Skillet Enchiladas

Enchilada sauce

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cans stewed tomatoes pureed in blender
1 to 2 teaspoons chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar, packed
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Make a roux with butter and flour. Add rest if ingredients and simmer until thick.

2 chicken breast cooked and cubed
3 cups 1/2-inch-diced, peeled butternut squash (from about a 2-lb. squash)
salt and pepper, to season I oven elated mine but you could skillet cook them.
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
1 - 15 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
10 yellow corn tortillas, cut into thick strips
2 cups red enchilada sauce
1 cup reduced-fat colby jack or mexican cheese (or whatever you prefer), divided
cilantro and low-fat sour cream, for serving

INSTRUCTIONS
Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in large oven-proof skillet. Add onions, garlic, and jalapeno and cook 2-3 minutes until onions become translucent and garlic is fragrant. Add everything but 1/2 of the cheese and mix. 
Turn on your oven broiler to high. Sprinkle an additional 1/2 cup of cheese over the top of the enchilada mixture and place in oven under broiler for 3-5 minutes until cheese melts and tortilla edges become a tiny golden brown. Remove from heat and serve immediately. Feel free to add in cilantro. Serve with sour cream, guacamole, or hot sauce!

German pumpkin festival soup

1 kg pumpkin roasted in oven
2 potatoes yukons
1 onion chopped
2 tbsp butter
Salt
Cinnamon stick
1 to 1.5tsp Ground coriander
pepper
1tsp cumin
1 branch thyme
1 liter vegetable broth - plus extra water to thin it out if needed
1 pint heavy cream
pumpkin seed oil or balsamic glaze (optional)
Pumpkin seeds

Cooking Instructions German Pumpkin Soup
-roast pumpkins 350 about an hour
- Peel potatoes, cut in small pieces.
- Sautee onion in butter until soft.
- put everything in pot and simmer on low about an hour.
- Take out cinnamon stick and thyme branch
- blend!
- sprinkle pumpkin seeds and oil

Baby food pancake recipe. Our favorite.

These are my favorite to make my little.  She can't get enough of them. Also a nice thing here is we but our baby cereal on the economy so they have ones designed for ages with flavors. Today's was strawberry.  Yum!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup uncooked commercial baby cereal
1 cup formula (or another liquid such as milk)
1/2 cup apple sauce.  I used an apple banana one that was rather thick. Baby food could also be used here.
1 tbsp melted margarine or butter (unsalted type)
3 egg yolks
apple juice (about 1/2 cup maybe more) or use water if you prefer. Were adding this for pancake batter consistency. I generally just use water because of the extra sugar juice adds.

Add cinnamon, nutmeg, dash of vanilla or other flavorings if you like. These are so customizable!

Step 1: Mix all ingredients together and add enough juice/water to make pancake consistency.

Step 2: Cook on your cook top in a frying pan as you would with “regular” pancakes. Cooking these baby cereal pancakes on a griddle will work better as you will have more control over the temperature and will be better able to keep the temp. at a constant heat.

**Freezes Well**

Big Mac Attack! Better than the real thing...

Living in abroad for a few years gives us lots of opportunities but it also means lots of cultural differences. Now my fam and I rarely went to eat fast food dinner. Seriously few times a year tops. Even when traveling we'd opt for something like subway a lot. But lets face it sometimes you want some fast food. Well. Here they do not have fast food available everywhere like they do in the good ol States. SO last night I made us our own Big Macs. And they were so much better than what you'd get from McD's....

The Sauce is key to the recipe.
1/4c miracle whip
1/4c mayo
1tsp finely (super fine not just chopped) onion
3 tbs French dressing
1/8th tsp salt
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp ketchup
1 tsp sugar
3tbs sweet pickle relish

Stir it all together. Microwave 25 seconds. Stir again and refrigerate at least 1 hr. before serving...

For the burger You know how it goes. Toasted buns. shredded iceberg lettuce. sliced pickles. a little extra finely chopped onion. AND 2 2 oz. super thin patties.

*tip for the burgers. let the lean beef come to room temp and measure out your 2 oz sections. I rolled them into a ball and then used a round glass to just flatten them really thin since they puff up when cooking. and don't forget to salt and pepper!

Assemble and eat your heart out! We had green beans and tots with extra sauce on the side since it was that good. seriously....

Steak Oscar

Oh the delicious dinner last night!
I wanted to make something special for my hubby and this fit the bill. 
You'll need:
A great steak
Worcestershire sauce
Shrimp
Garlic
Potatoes like golds
4 egg yolks room temp
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons
1 1/2 sticks of butter and some more butter (i didn't say this was healthy)
A pinch of sugar
A dash of cayenne
Salt and Pepper to tast
asparagus
Mrs dash

Marinate steak in the Worcestershire with a bit of pepper. Then cook the steak to a perfect med rare.  Now i was out of charcoal so i broiled the steak.

It sautéed the shrimp in some butter and garlic.

Boil and then halve the little taters.  Then place in a shallow baking dish and broil the tops.

For the hollandaise sauce
Melt and cool butter
In a blender, add egg yolks and lemon juice, whip until well combined.
While blender is still on slowly drizzle the butter until the sauce sticks to the back of a spoon.
Add sugar, salt and pepper and whip again to mix.

Oven roast your asparagus worth a little oil and Mrs dash till tender at 425 for about 25 min

Time to plate!
With your taters hot from the broiler add the hollandaise sauce then the asparagus then the sliced steak and finally the shrimp!!! It's a mountain of delicious!

Crispy Almond Cookie

Crispy Almond Cookie
makes about 60 cookies. 
Ingredients

1/2 cups butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar or 1/2 cup splenda brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking power
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup finely chopped almonds
Instructions

Cream together butter and sugars, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Add in eggs and vanilla and beat again.
Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to dough, one third at a time until all added. Stir in almonds.
Using a small cookie scoop, place dough on a parchment lined baking sheet. fork down.  Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 12-14 minutes. Until edges turn golden. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to racks to cool completely.

Cherry banana puree

1 bad frozen cherries thawed
3 very ripe bananas

Blend!  Place in individual containers. This thickens up which is awesome.
Fridge lasts 2 to 3 days
Freezer 3 months

My little is in the fork mashed stage and loves this right from the fridge.