Salsa

I've been making this salsa for the last couple years and it's so easy.


Salsa
8 cups tomatoes, chopped
3 onions, chopped
2 green peppers, chopped
8-10 jalapeno peppers, chopped (keep seed for hot, remove for milder)
1 12oz can of tomato paste
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 TBSP garlic powder
1 TBSP salt
1 TBSP pepper


Combine ingredient in a large pot.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 60-90 minutes. Put into pint jars and seal.  make 5 to 6 pints.

Notes:
I usually put my salsa in the blender after I cooked it for a smoother salsa.

Tip:
wear plastic gloves when working with jalapeno peppers so you don't get the "hot" of the pepper on your hands.

Pepperoni Pizza Bites

So like I said on my last post, I've been spending a lot of time on Pinterest.com and am finding tons of new recipes to try.  After my original plan for dinner back fired on me (I was on pinterest and the soup burnt to the bottom of the pan.  It stunk up the house!!!)  I had to come up with something different.  Seeing how Mike is in the field harvesting corn, I quickly thought of this tasty looking pizza bites.   I threw a batch together and the boys eat the whole thing...so I had to make another batch and brought those out to Mike for supper....I'm already sick of harvesting season.  

Pepperoni Pizza Bites

• 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• pinch of salt 
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup pepperoni sliced, chopped
• 1/2 cup store-bought pizza sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, Italian seasoning, & salt ; whisk in the milk and egg. Stir in the mozzarella, Parmesan and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes.

2. Stir the batter and divide among the mini-muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, microwave the pizza sauce until warmed through. Serve the puffs with the pizza sauce for dipping.

These would also be great as an appetizer...Enjoy!!!!

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

I have tomatoes growing out of every nook and cranny at our house.  I already have plenty of salsa but still have tons of tomatoes...so I headed to pinterest for some ideas of what to do with them.  That's when I came across this recipe for a great Spaghetti Sauce that I could can.  So that what I did Monday before and after our little trip to the local animal park

picture credits:  tasty kitchen

Now, we haven't had it on pasta yet, but everyone seems to like it when they tasted it off the spoon.  Can't wait to have pasta again soon (it's a fall/winter food here at the Van Dam household so we haven't had it for a while.)

Homemade Pancakes

This morning to celebrate the holiday I made pancakes and sausage link for the boys...all five of them for breakfast.  I even splurged and let the kids have peaches (jam that didn't set up) and cool whip on top of their cakes.

Here's the recipe

1 cup flour
1 TBLS sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
2 TBLS oil

mix together and make the pancakes.


I usually double this recipe for my family.  I would say one batch makes about 6-8 medium size pancakes.

Marinade for Chicken or Beef

• I made this marinade a couple night ago for some Chicken we put on the grill...so good.  The chicken was so tender and juice it almost melted in your mouth.

  
  

  Ingredients

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix soy sauce, honey, distilled white vinegar, garlic powder, ground ginger, vegetable oil, green onions and black pepper. Place desired meat in marinade. Marinate in the refrigerator at least 4 hours before grilling.

Enjoy!!!!

Rainbow cakes in a jar

This past weekend, we got to together with my family for a Sunday picnic at my parent's house.  It was both my brother's and my niece's birthday this past weekend so I was planning to make some cupcakes for help celebrate these milestones.  So Saturday I hauled out my trusty mixer and whipped at batch of chocolate cupcakes.   While the cupcakes were cooling, I did some blog surfing and came across this blog post that was about 50 different food you can put in a jar.  There are so many great ideas, but when I saw the rainbow cakes in a jar I knew that I needed to make them...and what better reason than a birthday. I threw the cooled cupcakes in the freezer and figured I could take those along camping next week, and quickly went to work making these yummy dessert.

Here's the link to how to make these adorable cakes.

Strawberry Pie

We have had lots of strawberries from our garden this year.  Don't get me wrong I am loving every single berry that is coming from the vines.  I have made lots of Strawberry Jam (the only jam the boys will eat), crushed strawberries with some sugar for later on, and a few strawberry pies...which an few of my guys and Danno have loved.

Don't tell the boys but I found the recipe on the weight watchers website. It was so good and simple to made.

Here's the original recipe.  I didn't make it quite like this but I'm sure it would taste very simple to mine.  I substituted Hawaiian Punch for the cranberry because that's what I had in the house.  Also I didn't use the Greek yogurt and lemon zest.  My boys love using the reddi-whip so that what they had on theirs and I ate just the pie.  Plus one tenth of the pie wasn't near enough...I probably had more like a sixth of the pie. :)

Fresh Strawberry Pie

Ingredients

	2 pound(s) strawberries, hulled, sliced (save 3 small berries for garnish)
	3/4 cup(s) sugar, granulated
	1/2 cup(s) cranberry juice cocktail, or cranberry-strawberry juice
	1/4 cup(s) cornstarch
	6 oz Ready Crust 25% Less-Fat Graham Cracker Ready pie crust
	1 cup(s) fat-free vanilla yogurt, Greek-style
	1 tsp lemon zest, finely grated

Instructions

• Combine 3 cups sliced strawberries, sugar and juice in a medium saucepan.
  
• Mash berries in pan with a potato masher; stir in cornstarch and bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring often, until very thick, about 1 minute.
  
• Remove from heat; let cool slightly and then stir in remaining sliced strawberries. Scrape into pie crust.
  
• Let cool slightly; cover loosely with plastic lid from pie crust. Refrigerate until set, at least 4 hours (you can then freeze the pie for a little while if desired, to make it easier to slice).
  
• To serve, in a medium bowl, stir together vanilla yogurt and lemon zest until blended. Spread on top of pie, leaving a border around edges so strawberry filling shows. Slice reserved strawberries and use them to garnish pie. Slice pie into 10 pieces and serve. Yields 1 piece per serving.

Notes

• This pie can be made ahead 1 day but top it with the yogurt mixture shortly before serving.
  
  If you cut this into 8 pieces, it is 7 PointsPlus values per slice.