Chicken Pot Pie a new way.

We chicken pot pie last night. It was the same old recipe only I made a second batch with a different kind of crust.

I mixed two can each of cream of chicken soup, can of cream of mushroom, and can of cream of potato, one small bag of frozen mixed veggies and one potato diced and boiled and a splash of milk (around 1/4c.). Poured that in the pie pan.

For the pie crust I put a small bag of seasoned stove top stuffing in a pan and half a can of chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Stir and remove from heat. Spoon on top of soup mixture and bake at 425 for half an hour.

It was really yummy!!! Usually I just use the pillsbury roll out crust but my mom told me about the stove top stuffing. She made it using the cornbread stuffing but I just had the bread kind so that's what I used. I thought it was really good...better than the pie crust version. The boys all preferred the pie crust version but they liked the stuffing kind too.

For dessert we had Sopapilla cheesecake! Talk about GOOD!

Cranberry Salsa

So....we've all had our fill of Thanksgiving food. But, there are a few things that could stay on our menu throughout the year. For my husband, he could eat any of the desserts all year round! Especially banana pudding and pistachio salad. The stuffing my mom & I made could be a year round staple for all of us! Also the ham and my mom's sweet potato casserole with pecan topping. SO YUMMY!! The boys also loved the home made shells & cheese. Also, the vermicelli salad is a year round side dish with me and the youngest boy. This year I made a broccoli casserole for the first time and Hubby and I liked it a lot... much better than the green bean casserole so it'll probably become a regular side at our table. Now, the new favorite for me is Cranberry Salsa! My MIL made it this year and oh boy... if you're like me and LOVE chips and salsa, you'll love this. It's meant to be a dip for chips but I caught several people eating it on their stuffing. Also, my aunt made a great cranberry relish. I loved it and I don't usually eat cranberry (the canned stuff). I'll try and get that recipe too. Here's the recipe for the salsa:

Cranberry Salsa

1 bag cranberries (chopped)
1 bunch of green onions (chopped)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup of cilantro
jalapeño to taste (2-3) Remove seeds to make it mild
2 tbl lime juice
2 tbl olive oil

Mix all chopped ingredients together, add lime juice, olive oil and sugar. Stir and then store in fridge.

Dinner at the Dining Room Table

We bought a dining room table and chairs a month or so ago but didn't start using them right away because I forgot to get felt on the bottoms and we didn't want to scratch up the wood floors... now this is in our formal dining room. Once I finally remembered the felt, we have eaten every meal there. WE LOVE IT!!! Right now it's decorated for Halloween and I can not wait to use my Thanksgiving decorations!!

Normally we fix our plates in the kitchen and take them into the dining room but yesterday at dinner time I decided to put all the food in little dishes and put it at the table. It was so nice, I should have taken a picture! I tried a new recipe for pork chops and it was pretty good!

4 pork chops
salt & pepper
1 can beer
3/4 c. ketchup
4 tbsp brown sugar

Salt & Pepper the chops and brown them in a skillet. (don't cook them through, just brown them). Mix up the rest of the ingredients. Put the chops in a pan and pour the beer mixture over the top. Bake at 350 until done.

Nelson LOVED it! He ate all of his chop and part of mine. And kept dipping his bites into the pan to get more of the sauce.

On the side we had corn with butter and broccoli & cheese. It was my first time to make broccoli with cheese myself (instead of the usual frozen with cheese sauce kind). I just heated up a 1/3 c. milk, 6 slices of american cheese, a drop of Franks Red Hot Sauce, and a little salt & onion powder... I think I got that from cooks.com Anyway, it was very tasty!

We had a great lunch yesterday too. I put a roast in the crock pot the night before and I seasoned it differently. Normally I use Liptons Onion Soup Mix (they have three varieties and all work well)and Cream of Mushroom soup along with the potatos and carrots. Yesterday I sprinkled Cavenders Greek Seasoning on the roast and then dumped in a package of Roasted Garlic Brown Gravy Mix. It was SCRUMPTIOUS!!

So today it's all about leftovers!

Happy Cooking!

Tonights Supper

Tonight a friend of mine came over with her cute little girl and hubby was at work. I'm still working on making the change to healthy eating (for all of us) so we had steamed broccoli that the kids topped with parmesan cheese, baked chicken marinated in Yoshida's Original... if you haven't had that you should!! I get it at Sams Club. They have other flavors but I haven't tried them yet. Also rice seasoned with garlic. I cooked it in a rice cooker and if you don't have one of those you should get one! They make rice perfect EVERY time...I know rice isn't that difficult but with this you literally do nothing but measure and dump the rice and water into it...of course, you can dump in veggies, meats, or any seasons. AND, You don't have to watch it at all. Click here to buy one like mine. Anyway... supper was SOOO yummy. The kids ate it pretty good except the older one had to be ENCOURAGED to eat the broccoli, ha ha! But, they ate it... that's fantastic!

It's Party Time!

This coming Friday we are having a little party at our place... with NO KIDS! That's right, adults only! Not sure what all this entails but...the menu is planned!

Chips
Home made hot sauce
Black eyed pea dip
Queso w/rotel
Taquitos
Santa Fe Stew
Sour cream, cheese, olives, and green onions as condiments for the stew.

YUM YUM!
And I'm not sure what dessert....I'm thinking of minicheese cake bites.

Chicken Tacos

I know I've cooked in the last ten days but it must not have been that exciting since I can't remember what it was...except for last night. This is an old stand by of ours. It's usually beef tacos but occasionally we do the old switcheroo and have chicken tacos. It's a nice change really. And the boys love it of course.

Last night it was chicken tacos using boneless skinless chicken breast, Old El Paso taco seasoning and shells. We had the usual toppings of shredded cheese, romaine lettuce, and green onions...I missed the fresh cilantro! I also got out my handy-dandy rice cooker and threw in some plain old white rice with a can of rotel. Once it was through I topped it with shredded cheese. Yum-o!

Now, The Hungry Man likes to take leftovers to work. He was quite excited about his leftovers this time...it wasn't the tacos. When we have chicken tacos I turn the leftovers into soup. Add some of the rice to the chicken, toss in some green onions, frozen corn, dried cilantro, cumin, and garlic. Viola - chicken taco soup! It's SOOO yummy. When we have beans with our dinner I throw those in too. Oh, and fo course, add water to make it a soup. Let it simmer for a few minutes. When he reheates it he sprinkles on cheese and a dollop of sourcream and has a side of broken taco shells. Mmmm....I'm getting hungry......

Kraft Recipes

I've been trying to be more creative and healthy... the kids need to eat better and I need to lose weight. That brought me to Krafts website and let me tell you.... there are tons of tasty, healthy, and easy recipes there! If you haven't already, I highly recommend signing up to recieve their quarterly magazine feeled with great seasonal recipes... click HERE to do that.

Tonight I cooked the Dinnertime Quesadilla's. We all loved them! Even the boys... I left the green onions out of theirs. If I had changed it to whole wheat tortillas it would have been a perfectly healthy meal.

Here's the recipe.

Dinnertime Quesadillas
Prep Time: 10 min
Total Time: 16 min
Makes: 4 servings, two quesadillas each

2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1/2 cup drained canned whole kernel corn
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1/2 cup drained canned black beans, rinsed
1 cup TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Thick 'N Chunky Salsa
1 cup KRAFT Mexican Style Shredded Four Cheese
8 TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Flour Tortillas

LAYER chicken, corn, onions, beans, salsa and cheese evenly over one half of each tortilla.
FOLD tortillas in half to enclose filling.
COOK one or two quesadillas at a time in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat 3 min. on each side or until quesadillas are lightly browned on both sides and cheese is melted.

KRAFT KITCHENS TIPS
Serving Suggestion Serve with a tossed green salad.

Momma's Cheesy Chicken Casserole

So tonight I didn't REALLY feel like cooking and nothing I had the ingredients to sounded good but I managed to come up with something on my own. Some times my little adventures in cooking without any sort of recipe end in disaster. Tonight was NOT one of those nights... The Hungry Man and 2 Hungry Boys were quite thankful! :)

Now... this is in NO way healthy....After the wonderfully tasty and carb loaded lunch I had I decided it best if I only ate one spoonful of the casserole. The side dish was healthy, steamed broccoli, which could have easily been mixed into the casserole had I not needed to the boys to eat it.

Here goes:

5 slices bacon
1 clove garlic
3 tbsp margarine (or butter)
1 16 oz jar alfredo sauce (I used ragu classic)
12 oz spaghetti
1 13oz can chicken (or leftover chicken) drained.
1 c. Italian shredded six-cheese blend
Parmesan cheese

Boil noodles as package directs. Cook bacon and crumble. Crush garlic. Put bacon in pan and heat. Add garlic and cook on low until garlic is aromatic. Add margarine and jar of alfredo sauce, bring to a light boil then reduce heat and simmer for a couple of minutes. Put spaghetti in a casserole dish. Spread chicken over spaghetti. Pour Alfredo sauce over chicken. Layer Italian cheese over the top then sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 until cheese is bubbly then turn oven to broil and move to top rack. Broil a couple min. until cheese is golden.

If you decide to try this please let me know how you like it! :)

BBQ Meatballs - the easy way

Tonight I was feeling lazy and the boys wanted something besides cereal or sandwiches. I checked the freezer to see what we had besides wonderfully nutritious corn dogs. What do I see? Steak fingers, waffles, a 3lb bag of meatballs from Sams, catfish fillets.... chocolate chips. Hmm.... chocolate chips? I know they'll eat those! But... we should go for something a bit more nutritious.

I decided to count out some meatballs, 15 to be exact. These are just lightly seasoned meatballs, nothing special about them. No certain flavor. I threw them in a skillet with some Kraft Original BBQ Sauce and a little water and brought them to a boil. Turned it down to a simmer and let it go until the meatballs were heated through.

Add a side of mac-n-cheese, a salad, a glass of milk and ... Viola! A meal my boys will eat!

As usual, Henry gobbles up the salad (mixed organic) topped with Buttermilk Ranch dressing. Nelson starts off with the meatballs. "These are good! I hope you cooked more!" After they finished off everything... Henry is reluctant on the mac-n-cheese, and Nelson on the salad... they get more meatballs. Hooray! Something they both love!

I had the same meal and as Nelson would say, "The meatballs were quite tasty!"