Month: March 2013

Casseroles · Chicken · Meats

Easter Chicken Enchiladas

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

Got your attention now, who ever thought of having enchiladas at Easter? After you see this recipe, you might be inclined to push the ham away and get to the store to buy tortillas and cilantro. These are delicious and the cream cheese in them make them extra special for that pretty Easter buffet.

1 cup diced sweet onion (or if you are in a sour mood, I guess you could use a mean onion)

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups fresh chopped baby spinach

2 (4.5 oz) cans chopped green chiles, drained

3 cups shredded cooked chicken

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened *You can use the low fat cream cheese if you really really want, but just don’t get to skinny to fit into that new Easter outfit.

2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese (I used cheddar just because I like the flavor better than the jack cheese)

1/3 cup fresh cilantro (if you have a Trader Jo’s store close by, they sell little frozen trays of cilantro, which you keep frozen and just pop out a square of cilantro, allowing you to always have fresh cilantro on hand) (If using frozen squares, the substitution amounts are on the little tray)

8 (8 in) soft taco-size flour tortillas

Pam cooking spray

Tomatillo Salsa

Preheat oven to 350. Saute onion and garlic in hot oil in a large skillet over medium heat for 5 min or until onion is tender and clear. Add spinach and green chiles and sauté 1-2 min. Stir in chicken and next 3 ingredients and cook stirring continually for about 5 min, or until cheese melts.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Spoon about 3/4 cup chicken mixture down center of each tortilla and roll it up. Sprinkle some shredded cheese on top.

Place rolled tortillas, seam side down in a greased pan. Bake at 350 for 30-35 min or until golden brown. Top with Tomatillo Salsa.

TO MAKE AHEAD:

Prepare recipe as directed through placing the tortillas into a baking dish. Cover and keep in fridge, then allowing to stand at room temp about 30 min before you want to bake. Uncover and bake.

Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Fruit

Strawberry Pie

Chocolate Castles3 Comments

The sunshine that is so gorgeous this time of year just makes me think of strawberry pie. Tonight several young moms are coming over here for dessert after they go for a massage. This is the MOPS ladies (mothers of preschoolers) that sit at my table on Wednesday mornings and I have just grown to love them and appreciate their efforts to grow as Christian wives and moms. They were wanting a night out so I told them to come over here for dessert after they go for massages. What better way to end their night out than with a wonderful strawberry pie and hazelnut brownie cups, with coffee or tea. These pies make wonderful endings to your Easter dinner. Top them with fresh whipped cream and you will be the hit of the day.

2 pie crusts, baked and cooled

2 quarts of fresh strawberries (washed, trimmed and sliced, saving some for top to place on top)

2 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups water

4 1/2 tables corn starch

6 tables strawberry jello (not sugar free, it won’t work)

Place the water, sugar and cornstarch in a heavy saucepan. Stir continually being sure to break up the cornstarch so they don’t lump together. When mixture begins to boil and becomes thick and clear, take off the heat and stir in the strawberry jello and stir until well blended.

Fill each baked and cooled pie shell with strawberries, dividing between the two pie shells. Pour half of the jello mixture onto each pie, being sure each strawberry is covered with some of the jello mixture. Place in fridge to cool and top with whipping cream, right before serving.photo

 

Beef · Soups

Italian Wedding Soup

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We have had family from Texas here all this week. I made them promise that they would not go home and tell that we didn’t have a home cooked meal here except for breakfast one morning. It is embarrassing to admit that, especially since I write this cooking blog and continually tell you how much I enjoy having company to cook for; but the truth is that we would run around all day to sightsee and by the time we got home, the last thing I wanted to do was cook, so we ended up taking them to several of our new favorite places. On Saturday night, we were all so tired from going all day, we ordered pizza. Today, we are back to being by ourselves and now it’s not as much fun to cook, just for two. Randy wants to know when it is “fun” enough to actually get a home cooked meal. He reminded me that I am always saying, “when we have company, it will be more fun to cook, because there is more than the two of us” but that didn’t work as we would just fall on the couch every night after touring Los Angeles with Don and Janece. Now it is back to the two of us and now it’s not fun anymore to cook, so guess I will wait until more company shows up from Texas. It  will surely be more fun to cook then.

Tonight, I had promised him a home cooked meal and this soup is a great way to, not only please my man, but so easy for me to fix. I already had cooked chicken breasts in the freezer and had bought a package of chopped soup veggie mix (the carrots, onion and celery) so how much easier can you get?

2 cups small pasta shells

2 chicken breasts, cut into cubes

2 tables olive oil, divided

1 medium onion, chopped

1 medium carrot, finely chopped

1 celery rib, chopped

1 pkg frozen fully cooked italian meatballs (ok, this is where I have to leave this recipe) I just cannot buy meatballs, I love making them and they tastes so much better, homemade, but for convenience sake, I won’t tell if you use the frozen)

1 can cream of chicken soup, undiluted

1 pkg frozen-chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

2 cup chicken broth

2 teas minced fresh thyme or 1/2 teas dried thyme

1/2 teas each, salt and pepper

3/4 cup shredded Asiago cheese

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, when tender and set aside.  Meanwhile in a large skillet, sauté chicken in 1 tables oil until no longer pink; remove and keep warm.

In same skillet, sauté the onion, carrot and celery in remaining oil until tender. Add the meatballs, soup, spinach broth and thyme, salt and pepper. Cover and cook for 15 min and then add pasta. Add to soup and sprinkle each bowl with cheese.

Cakes · Chocolate

Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Cake

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Do not let this Title scare you. Recently I have had several young moms ask me to post simple recipes that don’t have a lot of ingredients because that scares them out of trying the recipe. They simply don’t have the energy or time to shop for all of the items that so many of the recipes call for. So this is an easy dessert, but so gorgeous, and oh so yummy.

One Duncan Hines plain yellow cake mix

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teas cinnamon

2 medium sized bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)

1 cup water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

2 teas banana extract (or you can use vanilla if you don’t have the banana)

Peanut Butter Frosting

Fudge Frosting

Grease 2 (9′) cake pans, then lightly dust with flour. Shake out excess flour. Set pans aside. Place cake mix, brown sugar and cinnamon in large mixing bowl. Add mashed bananas, water, oil, eggs and extract. Blend with mixer on low speed for 1 min, then scrape sides of bowl and beat for 2 more minutes.

Divide the batter between the 2 pans and bake in a 350 degree oven until middle of cake springs back when touched or a toothpick comes out clean after placing in middle of cake.

Cool on wire racks while you prepare the Peanut Butter Frosting.

1/4 cup softened butter (1/2 stick)

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 teas vanilla

1/4 cup milk (add this not all at one time, as mixture just needs to be spreadable, so you might not need all of this)

Blend powdered sugar, butter, peanut butter, vanilla and mix with milk, which you are adding slowly to just make the frosting spreadable.

Place one of the cake layers on a plate and spread the peanut butter mixture on top. Place other layer on top and frost with remaining peanut butter frosting. Do not frost the sides of the cake. Set aside and make the Fudge Frosting

Fudge frosting:

3 cups powdered sugar

1 stick butter, softened

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

2 teas vanilla

1/3 cup milk (once again, do not add all at once, as you might not need all of this)

Combine  all ingredients and slowly add milk (a few tables at a time) until frosting is easy to spread on cake. When you have beat all ingredients until smooth, frost sides of cake and then use remaining fudge frosting to top the cake. Do not worry if some of the peanut butter frosting swirls with the chocolate, just makes it that much more yummy. Store in Fridge, covered until ready to eat. Take out about 1 hour before serving.

Daily Thoughts

Butter Fried Turkey Bacon

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

I tried, I really tried to cook something a little healthier for my sick hubby yesterday. He has been at home for 3 days and I thought I would go to the store and get bacon to make him his favorite sandwich, a BLT…but…when I got there, I thought to myself, if he gets worse and has to go to the hospital and they take his blood, only to find out butter runs through his veins instead of the red stuff, I will really look like a bad wife. I decided to buy turkey bacon instead of the real stuff. It made me so proud that I was buying something halfway healthy, I pranced down the isle to check out actually looking at organic lettuce and tomatoes, but decided to save money and buy the ones with lots of pesticides instead; that way, I have money left over to stop on the way home and buy myself a cupcake…a treat for buying healthy turkey bacon.  When I get home, I wake him up, (bless his heart, he has only slept about 7 hours today already) to let him know I just bought food to make his fav BLT…He got so excited, he actually opened his eyes and almost rolled off the heating pad. It was great explaining to him that since I was really concerned for his health, beginning today, I had substituted turkey bacon for the real thing.  You would have thought I was serving him wheat germ sprinkled over alfalfa sprouts for lunch, by the look on his face. He told me that the only way he would eat the turkey bacon is if I fried it in butter, to give it taste and color. It was then and there that I decided that I am through with trying to be fit and healthy. Butter is our life and bacon is our game. We might not live to be 100, but the years we have will taste mighty good….am headed to the store as we are almost out of butter and I have to make oatmeal cookies for our snack tonight…they must be good for us, they have oatmeal in them, which we have heard on commercials, can help reduce cholesterol. If we eat enough of them, maybe our cholesterol numbers will come down under 300, Will be curious to see if the oatmeal cookies do the trick.

Starches

Baby Bella Rice Pilaf

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If you like rice, you will love this recipe.

2 tables olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped red bell pepper

1 (8 oz) package baby bella mushrooms, quartered

3 cups Texmati white, brown, wild and red rice blend

4 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 tables minced fresh parsley

1 teas lemon zest

In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add onion, bell pepper, and mushrooms, cook stirring frequently for 5 min. Add rice, and cook stirring constantly for 1 min. Add broth, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 min or until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat, and stir in parsley and lemon zest.

Cookies

March Munchies

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It is finally here, the time of year when we begin to think about capris, sandals and possibly traveling. It is beyond me how someone might plan a car trip without thinking about what they might snack on for the 500 miles they are cooped up in the car, sometimes with small children or even just a spouse who, like mine, doesn’t like to talk much (and please don’t even go there, I know what you are thinking, “he probably doesn’t ever get a change to say a word”, there I said it for you) and depends on me to carry the conversation for the 8 hour trip. I can do that, I can carry the conversation for hours, but even I need a break from talking and that leads us to Munchies. I brought this recipe home with me from Corpus, where I was staying with a friend of my mom’s, since she lives in a nursing home, I now stay with her friend Jane. Jane loves to cook and is a really great cook. When I would get home from the nursing home at night from visiting my mom, Jane would get up the minute I walked in the door and by the time I sat down on the couch to watch TV with she and her husband, there on the table would be a plate of warm cookies to go with my Dr Pepper. She would take them out of the freezer and nuke them until they were just warm and soft. They had 3 sons, so I get the honors of being treated like their daughter. I told her that before I left, she had to give me the recipe. She called them Cowboy Cookies, but they really are just oatmeal cookies with a flair..here is the recipe. I have made them twice in one week and now Randy thinks that I should have them warm and waiting as soon as Wheel of Fortune starts. They are perfect for taking in the car for munchies. Goes great with that cup of coffee you depend on to keep you awake driving down the road, unless you want a CD of me talking…Will sell you one of those for $12.99..I think you might enjoy the coffee and cookies much more.

1 cup of Crisco shortening

1 cup sugar

1 cup light brown sugar (firmly packed)

2 eggs, at room temp

2 cups flour

1 teas baking soda

1/2 teas baking powder

1/2 teas salt

2 cups oats, quick-cooking or regular, uncooked

1 (6-oz) package semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup shredded coconut or 1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup raisins (optional) (I actually used crasins)

Cream shortening and sugars and mix well. Add eggs, beat until light and fluffy. Stir in dry ingredients and blend well. Mix in oats, chocolate chips and vanilla.

The dough will be crumbly. Drop by teaspoonful on greased cookie sheets (I used parchment paper so I didn’t need to grease that) and bake at 350 for about 10-12 min.