Apricot Chicken Recipe

As promised... here is my favorite main dish apricot recipe! :) I love this for so many reasons! :) - It is delicious, I don't have to threaten I mean convince my kids to eat it because they gobble it up so fast! AND my FAVORITE part is that it seriously takes less then 5 minutes before it's ready for the oven. This is one of my "go to" recipes when I want to give up and go out to eat. :)
I've seen other apricot chicken recipes with a lot of other ingredients, but don't let the simplicity of this make you skeptical~ It is So good :).

Apricot Chicken

4-6 Chicken Breasts (must be thawed)
1 18 oz Jar of Apricot Jam
1 Packet of Onion Soup Seasoning

Yup! That's all!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Place chicken in baking dish
In a separate bowl, mix the apricot jam and onion soup mix together and microwave for 1 minute.
Pour over the chicken

Bake for 45 minutes, or until chicken is completely cooked. Periodically (at least once) while cooking, baste or spoon the sauce from the pan back on to the chicken.

Serve over rice (spoon sauce from your baking dish over it) with broccoli as a side! :)

So EASY, so FAST and so YUMMY!

My whole family LOVES this dish- I hope you do to! :)

"Beans? What else can you use them for other than burritos?"

I've decided to do a few posts periodically on the possibilities of beans. :) Is it weird that whenever I type "beans," in my head I hear a brother or friend from middle school making some joke about the "musical fruit?" - ha - Well! It's time we get over it! :) -- Beans are inexpensive and incredibly good for us. They have awesome amounts of fiber, protein and a bunch of other power nutrients.... in fact... you need to read this article! -

http://www.blissplan.com/wellness/the-benefits-of-beans-9-reasons-why-you-should-eat-beans/

Beans are so so simple and there are a million recipes that include them. I think when people hear "beans and rice, rice and beans" they only think of drab bean burritos. ( I love bean burritos.. but I can see if you think they are your only bean meal option, they can be DRAB :) ) - The possibilities are limitless - casseroles, hummus, dips, Mexican food, soups.. soups soups! ... the lists go on!

Here is a VERY VERY SIMPLE black bean soup recipe that my mom gave me at my last recipe group with her! I was looking at it today as I was making it and laughed! The website she got it from is called "REAL Simple" How perfect is that!! Seriously. This meal takes like 10 minutes or less to prepare and it is so filling and SO So good.

REAL Simple Black Bean Soup

(I took this photo from the website that the recipe was on... this is really what it looks like, I just forgot to take a picture tonight :) )

Ingredients
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 pint store-bought fresh salsa (so far i've just used Pace salsa.. I'm sure it'd be better with fresh, but it's what I've had on hand :))
1 16-ounce can refried black beans
1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed
1 14.5-ounce can vegetable or chicken broth (you can buy "Better than Bullion" at Costco. It's an organic broth base, I think my jar was 8 bucks but if you were to compare it to cans, you could make around 40 cans of chicken broth with on of those jars - and it's ORGANIC :) .. Can't beat that!)
Sour cream
Fresh cilantro, roughly chopped


Directions
Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add 1 ½ cups of the salsa and cook, stirring occasionally, for 4 minutes.
Add the refried beans, black beans, and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Divide among bowls and garnish with the sour cream, cilantro, and remaining ½ cup salsa.(extra salsa optional.. I never put more on)

By Kate Merker, September 2006

ENJOY

Favorite Recipe #1 Asian Orange Chicken

Watch out Chinese restaurants.... THIS is the best orange chicken I have EVER had! :) I found this recipe a long time ago and never made it until last year... WHAT was I thinking? You will LOVE this! :)

Harry Wetzle's Asian Orange Chicken

Ingredients

Sauce:
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root (or 1/8- 1/4 t of ground ginger :))
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water

Chicken:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

Pour 1 1/2 cups water, orange juice, lemon juice, rice vinegar, and soy sauce into a saucepan and set over medium-high heat. Stir in the orange zest, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, chopped onion, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat, and cool 10 to 15 minutes.

>Place the chicken pieces into a resealable plastic bag. When contents of saucepan have cooled, pour 1 cup of sauce into bag. Reserve the remaining sauce. Seal the bag, and refrigerate at least 2 hours.


In another resealable plastic bag, mix the flour, salt, and pepper. Add the marinated chicken pieces, seal the bag, and shake to coat.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place chicken into the skillet, and brown on both sides. Place chicken to drain on a plate lined with paper towels, and cover with aluminum foil.

Wipe out the skillet, and add the sauce. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Mix together the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water (do not skip mixing this in separate dish... you will have a very very sad experience if you do... mix it first!); stir into the sauce. Reduce heat to medium low, add the chicken pieces, and simmer, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve over rice with broccoli as a side and add some fortune cookiesfor fun! :) mmmmm...

"I can't believe it's not butter!" .. well, that's because It Is! :)

So... butter. I LOVE IT. I don't think I have ever bought a ... no, I know I have never bought a stick of margarine or any other butter knock off. The real thing is not so great for you, but it is SO much better. Better in cooking, better on bread, JUST BETTER. :) - And at least it's REAL right? eh eh? Get it? REAL? :) hehehe... that's more than I can say for margarine! However, butter can cost a pretty penny and it just keeps getting more and more expensive. We eat a lot of bread 'round these parts and toast is a morning usual. My whole life my parents had a covered butter dish that they left out by the toaster or in the cabinet above the toaster. I do the same thing... it totally creeps Mike out to have butter sitting out for days at a time... I never even thought about it .. is that weird? ha! - Thankfully none of us have died, or even got sick, but I just can't stand tearing up my nice fluffy bread with hard butter.. and I'm not about to spend money on spreadable ... "not butter." :) So! Here is the answer!

Homemade Spreadable Butter!

1 cube of butter (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup of canola oil (or any other oil of choice ... I like canola oil because it has no taste and is among the heart healthy oils as it has no trans fat)

You can either whisk this until your arm is dead or use some sort of mixer, I love my Kitchen Aid! I wasn't thinking and used the paddle instead of the whisk , but it still worked just fine :) -


It will start to look like this.... just keep mixing! :) .............................. yup, KEEP mixing!

See how smooth it looks? It actually still looked slightly lumpy as I was mixing, but when I stopped the mixer it smoothed out ... these are the mysteries :) ha I mixed the butter and oil for about 5 minutes.

Now! Pour into a Tupperware and refrigerate - NOTE - it will be really runny right after whisking it to death, but after a few hours in the fridge, it's set and perfect! :)

The glory in this is now you have twice the butter.. spreadable butter that is (I wouldn't try baking with it.. but if you do, let me know how it turns out! :) ) and you are splitting the trans fats in half by adding the canola oil! Now that I know how SIMPLE this is, it is shocking that people are spending more money for less butter! Don't you feel good that you can do it yourself now? :) I sure do! :) and I KNOW what's in it! :) Enjoy!! :)

Heaven in a Bread Pan.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - There are few things more wonderful then the smell of homemade bread baking in the oven! :) You know that scene on Ratatouille when "Ego" tastes the ratatouille and he's immediately brought back to his childhood.. yah. That's what bread does to me. When I was younger, my mom let me stand on a chair at the counter and watch her bake bread, after the dough had risen for the first time, she'd form the dough into loaves then give me the special paint brush! :) - I got to paint the pans and the loaves of dough and it was always something I looked forward to! I will post my mom's AMAZING white bread recipe later, but for some reason, I could never get her wheat bread to work for me, so after searching, tweaking, and drooling.. I put together the PERFECT wheat bread recipe. This recipe makes 4 loaves of bread, I use my Bosch and it is almost effortless! - However, the original recipe was put together by a woman who did it all by hand - So! It should work either way.. you could just half or quarter it to make it work in your Kitchen Aid or other mixer.

Nine Grain Whole Wheat Bread
Cara

2 T yeast ( I use Saff instant yeast.. it's the best :) )

1 t white sugar
4 c warm water
1/2 c honey
1/4 c molasses
1/2 c vegetable/canola oil
2 eggs
2 T lemon juice
10-12 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c wheat gluten
1/4 c ground flax seed
1/3 c 9 grain cereal
1/3 c sunflower seeds
1 heaping T salt

In a large bowl or mixer (I love my Bosch) , dissolve the yeast and sugar in 4c warm water. After the yeast has proofed and is bubbly, mix honey, molasses, oil, eggs and lemon juice. Mix well. (tip, I add my oil first and then use the same measuring cup for the honey and molasses.. the sticky stuff slides right out of the measuring cup when it’s already oiled :) Another tip from my excellent mama.) Gradually add 5 c whole wheat flour, mixing well after each addition. Add the flax, 9 grain cereal and sunflower seeds. Stir well. Let stand for 20 minutes. Mix in gluten, salt and the rest of flour until dough pulls away from the bowl. Knead for about 4-5 minutes in mixer or Bosch, or 10-15 minutes by hand until dough is smooth and elastic. Put into a greased bowl and cover. Let rise until doubled, about an hour.
Punch down and shape into four loaves. Place in greased bread pans and let rise until doubled again. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until crust is golden brown! You will be so proud of yourself and you will probably never be able to go back to yucky store bought bread! :) - It's been interesting, all I can taste is the preservatives in store bought bread now.... well, you won't find that here! This is REAL bread! :) :)

I leave one loaf out and freeze the rest so it stays fresh. When you want to pull a loaf out and defrost it, you can either let it sit out to thaw or take the twisty tie thing off, and place the bread in the bag in the microwave for 1 - 1 1/2 minutes ... perfection! :)

You can get ALL of these ingredients at most whole food stores. I get all of my ingredients at Kitchen Kneads off of Redwood Road and between 7800 and 7000th South on the East side of the road here in Utah. I love that place. I get my bread bags and twist ties there as well. I've yet to see them in regular grocery stores.

ENJOY! If you have ANY questions, feel free to ask! :)

"Beans and Rice, Rice and Beans"

If you haven't read Dave Ramsey's book, you ought to. If you can muscle through a little arrogance, you really can learn a LOT. :) haha.. I suppose he has the right to be arrogant, he's made a lot of really good decisions and has helped a lot of people out ....

Dave Ramsey suggests, in his own way, to live on "rice and beans, beans and rice" until the family finances are under control.....

I have to say. I LOVE beans.. not so much rice.. however... I don't think it's all I could eat, thankfully, I have some other meatless, healthy recipes I will share later on :) -

My mom is amazing. She brought us up on homemade bread, beans, granola, .. just about everything from scratch! I am so grateful to that and don't think I can thank her enough. This is why I get excited about having my kids see me cook these things... She did a great service to me and my sweet new family! Here is her AMAZING .. and amazingly EASY recipe for homemade re fried beans.

Mom’s Homemade Re fried Pinto Beans.. with out the Re fry

4 cups pintos washed and sorted (even if the package says it's been cleaned like 3 times, you still need to go through and separate the sad beans, rocks, and other stuff from the good beans - you don't come across much, but it's worth it!)
1 T oil
1 T salt
Place ingredients in pot and add water until covered. Bring to a boil then turn off and let soak up to overnight. Rinse and drain beans.

Now put the beans in either your crock pot or pressure cooker.
Add 1 can diced tomatoes
1 can diced chilies
1 onion, diced
1 T salt

Cover with water and cook in pressure cooker for 45 minutes or in a crockpot for 6 hours. (I don't own a pressure cooker, the trusty crockpot saves the day again!) When finished cooking, strain almost all of the liquid, reserving some just in case your beans seem dry. Puree’ or mash them using a food processor or blender.. or you can just try hand mashing them. Use the reserved liquid to make it the desired consistency. :) You can pressure can these or put them in freezer jars or baggies and freeze them.

Another TIP - You can buy a huge can of re fried beans from Costco for like 3-4 bucks - SO MUCH cheaper then buying the small cans. We bring home the big can, and separate it into our freezer jam jars and keep them in the freezer! I love the homemade, but it's nice to have one of these suckers around when you just don't have the time to make it ... and to be honest, it's pretty comparable in price.

Seriously, you have to try my mom's recipe - talk about REAL :) - Remember, this blog isn't just about saving money, it's about enjoying the world by simplifying ... not necessarily making things easy, but going back to basics... life is so much more enjoyable that way.. we get to experience the world in it's REAL form :).