Cajun Chicken Pasta

Ingredients

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, bit size

4 oz. linguine

2 tsp. Cajun seasoning

2 tbsp. butter

1 thinly sliced green onion

1-2 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tbsp. chopped sun-dried tomatoes

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. dried basil

1/8 tsp. ground black pepper

1/8 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Methods/steps

Place chicken and Cajun seasoning in a bowl and toss to coat. In a large skillet over medium heat, sauté chicken in butter until chicken is tender, about 5 to 7 minutes. Reduce heat add green onion, heavy cream, tomatoes, basil, salt, garlic powder, black pepper and heat through. Pour over hot linguine and toss, with Parmesan cheese.

I of course doubled the recipe and used spiral noodles because that’s what I had at home! Also, used more green onions because we love them! Also, just used a fresh tomato chopped up.  And added way more jarred garlic! Didn’t have any basil so that got skipped! But it was amazing!! VERY easy to make and the girls also loved it.

Pepper Jack Spinach stuffed Chicken

• 3 or 4 cups of fresh spinach leaves.
• 1/2 cup sour cream (approx)
• 1/2 cup shredded pepper jack cheese (approx)
• 2 or 3 tablespoons of jarred garlic
• 3skinless, boneless chicken breast - pounded to 1/2 inch thickness
• 6 slices bacon

Directions

1.     Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

2.     Place spinach in a large glass bowl, and heat in the microwave for 3 minutes, stirring every minute or so, or until wilted, drain liquid.  Stir in sour cream, pepper jack cheese and garlic.

3.     Lay the chicken breasts out and spoon some of the spinach mixture onto each one. Roll up chicken to enclose the spinach, and then wrap each chicken breast with two slices of bacon. Secure with toothpicks, and arrange in a shallow baking dish.

4.     Bake uncovered for 35 minutes in the preheated oven, then increase heat to 500 degrees to cook for an additional 5 to 10 minutes to brown the bacon.

Baked Potato Pizza

The most amazing foods I have ever made! Brent says its on his top 5 list of foods I make!! We used a store bought crust so we didn’t have to mess with that, but you could make your own also.

Ingredients

• 1 pizza crust—ours was I think a 12 inch
• 6 medium unpeeled potatoes, baked (I boiled mine) and cooled
• 2 tablespoon butter or margarine, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
• 2 cup sour cream
• 12 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled (I just used a pound)
• 6 green onions, chopped (if you like green onions I would suggest adding some more!)
• 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (I used a little less)
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (I used a little more!)

Directions

1.      Prepare crust according to package directions—so these times are for the crust we had.  Bake at 400 degrees F for 5-6 minutes or until crust is firm and begins to brown. –we also dribbled olive oil on the crust before putting in the oven.

2.      Cut potatoes into 1/2-in. cubes. In a bowl, combine butter, garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Add potatoes and toss. Spread sour cream over crust; top with potato mixture, bacon, onions and cheeses. Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting.

ENJOY!! Let me know if you like it!!!

Scalloped Potatoes with Ham

One of my new favorite recipes!!! I double the recipe because one batch just isn’t enough for the 5 of us.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 4 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
• 12 ounces cubed baked ham
• 2 cups grated cheddar cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a baking dish. In saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium high heat. Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute. Remove saucepan from heat and whisk in milk. Return pan to heat and bring to a simmer while stirring. When sauce has thickened remove from heat, season with salt and pepper and set aside. In a skillet, cook onions in melted butter until golden brown. Season with salt and pepper. Spread 1/3 of the white sauce in bottom of baking dish and top with half of the potatoes. Spread out half of the onions, ham, cheese And another third of the sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Continue layering ingredients, ending with the remaining cheese on top. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden and bubbly.

The key is to make sure you use plenty of salt and pepper or it doesn’t have a lot of taste!!! Enjoy!

Grilled Shrimp

Brent and I made this months ago after I found it online.  Had forgotten all about it until it was emailed to me in my “Recipe Of The Day” from Allrecipes.com (my favorite recipe site!)  It was amazing!! Can’t wait to make it next week.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 1/2 lemons, juiced
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup minced fresh basil leaves
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• salt to taste
• white pepper
• 3 pounds fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
• skewers

Directions

1.      In a shallow bowl, mix together olive oil and melted butter. Stir in lemon juice, mustard, basil, and garlic, and season with salt and white pepper (I used regular pepper).  Add shrimp, and mix. Cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

2.      Preheat grill to high heat. Remove shrimp from marinade, and thread onto skewers.

3.      Lightly oil grill grate, and arrange skewers on preheated grill. Cook for 4 minutes, turning once, or until opaque.

Cucumber Salad

As requested!!! My mom used to make this all the time, very easy but goes wonderful with grilled food!

Ingredients

2 large cucumbers

1 medium tomato

1 small onion

Ranch dressing

Directions-

Peal cucumbers let soak for 10-15 minutes in salt water.  Drain and cut up into bite size pieces, cut onion and tomato mix in bowl.  Add 1/2 -1/3 cup dressing over top, stir and chill for a little while.  If you let sit over night it gets a really good flavor. 

Spicy Chicken Dip

I have made it a few times now and it is a huge hit every time!  I made this for Bryekins birthday party yesterday and under my thumb nail still hurts from shredding the chicken, but WAY better shredded by hand then cut!  Also, I have seen similar recipes online where they bake the dip…could be good if you are going to have access to an oven. 

Ingredients

8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup blue cheese dressing-Kraft is best!

1/2 cup original Franks Redhot Sauce (I cut this in half, so I only use ¼ cup)

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

Mix in large bowl and serve! I usually serve with pretzels….but could use crackers, chips, or mixed veggies.

Harvest Potatoes

One of my families favorite side recipe!!! Great for brunch, lunch or dinner!

32 oz frozen hashbrowns (little square ones are best) thawed

1 can crème of chicken soup

1 cup sour cream

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

½ cup melted butter

1 small onion

Pinch of salt

Dash of pepper

2 cups crushed Chex

¼ cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix all the top ingredients together in bowl, and put in a glass baking dish.  Mix crushed chex and butter and pour over top.  Bake for 45 minutes.

Beef Enchiladas

This is what I am making for dinner tonight! Has been one of my favorite dinners since I was little and Roxie would make! Yummy!

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
½ cup sour cream
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1/3 cup green bell pepper, chopped
2/3 cup water
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/4 tsp ground cumin
4.5 oz can diced green chiles
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 15 oz cab tomato sauce
8 tortillas (5-6" in diameter)

Directions
1. Heat oven to 350.
2. Cook beef and onion in 10-inch skillet over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until brown; drain. STIR in sour cream, 1 cup cheese, the parsley, and pepper. Remove from heat.
3. Heat bell pepper, water, chili powder, oregano, cumin, chilies (which I don’t use), garlic, and tomato sauce to boiling in 2-qt saucepan, stirring occasionally; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered 5 minutes. Pour into ungreased pie plate.
4. Dip each tortilla into sauce in pie plate to coat both sides. SPOON about ¼ cup beef mixture onto each tortilla; fold up tortilla. Place seam side down in ungreased rectangular baking dish, 11 x 7 x 1 ½ inches. Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas.
5. Bake uncovered about 20 minutes or until bubbly.
6. Garnish with shredded cheese, sour cream, and chopped onions.  I also put salsa on top!

"Cheater Lasgana"

For my BZ girls!

1 Pound Hamburger

1 Small onion

½ package egg noodles (in the bag)

1 cup sour cream

1 cup cottage cheese

2 cups mozzarella cheese

1 jar spaghetti sauce (which ever kind you like!)

Brown burger and onion, mix in sauce and set aside.  Boil noodles and drain.  Use a greased casserole pan.  Make sure the noodles are drained very well and lay on the bottom.  Next take the sour cream and cottage cheese, mix and lay on top of the noodles.  Next will be the meat/sauce.  Make sure you kind of drain the sauce so it isn’t super runny.  Layer this next.  Last is the cheese.  Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until cheese is browned.  Serve with garlic bread! A family favorite.

Salsa

This is one of Brent and I’s favorite snacks to make or should say eat! In the summer I like to go to the farmers market to get the ingredients.  It’s a little time consuming but it is so worth it.   It is easy to make and lasts almost a week.  Can alter the recipe to your liking, make more or less. 

Ingredients

3 large tomatoes

1 large green pepper

2 medium onions

2 jalapenos

1 lime

1 teaspoon Salt

1 can tomato puree (I used about 12oz this time)

Directions

Cut the tomatoes, pepper, onions, jalapenos into small pieces and mix together, add salt.  Squeeze lime juice into the mixture.  Add the can of tomato puree and serve! 

You can easily double the recipe, or add more jalapenos to make spicier.  Last time we used I think 5 jalapenos and I could hardly eat it….so I only put 2 in this time and its perfect for me!

Veggie Pizza

As requested!! I made this for the Super Bowl. Brent never had this before and he loved it!

Veggie Pizza

Ingredients:

2 tubes (8 ounces) crescent rolls

1 package of cream cheese

¾ cup sour cream

Hidden Valley Dip Mix, Original Ranch Dip

1 ½ -2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower

Directions:

Roll crescent rolls into a baking pan, pinch seams together.  Bake at 375 for 7-10 minutes, let cool.  In bowl mix soften cream cheese, sour cream and ranch.  Spread this mixture over baked crescent rolls.  Spread cheese and veggies over the top.  Cut into squares with pizza cutter.

Chicken Turnovers!

This is what we had for dinner last night! I made up the mixture before work and then stuffed while the oven was preheating.  One of our favorites!

Ingredients

• 3 diced cooked chicken breasts
• 1 package shredded reduced-fat cream cheese
• 2 tablespoon finely chopped onion
• Salt/pepper
• 1 tablespoon chopped chives
• 2 tubes (8 ounces) crescent rolls (sometimes I use 3 depending on how full I want them-if you do that you’ll have 12 of them instead of 8)
• ¼ cup milk
• Sour Cream

Directions

• In a bowl, combine chicken, cream cheese, onion, salt and pepper, chives. Separate crescent dough into 8 squares; top each with chicken mixture. Fold dough over and seal edges. So it’ll be like 2 of the triangles put together.  Make sure you seal up the creases really well.
• Place on a greased baking sheet. Drizzle milk over the top. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
• Top with Sour Cream!

The start!

This is my first attempt at a blog....so we will see how it goes! I love to cook, have been trying to find a hobby and everyone always asks me for my recipes.  So I thought this might be fun! I plan on posting some of my families favorite recipes-from full meals to appetizers. I'll also try to post pictures.  If you try one of mine let me know how you liked it so I can let others know! :) Enjoy!