Sheila's Homemade Banana Pudding

This dessert is a sure potluck hit. You should double or triple the recipe. It looks nice in a big yellow mixing bowl which I recommend everyone get because, well, everyone should have a big yellow glass mixing bowl. There are easier ways to make banana pudding, but no Jello mix can quite compete. You can't make it like this out of a box. Between the cooking time, the assembly time, and making up the topping, it can take an hour to put it all together. It’s very much worth it. It’s easy to double or triple the recipe. You just have to be really careful keeping it stirred while cooking a very large batch so it doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pot.

Ingredients

Pudding

• 1/2 Cup Sugar or you can substitute Stevia or something like that to lower the calories. You just have to change the prep a bit.
• 1/3 Cup Flour or ¼ cup corn starch
• 3 Egg Yolks, Save the egg whites for making meringue if you plan to do that.
• 2 Cups Milk
• 1 Box Vanilla Wafers
• 5 Bananas
• 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla (a bit more if you use something beside vanilla extract)
• A dash of salt

Meringue:

• 1 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar, for making meringue
• 3/4 cups Sugar, for making the meringue
• 3 Egg Whites, for making meringue
• Alternate topping – large tub of Whipped Cream or Cool Whip

Directions:

1. In a large pot or saucepan, mix flour, egg yolks (beaten), milk and salt. If using sugar add it now. If using artificial sweetner, set it aside till after the pudding is cooked as heat will kill the sweetness.
2. Heat over medium eat, stirring constantly with a wire whisk. It takes around 15 minutes for the pudding to thicken. Don’t let it scorch.
3. When the pudding thickens and begins to bubble, remove it from the heat and set it aside to begin to cool. Add vanilla when it's cooled a bit and stir it up good.
4. In your big yellow mixing bowl, place a layer of vanilla wavers in the bottom of the bowl. If making a double or triple batch, make sure you have an extra bowl or a really, really big bowl.
5. Slice bananas and cover the layer of cookies. Alternate cookies and bananas
6. If using artificial sweetener (which will cause diabetics in the group to kiss you feet) stir the sweetener into the pudding. Just follow the replacement amounts on the box of sweetener. At any rate, with your pudding ready to go, every few layers, spoon the pudding over the cookies and bananas. Add more cookies and bananas and pudding layers until you fill up the bowl. 
7. At this point you should preheat the oven to 350 degrees if you are doing meringue. If you are doing Cool Whip skip to step #13.
8. Place all the egg whites in another mixing bowl. Add a teaspoon of cream of tartar and 3/4 cup of sugar or sweetener two tablespoons at a time while beating the egg whites. It could take up to 15 minutes.
9. Continue whipping egg mixture till it forms stiff glossy peaks.
10. Pour meringue mixture over the top of the banana pudding; spread it out over the bowl. Dab at the top of the meringue with a spoon till curly peaks form.
11. Set the pudding on a baking sheet and bake in the hot oven till the peaks begin to brown.
12. Remove the pudding and allow it to cool to room temperature, and then chill in the refrigerator. Do not put hot meringue straight out of the oven in the refrigerator. It will collapse as I discovered the hard way.
13. If you’re doing Cool Whip instead of meringue, wait till the pudding cools at least to slightly warm and then spoon whipped topping over the top of the pudding. At this point I add cookies in decorative patterns on top of the topping.
14. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
15. You may have to padlock the refrigerator door while the pudding is cooling. Otherwise, you may get up Sabbath morning and find a big hole in your pudding.

Serving Suggestion:

This part’s simple. Pull off the plastic, stick a big spoon in it and get out of the way. I promise you that you will be taking home a nice clean bowl.

Creole Seasoned Vegeburger Mac and Cheese Casserole

This one is very like the Vege-Cheeseburger Macaroni Casserole in my last blog. It's just a little simpler and maybe a little quicker. Here's how it works.

Ingredients: 

• Morningstar Griller Recipe Crumbles (1/3 bag)
• 1/2 onion chopped
• 1/2 bell pepper
• Olive oil
• Jar of spaghetti sauce
• 1/4 cup grated cheese
• 6 sliced olives 
• 2 boxes macaroni and cheese
• 1 tbsp Tony's Creole Seasoning

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Cook the macaroni by package directions.
3. In a large pot, lightly cover the bottom with olive oil.
4. Saute onions and peppers with Griller Crumbles.
5. Add spaghetti sauce and prepared mac and cheese.
6. Stir in Creole seasoning
7. Warm the mixture then pour into large loaf pan
8. Sprinkle grated cheese over top.
9. Spread sliced olives over the cheese
10. Bake 15-20 minutes until the cheese is melted and begins to brown.

Serving Suggestions:

Bake on Friday. Simply reheat for Sabbath Potluck.

© 2018 by Tom King

1.  

Vege-Macaroni Burger Corn Casserole

Here's a quick and highly adaptable macaroni casserole. I had some microwavable macaroni, some Grillers Crumbles and a can of soup, so this recipe was a big GO!  I added a couple of things that I liked but you might not so I put it in parentheses. This one can be done on Friday and kept in the fridge till potluck Sabbath. It doesn't take long in the oven either.

Ingredients:

• 16 oz.macaroni
• 4-6 oz Velveeta cheese
• 1 small onion chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped carrots
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 bag Morningstar Farms Recipe Crumbles, Loma Linda Vegeburger or Worthington Vegeburger
• 1 can whole kernel corn drained
• 1 8 oz can tomato soup
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 to 1 can mild Rotel tomatoes (optional)
• Club cracker crumbs, French-fried onions, or crushed potato chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Heat olive oil in a skillet, saute' the onion and green peppers until tender, add Recipe Crumbles and cook till done.
3. Prepare elbow macaroni per the directions and drain.
4. In large bowl, mix drained macaroni, Recipe Crumbles or vegeburger, onions, peppers, corn, tomato soup, salt, garlic powder and Rotel (if desired).
5. Stir and add a little water if the mixture is too dry.
6. Pour mixture into large casserole.  Grate Velveeta or thin slice it to cover the top of the casserole. 
7. Sprinkle crumbled crackers or French-fried onions or crushed potato chips over the top of the casserole. I like to drizzle a little ketchup on top for decorative purposes.
8. Put into the oven and bake for 20 to 30 minutes until cheese is melted and is lightly browned on top.

Serving suggestions:

Cover the dish with foil and let cool before storing overnight in the fridge. Heat in the oven before serving for potluck. All you need is a big spoon.

Bon' Apetit

Tom
© 2018

Cottage Cheese Loaf - Nutty Version

I got hungry for cottage cheese loaf and whipped up this one.  I changed a few ingredients thanks to some suggestions from readers and a couple of ingredients I wanted to try out for a nuttier version. If you guys are allergic to nuts, this one is not recommended. Here's the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 large carton cottage cheese (24-32 oz. size)
• 5 eggs (higher in protein with the extra egg and binds the extra oatmeal)
• 1/2 cup pecan meal (If you have pecans, dump a cup in the blinder and whiz it up till it's meal)
• 1/2 cup slivered toasted almonds
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 2 Tbsp peanut butter
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 packet Lipton's onion soup mix
• 1 regular box of Special K cereal
• 1/2 stick of butter

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Crush the Special K in a large bowl. Grind up the pecans to make meal if you don't have pecan meal.
3. Stir in oatmeal, peanut butter, oil, soup mix, cottage cheese and eggs. Mix together thoroughly.
4. In 9x13 casserole dish, melt butter.
5. Press loaf mixture into the casserole dish
6. Sprinkle toasted almond slivers over the top
7. Bake in the oven for 40 to 60 minutes until the top is brown and the edges are crisp and pull slightly away from the sides of the pan.

SERVING SUGGESTIONS:

Cover and hold in the refrigerator for tomorrow's potluck or serve immediately. I tend to go with "serve immediately" as you can tell from the picture above. This version has a nuttier flavor than the original recipe. The oatmeal doesn't much change the taste and gives you more of it if you need to feed a larger group. An extra egg covers the extra ingredients. I love this stuff. If you haven't checked it out, here's the original recipe the way my grandmother and Miss Sheila made it.  (Just click the link).

Tom King

Pat Fine's Vege-Cheese Burger Loaf

Pat Fine was a pastor's wife Sheila knew back in Monroe, Louisiana when she was a new Adventist. Pat was an incredible vegetarian cook. Sheila collected a lot of recipes from Pat and we've never tried one of them that wasn't delicious. I made this up today and it was almost entirely eaten up before I could get a picture. It's an easy recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 19 oz can of Loma Linda or Worthington Vegeburger, Redi-Burger or 1 package of Morningstar Farms Grillers Crumbles
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp sage
• 1 slice toasted bread crumbled up fine
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 onion chopped fine
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tsp butter or margarine
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 tsp oregano

Direction:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl mix vegeburger or crumbles with sage, bread crumbs, garlic powder, sage, eggs, salt and 1/2 cup shredded cheese.
3. Caramelize onions by sauteeing in olive oil 
4. Add sauteed onions to vegeburger mix
5. Melt butter in 9x12 casserole dish in oven
6. Spread vegeburger mix in casserole dish and cook for 5-10 minutes
7. Mix ketchup and oregano in a small bowl
8. Take out casserole and spread ketchup/oregano mixture over the top
9. Sprinkle cheese over the top of the vegeburger loaf
10. Cook for 15 minutes or until the mixture gets firm, the cheese melted, and the edges bubble.

Serving Suggestions:

Serves 8 or 4 really hungry people. It's good with potatoes (baked or mashed), green beans or broccoli, carrots or salad or maybe Cole slaw. Some fresh hot rolls are all you need to top the meal off. Also, it can be a stand-alone potluck dish, prepared on Friday and heated up during services for a potluck lunch.  Enjoy.


Tom

Barbecue Wham

Thought I'd do another Wham recipe this week. A very versatile stuff is Wham! It's easy to make up for barbecue. Here's how!

Ingredients:

• Thawed roll of Wham sliced and cut up into thin strips or shredded
• Chopped onions chopped fine
• 8 minced garlic cloves
• 2 bottles KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce
• 1 small bottle of ketchup
• 2-3 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

1. Mix onions and garlic
2. Mix barbecue sauce, Worcestershire sauce and ketchup
3. Mix wham, onion/garlic mixture, and barbecue sauce/ketchup mixture
4. Place in crockpot and cook on high for 2 or 3 hours stirring occasionally

Serving Suggestion:

This makes a large amount of barbecue suitable for a potluck.  Serve on buns with fries or chips. Makes a great easy sandwich for a bunch of hungry young people.

Tom

Fruity Breakfast - Strawberry Compote

I didn't have any whip cream or cherries or this would have been prettier.

 
A nice addition to a bagel breakfast, this strawberry compote is really flexible and easy to make up. You can make a sugar free version by substituting apple juice for the water or adding splenda or Stevia instead of the sugar. Neither holds it's sweetness well when heated up, but it does help allay the tartness of the strawberries. You can use frozen or fresh strawberries. Either way they go mushy when you cook them. You also don't have to use lemons. I was out of lemons so I used a tangerine. You can also use lime or orange juice as well. The flavor is good either way.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound strawberries
• Juice of one orange, lemon, or lime
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 1/4 cup water

Directions:

I use a pie server to scrape the bottom of the pan during
heating to keep it from sticking and burning.

1. Cut up strawberries and place in pot
2. Add citrus juice 
3. Add sweetner
4. Add corn starch
5. Add water
6. Stir over medium heat for 5 to 15 minutes. Stir constantly to prevent burning and sticking to the pot. Bring to a slow boil till the mixture thickens

Serving suggestions:

Tastes great served over waffles, pancakes, bagels, or toast with a bit of whip cream on top if you'd like. If you want to be terribly fancy, add a cherry on top of the whip cream. In the picture above I've served it with cream cheese on a bagel.  You can double, triple, quadruple or more the recipe if you're serving a potluck breakfast with waffles or pancakes to a bunch of hungry academy choir members. Makes a great alternative to syrup. At least you get a little fruit in there that way.

Tom