Third time's the charm!

I was watching good old Rachel Ray make an egg cake with veggies and ricotta cheese. Well I was starving and decided to make a little omelet version for me.
Went to the refrigerator and found ricotta cheese...it went bad, had to toss it :( No veggies either...
Now what? Is the Marscapone cheese still good? YES! Unfortunately it was frozen and when I defrosted it in the microwave it became separated...needless to say I tossed that too!
Now what to do....Cream cheese? let's see if it'll work...

I now would like to present to you my new invention:

Cream Cheese Egg Roll Up

scramble 2 large eggs
heat pan with little butter & olive oil
Pour into 10 inch non-stick frying pan
season with salt, pepper and dill
Flip to make open egg omelet, then set aside

2 TBS cream cheese put in pan to heat up, it will brown a little but this creates even more richness and a great depth of flavor!
Cream with dill and a dash of garlic salt. Add milk for a creamier consistency.
Spread evenly over omelet and roll up. Enjoy!
Add salsa over top for a little Spanish flare!

I would've taken a better picture but I devoured it already :D
BTW: My little chef was my 18 month old who gave me all the condiments out of the fridge even though I didn't need them :) Love you Zander :D

Kitchen Aid or Kitchen Maid!

I love my Kitchen Aid appliances! The most recent splurge was a food processor. I waited for my monthly 20% off coupon at BB&B! It was the 7 cup capacity for only $99...$79 after my coupon! Yes, awesome deal!
Kallie was helping me prepare the meals for the camping trip with her Dad, brothers & cousins.

TINFOIL DINNERS
per serving
1 potato
1/2 large carrot
few onion slices (hide them in there, the kids won't even notice they cook down so much!)
1/2 can of Cream of Mushroom
protein of some kind, we used turkey cuz it was cheaper than chicken that day
garlic salt, pepper, and dill

We sliced 4 potatoes and 2 carrots and it made portions for SIX people!
The slices were so fast and consistent we were all done in less than 5 minutes.
Another 5 to assemble.

On a large piece of heavy duty tinfoil place a bedding of veggies evenly ( add sliced mushrooms for adults)
Be sure to seperate slices for even cooking!
add seasonings generously
Add 1/2 can of cream of mushroom soup
(for our 3 yr old who has dairy allergies we substituted this with 1/4 cup butter
yes I know it's a lot...I'll let ya know how it turned out when they get back!)
Place meat on top.
(we added a slice of bacon because turkey has low fat content and it needs
moisture so it won't burn on the fire.)
Cook over hot coals while camping OR
I made two extra portions for myself and baked at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes
(If you want to lessen cooking time, par-boil the veggies for 5 minutes before slicing)

Make big portions because the vegetables will cook down to about 1/2 the portion size.
I love my food processor, I'll never shred or slice by hand again!

Breakfast for Dinner... Family Favorite!

I grew up eating crepes and I love them! I saw a recipe on GTU for the Village Inn crepes and send my 11 yr old daughter to the store for a few things. Funny thing happened: The most random hail storm started after she left. Her friend and her decided to wait it out in the library! hehe
I made the strawberry sauce and it was yucky, tasted just like mushy strawberries and lemon juice. Yuck!
The cream filling was DELICIOUS!

Sweet supreme filling:

1 lb. softened cream cheese
4 oz sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup heavy whipping cream

I changed it up a little and chopped my strawberries into small dices and added a spoonful of sugar and let them macerate. I added them to the cream filling...it became 10 times better!
 
The actual crepe recipe was interesting...
For the crepes:

2 eggs
1¼ cup milk
1 cup flour
2 tbsp powdered sugar
3 tbsp melted butter
Next time I would add a tsp of salt to bring out the flavors...they were a little bland. Also it said to refrigerate to let air bubbles out, but I would actually mix it in the blender to add more (makes them fluffy) and leave it at room temperature because when the batter is cold the batter sweats when cooking and doesn't create air bubbles like a pancake and it's harder to know when they are browned.
The BlendTec recipe for crepes is delicious too!

Bullet Express or Bullet Mess?

This weekend I decided to splurge for the "meal making machine"! I was excited to make recipes from the book that was included. We made a few varieties of fruit drinks: All delicious!
sea food gazpacho: Not too fond of the raw onions... :(
cheesecake for dessert that was very scrumptious!
And chopped veggies for a curry spiced dish. Not really a fan of curry ;X

I was disappointed that there were so many parts! Also, very time consuming to clean! The slicing and shredding was very inconsistent. I would have like more blade options! The meal mixer was annoying because the blade was very difficult to remove, thus the food was difficult to get all out as well. It also had ribbed edged on the inside so a rubber scraper didn't flow through the inside. I will be making the fruit drink again, but with my Blend-Tec! Much better!
Gazpacho, not my style but I might try it will a few tweaks or maybe even a strawberry fruit gazpacho! Now that sounds delicious! Cheesecake definitely make again with my new food processor! Maybe with a twist of chocolate or berries! YUM!

The only value I thought this machine had was the juicer, but I purchased it mainly for the food processor options, so I have decided to return it! Now I will be looking for a cuisine art or maybe one I saw that housed the different blades underneath!