Chocolate Chip Cookies - Mama Jantz style

These are the only chocolate chip cookies I remember my mom making when I was a kid.  I always thought they were so much better than ones I had elsewhere.  When she gave me the recipe, I realized why.  There is a secret ingredient that makes them extra soft and moist, and they NEVER dry out or get hard, at least, not before they're completely scarfed up by everyone. : )

Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies
2 1/4 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
200 g. butter
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. castor sugar
1 package (small) Jello Instant Vanilla pudding
1 t. vanilla
2 eggs
1 bag of chocolate chips
1 c. chopped nuts, optional

Mix flour with soda in a bowl and set aside.  Combine butter, sugars, jello mix, and vanilla in a large bowl.  Beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy.  Beat in eggs.  Gradually add flour mixture, then stir in chocolate chips and nuts.  You want a stiff batter.  Drop by tablespoon fulls onto an ungreased baking sheet, about two inches apart.  Bake at 375/190 for 8-10 minutes.  Makes about 2 1/2-3 dozen.

I'm planning to toy around with making vanilla pudding powder from scratch, so if it's successful in this recipe, I'll post that as well, so you won't have to import anything for these!

My Favorite Baked Macaroni and Cheese

I have tried dozens of baked macaroni and cheese recipes and just had never found the perfect (to my taste) recipe.  When we were back in the states last summer, I picked up a box of macaroni pasta at Winn Dixie.  On the side of the box, it had a recipe.  So I tried it in my quest for the perfect recipe.  And I found it!  : ) Who knew it would be on the side of a Winn Dixie box? : )

Macaroni and Cheese
16 oz. macaroni (about 500 grams)
1/4 c. (50 g) butter
1/3 c. flour
1 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
3 c. milk
2 c. shredded Cheddar
1 c. shredded swiss cheese (or just use all cheddar, or any other cheese you have)

Preheat oven to 375 (190C).  Cook macaroni in boiling water, drain.

In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.  Stir in flour, salt and pepper.  Stir with a whisk and gradually stir in milk.  Cook until thickened and bubbly.  Remove from heat.  Add 1 1/2 c. cheddar cheese.  Stir until melted.  Stir in macaroni.

Spoon half of macaroni mixture into a greased 9x13 pan.  top with Swiss cheese, remaining macaroni mixture, then remaining cheddar cheese.  bake uncovered 30 minutes or until bubbly.  

Gooey Butter Cake

This is my husbands favorite dessert.  He's not a big fan of chocolate desserts (which are MY favorite!)  and so I like to make this for him.  This is one of the main reasons I was so excited when my import store here started carrying the Britannia cream cheese!  : )

Gooey Butter Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour (maida)
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 T. baking powder
1/2 c. milk powder (I use EveryDay by Nestle)
100 grams butter
2 beaten eggs

Melt the butter and drizzle in the bottom of a 9x13 cake pan.  Combine the dry ingredients and sprinkle over the butter.  Pour the beaten eggs in the pan and mix together with a fork until it's all moistened.  Mash it into the bottom of the pan as evenly as possible.

1 1/2 boxes of Britannia cream cheese
2 eggs
3 3/4 c. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla

Combine and mix with a mixer.  Pour on top of cake mixtures.  Bake at 350F (175C) for 30 minutes. Don't over bake it, even if it doesn't look done!

Monthly Meal Rotations

When we were studying language when we first arrived in India, life was intense.  Cooking, and thinking about meals, grocery shopping, was just something that was on the back burner.  So I made a monthly rotation of meals, four weeks of different dinners every night.  I created a grocery list for each week, and just rotated them so that i didn't ever have to think about what to buy, what to make...

A friend today suggested I post these meals, and I thought it was a great idea!  I can't guarantee there are recipes for every meal on here, but hopefully they'll be helpful if you're in that season of life that is just busy and you need more structure for meal planning. 

28 Meals: 

1. Jambalaya and cornbread

2. Moroccan Chicken, couscous, and green beans

3. Bean Tacos, Mexican rice (make extra beans and tortillas for meals later in the week)

4. Cracker Barrel Veg Platter/or Chili and biscuits

5. Caribbean beans and rice

6. Burgers and fries (lamb, chicken, veg, whatever)

7. Spinach and Bacon quiche with fruit salad or muffins or both : )

8. Pav Bhaji

9. Breaded Ranch Chicken, roasted potatoes and corn

10. Pasta and bread (it varied what kind) with veggie sticks and ranch dressing

11. 7-Layer Tortilla pie, chips and salsa

12.  Indonesian meatballs and rice, salad

13. Shepherds Pie

14.  Stuffed potatoes and salad

15. Broccoli Alfredo pasta with Italian bread

16.  Grilled chicken salads

17. Kushiri, crunchy pea salad

18. Enchiladas, mexican cream corn

19. Chicken pot pie

20. Homemade pizza

21. Falafal and pita sandwiches, fruit salad

22. Barbecue Chicken Hash, biscuits

23. Tortilla soup/Potato Soup

24. Butter Chicken, Rice

25. Fried Rice and momos (I didn't make the momos!)

26. Barbecue Cups, Mac and cheese, Baked beans or peas

27.  Cream Tacos

28.  Mojo Chicken with fried bananas and garlicky rice

This list is about two years old, so we have added a lot of things to our recipe index since then that we eat more often than some of these things.  But they're mostly pretty easy meals! If you see anything on here that you want the recipe for, let me know!

Moroccan Stew with Couscous

This is a new favorite recipe.  My husband totally loves it, and I do too. It's a bit too spicy for the kids though, so I have to tone it down by either removing some for them before adding all the curry powder, or reducing the curry powder.  So good, though!

Moroccan Stew
2 T. olive oil
4 chicken breasts, cubed
1 large green bell pepper
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 medium red onions
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 T. curry powder
10 ounces of tomato soup
1/2 c. golden raisins
1 c. cooked chick peas (optional)
1/3 c. toasted slivered almonds (optional)

Heat oil in a large wok or saute pan over medium high heat.  Add chicken and cook until well browned on both sides.

Reduce the heat to medium.  Add onions, pepper, and garlic, and cook five minutes or until tender crisp. Add cinnamon and curry and cook and stir one minute.  Stir in soup and heat to a boil.  Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook 15 minutes.

Add raisins and chickpeas to saucepan.  Cook ten minutes or until chicken is cooked through.  Stir in almonds.

For couscous:  boil 1 1/2 c. water with 1 T. butter and 1 block of chicken bullion.  When water is boiling and everything is melted, add 11/2 c. couscous.  Shut off the heat and cover the pot and let it sit 5 minutes.  Fluff with a fork and serve.  If you don't have couscous, serving with rice would be good.

Notes:  I usually omit the chickpeas because I don't plan enough ahead.  But you could easily make this an all veg. meal by omitting the chicken and doubling the chickpeas.  If I have slivered almonds, I use them.  If not, obviously, I leave them out.  : )

Also, for the tomato soup, you can use either leftover tomato soup, or just two boxes of tomato puree and season it a bit with salt and pepper and maybe some basil and cumin.  If it's too thick, thin it down with some water.  I've done both, and both come out great.  

Italian Fried Paneer Sticks

We had this at June G's house several years ago, and I thought it was such a great idea!  So easy, and a great side item for Italian meals, especially for a vegetarian pasta meal. 

Italian Fried Paneer Sticks


250 grams paneer

2 t.. salt

1 1/2 t. garlic powder

1 t. black pepper

1 t. onion powder

1 t. oregano 

1 T. butter

1 T. olive oil

Combine all spices in a bowl.  Cut the paneer into strips.  Pat them to dry on a paper towel.  Next, dredge them in the spice mixture.  Melt the butter and olive oil in a pan.  Get it nice and hot, barely smoking, then put the paneer strips into the pan.  Cook on one side until browned, then turn.  Try not to move them around much if possible to keep them in one piece.  If the pan is not hot enough, they will not sear on the outside and will crumble.  

Remove to a plate and serve!  Easy, peasy! You can mess with the seasonings until you get it just the way your family likes it! 

Donuts!

Donuts are something I love to eat, but I tend to only make them two or three times a year. But since I found this recipe, I'll be making them more often. : )  Especially since I figured out I can make the dough the night before, stick it in the fridge to have it's first rise over night, pull it out and cut them in the morning and fry them up.  With a few minutes work the night before, they turn into a pretty quick breakfast, relatively speaking. : )

Dunkin Donuts

2 ¼ t. Yeast
2 T. Warm Water
¾ c. Warm Milk
2 ½ T. Butter, Softened
1 Egg
⅓ c. Granulated Sugar
1 t. Salt 
2 ¾ c. Flour
3 c. Vegetable Oil
Glaze:
⅓ c. Melted Butter
2 c. Powdered Sugar
½ t. Vanilla
⅓ c. Hot Water
1 c. Chocolate Chips (For Chocolate Glaze)

Directions: 

In a medium bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Add the milk, butter, egg, sugar, and salt, and blend with an electric mixer until smooth. Add half the flour and mix for 30 seconds. Add the remaining flour and knead the dough with flour-dusted hands until smooth. Cover the bowl of dough and leave it in a comfy, warm place until the dough doubles in size, about 1 hour. You can tell that the dough has risen enough when you poke it with your finger and the indentation stays. Rollout the dough on a heavily floured surface until it's about ½ inch thick. If you don't have a donut cutter, and don't intend to buy one, here's a way to punch out your dough: you can use a standard 15 ounce can.  Be sure to wash out the can very well, and punch a hole in the opposite end so that the dough won't be held inside the can by a vacuum. However, here in South Asia, you can usually find a cutter for those veda things from South India that they put into sambar.  That's what I have and it works great! When you've punched out all the dough (you should have about a dozen unholed donuts), it's time for the holes. Find the cap to a bottle of lemon juice or Worcestershire sauce, or any other small cap with a diameter of about 1 ¼ inches. Use this to punch out holes in the center of each of your donuts. Place the donuts on plates or cookie sheets, cover, and let stand in the same warm, comfy place until they nearly double in size. This will take 30 to 45 minutes. Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Bring the oil to about 350 degrees. It is easily tested with scrap dough left over from punching out the donuts. The dough should bubble rapidly. Fry each donut for about 30 seconds per side, or until light golden brown. Cool 5 minutes on paper towels. For either the plain or the chocolate glaze, combine the margarine or butter with the powdered sugar in a medium bowl and blend with an electric mixer. Add the vanilla and hot water. Mix until smooth. If you're making the chocolate glaze, melt the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave for 30 to 40 seconds. Stir, then microwave another 30 seconds and stir again until completely melted. Add to the plain glaze mixture. Blend until smooth. When the donuts have cooled, dip each top surface into the glaze and then flip over and cool on a plate until the glaze firms up, about 15 minutes.