Salmon and Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Now that I am retired, I am learning how to take more time in planning and preparing our meals.  Trying to eat "healthy". 

Last nights meal.

Sweet Potato Fries.

Coat with Olive Oil and seasoned with Garlic Salt and Pepper.  Oven baked.

Brussel Sprouts...sorry they are the frozen kind with Ricotta Cheese instead of butter. 

Salmon-Coated with Olive Oil seasoned to taste.  Ours had hickory smoke salt and pepper.

Salmon and Sweet Potato Fries were placed on a foil lined baking sheet and put in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until done.

Serve Salmon with your favorite fish sauce.

Italian Style Stuffed Peppers

I decided to try a new version of the stuffed peppers.  Here is the basic recipe I used.  I adjusted some of the amounts to match our tastes.  I did not have mozzarella cheese, so I used Colby/Jack combination.

I should have used the red pepper for the finished photo...oh well maybe next time. Husband said it was a thumbs up.

These Italian-Style Stuffed Peppers are ricotta stuffed peppers, with the addition of rice, ground beef, onion, marinara sauce, mozzarella, and garlic. There is tons of Italian flavor packed into these peppers!

Cooking Time: 20 min

Ingredients
4 whole green (or red) peppers
1 cup rice
1 pound ground beef, turkey, or veal
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup marinara sauce
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
1 clove garlic, chopped
Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste
Instructions
1. Preheat over to 350 degrees F.
2. Boil the rice in 2 1/2 cups of water until all the water is gone; remove from heat.
3. "Core" the peppers (take the stems and seeds out) and scald them in boiling water for about 5 minutes, or until tender.
4. Remove the water from heat, but let the peppers simmer in the water.
5. On high heat, cook the meat in an ungreased, non-stick or well-seasoned skillet (the fat will keep the food from sticking).
6. When the meat is about halfway done, add the chopped onion, and continue cooking until the meat is done and the onion pieces are translucent (add olive oil if necessary).
7. Lower to medium heat and stir in the garlic, cooking just long enough for the garlic to brown, then remove from heat.
8. In a large mixing bowl, combine marinara sauce, ricotta cheese, and salt.
9. Add the rice, followed by the meat mixture, then add pepper and extra garlic powder to taste. 

10. Fill the pepper shells with the mixture, and arrange standing up in a casserole dish. Top with grated mozzarella.
11. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes, or until mozzarella is bubbly and golden brown. 

http://www.recipelion.com/Casserole-Recipes/Italian-Style-Stuffed-Peppers

Sloppy Joe's

My husband and I have been talking about Sloppy Joe's for months now.  After reading recipe after recipe, I have found that each recipe has basically the same ingredients just different amounts.  So here's my version.

Start out chopping the onion, garlic and green pepper.

 Brown the hamburger and remove all the excess grease.  Add chopped onion, green pepper and garlic.

  

I just had to make my home made hamburger buns.

They turned out perfect.  Instead of making twelve, I made eight "man sized" buns.

Took the last picture in a hurry.... couldn't wait to taste.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 pounds extra lean ground beef
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 green pepper, diced
1 cup water
3/4 cup ketchup
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
cayenne pepper to taste (optional)
**I also added canned tomato sauce for additional color.

DIRECTIONS:
1. Place ground beef and onion in a large skillet. Turn heat to medium and cook and stir the mixture constantly until the beef is browned and forms small crumbles, about 10 minutes.
2. Stir in garlic and green bell pepper; cook and stir until softened, 2 to 3 minutes. Add 1 cup water and stir, scraping the pan to dissolve any brown flavor bits from the bottom of the skillet.
3. Mix in ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, Dijon mustard, salt, and black pepper. Add 1 more cup water and return mixture to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is thick, about 40 minutes.
4. Season with salt , black pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2014 Allrecipes.com Printed from Allrecipes.com 1/5/2014

Peppy's Pita Bread

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/8 cups warm water (110 degrees F
/45 degrees C)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

DIRECTIONS:
1. Place all ingredients in bread pan of your bread machine, select Dough setting and start. When dough has risen long enough, machine will beep.
2. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gently roll and stretch dough into a 12 inch rope. With a sharp knife, divide dough into 8 pieces. Roll each into a smooth ball. With a rolling pin, roll each ball into a 6 to 7 inch circle. Set aside on a lightly floured countertop. cover with a towel. Let pitas rise about 30 minutes until slightly puffy.
3. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). Place 2 or 3 pitas on a wire cake rack. Place cake rack directly on oven rack. Bake pitas 4 to 5 minutes until puffed and tops begin to brown. Remove from oven and immediately place pitas in a sealed brown paper bag or cover them with a damp kitchen towel until soft. Once pitas a softened, either cut in half or split top edge for half or whole pitas. They can be stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for 1 or 2 months.
To make these guys "bubble" you have to have a really hot oven or iron skillet.
Very simple to make..

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2014 Allrecipes.com Printed from Allrecipes.com 1/5/2014

Traditional Sweet Roll Dough (Betty Crocker)

Coffee Cake with Cream Cheese and Pecan Filling.

2     packages active dry yeast
1/2  cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1/2  cup lukewarm milk (scalded then cooled)
1/2  cup sugar
1     teaspoon salt
2     eggs
1/2  cup shortening or butter or margarine, softened
4-1/2 to 5 cups Gold Medal Flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water.  Stir in milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening and 2-1/2 cups of the flour. Beat until smooth.  Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.

Turn dough onto lightly floured board; knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.  Place into greased bowl; turned greased side up.  (At this point, dough can be refrigerated 3 to 4 days)  Cover; let rise in warm place until double, about 1-1.2 hours.  (Dough is ready if impression remains when touched.)

Punch down dough.  Shape dough into desired rolls and coffee cakes.  Cover; let rise until double, about 30 minutes

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Bake as directed.

Quinoa Salad with Simple Balsamic Vinaigrette

Prepare Quinoa per package directions.  I used one cup of Quinoa with two cups water.  Boiling for 15-20 minutes.  Cool.

I seed and diced one Roma tomato, one small to medium cucumber.  Diced one leak (white part only) saute in a tablespoon of olive oil, add 1/2 cup of diced broccoli and continue to saute until broccoli just starts to soften.

Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2003

Ingredients
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons dark brown sugar, optional*
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup olive oil
Mesclun salad mix or favorite greens, for accompaniment
Assortment of salad ingredients, such as cherry tomatoes, chopped carrots, sliced red onion, chopped celery, diced cucumbers, walnuts
Blue cheese, for garnish
Directions
Beat the vinegar in a bowl with the optional sugar, garlic, salt and pepper until sugar and salt dissolves. Then beat in the oil by droplets, whisking constantly. (Or place all the ingredients in a screw-top jar and shake to combine.) Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Toss a few tablespoons of the dressing with the salad mix and desired salad ingredients, top with blue cheese and serve immediately.

If not using dressing right away, cover and refrigerate, whisking or shaking again before use.

*If using a good quality balsamic vinegar you should not need the sugar, but if using a lesser quality you might want the sugar to round out the dressing

Copyright 2013 Television Food Network G.P.
All Rights Reserved

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/recipe_print/0,1946,FOOD_9936_22916_RECIPE-PRINT-FULL-PAGE-FORMATTER,00.html?oc=linkback

Homemade Rye Bread

I made a couple changes:  I added 1 cup of whole wheat flour and used less bread flour and 1 teaspoon of onion powder.

Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2005

Prep Time:30 min

Inactive Prep Time:2 hr 0 min

Cook Time:45 min
Level:
Intermediate
Serves:
10 to 12 servings

Ingredients

1 envelope (1/4-ounce) dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

3 tablespoons melted butter

1 egg

1 cup warm milk (about 110 degrees F)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 cup rye flour

2 1/2 cups bleached all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon caraway seeds

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1 large egg, beaten

Directions
Combine the yeast, sugar, melted butter, egg, and milk in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Beat on low speed for 1 minute. Add the salt, rye flour, all-purpose flour, and caraway seeds. Beat at low speed until all of the flour is incorporated, about 1 minute. Then, beat at medium speed until the mixture forms a ball, leaves the sides of the bowl and climbs up the dough hook. Remove the dough from the bowl. Using your hands, form the dough into a smooth ball. Lightly oil a bowl. Place the dough in the bowl and turn it to oil all sides. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draft-free place until it doubles in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease a 5 1/2 by 9-inch baking pan.

Remove the dough from the bowl and invert onto a lightly floured surface. Gently knead the dough several times. Tuck and roll so that any seams disappear into the dough and place in the prepared baking pan. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draft-free place until it doubles in size, about 1 hour. Use a pastry brush to brush the egg lightly over the top of the dough. Bake until lightly brown, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

Copyright 2013 Television Food Network G.P.
All Rights Reserved

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/recipe_print/0,1946,FOOD_9936_31699_RECIPE-PRINT-FULL-PAGE-FORMATTER,00.html?oc=linkback