Breakfast Casserole

Although most of my posts are about dinner and dessert I wanted to bring you guys a post featuring a different meal. Breakfast. This recipe is one of my favorites for a holiday morning or an afternoon brunch. This recipe is more than enough for one person and although this blog is about food for four people this is a great chance to invite the extended family over for something new and enjoy the whole family.

Breakfast Casserole

Yields: 8-12 servings                                         Prep Time: 1 Hour                                            Cook Time: 1 Hour

2 Pounds of Bob Evans Sausage

4 Eggs

2 Cups of Milk

¼ Tsp. of Dried Mustard

1 Loaf of Italian Bread

4 Cups of Cheddar Cheese

The first thing that needs to be done in order to prep for this meal is to cut the crusts off of the Italian bread and cut the bread into one inch cubes. After you need to brown the ground meat and drain off the grease.

Now spray down a 9 x 13 and layer the bread, cooked sausage and the cheese in the pan. Now you’ll need to mix the eggs, milk and dried mustard in a bowl and pour that mixture over the bread, sausage, and cheese mixture. Refrigerate the mixture over night. And allow the bread to soak up that mixture.

Finally it’s time to cook. Bake your casserole in the oven at 350 degrees for fifty minutes with foil over it keeping the moisture in and locking in that goodness. With 10 minutes remaining remove the foil and allow the top to crisp up.

A lot of the recipes that I deal with are actually recipes that have either been passed down through the family or found on the internet and tweaked to how my family and I like them. I hope you guys do the same thing and add your own twist to each recipe.

Teriyaki Chicken Lettuce Wraps

So last night for dinner after spending all weekend baking in the sun all weekend at a softball tournament my family and I were looking for something quick, light, and easy to make. Using what I had in the fridge I was able to make a meal that I think is one of the healthiest meals you will see me blogging about.

Teriyaki Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Yields: 4 Servings                                              Prep Time: 45 minutes                                     Cook Time: 15 minutes

2 Large or 4 small Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast

1 Cup of Soy Sauce                                                      ¼ Cup of Canola Oil

¼ Cup of Brown Sugar                                                 ½ an Onion Diced

1 Tbs. of Ginger                                                            1 Sweet Orange Pepper

1 tsp. of Lemon Juice                                                      1 Sweet Red Pepper

 1 Head of Romaine Lettuce                                           2 Cups of Minute Rice 

                                       

The first thing you want to do is combine the Soy Sauce, Brown Sugar, Ginger, and Lemon Juice and allow them fuse together into a marinate. In the mean time you’ll want to clean your chicken and dump your marinate over the top of the chicken and let it sit for about a half hour.

Well the chicken is marinating you can start to dice your onion and peppers into small bite size pieces. You can also wash and pull apart your Lettuce so they are ready for rice and chicken.

You want to start to cook the chicken over a medium to high heat till its firm and cooked all the way through. Well the chicken is cook you can work on sauteing the diced onions and peppers in the canola oil. You can also start the minute rice.

After the chicken is cooked you will want to allow a few minutes for the chicken to rest so you don’t lose the juice and the chicken doesn't become too dry.

Once the onions and peppers a soft and the rice is cooked combine the two and lay a bed of rice on the lettuce and start to cut the chicken into strips and lay on top of the rice.

A quick easy meal that’s a lot healthier than most dinners you might throw together at the last minute.

Not to mention who doesn't love a meal you can pick up and eat.

Chocolate Eclair Cake

Now that summer is approaching and it’s starting to warm up we have a nice cool dessert that taste great. Come on now who doesn't

 love chocolate, or pudding, and gram crackers. What do you get when you put all these together? A delicious dessert a beautiful Chocolate Éclair cake. Although it might take a little while to make most of the time is spent cooling and allowing the pudding and chocolate to harden. All in all this dessert is a great way to cool down on a warm Spring/Summer evening.

Chocolate Éclair Cake

Yields: 12                                             Prep Time: 30 minutes                                                     Cook Time: 10 minutes

2 3.3oz Packages of French Vanilla Instant Pudding

3 Cups of Milk

8 oz of Cool Whip

2 Sleeves of Honey Gram Crackers

2 Unsweetened Chocolate Bars

2 Tbs. of butter

2 Tbs. Light Corn Syrup

1 Tsp. of Vanilla

1 ½ Cups of Powder Sugar

3 Tbs. of Milk

The first thing you want to do is make the pudding. Mixing the instant pudding mix with the 3 cups of milk for about 2 to 3 minutes till the powder is fully dissolved. After the 2-3 minutes you need to add the 8 oz. cool whip to the pudding mixture and continue to fold in until completely mixed.

Now that you have your pudding mixed you need to line the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan with the gram crackers. Then pour ½ of the pudding mixture over the gram crackers. Add another layer of gram crackers and spread the reaming mixture over the top of the second lay of gram crackers and refrigerate for 6- 8 hour (overnight is best).

Now it’s time for the chocolate part of the Chocolate éclair cake. Take the chocolate bars and butter and melt them together. Take this melted mixture and add the corn syrup, vanilla, powder sugar, and milk and blend them together. Pour the chocolate mixture over the pudding and gram crackers and set it in the refrigerator to harden. Once it becomes stiff its ready to be cut and served.

Some might say that this is not worth it but this is a labor of love and a truly delectable dessert.

Baked Chicken and Sweet Potatoes

In some families, like mine, there isn't much time to make a huge meal, sit down and enjoy it with everyone. But some days there are and when we have the time to eat man do we enjoy. This week I come to you guys with a nice hardy meal that would make any meat and potatoes person happy. But this isn't just any meat and potatoes kind of meal. Mainly because this is actually a chicken and sweet potatoes kind of meal. Now this meal takes a little longer than some of the other recopies you might find here but believe me it’s worth the wait.

Oven Baked Chicken and Sweet Potatoes

Yields: 4 servings                                               Prep Time: 30 minutes                                     Cook Time: 45 minutes

4 Chicken Breast                    2 Sweet potatoes                    4 Tbs. of Butter

1 Cup of Flour                       1 Cup of Sugar                       1 Cup of Brown Sugar

2 Eggs                                   8 Tbs. of Butter                      1 Cup of Pecans

1 ½ Cups of Breadcrumbs     ½ Cup of Evaporated Milk      ½ Cup of Flour

4 Tbs. of Butter                     2 Eggs

First things first you’re going to want to clean the chicken and get it ready. Once that is done your going to need 3 bowls and one plate. In the first bowl you add the cup of flour, in the second bowl you put the 2 eggs cracked and scrambled, in the third and final bowl goes the breadcrumbs. You want to take the chicken and coat it in flour (this is going to help your egg and breadcrumbs stick to the chicken. So you guessed it next it gets fully dipped into the eggs. And finally into the bread crumbs. Now you need to pan fry the chicken using the 4 Tbs. of butter. This is simply just to brown the breadcrumbs and ensure that everything is going to stick to them. Once they are browned they go into a greased 9 x 13 pan to be baked in the oven for 20 minutes covered with foil (to internally cook the chicken) and then 20 minutes uncovered (to finish cooking internally and crisp up the outside) on 350 degrees.

Well your waiting for these to cook you can peel, chop, and boil your sweet potatoes. Once they are peeled, chopped, and boiled you need to mash them and then add the sugar, 8 Tbs. of butter, evaporated milk and eggs. Make sure these are smooth like eating mashed potatoes from KFC.

In the mean time you also want to make the topping for these because if sweet potatoes are not already sweet enough this topping makes it seem like you are eating candy. So in a bowl combine 4 Tbs. of melted butter, brown sugar, flour and pecans copped finely. Once this mixture becomes like play dough you’re going to want to sprinkle it over the top of your sweet potatoes. Now put the sweet potatoes in the same oven at 350 degrees but only for 30-35 minutes or you can stick a knife in them and it comes out clean.

This meal may take longer to make but like motioned earlier, worth the wait and a great way to try something different.

The Importance of a Family Dinner

Now that we have had two weeks of food I’d like to take a minute out to explain a little more about the underlying reasons for cooking a family meal instead of everyone just eating on the run. Not because we are hungry but because it bring the family together. Ever one eats but when you cook and eat with each others there is a sense of family, of community, of friendship among all. I know family dinners have been a large part of my life for a long time. This weekend I experienced something new. I skipped out on a family dinner to go have some fun up at Michigan State with a couple of friends. To my surprise a friend of mine who lives with 3 other people and some of the neighbors had all gotten together for dinner and when I asked what was going on they simply  replied “oh we all get together at each person’s house and whoever’s house were at makes dinner for everyone.” I thought it was strange but this is the sense of community that something as basic as food/dinner can provide a close nit group of individuals.

Dinners as a family starting at a young age has an amazing effect on a child. Not only are they healthier in a world were more and more dinners come from fast food establishments like McDonald's, KFC, and Taco Bell or other places that may serve your food fast but might be are still sit down restaurants like Qudoba, Panara Bread, or Chilies.

This video gives you 10 great reasons to stop eating fast food and try making something new for dinner instead.

Kids are not born with manners, they are learned, and like the video says the dinner table is a great place to learn them. The dinner table can serve as more than just a place to teach. It can be used as a place for parents to learn, what their kids did that day or learned in school. This creates comradery and a sense of community like my friends from Michigan State had.

I hope that you start to build that sense of community and enjoy the comradery that comes with it.

Banana Pudding Dessert

Sometimes as a family you cannot enjoy dinner together. I understand this I used to work in retail not too long ago. It’s hard to have that nice Sunday family dinner when you have to be at work till 9:30 p.m. In my family we try not to let that get in the way of sharing some time together as a family. On nights like these we use desert as a way to get together as a family. From time to time when you don’t feel like cooking a scoop of ice cream or a small dish of jello will work but when you have that urge to create a simple but elegant desert here is an option that you may want to try out.

Simple Banana Pudding Dessert

Yields: 4 servings                                 Prep Time: 10 minutes                                                      Cook Time: 5 minutes

2 3.3oz packs of Jell-O Vanilla Instant Pudding

4 cups of cold Milk

1 8oz container of Cool Whip

2 Banana’s

36 vanilla wafers

In a bowl mix the instant pudding mix and cold milk. You will want to wisk this together till the pudding is full dissolved and there are no lumps left. Your pudding should be a yellowish color like the picture. Place the pudding in the refrigerator to this should only take a couple of minutes. In the mean time you can gather your other ingredients and most importantly your glasses in which to serve them.  In my family we enjoy this desert so we tend to use a larger glass like a margarita glass. Another great glass to use is a martini glass these are smaller therefore you might not need as much pudding for these.

Well waiting for the pudding you can also peel and cut your bananas. You will want to cut them relatively thin somewhere between a ½ - ¼ of an inch thick. No need to measure just guess its dessert it’s supposed to be fun.

Now that the pudding has set and you have all your ingredients out you just simply start to layer your dessert first a scoop of pudding, next a layer of Vanilla Wafers, then the bananas, more pudding, topped off with a dollop of Cool Whip and another Vanilla Wafer.

Now this quick and simple treat is ready to eat!

BBQ Po' Boys

Over the past 10 years family dinners have been a very important and relevant thing among my family. This has inspired myself to cook and experiment with different recipes, I often find myself grilling as soon as the snow melts, which I hope to share with some of you for you to try out on your families. The first recipe is a simple recipe that I have experimented with over the past couple years.

Barbecued Pork Po' Boy Sandwiches and Chopped Salad topped with Red Wine Vinegar Dressing

Yields: 4 servings                                             Prep Time: 1 hour                                                               Cook Time: 20 minutes      

12 Pork chops sliced thin

2 French Baguettes

1 Cup of your favorite BBQ Sauce

1 Head of Lettuce

2 Large Cucumbers

3 Large Carrots

¼ Cup of Red Wine Vinegar

3 Tbs. of Water

1 Tsp. of Salt

½ Tsp. of Pepper

½ Tsp. of Garlic Powder

¼ Tsp. of Onion Powder

In an air tight container place the pork chops and ¾ of a cup of barbecue sauce and place in the refrigerator to marinate for as long as you desire. Well you wait for the pork chops to marinate; you can start on your chopped salad. Take the top 5 or 6 pieces of lettuce of and reserve them to add to the po' boy sandwich. After washing the lettuce chop the lettuce into small pieces, I like to use the Miracle blade rock n’ chop, cut the cucumbers up into quarters and then dice them into bite size pieces, using a cheese grader shred the carrots. And combine all of these ingredients with the dressing.

In a bowl combine the Red wine vinegar, water, salt pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Wisk these ingredients together till the oil and vinegar are no longer separated.

Now it’s time to cook the pork chops out on the grill or inside on the griddle (on the griddle you will not be as likely to get the nice char marks that you would from the grill). Use the reserved BBQ sauce to apply to the pork chops during cooking on the grill/griddle.

Well the pork chops are cooking you want to slice open the French baguette open and pour a small drizzle of olive oil on the inside and place face down on the grilling surface for about 2 minutes till the inside becomes crisp.

Now we get to put our po' boys together, take the baguette that you have grilled place a small amount of BBQ sauce on the bread and layer with pork chops and top with the reserved lettuce and other half of bread.

Serve and Enjoy.