I was a vegetarian for more than 10 years. I loved being a vegetarian.

I eat meat now because it’s easier to eat what my family eats. It’s easier to eat a balanced diet with meat in the picture.

So anyway. When I was in college, I was a vegetarian, and I ate in whatever meatless options the dining hall served. Penn State’s dining halls have really great vegetarian and vegan options. I met a variety of awesome foods including BBQ seitan (so good!) and stir fry with peanut sauce.

I was dubious about peanut sauce, but once I tried it? I was in love!

A few weeks ago, Joe found this recipe for vegetable stir fry with peanut sauce and, knowing I love peanut sauce, he fixed it right up. And of course, I loved it.

Stir Fry with Peanut Sauce

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Serves: 5-6

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 small head of broccoli, chopped
• 2 cups cauliflower, chopped
• 1/4 of a small head of cabbage, coarsely shredded
• 8 ounces carrots, cut into thin sticks
• 16 ounces mushrooms, sliced
• 1 pound extra firm tofu or protein of your choice (chicken, beef, pork, egg, whatever)
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 2 tablespoons garlic-flavored rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 1/8 tablespoons brown sugar
• a few drops of hot sauce, optional
• 1/2 cup chopped peanuts, optional
• 1 cup basmati rice, uncooked (basmati is my favorite. Use brown rice or whatever you like best.)

Instructions

1. Prepare rice according to package directions.
2. In order to make the tofu brown, you’ll have to press it lightly. Drain the liquid, wrap it in a couple of paper towels, and press it gently between your two hands. More liquid should come out. After it’s mostly dry, cut into bite-sized cubes. If you’re using meat, cut it into thin strips.
3. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a wok or very large skillet. Saute the tofu, onions, and garlic until the tofu is brown and crispy all over. Try not to break it up into tofu crumbs, unless you prefer tofu crumbs in your recipe.
4. Add the rest of vegetables except for the mushrooms. Saute for five minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for another minute or two, until the mushrooms begin to soften.
5. In a small bowl, combine the peanut butter, hot water, vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, and hot sauce. Pour sauce over stir fry. Simmer for two or three minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
6. Serve over rice. Sprinkle chopped peanuts over each serving.

2.1.7

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© 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

Breakfast for dinner is comfort food, don’t you think? I do.

This particular recipe includes fruit, making it a wee bit healthier than plain old pancakes.

That might be wishful thinking.

I like to serve these pancakes with an omelet or sausage patties and a dish of diced apples. They are delicious, and pairing them with protein and raw apples makes a perfect dinner.

Apple Ring Pancakes

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Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• 2-3 apples
• 1-2 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1 cup prepared pancake mix
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
• Butter & Syrup

Instructions

1. Peel and core the apples. Slice into 1/2″ rounds.
2. Pour water into a mixing bowl. Add vanilla and pancake mix; whisk until smooth.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Place one apple slice in the butter and pour about 1/4 cup of pancake mix over top, until it just covers the apple slice.
4. Cook pancake until bubbles begin to form and edges dry out. Flip. Sprinkle with cinnamon and cook another minute or two.
5. When pan begins to dry, add remaining butter and melt in the skillet.
6. Serve with additional butter and syrup.

2.1.7

 

© 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

© 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

Do you remember the restaurant called Chi-Chi’s? It was a Mexican-style chain restaurant that folded in the late ’90′s after a salmonella outbreak linked to their scallions.

In high school and college, I loved Chi-Chi’s; I ate there at least a few times a month. My favorite menu item was Cheese & Onion Enchiladas.

We’ve made all sorts of enchiladas and quesadillas and burritos here, and we’ve made all sorts of cheese and onion recipes, always trying to come close to the flavor of my old favorite. I’ve previously shared recipes for my own cheese and onion enchiladas, baked chicken enchiladas, BBQ chicken enchiladas (my favorite favorite meal), and beef enchiladas,  as well as chicken bacon quesadillas and turkey quesadillas.

These quesadillas are really, really good, but they are nothing like my old favorite enchiladas. Those were heavy, laden with enchilada sauce and grease. They came with more grease on the side.

They were so very delicious.

These cheese and onion enchiladas are healthy because they use Nakano Rice Vinegar for flavor rather than sour cream or butter. Thanks to the vinegar, they have a tangy sweet flavor without a glut of calories (unless you go overboard with the cheese).

Cheese & Onion Quesadillas

5.0 from 1 reviews

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Author: Mizkan

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon taco seasoning
• 5 oz can of mild green chiles
• 1 large onion, sliced into 1/4″ pieces
• 1/3 cup Nakano Rice Vinegar – Red Pepper flavor
• 4 whole grain tortillas
• 1 cup shredded low-fat cheese, Mexican blend, divided

Instructions

1. Heat olive oil and taco seasoning over medium-high heat. Add the onions and peppers, and sauté for two minutes. Add vinegar and cook for four minutes or until the vinegar is evaporated.
2. We use a quesadilla maker to cook our quesadillas. If you don’t have one, spritz a large skillet with cooking spray and place a tortilla in the skillet. Cook the tortilla until it’s just browned.
3. Turn the tortilla over, sprinkle with about 1/4 cup of cheese and 1/4 of the onion mixture. Fold in half and cook until cheese begins to melt. Turn over to brown the other side.
4. Repeat for remaining tortillas.

Calories: 225 per folded quesadilla (IF my calculations are correct)

Notes

Makes 4 folded quesadillas. Joe and I each eat 2 of them for dinner, along with a salad or other fruit or veggie-based side dish.

2.1.7

I am working with Mizkan as a Blogger Advocate. Mizkan compensated me to use and write about Nakano Rice Vinegar.

Photo source

© 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

I am not usually a fan of lemon desserts.

There’s no reason in particular, I just prefer the creamy sweetness of chocolate or cheesecake to the tart sweetness of lemon.

However.

I participated in a cookie swap at my MOPS group last month. My favorite cookie from the whole event was a very small cookie drizzled with a thin glaze.

The cookies were sweet and tasted like grapefruit to me, so I was shocked when my friend said they were simple lemon cookies. She proceeded to explain exactly she made them. Simple indeed.

I have to pause also to say that this friend from my MOPS group is actually a former student. That warps my reality somehow. It’s just weird to hang out with my former student who is now a wife and stay at home mom just like me.

Another of my students plays football in the NFL. One owns a modeling agency and jets all over the world. One bought the house next door. Being a former teacher is crazy.

Anyway, on to the cookie recipe from my student turned friend:

Lemony Slice and Bake Cookies

5.0 from 1 reviews

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Author: my friend Ginny

Ingredients

For the cookies:

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 large egg yolks

For the icing:

• 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons (or more) fresh lemon juice
• Sugar sprinkles (optional)

Instructions

For the cookies:

1. Whisk flour and salt together in a medium bowl.
2. In a stand mixer, beat butter, sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla on medium-high, occasionally scraping down the sides, until the dough is light and fluffy.
3. Add egg yolks, beat just to blend.
4. Add flour mixture and beat on low, scraping down the sides, until it is just blended.
5. This recipe can be rolled and cut with cookie cutters.
   If you prefer an easier way, try the Slice and Bake method:
   Divide the dough in half, and roll each half into a 10-inch-long log that’s a little less than 2″ across.
   Wrap dough logs in plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least an hour or up to 2 days.
   To bake, unwrap one dough log. Using a sharp, lightly floured knife, cut the dough log into 1/4-inch thick rounds.
6. To bake – Arrange racks in lower and upper thirds of the oven. Preheat to 350.
7. Place cookies 1-inch apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. (I don’t like to bake cookies on my pizza stones, incidentally. I prefer metal cookie sheets.)
8. Bake at 350 for 16-18 minutes until cookies are firm, and edges are golden brown. Let cool for one minute, then transfer to wire racks and cool completely.

For the icing:

1. Whisk sugar and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice in a small bowl, adding additional juice as needed to achieve desired consistency.
2. Spread or drizzle icing over cookies and decorate as desired.
3. Let cookies stand until icing sets, at least 10 minutes.

Notes

Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.

2.1.7

 

© 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

After the wasteful extravagance of Grace’s first birthday party, I realized that two cakes were one too many. I would make just one cake for Allie’s birthday.

Grace asked me to make triple chocolate cake again. It sounded like a good idea, but I worried that it wouldn’t make enough cake.

I baked that cake for my dad’s birthday, and it served five people. Granted, we ate like pigs because it was completely and utterly amazing, but still. Five people.

Knowing that we’d be serving cake to at least 10 people, I decided to double the cake recipe and put it in a 9×13 pan. That seems reasonable since the original recipe is for a bundt pan, right?

Wrong.

The whole thing was a big mistake.

It was a big, ugly, hairy monster of a mistake, in fact.

3 Baking Lessons I Learned the Hard Way

Can I double the cake recipe?

NO! NO, YOU CAN’T! (Yelling intended)

I thought one cake mix wouldn’t be enough for the 9×13 pan, so I doubled the recipe: 2 cake mixes. 2 boxes of pudding. 4 cups of chocolate chips. 2 cups of sour cream. 2 cups of vegetable oil.

The 9×13 pan overflowed in the oven, filling the oven and the kitchen with smoke.

An oven filled with smoke bakes a cake that tastes like smoke.

The cake was still jiggling like the ocean after the recommended 55 minutes at 350. The cake eventually baked for 90 minutes (and turned out not quite done in the center).

During 90 minutes of baking, the bottom quarter-inch of the cake turned to charcoal. It was black and dry and crusty. When I was considering serving it to the party guests anyway, I tasted it and dry heaved.

When the bottom quarter-inch of a cake burns, the whole cake tastes burnt. Smokey and burnt. Score!

Lesson 1 – Don’t double the cake recipe!

When should I bake the cake?

THE DAY BEFORE! Or the day before that. Don’t do it on the morning of the party, even if the party isn’t until afternoon.

Allie won’t drink a bottle unless it’s warm, not room temperature and certainly not cold. It has to be noticeably warm, even now that she’s one.

On the other hand, Allie does not like her cake to be warm. She wouldn’t eat – or even play in – the cake until it had cooled off.

Also, if you frost a cake before it’s completely cooled, the fabulous homemade butter cream frosting (that you also screwed up, see below) will melt and turn into a thin glaze and run off the cake, over the sides of the 9×13 pan, and onto the stove and counter.

Or onto the other foods in the freezer, where you’ve put the cake in a feeble attempt to make the frosting stop running off.

Lesson 2 – Bake the cake the day before you need it!

What if I make the butter too soft?

You can’t make frosting with melted butter. If you soften the butter too long in the microwave, it will become melted butter.

Put the butter back in the fridge and start over with a new stick.

If you try to make frosting with melted butter, you will make a crumbly paste, reminiscent of the topping you put on apple crisp.

Nothing will make that crumbly paste turn into frosting.

If you continue to attempt to make frosting, you will end up with a semi-smooth chocolate frosting full of grit the size and texture of Nerds candy.

Even if you put it in the freezer to firm up and whisk the heck out of it with your stand mixer.

You’ll still have gritty frosting that melts into a thin glaze and runs all over the floor.

Lesson 3 – Don’t try to make frosting with melted butter!

This cake was a spectacular failure. Burnt, falling apart, tasting of smoke and charcoal, it was awful.

Everyone ate it; some people had two pieces.

They were just being nice.

Everyone should have family like that.

© 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

The biggest thing I learned from my last weight loss attempt was that small changes are more likely to become permanent changes than huge life-altering .

Parking further from the door when we’re out. Drinking water most of the time. Walking to Grandma’s house instead of driving.

Small changes.

I’ve recently been trying to increase our vegetable intake. Instead of tossing all of our pasta and potatoes in favor of meat and eggs – cause that would last all of three days – we have adjusted our existing recipes (like we did with balsamic chicken with mushrooms and cabbage).

Joe and I like stir fry: General Tso’s stir fry, faux stir fry, and quick and easy stir fry to name a few. Grace liked it too, before she became ridiculously picky.

I found this stir fry recipe on Mizkan’s recipe search and adjusted it for our tastes.

Most of the recipes we’ve tried that include Nakano Rice Vinegar are tart and tangy. I like that flavor, and I was expecting it in this recipe, too. It wasn’t there. The sauce in this stir fry is light and sweet and delicious, but not tangy at all. Try it. You’ll like it, too.

Garlic Chicken Stir Fry

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Author: from Nakano

Ingredients

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 6 large garlic cloves, pressed
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1/4 cup Nakano Seasoned Rice Vinegar, Red Pepper, divided
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon low sodium soy sauce, divided
• 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons water
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
• 1 pound broccoli crowns, cut into bite-sized pieces

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, toss the chicken, garlic, ginger, 2 teaspoons of rice vinegar, and 1 teaspoon soy sauce. Add salt and pepper as desired. Let stand 10-20 minutes.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the chicken broth, cornstarch and water mixture, remaining rice vinegar, and remaining soy sauce. Set aside.
3. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken mixture and sauté for 6 minutes, stirring 2-3 times.
4. Add onion. Stir-fry for one minute. (To stir-fry means that you stir or toss the food constantly while cooking over high heat.)
5. Add the chicken broth mixture and bring the sauce to a boil.
6. Add the broccoli. Stir-fry until broccoli is crisp-tender and the sauce is translucent.

2.1.7

I’m playing with a new recipe format. This should make it easier to print, and I like the way it looks.

What do you think? Give me your honest opinion, please.

I am working with Mizkan as a Blogger Advocate. Mizkan compensated me to use and write about Nakano Rice Vinegar.

© 2012, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

After a major holiday, Joe and I usually eat leftovers of the holiday meal over and over and over.

It’s pure laziness.

We eat Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas dinner or Easter dinner five or six or seven times over the course of the weekend. I wouldn’t mind that, except that I’m not a huge fan of roast turkey.

After Thanksgiving this year, I was hoping to find a way to use up some of our turkey without actually eating a bunch of leftover turkey with gravy. This recipe was born.

Leftover Turkey Salad

5.0 from 1 reviews

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Ingredients

• 2 cups turkey, shredded or cubed
• 2 tablespoons spicy dijon or horseradish mustard
• 1/2 cup Miracle Whip
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 4 hard-boiled eggs, cubed
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 3/4 teaspoon celery salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions

1. Mix everything together.
2. Serve on crackers or in a sandwich.

2.1.7

Instead of eating roast turkey six times, I made this turkey salad over and over and ate it six times. It was delicious.

© 2011, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

I made a luscious chocolate cherry cheesecake for my church’s Christmas dinner this past weekend. Of course, there was nary a morsel remaining.

Not even the bottom of my springform pan.

When I realized that it was missing, I panicked. I went through the garbage bags in the dumpster. Joe and I, along with several other volunteers, searched through the church kitchen’s cabinets.

The glass bottom of my pan was nowhere to be found. Someone in my church family apparently took it home by mistake.

I’m certain that whomever has my plate will eventually return it, but that doesn’t help me to make the cheesecake I promised my sister for Christmas.

How to Make a Cheesecake Without a Springform Pan

1. Deep dish pie plates - This is probably the easiest solution. Double the crust portion of the recipe and split the batter into 2 deep dish pie plate. The cheesecake will be harder to get out of the pan, but it shouldn’t totally fall apart if it’s really well-chilled.
2. Ramekins - Ramekins are small, glazed porcelain or ceramic dishes in which you can bake individual-sized custards, souffles, and cheesecakes. To make cheesecakes in these, you would press the crust in the bottom, just like with a springform pan, and then spoon the filling in and cook as normal. You’d want to decrease the cooking time and check the cheesecakes frequently because you’re using smaller dishes.
3. Muffin tins - You could use a regular-size muffin pan or one with larger cups. Use cupcake wrappers (make sure you get ones that match the size of your muffin pan – smaller and larger.) Rather than making the cheesecake crust as directed in the recipe, put a Nilla Wafer into the bottom of the cup. Top with the cheesecake batter and bake. As with the ramekins, keep an eye on these. They’ll most likely take less time to bake than the larger cheesecake.

Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake Without a Springform Pan

Because this specific cheesecake is a little different from a normal one, there are a few things I wanted to say about it specifically.

• You will probably need some extra cherry pie filling. Plan for a second can.
• No matter what size and shape of your pan, make sure you put about half of the batter in the bottom of the dish, top with cherries, then add the rest of the batter.
• If you’re making mini cheesecakes, use a whole Oreo cookie instead of a Nilla Wafer.
• This cheesecake doesn’t rise much (unless you overbeat the batter), so you can fill the pan close to the top. It shouldn’t overflow.

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© 2011, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

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