Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

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Archive for the ‘“Recipes”’ Category

« Previous Entries

Substitution In Red Beans And Rice

Posted by terrepruitt on January 9, 2023

Sometimes I mess up my own plans. I was wanting to make Red Beans and Rice so I had my husband (he does the shopping) get four bell peppers. Some of them were for our New Year’s Eve dinner of cheese fondue, and I had planned on using one for the Red Beans and Rice. Well, our fondue was so good that I made it again and didn’t even think about needing a green bell pepper for something else and I used up all of our bell peppers. So when I went to put it in the Red Beans it was gone. Grrrr! But . . . I had some bok choy and I used that.

It was fine. The bok choy doesn’t really add any flavor like a green bell pepper would, but it was good.

So, I am just making a note for myself and letting you know that bok choy in the Red Beans and Rices works good.

Also noting: I have been using white rice and I have doubled the cumin and thyme thyme to 1 teaspoon (from 1/2).

And, yes, in case you are not familiar, I put chickpeas/garbanzo bean in my Red Beans and Rice because I don’t really like red beans/kidney beans, but I do like garbanzo beans.

 

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Fake Pizza

Posted by terrepruitt on July 19, 2022

You may have seen social media posts with “pizza” made with “crust” that is made from chicken. I know, it is not really pizza and it is not really crust, but it is really good. If you have seen my post about pizza dough you will understand why I love this . . . I CAN ACTUALLY DO IT. I am miserable at making pizza crust. I love pizza, but pizza dough and I don’t get along. Even when it is premade and all I have to do is roll it out. I am better at handling the dough than I was, but nowhere near good. Even my chicken crust was not that pretty. But it was tasty!

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Chicken “Crust”

2 cans of chicken (about 4 cups cooked and shredded)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons garlic powder
3 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
1 teaspoon salt*
1 cup parmesan cheese

*I want to CUT the salt down

400°F 25 mins

I drained the chicken. I scrambled the eggs separately just because I wanted to, then mixed everything in with the chicken.

I put it on a parchment-paper-lined pan, and spread it out to as thick as I wanted it. Then baked it in the oven for 25 minutes at 400°F.

Top with your favorite toppings and put back in the oven . . . . to melt the cheese or cook the toppings, if necessary.

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I put pizza sauce, mozzarella, and cooked sausage on ours. I think any pizza topping will work.

Some people might not be able to tell the difference if you don’t tell them. But some will.  It was not the kind of “pizza” you can pick up and eat with one hand . . . although, one video I saw it showed that, mine did not do that.

I think since it is NOT actually pizza with a bread dough crust any number of flavors mixed in with chicken and then with toppings to “match” would be good. Taco seasoning mixed in then top it with tomatoes, cheese, and olives would be good. A Greek themed one. So many things could be done, just like you can do so many things with “real” pizza.  This is just another way to have something different for dinner.  A way to get that pizza-like taste without the crust.

What do you think?

 

 

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Chicken IN Biscuits

Posted by terrepruitt on April 19, 2022

Here is another “IDEA Recipe” as I didn’t write down the measurements when I made it. It was pretty good. It was just biscuits split in half and rolled out a little bigger, then “stuffed” with chicken. More accurately the chicken was sandwiched between the two biscuit halves then sealed. Since I was just experimenting I was making it up as I went a long and didn’t make notes. And I started with just splitting the biscuits, but then realized I wouldn’t be able to put a lot of chicken in them so I split them then rolled each half to make it larger. I was able to put more chicken in the larger ones.

I used

Canned chicken
onions chopped
bell peppers chopped
corn
seasoning

a tube of biscuits

some cheese

It may surprise you as it surprised me, I didn’t put any cheese IN the mixture. I sprinkled a little on top.  I keep wondering what I was thinking.

I cooked them according to the biscuit directions (350° F for 20 minutes) maybe given them a little more time until they were browned. The chicken is cooked so that wasn’t the concern, I just didn’t want soggy biscuits.

As usual I started cooking late thinking it would be a quick throw together kind of thing and it was not so I didn’t even take any pictures when they were plated. It was yummy and was enough for a couple of meals. You know me I love when I cook and it makes more than one meal.  This was easy to make, but I had not planned on the time it took to roll out the biscuits (which wasn’t that long, but it added time to what I had planned).

This is just a twist on a few of the things I have done with those biscuits I love.

What do you do with biscuits?

 

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I Finally Made Lemon Bars

Posted by terrepruitt on January 5, 2022

We have a lemon tree so I have always thought I should be making lemon bars so I could use some of our lemons.  The funny thing is – as you may know – lemon bars don’t really use that many lemons or more accurately that much lemon juice.  I have been looking for a lemon square recipe that matched something I had when I was young.  None of the recipes I saw online had pictures that match them.  More on that later.  I had a friend give me a recipe and so I decided to try it.

The recipe confused me because it listed ingredients for the crust and directions for making the crust.  Then it listed ingredients for the filling and instructions on how to make it and put it on the crust.  There was a note that said if using self-rising flour to not use baking powder but there was no flour listed for the filling.  I happen to be on the phone with a friend who has made lemon bars before while I was making them and she said she has always put flour in the filling.  So I found a recipe that matched the one I was making (except it was for twice as much) and figured out how much flour to use.

Anyway . . . I baked them and they were crusty on top and seemed stuck in the pan.  And I just didn’t have time to deal with them the same day I baked them.  So I left them on the counter until the next day.

When I went to remove them from the pan they didn’t seem to be sticking like I had thought, but they cut up awful.  This crusty stuff on the top just broke up.  I do feel I cooked them a tad bit too much.

I tasted them and feared they would be too sweet for my husband and I would end up eating the entire pan . . . but HUZZAH!  He liked them.  So they turned out ok.  Next time I will add more lemon juice and more lemon zest  and I noted that in the recipe below instead of the original amount called (2 Tablespoons and none, respectively) for.  I may also double the crust because that is what I LOVE the most.  But we will see.

What I really need to do to use up lemons is make Avgolemono.

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So crusty on top!

Lemon Bars

CRUST

1 Cup all purpose flour
1/2 Cup butter (1 cube), softened
1/4 Cup powdered sugar/ confectioners’ sugar

FILLING

2 eggs
1 Cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons***
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoon lemon juice
zest from 1 or 2 lemons

Preheat oven to 350º F.  Mix the flour, butter, and powdered sugar together.  Mix thoroughly.  Press into an ungreased 8X8X2 square baking dish.  Bake for about 20 minutes.

Beat the eggs, sugar, baking powder, salt, lemon juice, and lemon zest together until light and fluffy (3 mins).  Pour over hot crust.  Bake for 25 mins or until filling is firm.  Cool, then cut to serve.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

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Of course, this is a very common recipe you can find anywhere, but as you know, I use my blog as my recipe book so I like to document recipes I have made and liked here.

I kept telling my friend they were so ugly and she assured me that they aren’t necessarily a pretty dessert, at least until you add the powdered sugar.

What is your recipe for lemon bars?

***This whole post was about there not being flour listed in the recipe for the filling, and how I put it in when I made it, and then I left the flour OFF of the list of ingredients.

And I made the bars without the flour and my husband loved them and it was fine.  I am adding the flour in the list of ingredients.  02.10.22

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Beef Atop Biscuits

Posted by terrepruitt on December 6, 2021

So this is one of those posts where it is not really a recipe just an idea of something to do and it is not even a new idea. I, myself, have wanted to do this forever and now that I have done it I have to say it is DEEEE-licious. You may have seen me mention biscuits recently (Chicken, Asparagus, Biscuits, and Cheese Sauce and Faux Chicken Pot Pie). I love biscuits, but most have ingredients that leave me feeling not-my-best so I try to avoid them, but I found a brand that works and so I have been playing with things to cook with them. And recently I made something yummy. I was thinking of making something like a biscuit CUP, but I only have one muffin tin. I was thinking I had more. I tried using aluminum foil and I was going to make little cups with that, but then I realized I didn’t really need it, but I went ahead and used the aluminum foil I had already ripped off the roll.  But since I ended up rolling out the biscuits next time I will just use parchment paper.

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Beef Atop Biscuits

olive oil (2 tablespoons)
onion, chopped
ground beef (1.67 pounds – ended up having left overs)
Better Than Bouillon
A tube of biscuits (8)
a can of corn (drained)
2 cups of cheese
garlic salt

Heat the oil, then add the onion. Cook the onion for a bit then add the ground beef, sprinkle with some garlic salt. Break up the beef as it cooks. Add a heaping teaspoon of Better Than Bouillon (I used beef) and mix it in well. Once the beef is pretty much cooked, add in the corn.

WHILE THE BEEF IS COOKING – split the biscuits so you end up with 16. They are layered so try to split them evenly. Use them one of two ways:

Roll them out to about five or six inches in diameter then place them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet OR
Stretch them out to fit in the muffin cups and put them in a greased muffin tin

Once the beef is cooked scoop onto the split biscuit. I was able to put almost three tablespoons on the rolled out biscuits, but only two in the muffin cups. I topped with cheese and chopped onion then baked at 350° for about 20 minutes. You will want to check and make certain the biscuit is cooked.

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Some of them cooked better than others, but I knew I would be baking them additionally the next night to heat them up so it worked out perfect.

So good. I meant to put in bell pepper, but I forgot because I switched from stuffing a biscuit into a muffin tin to rolling them out, so I was distracted with the switch.

Again, this is not a novel recipe, so I am sure there are a million ways to make them. I have wanted to do a version of this for a long time and I am glad I did. Since I love the taste of the biscuits so much I am glad I kept the topping/filling simple. Soooo good.

I imagine if you are talented enough to make homemade biscuits this would be even better!!!

I can’t say that I like one more than the other.  It was nice to have a combination of both.  The rolled out biscuits allowed for more beef, but the muffin ones tasted more biscuity . . . so there really was no clear winner.

And, yeah, since I am not a food blogger I am so bad at taking pictures.  I don’t make the food to blog about it, I make the food to eat it.  It is usually past dinner time and I am rushing around to get food on the table so I forget to take pictures.  The cooked biscuits on the plate pictures are actually from the night of leftovers.  You can see how the ones in the container are not as browned.  Our oven cooks unevenly and we at the more browned once and I saved the others for leftovers.

There are so many things to use to top a biscuit!  What would you use?

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Chicken, Asparagus, Biscuits, and Cheese Sauce

Posted by terrepruitt on September 13, 2021

As a reminder my category “Recipe” is that because sometimes I don’t actually have amounts for the ingredients I use, I just basically have the idea for the dish. I was at a loss last night as to what to cook for dinner and for some reason I thought of biscuits and gravy. I don’t even eat biscuits and gravy. I had biscuits in the refrigerator so that is probably why I was thinking “biscuits”. Anyway, I threw together a dinner that turned out to be pretty tasty.

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Chicken, Asparagus, Biscuits, and Cheese Sauce

(Coconut) oil
Onion
Asparagus
2 cans of chicken
garlic salt
Worcestershire sauce

Cheese Sauce
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cup shredded (sharp cheddar) cheese

Biscuits (tube, container? What is it called)

 

Heat the oil in a pan large enough for all of your asparagus and chicken.  While the oil is heating, chop up the onions, then put in the pan.  While the onions are cooking, wash and chop up the asparagus. Put the chopped asparagus in with the onions, sprinkle with garlic salt and cook.

While that is cooking – in a different pot – melt the butter. Add the flour while stirring.

Bake the biscuits according to the instructions on the package.

Put the drained chicken in the pan with the onion and asparagus.  Sprinkle chicken with garlic salt and Worcestershire sauce. The chicken is cooked, it only needs to be heated, but cook the asparagus to your liking.

Back to the sauce . . . . add the milk, stirring all the while. (My recipe says all at once, but it doesn’t work if it is cold . . . so I do it a little at a time.) Once the milk is incorporated into the roux (butter and flour), add the cheese a little bit at a time.  Stirring and keeping it on the heat until it is all melted and mixed.

To assemble split the biscuits putting the bottom half on the plate, then pile on the chicken and asparagus mixture, then spooned on some cheese sauce, then top with the top half of the biscuit.

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It was good because I like all the ingredients. The biscuits are sooooo good. It is fun sometimes to cook easy things and enjoy simple flavors.

OH!  And the leftovers!  I put the bottom half of the biscuits in an oven proof dish, then pilled the chicken mixture on top, topped it with the cheese and put it in the oven (350°) for about 30 minutes,  I put the tops of the biscuits on foil and heated them for about 10 minutes.  Then put it on plates to serve.  Delicious!

There are so many things you could do with with.  What would YOU do?

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Pizza Skewers

Posted by terrepruitt on August 30, 2021

If you know my love-hate relationship with pizza dough you may wonder why I thought it would be a good idea to try to make these Pizza Skewers. Sigh. I saw them and thought they looked great . . . . of course, they did look great, but not the ones I made. But they were still yum.

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PIZZA SKEWERS

PLEASE SEE NOTES BELOW

10 to 12 wooden skewers
12 to 24 mushrooms
12 to 24 pieces of sausage – cooked
10 to 12 cherry tomatoes
pizza dough (prepared)
Italian Seasoning
olive oil (2-3 tablespoons +/-)
garlic powder
shredded mozzarella (1 cup +/-)
tomato sauce (1 to 1 1/2 cup)

If you are using wooden skewers soak them for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375° F

Wash the mushrooms, leave them whole, put them on a lined baking sheet, sprinkle them with garlic salt and put them in the oven at 375° F for ten minutes.

While the mushrooms are cooking you can cut up the sausage and roll out the dough. The dough should be rolled out to about 12 inches by 16 inches. After it is rolled out, sprinkle dough with Italian Seasoning and garlic powder. Then cut it into about 12 strips.

Put one of each item (tomato, sausage, mushroom) on the skewer spaced out – if you can fit an extra on go ahead – then secure the dough under the first item and spiral it up the skewer weaving around each item. Then place on a lined baking sheet. Brush each completed skewer with olive oil and sprinkle more Italian Seasoning (if you would like) on each. Then bake at 375° F for ten minutes.

Take them out of the oven and sprinkle with the shredded cheese and bake for 10 more minutes or until dough is cooked to your liking.

Serve with tomato sauce for dipping.
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NOTES:

  • Again, I have a horrific track record with dough and didn’t get it rolled out well enough to have 12 skewers – we end up with 9.
  • I used prepared dough.
  • I partially cooked the mushrooms with a tad bit of salt so they would end up fully cooked on the skewer PLUS to get some of the moisture out.
  • I put two pieces of sausage on my husband’s skewers and one mushroom. I had two mushrooms and one piece of sausage.
  • The tomatoes we had were VERY large, more like PLUM sized tomatoes than cherry.

These were fun and yummy. What do you think?

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Faux Chicken Pot Pie

Posted by terrepruitt on August 18, 2021

Faux Chicken Pot Pie

2 cans of chicken
one can of cream of mushroom soup
milk
sherry
bag of mixed frozen vegetables
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon garlic salt
can of biscuits

Preheat the oven to 375°F.  (SEE NOTE!)

Empty the cans of chicken into a large bowl, add the soup.  Use the can to measure the milk and sherry.  Use a ratio that you like to fill the can.  I used most milk with a splash of sherry (which is completely optional).  Empty the frozen bag of vegetables into the bowl.  Mix well.  If you feel you need more liquid than add more.  Sprinkle in a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce.  Sprinkle in some garlic powder and garlic salt.  Mix everything well.  Pour the mixture into a baking dish (mine is not quite 9X13).  Spread it evenly.  Then put the biscuits on top and bake.

40 (or so) minutes at 375°F.

NOTE:  The above it what I did, but when I make this again, I am going to partially bake the biscuits bottom side.  Then I am going to put them on the mixture and then bake it all.  Putting them on top of the mixture “raw” didn’t allow the bottom of the biscuit to bake!

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This was good, but I love biscuits and it had been years since I had them so I was just happy to be having biscuits.

Do you have an easy chicken pot pie recipe?  Do you have a recipe where you use biscuits with the chicken pot pie?

 

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Super Fun Summer Drink

Posted by terrepruitt on July 14, 2021

So my husband discovered a “new” drink. It was a video posted by Peloton Instructor Cody Rigsby and it is so cute because many of us may know it as a wine spritzer. It is so perfect for hot weather.

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Cody Rigsby’s Fun And Flouncy Or (for some of us) Wine Spritzer With Frozen Fruit

—Frozen Fruit Blend (DO NOT DEFROST)
—Rosé (chilled)
—Clear soda (7-Up, Sprite, etc. – chilled)
—You may want a spoon to scoop up the fruit as it defrosts.

Use a fun glass that has a wide enough bottom to fit a spoon. Pour in some frozen fruit, pour in some Rosé, top off with some soda. Stir and enjoy.

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Here (hopefully it will work for you) is Cody’s video where he says frozen berries and a diet lemon lime soda.

Click on photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My husband found this frozen fruit blend and it is DIVINE! It has the tiniest blue berries, pomegranate fruit, and dark sweet cherries. The cherries are the best. I think the drink is best using whatever frozen fruit combo YOU enjoy!

 

FUN summer drink!

 

 

 

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Potato Omelette

Posted by terrepruitt on June 14, 2021

You may have seen this recipe as it was in the Costco magazine. I was telling my friend that I made potato pie and when I said the actual name she said she had seen it. It was good. I will do it again. When I first saw the recipe I hadn’t read the amount of oil. When I went to make it I decided I was not going to use that much. I used less, but still it was too much, in my opinion. I don’t need the potatoes soaking in oil. It says to use a slotted spoon to remove them from the pan . . . I did that plus I set them on a paper towel to drain a bit before I put them in the eggs. I also used garlic salt, of course.

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Potato Omelette

6 medium gold potatoes
1 large onion
1 1/2 cups olive oil
Garlic salt
10 eggs

Peel the potatoes then slice them into 1/8 inch rounds, then quarter the rounds. (After peeling the onion) cut the onion into 1/8 inch rounds, then cut the slices in half.

In a large skillet heat the oil, then cook the potatoes until tender, turning them as necessary, then add the onions. As they are cooking sprinkle with garlic salt.

In a large bowl (large enough to hold all ten eggs AND the potatoes) beat the eggs adding salt as desired. Then using a slotted spoon add the potatoes. If you want, you can do as I did and let the potatoes drain a bit on a paper towel. Mix the potatoes in with the eggs and let sit 3 to 4 minutes.

In an 8 inch nonstick skillet heat about 1 tbsp. oil (I used the potato oil) over medium heat. Coat the pan with the oil then pour half of the potato mixture in the pan and cook until the edges are done. Then place a plate – bigger than the pan if you have it – over the pan and flip the egg-potatoes onto the plate then slide it back into the pan to cook the uncooked side. Do the same with the remaining egg potato mixture.

Serve in slices.

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The recipe said it serves 10. Personally when I eat eggs . . . especially if it is my meal, I eat more than one egg. This was two meals for us.

Next time I make it I will use WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY less oil to cook the potatoes (WAY LESS!!) and I will use half the ingredients making one “Tortilla Espanola” instead of two. It was really good though. I do think the oil soaked potatoes helped make it really rich and filling.

And I was so intent on making the darn thing I didn’t take pictures along the way . . . so what else it knew.

I think this can be served with anything you eat eggs with. You could top it with salsa and/or sour cream and/or guacamole and/or cheese. You could throw some greens on top of it or even meat. It is eggs and potatoes so it is VERY versatile.

Looking forward to making it again.

What do you think?

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