Orange Glazed Chicken

How many of you like Chinese food?

I love it but every time I eat

orange or general tso's chicken

it seems so sweet and heavy.

Here is my creation of 

a healthy orange chicken.

Instead of the chicken being coated

in cornstarch you only have 1 Tbsp.

of cornstarch in the sauce.

You will walk away feeling

light as a feather.

No heavy gut feelings here.

 Saute chicken breast pieces in butter. Then add onion slices

and saute until partly soft. Add sauce ingredients and

simmer until thickened.

Taaa daaaa.... light, delicious, orange chicken.

Pair with cooked potatoes and salad.

Orange Glazed Chicken

3 large chicken breast, cut into pieces

3 Tbsp. butter

salt and pepper

1 small onion, sliced

3/4 cup orange juice

1 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 tsp. fresh orange peel

2 Tbsp. vinegar

3 Tbsp. honey

2 Tbsp. soy sauce

Cut chicken into pieces. Melt butter in skillet and add chicken.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Fry uncovered on low heat until done.

Add onions and saute until partly soft. Whisk together orange juice

and cornstarch. Pour into skillet and mix in orange peel, vinegar, 

soy sauce and honey. Simmer until thickened.

p.s. I really enjoyed this tonight. 

I guess I was hungry for orange chicken.

Blessings,

Hope

Beef Stroganoff

This is a dish I remember mom

fixing at home. I wanted to fix

it for dinner but didn't want to

make the kind that has cream

of mushroom soup in it.

So I created a version with fresh

mushrooms and made a white sauce with

milk and thickened it with flour.

Brown hamburger, add garlic, onions and mushrooms.

Wisk together milk, flour and seasonings then pour into skillet.

Simmer until thickened. Stir in sour cream.

Serve on a bed of noodles.

Creamy and delicious.

Beef Stroganoff

1 lb. hamburger

1/2 medium onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed or minced

18 - 20 fresh mushrooms, sliced

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 1/4 tsp. salt

2 cups milk

3 T. flour

1/4 tsp. paprika

1/2 cup sour cream

Brown hamburger. Add onion, garlic and mushrooms.

Cover and saute until mushrooms are slightly soft.

In a another bowl wisk together flour, salt, pepper and paprika.

Add to skillet and simmer until thickened. Stir in 

sour cream and simmer until heated through.

Serve on a bed of noodles. Sprinkle with parsley.

Blessings,

Hope

Thanksgiving

Anyone out there tired of turkey?

I can actually say that I am.

We had turkey Thursday, Friday and Sunday.

And... I had turkey for lunch today.

So how was your Thanksgiving weekend?

Ours was a blessed one filled

with family and food.

Thanksgiving day we had a dinner

at Joshua's parents and Friday evening

I had my family for a meal.

 We are a blessed people who have

been given much. A rich heritage,

a land of plenty and the freedom of worship.

What are we doing with our blessings?

These verses came to my mind...

Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?”

The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, 

whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give

them their food allowance at the proper time?  

It will be good for that servant whom the master 

finds doing so when he returns. 

I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.  

But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is

taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat 

the menservants and maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk. 

The master of that servant will come on a day when he does 

not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 

He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.

“That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or 

does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows.

But the one who does not know and does things deserving 

punishment will be beaten with few blows. 

From everyone who has been given much, 

much will be demanded; 

and from the one who has been entrusted 

with much, much more will be asked.

Luke 12:41-48

We have been given much... 

are we following the Master's will?

I managed to take a few photos

of the dinner I had at my house.

I was too busy to take photos of the food.

Favor boxes I found in the clearance aisle at Walmart.

I made personalized tags with a bible verse about

being thankful- then each guest read their verse.

I bought the children a ginger bread house kit and

let them decorate it all by them selves.

I'm Thankful,

Hope

Chicken Parmesan

I bought a box of mushrooms at

Costco and was in the mood for

an Italian dish.

When we go to the Olive Garden

Restaurant Josh always gets a platter

that has chicken parmesan on it.

So... here is a quick version

of chicken Parmesan that is delicious.

Coat chicken in seasoned bread crumbs and fry in butter until done.

Add wine to pan drippings and reduce to half.

Add mushrooms and saute.

Add tomatoes and seasonings and simmer.

  Return chicken to skillet and top chicken with mozzarella cheese.

Serve on a bed of pasta.

 Top with fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

p.s. This is not my plate of food, the photo above was.

Chicken Parmesan

4 large chicken breast

seasoned bread crumbs

3 Tbsp. butter

12 fresh mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup white cooking wine

2 garlic cloves, crushed or minced

1- 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes

1/2 tsp. basil

1/2 tsp. parsley

1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. brown sugar

1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated

fresh grated parmesan cheese

Coat chicken in bread crumbs and fry in butter until done.

If chicken breast are large, cook on low heat so they won't dry out.

Remove chicken from skillet. Add wine to pan drippings and reduce

to half. Add mushrooms and saute until partly soft. Add tomatoes

and seasonings. Simmer for a few minutes. Add chicken back to

skillet and top with mozzarella cheese. Cover and simmer

for 8 minutes. This gives the chicken time to soak up some juice.

 Serve over pasta and top with fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy,

Hope

Gingerbread Men

I knew my nephews were coming

over today so I quick mixed up

a recipe of gingerbread men.

I was thinking how much fun

it would be for Austin and Sawyer

to cut out cookies and then ice

and decorate them.

Have any of you every thought

it would be a great idea to decorate

cookies with a 4 year old and a 2 year old?

Half way through decorating I

was regretting my idea of fun.

I was standing in sprinkles,

watching boys load cookies with sprinkles,

mixing colors of sprinkles together and

licking their fingers to get the sprinkles off.

I was hollering at Faith to come see how

cute it was at first, then I was hollering

because I needed help. As soon as I had

one reigned in on how many sprinkles

to use the other one was mixing handfuls

of sprinkles. Faith just laughed and said,

"I decorated cookies with them last week."

She was already seasoned in this area.

Then she starts taking photos
of them making a mess.

The cookies really are delicious,

even though all you can see is sprinkles.

Austy cutting out his cookies.

Sweet imperfection.

Cookies ready to be layered in sprinkles.

It started out fine with Austy until Sawyer woke up.
Then it looked like this...

No caption needed.

Why not add some red to the white?

He dumped a pile of sprinkles on and I told

him it was way too much. He happily grabbed

the dish cloth and wiped some off.

The finished product! I really did have fun.

Gingerbread Men

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup molasses

1 Tbsp. vinegar

1 egg, beaten

4 3/4 cup flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ginger

Cream butter and sugar. In the microwave, heat molasses until

almost boiling. Pour molasses over sugar mixture and add vinegar.

Mix well and cool mixture to lukewarm. Mix in egg.

Sift dry ingredients and mix together.

Chill dough for several hours.

Roll out to about 1/4 in. thick and cut into men.

Bake at 350 for 8 minutes.

Do not over bake. If you do they

are more like gingersnaps. Top with icing.

Decorate as desired.

*this cookie recipe is from Esther Shank

Creamy White Icing

1 cup Crisco

 4 cups 10x sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

4 Tbsp. milk

Mix until creamy.

Have fun,

Hope

Classic Bread Stuffing

Well folks, it's time we go back

to the basics. Today Walmart's

Holiday flyer listed all the "quick" things

you can buy for your Thanksgiving meal.

Mashed potatoes already made, stuffing in a mix

and your pies baked and ready to pick up.

What happened to making the good ole' basics?

I had three cookbooks out trying

to come up with a basic bread stuffing.

Here is the result and it's what I had in mind.

Toast 12 slices of bread and tear into pieces.

Cook your veggies in broth until almost done.

Ready for a seat beside your turkey and gravy.

Yea... we had a mini Thanksgiving dinner early.

Classic Bread Stuffing

12 slices of bread, toasted

2 cup of chicken broth

1 cup carrots, chopped

2 stalks of celery, diced

1/2 medium onion, diced

1/4 cup butter

1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

3 eggs, beaten

1 cup milk

Toast bread, tear in pieces, and place in your baking dish.

In a sauce pan combine broth, veggies, butter, and seasonings.

Cook until vegetables are almost done. Remove from heat.

In a small bowl, beat eggs and milk together.

Slowly pour egg mixture into broth mixture, stirring quickly,

so the eggs don't cook and make clumps.

Pour mixture over bread pieces.

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

Enjoy,

Hope

Pumpkin Muffins

I was my usual half-awake,

 self packing my husband's lunch

at 6 o'clock this morning.

I pulled back the pantry blind

and screamed! There were my

new double ovens! We had bought

them for a good deal about a year

ago and Josh said I would have to wait

until we remodeled the kitchen to put them in.

I guess he got tired of me complaining about

unevenly baked cakes and cookies.

I told him we needed to christen the new

oven this evening and he suggested

baking chocolate chip cookies.

His wish was granted along

with baked chicken and

pumpkin muffins.

If you want something sweet,

but not sickening sweet with your coffee,

here is the recipe for you.

It was a Betty Crocker pumpkin

bread recipe I revised a tad and

made into muffins.

They are moist, simple and good.

Not every pumpkin dessert

has to have a layer of cream cheese

smeared on the top.

Oh, what a beauty!

The first thing baked in our new oven. Tears. Ha.

Mmmm... I'll have two.

Up close and personal.

Sprinkle the tops with sanding sugar. No icing needed.

Pumpkin Muffins

2 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup cooking oil

4 eggs

3 1/3 cups flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. vanilla

2/3 cup water

2 cups pumpkin

Cream together sugar and oil. Add eggs and beat well.

In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients.

Alternately add dry ingredients and water to sugar mixture.

Mix just until combined. Beat in pumpkin.

Line cupcake pans and add 1/3 cup of batter

to each cup. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Top with white sanding sugar.

I made 18 muffins and 1 small bread loaf.

Enjoy,

Hope