Oven Shoyu Chicken

Oh hey there everybody! Props to whoever added our picture to the front page, I dig it! So I've been all domestic and such since I am jobless so I decided to try out a new recipe for dinner the other night.  I got it from the Worldwide Ward Christmas Cookbook, courtesy of Melani :).  Basically, this chicken is bomb.  And its really easy, so win win!  Here's the recipe, hope y'all are doing good!

Oven Shoyu Chicken
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt (I didn't use this)
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 corn oil (I used olive, I didn't have any corn oil)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp grated ginger (I'm sure ground ginger would work just fine, too)
2 lbs chicken wings or thighs

Mix all ingredients except chicken.  Pour over chicken.  Bake in aluminum foil-lined pan at 325 degrees for 1 hour, turning twice.  You can thicken the sauce if preferred.
*So, when I made this I just thawed two chicken breasts and cut them into strips and poured the sauce over them and it worked just fine.  Also, I recommend double lining your pan because when I was turning the chicken, I accidentally poked a hole in the tin foil and stuff boiled up and over like Mount Vesuvius (you can read about that here.  It'll blow your mind) all over my oven which was unpleasant to clean up. I served this with rice and a couple veggies.  Way easy, way good.  

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this as much as we Torgersens did.  Ty even said to make it again, so you know its a hit!

Egg Rolls

 Egg Rolls 

Here's what I did:

I chopped three small chicken breasts and marinated them with soy sauce, sprinkled some ginger and a tablespoon of garlic for 30 minutes.

I browned the chicken in some olive oil then added 1/2 package of mushrooms and 1/2 package of shredded carrots to the pan. I let them cook for 3-5 minutes. I then added 1/2 package of coleslaw mix and a few green onions and let them cook for another few minutes.I added a little more soy sauce then  put the mixture on about 15  egg roll wrappers, wrapped those babies up like an envelope and cooked them at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.I bet there's plenty of better recipes out there but this is just what I came up with :) I served it with a salad and then ate 3 brownies afterwards. Win.

Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies

 Ladies and Gentlemen (Minus the gentlemen part), I baked something and I didn't screw it up so I think it's safe to say it's fool proof. Do they taste exactly like Little Debbie's Oatmeal Cream Pies? No, but they are sorta better. Better as in they don't have a taste of processed chemical shiz. I obviously don't mind that taste too much since I eat the Little Debbie's version on occasion. Anyway, I cooked mine for ten minutes and that seemed to be a tiny bit too long for my oven. Here they are...

Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies

Ingredients
COOKIES
1¼ cups unsalted butter (2.5 sticks), softened to room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar (Clarke's Country Market didn't have this so I just used regular)
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon dark molasses (Also didn't have this so I used regular molasses)
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
3 cups uncooked quick-cooking oats (NOT whole-rolled oats)


CREAM FILLING
¾ cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
pinch of salt, as needed

1. Instructions For the cookies: With a stand or handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugars together at medium speed until light and creamy. Add egg, vanilla, and molasses, scraping down the sides as needed. Set aside.In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. Whisk it all around. Add the quick oats and combine.With the mixer running on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to wet ingredients. The dough will be quite thick and you may have to mix it all by hand after a few seconds in the mixer.Preheat oven to 375F degrees. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper or nonstick baking mat. Drop dough with a large cookie scoop, or make sure each ball of dough is 3 tablespoons in measurement. Cookies will spread in the oven, so drop each ball of dough 2 inches apart.Bake for 10 minutes, until cookies are lightly golden around the edges. Allow cookies to cool on cookie sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.For the filling: With a stand or handheld mixer, beat butter for about 1 minute until creamy. Add the powdered sugar and mix on medium speed for 1-2 minutes. Pour in heavy cream and vanilla extract. Mix on high for 3-4 minutes until fluffy. Taste and add a pinch or two of salt, as needed. If filling is way too thick, add a couple more teaspoons of heavy cream. Spread 1½ tablespoons of cream filling on the bottom side of half of cookies; top with remaining cookies, right side up.Devour. 

P.S..The author of this recipe said:
Old-fashioned whole rolled oats will not work in this recipe You can make you own quick oats (like I did here) by measuring 3 cups of whole rolled oats and pulsing them in the food processor 4-5 times or until they resemble the consistency of quick oats.

Vegetable Pasta Stuff

As some of you may know I'm a pretty big fan of vegetables in my diet but not so much pasta. However, I liked this dish because it has a shiz load of vegetables so here it is, pasta with a shiz load of vegetables.The recipe is actually called Cajun Chicken Pasta but I was too lazy to thaw and cook the chicken so I just did without.

Cajun Chicken Pasta 

8 ounces uncooked linguine (I used whole wheat spaghetti)
1 pound chicken breast strips
1-2 tsp Cajun seasoning (or to taste)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced (or whatever color of bell peppers you want)
1 medium yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
8 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/2 red onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1 cup  chicken broth
1/3 cup  milk
1 tbsp flour

4 oz cream cheese

 pepper
2 scallions, chopped
salt to taste

Cut all your vegetables. Make a slurry (whatever the muff that is) by combining flour, milk, and softened cream cheese. I wisked this briefly. Set aside. Season chicken with cajun, salt, and garlic salt then set aside. Cook your pasta of choice according to the directions. Heat a skillet to medium high with olive oil and cook half the chicken for 5-6 minutes. Repeat with the other half. Set chicken aside and then add a little more olive oil and saute the onion, garlic and peppers for 3-4 minutes. Add mushrooms and tomatoes and saute for an additional 3-4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium and add your chicken broth and your slurry, stirring for about two minutes. Combine chicken, pasta, and vegetables and heat through for about two minutes. Top with chopped scallions.

Turkey Pesto Sandwich

This is a pinterest success! I love it cause it takes like 5 minutes to make, it's delicious, and healthy! Sorry I have to pictures. It was so good I could not control myself enough to hold back shoving it in my mouth so I could take a snap shot.

Ingredients:
1 jar of pesto
Turkey lunch meat of choice
Mozzarella (I prefer fresh, but regular works great too)
Tomato
Bread (The crusty italian stuff is really good, but I usually just use regular wheat)

I take 2 slices of bread and spread about 2 teaspoons of pesto on one slice. Then I put a few tomato slices on top of that. Next I slice some mozzarella and layer that on top of the tomatoes. Then I finish it off with a slice or two of turkey. I spray both sides down with some EVOO (baby mama anyone?) and grill on my George Foreman. Sometimes I even put parchment paper down so I don't have to clean it up.

Caramel Corn!

So here is the deal. I love popcorn in all forms, but especially caramel. Luckily my dear sweet mother gave me an awesome air popper from the 80's that works fantastically. If you don't have an air popper I'm sure you can use microwave popcorn (probably 2 bags), and I would try to get something without butter or at least the "light" version.

 So I start out with a big bowl of popcorn...voila!

 You will need Karo Syrup, Brown Sugar, Vanilla, Butter, Salt, & Baking Soda

 I start out by melting a cube of butter, then I add the brown sugar, salt, vanilla, and karo syrup.

Once the mixture mooshes together it should be a dark brown (like syrup).

 Remove from heat, then add the baking soda. It looks a little like baby poo color, but it's cool. At this point some people bake their carmel corn for a more shiny brittle effect. I like my stuff gooey so I usually forego this step. 

Then I take really attractive photos of myself eating it for social media so everyone can know how great my life is compared to theirs. 

Ingredients
1 cup butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup light corn syrup

1 tsp vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
8 cups popped popcorn

Directions
Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.

Over medium heat, combine first 4 ingredients and boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla and baking soda. Stir well. Pour over the pop corn. Stir to coat well. Bake in large roaster or pan for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on waxed paper to dry.

Why is everything with pineapple automatically Hawiian?

Hey Ladies, I was inspired by the pizza. So here is a delish recipe that is oh so easy! Long live the blog!

Pineapple Pork (crockpot style)

Ingredients

• 1 boneless pork loin roast (3 to 4 pounds)

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

• 3 tablespoons canola oil

• 2 cups unsweetened pineapple juice

• 1 can (8 ounces) unsweetened crushed pineapple, undrained

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar

• 1/2 cup sliced celery

• 1/2 cup cider vinegar

• 1/2 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce

• 1/4 cup cornstarch

• 1/3 cup cold water

  Directions Cut pork roast in half. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, brown roast in oil on all sides; drain. Place in a 5-qt. slow cooker. In a large bowl, combine the pineapple juice, pineapple, brown sugar, celery, vinegar and soy sauce. Pour over the roast. Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours or until meat is tender. Remove roast and keep warm. Strain cooking juices; transfer to a large saucepan. Combine cornstarch and water until smooth; stir into cooking juices. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Serve with pork. Yield: 8 servings.  If you are wondering "wow this thing is jacked up!" I did copy and paste. And I'm challenged/lazy and don't want to fix the format. Anyways I made this deliciousness the other night and put it over sticky rice. Pretty darn good.

Homemade Margherita Pizza

Remember how we haven't posted on this blog since September? Or do we hate school for getting in the way of being faithful to our blog? I can speak for myself by saying yes with my whole soul. As it turns out I decided to try to make a homemade pizza. Deysha loves the Margherita pizza but none in Logan have satisfied her needs like the pizza cart in Cedar City does. Anyway I tried to my best to duplicate it. Obviously it still doesn't compare to the pizza cart but that's ok. I just made stuff up so if you find ways to better this recipe by all means please do and then teach me your ways.

 

 

Leesa try not to be disgusted by the crappy quality of this photo.

Homemade Margherita Pizza 

Makes 2 pizzas

Crust (I used my Mama's recipe)

2 C. Luke Warm water 

2 packets yeast 

2 T. sugar 

Add together and then let bubble 

1/4 C. oil 

2 tsp salt 

5 C. flour 

1 jar of tomato basil pasta sauce (I was too lazy to find the pizza sauce also I definitely didn't use the whole jar) 

5 roma tomatoes 

Dried basil seasoning 

Fresh basil leaves 

8 oz of fresh mozzarella cheese (you'll need more if you want to make two pizzas)

Before church I sliced the tomatoes and seasoned them with the dried basil seasoning, salt and pepper and left them in the fridge. I did this because I wanted them to dry a little so they didn't make the pizza soggy. I don't know if they would make the pizza soggy anyway but it's better to be safe than sorry I told myself! I spread the sauce on the dough and sprinkled more dried basil seasoning for the heck of it. I layered the tomatoes, fresh basil leaves, and sliced the fresh mozzarella on top.  Bake at 375 for 15 minutes or until done.

It was pretty easy but let me know if you make this and make it better!