Lisaopolis.comA Nurse's Journey to a Healthy and Balanced Life

Last night I decided to cook dinner for three. I was in the mood for Shish kabob and baked potato so I made that and served it with my spinach and artichoke dip that I had already made. Here is my Shish kabob recipe (I made this one myself).

Shish kabob (makes about 18-20 skewers)

7-10 medium sized mushrooms

12-18 cherry tomatoes

1 red pepper

1 orange pepper

1 onion

5 medium garlic cloves

1 large apple

1 cucumber

1 farmer sausage cut into slices

2 raw cup up chicken breasts

About 700 ml bbq sauce

Line cookie sheets with aluminum foil. Assessable skewers as desired. Place on lined cookie sheets. Drizzle over bbq sauce. Bake in the over for about an hour (or until the chicken is fully cooked and tender). Enjoy.

Below is an image of the Shish kabob.

Today I decided to make a new kind of dip; sun-dried tomato dip. I found a recipe on one of my favorite forums; http://www.cookingforums.net/showthread.php?t=347&page=3

I modified the recipe greatly. Here is my version of this recipe.

Sun-Dried Tomato Dip

4 oz light cream cheese approximately

½-¾ cup plain yogurt (no fat)

About 3 green onions finely chopped

5 sun-dried tomatoes finely chopped (blanched in hot water for a min of 5 minutes)

2 tsp Tabasco sauce

Mix all the ingredients until well blended. Heat in the microwave if desired for about 2 minutes. Can be served hot or cold.

This is a pretty good zesty dip recipe.

Below is an image of the dip.

This evening I was in the mood for some apple crisp. I searched for recipes, but none really took my fancy, so I created my own. I was also not in the mood to peel the apples so I made it with the peel on. This was the first time I had ever made this dessert with the peel on. It turned out well. The photo does not do this apple crisp justice. It was very yummy indeed.

Oatmeal Apple Crisp

Ingredients

4-5 large granny smith (green) apples pared and sliced

½ cup white all purpose flour

1 ¼ cup rolled oats

¾ cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/3 cup olive oil margarine

1-2 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tsp rum extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees C. Grease baking dish (if desired). Arrange apple slices in baking dish. Sprinkle the lemon juice and rum extract over top of the apple slices. In a bowl combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix well. Then add the margarine. Mix well. Spread this mixture evenly over the apples. Bake in the over for about 30 minutes. Serve. (serving suggestion: serve with vanilla frozen yogurt or ice cream).

Below is an image of the apple crisp.

 Last night I was in the mood to bake, so I decided to make a cake. Since we had some bananas in the house that were getting over ripe I thought it was time to use them up.
I decided to use one of my favourite recipes and change it to fit my desire to use up the bananas.  The origional recipe can be found in Oetker German Home Baking on page 15 it is titled Marbled Cake.

 Here is my new and madeover version

 Banana Marble Cake

 9 oz (250 g) butter or margerine
 9 oz (250 g) white sugar
 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
 3 teaspoons of imitation rum extract (or real rum)
 4 med-large eggs
 500 g of plain white flour
 3 teaspoons of baking powder
 1 cup of milk
 3 medium-large bananas
 3 level tbsp coco

 In a blender place the banana (in pieces), eggs, rum, vanilla, milk, margerine, and sugar. Blend until smoothe. In a bowl mix together the flour and baking powder.
 Add the liquid mixture (from the blender) to the bowl. Mix until well blended together. Place in a round cake pan, and bake at 350F until a tooth pick comes out clean when
 poked in the cake. Enjoy.