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

Vanilla Blackberry Cake...It was a hit!

We've had an abundance of fresh blackberries this year!  They are wild blackberries.  We're hoping in the next year or so our seedless blackberries will take off and be plentiful, as well!  Doug doesn't care if they are the wild variety or not.  To him, all blackberries are delicious!  Blackberry cobbler is one of his favorite desserts.  I've made several of those already this year.  In hopes of finding something new and different to do with the blackberries, I started searching today.  I didn't find a recipe that sounded like THE recipe so I took ideas from several different places and made my own.  It turned out to be a hit at our house!  The batter turns out quite thick, but the cake is light and tasty!  Enjoy.

Vanilla Blackberry Cake

Preheat Oven to 350

Filling Ingredients:

2 c. fresh blackberries

1 c. sugar

Mix sugar in with blackberries and set aside while you prepare the cake batter.

Batter Ingredients:

1 c. real butter

1 ½ c. white sugar

8 egg yolks

¾ c. milk

¼ c. heavy cream

2 -3 tsp. vanilla

2 c. self-rising flour

3 Tbs. cornstarch

Grease bundt pan. Sift together flour and cornstarch and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time. Then, beat in the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk and cream, mixing until incorporated.

Pour half of the batter into the bundt pan. Spoon blackberries onto that batter. Then, cover the blackberries with the remaining batter. Bake at 350 approximately 1 hour. (Adjust time based on your pan and oven. I used stoneware and it took right at an hour to cook.) Cool about 10 minutes and then turn onto a cake server. The blackberries will then be on the top of the cake. 

To add to the look of the presentation, I garnished the serving plate with a few blackberries and filled the hole of the cake with more blackberries.

 

I'm sure the cake would be great with other fruits, too.  Let me know if you try it with something besides blackberries.

 

Blessings,

Cindy

A...B...C Casserole

I love to cook!  Very rarely do I cook from a recipe (except for baking) unless I just come across something that looks irresistible.  Instead I experiment A LOT!  To me, cooking is like science...a big experiment.  I throw lots of things together that I think will compliment each other and then see how it turns out.  Usually I'm pleased with the results.  I have had some disasters that have turned into some funny stories for my kids to tell.  So, really they weren't complete disasters because they add to our family's story!

This afternoon I was in a mood to experiment.  The result was an Artichoke, Broccoli, and Chicken Casserole.  (Sorry--I didn't think to take a picture of the end result before it was demolished.)  It was delicious.  I typically do not write down these experiments.  I'm not sure why; I just don't.  However, I thought I would share this recipe.  It's simple and takes only a few common ingredients.  The catch is I really don't measure so if you decide to make this you'll have to make it 'to taste' so I hope you are up to some experimenting yourself. :)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Saute 1/2 package of pearl onions, 1/2 pound chopped bacon in 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Add a bit of salt and pepper and a pinch of red pepper flakes.  I did this in a large dutch oven so that I had plenty of room to add other ingredients.  Once the bacon is browned and the onions have started to caramelize, add 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of bite-sized chunks of boneless, skinless chicken breast.  Add a bit more salt and pepper.  Add 1 to 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning and some lemon juice (today I didn't have lemon juice so I used lemon pepper seasoning...it was good, but I think I would have preferred fresh lemon juice).  Add 2 cans Cream of Chicken Soup (low fat/low sodium).  Stir often to keep from sticking. 

Once chicken is almost cooked through, add one package frozen broccoli florets and one can of drained, rinsed, and chopped artichoke hearts. 

Season one final time with salt and pepper to taste. 

Spray a deep dish, oblong baking dish with non-stick spray.  Line the bottom of the dish with 1 package of  flattened crescent roll dough.  Spoon the artichoke, broccoli, and chicken mixture over the dough.  Then, cover that mixture with another package of flattened crescent roll dough.  Bake at 350 degrees until crust is golden brown.

This was plenty to have as a one-dish supper.  My family loved it!

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.