Get Organized

As most of you know today is Valentine's Day.  My husband and I recently decided that we didnt want to celebrate Valentine's day because we feel that our anniversary is much more important than a random day on the calendar.  Ever since I was young I never really got into Valentine's day so it just makes sense to me to not celebrate a holiday that isnt very important to me.  I have to say it is a little weird but celebrating something just because its expected its really for me, especially since I dont really love the holiday anyway.  Isnt it ironic that I have no love for a holiday all about love?  Dont think Im not a romantic, I love the romance but I would much rather have a spontaneous show of romance than the planned one every year.  But to all of you who do celebrate this holiday and look forward to it every year I hope you have a great day and that it was everything you hoped it would be, and enjoy some chocolate cake and a great glass of wine (thats really the best part of eating out!).

Alright, so now I want to share with you what my husband installed for me over the weekend.  You may not know this but I do like to cook, I stink at coming up with unique recipes but I sure can cook from a recipe.  And as any good cook does I have pretty much any spice you can think of.  It got a little out of control really, taking up a whole drawer and 2 shelves in my cabinets so I decided that I wanted to move my spices to the back of the pantry door.  We went to target and bought a shelve system.  You can get the product here. Here is the unit on my door with all the cooking stuff in place.

This has been up since Saturday and I keep forgetting that this is on the door and have almost run into it 4 times.  So remember that you have it on the back of your door otherwise you might smack yourself :)

The unit was very easy to install, and it only took about 15 minutes, its easy to screw into the door, easy to add the shelves but a little harder to add the spices.  Adding the spices was the most time consuming because Im a little OCD and want like things with like things but to me that makes it easier to find things.  Ok and by time consuming I mean like 10 minutes so the whole thing will take less than 30 minutes and gave me a lot more space in my cabinets.  What do you think, could you use something like this in your home?

Project Housewife Out!

Foodie Friday

Christmas is upon up!  Are you ready?  I hope none of you have to go out in the crazy hectic traffic for any last minute gifts...but Im sure some of you will have to.  I have to admit I have been done since Black Friday, but Im crazy like that and am a lover of all things amazon.com so dont hate me too much :)

Today I am going to share with you a chicken recipe that ROCKED MY WORLD.  I made this for my husband (minus the almonds because I hate nuts on my food) and oh man we scarfed it up.  So withouth further ado, I lovingly present

Strawberry Balsamic Chicken

(this picture does not do the tastiness justice)

(A Taste of Home recipe)

Servings: 4               Prep Time: 5min             Cook Time: 15min                    Difficulty: Moderate

Ingredients

·         3-4 tbsp olive oil

·         4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

·         ½ tsp salt

·         ¼ tsp pepper

·         1/3c finely chopped almonds ( I dont use this)

·         ¼ c minced shallots or green onions

·         1/3c chicken broth

·         1/3c strawberry preserves

·         3tbsp balsamic vinegar

·         1tbsp chopped fresh rosemary or 1tsp dried rosemary

·         1 pkg (10oz) frozen spinach, cooked

Instructions

In a large nonstick skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat.  Season chicken with salt and pepper; dredge in almonds.  Place chicken in oil; cook for 4min on each side or until no longer pink.  Remove chicken from pan and keep warm.

Reduce heat to medium.  Saute shallots 1min.  Add chicken broth, preserves, vinegar, and rosemary.  Simmer, uncovered, until slightly thickened, about 3min.  Place warm spinach on serving platter; top with chicken and pour balsamic sauce over all.  Sprinkle with parsley.

If you love it, or hate it let me know I would love to know what you think!

Project Housewife Out!

Foodie Friday

YAY for Friday!!  Today is Foodie Friday and Im going to share with you one of the recipes I make for Christmas Cookies.  I love christmas cookies, making the dough, cutting them out, but I HATE decorating them.  I dont know why, I just hate decorating cookies, but se la vie we all have to do things in life we dont really like.  So lets get to the recipe shall we?!  Today is Eggnog Cutout Cookies.  I love these because the spice is subtle and the decorating is a snap!  I divide the icing recipe into 4 bowls and dye them different colors to make fun solid color cookies.  Here is the recipe:

Eggnog Cutout Cookies

(A Taste of Home recipe)

Servings: 4dozen         Prep Time: 25min           Chill: 1hr            Bake: 10min        Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon eggnog
• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Icing

• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, optional
• 4 to 5 tablespoons eggnog (the better quality eggnog the better the icing, thick is good)
• Liquid or paste food coloring, optional

Instructions

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs. Stir in eggnog. Combine the flour, salt, baking soda and nutmeg; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with floured 2-1/2-in. cookie cutters. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets.
• Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.
• In a small bowl, beat the confectioners' sugar, nutmeg if desired and enough eggnog to achieve icing consistency. Add food coloring if desired. Spread over cooled cookies; let stand until set. 

A note from me...when you roll them out you need  ALOT of flour, they can be kinda sticky and the first batch will not un-stick from the surface, but once you get to the second, third, fourth batch they turn out great.  Just be prepared to use a lot of flour.

I love these cookies and hope you do too!  Make sure and share :)  If you have any interesting variations to share let me know I would love to hear how you made this recipe your own!

Project Housewife Out!

Foodie Friday!

HAPPY FRIDAY!  Im especially happy about this Friday because tomorrow we leave for Walt Disney World and the Christmas madness that only Disney can do!  So next week my posts will be about the fabulous expolits of our time in Disney.  We are going to be visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter also so prepare for the amazingness of that too.  In case you didnt know, I am obsessed with Harry Potter and Disney...I wish the Wizarding World of Harry Potter would have been bigger but Universal (which I loath) wasnt as smart as Disney and doesnt have acers of land that they can expand on.  Oh well, thats why Walt Disney World will always be the best!  Ok enough of that tangent, on to bigger and better things...FOOD!!!  Today I am going to share with you a Weight Watchers recipe that I happen to love.  Actually I love all the recipes that I have made from Weight Watchers, but this one is amazing.  This recipe calls for pork, but I dont love pork so we use chicken, but thats easy enough to figure out so here is the recipe.

Sweet and Sour Pork

(A Weight Watchers Recipe)

Points: 7               Servings: 6          Prep Time: 20min             Cook Time: 45min         Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• cooking spray (1 spray)
• 1 1/2 lbs lean pork tenderloins, cut into thin strips
• 15 ounces canned unsweetened pineapple chunks
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
• 2 medium green peppers, sliced
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 3 cups cooked brown rice, kept warm

Instructions

Heat a nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat.

Add pork and cook until golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes; remove from skillet and set aside. Drain any remaining fat from skillet.

Drain pineapple chunks, reserving juice; set aside.

Combine water, vinegar, sugar, cornstarch, salt, soy sauce and reserved pineapple juice in a small bowl; add to skillet and cook until sauce is slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Add pork; cook covered over low heat until meat is tender, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.

Add peppers, onion and pineapple chunks; cook 5 minutes. Serve over rice. Yields about 1 cup of pork and 1/2 cup of rice per serving.

Nutrition

Calories 343.4,Calories from Fat 44,13%,Total Fat 4.9 g,7%,Saturated Fat 1.5 g,7%,Cholesterol 73.7 mg,24%,Sodium 348.4 mg,14%,Total Carbohydrate 47.7 g,15%,Dietary Fiber 3.7 g,15%

Sugars 18.1 g72%, Protein 26.7 g 53%

I love this recipe and you can have so much fun with this.  When Im feeling lazy, I get the frozen 3 bell pepper mix from kroger and use that rather than the fresh stuff, or you can get the asian stir-fry blend and use that...with veggies you have so many options!  Like I said earlier I also sub chicken for pork, but you could also do beef if you wanted to, the basic principles of the recipe stay the same, the only big change is the nutrition/points value.

Have fun making this, and if you have some awesomely great variation share, I would love to hear what you did!

Project Housewife Out!

Foodies Friday

Yesterday as you know was Thanksgiving.  I decided I was going to make everything myself and 90% of that was from scratch.  I didnt make my pie crust, gravy or stuffing but I did make homemade cresent rolls, pie, cheesecake, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes and of course the fried turkey.  Today I am going to share with you the cheesecake recipe.  My picture doesnt make it look appetizing, but the Betty Crocker picture does.  So here is my picture of the cheesecake.

And before I show you the Betty Crocker picture, let me give you the recipe first (put some space between my picure and theirs lol)

Ingredients

Crust

2cups gingersnap cookie crumbs (about 32)

1/4cup butter or margarine, melted

Cheesecake

4packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened

1 1/2cups sugar

4eggs

1cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

1 1/2teaspoons ground ginger

1teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4teaspoon ground nutmeg 

 

Directions

• 1 Heat oven to 300°F. Grease 9-inch springform pan with shortening or cooking spray. Wrap foil around pan to catch drips. In small bowl, mix cookie crumbs and butter. Press crumb mixture in bottom and 1 inch up side of pan. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Cool 5 minutes.
• 2 Iin large bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed just until smooth and creamy; do not overbeat. On low speed, gradually beat in sugar. On low speed, beat in eggs, one at a time, just until blended. Spoon 3 cups of the cream cheese mixture into pan; spread evenly.
• 3 Stir pumpkin, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg into remaining cream cheese mixture; mix with wire whisk until smooth. Spoon over mixture in pan.
• 4 Bake 1 hour 25 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes or until edges are set but center of cheesecake still jiggles slightly when moved.
• 5 Turn oven off; open oven door at least 4 inches. Leave cheesecake in oven 30 minutes longer. Remove from oven; place on cooling rack. Without releasing side of pan, run knife around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake. Cool in pan on cooling rack 30 minutes. Cover loosely; refrigerate at least 6 hours but no longer than 24 hours.
• 6 Run knife around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake again; carefully remove side of pan. Place cheesecake on serving plate. Store cheesecake covered in refrigerator.

Keep in mind that this does have to sit overnight, so that was good for me because I made it the day before and that was one less thing I had to cook Thanksgiving day.  I hope yours turns out great.  I blew out my hand mixer doing mine.  As an important note the cream cheese MUST be at room temperature before you try and mix it otherwise it will get lumpy and burn out your mixer (like I did mine) so dont learn the hard way head my warning!  haha, just kidding break your mixer if you want, mine was only $5 bucks and needed to be upgraded anyway.  So as promised here is the beautiful betty crocker shot of the cheesecake, and if yours turns out like this you must post a picture so I can be jealous of your pastry skills!

Project Housewife Out!