Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Fettucine Alfredo with Chicken

I made this tonight....DELICIOUS. It comes from this month's Kraft Food & Family magazine. (It's free, which is always good...and always has a few good recipe nuggets in there).

Note: Their recipe is for 1/2 lb of pasta...but I cooked the whole box of fettucine (1lb), so I doubled the ingredients when I made it tonight.

For 1/2 lb of fettucine (uncooked):

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 1/4 cup chicken broth
4 t flour
4 oz cream cheese
3 T parmasean cheese
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t pepper

1. Cook pasta as directed
2. cut chicken into chunks and cook in large, nonstick skillet.
3. Remove chicken from skillet.
4. In the same skillet, mix broth and flour, then add cream cheese, parmasean cheese, garlic powder and pepper. Stir constantly until thickened.
5. Stir in chicken.
6. Mix pasta and sauce mixture in large bowl....sprinkle with parmasean cheese.

Another note: I only used 1 chicken breast and it was PLENTY....even with doubling the recipe. I had some chicken already cooked that I just shredded and added at the end.

Yummy.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Granola Bars (A.K.A. glorified rice crispies)

This is a revealing recipe. It changes all you think you know about granola bars. It will change the way you think when you call someone a "granola". Anyway, with that disclaimer I would also like to add that this is a very dynamic recipe. You can change it however you want and still get decent results.


Part 1: The sticky stuff

1/2 C. Peanut Butter or other nut butter
1/4 C. Karo Syrup
1/4 C. Brown Sugar
4 lg. Marshmallows
1 t. vanilla (add a bit later)

If you grease up all of your cooking stuff before you do this, it makes cleanup much easier. Make sure you at least do the bowl you mix the sticky stuff in though. Without marshmallows and vanilla, nuke it in your microwave 1 minute. While it's melting follow part 2. Mix thoroughly when done add marshmallows and nuke 1 minute more. When done, add vanilla. (Although I forgot this once and nobody noticed.)


Part 2: The Filling stuff.

2 C. Regular Oats*
1 1/2 C. Crispy Rice Cereal
1/4 C. Chocolate Chips

Mix everything together and press into a 9 in. pan. Allow to cool. Cut into bars. As long as you have 3.75 C. of stuff, it really doesn't matter what you put in your granola bars. Other ideas include but are not limited to: rasins, cranberries, other dried fruit, ground flaxseed, flaked rye, cheerios, other cereal. (I used Oats, Golden Puff cereal, flaxseed, cranberries, and chocolate chips in the ones I made for Tori's birthday party.)

Makes about 2-12 bars. :)

*I would recommend using this much oats every time you make it though.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Whole Wheat (Quick) Bread

Since I'm bread-stupid, this was the perfect thing to use my wheat. I can't make a loaf of yeast bread to save my life...but THIS worked well.... I served it with honey butter and it was fan-TAS-tic.


Whole Wheat Quick Bread

1 egg, beaten
2 cups buttermilk*
2 T molasses or honey
2 T butter, melted
2 cups whole wheat flour**
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 t baking powder

In a bowl, combine egg, buttermilk, molasses (or honey), and butter. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Stir well; add to first mixture and mix well. Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 400 degrees for about 45-50 minutes, until lightly brown. Cool slightly, then turn out of the pan onto a wire rack. Slice while warm. Makes one loaf. 

*I used regular milk.

**After I mixed the ingredients together, the mixture seemed a little watery, so I added an extra half cup of flour and it was great. I don't think my wheat grinder made a fine enough grind.