Saturday, February 23, 2008

What's cookin'????


In my world, Saturday is a day I SO enjoy for it's a day when I can sleep in, move at a slower pace, and spend 2 full days with my family.  

A big part of my weekend is spent preparing meals for the upcoming week since I work full-time.  By late Sunday afternoon my kitchen looks more like restaurant than our kitchen as I begin preparing breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for the week.

My weekly work routine takes me away from home for roughly 11 hours a day between my commute time and work day, which doesn't allow for much food prep time.  So today, I thought I'd give you a peek, into my world.

I'm a big believer that Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so each weekend, I prepare a Quiche, and one of our favorite Quiche's is a Four Cheese Quiche.  (For this recipe and many, many more go here!)  I bake the Quiche Sunday and then I re-heat a piece each morning.  I then add a bowl of fresh fruit which usually consists of blueberries, strawberries, banana, watermelon, and pineapple; and then I toast an english muffin and spread with  homemade jam that I make.  

Our lunches usually consist of yogert with granola, a turkey, cheese, and spinach sandwhich, and I then throw in a small baggie of pretzels, or organic chips.  

Our dinners tend to be eaten late, as I don't get home until after 6:30pm and I don't like to eat a big heavy meal late at night so often we have soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, or grilled panini's.  Some nights we do have grilled chicken (we eat a lot of chicken) or flank steak with baked potato's, and veggies.

As I've been preparing my meals for next week, I thought I'd pass along a few recipes. 

Poppy Seed Cake

1 Box Duncan hines butter cake mix
1/2 c. sugar
3/4 c. oil
1/4 c. poppy seed
4 eggs
1 small carton of sour cream

Mix all ingredients.  Add eggs one at a time, and mix well.  Pour in a greased and sugared bundt pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
Once cool, remove the cake from the bundt pan.  I often make a white frosting glaze adding lemon flavoring.  My guys really enjoy this.


We also enjoy spicy food...and this recipe is a keeper.  It's from Emeril's cooking.

Tex Mex Chicken Taco Soup
1/2 c. diced onions
1/2 c. diced green bell pepper
1 TBSP. minced garlic
Vegetable oil
1 pound of chicken breast, cooked and diced or shredded
1 package of taco seasoning mix
1-8 ounce jar of salsa
1-14 oz. can of corn
1-14 oz. can hominy
1-14 oz. can of ranch style beans
2-4 oz. can tomato paste
2-14 oz. cans chicken broth
1-8 oz. package of cream cheese

Saute onions, green bell peppers, and garlic in a small amount of vegetable oil.  Add chicken, taco seasoning mix, salsa, vegetables, beans, tomato paste, and chicken broth.  Bring to a slow simmer and simmer for 20 minutes.  Place cream cheese in a separate bowl.  Using a measuring cup, take some of the hot liquid from the soup and pour over cream cheese to melt and then add back to the soup.  Simmer on low for another 10 minutes.  Serve with tortilla chips and grated monterey jack cheese.
This soup is also great as a left over.


I'll share one more...and this one is great for company, or a church pot-fellowship.

Chocolate Cookie Cake

Combine the following ingre. and bring to a boil...do NOT COOL:

4 TBSP. Cocoa
2 Sticks of butter
1 C. water

Add the following to the above:

2 C. flour
2. C. sugar
1 tsp. soda

Then, beat in 2 eggs, adding 1 tsp. of vanilla, and 1/2 C. of sour milk. (to make sour milk, I add 1 tsp. of vinegar to the 1/2 C. milk)

Grease and flour a cookie sheet, pour batter into cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

While the  cake is baking,  make the frosting:

1 1/2 C. sugar
6 TBSP. butter
6 TBSP. milk
1/2 C. chocolate chips

Combine the sugar, butter and milk in a pan and bring to a boil.  Boil for one minute.  Add the chocolate chips.  Stir till dissolved. Remove from heat and beat with an electric mixer until the frosting begins to thicken.  (I usually beat it a good 5-6 minutes)

Once the cake is finished baking, pour the hot frosting, onto the hot cake.
This dessert taste's great with ice cream.    

This is a recipe that is so quick, and easy so I try to keep the ingre. on hand always. It's great to throw together if you find out someone is going to stop by for the evening and you don't have a lot of time to make something.

Enjoy your Saturday friends!!!

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3 comments:

  1. Denise CFebruary 23, 2008 at 3:11 AM

    Oh yum, Kim!! Those recipes sound so good! You are an amazing mom and wife...to be so very organized and get this all done on Saturday! Have a wonderful day cooking with love in your kitchen for your sweet family!
    Sweet Blessings,
    Denise

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  2. KelleyFebruary 23, 2008 at 9:11 PM

    You know the best meals are like a bad date: cheap, fast and easy! ha ha! Seriously though, I always appreciate new recipes. It can be a real challenge to answer the "what's for dinner" question. Good for you to be so on top of it! I recently discovered an Italian sausage soup on allrecipes.com that is REALLY good, and very easy. I also love Emeril's recipes so I will definitely be referring back to this page and copying your stuff.

    Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

    ~~Kelley

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  3. ChristinaFebruary 24, 2008 at 12:56 AM

    WOW that is some breakfast you make. I love, love, love quiche and I am going to try this recipe. All the fruit sounds awesome too. I really never thought of slicing the quiche up for all week. That would make things so much easier. I should try to do some cooking on Saturday. I usually end up cooking breakfast for Monday about half an hour before everyone leaves and this is a little bit time consuming when I could of had it all done already. Thanks for the idea.

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