Re-inventing

Lately I have been trying to make more things from scratch as opposed to buying ready made products. I like the idea of knowing exactly what is ending up in my stomach.

This recipe takes part of that, and part of a ready made product. Basically, I had some spiced up chicken burgers and I wanted to use them before they went bad.

I didn't want to make burgers though, so I thought a chili was needed.






I browned up the meat and added good stuff. It turned out pretty good. Not too bad for re-inventing.

One cookie for you, 11 for me :D

The next thing I wanted to tackle was making cookies from scratch. I wanted toffee to be a part of them.

I decided on chocolate, coconut and toffee cookies. I wanted to use part brown sugar instead of pure granulated white sugar, and it was a great idea.

I started with toasting the coconut:



Here are the other ingredients:





These cookies were just sweet enough, and the texture was perfect. I am no longer scared of making cookies that do not come in a tube.





1/2 cup of both white and brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup heath bar bits

Cook on 350 for 8-10 minutes. Enjoy

PIZZA!!!

Since I am trying to cook more and buy less ready made foods, I tried to make a healthy pizza.

I started out with a pasta sauce packed with extra vitamins and some of the usual pizza spices and paired that with mushrooms, olives, turkey pepperoni and cheese.



There's not much to tell about the process, you bake the dough for a few minutes, slather the goods on and bake longer.

What I can say is this was one great pizza!!

Before the oven:



After:

Lemonade

I have always loved lemons, even as a child. My mom would give me slices as a young girl and I would eat them, and of course display the usual funny face.

I can also remember spending summers picking large lemons from my Aunt's lemon tree, cutting them in half and eating them with salt. Delicious!

Anyway, I decided to make lemonade!!

I found a good deal on some organic lemons and and a new product I have been hearing a lot about, agave nectar.



Agave is a bit like honey, but a little less sweet and not as thick.

I dug out this old juicer that my Mom had from what seems to be sometime in the 70's, and started juicing.


A bagful of lemons later, some sweetener and I was in business. It was perfectly tart and sweet.


Doesn't that look refreshing???


2 cups of fresh squeezed lemon juice
7 TB of agave nectar
8 cups water