Healthy Fettuccine Alfredo

1 lb.  uncooked fettuccine noodles
3 small heads cauliflower
6 cups vegetable broth
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon butter
1 tsp. Salt
Black pepper
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup starchy boiling water from pasta

Chop the cauliflower. Bring broth to. Boil over medium heat and add cauliflower. Cook until fork tender. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add minced garlic and sauté until soft and fragrant, about 5 minutes.

While the garlic and cauliflower are cooking bring a large pot of water to boil and cook the fettuccine as per the package instructions  Keep some of the water for the sauce for later.

Transfer the cauliflower to a blender with about 2 cups of broth. Add garlic, salt, and pepper. Blend until smooth about 5 minutes. Add olive oil to blender. Add more broth if the mixture is too thick. When the sauce is smooth poor back into skillet. Add the cream and cook over low heat. Add starchy water and keep warm until ready to serve.

Serve immediatly. The sauce will dry out a bit as it cools. Adding a little water to leftovers will cream it back up.
Pasta

UPDATES: to make this dairy free and gluten free I used the following substitutions:

Fettuccine- gluten and dairy free noodles
Butter- dairy free butter
Cream- almond milk with a little corn starch to thicken it

Mint Brownies

Bottom Brownie

1 cup butter, melted
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
3/4 cup cocoa
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Cream together  butter, sugar and vanilla.

Add  eggs, cocoa, flour, and baking powder beat until well blended.

Pour into a 9X13 baking dish.

Bake  at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clear.

Cool completely and trim edges flat. 


Mint Cream Center:

2 2/3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 Tablespoon plus 1 tsp. water
1 tsp. mint extract
4 drops green food coloring

Beat until smooth. Spread evenly over cooled brownies. Cover and refrigerate until cold.


Chocolate Glaze:

6 Tablespoons butter
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Melt together over low heat until smooth when stirred. Cool slightly and poor over mint. Smooth out to cover. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

UPDATES:

To make this gluten and dairy free I did the following exchanges:

Butter- butter shortening or dairy free butter
Flour- brown rice flour
Semi sweet chocolate chips- bakers semi sweet chocolate or dairy free chocolate chips.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup butter
8 oz. cream cheese
1 tsp. vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar

Mix all ingredients together.

*If you are leaving the frosting white use clear vanilla. If not it doesn't matter.

Oreo Truffles

1 pkg. Oreo Cookies
1 pkg. cream cheese
2 pkgs. Bakers semi sweet chocolate or chocolate chips

Do not soften cream cheese before mixing. Chop Oreo cookies really fine (in blender). Mix cream cheese and Oreo cookies together. Save some chopped Oreo cookies to sprinkle on top. Put Cookie sheet or stone in freezer for an hour. Pull out and cover with parchment paper. Scoop 1" balls onto parchment paper. Refrigerate until firm then dip into melted chocolate. Top with Oreo cookies, coconut, nuts, crushed candy canes, etc.

Makes around 48 1" balls

Sugar Cookies

So I have been making delicious treats for family and friends, you can't have Christmas without my mom's delectable sugar cookies with cream cheese frosting. Unfortunately I can't eat them this year (darn baby with milk allergy's!) but I know they are delicious! I got Beau and Gavin's approval!

Sugar Cookies

3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups butter
4 eggs
2 cups milk
1 Tbsp vanilla or lemon extract
9 cups flour
7 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Cream the sugar, butter and eggs together. Add a little milk at a time, then add the rest of the ingredients.
Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

I make the dough then roll it out flat 1/4" to 1/2" thick between two pieces of freezer paper and freeze. If you don't it gets too sticky. If you add more flour then they aren't as fluffy and yummy.

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

2 cups carrots
1/4 cup chicken flavoring (granulated chicken bullion)
onion salt
celery salt
2 cans cream of chicken soup
3/4 cup sour cream
2 cans chicken
parsley flakes

Add carrots to a pot of boiling water. add chicken flavoring and noodles until level with water. cook until carrots and noodles are tender. add remaining ingredients. add seasonings to taste.

Chicken Almondine

6-9 chicken breasts
shaken in pepper, salt, celery salt & flour
Cover bottom of pan with dry onions, put chicken on top.
Combine: 3 cans cream of chicken soup and
                2/3 c. sour cream
Mix and pour over chicken
Sprinkle with paprika, parsley flakes & slivered almonds.
Cover with foil and Bake at 350 for 2 hours

Lasagna

1 lb ground beef
1/2 clove garlic or 1/8 tsp garlic powder
1 can Italian stewed tomatoes
1 can tomato soup
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
lasagna noodles (1/2 box for 1 casserole dish)
12 oz. cottage cheese
1 1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese

Brown ground beef, add all except the last three ingredients in pot. Cover and simmer 20 minutes. Add cottage cheese and stir.
Layering: start with meat sauce, layer noodles, cheese, meat sauce, noodles, cheese, meat sauce, sprinkle cheese on the top.
Cook at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes until cheese is melted.

Chex Graham Chew

1 cup karo syrup (white)
1 1/2 cubes butter
1 cup sugar
1 tesp vanilla

Boil 3 minutes. Pour over mixture of:

1 small box rice chex
1 small box golden grahams
2 cups coconut
2 cups slivered almonds

Mix well. Cool, then bag.

** I use butter flavored shortening instead of the butter, mainly because of my babies milk protein allergy but it tastes delicious!

Spaghetti

1 lb Ground Beef
2 cans Stewed Tomatoes
2 cans Tomato Soup (or 1/2 qt. tomato juice)
Spaghetti Seasoning
Oregano
Garlic Salt
Pepper

Brown ground beef, drain. Add blended Stewed tomatoes, tomato soup and seasonings to taste. Simmer until thickened and heated through. Add to Spaghetti noodles. 
I also add meatballs to this recipe in a crock pot. I heat up the meatballs(from Costco or make your own) in a crock pot while I make the sauce. Then add the sauce to the meatballs once thickened and let it simmer in the crock pot until meatballs are warmed through.

Velveeta Cheesy Beef Stroganoff

1 lb ground beef
2 cups water
3 cups egg noodles- uncooked
12-16 oz velveeta cheese
1 can cream of mushroom soup
pepper to taste

Brown meat & drain. Add water and bring to a boil. Stir in noodles, cover and simmer until noodles are tender. Add velveeta, soup and pepper. Cook until velveeta is melted and mixture is well blended.

Taco Soup

After 2 phone calls and 3 recipe books later, Beau and I came up with this recipe last night for dinner. Thanks Cindy and Kim for your input!

Taco Soup:

1 lb. ground beef- browned & drained
1 qt. Tomato Juice
2 cans black beans- drained
1 can pinto beans- drained
1 can corn
Taco seasoning or I used south west seasoning

Add all ingredients together in a pot and simmer until beans are tender.
Serve over corn chips

Dill Pasta Salad

This recipe is for Cindy. I never got you this recipe so here it is! Let me know what you think or if you make changes and like them better!

Dill Pasta Salad:

16 oz angle hair pasta- cooked
1 cup sour cream
1 cup mayo
2 tesp. dill weed
2 Tbsp chicken boulion (powder)
salt & pepper
cucumbers - diced small

Mix all ingredients together and pour over pasta.
Toss until covered!

Sharing Recipes

I decided to start a new blog to share my recipes! If anyone in our family wants to contribute let me know! I can add you as a member. I plan to share my basic dinner ideas as well as desserts and other yummy stuff! I am pretty excited to have a place to share all my recipes! I plan to update a few times a week, but who knows how that will go!