How to Make Your Own Cheese!

I havent yet tried this recipe but I do plan on it...found it on another bloggers website!

http://heart-hands-home.blogspot.ca/2011/01/homemade-mozzarella-cheese.html

Enjoy!

Individual Meatloaf

These are great if you are cooking for yourself. You can make these individual portions and then freeze the rest to heat up later in the microwave.

You will need:

1 LB Ground Beef

1 White Onion

4 TBSP Maple Syrup

4 TBSP Ketchup

Preheat oven to 400 Degrees. Mix ground beef and chopped onion in a large bowl.  Make individual balls of mixture and place into a greased muffin pan. Bake for 25-30 min.

In a separate bowl combine ketchup and syrup. Drizzle mixture over individual portions and broil for 3 min.

Goes well beside mashed potatoes and fresh vegetables.

Enjoy!

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds!

I figure it's that time of year so why not share a simple snack recipe for after you carve those pumpkins. This is the easiest and most flavorful way to toast your pumpkin seeds.

You will need:

1 medium - large pumpkin
1 tablespoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

After separating and straining the seeds, fill a pot with water and bring to a boil. Add your salt and seeds to the water and let simmer for 10 min.

Strain water again and in a bowl combine olive oil with seeds. Stir to make sure you cover all the seeds evenly with oil.

Place seeds on a cookie sheet an bake on top shelf until seeds are brown.

You can also try these seeds with different flavours of popcorn seasoning in place of salt. I like salt and vinegar seasoning or dill pickle.

Have fun an enjoy!

Another Crockpot Recipe

Crockpot Chicken Legs

I made these the other week, it is another simple recipe yet delicious and full of flavour.

You will need:

1-4 Chicken Legs

½ cup of chicken broth per chicken leg

½ can of beer per chicken leg

2 tablespoons of BBQ sauce per leg

2 large potatoes

Add spices as necessary

Line bottom of crock-pot with potatoes. Add all ingredients and cook on medium for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours.

Remove and enjoy. Simple as that!

Chipotle (Bacon) Pasta

Pasta, pasta and more pasta

I would have to say in 3 years at school, pasta is the #1 dish cooked by students. Whether it is mac and cheese or pasta with tomato sauce, all these dishes seem to be the quick fallback option for student cooking (next to pizza maybe). Pasta as we all may know is full of carbs and is good in small doses, however too much pasta is plainly just overkill.

If you are looking for a pasta dish however, I have one that you will enjoy, especially if you like a little bit of spice with your dish.

You will need: (4 servings)

 

1 ½ cups Alfredo Sauce (pre made jar or make your own)

2 Tablespoons chipotle BBQ sauce (presidents choice sause shown)

4 Cups pasta

Can also add bacon bits or diced sausage for some protein.

Cook pasta according to package directions. After your water has drained, over low heat and stirring continuously, add your Alfredo sauce, chipotle BBQ sauce, and optional bacon and/or sausage.

Another rendition to this dish is to add cheddar cheese on top after plating on an oven safe dish, then broil to melt the cheese, adds a nice cheesy taste to the dish!

This recipe is extremely easy and is a big change from the traditional mac and cheese or tomato sauce.

Doritos Burgers!

I heard about this recipe while I was working with Frito Lay delivering potato chips for one of my school work-terms. I throught it was a great simple idea that adds a great flavour to any burger. You can use any kind of Dorito chip flavour for this recipe, I recommend Nacho Cheese (for a subtle flavour), or Jalapeno Cheddar (for a nice kick).

You will need:

1 lb of ground beef

1 cup of Doritos ground to crumbs

1 egg

Optional:

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (extra spice)

Grated cheese (for middle of burgers)

First in a large bowl combine ground beef, Doritos crumbs, and beaten egg. Using your hands or a mixer mix all ingredients together so egg covers all beef and crumbs are disbursed throughout the mixture. Also, make sure that your ground beef is sticking together when packed, otherwise your burgers may fall apart, to counter this add more crumbs.

At this point you would add your Worcestershire sauce and continue to mix.

Next, you will be making the actual burgers. These can vary in size based on your preference. I typically make mine about one inch thick, as I like to add cheese to the middle (instructions below).

To add cheese to the middle, I use a round dish (about 4 inches diameter) lined with waxed paper, and pack in about a half inch of beef into the bottom. I then add cheese to the middle of the burger, then continue to add an additional half inch of beef to the top of the burger (kind of making it look like a cheese sandwich. Be sure to concentrate the cheese to the middle of the burger so that you have beef on either side to connect the two halves. Remove burger and repeat, you will find the waxed paper makes it easy to remove the burger from the container.

You then have your burgers ready to cook. Typically I cook on the barbeque and allow 10 minutes on medium-high heat per side.

Enjoy!

(Raw burgers before cooking)

Simple Salmon

Salmon (and pretty well any fish) is quite easy to cook and can be very tasty (for those that like fish). Salmon takes anywhere from 20 min in the oven to 10 min in a pan and is even quite inexpensive if you can buy it on sale or in bulk to freeze. Salmon is also quite versatile, no matter what you have in the cupboards or fridge; there is always something that you can top your salmon with whether it be lemon juice or dijon mustard. This is a salmon recipe that is very good and VERY easy to make. If you have access to a barbeque, I would recommend going to a grocery store and grabbing yourself a cedar cooking plank. This recipe on the barbeque over a cedar plank adds a great flavour that will melt in your mouth.

1 salmon filet

2 tablespoons of maple syrup

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

(optional chives, pepper, honey)

Preheat oven or toaster oven to 400 degrees.

Prepare salmon in a foil pan with 2 tablespoons of maple syrup and one tablespoon of brown sugar. Place in oven at 400 for 8 minutes. Then proceed to broil for 4 min (broiling makes the salmon crispy on top, if you do not like your salmon crispy simply bake at 400 for 12-15 min).

Great served with green beans, asparagus, peppers, and rice.

Total cost $10 (Salmon $6, Syrup $2, Brown Sugar $2)