Projects: Lots o' Baking!

I've been a busy lady with baking these last few days. I had an order for the banana cupcakes I made awhile ago. A co-worker wanted two dozen for her son's first birthday. She provided the liners and picks and asked for just a little icing. So I whipped some up really quickly. My goodness, I wish all orders could be so simple and fast! I'm sorry the picture is so dark. No excuses, really. It just is.

The same night, I also made four dozen mini cupcakes for another co-worker's farewell. She's moving on to teaching at a school district. As sad are we are to see her go, we are all happy for her new opportunities. I made some chocolate banana cupcakes with the same recipe as the banana cupcakes above, only using a milk chocolate mix. The banana didn't stand out so much since the chocolate had so much flavor. Next time, more bananas! I used the same buttercream that I made for the baby's cupcakes. Just colored it her favorite colors. Then I mixed up some matching fondant and made simple decorations. I was quite please with how they came out. And I think it was the best buttercream I've ever made.

I had also bought a box of no-bake cherry cheesecake. I got to it the next morning and made cherry cheesecake cupcakes for that co-worker to take home since the mini ones were for everyone. Didn't take a picture since I didn't really do anything to them... and I finished them at work on a break.

Yesterday, I was in a grumpy mood for various reasons. I vented to my husband about it. Blogged about it. Prayed about it. But I needed to do something to get my mind off of it. So I made some snickerdoodle cookies. They were amazingly simple and amazingly tasty. Two dozen vanished in less than 24 hours.

Four different projects in three days. I'm spent. However, I am very likely going to be out of a job soon for an undetermined amount of time and, if/when that happens, I'll have a lot more free time to do things.

Speaking of my job, please go here to show your support for Head Start, federally-funded preschool that comes free to low-income families and families with children with special needs. And not for me. I can find another job. But for the hundreds of thousands of parents and children that depend on it.

Project: Attempting to Duplicate a Restaurant Meal

For Valentine's Day this year, Billy and I agreed that we wouldn't buy each other presents since we don't have a lot of money to throw around right now. We said we would figure out another way to celebrate. (He got me a beautiful bouquet of daises and other flowers [which is technically a present, but I still love them] and took me to a movie and out to dessert.)

I decided I would make him dinner. In our entire relationship, I hadn't made him a V-Day dinner. Time to improve my wife-ing skills! I thought about what I was going to make him and the first thing that I came up with was the best: his favorite meal from a beloved restaurant that closed about a year ago. He has mentioned ever since it closed that he still craves a Turkey Eater, so I thought I'd try to duplicate it.

What I made slightly resembled a Turkey Eater, but it tasted nothing like it. It was still good, though!

It is essentially a turkey sandwich on sourdough with cheese, slathered with butter, and lightly cooked. As you can see, I cooked it too long. But I also didn't use as much butter AND I totally guessed wrong on the cheese. He loved it, but I really think he liked Turkey Eaters more. I also made Parmesan zucchini and asparagus. Never cooked asparagus, either. It was pretty good. And, for the third day in a row (blame camp), I cut up a whole pineapple. We had all of this with a glass of wine. And since we are totally uncultured, we didn't enjoy the wine at all, haha. I don't know what inspired me to buy that particular kind, but it was no bueno. So we had some cherry limeaide instead.

All in all, I didn't capture the buttery deliciousness of the Turkey Eater very well, but I made a deliciously fancy grilled cheese dinner for my deserving husband.

Project: Salsa Chicken

I found a recipe on Spark Recipes that looked easy and had very few ingredients. Just how I like it. So I tried it out today. It uses a slow cooker and, despite the fact that I own two (shower/wedding presents), I don't know if I've ever used one. And, of course, we are out of the liners for it so I'll have some scrubbing to do pretty soon. On to the project!

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup salsa
1 package reduced sodium taco seasoning
1 can reduced fat cream of mushroom soup (condensed)
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream

The chicken was defrosting in the microwave when I took the picture. Then I decided this was a pretty dumb time to use the fancy camera app since you can't frame anything well.

Directions:

Add chicken to slow cooker.
Sprinkle taco seasoning over chicken.
Pour salsa and soup over chicken.
Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.
Remove from heat and stir in sour cream.
Serve with rice.

See? Easy peasy. The chicken breasts were ginormous, so I added some extra salsa. After everything (except the sour cream) was in there, I started to doubt if it was going to taste good at all. It looked like diarrhea.

But I let it cook because you never know how something is going to turn out until the end.

Hubby told me Mom-in-Law doesn't like sour cream, so I left it on the side and we just added it to our plates. When the chicken was done, it was SO easy to shred, which I wasn't expecting. We ate it over brown rice with steamed veggies on the side. But all three of us were a little concerned because it smelled spicy.

General consensus? Delicious! It was moist and flavorful. And unlike most shredded chicken plates you get at Mexican restaurants, it wasn't greasy at all. I hate greasy food, ugh.

I will definitely be trying this recipe again. I want to try adding black beans, corn, or peppers. This dish would be great for anyone that doesn't have a lot of time to cook dinner. Just add instant rice and microwaved veggies. And, if you get low sodium seasoning (or make your own) and reduced/low fat soup and sour cream, it's pretty nutritious as well.

Here is a link to the recipe, but I don't know if it will work without a SparkPeople account.

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=672711

If you have any recipes that are quick, tasty, and have few ingredients, I'd appreciate any suggestions. I'm trying to cook more and eat out less, but I work until 5 every weekday and am pretty exhausted from chasing the kids around all day.