Portabella mushroom burgers

Made portabella mushroom burgers last night. Both myself and my oldest daughter love them and quite frankly they taste better than a regular hamburger.
I started of by whisking the following ingredients in a bowl:

• 1/4 c. balsamic vinegar (use a good quality one)
• 2 tbs. olive oil
• 2 tbs. minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp dried basil and oregano
• cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper to taste

I remove the stems and the gills from the caps of 4 medium to large portabella mushrooms and placed them in the marinade. I toss to coat completely and let sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes. While mushrooms are marinating, I toast hamburger buns with garlic Parmesan butter (softened butter, minced garlic, grated parmesan, pepper, and dried basil) and set aside until ready to plate.

Toasted parmesan garlic buns

I usually grill my mushrooms on my George Forman grill, but this time I broiled them in my toaster oven (love that thing). I placed the mushrooms on the rack gill side down and cooked for approx. 10-15 mins., turning once halfway through cooking and basting with marinade.
         **make sure to line the pan with foil to catch drips and make clean up easy.

Marinated and ready to cook

Once the mushrooms are cooked I topped with provolone cheese and let melt (I topped mine with goat cheese). Dress the sandwich just as you would a regular hamburger; i.e onion, tomato, lettuce, aioli, etc.

Cooked mushrooms topped with provolone and goat cheese

That's one good lookin "burger"!

honey barbecue chicken tenders and potatoes

I love when I feed my babies and they say "momma, you threw down on that food!" Tonight was one of those nights. My oldest wanted honey bbq chicken for dinner and to make it a meal I added fries. I started by marinating my chicken for approx. 2 hours in the fridge.

chicken marinating in milk w/lemon juice, minced garlic, cayenne, black pepper, onion powder, and hot sauce

 For the coating I mixed chicken fry and crushed saltine crackers to give it more crunch and texture. Sometimes I use crushed croutons, it depends on what I'm fixing. I also season my breading with some of the same seasonings used in the marinade, with the addition of Old Bay.

my favorite brand of chicken fry

After breading, I let the chicken rest for a few minutes before shallow frying so the crust doesn't come off while cooking. Once the chicken has been cooked and drained I toss it in the honey bbq sauce and voila!

potatoes tossed in olive oil and seasoned, then baked in a 350 degree oven for 30 mins.

Chicken and goat cheese pizza

I made pizza the other night and although it wasn't as fancy as other pizzas that I have made in the past, it was still pretty darn good. I used Trader Joe's pizza dough and rolled it out and pre baked it in a 350 degree oven for about 5-10 minutes. In the meantime I seasoned my boneless skinless chicken breast with salt, pepper, cayenne, garlic powder, and onion powder; then sauteed them in approx. 2 tbs. olive oil.
After 10 minutes, I removed the pizza crust and let it cool for a couple of minutes. Once cool, I top with pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, chicken that's been diced, goat cheese and pepperoni & hot banana peppers on one half. I top that with more mozzarella and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Before I put the rest of the cheese on

After. The left side is just chicken and goat cheese, the right side has the pepperoni and banana peppers.

It's been a few days since my last post but I'm back now (fist pump). So I made chicken an waffles the other day and I must say they were absolutely positively fantabulous!! Oh em gee! I'm usually not one to toot my own horn but TOOT TOOT. My chicken tenders were marinated and seasoned just perfectly and then shallow fried in veggie oil. I don't eat a lot of fried foods and when I do I try not to deep fry.
Anywho, a basic recipe is listed and you can adjust the seasonings to you taste (besides I never really measure anything anyway lol).

• buttermilk, enough to cover the chicken. If you don't have buttermilk you can use 1tsp lemon juice plus enough milk to make 1 cup
• salt
• pepper
• cayenne
• onion powder
• garlic powder
• hot sauce, to taste

Clean and rinse the chicken and then place it in the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
For my breading I used House Autry Chicken Fry which I seasoned with all the same seasonings as the marinade except the hot sauce and salt. Bread the chicken and let rest for 2-3 minutes before frying. Heat vegetable oil in large skillet over med-high heat and shallow fry until chicken is done.

P.S. still haven't figured out how to add these darn pictures but as soon as I do I'll edit my post.

BREAKING NEWS!!!!

I think I finally figured this picture thing out. Check this out.

Chicken and Waffles!! Yummy!

  Now doesn't that look down right scrumptious?

Sweet potato pie success!!!

Sooo, I made a sweet potato pie today for the first time and it was a success!! I made it semi homemade style and used canned yams but overall it was quite tasty; I think the little bit of eggnog (yes, I said eggnog!) that I added gave it a very delicious and non-traditional taste, perfect for the holidays. I wish I had exact measurements so I could post the recipe but I did everything by eye. I wasn't sure what temp to cook it on so the edges got too brown too fast (but they didn't burn LOL). Maybe when I figure out how to upload my pics from Picasa I'll post them. Later.

Update: Was going through my phone and realized that I accidentally deleted my sweet potato pie pic :(
May try to get it from facebook #crosses fingers

Spinach Feta Turkey Burgers

Last night I made spinach feta turkey burgers. They were sooo moist and delicious :). Here's the recipe:
1 pound of lean ground turkey
fresh baby portabella mushrooms, chopped
frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 egg, beaten
bread crumbs
1 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. Worcestershire sauce
feta cheese
minced garlic
spices and seasonings

I sauteed the mushrooms in a little bit of olive oil and I added salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and onion powder; fresh onion would probably work too I just didn't have any on hand. In a medium sized bowl beat the egg; then add the spinach, mushrooms, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and seasonings to taste. Once everything is combined, add the turkey and mix well making sure not to over mix or it will make your burgers tough. Add bread crumbs as a binder; I think I may have used about 3 or 4 tbs. I'm not sure, I just added enough to bind the ingredients together. Finally add the feta and form into patties. I grilled them on my George Forman grill until done and topped with horseradish cheddar cheese but I'm sure you could use any cheese that you wanted.

These burgers are so yummy, moist and scrumptious; and you can freeze any left over mix to have for a quick lunch or dinner. Just form into patties and brush them on both sides with olive oil before wrapping them to be frozen.

new to this

So this is my first blog...ever, and I'm kind of excited about it!I love to cook and share my recipes with family and friends, so we'll see how this works out. Well, it's almost 1 am and I have to go to work in the morning so i guess this is good night.