October 29, 2009

5 Minute Chocolate Cake

Filed under: food — Tags: food — K @ 10:34 PM

The day before our vacation ended, I started getting sick. I toughed it out since that was our Grand Canyon day, but I slept on D’s shoulder the entire flight home. I was worried about looking sick in front of all the people we had just flown with. I asked that he take me to my parent’s so I can sleep somewhere familiar. The look on my mom’s face when I walked in the door worried me so I took my temp – 103.1 – the highest I’ve seen it in a long time! So if I have H1N1, do I go expose other people to it at the hospital? And if I have something else, do I risk complicating things by being exposed to H1N1 at the hospital? So here I am in flannel jammies resting on the couch at home.

What do I have? I have no idea. Looking up symptoms online, speaking with an on-call nurse, and also having my mom, a nurse, give her opinion, all tell me that I could have either bronchitis, walking pneumonia, or everybody’s favorite (I’m being sarcastic here), swine flu. I have asthma that doesn’t bother me until I’m sick, so breathing has been a little uncomfortable. I’m making progress though – my temp has gone down on it’s own and I’m not feeling as weak.

While I’m sick I’m not too hungry. Pot roast and veggies were too heavy. And when I got hungry again I wanted something different…

I received an email from my mom a year ago containing the recipe for quick chocolate cake that uses basic kitchen staples.

For those times when you have that urge and nothing else will do!

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
a small splash of vanilla essence
1 coffee mug (I always use a bowl because it’s easier and cleaner to add extras, like ice cream!)

1 – Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well.

2 – Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
3 – Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.

4 – Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla essence, and mix again.

5 – Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don’t be alarmed!

6 – Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to feel slightly more virtuous).

And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!

Seems like you could make up a bunch of these ahead and just add the liquids and egg when it’s time to make one. Put each batch in a snack-size zip lock bag. You’d cut the prep/cook time down to about 3.5 min. The kids could make it up quick without too much mess. It would be a quick snack for visiting kids/grandkids.

How Does it Taste?

Honestly, it tastes like something I made in middle school family and consumer sciences class. To be more descriptive, it tastes like the cake desserts that come in microwavable dinners. It’s not light and fluffy, but when you’re really wanting (or needing ) chocolate cake fast, this does the trick.

If you’re interested in more recipes you can check out my food and recipes pages.

I’m also participating in the following carnivals today! You can find many more recipes here:

Comments (22)

October 16, 2009

Homemade Tater Tots

Filed under: food — Tags: food, meal — K @ 1:56 PM

Yep, you read that right! And yes, we’re still working on eating all of those potatoes I mentioned a while back. I am now out of town to attend Blogworld 2009 (twitter #bwe09) and D will be joining me on Sunday to attend a convention as well. For the last couple days we’ve been trying to use up the fridge foods and he decided he wanted to try making tater tots.

D wanted me to make sure I told you that if you’re not feeling adventurous or patient, just go to the store and buy a bag of tots for 99-cents. He followed the directions of other recipes and got frustrated so he made his own. Also, the way D cooks, this recipe is also not for those who get annoyed by non-measured-out recipes.

1 – Instructions for Potato “Glue”

(this holds the potatoes together)

Potatoes – peeled and shredded
Flour
Egg
Oil
Spices – your choice. D used Salt, pepper, and paprika
Mix flour, egg, oil, and spices together until you form a paste.
Mix potatoes into the paste
Form balls
Then…

2 – Instructions for the “Crust”

Flour
Spices – your choice. D used Salt, pepper, and paprika
Mix the above ingredients together
Bread the potato mixture one at a time
Place on a plate and flatten into patties
Then…

3 – Carefully put the potato patties into hot oil and fry both sides until light golden brown.

4 – Drain on a paper towel lined plate

5 – Sprinkle with salt if you want and enjoy! Or use them in a recipe…

My Opinion: In the future I would add a lot more potatoes to the mix – just enough to hold them together. This would make them more potato-y. The crust was excellently crunchy!

Tater Tot Casserole

Ingredients:

1 can Cream Soup (We used Cream of Mushroom)
1 can Corn
1 pound ground beef
Shredded cheese
Homemade Tots

Instructions:

Mix soup, corn, beef, and cheese
Pour mixture into a 9×13 dish
Top with shredded cheese
Layer tots on top
And if you’re like D, top with even more cheese!
Bake at 350 degrees F until bubbly (about 30 minutes)
Enjoy!

If you’re interested in more recipes you can check out my food and recipes pages.

I’m also participating in the following carnivals today! You can find many more recipes here:

Comments (8)

October 9, 2009

Easy Kettle Corn Recipe

Filed under: food — Tags: food, natural, saving money, theaters — K @ 2:38 AM

Fall is the time to eat scrumptious squash and pick homegrown popcorn. Whether at a festival or farmer’s market, there’s usually someone selling kettle corn. I love the stuff, but it’s expensive. This homemade version requires less than 50 cents and only 9 minutes!

Prep (1 minute):

A large pot with a lid (mine’s 8 quarts)
Oil
1/4 cup sugar (I used raw sugar, which is light brown – this gives the kettle corn a caramel colored glaze as you’ll see with the finished product. It’s not burnt.)
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
Salt
Your favorite popcorn bowl

Instructions (7 minutes):

Pour oil so it covers the bottom of the pot.

Throw 3-5 kernels in the pot and put on medium high heat.

When all the kernels pop (approximately 4 minutes), pour the sugar in and shake the pot to distribute evenly.

Immediately pour in the popcorn kernels and shake to distribute evenly.

IMPORTANT: Put the cover on the pot! Oil splatters galore!

Shake the pot back and forth over the burner until most kernels are popped. (The popping will slow down just like the microwavable stuff.) This will take approximately 3 minutes.

Finishing up (1 minute):

Alternate pouring popcorn in the large bowl and pouring salt on to get the trademark salty-sweet taste of kettle corn!

And yes, where the begging dogs can’t reach, the cats will always be there to make up for it.

The cost analysis:

Oil and salt – I don’t know since I didn’t measure them
1/4 cup sugar = $0.09
1/2 cup popcorn kernels – $0.20
TOTAL: $0.29 (plus oil and salt) !!!
This sure beats paying $4 for the same amount at a market!

If you’re interested in more recipes you can check out my food and recipes pages.

I’m also participating in the following foodie carnivals today! You can find many more recipes here:

Comments (23)

October 2, 2009

3 Ways to Get Squashed!

Filed under: food — Tags: food, health, meal — K @ 5:44 AM

The days are getting shorter. In Iowa, the leaves are starting to change and the cool, sweet scent of fall permeates the crisp air. Of course this is after the grey days and cold rain that are happening right now. The smaller farmer’s markets are winding down and the larger markets are preparing to move into their “winter market” homes.

Iowa Fall Produce

Apple
Onions
Pumpkins
Radishes
Squash – spaghetti, acorn, butternut
Sweet potatoes
Turnips
Tomatoes
Zucchini

My favorite fall treat is acorn squash. It brings back memories of my dad bringing some back from a local market. The way I fix it now is the way he fixed it – cut in half with butter and brown sugar… yum! I have yet to get my acorn squash this season because I set out to try some new-to-me foods. Honestly, I don’t think that I’ve ever eaten butternut squash. At least not that I can remember, so that was my experiment this week. For you today I have not one, not two, but three ways to use up butternut squash!

The “appetizer” today is…

Roasted Butternut Squash Seeds

Cut open the squash. Scoop out the seed mess.
If you’re not ready to roast, you can put them in a container for later use.
If you’re ready to roast, place the seeds in a colander. Spray some water on them and slosh around.
Pick out all the stringies you can and discard/compost.
Let the seeds dry for about 30 minutes.
Place the seeds in a baking pan.
Let them dry some more.
Preheat your oven to 275 degrees F.
Pick a seasoning! (However I did not need as much as their recipe calls for, so I made minor adjustments.) I did basic butter and my favorite salt! (I put them in a bowl for this part.) Lightly baste the seeds.
Bake at 275 degrees F for 10-30 minutes, checking every 5 or so.
Scrumptious! They taste just like pumpkin seeds.

For the “main dish”, you are having…

Pages: 1 2 3

Comments (24)

September 25, 2009

Bacon Potato Soup for Your Man

Filed under: food — Tags: food, meal, projects — K @ 3:36 AM

When your husband is out finishing a project like this…

and this (yep, that’s a new header in progress)… and asks for a hearty soup for dinner, full of his favorites, I make him this…

Baked Potato Soup

Ingredients

4 large Baking Potatoes
2/3 cup Butter
12 slices Bacon, cooked and crumbled
2/3 cup Flour
1-1/4 cup grated Cheddar Cheese
6 cups Milk
8 ounces Sour Cream

Instructions

Bake potatoes. Cool. Scoop out pulp and set aside. Discard/compost skins.
Melt butter over low heat and add flour.
Add milk, heat and stir until thick.
Add potato pulp, salt, pepper, 2 tablespoons of green onion, 1/2 cup of crumbled bacon and 1 cup cheese.
Cook until thoroughly heated; stir in sour cream and heat through.
Serve with remaining green onions, bacon and 1/4 cup cheese as garnish.

This recipe was slightly altered from the original at the Potato Soup Recipe website. There are quite a few variations of potato soup there! If you really need some veggies in your soup, you can add the 4 scallions back in. Our grocery store was selling a 15 pound bag of potatoes for $3, so I took advantage of the deal. Another variation I made since I had so many potatoes was that I added more to the recipe. I left some of the potato as chunks instead of making it completely smooth (that just doesn’t seem right for potato soup) and it tasted wonderful. D thought so too – we had quite a bit left over which he took to work the rest of the week. No, I’m not like that! I offered other things to take for lunch but he wanted the soup.

We might need some help finishing off these potatoes. Do you have a favorite potato recipe that we can use?

Next week I’ll show you three different ways to use up butternut squash so make sure to stop back! In the meantime, you can also check out some more recipes here and here. Also be sure to check out the websites below.

I’m happy to share this article with…

Comments (41)

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

Prudent and Practical

October 29, 2009

5 Minute Chocolate Cake

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

How Does it Taste?

October 16, 2009

Homemade Tater Tots

1 – Instructions for Potato “Glue”

2 – Instructions for the “Crust”

Tater Tot Casserole

Ingredients:

Instructions:

October 9, 2009

Easy Kettle Corn Recipe

Prep (1 minute):

Instructions (7 minutes):

Finishing up (1 minute):

The cost analysis:

October 2, 2009

3 Ways to Get Squashed!

Iowa Fall Produce

Roasted Butternut Squash Seeds

September 25, 2009

Bacon Potato Soup for Your Man

When your husband is out finishing a project like this…

Baked Potato Soup

Ingredients

Instructions