Sushi Salad

Oh how I love Sushi!!! I was craving sushi for dinner, but wasn’t in the mood to patchka and form it. So, I threw together a sushi salad instead. It’s soooo easy to make and takes only 30 minutes!!! What more can you ask for?

Ingredients:

All Cut Up:

Sushi Salad:

Ingredients:

1 cup sushi rice

2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar

1-2 Avocados

2 Cucumbers

1 package of mock crab, defrosted

Low sodium soy sauce (to taste)

Optional: toasted black sesame seeds (I put in regular sesame seeds b/c it was all I had)

Optional: cut up seaweed

Directions:

1)  Prepare the rice: Check rice for bugs. Rinse rice in water until it runs clear. Drain well.

2)  Pour rice into medium sized sauce pan and add 1¼ cups cold water and bring to a boil.

3)  Once rice is boiling, let simmer for 20 minutes (don’t remove the cover to check on rice during the 20 minutes). Then turn off stove.

4)  Add rice vinegar to rice, mix, cover pot and let sit for 10 min. Then remove cover and let it cool.

5)  While rice is cooking, cut up the avocados, cucumbers, and mock crab into small pieces.

6)  Mix everything together and pour soy sauce on top.

Everything Bagel Chicken

Whenever I cook big meals, I’m always so focused on the side dishes that I forget about the main dishes. It’s always a mad scramble, especially when it comes to chicken, so I had to come up with quick, easy chicken recipes. I happened to be eating an everything bagel while I was cooking and that is how this chicken was born. This recipe can be thrown together in minutes (literally) and you can have it cooking in the oven while you’re busy with more intricate recipes.

And the best part is- it tastes just like an everything bagel!!!

Ingredients:

Chicken thighs

Spices (salt, pepper, mrs. Dash, whatever else you want)

Dried MINCED garlic

Dried MINCED onions

Directions:

-  Spray tin with Pam and place chicken inside (wash and clean chicken first, obviously)

-  Sprinkle spices on both sides of chicken

-  Sprinkle a generous amount of minced garlic and minced onions on top of chicken

-  Sprinkle a little paprika on top for color

-  Cook at 350° for approximately one hour, covered, followed by a half hour uncovered

Mushroom Quiche

I have to apologize in advance because I forgot to take a picture of this quiche when it was completed. I had one of my favorite cooks over for a meal and was really stressing over what to make because I really wanted to impress her. I made a whole elaborate meal and the first thing she decided to taste was this quiche. After taking one bite she proceeded to put the entire quiche on her plate and literally ate the entire thing. I don't even think she tried anything else! Honestly, the quiche was probably the least impressive thing I made that day, but she loved it and now makes it all the time. Moral of the story- you don't have to make something fancy/elaborate to impress people; sometimes the easiest/simplest foods are the best.


Ingredients:
8 oz mushrooms, thinly sliced
1-2 large onions, thinly sliced
Oil for frying
1/2 cup non-dairy creamer
3 eggs
1 tablespoon flour
Salt and pepper
Pie crust


Directions:
- Fry onions and mushrooms until brown and place in pie crust
- Combine flour and milk, then add eggs, salt, and pepper
- Pour into pie crust
- Bake at 350 for 45 minutes

Sundried Tomato & Black Olive Pasta Salad

I was going to post a salad recipe, but I decided to go with a pasta dish instead. I hosted a BBQ for my older brother and his family and went a tad bit overboard (I’m sure none of you are the least bit surprised!). I made burgers, hotdogs, chicken kabobs, carrot fries, pasta salad, vegetable salad, and so much more…. Mind you it was only 3 adults and 2 toddlers eating, but hey, “Go big or go home!”

Kabobs:

Carrot Fries:

Pasta Salad:

My mishmash pasta salad actually turned out really good. I didn’t have many vegetables left over after making the kabobs, so I had to get creative. I remembered that I had sundried tomatoes in my pantry and I found a can of black olives, and I figured they would make an interesting combination. That’s how this recipe was born.

*I have to pre-apologize; I don’t remember the exact measurements of the spices I used

Ingredients:

1 box of pasta (I used spiral shape)

Sundried tomatoes packed in oil

1 can black olives

1 green pepper, chopped

¾ cup oil

Crushed red pepper

Cumin

Spicy Mrs. Dash

Garlic powder/onion powder

Basil/oregano

Salt and pepper

Pasta sauce

Directions:

-  Cook pasta according to directions on box

-  In a small jar, combine oil and spices

-  Add a little pasta sauce, to taste

(I added sauce because the dressing came out too spicy, so I needed to make it a little milder)

-  Add sundried tomatoes, olives, and green pepper, and mix all together

-  Serve cold

Fried Mock Shrimp

Hey guys! Sorry I haven’t been posting everyday… been really busy preparing for my new job and looking for an apartment.

Today I’m going to share with you a quick and easy recipe that I got from my cousins, Roach and Will. I took a road trip a few weeks ago to visit them and they introduced me to mock shrimp. I LOVE mock crab, so I was very excited to try mock shrimp. They fried it, something I never considered doing, and it tasted AMAZING!

I changed their recipe slightly to make it hotter/more spicy...

Ingredients:

Before Picture:

 After Picture:

Mock Shrimp Recipe:

-  Mix together spicy bread crumbs and spices (onion/garlic powder, oregano, basil, thyme)

*** I used Mexican bread crumbs and mixed it with onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, oregano, cumin, and extra spicy Mrs. Dash

-  Dip mock shrimp in egg, then coat with bread crumb mixture

-  Fry for 3-4 minutes each side



Broccoli Kugel

Hey guy! Sorry I've been MIA for a few days- just been really busy. Over the years I've made many different broccoli kugels, trying to perfect my recipe until I got it just right... Below is the recipe I developed, which is always a big hit. The picture of it is on my friend's camera, so hopefully I'll get it from her in the next couple days and post it. Enjoy!


Ingredients:
1 (16 ounce) bag frozen broccoli
¼ cup mayonnaise
2 eggs
1 tablespoon flour
2 ½ tablespoons onion soup mix
Salt and pepper
Cornflake crumbs
9” inch pie crust (can be deep dish)


Directions:

-  Cook broccoli according to directions on the package and drain.

-  Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl EXCEPT the cornflake crumbs.

-  Pour into pie crust and sprinkle cornflake crumbs on top

-  Bake at 350° for 30-45 minutes

Cranberry Chicken

Yesterday I was searching the internet for inspiration for a new dish and I came across coffee coated steak. It sounded interesting, so I decided to try it out, only instead of using plain coffee, I used hazelnut. It came out interesting to say the least. If I were to make it again I would come up with some sort of sauce to put on it because the coffee made it too grainy for my taste. My friend, Amanda, suggested a honey BBQ sauce to play on the flavor of the hazelnut. To find out more of her suggestions and thoughts, check out her blog, Amandalandish. I’ll share the coffee coated steak recipe at a later date, once I’ve perfected it.

Today, I chose to share a recipe which one of my friends gave me, which I only slightly modified. I am not a big fan of citrus chicken recipes but I did enjoy this one.

Ingredients:

2 oranges

Chicken on the bone, skin removed

1 can whole cranberries or cranberry sauce

1 cup French salad dressing

1 small packet of onion soup mix (about 2 ½ tablespoons)

Directions:

-  Zest one orange and reserve the zest

-  Slice the oranges into thin slices

-  Place the slices on the bottom of a tin and place chicken on top

-  Mix the rest of the ingredients and the orange zest together. Pour over the chicken

-  Cook at 375° for 1 ½ hours, uncovered

Have a great weekend everyone!

xoxo,
Carrie

Pumpkin Bread

Guess what time it is…. RECIPE TIME!!! So today would have been my grandmother’s a”h 88^th birthday. So instead of posting one of my recipes, I’m going to share with you one of hers. Every Thanksgiving my family would gather at my grandparents’ for a huge meal which always consisted of pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, turkey, string beans, sweet onions, mashed sweet potatoes (served on pineapple slices with a melted marshmallow on top), and so much more! My family would always go early in order to help my grandparents with the preparations and to get a jump start at eating all the pumpkin bread! When my older brother and I were younger, my grandmother would give us the job of mashing the sweat potatoes. It’s one of my favorite childhood memories that is near and dear to my heart.

Happy Birthday Grandma!! I love you and miss you always xoxo

In honor of my grandmother a”h, I present to you her pumpkin bread recipe- the highlight of our Thanksgiving meal.

Please note: My grandmother used to make the pumpkin bread in four 1 lb coffee cans. If you don’t have any, you can use loaf pans instead. Also, the batter is VERY hard to mix, so you’ll need a lot of muscle power!

Ingredients:

5 cups flour

5 cups sugar

4 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cloves or allspice

1 cup oil

1 large can of pumpkin

1 teaspoon vanilla

Optional: 1 can chopped nuts

Directions:

-  Mix the first 7 ingredients together, then add the oil, pumpkin, vanilla, and nuts.

-  Fill four 1 lb coffee cans ½ way with the batter

-  Bake  at 350° for 1 hour and 15 min

Broccoli Stuffed Shells

First off I want to thank everyone who texted/emailed me with recipe requests. Hopefully in the next few weeks each of you will find the recipe you requested posted here. You are all welcome to leave me comments with recipe requests.

Back to the broccoli stuffed shells. I’ve made spinach stuffed shells a couple times before and they were a big hit. Only problem- I didn’t love them. So, I decided to make up a new recipe using broccoli instead, since its one of my favorite vegetables. It turned out AMAZING!!!!!

Ingredients:

1 box jumbo shells (I didn’t use all of them- I made cheesy shells with ¼ of them)

A little more than ½ of 15 ounce container of ricotta cheese

1 small bag of shredded pizza/mozzarella cheese

Grated parmesan cheese

1 onion, chopped

1 bag frozen broccoli (I used 2/3 of a 32 ounce bag)

1 jar pasta sauce

Nutmeg, salt, pepper

Directions:

- Cook the shells and broccoli according to the directions on their package

- While the shells and broccoli are cooking, sauté the onion.

- Combine onion, broccoli, ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, and spices in a bowl

- Pour a thin layer of pasta sauce into the bottom of a 9”x13” tin

- Place shells (open side up) on the sauce

- Stuff the shells with the cheese mixture

- Cover the shells with the rest of the sauce and sprinkle pizza cheese on top.

- Optional: you can sprinkle any leftover broccoli/cheese mixture on top (I did- sooo good!)

- Cover with aluminum foil and cook at 350° for approximately 30 minutes, until the cheese on top is melted.

New Hobby

While I contemplate which recipe I should post next, I thought I would share with you a new hobby I just took up… pillow making. I know it sounds weird, but while I was in graduate school getting my masters in Occupational Therapy, one of our classes involved woodworking and sewing. I built a step stool, carved a puzzle, and sewed a couple pillows and beanbags. It was my first time using a sewing machine, so to say my pillows did not come out so great would be the understatement of the year (I won’t even discuss my step stool… I don’t think it was safe to stand on AT ALL!!!).

A couple weeks ago I was in the mood to attempt to make a pillow again. After a long trip to JoAnn’s searching for fabrics I liked, I discovered that they only carried fabric which are cute for kids. So I decided why not make pillows for my two delicious nieces….

I don’t have a sewing machine, so I had to hand sew both pillows. I figured it would only take me a couple hours to do so, but imagine my surprise when its six hours later and I’m still sewing the last couple of stitches in the first pillow!!! But I have to say the pillows came out GREAT and are very comfortable. My nieces were really happy with them too J

The pillows:

Shira (age 3):

Malka (age 2):

So what do you guys think, should I ditch my future plans of starting a catering company and become a pillow maker instead?

Turkey Salad

Besides for being the pasta queen, I also am known for my salads. One of my crowd favorites is my turkey salad. The dressing is pretty similar to most other garlicy dressings. However, I add a secret ingredient.... BBQ sauce. I know, it sounds weird to put BBQ sauce in a salad dressing, but trust me you'll LOVE it!! I make two versions of this salad, depending on the type of lettuce I have. The recipe posted below is for romaine lettuce. If using iceberg lettuce, add craisons, half the amount of BBQ sauce, and add a little more sugar.

Dressing Recipe: (I usually double it)                                                           
1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup oil
3 small packets of splenda/sweet and low
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard (if you don't have then use regular mustard)
< 1 tablespoon chives (I use dried chives)
1 tablespoon parsley (I use parsley flakes)
2 tablespoons BBQ sauce
optional: sprinkle of hot chili powder

Salad Ingredients:
romaine lettuce
smoked turkey, cut in chunks
carrots/purple cabbage/any veggies you want

I always get requests for this salad whenever I having people over. It's really filling and can be eaten as part of a salad course or as a main meal.

Until next time....

xoxo,
Carrie

Pasta with Mock Crab and Garlic Sauce

I'm a pasta lover, so you'll be seeing a lot of pasta recipes. Before I tell you about this pasta, I need to give a shout out to one of my besties, Mandy, who was my cooking assistant for this recipe and lent me her kitchen to invent this dish. If you're good at multi-tasking, then this recipe will take you less than a half hour to make. I recommend using Ronzoni Garden Delights tricolor pasta- it has a full serving of vegetables in every 4 ounce serving!

Ingredients:
1 box of pasta (Ronzoni Tricolor Radiatore)
olive oil
minced garlic
1 bag frozen broccoli (microwave steamable)
1 pack mock crab, chopped
sun dried tomatoes, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 can baby corn, chopped
1 can hearts of palm, chopped
1 container mushrooms, chopped
1 bunch fresh basil, finely chopped
cumin, salt, pepper

Directions
-In one pot, cook the pasta according to the directions on the box.
-While the pasta is cooking, heat some oil and minced garlic in a wok or deep/large frying pan. I think I started with a third of a cup of oil and 5 teaspoons garlic and ended up adding more. Basically, the oil and garlic has to be enough to coat the pasta but not drench it.
-While the oil/garlic is heating up, steam the broccoli in the microwave according to the directions on the package. (The broccoli I used was one that you steam in the bag and it took only a few minutes)
- Once your oil/garlic has heated up a little, add the basil, onion, and mushrooms. After a few minutes, add the broccoli, mock crab, baby corn, hearts of palm, and sundried tomatoes. Stir them around and let them cook for a few minutes. Then add your spices (cumin, salt, pepper). You may need to add more oil, garlic, and basil (I did!)
-Now your ready to add your cooked pasta to the veggies. Mix it all together and you're done!

This dish is great hot, as well as cold! Feel free to add other vegetables and spices. This pasta tastes great and is very light.

Hope you all enjoy the pasta. Feel free to leave me comments/questions/feedback!!

xoxo,
Carrie

Hello World!!

Hi everyone! Welcome to my first attempt at a blog. For those of you that don't know me, I LOVE to cook. Whether I'm cooking for two people or for twenty, I always make enough for fifty. Everyone is always asking me for my recipes so figured I may as well start a blog where everyone can access my recipes easily. Feel free to leave me feedback/suggestions and to ask me any questions about the recipes posted. Hope you all enjoy my food!

Xoxo,
Carrie