Meal Plan Monday (Tuesday)

I haven't planned meals this week yet. I'm still doing my shopping. So I thought I'd show you all the goodies I made last week.

I made pinwheels to take to the potluck at Express when I worked for tax free weekend. These are made with flour tortillas, cream cheese, pimentos, green chilies and black olives. I always use the mild green chilies but I think I'm going to start using some hotter ones. They really need some kick to them. I'm also thinking they could use some cilantro blended into the cream cheese. Next time.

I don't have a picture to show you but I made a coconut cream pie that my Grandma has been making a lot lately. It's really easy, cheap and low fat!

1 graham cracker crust

1 box of sugar/fat free vanilla pudding

milk

coconut

lite whip topping

Make up the pudding as directed on the box. Put a thick layer of coconut in the bottom of the crust and top with pudding. Let set in fridge for a few hours then add the whip topping. Yumm.

I made a pie crust and had some left overs so I made some of my Grandma's butter rolls. These are also super easy. Just butter, sugar and cinnamon. I also added some nutmeg and they were really good. Just put all the stuff in the middle of the dough and fold over any way you want. Bake until the crust is golden.

This is what I made the pie crust for. It's a buttermilk pie. OMG! It is amazing. We had this pie in South Carolina at the Hominy Grill and it was wonderful there. I had left over buttermilk from the dumplings and didn't know what to do with it. I thought: I'll make that buttermilk pie. I am glad I did! I was afraid it would be hard to make because you had to whip the egg whites and I have never done that. But it wasn't hard at all! The recipe can be found here. I do think I let it cook a little too long. It's not suppost to be that dark on top but it was good just the same.

You know somethings good when by 2pm the next day this is all you have left:

And there were only 2 people eating it! I will be making this one again and again. I might have to make it when I go to Oklahoma next week!

And I wonder why I can't lose that last 15lbs......

Grandma's Cake

UPDATE: Mom tells me that this recipe calls for 1/2 cup of butter milk. I guess Grandma forgot to tell me about that one! This should make it more moist. For those of you who know my Grandmother, you know she is a great cook and rarely divulges her secret recipes. I think this is for a few reasons; one of them being she doesn't know the amount of each ingredient she puts in! If you ask her "Grandma, what do you put into this cake?" she will answer "Oh, a little flour and a little sugar and an egg or two"!! Well, that's not always everything that goes in.

When I was there in November I finally got her to give me the correct (or as correct as she could remember) recipe to her wonderful cake that she makes. This is the second time I have made it. It's not as good as she makes, of course, but good non the less.

I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I shared it with you.

Cake:

Melt 1 cup of Crisco with 1 cup of water. If you want your cake to be chocolate add some cocoa into this while you melt the Crisco.

2 cups of Flour

2 cups of sugar

1 tsp baking soda

dash of salt

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

I forgot to add the vanilla:( It wasn't as moist as Grandma's but still good. I made a Strawberry Syrup to go on top and we ate it with ice cream. Yummmmy

Strawberry Syrup:

5 or 6 strawberries- I used frozen ones

2 cups of sugar- I think that's how much I used. I used about a cup and then it wasn't sweet enough so I added more.

ground ginger- I just bought some today and had to use it! It gives the syrup a kick.

1/2 cup of water

Heat the above until boiling.

Add corn starch to thicken- Remember: when you are using corn starch to thicken dissolve it in COLD water before adding it slowly to your boiling sauce. I always have to add it twice because it is never thick enough the first time I do it.

Do I sound like Grandma? A little of this, a little of that.......

My mission is to get at least 1 new recipe from her every time I visit. Last time I was there I got the recipe for her yeast rolls. I will attempt those soon. If any of you have a recipe of Grandma's please email it to me so I can try it out. Enjoy!