divine play-doh

Karen and I have been talking about this amazing play-doh recipe I got from a Sister Munkholm when we lived in Saskie. It truly is awesome. not too sticky or stinky, or messy and it's super soft and lasts FOREVER! I know it's not "food" but it might just save your sanity on a boring day! Have fun!

*Makes about 2 1/2 cups of playdough

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup salt

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 cup water

1 tablespoon cooking oil, like canola or vegetable

4-6 drops food coloring

In a medium saucepan, combine the dry ingredients. In a 2-cup or larger liquid measuring cup, combine the water, oil, and food coloring. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon. Place the saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pan and forms a ball (it will be shaggy and messy looking). This should only take a few minutes.

On a lightly greased countertop, turn out the playdough and knead until smooth.

krystyn

Milkshakes

I haven't made these since I was 9 months pregnant with Briggs and craving anything cold and delicious. I do remember I made the strawberry one and it tasted like heaven on earth.

Ingredients:
2 large scoops vanilla ice cream
3/4 cup cold milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Choose your flavour favourite:
=for strawberry - 1/2 cup fresh/frozen strawberries & 1 tsp sugar
=for peaches & cream - 2 canned peach halves & 2 tbsps peach syrup
=for chocolate - 2 tablespoons chocolate milk powder
=orange julius - 2 tbsps frozen orange concentrate and 1 tbsp sugar with a 1/4 tsp lemon juice
=Banana- 1 whole banana

Zesty Slow Cooker Barbeque Chicken

Ohhhhkay! This is a new favorite of mine. I randomly came across this recipe, and decided to slap something together for dinner, and it turned out DI-VINE. SOOOO EASY, TOO!!!

6 frozen skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (I'm sure you can use fresh, too)
1 (12 ounce) bottle barbeque sauce
½ cup Italian salad dressing
¼ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Place chicken in a slow cooker. In a bowl, mix the barbeque sauce, Italian dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over chicken.

Cover, and cook 3 to 4 hours on HIGH or 6 to 8 hours on LOW.

When I made it, I only used 3 chicken breasts so I halved the recipe. I also used a mixture of Original Bulls Eye & Cattleboyz BBQ sauces ('cause I didn't have enough of either). SOOOO YUMMY!!!! Goes great with potatoes AND/OR rice! Enjoy!!!

NOTE: you can also shred the chicken and throw it on a bun!

Chicken and Veggie Chowder

Move over, chicken noodle! Straight out of the South Beach Diet Cookbook! This is a scrumptiously delicious hearty chowder that I could probably eat every day! Easy to make and tastes even better the next day! Yum yum yum yum! Goes wonderfully with cheesy baking powder biscuits. Enjoy!

3 cups chicken broth
2 carrots, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 ounces mushrooms, sliced (I've never used these, but I'm sure it tastes great with them!)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves (or dried... whatevs)
¼ teaspoon salt
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into ¾" strips
2 tablespoons margarine
3 tablespoons flour (whole wheat if you're health conscious!)
1 cup milk
1 cup steamed broccoli florets (or 3 spears asparagus, cute into 1" pieces)
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

In a large pot, combine the broth, carrots, celery, onion, mushrooms, garlic, thyme, and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Using a slotted spoon, remove half of the vegetable mixture to a food processor and process until pureed. Return to the saucepan.

Stir in the chicken, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink.

Melt the margarine in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the flour until smooth and cook for 1 minute. Gradually add the milk and cook, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes, or until thickened. Stir into the chicken/veggie mixture. Add the broccoli (or asparagus), parsley, and pepper and cook for 5 minutes, or until heated through.

Makes 4 servings

Tomato Pasta

Don't be put off because this recipe only calls for a can of tomatoes and oil (a couple other things)!!! This recipe is soo yummy!!! I got it from my brother, AKA chef extradonaire, Josh.

When I was reading my Canadian Living Magazine there was an article about "greening up" your life at home. Using vinegar and baking soda to clean, composting your leftover food, ect.. One of the suggestions in the article was to introduce a meat-less Monday into your meal plans. The article says:
"Because it takes a lot of land, water and other resources to produce meat...you can decrease the size of your "footprint" by embracing Meatless Mondays. Four to five percent of Canadians are vegetarians, and if the other 96 per cent ate a few more vegetarian meals a week, that would make a huge difference."

So here's a good dish for those Meatless Mondays:

Pasta:

The best way to cook is use the mise en place method (translated from le France it means everything in its place). Measure out all your ingredients and have them at the ready by the stove so you aren't running around while your oil smokes.



Ingredients: (yup that's it!)
- 1/4 up of Olive Oil
- 2-3 large cloves of Garlic minced.
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 can diced tomatoes drained of their juice (large can)..(my bro said San Marzano is best kind of tomatoes if you can find them...I haven't been able to yet! so Costco's work great too!)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (put about 3/4 of a teaspoon in and taste your sauce throughout the cooking process. Add more as it is required. You dump too much in and there is no way to get it out. Also you are going to be salting your noodles so over salting the sauce is a bad thing)

Preperation:
1. Warm 1/4 cup of olive oil over medium heat. When you look at the oil and it starts to shimmer you know it is ready to go.
2. Add your minced garlic and your red pepper flakes and saute until the garlic starts to turn a golden brown. About 2 minutes. You will smell the garrlic. Dont go too long or the garlic will burn and taste bitter.
3. Add your can of tomatoes and your salt and bring to a "boil." Wait until it starts to bubble nicely then crank the heat to low and leave it to simmer. You want bubbles still forming but slowly and on a low heat. If you lose the bubbles turn the heat up a smidge till they come back. You leave this going for about 20 minutes. The tomatoes will change distinctly and the sauce will be thick. Really all you are going to have in the pan is oil and a bunch of tomatoes. When I first made this sauce I was thinking it was going to be awful as there really isn't anything in it. Don't worry it is going to rule!
4. When your done mix it with 500g of your choice of pasta, mix in the same pot your made the pasta and serve.

Lemon-Pepper Salmon

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/lemon-pepper-salmon/Detail.aspx

This recipe is very quick. It only takes about 15 minutes from start to finish. Cook some baby frozen mixed vegetables from Costco and you have an easy, tasty meal! Also goes well with a spinach salad.

Ingredients

* 2 tablespoons butter
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 4 (4 ounce) salmon steaks
* 1 teaspoon minced garlic
* 1 tablespoon lemon pepper
* 1 teaspoon salt (I found this to be way too salty since the lemon pepper that I bought (I used McCormick) had salt in it as well, so I would only do about 1/4 tsp. salt and add more if you like)
* 1/4 cup water
* 1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes
* 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro (my husband doesn't like cilantro, so I tried this recipe without the cilantro and it is still yummy)
* 2 cups boiling water
* 1 cup uncooked couscous

Directions

1. Heat the butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place salmon in the skillet, and season with garlic, lemon pepper and salt. Pour 1/4 cup water around salmon. Place tomatoes and cilantro in the skillet. Cover, and cook 15 minutes, or until fish is easily flaked with a fork.
2. Bring 2 cups water to boil in a pot. Remove form heat, and mix in couscous. Cover, and let sit 5 minutes. Serve the cooked salmon over couscous, and drizzle with sauce from skillet.

Chicken and Couscous Soup

I also got this recipe from a friend, Cathy Comb. This soup is so delicious because it puts a twist on chicken soup. I served this for dinner when we had company over and it was a hit.

Prep: 25 min
Cook Time: 30 min
Serves 6

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp grated ginger (about 1/2 tsp ground ginger)
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 sticks celery, chopped
2 small carrots, sliced
2 zucchini (courgettes), sliced (I have yet to add these to the recipe, I always forget to buy them)
4 1/2 cups chicken stock
2 chicken breast fillets, sliced (or about 1-2 cups chopped, cooked leftover chicken)
pinch of saffron threads, optional
1/2 cup instant couscous
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley (about 2 tsp dried)

1. Heat oil in a large pan. Add the onion and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes until very soft, stirring occasionally. Add the spices, ginger and garlic and stir for 1 minute.
2. Add the celery, carrot and zucchini and stir to coat with spices. Stir in the stock. Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer, partially covered, for about 15 minutes, until vegetables are tender.
3. Add the chicken and saffron threads to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes, until the chicken is just tender, do not overcook. Stir in the couscous and parsley and serve. Do not stir in the couscous until you are ready to serve the soup!! It absorbs quickly and becomes thick.

Chicken, Apple and Curry Soup

I got this recipe from Cathy Comb. This soup is tasty. Brad said that this is his favourite soup that I have ever made. If you like curry you will like this soup. Great to make with leftover rotisserie chicken.

2 TBSP. Olive oil
2 Cups Chopped Celery
1 Cup Chopped Carrots
1/2 Cup Chopped Onion
4 Cups Chicken Broth
1 Cup Chopped Apple
1/4 Cup uncooked Long-Grain Rice
2 tsp. Curry Powder
1/8 tsp. Dried Thyme
1/2 Half & Half Cream (or milk)
2 TBSP. Flour
1 Cup Chopped Cooked Chicken
Salt & Pepper to Taste

In a large saucepan, heat oil and cook celery, carrots and onion for 5 minutes. Carefully add broth, apple, rice, curry powder and thyme. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, covered for 15-20 minutes, or until rice is tender.

In a glass measuring cup, blend cream and flour. Stir into vegetables in saucepan. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in chicken, season to taste and heat through.

To Serve: Ladle soup into bowls, garnish each serving with an apple slice. Serves 4.

Leftover Roast Beef + Barley Soup

This recipe is awesome to use for leftover Roast Beef.

Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon butter (optional)
3 garlic cloves minced
1 large carrot, chopped
1 large celery stalk, chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 potatoes chopped
Salt to taste (the beef bouillon that I use has so much salt already in it that it doesn't need any salt added to the soup. I use McCormick beef cubes because there is no MSG )
1/8 tsp pepper
2 to 3 cups of chopped, cooked beef, or similar amount of cooked ground beef (I just use whatever beef roast I have leftover from Sunday dinner-sometimes it is only 1 cup of chopped roast)
A splash of Worcestershire sauce (optional)
3/4 teaspoon of each: Basil, oregano, parsley
8 cups beef stock or broth (I use 2.5 cubes of McCormick bouillon + 8 cups of water)
1 large can of diced tomatoes, including liquid (I blend the tomatoes so they aren't chunky in the soup)
3/4 to 1 cup dried pearl barley (more barley will make the broth thicker).



Preparation
1. Heat the olive oil and butter in soup pot on medium low heat.
2. Add onion and garlic cloves and cook until the onion is soft.
2. Add celery, potatoes, carrots. Cook until vegetables are soft (About 5 Min).
3. Add beef, basil, oregano, and parsley. Continue to cook for a few more minutes.
4. Add a splash of worcestershire sauce.
5. Add remaining ingredients, bring soup to a boil.
6. Reduce heat and cover. Cook for at least a 20-25min to allow the barley to expand and become soft.

Tips:
I had leftover beans from Sunday dinner and I added them at the last 5 min to the soup. It was a nice addition.