Chicken Enchiladas

Chicken Enchiladas are one of the reasons why I love freezer meals! These taste just as good after they have been in the freezer as they do fresh.

1 c. onion, chopped
1/2 c. green pepper, chopped
2 T. butter
2 c. cooked chicken or turkey
3 T. butter
1/4 c. flour
1 t. ground coriander
3/4 t. salt
2 1/2 c. chicken broth
1 c. sour cream
1 -1/2 c. Mexican blend shredded cheese
12 -6 inch tortillas

Cooking day instructions
Cook onion and green pepper in 2T. butter until tender. Combine onion mixture in a bowl with chicken; set aside.

For sauce, melt 3 T. butter and stir in flour, coriander, and salt. Stir in chicken broth all at once; cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 1-2 minutes more. Remove from heat; stir in sour cream and 1/2 cup of cheese. Stir 1/2 cup of sauce into chicken mixture.

Fill each tortilla with 1/4 cup of chicken mixture. Roll up. Arrange rolls in a lined baking dish for freezing. Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Freeze.

Serving day instructions
When you are ready to serve it, thaw completely in the refrigerator. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or until bubbly.

Hawaiian Chicken

This is another good meal to prepare ahead of time and put in the freezer.  I got this out of the Don't Panic - dinner's in the freezer, cookbook.

6lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

2-16oz cans pineapple slices or chunks, drained

2-15oz cans mandarin oranges, drained

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce 

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 t. salt

1 t. ground ginger

1/2 t. ground red pepper

Original recipe yields 8-10 servings

Cooking day instructions

Place chicken in freezer bag.  Mix together fruit, cornstarch, sugar, soy sauce, lemon juice, salt, ginger and ground red pepper.  Pour over the chicken in bag.  Freeze, using freezer bag method.

Serving day instructions

Thaw chicken mixture.  Place in Crock-Pot, cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours or on high for 2-3 hours.  Optional - add green pepper chunks to crock pot one hour before serving.

We serve this over rice.  So yummy!

Freezer meals

I have recently become obsessed with having meals readily available in our freezer. Most of them just need to be thawed out and put in the oven or crockpot.  I get great satisfaction when I look in the freezer and find it full!  

There are two books that I have been making meals out of.  Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer: Great-Tasting Meals You Can Make Ahead by Susie Martinez, Bonnie Garcia and Vanda Howell.  And their second book Don't Panic--More Dinner's in the Freezer: A Second Helping of Tasty Meals You Can Make Ahead.  I checked them out from the library and will be doing a review on them soon on my book review blog.  I just wanted to let everyone know about these two great books.

Sophilla Cheesecake Pie

This week the menu is filled with all sorts of recipes we've never had before.  Here is one that I found on Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon Mexican vanilla extract
• 2 (8 ounce) cans refrigerated crescent rolls
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup honey

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Prepare a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Beat the cream cheese with 1 cup of sugar and the vanilla extract in a bowl until smooth.
3. Unroll the cans of crescent roll dough, and use a rolling pin to shape each piece into 9x13 inch rectangles. Press one piece into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Evenly spread the cream cheese mixture into the baking dish, then cover with the remaining piece of crescent dough. Stir together 3/4 cup of sugar, cinnamon, and butter. Dot the mixture over the top of the cheesecake.

Bake in the preheated oven until the crescent dough has puffed and turned golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and drizzle with honey. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into 12 squares.

Cucumber Salad

The other night I had a craving for something lite and crisp which resulted in us having Cucumber Salad with our grilled brats.

Ingredients

1 large cucumber
3 Tbl mayo
2 Tbl milk
1 Tbl Vinegar
salt and sugar to taste

Peel cucumber and slice
Mix mayo, milk, vinegar, salt and sugar.
Pour sauce over cucumber slices and chill.

French's Crunchy Onion Chicken

We've seen this on TV commercials for a while so I decided to make it for supper tonight.  It was very good.

What you need:

2 cups (4 oz.) FRENCH'S® Original or Cheddar French Fried Onions

2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

4 (5 oz.) boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 egg, beaten 

Make it: 

Place French Fried Onions and flour into plastic bag. Lightly crush with hands or with rolling pin. Transfer to pie plate or waxed paper.

Dip chicken into egg; then coat with onion crumbs, pressing firmly to adhere. Place chicken on baking sheet.

Bake at 400°F for 20 min. or until no longer pink in center. I baked ours for 40 minutes.

Mozzarella chicken roll-ups

My husband couldn't stop talking about how good this was tonight.

2 oz. Cream cheese, softened

1/2 tsp. dried oregano leaves

1/4 tsp.  Garlic salt

1/2 cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

2 small boneless skinless chicken breast, pounded to 1/4-inch thickness

HEAT oven to 400°F.

MIX first 4 ingredients until well blended.

PLACE chicken, top-sides down, on work surface; top with cheese mixture. Starting at one short end, tightly roll up each breast, tucking in ends of chicken to completely enclose filling. Place, seam-side down, in 9-inch square baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.

BAKE 30 min. or until chicken is done (165°F).

Variations

 Mix in 1/4 cup finely diced green pepper with the cheese mixture. 

-OR-

Prepare as directed, topping the flattened chicken pieces with a layer of baby spinach leaves before topping with cheese mixture.

-OR-

Top chicken breasts with 1 cup spaghetti sauce before baking.

Turkey Burgers

Another recipe from the cookbook that we love!

What you need:

1 lb ground turkey

¼ lb mushrooms, finely chopped

1-cup Italian flavored breadcrumbs

¼ cup grated zucchini

1 Tbl Worcestershire sauce

2 Tbl ketchup

½ tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Make it:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl mix everything together.  It will be moist.  Form into 16 or so little patties.

Coat large skillet with cooking spray and set over med-high heat.

When skillet is hot add oil.

Add burger patties and brown for 4-5 minutes.

Put burgers on cookie sheet and bake for 4-5 minutes

Macaroni and Cheese

I recently checked out a cookbook from the library titled Deceptively Delicious.  The book aims towards getting more vegetables into your kids diet.  I've made this recipe twice now and we really like it.

What you need:

1 ½ cups elbow macaroni

1 Tbl olive oil

1 Tbl flour

½ cup milk

½ cup squash puree

1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese

4 oz cream cheese

½ tsp salt

1/8 tsp paprika

1/8 tsp pepper

Make it:

Cook macaroni until al dente. Drain

While macaroni is cooking coat a saucepan with cooking oil heat to medium. Add oil and flour and cook.  Stirring constantly until thick but not browned. 1-2 minutes

Add the milk and cook, stirring every now and then, until the mixture begins to thicken, 3-4 minutes.

Add the vegetable puree, cheddar cheese, cream cheese and seasonings.  Stir until the cheese is melted and the sauce is smooth.

Stir in macaroni and serve.

Baked Chicken Kiev

What you need:

4 boneless chicken breasts

½ cup dry breadcrumbs

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 ½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

4 Tbl butter- room temp.

¼ tsp garlic powder

4 oz cheese of choice – I used mozzarella string cheese

2 large eggs beaten with 2 Tbl water

Make it:

Place chicken breasts one at a time between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and flatten until ¼ inch thick.

In a shallow pan combine breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, 1 tsp of the oregano, salt and pepper. Set aside.

In a small bowl mash butter with garlic powder and remaining ½ tsp oregano.

Spread about ½ Tbl of the butter mixture on each breast about 1 inch from the lower edge; lay a piece of cheese on the butter mixture. Fold lower edge of breast over filling, then fold in sides and roll up to enclose filling.

Roll each bundle in egg mixture and let drip briefly; then roll in breadcrumb mixture until evenly coated. 

Place bundles, seam side down, without touching in 9x13 inch baking pan.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Bake, uncovered, in a 425-degree oven until done.  About 30-40 minutes.

Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake

I was recently invited to a birthday party where the guests were each to bring a dish to pass for the meal.  To make sure we didn't end up with 8 desserts the host had each person pick a course of the meal; appetizer, salad, meat etc.  We have since named this a "Foodie Party"  For this party I picked dessert.  My friend, Katrina, the birthday girl really wanted this as her birthday cake.  This is my first time making such a wonderful dessert.

I knew I would need more that one 9 inch cheesecake so I doubled the recipe and made it in a 9x13

What you need:

2 cups chocolate graham cracker crumbs
1/4 c butter, melted
1/2 c whipping cream
6 oz semisweet chocolate chips
3 8oz packages cream cheese 

1 c sugar
1/3 c unsweetened cocoa
3 eggs
1 Tbl vanilla



Make it:

1.  In a food processor crush the graham cracker in to crumbs. If you don't have a food processor take a ziploc freezer bag, put some of the crackers in the bag, seal it up and crush with a rolling pin.  Pour into a 9-inch cheesecake pan with removable rim; add butter and mix.  Press mixture over bottom and 1/2 inch up sides of pan.  Bake in a 350 oven until crust looks dry, about 10 minutes.

2.  I a 1 or 2 qt pan, bring 1/4 cup cream to a boil.  Remove from heat, add 2 ounces chocolate, and stir until smooth. You'll have a nice chocolate sauce.

3.  In a large bowl, with a mixer, beat cream cheese, sugar, and cocoa powder until smooth.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add chocolate sauce mixture and vanilla;  beat until blended. Scrape into crust; spread level.

4.  Bake cheesecake in a 325 regular or 300 convection oven until center jiggles only slightly when pan is gently shaken, about 1 hour.  cool for 1 hour.

5.  In a small pan, bring remaining 1/4 c cream to a boil.  remove from heat, add remaining 4 ounces chocolate, and stir until smooth.  Pour over cake and spread level.  cover and chill at least 8 hours or up to 1 day.

6.  Run a knife between cake and pan rim; remove rim.  Cut cake into wedges.

Banana stackers

I stole this recipe off the back of a box of "Ritz" crackers from Target.  These are so simple to make and my girls love them.

What you need:

"Ritz" type crackers

Peanut butter

Banana

Chocolate syrup

Chopped nuts- any kind will do.

Make it:

Place crackers on a plate.

Smear on some peanut butter.

Top with a slice of banana. 

Drizzle a very small amount of chocolate syrup.

Top with some chopped nuts.

Enjoy!!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I stole this from my friend Niha and they are sooo moist and yummy.  Because of the pumpkin in them I keep telling myself that they are healthy. =)

 

What you need:

1 cup pure pumpkin

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup veg. oil

1 egg

2 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp milk

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

 

Make it:

Mix pumpkin, sugar, veg oil, and egg. 

In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

Dissolve baking soda with milk and stir into flour mixture. 

Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and stir well. Add vanilla, and chocolate chips. 

Drop by spoonful onto greased cookie sheet, and bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes or until lightly browned and firm.

Cool completely, and store in airtight container. Cookies will be soft and chewy. Enjoy!

Cowboy Potatoes

This recipe was past down from Scott's mom, Harla.  I know that when we make it the memories come flooding back for us both.  His memories include him as a little kid, mine are from some of the last parties we had before Harla past away.

What you need:

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

3/4 cup butter-melted and divided

2 cups sour cream

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 large bag Southern style hash browns or Ore Ida with peppers - THAWED

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

2 cups crushed corn flakes

Make it:

Combine cheese, 1/2 cup butter, sour cream, onion, potatoes, soup, salt and pepper.

Spoon into greased 9x13 pan.

Mix remaining 1/4 cup butter and cornflake crumbs, sprinkle on top of potatoes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Will post pictures soon!! Thank you to my hubby's cousin for the recipe.

What you need:

- Bottom
1½ c all-purpose flour
1 c sugar
¼ c unsweetened cocoa
1 t baking soda
½ t salt
-
1 c water
1/3 c cooking oil
1 T vinegar
1 t vanilla

- Topping
8 oz cream cheese
1 egg
1/3 c sugar
1 c semisweet chocolate chips

Make it:

1. Preheat oven to 350°. 

2. Mix first five ingredients. 

3. Make a well in the dry mix, add next four ingredients and mix well. 

4. In a separate bowl, mix last four ingredients. 

5. Fill cupcake pan ½ full of chocolate mixture, dollop cream cheese mixture on top. 

6. Bake for 25 minutes.

Cold veggie pizza

What you need:

2 packages crescent roll dough (I like the butter flavored ones)

2 8oz packages cream cheese

2/3 cup mayo

1 package powered Ranch Dressing

Toppings:

Raw vegetables such as; broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, green peppers, tomatoes, celery and mushrooms.

1 cup shredded cheese, cheddar or mozzarella

Make it:

Press dough onto large pizza pan (do not grease pan) and bake according to directions of package (400 degrees - 10 minutes until brown.) Cool

Mix cream cheese, mayo and dressing until smooth. Spread over cooled crust.

Finely chop vegetables and sprinkle on top.  Top with shredded cheese and press down firmly.

Quesadilla Casserole

What you need:
2 tsp Chili Powder
1 tsp Ground Cumin
1 tsp Minced Onion
1/2 tsp Oregano
dash Crushed Red Pepper

1 lb ground meat (beef, venison, turkey etc)
1/2 chopped onion
2 cans (8 oz each) tomato sauce
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (8 3/4 oz) whole kernel corn, undrained
1 can (4 1/2 oz) chopped green chiles, undrained
6 flour tortillas (8-inch)
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

MAKE IT:

BROWN beef and onion in large skillet on medium-high heat; drain. Add tomato sauce, beans, corn and green chiles; mix well. Stir in all of the spices except red pepper. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low; simmer 5 minutes. Add red pepper to taste, if desired.

SPREAD 1/2 cup of the beef mixture on bottom of 13x9x2-inch baking dish sprayed with non stick cooking spray. Top with 2 of the tortillas, overlapping as needed. Layer with 1/2 of the remaining beef mixture and 1/2 of the cheese. Repeat with remaining tortillas, beef mixture and cheese.

BAKE in preheated 350 degree oven 15 minutes or until heated through. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Four-cheese pasta florentine

What you need:
3 cups mostaccioli, uncooked
1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach
4 oz. (1/2 of 8 oz pkg. cream cheese
1 cup low fat cottage cheese
2 eggs
1 pkg. 8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Make it:
Heat oven to 375 degrees F
Cook pasta as directed on package.
Meanwhile, cook spinach as directed on package; drain well. Place in large bowl. Add cream cheese; stir until melted. Stir in cottage cheese and eggs until well blended.
Drain pasta. Add to spinach mixture with mozzarella; mix lightly. Spoon into 8- or 9-inch square baking dish; top with parmesan.
Bake 25 minutes or until heated through.

My picky 5 year old even loves this!

Loaded Nachos

We absolutely love to eat nachos. Especially during football season. We had spinach in the house last time we made nachos so I tore some up and put it on the nachos as well. It was delicious!

Loaded Nachos

What you need:
1 lb ground beef (We use ground venison.)
one sweet onion, diced
1 can refried beans
1 packet taco seasoning

tortilla chips

Toppings
sour cream
queso cheese sauce
shredded cheddar cheese
diced tomatoes (we love using cut up grape tomatoes)
your favorite guacamole

Make it:
1. Brown meat and drain any leftover fat.
2. Add onion and cook til soft
3. Add packet of taco seasoning and water called for on packet
4. Add can of refried beans and heat through

Put tortilla chips on plate and add meat mixture and toppings. Enjoy!!

Stuffed Green Peppers

Stuffed Green Peppers

2 - 4 servings

What you need:
2 medium green bell peppers
1 lb. mild italian sausage
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 C white rice (Minute rice)
1 C water
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes (reduced sodium or no salt added)
Worchestire Sauce
Italian Seasoning
Minced Garlic
1 C shredded cheddar cheese (I use extra sharp)

Make it:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Fill a large pot with water and put on to boil. Cut each pepper in half, lengthwise. Clean out the seeds & membranes. Place halved peppers in the boiling water until tender (3-5 minutes, usually). Remove from boiling water & place, inverted, on a paper towel to drain.

Brown the sausage & chopped onion in a skillet. Once browned, drain off the excess fat. Pour in the rice and water (always use a 1:1 ratio, but you can add more rice if you'd like more stuffing). Add in the can of tomatoes (do not drain), several shakes of Worchestire Sauce and Italian Seasoning and a generous scoop of minced garlic. (Note: I truly do not measure the spices - start out with a little, taste the mixture, add if needed.) Cover & simmer on medium heat until rice is cooked (about 15 minutes).

Place peppers cut side up (so, like a bowl) in a baking dish. An 8x8 usually works well for 4 halves.

When the stuffing mixture is cooked through, add half of the shredded cheese (if you're using it) stir, and fill each pepper half. If there's leftover stuffing, add it to the same baking dish.
Top the peppers with the remainder of cheese (again, optional) and pop in the 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes (until warmed through.)