Heartbreak Caramel Popcorn

Without fail, every time I make this caramel popcorn I get a bunch of compliments!  And the best part?  It's the easiest thing in the world!!  In high school I would give a batch of this to anyone who experienced a breakup in my friend group.  Cause let's face it, after someone breaks up with you you need sugary goodness for at least one night.  The guys I've given this to have raved about it for days on end, and years later I still hear about how great it was!  Even people who don't like caramel corn enjoy it!  So, if you're catching my drift, this is a winner in anyone's book.  It makes a lot, so it's great for parties, and you can whip it up in 10-20 minutes.  I've used it as a party treat, a way to answer someone to a dance and comfort food.  Even my 10-year-old sister can make it, so give it a shot!  You won't be sorry :)

Heartbreak Caramel Popcorn

2 Cubes (1 Cup) Butter

2 Cups Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup Karo Light Corn Syrup

1/2 tsp Salt

3/4 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

3 Bags Microwave Popcorn (I like to use Pop-Secret Movie Theater popcorn.  Or I suggest any movie theater or extra butter popcorns)

Pop the popcorn and remove un-popped kernels.  (A simple way of doing it is putting the freshly popped popcorn in one bowl, then transferring the popcorn into another bowl with your fingers.)

Mix butter, sugar, syrup and salt in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Remove from heat and add vanilla and baking soda.  Be sure your pot is a nice size, because this step will cause the caramel to double and get nice and fluffy.  (First time making it I made the mistake of using a small pan.  Never doing that again)

Pour over the popcorn and mix to coat.

Enjoy!

Idea for asking/answering to a high school dance

"Thanks for popping the question!!  It's a little corny, but I think we'll have a ball!"

Welcome!

Welcome to a college girl's food blog!!!  Before coming to college, I tried to google "college foods" to help prep for the scary world of poor-college-student days and in an attempt to know what I was getting myself into.  However, I couldn't find anything.  I like to eat well, and the stuff I was finding were things like pictures of ramen and that was it.  I'm positive that college students don't only eat ramen.  You would die if you had a diet like that.

So that's where this blog comes into play.  When I finally left for college, I took with me a GIANT family cookbook and a laptop.  I discovered quickly, however, that a lot of the recipes in the family cookbook had little ingredients here and there in almost all of the recipes that my college budget just couldn't afford a lot of the time.  Then I found a site called SuperCook.  This site has been one of my best friends!  You put in the ingredients you have, then it lists recipes you can make.  And if you don't have everything, it will tell you what you need to get.  It's wonderful!!

As I try out recipes, I'll be posting the ones I like here.  Also, for the most part they should be able to feed 2-4 people.  However, don't be shocked if there's a big recipe.  I'm used to cooking for a family with a dozen people.  Also, these should be recipes with ingredients that aren't too crazy.  I try to keep things simple, and the ingredients I use are ones that, for the most part, are needed in a lot of common recipes.  You won't be buying the ingredient, use it once, then never look at it again.

Some standard ingredients I've found are:
Eggs
Milk
Flour
Butter
Chicken
Cheese
Vanilla
Sugar

And other various things.  Look at the recipes on the left of the page and you'll see which ingredients repeatedly come up.  The ones listed above are ones I have almost a year's supply of or am constantly buying.

Also, if you're looking for a specific thing, like say you're looking for a great dinner recipe, I am pretty good at putting labels on each post.  So search "dinner" and you'll get some dinner recipes.  Simple, the way I like it.

So enjoy the blog and the food!  Any questions, feel free to ask!! Suggestions are always welcome, both for the recipes and also how to improve the blog!  I absolutely LOVE getting feedback!  Happy cooking! :)

Sweet and Sour Chicken

SWEET AND SOUR CHICKEN
This is a recipe I've grown up with.  My dad would make it all the time and it became a family favorite. Birthdays, special occasions, whenever we had visitors, this was what we would make.  Normally we double it because I have a giant family, but with being in college and only cooking for two I didn't see the need for that.  Side note, the sauce alone is super super delicious and I'd recommend making it for won-tons or rice or something by itself.

3 pounds chicken breasts
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 beaten egg
4-6 Tbl flour
3/4 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup vinegar
1/2 Cup chicken broth
3 1/2 Tbl ketchup
1 Tbl soy sauce

Sprinkle chicken with garlic salt and pepper.  Let stand for one hour or more.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Dip chicken in beaten egg, then flour. (Honestly, I keep it super simple and make a mixture with the garlic salt, pepper and egg and have the chicken sit in that.  Then coat the chicken in the flour.) Brown in hot oil. Place in baking dish (I used 8x8.  If doubled, we use 9x13).  Cover with the following sauce: Mix sugar, vinegar, chicken broth, ketchup and soy sauce in saucepan and heat.  Pour over chicken.  Bake uncovered for 1 hour.  Turn chicken once or twice.

Enjoy! It's an amazing recipe!  I serve with rice and assorted veggies.

Cafe Rio Sweet Pork

CAFE RIO SWEET PORK
SUPER delicious!!! Tastes almost exactly like Cafe Rio/Costa Vida!  I've been putting it in rice, on tortillas, and almost everything because it's so freaking good!  I would highly suggest it :) Here are other recipes for various Cafe Rio food.  I didn't have time to make a whole sweet pork salad, but if it's even remotely close to how the sweet pork turned out then it would be heavenly!

**Note: Marinade is optional.  I did it without and it still tasted just fine :)

2 pounds pork (we use boneless pork rib meat)
3 cans Coke (NOT diet)
1/4 c. brown sugar
dash garlic salt
1/4 c. water
1 can diced green chilies
3/4 (10oz) can red enchilada sauce (I use Old El Paso brand, medium spiciness but any will work)
1 c. brown sugar

Put the pork in a heavy duty ziploc bag to marinade. Add about a can and a half of coke and about 1/4 c. of brown sugar. Marinade for a few hours or overnight.

Drain marinade and put pork, 1/2 can of coke, water, and garlic salt in crock pot on high for about 3-4 hours (or until it shreds easily, but don't let it get TOO dry) or on low for 8 hours. Remove pork from crock pot and drain any liquid left in the pot. Shred pork.

In a food processor or blender, blend 1/2 can Coke, chilies, enchilada sauce and remaining brown sugar (about a cup, you can add a little more or less to taste..). If it looks too thick, add more Coke little by little.

Put shredded pork and sauce in crockpot and cook on low for 2 hours. That's it!

Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza Casserole

CHICKEN BACON RANCH PIZZA CASSEROLE

1 lb bacon fried and crumbled -- grease saved

2 lb chicken breasts

2 Tbs ranch dressing

2 Clove minced garlic

1 lb bow-tie pasta, cooked al dente

2 jars alfredo sauce

1/3 cup milk

4 cup cheese (or however much you want)

Cut chicken into bite sized pieces, coat with 1 1/2 Tbl of ranch seasoning.  Saute in a skillet with 1 Tbl bacon grease (I didn't measure out a tablespoon, I just put the chicken and ranch in the skillet, stirred it around and cooked til the chicken was done)

When chicken is cooled, completely drain grease and liquid from skillet.  Return chicken to skillet.

Pour milk and a jar of alfredo sauce into the skillet with the chicken.  Stir in 1 tsp ranch. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Begin layering the casserole with half the remaining jar of alfredo on the bottom of a 9x13 pan.  Then layer 1/3 of both the pasta and chicken sauce.

Keep layering, then sprinkle the bacon and cheese on top to your heart's content.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350, and enjoy!!!

Breakfast Burrito

BREAKFAST BURRITO
Eggs
Tortilla
Onion
1 Tbl Butter
Cheese
Sour Cream

Saute the onion in the butter.  I got mine to the caramelized state.  Then add eggs to the pan, thus taking in the flavor of both the butter and the onions.  Scramble the eggs, put in a tortilla, sprinkle cheese on top, dab on some sour cream, roll up burrito and eat.

Other toppings could include peppers, various spices, bacon, sausage, or anything your heart desires.

Starbucks Imitation Frappe

STARBUCKS IMITATION FRAPPE
2 Tbl Fat Free Vanilla Coffee Creamer, powdered
1/2 Cup Fat Free Milk
8-10 Ice Cubes
2 Tbl Instant Coffee Granules

Put all the ingredients in a blender, and blend til smooth.

I'm LDS, so I didn't put in the coffee granules, and it still tasted great!! So much better than spending $5 on one at Starbucks.  But I don't have that option anyways, cause Rexburg doesn't have one sadly.  You can put different flavors of creamer in there to add flavor, I'm sure hazelnut would be divine :)

Chicken Noodle Soup!

CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP
2 Chicken Breast
1/4-1/2 Cup Onion
1Tbl Butter
Egg Noodles
Frozen Vegetables
4 Cup Water
2 Chicken Bullion Cubes

Saute the onion and chicken and butter together in a pan.  You will be adding everything else into this pan, so be sure it's big enough. Cut the chicken before it goes in the pan, or while it's in there, whichever you prefer.  I'm probably killing my pans by cutting it in there.  But just be sure that it's cooked all the way through!

Add the rest of the ingredients once chicken and onions are done.  Bring to boil, make sure the noodles and veggies are cooked all the way through.  With all of these ingredients, really just do however much you want.  The broth in mine came out kinda thick and creamy (which I totally love anyways) but I'm figuring it's because I added a lot of noodles compared to the broth.  You just experiment, but you can't experiment too long or else your noodles will get soggy.

And that's it.  Just another dump them all together and boil.  We served this with the homemade bread we had made earlier.  It was delicious!  Again, fast and super easy :)  And it was GREAT for the cold, windy day that we've been having here.

Pumpkin Cupcake

PUMPKIN CUPCAKE (This is a double batch.  Cut in half for regular batch.) 2 sticks of butter (softened) 3 cups sugar 6 eggs 2 tsp vanilla 1 1/2 cans pumpkin (the regular sized can)
4 cups flour 1 tsp baking soda 2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 3-4 tsp cinnamon 2 tsp nutmeg 1 to 1 1/2 cups milk 
Cream butter in a mixer.  Add sugar one cup at a time.  Add eggs cream together.  Add Vanilla & Pumpkin.  Blend well.  Add all flour, soda, powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg.  Mix but do not over mix.  Add 1 to 1 1/2 cups of milk.  You do not want it to be too thin or too thick.  Spoon into cupcake wrappers (I use a ice cream scooper).  Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 21-22 minutes. 
We made our own frosting.  It was like 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 cube butter, a pour of milk and 2 tsp vanilla.  The key word there is *like*.  We adjusted it immensely during the process cause it needed to be thicker, no wait that's too thick add more milk, a little more butter will make it creamier... you get the picture.  So those are just the key ingredients, adjust as needed.

Bread Machine Bread

BREAD MACHINE BREAD
1 Cup Water
2 Tbl White Sugar
2 1/4 tsp Yeast

1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
3 Cups Flour
1 tsp Salt

Mix water, sugar and yeast together in the bread machine.  Let yeast dissolve and foam for 10 minutes.  Add oil, flour and salt.  Select Basic or White Bread setting, and press start.

We make this bread at least every Sunday.  Sometimes we make it a second time during the week too.  It doesn't last too long because it's so delicious!  And there's nothing more heavenly than coming home from church and walking up the stairs to the smell of fresh, homemade bread.  My favorite way of eating it is with butter and honey.  When it's just out of the oven, the butter melts and it's so good!  Lauren eats it with balsamic vinegar.

Chicken Teriyaki!

TERIYAKI CHICKEN:



1/2 cup Chicken Broth
4 Tbl Soy Sauce
2 Tbl sugar
2 Tbl oil
2 Tbl minced garlic
1/2 tsp ground ginger
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves.
Directions:
1.  Mix all marinade ingredients in shallow dish
2. Place chicken in marinade and refrigerate for 1-1/2 hours
3. Preheat broiler
4. Broil chicken 5 inches from heat for about 15 minutes.  Turning and basting with marinade often. (Our chicken pieces were small, so we cooked them for about 5 minutes on each side.)

Serve with rice and vegetables to make it a full, filling meal :)

This is such an easy recipe!  It doesn't require a lot of ingredients thankfully and it still tastes delicious!  The best part is that you merely have to dump everything in there, and then let it sit for the hour and a half.  You hardly do any work!  Great for an effortless meal that looks fancy.

Chicken Wraps

CHICKEN WRAPS
Tortilla
Lettuce
Cheese
Ranch or Sour Cream
Chicken breast (I used frozen)

Start cooking your chicken in a pan.  Simple as just putting it in the pan, no water or oil needed.  While that is cooking, grate some cheese and tear up a leaf of lettuce.

Once chicken is nicely browned on the outside, cut into strips in the pan.  By doing this, you're making sure that the chicken is fully cooked all the way through.  If it isn't (mine wasn't) then you can fix it by putting the raw sides in contact with the hot pan.

Prep the tortilla.  Put cheese and chicken in there and fold Mexican style.  To add a little warmth, crispness and also to melt the cheese some, I put the tortilla in the toaster for a little while at this point.  Once it's warmed to your liking, take it out, add the lettuce and sour cream/ranch and voila!  You have a simple, easy chicken wrap.  Feel free to add other things like salsa, guacamole, tomatoes, or any other vegetable you like.  These are the ones that I had handy and like.