Hot peach mango dip

Very easy and very good just add crackers

Recipe organization

So last night I wanted to make my squash pile recipe that my mom and aunt shirley and maw maw Bobbie always made so I got my iPad out and went to my blog and pulled it up (because by some miracle i remembered i posted it and i figured it would be faster than digging through all my paper recipes). It was awesome, i put in "squash" and pulled it right up. I'm going to start putting all my personal recipes on here so I can do that when I need to cook something. Eventually ill have all my favorite foods in one place and organized. Organization! Finally!

The "Don't Talk To Me Right Now I'm Eating Awesomeness" Recipe

Ok this one is simple and I must admit I took horrible pictures because I was in such a hurry to just get it in my mouth.  Sorry, but its so good that if you DO try it, and I suggest you do, then you will forgive my poor pictures and thank me over and over again for just posting it.

All you need is:

INGREDIENTS:

Sweet Potato - already cooked

Cinnamon

Salt

Coconut Oil - You can use regular oil if its all you have on hand but I cant say enough about using Coconut Oil.  I have been cooking with it for awhile now and LOVE it! Here is a link to a long list of reasons why, but the main thing for me is that it seems that stuff cooks better and doesn't have that film on it that regular oil leaves.

HOW TO DO IT:

Take about tablespoon full of oil and put it in a frying pan on medium high. Slice a 1/2 inch to 1 inch thick piece of already cooked sweet potato and lay it in the pan until it starts to sizzle just a bit.  Sprinkle the side up with cinnamon and a pinch of salt then flip.  Your grease will be getting pretty hot at this point and you may want to turn it down to medium.  Now sprinkle the up side with cinnamon and pinch of salt and flip once more so that you can get that side golden brown.  Its up to you how much you fry it but a nice golden brown is what I have found pleases my taste buds.  The thinner the slice the faster it cooks so keep that in mind.  Now pull it off and allow it to cool and then if your brave and no one is looking add a scoop of ice cream to the top and dig in! Oh and if your boyfriend attempts to talk to you while your enjoying this amazing flavor filled moment tell him: "Don't talk to me right now because I'm eating awesomeness!!!" I'm sure he'll understand and wont make you run bleachers for it later.

Absolutely Delicious Eggs!

I had the most wonderful eggs this morning and they were cooked in the most unique way.  Instead of using regular cooking oil we used Coconut Oil. Now let me say this I HATE Coconut, always have, so much that I used to tell people I was allergic to it. I'm not, and the oil is quiet different than actual Coconut so give it a try even if your a hater, unless you are ACTUALLY allergic to it. I have been trying to incorporate Coconut Oil into my diet where I can because the positive effects I read about it having on Alzheimer patients. I will usually put a spoonful in my oatmeal.  Anyhow this morning my boyfriend though he would try to fry an egg with it.  Not only did it work it was the best egg ever! You can barely taste the Coconut but it gives it this little flavor that's really amazing.  Try it, Try it, Try it.

DIRECTIONS:

Take a pan, put a rounded spoon full of Coconut Oil in the pan and heat it up exactly as you would normal cooling oil.  Once the Oil heats up and turns to liquid, Fry your egg the way you like it and salt and pepper to taste. ENJOY!

Chicken Piccata w/ pasta and mushrooms

Ok so I'm a new and learning cook, let me say that first off. So all things are new to me and I made this and still have no idea what piccata is. I picked this recipe because im on a diet (of course) and wanted fettucine but...well... ummm its like 800 calories, so i tried this. Its super good and totally fixed that craving. HOWEVER i am changing the directions because this took way too long to be practical in my everyday life.
So to start off get out three skillets and a pot and stick them on the oven. You may also want to turn your air conditioner up at this point because you are going to have all these burners going at once.
Pot for boiling pasta
pan or skillet for mushrooms
pan or skillet for chicken
pan or skillet for sauce mixture
START
in the pot put in water and past and start to boil.
in one pan put two teaspoons of light flavored olive oil - (for chicken) and turn heat to low
in another put one teaspoon of olive oil - (for mushrooms) and turn heat on low
in the last pan put sauce mixture. no heat yet
INGREDIENTS
6 ounces whole-wheat angel hair pasta - or whatever, I used bow tie because its what I had.
1/3 cup all-purpose flour, divided - or just pour a little in a bowl, (its just for dunking the chicken cutlets and then 5 teaspoons goes into the mixture part for the sauce.)
2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided - i just sprinkled salt when needed
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper - i just sprinkled pepper when needed
4 chicken cutlets, (3/4-1 pound total), trimmed - found a pack of four already sliced @ HEB -$3.00
3 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided - 2t in one pan 1t in another
1 10-ounce package mushrooms, sliced
3 large cloves garlic, minced - or 1 teaspoon already minced
1/2 cup white wine - all I had was white Zinfandel and mine turned out great anyway.
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed -TIP: found them at the grocery store on the isle w/ the olives
(most people probably already know this)
2 teaspoons butter - I only used 1 teaspoon to cut calories.

1. Start your pasta boiling.
2. In the pan with two teaspoons olive oil we are cooking chicken so get your cutlets and flip them around in some flour and put them in the pan on low. Make sure before you add them that the oil has been distributed around the pan to coat it. salt and pepper each side as it cooks. About 3 to 5 min on each side.
WHILE YOUR CHICKEN COOKS...
3. In the pan with one teaspoon of olive oil throw the mushrooms in on low, I just dumped the whole carton in.
4. While your chicken is heating up and your mushrooms are warming move to the empty skillet. Add the 1/2 c of wine and 1 teaspoon of minced garlic and start to simmer. Simmer until it reduces to about half.
5. STIR MUSHROOMS AND FLIP CHICKEN. The mushrooms will probably get done first so once they are nice and soft and brown pull them off and set aside.
6. Add to the wine and garlic 2 cups of chicken broth and five tablespoons of flour and 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice. Mix it together really good to dissolve the flour and start to simmer and stir.
7. Your CHICKEN SHOULD BE DONE, set it to the side.
8. Stir the sauce mixture till it begins to thicken, about 5 min. and then drop in 1teaspoon of butter, parsley and two tablespoons of rinsed capers. I didn't measure my parsley I just snipped a little into the mixture till it looked pretty. Still till mixed and warm.
9. Drain your past (this was a typo I left because this is a good idea also but its supposed to be pasta). You may have already done this but if not do it now. After drained pour a little of the sauce over the top and toss.
10. Put it all together on a plate and eat it.
By cooking everything at once and mixing everything in the pots as I went along I shaved 28min off my first cooking time. Making the total time to cook and prepare now only 30 min. and it turned out just as good if not better!
about 340 calories per serving, makes four servings
here is the link to the original recipe.
Chicken Piccata with pasta and mushrooms

Give the Squash a chance (A fast, delicious recipe)

If your climate is anywhere close to mine then your local farmers market, garden or grocery store is probably overflowing with fresh tomatoes and squash.  So in the spirit of fresh food and easy fast recipes here is an absolutely awesome one from my Maw-Maw Bobbie's files. If your not a squash fan or have never cooked with squash give this dish a chance.  My boyfriend swore he hated squash and after I coxed him into trying a bite he ended up heating two plates. So if your new to squash or even swear you hate it just give squash a chance.

INGREDIENTS:

~ Ground Meat - 1 to 2 lbs. (I used 1lb. in the example recipe below)

~ Onion - for l lb use 1 small onion for 2 lbs use a large onion or two small ones

~ Squash - the regular yellow is fine,  the fresher the better for taste.

~ 1 can Rotel

~ 1 can tomato sauce

A variation is to use 1/2 can Rotel and 1/2 cup of fresh diced tomatoes.  Do this if you are worried about the whole can of Rotel being too spicy or just need to use up some of those garden tomatoes.

DIRECTIONS:

cut up onion into medium to small pieces.

Add meat and onions to skillet and brown on medium heat till the onions are soft and clear and the meat is brown. I do add a little Tex-Joy Steak seasoning at this point but not very much, a small sprinkle.  If your not lucky enough to have Tex-Joy in your area salt and peper will be just fine. http://www.texjoy.com/

Drain any excess fat or liquid from the skillet.  My meat is local grass fed Longhorn Beef http://www.gentzlonghorn.com/ and is very lean but I still pour the whole wad of meat and onions in a strainer and shake it really good. This is a personal preference so once it gets to the left over stage in the fridge it doesn't have little white clumps in it. The main point is get most of the grease off because we are using the same pan to cook the rest of the squash concoction.

OK, now the magic happens.  Add the drained meat and onions back to the skillet and proceed to cut up those beautiful fresh yellow squash.  They are the star of the show here and we really want them to shine so cut them fairly thick or they will wither away to nothing and turn to mush in the meat.  Not too thick either or they may be tough to cook evenly.  Maybe your can see from the picture about the size but the picture quality isn't that great and some of them are actually a little too thin.

Mix the squash, Rotel, and tomato sauce (I used paste but only because I didn't have sauce, and I improvise a lot.) You can also throw a few fresh diced tomato in it and leave out some of the rotel if you don't want it to be too spicy.

Turn on medium heat.  Wait a few min to see if you will need to add water.  This will totally depend on how juicy your squash and tomatoes are, sometimes a lot of water comes out of them and sometimes little to none.  Eyeball it.  The picture below is before I added water.

Cover and simmer untill squash is soft and opaque.  At this stage you are required to taste test  - yippee  :)

DONE!  Now just try to keep your boyfriend that hates squash from eating it all.

I serve this over rice the way my Maw-Maw always did but we are Cajun meets Cowboy where I live and the Cajun side of the family is know for eating rice with everything.  My point is you could serve it with other things like toasted buttered bread or probably even noodles but I have never tried. Let me know if you do and if its good.  Enjoy!