Valentines Day Eve

This year, Valentines Day is on Saturday. Most husbands, if they know what's good for them, take their wives out to dinner...so make those reservations and start the entire "Weekend of Love" Friday night with a Super Supper for your Sweetheart!

You can make both the soup and the strawberry mousse in advance and save yourself some time. He'll feel so special after this meal, you may get a new pair of earrings along with your Saturday night out! Enjoy!

Start with Renee's Shrimp Cocktail Soup:

2 bottles of Clamato Juice
1/2 cup ketchup
1 cup Valentina Picante Sauce
1 Tablespoon celery salt
Juice of 4-6 limes (about 1/3 cup)
3-5 Serrano peppers, cut into rings (be careful!)
One medium onion, diced
6 Roma tomatoes, diced
2 medium bunches cilantro, finely chopped
6 avocados cut into small pieces
2 lbs. cooked, deveined, peeled shrimp

In a large bowl, pour all of the Clamato Juice, ketchup and picante sauce; stir well. Add celery salt, lime juice, sliced peppers, onions, tomatoes and cilantro; stir well. Gently stir in avocados and shrimp. Cover and keep in fridge.

Next up? My Crispy Pancetta Chicken with Rice

2 lbs. chicken breasts
1 t. thyme
2 t. rosemary
½ t. salt
1 T. Lemon Pepper
2 cups broth
6 oz. pancetta
1 cup diced onions
1 cup chopped and seeded tomatoes
3 T. cornstarch
Shredded Mozzarella

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Toss chicken breasts in herb mixture of thyme, rosemary, salt and lemon pepper. Pour chicken broth into bottom of pan and insert steamer rack. Place prepared chicken on rack; cover and steam for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through.
While chicken is steaming, chop up pancetta and small dice onions. Sauté pancetta in large skillet until slightly crispy, add onions and continue to sauté until onions are softened and pancetta is very crispy. Remove from heat. Toss in chopped tomato last. Remove chicken from steaming rack and keep warm. Thicken remaining pan broth/juices with cornstarch; strain.
Serving Suggestions:
· Drizzle thickened pan juices over white rice
· Place steamed chicken on prepared rice
· Top with crispy pancetta mixture
· Drizzle again with thickened pan juices
· Sprinkle with shredded Mozzarella

...and for dessert? Strawberry Mousse!

1 (3 oz.) pkg. strawberry gelatin

1 cup boiling water

1 enveloped unflavored gelatin

1 tablespoon cold water

1 (16 oz.) pkg. frozen strawberries, thawed

2 tablespoons sugar

1-1/2 cups vanilla ice cream

1 cup heavy cream

Dissolve strawberry gelatin in boiling water. Dissolve unflavored gelatin in 1 tablespoon cold water. Puree frozen strawberries in blender. Add gelatin mixtures and sugar to the frozen strawberries and blend again. Add ice cream and cream, blending well. Pour into a wet 6 cup ring mold and freeze. To serve, unmold and let defrost for 15 minutes. Fill center with whipped cream if desired.

Peace and Budgeteria

I just got back from leading a 90 minute Tranquility Retreat for Associated Retail Stores' Annual Conference. It's so rewarding to be able to help provide anti-stress tools to everyone in attendance. Today we talked about teenagers, old life wounds and Soul Soup! If you're interested in having a Tranquility Retreat for you and your friends...please let me know and we'll go from there.

Let's not stress about dinner! Here's another special from my

Garlic Lime Chicken

This is a quick 40 minute supper with hardly any "watch over" time!

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup lime juice

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon coarse ground pepper

Mix soy sauce, lime juice, Worcestershire sauce, garlic and mustard together. Marinate chicken in mixture for 30 minutes; remove and sprinkle with pepper.

Heat frying pan to medium, drizzle with olive oil or spray with oil and saute chicken for about 6 minutes per side or until juices run clear.

Serve with:

Rice pilaf (or other Rice-A-Roni boxed mix)

Steamer Vegetables

....or as a sandwich with a little hot mustard mixed in with mayo, cole slaw (instead of lettuce), and a quick rice salad

....also delicious chopped or shredded and served mixed with a little pasta and drizzled with Soy Sauce. Makes kind of an Asian Spaghetti...chop up some green onion and sprinkle on top

Enjoy!

Hugs,

Angel

Announcing Budgeteria

Since we're all trying to be so conscious of our grocery spending...I thought I'd open the doors on my own place. Welcome to The

I'll be posting smart recipes that will be very budget-friendly and here's the first one!

Crock Pot Pork Chops

1 (6 oz.) package stuffing mix

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 teaspoon curry powder

6 pork chops

Mix stuffing as directed on package. Put half the stuffing in a lightly greased crockpot. Spoon 1/2 can of mushroom soup over stuffing; sprinkle with curry powder and place pork chops on top. Spoon remaining stuffing over chops; add remaining soup. Cook 8-10 hours on low in crockpot.

Complete the meal options:

Pork gravy

canned green beans or yams

mashed potatoes

green salad

It's super-easy and chances are you've had something like this before, however having the crockpot do all the work for you is fabulous and the house smells so good when you walk in the door after a long day.

I hope you like my Budgeteria...and look for more penny-pinching recipes coming your way in the future.

Angel

Cooking Tips #1

Welcome to the first in a series of monthly cooking tips here on my blog. You'd be surprised how many questions I get asked on a regular basis. How do I chop an onion quickly, when should I use sweet cream vs unsalted butter, how do I section out an orange..etc. Within the next 4-6 weeks I'll be doing a series of basic cooking tip webisodes. You'll be able to watch those at www.cookingwithangel.com.
In the meantime...here are some fun "Did You Know" fast facts about food:

* If you have leftover whipped cream, dollop it onto a baking sheet lined with plastic wrap and freeze. Once frozen put the dollops into a big resealable plastic bag and you'll have a quick topper for Hot Cocoa or maybe an Apple Crisp

* You can mellow out the flavor of fresh garlic cloves by peeling and simmering in a small saucepan...just for about 3-5 minutes. I store any garlic I've prepared like this in a small container drizzled with a little bit of olive oil. Don't leave it on the counter...just pop it in the refrigerator. It holds this way for about 2 weeks.

* Glass containers conduct more heat so if you can remember to reduce your oven temperature by 25 degrees it'll offset that especially when your making baked goods like cookies or cakes. Most recipes don't account for the difference between glass and metal pans

* Half the peanuts grown in the United States are used to make peanut butter

* Word has it that storing plastic wrap in the freezer will stop it from sticking to itself...however I never have enough room in my freezer to test this out!

* You'll get more volume out of egg whites if you beat them at room temperature...however heavy cream should always be as cold as possible before beating

Okay...there's half a dozen for you. Have a great weekend and on Monday, I'll be making a recipe for Shrimp Cocktail Soup on ABC4's Good Things Utah. It's from Renee...one of my Facebook Friends!

Watch Out Vanna!

Hello again....just getting ready to sit down for dinner but first, I wanted to let you know how awesome the weekend Home Show turned out. Once again I am amazed at how wonderful people are and how much we all can work together. I had 20-30 people in each "class" and before I knew it, we were all sharing great ways to save on our grocery budget and sharing "Mom" memories. Here's a couple of photos with me pretending to be Vanna White.

Tomorrow, one of my best friends at work, Jim, and his wife Nancy are having a baby girl. They already have enough boys! I send them love and light, hopes and dreams for their new addition.

By the way...I have a Facebook page now so...if you'd like to join in, I'd love to have you. Look for a blog update by the end of the week with a whole bunch of "Quick Tips" I've been collecting especially for you!

Hugs,

Angel

Hope to see you at the Home Show

This weekend is the big Home Show at South Towne Expo Center....you know, the one where everyone looks around and finds lots of "honey-do"s! I'll be there Friday, Saturday and Sunday with some tips on how to be a better grocery shopper, how to save time on meal prep and how to banish "food stress" forever!

Would love to see you there - we'll have fun and laugh at ourselves I promise. My times are:
Friday - 2p/6p
Saturday - 11a/4p
Sunday - 2p/4p

I have a pretty extensive handout for everyone that attends that includes all kinds of info and even a couple of recipes.

Hope to meet you over the weekend!
Angel

Happy New Year!

Before I put away my Christmas Tree and ornaments, I wanted to share this very special gift. Suzi is a Good Things Utah viewer and took the time to custom-make a little ornament for each of us GTU girls.

I absolutely love this...the apron, the whisk, the STICK OF BUTTER! Thank you so much Suzi and it's going into my special ornament box so that I can enjoy it year after year. If any of you are looking for a special gift I bet Suzi could fix you up. Her email address is: haleyshairblossoms@gmail.com

Here's to a wonderful 2009...and no matter what life throws at you, always remember you come equipped with all the tools you need to make the right choices at the right time. My New Year's Resolution is simply to be accepting of every moment, every day, in every way. Believe me, the older you get the more you'll realize how important living in allowance is....you just can't control everything no matter how hard you try, right?

Enjoy your New Year's Day!

Angel