Mandarin Orange Fried Rice

1 tablespoon oil
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup minced onions
1 cup Cold rice
1 can of mandarin oranges, saving some liquid.
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Heat pan with oil..add onion. When the onion starts to soften .beat egg and add to hot pan. Cook until set. Add rest of ingredients. Cook until hot. About 3 to 5 minutes.

Meatless Monday

Is that something, I googled Meatless Mondays to find the blog hop and I find that it has a history. Gee I must have been asleep in class for this one... but back in World War 1 Herbert Hoover was the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and he was asking Americans to cut back because of the shortages (that I remember) and many items where rationed. He coined the terms "Meatless Monday" and "Wheatless Wednesday” saying that “Food Will Win the War”. Wow I guess now many environmental and health groups are coining this phase to help people cut back....

So today I did a real easy meatless meal.

I had some frozen ravioli in the freezer..... I have been craving some cheese ravioli....
So I baked some! Real easy simple lazy recipe:

Italian tomato sauce
1/4 onion chopped finely
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of baking soda

Mix together. I should have heated this to make sure it was spaghetti sauce consistency but I didn't tonight.

I pour some sauce just to cover the bottom

Then I layered the frozen cheese raviolis. I covered with more sauce. I sprinkled some 5 cheese Italian grated cheese and some Parmesan cheese . Layered more raviolis and sauce and the cheeses...

Cover with foil

Bake at 375 for about a hour and 15 minutes. The last fifteen minutes I took the foil off...
Yum...

Raspberry Oatmeal Cookie Bars

 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
 1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup of applesauce
2 tablespoons of  seedless raspberry jam


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 8 inch square pan,
 Combine brown sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and rolled oats. Rub in the butter using your hands or a pastry blender to form a crumbly mixture. Add applesauce. Press 2 cups of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Spread the jam to within 1/4 inch of the edge. Sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture over the top, and lightly press it into the jam.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes in preheated oven, or until lightly browned. Allow to cool before cutting into bars.

It was kinda crumbly but I did use 1/2 of the butter from the original recipe and added applesauce but it turned out tasty.  

Second Chance Potatoes

Yesterday we had our cook out seeing how Miss Animal Rights and I had to work. We had some baked potatoes that has left over from the cook out.  Tonight we planned on twice baked potatoes.  But Miss Animal Rights has problems with splitting the potato to refill. SO I planned on cooking. Our potatoes were very round but kinda flat. Not the potatoes you see at the restaurants. That's ok I like my farmer markets potatoes and sweet corn.   So we cut them in half. Then we added a little milk, a little butter  and cheese.

4 medium potatoes
2 tablespoons of milk
1 tablespoon of butter
1/4 cup of cheddar cheese
1/4 teaspoon of season salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder.

Cut potatoes in half.  Spoon out the inner part of the potato place in bowl. Make a hollow "bowl" center.  After you have done all the potatoes add the rest of the ingredients.  If too dry you can add more milk if needed.. Mix together. Spoon the mix into the potato "bowls".  You can add extra cheese to the top if wanted.
Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or until the cheese is browned.

Very yummy easy meal that you can use something that is considered  a left over....


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Slow and Easy Lasagna

My dad loves lasagna and I have heard that he really isn't eating very well lately. It's just him and he eats way to much fast food and heat and eat food. SO to avoid a haunting from his wife the woman that raised me and would  home-cook meals for our family... Miss Animal Rights and I (with a little help from the Linebacker... my nephew who now lives in the area going to college, on football scholarship) we have a plan to cook when he comes over and send food home with him ... well tonight the daughter talked him into Subs.... So I found a recipe for crock pot lasagna I was thrilled! I could cook a big batch of lasagna and not heat the house up. Oh maybe a small crock pot for meatballs... For the Gpa and Tech...

Box of regular lasagna noddles (broken)
a jar of spaghetti sauce
ricotta cheese/ cottage cheese

egg
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Bag of Italian blend cheese
1/4 cup of water


I like a lot of sauce so I would add a 15 once can of tomato sauce also.
Mix together egg and ricotta cheese and or cottage cheese. 

First layer is a scoop of spaghetti sauce.
Next place the noodles on top, broken to fit in the crock pot.
Top with the ricotta cheese/ cottage cheese spread. Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on top of that
.
Keep layer that way until you reach the desired amount... around 4 layers....
Last layer left the cheese off (reserve some in the refrigerator)  
After using all the spaghetti sauce add the 1/4 cup of water to the jar shake to get all the sauce left in jar... and pour over the crock pot lasagna
Cook on high for 4 hours low for 8
Add your reserved cheese at the last hour.
You can push those noodles down to keep them from getting to dry and burning.

National Soup Month

I made veggie stock from scratch the other day.  It is pretty easy to do.

Hint cut your veggies into big chunks. It will be cooking for a long time!

About 1/2 to 1 cup (of each) chopped vegetables of choice.
  potato peels
 carrots
celery (can add some of  the leaves)
mushrooms
squash
tablespoon of  parsley
tablespoon garlic powder 

First I got a big pot.  Add a little olive oil to the bottom, just to coat it.

Chop one onion and saute until tender.
Add celery,  potato peels, carrots, mushrooms and squash into pot. Season with salt and cook until tender. About 30 minutes.


Add water to cover and almost fill pot. Add tablespoon of  parsley
Bring to boil.   Turn down to simmer and reduce to 1/2. 

Vegetables plus some of the stock made a great vegetable soup for that evening.  The rest of stock was frozen in cup cake pan for easy use later.

Taco Seasoning

1 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. corn starch

1/2 tsp. crushed dried red pepper

1/4 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

                                                     1/2 tsp. garlic powder

                                                      2 tsp.  onion powder

Add to browned ground beef.  Add 1/2 c. water.  Simmer 10 Minutes.