Food Friday - Sausage and Rice

There are many times that Jon and I want a quick and easy dinner... Well let's be honest, all of the time we want that.  This is one of those dinners:

Super easy, I promise.  First you need these ingredients: Sausage, rice, and veggies.

We normally use broccoli and carrots.  But really any veggies would do, so use what you like!

Now the best part is you get the rice and sausage boiling in the same pot.  Lots of times we even cook the veggies in the same pot too but this time I wasn't fast enough to get them in there.

We had a few frozen broccoli's left and they made it in the pot.

Pretend the rice bag is in there.  Apparently I didn't get a picture of that either.

I used our little microwave steamer to cook the other veggies.

Once the sausage is cooked we cut it into little medallion shapes.  Sometimes I make them half moons too.  It's all based on preference.

 Dump the sausages back in the pot along with the rice and veggies.  Mix it all around.

To spice the meal up we will put salsa on top.  We also will use the queso too if we happen to have some.

And there is dinner!!!  We tend to have a bit left over and it reheats well too.

Hope everyone's weekend will be great!

Food Friday - Chick Pea Salad

This Food Friday is special.  I am sharing a recipe that I learned from my cousin while I was on my mini trip in May.

The Chick Pea Salad is so ridiculous easy and so very delicious.

The ingedients are a can of chick peas, grape tomatoes, green beans, and quinoa.  You will need the Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil.

You must wash the beans and tomatoes.  Strain and rinse the chick peas.

Steam those green beans (about 2-3 minutes because you want them to still be a little crispy).  I made the mistake of steaming the first batch for too long.  I got the second batch just right.

Once the beans are steamed, cut them in 1/2 or to whatever size is prefered.

Cut the tomatoes in 1/2.

Place the chick peas, green beans, and tomatoes into a bowl.

Mix in just a little bit of the balsamic and olive oil.  Then you are ready to go!

If you want to get more out of it, cook and add in the quinoa to make it more filling.  I just added the quiona onto my plate for dinner.

Please try it I bet you'll like it too.

And a big thanks to Malanie for sharing the recipe with me!

Food Friday - Angel Food Cake Win

So I am going to share with you the Angel Food Cake my mom and I made that actually came out right!!

Please remember the recipe here.

Mix the first ingredients.  My mom wanted to make sure to put the eggs in the bowl first since last time it didn't seem to mix right.

 Don't forget the vanilla!

In a second bowl mix the second set of ingredients.  You will notice that there is no green powder this time.  My mom made sure to buy the right kind this time.

We attempted to follow the directions to the letter this time.  We mixed the eggs until fluffy just like we were supposed to.

Then we added the dry ingredients and it got even fluffier!

 

Then we filled the cake pan with the mixture.  We did it in the two sections.  We think it might be because it helps avoid air bubbles.

 Here it is fresh out of the oven.  Look at how high it rose!

The center of the pan has a cylinder that is very large and the only thing we could find that would fit was a coffee cup!  It was comical trying to explain to my dad why we needed it to be upside down and why the cake wouldn't fall out of it.

 After it was all cooled we turned it over and it looks almost exactly like when my uncle made it for us.

 We think the one side fell because it must not have had enough batter to make it all even inside.

 

 My piece of "birthday" angel food cake! I think it looks like an alligator, and airplane, or a car. :)

Add fresh cut strawberries and you have perfection!

Food Friday - Angel Food Cake Fail!

Today's Food Friday is brought to you by my mother and my dumbness at the store.

We had to locate all of the ingredients listed for the recipe below:

Yield: 8 servings
12 egg whites (about 2 cups of liquid egg whites)
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon guar gum
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
8 packets stevia sweetener
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup vanilla egg- or whey-based protein powder
1/4 cup almond flour
3 tablespoons powdered egg whites

Next make sure to preheat the oven to 350 degrees and generously coat the fluted center and bottom only.

 

Crack and seperate all of the egg whites from the yokes.

My mom was the lucky one who got to do that.

So the comedy of errors that was this angel food cake started with me forgetting if I put the baking powder in the mix of cream of tartar, xanthan gum, guar gum, baking powder, stevia, vanilla and almond extracts.  Causing me to have to dump the whole thing and start over.  The second time I got it right... except for after the fact we realized I put to much baking powder.  But I get ahead of myself.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine egg whites, cream of tartar, xanthan gum, guar gum, baking powder, stevia, vanilla and almond extracts. Beat on low for 30 seconds, then increase mixer to high and beat until very stiff peaks form, about 4 minutes. The mixture will be airy, voluminous and quite thick.  Well, my moms beaters don't do slow.  Our solution to mix with a spatula thing.  We didn't have airy, voluminous and thick... we had eggly and clumpy and yellowy.  When we finally decided that the mixing wasn't doing anything we did use a beater... but it didn't help much.  We realized this was error number 2 (or 3 if you could having to start all over again). 

 

Into a small bowl, sift together protein powder, almond flour and powdered egg whites. Sprinkle half of the dry ingredients over the egg whites. Run the mixer at medium for 5 seconds, just until the dry ingredients are incorporated. Sprinkle the remaining dry ingredients over the egg whites and mix again just to incorporate. Increase mixer speed to high and run for 5 seconds.  When we were at the store we bought what we thought was the correct protein powder... oh man, were we ever wrong.  It was green and it smelt disgusting.  My mom remembered reading a part that said that if you wanted to make it chocolate sub in chocolate powder for the powdered egg whites.  We did that... but it didn't help much.  The batter was still green.

 

Use a silicone spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl and gently fold the mixture together once or twice. Transfer half of the mixture to the prepared pan, then use the spatula to smooth the top. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Firmly tap the pan on the counter to help eliminate air bubbles.  We still aren't sure why they tell you to put 1/2 and then 1/2 again but we did it.  Not much was going to save this as our friend tried the batter on the egg beater and proclaimed it was gross.  I held out hope.  My mom had made me cookies once that tasted horrid until they were cooked.  This was going to be like that I exclaimed.

 

Bake for 35 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and overturn the pan and cool upside down. When cool, to release the cake, run a paring knife between the side of the pan and the cake.  It can out of the oven and smelt yucky.  We placed it upside down on a bowl as it had not risen very high.

We tasted it once it cooled.  Awful.  What a terrible birthday cake.

We tried again the next day to much better results.  I'll share that one later.  I can still imagine that taste in my mouth.  Bleh.

 

P.S. Just in cause you are curious: Per serving: 80 calories; 2g fat; no saturated fat; no cholesterol; 14g protein; 4g carbohydrate; 1g fiber; 220mg sodium.

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/food-and-cooking/recipes/low-carb-gluten-free-angel-food-cake/article_33a2cee2-36cc-505a-99d4-4000674959a8.html#ixzz1vG6OH57D