Valentine's Day Dessert (Raspberry Cheese Cake)

For Valentine's day, I prepared lovely Indian dishes. Along with that was a devine, raspberry cheese cake. I will display the Indian dishes at a later time.
Here is my simple delicious raspberry cheese cake recipe

Graham Crust

1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs
3 Tbl. spoon unsalted butter
1 ½ Tbl. spoon white sugar

Filling

4 pkg (8oz) of cream cheese (philadelphia)
1 ½ cups white sugar
4 eggs
2 Tbl.spoon lemon juice
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat oven 375 degrees F
Mix graham cracker crumbs with butter
and sugar. Mix well. Press onto bottom
of 9 inch spring form pan. Bake for 7 minutes.
Set aside to cool.
Raise oven to 425 degrees F.
In large mixing bowl with electric mixer, combine
cream cheese and sugar. Beat until light and
creamy. Then add eggs, on at a time. Mix well
after each egg. Add lemon juice and vanilla.
Pour mixture over graham crust. Bake for 12 min.
Reduce oven temp. To 200 degrees F. And bake
for 1 hour. Transfer cake to cooling rack and let
Cool completely. Refrigerate for about 3 hours
before serving. To serve; top with cherry filling or
the fruit topping of your choice. I chose raspberry
for mine. Blueberry is a nice mild sweetness also.
Now your ready to cut and serve. Enjoy!
If you wanted to give your cheese cake a citrus
flavour, add zest from 1 lemon and 1 orange
to your filling.

Old Fashioned Oatmeal With Apple

Old Fashioned Oatmeal with Apple Recipe
Old Fashioned Oatmeal Banana Walnut Recipe

I decided to use old fashioned oatmeal
instead of instant because I like the heartier
and chewy texture. It only takes 4 minutes
longer than instant. Well worth it!
Can be served with milk and any topping like
brown sugar, molasses or maple syrup.

Old Fashioned Oatmeal with Apple
(For 2 servings)
2 cups of water
Pinch of salt
1 cup of old-fashioned oats
1 cup of chopped apples
Dash of cinnamon
In saucepan, heat water and salt until almost boiling
Add oats and cook, stirring occasionally, for about
3 min. Add chopped apples. Take pot off the heat
and let sit for 2 to 5 minutes, depending what thickness
you like. I let it sit for 5 min. I prefer mine thick.

Old fashioned Oatmeal Banana Walnut
(For 2 servings)
2 cups of water
Pinch of salt
1 cup of old-fashioned oats
1 banana
¼ of chopped walnuts
In saucepan, heat water and salt until almost boiling
Add oats and cook, stirring occasionally, for about
5 min. Take the pot off the heat and add sliced or mashed
banana and walnuts. Enjoy!

Sweet and Sour Indian Vegetable Stew

This recipe comes from the February issue of Chatelaine.
I love to try new recipes and this one caught my eye due to
the fact it has curry and balsamic vinegar, one of the two
things I always have in my cupboard.
It is a wonderful easy recipe with big flavour. The recipe says
you can add meat or fish, if you wish. I did not. I used the
chickpeas instead of the lentils, which was filling enough.

Ingredients
1 small head of cauliflower
400 g pkg pre-cut butternut squash, about 3 cups (I used fresh)
1 small eggplant (I used a medium size)
1 onion (I used 2)
2 tbsp (30ml) Indian curry paste
680 ml can of tomato sauce
2 tbsp (30ml) balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp (30ml) brown sugar
19-oz (540ml) can lentils or chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
1 handful cilantro, chopped (optional)

Chop cauliflower into small florets,
chop squash into bite-sized
pieces, and slice eggplant into bite
sized pieces. Coarsely chop onions.
Lightly oil a large pot and set over medium heat.
When hot, add onion and sauté until tender, 3 to 4 min.
Stir curry paste into pot and cook until fragrant, 1 min.
Add tomato sauce, ½ cup water, vinegar, sugar and veggies.
Cover and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium-low.
Simmer, covered, stirring occasionally until vegetables
are tender, 25 to 30 min.
Add lentils for the last 5 min. of cooking.
Sprinkle with cilantro. Delicious over rice and with a dollop of plain yogurt.

PIZZA SOUP

This first recipe I am submitting came from the cooking diary of my sister Lise.
(a favorite to many)

Ingredients

* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
* 1/2 cup fresh sliced mushrooms
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
* 1 (28 oz/ 796) cans stewed tomatoes
* 8 ounces sliced pepperoni sausage
* 1 1/2 cup beef stock
* 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
* 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir-fry onions, mushrooms, and green pepper until soft but not brown.
2. Add tomatoes, stock, pepperoni ,and basil. Cook until heated through.
3. Sprinkle cheese over each bowl, and broil to melt.

Cooking tip: Use pepperoni that needs to be cut up (cut in small size bites or sliced thin). Do not use the pepperoni that is in package already cut thinly, as it has more grease and will grease up your soup…yuk!
If you wanted to reduce the calories in this recipe, use skim mozzarella cheese and put less pepperoni. I would cut pepperoni in very small pieces which makes it look like more. Trick to the eye. I also always add more green and red pepper, about 1/2 cup or more, instead of 1/4 cup. I like this soup chunky. I also us Primo Herbs & Spices Diced Tomatoes instead of Stewed tomatoes, which adds more flavour. Enjoy!