Winter vege salad

From Lunchpails and Lipstick:

WARM WINTER VEGGIE SALAD

Ingredients:

1 red onion

1 butternut squash, sliced in half or in sections for easy roasting and peeling after it’s cooked

1 carrot, cut into pieces

1 parsnip cut into pieces

1 celery root, peeled and cut into pieces

1 large beet, cut into pieces

Enough olive or coconut or flax oil to coat and sea salt to taste

1/4 cup raw walnuts

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Juice of one lemon

1 teaspoon mustard powder or organic stoneground mustard with no sugar or additives and preferably made with apple cider vinegar (there’s a kind that health food stores carry that fits all this criteria)

1 handful parsley leaves

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 and toss the vegetables with the oil and sea salt and roast until tender (roughly 45 minutes).

Spread walnuts in a skillet and toast until golden then coarsely chop

Whisk the vinegar and lemon juice and mustard in a large bowl with extra olive or flax oil and season with sea salt and pepper if you like- toss with vegetables and walnuts and serve warm or at room temp.

Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk-Revised by Kelly Anderson

Ingredients:

3.5 lb. Chicken
salt and pepper
Pinch of cinnamon
1 hand full sage leaves
2.5 Cups of milk
Zest of 2 lemons (1 lemon for each cup of milk if you add more milk, or add some of the juice if you don't have lots of lemons)
10 cloves garlic, skin left on


Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Season Chicken w/salt and pepper. In a large dutch oven, or a heavy bottomed oven proof pan, Brown on all sides in w/oil on med-med/high.

Remove pan from heat. Now, if you're me this is where you start adding everything:) If you want less fat in this dish then remove the chicken to a plate, pour fat out of pan, but leave caramelized fat in the bottom.

Return chicken to pan w/remaining ingredients. DO NOT PUT A LID ON THIS. Bake for 1.5 hours basting occasionally, or not cause I forget and it still turns out nice.

Serve pulled apart w/juices and curds over rice, pasta, potatoes, or wilted spinach.

Creamy Chicken Soup from Jane's Blessing

Creamy Chicken Soup

Adapted from The Cookie Rookie

Roux
4 T. Flour
2 T. Oil
2 T. Butter

Ingredients
2 T. Butter
2 T. Oil
1 Yellow Onion, chopped
6 Carrots, sliced into half inch rounds
4 stocks Celery, sliced
1 t. garlic, minced
4 C. Chicken Stock ( I used chicken granules)
3 1/2 C. Cream, or Half and Half, or Whole Milk ( I use Whole Milk)
2 T. Chicken Granules, ( this is because of the milk)
1 t. Pepper
1 T. Fresh Parsley
3 Bay Leaves
1 t. Dried Rosemary
1 t. Dried Fennel
1 t. Dried Thyme
1 t. Dried Basil
1 t. Dried Parsley
1 t. Dried Oregano
1 t. Dried Tarragon
1/2 t. Turmeric
( the original called for herbs de provence which includes all these herbs plus Savory, Marjoram, Lavender Leaves and Bay pwd. I don't have all those, so I used what I had, but I also used way more than it calls for because the first time I made it it was blandish)
3 C. Rotisserie Chicken
Juice from  Lemon ( some of the zest would be good)

Method:

Heat Butter and Oil in lrg. pot over med/low heat. Add Onion and saute for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally (enough to sizzle, but can be left for a few minutes without browning). Add garlic, carrots, celery and 1 t. salt ( it will help the veggies sweat), saute 10 minutes till carrots are med. tender (not mushy, just a bit crunchy or toothsome).

Meanwhile, make the Roux ( thickener) by heating butter and oil over med. heat. Add flour and stir till forms a paste, about 2-3 minutes ( you're cooking the flour so the soup doesn't taste like flour).

When Carrots are at desired texture, add remaining ingredients including Roux, stir well to incorporate.. Bring to a boil, cover with lid and reduce heat to low. Simmer for about 15 minutes then turn off heat. Let soup sit for at least an hour, but I let it sit for about 3 ( I do the prep work the day before then cook it before Church so it sits while we're gone) to steep the dried herbs. Taste, adding additional salt if desired.

Bring back to appropriate temp. and serve with bread and butter:)

Fall Salads

We tried the Butternut Squash & Smokey Ham Quinoa salad a few weeks ago as a main course and LOVED it. I substituted the ham for Turkey Sausage since Mike isn't a Ham man. The other salads on the site look awesome!!

Carnival Cruise Line's Warm Chocolate Melting Cake

I got this recipe off of a blog called Family Favorites who got it off of Carnival Cruise line's site.
I have made this easy recipe twice.  I am addicted!  It is sooo fattening and so delicious.  It is so easy to make.  Here it is:

Ingredients

• 3/4 c. (6 oz.) dark chocolate chips
• 3/4 c. (6 oz.) butter
• 4 eggs (room temperature)
• 3/4 c. (6 oz.) sugar
• 1/8 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 c. (2 oz.) flour

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375-degrees. Melt chocolate and butter in a small saucepan, cool 10 minutes. In the meantime, in a separate bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together. Add flour and whisk until flour is well mixed in. When chocolate has cooled stir in egg mixture.
• Fill 7oz. ramekins about 3/4 of the way full with chocolate batter. Bake for 14 minutes. You may need to add an extra few minutes of baking time depending on your elevation.
• The cake should be cake-like and spongy on the top but the middle of the cake should be melty and gooey-- the consistency of pudding, not too runny. Do not let it overcook--watch these babies closely! Serve with ice cream. (makes 4 servings)

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Coconut Lime Chicken with Thai Garnishes

You must all try this chicken recipe.  I've made it once as written, but since then, I've switched to skinless or boneless, skinless chicken breasts (easier!), and I always add a ton more veggies onto the garnishes plate (radishes, salad mix, sliced raw zucchini, flaked coconut) to make it both healthier and to make the chicken go further.  I love to slice the chicken thinly and heap it in the middle of my largest serving platter and make rows of each of the other garnishes next to it.  (So pretty!  So delicious!  So fresh!)  Since I've been hearing reports of a shortage of exclamation points in the country, I think I'd better stop here before I use up my year's supply.  But seriously--you have to try this!

Popsicles

Last summer, we were more than a little obsessed with homemade popsicles around here.  Now that spring weather has finally shown up, we're back in the mode.  Here are some of our favorites:

Fruit-sicles
4 cups fresh fruit (honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon, or strawberries are the ones we've tested)
2 tbsp. sugar (if the strawberries are super sour, you might need a touch more)
juice of one lime or half a lemon

Blend like crazy and fill the popsicle molds.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pops
2 cups milk (I used 1-3/4 cups skim plus 1/4 cup half-and-half to make it delicious)
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. vanilla
chocolate chips

Blend the first four ingredients in the blender.  Put 1 tsp. chocolate chips in the bottom of every popsicle mold and fill with the milk mixture.  Freeze.  (Seriously, these taste just like chocolate chip cookie dough, except cold and refreshing and nearly guilt free.)

Dreamsicles
1/2 cup orange juice concentrate
1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 tbsp. sugar
2 cups plain yogurt

Blend up.  Fill molds.  Freeze.

Pudding Pops
1 small instant pudding mix
3 cups milk

Blend.  Freeze.

Plus, anytime I make a smoothie, I pour the extra into the popsicle molds and freeze it.  This year, I'm going to not use the plastic sticks that came with the mold, but use wooden sticks instead.  That way, when the popsicles are frozen, I can unmold them, put them in plastic bags, and always have a stash in the freezer.