canning session for the holidays has begun....

hi there, as you may know im cookin up a storm all september and october with delectable jams, marmalades,preserves and conserves, so this is what youre going to get for christmas this year friends, family co-workers except for the children like ariel age 5, colt age 2 1/2, tyler age 10, gavin age 5, lilly 2 mos, ollie 1 1/2, isisah 11 mos and zoelie 4mos which these children will get a toy. so for you grown ups out there ages 15 and up you will each be getting one of my delectable jams so heres a list,so they are

-plum vanilla preserves (3 gifts)
-blueberry maple spoonfruit (4 gifts)
-concord grape jelly (way better than welchs) (6 gifts)
-home canned tomatoes (5 gifts)
-fig and strawberry preserves (5 gifts)
-maple onion conserve (3 gifts)

so the total im preparing so far is 26 gifts

so i will also give gift cards for draegers cooking school for my ramdom people who are intrested in taking a cooking class in january, so thats the holiday down the lane! ava

Jessica simpson's chicken and dumplings

im giving miss singer jessica simpson a full credit for this recipe, im making this tonight for my parents, so heres the recipe that you can make it too so enjoy it!

Jessica Simpson's Chicken and Dumplings
Ingredients
3 rolls of reduced-fat croissant rolls, divided (recommended brand Pillsbury)
1 small rotisserie chicken, skin discarded and meat removed from bones
1 can of low-sodium, reduced-fat cream of chicken soup
1 can of low-sodium, reduced-fat cream of mushroom soup
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
Salt and ground black pepper
Yields: 4 servings
Preparation
Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Roll out the cans of croissant sheets and separate into diamond shaped sections. Place a small handful of rotisserie chicken on each diamond, fold dough over and press ends together to create dumplings. Cut up any excess dough into strips.

Line a 9x13" baking dish with one layer of dumplings. Pour the can of cream of chicken soup over the layer of dumplings, followed by the can of cream of mushroom soup, and chicken broth.

Place strips in a crisscross pattern on the top of the dumplings and soup mixture, season dish with salt and ground black pepper and bake until the dumplings are tender and cooked through and the top is bubbly and brown, about 30 minutes.

Caprese Qunioa

hello friends, if you love that caprese salad, you will love this, its made with cherry tomatoes and mozzarella balls plus the qunioa, so i hope you enjoy!

Caprese qunioa

1 cup quinoa* and 2 cups water, in a large pot combine rinsed quinoa and water and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10- 15 minutes or until tender, then transfer to a bowl to let it cool down a bit.
1 pint halved cherry tomatoes
1 tub bocconchini(mozzarella balls)
basil dressing
2 tbl fresh basil
3 tbl agave nectar
2 tbl lemon or lime juice
salt and pepper to taste

1. when the quinoa is cooled down add cut up cherry tomatoes and mozzarella and stir until combined
2. to make dressing in a small bowl combine basil,agave, lemon or lime juice, salt and pepper and mix to combine, toss it with the caprese quinoa mixture and cover with pleastic wrap and refridgerate until ready to serve enjoy, bon appitete and cheers to you!

Culinary Nutrition camp at via west campus highlight

sorry it took me so long to report, i've been away for 3 weeks at camp working hard like nonstop, but im bringing you some highlights about the culinary nutrition camp at via west. day one we gave particiapants the knife skills, they learned how to chop, mince, slice or dice. we taught them some kitchen safety and how not to get burned in the kitchen and i help out by demoing some knife skills and one camper taught i was joking around about kitchen and i told her, NO! i do take it very seriously and i've have 7 plus years prefecting recipes and i been doing it since i was 13 years old. on day 2 each group made 1 healthy entree and my team made sweet and soup chicken, the other four teams made Beef casserole. japanese noodle soup, lettuce wraps and i think they made something else, just cant think! we all sat down with a five course lunch and they seemed to love it! on day 3 and four we made some healthy snacks to serve at the dance, we prepared turkey pinwheels, brushetta, grapesicles, fruit skewers, smoothies etc. the regluar camp and our culinary crew seemed to enjoy it, we also prepare 5 types of desserts we prepared a fruity angel food cake trifle, chocolate cream pie, angel food cake with berries, berry sorbet squares and mircowaved baked apples, in addition to cooking we took particiapants out to lunch to fresh choice in cupertino and the very next day to the farmers market in santa clara, and they seemed to know about food just abour now. we pratice whats good for us which is go-slow and whats bad for us which is Whoa. we put diet coke into the go/slow section and regluar soda into a whoa, so i just gave up regluar im cutting back to 2- sometimes 3 a day. but most importantly drink water in between days, especially on workouts! thats my motto! so i planned on working to the 3 day cooking/nutrtion follow-up retreat from august 17-19th, so i just submitted some 150 calorie snack recipes to nurse sandy and she forward them to nurse sheryl so i hope to get an answer soon! so i will keep you updated with more about my job at a culinary nutrtion lifespan camp, so stick around!