Burger Bite Appetizers

With Christmas coming up I like to think of recipes that I can make ahead of time and freeze, so I am not in the kitchen so long over the Christmas week. This is one of my Mama's recipes. I just love these burger bites and they really are a hit at holiday parties. Again these are vegetarian, I have never made them with real burger, but you are more than welcome to try it and let me know how it goes.

Burger Bite Appetizers

Ingredients:

2 boxes of Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets
1 20 oz can of Veggie Burger (Loma Linda)
1 c. Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1 tsp. Onion powder or 1/3 cup minced onion
1 1/2 tsp. Bar-B-Que Seasoning
3 Eggs

Method:

1) Mix all ingredients together and let sit for 5 minutes.

2) Open up pastry sheets and cut apart.

3) Place mix in the middle of sheets and fold over.

4) Use a fork dipped in water to press the ends of the pastry together.

5) Cut into bite size pieces.

6) Place on ungreased baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. (Watch so the bottoms won't burn, anything more than 15 minutes may burn).

Serve immediately or wait until they are completely cool and to place in a freezable container. I usually make mine about 2-3 weeks ahead of time. They still taste great when I re-heat them in the oven.

This is what Juliana and Olivia were doing as I was baking these burger bites. 

COOKIE TIME!!! Mint Kissed Meringues

Alright! I am so excited to begin my cookie baking. I absolutely love baking when I have the time. This morning while the girls were taking their nap I quick made these beauties. They were very easy and very tasty. I found the recipe in a Pillsbury Holiday Cookie book that I had on my shelf.

Mint Kissed Meringues

Ingredients:

2 Egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. mint extract
3-5 drops of green food coloring
Mulitcolored sprinkles

Method:

1) Heat oven to 200 degrees.

2) Grease 2 large cookie sheets.

3) In small bowl mix egg whites, cream of tartar and salt; beat at medium speed until foamy. Increase speed to high; add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, beating meringue is very stiff and glossy and sugar is disolved. Fold in green food coloring, to your desired color.

4) Use ziplock bag and cut the tip off one corner and pipe meringue into 1-inch puffs onto greased cookie sheets.

5) Sprinkle each with candly sprinkles.



6) Place cookie sheets on center rack in oven and bake for 2 hours. Immediately remove cookies from cookie sheets and place on wire racks. Cool 5 minutes or until completely cold.

I got about 3 dozen out of 1 recipe.

Mom's Mock Chicken

I had a request to post my mom's mock chicken recipe. This recipe is so dear to my heart as it reminds me of all the times my mom cooked for me. She always made meals so enjoyable. It didn't matter how tired she was from working all day, she would stand in the kitchen and make a wonderful supper. I truly miss those times. So,  here is the recipe I hope you enjoy it.

Mom's Mock Chicken

This is what you will need.

Ingredients:

1 cup oatmeal
2 cups cold water (1^st two ingredients mix and set aside)
3 eggs
1 med. Onion (blend eggs and onion in blender)
2 pkg. George Washington Rich Brown Broth (You can purchase this at a Health food store or you can use beef seasoning)
1 pint cottage cheese
1 Tbs. breading meal
2 tsp. accent
1 cup cracker crumbs
1 stick butter

Method:

1) In small bowl combine oatmeal and water. Let sit while you put together all the other items.

2) In large bowl put: GWRBB, cottage cheese, breading meal, accent and mix together.

3) Add eggs to bowl.

4) Put butter in pan, let it melt and add onion. Cook for about 5 minutes.

5) Add 1 cup cracker crumbs to butter and lightly brown.

6) Add: Cracker crumbs and onions to mixture.

7) Strain excess water from oatmeal and then add to other ingredients.

8) Pour into sprayed baking dish.

9) Bake on 350 degrees for 1 hour.

This is what it should look like in the end. 

10) Serve with a baked potato.

Apple Bread

I needed to use up the remaining of my apples. A friend of mine, Cheryl Honeycutt, gave me this recipe for apple bread. It is super yummy and and adds a great new taste to fall. The hardest part was stirring in the apple as the mixture gets really thick, but is made the house smell so divine. Hope you enjoy it.

Ingredients:

1 c. Oil

3 Eggs

2 c. Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp Cinnamon

1) Grease 2 loaf pans with Crisco. 

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Baking soda

3 1/2 c. Flour

3 c. evenly sliced and peeled apples (4-5)

1 c. Walnuts (optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

1) Grease 2 loaf pans with Crisco.

2) Combine above ingredients. (Dry ingredients first)

3) Spoon batter into pans (it will be very thick). 

4) Sprinkle a mixture of cinnamon and sugar over the top. 


5) Bake 1 hour 

Enjoy!

Fun in the kitchen with Mama. 

 

Pumpkin Casserole

Today has been so eventful. I took my girls to a friend's classroom for the afternoon and they had a chance to play in a real classroom. They even got to eat lunch with a bunch of Kindergartners. They sat at a big kid table and in big kid chairs and had their sandwich, yogurt and fruit. After lunch they had a chance to enjoy the playground as well.

After our little field trip, I was not feeling like I wanted to cook very much. So I Googled, vegetarian casseroles, and allrecipies.com displayed some options. One option was Pumpkin casserole. Since Thanksgiving is coming up, I thought this would be a great time to try out a dish. So that is what I did.

Ingredients:

2 c. Pumpkin puree
1 c. Original soy milk (or 1c. of evaporated milk)
1 c. White sugar
1/2 c. self-rising flour
2 eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
1/2 c. Lactose free butter (or unsalted butter)
Dash of Cinnamon

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Mix pumpkin, milk, sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla, melted  butter, and cinnamon.

3) Pour into a casserole dish (I used a glass pie pan.)

4) Bake for 1 hour.

NOTES:
This recipe can be adjusted to fit a gluten free diet. Use 1/2c. rice flour with 3/4 tsp. baking powder and 1/4 tsp. salt. I have yet to try this, but I will to see how it turns out.

This turned out awesome! It tasted great and will be a recipe for Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Here is a shout out to my friends and family who eat gluten free food! I was watching the food network one afternoon and happened to see this recipe made. I am always looking for new and easy gluten free recipes that taste yummy. Here is the recipe and I am not sure who created it, but it is found on the foodnetwork.com.

Ingredients:

1 c. Peanut Butter
3/4 c. Sugar
1 large Egg
1 tsp. Vanilla
1/2 c. Chocolate chips

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Mix all ingredients until they are combined really well. I stirred in the chocolate chips.

 3) Spoon 1 TBS. of batter about 1 inch apart onto an ungreased baking sheet.

4) Flatten the top of each cookie with a fork. If the fork sticks, then dip in water and continue to crosshatch.

5) Bake about 10 minutes. SWITCH PANS FROM BOTTOM TO TOP 1/2 WAY THROUGH.


6) Transfer to cooling rack.


NOTE: If you do not switch the pans they WILL burn. Lesson learned. The very first picture is what they should look like. :)

Oompa Loompas

Alright, I need to share this for those that are not on my Facebook. I was trying to figure out what to serve my girls for supper, so in my searches I found leftover chili beans. I warmed them up and gave them to the girls while I fixed them a nice plate of pasta for supper. When I heard Olivia say "all duh" I looked up to find both of the girls' faces covered in bean juice! Since they were chili beans, their faces were bright orange! The way that I did their hair immediately brought my childhood movie back of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" where the oompa loompas were short and bright orange. Oh, I love my girls. 

My Oompa Loompas

Tex-Mex Potato Skins

So I decided that I wanted something completely different for supper tonight. So I saw on foodnetwork.com some ideas for potato skins. Out of all the options, I found the Tex-Mex ones. However, I was not thrilled with the recipe that was given, so I decided to make my own and found that it was really good. It passed the "Mike test", which is where my husband thinks it is good and would have it again. So, it is now an added recipe to my book.

Serving Size: 2

Ingredients:


3 Medium sized potatoes
1 c. Re-fried Beans
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Garlic powder
1/4 tsp. Mrs. Dash Salt-free Extra Spicy Seasoning Blend
 Sour cream or Tofutti sour cream (which is vegan)
Salsa
Shredded Cheese or Shredded Veggie cheese (which is vegan)
5-6 Pickled jalapeno pieces (for decoration)
Olive Oil


Method:

1) For a quick baked potatoes, poke 3 medium sized potatoes and put in microwave for about 7 minutes. If you prefer to cook them in the oven it usually cooks for 1 hour.

2) After potatoes come out of the microwave carefully scoop out potato centers into a glass dish. Mash the potatoes and add re-fried beans.

3) Add spices and mix the ingredients well. Put in microwave for an additional minute.

4) Take potato skins and rub them with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Place in pan on high heat for 2-3 minutes. Remove from pan and place 3 skins on each plate.

5) Fill each skin with the re-fried bean mix. Be careful not to fill it to much.

6) Top each skin with cheese, sour cream and salsa. Then add a jalapeno piece on top for decoration.

Serve and enjoy.

Crock-pot Granola

This is a recipe that I received from Donna Lawnicki. I believe she found it on the internet, but I have altered it a little to meet my family's taste buds. I was quite surprised how this actually worked and how easy it was. The best part is that when I had to stir the granola, I didn't get it all over the place. When I would make it in a pan, I would have a mess all over the place. I love limiting messes, especially when I have two little ones to pick up after. This recipe is also great for visitors as well.




Ingredients:
1 Crock-pot
2 c. Barley Flakes
3 c. Oats
1/2 c. Sunflower seeds
1/2 c. Apricots- dried
3/4 c. Craisins (I added more craisins than normal, since I like them.)
1/2 c. Walnuts- coarsely chopped
1/2 c. Honey
1/2 c. Unsalted Butter


Method:


1) Put all dried ingredients into crock-pot (including fruit and nuts).

 2) Melt butter in microwave and then add to dry ingredients. Add honey and then stir up all ingredients. 

3) Cover crock-pot, but vent. (I used a flat wooden spoon) 

4) Cook on high for 3 hours. Make sure to watch the granola so it does not burn. I stirred it every 20-30 minutes or if I could smell it. Toward the end of the 3 hours I was stirring every 5-10 minutes. 

Notes: If you want a trail mix type of granola, you need to add more honey and butter so that it will clump. I have not tried it like that so I am not sure how much more honey to add. 

5) Remove granola onto cookie sheet or parchment paper to cool. Once cooled package into ziplock bags and freeze, or you can choose to eat it. 

Serve as a cereal or on top of some yogurt.