Bobby's Blueberry Bread

I think everyone has a family member who whips out complicated recipes like Betty Crocker whips out cake mixes.  In my case, this would be my brother Bobby.  His kitchen abilities regarding homemade dishes far exceed mine! At any rate, this is his Blueberry Bread recipe.

Ingredients

4 cups of bread flour
2 tsp of salt
6 Tbsp of sugar
1 1/2 cups of WARM water
2 packets of yeast
2 Tbsp of melted butter
1-2 cups of blueberries (or another fruit if you prefer)... exact amount just depends on how much fruit you want in your bread.

Save some of your bread flour in order to finish out the dough to a 'play dough' like consistency.

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Begin by mixing the flour, salt, butter and 4Tbsp of sugar together.

Next, you will want to 'Proof' your yeast to make sure it is active.  You can do this by adding the warm water and 2 Tbsp of sugar.  Allow the yeast several minutes to determine whether or not is will "bubble."  If this happens, your yeast is active and therefore good to go!

Then, you will add the yeast to your flour mixture and mix well.  Allow the bread time to rise.  Once it has risen a little you can add the blueberries into the dough gently kneading so that none of the berries burst open.  Think of it more like 'folding them in.'

Once the berries have been kneaded in place the bread in a loaf pan and allow it to rise one more time. (the rising process could take several minutes or longer depending on the yeast.)  After the bread has risen well, bake in preheated oven for 20 min. or longer if necessary, until the bread is golden brown of a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Banana Bread Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze

I love a good piece of banana bread! What I don't love is an elaborate recipe requiring skills in the kitchen which I clearly do not have!  Which is how I settled on this recipe.  The thing I like most about is that it's a nice mix between a bread/cake texture which I really prefer with banana bread.

Ingredients:

1 box cake mix - I used a white cake mix but yellow would also work
3 very ripe bananas
3 eggs
2 sticks of butter - softened
3/4 cup of oil
1/2 cup of water
1 cream cheese frosting

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees or to the temperature listed on your box cake mix if it differs.  Mix bananas, eggs, butter, oil and water.  Slowly add cake mix until well blended.  Pour batter into a well greased bundt cake pan and bake approximately 35-45 minutes or until tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Once the cake is cool enough to remove from the bundt pan heat cream cheese frosting for a few seconds (10-15) in the microwave until is it soft enough to drizzle with a spoon over the cake.

Strawberry Cheesecake Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

This recipe turned out to be one of my better ideas and trust me… I've had enough bad ideas in the kitchen to know when I come across a good one :-)

I've been on the search for a Strawberry Cake and/or Strawberry Cheesecake Cake recipe for a few days now (courtesy of too many strawberries in the house) when I finally decided I would just make my own Strawberries N' Cream kinda cake.

For the most part this recipe is easy and simple, nothing too complicated and even my toddler H enjoyed helping me out!

Ingredients

1 box of yellow cake mix - prepared according to package instructions
1 cup of diced strawberries
1 package of cream cheese - softened (I popped mine in the microwave for a few seconds)
1 egg
1 cup of sugar
1 container of Cream Cheese Frosting - (I used Duncan Hines)

 Start by cleaning and dicing up your strawberries until you have approximately 1 cup of diced strawberries.












Once your strawberries are diced, Mix together the cream cheese, sugar and egg using a blender… then gently fold in your chopped strawberries.










The picture below shows the cream cheese mixture with the strawberries gently folded in.

Pour half of your prepared cake mix into a WELL GREASED Bundt Cake pan and use a spoon to drop little "dollops" of the cream cheese mixture into the cake mix batter.  You will want to use half of the cream cheese mixture.

Pour the remaining cake mix into the cake pan and repeat the step above continuing to drop the rest of the cream cheese mixture into the cake pan.


Bake in a preheated oven according to package directions.  Once it has finished baking it may look a little like the picture below.

Allow the cake to cool completely before adding your cream cheese icing.  I warmed mine slightly in the microwave… just enough to get a good "drizzle" consistency to the frosting.

Chicken Broccoli & Rice Casserole

If you're in the mood for a good southern casserole or ever wanted a good recipe for Chicken Broccoli and Rice Casserole then look no further!  This is my go to recipe for casseroles and especially if I'm in the mood for a good chicken casserole.

It's creamy with lots of flavor and texture, it's warm, tasty and filling!


Ingredients

1 Package of Instant Rice
2-3 Chicken breasts
1 Cup of broccoli florets
2 Cups of chicken broth
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of flour
1/2 cup of grated white cheese
crackers
Shredded cheddar cheese

 Prepare the instant rice according to package directions and set aside.

My chicken breasts were extremely thick so I halved them lengthwise….. With one of the chicken breasts I opted to slice it into three separate pieces

I Seasoned with salt and pepper


And then diced them up into thin strips which would cook quick..

Saute the chicken until it's done.

In a skillet or sauce pan add 2 cups of chicken broth and 1/2 cup of milk and allow it to slowly simmer. In a separate container, add the remaining 1/2 cup of milk along with the 1/2 cup of flour and stir together well.  Once the mixture is thoroughly mixed add it to the simmering broth.

Once the chicken broth mixture begins to thicken add the shredded white cheese of your choice and allow it to melt completely… once the cheese has melted add the rice.

 

Then add the coarsely chopped cooked chicken.

Gently boil the broccoli until it is tender and then add it to the chicken and rice.

Once all of the ingredients have been mixed together place them in a casserole dish and top with shredded cheddar cheese and crushed crackers….. then bake at 350 degrees for approx. 30 min.

Cauliflower "Mashed Potatoes"

Ok, so the New Year has rolled around and like millions before me I am pondering the benefits of a low carb diet…. hence, the Cauliflower "Mashed Potatoes" recipe.

I started with a medium size head of cauliflower which I halved.

Boil the cauliflower in generously salted water until it is tender and soft.  Mine took about 25 minutes.

Once the Cauliflower is fork tender, use a potato masher to mash up the remaining chunks.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

I also added:
2 Tbsp of softened cream cheese
3 Tbsp of butter

Mix cauliflower with the ingredients above.

And there you have it!  The low carb version of mashed potatoes which, in my opinion is actually quite tasty.

Mahatma Rice Casserole

Ahhh… I finally have a working computer which allows me to continue my blog!  It's amazing how lost I felt once my 2 year old decided to step on my laptop which left me with no computer for several weeks as it was in the Mac store being repaired.

At any rate, I am finally able to blog once more… so here we go

I opted for a recipe that resembled more of a casserole and would be easy to prepare. I started with the following ingredients:

1) 1 pkg. of Mahatma Rice
2) 1 can of Cream of Celery soup
3) 1 small can of "mdxi-corn" which has corn added with red peppers
4) 1 pkg. of Mexican flavored shredded cheese

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare the Mahatma rice according to package instructions.  Once the rice is prepared, mix in the cream of celery soup and the Mexi-corn.  Put the mixture in a baking dish and top with shredded cheddar cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted.

The picture above is a nice pic of what the prepared dish looks like, although I have to say…. the picture definitely doesn't do justice when compared to the taste of the dish!  It's one of the few casseroles my husband will actually eat.  At any rate, if you decide to prepare the dish I hope you enjoy!

Hash Brown Casserole

I came across this recipe on the back of a Tennessee Pride package of sausage and thought hmmm…. this actually sounds like something we would really enjoy around here!  So I figured why not give it a try …. and it turned out delicious enough I knew I had to blog about it so here I go!

Ingredients:

2lbs. of ground Sausage
1 can of Cream of Chicken Soup
8oz. container of French Onion Dip
1cup of Sour Cream
30oz. package of Frozen Hashbrowns (allow them to thaw for use in the recipe)
2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese

Optional:
Chopped Onions to taste
Chopped Bell Pepper (recipe calls for green and red)



Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Meanwhile, brown 2 lbs. of sausage.

While your sausage is cooking, mix the cream of chicken soup, French Onion Dip, Sour Cream, Shredded Cheese and 30oz. package of thawed hash browns.  Also, if you are adding any chopped onion or bell pepper go ahead and mix it in with the rest of these ingredients.

Once the sausage is fully cooked, drain the grease off thoroughly.  In a 9x13 pan, spread the bottom with a layer of the hash brown mixture, then a layer of sausage.  Continue layering the ingredients until the ingredients are used up.  I topped my casserole with the remaining shredded cheddar cheese.

Bake for one hour.


Obviously the casserole was over half gone before I got around to taking some pics for the blog… but hey.. at least it's proof the recipe was actually a really good one.

Roasted Acorn Squash

Something about the Fall and Thanksgiving season leaves me wanting a good tasting roasted acorn squash.  I figured I would post my own version of roasted acorn squash although I am sure there are tons more delicious and way more interesting recipes around… this happens to be one of my favorites so far.

Ingredients:

2 Acorn Squash

As Much or Little as You Prefer of:

Brown Sugar

Butter

Chopped Pecans
Vanilla Flavoring

Olive oil 

salt

I started by halving my Acorn squash and used a spoon to clean the seeds and 'insides' of the squash out so that it looked like the  picture above.

I also chopped the end of the Acorn squash off so that it would sit flat during the baking process and hold the filling that I plan to put inside of it.

The picture above shows both of my acorn squash with the ends removed as well as the seeds and insides.  At this point… I drizzled them with a bit of olive oil and added a sprinkle of salt to each half.

Add a bit of butter to each half.. I used a good spoon full, but you could use more or less if you prefer.

Then add the brown sugar, a drop or two of vanilla flavoring and some chopped pecans.

I baked mine at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes and they were very soft.  If you needed to take them out before then I'm sure you could test them after about 30 minutes and they would be done.

The finished product!  Yum!  I used a fork and sort of mashed mine as if it were a baked potato to combine all of the ingredients.

And finally, a nice big fork full of roasted acorn squash!  I thought it turned out great!  However, if you DON'T like 'sweet' vegetables such as sweet potatoes or other slightly sweetened vegetables you might want to opt for some of the other available roasted acorn squash recipes… just my opinion.