamic vinegar
crumbled up goat cheese (this is my new favorite cheese for the past year, so delish)
put them in the oven on High Broil (watch them turn golden brown, it works fast and can burn easy)

Doing its thing under the Broiler :-)

Once its done how you like, sprinkle some dill on top

and than drizzle it with a little bit of hidden valley ranch (its the best in my book) 

                                 

Something about it just makes you feel like you are eating at a high end restaurant....in my dreams haha. This is a very YUMMY snack or lunch that I think you should make and give it a try. Have a great day!

What's for Dinner?

This is one of the most simple and tasteful dinners to make, it really only has 2 ingredients not including the meat and rice :) This is Kid and Husband approved! Here is what you will need:

1 bag of frozen Meatballs
1 jar of grape jelly (not the huge ones just the regular size)
1 jar of sweet chili sauce (I used Franks red hot sweet chili sauce)

That is it! Put the meatballs in the crock pot and whisk together the grape jelly and sweet chili sauce to get all the lumps out, and pore it all over the meatballs and let it cook on high for about 3-4 hours. Serve it over cooked rice and drizzle the sauce over the meatballs. You may think that this will be spicy but it really isn't. My 2 and 4 year old ate it. The Jelly tames down the kick from the sweet chili sauce but it still has a little kick (just not a lot) I am telling you it is super YUMMY!  Give it a try and tell me what you think :)

Best Box Brownies Hands Down

These in my book are the Best Boxed Brownie mix out there! I am telling you, you need to try these, they are the BOMB! My favorite chocolate chips are the Ghirardelli. When I saw that they came out with brownies I knew they would be good. Hands down they have beat all the other boxes in my eyes. :-) Give them a try and tell me what you think.

New Years Eve Party Pizza,YUM!

One of my favorite pizzas is Round Table's BBQ chicken but, it is over $20.00 for a medium size pizza. So this is my version of my favorite BBQ chicken minus a couple of ingredients. The best part is everything I use to make it is FREE except for the pizza crust ( I do use pre made, my favorite is FRESCHETTA Artisan crust ) which is about $2.00 for a pack of 2.  So here is what I use:

2 different kinds of BBQ sauce (use your favorites)
1 can of crushed pineapple (make sure you drain it almost all dry)
1-2 cans of canned 100% white chicken breast
Green onions
Cheese
and a little bit of Cotjia cheese (it is kinda of like feta, but better)

 put one BBQ sauce all over then drizzle the other one on top of that one, layer all the other ingredients

Sprinkle with both of the Cheese's

Pick one of the BBQ sauces and drizzle on top of everything. Cook pizza crust how it says.

How easy was that!!! And each Pizza is only $1.00 with using my coupons :-) I dip mine in Ranch to top it off to being just perfect. ENJOY!!!!



Chicken Tortilla Soup

Fall is in the air and I LOVE it!! This is one of my favorite soups, Chicken Tortilla soup.

What you need:

Store bought Chicken (already made) shred it

4 cans of cream of chicken (add water 1 can for each)

1 large red enchilada sauce

2 cans of corn

1 can of peas

Some potatoes chopped

Fresh carrots or canned (I like to use fresh if I can)

Onions

cilantro

Shredded cheese

Tortilla chips

 

place everything in the crock pot cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 4 hours. Only put a little bit of the onions and cilantro in while it cooks

 

Once its all ready, dish out your amount and crumble chips on top put cheese on top along with onions and cilantro. Enjoy ( I didn't get a picture of it all topped....it got eaten too fast)

The BEST caramelized onions

Today  I am going to share with you my secret on making the BEST caramelized onions EVER!! You can eat them all by themselves, they are that yummy! I love putting them on top of my steaks, chicken, in pasta etc.. I was playing around with making them one day and this is what I came up with to make them so delicious.

Here is what you need:

• Salt
• Sun dry tomatoes ( you don't have to put these in)
• Red wine vinegar
• Butter
• Sugar
• Onions

Start with melting a little butter in a sauce pan and and your onions all sliced up

Now as far as measuring I do it different every time, it just depends on how many onions you make. I put a little salt in, a big pinch of sugar, a couple dashes of the red wine vinegar. Which if you just use that without the sun dried tomatoes they are still supper good. But adding them does something to them that tops them off =) Cook on medium heat and stir stir stir until you have them as caramelized as you like. Enjoy!!

My Favorite Brownies

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. My 4 year old son had surgery on his Kidney.

What thing better to start up blogging again, ***CHOCOLATE***. This is my Aunts recipe. Any time I make brownies this is how I make them. They are so moist and delicious. You wont make brownies any other way after you try this one. :)

Here is what you need:

2 Brownie Mixes (out of the box)
5 eggs
1/2 cup oil
2/3 cups water
6 TBS heaping flour

Grease and flour a Jelly roll pan. Cook at 350 for 30 mins. Sprinkle with powdered sugar on top. Yummy in my tummy!

I am telling you these are the BEST brownies without all the extras added, and they are so simple to make. ENJOY!!!

Freezer Jam!?

I am all about simple. Some of you might think this is a not so fun thing to blog about but, let me tell you, I am SOOO excited I tried this. I can not tell you how EASY freezer jam really is! Why have I not been making this for YEARS??? I have always heard people talking about making jam and slaving in the kitchen all day long. My thoughts were, not for me. So I never thought I would make jam until...I found out they make instant pectin!! I am telling you this is the most DELICIOUS jam you will ever taste and it literally takes no time at all to whip some up. Today I made 28 batches of some raspberry and strawberry jam. Here is what I did:

• Buy some packs of instant pectin (you need one per batch)
• Get the fruit you want (I think raspberry and strawberry work the best) you need 2/3 cups of mashed or mixed fruit for each batch
• Sugar (it says to use 2/3 cups but I used 1/2 cup or you could even use 1/3 cup)
• Potato hand masher or blender ( I used a whisk for the raspberries and my Ninja Pro blender for strawberries)
• Shallow square stack able freezer safe containers

Here come the hard stuff...wink wink ;)

Mash your fruit to the consistency you want

 pour the sugar and pectin in a separate bowl

dump in 2/3 cups of your mashed fruit stir it all in

dump it into your container (the ones I used let 2 batches fit into each one, you don't want them filled to the very top though)

Let it sit for 30 mins

THAT IS IT!! I told you it would be a simple. Then just put the ones you wont be using right away after they sit up for 30 mins into the freezer they will stay good for a little over a year. You can't beat that! You will want to have a piece of toast in the morning with it, a PB&J sandwhich with your kids for lunch...ok I will stop. Ya, I am excited =)