Pea + Peanut Salad

This is one of those "you have to try it before you decide" recipes. It sounds weird; I was skeptical at first as well. But once I tried it, I was sold. It's sweet and crunchy, savory and creamy, all at the same time.

Pea & Peanut Salad

1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 lb frozen peas, thawed
1 lb Spanish or cocktail peanuts

In a bowl, combine everything except the peas and peanuts. Mix well. Gently stir in the peas and peanuts, ensuring everything is coated well. Chill at least one hour before serving.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars - a nice, different side dish. I served it with smoked sausage and noodles. As a bonus, my two-year old scarfed it down!

Yummy Potato Casserole

Potato Casserole

1 package (30oz) frozen shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese (I used 1 cup cheddar and 1 cup of hot pepper cheese)
1/4 c. chopped onion
2 c. sour cream
1 can of condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1/2 c. butter, melted and divided
2 c. French's Fried Onions
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

In a large bowl, combine the hash browns, cheese, onion, green peppers, salt and pepper. In another bowl, combine sour cream, soup and 1/4 of the melted butter. Pour over potato mixture and mix gently. Pour into a greased 3 qt. baking dish. Toss French's Fried Onions in the remaining melted butter and sprinkle over the top of the casserole. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes.

This is great for potlucks, dinner parties and holidays.

Yummy Factor: 5 stars!

BBQ Kielbasa

I apologize for not having a picture of these. I assure you, they are excellent.

BBQ Kielbasa Appetizers

2 lbs of Kielbasa, cut into 1/2 inch pieces, cooked and slightly browned
1- 18oz bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. Dijon Mustard
1 beer

In a large saucepan, bring beer, sugar, BBQ sauce and mustard to a boil. Boil for 15 minutes and add cooked kielbasa. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes until sauce is glazey.

Rating: Well, since these disappeared so quickly that I could not get a picture, I would say they are pretty good. 5 stars for sure!

Spinach Salad with Homemade Dressing

MMMMM, this is one of my favorites. I LOVE a good spinach salad with all kinds of goodies on it. It's definitely worthy of the description, "YUMMY!"

Spinach Salad with Homemade Dressing

Salad:
10 oz baby spinach, torn
1/2 cup sliced red onion (I used sweet since I had it on-hand)
1 pear, cored and sliced/chopped
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
8 oz. grilled chicken, sliced

Dressing:
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

Mix the salad ingredients in a large bowl. In a blender or large bowl, mix together all the dressing ingredients. Blend or use stick blender to blend. Pour on salad and toss well. Allow to stand 5-10 min before serving. Enjoy, and try not to lick the bowl clean.

Chicken Marsala

Ahhh, where has the time gone? Let's see, work, work, work, sinus infection, chronic cough, work and work. I think that just about sums it up.

Almost 2 weeks ago, we had some friends over for dinner. The menu was Chicken Marsala, Roasted Red Skinned Potatoes and Garden Salad (mac n cheese and corn for the kids!). I love when my friends with children come over. I vacuum, dust, fluff pillows, tidy all my knick knacks and, in 2.2 nanoseconds, you cannot even tell the difference. They came packed for a weekend visit and I think they were there for 3-4 hours. It's hilarious and I loved every minute of it! They filled my home with giggles and grins. Come back soon, ok?

Chicken Marsala and Roasted Red Skinned Potatoes

Ingredients:
1/4 cup all-purpose flour for coating
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded 1/4 inch thick
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup Marsala wine
1/4 cup cooking sherry


In a shallow dish or bowl, mix together the flour, salt, pepper and oregano. Coat chicken pieces in flour mixture. In a large skillet, melt butter in oil over medium heat. Place chicken in the pan, and lightly brown. Turn over chicken pieces, and add mushrooms. Pour in wine and sherry. Cover skillet; simmer chicken 10 minutes, turning once, until no longer pink and juices run clear.



Roasted Red Skinned Potatoes

Ingredients:
3 lbs Red Skinned Potatoes
1/2 c. (approximately) Olive Oil
4 tbsp. Tastefully Simple Season Salt (yes, it makes a difference!)
1 onion, diced

In a large 9x11 pan, pour 1/4 c. olive oil into the bottom of the pan. Add diced red skinned potatoes and onion. Add remaining olive oil. Sprinkle season salt and mix well. Bake for 1 hour @ 450 degrees or until browned.

Meal Rating: 4.5 out of 5. The potatoes took a little longer to cook, so my chicken was cold. I will defiantly make this again. Becki, what did you think?

Chicken Enchiladas

These are spicy, cheesy and delicious. Yum!

Ingredients:

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 c. sour cream
4 tsp. chili powder
2 c. cooked chicken, cubed or shredded
2 c. Colby jack shredded cheese
1 c. Pace Medium Picante Sauce
5-6 tortilla shells

In a large bowl combine cream of chicken soup, sour cream, picante sauce and chili powder. In a small bowl combine 1/2 of chicken soup mixture, add chicken and 1 c. cheese. Mix well. Divide the Chicken mixture evenly between the 5-6 tortillas. Toll and place in a 9x13 pan. Spread the remaining chicken soup mixture over the rolled shells. Sprinkle 1 c. shredded cheese over shells. Cover with foil and bake @ 350 for 40-45 minutes. Serve with rice and corn cake.

Crock Pot Lasagna

This recipe is courtesy of Bob Evans:

Crock Pot Lasagna

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. Bob Evans Sausage
1/2 lb. lean hamburger
2-24 oz jars of pasta sauce (I used Prego)
12 oz. Ricotta cheese (I substituted 2 c. Provolone)
2 cups Mozzarella
1 cup uncooked lasagna noodles broken into small pieces
1 tsp. parsley

Brown sausage and hamburger in a large skillet. Spray crock pot with non stick cooking spray. In a large crock pot, mix pasta sauce, sausage, hamburger, ricotta (or Provolone), 1 c. of the mozzarella, parsley and uncooked noodles. Cook on low for 4-6 hours or until pasta is tender. 5 minutes before serving, sprinkle the remaining 1 c. mozzarella on top and cover.

Meal rating: 4 out of 5. Kevin really liked it, but it's a bit meaty for my liking. If you like meaty lasagna, than you should be happy with the outcome.

Our first guest contributor - Crystal!

I must say, I find it ironic that our first guest contributor is Crystal. Don't get me wrong - Crystal is a great friend, a wonderful mother, and an all-around good person. However, I think she'd be the first to tell you, she's not a cook. So, for her to share this recipe with me, it must be worthy of posting.

There's only one other thing that I know Crystal likes to make, and I encourage everyone to beg her to share her infamous baked chicken recipe - you'll definitely love it! C'mon Crystal - please????

Toddler-Approved Chicken Nuggets
(Recipe courtesy of Huggies Baby Network)

Ingredients:
2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 tablespoons margarine or butter, melted
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup dried bread crumbs (plain or Italian)
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Cut chicken into 1 inch pieces. Combine chicken, melted margarine, and Worcestershire in a 1 quart freezer bag. Combine the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese in a second freezer bag.

Tape the two bags together. Label and freeze.

To prepare for serving, thaw and remove the chicken pieces from the marinade. Shake them in the bread crumb bag to coat, a few at a time.

Preheat oven to 450. Arrange chicken on a greased cookie sheet. Bake 7-9 minutes or until no longer pink in the center.

Meal Rating: 5 out of 5. Quick, easy, and fairly healthy. And no fighting with toddlers - they'll actually eat this one!

Pecan-Crusted Chicken

I have to preface this recipe by letting anyone who doesn't know me know that I have chicken issues. We won't go into detail, but if it seems that my cooking time is overkill and you don't like dry chicken and you don't have chicken issues, then please adjust the cooking time accordingly. :)

Pecan-Crusted Chicken

INGREDIENTS
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons real maple syrup
1 cup chopped pecans (I ground the heck out of them in my rocket blender thingy)
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon salt
2-4 tablespoons vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS

In a shallow dish, combine pecans, breadcrumbs, and salt.

Cut breasts in half and pound to 1/2" thickness (not necessary but I think it's worth the effort.)
Toss chicken breasts in a ziploc with maple syrup. Coat chicken breasts completely with nut mixture.

In a large skillet over medium heat, heat vegetable oil. Add chicken, and here's where you can vary the recipe. You can either cook for 4 to 5 minutes until chicken is browned on each side, and finish in oven if you are cooking something else. (I put them in a 450F oven for 15 min with crash hot potatoes. It was a bit too much.) Or you can just cook them in the pan for 12-15 min until cooked through.

Meal Rating: 4 out of 5. They were good, a bit dry, but they needed a bit of something. Garlic maybe? A dash of hotsauce? Some seasoned salt? I can't quite decide what would work with pecans.

Southwestern Wraps

This is an easy recipe. You can throw just about anything in there and it's still yummy!

Southwestern Wraps

Ingredients:

4 small flour tortillas
1 red pepper-sliced
1/3. c. chopped pecans
1/4 red onion-sliced
1 clove of garlic-pressed
1 tsp. Tastefully Simple Fiesta Party Mix
1/4 c. Ranch
Red Hot
8 slices of bacon (I use the microwavable kind)
1 chicken breast (cooked and cut into cubes-leftover chicken works well too)
1 tsp. butter
1/2 head of lettuce-chopped

In a small pan, sautee butter, red peppers, red onion, pecans, pressed garlic, Tastefully Simple Fiesta Party Mix, a few dashes of Red Hot. Sautee these until the onion and peppers are soft. Add cubed chicken and chopped up bacon to heat.

In a medium bowl, mix together lettuce, ranch and a few dashes of Red Hot. Add hot mixture into that bowl and mix together. Divide evenly over 4 flour tortillas and roll into a wrap.


Meal Rating: 5 out of 5 stars. This is a quick, easy meal that has a spicy kick. Yum!

Yummified Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

This super easy recipe is from our Slow Cooker Cook Book.

Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:

4 green bell peppers (fresh from the garden!!!!)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 c. shredded pepper jack cheese
3/4 c. medium salsa
1/2 c. corn
1/2 c. chopped green onions with tops
1/3 c. uncooked long grain rice
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
sour cream (optional)

Cut thin slice off top of each bell pepper. Carefully remove seeds, leaving pepper whole. Combine remaining ingredients except sour cream in a medium bowl. Spoon filling evenly into each pepper. Place peppers in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours. Serve with a dollop of sour cream, if desired.

I did not add the black beans just because I do not like them. We also used cheddar cheese rather than pepper jack because I was not making a special trip to the store for cheese. I did add a few dashes of hot sauce to take it up a notch.

Meal Rating: 4 1/4 out of 5 stars. They were good, but the pepper was too soft. We cooked these for 5 1/2 hours. Next time, we will only cook them 4 hours. This recipe is a keeper.

Yumminess in sandwich form - Monte Cristo

This is not a typical Monte Cristo; since I don't really care for turkey, I opted to double the ham. Whatever you add on the inside is up to you, but the batter for this is just about perfect!

Enjoy!


Amy's Monte Cristo
(adapted from here)

INGREDIENTS

oil for frying
2/3 cup water
1 egg
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 slices white bread
4 slices Swiss cheese (I used mozzarella as that's what we had!)
8 slices ham
4 T. honey mustard dressing
1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar for dusting, optional

DIRECTIONS
Heat 1-2 inches of oil in high-sided frying pan.

While oil is heating, whisk together the egg and water. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt, and whisk until smooth.

Assemble sandwiches by spreading honey mustard on 4 of the slices of bread. Place one slice of ham on one slice of bread, a slice of ham on another, then sandwich them with the cheese in the middle. Cut sandwiches in halves.

Dip each sandwich half in the batter so that all sides are coated. Deep fry in the hot oil until golden brown on all sides. If desired, dust with confectioners' sugar just before serving.

Meal Rating: 5 out of 5. Quick, easy, cheap, and while not at all healthy, totally tasty!

Not So Yummy Chicken Paprikash

I was so excited to make this recipe I found online. It received rave reviews! Unfortunately, it tastes like hot sour cream and is very bland. Please add any suggestions on how to improve in the comments.

Chicken Paprikash

Ingredients:
1/2 c. flour
3 tbsp. Hungarian Paprika
dash of salt
dash of pepper
2 chicken breasts
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 c. chopped onion
1/8 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
2 c. chicken broth
1 c. sour cream

Combine flour, 2 tbsp. paprika, salt and pepper. Dredge chicken pieces in flour mixture. Reserve extra flour mixture. Add oil to large dutch oven. Heat oil over medium heat. Add chicken and brown chicken on both sides, approx 8 minutes. Remove chicken from pot. Add a little extra oil to the pot if it looks dry. Add onion, Cayenne pepper, 1 tsp. paprika and salt. Sautee onion until tender. Return chicken to pot and add chicken broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 35-45 minutes or until chicken is cooked. Remove from heat and let cool down. Combine reserve flour and 1/2 c. sour cream. Add a small amount of liquid from pot into flour mixture and whisk until smooth. Add mixture to pot, stirring constantly. Simmer for 5 minutes. Let cool down again and add remaining sour cream, stirring constantly. Sauce should be a very pale orange. Heat again for about 1 minute. Serve over Hungarian nokedli.

Hungarian Nokedli

Ingredients:

2 eggs
3/4 c. water
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. all purpose flour
1 large pot of salted boiling water

Combine eggs, water and salt. Whisk thoroughly. Add flour a little at a time. Whisk well. Let stand for 10 minutes. Beat well again. Spoon small amounts of dough into the boiling water. The noodles are done when they float to the top of the water. Remove from water with slotted spoon and place in a collander. Rinse with cold water.

Meal rating: This one is a tough one. I gave it 1 out of 5 stars. Mostly because I labored all day on it. Kevin gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars. He said it's just missing something. He ate 2 bowls of it, but that does not say much. He will eat almost anything. I guess hot sour cream over homemade dumplings is one of them. :)

Please feel free to forward your edible Chicken Paprikash recipes to be posted. I am still looking a keeper. This was not it.

A yummy dinner even your husband can make!

I hope everyone is sitting down. Are you sitting? I don't want any lawsuits over injuries resulting from shock over a blog entry.

OK, here goes.

My husband cooked dinner last night. And it was good.

I know, I know. I shouldn't say such shocking things, but it's entirely true. And he did it without me having to ask and had it ready when I got home from work with the kids in tow. And it was entirely worthy of an entry here.

Meatloaf Muffins

1.5 lbs lean ground beef (turkey or chicken would probably work as well, I just don't like ground fowl)
2 eggs
1 c. milk
1 package Stove Top
Ketchup

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients together. Your hands will work the best! Divide mixture evenly into 12 muffin tins. Drizzle each muffin with ketchup (A-1 or a mix of the two is good as well). Bake for 30 min or until muffins are done.

We had it with mac n cheese.

Meal Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (and not just because he cooked!) Easy, relatively healthy, great leftovers.

Wow, that was a yummy dinner!

For my first post, I thought I'd share what we had for dinner last night - slow-cooked asian pork, steamed broccoli, and rice. It's tried-and-true in our household and was a good go-to meal after a disastrous dinner the night before (note to self, you do not like chicken on the bone, no matter how good the recipe sounds.) I also love the fact that it is essentially ready as soon as we get home.

I got this recipe off the internet but failed to note from where, so if I owe you credit, just let me know!

Slow-cooked Asian Pork

2 lbs. boneless pork (just about any cut will do - I used country-style boneless ribs last night)
1/2 c. soy sauce (I'd recommend low-sodium unless you think cankles are hot)
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. ketchup
1 t. ground ginger (or if you are feeling fancy, fresh ginger)
2-4 cloves minced garlic
2 T. cornstarch, optional

Spray slow cooker with non-stick spray. Lay pork in bottom. Mix other ingredients (except cornstarch) together in a small bowl. Pour over pork. Cook on low 4-5 hours or high 2-3 hours.

To thicken sauce, mix cornstarch with a small amount of water and add to slowcooker. Or pour sauce into a small sauce pan and boil until thickens slightly.

Again, I served it with steamed broccoli and rice. Sugar snap peas also go really well with it as would stir-fried veggies or any other asian-inspired side dish.

Meal Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars - easy to make, few ingredients, tasty, healthy.