Category Archives: Cooking

Country Fried Chicken Double Dipped

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 24 September, 2014 None comments

Double Dipped Country Fried Chicken

Fried Chicken 10

Comfort food, ah ya!

Definitely had a craving for fried chicken but instead of frying it I opted to bake it. I did this because it actually is quicker and healthier without compromising the flavor.

I served this chicken with fresh corn, red mashed potatoes and homemade gravy.

My mouth is watering just reliving this experience.

Ingredients:

2 lbs chicken, chopped largely
8 eggs, whisked
1 cup milk
2 lbs red potatoes
3 tbsp butter
3 cups plus 1/2 (reserve) milk or cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Breading:

2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tbsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp sugar

Chop thawed chicken into large chunks and set aside.

Grease a 9×13 baking pan and set aside.

Fried Chicken

In a medium bowl combine eggs and 1 cup milk and whisk together.

In a separate medium bowl add the breading ingredients.

Dip your chicken in the egg batter and then into the breading.

Dip AGAIN back into the egg batter and again back into the breading for the double dipped effect. :)

Place into greased bake dish. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until no longer pink in the middle.

Bring the potatoes to a boil and begin making the gravy.

For the gravy:

Once chicken is cooked, remove from pan and reserve the chicken remains and grease.

Spoon into a sauce pan and add 1-2 tbsp flour.

Coat batter with excess flour.

Add in 3 cups milk, (reserving the last half cup for the potatoes) heat through on med-low heat until it begins to thicken.

At this point check and see if you need more chicken flavor, if so add about 1 tbsp chicken better than bouillon and stir until melted.

If your gravy still is not thick enough, add a little gravy to a small cup and add in additional flour. Mix well until no lumps appear and dump back into gravy. (This will help prevent lumpy gravy)

Once the potatoes are soft, mash with a potato masher.

Add in 1/2 cup milk and butter.

Now you are ready to make your plate look pretty and fill your tummy.

Bring all your ingredients to the plate. Fried chicken, potatoes and corn.

Drizzle or lather in gravy.

I prefer the lathering of gravy.

Split Pea Soup

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 22 September, 2014 None comments

Split Pea Soup

I love soup and I love split pea. I made this recently on a morning that was chilly and gave a good excuse to have soup even while it’s still summer out.

Autumn meals are the best. Crock pots smelling the home, soups, stews, casseroles and stroganoff. You can’t get much better than some delicious comfort food. The battle of your mind shouldn’t be the calories they hold, but rather the fact that winter is coming and we must store our chipmunk weight up for the winter. And behold, Fall is a great way to get that started. :)

Ingredients:

1 hamhock
1 lb diced ham
2-3 cups split peas (I prefer my soup thicker)
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 small onion, diced
3/4 tsp onion powder
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1 bay leaf
6-8 cups water

In a crock pot add everything together and give a good stir.

How easy is that? That’s why I LOVE crock pots. They are simple, delicious and seriously can’t get any easier than dumping everything together!

Let it all simmer for 6-8 hours. Your house will smell wonderful and you will be ecstatic that dinner is already made!

Mixing quinoa, rice or couscous in with the soup for protein and to thicken it up, was the cure to getting him to eat soup.

He’s all fueled up from the Pea and off to play he goes! :)

Yummy!

Sloppy Joes-Bagel Style

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 20 September, 2014 None comments

Sloppy Joes-Bagel Style

I must give credit to my beautiful mama. She always has the best dinner ideas when I fail to let my mind come up with…well anything. I have many days where coming up with a dinner “idea” is challenging for me. Those are also the days I love to sleep in, lay in pj’s all day and watch romantic movies and not clean an item in my house. :)

Anyway, my mom brought this idea to the table and we devoured it. It was so delicious and a quick last minute option.

Sloppy Joes used to be my nemesis when I was younger. For some reason they scared me to death and looked like meat out of a can almost like spam. Who wants meat from a can with the name “sloppy”? You get my drift, I must have been caught up on the name for years. The name itself is entirely unappealing. Who want’s ‘Sloppy’ and a Joe in their dinner? Lets be real here, how did this name even come to fruition?

But through time, a lot of time, I sure learned that you can spice up the flavor and make it taste like a delicious spaghetti sandwich without the pasta. It is wonderfully flavored and easy eating, well not so much in the sense of the “sloppiness” but more in the full-flavor making it easy. Make sense? Good, lets move on.

Ingredients:

1 lb Ground Turkey
1 tbsp Minced Garlic
1 Small Onion
1/2 tsp Chili Powder
1/2 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Cumin
1/2 tsp Garlic Salt
1/4 tsp Coriander
1/4 cup Water
1 Spoonful Brown Sugar
1 Can Tomato Sauce
1/3 Cup Ketchup
1/4 cup Dijon Mustard

In a large sauce pan begin cooking the turkey, minced garlic and onion. Add in chili powder, paprika, cumin, garlic salt, coriander and water.

Allow to simmer until the meat is fully browned.

Once the meat is cooked, add in the tomato sauce and brown sugar.

Keep at a low simmer and add in mustard and ketchup.

Once everything is stirred in, allow to simmer for 1-2 minutes.

Meanwhile butter your bagel and sprinkle with garlic salt. Toast in a toaster oven and top with Sloppy Joe mix. Sprinkle with fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

You can also serve upon a non-freezer-burned Ciabatta roll.

Let’s set the mood.

Originally these sloppy joes were to be served upon a nice garlic toasted ciabatta roll. Once toasted and ready to devour, I about lost my cookies with one single bite that made it directly back out of my mouth and into the sink. I had not eaten cookies, but it was that bad, my tummy was about to lose cookies that hadn’t even been eat. Yes it was that bad. It was horrible, so horrible!

Out it came and on with the better idea to stack it with a bagel.

I’ll try not to disgust you with my loosing-of-the-cookies next time I experience a horrific taste in my mouth!

Individual Cherry Tarts

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 18 September, 2014 None comments

Individual Cherry Tarts

Bible study officially started up this week for FALL! I can’t believe Autumn is basically here. The school bus driving by all day long for preschool, kindergartners and regular all day school keeps the streets busy. The leaves turning and falling upon my garden. The crisp, cool mornings. FALL-IS-HERE.

I love the season of pumpkins, anything pumpkin that is makes me extremely excited and warm inside. Pumpkin bread, pumpkin scones, pumpkin pie, pumpkin lattes and MUCH more. I love pumpkin.

Though I love pumpkin because it means fall is in full force, today’s treats have nothing to do with pumpkins. They are tasty but not pumpkiny.

I made these for bible study brunch for the launch of our new season of life, digging deeper into the book of Ephesians. I love Ephesians and am excited to see what this season brings.

Lets get into the tarts!

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup Unbleached Flour
2 2/3 cup Whole Wheat flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
3/4 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Butter, cold
3/4 cup buttermilk + 2 tbsp
3/4-1 cup frozen cherries
Sugar for topping (optional)

Glaze:

1 cup confectioners sugar
1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 tbsp milk

In a stand mixer combine flour, baking powder and salt. Mix together.

Cut butter into small cubes and toss with dry mixture until resemblance of small peas.

Add in Butter milk and mix well but be careful not to over mix.

Fold in Cherries and toss onto a floured surface.

cherry dough tart

Form into a log and cut diagonally forming a slight triangle.

Place on a cookie sheet and back at 425 for 10-12 minutes.

Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Mix together the glaze and top on COOLED tarts.

Garlic Toast

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 11 September, 2014 None comments

Garlic Toast

Here is another creative idea from my husband the same night he made blackened fish fillets. He was on a roll with not only being creative but proceeding to make it that night and having it be completely satisfying to my palette.

Hooray for a husband who enjoys to cook once in awhile.

We had homemade bread laying around and wanted some toast with our fish and mushroom saute. He decided to take no only garlic salt and butter but to melt blue cheese crumbles on the bread and then toast it. This allowed the cheese to melt into the pores of the bread and crisp up quite nicely. I could have eaten an entire loaf if I wanted, but luckily he only made four slices.

From oven to mouth in about 5 minutes. Can’t beat that!

Ingredients:

Homemade Bread
Blue Cheese Crumbles
Butter
Garlic Salt

In a small bowl add blue cheese crumbles and melt for 10-15 seconds in the microwave.

Meanwhile, spread butter across all your bread and sprinkle with garlic salt.

Top with melted blue cheese crumbles.

Toast in oven or toaster oven on 550 degrees for 2 minutes.

Be prepared to devour the entire loaf. So amazing and so much better for you than store bought garlic spreads.

Buffalo Blue Cheese Chicken Burger

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 5 September, 2014 None comments

Buffalo Blue Cheese Chicken Burger

First and foremost, lets talk about the pink decor. I know your gawking at the beautiful plates that you have failed to see the delicious burger that rests upon your fingertips. This plate is associated with out camping gear. We went camping and this delicious dinner sat rest on the presence of a wonderful bright-pink-plate. Yahoo!

These burgers my friends were amazing and by far the best camping burger that anyone would be impressed.

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Ingredients:

4 Chicken Burgers
4 Ciabatta Buns
Onion, sliced
Pickles, sliced
Lettuce

Buffalo Blue Cheese Sauce

1/4 cup Blue Cheese Crumbles
1/2 cup Blue Cheese Dressing
1/2 cup Mayonnaise
1/4 tsp Paprika
1/4 tsp Ground Pepper
2 tbsp hot sauce

In a small bowl, mix together Buffalo Blue Cheese Sauce. Set aside.

Cook chicken according to package instructions. I bought our from Costco. They are already cooked and needed to be grilled.

Toast bun and smoother on buffalo sauce and layer toppings.

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Be prepared to be wowed and devour.

Crunchy, flavorful and without too much spice = powerful!

I prepped everything before we left for camping so all that needed to take place was grilling the chicken burger, toasting buns and layering all the ingredients. It was actually really easy and a wonderful camping meal.

Breakfast Egg Muffins

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 5 September, 2014 None comments

Hello happy child! I not only got a picture of him laughing, but also looking at me! Yahoo! Mission accomplished!

This morning we went on a family hike and ended at Vivace’s in northwest 23rd for crepes and coffee.

Cooper was attempting to fill up his little truck with cheerios and take them to the “dump” AKA his mouth! (This was taught by his daddy…no surprise there)

Michael prepared to devour his cup of coffee after a long jaunt hiking/walking.

“We must conquer our thirst.”

As usual I pack Michael a lunch every day because it’s so easy to waste hundreds of dollars a month on eating out. This is a money saver folks.

Since he leaves so early in the morning I send him with breakfast, lunch and snacks to partake in all day long.

This mornings breakfast of choice was egg muffins full of delicious meat and veggies to fill his tummy. I choose this meal because it looks hard but this is exactly the opposite and that my friends, is why I made it. I was tired from the weekend and all the activities we did so this was perfect. It makes enough to send him with 3-4 breakfast’s depending on how many Cooper and I eat. :)

So lets get into it.

Ingredients:

8 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp onion powder
Dash of sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 cup ham, diced
1/4 cup tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup cheese, shredded

In a medium bowl crack the eggs. Whisk very well. 1 minute by hand.

Add in seasoning.

After whisking the seasoning in, add ham and tomatoes (any vegetables work).

Line a muffin tin with muffin cups or oil and fill 3/4 full.

Cook at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until the middle does not jiggle. :)

Remove immediately IF you greased with oil and opted out of the muffin liners. This helps them come out easier. Otherwise, let cool on a wire rack.

Blackened Fish Fillets

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 3 September, 2014 None comments

Can you believe school is starting already? It’s crazy how quickly life passes by and how much quicker it goes with children.

He’s quite the little boy now, not so much a baby anymore. :( But he’s still beyond adorable. Clearly I am a bit biased towards my child. :)

I love summer as there are countless opportunities for our family to partake in but by the time we accomplish these tasks, summer has flown by and we are scurrying around for last minute opportunities before the weather takes a turn for the worse.

Today was a perfect example. We took advantage of the great weather and went hiking at Forest park and went to brunch at a delicious crepe and coffee house.

Enjoying the weather, family time and good conversations- now that is what life is all about.

And of course We have to love fall for the simple fact that football begins. Are any of you football fans? College? NFL or both? I prefer NFL but we do get our college share in as we do love watching Oregon play. Go Ducks.

Whose more enveloped in the TV watching?

So even though our fabulous weather will be leaving quickly, I will continue to embrace my son still being young, innocent and a mama’s boy. Being able to avoid the hustle and bustle of last minute school shopping, fashionable clothes drama with your teenager trying to fight their way to the top of the popularity chart and worrying about their group of friends. Our biggest battle will be my creativity on outdoor adventures to keep my son busy, that’s a battle worth fighting right now. But I do believe when we reach the stage of teenage drama, I hope and pray we will have it a bit easier as boys are not as difficult as teenage girls. I’ve been there, done that….Haha my poor parents.

So with that in mind… let’s talk fish. :)

Ingredients:

3 fillets, White fish
2 tbsp Butter
1 tsp Garlic salt
1/2 tsp Onion Powder
2 tsp Smoked Paprika
1/4 cup Half & Half
Dash of Italian seasoning for garnish (optional)

In a medium skillet, melt butter. Once melted add garlic salt, onion onion powder and smoked paprika. Stir constantly. Once slightly thickened, add half & half to mixture and continue to stir until sauce begins to bubble. Add fish and sear on each side for approximately 3-4 minutes on medium high heat.

Served with sauteed mushrooms and quinoa salad.

Black Beans

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 30 August, 2014 None comments

Most people tend to purchase canned beans out of convenience but do you realize how easy it is to make them yourself? Seriously folks, this method of purchasing canned beans needs to stop. Making your own is more flavorful, healthier and honestly too easy not to partake in–let the crock pot do all the work.

This may be the shortest post of your life, all because making homemade beans are too simple, there really isn’t much to say. So lets get started…

Ingredients:

1 Cup Beans (Today I used black beans)
2 1/2 Cups Water
1 Small Onion, diced
1 Bay Leaf
2 TSP Garlic Salt
1/2 TSP Sea Salt
1 1/2 TSP Italian Seasoning

Place all ingredients in a crock pot and turn to high heat. Cook for 4 hours. Low heat for 6-8 hours.

By this point you’re house will be smelling amazing and you will be thankful you took the bold step to make your own beans.

These beans are great as a simple side dish or mixed in something such as spicy black bean burgers (hint hint).

They taste so good you literally can eat them by the spoonful. I say this because I have done this, or shall I say I partook in the spoonful eating myself mmm about an hour ago. :) Once you partake in the simplicity of making delicious, flavorful beans, you will say goodbye to canned beans forever. “So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye”… I thought about leaving the last part out as I was at a loss on how to spell auf Wiedersehen. But than the song got stuck in my head and by the time I searched for the lyrics, viola, I found it and had to say it.

Now I’m sure the song will be stuck in your head, so go dance around your kitchen with joy, that you my friends can stop purchasing canned beans as well.

Auf Wiedersehen~

Spicy Spread

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 29 August, 2014 1 comments

This spicy spread is great for anything and everything. Can be used for a dipping sauce for say, tater tots, fries, corn dogs, hot dogs, etc. Or you can use it on burgers such as “eh hem…” spicy black bean burgers perhaps.

Simple homemade sauces are the healthiest and easiest way to travel. No more wasting money at the store for a chipotle mayo, barbecue sauce or spicy mustard when you can make them all yourself with a few simple ingredients we all have.

Here’s the key to this spicy spread…

Ingredients: