Blueberry Applesauce Loaf

This recipe came from Seneca. The line just before the recipe says to use applesauce for healthy baking. This makes one large loaf (9x5x3 pan) or two small loaves with the 6 inch pan.Ingredients:
1/4 cup Butter, Softened
3/4 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Applesauce (I used a wild berry cup and ate the last few spoonfuls.)
1/4 cup Apple Juice
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 3/4 cups Flour
1/8 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 cup Fresh or Frozen Blueberries (I only had 1/2 cup of frozen, so I added Crasins too.)

Topping:
2 teaspoons Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon

Instructions:
In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar, applesauce, and apple juice. Beat in eggs, milk, and vanilla. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder and add to creamed mixture just until combined. Gently fold in blueberries. Pour into a greased loaf pan. Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the top of the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. I checked mine at 30 minutes and it was starting to brown up on the edges a lot, so I put a piece of tin foil over the pans. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to wire rack to cool completely.

I think this bread is delicious. Try it and tell me if you did.

Chicken Sauce

This is for Hawaiian Haystacks (which are rice with chicken gravy and all the toppings you like). You could use cream of chicken soup with milk added to it, but this tastes better, we think. Again I found this on a Mel's Kitchen Cafe Blog I like to read to get great ideas from for delicious food. They were trying to figure out a good way to replace the cream of chicken soup to make it healthier. Personally, I don't really have a problem with cream of chicken soup. I love it, but this was great!
And once again, we ate way too fast to take a picture. If you want to see what it looks like follow the link above.

Chicken Sauce for Hawaiian Haystacks
*Makes about 4 cups chicken sauce (enough to serve 4-6 for Hawaiian Haystacks. I should have doubled this because if I did, I wouldn't have to make dinner tomorrow.)

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size chunks (or leftover cooked chicken, cubed)
3 Tablespoons Butter
½ Onion (about ½ cup), finely chopped (I just used 1 teaspoon or less of onion powder because some people in my household don't like the texture of onions, but do like the flavor.)
3 cloves Garlic, finely minced (I used 1 teaspoon of the crushed garlic that is all ready to use that you buy at the store.)
1 teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoon Pepper
¼ cup Flour
2 cups Milk
1 cup Chicken Broth

In a large skillet (really use a big skillet. I used a small saucepan first and had to switch over.) melt the butter over medium heat and add the onion and raw chicken (if using leftover cooked chicken, don’t add it to the skillet now, you’ll add it later). Saute the onion and chicken, if using, until the onions are soft and translucent and the chicken is cooked through, about 5 to 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for about one minute, stirring, until fragrant.

Sprinkle the flour over the onions and chicken and stir to combine. Cook over medium heat for one minute – this helps get rid of the starchy, flour taste. Slowly whisk in the milk and chicken broth. Cook, stirring constantly with a whisk, and bring the sauce to a simmer over medium to medium-high heat. Add the salt and pepper. If you are using leftover cooked chicken, add it now. Continue simmering, stirring the sauce frequently, until the sauce has thickened, about 5 minutes. It took mine a long time to thicken, so I ended up adding a Tablespoon of Cornstarch to help it along for maybe 10 minutes or so instead of 5.

Serve the chicken sauce over rice with your toppings of choice. I asked some friends what they like on their Hawaiian Haystacks and here is what they added to the basics.
Basics: Cheddar Cheese, Green Onions, Sliced Olives, Chow Mien Noodles
Extras: Olives, Tomatoes, Green Onions, Mandarin Oranges, coconut, pineapple, raisins, peas, sliced steamed Carrots, Broccoli or Cauliflower, Sunflower Seeds, Celery, Cut up Boiled Eggs, Bean Sprouts, and someone even said Mustard.

What do you like on yours? I love almost everything, so my plate piles very high!

Fresh Fruit Salad

I was asked to bring a salad to Thanksgiving, so this is what I came up with. It's pink!
I'm more of a dessert kind of girl. (See other posts for verification on that.)

Ingredients:
12 oz Whipped Topping
12 oz Marshmallow Creme (it comes in a jar usually above puffed marshmallows.)
12 oz Fresh Raspberries (frozen will probably be fine too.)
6-7 small Crisp Apples sliced and diced (not too small)
1 pound (or so) sliced Grapes (mine were too big for small kids)
1 Pomegranate (open it and get all the seeds out without the white membrane stuff)
3 cups Colored Marshmallows

Instructions:
Mix whipped topping and marshmallow creme together with raspberries. Toss apples in and coat with whipped topping mix. Toss in grapes and pomegranate. Mix well. Make sure the salad is a good pink color. Add marshmallows to soak up extra juice and fill in corners of salad. Kids love marshmallows (at least most do.) I may add a banana tomorrow when I retaste it. I didn't want it to get brown or too soggy.

My usual salad is fruit cocktail, mandarin oranges, marshmallows, and whipped topping with the occasional cut up apple or banana, so this is a really fresh yummy salad and it's pretty healthy too! Try it.

If you aren't sure about the pomegranate (and I wasn't), then add a spoonful or two of the salad in a small bowl and mix a few pomegranate seeds in to see what you think. They do have small seeds in the center, but with crisp apples you can't tell very much and they are supposedly a "super food".
Sorry I haven't posted lately. I've been in a cooking rut. Maybe I'll come up with some new recipes to try out soon.

Pineapple Bundt Cake

I got a silicone pan from a company a while ago and finally thought of a way to use it. I made a pineapple upside-down cake in the microwave. Yes, the microwave. The cool thing about these pans is that you can put them in the microwave to cook cakes quickly.
I actually didn't "buy" the pan. I got a notice from a friend that they give their pans away and you only have to pay shipping (about $8.00, but less than a whole pan would cost, I think). Here's the site to get a free pan from the company. Go to their freebie section, and if you don't want to sign up for anything else, just pay shipping. They have all kinds of other dishes and tools too if you don't want a "fluted cake pan".
AND my cake slid right out too! I know some of these pans say they are easier, but this one seems to be!I found a pineapple upside down cake recipe online, but it only used half a cake mix, so I doubled it and I didn't use Maraschino cherries because I didn't have any, but feel free to do that too and I didn't have rings of pineapple, just chunks, so that's different too, but it will all taste the same.

Ingredients:
3 Tablespoons Butter, melted
1 cup Brown Sugar
20 ounce can Sliced Pineapple (Reserve juice)
1 box Cake Mix (I used yellow, but you could use white)
2 Eggs

Instructions:
Spray a microwaveable bundt cake pan with non stick vegetable spray.
Melt butter (in a different dish) and pour into bundt pan.
Spread brown sugar over butter in bottom of pan.
Place pineapple around the pan on top of the sugar and butter. Save the juice!
(If you want to add cherries, you can slice them and spread them around the pineapple here.)
Mix remaining pineapple juice and eggs in with the cake mix.
Pour mix over pineapple in pan.
Bake in microwave on high for 15-18 minutes on a turn table. If you don't have a turn table, rotate every 4-5 minutes. Take out when top looks spongy, and has holes, not dough on top.
Let cool for 5-10 minutes before flipping onto serving dish. (Otherwise, you might do what I did and miss part of the plate and have to slide it back on. Good luck with that.)
I'm taking it to a family BBQ tonight to share. I'm so excited to try it!

Oh, it would probably work fine to cook it in a glass baking dish too. I would probably take less time to cook though, so check on it often.
Update: Everyone liked it. They were all impressed with my cooking skills. It went so fast some people didn't even get to try it and they were bummed.

Microwave Fruit Cake

This ends up kind of like a cobbler, but doesn't take as long.

Ingredients:
Yellow Cake Mix
Peach Pie or Apple Pie Filling or what ever flavor you desire
1 1/2 sticks of butter (or margarine)

Instructions:
Place Cake mix in bottom of baker, layer with Pie Filling, 1 1/2 sticks of butter pats. Put lid on and cook in the microwave for 10 minutes. Then stir up and cook 3 more minutes. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream.
Don't use butter recipe. Use Yellow cake mix, or Devils food with Cherries
Butter recipe is too buttery and takes longer to cook in microwave
You can try different cake mixes and pie fillings.

It's always nice to have a fast and easy cake recipe.

Crepes!

Alright, so I didn't make crepes for a long time because I had a really bad time making them when Andy and I were first married. I checked out a kid book ("Crepes By Suzette" by Monica Wellington) at the library that had a crepe recipe in the back of the book (the girl in the book lived in France and made crepes to different people with different fillings). This recipe is great! I made some on Sunday night and used the rest of the batter on Monday mid-morning as a snack and just made another batch this afternoon. YUM!
Here's the recipe for 8 crepes.

Ingredients:
2 Eggs
1 cup Milk
1 cup Flour
1 Tablespoon Melted Butter (I used margarine, like always-and it worked)
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt
and desired toppings

Utensils needed:
Large bowl (not giant bowl though, 2 quart bowl should work)
Whisk
Ladle
Spatula
Large Frying Pan

Instructions:
In the bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk. Beat in the milk. Then add the flour and mix until very smooth. Add the melted butter, sugar, and salt to the batter and blend well. It should be the consistency of heavy cream. Add slightly more milk if necessary (I had the perfect ratio.) The batter can be used immediately, but even better, cover and chill for one hour or overnight.

Heat the pan and brush lightly with melted butter (I used spray PAM). Pour in a ladleful of batter (about 3 Tablespoons-I'd go with 1/3 cup). Quickly swirl the pan around so the batter spreads out thin. Cook over medium-high heat until the crepe is set and the edges are lightly browned and lift up easily, about 2 minutes. Flip it, spread it with your favorite filling, and cook for another minute. Fold it in half, dust with powdered sugar and serve.

Filling ideas:
Strawberry Jam (or other flavors) with chocolate syrup, if desired
Peanut butter with chocolate chips
Cinnamon/sugar with Carmel Syrup
Any pie filling
Banana
Honey

Fruit Pizza

Fruit Pizza

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 cup Softened Butter or Margarine
1/2 cup Sugar
1 Egg
3 teaspoons Vanilla or Almond Flavoring
3 cups Flour
Icing:
2 cups Powdered Sugar
1 (8oz.) package Cream Cheese
2 cups Whipped Topping
Topping:
5 Bananas, Sliced
3 cups Strawberries, Sliced
5 Kiwi, Sliced
1 can Pineapple, Sliced or Chunked

Instructions:
Mix and chill dough for crust about 1 hour. Press onto greased cookie sheet (covers about 2 thin cookie sheets). Bake at 425° for 5-7 minutes. Cool slightly. Stir powdered sugar with cream cheese. Add whipped cream. Mix lightly and spoon onto crust. Spread any desired toppings over pizzas. Keep refrigerated. Tastes great at baby or bridal showers too.