Veggie and Pasta Salad

Cook pasta normally.  I had spaghetti noodles, but any noodles would work. Set aside.

Cut romaine lettuce
Drain mandarin oranges
Toast almonds 400 for 10-15min, be careful you don't want them to burn.  You can also toast them on the stove top on high with oil/butter, just keep an eye on them you don't want them to burn.

Put 2-3 cups of lettuce in a salad bowl, top with mandarin oranges, and almonds.
then add dressing :
2-3T of olive oil
1-2t of apple cider vinegar
1 t basil and/or poppyseeds
salt and pepper
dash of garlic powder

Mix the salad altogether then put a mound of noodles on each individual plate and top with the salad mixture.

Can add avocados

Quinoa

The Kitchn

What You Need

Ingredients1 cup uncooked quinoa (any variety — white or golden, red, or black) 
Olive oil, optional 
2 cups water or broth
1/2 teaspoon salt

ToolsFine-mesh strainer
2-quart saucepan with lid
Spoon

Instructions

1. Rinse the quinoa: Measure 1 cup of quinoa and place into a fine-mesh strainer. Rinse thoroughly with cool water for about 2 minutes. Rub and swish the quinoa with your hand while rinsing. Drain.
2. Toast quinoa in saucepan (optional): Heat a drizzle of olive oil in the saucepan over medium-high heat, and add the drained quinoa. Cook, stirring, for about 1 minute to let the water evaporate and toast the quinoa.
3. Add liquid and bring to a boil: Stir in 2 cups of water or broth and the salt. Bring to a rolling boil.
4. Lower heat and cook, covered, for 15 minutes. Turn heat down to the lowest setting. Cover and cook for 15 minutes.
5. Let stand, covered, for 5 minutes: Remove the pot from heat and let stand for 5 more minutes, covered. Don't peek!
6. Fluff and eat! Remove the lid — You should see tiny spirals (the germ) separating from and curling around the quinoa seeds. Fluff the quinoa gently with a fork, and serve. If any liquid remains in the bottom of the pan or if the quinoa is still a bit crunchy, return the pot to low heat and cook, covered, for another 5 minutes, until all the water has been absorbed.

Grilled Veggie Sandwich and Potato Salad

From- All Recipes

foccaia bread

cut squash and zucchini length wise, in long slices

cut onions in complete circles

cut red peppers in half and flatten

cube red and yellow potatoes

boil for 10 min, drain

then make a oil vinegar mixutre to pour over potatoes

wrap poatoes and oil mixture

Grilled potatoes and salmon

Put everything in two separate flattened rectangle shapes of aluminum foil. Wrap and seal the edges tight so you can flip the aluminum foil on the opposite sides, to cook both sides. Cook in oven 350 for 30-40 min


From- All recipes
olive oil
1 sliced onion
4-5 potatoes
1 T minced garlic
salt and pepper
1/2 of fresh lemon and some zest
5-8 fresh basil leaves

Can assemble in the morning, then cook it right b4 dinner. I like to cut and mix everything in a bowl with olive oil, then put in aluminum foil then on the grill.  Can bake in the oven 350 for 20 min or on the stove top till browned.


All Recipes
Salmon
butter
1-2 T of minced garlic or (1/2-1 t of garlic powder)
salt and pepper
1/2 of lemon and some zest (1-2t of lemon juice)

I sprayed the bottom of the aluminum oil then put the salmon on top of the spray. Then sprinkle garlic, butter, salt, pepper, and lemon on salmon. Depending on the size of the salmon Cook for 10 minutes per inch of thickness, or until fish flakes when tested with a fork.  For mine about a half hour


The nite before, I made and assembled Funeral potatoes , Asparagus , Yummy salad and then cooked the day of.


2/8/16 Sliced onions and mushrooms with oil, salt and pepper and roasted in oven till brown, Delicious!!!

From- Food Network

'Cake' Ice Cream Cones

I made a choco cake mix and poured them into ice cream cones, and cooked them in the oven. Made about 24 ice cream cone cakes.

Pro's- I put the ice cream on top of the cone and didn't use any plates or spoons to serve it
       - there was no garbage to clean up, made clean up way easy.

Con's- The ice cream did tend to fall off the cone b/c it wasn't sticking to the cake inside the cone.

        - I made the cake inside the cone a day b/4 the party and covered them in a container.  But, the morning of the party I checked on the cones and they were sorta mushy instead of crunchy (the cones absorbed the moistness of the cake).  So I set them on the counter and our dry UT air made them a bit more crunchy.  They would be a little better if you just made them the day of the party.

       - a few girls in the party didn't eat all the cake or cone b/c they didn't like it, but the boys wanted more than one.  I'm with the girls on this one, I'd rather eat a cake on a plate with ice cream.

Birthday Service

Planning a birthday party, but thought it'd be fun to have the friends do a little service in the middle of the party-

Ideas from- Snowball , EatSleep,  Pennies and Millions

*Take chalk and drive around to your friends' houses.  Have your kids write kind words about the friend on their driveway.  It will wash off during the next rain but make their day in the meantime!
* Write a thank you to a friend, parent, grandparent, neighbor, soldier, etc
*Get out the markers, crayons and paper and make homemade cards or just have the kids color pretty pictures.  Drop them off at a rehabilitation center or hospital.

Giant Cupcake Candy Melt Base

For katie's birthday she wanted choco cake, with choco chips and choco frosting.

I bought a jumbo cupcake pan on sale a couple of weeks ago, so I'm gona try it for her bday.

Original recipe- Cake Central

I first made a hard chocolate mold in the cake pan.  I bought semi sweet choco chips, then melted them over the stove.  ( I usually melt choco chips in the micro with a little oil, but I did the stove top b/c I had to put layers of choco in the cake pan and freeze each layer in between reapplying.)

So I got a small sauce pan and a small glass bowl that would hold 12oz of choco chips and about 2t of oil. On the cake pan spray non-stick spray then add the layers of choco. I wanted the choco chips to stay warm and not get hardened while waiting to reapply the next layer while the cake pan with choco was in the freezer.

The freezer probably took 15-20 min between each layer of applying choco to harden it.  I layered about 3-4 layers of chocolate.

To get the choco mold out, Attempt #1 fill up the sink with hot water and dip the bottom part of the cake pan for a few minutes and then turn the cake pan upside down to get the mold out.  Attempt #2 the first attempt didn't work, so I put the faucet on hot and rotated the outside of the pan to loosen the choco mold, then put down a clean plate and shook up and down the mold on to the plate. (it worked) Then put the mold in the fridge while I cooked the cake.

When cake is done put it in freezer to cool it down for 30min and then I needed to cut off an inch around the sides so I would fit inside the chocolate hard mold.