No Food

This week I didn't have time to make anything except mac n' cheese, and I figured that probably wasn't worth sharing, so I don't have any pictures this week...but I am planning on making a few different things this week, so I'll share those when I've done them.

Teriyaki Chicken

This week, I made teriyaki chicken. It's one of the more difficult recipes I've tried, although it's not that hard. I think it turned out well. To make it, I needed soy sauce, water, garlic powder, brown sugar, honey, cornstarch, and chicken.

I started by putting 1/2 cup of soy sauce into a medium sized pan on the stove, then added a 1 1/2 cups of water, a 1/2 tsp. of garlic powder, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, and 3 Tbsp. of honey all together. I put the heat on medium low, and let all the ingredients combine and heat up. After they were warmed, I combined 4 Tbsp. of corn starch and 1/2 cup of cold water before mixing it with the other ingredients in the pot. I then brought it to a boil, then turned the heat to low. During this, I also cooked some chicken, and cut it up, and made some broccoli as well to go with it. I served it on rice, and it was delicious.

Holiday Recipes

This week for my blog post, I really wanted to gather up some ideas of  desserts and snacks I could make in the coming month with the holidays coming. I love this time of year, and think it would be super fun to make some recipes to go along with the season.

First up, pies. I really want to try making some type of pie this month.They're kind of a Thanksgiving thing, but I think they're good for the holidays too.  I've actually never tried making a pie or helping with one, and while I think it might be somewhat difficult, I think I'd learn a lot from it. So here are some of the types of pies I'm considering making:

Peppermint Pie

Apple Pie

And some other dessert recipes I really want to try making:

Christmas Fudge

Hot Chocolate Cake

Candy Cane Popcorn

There are a few other recipes I think would be really awesome to make during the holidays, like gingerbread and sugar cookies, but I didn't want to put too many pictures on here. My blog has mostly turned into a dessert blog, not really food, but I hope you guys like it. Thanks for reading;)

Homemade Oreos

This week for my food, I decided to make Homemade Oreo's. This recipe actually wasn't too tricky, but the end result is so delicious! The recipe only needed a few ingredients: devil's food cake mix, eggs, butter, powdered sugar, and cream cheese. There were two parts to this recipe- the cookies, and the filling. I started with the cookies. I decided to double the recipe so it would make more. So first, I creamed together 4 eggs and 1/2 cup of softened butter. After that was done, I slowly added two boxes of devil's food cake mix. This was a little tricky to get it all mixed in and perfect, but it was okay. When these items were all mixed, the mix was perfect to roll into little 1 inch balls and put on a pan. I put parchment paper down, then my cake balls. I fit 20 balls on each cookie pan, and did 3 pans. Then I baked them one at a time in the oven at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.

 The fun part was pulling them out of the oven when they were done, and tapping the pan on a hard surface to make the cookies flatten out a little more than they did in the oven. While the cookies were in the oven, I made my filling. All I had to do for it was cream together 8 oz of softened cream cheese with 1/2 cup of softened butter, then slowly mix in 3 cups of powdered sugar. After the cookies were cooled down, I then matched all of them with another according to size. When they were all matched up, I put a dollop of filling on one side of the cookie, then put the other cookie on top, and twisted it and pushed the cookies together until they looked perfect. These were so good! I also considered putting flavoring into the frosting, such as mint, but didn't end up doing it. I was very happy with this recipe, and will definitely make these again!

Fruit Smoothie

The other recipe I made this week was a fruit smoothie. I love smoothies, but usually I don't make them for myself, so I thought that I would try it out. I used a simple berry recipe, including a banana, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, milk, orange juice, and ice.

I first grabbed my blender, and put my banana pieces in the bottom. The banana was pretty ripe, and that's when bananas are the sweetest. Next, I put in my berries-about 2 cups altogether of a mixture of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries. After this, I put a little less than 1 cup of crushed ice in, and then it was time for my liquid. I used 2 cups of orange juice and 1 cup of milk.





At this point, the smoothie didn't look very good, and almost looked like it wouldn't turn out, but it was all okay after I blended it all together. After this, all I needed to do was blend it all up. So I used my "smoothie" setting on my blender, and let it blend until all the ingredients were combined, and the smoothie was a pinkish color. I poured it in a glass, and topped it with a few berries. It didn't need any sugar, because the fruit already had enough natural sugars. The smoothie was delicious, and I was glad I could try making it. This is what the finished product looked like:

Brownies

I didn't post anything last week for my blog post, so this week I made two things. Today I'm sharing a recipe I made for brownies, and tomorrow I'll share another recipe I made this week. This recipe for brownies came from a lady in my ward, and I wasn't sure how they would turn out, but they were pretty good! I only needed a few ingredients for this recipe-butter, cocoa, sugar, eggs, and flour. The recipe also called for optional chocolate chips and chopped walnuts, but I didn't have any walnuts, and the recipe already looked sweet enough without the chocolate chips.

First, I preheated my oven to 350 degrees, and sprayed a 9x13 inch pan. Then, in a saucepan, I melted together 1 cup + 5 Tbsp. butter and 1 cup of cocoa on low on the stove. This took longer than I expected, but it was okay. My next step was to pour the mixture into a mixing bowl, and stir in 2 + 2/3 cups of sugar. I used my Kitchen Aid for this to make it easier. I added 6 eggs, one at a time until the mixture was creamy, and then added 2 + 2/3 cups of flour to the mixture. After this, I poured it into my pan, and put it in the oven. Here is a picture of what it looked like before cooking:



The recipe said to leave them in the oven for 20-30 minutes, so at 20 minutes I checked, but they were still pretty gooey on the inside. Even though I like my brownies a little underdone, they were a little more underdone than I would have liked. At 30 minutes, they were perfect. Brownies are one of my favorite treats, so I was really excited to make them. They turned out really great, even though I thought they would be super thick before cooking them! This is what they looked like after cooking:

Fettuccine Alfredo

This week, I made fettuccine alfredo. I started by gathering my ingredients-heavy cream, milk, salt, pepper, garlic salt, parmesan, butter, noodles, and chicken.

My first step was to mix 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, 1 1/2 cups milk, and 4 Tbsp of butter together on medium in a saucepan on the stove. After they were mixed together, I added 1/4 tsp each of garlic salt, pepper, and salt, and stirred it all together. Then I boiled it on high while stirring to make sure it didn't scald. Once it began to boil, I turned down the heat, and brought it to a simmer, until it thickened up a little. Next, I add 3/4 cup of parmesan to the mixture, and let it melt in, and thicken. After this, my sauce was done.

I actually used penne pasta, and I had it cooking in a pot while I was making my sauce. I also decided to add chicken, and cooked it in a pan, then cut it up. I put it all together, and served it with salad, and garlic bread.

This was a delicious meal, and I will definitely be making it again in the future. My family loved it as well.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week for my project, I decided to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies because they are perfect fall treats, and one of my favorites. I started by gathering my ingredients- I needed salt, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, vanilla, eggs, butter, granulated sugar, a can of Libby's pumpkin, and chocolate chips. 


I started by preheating the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, then began making the cookies. I decided to double the recipe, I started by combining 4 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons baking soda, and 2 teaspoons salt in a bowl. Then, in a separate bowl, I beat 2 sticks of butter, 1 cup of brown sugar, and 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar together. I then added the can of pumpkin (about 1 1/2 cups), 2 eggs, and 3 teaspoons vanilla extract to the mixture. I stirred in the flour mixture until combined, then blended in 3 cups of chocolate chips. Lastly, I dropped scoops onto baking sheets, and cooked them for 11-14 minutes. 


The original recipe said it would make about 36 cookies, but I only ended up with 48, when doubling it should have given me 72. I believe this is because I made my cookies much bigger than they were meant to be. Although they tasted good, they weren't the best pumpkin chocolate chip cookies I've tasted. The first few batches I cooked got a little over done, but the last batches ended just how I wanted them to. It also took a fairly long time, so I hope as I cook more, I may become faster.

Food and Dessert Ideas

For my 20% project, I’ve decided to make at least one food item a week so that I can become better at cooking and baking. It’s something I really hope to get better at, and be more comfortable with, so I’m really excited. So for my first blog post, I decided to put together some ideas of types of foods and desserts I want to try to make. I want to make a variety of foods, including some from every food group. I also want to make foods for different meals throughout the day-breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as snacks and desserts.

Breakfasts:

                         

Kiwi Strawberry Smoothie       Poppy seed Muffins      Apple Pie Waffles

Lunches and Dinners:

                       

 Teriyaki Chicken            Cheesy Potato Soup                Fettucine Alfredo

Desserts:

                                                  

            Apple Pie                Caramel Chocolate Poke Cake          Butterfinger Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars