Back to School Breakfast...

Man, where did the summer go? I can't believe the kiddos have already been in school a whole week?! I need some back to school breakfast ideas!!! What are y'all cooking at your house? My oldest loves French Toast and this is his favorite recipe! It's my favorite because it's quick and easy!!!

Favorite French Toast

4 eggs
3/4 cup milk
3 Tbs. brown sugar
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
12 slices white bread
1 Tbs. ground cinnamon
Toppings: syrup, powdered sugar, whipped cream, strawberries, etc...

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs. Add the milk, brown sugar and nutmeg; stir well to combine. Soak bread slices in the egg mixture until saturated. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Brown slices on both sides, sprinkle with cinnamon and serve hot. Add whatever toppings you desire. Enjoy!

Picnic Pasta Salad

This is a wonderful recipe I got from over at Teri's Kitchen. My hubby went back like 4 times and said I really needed to blog about it!!! So, how could I not?! The addition of Parmesan cheese to this pasta salad gives it a very unique flavor and the tomatoes add texture and an unexpected burst of freshness! This would be great to take to a church potluck or your last picnic of the summer!

Pasta and Parmesan Cheese Salad

8 oz. elbow macaroni or pasta shells, cooked al dente
3/4 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped dill pickles
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. prepared yellow mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 cup chopped tomatoes

Combine all ingredients, preferably while pasta is still warm, except for the mayo and tomatoes; toss lightly. Add the mayo and mix well. Refrigerate for at least several hours or overnight. Before serving, add the tomatoes and toss. Bring to room temperature. Taste for seasoning and, if needed, add a little more mayo or cheese. Serves: 6

Notes from Teri... If you are serving the salad within several hours, you can add the tomatoes in the beginning. She prefers to use halved cherry or grape tomatoes. Since the dill pickles and cheese are salty, taste carefully before adding salt to the salad. She usually adds a little of the pickle juice and, when it is in season, some chopped fresh dill. To make life a little easier, dill cubes can be used. Other pasta shapes, such as small penne rigate or larger elbows can be used. As for the Parmesan cheese, her Mom's original recipe called for the canned variety. At the time, they thought it was very good, and would not hesitate to use it in this recipe. However, now she prefers freshly grated cheese of higher quality, such as Parmigiano-Reggiano. It costs more, but you will need less because it has so much flavor. The choice is yours. This recipe can easily be made in any amount.

Summer Cook-off...

Butter Brickle Frozen Delight

We, here on Three On Food, have decided to do some joint-venture cooking! We thought every season it would be fun to try a recipe and then we could all comment on what we liked about the recipe, what we would do different, etc... all within the same post!!! So, Tara picked our first recipe that just screamed SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!! Yummmm.... Let's get cookin'....

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Butter Brickle Frozen Delight
recipe: allrecipes.com

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1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup white sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup quick cooking oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup chopped pecans

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

1 (12 ounce) jar caramel topping


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In medium bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, 1/3 cup melted butter and white sugar until well mixed. Press into bottom of a 9 inch springform pan. Bake 6 minutes, until set. Cool completely. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, 1/2 cup melted butter and pecans until well mixed. Lightly pat onto a baking sheet. Bake 10 to 15 minutes, until light brown. Crumble while still hot. Cool completely. In large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Beat in condensed milk until well blended. Fold in whipped topping. Spread half of the cheese mixture over the crust in the springform pan. Sprinkle half of the oat crumbles over the cheese mixture, and spread half of the caramel sauce over that. Repeat layers. Freeze until firm, remove pan sides and serve cold.

Tara... Okay, so when Kathy told me about her idea of doing this summer cook-off thing I thought "Cool, that sounds like fun!" but it just so happened that I had also embarked on another adventure of.... losing weight!!!! or shall I say "trying" to lose weight! I had been eying this recipe and had it saved in my Allrecipes box for a while and when Kathy said those magic words I knew the exact recipe I wanted to try. But, on my recipe I did everything low fat/low sugar as I could! and let me tell ya is was still awesome!!! So what I did next was when it was ready to be gobbled up I took a very small sliver just to have a few bites so I could tell how YUMMY it was and I gave all the rest away to my neighbors. Let me tell ya, they all loved me before but after my husband and I delivered this to all of them they loved me even MORE!! ;o) So, not only did we love this recipe but all my neighbors did as well! And the give away worked cause I lost 6lbs. on my first week of my weight loss journey!! Here's to continued success for me!!! Happy cooking!!!

Here's what I changed in the recipe:

• substituted I can't believe it's not butter for butter.
• 1/3 less fat cream cheese for regular cream cheese.
• fat free sweetened condensed milk for regular sweetened condensed milk.
• and I only used 1 (8oz) container of sugar free frozen whipped topping instead of the 12 oz of regular frozen whipped topping.
  

Kathy... We really liked this recipe, well almost all of us except for our 14 year old who can't eat nuts right now because he has an expander in his mouth!!! :( Hubby said it sort of tasted like popcorn!?! It was very good, but I'm not sure I'd ever make it again. There's nothing wrong with this recipe - I'm just a chocolate lover!!! If you love caramel - then this is the recipe for you!!! If you decide to make this one, here's some things you should know... I bought the 15oz. tub of Cool Whip and just didn't use it all. Also, I cooked my oats and nuts mixture the whole 15 minutes and ended up burning the ones on the edges. I also didn't spread my oats and nuts thin enough, so I felt like the ones in the middle didn't get toasted enough. If I were to do this again, I would just stir half-way through and keep a careful eye on them!

If you want to join in on our little Food Challenge... Try the recipe and leave us a comment and let us know what challenges you had or what changes you made! We'd love to hear from you :O)

Chicken Tamale Casserole

Hi all! I know I should've taken a picture of this Chicken Tamale Casserole recipe, but I was soo hungry, I didn't think about it until it was gone...there were NO leftovers here tonight! Being a mexican-food LOVER, I've been wanting to try this recipe. It was soo darn easy and very very yummy! Everyone loved it! The only thing I didn't do was add chiles, and next time I will use a different cornbread mix, Jiffy is a little sweet, and I love Jiffy, but I think this needs a less sweet version. We added guacamole and sour cream to top it off!! ENJOY!!
*Cindy*

My kinda Carne

I know that Kathy has posted her version of Carne Guisada on here before but this is my version. Not really sure if Guisada & Guizado are the same thing or not? Anyway, this is another awesome recipe from my sweet neighbor Denise (Mama Nise as we know her!). The hubby and I like to eat this with some Spanish rice and tortillas. The kiddos however like me to shred it up and make quesadillas with it. Either way it's all GOOD! Have you ever made Carne Guizado/Guisada before and if so how'd you do it?

Carne Guizado

1 lb. stew meat
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1/2 6-oz. can tomato paste
1 can (10 1/2 oz.) beef broth (bouillon)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 small chiles serranos (I have never added these but I'm sure they'd be DELISH!)
3/4 cup water

Brown meat in oil until brown on all sides. Pour off grease. Add tomato paste, beef broth, salt & pepper, garlic, chili powder, cumin, chile peppers, and water. Bring to a boil and then turn very low, cover and simmer about one and 1/2 hours, or until meat is tender.
Dissolve about one teaspoon cornstarch in small amount of cold water and slowly pour into stew, which is simmering, until proper thickness of gravy is obtained. Serve with rice. (FYI...This batch I took a pic of was the perfect consistency at the end of cooking that I didn't have to add the cornstarch. So you can skip the last part of the directions if the gravy is to your liking!)
Enjoy!!

Tara