Hawaiian Chicken

I apologize up front that there are no pictures of this wonderful dish.  My boys devoured it up before I even thought about getting out my camera.  Oh well!  I love when they fully enjoy what I cook for them.

What You Need:
3-6 large chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
1 bottle hickory barbecue sauce
1 can crushed pineapple
1 can pineapple chunks, drained
1 small can mandarin oranges, mostly drained
1 bag frozen peppers and onions mixture
1/4-1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2-1 c. dark brown sugar
salt and pepper

What You Do:
Mix barbecue sauce, crushed pineapple, pineapple chunks, oranges, peppers, onions, ginger and sugar.  Pour a think layer into bottom of crock pot.  Generously salt and pepper both sides of each chicken breast.  Place on top of barbecue sauce layer.  Pour the rest of the barbecue mixture over the chicken.  Cook in crock pot on Low for about 4-5 hours.  (Cooking time will vary depending on your crock pot.)
Shred or cut chicken into chunks.  Stir chicken and sauce together.  Serve over your choice of rice.  We used teriyaki rice.

Blessings,
Cindy

Beef Tamale Bake

What you need:

BASE:
1 box corn muffin mix
1 can cream style corn
1 can mexi-corn
1/3 c. milk
1/3 c. Mexican Shredded Cheese (I used Kraft's with Philly Cream Cheese in it.)
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

Sour cream, optional for topping

TOPPINGS:
1 jar enchilada sauce
1-3 pounds of ground beef (I used 2 lbs, but you could easily adapt for more or less), browned with 1 chopped onion, salt, pepper, cumin, and coriander
1 c. Mexican Shredded Cheese

What to do:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix the ingredients for the base.  Pour into a greased 9x13 oven-safe dish.  Bake for 20-30 minutes until set.  Remove from oven and poke holes all over with a fork.

Pour enchilada sauce over base and spread around to make sure some goes into the holes you made.  Add ground beef mixture.  Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake for 20 more minutes. 

It was a huge hit with my husband, Doug!  He told me several times how great it was.  I also thought it was quite delicious.

Enjoy!  Let me know if you try it.

Blessings,
Cindy

Delicious Dinner!

I had time to do some experimenting in the kitchen this afternoon.  Dinner was delicious!  We had an Apple Bacon Meatloaf, Green Beans, and Mashed Cauliflower.  Everyone loved the new meatloaf recipe AND the mashed cauliflower.  At first, there was a little hesitation with the cauliflower, but the taste won everyone over. 

Apple Bacon Meatloaf

1 1/2 to 2 pounds lean ground beef
1/2 to 1 pound Italian Sausage
2 Eggs
1 c. bread crumbs or crushed herb stuffing crumbs
1 medium Sweet Onion, chopped
1 Gala or Fuji Apple, chopped
6 pieces Cooked Bacon, chopped
6 pieces Uncooked Bacon
1 c. Apple Butter (separated 1/2 c. for meatloaf and 1/2 c. for glaze)
1/2 c. Cinnamon Apple Sauce
6 Tbs. Hickory Barbecue Sauce (3 for meatloaf and 3 for glaze)
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease 2 loaf pans.  Line the bottom of each loaf pan with bread slices.  (This will soak up any grease from the cooking meatloaf.)  Set aside.  Combine meats, eggs, bread crumbs, onion, apple, chopped bacon, apple butter, apple sauce, and barbecue sauce using your hands to mix thoroughly.  Salt and pepper to your liking.  Mix thoroughly.  Separate and put into loaf pans.  Mix the rest of the apple butter and barbecue sauce to make glaze.  Spread over top of meatloaf mixture.  Place 3 slices of uncooked bacon on each loaf.  Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour until cooked through.  Switch oven to broil setting.  Broil for 10 minutes or until bacon on top is crisp.  Let meatloaf rest before moving to serving plate.  (Remember, the bread is not for eating.  It is soaked with grease.  Just discard.)

Mashed Cauliflower

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
4 c. chicken stock or broth
1/2 container Philly Garlic Cooking Cream
1/2 stick butter
Salt and Pepper
Chives for garnish

Place cauliflower florets in a large pot.  Cover with chicken stock.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Then, leave covered and simmer on medium heat for 10 minutes.  Uncover and bring heat back up to medium high.  Cook for about 10 more minutes.  Drain.  Add cooking cream, butter, salt and pepper.  Mix with a hand mixer until desired consistency for your taste.  Move to a serving bowl.  Garnish with a pat of butter and chives.

Enjoy!
Cindy

Fruity Spinach Salad

I decided (well my ever-tightening clothes helped me decide) to go back on Weight Watchers. This will be my second week back. In the first week, I lost 3.7 pounds. :) I was quite happy about that!

Anyway, I'm participating in a challenge to try at least 1 NEW healthy recipe a week to keep things fresh on our menu. We tried two things tonight. One was called Baked Chicken and Veggie Marinara. It was very good. The other was Fruity Spinach Salad. I've included the recipe below because it is so simple and so scrumptious! I should have taken a picture of it to show you, too. It is a pretty salad with the dark green of the spinach, the light green of the cucumbers, the orange, and the dark red of the craisins. All four of our kids liked it, and that really says something! Each of us had a different preference for the kind of dressing we liked on it, but Raspberry Pecan dressing (I get it at Kroger) is very good on it. For tonight's supper, I did not put the chicken on the salad. However, with chicken it would make a great lunch!

Here it is...enjoy! (The recipe is for an individual serving. Adjust for the amount you want to make for yourself or your family.)

Ingredients

-2 oz diced chicken breast (est 2 pts)
-1.5 cups spinach (est 0 pts)
-sliced cucumbers (est 0 pts)
-1/2 C prepackaged mandarin oranges (Est 1 pt)
-1/3 cup craisins (est 2 points)

Instructions

Spinach on the bottom. Everything else on top. Or toss it all together.