The Perfect French Toast

Everyone loves french toast right? At least thats how I feel. When ever I go out to brunch or breakfast I have to convince myself to try something new instead of sticking with my old favorite. 

But have ever made it at home and wondered why it doesn't turn out the way it does at the restaurants?  

Well Im going to show you how! 

First off what you will need.

1. 6 slices of bread ( day old texas toast or baguette is the best for this recipe)
2. 2 large eggs
3. 1/2 cup milk
4. ground cinnamon
5. nutmeg or allspice
6. vanilla extract
7. butter

Alright, Lets get started. 

Start by preheating your oven to 400  (theres the first trick so many people neglect when making french toast!) 

Next combine the eggs, milk, vanilla, and spices (Just a dash of each spice about a tsp of vanilla)

After Mixture has been thoroughly mixed add bread to the mixture and allow all pieces to be coated on both sides.  While allowing the bread to absorb all of the mixture heat your skillet or griddle to medium heat and melt some butter (enough to cover the entire surface). 

Place the batter soaked bread into your skillet and and allow to brown on both sides. 

Once both sides have been browned place bread on a baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes. When the bread is done cooking it will be a fluffy golden brown. 

Serve with syrup and/or powdered sugar.  

Parmesan Cheddar Brussels Sprouts

Ever since I was a small child I LOVED brussels sprouts, even though my friends all thought they were ICKY.  I always loved vegetables and now that I am an adult I try to eat them as much as possible to stay healthy. So today I'm making one of my favorites, CHEESY SPROUTS, as I called them as a kid. 

What you will need

20-thirty brussels sprouts
3 tbsp olive oil
Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

Lets get started!

Start by washing the brussels sprouts thoroughly.

Once clean cut off the stem and peel off the outside leaves, including any leaves that are jagged or torn. 

                                                See the difference when they have the outer leaves still attached. 

Then cut the brussels sprout in half vertically. 

Take 2 tbsp of olive oil and rub all the sprouts with it.
Take the remaining 1 tbsp and put in a skillet on medium heat.

Place brussels sprouts in skillet, flat end down and cover and simmer for 3 minutes or until the bottom is slightly brown.
Uncover and sprinkle with salt and pepper, cook for another 2 minutes. Once the bottoms have browned toss with a spatula to slightly brown the rounded end of the sprouts.
Toss a little cheese on and let it melt.

Remove from heat and serve immediately.

Lemon Pepper Ranch Tilapia on English Muffins

I came up with this recipe just a few minutes ago. I was looking for something, anything to eat and decided to cook the tilapia that was in the fridge before it went bad.  As I reached into the fridge I saw a pack of english muffins. I thought hmm... maybe I should make something with the english muffins instead... I thought about making one of my favorite breakfast meals (even though it was 9 pm at that moment) I grabbed the English muffin box and noticed that there was something on the bottom of it. 

A Recipe perhaps...

I thought as I turned the box over to read it. I was right, on the bottom of the box was a recipe for Honey mustard chicken muffins. It sounded good and I figured I could just make that. There was only one problem, or should I say a couple problems. 

  1) No Chicken

   2) No  Mustard 

3) No Honey 

So I reopened my fridge to see what I DID have. I still had the fish. I also had ranch, spinach and a couple other veggies, and blueberries. Well I immediately wrote blueberries off the list along with most of the veggies. I decided to use the spinach and ranch some how.  I squirted some ranch in a measuring cup and then went through my spice rack and grabbed some lemon pepper.  I mixed the two together and suddenly my recipe started to come together.

After toasting the english muffins for a couple minutes I put the spinach and cooked fish on top of it. And that is how I came up with the Lemon Pepper Ranch Tilapia... because I didn't have any of the ingredients I needed for the dish I actually wanted to make. 

The only thing left to say is... It was Delicious! 

Heres what you will need:

2 Tilapia Fillets 

1/3 cup Ranch Dressing

2-3 tbs lemon pepper

2-3 English muffins

fresh Spinach

shredded cheese (optional)

Lets get started!

Start by pre-heating the oven to 350

measure 1/3 cup of the ranch dressing and sprinkle the lemon pepper in. Make sure it covers the entire top of the ranch.  Mix

Heat your skillet to Medium heat. 

Place your fish on a plate and spread half the ranch sauce onto the fish.

Place the fish in the skillet with the ranch side down. Spread remaining sauce on other side.

Cook for three minutes on each side. 

Meanwhile cut your english muffins in half.

Place on roasting rack or directly on to oven rack and toast for 2 minutes. 

Chop/flake the fish with your spatula.

When your muffins are done toasting put spinach on them and top with fish.

Top with cheddar cheese if desired. 

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Cucumber salad

When ever I go to my favorite sushi place they bring us a small dish of cucumber salad. I love the stuff, its a little tart and tangy but soooo good.  So the other day while trying to figure out what side dish I should make for dinner I decided to try my hand at the cucumber salad. Needless to say I needed a little help. I looked up several  different recipes and soon decided to put my own spin one recipe I found. I'm pretty confidante in saying that I don't think you will find a recipe for cucumber salad around like this one. 

So to start off  this is what you will need

One large Cucumber

1tbs vinegar  (lemon juice can also be a substitute for vinegar)

2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1tbs ground cinnamon 

1/4 cup vanilla soy milk

1tbs white  or brown sugar 

Lets get started!

Start by peeling  and slicing the cucumber.

Next mix together the vinegar, oil, and vanilla extract.  

Add the cucumbers and cinnamon. Mix together.

Next put the cucumber and vinegar mixture into a skillet on medium heat. Cook for 3-5 minutes. 

Add 1/4 cup vanilla soy milk.

Mix well. 

Once the milk is boiling cover the tops of the cucumber with sugar.

Flip and cook until sauce is almost gone. 

Remove from heat and store in fridge until ready to be served. 

  

Tilapia in blackberry onion sauce

Tilapia is Tilapia... You can pair it with practically anything because it's one of those foods that doesn't have a distinct taste, until you season it of course. I cook a lot of Tilapia because my husband only buys fish and chicken and he is rather fond of this particular fish because of its adaptability.  I like it cause its easy and cooks in minutes! 

For this recipe the secret is all in the sauce! I have to admit that there isn't anything to special about the tilapia it self... I mean Anyone can grill, fry, or bake Tilapia... Its the unique sauce that makes this dish so desirable. And whats better is that it can be used to top a number of meats and different pasta’s!

Now this recipe isn't one of my quick ones... This is one you get up around noon to prepare for dinner! But believe me... its worth it when you take your first bite into this sweet mouth watering sauce.

So heres what you will need:

4 Tilapia Fillets

1/2 cup moscato wine

1/3 white cooking wine

1/3 marsala cooking wine

2-3 cups cold water 

1/4 cup blueberries

5 Large Strawberries

2/3cup blackberries

One small white onion

2 Large Carrots (or 8 baby carrots) 

1 cup of corn starch 

about 1/3 cup chilie powder

Season salt

Sea salt

Lemon Pepper

Cinnamon

Now Lets get started!

1. Pour Moscato, cooking wine, and water in Large bowl or Pot, mix together. 
2. Chop or Slice Onion into small or medium size pieces adding all but a handful into wine mixture.
3. Chop Carrots  or simply add baby carrots to wine mixture as well. 
4. Add blueberries and strawberries to mixture
5. add Lemon Pepper, and sea salt to taste. Add just a pinch of cinnamon
6. Pour in Pot and Heat to a boil
7. add Season salt to taste
8. Reduce heat and add Blackberries
9. Take the four fillets and make sure there are no bones. Heavily cover the fillets with Chile powder making sure that no white is left showing.
10. Place fillets in bowl as flat as possible and add boiled wine mixture
11. Submerge Fish into the wine mixture and refrigerate for 2 hours. 

****Note: If Wine Mixture is not deep enough to submerge the fish entirely add more water and stir*****

1. Heat Electric Skillet, Griddle, or Pan to Medium heat and lightly butter.
2. Add fish to grill and apply the extra onion to each fillet.
3. Drizzle the wine mixture over each fillet as they cook. Cover for about five minutes or until fully cooked. 
4. Remove fish, or in a separate pan pour the wine mixture and heat. Remove strawberries and discard.
5. Heat the mixture until it boils. Add three spoonfuls of cornstarch to cup of cold water and mix until thin. Add the corn starch to the wine mixture and heat and stir until thick. Reduce heat.
6. Serve fish and pour sauce over it before it cools

****NOTE: If Mixture does not thicken continue to add corn starch****

Shrimp and Scallop Pasta

Here we have a yummy seafood spaghetti so to say... I made it off the top of my head one day after impulse buying scallops and not knowing any recipes to cook them in. I looked through my cabinets, pantry and fridge and decided I should do something that involves noodles since I had just bought a jumbo pack of organic wheat spaghetti noodles from Costco and I hadn't gotten around to using much of them. 

So I continued to scrounge through my freshly stocked fridge and found a bag of precooked shrimp and figured... Hey might as well get rid of those too while Im at it. So plopped the partially frozen crustaceans into the sink with some warm water to let them thaw while I continued my search for  things to add to my dish. 

It was then that I decided to make a simple shrimp and scallop pasta. I pulled a few other things from the fridge and began to prepare the meal.  When ever Im making some sort of pasta with out a recipe Carnation evaporated milk is my best friend! I always use it for the base of my sauce's, get used to it... you will be seeing it a lot. 

Anywho... after throwing in a few random veggies I had lying around in the fridge I started to prepare the sauce and realized that the pita bread I bought the other day would go great with this! 

This is by far the best pita bread I have ever purchased, thank you Costco for having that great 3 for $11.00 sale!  I bought this with a big tub of spicy black bean hummus... yum... but thats another story. 

Any way lets get to the recipe shall we? 

What You will need:

1/2 lb of shrimp (raw or precooked, its your choice.)

1/2 lb scallops

4 Oz Cream Cheese

Wheat noodles ( I used spaghetti)

1 (4) oz can evaporated milk

1 cup chopped spinach

2 tbsp chopped onion

2tbsp butter

2 cups shredded cheese

Lets get started! 

1. 1. Star by boiling a pot of water and adding a bit of olive oil to prevent noodles from sticking.
3. 
   
4. Once water starts bubbling add noodles. When noodles are done boiling, strain and set aside until needed.
5. On cutting board begin to chop onions and spinach. take about a handful of spinach leaves and and roll into a “log”. Slice down the center of “log” and chop from there. Once you have the required amount of spinach and onions set aside.
6. Heat skillet on Medium heat and melt the butter. Drain all water from scallops and shrimp and then lightly add to skillet. Cook for about a minute and then lightly season with lemon pepper. 
7.  
8. Cover and let simmer for 3-5 minutes turning every so often.
9. Heat to boiling and sprinkle with white pepper. When butter and water begin to bubble let simmer for 1-2 minutes.
10. Remove scallops and shrimp and set aside, leave juice in skillet. Add onion and spinach
11. .  
12. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 2 minutes. Add cream cheese. Break cheese into chunks and mix in. Add salt and remove from heat.
13.  
14. Get pot and fill with enough water to cover to bottom and set on medium heat. Add noodles, seafood, milk,and remaining seasonings and mix.
15.  
16. Once pasta is well mixed add the cheese and mix together until sticky. 
17. Serve with warmed Pita bread if desired.

Porky! AKA Flat Bread Melt

Alright everyone I know I have been out of commission for a little bit now. But my life has finally decided to calm down a little bit. Today I'm posting the recipe for my "porky" as my quirky husband calls them. I came up with this after an experience with Frozen entree's. One day I was grocery shopping in my local smith's and I meandered over into the frozen food aisle. As I peered into the frosty glass doors I saw a couple microwavable dishes that looked super good. One Brand (who name I forget at the moment) had microwavable panini's and flatbread melts. First off as soon as I saw the word panini that door swung wind open... I love those things. So I looked at the two boxes trying to decide which one to get since I was running late and wouldn't have time to make anything for lunch before I headed to another meeting. I decided to get both of them so I could decide later. I had the Panini for lunch and a couple days later I had the flatbread melt. The melt was... ok... it lacked something and wasn't anything I would every buy again unless I was running late again. But the next day while I was at Costco (my all time favorite grocery store!) I was trying the various samples and they had some flavored hummus with Pita bread on sale. After trying a few flavors and savoring the yummy bread I bought some and headed home. While trying to decide what to make for dinner it hit me... hey, this pita bread is practically the same bread that was used in that melt I had the other day. So I whipped out a package of pork chops and diced the meat and searched my fridge for anything else that would go good. It took about five minutes to make and has become a quick favorite of my family and friends. The recipe is posted below, I hope you enjoy!

To start off heres what you will need for 2 servings:

2 pieces of Pita Bread

1 lean pork chop

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese ( add more of less as needed)

chives (optional)

1/4 cup chopped spinach

seasoning of choice

cooking spray

Lets get started!

1. Start by removing any fat and then chopping your pork chop into bite size hunks. Season to taste.
2. Chop spinach and set aside.
3. Heat skillet on Medium heat and cook pork chop.
4. When fully cooked add spinach. Remove pork and spinach from heat and clean skillet for reuse.
5. Coat pan with cooking spray or butter. Place pita bread in microwave for 30 sec while skillets heats up. Place warmed bread in skillet, after 30 seconds flip.
6. Cover the bread with cheese and add chicken and spinach to half of bread.
7. Fold bread in half over meat and press down with spatula. Flip and press down with spatula again until cheese is fully melted.

A Not So Great Weekend

Hey Everyone. Sorry I haven't posted anything like I promised. My husband got in a terrible car accident on Friday on the way to visit out of state friends. So I wasn't able to cook anything new, let alone Post new recipes. I apologize and hope to get back on top of it really soon! I Just wanted to let you all know that I hadn't forgotten about you, rather Im just a little preoccupied.

Ill be back soon with lots of new recipes :)

Heath Bar German Chocolate Cake

Ok, For my first recipe Im going to make my yummy heath Bar German Chocolate Cake.

I made this for one of my husbands co workers for Christmas Because German Chocolate is his favorite. I thought about just running to Smith's and Buying a German Chocolate Box Cake but then I figured... why not make it a little special, It is Christmas After all.

So i looked through some of my old recipes and found a decent German Chocolate cake recipe.

It looked, enticing to say the least, I had never made a cake from scratch and I was ready to try one. So Made a shopping list and headed out to smiths. I found all the things I needed... except the German Chocolate...

People I talked to after the incident told me that the grocery store does in fact sell it.. I must have not looked very well Cause I didn't see any. After to traveling a ways down the street to the albertsons I found what I needed. I also found a few other things... While waiting in the ridiculously long check out line I got a craving for some chocolate, but I knew I couldn't eat the squares I had just found for the cake. I surveyed the very convenient candy selection and found the Health Bars, ON SALE! I grabbed about 6 Bars and a couple snickers and tossed them in my cart(if my husband finds candy or other sweets in the house they become his... so I bought enough for both of us....So I thought). I payed and left and had a heath bar on the way on. When I finally arrived home and began to prepare to make the cake I took a bite of my second heath bar and had a brilliant epiphany... Heath Bar chunks would make this cake AWESOME! So I prepared the cake as the recipe instructed and tried to decide where I should add the pieces of candy. Should I mix them in the batter? Mix into the frosting? Simple crumble on top of the finished product? All those Ideas sounded good to me, so I broke up a bar into little chunks and sprinkled them into the batter along with a few chocolate chips that I had bought a couple days before for some unknown reason (it must be fate) and placed the batter in the oven.

As the cake baked I started to make the frosting, I also started thinking about how I should have just bought pre made coconut frosting... I took the recipe and added some cream cheese to it because... well... it just seemed right.

I whipped the frosting in a bowl until supper fluffy and then added some of the smaller pieces of candy into it. When the cake was ready to be frosted I put a few melted chocolate chips into the bowl and whipped the frosting some more.

I spread the now cream cheese, chocolate chip, Heath Bar frosting over the cake and resisted cutting into it right then and there... Its a gift, I kept having to remind myself.

The finished product turned out pretty good. I didn't plan on blogging about it so I didn't take any detailed photo's but I have the one SRA Marly took when he received his christmas present.

I hope you try this recipe and it works out as well for you as it did for me. Because Im sure to make this treat again. When I took the cake over to Marly's house it was gone before I was... but then what can you expect from two airman who live off of frozen dinners.

What you will need:

Note: You can use Box German chocolate cake mix and coconut pecan frosting if you don’t want to make it from scratch. You will still have to add a few things to make it special. You will need chocolate chips, cream cheese, and heath bars. The things you will need to do if using boxed mixes will be highlighted.

FOR CAKE

1/2 cup water

4 (1)oz squares German sweet Chocolate

1 cup softened butter

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs, separated with yolks and whites saved

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup buttermilk

1tsp. baking soda

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/3 cup milk

FOR FROSTING

1 cup white sugar

1/2 butter

1/3 cups grated coconut

1cup evaporated milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup chocolate chips, melted

4 oz cream cheese

2 heath bars

Lets Get started!

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 3 - 9 inch round pans. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a small saucepan, heat water and 4 ounces chocolate until melted. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
• In a large bowl, cream 1 cup butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in 4 egg yolks one at a time. Blend in the melted chocolate mixture and vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, mixing just until incorporated.
• In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into the batter, then quickly fold in remaining whites until no streaks remain.
• Pour into greased and floured pans adding 1/4 chocolate chips to batter. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto wire rack.
• After cakes have cooled cut small slices into top of cake. Melt 1/4 of chocolate chips in microwave for 30 seconds, stir and add 1/3 cup milk. Pour into the slits and spread over top of cake.

To make Frosting : In a saucepan combine 1 cup sugar, evaporated milk, 1/2 cup butter, and 3 egg yolks. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in coconut, pecans and vanilla. Cool until thick enough to spread. Add Cream Cheese, 1/2 cup of melted chocolate chips and one heath bar.

Spread frosting between layers and on top of cake. Once the cake is frosted entirely, crumble the 2nd heath bar on top.

This is Just the beginning

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We've all been there, in that humdrum zone of life where eating out has consumed because cooking is just to time consuming, messy, or hard. Well YumEase is here to help. With our ever growing recipe archive you'll find it easier than ever to cook simple, quick and easy meals the whole family can enjoy.

If your a parent, Im sure you have tired of the never ending "eat your Veggies" war... Well we have a lot of kid friendly meals that your kids will be begging you to make after they try it. The best part is... Every meal is packed with veggies and they don'e even know it!

Another cool Idea is to get your kids helping you in kitchen. You know, simple meals and snacks that don't require much time or effort on your part but will keep the kiddos entertained and full.

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Alright everyone, those are the basics about YumEase. Cant wait to get all the good recipes on here for you guys to try! And thats not all... in the up coming months we will be creating an official website where you can watch webcasts and read about food news and much much more.

Ok thats enough for now. You know what they say... Always leave em' wanting more.

So signing out for now.

And remember, who says you cant cook? With YumEase making Yummies are Easy!