RECIPES Archives • Page 65 of 68 • New Nostalgia

Meals/ RECIPES

Hungarian Paprika Chicken

Kelley, from the Flylady website,(click here to learn about flylady) posted this great recipe that I stumbled upon a few years ago. It has become a favorite I make, every so often. I like that it is a slow cooked recipe, but doesn’t take as long as one would in a crockpot. It is great for the cold days of winter, it is so very filling and comforting. It smells just like a sweet, little, Hungarian Grandmother is cooking in your kitchen!

Kelly’s Chicken Paprika

“Chicken Paprika is a family favorite. My dh’s family is Hungarian and his sweet Grandmother has taught me so many of the family recipes. This is one that is always a huge hit!” – Kelly

1 whole chicken Cut into pieces (I used 3 bone-in chicken breasts)
2 medium sized onions, chopped
1 16 ounce can stewed tomatoes
1 large green pepper, chopped
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 cup sour cream
1 pound of medium Egg Noodles

In a large pot over medium heat, heat oil and onions until onions are clear, add paprika and stir. Add chicken pieces and brown. Add can of tomatoes (whole can, juice and all), green pepper and spices. Reduce heat and simmer for one hour to an hour and a half until chicken is done.

Pull chicken pieces out and let cool until you can take the bones out. You need to cook it with the bones because of the flavor that it adds to the gravy). While the chicken pieces cooling, add the sour cream and stir well. Add the chicken pieces back in and simmer.

While Chicken is simmering, boil water and cook Egg Noodles according to package directions. Serves chicken over noodles. Makes a great meal with a loaf of french bread and a green salad.

This is when things start smellin’ good!

That’s a lot of paprika, huh?

Make sure onions and peppers are nice and soft.

Getting browned. Raw chicken– not so pretty.

I would flip them every 20 minutes or so. I also put

a lid on it.

While chicken is cooling, spoon off excess fat.

YUM. Isn’t that a pretty sauce. Just wait, it gets better.

Just a bit of sour cream makes a huge, creamy difference.

Add shredded chicken back to pan.

Mix. (notice mine has no pepper and tomato lumps.

I pureed it for my picky girls. I prefer to skip this step.

I had leftovers for lunch today, they were GREAT!

How-Tos/ RECIPES/ Seasonal

Easy Christmas Ladies Luncheon

I have some very special women in my life. We used to get together for a Bible study at my house every Wednesday morning. We did this for 4 years, and it was always a highlight of my week. We had to stop meeting, due to schedule changes and life taking us in different directions. I thought it would be great to have them all over for a ladies luncheon, and thought “What better time to do it than Christmastime?”

I set the table, made sure the candles were lit, and the Christmas music was playing. I left a Christmas treat by each of their plates (Lindt Lindor Truffles), which added a little touch of Christmas color to my black and white table.

Menu:

Soup-Chicken Tortilla Soup

Salad-Cranberry Spinach Salad

Bread-Honey Whole Wheat Bread

Dessert-Andes Mint Cookies

Something Fun To Drink-Cranberry Spritzer

Something Warm To Drink-Coffee & Hot Tea

Soup:
It was a very cold and snowy week here in Nebraska, so soup was an obvious choice. My cousin, Keeli, passed on a Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe that I have been wanting to try, so I did—and boy, am I glad I did! Yum! I set out chips, salsa, shredded cheese; tortilla strips and brown rice, and let them help themselves to whatever toppings they wanted.

Chicken Tortilla Soup
1 pound shredded, cooked chicken
1(15oz) can whole peeled tomatoes,mashed
1(10oz) can enchilada sauce
1 medium onion, chopped
1(4oz) can chopped green chile peppers
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups water
1(14.5 oz) can chicken broth
1t cumin
1t chili powder
1t salt
1/4t black pepper
1 bay leaf
1(10oz) frozen corn
Flour Tortillas, cut into strips, optional
Shredded Cheese, optional

Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles and garlic into a slow cooker. Pour in water and chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in corn. Cover, and cook on low setting for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. Serve in bowl topped with tortilla strips and shredded cheese, if desired

I had shredded chicken on hand b/c I had made this recipe. I put it together the night before and then just plugged it in and set it on high and it was ready in time for lunch.

Buffet Style=Easy!

Salad:
This is my go-to easy salad recipe. Whenever I am asked to bring a dish, this is one I often choose to bring. I can just buy the ingredients, bring a bowl and tongs, dump it all a bowl and toss once I am there. This is a no-recipe, recipe.

Cranberry Spinach Salad
Bag of Spinach
Bag of Dried Cranberries
Slivered Almonds
Feta Cheese
Newman’s Own Lighten Up Raspberry Walnut dressing
Croutons
Dump Spinach into large bowl. Add the rest of ingredients, amounts according to taste. Toss and Serve.

Bread:
Honey Whole Wheat Bread
I like this recipe because I can just put it in my bread maker and choose the dough option. Once it beeps, I put it into a loaf pan and let it rise another 1/2 hour or until about double, then bake. I could just leave it in my bread maker and choose loaf setting, but I like the shape of a regular loaf pan.
Click here for the recipe.

Dessert:
Andes Mint Cookies
Click here for the recipe.

Drink:
Cranberry Spritzer
You can make your own (equal parts of cranberry juice and sprite) or buy a bottle like I did.

This luncheon really was easy. Every recipe I chose was super simple and I already had the shredded chicken and cookie dough on hand in my freezer.

We had a great time. I have to admit, seeing each of them walk through the door made me REALLY miss our Wednesday Bible Study time together! 🙁
I am so very thankful for the friendships I have, God has blessed me big time!!

Drinks/ Featured/ FUN/DIY/ RECIPES/ Seasonal

Homemade Gifts-Peppermint Stick Cocoa

I have seen SO many great homemade gift ideas this year. I really want to write a post featuring them all, but they are all disorganized and saved in my bookmarks, or starred somewhere on my reader. You would think I would would take the time (2 clicks!) to clip and annotate them to my Circus Ponies Notebook, but….no. Gotta work on that!

I read so many blogs a day thanks to my Google Reader –I’ll post about this soon for those who don’t know what it is– so I come across many, many great ideas. My head started to feel spinny whenever I would think about what I wanted to do. I finally had to just pick one, so Peppermint Stick Cocoa it is. I thought the layers were pretty, especially the mini-chocolate chips and the crushed peppermint candies. Plus, I got to use a mason jar! I like that I can do smaller jars for 1-2 people and larger jars for families. (if you click on the link, you will see that they put it in a very cool square-ish jar. I love it and you can buy them at wal-mart, but at almost 3 times the cost of a mason jar. They are very cool but not THAT cool!:)

Peppermint Stick Cocoa
Layer the ingredients for homemade cocoa in a jar, add a ribbon, embellishment, and a tag, and you have a simple but cute gift. This mix will fill a 1 quart jar (12 servings), but if your containers are different sizes, just keep the ratio of ingredients constant. On the back of the tag, write: “Mix contents in a bowl. For each serving, place 1/3 cup cocoa mix in a mug and stir in one cup boiling water. Store remaining mix in airtight container.

1 cup powdered milk
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips
1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy

Layer powdered milk, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, chocolate chips, and peppermint candy.
Yeild: Makes 1 quart mix or 12 servings hot cocoa.

I used a 16 oz jar (1 pint) and halved the recipe, this serves 6. I also made 8 oz jars (1/2 pint) and adjusted the measurements, this serves 3.

16 oz jar measurements (1 pint) serves 6
1/2 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup miniature chocolate chips
1/4 cup crushed peppermint candy

8 oz jar measurements (1/2 pint) serves 3
1/4 cup powdered milk
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 cup miniature chocolate chips
1/8 cup crushed peppermint candies

I like giving away homemade gifts to people like co-workers, school teachers, mailman, neighbors, piano teacher, pastor, and friends. Just a little something to let them know I am thinking of them during the Christmas season.

My oldest daughter and I made these together today, while the younger 2 watched a Christmas movie. It was the perfect thing to do on a “school’s- out -snow- day!” It went pretty smoothly, I do wish peppermint candies came pre-crushed! Beating them with the rolling pin did not work, banging them with the bottom of a mason jar did not work, finally we got out the hammer and with some muscle–it worked! Those were some hard- headed peppermints! Once we had the candy crushed and a fun little math lesson with the measurements, we were good to go. We made an assembly line, and got busy!

We found that with the small 8 oz jar size, we needed to change up the order so that the peppermints would show. We did sugar, cocoa powder, mini chocolate chips, crushed peppermints, salt and powdered milk. Much prettier that way. In the 16 oz jars, we kept the order as stated in the recipe.

After my girls had some igloo fun in the snow, they came in and sipped on some Peppermint Stick Cocoa. It was very chocolate-y and very good; so good that I got impatient when I had to say no at least 9 times when they asked for more. (3 times per girl, 3 girls). I will blame their persistence on the addictive nature of the cocoa drink, because of course, my girls would respect their mothers “no” the first time, so they must have been on a chocolate high. Ha! Um, yea–guess we gotta work on that one!

This is called Tree-Trimming Trail Mix. Click here for the recipe.

RECIPES/ Sides

Homemade Pretzels

I found this homemade pretzel recipe at Heavenly Homemakers and I have been wanting to make ’em for awhile now! The perfect time came, no school because of a snowstorm!

Let me tell you, this recipe did NOT disappoint. It is sooooooooo good.

Making the dough was easy, the girls loved kneading the dough, but the actual shaping into pretzels was a bit too labor intensive for me. Maybe I got used to the ease of playdoh when we practiced while the dough was rising. Or maybe I’m just lazy. When I realized how skinny we had to make the dough ropes (our first batch were so funny and ugly and fat!) I thought it was too much work. (or maybe I wanted it to go faster knowing we needed to finish up so we could go get our picture taken with Santa!) Next time, I am going to make the dough, roll into ropes, and cut into 4 inch pretzel rods/sticks. This will be easier because we won’t have to work so hard at getting the ropes thin. Thick ropes make bloated pretzels, fyi!

These are AMAZING still warm from the oven, and even good the next day heated in the microwave.
I am going to keep dough in the shape of pretzel rods in my freezer, so whenever we get the craving we can just pop them in the oven.

Heavenly Homemakers did a wonderful, step by step tutorial, so I didn’t, but I took some pictures of the process.

Everyone took a turn kneading the dough. That was fun!

Time to rise!

Pretty dough, isn’t it?

Practicing our pretzel shapes with playdoh while the dough was rising

They were quite pleased with themselves.

I was so ready for a pretzel I almost ate these

Ahahhahaha! Our first ugly, way- too- fat, but still tastes great batch of pretzels.

That is better.

RECIPES/ Seasonal/ Sweets

Christmas Cranberry Recipes/ Christmas Carnival

Today I am participating in “Healthy Holiday Eats and Sweets Carnival”, hosted by “Keeper Of The Home.”(check out this blog, its a good one! I have learned so much from it!) I am very excited to find some new, healthy holiday recipes for years to come. I plan on making a Healthy Holiday Recipe Journal with the carnival recipes, as I know there will be lots of great ones!!

I love all things cranberry, especially around the holiday season. I thought for the carnival, I would share a couple of my favorites with you!

Hot Buttered Cranberry Apple Cider
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup rapadura or brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
pinch of cloves
pinch of salt
cranberry juice
apple cider

In a bowl, cream all ingredients except the juice and cider together.
Place on a piece of waxed paper, wrap up and put in a ziplock bag.
Freeze. Slice pieces off as needed.

Heat 1/2 cup cranberry juice and 1/2 cup apple cider. In the bottom of a mug, add at least a Tbls of the spiced butter. Pour heated juice/cider mixture over the butter, stir and enjoy!

This next recipe is one that is pretty addicting. I may make a large batch for Christmas gifts this year. It is a recipe from FamiyFun.com, but I substituted almonds for walnuts.

Tree-Trim Cranberry Trail Mix
8 cups freshly popped corn (see this post for easy popping instructions!)
1 cup almonds
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp kosher salt
pinch of baking soda
1 cup dried cranberries

Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Grease a large, rimmed baking sheet. Mix the popcorn and nuts in a large, well -oiled bowl. Bring the syrup, cinnamon, and salt to a boil in a small pan on med heat. Let the mixture boil for 4 minutes, swirling the pan once in awhile. Turn off heat and add the baking soda, stirring until the mixture is creamy. Pour the mixture over popcorn and stir well. Spread the popcorn on the baking sheet and bake until it is dry to the touch, about 15 minutes. Let the popcorn cool for 20 minutes, then mix in the cranberries and serve or put in jars for yummy gifts!

photo from FamilyFun.com

Christmas/ RECIPES/ Seasonal/ Sweets

Sugar Frustrations & Andes Mint Cookies!

I am looking forward to January. Why? Since Halloween, I feel like sugar and processed foods just keep hanging around at the Bowman house! I have yet to figure out how to do the holidays in a balanced way. It is important to me that my kids experience candy treats and seasonal goodies, some of our best memories and traditions are made from these goodies, but it is starting to drive me nuts seeing all the junk hanging around here!
Before this quadruple- whammy sugar season (Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years) I was able to keep our home pretty much sugar free with very little processed foods, so when we would go to a party or a family function, I was at peace letting my girls eat whatever their little hearts desired, because I knew they were getting what their bodies needed at home. But then, boatloads of Halloween candy came into our home, Thanksgiving and all its pies and yummy leftovers were in our home, and now and all our yearly, traditional Christmas recipes are merrily making their way into our home! Agghhh!

For now, I am going to just embrace the season, try to remember that we have come a long way in our eating habits, and know that January is coming!

I would like to be more purposeful about creating a recipe box full healthy treat ideas for the years to come, so I am excited to be participating in a “Healthy Holiday Eats And Sweets” blog carnival coming up on December 8th. I think I will get some great recipes that still make the holidays special and yummy, but do it using whole foods that are real and nourishing.

Until then, here is one that is not!:) This cookie recipe is one that I make every year at Christmastime. It is so easy, and has 2 of my favorite holiday flavors, chocolate and mint! They are simple, pretty and oh so yum. I double the batch, make a bunch of balls and freeze them until needed.

Andes Chocolate Mint Cookies
1 box Devils Food Cake Mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
Andes mints, unwrapped and cut in half

~Dump all but Andes mints into a large bowl, beat until combined.
~Roll into one inch balls. (I just use a pampered chef small scoop and skip the rolling)
~Bake @ 350 for 6-7 minutes. (Don’t over bake, you want them soft.)
~Immediately, push an andes mint gently down in the center of each cookie.
~Wait a minute or so, then take a toothpick or tip of a knife and swirl the melted mint into a circle, creating swirly beauty. (my girls love doing this part)
~Let cool so the chocolate will set before putting on a platter.

Drinks/ RECIPES

Best Ever Hot Chocolate Part 2

I wrote this post on The Best Ever Hot Chocolate a few days ago, and had a reader ask for ideas on how to adjust this a recipe for someone who is a teetotaler. I think it is a great question, as I know there are many people, with reasons I completely respect, for choosing to not consume alcohol.

I made the original recipe (click here for recipe) minus the Godiva Liqueur, and added another teaspoon of sugar. I am drinking a cup right now, and it tastes creamy and good. (I used whole milk for creaminess.) I have a few ideas to make it even better.

My first idea would be to make Homemade Chocolate Sauce, and add a teaspoon or 2 in place of Godiva Liqueur. This recipe is from Small Notebook (I love this blog, one of my favorites), I put this on my “homemade gifts to make sometime” list.

The next idea I had is quite exciting!! I owe the inspiration to my Grandpa Earl, who is a huge fan of Werther’s Original Candies. They had a way of showing up in his overalls’ pockets, which delighted my girls whenever they got to see him. When we go to Missouri to visit Grandpa and Grandma, there is always a bowl of them sitting in the entryway, inviting us to help ourselves. I will never eat a Werther’s Original candy without thinking of grandpa!

Back to my idea, I think it would be delicious to drop a Werther’s Original candy into the mug along with the Dove Chocolates. I like that it would keep with the theme of dropping candies in the mug. In fact… I will call it Candy Drop Hot Cocoa. Who wouldn’t want to drink something with a name like that? I have never tried this in Hot Cocoa, but I have dropped them into a steaming cup of coffee and they would slowly melt, giving my coffee a great buttery, caramel-y flavor. If you wanted faster dissolving, you could crush the candies before adding. The Werther’s hard candies come in a variety of flavors–Mocha, Butterscotch, Irish Creme, Vanilla– how fun would it be to experiment with all of those? Werther’s also sell a soft caramel chew, which might dissolve easier.

Candy Drop Hot Cocoa

8 oz milk

11/2 tsp sugar

3 Dove Chocolates

2 Werther’s Originals Hard Candy-any flavor (can crush for easier dissolving)

or Werther’s Original Soft Caramel Chew

Microwave milk in mug until hot (about 11/2 minutes). Add Sugar.

Drop in Dove Chocolate Candies and Werther’s Original Candies.

Give it a whirl until Chocolate is dissolved and enjoy!

Here are some other ideas to add to a plain mug of hot chocolate to make it special:
~Marshmallows
~Crushed Candy Canes or a few drops of peppermint extract
~A few drops of almond extract
~Crushed Peanut Butter Cups to melt into it- oh yum.
~Espresso Powder
~A bit of flavored cappuccino
~Any flavor of powdered or liquid creamers
~A pinch of cayenne and some cinnamon for a Mexican Hot Chocolate
~A spoonful of Raspberry Jelly
~Red Hot Candies

All this talk of Hot Chocolate brings back a child hood memory. My mom would have us make Hot Chocolate and accompany it with Buttered Toast. She showed us how to cut the toast diagonally in half and dip it into the Hot Chocolate. I know it sounds like soggy yuckness, but the saltiness of the butter mixed with the sweet chocolate was quite tasty!

PS. Can you tell my healthy eating goes pretty much out the window during the holidays? We still get all our nutrients from real food, but we definitely add more processed foods and sugar foods than normal.
I’m completely at peace about that, as long as my family holds on to their good health throughout the season and as long as we keep it to a minimum.

Older Posts

Newer Posts