A broke woman's blog.

Here is a simple recipe for you to follow. It's easy as 1 2 3!

Mise en place

4 chicken breast (or according to your needs)
1 or 2 onions (whatever size you like)
1 or 2 bell peppers (whatever size you like)
shredded cheese
french bread loaf(or whatever you prefer)
Seasoning

1. Wash your chicken.
2. Cut chicken breast into half inch strips long ways and put them in a bowl.
3. Cut your onion in half on the ends. Lay the onion flat and cut it on the sides as thick as you want them and put in a bowl.
4. Cut the bell pepper the thickness you like put them in the bowl with the onions.
5. Rinse onions and bell pepper.
6. Pour enough oil to coat the bottom of your skillet and let it get hot.
7. Put your seasoning on your meat, onions and bell peppers.
8. Once your skillet is hot sautee the onions and bell peppers. Don't put them all in the skillet if you have a bunch.
9. After you get your onions and bell peppers sauteed put your bread in the oven and let it toast for about 5 or 7 minutes then take it out.
10. Once you have sauteed all of your onions and bell peppers put some chicken in the skillet and stir it around so it won't stick.
11. Add more oil if needed.
12. When you turn your chicken over add some onions and bell peppers. Continue until you are done.
13. Take your bread plate it and put some cheese on the bottom bun. Then add your chicken, onions, bell peppers, more cheese on top and close the bread top.
14. Now enjoy!

Source: Bree

Ha ha! It's my day to cook.....Let me see. Today I made some lasagna, cheesy garlic bread and a spinach and tomato basil salad. I haven't cooked lasagna in about a year. We had went to Detroit and my little cousin wanted me to cook her some. So I cooked her some but I had used rotini pasta. I try to do things different at times. But today I just used the regular lasagna noodles. My girls and I went to the store and got everything we needed the night before and I forgot the french bread. So I had to use what I had to make the garlic bread......hot dog buns lol. Well it worked! You learn to improvise. After everything was cooked and we dug in lol. My lasagna fell apart on me but it's okay. It was still good! Okay are you ready? Well here we go. Remember, cook according to your needs.

Spinach and tomato basil salad

4 large tomatoes
1/2 purple onion (to your liking)
1/2 bunch fresh basil (to your liking)
1/2 teaspoon of salt (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon of pepper (to taste)
2 oz. red wine vinegar
hand full of spinach

1. Rinse off tomatoes, spinach and basil.
2. Let basil and spinach dry while you slice the tomatoes.
3. Slice the ends of and cut the tomatoes a 1/4 inch thick from side to side.
4 Lay the slices flat and cut into 1/2 inch medium dice.
5. Put them in a mixing bowl.
6. Cut your onion in 1/4 inch small dice.
7. Put onion in the bowl also.
8. Chop up the basil to YOUR liking and sprinkle it over the mixture.
9. Sprinkle some salt and pepper to taste.
10. Add spinach.
11. Add about 2 oz. of the red wine vinegar.
12. Stir it and let it marinate.
13. Taste it and if you need to add something more, do so.


Lasagna Bree's way!!!!!

Hamburger
Sausage
Medium onion
Medium bell pepper
Minced garlic
Tomato sauce
Sour cream (optional)
Cottage cheese (optional)
Corn (optional)
Shredded cheese (any kind)
Lasagna
Seasoning (optional because of the sausage)


1. Cut the ends and hull off onion. Diced onion very small.
2. Cut ends and top off bell pepper. Rinse off and dice it very small.
3. Mince garlic.
4. Saute the onions, garlic and bell pepper for about 2 minutes then add hamburger and sausage.
5. While that is cooking, boil your water for the lasagna.
6. Once meat is done drain all the fat off.
7. Add lasagna to the water. Stir it around a little bit so it won't stick. Cook it for about 12-15 minutes. The reason is you want your noodles al dente (half done because when you bake the lasagna your noodles won't be mushy).
8. After the fat has drained off put the meat back in the pot and add your tomato sauce.
9. Add some sour cream to the mixture and let it cook down.
10. After your 12-15 minutes turn your pot off on your lasagna and quickly pull them out and layer them on the bottom of your pan.
11. Layer your meat mixture, cottage cheese, corn, cheese and lasagna until you run out.
12. Put in oven on 350 for about 15 minutes.


Cheesy garlic bread

Hot dog buns
Garlic powder
Butter
Shredded cheese

1. Spoon out how much butter out you think you will need in a bowl and put it in the microwave until it starts to melt.
2. Add some garlic powder to taste.
3. Drizzle over hot dog buns.
4. Sprinkle cheese over buns and bake for about 5 minutes so they won't get hard.

Source: Bree

I've been waiting patiently on my grades from my classes. Well I can't say patiently lol. I thought I passed my classes with a B. I got an e-mail from my lab partner asking me if I got my grade from our class. I hadn't check since Friday. Oooooooooooooooooh I checked today and I have A's in both my classes! Oh my word I'm so happy! I had to share that!

This semester I took two classes and finals this past Monday and Tuesday. I made a 86 on my Nutrition final and a 93 plus 20 bonus points on my Food Pro I final. Oh and I made a 92 on my knife skills test! I felt soooooooooooo great lol. I start back in three weeks taking ServSafe Sanitation and Intro to Hospitality. Excited? Yes I am!

But anyways!!!!!!!! I got a new job! I work for a restaurant now. My instructors friend owns it. He called him and told him he had an employee if he wanted one. He told me to come visit with him and he hired me right on the spot before I filled out the application. He told me that my instructor bragged on me and thought I had potential. I wanted to cry.

My first day was pretty crazy. I was doing fixing up veggies, salads, muffins and just whatever. It's so funny because I'm the only woman in the kitchen lol. The other women are managers or waitresses. It's really funny because I want to talk to my trainer as if he was a woman and I have to be quiet lol. He is so funny.

I'm the salad lady lol. I make the salads and I like it. I had to make a cheat sheet. They only thing I don't like is when we have 3 or 4 different salads come in. My pressure goes up then lol. We got compliments on how pretty the salads looked today. I'm so happy. Sorry, I didn't mean to bore you I just had to share that with you.

Yes I know I'm late but I've been tired lol. I just wanted to share a picture of what my youngest daughter did for my mom and I. She got up Sunday morning and fixed us some chocolate chip pancakes, eggs, sausage and some diced strawberries. She is getting like her mom with the cooking! It was so sweet. I got a card and purple flowers. She loves her grandma and momma and we love her too!

There was a group of students to help prepare for an event at Land's End Plantation. I didn't want to go reason's for (hence the name). Yea, I made a joke about it. Anyway, we all met up at the school and finished doing the last of the prep work. We left the school around 3. It was raining. Ugh I don't like rain lol. We all followed one another to the plantation. It was about a 30 minute ride.

So anyway, we made it to the plantation. I never seen such a pretty place. It had so many beautiful trees and everything. It would have been more fascinating if it wasn't raining! We all parked and went into the house. Once we got in we were by a mini pony! Not a real pony but the dog was big as a pony in my eyes. It was a Great Dane name Shadow. He was toooo big for me. I was scared at first lol.

We were introduced to the owner and his lady. They made us feel so welcomed. We all got our Mise En Place ready to start getting things in order. I had to finish setting up my cheese tray. I was trying to put my crackers on the tray and I heard some smacking. I looked up and it was Shadow licking his lips lol. I said to myself, "Man if this dog gets at me this whole house will be tore up lol."

Okay now it was time to get busy. We all started get the food together. Oh it was so fun. We had 23 or 24 plates to get ready. For hors d' oeurves (the French and their spelling ugh) we served tarragon shrimp bruschetta, boursin stuffed mushrooms and Importer cheese w/ assorted crackers & bread (my cheese tray)! While the guest at those we had to hustle getting the first course together. That was a grilled caprese salad (grilled tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil w/ aged balsamic syrup and extra virgin olive oil. I've never heard of that until that day lol.

The entree was a beef tenderloin gratinee (pan seared beef tenderloin topped w/ caramelized red onions & gruyere, cream cheese & chive mashed potatoes, sauteed green beans and rosemary & cabernet infused au jus reduction). I know, a lot of words lol. For dessert there was cranberry pecan bread pudding (bread pudding custard w/ traditional bourbon sauce w/ sliced green apples on top). I will not bore you with the serving details lol. But know this......we had a blast! I made everybody laugh.

After everybody at we had to clean up. I got smart and started washing dishes after the servers brought the plates back lol. My momma didn't raise no fool! We were so tired. I swear I washed dishes for 2 or 3 hours straight. I handed those dishes off to my classmate like the runners do when they hand the baton to the other relay race runner lol. That was a tiresome night for all of us. That was on Saturday that we did that and I'm still tired. The owner, his lady and their guest were very pleased with our services.

This link is here. There were tooo many pictures to upload on this page.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=3157363&albumId=3163534

For the love of sleep I can't get the link to embed. Just copy and paste. Geesh!

Tuesday we had our knife skills test. I was nervous as I don't know what. Before we went to the lab we sat in class for lecture. I love the class but I hate lectures. I feel like a kid in class. I can't be still! But anyway, Chef D. split us up into three groups. He gave us one hour to complete our 10 cuts. Everybody was trying to get their things together in my group. In class, I had decided what order I was going to do my cuts in. Carrots I don't like to cut them ugh. They were first on my list.

For some reason my back started to hurt like I was having spasms. I got really nervous and I started to mess up. I forgot some things that I needed to cut. All I kept saying to myself was to be calm. That didn't work at all. I guess I felt out of place because my lab partner was not in my group. J and I always work side by side. We've been partners since the beginning of the semester.

We all tried to finish our test in the hour. I finished mine with about 10 minutes to spare and I tried to weed out the messed up cuts and fix them. I did good I guess. I made a 92 so yes that was good. I just need to focus more. After we finished, Chef D showed us how to cut up a chicken. He told everybody to get a chicken and go to work. Boy was I happy because J and I worked by each other. We have so much fun together.

My poor chicken......they made fun of it because it's legs were crossed. I told them that's what ladies do while they are sitting down! I had to put her down and cut her. I loved that chicken! After we cut them up we got the breast and cooked. Everybody cooked what they wanted. There was some good looking food up in there we did. The presentations were marvelous of the ones I saw. I cooked for J and I.

So here is what I did. I fried chicken breast and potatoes. Yes I will share with you.

Potatoes small dice 1/4 inch cubed
Onions (small dice)
Parsley
Seasoning

1. Put onions and potatoes in hot oil. Season them and put in parsley.
2. Cook them to your liking.
3. Once done plate them!

Chicken breast
Onions (Julienne)
Chopped parsley
Flour
Seasoning


1. Wash chicken and season it up the way you want it.
2. Sprinkle flour over the chicken lightly.
3. Once oil is heated in pan, put chicken in and let it fry.
4. It should take no more than 5 minutes to fry a thin piece of chicken breast.
5. While your chicken is frying, put some onions in there and let them sautee.
6. Once chicken is done, plate it, place the sauteed onions on top going the same direction and sprinkle some parsley on top. Just enough to give it some color.

Source: Bree