Family Kitchen Blog

As promised here is the recipe for Carrabba’s Chicken Bryan.  It didn’t win the birthday dinner vote, but it’s the one I was rooting for, so I made a few days later anyway!

If you’re not familiar with this party for your taste buds, it’s my pleasure to introduce you.  It consists of grilled chicken breasts topped with a generous portion of goat cheese then smothered in a lemon butter garlic sauce with sun dried tomatoes.  Can you wrap your brain around amazingness of this?!  And, as if it couldn’t get any better, try subbing out the chicken breast with a tender slab of filet mignon!  Oh my word!  The photos do not do it justice.

Chicken Bryan
from food.com

• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• salt, to taste
• ground pepper, to taste
• olive oil
• 4 ounces goat cheese
• 6 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 2 -4 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped (I used 1 tablespoon dried basil)
• 4 teaspoons onions, minced
• 4 teaspoons garlic, minced
• 8 tablespoons butter, divided (I reduced this to about 4 tablespoons!)
• 1/2 cup tablespoons white wine
• 6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 large lemon’s worth)

1. Brush chicken with olive oil, season to taste with salt and cracked pepper.  Grill (or bake at 325°) chicken until done (internal temp of 160°).

2. Prepare lemon butter sauce while chicken is grilling/baking. Saute onion and garlic in 2 Tbsp butter (I used olive oil instead of butter).  Add white wine and lemon juice, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 10 minutes to reduce.  Add remaining 6 Tbsp butter (I used 4 Tbsp), a little at a time, until it melts and mixture is emulsified.  Add chopped sun-dried tomatoes and basil, heat until hot (but do not boil!).

3. Top nearly-done chicken breasts with goat cheese until cheese warms and softens.

4. To serve, spoon lemon butter sauce over chicken breasts.

Alright, the votes are in and the fondue dinner won!  Thanks to all who voted!!!  Today is the hubby’s birthday, but he has to hold out for one more night to enjoy cooking his own his birthday dinner due to scheduling issues.

As a result of the voting, some questions came up from a few who aren’t familiar with Chicken Bryan and it’s amazingness (can you guess which one I voted for?!).  AND, I just found out today that our local Carrabba’s (where Chicken Bryan is served) has closed.  What a sad day!  So in light of these events, I promise that I will have this recipe on the blog next week so we can keep on (or begin) enjoying Chicken (and Filet) Bryan at home!

Now on to the all important issue of birthday dessert…

Basically, this is the winter counterpart to the Pumpkin Better Than Cake I made this fall.  This version is full of chocolate- chocolate cake, crushed oreos, and hot fudge sauce- and accented with peppermint!  I made this cake for my family’s Christmas Day dinner and it was devoured quickly!  I made a gluten free version of this for the birthday boy by substituting a GF cake mix and GF oreos .  The poor guy had to sit by and watch us enjoy on Christmas Day, so I figured he more than deserved a chance to enjoy it himself!

Here’s the gist of it.  You bake a chocolate cake.  Poke holes in it.  Pour sweetened condensed milk and peppermint creamer to fill holes.  Layer hot fudge sauce, whipped cream, crushed oreos, and crushed peppermints on top.  It’s pretty much sinful!  Here are the details:

Christmas Poke Cake
from SomethingSwanky.com

• 1 chocolate cake mix, prepared and baked according to the directions on the box
• 1 cup peppermint dairy creamer
• 14.5 ounces sweetened condensed milk
• 1 jar Smuckers hot fudge  sauce
• 1/4 cup peppermint dairy creamer
• 1 cup crushed Oreos
• 8 ounces Cool Whip
• Peppermints or Candy canes, crushed (approximately 1 1/2 cups)
• Crushed Oreos for topping (approximately 1 cup)

Once the cake has cooled, use the bottom of a wooden spoon to poke approximately 20 holes in the cake.

In a small bowl, whisk together the sweetened condensed milk and 1 cup of the peppermint dairy creamer. Pour over the cake, trying to fill in the holes.

In the same bowl, whisk together the hot fudge sauce and 1/4 cup peppermint dairy creamer. Mix in 1 cup crushed Oreos.  Pour and spread the fudge mixture over the cake as evenly as possible.

Spread the cool whip over the fudge. Sprinkle on the candy and crushed Oreos (as much or as little as you want).

Refrigerate for 4-6 hours (or overnight), until the sweetened condensed mixture has soaked into the cake and it’s thoroughly chilled.  Then it’s ready to enjoy!

I’m finally back from my annual Christmas pilgrimage to Florida.  Indianapolis welcomed us home with several inches of snow.  Upon exiting the airport, my son acted just like a Floridian getting all excited about the tiny drifts of snow along the edge of the parking garage.  It was very amusing!  I, on the other hand, could not get to the car- and its heated seats- fast enough.

During these cold winter months, a warm breakfast makes all the difference to me as I get ready to face the elements for which my childhood in Florida never prepared me.  One of the quickest routes to a hot morning meal is a single serve packet of oatmeal.  I have consumed them for years, never questioning my choice.

Until recently, when I was challenged to make them myself.  It was one of those a-ha/duh moments for me!  Similar to other homemade foods (think microwave popcorn in brown paper bags), making your own packets of oatmeal is both money and nutrition savvy.  Thus my motivation for sharing the idea with you.

Here’s how it’s done (thanks to this blog):

1. Start with a container of quick oats and snack size resealable bags.  Scoop 1/3 cup into each bag.  My 18 ounce container of oatmeal made 18 packets.

Note: One third cup is pretty much what you get in the prepackaged bags and is usually just the right amount for me.  But the beauty of doing it yourself is that you can adjust the serving size.  If you’re making these for small kids, then 1/4 cup might be enough.  Or if someone in your family has a more hearty appetite, you may want a half cup of oatmeal per bag.

2. Select a flavor.  Brown sugar is an obvious choice, but I also enjoy fruit flavors.  To accomplish this, I purchased dried fruit in the baby food section of my grocery store and it worked beautifully!  Here are the flavors I’ve tried so far:

Maple and Brown Sugar- add 1 tablespoon of brown sugar.  After cooking, add dash of maple syrup.

Apple Cinnamon- add 1 tablespoon of dried apples and 3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon sugar.

Strawberries and Cream- add 1 tablespoon of dried strawberries (blueberries, peaches, etc work too!), 1 teaspoon of powdered milk, and 1 teaspoon of sugar or sugar substitute.

3.  Label and date your bags so you know what you’ve got a month from now.

4. When you’re ready to eat the oatmeal, cook just as you would a store-bought packet of oatmeal- with water or milk.  I prefer to cook with just enough water to cover the oatmeal and then add milk after it’s cooked, but that’s just me!

I’d love to hear what flavor combos you come up with, so please comment below!

How’s that for a dramatic name?

If you’re like me, you need some healthy meals to balance all the sweets and goodies taken in this time of year! (Hello, my name is Karis, and I’m addicted to Christmas Crack!)  This sandwich gives a punch of nutrition along with amazing flavor!  I will definitely be making this again.  Soon.

You can make this in any skillet or griddle on the stove top, but it’s much easier in a panini maker.  If you don’t already have one, it might not be too late to add it to your Christmas list!

Green Goddess Grilled Cheese
from tastespotting.com

• 2 slices bread (I used rye)
• 2-3 tablespoons Basil Pesto
• 2 slices mozzarella (or a handful of shredded)
• handful fresh baby spinach
• ¼ avocado, sliced
• 2 tablespoons goat cheese, crumbled
• butter for bread (unless you’re using the panini make and don’t need it!)

Spread about one tablespoon Pesto onto each slice of bread

On one slice of bread, add 1 slice of cheese, sliced avocado, crumbled goat cheese, spinach, second slice of cheese, then top it with second slice of bread. Press together gently.

Cook as you would any grilled cheese sandwich.

………………………

Now, if I could just get up the nerve to try a green monster smoothie, I’d really be combating all the holiday junk food with a load of nutrition!

I don’t know about you, but during the holidays I especially need some quick go-to meals to feed my family.  I’ll be busy shopping, wrapping, baking, addressing Christmas cards, etc and then at five o’clock suddenly remember that my family needs to eat dinner- oops!  These succulent pork chops have saved me several times!

Whenever the family pack of boneless pork chops goes on sale I buy them and then divide into freezer bags.  They are quick to thaw and made with ingredients I keep on hand.  So, they are easy and cheap! And of course, they’re tasty or I wouldn’t be sharing it with you all!

If you’re really ahead of the game, prepare the sauce the night before or in the morning to let the chops marinate before cooking.  But trust me- I know from experience- it also works to make the sauce just before cooking!

Honey Garlic Pork Chops
recipe from Spark Recipes

• 1/4 + 1/8 Cup Honey
• 3 Tablespoon Soy sauce
• 6 Cloves Garlic, minced
• 6 Pork Loin Chops, boneless, approx 4 oz each

In a shallow dish, whisk together honey, soy sauce and garlic. Coat chops in mixture. Reserve left over honey mixture for basting.

Now you have options:
1) Place chops on greased grill and cook over med high heat. Baste two times.

2) Place chops on skillet and cook over med heat. Baste as they cook.

3) Place chops in baking dish and cover with sauce. Bake in oven at 350° for 20-35 minutes (depending on thickness of chops).

Okay, the real name for this recipe is Terribly Terrific Toffee.  But someone on Pinterest labeled it “Christmas Crack” and I find it a much more appropriate name!  Here’s why: first of all, it is terribly addicting!; second,  it’s made from “crack”ers- haha; third you “crack” it into pieces for the final product.  This sweet delight was a huge hit with the company I served it to!  It just may become a holiday tradition in my household…

An added plus in my book was that it was super simple to substitute GF ingredients!

Christmas Crack
from asoutherngrace.blogspot.com

1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
40 saltine crackers (I also made a batch with Glutino GF table crackers!)

Preheat oven to 350º. Line a 15×10-inch jelly roll pan or a 12×17-inch cookie sheet with foil and spray with non-stick spray. Lay a flat layer of crackers out on the foil.

Melt the sugar and butter until a boil is reached. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5-6 minutes or until mixture is thickened and sugar is completely dissolved. Pour this mixture over the crackers and spread to coat evenly.

Bake for 5-10 minutes- until the toffee becomes bubbly. After removing the pan from the oven, let it sit for 3-5 minutes. Sprinkle on the chocolate chips, let them soften and melt, and then spread them into an even layer.

Let cool and, if desired for expediting purposes, refrigerate until hardened.  I tried to be fancy and drizzle it with some extra white chocolate I had leftover, but that is completely optional!  Once completely cooled, break (crack!) into pieces.  I roughly followed the size of the crackers, but any shape or size will do!

This Nutella recipe doesn’t have quite the ease of the previous recipe, but the result is so heavenly you won’t mind the extra work!  Instead of cookies, these are truffles- a.k.a. balls of chocolate amazingness!  Seriously, the pics do not do them justice!  As with the cookies, the Nutella is sweet enough on it’s own, so no added sugar is necessary!

My only warning is that to keep these gems firm, I had to keep returning them to the frig or freezer, which added a lot of time to the process.  So plan accordingly!

Hazelnut Truffles
inspired by bakelab.blogspot.com

• 1-26.5 ounce jar of Nutella
• 1 Stick of Butter, melted
• 2 Cups Rice Cereal crumbs (Rice Krispies or Rice Chex, can also use graham crackers crumbs)

Candy Coating

•  1 Bag of Dark chocolate chips
• 2 Tablespoon Shortening

Combine butter, Nutella, and crumbs until well mixed and uniformly moist.

Scoop out filling and form into balls.  If mixture is too soft, refrigerate for an hour or so before making balls.  I had to return the mix to the refrigerator a few times during this process.  Place balls on wax paper-lined cookie sheet, and freeze for at least one hour.

When ready to dip: melt candy or chips in microwave in 30 increments, and thin with shortening. Dip the Nutella balls in the coating with fork, tapping off the excess, and place onto wax paper-lined cookie sheet to harden.

Garnish as desired.  Possibilities include sprinkling with mini chocolate chips, drizzling melted white chocolate, etc.  I ran out of time to make mine look as fabulous as they taste!

No, I’m not talking about knocking pumpkins over!

It’s just a “tip” about using pumpkin puree.

This is an idea I totally should/could have come up with all on my own.  It was tempting to take the credit, but I will humble myself and admit I had to learn about it on someone else’s blog: scalingbackblog.com.

As you might have guessed from the photo above, the idea is (drumroll, please) to freeze pumpkin puree in an ice cube tray for use in smoothies or recipes with small amounts.  This is also an effective way to avoid wasting pumpkin since not all recipes call for the exact amount of pumpkin contained in one can.

Case in point:  the day I was at the grocery store to buy pumpkin, they only had the large size can in stock.  I bought it, knowing full well it was more than I needed, but feeling I had no other choice.  (It really was a tough decision for me- I abhor inefficiency and waste!) Then, when it came time to bake and I only needed 16 of the 29 ounces, I found this brilliant idea and filled up an entire ice cube tray with the left over pumpkin. It reminded me a lot of making vegetable purees for baby food back in the day!  (Another reason why I should have thought of this on my own!!)

So anyway, I hope you will benefit from this idea that I didn’t come up with!  And maybe someday I’ll stop punishing myself for not thinking of it first!

P.S. I’m writing so much about pumpkin lately that a whole category, or at the very least a tag, for pumpkin is becoming a necessity!

Q: What do you get when you cross a popcorn lover with a sweet tooth?

A: Candy-covered popcorn!

Seriously, there are a ton of chocolate-covered-popcorn-type ideas out there.  And for good reason.  It tastes amazing and is easy to make.  It’s the perfect thing for those times when you want something a little special but don’t want to put much time and effort into it, such as family movie night, a kids slumber party, or- in my case- girls scrapbooking night.

I went to my pantry planning to make white chocolate popcorn, but as it turned out all I had were butterscotch chips.  Which worked amazingly well! Thanks to eatgood4life.blogspot.com for the idea.

Butterscotch Popcorn

• 1 Cup Unpopped kernels
• 1- 11oz Bag of Butterscotch chips
• 1 or 2 Teaspoons Shortening

Pop kernels according to these directions, a half cup at a time.  Melt chips in microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring between each and stopping as soon as it is completely smooth.  Stir shortening into melted chips while still hot.  Add one teaspoon at a time and check consistency.  The shortening is just to thin out the chocolate or butterscotch, helping it spread more easily.  Use hands to toss and coat the popcorn (this is the only short-lived messy part).  Sprinkle with salt if desired (for a more sweet and salty taste).  Let it cool long enough for the chocolate to harden before serving (approx 30-60 minutes).

I realize that Halloween has passed, but it’s still fall, so I’m still posting pumpkin recipes!  I’m a sucker for trying new recipes, especially when they are introduced with such pretty pictures on Pinterest.  And this one tastes even better than it looks (as the name implies- haha!)!  This rich, moist treat is best enjoyed after refrigerating overnight, making it an excellent dessert choice when you’re cooking dinner to company and don’t have time to bake dessert at the same time!

Pumpkin Better Than… Cake
from SomethingSwanky.com

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 small can pumpkin puree (15oz)
• 1 – 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 – 8 ounce tub cool whip
• 1/2 bag Heath Bits
• Caramel Sauce (I used butterscotch sauce)

Mix together the cake mix and the pumpkin puree (DO NOT add the other ingredients on the cake mix box).  Pour batter into a well greased 9×13 baking dish. Bake at 350º  for as long as directed for a 9×13 cake on the cake mix box.

Let cool for about 10 minutes after baking. Using the bottom of a wooden spoon, poke holes all over the top of the cake (this post has great step by step photos for this part).  Pour the sweetened condensed milk over the cake, filling the holes. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Spread the cool whip over top of cake. Sprinkle on the heath bits, and drizzle caramel over top (just to your liking). Refrigerate for 3-4 hours, or overnight for best results.