Tater Tot Casserole

Being a food blogger means that I look at many different sites when finding new meals to try. I am not talking just one or two website. Sometimes I have looked at a dozen different sites before I look at Pinterest. O, the hours and dozens of websites that Pinterest have provided. One of the joys I get when looking for meals is the variety of sites and even more the variety of people behind the sites. It is one to hop on a website, printing off the meal you like to fix for dinner, and walking away. But it is another thing to try and take a moment and look around the website and try to get to know the person behind the meal. Us bloggers come from all different walks of life. Some are stay at home parents, some blog about more than just food, and some of us have a full time job but enjoy cooking as a hobby (I am in this group). This week I found my meal on a site called Simply Being Mommy. Like always, I roam around the site looking for other meals, find out about the author and any fun facts about the site. Well this time I came across something that I was not expecting. Crystal, the author of the site, is a surrogate mother. To me that is pretty interesting. In my opinion that takes love to a whole new level. And as I do not know any surrogates personally, following her blog will help educate me on what it is like. Plus, she has fun recipes :) (like tater tot Casserole). 

 Ingredients:

1 lb. Ground Turkey

1 bag of tater tots (32 oz. Bag)

1 cup diced onions (I actually ended up using frozen onions)

1 can of cream mushroom soup (11 oz.)

1 can of cream of chicken soup (11 oz.)

2 cups of shredded cheese

1 tsp of garlic salt

Salt and pepper to taste

Paprika

Chopped parsley

 

Hardware:

1 large skillet

1 9x13 baking dish

1 large bowl

 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray your pan with cooking spray and set aside
3. In your skillet brown the turkey and onions
4. While the turkey is browning mix together both soups, cheese, garlic salt, and pepper
5. Once you have mixed the ingredients together add the tots. Evenly coat the tots.
6. Next put the turkey in the bottom of you baking dish.
7. Then add your tots on top. Slide in oven and cook for 45 Minutes or until brown.
8. Remove from stove and sprinkle with paprika along with parsley

Enjoy

Don't forget to swing by Simply Being Mommy and see what is going on over there. 

Afredo Chicken Bake

Happy Thursday everyone! So I don't know if you saw my post earlier this week but we have been at this for 6 months now. I could not have done this without the faithful and loyal fans. All of you rock my socks off, literally.

Ingredients:

8 oz. of penne pasta. Most likely you will only find the 16 oz boxes.
4 T butter
2 C whipping cream
1 C whole milk
2 C parmesan cheese, grated
3 C rotisserie chicken, chopped
1/2 C chicken broth
1/4 t garlic powder
1/2 t thyme
1/2 t oregano
salt and pepper
1 C mozzarella cheese, grated

½ teaspoons of red pepper flakes (optional)
1/2 C panko crumbs (optional)

Hardware:

1 small pot

1 9x9 pan. I got away with using a 9x13.

1 large skillet

1 Whisk (not pictured)

2 measuring spoons (1 tablespoon, 1 half teaspoon)

Directions:

1. First skin and remove the breast from your chicken and cut it into medium chunks.
2. With your small pot fill it with water and add your half package of penne pasta
3. In your large skillet melt your 4 tablespoons of butter
4. When your butter has melted add your milk, whipping cream and parmesan cheese. And let it cook for about 4-5 min. Use your whisk to stir occasionally.
5. You are looking for it to get a nice thick consistent.
6. Once gets nice and thick add your chopped chicken, garlic, thyme, oregano, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.
7. Allow all the ingredients to cook together until you chicken gets nice and hot.
8. Turn your oven on broil and spray your 9x13 pan.
9. Hopefully your pasta will be done by this time. Drain your pasta and add it to your 9x13 pan.
10. Next add you Alfredo sauce that you just made.
11. Top it off with panko crumbs
12. Along with the mozzarella.
13. Slide the whole dish in the oven until the top is golden brown.
14. You have just made a very good looking dish. Enjoy.
    
    
    Be sure to check out Jamie Cooks it up to see what she is cooking it up. 
    
    
    
    
    

Butterfinger Fudge

Happy Thursday everyone! So sorry that I have been on a cooking hiatus lately but I am back and got a great meal for you. Thanks Sarah for stepping in for me and thank you for all the prayers for my family. Normally I don't bake...Period. It never fails that when I attempt to bake I overcook or even burn it. But everyone once and a while I get lucky and when I do I have to celebrate. This time I made some Butterfinger fugde that I found from the website Crazy for Crust.

Ingredients:

3 cups Candy Corn

2 cups white chocolate chips

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup of milk chocolate chips, optional

1 can of sweet condensed milk

Hardware:

1 medium saucepan

1 8x8 pan (9x9 if you don't want is as thick)

1 measuring cup (1 cup)

cooking spray

aluminum foil

Directions:

1. Line your pan with some foil and spray it with cooking spray.
2. In the saucepan add the Candy Corn and peanut butter. On low heat stir about every 30-45 seconds for about 4-5 min.
3. When the Candy Corn and peanut butter has started to warm up and stirring pretty easy add the condensed milk. Continue to stir often for another 4-5 min.
4. Next stir in your white chocolate chips and keep on stirring. Turn up the heat to medium low if you like but keep an eye on it. It will seem like you will stir FOREVER but keep patient and it will all melt together.
5. Once everything has melted together pour into your pan and allow to cool for about 20-30 min. If you want throw in the fridge for a few minutes.
6. Once it has cool just slice and serve.
7. If you chose to use some milk chocolate just melt 1 cup and dip your fudge. I noticed in the original recipe that you can use veggie oil to thin the chocolate if needed. I didn't need to use any.
8. Serve your fudge or hoard it. Either way I will not judge you :)

Enjoy. Be sure to check out what is going on at Crazy for Crust. 

I Never Mind Being Called Saucy

Sarah Nelson - Slow Foodie Correspondent

If you read my article “Canning 101…..No Pressure”, you may have assumed from my comments that Iam not a fan of tomato sauce. You could not be more wrong!


I am a pasta-aholic. It’s my go-to meal. It’s a flexible starch that lends itself to a variety of flavors, and as
you may have guessed by now, I love tomatoes. I just don’t like making and then freezing sauce. As I said
in my previously mentioned article, canning tomatoes as tomatoes gives me a greater variety of uses for
my labor rather than just tomato sauce. Also, I like my sauce fresh. I can never capture the fresh sauce
flavor from frozen sauce.

Basil

Here’s how I prefer to make mine……

Ingredients:
1 quart of canned tomatoes
1 can of tomato paste
1 small onion, roughly chopped
5 or 6 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
A handful of fresh basil
A handful of fresh parsley
A sprig of fresh rosemary

Parsley

Directions:
Toss all ingredients in a blender or food processor for a good spin and heat in a saucepan.

I’ve already confessed to being a lazy cook, haven’t I? It doesn’t get much easier than that.

If you like, you could add other ingredients to your sauce such as cooked sausage or peppers or
mushrooms, but this basic starter recipe contains ingredients almost always found in my pantry or
counter-top herb garden.

Tomatoes finished

Pour this sauce over the top of whole wheat pasta, and you are in for a yummy, healthy treat.

Here are the important health facts about whole wheat:

• A diet of at least 3 servings of whole grains a day can reduce your chances of a heart attack or
stroke by at least 30 percent.
• The same servings can reduce your risk of heart disease by at least 25 percent and of developing
type 2 diabetes by 21 percent.
• Whole wheat can lower your cholesterol levels and reduce blood pressure.
• Whole grain foods are cancer preventers including such cancers as colorectal, gastric, pancreatic
and some types of hormonal cancers.
• Eating whole grains on a regular basis can reduce your chances of developing asthma,
inflammatory diseases, gum disease and tooth loss.
• For more information on the benefits of whole grains, check out the Whole Grains Council’s website at www.wholegrainscouncil.org.

Happy eating!
Sarah

I Have Some Egg-sellent News….

Sarah Nelson - Slow Foodie

When this city chick (sorry, I can’t resist farm humor) moved to the country, one of my big dreams was having chickens. I was so excited to think that one day I would walk out of my house and find an egg! A real egg! That I could eat! That didn’t come from the store! Maybe you have to be suburbia-grown to really appreciate the miracle of food production the natural way.

 And I’m really that big of a geek, or if you are kind, a child at heart, when it comes to all this gardening and farming stuff. The first time I planted my own garden, I was totally skeptical that this dead little bead in my hand would become a plant, but it did! I was equally skeptical that my chickens would lay eggs, but they did! And you know what else? If you have hens and a rooster, you will even have babies! I was really lucky because our first hen that went broody (i.e. got into a family planning state of mind) was super-friendly so she didn’t mind me peeking under her feathered bottom from time to time to see
how things were going in the nest.

As my awareness for all things chicken has grown, I’ve heard all kinds of misinformation about chickens and their eggs.

For instance
MYTH: You can’t have eggs unless you have a rooster.
TRUTH: You can have eggs without a rooster, but you won’t have any babies without him.

This is a great option for town dwellers. Most suburban and urban areas have ban on roosters but not hens. Backyard chicken raising might be possible even for those of you in the ‘burbs!

MYTH: Brown eggs are better for you than white eggs.
TRUTH: Color has nothing to do with it! But environment does!

Chicken meat and eggs are being widely marketed in grocery stores as “organic” or sometimes “uncaged”, but this doesn’t make them better for you because it doesn’t mean that they are pastured. The words “free range” offer a lot of hope, but lobbyists for the farm conglomerates have helped to make the rule for that phrase usage mean that the chicken occupies a cage of at least three square feet. That doesn’t sound very free-range, does it?

And the freedom to range is what makes all the difference in the health benefits of your chicken and eggs. “Pastured” (that’s the key word to look for when shopping) hens are exposed to direct sunlight and eat green plants and bugs. All that sunlight is the key factor in turning their eggs into vehicles for huge doses of Vitamin D. As a matter of fact, www.eatwild.com says that pastured hens have 3 to 6 times higher levels of Vitamin D in their eggs than those of confined hens.

Additionally, www.livestrong.com reports that eggs from pastured hens have “2/3 more vitamin A, three times more vitamin E, seven times more beta carotene and twice the omega-3 fatty acids” of commercially produced eggs.

Eggs of different color

So what do all these vitamins do for you?

Vitamin D:
• Protects against osteoporosis, hypertension, cancer and several autoimmune diseases

Has been used in the treatment of depression

Vitamin E:
• Helps maintain hormonal balances
• Improves immune system functionality
• Regulates Vitamin A
• Improves cardiovascular health
• May help to fight cancer by shielding the body’s cells from free radicals

Vitamin A:
• Prevents some types of cancer
• Aids in growth and development
• Improves immune system functionality

Beta carotene:
• Boosts the immune system
• Improves eye health
• Protection from heart disease and some forms of cancer

Omega-3 fatty acids:
• Improves cardiovascular health – reducing the risk of heart attack and strokes
• Lowers blood pressure

MYTH: Eggs are a source of cholesterol which is bad for you.
FACT: Some cholesterol is necessary for your body to function properly.

Cholesterol helps your body synthesize Vitamin A and helps produce sex hormones.

A far bigger culprit in the war against heart disease is saturated fats. As Jennifer Megyesi states in “The
Joy of Keeping Chickens”: “In fact, eggs contain less saturated fat and calories (2 grams and 75 calories
for a large, 57-gram egg) than a small, lean burger has (268 calories, 7 grams of saturated fat).”

The truth of the matter is you’d probably be better off trying to cut out processed foods from your diet
rather than eggs from pastured hens.

MYTH: You can catch salmonella from eggs.
FACT: According to Megyesi, the risk of contracting salmonellosis from eggs is about one in two million.

Conscientious farmers can reduce the risk of their birds contracting salmonella by keeping their birds
clean and dry and by collecting their eggs often. Birds that live in over-crowded environments have a
greater risk of catching the disease. There is peace of mind in knowing where your eggs are coming
from!

One of my hens with her chick

Megyesi also states that: “…you can discard the yolks and use just the whites of the eggs, which contain antibacterial properties and don’t harbor the bacteria. On the other hand, the yolk harbors the bulk of protein and amino acids, so you will be sacrificing the most nutritious part of the egg by using just the whites.”

Now, that I’ve laid all that science on you, let’s get down to more practical matters….like eating. When I think of cooking with eggs, I think of breakfast, and if I’m forced to really stretch my imagination, baking. Let me blow your mind for a minute: I’m going to suggest incorporating your next egg consumption into dinner!

I stumbled on this humdinger of a recipe in The Tastes of Schoharie County cook book produced by the Times-Journal in 2002. Shout out to my New York fans!!!

Creamed Corn Custard
Submitted by Margaret Garlick

Ingredients:
2 tbs. sugar
1 ½ tbs. cornstarch
1 cup of milk
3 beaten eggs
1 can of cream style corn
½ tsp of salt
1 tbs. of melted butter
A dash of nutmeg

Directions:
Mix together the sugar and cornstarch. Add milk slowly stirring until smooth. Add eggs, corn, butter and
salt. Mix well. Pour into a greased 9x9 baking dish. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Place baking dish in pan of hot
water and place both pans in the oven at 300 degrees. Bake for 1 ¾ hours.

Happy eating!
Sarah

Stop Saying No to Dessert

Sarah Nelson - Slow Foodie

In my article “Dancing to a Slow Jam” in which I discussed making jelly, I made the point that knowing
how to preserve food is only a good skill to have if you actually eat the food that you’ve stored away.
With that in mind, I wanted to pull out some of my delicious strawberry jelly to prove my point.

You’re in for a very special treat because as a general rule, I am not a baker. Not because I can’t bake,
mind you, but because I’m lucky enough to be married to a true baker. This man takes time researching
and perfecting his recipes so when the oven needs to be turned on, I defer to the master. However, as
gardening season begins to wind down, I find myself spending more time in the kitchen without the
canner so…….Strawberry Oatmeal Bars.

Now, I would be remiss at this point, if I didn’t tell you the nutritional benefits of the yummy concoction
we are about to make.

Strawberries: when you look at this red, heart-shaped fruit, it is practically telling you straight-away
that it’s gonna be great for your heart health by increasing HDL (good) cholesterol and lowering blood
pressure.

Strawberries are also sodium-free, fat-free, cholesterol-free and low in calories. Additionally, they are
full of fiber, antioxidants like polyphenols and vitamins. As a matter of fact, eight strawberries contain
more Vitamin C than a whole orange!

Finished Jelly

Let’s get back to the polyphenols. Polyphenol is a chemical found in plants. Strawberries contain
a polyphenol called ellagic acid. Cancer studies have shown that this acid prevents cancers of the
bladder, lung, breast, esophagus and skin. It does this by actually deactivating particular cancer-causing substances. Pretty amazing stuff.

These polyphenols have anti-inflammatory attributes as well which can help stave off things like
osteoarthritis, asthma and atherosclerosis by acting within our bodies the same way that aspirin or
ibuprofen does.

The other main ingredient of this dessert is rolled oats. If you haven’t heard enough about the
nutritional benefits of oatmeal from the Quaker Oats people, let me give you the short story. Oatmeal is also a cancer-fighting food, and similar to the strawberry, oatmeal isn’t just cholesterol-free; it actually
helps lower your LDL (bad) cholesterol.

Now you know that this dessert is actually be good for you! Isn’t that a foreign concept? For many
people saying no to dessert has been a test of their self-discipline which, if they were able to pull it off, gave them the right to act self-righteous. They were just doing what was good for their health.

Bah humbug, I say! This recipe is a case of having your cake and eating it too.

Before I fast-forward to the recipe, here’s the other thing you should know about me: In the kitchen,
I’m lazy. I do not delight in super-complicated recipes. Julia Child and I probably would never have been friends. I believe that if cooking needs to involve blood, sweat and tears, I would be opting out of the program. I like my food to be healthy, taste delicious and be easy to accomplish. That’s it. Never fear that I will lead you into recipes that require an extensive knowledge of chemical reactions and the use of butane torches!

Without further ado, here it is:

Strawberry Oatmeal Bars
(as adapted from a recipe on www.allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. baking soda
A dash of salt
1 cup of rolled oats
½ cup of butter, softened and cut into small squares

½ a pint of strawberry jelly (I used a tiny bit more as I was pouring from a pint jar)
4 large strawberries, roughly chopped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8 inch square pan with cooking spray. (*Tip about cooking spray
at end of recipe!)

Combine the first 6 ingredients using either a mixer, pastry blender or your hands. It will be crumbly.

Press about ½ of the mixture into the bottom of your pan. Spread jam over the top. Sprinkle the
chopped strawberries over the jam and then top with the rest of your crumbled mixture pressing down
lightly with your fingers.

Bake about 35-40 minutes or until the bars are lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool before
cutting.

Enjoy!

Finished Dessert

TIP: Before I leave you to your strawberry goodness, here’s my quick tip on making your own cooking
spray with no chemical propellents! Buy a food grade, plastic spray bottle. Use distilled, boiled water
and mix two parts of the water with one part oil. You may need to increase your water ratio to create
a “spray” versus a “jet”. You should only make small batches at a time and keep it in the fridge to
prevent bacterial build-up. Always clean your spray bottle well before mixing up a new batch.

Happy eating!
Sarah

Sausage Biscuits Bites

 

 Hey everyone! I hope that you have had a great week so far. It feels good to be back from Vacation. We had a great time sitting on the beach. Be on the lookout for an extra story about my food adventure while I was down there. So...I know that said that this month would be crockpot month but I totally forgot to start the meal this week. I guess I left my head in Destin. But no worries, I have a backup meal that I made a few weeks ago. I happen to see these on Ziplist made by Plain Chicken. As soon as I saw them I knew what I was making that night to randomly take to work. I dropped them off in the break room the next morning and they were gone by 10am. Gee, I wonder if they liked them. :)

Ingredients:

- 1 lb sausage (Any kind will work)

- 2 cups of cheese (Variety is also allowed)

- 2 10 ct. cans of the Grands Jr. layer biscuits

Hardware:

- 1 large bowl

- 1 mini muffin pan

- 1 pair of hands (not pictured, If you have children helping then more hands are helpful)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400
2. Mix the sausage and cheese together gently with your hands.
3. Spray your muffin pan with cooking oil.
4. Open 1 can of biscuits. Split each biscuit in half to make 20. Press each half into a well of the muffin pan.
5. If you have children or know of a school that collects the Box Tops for Education remember to cut them off the biscuits can.
6. Next roll your sausage/cheese mixture into the size of large marbles. Add them into each biscuits.
   If you want you can roll out 40 even balls. I just grandma cooked them and just eyeballed as I went.
7. When you have added the sausage mixture cook them in the oven for about 8-10 min or until the crust is golden brown.
8. Allow to cool and Enjoy.
   
   
   

 I found this meal thanks to Ziplist and Plain Chicken. Be sure to check them out.