Bisquick Oven Fried Chicken

One night I was trying to decide what to make for dinner. I was browsing through the cupboards and saw on the side of a Bisquick box a recipe for Oven Fried Chicken. Well unfortunately I didn't have all the ingredients but I decided to make it anyway with what I had on hand. The boy child loved it and asked me to make it again the very next day. Here is my adapted recipe:

Ingredients

2/3 cup Bisquick
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1tsp italian seasoning
Cayenne Pepper to taste
1 egg
3 - 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease 9x13 or 8x8 baking dish. (I used Pam Extra Virgin Olive Oil spray.)

2. In a small bowl whisk egg until slightly frothy.

3. In a medium sized bowl, mix together Bisquick, paprika, garlic salt, black pepper, Italian seasoning and cayenne pepper.

4. Dip chicken in egg, drain off excess then coat in powder mix. Place chicken in greased baking dish.

5. Bake 30 minutes. Turn chicken; bake an additional 10 to 15 minutes or until juice of chicken runs clear.

I unfortunately didn't get pictures of all the steps, but at least the finished project looks nummy!

Ten Troubleshooting Tips for Yeast Breads | Care2 Healthy Living

I'm making a couple of new recipes today, so check back later this week for those posts. Until then, here is a little filler for ya'll.

My french bread wasn't rising correctly, (no surprise there as yeast and I go together like oil and water) and of course I freaked out and decided I needed to find answers. I of course went to the one source I always do, google. I ended up finding this fantastic resource and thought I would share it with you guys.

Ten Troubleshooting Tips for Yeast Breads | Care2 Healthy Living:

'via Blog this'

The Oreo Peanut Butter Brownie Cake

For my son's birthday, he requested a peanut butter cake. So I scoured the web and found several recipes, including a great recipe from a friend of mine (which I am so going to try at a later date) but then I stumbled on this great recipe from Instructables.com . It looked easy and I thought I could make these no sweat... 

Oreo and Peanut Butter Brownie Cakes

1 box brownie mix, 8x8 inch size
24 Oreo Cookies
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 12 muffin cup baker with paper liners.

Prepare brownie mix according to package directions. For each cupcake cup spread 1 teaspoon of peanut butter over 2 Oreo cookies and stack them on top of each other. Place oreo stacks into the cupcake lined muffin cups. Spoon 2 tablespoons of brownie batter over each stacked oreos and let it run down the sides of the cookies. If you have left over brownie batter, bake separately in a separate baker or muffin tin. Bake cookies and brownies for 18 to 20 minutes, until brownies are cooked through. Let cool completely then serve.

Makes 12 servings

It turns out that I may have made the batter just a little too runny, but that's okay. They still tasted great with some chocolate frosting!

Amateur Grooming

Our dog Bob was in dire need of a haircut. To save money my husband and I decided to do it ourselves and of course, neither one of us have ever done this. All I have to say, is poor Bob.

He did great though. He didn't nip at us once, but you could tell he was very unhappy about the experience.

This is him after we decided to stop and finish it tomorrow. It took an hour just to get this far. He was very unhappy with me. All seems to be forgiven now as he is sleeping at my feet.

French Bread

This year instead of doing the expensive thing and having the boy child's birthday party at some place expensive, I decided to have the party at our house. I thought it would be great for the kids to make their own French Bread Pizzas so I went on the quest for an easy recipe. I found the recipe for the French Bread and the Pizza at TheFrugalGirl.

Let's start off with the French Bread.

Ingredients

2 1/2 - 2 3/4 cups of flour

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp sugar

1 pkg (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast

1 cup warm water (120 degrees F)

Method

In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine 2 cups flour with the salt, sugar and yeast. Add water and beat for 3 minutes. Beat in enough additional four to make a soft but kneadable dough.

Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead for 3-5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a bowl, cover with a tea towel, and let rise 45 minutes (an hour if your house is cold). 

Punch dough down and roll into a long rectangular shape. Starting from the long end, roll up jelly-roll style.

Place seam-side down on a greased baking sheet, cover with a wet towel, and let rise 30-45 minutes, or until doubled. (It really depends on the warmth of your house).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Whisk one egg white with one Tbsp of water until slightly foamy. Using a pastry brush, gently brush beaten egg white onto loaves. Using a sharp knife, make 3-4 diagonal slashes on top of the loaf. 

 Bake for 15-20 minutes,, or until nicely browned. Cool on a wire rack.

 I made three separate loaves. They were a little dense so I think I didn't kneed the dough well enough to activate the gluten. They still turned out good though!

Beef and Bean Taco Casserole

I stumbled across this recipe a few months ago and unfortunately I don't remember where I found it. However, it is a favorite in this house, especially after I made a few changes to it to fit my mexican style cooking. hehe...Ya know, I'm not even sure I know what that means. Any who! Here is this fantastic recipe!

Prepare Time: 20 mins
Cooking Time: 25 mins
Serving Size: 5


Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 can refried beans - fat free
• 16 oz. Salsa
• 1 pkg. taco seasoning
• 2 1/2 cups tortilla chips, coarsely broken
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup shredded lettuce
• Sour cream (optional)

Method

• Heat oven to 350 degrees F. in 12-inch skillet, cook beef over medium-high heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Half way through browning add onions and the red and green peppers. Continue cooking until all meat is cooked thoroughly and onions are clear; drain. Stir in refried beans, salsa and taco seasoning mix. Reduce heat to medium. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally.
• In ungreased 3-quart casserole, place 2 cups of the broken tortilla chips. top evenly with beef mixture. Sprinkle with the tomato and add the cheese.
• Bake uncovered 20 to 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly and cheese is melted. top baked casserole with lettuce and remaining tortilla chips.

Because I do suffer from heart burn occasionally due to my love of all things spicy and mexican, I usually add a dab of sour cream to the top of my casserole after I dish it to my plate.

Enjoy!

And so it Begins

Welcome to my very first blog about food and my unpredictable life. If you're reading this, it's probably because I spammed my Facebook page begging for someone to read and subscribe to my blog. If you just happened to stumble upon my blog, even better!

I plan on shaping this blog around my few crafting projects, my sometimes disastrous forays in the kitchen, being a mommy to a seven year old boy (who has a pretty wild imagination) and the wife to the love of my life.

So a little about me. I'm a 33yr old newly married stay at home mom who loves computers, gaming, reading, hosting fabulous dinners for my friends, sewing and being the queen of procrastination and laziness. If I had to label myself, I would call myself a punk even though my pre-teen and teen years were in the grunge era of music. My husband on the other hand, thinks I'm a hippy. Maybe I am who knows? Labels aside, I am who I am and as I grow older, I am slowly coming to the grips that I will never fit into any mold but my own.

Like most people, my family is the most important thing in my life. I'm slowly learning what it means to be a good wife and I'm still learning the ropes as a parent and praying that my son won't have to spend too much time in therapy as an adult to get over the mistakes I made. (That's what we all hope right?)

Well I think that's enough about me for the time being. If you stick around, I'm sure you'll learn a lot more about me. Probably more than you ever really wanted to know, but that's alright. That's what blogging is for right?

And so it begins...