Chicken Dorito Casserole

I searched on to find a good chicken dorito casserole recipe. I found one and tweeked it a little bit. We all loved it!

1lb of chicken breast strips seasoned with lawrys, garlic, and pepper.
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 small can diced green chilies
1 8oz container of sour cream
3-4 green onions, chopped
A bag of doritos
colby jack cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Saute and chop the chicken strips. Lightly grease the bottom of a 9X13 pan. Cover the bottom with crushed doritos. Mix chicken, soup, chilies, sour cream and green onions. Pour mixture over the doritos and cover with colby jack cheese. Cover dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 5 min. or until cheese is golden and bubbly.

For the kids sake, I gave the green chilies and onions a really fine chop so they wouldn't see them and complain about them! :)

Dale's Steak Seasoning and a Pork Tenderloin... Yummy!

Hallelujah! :)

I fixed something "new" to the kids tonight. I knew James and I would like it (although he hasn't got to taste it yet!) but was unsure about the kids... and guess what... they liked it!!!

We had a pork tenderloin and scalloped potatos. I was going to have a real veggie with it too but tonight just felt like a meat and potatoes kind of night!

The scalloped potatos were just from a box so I won't go into detai there.

For the pork tenderloin...I marinated it in Dale's Steak Seasoning http://www.dalesseasoning.com/. You can get it at most any grocery store. My step-sister, Donna, told me about it. She lives in Alabama and that is where the sauce comes from. Although it's labeled "seasoning" it's a LIQUID marinade. Anyway, it has soy sauce in it so I thought it would taste good with pork. We've already had it on other meats and it's always great. One tip.... it's salty so don't marinate your meat for too long...just a short time before you cook it. They do make a low-sodium variety but I haven't seen it a the store yet.

Okay... back to the pork. I marinated in Dale's for a while. I put a little vegetable oil in an iron skillet on high. I browned the tenderloin on all sides to seal in the juices and flavor. I sliced half an onion and threw that in the skillet along with some sliced pineapple and pineapple juice (just enough liquid for the onions and pineapple not to dry up). Put a lid on it and stuck it in the oven pre-heated to 425. Now, here we like our pork with NO pink in the middle. So I cooked it for 45 minutes. With a lid on it, it stays moist. If you like it medium, just cook it for 25-30 minutes.

The pork turned out perfect!!! Moist and flavorful! The pineapple combined with that flavor from Dale's was superb. I can imagine next time having it with rice instead of the potatoes. Yummy!!!

Teriyaki Beef

Yesterday for lunch I threw together my version of teriyaki beef. I can't remember what cut of beef it was but it was some big thin steak... maybe sirloin? Anyway, I sliced it up really thin and put in a ziploc bag with a 1/3 bottle of teriyaki marinade, a small can of pineapple juice, two cloves of garlic and about 3/4 tsp of chipotle chili powder. I let it set in the fridge for an hour and then cooked it in the marinade on the stove. I put it on top of white rice with a splash of low sodium soy sauce and a spoonful of pineapple tidbits. It was SOOO good. James loved it and so did Henry! The chili powder gave it a little kick but it wasn't too spicy. We'll definitely eat it again. Next time, I'll add some veggies... whatever we have on hand.

No more cooking!

Well, no more cooking for me until the A/C is fixed! I'll let you know when I get back to it.

Oh, and I noticed in the pictures below the pan looks dirty... it is not, it's just burnt! Honest, I only cook in clean dishes!!! LOL

I did make a yummy salad the other day though. You've probably had it before. My boys won't it eat. It's one of mine and hubby's favorite summer salads though. It's easy, inexepensive and tasty! Plus it's easy to make it a complete meal by tossing in some cubed grilled chicken. I think it'd even be good with pineapple tidbits in it too if you are adding the chicken.


Oriental Cole Slaw

1 pack of cole slaw mix
1 pack of ramen noodles (any flavor you like)
1 extra seasoning packet from ramen noodles
1 cup shredded carrots
5 green onions chopped
sunflower seeds
1/3 c. sugar (preferably white but it tastes okay w/ brown too if that's all you've got)
1/3 c. rice vinegar (or red wine vinegar)*
1/2 c. corn oil

Toss cole slaw mix, ramen noodles (broken), carrots, and green onions. Whisk together 2 ramen noodle seasoning packets, sugar, vinegar, and oil. Pour over salad and toss with sunflower seeds half an hour before serving.

*Rice vinegar can usually be found in the asian section of your local grocer.

Stuffed Jalepenos

I decided to make some stuffed jalepenos for James to grill tonight. I didn't have a recipe so I just "winged" it....

I cooked half a chicken breast in a skillet seasoned with Tony Cacheres, shredded it and let it cool. I mixed that in with most of a block of cream cheese I had that was softened, some shredded cheddar and crumbled bacon. I added a little more Tony's and some garlic. I sliced the tops off the peppers, stuffed the chicken and cheese mixture in them and stuck the tops back on.

Now, my dad has a nifty little jalepeno stand he made using washers that he welded together to make a stand but I haven't talked him into making one for me so I just stuck them all together with toothpicks so they will stand up on the grill. (see pics below)

These will be our side dish to whatever we're having.... either tacos or grilled chicken. :)

Before Cooking:

Finished! YUMMO!! :

Romantic Dinner for Two

Wow! It's been a while since I've been here!

James and I have been watching cooking shows and decided that this week while the kids were away we'd have our own little cooking show. We used some recipes we found on food network. Steak, shrimp, corn & potatoes...and well, it was the BEST!

We first visited a little country winery in Maydelle. Now we are not well versed in the world of wines but this was a neat little place. It's kind of in the middle of no where on a dirt road. If it wasn't for the signs we never in a million years would have guessed this to be a winery. So we go in and taste a few wines, mostly fruit wines rather than grape. We decided to go with their Gavyn Blush (which turned out to be more of a red) and the Texas Sunset. The Texas Sunset is made with pear and apricots and has a very light sweet taste.

Okay... on to the food! We got our shopping done then went home and got everything prepped. I have never enjoyed cooking so much! It was really nice to be there working with James without the kids tugging at us the entire time. We do work well together!

If you like lime & cilantro you will LOVE these recipes. They are great for summer when you want that steak but also want a taste that is light, cool, and fresh. There is quite a bit of prepwork involved but it's well worth it for the flavor and the quality time you spend together. I'll list the recipes and their ingredients below but to get the directions, click on the name! If you try these, I'd love to hear what you think about them!

Grilled T-Bones with Chipotle Chili Rub and Cilantro-Lime Compound Butter
2 sticks butter
3 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro leaves
1 lime, juiced and zested
2 tablespoons steak seasoning blend for the grill (recommended: Montreal Seasoning by McCormick)
1 tablespoon chipotle (smoky) ground chili powder or dark chili powder
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
4 T-bone steaks, 1 1/2 inch thick

Roasted Corn on the Cob with Cilantro Lime Butter
6 ears of corn
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1 lime, zested and juiced
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper


Now this shrimp one, I would have preferred a citrus flavor over the thyme but it was still okay.
Grilled Shrimp with Garlic
3/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons freshly chopped thyme leaves
1 1/2 tablespoons ancho chili powder
6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
24 large shrimp, shelled and deveined
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

Grilled Potatoes
This was James' own creation. We boiled red potatoes until almost done then sliced them and put them on the grill until they were a nice golden brown. While that was going on, he also had several slices of bacon on the grill. Once both were done cooking, he drizzled olive oil and sprinkled the potatoes with salt & pepper. Then he topped with crumbled bacon and a little cheese. It was YUMMY!

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!