Yeah.....week three of What's Cookin' Wednesday didn't happen. I had dance recital rehearsal that lasted until 9pm on Tuesday evening. It actually was later, but we left as soon as Nate was done. Then I ran 900 errands the first day of summer vacation, then out of town guests, then recital, then Grandma sitting...and now it is Wednesday. lol Excuses, yep. I got them.
One thing I have noticed that I never keep up with is actual DAYS when I am making certain things. So, I think just a bucket list of recipes for the week will work better. Here goes!
Spaghetti with garlic bread. I think I make the best garlic bread ever. Get a loaf of French bread, slather it with butter (half a stick on each side). Make sure to leave it out a bit to get it soft before hand. After you slathered, sprinkle on oregano, parsley, garlic salt, garlic powder, and basil. Put it on a pan and put it under the broiler in the oven. You REALLY need to keep an eye on it. It will toast fast, which means it will burn fast. Sometimes when I don't have a loaf I make this on normal sandwich bread or hamburger buns. We aren't fancy here.
Chicken Enchilada Casserole. (Stacked enchiladas) These were SO good. It makes a bunch,so you will have leftovers. I used used a large can of mild enchilada sauce. I want to try her recipe though! It sounds super easy to make. TIP: If you need to get shredded chicken and don't have any made, grab your slow cooker. I threw 4 boneless, skinless breasts in there and then added two cups of vegetable broth. You could use chicken if you have it. Turn it on high for four hours and leave it alone. When it is done you can literally lift if out and shred with just one fork. You can just smoosh it and it shreds. So good and easy!
Squash Casserole Pretty sure this is Eric's new go to recipe. It is really yummy! We were running late so we just served this with peas and salad. Not the best "dinner", but it would be an awesome side dish!
Brown Sugar Meatloaf Don't think less of me....I love meatloaf. Well, turkey meat loaf. I haven't eaten beef or pork in 20 years. HUG A COW AND PIGGY! This recipe looks super yummy and I think it would go great with sweet potatoes. One of Grandma's favorite foods.
Eggplant Parmesan I LOVE eggplant. What I hate is frying the eggplant before you bake it. Eggplant sucks up SO MUCH OIL. This recipe you bake the eggplant.I found it a while ago and it is now my go to. I typically make spaghetti with it to throw the eggplant on top of and throw together a quick salad for the side.
Roasted Cauliflower I love cauliflower and am planning on this for lunch one day. Look how yummy it looks! I plan on eating it with Cumin Lime Black Bean Quinoa Salad
Cumin Lime Black Bean Quinoa Salad It looks SOOOO good.
Desserts this week:
Cinnamon Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Ice Cream
S'mores Ice Cream...RECIPE COMING!!!
Happy Eating!!
Back on May the 4th, we went to a comic book store for Comic Book day. We had time to kill before we were allowed in and went to check out the ice cream store that was next to them. Nate got Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Ice Cream and hasn't stopped talking about it since.
This week I figured I could be the coolest and try to recreate it. I succeeded. He told me it was BETTER than the ice cream shop. Score one for mom!
This ice cream is so good. You have the cinnamon of the ice cream and then the hunks of cookie. If you are an anti-raisin person, I still like you. Just omit them from the recipe. This recipe DOES call for planning. I baked my favorite oatmeal raisin cookies for this recipe. You can do that as well, OR buy cookies. Either way, you need to have the cookies ready before the ice cream. The cookies are cut and frozen before being added to help keep them from falling apart in the churner. I have a Cuisinart 2 quart Ice Cream maker and LOVE it.
My FAVORITE oatmeal cookie recipe is the Quaker Oats Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Recipe. If you don't want extra cookies, I would half the recipe. I don't even really understand what I just wrote. Who wouldn't want extra cookies? Go ahead and make the whole recipe and eat one, or four, while they cool. They have oatmeal, raisins, and eggs. You could probably eat them for breakfast they are so healthy.
I have mentioned it before, but if you don't use a cookie scoop, you should. A scoop helps to yield in uniform size cookies. This is awesome for baking purposes because they cook at the same rate. Plus, my kids like to be the "floppers". V is a pretty awesome flopper.
After the cookies are cool, I grabbed about 10 and cut them into pieces. This is where uniformity comes in. I did each cookie across in 3 or 4 pieces, turned the knife, and sliced across again 3 or 4 times. That way you get nice little squares.
Grab the squares, put them in a freezer safe container, and pop them in the freezer until they are ready for the ice cream. You should probably sample a square here...you know...quality control.
Time to make the ice cream! (ice cream recipe adapted from The Live-In Kitchen)
Ingredients:
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 cup sugar (or 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup maple syrup)
- 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons cinnamon (to taste)
- 2 cups of heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
Directions:
- Pre-fill the sink with cold water and ice.
- In a medium saucepan add the milk, sugar, and cinnamon. Whisk them together and heat over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved.
- Remove from the heat and add the heavy whipping cream, vanilla, and salt. Stir.
- Take the pan over to the sink and hold it in the water being careful not to get water in the milk mixture. SLOWLY and carefully stir the milk mixture until it cools down.
- Remove pan, dry off bottom, cover with plastic wrap, and stick the pan in the refrigerator for AT LEAST an hour, up to overnight You need the base to be COLD.
- Pour the base into your ice cream maker and process it according to your makers instructions. Mine was about 15-20 minutes.
- Add cookie pieces from the freezer and process it for a couple more minutes.
At this stage I just turned off the machine and scooped the base into a big freezer safe bowl and stirred in the rest of the cookie chunks. My poor maker couldn't handle all the cookies in the bowl.
Ice cream makers are AWESOME, but it comes out like a soft serve typically. I like to be able to scoop it, so I threw the bowl (covered) into the freezer for another hour.
I ended up with perfection.
Enjoy! S'mores ice cream coming later this week!
