MMMMMMMMMMMMMM… chicken!
Well, it’s been a while! I can’t believe I’ve been away so long, but I think I needed a break. I was managing three blogs, a full time job, making jewelry, planning a move… it all became just too much!
So, anyway, I’m still here. And I’m still cooking! All moved in to the new house, almost settled in, still have boxes to unpack, but need to get some new bookcases, couple odds and ends here and there, start painting walls, all that fun stuff! Friend of mine said I need to have a painting party… Hmmmm…
Just a little family news before I get on to the food! William got straight A’s on his latest report card! WOO HOO! Mike is still at the VA, and MOST days he likes it. James is getting promoted to a shift supervisor at Wendy’s, still kind of hoping he figures out what he really wants to do with his life, but maybe this really is “it” for him?? And MOST days I still like my job, too. There are bumps in the road from time to time, but all in all, things are good!
So, tonight’s meal was another crock pot meal, I know, who would have guessed, right? But it was a REALLY good one!! So here we go…
Part 1
2 or 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts placed in the pot, frozen seems to work best
Sprinkle with about 1/8 cup of taco seasoning
Pour over one medium can of enchilada sauce – I used Old El Paso because I had a coupon
Set pot to low, cover, and leave it alone for 8-9 hours
Part 2
Remove the chicken from the pot, place in a 9″ x 13″ baking dish, shred with a fork (it really should just sort of fall apart if you just press on it after all that cooking)
Pour over the sauce from the crock pot
Cover with about 1 cup shredded cheese
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes
Side Dish
2 cups leftover plain rice
1 can tomato paste
1 can drained and rinsed kidney beans
About 1 cup peas (about half a can, or leftovers)
About 1 cup corn (about half a can, or leftovers)
Mix all this in a microwave safe dish, heat on high about 7 minutes, stirring halfway through. Top with about 1 cup shredded cheese, cover and microwave another 5 minutes, or until heated through and cheese is melted.
Serve about 1 cup of the rice and veggies with cheese alongside about 1 cup of the cheesey chicken, and you have quite the meal!!
Hope you enjoy!! Until next time, eat well, love well, live well!! :-)
February 3, 2013
Hello again friends, and welcome back! Wow, I’ve been a bad girl, been away for a while. Sorry!!! Hope you didn’t miss me too much…
So, let’s see, what’s been going on around here? Well, William and I went on a field trip this past week to the Dali Museum and the Titanic Exhibit at the Mahaffey theater in downtown Tampa. I decided it was high time I went on a field trip with one of my kids, since I missed them ALL with James, I guess William got the pleasure of having mom along. I don’t know that he really even noticed I was there most of the time, he was hanging out with his friends, and I was busy chasing the other kids in my group. I did get a few photos of the trip there, but we weren’t allowed to take photos inside either museum, and we didn’t get to go to the gift shop, so I have nothing really cool to show you! But I can tell you it was a cool trip, and I think we should go back as a family instead of with a big group, we can spend more time looking around.
I got my hair colored last week, got some blonde highlights and some purple highlights, which actually turned out more lilac than purple, and here we are ONE WEEK LATER, you have to really look to find them. I’m a little disappointed. Think I’m going to go more like a garnet red next time, see how that turns out.
And we qualified for a mortgage, went looking at houses last weekend, found one we LOVED, so we made an offer. After a little haggling and what seemed like forever (four days), we came to an agreement. Inspection is this Wednesday, we’re supposed to close 3/15. And lo and behold, we got a letter from an attorney, the house we’ve been renting for the past 6+ years has been foreclosed upon, the former owner has until 3/11 to pay up, or it goes to public auction 3/14. Sounds like we’re getting out just in time! Even trying to move the closing up a week or two if we can, so we can be out before all hell breaks loose around here. I’m just crossing my fingers we get our original deposit back… that money would REALLY come in handy to get stuff for the new place!
So, anyway, it’s been a busy few weeks around here. Haven’t done much ORIGINAL cooking lately, but I do have two things to share with you this time.
BBQ Pockets
1 pound ground beef
1 Cup BBQ sauce of your choice
1 can jumbo biscuits
Brown and drain ground beef, return to pan. Reduce heat, add BBQ sauce, and simmer for about 10 minutes, while you prepare the biscuits.
Roll the biscuits as flat as you can, mine came out pretty big, but not so thin you can’t handle them.
Place the rolled out biscuits on a cookie sheet, ungreased, place about 2 tbsp BBQ mixture on each flattened biscuit, fold over, press to close. You can also go around the flat edge with the tines of a fork if you want, but the design sort of gets lost when the biscuits bake. I had to do 2 at a time because they were SO big rolled out, two of them took up half the cookie sheet!
Bake at 350 degrees for 16-18 minutes, or until deep golden brown. Serve warm!
Taco Pockets
1 pound ground beef
2/3 Cup water
1/4 Cup taco seasoning
1 can jumbo biscuits
Brown and drain ground beef, return to pan. Reduce heat, add water ans seasoning, and simmer for about 10 minutes, while you prepare the biscuits.
Roll the biscuits as flat as you can, mine came out pretty big, but not so thin you can’t handle them.
Place the rolled out biscuits on a cookie sheet, ungreased, place about 2 tbsp taco mixture on each flattened biscuit, fold over, press to close. You can also go around the flat edge with the tines of a fork if you want, but the design sort of gets lost when the biscuits bake. I added a little shredded cheese on the outside of mine, but I think next time I’ll try cheese INSIDE. I had to do 2 at a time because they were SO big rolled out, two of them took up half the cookie sheet!
Bake at 350 degrees for 16-18 minutes, or until deep golden brown. Serve warm!
Taco on the left, BBQ on the right.
I also served ranch dressing with these, it was GOOD!
And then tonight, we had something different…
Teriyaki Pork with Rice
4 boneless skinless pork chops, thick cut
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce (Kikkoman’s is good)
2 cups prepared leftover rice
1 cup frozen peas
Trim fat from chops, cut into cubes, saute over medium heat until no longer pink. Add in sauce and peas, stir well, cook until peas are bright green, maybe 5 minutes. Reduce heat, add in leftover rice, cover and simmer about 10 minutes.
It was GOOD!!
So, that’s it for now. Hope you try one of these, let me know how they come out for you!
Eat well, love well, live well!!
January 14, 2013
Well, here we are again! Hope you all had a great week!
It’s was sort of quiet around here last week. Back to work full time after two holiday-shortened weeks, back to school for William, and back to the routines. Holidays are done, decorations are put away, all the goodies are gone (thank goodness, I think I gained 10 pounds!), and I’m trying to get back into the routine of cooking every night. Last week seemed like the longest week in history, but we all got through it just fine. William ended the week on a high note, started a three-day-in-a-row field trip to Nature’s Classroom. You would think he was excited or something… started Friday, he had all his stuff packed in his string pack on Wednesday night!
Not a whole lot of “new” stuff going on cooking-wise, mostly old standards like coconut curry chicken and bacon and eggs, but I do have ONE new recipe for you!
Creamy Italian Chicken
3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 cans water
2 Tsp Italian seasoning blend
DASH red pepper flakes
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 box Dreamfields pasta of your choice (I used spaghetti this time)
Put the chicken in the crock pot (yes, the crock pot again!), pour over soup and water, mix it a little. Add in the spices and mix it a little again. Set on HIGH 3-4 hours or low 7-8 hours, stirring occasionally.
When done, remove chicken from the pot, shred it, then add it back into the sauce. Mix a little making sort of a shredded chicken sauce for the pasta. Turn OFF the pot.
Cook the pasta to package directions. Drain and add into crock pot, mix well, serve with a little Parmesan cheese or shredded cheese on top!
I think this is one of those dishes that I’m going to have to experiment with a little. It wasn’t bad at all, but it “needed something”. Made good leftovers!
Oh, almost forgot, here’s what I finished making this week…
Only 1/2″ tall!
This one is 1″ tall…
Anyway, that’s about it for this week. Gonna go play with some beads for a while…
January 6, 2013
Hello again friends, and welcome back!
Here we are, a brand new year, and a brand new chance to do something different/new/exciting!!! I’m going to keep up with the weekly posts here, but I’m just going to share a few recipes, maybe some family gossip, whatever is new and exciting in my little world. But I’ve also set up my two other blogs, going to go over there and post to them when I’m done here. Kind of looking forward to a new challenge!
So here’s what I have for you this week:
Work was BEYOND crazy with two four day weekends in a row, trying to close out the month of December was completely nuts, very stressful (first time I’ve actually said the word stress relating to this job, I think), but I got through it, and get to start fresh on Monday. Hopefully most of my co-workers will be over their colds and flu by then, too. Getting scared being surrounded by sick people!
William was SO bored over his two week vacation, he’s actually excited about going back to school, but then he loves that school, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Almost every weekday he called me, sometimes to ask for something, sometimes just to say “hi”. It was kind of cute actually! Love my little buddy!! :-)
James hasn’t been around much, but between work and girlfriend, I don’t expect that he will be. Would like him to keep on top of his “rent” (chores), but he’s still a kid…
Anyway, got a couple recipes for you, some are actually complete originals!
Green Bean Casserole Bites
1 cup Bisquick
2 cans french cut green beans
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup Panko bread crumbs
Mix everything together really well, drop by teaspoonfuls into hot oil, fry 1-2 minutes per side or until browned and crispy, remove to paper towel lined plate, serve warm.
Corn Fritters
1 cup flour
2 cups corn
1 egg
Grated Parmesan
Mix well, drop by rounded teaspoonfuls into hot oil, fry 2-3 minutes per side or until browned and crispy, remove to paper towel lined plate, sprinkle with grated Parmesan, serve warm!
I can honestly say I didn’t cook that much this past week, but these are the only things I wrote down, so that’s all I have for now! I’ll try to do better next week.
Now over to the new blogs! Gotta figure out where those are going…
Until next time, eat well, love well, live well!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza day 348-365 (week 51 & 52)
Hello again friends, and welcome back!!
Well, we made it through the year, made some new friends along the way, and had some fun! I’ve really enjoyed trying out new recipes, sharing them with you, and sharing the little ordinary goings-on of our family with you. I hope you’ve enjoyed the tidbits as well as the food, and found some cool new things to try!! I know I’ve tried things I never thought I would, and found out I actually LIKE curry!
So here’s our final entry for this blog for this year. I’ve got a BUNCH of recipes for you, some simple, some not-so-much, but all well worth the effort. I hope to continue this food blog in 2013, but I don’t think I’m going to focus as much on doing something new every day like this on started out, I think I’m going to try new things every weekend and share those adventures. Gives me more time to work on my two new blog ideas….
Here are my two new blog ideas for 2013, I’m going to give them a shot and see where they take me. I’m going to start a new blog doing some product reviews, starting with some of the things I got for Christmas, and then I’m going to have a second blog about jewelry making, share some things I’ve tried, maybe try my hand at doing a tutorial or two on some basic techniques. Could be fun! Hope you’ll join me!!
Working names, please let me know what you think!:
Ramblings Meets Reviews!
Nirvana Bay Designs Presents:
So, on to the food….
Chicken Everglades
2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts (or however many you need to feed your crew)
Everglades original seasoning (green)
Fresh ground pepper
Trim any excess skin or fat from the chicken breasts, cut into small bite sized pieces. Spray a large skillet with olive oil cooking spray, heat over medium heat, add in chicken. Sprinkle liberally with Everglades seasoning and pepper, I think I use about 2 Tbsp for 2-3 chicken breasts. More than that is way too salty, but less is sort of bland! Cook chicken, stirring frequently, until done through. Serve with sides of your choice! I usually go for some steamed veggies and maybe some biscuits.
Pork Chops Everglades
4-5 boneless thick cut pork chops
Everglades original seasoning (green)
Fresh ground pepper
Trim any excess fat from the chops, and cut into small bite sized pieces. Spray a large skillet with olive oil cooking spray, heat over medium heat, add in pork. Sprinkle liberally with Everglades seasoning and pepper, I think I use about 2 Tbsp for 4-5 chops. More than that is way too salty, but less is sort of bland! Cook pork, stirring frequently, until done through. Serve with sides of your choice! I went for some rice this time, and some steamed veggies.
Nachos
1 pound ground beef
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup taco seasoning mix
Tortilla chips
1 cup shredded taco blend cheese
1/2 cup salsa (I use mild)
Chopped black olives (optional)
Chopped green pepper (optional)
Brown ground beef in a large skillet, drain excess fat. Add in water and taco seasoning, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes.
Arrange tortilla chips on a plate, top with seasoned beef, shredded cheese, and any other toppings you like, everything except the salsa at this point! Microwave about 1 minute, maybe just a little more or less depending on your microwave, just until cheese melts. Top with salsa, sour cream, or ranch dressing and serve!
Cheddar Sausage Biscuits
3 cups Bisquick
1 pound bulk pork sausage (I used mild, and wish I had used medium!)
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp dried Rosemary leaves
1 1/2 tsp chopped fresh parsley or 1/2 tsp dried parsley flakes
BBQ sauce or Ranch dressing or chili sauce, whatever you like for dipping!
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray bottom and sides of jelly roll pan with olive oil cooking spray.
Stir together all ingredients, mix VERY well. I had to get in there with my hands to get it mixed right. Shape into 1 inch balls, a cookie scoop works really well for this, wish I had had one when I was doing this! Place in pan, right up against each other, but don’t squish them together.
Bake 25 minutes or until brown and slightly crispy. Remove from pan to paper towel lined platter. Serve warm with dipping sauce.
Makes about 8 dozen balls.
Corn Pudding
1 can creamed corn
1 cup milk
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
Dash of salt
Heat oven to 325 degrees.
Beat eggs, sugar and flour together. Add corn, butter, salt and milk. Pour into buttered (or in my case, butter flavor cooking sprayed) 13″ x 9″ dish. Bake at 325 degrees approximately 50 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.
NOTE: if you double this recipe, you will have to cook it about an extra 20-30 minutes for the center to set right.
Oatmeal Scotchies
1 stick plus 6 tbsp butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups oats (Quick cooking or not, doesn’t really matter, but the consistency of the cookie IS different. I prefer regular over quick oats)
1 cup butterscotch chips
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter, add in sugars and mix well. Add in eggs and vanilla, mix well.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt. Slowly add to butter mixture, mix well.
Add in oats and chips, you will have to switch to a spoon rather than a mixer at this point, it gets really thick! (at least I do… my little hand mixer won’t handle it…)
Dropped by tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes.
OR, spread into a buttered (or sprayed) 13″ x 9″ pan, bake 30 – 35 minutes, cool and cut into bars.
Bulgar Breakfast Squares
2 cups cooked Bulgar wheat (1 cup uncooked = 2 cups cooked)
2/3 cup milk (or fat free half and half!)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp melted butter
1 Tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup dried bananas
1/2 cup dried blueberries
1/2 cup dried cherries
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
First tip, put the dried fruit in with the Bulgar when you cook it, just add about 1/4 cup extra water, softens them up nicely.
Combine everything, spread into a greased (sprayed) 8″ x 8″ baking pan, cover with tin foil, bake 30 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before trying to cut, serve warm.
You can also prepare this in advance, cool completely, cut into squares and reheat in a microwave.
Snowballs
1 cup butter, softened but not melted
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups ground pecans
2 cups sifted flour
1 box confectioners sugar
Heat oven to 300 degrees.
Cream butter. Add sugar, pecans and flour. Mix well. Dough will be VERY stiff.
Shape into tablespoon size balls, again a cookie scoop would have come in very handy here, but I didn’t have one yet.
Place on UNGREASED cookie sheet, bake 45 minutes at 300 degrees.
Remove from oven and immediately roll in confectioners sugar. Set out to cool on waxed paper over newspaper (to protect your surface!). Roll again in confectioners sugar when cooled. Store in a sealed container.
Tollhouse Cookies
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
1 10 ounce package chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans
Heat oven to 375 degrees.
In one bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.
In another bowl, cream butter, add sugars, vanilla and eggs, mix well.
Gradually add in flour mixture.
Gently stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
Drop by rounded tablespoons (cookie scoop!) onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9 – 11 minutes.
OR, do like I did and spread it all into a greased pizza pan, bake 20 – 25 minutes, cool in pan, cut into wedges with a pizza cutter.
Ham and Cheese Quiche
1 frozen pie crust
3 large eggs
1 cup half and half (fat free, of course)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 cup diced ham
Heat oven to 425 degrees.
Place pie crust in glass pie plate. Prick bottom and sides, bake 10 minutes to set. Remove from oven and cool.
Sprinkle ham and cheese in cooled crust. Mix eggs, milk and spices in mixing bowl. Pour over ham and cheese. Bake 10 minutes at 425 degrees. Reduce heat to 350 degrees, bake another 30 – 40 minutes, depending on your oven, or until puffy and lightly browned. Cool about 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
Chicken and Pasta
3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces
Olive oil cooking spray
1 Tbsp garlic powder
2 Tsp Italian seasoning blend
Salt and pepper to taste
Spaghetti sauce
Dreamfields Penne pasta, cooked to package directions
Grated Parmesan cheese
Spray skillet with cooking spray, heat over medium heat. Add in chicken and spices, cover, stir frequently to cook through. Drain off excess liquid.
Add sauce and chicken to pasta, serve topped with a little Parmesan!
Crockpot Chili
2 pounds ground beef, browned and drained
3 cans red kidney beans
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 diced green pepper
2 Tbsp onion flakes
2 pkgs chili seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
Top with a little shredded cheese, sour cream, whatever YOU like on your chili!!
So I think that’s enough for now…
Until next time, eat well, love well, live well!
2012 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,100 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza day 334-347 (week 49 & 50)
Hello again friends, and welcome back!!
I can’t believe I’m on week 50 already!! And I’m sorry I got sidetracked last week and didn’t post, but I hope you will forgive me.
I’ve been so busy, working a little OT, getting presents made, shipping out of state presents, finishing up William’s makeshift Advent calendar. I just ran out of weekend last weekend! This weekend, I skipped doing my nails so I would have time to catch up here, make a couple of projects I had wanted to try, finish wrapping the presents sitting around here in bags, clean up a little, you know, all those things that get away from you this time of year!
I’m really looking forward to a four day weekend next weekend!! Going to bake some cookies, get everything together for Christmas dinner, and pick up the last couple of things on my list for the boys, and maybe a couple of stocking stuffers. Want to try a new roll recipe I found, too, hopefully we’ll have nice fresh sweet yeast rolls to go with Christmas dinner!!
And I’ve been so turned around, I can’t honestly say I can give you a day by day account of what I made, but I do have a couple recipes to share, a new twist on one I’ve made before, and hopefully you will find something you like here!!
So, on to the food….
Garlic Pork with Rice and Peas
4 boneless pork chops
1 cup frozen peas
1 container garlic flavor Philadelphia cooking cream
Rice made in your rice cooker or stovetop
Trim the little bit of fat from the edge of the pork chops, then cut the chops into small bite sized pieces.
Put about 2 Tbsp olive oil in a frying pan, heat to medium, add in pork and cook until no longer pink. Add in peas, cover and steam about 5 minutes. Add in cooking cream, stirring until melted well. You can add a little milk if needed to thin it out if you want. Add in the cooked rice, stir until mixed well, and serve!
Glazed Carrots
1 Cup frozen carrots
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp butter
Put everything in a microwavable dish, cover, microwave 5 minutes, mix and serve!
Coconut Curry Chicken
3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cans coconut milk
1 box Golden curry mix
Put everything in the crock pot, DO NOT add any water, cover and cook on LOW 8-10 hours. Remove chicken from the pot, shred, stir sauce in pot, add back in chicken, serve over Chicken Flavored Rice.
Chicken Flavored Rice
I don’t know about your rice cooker, but here’s how mine works…
Fill to “3″ line with water, add in 3 scoops rice and 1 packet of chicken flavoring (I used Knorr’s chicken stock this time), set to COOK and serve when it’s done!
Spaghetti and Meatballs
I don’t think I really need to go into this one… frozen meatballs, boxed spaghetti, jarred sauce….
Pot Roast
1 3-4 pound pot roast
1 box beef stock
1 packet beef Flavor Boost
1 packet French Onion soup mix
Put everything in the crock pot, set to LOW, cook 8-10 hours, it will literally fall apart, and because you didn’t add any plain water, it won’t be all dried out!!
Home Made Beef and Rice Burritos
1 pound ground beef
2 cups water
1/2 cup taco seasoning
2 cups leftover rice
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can enchilada sauce
2 cups shredded cheese
8 tortillas
Put ground beef, water and taco seasoning in the crock pot in the morning. Set on LOW and cook 8-10 hours. When you get home from work, chop up the beef in the pot, stir in the rice and beans, and add a little more taco seasoning if you need to. Mine needed just a couple tablespoons more!
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Put the tortillas one at a time on a plate, sprinkle with a few tablespoons shredded cheese, two large spoonfuls (maybe 1/2 cup??) of the meat, rice and bean mixture, fold in sides and roll into a burrito.
Place in a wide shallow baking pan. Repeat with all tortillas, you might have a little filling left, but not much. Pour enchilada sauce over burritos, sprinkle with remaining cheese, and bake at 350 degrees about 30 minutes, or until cheese is melted. Serve with a little sour cream, or ranch dressing.
Bacon Cheeseburger Muffins
1 pound bacon
1 pound ground beef
2 cans biscuits
1 cup shredded cheese
Cut bacon into small pieces, cook until crisp, remove to paper towel lined plate. Set aside.
Cook beef until no longer pink, crumbling as you cook.
Press biscuits as flat as you can get them, keeping them round. Spray muffin pan with cooking spray, put one biscuit in each muffin cup. Spoon in little shredded cheese, some bacon, some beef, top with a little more cheese. Repeat until you run out of muffins and toppings. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, or more if needed, to get a nice golden brown edge on the muffins. Serve with dipping sauces of your choice!
So that’s all I can remember that I cooked, hope you found something you enjoyed!!
Until next time, eat well, love well, live well!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza day 327-333 (week 48)
Hello again friends, and welcome back!
It doesn’t seem like last week was Thanksgiving, but it was. Full work week this week, and a crazy one at that! Got a little OT, which will help pay for all the Christmas shopping I did, and the little bit I have left to do, so it’s all good! Everything is wrapped already and under the tree. William doesn’t believe in Santa any more, so now I get to torture him with wrapped boxes under the tree for weeks! But we’re doing an Advent calendar this year, for the second year, so he gets a little something every day. I don’t have an actual Advent calendar, so I’m improvising… Chinese take out style boxes with numbers on them, got 8 filled so far, gotta get the rest done this weekend when we get paid again. They’re reusable, so I think this will be our new tradition, but Mike says we need to do this for everyone, not just William, could get expensive!!! Dollar store, here we come!!
Anyway, on to the food….
Monday
Left overs on the run – we had a school meeting to go to!
Tuesday
Clean out the fridge night! We still had some Thanksgiving leftovers, lots of veggies, and we made fresh biscuits to go with it all.
Wednesday
Pesto Chicken with Pasta and Veggies
2-3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 C frozen peas
1 C frozen cut green beans
Pesto flavor Philadelphia cooking cream
1 box Dream Fields pasta of your choice
Trim any excess skin or fat from the chicken and cut into small bite sized pieces. Cook in a couple tablespoons of olive oil until no longer pink. Add in vegetables, cover and steam 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta to package directions.
Add cooking cream to chicken and veggies, you can add a little milk if you need to so it thins out nicely.
Drain pasta, add in to chicken and veggies. Mix well and serve.
Nice one dish meal, too bad it’s not one pot, too!!
Thursday
Pork Chops and Eggs
I worked a little late, so Mike started dinner. He fried up the chops with a little butter and salt. Then made scrambled eggs with cheese, and some biscuits. Quick and easy, and tasty!
Friday
Chicken Bacon Ranch Wraps
3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 pound bacon
Ranch dressing mix
Prepared ranch dressing
Salsa
Tortillas
Cut bacon into small pieces, fry until crispy, remove to paper towel lined bowl and set aside. DO NOT pour off grease.
Trim excess skin and fat from chicken, cut into very small pieces. Fry in the bacon grease with about 2 Tbsp dry ranch dressing mix.
Put a little cheese of your choice on a tortilla, add in some chicken and bacon, top with some ranch dressing and salsa, and wrap it up. Serve!
YUM!!!
Saturday
Taco Salad
1 head Iceburg lettuce
1 pound ground beef or chuck
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup taco seasoning mix
Salsa
Ranch dressing
Shredded cheese
Crushed tortilla chips
Cook ground beef until no longer pink. Drain any excess fat, add in water and taco seasoning, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes.
While that’s simmering, chop the lettuce whatever way you like it, I went for almost a fine shredded look.
Put some lettuce in a bowl, top with about 1/3 of the prepared meat, 1/3 cup shredded cheese, 1/4 cup salsa, few Tbsp ranch dressing, and a handful of crushed chips. Mix well, and serve!
Sunday
Coconut Curry Chicken
3-4 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cans coconut milk
1 Pkg golden curry mix
Rice
Knorr chicken flavor concentrated stock
Trim chicken of excess skin or fat. Put into crock pot. Add in coconut milk and curry spices (the brand I buy comes in a block), set to LOW and cook 8-10 hours or HIGH for 4-5 hours. Stir occasionally to mix the curry with the coconut milk, makes a very nice sauce.
About 30-45 minutes before the chicken is supposed to be done, make rice in the rice cooker per directions, but add in the Knorr chicken stock to the water before you start the cooker.
While the rice is cooking, you can steam some veggies as a side dish, I did broccoli and peas tonight.
When the chicken is done, remove from pot and shred. Serve by putting rice on the plate, top with some shredded chicken and some sauce. Serve with your veggies, YUM!!!
So that’s it for this week. Couple of repeats I know, but I’ve been a little busy this week. I’ll try harder next week!!
Until next time, eat well, love well, live well!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza day 320-326 (week 47)
Hello again friends, and welcome back! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday week! A little odd for us…
William was off school all week, so he was home, and he was BORED, but he was good. He read every day, practiced his guitar, did his chores, and stayed out of trouble.
It was a short week for Mike and I, because of the holiday, doctor’s appointments, and a little time off. I took off Friday so I could go Black Friday shopping, ended up doing more online shopping than in-person shopping, but it was nice to not have to worry about work. Seems I went a little overboard though, didn’t leave a whole lot of cash until next payday! Good news is I only have two more people to shop for, and I have at least one idea for one of them, something I can get any time between now and Christmas! And I have two things to make, gotta get busy, but then I am DONE!!
James decided to start his holiday early, so we haven’t actually seen him since Tuesday, hope he had a good holiday!
We were supposed to go to Mom’s for Thanksgiving dinner, but Mike and William both started coming down with something, and we didn’t want to expose my folks to it, so Wednesday night we made the mad dash through Walmart getting all the stuff we didn’t have on hand to make dinner Thursday!
Anyway, on to the food….
Monday
Pork chops
Simply pan fried with a little butter, nothing fancy.
Steamed veggies, broccoli and peas, the usual.
Rolls, the canned kind.
Mike ended up cooking for me, because I worked a little late to help with a project.
Tuesday
Chicken and Black Bean Homemade Burritos
3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup taco seasoning mix
1 quart water
Tortillas
Shredded cheese
Put the chicken, black beans, taco seasoning and water into the crock pot in the morning, let it cook all day on LOW.
Remove chicken from pot, shred. Remove black beans from pot.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Lay out tortillas. Sprinkle with shredded cheese, spoon in a little shredded chicken and some black beans, roll into burritos, place in a large baking pan. Repeat until you use up all the chicken and beans, or run out of room in your pan, whichever comes first. Top with a little more shredded cheese. Bake about 15 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve with a side of ranch or sour cream or guacamole, whatever you like! Salsa works well, too.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
1 Bag frozen Brussels sprouts (I used frozen this time because I wasn’t sure when I would make these, they were a little softer than fresh, but tasted OK)
4 slices bacon
1/2 C dried cherries
1/4 C chopped or sliced nuts of your choice (I prefer pecans, but I had almonds on hand)
Remove stems from sprouts, and cut into quarters.
Cut bacon into small pieces and cook until crispy. Remove from pan, but don’t pour off grease. Add cut sprouts to pan, saute lightly until slightly browned and heated through. Toss bacon, cherries and nuts into pan, mix well, heat another minute or two.
Pour everything into a baking dish of your choice, bake at 350 degrees 45-55 minutes, or until well browned and very soft. Serve!
Wednesday
Jet’s Pizza
Thursday
Thanksgiving Dinner
Turkey – rubbed with butter, sprinkled with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning, DO NOT TRUSS or stuff, roast at 350 degrees per package directions – my 10 pound turkey said it needed to cook 2 hours, I didn’t believe it, so I cook it 3, it was dry, but tasty!
Potatoes – 6 large baking potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks, boiled about 45 minutes or until very soft. Drain, add in 1 stick butter, maybe 1/2 C milk, more if you like them creamier, mix with hand blender until smooth and creamy!
Sweet potatoes
1 can yams
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 stick butter cut into pieces
Pour yams WITH JUICE into a casserole dish. Sprinkle over brown sugar, place pats of butter around pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until heated through and bubbly.
Rolls
Store bought frozen rolls, sorry!
Gravy
Turkey drippings, gravy packet from the turkey, plus some poultry gravy mix.
Broccoli
Green beans
Peas
Stuffing
Boxed, sorry again, but remember, I didn’t PLAN on cooking at all!!
Cranberry sauce
Friday
Subway
Saturday
Mini Pizzas – frozen, but good!
Cheese Sticks – frozen
Cheese bites – frozen
Sunday
Pot Roast with Potatoes
1 roast of your choice, I went for a tip roast this time, I like them
1/4 cup onion flakes
3 packets beef flavor Flavor Boost
1 quart water
4 large potatoes, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces
Put everything in the crock pot, set on low for 6-8 hours, remove and serve!
Steamed veggies
The usual, broccoli and peas with butter
Gravy
Strained the juices from the pot, mixed in some brown gravy mix, YUM!
And of course, I did my nails over the weekend, so here’s this week’s design…
Until next time, eat well, love well, live well!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza day 313-319 (week 46)
Hello again friends, and welcome back! It’s been an interesting week… nothing Earth-shattering, just interesting.
Work has been really busy, which I can only think is NOT a good thing considering what I do, that means the foreclosure business is booming, or maybe things are just moving better through the courts, but whatever is going on, it can’t be a good sign for the economy.
And of course, there was all the post-election stuff going on, the stock market dropping, businesses laying people off, Hostess closing, just kind of a depressing week all the way around.
BUT, William had a really good week at school, things are going very well for him, he’s enjoying his classes, and getting good grades. Absolutely cannot complain!
Mike had a good week at work, things are picking up, they are finally keeping him almost busy, and he spent all day yesterday working on his guitar. Took his birthday money and bought some new pick-ups, a new pick guard, and he’s really happy with the results.
I’ve been fairly busy working on jewelry, too, but I need to get better at getting OFF the computer at night and doing things I LIKE instead of wasting so much time on Facebook. I mostly work on new pieces on my lunch hour at work, but I spent about 3 hours last night making clay beads, which was more fun than I remember, and then a few hours today making jewelry from some of those beads, so I feel like I had an extra special day! And, I still got the laundry done, cleaned up the kitchen, and did my nails. GOOD DAY!
So, on to the food….
Monday
Baked BBQ Pork Chops
4 boneless pork chops
About 3 cups BBQ sauce of your choice
1 Tsp garlic powder
Put the pork chops in a roasting pan, sprinkle with garlic powder, pour over BBQ sauce, cover and bake at 350 degrees for at least an hour, or until chops are done through and sauce is bubbly. Serve!
Ratatouille (this was fun!)
1 smallish yellow squash
1 smallish zucchini
1 Chinese eggplant
2 Tbsp dried onion flakes
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 cup tomato sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1/4 cup Parmesan
Italian seasoning blend
Using a mandolin slicer, slice the squash and eggplant very thin. Spray a 13″ x 9″ casserole dish with olive oil flavor cooking spray. Pour the tomato sauce in the bottom of the pan, sprinkle with the onion flakes and garlic powder. Liberally salt and pepper. Lay the slices of squash and eggplant on the sauce, alternating each type of veggie, overlapping each, all the way around and in the center. (sort of like in the movie, looks a little like a fan) Salt and pepper, sprinkle with a few Tbsp Parmesan. Layer more veggies, salt and pepper, Parmesan. Repeat until you have about 3 to 4 layers, or you run out of veggies. Sprinkle with remaining olive oil and any remaining Parmesan, and sprinkle with Italian seasoning blend. Cover with aluminum foil, cook at 375 degrees for 45 to 55 minutes, or until tomato sauce is bubbling up around the edges of the veggies. Serve!!
Fried Potatoes
2 leftover Perfect Baked Potatoes
Sour cream, about 1/2 cup
Parmesan, about 1/2 cup
2 Tbsp butter
Salt and pepper
Chop potatoes into bite-sized pieces. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add potatoes and fry until they start to brown a little. Skin on or off is entirely up to you! Once the potatoes are heated through and just a very little browned, remove from heat, stir in sour cream and Parmesan. Serve!
Chocolate Chip Cake with Chocolate Pudding Pokes
Basic Yellow Cake recipe
3/4 c butter
3 eggs
2 1/2 c all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 c milk
1/2 c chocolate chips
Allow butter and eggs to sit at room temp for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, grease and flour 9″ x 13″ baking pan.
In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter on medium for 30 seconds. Gradually add in sugar, beating on medium, until well combined. Scrape sides of bowl, beat two minutes more. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and milk, beating on low after each addition, just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread batter into prepared pan.
Bake 25-30 minutes for 9″x13″ pan (I actualy had to put this back in for an extra 20 minutes before it was done, so I cooked 50 minutes)
Cakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool completely in pan before frosting.
When cooled, poke holes in the cake with the handle of a wooden spoon.
Prepare instant chocolate pudding to package directions, family size package. Pour over cake, making sure it gets into those holes and leaks down the sides a little. Allow to cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes before serving. YUM!
Tuesday
Ranch Fried Chicken, Bacon and Tomato sandwich
2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 pkgs ranch dressing mix
2 cups flour, divided
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 pound bacon
1 large tomato, sliced
Cut the bacon into about 1/2″ wide pieces, cook until crispy, remove to paper towel lined plate to drain, set aside.
Trim any excess skin or fat from the chicken, cut into chunks, then pound those to about 1/4″ thickness between two sheets of plastic wrap.
Put 1 cup plain flour in one wide shallow bowl.
Put the eggs, beaten, into another wide shallow bowl.
Mix the other cup of flour, ranch dressing mix, and a little salt and pepper, in a third wide shallow bowl.
Dip each piece of chicken first in the plain flour, then in the egg, then in the seasoned flour. Fry in shallow oil over medium heat until golden brown and crisp. Remove to paper towels to drain excess oil while cooking remaining chicken. I can usually do 3-4 pieces at a time.
Serve on bread, toasted or not is up to you, with bacon, tomato and your choice of sauces. YUM!
Wednesday
Jet’s Pizza
Thursday
Chicken and Sausage with Tomato Sauce
3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 rope Kielbasa
1 Jar spaghetti sauce
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning blend
1/8 Tsp red pepper flakes
1 Tsp orange Everglades seasoning
1 Jar (that sauce jar!) water
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
Cut the sausage into roughly 2″ pieces. Don’t cut the chicken, in fact, frozen works really well for this.
Put everything in a crock pot, mix a little, cook on LOW 8-10 hours. Using a slotted spoon, fish out the chicken, which should be falling apart at this point, the sausage and beans, put on a serving platter.
Serve with rice or pasta, your choice, and a little of the sauce from the pot poured over each serving.
Parmesan Orzo
1/2 box Orzo style pasta
1 stick butter
1 c Parmesan
Cook pasta to package directions. Drain. Melt butter in the hot pan, add back in pasta, and add Parmesan. Mix well and serve!
Steamed Veggies
Friday
Burritos and Taquitos
Frozen ones, sorry, no recipe this time!
Saturday
Taco Bell
Yes, we ate out. I just didn’t feel like cooking after working half the day, then housework, just didn’t have it in me! But, once I ate dinner, I made…
Chicken soup
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 pkts chicken flavor Flavor boost
2 pkts vegetable flavor Flavor boost
4 quarts water
2 Tbsp green Everglades seasoning
1 Tsp garlic powder
1/2 bag frozen green beans
1/2 bag frozen sliced carrots
1/2 c frozen peas
1/2 box Orzo style pasta
In a LARGE stock pot, pour in water, add flavor packets and spices, mix well. Add in chicken. Cook over LOW heat about 2 hours. Increase heat so that water boils, add in pasta, cook about 15-20 minutes, or until pasta is well done. Reduce heat again, add in veggies, cook another 30 minutes. Remove from heat, serve, or allow to cool and put into serving size containers. Freezable!! This made about a dozen large servings, about the same size as Chunky soup cans, but a lot better for you.
Sunday
Breakfast for Dinner
Bacon, cooks crispy
Scrambled eggs with cheese
Crescent Rolls
Simple, quick meal that everyone loves. I added a sliced tomato to my plate, but I’m the only one that likes them…
Apple Banana Dessert
1 small apple
1/4 cup dried banana slices
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp butter
1/4 C old fashioned oats
Core apple, cut into wedges, then slice the wedges into very small slices. Put into a microwave safe bowl. Add in the dried banana slices. Top with the butter and brown sugar. Microwave 1 minute, mix well, microwave another 4 minutes. Allow to cool at least 5 minutes before serving! Top with a little ice cream, YUM!!!
Anyway, that’s it for this week. Hope you found something you want to try!!
Until next time, eat well, love well, live well!
