Apple pie in a mug

This is a favorite hobby of mine...... making and eating yummy things from mugs!

2 apples, your favorite for baking with
4 graham crackers

Toppings: whipped cream, frozen whipped topping, frozen yogurt or ice cream, cinnamon for dusting


Directions:

1 Cube apples and place in 2 microwaveable mugs.
2 Microwave each mug of apples for 2 minutes on high.
3 Stir to combine, cook for another 2 minutes each to fully soften and cook the apples.
4 Add 2 crushed crackers for each mug 

5 Add your choice of whipped cream, frozen whipped topping, frozen yogurt, or ice cream, dust with cinnamon, and serve.

YUMMY!

Oldies but Goodies for Fall

It's Fall Time!  We love it!

Here are some older recipes that we have that are great for Fall.  One is Grandpa's Chili and the other is Greg's Tomato Soup.  Bring on the tastiness for Fall!

Grandpa Bush’s Chili

1 to 2 pounds ground chuck (as meaty as you like)

1 15.5 oz cans of light red kidney beans

1 16 oz can Bush’s Original Baked Beans

1 14.5 oz can peeled, diced tomatoes

1 15 oz can tomato sauce

2 packages of French’s Chili-O seasoning (Original)

2 slices white or yellow onion diced

4 to 6 oz Old El Paso Wild for Mild Salsa

2 to 3 tablespoons ketchup

Brown the ground beef and drain

Add Chili-O mix

Drain kidney beans and add

Add other ingredients and cook in slow cooker or on stove at low heat for 3 to 4 hours.

Can be served with grated cheddar cheese

Advice; if you use any other chili seasoning or other brands of baked beans and salsa, do not expect the same taste.

Best Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese

Ingredients

            Soup:

-       4 tablespoons unsalted butter

-       4 tablespoons flour

-       1 teaspoon sugar

-       2 slices of bacon finely chopped

-       5 or 6 cups of chopped tomato, fresh if possible

-       2 rounded tablespoons tomato paste

-       1 onion finely chopped

-       2 cloves garlic finely chopped or minced

-       2 cups heavy cream

-       2 cups chicken broth

-       Salt and pepper to taste

Sandwiches:

-       Your favorite pesto sauce

-       Your favorite cheese

-       Deli sliced ham

-       Bacon

Soup:

Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat.  Add bacon and cook until crisp.  Remove bacon and place on a paper towel lined plate.  Lower heat to medium, add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally until soft and fragrant; remove from heat.

In a medium-large pot, heat milk and chicken broth over moderate heat.  Put tomatoes, tomato paste, previously cooked onions, bacon and garlic, sugar, remaining butter, flour, and salt and pepper in a food processor or blender and grind until smooth.  Pour mixture into cream/broth and raise heat to bring soup to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes.

Sandwiches:

Spread pesto on bread, put cheese, ham and crispy bacon in sandwich.  Butter outside of bread and grill.

Bacon Fun

Make bacon.  Not the floppy kind, but crunchy and firm.  Dip in melted chocolate.  All together now...

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.



We didn't have enough bacon left for each kid to get their own piece, so I added it to chocolate chip cookie dough.  Ummm: Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!



Experiment and Enjoy.

No pictures, these didn't last long enough!

EASY baked omelet

*for my family I'll have to at least double this, everyone devoured and enjoyed!

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

• Place eggs and milk in a blender. Add the flour, salt and pepper; cover and process until smooth. Pour into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes or until eggs are set.
• Sprinkle with cheese. Roll up omelet in pan, starting with a short side. Place with seam side down on a serving platter. Cut into 3/4-in. slices. Yield: 6 servings.

*Can add sprinkled ham, mushrooms, other omelet stuff AFTER rolling and serving. It doesn't roll so great with extra toppings.

Nutritional Analysis:2 slices equals 204 calories, 12 g fat (6 g saturated fat), 238 mg cholesterol, 393 mg sodium, 11 g

carbohydrate, trace fiber, 13 g protein.

Strawberry Soup

I was driving home from work yesterday and thought - what about making a fruit- based soup? Tomato is a fruit, and I love tomato soup. What about strawberries? So last night I looked on the internet for recipes, but I found "strawberry soup" recipes that are basically fruit smoothies in a bowl- not exactly what I was looking for. I wanted to try something hot- like a traditional soup, not a gazpacho or a chilled smoothie. So I made up my own recipe and it was wonderful. I am thinking of trying more fruit soups inthe future. So far this one is my favorite. . . out of the one I have tried.

Strawberry Soup:

-----------------------

*10 fresh (or frozen-thawed) strawberries

*2C skim milk

*1C water

*1/4C Parmesan cheese

*2T lemon juice

1tsp salt

*3T sour cream

1/8C Finely shredded extra sharp cheddar

3T olive oil

2 tsp honey

Finely blend ingredients with *

Place over low-medium heat (do not boil). Add remaining ingredients and stir often. Let soup barely simmer-not boil- for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and enjoy!

It was a big hit in the Bush household! Gone fast! Yum!

Quick Brazilian Cheese Rolls {Pao de Queijo} - Gluten Free!

Quick Brazilian Cheese Rolls {Pao de Queijo} - Gluten Free!

Recipe by Our Best Bites

1 large egg

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup canola oil

orunsweetened applesauce

1 cup tapioca flour (sometimes labeled tapioca starch) no substitutions

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 C grated cheddar cheese* (preferably medium or sharp)

1/4 C grated Parmesan cheese

*you can play around with the cheese.Monterey Jack, low-moisture mozarella, swiss, and even gruyere in place of the cheddar.

Optional: extra cheese to sprinkle on top and any herbs/flavorings you'd like to add

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place egg, milk, oil, tapioca flour, and salt in blender and blend until smooth. Add cheeses and pulse 2 times. Immediately pour batter into a mini muffin tin (if your muffin tin isn't non-stick, spray lightly with non-stick spray first), filling each well about 3/4 full, or just slightly less.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until puffed and golden. Remove from oven and cool for a few minutes before removing rolls from pan. Serve warm. These actually don't re-heat well so I recommend making and eating fresh. Yield: 16-24

Homemade tortillas

Yesterday the kids wanted to have a tortilla lunch... but we didn't have any more tortillas. It was a difficult week to get to the store! (I went after lunch instead.)

These were easy and according to the kids, yummier than store bought. I agree.

3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup warm water

Combine all the flour, salt, vegetable oil, and water until it forms a dough.

Roll the dough into a big ball and take about an 1 to 2 inch pieces off. Pat the dough flat with your hands or take a rolling pin and roll into circles. (The kids helped, and we didn't get perfect circles, but that was kind of fun too!)

Put the dough on a flat pan on the stove and let the sides cook until there are little brown specks on both sides like you would see on other tortillas.

The kids then loaded up their tortillas with whatever toppings their heart desired. This is one of their favorite lunches/snacks. Everyone eats happily.

Slow-cooker Lasagna and Cookie Milkshake

This was a hit tonight, so much so that I have to write it down for history's sake. Evelyn had thirds! AND wanted more, but there was no more to be had.

Crockpot Pesto Lasagna

Layer the following ingredients until you run out of ingredients:

Pasta sauce (about 1/4 cup at a time) - I used my homemade chunky tomato soup and it worked great.

Uncooked lasagna noodles, and you can break them to fit your pot.

Pesto sauce (you'll use an 8 oz jar easy)

Cottage or ricotta cheese

Handful of baby spinach

Parmesan/mozarella cheese

Start again with the pasta sauce (and end with it on top too)

Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 5-6.

Delish.

The crockpot has saved me this month. Because of our new baby, I thought ahead in January and planned out all our dinners to be crockpot dinners that I could start pre-fussy evening time. It worked out great... especially with the unexpected surgery! I also chose really easy dump and leave dinners. This lasagna took me about 7 minutes to dump in the crockpot before a busy busy afternoon.

And now, dessert. This was too good. I enjoyed it too much. Yum.

Cookie Milkshake

About 1/2 a blender of ice cream.

Crush up some old valentine cookies that still have their frosting on them and add to the blender.

Add milk to desired consistency.

Blend. I served these in the tiny shot glasses I got for Christmas. Everyone had seconds. I got to scrape out the blender.

The PERFECT boiled egg!! (works every time)

OK, so maybe this post reveals more about my anal-retentiveness than I really want, but who cares. One of things that really bothers me is boiled eggs that are difficult to peel. I have spent way too much time online searching how to make the perfect boiled egg- you know, the kind that always peel perfectly. Well, every method I have heard about always seemed to give minimal results- vinegar, boiling twice, putting in ice water as soon as they are boiled, making sure they are at least 2 weeks old before boiling, etc, etc, etc. Well, today I discovered the true- and very simple- way to a perfect boiled egg- the secret is to NOT boil it at all! Simply steam the eggs. It is so easy, and works so well, I couldn't believe it!

You just need a steamer or steam basket- make sure the eggs are room temperature before steaming- just get them out and set them on the counter while I do something else. Then when they are room temperature, put enough water in the pan to come up to the steam basket without touching the eggs- then steam them for 20-25 minutes (less time for a softer yolk, more time for a harder yolk). And viola! The yummiest and easiest to peel hard boiled egg ever (I guess it is not technically a hard-boiled egg, but a hard. . . cooked egg?)!

They are so easy, you don't even have to peel them- you can just take off a little bit of shell on each end and hold the egg tightly, then blow on one end- the egg pops right out! It is very fun and cool.

-Bob/Joel