Tilapia and Rice

My youngest daughter has been holding out on me!! This girl can cook!!! She has led me to believe that she doesn't cook...translation, she cooks when she's ready to cook.  I unfortunately didn't get the rice part, I only got the tilapia which was the bomb!!! This is a pic of her plate with the rice.

I think I'm going to take a step back and let her try her hand in the kitchen to see how it goes...shhh, don't tell her I said that or she'll never cook again!
;-))

Lesson learned:  Find out what your kids are really capable of, you will be surprised!

Veggie Pizza - Mountain Mike's

This beautiful creation right here is the new love of my life!!! I don't know what it is, but I'm just hooked on veggie pizza's lately.  No, I don't eat a ton of pizza, but when I do feel like one, I've been eating the veggie version.

I have serious love for fresh tomatoes, and if you put them on top of a pizza, even better!! It kind of makes me feel like I'm eating healthy...haha

This particular pizza is from Mountain Mike's.  The funny thing is that I can tell the difference by location...sad, I know, but it's true!!!  It's just a subtle difference, but it's enough to be noticed, at least by me.

This pizza was so "pretty," I had to take this pic and share it with you.  Makes your mouth water doesn't it???  Yeah, I know, I know...

Soul Food - Chez Soul

Yes, Yes, YASSSSS!!!! This little soul food place located in Fairfield, CA was on point!!! Outside of home cooking, as in cooking in your own kitchen, this was some serious soul food.  I was hanging out with some High School friends, and we got a little bit of everything.  The pic you see below was my plate.  

I HAD to have some fried catfish.  It was soooooooooo incredibly good!! If you are ever in Fairfield, do go and check out Chez Soul, and I promise you won't be disappointed.

The food comes out piping hot, not like some places you go to and you get the feeling that the food has been sitting around for a while before it was served to you.  Not this place!!

What you see here is my catfish with hot sauce, red beans and rice, mac n cheese and some melt in your mouth cornbread.  Let me say that again...melt...in....your....mouth!! :-))

Hearty Breakfast Scramble - Recipe

What's up people?? 

Hope you had a beautiful day!! I promised that I would share recipes from time to time, so here is the first one. If you make it, I hope you enjoy it as much as my family and I do!! I would love, love, love to hear how it came out!!

Ingredients:

Ore Ida Diced Frozen Hash Browns
Eggs
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Morton's Season Salt
Mrs. Dash (Original)
Sea Salt
Breakfast Sausage
Cheese
Red Pepper Flakes (Optional)
Sliced Baby Bella Mushrooms (Optional)
Peanut Oil
Butter

1.  Pour the peanut oil into a non-stick frying pan and heat to med-high.

2.  Carefully add the hash browns, I typically use 1/2 bag.

3.  Season the hash browns to taste using all of the seasonings and red              pepper flakes if you choose to add them.

4.  Cover and reduce the heat, let them cook for about 7 minutes. After 7            minutes are up, flip them so that the brown side is up and repeat this            step. Once the hash browns are browned, turn the stove off, cover them          but leave them on the same burner so they stay warm.

5.  Cook your breakfast sausage on the stove or in the microwave if they are        frozen.  The choice of meat is up to you. Drain, and let the sausage cool a      little so that you don't burn your hands. Cut the meat into small bite sized      pieces and set aside.

6.  Clean the mushrooms, season then saute them using a mixture of peanut        oil and butter. Drain and set aside.

7.  Season the eggs in a bowl, and beat them with either a fork or a whisk.          Put some of the peanut oil and butter in a non-stick pan and allow the            butter to melt.  Pour the eggs in the frying pan and scramble on medium-        low heat. Remember to keep them moving!! This will give you fluffier eggs.

8.  Place the scrambled eggs, sausage and mushrooms in with the hash              browns and gently stir.  

9.  Put shredded cheese on top of the mixture, cover the pan with a lid and          allow the cheese to melt.

Enjoy!!!

I didn't give exact measurements, because everyone has different ideas of what taste good to them.  Some like more of this or more of that, so I'll leave it up to you.  I use lots of eggs, because I love them (more egg whites than whole eggs)!!!

On a funnier note....I JUST realized that I put two of the same pictures in the collage!! :-))  I plead the fifth about why it happened!! ;-))

Tip:  You can cook the mushrooms and sausage while the hash browns are cooking so that everything is ready at the same time.  This allows the hash browns to still be warm when the eggs are ready to mix in with the rest of the ingredients.

Postino Dessert

This was one of those moments that I looked down at my plate, and just admired the beautiful chocolaty dessert that was placed before me.  I think it was called "Not your Mamma's Chocolate Pudding."  It was rich and decadent, a very smooth creamy, melt in your mouth texture!! The cookies were very good too!

No sense in counting the calories with this one!! :-)  Would I buy it again, oh yeah!!!

The Habit Burger

I don't eat burgers very often, so when I do eat one, I'm really picky about it. One of my favorite burgers, as far as fast food is concerned is from The Habit. It is a tasty, juicy burger that you can add the toppings that you like, because the burger doesn't come standard.

Yes, people, you can get fancy with your burger at The Habit.  If you haven't tried it, I think you should!! Especially if you are a burger lover, because you can really have it your way!! Oh, and they do serve other things as well..haha

Love it, and recommend it!!

Banana Pudding Cupcakes - Made by Marina (daughter-in-law)

We had a family get together recently, and my son's fiance brought these mouth watering cupcakes!! Just think banana pudding and you can already taste them!! If you love banana pudding, these are the cupcakes for you.

They were beautifully prepared, moist and just as delicious as the picture shows.  

Your food is not safe around me, if you are in my family!! Like I said in a previous post, I will definitely share the pic on my blog.  Unfortunately, I'm not at liberty to give the recipe for this one, because I didn't create them and I didn't ask permission to do so.

Great job future daughter-in-law!! I'm looking forward to whatever creations she comes up with in the future!! :-))

JoJo's Marinated Cucumbers

YAY!!! My sister showed up at my house...okay, you got me, it wasn't unannounced because I knew she was coming.  She brought her marinated cucumbers with her for us to try.  One word...delicious!!! I've been wanting to try her marinated cucumbers for a while, so thank you sis for coming through and bringing them with you.

Fair warning to any family members that show up to my house with a dish, or a dish at any family function, because your dish could and most likely will wind up on my food blog!! Love you guys!! :-)

Hearty Breakfast Scramble

I am a breakfast kind of woman!!! I love my breakfast, and if I miss breakfast for some reason, I'll have it for dinner.  It is truly my most favorite meal of the day.  In the pic below is my signature breakfast scramble.

It has all the trappings of a great breakfast!! You may not be able to see all of the fun stuff from this picture, but there are potatoes, egg whites w/a couple of whole eggs scrambled together, polska kielbasa, cheese and most of the time, mushrooms and red pepper flakes.

I put the mushrooms on the side this time, because one of my daughters has an unnatural hate for them, and my other daughter is having issues with red pepper flakes now, so I left them out.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I love all things hot and spicy, so it was only fitting to spice this dish up too!!

Oh yeah, the breakfast love...that's exactly what happened today.  I came home and made this breakfast scramble before I even sat down.  :-)

Betty's Roasted Rustic Potato Soup

This is hands down the best soup that I've ever made from scratch.  It was created from a "I had no idea what to cook" moments.  I went through a whole thought process of I'll cook sausage links, to I'll roast asparagus on the side, and do something with potatoes, to I think I can combine everything that I'm thinking about doing and make a soup!! 

My sister was coming over with one of her daughters, and I needed to think quick about how to feed a lot of mouths.  During my thought process, my sister called and said she was stopping by the store and asked if I needed anything.  I don't know why, but I said "yes," bring some heavy cream.

I roasted everything that came to mind, and sauteed the rest.  I put it all together and added a little this and a little that and MAN, the end result surprised me.  It was very flavorful, and I've made it several times since the accidental creation.

One of my daughter's friends keeps asking when am I going to make it again. I think I'll have to do that real soon!!  I may even have two bowls!! 

Spaghetti with Veggies

This inspiration was due to the fact that I didn't feel like eating meat for dinner.  I wanted spaghetti, but I didn't want to put my usual ground turkey meat, with hot links in, so I came up with this.  I used yellow squash and zucchini instead.  It came out really good and my picky eater even liked it!  I would definitely make it again!! It's good to think outside of the normal "box" from time to time, you would be surprised with what you come up with.

Cajun Style Spicy Peanuts - Slow Cooker

What you see here is the beginning of something very delicious!! I found the recipe on the Web, but added some things to make it my own.  My mom is from the South and introduced me and my siblings to boiled peanuts.  They were okay, but I felt they were lacking something.  I love all things in the spicy category, so I decided to look for a recipe that would add a little flare to the standard.

I found one that sounded perfect, I found a Cajun seasoning that I loved, a hot sauce that I love, added some fresh Rosemary sprigs, garlic powder and onion powder.  It gave boiled peanuts a kick in the pants!  My whole family loves them, in fact, my sisters and nieces will come over when they know I've made a batch so they can take some home.

The pic below shows the peanuts soaking in water to get rid of the dirt on the shells.  I soak them for a while, then rinse them and soak them all over again.  I do this until the water runs clear and the peanuts look mostly clean.

This was one of the best things that I have discovered in recent years.  Of course, you have to love peanuts first!!

Future Posts

Hi All,

In some of my future posts, I will share recipes when requested.  I love coming up with new things, and I don't mind sharing.  I know from experience that sometimes things come out differently depending on the cook, but if that ever happens and you need advice on what I did, and how I did it, I will be glad to help out.

I hope you all enjoy the pics and recipes that I will share on my blog!!

Betty

Cucumber with Tomato Sandwich

Sometimes getting creative can be really simple when it comes to eating. Sometimes it's more about the shot than the ingredients.  Here I have a very simple sandwich made with tomato, cucumber, cracked pepper olive oil mayo and a little salt and pepper.  The shot did do the sandwich justice, because it was yummy!!

Chinese Chicken Salad

So I was sitting around the house thinking about dinner.  It was another one of those "can't think of anything that I would like to eat" moments.  A cousin asked for a recipe of mine on Facebook, and as I shared it with her, I asked for one of hers.  She gave me a recipe for Chinese Chicken Salad, which sounded delicious!  I gave it a try, with my own little add-ins and my family LOVED it!! It's good to have a family that can cook!

Egg White Fully Loaded Omelette

Egg White Fully Loaded Omelette

This is an egg white, fully loaded omelette.  I was really hungry one morning and couldn't decide on what to put in my omelette.  I just knew that I wanted it to be made from egg whites.  I wound up putting "the kitchen sink" in it as my mom used to say!! Viola!!! Here is my finished product!!

Birthday Cupcakes

Red Velvet Cream Cheese Cupcakes

These cupcakes were DELISH!!!! They are Red Velvet Cream Cheese cupcakes, and totally homemade!!! These beautiful and delicious cupcakes were made by my son's fiance.  I won't mention her name here, unless she tells me to!! Just keep baking these wonderful delights and I'll keep posting them!! Yummy!!

Tuna Salad Sandwich

Betty's Tuna Salad Sandwich

This is one of my favorite sandwiches now.  I decided to switch it up and use spinach instead of lettuce.  It was SO good!!! I think I'll use spinach instead of lettuce from now on.  Here is a pic of it!!