Ceasar Salad with homemade dressing (Jeff Turley's recipe)

2 hard boiled eggs

1/3 cup olive oil

3 Tbsp lemon juice (1 lemon)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 garlic clove

pepper

dash of nutmeg

2 heads romaine lettuce, cut to eating size

parmesan cheese

croutons

Blend eggs, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, dijon, garlic, pepper and nutmeg in a blender. Stir into romaine lettuce. Grate parmesan cheese on top and add croutons.

Zucchini Pasta

3 medium zucchinis

2-3 oz. linguine

1-2 chicken breasts

2 Tbsp. Fresh Basil or 2 tsp. Dried Basil

1/4 cup. Shredded Parmesan 

1/4 Mozzarella

When determining how much linguine to cook - do about 1/3 of what you would normally cook for a pasta dish. This meal replaces a large portion of your carbs with zucchini, and it's even more delicious! Boil the linguine for about 7-8 minutes so it's still a little firm. 

Cube your chicken in small bite size pieces. Cook on medium-high heat in a large saute pan. Add a dash of salt and pepper. Once chicken is fully cooked, remove from pan. 

Chop up your zucchini in very fine strips (as shown above). Put them in the same pan used to cook the chicken, and drizzle a tablespoon or two of olive oil on zucchini. Cook on medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes until they're starting to bend - but not too soggy and flimsy, you still want a little bit of a crunch.     

Add the chicken back into the pan. Add the basil. Then add the linguine and cheese. Combine the ingredients, heat through, and serve!

We love this recipe. It is so good! Go ahead and put more zucchini if you want, I put 5-6 zucchinis.

Recipe from beck-a-boo blog

White cheese sauce (for anything or for mac and cheese)

Heat 1 qt of milk

In another pan heat 6 TB butter. Add 1/2 cup flour. Cook together for about 2 minutes while whisking.

Slowly add the hot milk.

Add TB salt.

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp nutmeg (optional)

12 oz gruyere, shredded

8 oz good cheddar, shredded

Add cheese to sauce. Combine with 1 lb macaroni for mac and cheese.

optional: put in dish and add sliced tomatoes and bread crumbs to top. Bake at 375 for 30 min.

Tomato Sauce from Alton Brown

TOTAL TIME: 2 hr 55 min

prep: 25 min

cook: 2 hr 30 min

Ingredients

20 roma tomatoes, halved and seeded (I didn't seed as you can see by the pictures)

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 cup finely diced onion

2 tsp minced garlic

1 TB finely chopped oregano leaves

1 TB finely chopped thyme leaves

1 cup white wine (or substitute like water, vege broth. See LINK)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In 2 (13 by 9-inch) pans place tomato halves cut side up. Sprinkle with oil, salt and pepper, onion, garlic, and herbs. Bake tomatoes for 2 hours. Check the tomatoes after 1 hour and turn down the heat if they seem to be cooking too quickly. Then turn the oven to 400 degrees and bake another 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and process tomatoes through a food mill (or food processor) on medium dye setting over a small saucepan. Discard skins. Add white wine, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes

Green Smoothie from smoothie girl

1 1/2 cups coconut liquid

1 larg carrot, cleaned and cut into 3 pieces

1/4 medium beet, raw, peeled

1/4 cup cashews

1/4 cup chopped dates

2 tsp vanilla

12 frozen strawberries

flax seed

2 TB kefir or yogurt

puree all ingredients except strawberries and flax in a high power blender for 90 seconds. Add strawberries and puree on high until smooth. Add the flax for the last 5 seconds.

Add spinach or other greens if you like.

Zucchini Bread - my favorite recipe

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3-4 cups grated zucchini (no need to peel or drain)

Directions

1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
2. Mix flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Add Zucchini and mix well. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan.

Slow Cooker Mexican Pulled Pork

Slow Cooker Mexican Pulled Pork
•2 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce
•1 Tbsp chili powder
•1 Tbsp ground cumin
•2 Tbsp brown sugar, divided
•1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
•½ tsp salt
•3 cloves garlic, minced
•1 lb pork tenderloin
1.In a slow cooker, combine the tomato sauce, chili powder, cumin, 1 Tbsp of the brown sugar,cayenne pepper, salt, and garlic. Stir until well combined.
2.Carefully place the pork into the sauce in the slow cooker. Make sure it is all covered with the sauce. Cook on low for 8 hours.
3.Remove the pork from the slow cooker and shred the pork using two forks, pulling against the grain of the meat. Pour the sauce from the slow cooker into another bowl. Add the pork back to the slow cooker and add just enough of the sauce to make the meat saucy just like a bbq pulled pork. Then mix in the remaining 1 Tbsp of brown sugar for extra sweetness.

Yellow sweet shortcake, Lindsay's recipe

1 box yellow cake mix

2 eggs

1 stick melted butter

Mix together, should be very thick. Spread in a 9x13 pan.

16 oz powdered sugar

8 oz softened cream cheese

1 egg

Mix together until well blended, then pour on top of bottom mixture and spread evenly. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes. Should just be starting to turn a golden color. Do not overbake.

To use this for strawberry shortcake, just do the yellow cake mix part and not the topping and bake for 25 minutes.

Easy Spinach Salad

Ingredients:
-Fresh Spinach leaves
-goat or feta cheese, crumbled (try the goat cheese if you never have, it's delicious)
-strawberries, chopped or blueberries (etc.)
-walnuts/pecans (plus sugar)
-raspberry or strawberry vinaigrette

Directions:
NUTS
In saucepan, saute nuts for a few minutes on medium high. Just barely allow to "toast". (You can do this in the oven, but the stove top is much faster and just as good). Pour sugar on top of nuts and mix constantly, until sugar melts completely. Do not allow sugar to brown. (You can take nuts off heat and finish stirring if needed to prevent burning.) Spread nuts onto plate and allow to cool. I like to sprinkle a little bit of salt on top of the hot nuts.
SALAD
Mix together all ingredients in large bowl. Only mix as much as you will eat because the salad dressing will cause the spinach to wilt overnight. Mixing salad beforehand in large bowl allows all the flavors to blend nicely before serving.

Hershey's Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Icing

CAKE INGREDIENTS
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Hershey's cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE FROSTING INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter or 1/2 cup margarine

2/3 cup cocoa

3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


CAKE DIRECTIONS: 

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl.

Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla.

Beat on medium speed 2 minutes.

Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).

Pour into 2 greased and floured 9" round pans. Also makes around 30 cupcakes (bake cupcakes 22-25 minutes).

Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool 10 minutes, then remove to wire racks and cool completely.

Frost with "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting (above). Also great with the cheesecake pudding frosting as seen in photo above.

FROSTING DIRECTIONS: 

Melt butter.

Stir in cocoa.

Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating on medium speed to spreading consistency.

Add more milk, if needed