DIY: Orange Julius!

I have met a lot of people who don't know what an Orange Julius is. Well, go GOOGLE it right now. I'll wait....until right now. Ok, now that you know what it is, you can exclaim to yourself and those around you that you feel enlightened upon discovering this nectar of the Gods. Well, there is a food business by that exact name out there where you pay a few bucks for a cup of the stuff. Well, I found many recipes online on how to make your own at home. This was with my breakfast this morning, so enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 can Orange Juice Concentrate
1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
12 Ice Cubes
Water

Yes it's that simple and all done in a blender. I know, it's so tasty that you should use more ingredients but alas this is the case. Sort of. It's a basic recipe. You can add regular Orange Juice to it as well as Milk. If you want to make it very healthy, you can always add powdered anything to it such as Metamucil or one of those Protein Powder Drink things.

Once you get your stuff together, throw in 12 Ice Cubes or so.

Then the Orange Juice Concentrate and Vanilla Extract.

I did not put an amount of water on it because it's up to you. It really is. It all depends on how dense you want it. You can have it with the consistency of regular Orange Juice if you want, or all the way to almost like Ice Cream. I like it in the middle, so I filled the Orange Juice Concentrate container about 3/4 of the way up and poured that in.

Then blend it like crazy. I mean....cover it and let it blend until pureed.

Then just serve! Enjoy!

Sorry for only 4 pictures! It was 5:10am when I made this and I am not exactly completely coherent at that hour!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Today I was feeling a little under the weather and thought how I would feel better. Then I remembered the cure all for all ailments, Chicken Noodle Soup. I had some Chicken in the fridge that I had to use for something soon, so I threw it in the freezer and went to the store. I needed more materials. This recipe is the delicious result.

Ingredients:
3 Chicken Breasts, diced
1 bag Whole Wheat Egg Noodle Pasta
4 Carrots, diced
1 White Onion, finely diced
4 Celery stalks, halved and sliced
1/2 stick Butter
Caesar Salad Dressing
Italian Herb Mix
Ground Black Pepper
32 oz Vegetable Broth
32 oz Chicken Broth
1 cup Water (optional)

So, I began at the store for this recipe. I knew I wanted to make Chicken Noodle Soup and all I had for it was the Chicken and Carrots. So I picked up some White Onions, Celery, and the 2 Broths.

I put the Chicken in the freezer first because when it's partially frozen it is a lot easier to cut into small pieces.

I then added some Caesar Salad Dressing to it and set it aside since it comes into play much later on.

Now dice up your Carrots, White Onion, and Celery stalks.

Alright, put a stockpot on the stove. Throw or lightly toss your Butter in there.

Once the Butter is mostly melted, throw in your diced White Onion, Celery stalks, and Carrots. Stir and add a few pinches of an Italian Herb Mix with a single pinch of Ground Black Pepper.

Let cook for about 6 minutes or until the Carrots are somewhat softened and Onions have caramelized.

Then you find the 2 Broths.

Pour them in. Stir.

Add Noodles.

Stir and then put a saucepan on a different burner with heat on medium. Put the Chicken and Dressing on in.

Make sure to keep stirring them around in the pan so they do not burn to it at all.

Now add in 1 cup of Water to the stockpot if you think the liquid level is low. I did and it turned out amazing.

Alright, once the Chicken is done cooking you strain out the excess Dressing and put the Chicken into the stockpot. Stir it in well.

Once the Carrots are soft enough it is done. For the entire recipe, I want to say this took me like 30 to 45 minutes total. I am sure if I let it cook longer it would taste a bit different, however as is it is a very rich soup. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving: Chicken wrapped in Bacon w/Mashed Potatoes

Alright, so in keeping with Thanksgiving's tendency to eat some sort of poultry I went with Chicken. I know it's not a Turkey, but since I am not cooking for a family and only myself, I tend to skimp on making massive meals like that. I'll have this split up in two parts to avoid confusion.


Chicken wrapped in Bacon:
3 Chicken Breasts
Bacon
Flour
Breadcrumbs
Ancho Chile Powder
Marjoram
Garlic Salt
Paprika
Ground Black Pepper
Sea Salt
Lawry's Seasoned Salt
Olive Oil

Alright, so assemble your ingredients. Set oven to 400 degrees BAKE.

Put your flour into a mixing bowl. I used about 2/3 cup of Flour. About the same amount of Breadcrumbs. Then however much of the spices as you want. A healthy dose of each if you ask me. After the fact, a little less Ancho Chile Powder couldn't hurt.

Now mix it thoroughly together.

Now that it looks amazing and smells like amazing, let's move to the Chicken.

Take out your Chicken Breasts, trim them if need be, and tenderize them. Well, tenderize might not be the best term to use. So just flatten them out. Use a tenderizer if you have one. I have two called Left Fist and Right Fist. Good times right there.

Now one at a time, place them in the Flour mixture.

Then flip.

Now on a cooking board, place out a strip of Bacon and put the Chicken on there. Make sure there is a little bit out at one end to being the wrapping part. You wrap it up from that end towards the other. You can wrap the Bacon under the Chicken if you want or use a toothpick as I did.

Now using a glass cooking dish, sprinkle in some Olive Oil. This is where you will put your Chicken once it is properly wrapped in Bacon. Feel free to add some more Flour mixture on top of them once they are ready for the oven.

Put in oven and set a timer for 45 minutes. It should take about this long, but each oven is different. Mine ended up taking about 1 hour.

Mashed Potatoes:
2.5 lb Gold Yukon Potatoes
Sea Salt
Ground Black Pepper
1/2 stick Butter
3/4 cup Milk (2%)

This was my first attempt at making Mashed Potatoes and I figured that this was a good time to try it out.

I began by boiling the Potatoes. So put them in a saucepan/pot that is large enough to at least mostly cover them with water. A dash of Sea Salt here does not hurt in the slightest.

I boiled them for about 45 minutes. The water in there turns a few shades darker while they boil.

Once done, I turned off the heat and used a strainer to strain the water out. I kept the Potatoes in the strainer as I cut up the Butter and put that in the still warm saucepan. This way it melts quite readily. I also added in the Milk. Then the Potatoes. I cut them up into small chunks using a fork and knife, then mashed further using the fork. I do not own a potato masher, so this is how I made do. Add Sea Salt and Pepper to taste.

Now just couple with the Chicken wrapped in Bacon and your dish is complete. Enjoy.

Thanksgiving: Asparagus w/Rice

Alright everyone who checks this blog out, it's Thanksgiving time. This is an American holiday that is no stranger to gluttony and American Football. I have a few things I'll be posting up here between now and then (this upcoming Thursday) to be cooked for this grand event.

Ingredients:
1 lb Asparagus
1/3 stick Butter
Olive Oil
Rice
Italian Herb Mix
Sea Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Turmeric Powder
Ancho Chile Powder
Sweet Smoked Paprika
Teriyaki Sauce

To start off with, I went for the Butter. I cut it into slivers and put them in a large saucepan with the heat set to MEDIUM.

Once they started to melt, I added in a pinch of all the spices but the Italian Herb Mix.

Mmmm...tasty. Now put in the Asparagus.

Mix it around to cover it with the buttery spice conglomeration.

Drizzle in a little bit of Olive Oil to make sure there is no chance of burning once the Butter becomes scarce.

Now, the Rice was made in my rice cooker. 1 cup Rice to 1.5 cups Water. The instructional manual says 1.25 cups Water but I find that it leaves the Rice too sticky and not as good as it could be, so a little more was needed.

Once both are cooked to completion, just dish the Rice into a bowl and add the Asparagus on top with a sprinkle of Italian Herb Mix. I also drizzled some Teriyaki Sauce on top for fun. Enjoy.

Homemade Beef Jerky

Alright, so this is a very simple thing to do provided one thing. You must have a food dehydrator. I got mine at Cabella's I believe. Chances are I'll put more food dehydrating things up here in the future as they are simple and tasty.

Ingredients:
2 lbs Stir Fry Beef
1 package McCormick Grill Mates Zesty Herb Marinade
1 package McCormick Grill Mates Spiced Brandy & Herb Marinade
Vegetable Oil
White Vinegar
Water

I began this by getting the materials together.

I then followed the marinade instructions on the packages.

I mixed them up in Ziploc plastic bags and added the Stir Fry Beef.

After refrigerating overnight, I placed them on the food dehydrator's racks.

Seeing as though I was to be at work this past Friday when I decided to cook these, I used a timer. Just set the time and off to work I went. I had to do this because my workday is 8 hours long and this takes anywhere from 6 to 10 hours to dehydrate properly.

When I got home from work, they were done. So I took them out and put them on paper towels to blot away the leftover oils/grease. Enjoy.

Eggs in a Boat 2.0

Alright, so I have made this once before and decided a second attempt at it was warranted. This time I changed up the recipe a little bit as to include what I had on hand.

Ingredients:
1 loaf French Bread
Shredded Asiago, Gruyere, Quatro Fromaggio Cheese
Parmesan/Romano Cheese
7 Eggs
1/2 cup Scallions, sliced
1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
1 Orange Bell Pepper, diced
Italian Herb Mix
Ground Black Pepper
Sea Salt

I'll skip the normal get your ingredients together picture since we always do that. I'll just get to the good part...the ingredients ready to go pictures! Here's the egg mixture and diced up Bell Peppers and Scallions. Turn your oven to 400 degrees BAKE.

And the loaf of French Bread, where I have the center scooped out somewhat. Make sure not to breach the sides, as the egg mixture will drain out and cause trouble. I accidentally did this on one part so I wrapped it in tin foil. I think I'll do this every time from here on out.

Now I poured the eggs in first.

I added most of the diced Bell Peppers and Scallions. They sink in quite readily.

I topped that with a solid dusting of each cheese. I also added a pinch or two of the Sea Salt and Ground Black Pepper.

Topped with whatever is left over of the diced Bell Peppers and Scallions. Also, add in a few pinches of the Italian Herb Mix.

Now put it in the oven for about 10 minutes. I checked at 10 minutes and then decided to let it bake some more so the eggs were not as runny as the first time I made this. So another 15 minutes. Then I took it out and this is what it looked like.

After giving it a little bit to cool down, I took it out of the tin foil and cut it up to serve. Enjoy.