Campfire Blackberry Cobbler

Hungry Man has really gotten into campfire cookingand finally tried his hand at dessert. It. Was. Fabulous.! Campfire Blackberry Cobbler.... So simple too.

2-12 oz bags of frozen blackberries (it would be better with fresh seedless but they aren't in season right now) and 1/2 c. sugar. Toss together and pour in the bottom of your cast iron dutch oven. Then used the bisquick biscuit recipe but added 1 1/2 c. sugar to it. "Dropped" it on top of the cobbler and then sprinkled on a little more sugar and put a few pats of butter on top.

I don't know much about the campfire part of it but you do something like pile up a bunch of hot coals, set your dutch oven on top... ...then pile some hot coals on that and check on it once in a while. When the crust is nice and brown, it's ready to eat! Of course, it's best served like the first picture you saw... with some Blue Bell!

Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Tacos

Tired of eating pot roast the "regular" way? We are and we've been on a Mexican food kick lately so I decided to try making the roast differently. It turned out great! The kids even loved it.

1.5 lb pot roast
1 pk of low sodium taco seasoning
1 small can roasted garlic tomato sauce
1 small can of water
flour tortillas
avacado
cheese

Rub the taco seasoning into the roast. Put it in your crockpot and pour the tomato sauce and water over it. Let it cook on low until tender. The tomato sauce will thicken so you may need to add more water to it as it cooks. Once it's tender, shred the meat and stir it into the tomato sauce. Serve wrapped in a tortilla with cheese and avacado slices and any other toppings you like! We also topped ours with a store bought Island Chipotle Dip which is basically sour cream mixed with chipotle powder and other seasonings. Super Yum!

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!! :