Vista Print Freebies in the Kitchen

As part of Christmas gifts this year we're giving our families calendars with pictures we took on our road trip (I'm pretty sure that none of our family members know about this blog...but if you do, when you get your gift, please act suprised :-D).

Anyway, Vista Print had the best price on calendars and so I started tracking down all the other little freebies I could get. I decided to get some postcards to use as recipe cards (I hate the recipe cards I currently have, they're too tiny, and the design looks like it's from 1978). So I designed these, they go with our checker board pattern in our kitchen and the "Bistro" look we were going for.





















I also found a code for a free t-shirt and while there weren't many designs to choose from we thought the grill was kind of cute. My Father-in-law likes to grill, and so we looked for a funny quote to put on it as a little gag gift/stocking stuffer. We found an amusing site that took famous historical and literary quotes and made them about barbequing...this was the result:


























It's from Churchill's speach about fighting the Nazis during the Battle of Britain.

Honorable Mention:
"Yon Cassius hath a lean and hungry look - why taketh the barbecue so long?" William Shakespeare - Julius Caesar

'I always think that the right background music is an essential part of a good barbecue" - Nero

"Veggies: chop, skewer, coat with honey mustard and oil, wrap in foil and grill. Soak wooden stakes, no .... skewers in water to avoid burning." - Vlad the Impaler

And yes, I do realize just how nerdy this is :-P

Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwich

This is a slightly healthier knock-off of from Wendy's, although this probably has a good bit of sodium as a word of warning.

What you'll need:
Boneless skinless chicken breast
Red onion
Lettuce
Buns

Put a dash of hot sauce on the chicken breast, season liberally with cajun seasoning, BBQ seasoning and season salt. Cook on the grill until done, garnish with onion, lettuce and condiments.

Beef Stroganoff in a Crockpot

This is one of my favorite things I've tried recently (last night actually). I'm horrible at updating this blog, but it was so good that I made sure I typed up the recipe ASAP. Sorry for not having any pictures, we were too busy eating it!

Ingredients
Cut of beef (london broil or chuck roast)
Dry packet of onion soup
1/2-1 cup of water
Can cream of mushroom soup (if you're using a large piece of beef consider using 2 cans)
Egg noodles

Directions:
Put beef in crockpot, sprinkle onion soup mix on beef and put in enough water to fill the crockpot about 1/4" deep so the beef doesn't burn. Add a can of mushrooms (drained) or fresh mushrooms if desired. Turn crockpot on low and allow to cook for 8 hours.
After 8 hours have passed, trim all fat from meat. Use a baster or ladle to remove some of the onion soup/broth (put it in a bowl, you may need to add some of it back in). With a fork to pull apart meat into small bite sized chunks. Add can of cream of mushroom soup into the remaining broth. Stir until mixed thoroughly. Stir in more onion soup if needed until you reach the desired thickness. Cover crockpot and turn on medium or high for half an hour or until warm.
On the stove cook egg noodles (they also make them in whole grain if you're watching starches) to desired tenderness, drain and stir into crockpot. Serve and enjoy!

Java Brownies

I had an itty bitty bit of coffee left over and couldn't justify mixing cream and sugar into it so I decided to use it instead of water in my brownie mix. I used a basic box of brownie mix, the same amount of eggs and oil that the recipe called for and just substituted the black coffee for the water. I also mixed in semi-sweet morsels and baked as directed.

Oh Fudge!

Fool-proof fudge:
18oz. chocolate morsels
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1.5 tsp. vanilla extract

Line a cake pan with foil, rub butter on foil (I usually skip this step and it turns out fine)
In a double boiler, melt morsels with condensed milk, when they have all melted remove double boiler from heat and stir in vanilla extract.
Spread into pan.
Chill atleast 2 hours.
Turn fudge onto cutting board, peel off foil and cut to desired size.
Keep refrigerated.

Interesting Variations:
Hershey's mint semi-sweet morsels and milk chocolate or semi sweet to fill in the additional ounces.
White chocolate morsels
Chocolate and peanut butter morsels (cut up reeses cups to sprinkle ontop of fudge)
Cut up oreo to mix into fudge or put on top (just put it ontop before the fudge sets in the fridge so it sticks better)

Any other suggestions would be appreciated, feel free to add your ideas!

Crock Pot- Ribs and Potatoes

Cut potatoes into wedges, leave skin on if you choose. Put salt and pepper on potatoes and throw in bottom of crock pot. Lay country style boneless ribs ontop of potatoes. Sprinkle with mesquite seasoning. Put BBQ sauce ontop of ribs. Mix BBQ sauce and water together and pour into crockpot until potatoes are submerged. Cook on low for 8 hours.

Homemade Alfredo sauce

Ingredients
-Butter
-Flour
-Parmesean Cheese
-Cream Cheese
-Milk
-Garlic Salt
-Pepper
-Italian Seasoning

In a sauce pan melt 3-4 Tbsp. butter. On low heat, add 1 tsp. flour and stir until smooth. Remove from heat (it may get clumpy if you leave the heat on while you add milk), add 2 Tbsp. grated parmesean cheese, 1/2 cup of cream cheese and milk to desired thickness (start at 1/2 cup and add more if you like it thinner). Season with garlic salt, italian seasoning and pepper to taste (I used 1 tsp Garlic, 1/2 tsp italian seasoning). Turn heat on low and continue stiring until smooth and thoroughly heated. Serve with your favorite pasta. If you want to make it a little more filling, or are looking for a way to get rid of some leftovers, cut up leftover chicken or cooked broccoli and add it to the sauce.

Some ideas for cutting back on calories, use low fat cream cheese (I'm not a fan of Philidelphia brand low fat and don't recommend it for cooking purposes), use low fat or skim milk. Use unsalted butter to cut back on sodium since you'll use garlic salt, or just use garlic powder.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, we were in a hurry to eat it tonight!

Total time to make sauce and pasta: 15 minutes (closer to 10 min. after you've done it once)
Yields: about 3 full servings
Estimated cost including pasta: $2-3