Recipe: White Christmas Pancakes

Happy Christmas for everyone! Oddly enough, we're having a white Christmas here. So to celebrate being a Texan's version of 'snowed in', we made spiced pancakes and bacon, and snuggled up on our couch with some cream soda with caramel whipped cream.

Yum, pancakes.

Spiced Pancakes

Note: recipe adapted from Group Recipes spiced pillow pancakes

1 3/8 cup of all purpose flour

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 egg white

1 egg yolk

1 1/4 cup milk

3/4 tsp vanilla

Pam or melted butter

Mix dry ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl.

Beat egg white until soft peaks form. Set aside.

Preheat skillet sprayed with Pam over medium heat.

Mix rest of wet ingredients together until joined. Incorporate wet mixture with dry mixture - it should be a bit lumpy. Fold in the egg white.

Place spoonful of batter into skillet. Flip pancake when top is bubbly. Repeat until all the batter is used.

Top with butter and a drizzle with maple syrup.

Serve with crispy bacon and enjoy!

Recipe: Super Yummy Tacos

Prepare yourself to eat the best dang tacos this side of the Mississippi!

Okay, so I don't actually know that to be fact, but my tummy sure thinks it is. These tacos have been in my family since the beginning, when I was so little that the only role I was allowed to perform in the preparations was setting the table and readying the condiments. My mom called them burracos, because they were half burrito and half taco and all delicious. I loved how the house would be in such a bussle getting everything ready for taco nights.

I remember the first time I actually got to fry the shells myself (about age 11 or so). As I flipped the shell, hot grease sloshed onto my hand. Luckily, minor grease burns can get you out of PE for a whole week! And I learned to be more careful when flipping tortillas. The only thing that's changed from then and now is the number of tacos I make in one sitting. I've learned that making them all up in one fell swoop and reheating in the toaster oven is much more appetizing than making them up as I'm ready to eat them - the shells just get so super crunchy in the toaster oven!

Reheated tacos from toaster oven. These are the last two tacos from the batch we made Saturday night.

Super Yummy Tacos

Note: These directions are set up for more than one person, so invite some friends over and get them helping! This recipe makes a total of 24 tacos. They can be refrigerated and reheated in the toaster oven at 350 for a few minutes on each side or until golden brown. And don't worry, they get eaten up fast so you won't have to keep leftovers for long.

{Ingredients}

2 cans refried beans

1 pound ground beef

1 packet taco seasoning

1 package (24count) corn tortillas

Vegetable oil

Any extra condiments you enjoy with tacos (we found some creamy havarti cheese with jalapenos in it - yum!)

{Directions}

Person 1: Brown the beef. Drain grease. Stir in both cans of beans and taco seasoning. Stir everything together then place on slightly lower than medium heat until warm, stirring occassionally.

Person 2: While the beef is browning, pour a layer of vegetable oil along the bottom of a sauce pan or skillet over medium heat. Once oil is hot (check by setting the edge of tortilla in it - if it starts to sizzle, it's ready), start frying your tortillas flat until golden brown on both sides - about 30 seconds on each side (I used my kitchen timer).

Person 1 or 3: Line casserole dish with four layers of paper towels (for soaking up any excess grease). As shells become ready, place a spoonful of filling inside and fold in half. Add any condiments that everyone agrees on here (cheese will get wonderfully melty at this stage) - if no one agrees on condiments, you can do an assortment or leave them out for everyone to do themselves.

Once the last shell gets filled, gather round the table and dig in!

Recipe: Chicken and Rice Fajita Burrito

Last week, I came home from work to the whole house smelling of dirty socks. Sounds gross, but it was amazing because I knew exactly what that smell meant - FAJITAS! And I was right, Martin had whipped us up a grand feast of chicken and rice fajita burritos. And he picked up these great blue corn and flaxseed tortillas. Yum!

Chicken and Rice Fajita Burrito

{Ingredients}

1 tbsp spanish rice seasoning

4 chicken tenderloins

1 cup uncooked white rice

1 can roasted garlic tomato sauce (8oz)

1 tbsp oil

1.5 oz fajita seasoning

2 cups water

{Directions}

Cover tenderloins in fajita seasoning and leave in fridge for 30 minutes.

Brown rice in pan with oil. Stir in tomato sauce, rice seasoning, and water and bring to boil. Cover and simmer on low heat for 15-20 minutes.

Cut chicken into fajita strips, and fry in pan with a little bit of oil.

Heat up some tortillas and enjoy!

Recipe: Plantains

I know, I know. A recipe post two days in a row! But I've been out of commission for the past week due to straining my wrist while training. Damn - no knitting for me. So I've been working on my reading list while Martin's been cooking me delicious meals and snacks.

We just recently got an Aldi in town, and Martin was so excited when he saw plantains. Plantains? I asked. What are those? Martin was appalled that I'd never had the pleasure of eating a plantain, so he grabbed two and went to work on preparing this simple, delicious snack.

Traditional Cuban Plantains

{Ingredients}

1 plantain

1 tomato

salt

oil

{Directions}

 Put a thin layer of oil in a pan over medium heat. Peel and cut plantain into sections. Place sections in pan. Flip once bottoms look done.

Take plantain from pan and smoosh between two layers of parchment paper (do you notice I use this stuff for everything?).

Put squished plantain back in pan to fry until cripsy. (They looked so tasty at this stage, I almost couldn't wait to dig in.)

Slice tomato and lightly salt. Place over plantain and enjoy!


This being my first time to eat plantains, I tried a little bit at every step. They basically taste just like a little potato cake by themselves, but once you add the tomato (which I'm not usually a huge fan of) with salt, it becomes this sort of sweet delicacy that melts in your mouth. Yum!

Recipe: Sinus Busting Chili

Every year when the weather is cooling off for fall, we're blessed with a few warm days between bitter, bone-chilling cold fronts. And when these cold fronts come in, I become a sniffling, sneezing, droopy-faced mess. To make matters worse, I have a really hard time / aversion to taking medicine.

The Green Pharmacy :: James A Duke, Ph.D.

So I pulled out the Green Pharmacy book Martin bought me a few month's ago and looked up Sinusitis. Of course the normal spicy foods remedy wasn't new to me, but the peppermint oil rub (three drops of peppermint essential oils with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil) was definitely one I hadn't heard. Martin and I had already made this chili the night before, but a few of our ingredients were at the top of the list in foods / herbs that aid in healing Sinusitis. If you'd like your chili to be more effective at fighting your sinuses, just add some horseradish or hotter peppers.

Sinus Busting Chili

1 onion

3 - 4 tomatoes

4 - 5 cloves of garlic

2 - 3 bell peppers

2 cans black beans

2 cans kidney beans

2 - 3 packets chili seasoning

2 lbs ground beef

 

Dice all veggies and garlic; I used my awesome kitchen Ninja to get them super fine.

 

Brown the ground beef with some a clove of garlic, a quarter of the onion, and about a half pack of seasoning. While the meat's cooking, place remaining ingredients in a large stew pot over low-medium heat. Drain beef once browned and add to pot. Allow pot to simmer of low-medium heat until chili has reduced (this can take a while... about two and a half episodes of Big Bang Theory). Enjoy with corn chips and cheese!