#38 - Learn How to Make Stuffed French Toast

I love french toast and its even better when I can get it stuffed with some yummy goodness. I have always wanted to know how to make stuffed french toast, but never really got around to it. That's why I love this list because it really helps me to do the things I just never get around to.

I searched on the internet for a good recipe for stuffed french toast and came up with a couple. I wasn't really fond of any one recipe because some of the ingredients just weren't for me and some were harder than I thought this needed to be because for real, its just french toast after all. So I put the good parts (and the easy parts) of the recipes together and made my own and here it is -

Ingredients
Batter
Egg (I used 1 egg and could have made 2 pieces - 4 pieces of bread total)
Milk
Cinnamon
Sugar


Stuffing
Cream Cheese
your favorite kind of jelly (I used strawberry)


Directions

I mixed the cream cheese and jelly in a little bowl.



Mix all ingredients from the batter together in a separate bowl (big enough to put the bread in)

Dip ONE SIDE of a slice of bread in your batter and set on a plate

Spread stuffing onto the UN-DIPPED side of the bread

Dip ONE SIDE of the other slice of bread and put the UN-DIPPED side on top of the stuffing mixture

Put the bread in a hot skillet and cook to your liking.



The cream cheese and jelly was a little difficult to mix together really well and looked a little funny so I think next time I might actually soften the cream cheese for a bit instead of just taking it from the fridge and mixing it. It did melt some when it was cooking so that helped it blend together more.

Overall, I was really happy with the way it turned out and will definitely be trying more kinds of jelly (Raspberry is next!). It wasn't very time consuming, and will probably go a little faster now that I know what I want to do :)

Happy eating!

#35 - Make a Meal Once a Month

This month my meal was Boston Market's meatloaf. I had been craving some good meatloaf and really I wanted some Boston Market meatloaf so I did some internet digging and found a recipe!! I was so excited that I had found one and really hoped it would taste pretty close and IT DID!!! This will be my meatloaf recipe from now on!

The Recipe

1 1/4 hours, 15 min prep
Serves 4-6

Meat Mixture
1 1/2 lbs lean ground chuck
1/2 cup minced onion
1/2 tsp garlic salt
2/4 cup drained diced tomato (crushed tomato works too)
3/4 cup plain breadcrumbs (I used Italian breadcrumbs)
1 egg

Topping
2/4 cup tomato sauce
2 tbsp sugar

Directions

Mix all ingredients for meat mixture together until well blended.
Place in a lightly greased bread pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes
Remove oven and drain excess grease from pan
Mix tomato sauce and sugar together and pour over the meatloaf and place back in the oven to finish baking until done (about 1/2 hour depending on the oven).

I think the next time I make this I'm going to make a little extra of the topping so that I can serve it with the meatloaf too.

This is a really, really easy meal to make and if you like Boston Market you'll love this. If you don't know what that is then you're definitely missing out!

Happy eating :)

How about another awesome recipe?

Ok, I'm on it!

I want to say that a friend of mine and Steve's used the recipe I posted last month (the pork tenderloin) and said it was awesome! So if you're looking for a good pork tenderloin, its recommended :)

For #35 this month I decided to make a healthy Stuffed Pepper while Margot was out of town since she doesn't like pepper's at all and the rest of us do. And yes, I said it was healthy but it is still REALLY good if I do say so myself...and I do! haha.

Here's the recipe (and even some pictures...I did much better at taking pics this month)

Ingredients -

4 bell peppers, green, medium

1 onion, yellow

2 celery stalk, medium

4 tablespoons chicken broth, fat-free, low-sodium

1 lb ground beef, extra lean

4 tablespoon liquid egg substitute

4 teaspoon parsley

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon basil, dried

Preparation -

Preheat oven to 350

Cut a slice from the top of the bell pepper, remove seeds and membrane. Cook pepper shell in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain well.

Wash, peel and dice onion; wash and dice celery

In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, saute onion and celery in chicken stock (adding more stock if necessary - and I usually add a little more) until tender. Remove mixture and set aside.

In same skillet, brown and drain ground beef.

Add vegetable mixture back into the skillet with meat, stirring to combine, and turn off heat.

Stir in egg substitue, parsley, black pepper, and basil

Fill pepper shell with meat mixture and place in a baking dish lightly coated with non-stick cooking spray.

Pour hot water to a depth of 1/4 inch around peppers. Bake 30 minutes

You will notice that there is no sauce with these peppers. Its strange I will admit and you can add sauce if you want to, but I don't. They're good the way they are. I might try to do something a little different next time - but for now I'm just trying to get a handle on cooking haha.

If you try them, let me know what you think :)

#35 - Make a meal once a month

That's right folks I can cook. And I can do it surprisingly well. So says both my mother-in-law and my father-in-law! Which is impressive. I didn't take any pictures of me cooking this time, but I really meant to. Either way, I did it.

So, for January, I made my (dad's) awesome Beer Chicken. It is always a crowd pleaser, and really easy to make. As for sides, I made green beans and baked potatoes. YUM! Although, I'm more partial to mashed potatoes I didn't start dinner when I should have so baked potatoes was going to have to do. I was disappointed, but no one else seemed to care.

So, I guess I should tell you how I made this chicken. Its not hard, but we have a little apparatus that is quite helpful in the whole process. Its nothing fancy, its just a little metal thing that's round on the bottom and has a place for a beer can which you then put the chicken on. I'll have to take a picture of it, but I don't have one as I type this and I'm not at home so you're out of luck for now. Sorry.

Ok, so the recipe for Beer Chicken is as follows - (and I do not claim to be an expert at writing recipes to just bear with me....)

1 whole chicken
cover it with butter
cover with garlic powder
cover with onion powder
about 1/4 an onion
1 can of beer (only need about 1/2 the beer though)
garlic powder and onion powder in the beer can

I use garlic and onion powder for seasoning (obviously...) but you can use whatever you want. And you don't have to "cover" it with a thick coat, just enough to make the skin cirspy and to let the flavor sink in. I put garlic and onion powder in the beer so when the beer steams the flavors penetrate (but don't worry the chicken doesn't taste like beer....which is odd don't you think?)

After I get it all seasoned up and ready to go I put the chicken on the beer can (this is why the apparatus thing is helpful because it helps to keep it standing). Once the chicken is all in place I put an onion in the top. Sometimes I only need 1/4 and others it'll take 1/2 it all depends on how big the chicken is.

Again, you don't have to use the onion if you don't want. My dad uses bacon (now, he used to use onion). Its all just about flavoring and making it juicy. I think the onion is good because I also use it to make my gravy (or I should say to make my father in laws gravy which is delish!)

Preheat oven to 350 and cook it for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours depending on the size of the chicken. ENJOY!

This is really one of my favorites - to eat and make. And I was telling my brother about it and he is already planning on having this as his first meal out of prison! Seriously, its freaking awesome. And it makes a really juicy chicken.

Anyway, that's all I have for now.