Sweet & Spicy Pork with Jasmine Rice

As you know by now, you know I love to make up recipes. So tonight, I had a pork loin sitting in the fridge and I knew it had to be cooked up before it went bad. I am on a special diet, so I don't even get to taste test the recipes I create at the moment, but Derek told me I needed to write this one down. I also didn't measure anything, so these measurements are a guess except for the rice and pork loin. Just play with it and make sure to taste it. I had Savanna, Zane and Derek taste it to make sure it tastes good. Leave your comments if you end up trying it.

Sweet & Spicy Pork with Jasmine Rice

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lb Pork Loin thinly sliced
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup less sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 cup Hoisin Sauce
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp garlic salt
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups cooked Jasmine Rice

Directions

1. Heat skillet with olive oil and cook pork until done.
2. Add brown sugar, soy sauce, cayenne pepper, garlic salt, onion powder and salt.
3. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer for 10 mins.
4. Serve over cooked Jasmine Rice.

Best Brownies

My kids love brownies. I love brownies. What's not to love?? I love making homemade stuff so I had to search the internet to find the perfect recipe for me. I happened upon this one. I LOVED it. It isn't cakey but it isn't too gooey either. It is just right. Serve it with vanilla ice cream and it is even better. ENJOY!

Best Brownies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350'. Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan.
2. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter.
3. Remove from heat.
4. Stir in sugar, eggs and vanilla.
5. Beat in cocoa, flour, salt and baking powder.
6. Spread into prepared pan
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Do NOT overcook.

Frosting

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Directions

1. Combine 3 tablespoons of butter, 3 tablespoons cocoa, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 cup powdered sugar.
2. If it is too thick, add milk to soften.
3. Frost brownies while still warm.

Italian Chicken Pasta Toss

I started Farrell's 10-week challenge. It is an extreme bodyshaping program. It incorporates kickboxing, strength training, nutrition and accountability. I am loving it. Let's move on to the nutrition portion. I have been eating 6 smaller meals throughout the day and making sure they are balanced (or trying to at least) . My children keep asking me why I am eating what I am eating and why I get to eat certain things at dinner and so forth. Tonight I decided to make one of my favorite recipes from The Pampered Chef. I have found some of my favorite recipes are from them. This being one of them. I planned on making it just for my family and then I was going to make something similar for myself. I then looked at the nutritional part and found that it really worked for my plan so I made it for everyone. My kids were excited I was eating the same thing as them. Even though some are not fans of tomatoes, or some do not like bell peppers and some do not like zucchini, it all worked out great! (as for the picture, it is not the best but I forgot to take a photo BEFORE eating it and therefore only got a picture with what was left lol.)

Italian Chicken Pasta Toss

Ingredients

• 6 oz uncooked bow tie pasta (about 3 cups)
• 2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 medium zucchini, sliced
• 1 small yellow or red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
• 1/2 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch strips
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 2 large garlic cloves, pressed
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. dried basil
• 1 tsp. salt
• grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and keep warm. Dice tomatoes, slice zucchini, chop onion, cut bell pepper, and cut chicken into 1-inch strips
2. Heat oil in stir fry pan (or nonstick skillet) over medium high heat until hot. Press garlic into skillet. Add chicken and stir fry 5 min. or until chicken is no longer pink. Reduce heat to medium and add onion, zucchini, bell pepper, peas, seasonings and salt. Stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, and stir-fry for another 2 minutes or until heated through, stirring gently.
3. Remove from heat. Stir in warm pasta. Grate Parmesan cheese over pasta mix. Serve immediately.

Yield: 6 servings
Nutrients per serving: Calories 190; Total fat 3 g; Saturated fat 0 g; Cholesterol 20 mg; Carbohydrates 27 g; Protein 14 g; Sodium 430 mg; Fiber 3 g.
Diabetic exchanges per serving: 1 1/2 starch, 1 meat (1 1/2 carb)

Mandarin Chicken Pasta Salad

I love salad and sub sandwiches. I am not sure why, I just do. A long while back Pampered Chef came out with this recipe. I absolutely loved it. I totally forgot about it until I had friends invite us over to celebrate another friends birthday and we had Asian food. The host mentioned this salad to me. I realized it was one I have had in the past but haven't made in a long time. I think one of the main reasons is that I can always see my children balking at the idea of anything green, red or orange in a bowl. I finally decided I wanted to make it and let the kids deal with it. I told them before dinner that there was no complaints. They did really well. Ella just said she was going to pick out what she didn't like. She mainly wanted the noodles and chicken. Zane and Xander did great. As long as they ate all the stuff together they ate it. Overall. No complaints. :)

Mandarin Chicken Pasta Salad

Ingredients for Dressing

• 1 teaspoon fresh gingerroot, peeled and finely minced
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar or 1/3 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 (1 1/4 ounce) envelope dry onion soup mix
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced

Ingredients for Salad

• 8 ounces dry bow tie pasta
• 1/2 cucumber, scored, seeded and sliced
• 1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 cup red onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 (6 ounce) package baby spinach leaves
• 1 (11 ounce) can mandarin orange segments, drained
• 2 cups cooked chicken, diced
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Directions

1. For dressing combine gingerroot, vinegar, orange juice, vegetable oil, sesame oil, soup mix, sugar and garlic; whisk until well blended.
2. For salad, cook pasta according to package directions; drain and rinse under cold water. Place pasta in a large serving bowl.
3. While pasta is cooking, slice cucumber, dice bell pepper , and chop onion.
4. Add cucumber, bell pepper, onion, spinach, mandarin oranges, chicken and almonds to pasta.
5. Pour dressing over salad; toss well and serve immediately.

Chocolate Torte

For the past couple of years, we have participated in an "Iron Chef" competition. The Elder's quorum at church has put it on. One team has won overall judges choice every year, this year included. This year my team won overall people's choice. This is the dessert I created for our team. I made it up today from scratch and it won the judge's choice for dessert and the people's choice for dessert. I was told it was absolutely wonderful. I am so glad. I love to create new recipes.

Chocolate Torte

Chocolate Pound Cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 3 cups white sugar
• 5 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup hot water
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325'. Grease and cocoa (like you would with flour for a cake pan) a jelly roll pan.
2. Mix together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the hot water and buttermilk. Pour batter into prepared pan.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

***Note*** 3-14-13 So I made this for the Relief Society Birthday Party today and I added Nestle Dark Chocolate Morsels to this cake recipe to give it a little different twist. Oh my goodness. It was quite divine and I am going to be doing this from now on. It was wonderful.

Filling

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 8oz pkg cream cheese
• 2 cups homemade whipped cream
• 1 small box white chocolate instant pudding

Directions

1. Make homemade whipped cream (see below)
2. Microwave cream cheese for 30 secs in microwave safe bowl. Slowly add milk and mix with cream cheese.
3. Spoon whipped cream over cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle pudding over whipped cream. Mix together till fully incorporated.

Whipped Cream

Ingredients

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoon powdered sugar

Directions

1. In a large bowl, whip cream until stiff peaks are just about to form. Beat in vanilla and sugar until peaks form. Make sure not to over-beat, cream will then become lumpy and butter-like.

Hershey's hot fudge or homemade hot fudge
Hershey's candy bar grated curls (using a vegetable peeler run over edge of chocolate bars to make curls)

To assemble the torte:

• Cut cake into three equal parts.
• Cut off the edges of cake.
• Spread hot fudge on top of each section of cake.
• Place one part of the cake with hot fudge spread on top, onto serving platter.
• Using a piping bag or the Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator with open star tip, pipe filling around top edges of cake on platter. With a spoon fill in center.
• Place next layer on top and repeat directions from above with next layer.
• On top of remaining layer, do a fancy border around edges and then fill in center with remaining filling.
• Now, you can put some hot fudge into piping bag and pipe a design on top or you can just drizzle hot fudge on top.
• Finish up with Hershey's chocolate curls.

Oreo Trifle

We invited over a couple of families over for dinner and I asked Jensen what we should have. He suggest Black Forest Trifle. Well I was all aboard. Not all the kids were on board with it though so I therefore was asked to make an Oreo Trifle for those that do not like Black Forest Trifle (previous post). So I made up my own and I am quite happy with it. I am so not a photographer but let me tell you... it was amazing. I don't even really like Oreo's that much.

Oreo Trifle

Ingredients

• 1 pkg. (9 oz.) devil's food cake mix (plus ingredients to make cake)
• 1 pkg. Oreo's
• 2 cups cold milk
• 2 pkgs. (3.3 oz.) chocolate instant pudding and pie filling
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 4 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Cut an 8 1/2 square parchment paper and lay in bottom of square baker. Prepare cake mix according to package, spread over bottom of baker. Bake 25 minutes or until cake tester inserted in center come out clean. cool completely.
2. Loosen cake from sides of baker and invert cake onto cutting board. Cut cake into 1 inch cubes set aside.
3. Coarsely chopped two rows of Oreo's; set aside.
4. Make homemade whipped cream by adding the two cups heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla in a bowl and mix on high speed with mixer until stiff peaks form; set aside.
5. Pour milk into classic batter bowl, whisk in pudding mixes until mixture begins to thicken. Fold in 1/4 of whipped cream..
6. To assemble trifle, place half of the cake in bottom of Trifle Bowl. Layer half of the chocolate pudding mixture. Sprinkle with half of the chopped Oreo's; top with half of the 1/2 of remaining whipped cream, pressing lightly. Repeat Layers up to the pudding mixture. End with either piping swirls of remaining whipped cream and crushed Oreo's in middle and then cutting last row of Oreo's in half and placing in-between whipped cream swirls (see photo) or finish it with the last remaining layers as you did the first.
7. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving.

Yield: 10 servings

Black Forest Trifle

When Pampered Chef came out with their dessert cookbook I found this recipe in there. It was wonderful and I thought it would make a great Valentine's Day tradition. So it became a tradition. Then after a while I thought it would be better if we didn't have it since it isn't really "healthy". But then after thinking about it, I decided it is okay to indulge once in awhile. Granted we haven't had it every Valentine's Day, It is fun to make once in a while. We invited over two families for dinner and I asked Jensen what he would like for dessert since he picked the dinner. He chose this. Half of the kids complained so I had to make a second one and ended up creating a Oreo Trifle. That will be the next post after this one. :) But please note that I am NOT a photographer so these pictures do not do the desserts any justice. I will say, homemade whipped cream makes EVERYTHING dessert taste better. :)

Black Forest Trifle

Ingredients

• 1 pkg. (9 oz.) devil's food cake mix (plus ingredients to make cake)
• 2 bars (1.55 oz. each) milk chocolate candy, divided
• 1 can (30 oz) cherry pie filling
• 1 tsp. almond extract
• 1/2 cup cranberry cherry juice
• 2 cups cold milk
• 2 pkgs. (3.3 oz.) white chocolate instant pudding and pie filling
• 1 (8 ounce) container of whipped topping (I made it with homemade whipped cream today. Oh my goodness, divine!)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Cut an 8 1/2 square parchment paper and lay in bottom of square baker. Prepare cake mix according to package, spread over bottom of baker. Bake 25 minutes or until cake tester inserted in center come out clean. cool completely.
2. Loosen cake from sides of baker and invert cake onto cutting board. Cut cake into 1 inch cubes set aside. Chop 1 1/2 of chocolate bars using food chopper. Reserve remaining chocolate for garnishing.
3. Combine cherry pie filling and almond extract in small batter bowl, remove 1/2 cup for garnishing and set aside. Stir juice in cherry pie filling in classic batter bowl.
4. Pour milk into classic batter bowl, whisk in pudding mixes until mixture begins to thicken. Fold in whipped topping..
5. To assemble trifle, place half of the cake in bottom of Trifle Bowl. Layer half of the cherry pie filling mixture evenly over cake cubes. Sprinkle with half of the chopped chocolate; top with half of the pudding mixture, pressing lightly. Repeat Layers.
6. Garnish top of trifle with reserved cherry pie filling and chocolate curls made with reserved chocolate. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving.

Yield: 10 servings