Buttermilk French Toast

This recipe came from a friend in my previous ward. I don't know what her exact recipe was but I knew kind of what was in it so we improvised. It's hard to mess up french toast so just experiment yourselves.

French Toast Recipe
1 pint Buttermilk
6 eggs
2 TSP vanilla
Day old French Bread
Cinnamon

Mix buttermilk, eggs and vanilla. Slice french bread and soak in egg mixture. Put in skillet and sprinkle cinnamon on it. Turn and cook other side. Serve with homemade syrup or strawberries and cream. Yummy!!!

Homemade Syrup recipe:
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp Mapeline falvoring (an extract)
1 tsp vanilla

Cook until it boils and the sugar is disolved.

Just a note: This recipe is my mom's. I never grew up on "Store bought" syrup. We always made our own. It's so much better than the slimmy bottled stuff. I store the leftovers in a jam jar in the fridge and warm it up in the microwave whenever we need it.

Cinnamon Carrot Coins

Does your family LOVE cooked carrot? My family DOES!!! If they don't, I bet they will love these ones. These are easy and YUMMY!!

2lb bag fresh carrots
1/4 cup butter or margarine (1/2 stick)
4 TBSP brown sugar
4 TBSP orange juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Peel and slice carrots on a diagonal. Add all ingredients to a medium sized sauce pan. Cook over medium heat with lid on (stiring occasionally) until carrots are tender.

This is actually doubled so if you want to use a 1 lb bag of carrots 1/2 all the ingredients. I like to make this when we serve company so I use the 2 lb bag. My kids love this recipe and eat carrots like they are bunnies. But who wouldn't went they are cooked in brown sugar, cinnamon and orange juice.. not to mention butter. Hope your family enjoys this vegetable side dish as much as mine does.

Beef Stoganoff

Forgive this picture, it looks more orange than it should be. I assure you that it is just the lighting.

I had a great Beef Stroganoff recipe a few years back and it has come up missing. I had been wanting to make it but I couldn't for the life of me find my "good" recipe. So, I remembered all of the ingredients that went in it and used the internet to help me come up with the right porportions and came up with this recipe. I think it is just as good as my original recipe.

1 lb. Beef sirloin, cut into 1 inch strips
2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 8 0z pkg mushrooms
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1/4 cup ketchup
1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup sour cream
2 TBSP flour
Medium Egg Noodles

Brown meat and set aside. Combine mushrooms, onion, garlic and olive oil. Cook until onion is tender. Add broth and let boil. Add ketchup, W. sauce, salt, pepper and stir. Add cooked meat. Stir flour into sour cream and add to beef mixture. Serve over Egg noodles.

Easy To Freeze:
You can freeze the leftovers or make a double batch and freeze half. It thaws easy and serve over fresh noodles. Another quick idea is to use leftove pot roast meat for the beef.

What to do with Leftover Easter Ham???

Do yo have OODLES of leftover Easter Ham? Have you been eating sliced Ham and funeral potatoes for 7 days? I have a few great recipes that you can use some of that leftover Ham in. Here they are:

Fettuccine & Ham Stir Fry

This recipe has been one in my collection for a few years but I've never tried it before. I was sad that I hadn't been enjoying it all this time because it was a real winner!! So YUMMY! My kids were skeptical at first but tried it and liked it. I had to really talk them into trying the asparagus and it wan't their favorite, but nobody died and they would eat it again. Brady and I really like asparagus so we really enjoyed this dish!! Here's the recipe:

1/2 box fettuccine noodles (about 6 oz)

1/2 lb. (a bunch is a lb) fresh asparagus. cut off the bottoms (1/2 of the spear) and then cut those small spears in half so half of your asparagus has tops and half is just stems

~1/2 lb. leftover ham cut into small cubes or julienned (long skinny strips)

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

2 green onions chopped

2 tsp. rubbed sage (in the spice isle)

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp salt

2 TBSP Olive Oil

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Cook the fettuccine. In a large skillet, saute the ham, walnuts, onion, sage and salt & pepper in the oil until onion is tender. Add the asparagus an dcook and stir until it is bright green and tender- don't overcook it!! Drain the fettuccine and toss with the ham mixture. Toss in the cheese and enjoy! This recipe fed us one night- NO Leftover of this much to Brady and my dismay.

Crockpot Beans & Ham

1 lb pinto beans (about 2 cups- check the bag for how much is 1 lb.) Cover them with plenty of water and soak them overnight.

3 cups of either water, beef broth, or ham juice (using the ham juice that was in the pan is so yummy. I saved all of the ham juice in a quart jar and used it for these beans twice at Christmastime)

1 large onion, chopped

1/2 lb. ham chopped up

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 TBSP chili powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp dried oregano

Put the soaked, washed bean into the crockpot. Cover with the water. Add remaining ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 9 hours or on high for ~6. Add more water during cooking if necessary. Great with Corn bread.

This recipe is Savannah's favorite thing for dinner. She'd eat this for dinner every night if I made it.

Cowboy Cheesy Chicken

This is by far our favorite chicken recipe. Brady says it's as good as a restraunt's. I don't make it that often because it's not exactly low fat- but it's worth all the flavor sometimes. We had downed most of the pan before I got my camera. I love to make this when company comes and Jessica and Cameron were visiting us so it was a must make recipe. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do. It's great with the pillaf recipe that can be found in the main dish section under Apricot chicken. The sauce in the bottom of the pan is great on the rice.

Marinade:

1/2 cup dijon mustard

1/2 cup honey

1 1/2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp lemon juice

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 8oz pkg fresh mushrooms

2 cups shredded colby jack cheese

1/2 pkg bacon cooked (not to crispy because you bake it in the oven too) (cut the pkg in half so the bacon stips are half length and use that half of the pkg)
parsley

Combine marinade and put 1/2 cup marinade in a plastic bag with the chicken. Save the rest of the marinade. Refridgerate the chicken for 2 hours (sometimes I don't get it in the fridge that long and it still tastes great). Drain and discard the marinade from the chicken. Brown chicken chicken in a little bit of olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and place in a 9x13 baking dish. Cover with remaining marinade. Place mushrooms in pan that you browed chicken in and cook until tender. Sprinkle over chicken. Spinkle cheese over chicken and place bacon pieces over chicken. Spinkle with parsley and cook at 375 for 20-25 min. Server with lemon rice pillaf. SO YUMMY!!

Cheesy Beef and Spinach Enchiladas

Sorry this isn't the best picture of this dish. It doesn't do it justice. I didn't get a good picture of it until we had almost eaten most of the pan. It is really good though. Even Savannah liked it, which is saying a lot when it comes to enchiladas.

Enchiladas:
1 lb. ground beef
2 gloves garlic
1 1/2 cups frozen cut leaf spinach
4 oz cream cheese
1/2 tsp cumin
1 can (4 oz) chopped green chiles
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese (or the colby jack preshredded kind- easier to find)
1 pkg (8 or 10) 8 inch flour tortillas (I try and find a 10 pack because I usually have one that is messed up- breaks- and I like to have a few back ups- then I have an extra tortilla to give Alyssa since I don't think she'd eat these)
1 can (19oz) Old El Paso Red Enchilada sauce (you can use mild or medium depending on you taste. I use mild to make it more kid friendly, but Brady would prefer the medium)

Toppings if desired:
Sour Cream, Salsa, Fresh Cilantro

Cook ground beef and garlic in a skillet until browned. Drain or pat with a paper towel to get off extra grease. Add spinach and cook until it is thawed. Stir in cream cheese, cumin, chiles and 1 1/2 cups cheese and cook until all combined. Spoon about 1/3 cup beef mixture into each tortilla and roll up. Place seam side down in a greased glass baking dish. Pour enchilada sauce over rolled tortillas sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 for 20-25 min. I cover them for the first 15 min and remove for the last 5-10 min. Put your favorite topping on. This is great with rice or the Texas Caviar recipe that is under appetizers.

Easy to Freeze:
Make and put in a throw away aluminum pan. Cover with foil and the plastic lid and freeze. Note: Let it cool before you freeze or it will sweat.

Easy Orange Carrot Cake

If you like carrot cake this is a very easy recipe that I found in a magazine. I love it because it has a touch of orange flavor and because it uses a cake mix as a base so it is really easy.

Cake:

1 pkg yellow cake mix

1 pkg instant vanilla pudding mix

2 tsp cinnamon

4 eggs

2/3 cup orange juice

1/2 cup oil

3 cups grated carrots

1/2 cup raisins (optional)- I don't put these in because I don't like raisins in cake

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese

1/2 cup butter, softened

3 cups powdered sugar

1-2 TBSP orange juice

1 TBSP grated orange peel (the zest from about 1 med. orange)

Combine cake mix, pudding mix and cinnamon. Whisk the eggs, orange juice and oil: add to dry ingredients. Beat until well blended. Stir in the carrots, raisins and nuts.

Pour batter into 2 greased 9 in round pans and bake at 350 for 30-35 min. Let cool before frosting. Store the cake in the fridge.