Peanut butter cream cheese & banana stuffed french toast

Uhmm mmm hmmm mee mee mee....ok so I will spare you from me singing one of Elvis' songs today lol. But like Elvis the hubby loves the combination of peanut butter and bananas. I however think it's atrocious...blech...but this breakfast was for him.

I have been making stuffed french toast forever with all kinds of combinations. My personal favorites are just sweetened cream cheese topped with fresh fruit. The hubby however enjoys some of my from the hit creations like peanut butter and jelly filled and now this one...peanut butter cream cheese and banana.

First off we have to whip up the peanut butter cream cheese. This is a recipe I have made before but I usually use it as a fruit dip to give me added protein and something sweet, but it worked really well here too.

Peanut butter cream cheese dip

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces cream cheese softened (you can also use whipped or 1/3 less fat cream cheese)
• 1 cup peanut butter - doesn't matter chunky or creamy, I prefer creamy for this
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup milk

Directions:
Mix all of the ingredients together until smooth. Chill to set. Refrigerate leftovers.

Easy right?! Now for the creating of the french toast....

Ingredients:

• 2 Eggs depending on how many french toast you are making
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• Bread
• Bananas
• Peanut butter cream cheese dip
• 1 Tablespoon butter or margarine

Mix the eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon together in a shallow bowl. Set aside.

 

 

Spread as much peanut butter cream cheese on one piece of bread as you like. Make sure that you make it thicker in the center than you do on the edges. As the french toast cooks it will melt the spread and it will move to the edges naturally.

 

 



Then of course the easy part slicing the bananas on top of the peanut butter cream cheese. You can add as much or as little as you like. I sliced my bananas about 1/4 inch thick.

Make the sandwich and dip it in the egg mixture. Make sure both sides are nicely saturated with egg.

Melt the butter in the frying pan till it's nice and hot. Then finally cook until golden brown on both sides.

The finished product! Gooey goodness...or so I was told...lol I hope you enjoy this one. Just something simple...but now you have leftover peanut butter cream cheese to eat with slices of apple or bananas or whatever you like.

Swedish meatballs



The temperatures are cooling down and I was craving something warm and soothing that wasn't soup. I had some hamburger in the refrigerator but I didn't want meatloaf or regular meatballs. I wanted something more put together than Hamburger Helper and I thought...I haven't made Swedish meatballs in forever! I had all the ingredients on hand so off I went a cooking!

 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
• 2 1/3 cups low-salt beef stock, divided
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
• 1 cup minced onion
• 2 thick slices bacon, minced
• 1 pound ground beef
• 3/4 pound ground pork
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sour cream, whisked

Directions:
Mix breadcrumbs and 1/3 cup stock in a small bowl.  Make sure you mix it together well so that all of the crumbs are moistened. Set aside.

 

 

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until browned, about 10 minutes. Transfer onion to a large bowl.

          

Wipe out pan and return to medium heat. Add bacon and cook until crisp. Using a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to bowl with onion. (Reserve bacon fat.) Add next 8 ingredients to bowl with onion mixture, mixing with your hands to blend. *Now I know it feels gross to mix it with your hands but it really is the only way to do it! By mixing with your hands you can feel all the lumps and unmixed ingredients. You really want this to be a nice smooth mixture no big lumps.* Fold in breadcrumb mixture. *Now here is where you may want to adjust the mixture. Mine was a bit to wet. Keep in mind that Swedish Meatballs are softer than say Italian meatballs. So you don't want the mixture to be hard but you don't want it to be runny either. The best way I can explain it is the consistency of oatmeal that has absorbed all the liquid or like soft chocolate chip cookie dough (I knew I would hit a light bulb with the cookie one...lol).* I didn't have any more fresh bread crumbs so I had to add dried unseasoned bread crumbs. I would add some, mix it then let it sit for a couple of minutes to let the moisture be soaked up by the bread crumbs. I did this till I liked the texture.

 

 

 

Using a 1 tablespoon measure, roll meat mixture into balls; transfer to a rimmed baking sheet. *I didn't transfer mine to a baking sheet at this time because I didn't want them to get a crust on them from the heat of my kitchen (it's a really tiny kitchen!). I used a cookie scoop (bought at a restaurant supply but you can get them everywhere, Target, WalMart etc.) Using the cookie scoop it was easier to drop the meatballs into the pan and I didn't have to get my hands sticky all the time. I also kept the mixture in the refrigerator when I wasn't using it again so there was no crust that formed but so that it didn't get overly sticky.*

          

The top scoop is a cookie scoop. I think it's rated as medium or I think a #6 but please don't quote me on that..lol. It is two sizes down from an ice cream scoop. The bottom scoop is a Tablespoon so you can see the size for reference. Sorry such a bad photo too...looked better on the camera...lol

Melt 1 tablespoon butter with reserved bacon fat in a large heavy pot over medium-low heat. Working in 3 batches (mine ended up being many more than 3 batches! Be sure not to over crowd the pan it cools down the pan too much and makes it a pain to turn the meatballs) and adding 1 tablespoon butter between batches, (now don't get excited but yes you are going to use a lot of butter...but ohhh does it taste so good and well comfort food is supposed  to be comforting, and you can hit the gym tomorrow...lol) brown meatballs on all sides, about 6–8 minutes per batch.

 

This is the meatballs right after they have been dropped into the pan.

 

Make sure they are browned on all sides. Don't they look so yummy already?

 

Transfer meatballs to a plate. *Here is where I put mine on a edged cookie sheet and in the oven at 200 degrees to keep warm and to slowly finish cooking.* Drain all but 2 tablespoons drippings from pot. Whisk in flour until smooth paste forms. Stir in 2 cups stock; bring to a simmer, whisking often. Return meatballs to pot. Cover; simmer until meatballs are cooked, 5-6 minutes. *I didn't return mine to the pan because my pan was too small. I made the sauce then poured it over the meatballs. * Remove from heat, whisk in sour cream, and stir to coat meatballs.

 

 

Mmmm plate and enjoy!!! Ohhh they were so good and tender too! Jim ate these for his lunch for two more days and never complained one bit! I hope you try this recipe and let me know what you think. It's not heavy like beef stroganoff and the pork and spices give it a nice spice flavor. If you have never tried Swedish meatballs, I highly recommend you do :-)

 

 

 

Easy honey pork

I had one of those days where I didn't feel like cooking or inventing anything. I was uninspired and looking in my fridge was not helping spark my inner foodie..lol. I was searching online for something just anything that peaked my interest when I came across this site.

Kind of a neat site if you have ingredients in your fridge and pantry and don't feel like coming up with something to do with them. Check out My Fridge Food and see what fun kind of recipes they come up with for you.

This is what my search did today: The ingredients in red are things I added to make it more to our liking.

Easy honey pork

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 pounds boneless pork loin, pounded thin
• 1/2 cup Egg Beaters (or two eggs)
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour for coating
• 1 teaspoon each: onion powder, granulated garlic
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 Tablespoons canola oil
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans (I used Emerald glazed Walnuts Butter Toffee)
• 1 teaspoon flour
• 1/3 cup milk (2%)

Directions:

1. Cut the pork loin into chops. I cut mine about 3/4 inch thick before I pounded them out. Then pound them to about 1/4 -3/8 inch thick. Mine are 3/8 inch thick. *A couple of tips....since you are going to double bread them they will take a little longer to cook, so the thinner you make them the faster they will fry up. If you are concerned about the pork being completely done, fry them in the pan then finish them off in a 325 degree oven (this is also a bit healthier if you put them on a cooling rack on a cookie sheet when you put them in the oven that way the grease drips off) until done. Second tip....when pounding the chops out...put them in a ziploc bag and pound them out there. It helps keep them together and not stick to your meat mallet. If you don't have any ziploc bags you can also spray your mallet with a bit of Pam to help from sticking.*

2. Season the pork with salt and pepper. *Why you ask since it's in the flour...when you put the chop in the oil you loose a bit of the flavor. So by seasoning the pork before your meat will be nicely seasoned and no added seasoning after cooking will be needed*  In a shallow dish, mix together flour, onion powder, granulated garlic, salt and pepper. In another shallow dish add the Egg Beaters. Dredge pork cutlets in the  Egg Beaters then in the flour mixture, and repeat.

3. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add chops, and brown both sides. Transfer to a warm plate.

4. Drain off any excess oil from the pan but do not wipe the pan!!! You want the bits on bottom of the pan for when you make the sauce. Melt the butter in the pan and deg laze it. *De glazing means as the butter melts and it will start to loosen the baked on bits in the pan.* Use your spatula to scrape them from the bottom to mix with the butter. Mix honey and pecans into the pan drippings. Heat through, stirring constantly.

 

 

5. Add the teaspoon of flour and whisk thoroughly. Turn up the heat to high till the mixture  starts to get foamy. Add the milk and continue mixing constantly till thickened to your desire. At this point you can add more milk or even butter to make the sauce thinner or thicker. This is the consistency that I liked, hot too thick but not runny either.

 

 

6. Pour sauce over cutlets. Enjoy!



 

 

My diet plan...lol

Hahahaha.....
Well it was food related :-) I had to share! I think I have tried to eat more healthy every day for the last 4 years and the house is still tempting me....

Vegetable ham and cheese chowder

Brrrr it's cold outside! I'm not sure where everyone is from, but today in "Sunny" California it's a cloudy 45 degrees!! So since it's chilly outside and a good chance of rain tomorrow, I thought what better than some soup or chowder. I couldn't make up my mind exactly what I wanted to make. I love the thick creaminess of chowder but I also love the various possibilities of soup.

Now picture this with me....I'm standing in front of the refrigerator door open bent over trying to see everything crammed in there. The crisper drawers are full and all of the vegetables are looking at me so pretty and vibrant. Mmmm I think to myself vegetable soup sounds so good! But that clam chowder I had last night for dinner hit the spot, thick and warm coating my insides making me feel all cozy. I start grabbing things...onion, celery, shredded carrots, and I thought hey I have some broccoli and corn in the freezer too...out they come. I am a huge carnivore and I need protein since I eat so little after surgery, so I grabbed the hunk of Jennie-O Turkey Ham.

Still not knowing exactly where I was heading with the soup/chowder I just started in with the cooking process. I do this a lot lol. I start with ingredients and just create from ,and how usually my stomach guides me. So with that in mind...let's start creating! I'm going to give you a list and best guesstimates of how much I used with everything so if you just want to skim the photos and ingredients to see if you like it you can. Bear in mind though, this recipe is very flexible and can be easily adapted to your own tastes.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 2 celery stalks, finely chopped (I only finely chop them because I don't like crunching into them but the flavor adds to the soup so make them any size you enjoy)
• 1 1/4 cups shredded carrots (you can use diced if you want this is just what I had in the fridge)
• 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
• 4 medium baking potatoes peeled and diced
• 5 cups of chicken broth
• 1 cup chopped broccoli florets
• 1 cup corn
• 2 packets Swanson Vegetable Flavor Boost
• 1 1/2 cups diced Jennie-O Turkey Ham
• 1 1/4 Tablespoon flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup milk
• 2 generous cups of cheese (I used colby cheese)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic - optional (I added this to add extra garlic flavor after cooking)

How I put it together:

In a skillet add the butter, celery, onions, and carrots. (I didn't add my carrots because they were shredded and didn't need to be cooked to tender) *The celery, onion, and carrot combination is called a MIREPOIX (meer-PWAH), just in case you see it in any other cookbooks, now you know what it is.*  When the celery, onions, and carrots are close to tender, add the garlic but don't over cook the mixture....remember it still cooks a bit more in the soup. Take off the heat and set aside.

In a large pot over medium-high heat, add the chicken broth and potatoes while the celery mixture is cooking. Bring the pot to boiling and cook until the potatoes start to become tender.

While the potatoes boil, dice your ham into any size you choose. I like to keep my vegetables, all but the broccoli, about the same size. So I diced my ham into about 1/4" pieces.

Now I used frozen broccoli so I added it shortly after the pot came to boil. Fresh broccoli cooks a bit faster and doesn't cool down the broth so you can add it a bit later. It all comes down to how crunchy you like your vegetables. I like mine with not a lot of crunch. Once the broth comes to a boil again and the potatoes and broccoli are cooked to your liking, it's time to add the other ingredients. Add the onion, celery mixture, vegetable flavor boost packets, ham, and corn.

In a small bowl, add the flour and water and mix thoroughly. This is going to be your thickening agent. Add to the pot, turn the heat up to high and bring to a boil. *Now you don't have to add this if you don't want it to have a chowder type of consistency but more liquid like soup. If you want the chowder texture but want it gluten free, then you can mash up some of the potatoes while in the pot till it is to the thickness you want. Another good way to thicken a soup and you can get more vegetable goodness, is to add mashed up cauliflower to the soup. The cauliflower works the same as mashing up the potatoes.*

Once the soup has come to a boil you will be able to see how thick it will be. *Be careful here. You may look at the soup and think at this point that it's too thin, but remember we still have cheese to add to this. That is why I didn't add more thickening agent than I did.* This is how mine looked at this point.

Turn down the heat to medium, add the milk and cheese and heat through. DO NOT boil with the milk in it, you don't want it to curdle. Salt and pepper to taste. It wasn't garlicky enough for me so I added the extra granulated garlic.

Serve and enjoy!

This is not a super heavily seasoned chowder as I wanted the flavor of the vegetables to come through. I even think fussy kids would enjoy this as well with the ham and the cheese. My husband Jim is not crazy about vegetables and he ate two big bowls of it...lol

There are so many different ways you can make this your own. By simply changing any of the ingredients like the type of broth, vegetables, meat, seasonings, or cheese. I encourage you to play around with it and find your favorite. This is why I love cooking...there are endless possibilities to almost any recipe. I hope you have enjoyed this and I hope to hear how you liked it and changed it if you did.

Chianti-braised stuffed chicken thighs

Welcome back everyone!! Time for some real food! I know I have been lazy with overnight oatmeal and fruit dip...lol The holidays are over and it's time to be back in the kitchen!

Tonight's dinner is two new recipes that I hope you enjoy. The potato recipe I will link here and vice versa with the chicken. So without further adieu...let's get cooking!!!

Here is the original recipe from Bon-Appatit.com on their site. Since there are only two of us I had to cut it down. I have had lap band surgery in 2008 so leftovers are hard for me to eat...but trust me the hubby is always willing to take any leftovers to work for lunch...if he doesn't eat it all for dinner. Hence the reason I cut the recipes in half..lol. I didn't have all of the exact ingredients but I had similar counter parts so I will list what I used here.

Ingredients:
    Filling:

• 4 ounces bulk pork sausage unseasoned (I added some Italian seasoning for flavor and didn't cut amount in half since my chicken thighs were smaller)
• 1/4 cup dried breadcrumbs plain and unseasoned
• 1/4 cup grated Kraft Parmesan cheese
• 1/3 cup finely diced red onion
• 1/8 cup Egg Beaters
• 1 Tablespoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 4 medium sized boneless skinless chicken thighs

    Sauce:

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup bacon (ok so I didn't cut this ingredient in half...but can you blame me..wink)
• 1/2 cup finely diced red onion (I love onions so I kept a bit more than half here too)
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• 1/2 750ml bottle of dry red wine (all I had was a basic Merlot it was still tasty though)
• 1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup canned diced tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil

Directions:

Mix first 9 ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.

Place 1 thigh flat on your work surface. Take about 1 Tablespoons (mine was closer to 2 since I didn't cut down the sausage amount) of the filling mixture and roll into a log shape and place on the thigh towards either right or left short end. Roll the chicken thigh around the filling the best you can. Tie the chicken closed with cooking twine. I used two pieces to ensure that the filling stayed in the chicken. Stuff and tie up remaining thighs. Season the thighs with salt and pepper to your liking.

Heat olive oil in a heavy skillet (mine was a 10" skillet) over medium-high heat. Add bacon, saute until slightly browned but not crispy, just until the fat is rendered off (I left a bit of the fat on mine but it was completely cooked). Transfer the bacon to a paper towel on a plate to drain off excess fat from the bacon. LEAVE AS MUCH OF THE BACON DRIPPINGS IN THE PAN AS POSSIBLE!

Add chicken bundles to the drippings in the skillet. *I put mine open side down first this way as the stuffing warms up the cheese won't stick to the pan* Cook until golden on all four sides. *Now make sure you watch these and don't over cook them! The chicken will still need to cook later in the sauce for braising and you don't want the chicken all dried out. So just cook until you start to see a nice light browning on each side* Transfer onto a plate and set aside.

Add onion and garlic to the skillet. Saute until tender. *Don't over cook as garlic can burn and won't be tasty* Return the bacon to the skillet and add the wine. Boil mixture down until it is reduced by half (1/2 cup). *Easy way to know if you have reduced your mixture down by half...take a wooden spoon handle or something similar and place it straight down in the mixture and remove. Place a piece of tape just above where the sauce left a line. Wipe clean. Now when you place the spoon handle back in the sauce you can see if it has reduced down and by how much!*

Add broth, tomatoes, bay leaf, basil and chicken thighs and bring to just a boil. Reduce heat. Simmer uncovered until chicken is cooked through.

And the best part....plate and eat!!! Yummm! I paired this up with some whole potatoes instead of the noodles that the original recipe called for, as I can't eat pasta, or well shouldn't eat pasta...lol But the recipe for the potatoes is here. You can reduce the sauce down even further if you want it thicker by just turning up the heat again an boiling it down a bit more. Then pour over your noodles, potato, or just over the chicken if you wish. *Don't forget to cut the string from the chicken before you serve it unless you want to floss as you eat...wink lol.*

Here is the chicken (and potatoes) without the sauce so you can see how they stay together and the nice color of them. They are tender and juicy as they are but are so good with the sauce added over them!

Enjoy everyone and I would love to see any photos you have of your creations if you try this. You can also always ask me anything or comment on anything. I would love to hear from you!

Oven baked potates in chicken broth

Since tonight's dinner was full of lovely savory flavors I wanted something that would accommodate the sauce from the chicken that wasn't pasta. I didn't want to do a typical mashed, baked, or riced potato, and I didn't feel rice was a good pairing for it either. So awhile ago I had seen somewhere a recipe for cooking potatoes in the oven in chicken broth. Forgive me if I don't have a link to it (but if you are reading this and it's your recipe please let me know and I will give you full credit). So I thought it would be perfect! Such a great way to get dinner on the table and cooked all at once, potatoes in the oven and chicken on the stove!

So let's gather up our ingredients...

Ingredients:

•  6 large baking potatoes peeled and washed (I used enough to fill my 8x8 dish)
• Chicken broth 14 oz can (I used 2/3s of it but should have used only half or maybe a bit less)
• 1 Tablespoon garlic or two cloves minced or smashed would work well too (I used minced garlic from a jar and used some of the juice that it's stored in)
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Place the potatoes in the baking dish so they fit in snugly but not crammed in there.

Add the garlic around the potatoes in the pan.

Season the potatoes with salt and pepper to your liking. (Hind sight I should have done this after pouring in the chicken broth, I had to re-season a bit)

Pour in the chicken broth to about half and inch up the dish (I did mine to an inch and it was too much liquid. It didn't give me the buttery baked crunchy bottoms I wanted but they were still tasty).

Top each potato with a slice of butter (use your own judgement on how much butter you like. If you're Paula Deen then honey grab the whole stick and have at it...lol)

Place uncovered in the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes depending on how big your potatoes are and how well done you like them. Fork test them at about 20 minutes and go from there. Mine I cooked for 35 minutes and the tops had a nice crust on them and the insides were fluffy and soft.

Take out of the oven and top with Parmesan or parsley for a simple touch or you can treat them like a regular baked potato. I ate mine just as they were with just an extra hint of butter...I guess I should have been more like Paula Deen when I cooked them lol.

Here is a link to the chicken I paired with them. Let me know what you think....and as always.....Enjoy!!!!