Almost BW3

Wish I could've gotten a pic before the fam dug in!

I love hot wings! I really love BW3 boneless chicken wings (mild of course). I have had a pack of chicken drumlets from Whole Foods in my freezer for 6 months now, with the intention of finding a recipe for wing sauce similar to BW3. There is a set of cookbooks called Top Secret Recipes, where the author figures out recipes for popular food found in restaurants. In one book, I found the recipe for medium BW3 wing sauce. So, I decided to finally have them on Saturday night. I opened the lb. package to find 8 drumlets. Not enough to feed a family, so I bought some chicken breasts, cubed, breaded and baked them. The drumlets were boiled for 10 minutes and places under the broiler for 6 minutes on each side. So, they got crispy, but not fried...already healthier:) The wing sauce was super easy to make and was SO good. Tasted just the same. After it was done, I tossed the chicked pieces in it and voila!


MEDIUM WING SAUCE:
1 cup Frank's cayenne pepper sauce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon granulated sugar 
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons water
2 teaspoons cornstarch
Combine all but last 3 ingrediants and bring to a boil than let simmer for 10 minutes. When mixture is off heat and cool, in a seperate bowl, mix last 3 ingrediants and add to sauce mixtures. Toss with chicken

Strawberry Breakfast Cake

Berries seem to be cheap at Sendiks this week, so yet another berry cake/bread idea. We made this last night for Sunday morning breakfast. It is a strawberry breakfast cake with mini chocolate chips. Simple ingrediants, not alot of sugar and yummy. Jackson helped me make a fruit salad to go along with it.  Here is the link for the cake. The fruit salad was one banana, 1 apple, 1 container strawberries, 1 container raspberries, 1 container blueberries, a handful of granola. You can eat this on its own or over greek yogurt.
http://batterlicker.com/2010/04/strawberry-and-chocolate-chip-buttermilk-muffin-cake/

Blueberry Oatmeal Bread

When I wanna try a new recipe these days, I go straight to Pinterest. I was looking for a recipe for blueberry bread since blueberries were on sale this week. I found this one that is also low in sugar and has added fiber with the addition of oats. It is more of a rustic bread. For me, it is perfect because it is not too sweet, but just sweet enough. If you are used to artificial blueberry baked goods, it may not be sweet enough for you. I cannot take credit for the recipe. Here is the original blog it came from:
http://blog.superhealthykids.com/2010/06/oatmeal-blueberry-bread/
I substituted canola oil for the cocount oil. The batter is really thick and lumpy, but no worries, it bakes just fine.

The Best Lasagna Ever: Mom's

5 years ago, today, my mom passed away. The day she died I was hosting a birthday party for Maddy and doing the things that she had done for me so many times before. Making and decorating a birthday cake and serving lasagna for our main dish. Today, I would like to honor my mom and the many times she had to make lasagna for my birthday dinner (I picked it every year). I make it often for my own family now. It is a recipe passed down from my mom's mom to her, now to me, and someday to my kids. My version is a little healthier than hers was, but you can substitute beef for turkey and regular cheese for lowfat cheese.


Voni's (Mom's) Lasagna
a box of no cook lasagna noodles
1 lb. ground turkey thigh
1 lb. ground beef
1 small onion-chopped fine
1 clove of garlic- chopped fine
1 16 oz. container of lowfat, organic sour cream
1 14.5 oz. can of tomato sauce (the medium size one)
1/2 bag of lowfat, organic motzorella cheese
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese
3 tbsp. italian seasoning


Mix uncooked turkey and beef mixture together, so they combine into one mixure. 
Cook combined meat mixture with onions and garlic in large pot.
When done, drain off beef and add sour cream, tomato sauce, parmesan cheese, and italian seasoning.
Let simmer till it starts bubbling and turning a little deeper shade of pinkish/orange


Now you are ready to assemble! Use a 13 X 9 inch cake pan and layer, 
from bottom to the top, as follows:


a light layer of sauce...just to lightly coat bottom
3 uncooked lasagna noodles with equal space in between them
1/3 of beef mixture
a handful of cheese and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese

3 uncooked lasagna noodles with equal space in between them

1/2 of whatever of beef mixture is left

a handful of cheese and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese

3 uncooked lasagna noodles with equal space in between them

rest of beef mixture 

a handful of cheese and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese

Cover with tinfoil and cook in 350 oven for 45 minutes. Remove tinfoil andlLet sit 5-10  minutes before cutting.

Peas, Carrots, and Mashed Potatoes

I made these cupcakes on April Fools Day this year. They are from just a boxed cake mix. But, the fun was in the decoration. For the Peas and Carrots cupcakes, I dyed the frosting green and applied green pea hard candies I found at the store and the carrots were orange starburst cut into squares. For the mashed potato cupcakes, I used the whipped frosting and piled it on high. The gravy is caramel sauce and the butter is a yellow starburst cut into a thin square.  I got the idea from this great book called Hey Cupcake.

Pick Me Up

Hopefully spring is on the way. Winter has been nothing to complain about this year, but I am longing for green grass and colorful flowers. I recently came across a little pick me up for any dish. I saw it on a show on the Food Network called Arti's Party. I have been dabbling in Indian food lately, so I made my first Aloo Gobi (curried cauliflour and potatoes). The first thing you had to do was make this paste out of ginger and garlic. This paste was super easy to make and can be put into any veggie, rice, or potato recipe. Not only does it taste great, but it will prevent you from getting any of the last colds of the winter, due to garlic and ginger have such great immune boosting properties.

Ginger and Garlic Paste

Enough peeled garlic cloves to fill a 1/2 C. container

Enough peeled and chopped ginger to fill a 1/2 C. container

1/2 C. canola oil

Put all ingrediants in a food processor and process until it looks like a thick paste

Can store in your fridge for up to 3 weeks in a closed container

A Little French Parenting Goes A Long Way

I just finished reading the best child rearing book ever, Bringing Up Bebe. It is about the differences in the way French and Americans raise their children. I have gotten so many good pointers out of this book. They talked about, how at an early age, french children help with the baking in the house. One of the most popular is something called gateau au yaourt (yogurt cake). By the age of 3 or 4 french children are making this cake entirely on their own (minus the oven part.) All the measuring is done using empty yogurt containers so it makes it easy for them. They can make the cake, but they cannot dig into it right away. Everyday around 4:30 the French have a snack, so the children have to wait until then to eat it. This book preaches teaching children patience and independence and this is just one example. Now if you know me, you know that I am a control freak. I am reforming, but it is a slow process:) So, the thought of letting my kids take over the kitchen and make a mess without my guidance was scary. But, I took a breath and told the kids that they would be making a cake for breakfast tomorrow by THEMSELVES. They were so excited. It was hard when I saw Maddy putting the dry ingrediants in without mixing the wet ones first. I cringed, but didn't step in. Eventually she noticed it on her own. The cake smells delicious and I am sure it will be good when we have it tomorrow, but more importantly, it taught some huge lessons for the kids and for me. The kids gained alot of confidence by doing it on their own and I gave away some control. Here is the recipe if you are brave enough to attempt it. They even cleaned up the kitchen when they were done:)

Gateau au Yaourt

2-6 oz. containers of whole milk vanilla or plain yogurt(use these empty containers to measure the other ingrediants)

2 eggs

2 containers sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

just under 1 container canola or veggie oil

4 containers flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 375

Combine all wet ingrediants and mix. Add dry ingrediants to wet. If you want you can add 2 containers of frozen berries or chocolate chips at this point. Pour into greased 9 inch round cake pan. Bake for 40 minutes. Sprinkle berries and powdered sugar on top to eat.