Baked Onion Rings

I ask you, who doesn't love onion rings?! When I saw this recipe pop up via a mom-blogger I follow on Twitter I knew I had to give it a try. Tonight's dinner was steaks on the grill a la Hubby and I figured what more perfect meal to test out these beauties! While you can't really pick these bad boys up, they most definitely hit the old onion rings spot for sure.

Baked Onion Rings

Adapted from SkinnyTaste.com

Serves 2

1 medium onion

2 cups skim milk

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs

1/2 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs

Salt and pepper, to taste

Olive oil spray

1. Mix 2 cups of milk with 2 Tbsp of lemon juice and set aside.
2. Slice onion and separate into rings. Lay out in a shallow dish.
3. Pour milk over the onions.
4. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours (I did mine for 3 hours).
5. Preheat oven to 450.
6. In another shallow dish, mix together the remaining dry ingredients.
7. Using tongs, remove the onion rings from the milk and coat with the breadcrumb mixture. Place onto baking sheets lined with foil in a single layer.
8. Spray the onion rings with olive oil spray and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

If there is one thing My People love it's a Jell-O salad...there is rarely a family gathering that does not involve some sort of Jell-O concoction and even the non-Jell-O lovers in the crowd seem to enjoy this particular recipe. Strawberry Pretzel Salad is a favorite of my husband and cousins for sure (they usually get their own pan)!

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

Makes one 13 x 9 inch pan

2 cups crushed pretzels*

3/4 cup melted margarine

3 Tbsp sugar

6 oz box Strawberry Jell-O

20 oz frozen strawberries

2 cups water

8 oz cream cheese

4.5 oz Cool Whip

1 cup sugar

Pretzel Crust Layer

• Preheat oven to 400.
• Mix together melted butter, pretzels, and 3 Tbsp of sugar and pour into 13 x 9 inch pan.
• Bake for 8 minutes (be careful not to over-bake).
• Allow to cool.

Strawberry Layer (Part 1)

• While pretzels are cooling, bring water to a boil in a medium sauce pan, then dissolve in the Jell-O.
• Continue stirring and mix in frozen strawberries.
• Set in the fridge while you prepare the cream cheese layer. (You don't want this to fully set-up, but you want it to not be a liquid when it goes on top of the cream cheese layer.)

Cream Cheese Layer

• Using a stand or hand mixer, combine Cool Whip, cream cheese, and 1 cup of sugar.
• Spread in an even layer over cooled pretzel crust.
• Place in the fridge for a few minutes to cool.

Strawberry Layer (Part 2)

• Stir the Jell-O and strawberry mixture and then spread on top of the cream cheese layer.
• Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

This is best made the day before you want to serve.

* I use Synder's of Hanover Thins...anything but the small rods works well

Show Us Your LIFE - Main Dish Recipes

Today over at Kelly's Korner her Friday "Show Us Your LIFE" topic is Main Dish Recipes. I decided to throw my name into the ring and submitted my Shrimp Pasta with Old Bay recipe from a few weeks back into the mix thinking it might be something a little different.

A big ol' "Howdy" to anyone who has meandered over to the blog from Kelly's website!

PS - Stay tuned as this weekend I have BIG plans to test out a new baked onion ring recipe. I mean really, who doesn't need onion rings in their life ;-)

Chicken and Green Bean Bundles

It's not very often my mother passes along recipes, but when she finds a good one that my dad even approves of it definitely gets passed along for me to try out. I'm not sure where the recipe came from originally, but it was "Chicken and Asparagus Bundles". I decided to give it a go to see if it would be a good dish to add to my recipes that have been deemed "worthy of company" since I've been meaning to add a few "nicer" dishes to my repertoire lately. This looked really cool and even semi-fancy. I decided to kick it up a notch by adding in some prosciutto and swapping out the asparagus for green beans and this is what I came up with:

Chicken and Green Bean Bundles

Serves 4

1 lb chicken breast cutlets or chicken breasts cut in half

4-6 slices prosciutto

30ish fresh green beans (trimmed, but kept long)

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

Juice and zest from 1 lemon

1/2 tsp basil

1/4 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp pepper

1/8 tsp salt

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp flour

1 c. chicken stock

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Lay out the chicken breasts on a plate (cut side up) and put one piece of prosciutto on top.
3. Wrap each chicken breast around 6-8 green beans (prosciutto side towards the green beans) and secure with a toothpick. (Note: use plain wooden toothpicks...I made the mistake of using colored wooden toothpicks and this turned out weird as the color bled onto the chicken...ew.)
4. Place chicken bundles in a greased 13x9 baking dish.
5. Combine the olive oil, lemon juice, herbs/spices together in a small bowl and then pour over the chicken bundles.
6. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
7. Uncover and bake for 20-30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
8. Once chicken is cooked, remove from baking dish and place on serving platter.
9. In a small skillet, melt butter and cook flour out a bit to create a roux.
10. Stir in the chicken stock and any drippings left from the baking dish.
11. Bring sauce to a boil and cook for a few minutes until thickened.
12. Remove toothpicks from the bundles and pour sauce over chicken bundles just before serving.

While this was quite tasty, I do not think the green beans were an appropriate substitute for asparagus. Asparagus is a no-no in this house (so says The Husband) so while this technique may not be used again (the effort to roll the bundles did not pay off -- granted I am a bit OCD and have lots of kitchen/cooking germ issues so it has to be quite the pay off for me to man-handle poultry as much was called for by this recipe), the flavor combination and the lemony sauce will DEFINITELY make a reappearance in some form once I figure out what exactly that is...

Baked Spaghetti

I was first introduced to Baked Spaghetti my freshman year. I was in a group through my church that met off campus during the week and had dinner together prior to breaking into smaller groups for our weekly Bible studies. Leadership was responsible for the food and it was always exciting to have something from off campus (even though our on campus dining was insanely good and quite possibly the best college food in the country -- not just mean, it's been voted on before...) My favorite memory was that when one of the girls in particular was in charge you knew we were going to get Baked Spaghetti, Garlic Bread, and Home-made Banana Pudding. I have never attempted to recreate the amazingness, but tonight I decided to give it a go. I found a recipe via one of the blogs I follow and made a few alterations and have now added Baked Spaghetti to my recipe list.

Baked Spaghetti

Adapted from Heir to Blair

Serves 4 (hungry people)

8 oz spaghetti noodles

8 oz mozzarella cheese

1/2 lb ground beef

1/2 cup chopped onion

12 oz jarred spaghetti sauce

Salt, pepper, Italian seasoning to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare a square baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Bring a pot of water up to a boil and cook the pasta just a minute or so less than the package instructions.
3. Brown the beef and onion together in a large skillet.
4. Add sauce to the skillet and season to taste.
5. Once the noodles are drained return them to the pot and mix with 1/3 of the sauce so the noodles get coated just a little bit.
6. Put 1/2 the noodles down in the baking dish and then another 1/3 of the sauce. Sprinkle with half the cheese.
7. Repeat.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until bubbly.

This was a little light on the sauce for this household, but overall a good, quick, and easy dish. Sure it's pretty much spaghetti and baked ziti mashed up together, but I contend that is okay and they are totally different ;-)

Shrimp Pasta with Old Bay

We have been wanting to get ourselves a shrimp pasta, shrimp scampi, shrimp ____ go-to recipe in this house. I have also been craving some Old Bay of late. We are originally from Maryland and while neither of us grew up anywhere near the Bay, we're Old Bay fans for sure. My favorite part about attending football games at the University of Maryland? Fresh cut boardwalk fries with malt vinegar and Old Bay. Pardon me while I get lost in my food daydream...

I decided to check out several recipes and their comments to see what I could come up with, the two that were most inspirational were from Annie's Eats and The Pioneer Woman (especially her Shrimp Pasta in a Foil Package recipe!)

Shrimp Pasta with Old Bay

Serves 2

1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, Minced
14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
2 Tbsp dry vermouth
1 tsp Old Bay Seasoning
Salt And pepper, to taste

1/2 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
Fresh parsley, minced
4 oz linguine

1. Bring water to a boil and preheat the oven to 350.
2. Prepare a large package made from aluminum foil that will be able to hold your entire dish to go into the oven (make sure you have a cookie sheet underneath for easy transport to and from the oven.)
3. In a large skillet, saute the garlic in olive oil and butter for a few minutes.
4. Add in the diced tomatoes, vermouth, and Old Bay (don't forget to salt and pepper to taste.)
5. Cook the pasta for 5 minutes (or half of the instructed time on the box) and then toss with the sauce and shrimp in the large skillet to coat.
6. Pour the pasta, shrimp, and sauce into the foil top with some fresh parsley and wrap into a package.
7. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes (this is where the shrimp will cook through) and unwrap the package when you are ready to serve.
8. Toss everything once last time to make sure the parsley gets evenly distributed and enjoy!

This was pretty amazing and a completely new flavor profile for us at home. I served with some crusty bread to help soak up the deliciousness. Next time I may try and make a bit of a roux before adding in all the sauce ingredients in Step 4, but not very thick at all since you do need some moisture to help the pasta continue to cook while the foil package is in the oven.

This is definitely going on the rotation and may someday even be in the elite group of recipes deemed "fit to serve company" by Hubby.

Mom's Vegetable Beef Soup

I was in the mood for soup today and found out after I had already gotten excited about soup for dinner that I was missing a few ingredients for the Taco Soup I had my heart set on. I did however have the ingredients to throw together a batch of my mom's vegetable soup. This was a staple recipe in my house growing up as we are big soup fans and huge fans of the slow cooker. It was even a hit with the hubby when my mom made it for us while staying and helping out after the birth of our daughter last year. This recipe can be made stove-top or in the slow cooker and is super versatile in that you can add or delete pretty much any ingredients that you chose and even make it meat-free if you wish. The key to this soup is definitely the combination of the V8 and the sugar (when I say "to taste" here I fully plan on using almost a tablespoon of sugar...no messing around here! My mom used to use a sugar substitute, probably Sweet N Low since that was still cool back in the 80s...I go for the real stuff.)

Mom's Vegetable Beef Soup

Serves 6-8

1/2 lb. ground beef*

2 c diced potatoes

64 oz V8 (I use Original, Low Sodium)

16 oz frozen veggies

Salt, pepper, and sugar to taste

1. Brown ground beef in soup pot, season with salt and pepper.
2. Add in remaining ingredients (add veggies you like, cabbage is a good addition to this soup if you're into cabbage in your soup) and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat to simmer and serve when you're ready (and potatoes are done, obviously.)

Seriously, it's that easy.

*I am not a huge fan of meat in soups (yeah, I know that's weird coming from me who loves meat) and have been known to fully enjoy a bowl of chicken noodle soup while leaving a bowl full of chicken bits when the meal is over. I don't use much meat in this soup, but like the way just a little bit flavors the soup...my mom would probably make this with at least a pound of ground beef and you can totally do that without doing anything strange to the balance of the soup as I have written it out above.