ORANGE MARMALADE PORK CHOPS

ORANGE MARMALADE PORK CHOPS

1/4       teaspoon salt
1/4       teaspoon black pepper
1/4       teaspoon paprika
2          boneless center cut pork chops
1           tablespoon olive oil
1           cup orange juice
2          tablespoons maple syrup
2          tablespoons orange marmalade

Combine the salt, pepper, and paprika in a small bowl.

Rub (or pat) the seasonings on one side of the pork chops. (If you want to season both side, double the amounts of seasonings.)

Over medium heat, brown the chops on both sides in a skillet with the olive oil.

Add the orange juice, 

cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes on each side.

To serve, drizzle the maple syrup over each chop to cover completely.

Then spread the marmalade over each chop.








I got this recipe from the online Texas Cooking Newsletter I subscribe to. Orange Marmalade is my husbands favorite.  So the title caught my attention immediately.  I don't think they had a picture, but it sounded like it would present well, too.

They were just perfect.  I just rubbed or patted the seasonings on one side.  There was just the right amount for the two chops.  So if you are going to make more than two chops or want to rub it on both sides, increase the amounts appropriately. I thought it was fine with just rubbed on one side.  I made sure that side was on top when I got ready to serve them and added the syrup and marmalade.  That was the pretty side.

If you want to print the recipe using the print friendly button below, remember it will give you the option to remove the images.

PINEAPPLE COOKIES

These cookies were submitted by a dear friend, Helen Young, in the cookbook, Home Cookin', compiled by the women at College United Methodist Church in Ventura, CA.  I thought I would give them a try to take to Hillcrest to share Tuesday.  I had all of the ingredients and love making cookies.  I decided to use regular brown sugar but still substituted stevia for the 1/2 cup white sugar. I couldn't tell any difference and the volunteers at Hillcrest thought they were really good. So did my husband.  He ate 3 before I could leave for my shift.

Remember if you want to print the recipe using the print friendly button at the bottom of the post, you will have the option to remove the images.

PINEAPPLE COOKIES

1/2     cup shortening
1/2     cup brown sugar
1/2     cup white sugar (I used stevia)
1        egg
1/2     cup well-drained crushed pineapple (in its own juice)
1        teaspoon vanilla
2        cups sifted flour
1/4     teaspoon salt
1/2     teaspoon baking soda
1/2     teaspoon baking powder
1/2     cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Spray cooking sheet with cooking spray. (I lined my cookie sheets with parchment paper...so easy to clean up and cookies cook nicely.)

Cream shortening and sugars.

Add egg.

Stir in pineapple and vanilla.

Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then add to the pineapple mixture.

Drop by spoonfuls on the cookie sheet. (I used my cookie scoop. I turn the dough over when I place it on the sheet so that the flat side is on the top.)

Bake for 10 minutes.

Remove immediately and cool on wire rack.







I am working on my post for our weekend trip to Rome, GA for my husband's 50th high school reunion. I loved the city and all of its history. I hope to have it finished for publishing by Friday.

NO SUGAR ADDED BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

Finally back home after a quick weekend in Rome, GA for my husband's 50th High School Reunion. What a fun weekend! Can't wait to share it with you.  

I haven't been "around" for a bit because I also came down with bronchitis and a sinus infection (still taking my meds) but feel better every day. It is not a fun experience at all, and I have a lot to catch up with.

These blueberry muffins I made and shared with the volunteers at Hillcrest Thrift Shop the last time I "worked". (I had to cancel last week's shift because of my illness.)  Anyway, they were so good. As I was leaving, Jerry asked me if I had made the muffins in the community room.  I told him I had and he said, "I knew you did. They are delicious." Thanks, Jerry.

This recipe from Holidays & Parties was contributed by Mary Lou Moore from Mira Mesa High School in San Diego, CA.  She said it was from a cookbook she wrote and dedicated to her husband, Dennis, who has Type 2 diabetes. She called them Sugar-Free Blueberry Muffins, but I changed it to No-Sugar-Added. The blueberries have natural sugar so technically they aren't sugar free; but they have no added sugar.

NO-SUGAR-ADDED BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

1/2       cup canola oil
3/4       cup skim milk
1          egg
1          teaspoon vanilla
2          cups flour
1/2       cup Splenda or stevia
1          tablespoon baking powder
1/2       teaspoon salt
1          cup fresh or frozen blueberries (do not thaw if frozen)
1          teaspoon lemon peel
1/2       cups walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Spray muffin cup with nonstick cooking spray.

Combine oil, milk, egg, and vanilla in a small mixing bowl; mix until blended.

Combine remaining ingredients in large mixing bowl.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and 

add the liquid ingredients.

Stir until you see just a little of the dry ingredients in the batter.

Do not overmix.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.

Bake about 20 minutes or until lightly browned and toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes our clean.

Remove and cool on wire rack.

MOM'S BANANA BREAD

I had a few bananas I needed to use before we went to visit our son and his family in CO recently. I saw this recipe in my Colonial Cooks! cookbook (from Colonial Presbyterian Church in Overland Park, KS) that Lois Holland contributed.  

Even though I have my favorite banana bread recipes, this one caught my attention for a couple of reasons.  One, it only contained 1 cup of sugar and the other was it contained oil and no milk. 

Always interested in finding new good recipes, I decided to give it a try.  I omitted the pecans because my granddaughters have peanut allergies and they could eat it without concern that peanuts might have been near the pecans in the processing plant. While I usually do enjoy them in my banana breads, this banana bread was actually very good.  I will make it again.

Remember if you want to print the recipe using the print friendly button at the bottom of the post, you will have the option to remove the images.

MOM'S BANANA BREAD

2         eggs, beaten
1         cup, sugar (I used stevia)
1-1/2  cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 bananas)
1/4     cup canola oil
1-1/2  cup flour
3/4     teaspoon baking soda
1/2     teaspoon salt
3/4     cup chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour a large loaf pan 8 x 4-1/2 - inch pan.

Beat the eggs. Add sugar and beat with electric mixer until mixture is pale in color.

Combine the mashed bananas and oil in a bowl 

and then add to egg mixture and blend well.

Mix flour, soda, and salt (don't sift).  Add to batter.

Mix in pecans if using them.

Pour into pan.

Bake 55 to 60 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes before removing.

Wrap in foil to store.

HONEY OAT BROWNIES

I don't normally go into Hillcrest of Saturdays to volunteer, but before I left on Tuesday, Cindy asked me if I could work another shift later in the week (several are on vacation).  I agreed to come in the first shift on Saturday. (9:30 - 12:30)

I found this recipe for Honey Oat Brownies in a new cookbook I got at another estate sale that looked easy enough.  So Saturday morning I got up (a little later than I planned) and started making them.  When I put them in the oven and started to set the timer, I noticed the time and realized I wouldn't have time to let them cool to cut before I had to leave. Oops.

The mixture isn't a lot, in fact, I wasn't sure it was going to cover the bottom of the pan.  So they are not your normal looking brownies. But they sure are good!  Everyone else thought they were really good, also.  

Oh, I forgot to tell you....I had my husband cut them when they cooled.  I told him to eat one and if they tasted good, bring them to the shop and if they didn't taste good, to just throw them out.  Well, a little bit later, he walked in the door with them on a paper plate.  Jim, the shop manager, grabbed one before I could set the plate on the table in the community room.  Since I still hadn't tried one, I asked him how they were, and he said, "Good".  

The recipe came from a cookbook called Secrets of Fat-Free Baking by Sandra Woodruff, RD.  It is a very interesting cookbook. It contains "over 130 low-fat & fat-free recipes for scrumptious and simple-to-make cakes, cookies, brownies, muffins, pies, breads, plus many other tasty goodies". The chapters cover "fat-free baking at its best, fruitful fat substitutes, dairy fat substitutes, sweet fat substitutes, pruning fat, squashing fat and baking with reduced-fat margarine and light butter".  I have already marked several that I want to try.

HONEY OAT BROWNIES

3/4     cup quick-cooking oats
1/4     cup unbleached flour (I used white whole wheat flour)
1/4     cup plus 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2     cup sugar (I used 1/4 cup truvia baking blend)
1/8     teaspoon baking powder
1/8     teaspoon salt (optional) (I did use it.)
1/4     cup plus 2 tablespoons honey
1/4     cup water
1        teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4     cup chopped walnuts (optional)  (I added these too)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Spray an 8 - inch square pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Combine the oats, flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Stir to mix well.

Add the rest of the ingredients, stirring well.

Spread the batter evenly in the pan. (As I said above, there isn't a lot of batter and will thinly cover the bottom of the pan.

Bake for 20 minutes until the edges are firm and the center is almost set.

Cool to room temperature, and then cut into 16 squares.





Each brownie using regular sugar has 75 calories.

FAT: 0.6 g
PROTEIN: 1.2 g
CHOLESTEROL: 0 mg
SODIUM: 18 mg
FIBER: 1.1 g
CALCIUM: 6 mg
POTASSIUM: 33 mg
IRON: 0.5 mg

SKINNY CHOCOLATE BANANA BREAD

It's Friday.  I should be out with Friend Janice going to estate sales. Instead I am home nursing a sore throat. Not a Fun Friday. 

Sunday we are playing handbells in church and I can't miss. Director Sara would be very upset with me.  Since school is out, we are already short enough that she will be playing instead of standing in front of us directing.

So instead, I guess I will get caught up on some recent activities that I need to share with you.  Here is one of a delicious chocolate banana bread I made on Wednesday. If you have visited my blog before, you know I had to make it SKINNY.

I saw this recipe for a banana bread that was made using a yellow cake mix at The Creek Line House.  While I do enjoy making recipes "from scratch", I also enjoy easy ones using a cake mix.... for two reasons.... 1) They are usually real simple and easy, and 2) I can use a sugar free cake mix and save calories.  I am always trying to save calories.  I love my desserts and refuse to give them up like some people do to lose or maintain their weight.  So I just try to make them and reduce the calories as much as I can.

When I saw this recipe, I immediately thought about using a sugar free yellow cake mix and reduce the calories.  Then I thought....why not try using the sugar free Devil's Food cake mix and make a chocolate banana bread.  At the last minute I decided to make it even more chocolate and threw in a half cup of special dark chocolate chips.  You will have probably at the most 3 or 4 chips in a slice, so that doesn't really add too many calories.  (Remember dark chocolate chips have less sugar than milk chocolate or semi chocolate chips.)

Well, I made the recipe this morning (after I went to the store and got the sugar free Devil's Food cake mix. I was out.)  When I see a recipe that calls for 3 bananas, I usually count on a banana as being 1/2 cup. That meant 3 bananas would be 1-1/2 cups of mashed bananas. Well, my bananas were a little smaller than what I usually have and after I mashed them, I was a little under the 1-1/2 cups. But I didn't have any more bananas. I was concerned it might taste a little dry, but it didn't.  In fact, it tastes really, really good.

Of course, as with all my recipes - when I cut the calories, if you don't want to, that's okay. I know I have gotten used to desserts with less sugar and what I used to eat, sometimes tastes really sweet now.  Sometimes so sweet I can't eat much.  But I don't think most of what I make, taste that much different. 

Remember if you want to print the recipe using the print friendly button at the bottom of the post, it will allow you to remove the images.

SKINNY CHOCOLATE BANANA BREAD

1       (Sugar Free) Devil's Food cake mix
3       bananas, mashed (about 1-1/2 cups)
2       large eggs
1/2    cup dark chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray two mini loaf pans or 1 larger loaf pan with cooking spray.

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Mix on low speed of mixer til well blended.

Add chips.

Divide evenly between two mini loaf pans. (The pans I use are a little bit bigger than normal mini loaf pans.)

Bake for 40 minutes.  Test doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of the loaf.  It will come out clean when done.

Cool 10 minutes on wire rack.

Remove and continue cooling.






Serve or wrap with foil to eat later or to freeze. (I like to make mini loaves because I can freeze one to enjoy at a different time. I write the name of the bread on the foil with a permanent marker to identify it. It also allows me to enjoy a smaller slice than I would if I made a regular loaf.)

OUR QUILT OF VALOUR IS FINALLY FINISHED

Hard to believe we started our Quilt of Valour almost two years ago.  I hope you have been following our journey from the start.  We never planned to take so long but "life happened" and we had many delays.  

But here it is:

Last month when we met, only three of us were able to meet. Dorothy's friend had finished machine quilting it for us and it needed to have the binding added. So that is what Kay, Ellen, and I did.

I plan to do a tutorial of cutting and making the binding later and will link it to this post, but until then and for those of you who know how to bind a quilt, I want to pass on this one tip....just in case you have never done it. (I have put binding on many quilts and never thought to do this.  Thanks, Kay.)

After we had the binding ready, we laid the quilt on the floor and randomly choosing a place to start in the center of one side, we laid the binding down to make sure the seams weren't going to be at a corner.

We went all the way around the quilt....not to just the first corner.

After we got around to where we had started, Kay held the binding in place to start sewing with a hair clip.

The binding is finished and ready for our June gathering 

when we will all sit around (like an old fashion quilting bee), and hand stitch the binding down. See my empty chair?








Fran and Janice needed some reassurance re how to slip stitch the binding down, but it was a real fun (great) experience to conclude our nearly two year long journey. (I plan to include how to slip stitch down the binding when I publish the post on making the binding.)

Dorothy....

Fran and Sharon....

Janice and Kay....

Kay and Ellen....













I really did work, too, just didn't get a picture of me.

And Ellen did the last stitch....

Dorothy took the quilt and she and Sharon are going to print a label for it.  Then it will be shipped off to the Quilt of Valor Foundation to be presented to a service man or woman who has been "touched"  by war to bring comfort and healing. I know this has been an experience none of us will soon forget.