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Hawaiian Haystacks

Hawaiian Haystacks is a family favorite. My mom makes it almost every time there is a large group gathering at her house. Everyone I know makes it a bit different, but one thing that stays the same is the base: white rice with a chicken gravy.  For our family the toppings stay about the same, but it can vary with what food we have around the house. I do my chicken gravy a couple different ways, I'll give you both versions. The easy way, I make the most often, when I need to hurry up and get dinner ready fast. But when I am making dinner for someone with a gluten and/or dairy allergy, I make my gravy from scratch. 

Chicken Gravy (the easy way)

1 can cream of chicken soup

2 cups water (more if you like a thinner consistency)

2 cooked chicken breasts (diced or shredded)

1/2 tsp lemon zest

a couple dashes of garlic salt

a couple dashes of pepper

salt to taste

Mix ingredients together and heat through on the stove top. Quick and easy. Serve over rice, and stack with toppings. 

OR

Chicken Gravy (from scratch)

2 cooked chicken breasts (diced or shredded)

3 cups chicken broth or stock

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/4 cup flour or cornstarch (more for a thicker consistency)

1/2 tsp lemon zest

a couple dashes of garlic salt

a couple dashes of pepper

salt to taste

Start your gravy like you would any roux. Melt the butter a bit in a sauce pan on the stove and add your thickening agent (flour or cornstarch), whisking constantly. Add chicken broth little by little whisking until smooth. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Stir together. Serve over rice, and stack with toppings.

Now let's talk about toppings!!

My favorites:

pineapple

mandarin oranges

tomatoes

olives

green onions

celery

almonds, pecans, cashews, macadamias or peanuts

shredded coconut

chow mein noodles (the crunchy ones in the can- if I happen to have them around)

diced bell peppers

grated cheddar cheese (or Colby jack)

tabasco sauce (chipotle or jalapeno are our favorites)

What are your favorite toppings?

car organizer

One of the most annoying thing for me about road trips, is that the activities and toys I have to keep the kids busy seem to be all over the car. When the sliding door opens at the gas station, for us all to rush in and use the restroom, coloring books, water bottles, toys, shoes, pillows, it all comes spilling out. It's especially frustrating during winter weather, or if the person before you using the pump decided to dump their soda all over ground- and now all your stuff is wet, sticky and dirty.  

We solved this by making these car organizers. It' s just a large rectangle of fabric with pockets sewn on, and ribbons for tying it onto the seats. Each child had their own, they could put what they wanted in it- but once it was full- that was it for what they could bring. 

What tips do you have for  making your family travel go more smoothly??

rainbow noodles

I do a home preschool group with my 3 year old daughter. There are 5 kids in our group and each week we meet for a couple hours, taking turns rotating homes. It's great because it give my little lady a chance to be away doing her own thing for awhile, and it's just short enough that it ends before she melts down (usually!). Plus, I am not excited about paying for official preschool quite yet.
We made rainbow noodles when it was our time to host- and it was a huge hit! And they are super easy to make.

The children played with the noodles, made letter shapes with them, and then ate them when they were finished. It was great. 

To make them all you have to do is boil noodles like normal, and add a few drops of food coloring. So easy!! I did 3 separate pots, since I wanted 3 different colors.

I went for the neon colors so they would be brighter. She didn't eat them all the first day, so we saved the left over noodles in a baggie, and she continued to play with them/eat them for a few days.

These would be so fun for a St. Patrick's Day dinner!!

Andes Mint Chocolate Bundt Cake

It was my 3 year old daughter's turn to pick out our dessert for family game night on Sunday, and insisted it needed to be a cake. I was pushing for cookies, since we were already planning on birthday cake later in the week, but you know how 3 year olds are. She was determined. So I hunted down a recipe from Our Best Bites (love them!), and found a recipe for a Chocolate Peppermint Bundt Cake. It looked amazing, and I started making it just to realize half way through that I was actually out of a few of the ingredients. I didn't want to run to the store (especially because it was Sunday, and I try my best not to shop on the Sabbath- plus I was pretty sure there wouldn't be many candy canes on the shelves in February), so I rummaged through my pantry and fridge and found some great substitutions.

 Andes Mint Chocolate Bundt Cake

1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix (I used Betty Crocker)
1 small box instant chocolate pudding
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable or canola oil
1/2 cup whole milk (I used whole to give it a little fat since the other dairy ingredients were lighter)
1/2 cup light sour cream (I like Daisy)
1/2 cup Nonfat Plain Greek Yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup chocolate chips (I used Hershey's dark chips)
1/4 cup Andes Mint bits

butter for greasing pan
cocoa powder for dusting pan

Glaze

1/2 cup dark or semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 TBSP butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup Andes Mint bits (divided in half- some to go into the glaze, the rest to be sprinkled on top)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease up the bundt pan with butter. Shake cocoa powder around to coat the butter. If you have extra cocoa powder after shaking around, dump it out.

Mix together eggs, sour cream, yogurt, oil, milk and vanilla until smooth. Then slowly stir in cake mix and pudding mix- little by little until combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl and beat for 2 minutes on med high. Add in the chocolate chips and 1/4 cup Andes mints.

Pour batter into the bundt pan and bake for 45-50 minutes (it took mine closer to 50), until tooth pick or cake tester comes out with moist crumbs- not completely dry.

While your bundt is in the oven, start working on your glaze. Put cream in a pan on the stove (a double boiler would be best, but I just used a sauce pan), and warm it up on low. Add in the chocolate, butter and andes mint bits and whisk together quickly until smooth. Take off of the heat and let rest in the pan until later.

Pull your bundt out of the oven when it's ready, and let it cool for about 3-5 minutes. Dump it out of the bundt pan onto a cooling rack. Let it cool for about 15 minutes, then with a large plate underneath the rack (just under the cake), start spooning the glaze over the cake. A lot of your glaze will drip down onto the plate under the cake. Scrape the glaze off of the plate into the bowl it was in, replace the plate under the cooling rack, and pour the glaze over the cake again. Repeat until as much of the glaze as possible is on your cake. Then top with the remaining Andes Mint bits.

This cake is absolutely perfection when it is served warm- but it's wonderful at room temperature as well. We threw a dollop of whipped cream on top, but a scoop of ice cream would have been an amazing companion as well.

My husband said this was the best cake I've ever made, so I will definitely be making this again! Especially because he's not huge on chocolate cake in general, and chocolate is my favorite!

The other great thing about this cake, was that it really kept its moisture, and was super tasty the next day. Or maybe that wasn't such a good thing? At least as far as my waistline is concerned....

Tzatiki Sauce

 Tzatiki sauce is a great little greek style dip. It has a great tangy taste, and is a great compliment to hummus. I love it on pitas with steak, shrimp or chicken and veggies.

Tzatziki sauce:

1 Cucumber - peeled and diced

1/2 Green Onion - chopped

1/2 cup Plain Greek yogurt - I like the Great Value kind because of it's smooth consistency. I don't like gritty yogurt

few dashes Garlic salt

splash Lemon juice

couple pinches of Mint - dried or fresh

dash of pepper

Stir together and serve!

Homemade Hummus

One reason I enjoy making this recipe hummus is because of how smooth it turns out. This is a very basic recipe- I just throw everything together in my Vitamix and blend it up until it's nice and smooth. It would be very easy to add in other flavors you might like- roasted red pepper, pine nuts or roasted garlic- whatever you're in the mood for that day. 

This is tahini- ground up sesame seeds. The bottle is a bit pricey- but it's HUGE!! And it keeps in the pantry for a super long time. You don't need much of it for a batch, so it will last awhile. Making hummus from scratch is still cheaper than buying it premade from the store. 

Hummus and veggies saves me after school or church- when the kids come in starving and want something immediately (or they might just die!! you know how it gets!!), and this is a great way to fill them up with veggies instead of crackers or junk. One of my dear friends also introduced me to dipping apples in hummus and it's surprisingly amazing!! Ok, here's my recipe:

Homemade Basic Hummus
2 (15 oz) cans garbanzo beans - (AKA chick peas) - include the water from one can, drain out half of the water from the second can
1/4 cup tahini (ground up sesame seed paste)
1 1/2 TBSP olive oil
1 1/2 TBSP lemon juice
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin

I will also link this up to my tzatiki sauce, and pan seared chicken soon. It's a great compliment when you're eating this in a pita. Healthy and fresh- I love it!!