Easy Fudge

Ethan loves making easy fudge so we got the recipe from his Mom and now we make it all of the time. It is called easy fudge because anyone can make. I contemplated not blogging about it because it wasn't a challenge to make. Nonetheless it was still something I hadn't made before so it ended up on here.

3c powdered sugar
3tb cocoa
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla
melt 3 oz of cream cheese with 1 stick of butter
combine and mix it up
roll out onto wax paper and put in the freezer until it is firm and frozen
dice into squares

Estimated prepping time: 10 min. takes a couple hourse to freeze

Different Types of Salads

Although I am fond of a classical ranch dressing salad with original veggies, I do like to switch things up. A few salads that I want to share include poppy seed, greek, and caesar.

Poppy seed dressing:

1/3 cup white sugar

1/2 cup white vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground dry mustard

1 teaspoon grated onion

1 cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Salad consists of:

spinach leaves
dried cranberries
candied walnuts
mangarine oranges

Greek dressing:

oil covering bottom of salad bowl
red wine vinegar (added as needed)
garlic salt (added as needed)

Salad consists of:
mixed greens
kalamata olives
tomatoes
onions
diced blocks of feta cheese
cucumbers
seasoned with salt/pepper/oregano

Caesar Dressing:
Heck, buy it at the store!

Salad consists of:
romaine lettuce (usually the hearts of the romaine)
parmesean cheese
croutons

Prep time: 10-15 minutes for each of them

Simply Asia!

Ethan loves asian food, as do my roommates so I decided to pick up some asian sauce packets from the store. The brand is Simply Asia and you can get a variety of flavors such as general tsao, sweet and sour, teriyaki etc. For a quick easy meal during the week I defrosted some chicken, threw it on the George Forman to cook and made up some rice and broccoli. I combined it altogether and added the sauce and was done. It was quick, easy, and tastey which was perfect for a middle of the week night dinner. Nobody feels like cooking after class all day but this was worth it. There weren't any left overs but it made up enough for three people. To mix things up instead of using chicken, beef is a great trade.

1 cup rice to 2 cups water
1 full broccoli head
2-3 chicken breasts depending on size
Simply Asia sauce

Estimated Cooking Time: 30 min.

Some buns n' milk

I really wanted to experience making something from scratch during the course of this project. I was hoping at first to make homemade bread, but my roommate Rachelle was making homemade cinnamon roles. I couldn't pass that up. I watched her make up roles from half of the dough, and I copied her using the other half. (Dough is half wheat). She let me spread the dough out on top of flour until it was evenly spread in the shape of a cookie sheet, then spread an entire stick of butter on it, poured a cinnamon sugar mixture over the top, sprinkled water, rolled it up, and pinched the appropriate sized roles with dental floss. My favorite part was pinching the dough off with the dental floss. They turned out fantastic and after baking we put frosting over the top. They take a long time to make because the dough has to rise and then rise again after you make them before they can bake. The cinnamon roles turn out huge but we fit 24 roles on one pan. It was quite an experience making them and I will definitely make them again in the future. I would call this a success. They are better than pilsbury.

Estimated Cooking time: A long time-give yourself 4-6hrs.

Cream of Chicken

Today I decided to make cream of chicken in a crockpot since I have never officially used a crockpot before, which is silly because you just leave food in it and let it sit for hours. You barely have to do anything and yet it tastes so delicious! I had Rachelle email me the recipe and got it all set up in the crockpot before I left for school. It was in from 11:00 to 4:30 and then on low to keep warm after that. Here is the recipe I followed :

3-4 chicken breasts

2 cans cream of chicken soup

2 packages cream cheese (the 8 oz. rectangles)

2 cups chicken broth (I used one can, it was like 14 oz. almost 2 cups and it worked fine)

2 packets Good Seasons Italian Dressing Mix

Pepper (just a bit)

Blend all ingredients except for the chicken.  Place chicken in bottom of crockpot and pour delicious mixture over.  Cook on high for 6-7 hours.  (Mine was done a bit before, just really when the chicken is done is when it's done)  I waited until the chicken was pull-aparty and kind of shredded it with a fork so there weren't huge chunks.  Serve over your choice of pasta or rice.

I decided to do pasta this time since in the past I've always eaten it with rice and I wanted to try something new. I've concluded that they both taste great and I will now just make it depending on if I'm in a pasta or rice mood.

Prep time: 10 min.
Cooking Time in crockpot: 5 hrs. if chicken is previously defrosted

"Magic Cookie Bars"

Ethan and I had a craving for six layer cookies also known as magic cookie bars. The recipe to make them is pretty simple so I didn't think that we would run into any problems. We decided not to put any chopped nuts in them because we don't like nuts in our dessert. We also decided that next time we would like a thicker graham cracker crust and less chocolate chips. Two cups of chocolate chips made them too chocolatey and hard to taste everything else. Overall it was a successful dessert.


1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (You can buy them pre crushed as cracker crumbs)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 (14 oz.) can condensed milk
2 cups (12 oz. pkg.) semi-sweet chocolate chips (I like 1 cup choc. chips)
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped nuts

Estimated Cooking Time: 30 min.  

Eggs!

I love breakfast food. I have a couple of favorite dish's but one of them is called eggs goldenrod. We usually make this on Christmas morning somewhere between rolling out of bed and opening presents. I was craving it the other day and it occurred to me that I don't even know how to make it! What a crisis. It is simple and delicious and wouldn't take too much time in the morning to make. Plus I have 14 eggs that I need to use up and this would be a perfect way. I'm hoping that it will make up enough for 4-5 people and if not I will do another batch and just double the recipe next time. Here is the recipe that I'm going to use:


6 hard boiled eggs
4 slices hot buttered toast
1 1/2 c white sauce (below)
White Sauce:
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp self rising flour
1c milk
1 dash pepper (I like a lot of pepper so I keep it on standby to add accordingly to taste)

My recipe may change based off of how my mom makes it-as she is the one who makes this in our family

Estimated Cooking Time: 1 hr