Wiener Schnitzel

So I mentioned it once before here, but because it was one of the best times in my life, I'm going to mention it again. During the year of 2008, I spent the months of September through December in Vienna, Austria (and a little bit elsewhere) living with an amazing Austrian family, learning the German language and learning about Austrian culture. I loved being there so much that I am always missing all of it with a little bit of my heart and I'm constantly trying to find ways to go back.

Anyway, one of my many favorite memories while I was there was staying in the cutest little city called Dorfgastein. Now for me, Dorfgastein is the quintessential essence of Austria. We got to hike through the snowy alps while we were there (mind you I didn't bring any hiking boots to Austria), watch some boys play fussball, eat breakfast in a little mountain cabin, and much more.

A view of the town in the valley, from our hike in the Alps - a dream, isn't it?

 But one of the things I remember most is going to mass on their Thanksgiving day. And although I am not catholic (read about my religion here) and my  German was pretty pathetic, I could still feel a spirit there, and it was an amazing experience. 

And for our thanksgiving dinner we were fed traditional Austrian Wiener Schnitzel. I think it was veal. But it was delicious. And since then schnitzel has always had a special place in my heart (or my stomach?) and I made it with a couple friends once when we got back to Utah, but my dear honey husband never tried it before, so finally I decided I needed to make it for him. And I used an Austrian cook book that was purchased in Vienna. And so this recipe is pure Austrian goodness.

And for your pleasure, I have translated into English :)

4 veal, pork or chicken cutlets (I used pork, but veal is the most common)
6 TBS flour
1 TBS salt
1 tsp pepper
3 eggs
1/2 cup italian bread crumbs
1 cup panko
vegetable oil
1 lemon

1. In a shallow large pan put about 1 inch of oil, and heat over medium low.
2. Beat each cutlet using a meat tenderizer or a heavy flat pan, between 2 pieces of plastic wrap until cutlets are about 1/4 inch thick.
3. Rinse the cutlets under cold water.
4. Dry with a paper towel.
5. Mix the flour with the salt and pepper in a small bowl.
6. Dip each cutlet into the flour mixture and cover completely.
7. In another bowl beat eggs.
8. In a third bowl combing Italian and Panko bread crumbs.
9. Dip each cutlet in the eggs and then cover in the bread crumbs.
10. Fry each cutlet in the oil for about 3 minutes on each side, until the breadcrumbs turn a golden brown color.
11. Cut lemon into wedges.
12. Serve each schnitzel with a lemon wedge.
13. Squeeze lemon juice over schnitzel and enjoy.**

**If you want to make the meal more American, you can dip the schnitzel pieces into ketchup or another sauce instead. Either way, its delicious.


PS. Wiener Schnitzel means Viennese Cutlet. Wien is Vienna in German, and its pronounced veen. :)

Hawaiian Chicken over Rice

I made this recipe a while back, maybe a month ago. And I'm not sure why I haven't posted it yet. I guess I just forgot, and I apologize!

Because the only word I can use to describe this is YUM! And maybe the word easy would work too. :)

This recipe was inspired by one from Six Sisters' Stuff

4 chicken breasts
1/2 cup bbq sauce
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
1/2 cup water
12 oz can pineapple

1. Put chicken breasts, bbq sauce, teriyaki, water and pineapple into the crock pot.
2. Cook on low for about 5-6 hours or on high for about 3, until chicken is cooked thoroughly and shreddable.
3. Shred chicken and return to the crock pot while you cook the rice.
4. Cook rice according to package directions in a pot, or with a rice cooker.
5. Serve rice topped with chicken mixture and lots of sauce.

Enjoy.

Taco Soup

As I'm sitting here trying to think of what to write as a prelude to this delicious recipe, my mind is blank. And I'm realizing that some of you might not even read the stuff I write in each blog post. You might just be here for the recipe. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I know I've said it before, but this blog started out as a way for me to keep track of my favorite recipes, and for my mom and I to share recipes that we like with each other. And I still write on that blog for that purpose. I love having my favorite recipes saved on here. And when I don't know what to make for dinner I love being able to look at my own food blog, and knowing that I have loved all of the recipes I've posted on here, and therefor any recipe I choose will be delicious.

As Ron Swanson would say "You may have thought you heard me say I wanted a lot of bacon and eggs, but what I said was: Give me all the bacon and eggs you have.". (Any other Parks and Rec lovers out there? ) What I'm afraid you heard me say is that I only blog to keep track of my recipes, but what I actually said was I love having my recipes saved on here. And that doesn't mean I don't love having readers too.

We are growing, people. Slowly, but surely the blog is growing. And I want to know what you think. So spill the beans. Please?!!!! Do you like the recipes we post? Do you want more crock pot recipes, more dessert recipes, more chicken recipes, etc. Have you tried our recipes? How did they turn out? What did you change? What did you like? Dislike? Do you like reading about our lives too? Do you like our silly stories about making a recipe? Or inspirations? Or what? Speak to me. We've got a lot of followers, and I want to know YOU. So tell me about yourself, share 7 random things about you, like we did here. And post them in a comment, or a link to it.

The recipe I am going to share today, is actually one of the first recipes I ever posted on this blog. Back in the day when the recipe was only read by mother and I. But back then I didn't take pictures, and this is such a simple and delicious recipe that I have to share it again.

Taco Soup
1 lb ground beef
one can of corn
one can of beans (black or pinto)

1 cup salsa
1 14 oz can stewed tomatoes(or tomato sauce)


tortilla chips
toppings (sour cream, shredded cheese, cilantro, guacamole, etc.)


1. Combine ground beef, corn, beans, taco seasoning, salsa and tomatoes in a crock pot.
2. Stir together.
3. Cook on low for about 6 hours, or on high for 3.
4. Top with desired toppings and tortilla chips.

Enjoy.


Featured on

Coconut Crusted Chicken with Orange Marmalade Sauce

Nate's family absolutely loves seafood. One summer his family went to North Carolina to stay at a beach house for a week and they had a seafood fest. There is an ongoing debate on how much money they spent on said seafood fest, but they know it was at least 150 dollars, maybe even 250. Anyway, the reason I am giving you this information is because when Nate used to go home for breaks his family would have him make coconut shrimp for them. Last Christmas when we were visiting his family he made this dish for them, and unfortunately because I don't like shrimp, or really any seafood in general, I didn't eat any. But it looked pretty amazing. So, recently I told Nate that we needed to try coconut crusted chicken.

And finally this last week we made this chicken. And it was delicious. Especially with the orange marmalade sauce we made for a dip. We decided to bake the chicken, but for even more crunch you could also pan fry the chicken in a little oil.


Coconut Crusted Chicken Strips
1 lb chicken (approx 2 breast)
1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup sweetened coconut flakes
3 graham cracker sheets
Juice from 1/2 orange
2 eggs



1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Beat egg with orange juice in a small bowl.
3. Using a food processor, process 2 of the graham crackers into fine crumbs.
4. Crumble the third graham cracker using your hands.
5. Combine graham cracker crumbs and coconut in a small bowl.
6. Cut chicken breasts into strips.
7. Dry chicken pieces using paper towels.
8. Cover chicken pieces in flour.
9. Dip chicken in egg mixture
10. Dip chicken in coconut/graham mixture and cover.
11. Spray a cookie sheet with non stick spray, or grease with butter.
12. Bake chicken about 15 minutes, (until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees)
13. Enjoy chicken dipped in or topped with the orange marmalade sauce.

Orange Marmalade Sauce

1/3 cup marmalade
Juice from 1/2 orange

2 tsp soy sauce

1. In a small sauce pan combine marmalade , orange juice and soy sauce.
2. Heat over medium low heat for a few minutes, until sauce reaches desired thickness.

Featured on

Balsamic Glazed Steak with Caramelized Onions

I don't use balsamic vinegar very often, even though we have it in a nice decorative bottle next to our olive oil to readily pour out. But when I do use it, this is one of my favorite recipes to use it for. Plus, this recipe calls for caramelized onions, which I could pop into my mouth plain, like real pieces of caramel. So, that's a total plus, right?

So when reducing balsamic vinegar, or maybe balsamic vinegar is always like this, it sends its aroma throughout the house. The smell is so strong, that if you put your head over the pot and smell directly, you might end up having a cough attack as the vinegar literally attacks your nose. But, it tastes good, so its alright. Just don't breathe the fumes in directly.

We made this recipe once before, a while back, but made the mistake of cutting our meat pre-grilling it. It was still pretty good, but this time it was much better.  Because before the meat was a little dry and tough, and this time it was moist and succulent and delicious.

2/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 onion, sliced
1 TBS olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 lb steak (flank, if you have it) **
Worcestershire sauce
Lemon pepper dressing
6 small pitas ***

**Ours was 1 lb, but cut into thirds
***We had it this time on pitas, but the meat and onions taste good by themselves as well.

1. Preheat charcoal, gas or electric grill.
2. Drizzle Worcestershire sauce onto steak pieces, and rub in.
3. Marinade steak pieces in lemon pepper dressing for 15-20 minutes
4. In a small sauce pan, bring balsamic vinegar to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer until vinegar is reduced to about 1/4 cup, this will take about 5 minutes.
6. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
7. Add onions to hot oil, and sprinkle with salt.
8. Saute onions, stirring occasionally until golden brown, or about 22 minutes.
9. Grill steak about 5-6 minutes on each side, or until it reaches desired doneness.****
10. When steak is done, cut into thin strips (about 1/4 inch.
11. Place 3-4 strips of meat onto one pita, top with onions and drizzle with vinegar sauce.
12. Enjoy!

****Measure how done the steak is with a thermometer, here are some tips on the correct temperatures for meat. My recommendation is 140 for this steak, or medium done.

Mmmm, this was so good. I hope you enjoy this as much as we did. Funnily enough we had this with a side of leftover green bean casserole (from Thanksgiving). It was perfect. ;)

Recipe inspired by My Recipes.

Artichoke Crusted Salmon

2 green onions, chopped
7 ounces artichoke hearts, drained
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/8 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I actually forgot to put this in, so we sprinkled it on top afterwards)
1 Tbs. dried basil
1/4 cup olive oil
4 (7 oz) salmon fillets, no skin
garlic salt to taste
freshlygrounded pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
Combine onion, artichokes, garlic, butter, and cream cheese in a food processor.  Process until chopped but not completely smooth.  Mix in the Parmesan cheese and basil.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet.  Place salmon in the skillet and sprinkle with garlic salt and ground pepper.  Sear until golden brown, turn and sear the other side.
Transfer to a 9x13 pan.  Spread artichoke mixture over the top of each fillet.  Bake in the oven for 5 to 8 minutes until the salmon is firm and baked throughout.
Serve immediately.

Recipe adapted from "Biltmore, Our Table to Yours - Chef's Selection Cookbook".

I thought this was delicious and I am looking forward to the leftovers.  Craig thought it was a bit of an acquired taste and would have like more seasoning.

Featured on:

Creamy Pulled Pork Taquitos

If you have a small family like ours, or even if you don't, you might have the same problem as we do. Leftovers. What do we do with all of our leftovers? As a family of two, it seems like no matter how much halving of a recipe I do, we still end up with leftovers. So, we've embraced it. We learned from experience and a lot of wasted food that we don't eat leftovers from the same week very often. So, with the help of our food saver we are able to pack up our leftovers nice and air tight and freeze them. And then on another day when we're feeling lazy and not wanting to cook or if we're in a hurry we can just through them in the microwave to thaw, and reheat them however we want. Its wonderful.

But, this recipe is also a wonderful way to use leftover meat. We enjoyed this recipe with leftover meat from our Mexican Pulled Pork tacos, but if you have leftover shredded beef or chicken I am betting this would taste amazing with those too. And once you already have the meat ready (whether you choose to use my pulled pork or not) this recipe is super easy. And extra delicious too. Win win.

Recipe slightly inspired from Our Best Bites

2 - 3 cups Mexican Pulled Pork
3 oz cream cheese
1/2 (12 oz) can green salsa (in the aisle with enchilada sauces)
juice from 1 lime
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
10 tortillas large tortillas (or more small tortillas)
salt

1.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Spray a baking sheet with non stick spray.
3. Microwave cream cheese for about 30 seconds until soft.
4. In a large bowl combine pork, cream cheese, green salsa, lime juice and cheese. Mix well.
5. Take one tortilla and place about 3 TBS of pork mixture on the lower half of the tortilla.
6. Roll the tortilla up as tight as you can.
7. Place taquitos on baking pan with the seam side down.
8. Lightly spray the tops of the taquitos with non stick spray and sprinkle with salt.
9. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until they are crispy and the ends turn golden brown.
10. Enjoy dipped in some salsa, sour cream or guacamole. Yum!

Ps. We only ate 7 (of the 10) taquitos the first day, and put the rest in the fridge. They tasted great again the second day (as leftovers!) and next time we make these we'll probably make a lot more so we can freeze some and have them ready to go.

What do you do with your leftovers?

Orange Chicken.

After a few failed attempts at making good Chinese food from home, we had almost completely given up hope that it was possible. When we've attempted in the past we tried to get past the 'completely breaded and deep fried meat' idea. And that my friends is where our problem was. Chinese food in its greatest form is meant to be deep friend and then smothered in a tasty sauce. Or at least American Chinese food.

And so that is where we decided to change our ideas, and even if our recipe wouldn't be the healthiest Chinese food in the world (what Chinese food really is healthy anyway) it would at least be delicious. And this recipe is where we found our success.

Its not like we'll be making this recipe once a week or anything, but any time I want American Chinese food, my taste buds and my stomach would be equal (or more) happy with this orange chicken than if we ordered in from a restaurant.

Slightly adapted from these two recipes : Blogchef and the Noshery

2 large chicken breasts
2 eggs
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup corn starch

¼ tsp pepper

¼ tsp salt

2 cups panko

1 cup water

2 tbs orange juice concentrate

2 ½ tbs soy sauce

1/3 cup rice vinegar

1 cup brown sugar

Zest from ½ orange

½ tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp ground red pepper

½ tsp garlic

2 ½ tbs cornstarch

¼ cup water

1. Preheat your deep fryer or a pan filled with oil to 350-375 degrees.
2. Cut chicken into inch sized pieces.
3. Make 3 separate bowls. One with your eggs and water, whipped. Second with flour, cornstarch, salt and pepper, combined. And third with panko crumbs.
4. Dip pieces of chicken first in eggs, then in flour mixture, then in eggs again, then in panko. Set aside.

5. Meanwhile combine water, orange juice concentrate, soy sauce and vinegar in a sauce pan. Heat over medium for a few minutes.

6. Add brown sugar, orange zest, ground ginger, garlic and red pepper. Bring to a boil.
7. Combine cornstarch and water in a small bowl and add to boiling sauce mixture.
8. Keep the sauce over medium heat and stir occasionally until it thickens.
9. When the oil is heated add a few pieces of chicken to the oil. (We cooked the chicken in 3 batches)
10. Cook chicken pieces for 3 to 4 minutes until the color is golden brown.

11. As you remove the chicken from the oil place it on a paper towel lined plate.
12.  Pour the sauce over your chicken.
13. Enjoy on top of some delicious white rice.

Please please please let me know if you have any questions regarding this recipe, or if you had any problems while making it. I want this recipe to be as great of a success for you, as it was for me.

Before this recipe I had almost given up completely on making Chinese food from home. This recipe renewed my faith. I hope it can do the same for you.

What is a food that you are afraid of making?

Chinese food was definitely one of these foods for me. Now that I've made this delicious recipe, however, I feel like I can conquer anything.

Mexican Pulled Pork

Remember here, where I talked about easy vs difficult crock pot recipes. This is one that would definitely fall in the very easy category. Throw everything in the crock pot, and just shred the meat when its done. Use this delicious meat for tacos, enchiladas, burritos, nachos, or however you'd like.

2 (8 oz) cans of tomato sauce
1 TBS chili powder
1 TBS cumin
2 TBS brown sugar
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 TBS minced garlic
1 1/2 lbs pork loin
1 cup of corn (optional)

1. Put tomato sauce, chili powder, cumin, brown sugar, cayenne, salt and garlic in your crock pot. Stir well.
2. Add your pork into the crock pot and cover with sauce.
3. Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 5.
4. Shred pork using 2 forks.
5. Drain pork juice through a collander.
6. Enjoy in whatever Mexican food you'd like. We had ours in tacos. Yum!

Creamy Chicken and Broccoli over Rice

Usually when I think of crock pot dinners I think of 'easy'. However there are actually many crock pot meals that require a lot of extra steps outside of just throwing your food in the crock pot. You know the ones where you have to cook your meat before and then you have to add stuff after, and bake it in the oven too. Now, I don't really have a problem with having to do these things, because they really have turned out to be some of my favorite meals. But sometimes I just want to throw everything in the crock pot and then come home 8 hours later and eat it. 

This recipe falls somewhere in the middle of the easiest and the hardest crock pot meals, leaning closer to the easy side. The only extra step really is cooking your rice on the side, and then adding the broccoli and sour cream at the end. But once again, I hope you trust me, because for this warm scrumptious dinner. Its worth it.

3 chicken breasts
1 can of cream of cheese soup
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cajun seasoning
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1 cup of sour cream
2 cups of broccoli


1. Put everything except sour cream and broccoli in the crock pot.
2. Cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 4.
3. Shred the chicken breasts with two forks.
4. In a rice cooker (or however you like) cook about 4 cups of rice.
5. Meanwhile, add broccoli to the crock pot and stir in.
6. Cook for another 30 minutes.
7. Stir in sour cream with the crock pot mixture.
8. Enjoy over a bowl of rice.

This was a perfect meal to warm us up on a chilly autumn day. We had enough creamy chicken mixture that we froze half of it and each enjoyed a BIG bowl.

Makes four servings.

Chicken Kebabs with Sweet Peanut Sauce

After being slightly inspired by this recipe from the Apron Gal, I knew we didn't have any peanut butter, but we decided we could make an even simpler version of a peanut sauce with what we did have at home. And although this recipe may be one of the easiest things to make, that doesn't downgrade its delicious taste one bit. Also, remember here you asked me for simple and easy recipes, and chicken recipes, so here's a combination of the two.

1 1/2 cups Yoshida's Sauce
1/2 cup Peanut Sauce
3-4 chicken breasts
kebab sticks

1. Preheat charcoal, gas or electric grill.
2. Cut chicken breasts into small strips or pieces.
3. Put chicken pieces onto skewers. (Remember not to stuff the skewer to full, because leaving space between the pieces of chicken will allow the chicken to cook quicker and more evenly)
4. Combine Yoshida's Sauce and Peanut Sauce in a small bowl.
5. Slightly coat chicken in sauce with a basting brush.
6. Place chicken kebabs on hot grill.
7. Rotate about 4 times, so all sides cook evenly, basting with sauce each time you rotate.
8. Cook until chicken is white in the middle, or reaches a temperature of 165 degrees.

 

Nate and I both thought this tasted so good. And Nate even went on to say "this tastes like the typical Asian flavor, that you never know what's in it, but you just know its delicious." 

Enjoy!

Hawaiian Quesadillas

This is just 1 more really quick, easy but yummy meal.

4 flour tortillas (I used whole wheat, but Aimee posted a delicious homemade recipe, see here)
1 small can pineapple tidbits (drained)
6 slices deli ham (torn into bite size pieces)
grated cheddar cheese (I am really not sure how much, enough to cover flour tortilla and than sprinkle more on top of pineapples and ham)

Heat frying pan (large enough to fit 1 whole tortilla flat in it)
Layer 1 tortilla with grated cheese, pineapple tidbits (as much or little as you like), 3 slices deli ham torn into bite size pieces, a bit more grated cheese and top with another flour tortilla.
Place in frying pan and cook until cheese melts.  I like to flip mine over to brown both tortillas slightly.
Cut like a pie into 6 to 8 slices.
Serve with salsa and sour cream if desired.

We had 1/2 half of a quesadilla leftover and ate it for lunch the next day - it was as good or better because the flavors had blended.

Homemade Tortillas

If you want the complete recipe that I followed see here, but I (approx.) halved the recipe because we would never use 32 tortillas in one sitting, no matter how small they end up being. And whats the point in storing fresh tortillas, because then they are no longer fresh.

 

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup shortening

3/4 cup warm water

1. Combine flour and salt in a large bowl.

2. Add shortening to mixture and cut in with a fork or pastry cutter.

3. Add warm water.

4. Knead using dough hooks until the mixture becomes a ball.

5. Divide the dough into smallish balls, until you get about 14-16 balls.

6.On a plate covered in flour, flatten the balls and flour both sides.

7. Preheat a skillet over medium heat.

8A. If you are using a pasta roller, on number 2 feed the dough through, stretching as it goes. Rotate 90 degrees and feed through again. Feed through once on 4 or 5.

8B. If using a roller, roll until the balls are as thin as you can, about 1/8 inch.

 9. Cook tortillas about 10 seconds on each side, until they get brown spots throughout**

10. Top tortillas with your favorite taco meats, cheese, or just vegetables.

and ENJOY!

**Don't leave the tortillas on for too long, even if they are not getting spots, because the tortillas will become hard quickly (as we experienced this with about half of our tortillas due to our skillet not holding a hot temperature)

You can read here about how much I LOVE using uncooked tortillas. So you should trust me when I say that fresh tortillas are even better. Plus they really aren't that hard to make either. Next time you make Mexican food, please try making your own tortillas, and let me know how it goes in a comment. If you post about it in your blog, I'll feature your food in an upcoming post!

This recipe was featured on:

Ground Chicken Burgers

So, as mentioned here, I got 4 new kitchen aid attachments for my birthday. And one of them was the meat grinder attachment. So the first thing we decided to make was ground chicken burgers. Now, I have actually never had a burger that wasn't made of ground beef (no turkey burgers or anything), so I wasn't exactly sure if I would like a chicken burger. But after a few bites of getting used to the different texture, this burger tasted great. We ate our chicken burgers plain so that we could really see how the burger itself tasted, but of course this would taste great topped with any of your favorite sandwich or hamburger toppings.

1 lb ground chicken
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/4 onion, diced finely
1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/2 TBS seasonal all
1/4 TBS onion salt
1/2 TBS garlic salt
1 TBS salt
1/2 TBS mesquite BBQ seasoning
 ranch dressing

1. Preheat grill (charcoal, electric or gas)
2. Place all ingredients, except ranch, in a large mixing bowl and mix together with hands or a wooden spoon.
3. Divide chicken mixture into 4ths.
4. Form mixture into patties.
5. Cook patties over grill as you would a hamburger, flipping occasionally.
6. Coat burgers with a little ranch dressing each time you flip them to keep them from drying out.
7. Chicken burgers are done when their temperature reaches 165 degrees. **
8. Enjoy.

**Even if you didn't win our giveaway this morning for the meat thermometer you can buy your own from amazon here.

Enjoy this chicken burger as a healthier alternative to the traditional groundbeef burger.

What are some healthy alternatives/substitutes that your family likes to make?