The...As much as you can put on your plate Salad.

Have you ever wanted to pack down the food but not feel like you ate an entire cow?

Do you love eating but feeling like you've got a bag of cement in your stomach afterward because you just ate too much?

So if you've got a hankering for as much as you can eat but don't want to feel bogged down by too much food there's nothing better than an, As much as you can put on your plate salad.

The great thing about salads is that you can put whatever you want on it.  Anything from bacon and eggs, to croutons and cheese, any and every fruit and vegetable, and just about any meat and cheese you'd like too!

Today we had a great As much as you can put on your plate Salad.

Of the countless pictures you could paint on on a plate we painted the following.

                                                                 With...

                                                                                    1 Mango

1 Avocado

5 Radishes

2 Carrots

2 Tomatoes

1/2 Bag of Baby Spinach

1 head Red lettuce

2 Chicken Breasts (Marinated in a white wine &              herbs marinade w/ mustard we got from the              grocery store)

Gorgonzola Crumbled cheese

Honey mustard red wine vinegar dressing (of our              own making)

                                                            

                                                                We Got...

One darn good salad.  Give what we made a try or invent something else to put in your salad.  Anything you can imagine works great.  Keep it lean with turkey or fish, or go all out with some great beef cut thinly on top or some bacon.  Strawberries, mango, raspberries, pecans, walnuts, almonds, water chestnuts, you name it!

We marinated our chicken in some marinade we got from the local grocery store and made our dressing with red wine vinegar, honey, and mustard.

All the delicious, none of the guilt!                       Enjoy!

Barbecue Parmesan Chicken

So this was just a quick invention we came up with.  It's super quick and simple, here's what you need:

4 chicken breasts

1 cup barbecue sauce

1 cup Parmesan cheese

2 cloves garlic

Green beans (frozen are better)

2 cups rice

1/4 cup butter

Salt and pepper

Basil

Oregano

Red pepper flakes

To start off, cut the chicken into bite size pieces.  Put the barbecue sauce, most of the Parmesan cheese, and the garlic in a bowl, and the mix the chicken in the sauce and place it on a cookie sheet.  Put the green beans on the pan with the chicken, and the sprinkle about a tablespoon of Parmesan, red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, basil, and oregano from high up so it can be spread evenly.  Cut the butter into slices and place on the pan as well.  Cook about 20 minutes on 350.  Cook the rice (you can add onion and peas for some extra veggies) and serve.

Blueberry cream cheese rolls to die for

This is another original recipe that we made up here at usu. It is a play off of the cinnamon roll and is a great change up in the usual dessert.

Roll dough (This is an original recipe as well)

1 3/4 cup warm water

1 T yeast

4 1/2 cups flour

2 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1 T salt

2 T sugar

add all of the ingredients except the flour and mix it well. Then add the flour cup by cup until you have mixed in all of the flour. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes adding flour as needed. 

Divide the dough in two equal chunks and roll it out like you would for cinnamon rolls. when it is rolled out, spread cream cheese (1 package) across the  dough. Then take blueberry pie filling and spread it on top of the cream cheese and then just roll up the dough like you were making cinnamon rolls. Cut into 1 inch slices and put them in a pyrex pan and let them rise until double. When risen, bake on 350 for about 20 minutes or until golden brown on the top and bottom. Cream cheese icing is delicious on these rolls by the way.

buen provecho!!!!

Cafe Rio burritos

SWEET PORK BURRITOS:
2 pounds pork
3 cans Coke (NOT diet)
1/4 c. brown sugar
dash garlic salt
1/4 c. water
1 can sliced green chilies
3/4 can RED enchilada sauce (I used Old El Paso brand, medium spiciness)
1 c. brown sugar

Put the pork in a heavy duty Ziploc bag to marinade. Add about a can and a half of coke and about 1/4 c. of brown sugar. Marinade for a few hours or overnight. Drain marinade and put pork, 1/2 can of coke, water, and garlic salt in crock pot on high for about 3-4 hours (or until it shreds easily, but don't let it get TOO dry). Remove pork from crock pot and drain any liquid left in the pot. Shred pork.

In a food processor or blender, blend 1/2 can Coke, chilies, enchilada sauce and remaining brown sugar (about a cup, you can add a little more or less to taste..). If it looks too thick, add more Coke little by little.

Put shredded pork and sauce in crock pot and cook on low for 2 hours. That's it!

We replaced coke with Dr. Pepper, it gives a better taste.

lime brownie goodness!!!!!

So during the summer we saw a recipe with ice cream on brownies and it had popcorn or something like that on top. It was incredibly aesthetically pleasing but we in our minds did not think that it would taste very good, so with aesthetically pleasing in mind, we made this delectable recipe. Warning! if you do not like dark chocolate do not try this recipe because both the lime and the raspberries are playing off of the base flavor of the dark chocolate.
Ingredients
-your favorite brownie mix (if you have it use a dark chocolate recipe)
-1 bar of 70% to 90% dark chocolate
-raspberries
-vanilla ice cream
-limes
-whipped cream
-chocolate syrup
Instructions
When you make the brownie recipe add about half of the bar of chocolate to the batter before you bake as per usual. When the brownies are cooled, you will mix ice cream with lime juice and lime zest(you will want about half a lime for each serving and the ice cream should be about half an inch thick on the brownies). Stir it around until it looks like thick soft serve and then layer it on the brownies. If you want to be really fancy you can add another layer of  brownies on top of that making a brownie sandwich. On the top, add whipped cream, raspberries, crushed chocolate bar as garnish and then the chocolate syrup (in the most artful way possible, of coarse)

buen provecho!!!!!

super simple chipoltle chicken

So this slow cooker recipe is one of our own invention. Just like almost all slow cooker recipes this is super simple and is really good.
This recipe only has three ingredients
     -4-6 chicken breasts, or about 8 chicken thighs
     -2  6oz cans of chipoltle puree (just look in the Mexican section)
     -one or two good squeezes of barbecue sauce
Just throw all the ingredients in the crock pot for 6-8 hours. When it is super tender, shred it and serve it over rice.
 Buen provecho!!!!!

Simple tacos

Tacos are super quick and easy.  There is no need to go to the store and buy an expensive taco mix, here is a recipe that will save you some money as long as you own these common spices:

1lb ground beef defrosted

1 onion

1Tbs chili powder

1Tbs garlic powder (or 2 cloves of garlic)

1Tbs cayenne pepper

1Tbs cumin

1Tsp coriander

1Tsp paprika

To start off, put the chopped onion in the frying pan with about 1-2 Tbs oil, and fry for about 5 minutes on medium high.  Add ground beef and all the spices and cook for another 5-10 minutes.  If you like spicy food, feel free to add more chili powder and cayenne pepper.  Serve with lettuce, tomato, sour cream, hot sauce, cheese, lime and salsa, and enjoy!