Sweet & Sour Chicken

This is one of my favorite Chinese food dishes and I used to buy the sweet & sour sauce, but this time I made everything from scratch.

I used about 1-2lbs of boneless-skinless chicken cut into chunks. I cooked the chicken with a little bit of vegetable oil, then added about a teaspoon of minced garlic. Then added a small whole onion chopped up. Cook until browned or a little mushy (onions).Next, I added 3 green bell peppers chopped up in squares. I let the chicken with garlic, onions, and bell peppers cook for awhile while making the sweet and sour sauce

Making the sauce:

3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup white vinegar
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon ketchup
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Place sugar, vinegar, water, soy sauce, ketchup, and cornstarch in saucepan and heat. Bring to a boil and stir continuously until thickened.

After you add the sauce to the chicken and veggie mixture add a can of chunk pineapple (drain the juice out first). Mix all together and let simmer for as long as you would like.

Serve over warm rice! It was yummy! I liked it better then buying the sauce :)

Banana Cream Pie

My dad was in town so I wanted to make him his favorite pie. BANANA CREAM! With REAL whipped cream!First off you will need to buy a box of instant banana cream pudding mix. (3 cups of COLD milk) While your crust is baking in the oven let your pudding sit and cut up about 3-4 bananas.

Once your crust is cooled add a thin layer of pudding to the bottom. Lay all your bananas across the pudding, then add the rest of your pudding left on the top.

NEXT, make the real whip cream: a carton of whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla. In a mixer pour all of the whipping cream in and start mixing at FAST speed. Then add your powdered sugar (little at a time), and about a tablespoon of vanilla. The whipping cream is fine by itself but the vanilla and powdered sugar just add extra sweetness to your cream. I probably only added about 3/4 cup of powdered sugar.

This is the final product and leave it in fridge. It turned out really yummy and my Dad approved!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Thanks again to a sister in my ward for this recipe for chocolate chip cookies. The shape and taste of them turned out perfect. Sister Mary Barnum gets credit for this recipe. I tired another recipe in our ward cookbook.

1 Cup margarine
1 Cup sugar
1 Cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla
3 cups of purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups of chocolate chips

Cook on 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes depending how soft or crispy you like them.

Chicken and Pasta -

I had put a chicken into the crockpot and honestly did not know what to do with it when it was done. So I decided okay, chicken with pasta is good. But then what type of sauce or dressing?? I just cooked in a saucepan on the stove olive oil, fresh garlic, balsamic vinegar, basil, and salt & pepper.
Took it off the heat and added fresh chopped up tomatoes and the chicken from the crockpot. It turned out pretty good considering I made it up last minute.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Thanks to our ward cookbook I finally used one of the recipes for cookies. Thanks Sister Dougherty & Sister McClure.

The recipe was very simple, but make sure you have good size bowls (alot of ingredients)

3 cubes of butter ( I used margine because thats what I had)
2 cups of brown sugar
1 cup of granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
6 cups oatmeal (rolled oats, old fashion)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

And you can add raisins, chocolate chips, etc. Approx two cups or what you prefer

Bake 350 degrees for about 9 minutes - I was doing about 12-13 minutes, because I think I made my cookies bigger.Brooklind was trying to help out :)They turned out very yummy! My husband has been bugging me to make them and I finally did. It reminded me of my papa baking them because he used to make the BEST chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies!!! I miss him :(