Pioneer Woman Cooks Davis Style!

I love finding recipes online- whether it be on allrecipes.com or other recipe blogs... it's so fun! There is a great website, and if you haven't already checked it out, please know that after you see what all this woman does you will feel severely inadequate. She home schools her 4 children, lives on a ranch, cooks amazing meals, takes awesome pictures, writes many stories on her blog, has a lodge that hosts guests and the list goes on and on... but I'm mainly interested in her food, and the photography. 

She does a great job with her recipes- taking pictures of each step and explaining it reallllly well. (Again, putting my recipe blog to shame!) So I will just link her website for the above food instead of attempting to do even a sub par job on here. I made Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich and Fluffy New Potatoes. Both were delicious! I do have to say, that I alter the recipes to make them a little more healthy- I use "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" instead of Butter and Low-Fat Sour Cream and Cream Cheese. I am happy to report that it all turned out wonderfully!! I am probably going to try once a week to make one of her recipes- so be looking for more reviews and links back to her website. Of course, you can check it out for yourself at www.thepioneerwoman.com but don't forget who sent you! :)

Berry Shortcake

INGREDIENTS:

1 pkg strawberries, washed and sliced

1 pkg blackberries, washed

1/4 cup sugar

2 1/3 cups Bisquick

1/2 cup milk

3 TBL sugar

3 TBL melted butter

1 contained whipped topping (or you can make your own- even better!)

DIRECTIONS:

Mix the strawberries and blackberries together in a bowel and top with 1/4 cup of sugar. Mix well and put in the fridge. (You can use any kind of berries- raspberries, blueberries...) Heat the oven to 425. 

Sitr Bisquick, milk, 3 TBL sugar, and butter until a soft dough forms. Drop by 6 spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet (sprayed with non-stick spray!).

Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Pour small spoonfuls of sugar on top of each shortcake immediately after removing from the oven. Top with berries and whipped topping.

To make your own topping- whip heavy whipping cream, sugar and vanilla extract. (See the Cookies and Cream Cake Recipe for exact recipe!)

Cajun Shrimp Linguine

INGREDIENTS:

1 package linguine pasta

1 pound peeled, deveined and tails off medium shrimp

1 TBL liquid shrimp and crab boil seasoning

1/2 cup butter

1 tsp minced garlic

1/3 cup diced red onion

1 can diced tomatoes

1/3 cup diced red bell pepper

1/4 cup sliced mushrooms (optional)

1/2 cup canned whole kernel corn, drained

1 1/2 TBL fresh lime juice

1 bunch fresh chopped cilantro

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp. finely chopped chipotle chile peppers in sauce

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 cup half and half

DIRECTIONS:

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add linguine and cook about 8-10 minutes; drain.

Place shrimp and crab boil into a large saucepan. Add shrimp and fill with water to 1 inch above the shrimp. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook for about 3 minutes, or until the shrimp turn pink; drain.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in garlic and red onion, cooking until the onion is soft (about 4 minutes). Stir in the tomatoes, bell pepper, mushrooms, corn, lime juice, cilantro, oregano, chipotle pepper and salt. Stir in the half and half and bring to a simmer. Stir in shrimp and toss with the drained pasta. 

The Godfather's Shrimp

INGREDIENTS:

Ground Red Pepper

Kosher Salt

Worcestershire Sauce

Olive Oil

Chef Paul Prudhomme's Seafood Magic

Ground Black Pepper

Tabasco Sauce

Minced Garlic

Medium Shrimp

Spaghetti Noodles

Butter

On a cookie sheet, spread shrimp out and coat with all of the seasonings, olive oil and butter. Put under a preheated broiler for 10 minutes, turning occasionally. (Shrimp will be pink when cooked)

Boil spaghetti noodles according to the package.

Serve the shrimp over spaghetti noodles, pouring extra butter/olive oil on top. Serve with french bread. Delicious.

*Recipe by Guest Contributor, Justin Hidritch*

Coleslaw

Served here with Baked Beans, BBQ Chicken Tenderloins and Rhodes White Bread Rolls

INGREDIENTS:

1 bag of tri-colored fresh coleslaw

1 cup of chopped pecans

5 green onions, chopped

1 jar of slaw dressing- either Marie's or Marzetti's

DIRECTIONS:

Toast the chopped pecans in the oven on 350 for about 5-8 minutes. Add all ingredients together in a large bowl and toss. Let sit for at least a couple hours for best mix. Enjoy!

Easy Shrimp Pasta and Squash

This takes about 10 minutes to cook- a great fast, easy meal!

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. medium size shrimp (peeled, deveined and tails off- I have used frozen and fresh, both good- but love the medium size that cook small so they fit on my fork with a little twist of noodles to make an easy sized bite!)

1/2 box Angel Hair Pasta (I buy whole grain) 

Butter- I use about 2 TBL of butter/margarine, and also the spray bottle of "I can't believe it's not butter" for coating the noodles after cooking.

Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning

Olive Oil

1 tsp minced garlic

1 Yellow Squash, sliced

1 Zuccihini Squash, sliced

Nature's Season

 

DIRECTIONS:

In a medium skillet, heat the olive oil and minced garlic until fragrant. Add shrimp and Creole Seasoning. Cook until shrimp are pink. Meanwhile, boil water and cook angel hair pasta (usually takes 6-7 minutes). Also, heat butter in a saucepan and fry squash with nature's seasoning until the squash are soft. I place noodles on a plate, spray with butter and top with shrimp, serving squash on the side. Also good to have squash mixed in the pasta! You can easily increase the amounts of pasta and shrimp to make more. My recipe makes about 2-3 servings. 

Sausage Manicotti

This is a twist on Manicotti- made without any ricotta cheese! You can add ricotta in with the sausage if you prefer, but it's definitely yummy without! Especially if don't like the texture of ricotta cheese.

INGREDIENTS:

1 pkg. (Jimmy Dean) italian sausage

1 box of manicotti noodles

3 cans of italian-diced tomatoes

Olive Oil, 1 TBL

1 sm. chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup of sliced mushrooms

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350. In one skillet, brown the italian sausage. In another, heat the olive oil- adding the onion, garlic and mushrooms until tender. Add tomatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer. In a saucepan, prepare the manicotti noodles as the package directs (boil for 7-9 minutes). Drain the noodles and rinse with cool water. Stuff the noodles with the cooked sausage and lay into a baking dish. Pour tomato mixture on top and spread mozzarella cheese on top. Bake for 20-30 minutes until cheese is melted. 

Excellent with French Bread and an Italian Salad!

Tomato/Mozzarella Salad

INGREDIENTS:

Tomatoes (Home Grown or Vine Ripened are the best!), sliced

Mozzarella Cheese (The hand wrapped or mozzarella balls are so good!), sliced

Purple Onion, sliced

Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Salt and Pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Mix all ingredients and enjoy! 

Shish Kabobs

So these are super easy and there are a million ways to make them. This is just one example!

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb of steak meat (I just buy steak tips from our meat department)

1 Green Pepper, sliced

1 White Onion, sliced

1 package of mushrooms

Worcestershire Sauce

Chef Paul Prudhomme's Meat Magic

Garlic Salt

Olive Oil

Nature's Season

Kabob Sticks

DIRECTIONS:

Marinate the meat in worcestershire sauce, meat magic, and garlic salt. Soak the Kabob sticks in water for at least an hour (this prevents them from burning on the grill!) Assemble the kabobs- alternating steak, mushrooms, onion and the green pepper. Drizzle olive oil on the kabobs and sprinkle with nature's season. Cook over the grill until the meat is at your desired temperature and the veggies are tender. Enjoy!

You can use just about anything for kabobs. I also like to use canned potatoes, pineapple, purple onion, multi-color peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, grape tomatoes, chicken, shrimp...really anything you can put on a kabob, I'll cook! :) I also mix it up on the seasonings for the varieties of meat. 

Beef and Bean Chimichangas

We love Mexican Food, and usually have Taco Night pretty regularly... so I decided to try to put a new spin on the tacos. Andrew usually always orders chimichangas when we eat Mexican out, so he inspired this idea. I didn't want to deep fry them (unhealthy and a mess!) so I tried to bake them. Not quite the same as deep fried, but still tasty!

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb ground beef

1 onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 8 oz. can corn

1 envelope taco seasoning

Taco Sauce

Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Melted Mexican White Cheese

16 oz. refried beans

Flour Tortillas

2 TBL melted butter

Tomatoes, Chopped

Lettuce, Shredded

Sour Cream

Guacamole

Salsa

Mexican Rice

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350. Brown the beef in a large skillet. Drain grease and add onion and green pepper until tender. Mix in the (drained) corn and taco sauce with about 1/2 cup of water. Heat until boiling and then simmer. Begin to melt the mexican white cheese in a small saucepan on stove. Open the can of refried beans- on each tortilla, spread a layer of beans, then the meat mixture, topped with taco sauce, and cheddar cheese. Roll the tortillas up, and place seam-side down on a cookie sheet. Spread melted butter on top of tortillas. Bake in the oven about 20-30 minutes until the tortillas are golden brown. Serve with melted mexican cheese, lettuce, sour cream, tomatoes, guacamole and salsa. A side of Mexican rice and a Corona and lime are the perfect combos!

Tuna Pie

INGREDIENTS:

1 can solid white tuna in water

8 oz. Sour Cream (I use low-fat)

6 oz. Shredded Swiss Cheese (my grocery store only sells it in blocks, so I have to shred it myself)

1 can friend onion rings

3 eggs

1 frozen pie crust

Mix all ingredients together and pour into the frozen pie crust. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Another variation is to use hamburger and cheddar cheese instead of tuna and swiss. I made green beans and a salad for the side dishes.

Monkey Bread

This is an easy way to throw together a little 'baking'!

INGREDIENTS:

3 packages of refrigerated buttermilk biscuit dough

1 cup sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup margarine

1 cup packed brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Grease bundt pan. 

In a large ziplock bag, mix sugar and cinnamon. Add small pieces of dough, walnuts and raisins. Shake until all pieces are thoroughly coated. Pour mix into the bundt pan.

Melt margarine in a small saucepan, adding the brown sugar to make a syrup. Pour this over the dough mixture in the bundt pan.

Bake for 35 minutes. Let cool slightly, then turn the bundt onto a plate. 

Easy Lasagna Bake

This is good for sharing- it makes a lot of food!

INGREDIENTS:

1 package medium egg noodles

1 16 oz. container low-fat sour cream

1 16 oz. container nonfat ricotta cheese

Black Pepper

5 Green Onions, chopped

2 lbs ground beef

2 TBL seasoned salt

2-3 cans of Spaghetti Sauce

1 green pepper, chopped

1 onion, chopped

24 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded

24. oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook egg noodles according to package and drain.

While the noodles are cooking, cook ground beef with salt and green pepper and onion until meat is browned and vegetables are tender. Stir in spaghetti sauce and simmer.

Put the noodles in a bowl and mix with ricotta, sour cream, green onions and pepper. 

Layer ingredients in a deep roasting pan- starting with the meat sauce, noodles, and then shredded cheeses. Repeat until you've used all your noodles and meat sauce. Final layer should be shredded cheeses. Bake for 30-45 minutes until cheese browns slightly. Enjoy!

Potato Soup

We've been having rainy weather here- so I felt like soup! We had potato soup, italian bread sticks and salad. Yum!

INGREDIENTS:

3-4 stalks of celery, chopped

1 onion, diced

4-5 cups of cubed potatoes (I left the skins on red and gold new potatoes)

3 cubes or 3 tsp. of chicken bouillon

Bacon, crumbled

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp celery salt

1 TBL chopped parsley (fresh is probably best, but I used dried)

1/2 cup of butter

6 TBL flour

2 cups milk

Cheese- I used pepper jack, american and mozzarella because that's what I had extras of in my fridge. Any cheese would be good!

DIRECTIONS:

Cook and crumble bacon.

In a large pot, add celery, onion, potatoes, bouillon, pepper, salt and parsley. Add enough water so that all vegetables are fully submerged. Heat until boiling and cook until all vegetables are very tender. 

In a small skillet, melt the butter and whisk in flour. Slowly pour in milk and whisk until it thickens. Add that mixture to the vegetables, with bacon and cheese. Keep warm until you are ready to eat.