Homemade Brownie Mix...

This photo does not do them justice.  They are soft and chewy with flaky top.

I found this recipe at the Healthy Homesteader linked here:  https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8iV70XSStw/?igsh=dGx3cXZ1cXJrcmRj

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

6 cups sugar

2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp sea salt

2 tsp baking powder

Directions: 

Mix all ingredients together and store in an airtight container in a dark cool location.  (I measured all ingredients into a gallon jar, put the lid on, and shook until all ingredients were evenly mixed.)

To make small batch of brownies:

Preheat the oven to 350° F and grease an 8" x 8" or 9" x 9" pan.

In a large bowl, mix 2 1/4 cup brownie mix with 1/2 cup melted butter, 2 eggs, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.  Mix until batter is smooth. Pour in greased pan, and bake for 20 - 24 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

To make a double batch of brownies:

Preheat the oven to 350° F and grease a 9" x 13" pan.

In a large bowl mix 4 1/2 cup brownie mix with 1 cup melted butter, 4 eggs, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.  Mix until batter is smooth.  Pour into greased 9" x 13" pan, and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Store baked brownies covered at room temperature.

Easy and Quick Thin-Crust Pizza...

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

1 teaspoon of yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup of water

1 Tablespoon plus 3 Tablespoons of oil, separated

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425° F.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, yeast, sugar and salt.

Add in the water and 1 Tablespoon oil to the dry ingredients, and mix together using your hand until dough clings together in a ball.

Once the pizza dough forms a ball in the bowl, add in the remaining 3 Tablespoons of oil and mix so that oil just coats the outside of the pizza dough ball.

Notes:  

• After adding in the 3 Tablespoons of oil, the dough will look very oily which is normal.  The dough will not taste oily once baked.
• For easier spreading the dough out on the pizza stone, make sure your fingers have a little oil on them.  (I run my fingers over the sides of the dough bowl, and then rub my hands together to oil surfaces before moving dough from bowl to baking sheet.

Let dough rest in the bowl until oven is fully preheated, and then press into desired shape/size on a pizza stone or baking sheet with your hands.  (Dough may have small tears as you press it out.  Do your best to keep them small, but don't fret...as dough pre-bakes it will rise a bit that will close small holes.)

Pre bake crust in oven for 5 minutes.

Remove from oven, top pizza crust with desired pizza sauce and toppings and bake for another 15 minutes.  ( +/- depending on oven and personal preference)

I had no pizza sauce, so I just used part of a jar of spaghetti sauce.

I was hoping to make half pepperoni and vegetable, and the other half bacon and pineapple.  But after searching the pantry, I found no pineapple, so just threw everything I had on the dough: sauce, a little shredded mozzarella cheese, pepperoni and cooked bacon, sliced mushrooms, sliced onion and green peppers, and topped with more shredded mozzarella cheese.

Buon Appetito!

Easy No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Easy No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Crust:

• 1 Keebler Chocolate Ready Crust

Filling:

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened @ room temperature
• 1/2 of 8oz Cool Whip, thawed
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Mix first three ingredients in a large bowl with a mixer till fairly smooth

• 1 large box of instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 1/2 cup milk
• 2 Tablespoons of smooth peanut butter

Add the pudding mix, milk, and 2 Tblsp peanut butter to the bowl, and mix on low till it starts to come together, then increase speed to medium or medium high and mix till well combined.

Turn the filling into the Keebler chocolate Ready Crust smoothing the top.

Top with the rest of the container of Cool Whip

•  2 Tablespoons peanut butter

Place the second 2 Tbsp peanut butter into a small microwave safe bowl.  Heat it for 30 seconds on high, then stir.  Heat for another 20 seconds on high, then stir again.  Once the peanut butter is smooth and melted, drizzle it on top of the Cool Whip topped pie.

Place pie in refrigerator to chill for about 3 hours before serving.  Could also be covered and frozen, then thawed in refrigerator before serving.

Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes with Chicken...

Twice-baked Sweet Potatoes with Chicken

This was an off-the-cuff experiment, and they were fabulous and very filling!  I'm putting recipe here so I can remember how next time!  I didn't serve anything with these, but a salad would go nicely.

Ingedients:

2 or 3 frozen chicken thighs

2 or 3 strips bacon

2 large or 3 medium sweet potatoes

2 Tablespoons butter

1/4 cup sour cream

1 Tablespoon Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix

1 teaspoon of Tajin seasoning

1/2 cup Monterrey Jack cheese

Directions:

Lay the frozen chicken thighs side by side in bottom of slow cooker.  Lay strips of bacon across the tops of the chicken.  Set on Low for 4 hours.

When the chicken has been cooking for 3 hours, flip the chicken and bacon, so that the bacon is resting on bottom of slow cooker, and chicken is on top of it, and continue cooking for remaining time.  Wash and place the sweet potatoes on a foil lined baking sheet.  Cover with foil, and place in a 350° F oven for 50 minutes.  (Rather than individually wrapping the potatoes, the bottom and top covers simplify the preparation later.)  At the end of 50 minutes remove from oven and set aside the top layer of foil.  Pierce the sweet potatoes to be sure they are cooked through, if they are, place them on what was the top layer of foil, then pick up the foil and potatoes and place over the first piece of foil on baking sheet.  This is just to make sure that any sweet juices that leaked from the potatoes during baking won't harden and make potatoes stick to that first layer of foil.  Let sit for a few minutes while you use a fork to shred chicken and bacon,

Slice one long side of each sweet potato and scoop out most of the flesh (leaving about 1/4 inch to line the skin) and place flesh in a medium size bowl and mash.  Add the remaining ingredients (except for the chicken/bacon) to the bowl and stir to combine.  Add the flesh back to the skins, top with shredded chicken and bacon, and sprinkle a little more cheese on top.  Return to the 350° oven for about 10 minutes or till heated through and cheese on top is melted.  Enjoy!

Kale Salad Dressing

Tonight's supper was kale salad with wild rice, roasted vegetables, and salmon. (And avocado, because I love avocado with any kind of salad).  

Wash and trim kale.  It is SO good with a hot salad dressing poured over it, and plating with  roasted vegetables and a grain.  I'll put the dressing recipe at the end of this post.

The roasted vegetables included butternut squash, carrots, beets, red onion, and mushrooms (both white and baby bellas).  The firmer vegetables I cut a little smaller than the mushrooms.  I put them all in a single layer on a foil lined baking sheet and drizzled on olive oil, salt and pepper, and about a tablespoon of soy sauce (to harmonize with the soy in the kale dressing) and tossed them by hand on the baking sheet.  I popped them in a 425° F oven and let roast for about 20 minutes, then stirred and returned to oven for another ten to 15 minutes.  When I took the vegetables out of the oven, I put the salmon in at same temperature setting.

Once the salmon was done, I assembled the plates starting with a bed of kale, topping that with some wild rice, topping the rice with baked salmon, then placing roasted vegetables and sliced avocado around the plate perimeter.  So, so delicious.  And enough left over to make two bowls for lunches, without the salmon, but just as filling and just as yummy cold.

Kale Salad Dressing (from Green Vegetarian Cuisine)

In a small saucepan, combine:

1/4 cup oil (I used olive oil)

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced or crushed

2 Tablespoons of soy sauce

1 Tablespoon of red pepper flakes

Simmer for 3 minutes over medium heat, stirring frequently.  Remove from heat and immediately pour over kale in a large bowl.  Toss and let it sit while you get other ingredients finished up.

Zuppa Toscana, aka Tuscan Coddle...

 

Kasey made Zuppa Toscana for Sunday family supper a month or so ago.  We all liked it, and Jared, noting the similarities to our favorite Dublin Coddle, asked if it was Tuscan Coddle, so that's how I think of it now.  Kasey texted me the link to the recipe found at 40 Aprons.  Their version is Full 30 compliant.

The original recipe calls for link sausage sliced in rounds, but I had ground italian sausage which I needed to use.  In fact I made several additions/substitutions based on what we had on hand and/or needed to be used up.   My added/substituted ingredients are marked by an " * " below.

Ingredients:

• 6 slices bacon
• 1 pound Italian ground sausage*
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 pound new red potatoes, halved or quartered to bite size*
• 6 corn on the cob mini ears cut into 2 or 3 rounds*
• 4 cups chicken stock
• salt, pepper, garlic powder* to taste
• 2 tsp Italian seasoning

• 4 cups milk*
• 1/2 cup sour cream* 
• handfuls of fresh baby spinach*

Directions:  

Cook the bacon and sausage until done.  Drain some of the rendered fat, then add the onion and cook till translucent.  Place in slow cooker and add potatoes, corn, chicken stock, and spices.  Cook 4 hours on high.  Temper the milk (if using sour cream, whisk it into milk first) by adding a little hot broth to the milk in stages to warm the milk up enough so that it doesn't break (curdle) when added to the soup pot.  Then add the baby spinach, and continue cooking for about 15 minutes.

Beef & Winter Vegetable Stew...

My recipe was inspired by a recipe from Mary Roe, a friend of a friend.  Her version had only sweet potato and cranberries with the meat .  I love winter vegetables, and thought that more vegetables could only make it better.  This has some sweetness with the sweet potatoes, parsnips, cranberries, and cider.  The salty base of the French Onion soup is a good balance.

Ingredients:

1 to 2 pounds beef stew meat

1 leek, sliced thin

1 small to medium onion, sliced thin

4 to 6 parsnips, peeled and sliced

1 rutabaga, peeled and cubed

1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed

1 to 2 medium white potatoes, cubed (I used multi-colored new potatoes whole)

1/2 cup fresh cranberries

2 cans condensed French Onion soup

2 soup cans of water

1 soup can of apple cider

salt and pepper to taste

dash of cinnamon and nutmeg

Directions:

Heat a little olive oil in the bottom of a large pot.  Add stew meat in a single layer and brown on all sides.  Season with salt and pepper while browning.  After well browned, remove meat and set aside.  Add leek and onion to the pot and let cook till translucent.  Add meat back to the pan, and add remaining vegetables.  Stir to combine.  Pour the cans of French Onion soup, water, and apple cider over top of meat and vegetables.  Add a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg to the pot and stir to combine all.  Bring to a slow boil, then reduce and simmer for a couple of hours.  Test vegetables to make sure all are cooked tender.  Serve with cornbread, or a dark crusty bread would also be good.

(My Ninja slow cooker has a stove-top setting, so I did the meat browning and assembling vegetables and liquid together on the high stove-top setting.  Then I switched to slow cooking mode and cooked 4 hours on high slow-cook setting.)