Tag Archives: Husband

Panko and Mustard Crusted Salmon

Posted in Entrees, Seafood by

It’s only taken me nearly 5 years for me to get Husband to eat salmon. Mission successful! I can now make it regularly and he seems to enjoy it.  As I was easing in to making salmon regularly I tried to keep flavors and recipes simple, just so I wouldn’t make the wrong move and destroy all chances of Husband every eating salmon again.  Good thinking, right?

I loved the way this recipe turned out, the flavor was great and it was easy to make! It was a nice change from the simple seasoning I had been doing in the past.

Enjoy! 🙂

Ingredients: 

  • 4, 5 -ounce Salmon filets
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 4 tablespoons dijon mustard
  • 1 cup Panko breadcrumb
  • 1 teaspoon garlic salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 2 tablespoon chopped parsley

Instructions: 

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In bowl,  mix together Panko breadcrumb, garlic salt, pepper, paprika and parsley.

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2.  Brush each salmon filet with mustard and then coat with Panko breadcrumb mixture

3.  On medium heat, heat skillet with olive oil.  Place filets, skin side down, on skillet for 3-4 minutes.  Remove from skillet and place on baking sheet.  Place in oven for 8-10 minutes, or until cooked through.

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4.  Serve with rice or over a salad.

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Pizza Pie

Posted in Entrees by

There’s an entertaining story behind this recipe…

Of course I found this recipe idea on Pinterest.  It originally came from the Taste of Home website and was titled “Tim Tebows (moms) Pizza Pie Recipe.”  Just a little background, Tim Tebow is husband’s absolute least favorite football player (possibly his least favorite person ever!).  In fact, for Christmas I bought him a t-shirt that says I hate Tim Tebow. On the day that I was planing on making this, husband asked me what I was making for dinner and I didn’t even think twice about it.  I just sent him a copy of the link to show him what I was making… his response “I’m going to McDonalds.”  Then it occurred to me… it had the name Tim Tebow in it.  Oops! His hate for Tim Tebow is so strong that he almost refused to eat this for dinner! But I told him I’d change the name of it to “Laura’s Pizza Pie.”  Clearly his hate for Tim Tebow was not able to stand in the way of how great this recipe turned out, considering he ate if for dinner and lunch the next day!

Enjoy 🙂

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
  • 1 envelope Italian-style spaghetti sauce mix
  • 1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1 tube (12 ounces) refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
  • 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese, divided
  • 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
  • 1 cup sliced black olives (optional) – substitute for other favorite pizza toppings!

Directions:

1. In a large skillet, cook and stir beef and pepper over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the sauce mix, tomato paste and water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer for 7-10 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally.

2. Separate biscuits; press onto the bottom and up the sides of a greased 9-in. deep-dish pie plate to form a crust. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese; fill with meat mixture.

3. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese and remaining Parmesan cheese over top and any other pizza toppings you might like. Bake at 400° for 15-18 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted.

Rolo Cupcakes

Posted in Dessert by

Brace yourselves for an incredible cupcake recipe.

Husband asked me to bake something for a bake sale they were having at work for breast cancer. So naturally, I decided to bake a cupcake. Everyone loves cupcakes and I love baking new, fun things inside of cupcakes.  So why not a Rolo, right?  A friend from school had never even heard of rolo’s before.  Whats that about?  If you’ve never tried one, please go buy some and try one, and then bake these cupcakes because they turned out phenomenal!

The cake recipe was from Cake Mix Doctor, so it was super easy to throw together and the cake turned out very moist! I toped each cupcake with a caramel buttercream frosting. Worth. Every. Calorie.

Enjoy 🙂

For the Cupcake: 

Ingredients: 

  • 1 (18.25 ounce) package Devil’s Food Cake mix
  • 1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 4 eggs; lightly beaten
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla
  • 24 frozen Rolos (freeze for at least 2 hours)

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

 2.  Line muffin pan with paper liners (24) or spray with non-stick cooking spray.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs, water and vanilla until well combined and smooth.

4. Evenly divide the batter amongst the prepared pans. {I use a large cookie scoop from OXO to scoop my batter; it holds 3 tablespoons}.

5. Gently push a frozen Rolo into the center of the batter and smooth the surface making sure to cover the candy with batter.

6. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch. A small divot may appear in the center of the cupcake, no worries though because you’ll cover that with frosting.

7. Cool cupcakes thoroughly on wire rack.

They balloon up! So be sure not to overfill…

For the Frosting

Ingredients: 

  • 2/3 cup solid vegetable shortening
  • 2/3 cup caramel icing toping
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon butter flavoring
  • 4 cups (~1lb) confectionaries sugar
  • 2 teaspoons milk or water

Instructions:

1. Cream shortening, caramel ice cream topping, vanilla, and butter flavoring.

2. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk or water and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. (add more or less milk to get to the consistency you want.

3.  For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use.

Now all you that have left to do is frost your cupcakes!

 

 

(Every one always asks how I make my icing look so pretty, I use a pipping bag and pipping tip!  You can find them in cake decorating isle at Walmart or online at Wilton’s.  I promise it’s easy to use! 🙂 )

Happy Friday! Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend.

 

Boston Cream Cupcakes

Happy Valentines Day! ❤

Husband’s all-time favorite donut is a boston cream donut. So for valentines day I decided to try to make his favorite donut, into a cupcake. It’s a little bit trickier than I imagined. This recipe turned out great… the only problem I seem to have run into, is that the vanilla pudding stuffing got soaked in to the cupcake for the most part. I mean don’t get me wrong – it still tastes delicious! But if you’ve ever head a boston cream donut you know that reaching the vanilla pudding center is the best part!

Even though the center of the cupcake was a tiny bit disappointing, it still tasted like the donut. Delicious!

Enjoy!

Ps : Any bakers out there know if there’s a way to stuff a cupcake with pudding without having the cake soak it all up? I wonder what I did wrong… hmmmm.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes

  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon each baking powder and salt
  • 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup buttermilk

Filling

  • 1 package (3 oz) cook & serve vanilla pudding
  • 1 1/4 cups milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate Glaze

  • 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
  • 1/3 cup each sugar
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350ºF. Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners.

2. In a bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt until blended.

3. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, until well blended. Beat in vanilla extract.

4. With mixer on low speed, alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture, until just blended.

5. Spoon about 1/4 cup batter into each muffin cup. Bake 18 to 20 minutes until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack to cool completely.

6. Prepare pudding as package directs, using 1 1/4 cups milk. Add vanilla. Cover and place in refrigerator until cold.

7. Place chocolate, sugar and water in a small saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, until melted and smooth, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in butter until it melts and mixture is smooth. Let cool.

8. Cut circle out of the center of cupcake and remove carefully. Spoon out some of the inside of the cake, making room for the filling.

9. Fill cupcake with tablespoon of vanilla pudding. Replace cut out circle from top of cupcake. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of chocolate glaze on top of each cupcake.

Modified from A Bit of Knees

Three Cheese and Chicken Stuffed Shells

Posted in Entrees, Pasta by

I love pasta recipes, especially ones that don’t turn out too heavy.  Although this recipe has three different types of cheeses in it, it still turned out to be a light pasta dish!  Also, I’d like it to be noted that Husband never liked stuffed shells…until this recipe! Bam, it’s like magic.

Enjoy 🙂

Ingredients: 

  • 6 ounces large shell pasta
  • 2 chicken breast half, cooked and diced
  • 8 ounces ricotta cheese
  • 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
  • 1 cup shredded monterey Jack cheese
  • 1 tablespoon light sour cream
  • 3 tablespoons dried bread crumbs
  • 3 tablespoons chopped parsley
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1  1/2 cups spaghetti sauce

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Cook large pasta shells according to directions on passage.  Drain and set aside.

3. In a l arge bowl, combine half cooked, diced chicken, ricotta cheese, 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, 1 cup of monterey jack cheese, sour cream, bread crumbs, parsley and salt and pepper. Mix well.

4. Spray a 2-quart baking dish with nonstick spray and cover the bottom of the dish with a thin layer of spaghetti sauce. Fill each large shell with the chicken/cheese mixture and place in the dish. Cover with the remaining sauce. Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella cheese on top.

5.  Bake in the preheated oven uncovered for 40 minutes; serve warm.

Source: Taste and Tell

Semi Homemade Pizza

Posted in Entrees by

I finally got around to making my own pizza at home! The reason I consider it “semi” homemade, is because I used pre-made crust by Pilsbury.  I don’t really have time to make my own dough right now, but this was the perfect alternative.  These turned out DELICIOUS!

I made two, one with pepperoni, black olives, and cheese (per Mina’s request) and one with feta cheese, shredded chicken, basil and black olives.  My favorite was the feta with chicken  pizza. So so yummy.  I’ll walk through the steps of the feta with chicken pizza, just because the pepperoni pizza was pretty straight forward.

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb chicken breast
  • Salt, pepper, basil to taste (~1 tsp of each)
  • Pilsbury pizza dough
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • Garlic salt
  • Crumbled feta cheese
  • Sliced black olives
  • Fresh basil leaves
Instructions:

1. Boil chicken until thoroughly cooked.  Once cooked through, shred chicken. Season shredded chicken with salt, black pepper, and basil to desired taste.  Set aside.

2. Line cookie sheet with foil and spray well with pam.  Unroll Pilsbury on to baking sheet.  Spread out to desired thickness.

3. Brush dough with olive oil and then sprinkle with garlic salt.

4.  Line dough with mariner sauce.  Cover with feta cheese, shredded chicken, black olives, and several fresh basil leaves.

5.  Cook on 425 for 18-20 minutes, until crust in golden brown.   Enjoy!

 

Football Sunday Chili

Posted in Entrees by

Very early on in our relationship, Mina made it pretty clear to me that football Sunday’s and Superbowl’s were no joke. Although I’m not an avid football watcher, I knew what I was getting myself in to and I accepted it.

Soon after we got married I started experimenting with different chili recipes and I eventually came up with a recipe that we both love.  It’s now become a tradition that once football season starts, so does chili-making season!  What’s better than chili, beer, and football all at the same time?

So here’s my “secret” chili recipe. It’s super quick to throw together, enjoy! 🙂

Ingredients:

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1/2 large onion, chopped
  • 1 lb lean ground beef
  • 1 8 oz can of tomato sauce
  • 1 16 oz can of diced tomatoes
  • 2 16 oz cans chili beans in a spicy chili sauce
  • 1 cup of corn
  • 1 medium green pepper, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 2 teaspoons ground red pepper (* optional, we like ours spicy)
Instructions:
1. Heat olive oil in pan.  Add garlic and onion.  Once golden colored, add ground beef.
2.  Once ground beef is cooked, drain excess fat.  Now add ALL other ingredients.  Bring to boil.
3.  Lower heat and allow to simmer for 2 hours for best flavors.

Moussaka – aka “Eggplant Lasagna”

Posted in Entrees by

I spent most of my childhood in Dallas and it’s a place that i’ve called home for so many years now. So, since I had some time off school, I decided to go visit family that I have in Dallas.  While I was there I spent some serious quality time with my Teta (Grandma, in arabic).  I took full advantage of this time and was able to get some awesome recipes from her! 🙂

My goofy little cousins!

Tonight I made moussaka for dinner and it turned out delicious.  If you don’t know what moussaka is, the best way to describe it is as an eggplant lasagna. This is one of my hubby’s favorite meals so I was pretty nervous about making it.  I know I don’t quite have the skill level of my grandma or even his mom, so expectations were high! Nonetheless, it turned out yummy!!

Just as a heads up, this took me about 40 minutes to get everything together and in the oven. If you’re making this recipe for 2 people, cut all ingredients and cooking time in half!

Ingredients:

  • 2 Eggplants
  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 1 cup rice
  • 1 small chopped onion
  • Olive oil
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 1/2 tsp ground red pepper (optional, added for spice)
  • 2 cans tomato sauce
  • 1 can diced tomato
  • Shredded mozzerlla cheese
Instructions:
  1. Make 1 cup of rice.  Allow to cook while you prepare the rest of the meal.
  2. Prepare 2 eggplants: cut off ends of eggplant, peel eggplant using vegetable peeler.  Cut lengthwise in to 1/2 inch thickness.
  3. Take each slice of eggplant and brush olive oil on both sides.  Then sprinkle both sides lightly with salt and pepper.  Place on baking sheet.
  4. Set oven to broil.  Place baking sheet in oven for 5 minutes.  Then remove from oven and flip slices of eggplant over.  Put back in oven for 5 more minutes. Then set aside.  (This is an alternative to the traditional way of making moussaka, which is deep frying the sliced eggplant.)
  5. Heat 1 tsp olive oil, brown 1/2 cup of chopped onion. Then add ground beef and brown.  Drain any excess fat.  Season ground beef with salt and pepper.  (I used approximately 1/2 tsp of each).  Set aside.
  6. In small pot heat 1 tsp of olive oil.  Brown 1/4 cup of chopped onion.  Add 1 can of tomato sauce, 1 can of diced tomatoes.  Bring to boil.  Season with 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of pepper, and 1/4 tsp of ground red pepper.  Set this sauce aside.
  7. In a separate bowl, add 1 can of tomato sauce with 1 cup of water.  You also want to season this watered down tomato sauce with salt, pepper, and ground red pepper.
  8. Now we are ready to assemble the lasagna!  Use a 13×9 baking dish.  Brush baking dish with olive oil.  Line bottom of pan with a small amount of the watered down tomato sauce.
  9. Line baking dish with sliced eggplant.  Add ground beef on top of the first layer of eggplant.   Then add layer of tomato sauce with diced tomatoes.  Sprinkle a layer of shredded mozzarella cheese.
  10. Place a second layer of eggplant.   Spread remaining watered down tomato sauce on top layer of eggplant.  Sprinkle top of “lasagna” with shredded mozzarella cheese.
  11. Cover baking dish with foil.  Bake in oven on 400 degrees for 35 minutes. You should see some of the tomato sauce bubbling on the very bottom of the baking dish.  Remove foil and bake for 10 more minutes.
  12. Remove from oven.  Serve over rice and enjoy.

“Pigs in a Blanket”

Posted in Appetizers, Recipes, Side Dishes by

Mina was invited over to a buddy’s house for a fantasy football draft party.  This is a conversation we had several hours before the party:

Mina: They’re having wings tonight and they asked me to bring a side dish.

Me: Ok, what do you want to take?

Mina: I don’t know…what do you think about some ranch dressing?

Me: (dying laughing) Um. Well, I don’t think that constitutes as a side dish…

So, I took charge of the side dish situation and made a newer version of pigs in a blanket. They were a huge hit and now that football season is in full swing, I know that we’ll be having many football watching parties and these will definitely be made again!

Ingredients:

  • 1 package of reduced fat crescent rolls
  • 1 package chicken italian sausage
  • Slices of your favorite cheese, I used muenster cheese because that’s what I had
  • Parmesan cheese
  • Garlic salt
Instructions:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Boil sausage in water for 5 minutes. Slice sausages in four equal pieces (I cut them in half horizontally and then again in 1/2 vertically)
3. Unroll dough in to triangles.   Place 1/2 a slice of cheese per triangle along with a slice of the sausage.  Wrap triangular dough around dog and cheese.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4.  Sprinkle each with a pinch of  parmesan cheese and garlic salt.
5.  Bake on 350 for about 13 minutes, or until golden brown.
6.  Dig in and enjoy!

Helloo world!

Posted in Entrees, Recipes by

A few years ago I decided to start a blog, but then I lost touch with it and I wasn’t truly invested in it.  This time, it’s different! Not only have I made a commitment to a friend, Sarahlicious (check out her blog!), but I also have a focus.  What’s the focus, you ask?  Duh, cavities and cravings.

I am currently a second year dental student.  Dental school has pretty much taken over life.   While I know I’m in the right place, doing the right thing, it’s definitely not easy.  I am sure you’ll hear me whine a lot more about it.   Just tell me to suck it up and get over it.

Aside from teeth, I love love love baking.  It’s become a passion of  mine over the years.  I bake when I’m happy, sad, stressed, bored…. you get the point.  More recently, however, I have decided to branch out and make it my mission to find yummy, healthy recipes (sometimes they’re not completely healthy …but they’re always yummy!) I hope that I can share my new cooking experiences and recipes with you. I also hope that my hubby (Mina, checkout his website, he’s a tv junkie!), will enjoy being the guinea pig for these new recipes 🙂

The recipe I want to share today is Baked Lemon Chicken and it was a huge hit! I got the recipe from allrecipes.com, but I tweaked it a bit.  I hope it turns out as delicious for you as it did for me! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

  • 3 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 4 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1cup seasoned bread crumbs
  • 4 (4 ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
Instructions:
  1. In a shallow dish, combine the butter, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper. Place bread crumbs in another dish. Dip chicken in butter mixture, then coat with crumbs.
  2. Place in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Drizzle with remaining butter mixture. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until juices run clear. Put on broil for 5-8 minutes, just to let the top get a little brown and crunch