Monday's Menu

Time to think about food again! If you're like me dinner time can become quite repeditive. Same meals over and over again.  I love to change it up by trying a new dish once a week. I also like to use my crock pot atleast once a week. I found this on Crock Pot girls site. So I hope you'll try out this recipe for your family.

NACHO CHEESE CHICKEN CHOWDER

1# Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (cut up)
2 (14.5 oz.) can Mexican-style diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (10.5 oz.) can Nacho Cheese soup
... 1 (10-oz.) pkg. frozen corn
Shredded Mexican-style cheddar cheese

In slow cooker, combine everything except shredded cheese & mix well. Cover &
cook for 4-5 hours on Low or 2-2 1/2 hours on High. Sprinkle each
serving with cheese. Makes 6 servings.

We also like ours served over tortilla chips :) Even my picky eaters liked this one!

Mondays Menu

Ok I am feeling really nice today and so I'm going to share the best sweet n sour chicken recipe ever!! It's a favorite for anyone we make it for!
1st~
1.5 to 2 pds of boneless chicken (I use chicken tenderloins)
corn starch
eggs
garlic salt

Cut up chicken in small pieces
Sprinkle garlic salt on chicken and stick in gallon bag and let sit in refrigerator for atleast an hour.

After it has sat in for an hour take it and dump in corn starch into the bag to cover chicken. Then dip in egg and then fry it to brown the outside of the chicken and then stick it in a 9 x 13 pan. Heat oven to 350 while you make the sauce.

2 cups sugar
1/4 cup overflowing ketchup
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/8 cup vinegar
1 TBSP lemon juice
mix and taste to see if you want it more sour or more sweet
Stick in microwave for 5 minutes stirring half way through
Pour over chicken and bake for 35-45 minutes.

So so so good! Your mouth will thank you!

Mondays Menu

Since Thanksgiving is this Thursday I thought I'd share a menu item for the big day!

Sweet Potato happiness

Ingredients

• 5 sweet potatoes
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. Bake sweet potatoes 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until they begin to soften. Cool slightly, peel, and mash.
3. In a large bowl, mix the mashed sweet potatoes, salt, 1/4 cup butter, eggs, vanilla extract, cinnamon, sugar, and heavy cream. Transfer to the prepared baking dish.
4. In a medium bowl, combine 1/4 cup butter, flour, brown sugar, and chopped pecans. Mix with a pastry blender or your fingers to the consistency of course meal. Sprinkle over the sweet potato mixture.
5. Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until topping is crisp and lightly browned. 

Can't wait for the big day!               

Mondays Menu

My family loves chicken cordon bleu. I try to make it at least once a month. Here's a great recipe~

Dinner~Chicken Cordon bleu

6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves


6 slices Swiss cheese

6 slices ham

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon paprika

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 cup heavy whipping cream

chopped basil, for garnish (optional)

1. Pound chicken breasts to 1/2 inch thickness. Place a cheese and ham slice on each breast within 1/2 inch of the edges. Fold the edges of the chicken over the filling, and secure with toothpicks. Mix the flour and paprika in a small bowl, and coat the chicken pieces.


2. Heat the butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, and cook the chicken until browned on all sides. Add the wine of broth and bouillon. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.

3. Remove the toothpicks, and transfer the breasts to a warm platter. Blend the cornstarch with the cream in a small bowl, and whisk slowly into the skillet. Cook, stirring until thickened, and pour over the chicken. Serve warm.

 
Dessert~Banana pudding dessert

1 (5 ounce) package vanilla instant pudding mix

2 cups cold milk

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 (8 ounce) Cool whip, thawed

1 (11 ounce) box Nabisco vanilla wafers

5 -6  ripe bananas, peeled and sliced

Love this mmmmmm, in fact I had better go make some :)

In a large mixing bowl beat together vanilla pudding mix and milk for 2-3 minutes until it begins to thicken. Blend in the sweetened condensed milk and mix until smooth. Stir in vanilla extract and fold in the thawed Cool Whip.

2 In a 13x9x2 glass dish layer the bottom with Nilla wafers, add a layer of sliced bananas over top of wafers. Pour enough pudding mixture over top of the first layer of wafers and bananas to cover,leaving some pudding for more layers.

3 Repeat layers of wafers,bananas and pudding.

4 End with a few wafers on top.

5 Cover and chill in refrigerator for several hours.

Mondays Menu

Tatortot casserole

1 lb hamburger
1 can cream of mushroom
1 1b frozen tatortots
shredded cheese

Brown habburger and drain. Add soup and stir together. let simmer for 10 minutes. Pour mixture into bottom of a 9 x 11 casserole dish. Lay tatortots on top. Cook at350' till tators are light brown. Take out and sprinkle cheese on top. So easy and so good!

Super Easy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies

1 box spice cake mix
1 can pumpkin

Mix together and put spoonfuls on baking sheet. Cook on 350' for 15 minutes or till toothpick when inserted comes out clean :)

Monday Menu

Here is a really simple recipe that my family loves.



Chips and chili
Ingredients~
3 cans of chili
1 can of corn (drained)
1 small can tomato sauce

toppings~
olives
shredded cheese

Mix the chili, corn and tomato sauce in a pan and let cook until hot. We serve ours on top of tortilla chips and then add olives and shredded cheese. ( I also like avocado on mine). This one comes in handy when I need a quick dinner.

Monday's Menu

So today I thought I'd share a recipe that we love to eat around here. Zuppa Toscana just like Olive gardens. It is so easy and really tastes great!

INGREDIENTS

1 lb ground Italian sausage

1/4 tsp crushed red peppers

1 large diced white onion

4 Tbsp bacon pieces

2 tsp garlic puree

10 cups water

5 cubes of chicken bouillon

1 cup heavy cream

1 lb sliced Russet potatoes, or about 3 large potatoes

¼ of a bunch of kale

1.Sauté Italian sausage and crushed red pepper in a large pot. Drain excess fat, refrigerate while you prepare other ingredients.
2.In the same pan, sauté bacon, onions and garlic over low-medium heat for approximately 15 mins. or until the onions are soft.

3.Add chicken bouillon and water to the pot and heat until it starts to boil.
4.Add the sliced potatoes and cook until soft, about half an hour.

5.Add the heavy cream and just cook until thoroughly heated.

6.Stir in the sausage and the kale, let all heat through and serve. Delicious!

Here's a recipe for a yummy chocolate zucchini cake too!

1 1/2 c sugar

2 eggs

2 1/2 c flour

4 T cocoa (heaping)

3/4 c oil

1/2 c buttermilk ("make" buttermilk by adding 1 TBS lemon juice to one cup milk and then letting it sit for five minutes to sour. Then use 1/2 cup for the recipe).

1 t. soda

1/2 t. salt

2 c grated zucchini (packed, push all the water out of it)

Mix sugar, eggs, oil, zucchini and cocoa. Add salt and soda. Then add flour alternating with buttermilk.

Pour in a greased and floured 9 x13 cake pan.

(24 muffins bake for 18 minutes)

Then sprinkle chocolate chips over the top - cover it completely!

Bake at 325 for 35-40 minutes. (Mine was done in 35 min and I used a lighter non-stick pan). Insert a toothpick in the center to see if done. Make sure it is not in a place where there is a choc chip because it will come out gooey.

*****Healthier version; replace the oil with apple sauce same amount and do half wheat flour half white.

Monday Menu's

So each Monday I'm going to share my favorite dinner ideas and a dessert too.....cause I love food! lol.  I always try and do one new meal a week at our house. It's so fun to try out new recipes. We definitely have some favorites around here too.

Just thought I'd share a easy teriyaki recipe. I love to throw this in the morning into the crock pot and let it cook all day.

As many Chicken thighs as you want ( I throw in around 12)

3 cups soy sauce

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp minced garlic

1 tsp ginger

salt and pepper

water to cover chicken

After chicken is cooked (I cook it 8 hours on low) I peel off the skin before I serve it. The skin keeps the moisture in while it's cooking. Chicken thighs work the best. Breasts get too dry. Really good over Botan rice.

And here's a really yummy dessert!

Pumpkin crisp

Mix

1 lg can of pumpkin

1 big can of sweetened cond milk

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3 eggs

and pour into bottom of casserole dish.

Sprinkle one box yellow cake mix on top.

Add over top 2 cubes melted butter and bake at 350 for 50 minutes. Oh la la this is so good. Add a spoonful  of cool whip on top.

Seriously better than even pumpkin pie! I highly recommend this yummy pumpkin crisp!

Thanks~