Saucy Apple Swirl

Made this cake for our Sunday School class yesterday morning:

Saucy Apple Swirl:
Stir together 1/4C sugar and 2tsp cinnamon. Spray a 10" bundt or tube pan with cooking spray and then dust with some of the cinnamon sugar. Mix a yellow cake mix, 1 2/3C applesauce, and 3 eggs until moistened then beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour half of batter in the prepared pan, sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon sugar, and top with the remaining batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes or until done. Cool cake in pan for 15 minutes then invert onto a serving plate.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

The leftover chicken from last night made a great sandwich for lunch today. I spread some Cilantro Mayonnaise on the bread just to give the sandwich a little more zing - it complemented the spices in the chicken really well. Just a little something extra like a flavored mayo can really make a difference in a sandwich.

Then for dinner tonight I made spaghetti with meatballs. I know you can buy ready made meatballs, but I'm trying to come up with a recipe that makes it worth making them yourself. The meatballs tonight were pretty good, although I may add a few more spices to them next time. They really were not hard at all to make, and when you make them yourself you can control what goes in them and keep the fat content down - better quality meat and less "parts". I cooked the meatballs and sauce in the crock pot so that there is no danger of scorching the sauce. If you cook it on the stovetop, be very careful to cook it at a low temperature and stir often.

Cilantro Mayonnaise:
Blend together 1/3C mayonnaise, 1/3C cilantro leaves, 1/2T lime juice, 1/2tsp soy sauce, and a small clove of garlic. I put the above ingredients in a small bowl and used my wand blender to blend them up - fast and easy.

Meatballs:
Mix together 1 1/2lb ground beef, 3/4C uncooked oatmeal, 1/2tsp salt, 1/4tsp pepper, 2T finely chopped onions, 1 egg, and 1/2C milk. Shape into meatballs and brown in a small amount of olive oil. Drain on paper towels.

Spaghetti Sauce:
Combine 4-15oz cans tomato sauce, 1-12oz can of tomato paste, 4tsp basil, 4tsp oregano, 1 tsp onion powder and 1tsp garlic powder (or more if you like garlic). Put half of sauce in crock pot topped by the meatballs. Drain any remaining grease from the pan and add a little red wine (or chicken broth if you prefer) to the pan and scrape all the pieces of meat left behind on the pan. This is called deglazing the pan. All those little pieces have great flavors left behind in them. Add the contents of the saute pan to the remaining sauce and pour the sauce over the meatballs in the crock pot. Cook on high for at least 2 hours. Serve over spaghetti noodles.

Chicken Masala

Dinner tonight was Easy Chicken Masala, roasted sweet potato fries, and steamed broccoli. Trying to eat a little healthier!

Easy Chicken Masala - Combine 1 cup plain yogurt, 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, 3T olive oil, 1T garam masala, 2tsp kosher salt, and 1 minced clove of garlic in a large ziploc bag. Mix well by squeezing the bag (make sure it's closed first!). Add chicken pieces, close up bag, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil, and place chicken pieces on it, separating them so that they will cook evenly. Bake at 400 degrees for about an hour. Outside forms a nice crispy crust which is very good. Sometimes, a baked chicken breast can get a little dry, but I just spooned a little of the juice on top when plating it to help moisten it up a bit.

For the sweet potato fries I cut a large sweet potato into fry-size pieces, coated them with olive oil and seasoned them with a little kosher salt and cumin. I put them on a foil lined baking sheet sprayed with cooking oil and baked them at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

Since the chicken and the fries both cook at 400 degrees, I just separated the oven racks, one in the top third of the oven and the other in the bottom third of the oven, and they can cook at the same time. When the chicken goes into the oven, prepare the fries but wait to put them in the oven until the chicken has 30 minutes left so that they don't get cold. Cut up the broccoli and steam it after the sweet potatoes go in the oven and everything should come out at the same time.

Looking forward to dessert later - I cut up a slice of cantaloupe and a few strawberries in some small ice cream dishes while everything was cooking and put it in the refrigerator. When I get ready to serve it I will add a few slices of banana and a scoop of ice cream drizzled with just a little bit of chocolate syrup. Not too many calories if I use a small dip of ice cream!

Meatloaf

• 1 1/2 lbs hamburger meat
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 C milk
• 3/4 C crushed saltines (or Ritz)
• 1/2 C diced onion
• 1/4 C Heinz 57 steak sauce
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 C catsup
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1 T Worcestershire sauce

Mix together first 7 ingredients and put mixture in large baking dish or pan. Mix together last 3 ingredients and spread on top of the meatloaf. Cook 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Salsa chicken

Thinking of making salsa chicken for Tuesday night dinner. I usually plan for 60. The challenge is that I only have 2 large ovens that will hold 4 steam table pans. I've found that 1 pan will feed around 20. However, lately it has been feeding considerably less, as the college students I am cooking for have been coming back for seconds and sometimes thirds. They are hungry!

The recipe I have for salsa chicken calls for baking a boneless chicken breast with salsa on top. The problem is that this has to be done in a single layer. I cannot fit 80 boneless chicken breasts in a single layer in my oven, so I have to figure something else out. I'm going to try experimenting making it somewhat the way I make parmesan chicken. I'm hoping that if I bread the chicken cutlets with Mexican flavored bread crumbs instead of Italian flavored and brown them, I can then pack them closely together slightly overlapping into the pan. When I do the chicken parmesan in this manner, I can usually get 20 chicken breasts into the pan. I can then top them with salsa and cheese. We'll see how that turns out.

I will also serve yellow rice and green beans. I used to love the yellow rice they sold at Sam's, but alas they have quit carrying that brand. Guess I'll try the new one. It's really good when a little bit of the chicken drippings with the salsa gets added into the cooking liquid. We'll also have some kind of bread and dessert. Maybe I'll try a flan.

I am an everyday cook who has found myself in charge of cooking for large groups of people at different events. I would like to find others in my situation who would like to share recipes, ideas, and tricks of the trade learned along the way. I love cooking and trying new recipes - and the challenge of converting the recipes into something that will work for a large group. My goal is to create dishes that are made in quantity, but taste as if they were cooked in my home kitchen for the family.