Ginger candy chicken and swimming cookies

After working on my economics homework for an hour and a half, I took a break to prepare dinner.

Once again I veered from the candy chicken recipe, but let's hope it works.

In the crockpot:
- 3 chicken breasts
- about 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- about 1/2 cup apple raspberry juice
- about 4 tablespoons spicy teriyaki sauce
- 2 tablespoons lemon lime soda syrup
- about 1 cup seltzer
- about 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- about 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon diced crystallized ginger
- about 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 small apples, cored and quartered

For the swimming cookies dessert:
In a glass casserole dish
Layer eight lemonade girl scout cookies
Prepare one package instant vanilla pudding with 1-and-a-half cups whole milk and pour over cookies. Chill.

Pineapple Smoothie

The flavor on this one is incredible, but the mouth feel odd. I didn't want to blend the pudding to a liquid, so as a consequence, the tapioca provides chunks and the fresh pineapple provides strands.

In the blender:
- about 1/2 cup fresh pineapple
- 1/2 cup very vanilla soy milk
- 1 cup tapioca pudding

Dirt and worm pie

My husband and daughter, when they went to the store Monday night after my accident, bought lots of instant pudding (and no milk!). They picked out chocolate, butterscotch, and Oreo creme. Oh, and vanilla, since I'm a vanilla girl. Except they accidentally bought sugar-free, fat fat free.

My husband LOVES chocolate pudding, especially the kind that comes in a can. He does not share my gourmet tendencies.

My daughter likes to go to a certain franchise restaurant not because she likes the food, but because they have a "dirt and worms" dessert. She finds the food at this chain mediocre and never eats the pudding, but crush some Oreos and add gummy worms and she's thrilled.

So my husband made her a pie with a store-bought Graham cracker crust (which he lamented was nowhere near as tasty as his own), instant chocolate pudding, crushed berry Oreos (the ones I bought for $2 at Target), and gummy worms (from someone's Easter basket).

Blueberry Crumb Bread Pudding

My daughter seems to have the plague we've all been harboring, so I gave her some trail mix with extra cashews and dark chocolate powder-coated almonds to tide her until I got something hot and comforting whipped up.

This is what I thought I'd make, the apple crisp bread pudding, but with blueberries as we have a big bag of frozen blueberries from the warehouse club. Here is the original recipe:

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/11/apple-crisp-bread-pudding.html

But, as one should anticipate, I have a tendency not to read the entire recipe before cooking... I ended up improvising more than I thought and what should have been a nice 11 x 13 pan of pudding ended up filling a cake pan.

So, here goes:

In a large skillet, combine

• 3 cups blueberries
• 1/4 cup blue curacao
• 3 tablespoons butter

Let come to slow boil and reduce heat.

Now, I used a good 14 cups of bread chunks, because I started with a two-day old baguette from Wegmans, ran out, and used the remaining breadchunks I had in the freezer... the same ones I used for my homemade stuffing.

I buttered the bottom of my cake pan and sprinkled with about 1 tablespoon sugar. Then I added the bread hunks from the baguette. I poured most the blueberry mixture over this and spread it around as best I could.

Then I added the frozen bread to cover it and sprinkled about 1 cup of frozen blueberries on top.

Now, the custard:

My custard was...

• 7 eggs (it was what I had)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup 2 percent milk
• almost 2 cups vanilla soy milk

Whisk until a nice even texture. Pour onto bread, pressing down with a spoon to make sure the bread absorbs the liquid.

Now, the oven should be preheated to 350 degrees. I layered a thin layer of brown sugar on top and then added about a cup of my mother-in-law's pie crumbs on the very top. She always makes extra when she makes a pie and usually throws them away, but I freeze them.

Bake for 40 minutes or until set.

I hope it works...

We had the first serving after 40 minutes in the oven and it was incredible! I put it back it for another 15 minutes because it didn't seem quite set enough...

More of an update:
Now what? I have made a ridiculous amount of bread pudding. This is where 'cheap' comes in. We each had about 1.5 cups for breakfast. It accounted for about 1/6 of this pan. I scooped an equal amount into a Tupperware container for tomorrow's breakfast.

There are several approaches for the rest...

1. Eat until we are disgustingly full. (Wouldn't be cheap or healthy.)
   
2. Share. (No one really to share with)
3. Store.

I opted to freeze. Bread pudding is already mushy, so it shouldn't affect the texture too negatively to freeze it. And I placed approximately three servings in each one quart freezer bag. So each bag will serve my whole family for breakfast. I ended up with four bags, which I will place inside a large freezer bag once the little ones cool. I have them in my unheated mud room so it shouldn't take long.

Now, a dessert that required a lot of eggs, bread and blueberries will serve a family of three for six comfort food breakfasts. Serve with a side of vegetarian sausage and I think that's a great start for a winter day.

Apple Crisp Bread Pudding

This is a recipe from Ginger Creek Cooking School if I remember correctly... Again, I typed the recipe for a friend looking for bread pudding recipes. I haven't made it in years.

• 4 apples, peeled and cored
  
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup brandy or 1 Tablespoon good quality extract
• 1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 16 ounces of soft French or Italian bread
• 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar

Thinly slice the apples. Melt butter in large skillet. Add apples and remaining ingredients except bread and sugar. Toss the apples six to eight minutes to soften slightly.

Slice bread about 1/2 inch thick and no larger than three inches in diameter. Butter an 11 x 13 baking dish and sprinkle with the sugar. Layer half the bread, then the apples. Repeat and set aside.

Custard:

• 6 eggs
• 4 egg yolks
• 2.5 cups light cream, whole milk, or no-fat cream
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Whisk together all ingredients. Pour evenly over the apples/bread. With back of spoon, press down so the bread absorbs the custard. Sprinkle with crumb mixture.

Crumbs:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon

Combine all ingredients until they're a coarse crumb texture. Sprinkle onto bread pudding. Place bread pudding in preheated 350 degree oven. Bake about 40 minutes until 'just set.' Serve warm.

Yield: 12 servings

Pumpkin bread pudding

This recipe is from a veg*n parenting recipe group I was a part of many, many years ago (ironically, before I had a child). I don't have plans to make it today, but a friend is looking for bread pudding recipes so I thought I'd type it. If we have bread leftover from Thanksgiving...

Original recipe as posted by Amy:

• 4 cups cubed white bread
• 3 cups vanilla soy milk (or milk)
• 1 16-ounce can solid-pack pumpkin
• 3/4 cup brown sugar or other sweetener
• 1/4 cup bourbon
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon all spice
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Press half of bread crumbs into bottom of lightly oiled 3.5-4 quart slow cooker. In medium sized sauce pan, heat milk until hot but don't let it boil. Remove pan from heat and set aside.

In large mixing bowl, combine remaining ingredients except the bread. Slowly add milk, stirring constantly. Pour half the mixture over bread in crock pot. Push in more bread, add more mixture, repeat until finished. Cover and cook on low three hours until firm.

Turn off crock pot and leave sit (covered) for 20 minutes before serving.