It's Almost That Time Again

I've had a busy summer that hasn't left much time for cooking. With the fall semester only a few weeks away I'll be back to classy college cooking in no time! Thank you for visiting my blog, check back soon!

Quick Chicken Quesadilla

Ingredients:
2 thin-cut, cleaned chicken cutlets
1 green bell pepper
1 small tomato
1 cup of shredded Mexican or taco cheese
1/4 large white onion
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 whole wheat wraps
salt and pepper to taste

Makes two quesadillas

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice the green pepper and onion. The size depends on the size of your wrap. If you cut your veggies too big it won't be easy to fold the quesadilla in half. On a non-stick pan sprinkle chicken cutlets with salt and pepper. Then bake in the oven for 13-15 minutes. While chicken is baking, heat oil and chili powder in a medium size pan on medium heat. Add green peppers and onions; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover until softened, mixing occasionally. When the chicken is done cooking cut it into strips. 

On medium heat spray a small pan with cooking spray then place one wrap flat on pan. On one side of the wrap add cheese followed by slices of tomato, chicken, veggies and a little more cheese. The cheese needs to be on the top and bottom because it acts like glue. Fold the other half over so your quesadilla is a half-moon shape. Press down with spatula then cover with lid for about 3 minutes. If the cheese has melted flip it over to brown the other side of the quesadilla. Serve with salsa. 

Bunny Cake

For Easter Sunday I made a special dessert! This cake was much easier than it looks...

Ingredients:
1 box of yellow cake mix (bake in two nine inch round cake pans)
1 tub of vanilla icing
1 tub of orange icing
Red food coloring
Sprinkles
2 peanut M & M's
1 Reese's peanut butter cup
Black liquorish

Directions:

Bake cake then let cool for at least an hour. If the cake is warm when you start icing, you will peel the top layers of the cake off. Leave one round cake as is for the bunny's face. Next, you will cut the second round cake into three piece to create two ears and a bow tie.

Maple Glazed Pork Chops

Tonight I attempted another one of Paula Deen's pork chop recipes. CLICK HERE! for her maple glazed pork chop recipe. I only used three boneless pork chops so I cut her recipe in half. Also, I used Aunt Jemima syrup because I didn't want to buy an entire new bottle. I'm starting to think this may have made a big difference. I would have like them to have had a little more maple flavor than they did, but I had trouble getting the sauce to thicken as the recipe instructs. The chili powder/maple syrup combo seemed a little odd to me, but it actually wasn't at all. Although this recipe was very tasty I think I enjoyed her blackberry pork chop recipe more because the white wine reduction sauce made the pork more moist. As a side I made sweet potatoes which I baked in the oven for an hour and fifteen minutes at 400 degrees.

Broccoli & Monterey Jack Fritatta

For a healthy filling breakfast after the gym I made a fritatta. I'm starting to enjoy fritattas because they are a nice alternative to omelets and once you get the basics down you can use whatever veggie/cheese combo you like!

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Ingredients:

-scramble 2 eggs & 1 egg white (last time I used 2 egg whites & one egg, but this morning I chopped up more broccoli than I needed so I needed enough egg to make it worth while)

-1 cup fresh cut up broccoli

-1/4 cup monterey jack cheese

-ground black pepper

Directions:

-Spray small oven safe pan & on medium/low heat cook broccoli until soft (covered)

-Then add scrambled eggs and pepper

-"wiggle" the pan so the egg is evenly distributed throughout the broccoli

-add cheese

-cook undisturbed for about 3 minutes or until you can see the egg solidifying

-transfer to oven and cook for 6 minutes