Crepes

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour, sifted

4 tsp. granulated sugar

pinch of salt

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cups whole milk

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1 T. unsalted butter

Directions:

Combine flour, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk in the eggs and just enough of the milk to form a soft paste. Combine the remaining milk and cream in a measuring cup and slowly add to the flour mixture, whisking to form a smooth batter.

Strain the batter into a medium bowl to remove any lumps. Cover the batter and set aside for 30 minutes. This will allow time for the flour to absorb all of the liquid. Heat a crepe pan or a heavy 7 in. non-stick saute pan over medium-low heat. Dab some butter on a paper towel and wipe the pan with a little butter.

Pour 3 tablespoons of batter into the pan and swirl to coat the bottom thinly. Cook until the edge of the crepe is light brown, about 1 1/2 minutes. Loosen the edges gently with a spatula. Carefully turn the crepe over. Cook until the bottom begins to brown in spots, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with remaining batter.

*I actually have a crepe maker and it is WAY easier than doing it with a pan. But these are great and can be used for breakfast, dessert, or dinner depending on what you fill them with. I love yogurt, fruit, whipped cream and powder sugar for breakfast and french vanilla ice cream and strawberries wrapped up and topped off with whipped cream and chocolate sauce.... YUM!

Mini Pastries

Ingredients:

1 box pastry puff (freezer section near pie crusts)

8 oz. cream cheese

7 oz. marshmallow cream

variety of fresh fruits

Directions:

Lay out pastry puff and cut with cookie cutters. Place on cookie sheet and bake as directed or until just starting to brown. While pastries are baking, whip together the cream cheese and marshmallow cream. prepare fruit by cutting into thin slices. If you are not serving right away, dip fruit into a little water and lemon juice to preserve color. After the pastries have cooled to room temp, spread the cream spread on to each pastry and decorate with fruit.

*This is such an easy dessert but it is really yummy. It is actually geared towards kids so that they can help make them. Use fun cookie cutter shapes and make them look pretty.

Chili glazed Shrimp & Noodles

Ingredients:

3 T. Sesame oil or Peanut oil

2 tsp. minced garlic

1 lb. large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/2 c. thinly sliced green onions

2 c. sugar snap peas with ends cut off

1/4 c. low-sodium soy sauce

1/4 c. honey

1-2 T. chili sauce (located in the asian section) add more if you like it spicy

1 tsp. ginger powder or freshly grated ginger root.

2-3 c. rice noodles, cooked (located in the asian section)

Directions:

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add oil to pan. Add garlic and shrimp. Stir-fry 1 minute. Mix soy sauce, honey, chili sauce, and ginger in bowl. Pour over shrimp and add green onions, snap peas, & rice noodles. Toss everything together coating it all in the sauce. Serve in a bowl with chopsticks! :)

*I found a recipe that had some of these ingredients together but I thought it was quite bland so I changed it up and created my own. James liked the original recipe only so-so and then I made it a second time with my changes and he loved it! I think from shrimp being frozen to the dish on the table took me only about 20 minutes! A great recipe to make when short on time and need something quick.

Spinach Raspberry Salad

Ingredients:

8 c. fresh spinach or 1 bag baby spinach

1 c. fresh raspberries

1/4 c. red onions, chopped (opt.)

Dressing:

2 T. raspberry vinegar or balsamic vinegar

2 T. raspberry jam

Mix together in a blender, then add slowly;

1/3 c. canola oil

Directions:

Combine vegetables then toss with dressing. Can change to orange salad by replacing the jam with orange marmalade and fresh raspberries with mandarin oranges.

*I am always looking for different green salads and this one was so easy to make and so delicious.

Swiss Chicken

Ingredients:

4 boneless chicken breasts

4 slices swiss cheese

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/4 can water

2 c. seasoned stuffing mix

1/3 c. melted butter

Directions:

Arrange chicken breasts in a shallow baking dish and place one slice of cheese over each piece. Stir soup and water together; spoon evenly over chicken. Crush, coarsely, the stuffing mix and sprinkle over top; evenly drizzle butter. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 55 minutes. Serve with rice.

*This was surprisingly VERY good! My husband took a bite and said "This Recipe is a keeper"! I only made 2 chicken breasts, topped each piece with 2 slices of swiss cheese and the made the normal size sauce. I actually could have used even more sauce so I would definitely double the sauce recipe if you make more than 2 breasts.

Recipe Exchange

I am very excited to start a Recipe Exchange group and get to know some new people and of course, get some new recipes. Before I get everything finalized, I would like to know if nights work better for most people or if the day does? If we have a balance of both, I think what I might do is do one month during the day and then the next month do it at night. If I do it on nights, it would have to be Tuesday night since that is pretty much the only night I have available. The other dilemma I have had is trying to figure out where to do it. I have wanted to start this group for a long time but wasn't sure what to do about the location. If we do a group where we can bring kids, it needs to be where kids can play and run around, but if we do a group at night, I think it should be kid free but people's homes still have kids.... so I haven't figured that out. I think the park here in the neighborhood would be a good location if we did it during the day, that way kids can run and play and the mom's can sit, eat and enjoy each other's company. (but the weather needs to warm up first!) Let me know what works best for you, Nights or Days?

To give you a little bit of background on why I am starting this group. I used to be the WORST cook on planet earth! I was awful! My poor husband didn't eat very well the first part of our marriage. After I stopped working, I decided to learn how to cook. I started off with easier things and learned to make them well and then I would "up" the difficult factor (still easy for others). After years of that, I started becoming a pretty good cook and now I love to do it. It has become one of my biggest priorities to make sure that we have a homemade meal every night and that we sit down as a family to dinner. I make it a goal every week to make a new recipe and I quite often will make a few new ones. We are not picky eaters so it makes it easy for us to try lots of new things. You do not have to be a great cook to be a part of this group. The nice thing about getting recipes from people you know, if you need some help on the recipe while cooking it, you have someone you can call for help.

We will be meeting once a month and every month we will have a different theme. One month it could be something like a Mexican theme where the next month could be a theme like Meals under 30 minutes or Favorite family recipe. We will have everyone copy their recipe and hand it out to those who come. If people can't make it and we have extra recipes, we can possibly stick them in the Relief Society binder or I might can type them up here and post them on this blog where I keep all of my favorite recipes.

I would like to start this month and keep it on the 3rd week of the month so let me know what would work best for you and we will try to accommodate as many people as possible.

I look forward to seeing all of you and eating some great food!

Thanks Everyone!

Mandarin Salad

Ingredients:

1/4 c. sliced almonds

1 T. plus 1 tsp. sugar

1/2 head lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces

1/2 bunch romaine, torn into bite-size pieces

2 stalks celery, chopped

2 T. green onion, thinly sliced

1 can mandarin oranges, drained

Dressing:

1/4 c. vegetable oil

2 T. sugar

2 T. cider vinegar

1T. parsley (dried or fresh)

1/2 tsp. salt

dash of pepper

Directions:

Cook almonds and sugar in saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is melted and almonds are coated; cool and break apart. Prepare dressing. Toss almonds with remaining ingredients and dressing.