Chalupas!

I LOVE tacos. And I love fry bread. How can you go wrong putting the two together? You can't. These were so good, I just ate three and only stopped because I literally couldn't fit any more in my stomach.

(recipe from stolenmomentscooking.com)
Ingredients:
4 c. Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk (original recipe uses evaporated milk. I didn't have any but whole milk worked just great)
1 cup water
3 tablespoons oil
Additional oil for frying

Directions:
Combine dry ingredients. Stir in wet ingredients until ball forms. Knead until well combined. Let rest at least 15 minutes. Pour about an inch of oil into a frying pot and heat up oil. Separate a small section of dough and roll into a thin circle.  Fry for a couple minutes on each side. Bend in half immediately when placing on plate. Stuff with your favorite taco fillers and enjoy!

I used taco meat (mixed with kidney beans before seasoning), cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, sweet peppers (my favorite addition), sour cream and salsa. Yummmmmm....

Oh! A side note....unless you have a big family, this will make more dough than you need. I only fried up about half of it for chalupas then later for dessert we used the rest for fry bread! Roll and fry the same as before, then top with butter and powdered sugar or honey.

Simple Chicken Curry sauce

Here is a recipe for when you need chicken curry but don't have any coconut milk or a lot of time! (like me tonight) Serve with Jasmine rice.

Ingredients:
-A few Chicken tenderloins
- about 1 tablespoon curry paste, more or less to taste (or powder will do, amount will be different I believe...)
-onion, chopped
-garlic
- chicken broth/bullion, start with 1 cup, add more later if needed.
-milk, opt.
-corn starch (opt.)
-any variety of seasonings that you fancy. I Used: spoonful of sugar, splash of lime juice and soy sauce, a touch of ginger, cilantro and red pepper flakes.
-would be great with potato chunks and garnished with peanuts!

Directions:
Saute onion in oil and cook the curry paste for a few minutes. Add a little garlic at the end.

Salt and pepper your chicken then add to pan. Add chicken broth. Let chicken cook, flipping halfway.
Remove chicken as soon as it is no longer pink. Chop when cool.

Season the sauce to taste. Add milk if you want it creamy. I also added about a tablespoon or two of corn starch (mixed with a little cold water) because I like my sauce a little bit thick. Personal preference.

Return chicken to sauce and serve over hot rice. Mmmm.

Chicken Soup/ Dumplings

This recipe is pretty versatile. Can be made with noodles, dumplings or even rice I suppose. In this picture, I used a little noodles and dumplings. I will add the dumplings recipe at end.

Ingredients:
-1 or 2 chicken breasts (depending on size and how much meat you want. I sometimes cook extra to use in a casserole another night.)
-couple cups of vegetables (carrots, potatoes, celery, onions..)
-chicken base/stock (I use "better than bouillon")
-garlic, parsley, thyme (go easy), 1 bay leaf, salt, pepper, onion powder (if not using fresh onion) all to taste
- about 1 or 2 cups medium egg noodles (depends on how much broth you have...) or dumplings

Directions:
1. Boil your chicken and vegetables together in pot of water. (start chicken first) Season while cooking. Check chicken and vegetables often to avoid over cooking. When chicken is done, remove from pot to cool on plate.
2. Add chicken base a little at a time and play with seasoning, tasting the liquid until it's just right!
3. When vegetables are almost done (but not quite!) add noodles or dumplings.
4. While that is cooking, chop the chicken, cutting out gristle and fat.
5. When noodles are tender, stir in the chicken and serve!

Dumplings
Ingredients:
-1 cup flour
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1 teaspoon sugar
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1 Tablespoon butter, melted
-1/2 cup milk

Directions:
Combine dry ingredients, gently stir in milk and butter, just until moistened.
Drop by spoonful into boiling soup. Cover pot and cook for about 15 minutes without lifting lid.

If you like a lot of dumplings, you can double recipe. I found that making 1 and 1/2 this recipe was just right for my average pot of soup.

Zucchini Bread

This recipe is awesome. I like to make miniature loaves out of it. for some reason, they taste better smaller...

Recipe from allrecipes.com by V Monte
With my adaptations.

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 t. Salt
1 t. Baking soda
1 t. Baking powder
2 t. Cinnamon
3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3 t. Vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
1/4-1/2 cup applesauce (honestly, I never measure)

Grease 2 8x4 inch pans. (or if you are me 1 8x4 and 2 mini pans) preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix flour, salt, baking powder, soda and cinnamon together. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, apple sauce and sugar together in large bowl. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and beat well. Stir in zucchini until combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for a few minutes then finish cooling on wire rack.

Best eaten within a day. If you plan on keeping it for more than 2 days, it should probably be refrigerated.

Banana Banana Bread

You read that right. Double bananas equals double flavor.

Recipe from allrecipes.com by Shelley Albeluhn

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 t. Baking soda
1/4 t. Salt
1/2 cups butter
3/4 cups brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed over ripe bananas
( I never measure my bananas. that would be messy. I just add them until it looks like the right amount. I haven't seen it make a big difference)
chopped walnuts, optional

in a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture, just until moistened. pour batter into greased 9x5 loaf pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 60-65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

The Best Dinner Rolls

A couple of years ago I was at a friends house and had some of the best dinner rolls I've ever tasted. Of course, I insisted upon the recipe. Mine don't ever taste as good as hers do, but they are still dang good.

Recipe fills approximately 1 9x13 pan.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 c. Milk (mixture of half evaporated, half regular milk.)
1 half stick butter
2 T. Yeast (dissolved in 1/4 c. Water)
1/4 c. Sugar
1 1/2 t. Salt
4 c. Flour

cook or microwave the butter and milk together until butter is melted. cool just slightly while beating 2 eggs in mixer. add the butter mixture and yeast. mix well. mix dry ingredients separately, then add half at a time to bowl. Knead dough very well. Dough will be sticky. Let rise until double. Shape into rolls and place in greased pan. Cover and let rolls rise. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.

Gingerbread Men

Somewhere between the 4 cookies that I just ate in the last 5 minutes, I realized that I haven't yet posted this recipe. This is something that we look forward to making every Christmas season. Traditionally we just cut out gingerbread men and decorate them but this year we decided to get a little more diverse. that's the fun part. You can do whatever you want with them.

Ingredients:
3 c. flour
2 t. ginger
1 t. Cinnamon
1 t. Baking soda
1/4 t. Nutmeg
1/4 t. Salt
3/4 c. Butter
3/4 c. Brown sugar
1/2 c. Molasses
1 egg
1 t. Vanilla

Directions:
beat butter and sugar. Add molasses egg and vanilla. Beat in dry ingredients. ( gradually). Refrigerate until stiff. Roll out 1/4 inch thick. Cut in shapes. If you want to make ornaments out of them, use a straw to punch a hole in the top. Bake 8 to 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Once they are cool you can frost and decorate. For the icing I just mix together powdered sugar, vanilla, a little milk, and sometimes almond extract. I don't have exact measurements, I just add the powdered sugar until it's really thick. Then I scoop the icing into a baggie, zip it up and snip a tiny bit of the bottom corner to squeeze it out. we use little candies and sprinkles for decoration.

If you like your gingerbread cookies more crispy, you can bake for a little longer. they will also get harder as they set. I like to just leave mine out until they harden a little.