Enchiladas v 2.0

So I've been revamping a bunch of old recipes. Just little tweaks here and there really. But I'm super excited about how it's coming out. This is one of the first ones I did and they still taste great! This is such a classic recipe. Here's the original. Now, I did roll these ones. You can check out the pic at the end. So, here's the revamped version.

Ingredients
1 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp garlic powder
½ cup wheat flour
2 tbsp chili powder
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp oregano
4 cups hot water
2 beef bouillon
1 pound ground turkey
1 can kidney or black beans
½ pound grated cheddar cheese
10 flour tortillas

Combine first six ingredients. Add water. Stir (use a bouncer or whip). Add bouillon and cook over medium heat until it starts to thicken. Cook the ground beef while you are making the sauce. Drain and put in a bowl. Add the grated cheese to the ground beef, saving some to go on top. Dip tortillas in the sauce to soften, place on a plate and put a spoonful of the cheese/beef mixture near one side, spreading it out. Roll up and place in a 9x13 casserole dish. Pour remaining sauce over the rolled enchiladas. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes and put the saved cheese on top. Return to the oven until the cheese is melted.

The beans add an surprising amount of spice to the enchiladas. They have quite a bit more kick than the normal recipe. And I just thought of another addition I'll do next time. Flaxseed. Look at me getting all healthy and sneaky. :)

Peanut Butter Snack Balls

This recipe is courtesy of my mom. I've had it forever, but hadn't ever tried it. It's super easy and fast.

Ingredients

1 cup dry milk powder

1 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup creamy or crunchy peanut butter

1/2 cup honey

Mix everything together and roll into balls. You do not have to bake this. I'm not usre how man it makes, but mak ehte balls about the size of a walnut, so they are about 2 bites.

I probably made mine bigger than she recommended. They were more like 2 adult bites. They're really simple and I don't remember having any left over, so they must've been a hit!

Guacamole

This is my mom's guacamole. I absolutely love it. Eat it with her homemade chips and you might not be able to stop before the whole bowl is gone.

Ingredients

2 avocadoes peeled and pitted
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
½ tsp coarsely ground black pepper
½ tsp ascorbic acid mixture (optional)
1 medium tomato peeled and sliced

Beat avocadoes, onion, lemon juice, salt, pepper and ascorbic acid mixture until creamy. Fold in tomato. Cover and refrigerate. Stir before serving. For a chunkier guacamole, mix avocadoes with a fork.

I make mine chunky and mash it all up with my fork. We LOVE it.

Sugar Cookies

This is my mom's recipe. Well, from her cookbook. It's actually from an old friend of hers from High School. Anyhow, it's a really simple, no fail sugar cookie recipe. They taste great, and are very easy to make.

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder

Mix butter and sugar thoroughly. Add eggs, milk, vanilla and baking powder and mix well. Stir in flour. Chill for 10 minutes. (Makes it much easier to handle while rolling out and cutting) Roll to about 1/4" to 1/8" and cut into desired shape. Bake at 400 until very light brown 5 to 8 minutes. If you like a soft cookies, do not roll too think or bake too long. You can sugar these before baking or frost them after.

Super yummy, super easy.

Peanut Butter Cookies

This is a mom recipe. They're wonderful and tasty. We love them.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Beat butter and peanut butter for 30 seconds. Add sugar and brown sugar; beat til fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla; beat well. Add dry ingredients to beaten mixture and beat til well blended. Shape dough into 1 inch balls; roll in additional sugar if desired (I've never tried that way). Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Press crisscross markings with a fork. Bake at 375 about 10 minutes or til done. Cool 1 minute, remove to rack. Cool.

Holiday Jello

This is another Burnham Classic. This was also my first time making this. I made a few mistakes with the jello and whatnot, so it's not as pretty as my mom's usually is. However, it still tasted amazing and was gone by the next morning (pretty much).

Ingredients

1 package orange jello

1 package cherry jello

1 package lime jello

1 cup pineapple juice

¼ cup sugar

1 package lemon jello

½ cup cold water
¼ cup butter melted
one package of graham crackers (One section from the box. So like, 8-10 whole graham crackers. I'm spit balling here.)
2 cups whipped cream

Day 1: Dissolve each jello package separately using 1 cup hot water and ½ cup cold water. Chill in separate pans. Bread pans work well.

Day 2: Combine pineapple juice and sugar, heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and dissolve lemon jello in hot liquid. Add cold water and chill until like egg whites. At least 30 minutes. Mix cracker crumbs and butter and press into 9 x 13 pan. Fold 2 cups of whipped cream into syrupy lemon mixture and beat slightly. Combine other jellos (which have been cut into cubes) with creamed mixture and pour over crumbs. Sprinkle extra crumbs on top. Chill about 8 hours.

This was so yummy. Just realized I didn't sprinkle crumbs on top. Would've been even better. Takes a few days, so you have to keep that in mind. But totally worth it. Yummy!

Orange Rolls

This is a Burnham Thanksgiving Classic. Although it's no longer on my mom's menu, we will all remember it and many of us make it on our own. This was my first time making them and I made a few small mistakes in rolling them out and cutting them, so they ended up being huge. They still tasted great, they just weren't as elegant looking.

Ingredients
2 packages yeast
½ cup sugar
½ cup butter
¼ cup water
4 ½ cups flour
2 tsp salt
1 cup orange juice at room temperature
3 eggs
Butter
Brown sugar optional
Cinnamon optional

Day 1: Dissolve yeast in ¼ cup water. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs. Add yeast and orange juice. Add salt. Gradually add flour. Kneed. Refrigerate over night.

Day 2: 4 hours before serving, roll out on a floured board. Spread surface with 1 cube butter (and brown sugar and cinnamon if desired for a dessert rather than a dinner roll.) Roll up like a jelly roll. Slice 1 ¼ inches wide. Dip in melted butter and place in muffin pans sprayed with Pam. Raise for 3 hours. Bake at 400 for 10 to 15 minutes. They can be frozen after placing in muffin pans. It takes 5 hours to rise if frozen.

I've never tried them as a dessert, but I bet they'd be really good. I also think they' do well from some orange zest added in. But even straight from the recipe, they're amazing and an easy A+ at Thanksgiving, or whenever. Just remember, they can take up to 2 days to make.

Wassil

This has been in our Mom's Cookbook for forever and I've never had it. It's basically a fancy apple cider. It was really simple and pretty tasty. It was fun and we all really enjoyed it.

Ingredients
6 cups apple cider (I didn't have a jug of apple cider, so I just used enough apple cider mixes and water to make 6 cups worth)
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup honey
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 20-oz. can pineapple juice unsweetened

Heat cider and cinnamon stick in large pan. Bring to boil and simmer covered 5 min. Add remaining ingredients and simmer uncovred 5 min. longer. Keep hot ove rlow heat or heat in small batches.

I just did the whole thing in the crock pot. I heated the first ingredients til pretty darn hot and then added the rest and kept it on low. It turned out awesome.

Mom's Homemade Mac and Cheese

I love a good homemade mac and cheese. Haven't you noticed? Here's another version. Quite delicious and if you grate your cheese beforehand, super easy.

Ingredients
6 cups water
¾ tsp salt
3 cups small elbow macaroni
3 cups sharp cheddar cheese
6 tbsp margarine
6 tbsp milk
Pinch paprika (I have big pinches)
Pinch white pepper (Black works fine. The original recipe called for white. I found it at Smiths.)
Pinch cayenne pepper

Using a large saucepan, bring salted water to a boil. Stir in macaroni and return to boil. Stir occasionally; boil for 4 minutes. Lower the heat to medium and continue to boil, stirring frequently for 7 minutes. (You may need to reduce the heat to its lowest heat the last 2 minutes to prevent sticking.) Add the remainder of the ingredients, stirring well until the cheese is melted.

Homemade Pancakes

This is my mom's wonderful recipe. I adore her homemade pancakes. This said, I altered the recipe (sly grin) with a few of my own special changes. The pancakes were still good. Not as great as hers, but considering the changes, I think they came out great. The flavor wasn't the same, which was the main difference, but it was still good.  I'll give you the original recipe first, then my changes.

Ingredients
3 eggs
3 cups milk
3 cups flour
½ cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/3 tbsp baking powder
3 tbsp butter, melted

Combine eggs and milk. Add dry ingredients, mix well. Add butter and mix. Bake on griddle sprayed with Pam.

Now, the root of my changes was in the sugar. I did some research on brown vs. white sugar out of curiosity. What I was able to find said that white sugar is just brown sugar that's been processed more. I believe the most raw and natural form is the dark sugar. It has a few different names. You can find them on Wikipedia pretty easily. Anyway, I was curious about substitution. I read one source which said you could substitute 1 for 1, making sure to pack the brown sugar. Someone else said it would alter the moisture because brown sugar naturally has more moisture. So I started out with 1 for 1, then ended up adding more flour. If I could do it again, I would limit the milk and go about it that way, instead of adding more flour in the end. This was the way it turned out for me:

Ingredients
3 eggs
3 cups milk
*4 cups flour
*½ cup brown sugar packed
1 tsp salt
1 1/3 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp flax seed
3 tbsp butter, melted

Yup, I added flax seed. You might even be able to get away with 2 tbsp without altering the flavor. Anyway, this is the edited, hopefully slightly healthier version. If doing it again, like I said, I would start with 2 cups milk and slowly add until it was the right texture. Easier than adding flour after. But I would still use 3 eggs. I don't Mom, what do you think?

Anyway, the original recipe is great, the altered one was pretty darn good as well.

White fish filets

This was originally a filet de Sol recipe. However, it works with any white fish: Sol, tilapia, cod, or catfish. I'm sure there are others. And no, I don't know why they're called white fish. Anyway, this was the first fish I really started enjoying. And I love it! I have since altered the recipe a tad. This is by far a family favorite. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Ingredients
4-6 filets (approx.)
½ cup flour
1 tbsp Alpine Touch (an all-purpose seasoner like Lawry's. It has onion, garlic, salt and pepper.)
2 tbsp flax seed
2 tbsp wheat germ
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp oil

Combine dry ingredients. Warm oil in saucepan. Dip sol in mixture and fry in oil (I use olive oil or vegetable oil) until browned on each side. It doesn't take very long. It should flake easily with a fork.

I was really pleased with this recipe. This is the first time I've measured the ingredients. Usually I just dump them together and make it. But I've wanted to measure it out so I can share it. The wheat germ is expenable, but I would definitely have the flax seed, as it has a stronger flavor and adds to the taste of the fish. This is another recipe that's easy to edit to your individual tastes. You could easily add other seasonings that are a family favorite. Or you can substitute the Alpine Touch with other all-purpose seasoners, like Lawry's or a Lemon Pepper Seasoning. It's easy to get creative if you want to. And Joseph just loves this recipe and can eat a good size filet all on his own. I think it's the most fish friendly recipe I've ever had if you don't want to feed your kids fish sticks. :)

Enchiladas

A twist on an old favorite. This is a family FAVE! My mom's enchiladas have now made many a missionary happy in Montana as well. This recipe is pretty versatile. I usually make it with ground turkey. It's meant for beef, and can be easily converted to using chicken. Killer delicious! This version is not rolled enchiladas, but an enchilada casserole. You definitely have to make the original enchiladas to truly appreciate it. But, when you make it frequently, it's nice to do it casserole style because it takes less time. Here's the original recipe:

Ingredients

1 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp garlic powder
½ cup flour
2 tbsp chili powder
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp oregano
4 cups hot water
2 beef bouillon (use chicken bouillon if making with chicken)
1 pound ground beef (or turkey or chicken)
½ pound grated cheddar cheese
10 flour tortillas (When I make them into rolled enchiladas, I tend to only get 8. I think it's because I fill mine pretty full)

Combine first six ingredients. Add water. Stir (use a bouncer or whip). Add bouillon and cook over medium heat until it starts to thicken. Cook the ground beef while you are making the sauce. Drain and put in a bowl. Add the grated cheese to the ground beef, saving some to go on top. Dip tortillas in the sauce to soften, place on a plate and put a spoonful of the cheese/beef mixture near one side, spreading it out. Roll up and place in a 9x13 casserole dish. Pour remaining sauce over the rolled enchiladas. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes and put the saved cheese on top. Return to the oven until the cheese is melted. (I used to forget and always put the cheese ontop before I put it in the oven. Now I just do it before because it's easier to remember. It still works out fine.)

To make this a casserole:
Cut up your tortillas. I just use a pizza cutter and make then into small chunks. Then you layer your ingredients. Start with tortillas, then add meat/cheese. Then douse with sauce. Then repeat. This last time, I ended with a layer of tortillas. Just make sure they all have sauce on them before you bake. If any tortilla strips on top don't get sauce, they'll get dark and crispy.

I didn't add this to the kid friendly section because when Joseph was younger he'd never eat it. He did this time, however.

Oven Fried Chicken

So this is a simple oven fried chicken recipe of my moms. It's very simple and tasty. I have made it with drumsticks, as the recipe calls for, but this time I did it a little bit different. I'll post the original recipe and then tell you how I did it differently.

Ingredients

1/3 cup vegetable shortening, melted
¼ cup flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp paprika
1/8 tsp black pepper
2 lbs chicken drumsticks washed (3 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 3 strips each)

Heat oven to 425. Melt shortening and set aside. Mix dry ingredients in a paper bag. Wash chicken and pat dry. Put 3 or 5 pieces at a time in paper bag and shake to coat chicken with flour mixture. Arrange chicken in a single layer in an ungreased 9x13 baking pan. Drizzle melted shortening on chicken. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes or until chicken is tender. Serve with ketchup, BBQ sauce or honey.

I think having them in smaller strips makes them pretty kid friendly. You could even make them into smaller bite size nuggets for younger ones. This is also a recipe that would be easy to jazz up. Add an all-purpose seasoner or your preferred seasoning and you could have a garlic chicken or onion chicken or whatever. I haven't done it yet, but I'm sure it would be easy and tasty.

Lemon Tea Cookies

As promised, I made some delights involving lemon zest. Mom's famous lemon tea cookies are so awesome! I love these! (And so does my sister Stacie) They are the best and they go way too fast in our house.

Ingredients

2 tsp lemon juice
½ cup milk
1 ¾ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
½ cup butter
1/3 cup butter
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp lemon peels grated
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup lemon juice

Stir 2 tsp lemon juice into milk; set aside. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and ¼ tsp salt. In mixer bowl, beat butter for 30 seconds. Add ¾ cup sugar; beat til fluffy. Add egg and lemon peel; beat well. Add dry ingredients and milk mixture alternately to beaten mixture and beat til well blended. Drop from a teaspoon 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in 350 oven for 12-14 minutes or til done. Combine ¾ cup sugar and lemon juice; stir til sugar is dissolved. Remove cookies at once to a wire rack; brush with lemon mixture. Cool.

I cut the sugar/lemon juice mixture in half because I always have too much. However, I always make my cookies too big as well. I would recommend using the kiddie teaspoon. Not the big soup spoons. For some reason, they're better smaller. And then you have more. So it makes it seem like they can last longer. Anywho, we love these cookies. They rock!

Lasagna

So I'm pretty sure this was my first lasagna. I was getting a bit ambitious I think. But it worked out! I will tell you I was afraid to take the first bite. I thought for sure it wasn't going to work out. But it did! Woohoo! This was originally Mom's recipe, but I changed it a bit.

Ingredients

1 tbsp oil
½ onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lb. lean ground beef cooked (I'm sure turkey would sub great in here)
4-8 oz. mushrooms (I used a 4 oz. can. If you wanted to beef it up two cans would work well.)
3 cans diced tomatoes (could use seasoned ones and skip the seasonings.)
¼ cup flax seed (honestly, I forgot them. But just now realized it would go in just fine.)
1 tbsp basil leaves
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp black pepper
½ tsp salt
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 egg
8 oz. mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
8 oz. lasagna noodles (oven-ready)
parmesan cheese

In a 2-quart saucepan heat oil; add onions and garlic and sauté until onions are translucent, about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, basil, sugar, salt, and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. While sauce is simmering, in a bowl combine ricotta, egg, and mozzarella cheese with parsley; set aside. In bottom of a 8x13” baking pan, spread a thin layer of meat sauce; top with alternating layers of cooked lasagna noodles, cheese mixture and meat sauce, ending with a layer of meat sauce. Douse with parmesan cheese. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to stand 15 minutes before serving.


When you hit the stage of adding tomatoes, etc. I'd put it in a soup pot. My saucepans aren't big enough anyhow. I would use as much noodle on each layer. You'll probably have to break them a bit. Since I used the oven ready noodles, they're stiff. Putting a layer of cheese mix on that is kinda hard. But I basically tried to spread it on the noodles like putting it on a cracker. It worked alright. I wasn't able to spread it too well, but I'm sure the heat helped it to spread when it was cooking. Make sure no noodles are exposed on that last layer. That's why it's important to end with a meat layer. Then I just doused the top with parmesan cheese. You can put as little or as much as you like. I liked it. It added a crunchy and flavorful crusty top to the lasagna. I didn't use all the lasagna noodles in mine. I probably could have if I had broken some of the pieces up. At first, I thought it had too much basil because I could really smell it. But once we were eating it, it was great. The taste wasn't at all overwhelming. I think it just has a strong scent. But the flavors balanced very nicely.
 

I didn't put this under kid friendly, however Joseph ate it without a complaint once it was cooled down. Maybe most kids are cool with lasagna. I didn't know that.

French Toast

My mom's famous french toast.

Ingredients (6 slices)

3 eggs (use 1 egg for every 2 slices of bread)
1tbsp milk
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp vanilla

Dip each piece of bread in the egg mixture, thoroughly covering both sides. Place on a warm grill or skillet. Cook thoroughly on both sides until golden brown or desired doneness.

For ours, I cut up one slice of bread into four pieces so they were like french toast sticks. I realized afterwards that I could've just cut up a piece of already cooked french toast in this manner, but it did help in soaking up the last of the egg mixture, because the pieces are small, versus trying to soak up the last bit with a full slice. This was of course served with our delicious homemade syrup.

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Well, I dared to venture and make chocolate chip cookies. As my mom probably knows, I have struggled with making her chocolate chip cookies (the only chocolate chip cookies I would dare make because they are the best.) Be it cruddy ovens, poor cookies sheets or a glitch in her recipe, I have struggled to make her cookies. However, for whatever reason, I dared to make them yesterday for Family Home Evening and they were a success! I can't tell you how happy I was! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

1 1/3 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup pecans
1 pckg milk chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375. Mix butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla thoroughly. Measure flour. Blend dry ingredients, stir in. Mix in nuts and chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoons 2” apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Cool slightly before removing from cookie sheet. If using semi-sweet chocolate chips, use walnuts.

The only thing that was different was, I managed to run out of flour! I didn't realize I didn't have any reserves so I ran out. However, I had some cake flour (the same I use for my baking powder biscuits) so I ended up using about a cup of cake flour. I can't say yet if they make the cookies any better. I only know a bit about what makes cake flour different than regular flour. Anyhow, they turned out great. I make my cookies big, to a fault, but they were soft, fluffy and golden brown. The color seemed different, which may have been due to the flour. But they tasted great. I didn't use nuts, mainly because I didn't have any.

Stroganoff

A family classic. It's just mom's recipe. I never liked it with mushrooms growing up, but I've since gotten over my phobia of most vegetables. I think I even used more that it usually calls for, because they were in my fridge already opened. For some reason, it tasted a tad bit bland last night, but we're not sure why. I wasn't exactly measuring out the seasonings, but I tend to use more than recipes call for that way. Despite it not being too flavorful, we still enjoyed it, and on average the stroganoff tastes fantastic!

Ingredients

1 lb. lean ground beef (I have used ground turkey)
1 tbsp onion powder (I used chopped onions, since they were already chopped up in my fridge. Probably about 1/4 cup or so)
¼ cup margarine
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1 4-oz can mushrooms
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream

Melt margarine over medium heat, add onion powder. Add meat and brown. Add flour, salt, garlic, pepper, and mushrooms. Cook 5 minutes. Add soup, simmer uncovered 10 minutes. Stir in sour cream. Heat through. Serve with rice (or egg noodles.) If you don’t have lean ground beef, you can leave out the margarine. If you have 7% fat or less, you need the margarine to make the sauce.

Mom, maybe you can answer the question of why it uses cream of chicken soup instead of cream of mushroom?

Parmesan Chicken

I made this to originally go in my cream of broccoli soup, but didn't know how the breading would handle being in the soup, so we ate it on the side. This is a great recipe that's really easy to whip up and cook in the oven while you're doing other things. The chicken comes out super moist and it's really tasty. It's also easy to play with if you want to add other seasonings to the breading.

Ingredients

6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2 tbsp margarine, melted
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
¼ cup dry bread crumbs
2 tbsp flax seed
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp parsley
¼ tsp paprika
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper

Heat oven to 400. Spray 15x10x1” pan with Pam. Dip chicken in margarine, coat with combined remaining ingredients. Place in prepared pan. Bake 20-25 minutes or until tender. Chicken tenders may be substituted.

Using chicken tenders or cutting up the chicken breast into smaller pieces makes them very child friendly. Joseph really likes this. I've cut them up into strips. You still cook them the same. Oh yeah, flax seed wasn't in the original recipe. That was me :) You can add less flax seed if you like, as well. I just pick an amount that seems good.

Fish Tacos

This is a recipe I've cooked many times. My mom sent it to me. It's called Baja Fish Tacos. It's really quite easy, and if you do any chopping and mixing before hand, the only thing you have to do is cook the fish and heat up your tortillas (if they're soft). It's pretty sweet!

Ingredients
¼ cup sour cream
¼ cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 pkg taco seasoning
1 pound cod filet or other white fish cut into 1 inch pieces
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 pkg taco shells  (We used wheat tortillas)

Toppings: shredded cabbage, chopped tomato, lime juice, taco sauce

Combine sour cream, mayonnaise, cilantro, and 2 T seasoning mix in small bowl. Combine cod, oil, lemon
 juice, and remaining seasoning in medium bowl; pour into large skillet. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium-high heat for 4 to 5 minutes or until fish flakes easily. Fill taco shells with fish mixture. Top with desired toppings.