A few recipes to share

Cooking

Okay while I don't think much of my own cooking apparently I'm not completely horrible... at least no one has died yet that I know of. I've posted my pumpkin seed recipes and just recently my peach yo-pop recipe but I figured some of the basic stuff might be good to add too. 

99% of my recipes come from various sources either they are prepared as is or I've done tweaks to them over the years  for any number of reasons. 

Taco Seasoning

1 Tb All-Purpose Flour
1 Tb Cornstarch
1 Tb Dried Onion Flakes
1 Beef Bouillon Cube ground up
1 tsp Garlic Salt
1 tsp Ground Cumin
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Chili Powder
1/2 tsp Onion Powder
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/4 tsp Granulated Sugar

Mix all ingredients thoroughly add to 1 lb of ground beef (or turkey or I've even done it with chicken though is a little odd but not bad) and 3/4-1 cup of water. Mix and let simmer about 15 min or so basically until the meat has had time too soak and most of the liquid is gone should look about the consistency of when you use normal packaged seasoning on your taco meat.

Zucchini Bread

I've had a lot of people say "I just can't make this right" though I've never personally had that problem probably because this is the only zucchini bread recipe I have ever used. Now if you've never made zucchini bread or had it before oh the things you are missing! But the big thing to remember is that this is a very MOIST bread which means when wrapped up it may get 'sticky' on the outside but it is still good but also that it doesn't last as long as commercial white breads aka I wouldn't make this 2 weeks in advance. I'm unsure of how well it really freezes because it never lasts around my house.

3 Eggs
1 Tb Vanilla

2 Cups Granulated Sugar

1 Cup Vegetable Oil 

2 Cups All-Purpose Flour

2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp salt 

1 Tb Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Baking Powder

2 Medium, grated, unpeeled zucchini (Just take your best guess on what 'medium is' this recipe is pretty forgiving but don't grab the biggest zucchini you can find otherwise you'll have extremely wet loaves.)
1 Cup Chopped Walnuts optional (Sometimes I put them in sometimes I don't depends on what I have around the house and trust me it is good either way.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In mixing bowl, beat eggs till frothy. Beat in sugar, oil and vanilla until thick and lemon colored. Sift in flour (or if you are like me just tap it in slowly the big thing here is you don't want to just drop a big clump in at once), cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt (I usually mix dry ingredients in a bowl by themselves so I can have them all measured out and mix it together so I get an even consistency between the powdered items and then tap it in.). Fold in zucchini and walnuts (if you don't know what I mean by fold I mean remove the mixing bowl from the mixer and add your zucchini and walnuts then using a wooden spoon or spatchula -- you've probably or at least should have used one by now to scrape the sides of the bowl while mixing -- mix in evenly the walnuts and zucchini by hand. Zucchini being soft as it is easily comes apart and our object is not to make zucchini soup.).
Pour mixture in 2 greased and floured loaf pans. Bake @ 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Fun Treats with Kids

Kids like to get in on cooking too so here are two of my favorite recipes that are extremely easy.

Pizza Snacks

1 Roll of Ritz Cracker's

1 Jar of Pizza Sauce

1 package of Pepperoni's

1 package of Shredded Cheese

Spread 1 Ritz cracker with pizza sauce add 1 pepperoni and then sprinkle with cheese and bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees on ungreased cookie sheet until cheese is melted. 

Magic Peanut Butter Cookies

These are probably the softest and easiest peanut butter cookies ever!

1 Cup Peanut Butter

1 Cup Sugar

1 Egg, Beaten

In a bowl cream together all ingredients. Roll into small balls and place on a sprayed baking sheet. With a fork, crisscross and flatten balls slightly. Sprinkle with more sugar (optional). Bake at 350 degrees for 10 min. 

Leave on baking sheet for 5 min; then remove and cool on wire rack. 

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Well I hope that gets everyone started on cooking up some great food and I'll add more recipes later but for now I better go do the mom thing and get back to work around the house.