Quick Lemon Pasta with Chicken

Ok, tell me I'm not the only one obsessed with Hallmark Channel's Christmas movies.  When they announced they would be starting on October 31st, I thought; 'well isn't that early?'.  But, I've been glued to them since they started.  Right now, I'm writing to Let it Snow with Candace Cameron; anxiously awaiting the new North Pole movie!  I need to get a life. Or a hobby. Or both.


Do you ever take the hubster grocery shopping with you and forget everything you need?  I had a great Menu Monday post ready for posting on Sunday.  But, I took Maintenance Man to the store with me.  He was in a small hurry and I didn't bring my list.  ARGH!  So, we had none of the ingredients for the menu.

Luckily, I had all the ingredients for this dish.  It's, just like the name says, quick.  But, I love the way the basil and lemon really combine in this dish.

Quick Lemon Pasta with Chicken

Ingredients:

8 oz pasta, cooked according to directions

6 tbsp unmelted butter

2 tbsp lemon juice

3 tsp dried basil

3 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp lemon-pepper seasoning

2 lbs cubed chicken

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package directions. Melt 3 tbsp butter in a fry pan and saute the chicken until brown.  Then, add 3 tbsp butter, lemon juice, basil, garlic powder, and lemon pepper seasoning and simmer until butter has melted, stirring to coat the chicken.  Add drained pasta and toss to coat.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.  

Crock Pot Cranberry Chicken

Seriously,  I cannot believe I haven't blogged this before.  This is an easy mid-week meal; put it in the crock pot and forget about it.

This recipe has a back-story.  When I was pregnant with Riley, I found iVillage.com, a message board site for women.  I joined the September '06 Expecting Club.  We, eventually found our name:  The September '06 Gingersnaps.  Aww, that was a life-time ago.  When the kiddos were about 6 months old, we all decided to have a recipe swap.  This recipe was submitted by one of the mommies.  I made it almost immediately and all fell in love with it. Those babies, are now turning 8!   Sadly, our little board was gobbled up by Facebook.  I lost touch with all the ladies from that board, but I am still Facebook friends with some ladies from a Photoshop board from there.  Now, iVillage, once the go-to site for women, is basically a ghost-town and that is so sad to me.

So, here it is:

Crock-pot Cranberry Chicken

Ingredients:

1# chicken thighs

1 can cranberry sauce

1 bottle of barbecue sauce

1 onion, ringed

1 rib celery, diced

salt and pepper 

Directions:

Salt and pepper the chicken.  Place chicken in the crock-pot.  Cover the chicken with the onion and celery.  Dump the cranberry sauce and onions.  Place the lid on the pot, cook of low for 6-8 hours.  

This chicken comes out of the crock-pot and almost falls off the bone.  We usually have this with mashed potatoes, green beans and some pull-apart bread (also from that recipe exchange).  

I hope you and your family tries it and likes it as much as we do. 

Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ok, folks, I disappeared.  I don't have much of an excuse.  I just left.  I hope there are some readers left to read my blog.

My blog.  I'm having mixed feelings about my blog.

1.  I love blogging.  I love having you guys reading up on my little (somewhat boring) life.

2.  I hate blogging.  My life is pretty boring, so coming up with new content can be challenging.

3.  We moved.  We moved back to the DFW area. I am in my car more than I am home.  Maybe that is an exaggeration, but my drive time has almost tripled.  So, I feel like I'm trapped behind the wheel with many other trapped drivers all around me.

4.  The lighting in my house sucks.  I apologize in advance if the pictures make the food look unappetizing.

5.  I have a very picky family.  If it's not fried or processed, they don't want it.


But, here I am.  Back to blogging.  Or, trying to get back to blogging.

I tried a new crock pot recipe.  Today was dreary.  Rainy and cool.  I thought it was a perfect day for soup.  Now, remember when I said my family doesn't want anything that's not fried or processed?  Well, this was neither, so they didn't. like. it.

Maintenance Man is alway telling me we need to have more soups.  I forget, that, his idea of soup is opening a can of cream of mushroom soup.  BARF.  I tell him every time he does it that cream of anything soup is not a meal, but a filler. He doesn't listen.

So, while the rest of my family was eating Honey Nut Cheerios,  I was enjoying this soup.

Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingredients:

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed

1 can (15.25 oz) whole kernel corn, drained

1 can (15.25 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (15.25 oz) white beans, rinsed and drained (I used pinto)

1 can (10 oz) Rotel tomatoes

1 can (28 oz) whole tomatoes 

cumin

chili powder 

s&p

chicken broth

Directions:

Spray pot of crock pot with cooking spray.  Place cubed chicken in and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover the chicken with the rest of the ingredients and stir.  I don't measure the spices, I sprinkle and smell.  Probably about 3 teaspoons of chili powder and 1 1/2 teaspoons of cumin (give or take).  Plop the lid on the pot and cook for 8 hours on low.  

Serve with tortilla chips, cheese, sour cream, lime or anything else you have.

I hope you won't listen to the rest of my family.  I hope you will try it.  You'll like it.

On a side note, I think it's time for a new layout.

See ya soon.

Mexican Bean Soup

It's been a wild two weeks.  Work is booming.  Too many patients and not enough nurses.  I hate to admit it, but we have been having a lot of frozen pizzas, hot dogs and eating out.

I was in the check-out line at the grocery store and saw a Taste of Home hamburger meat cook book.  I had to buy it.  There are many great recipes in it.  The weather has been a bit cool the past couple of days, so I thought I would try some soup.

This was a super-easy meal!  I had all the ingredients in my cupboard.

Mexican Bean Soup

adapted from Taste of Home

Ingredients

2 pounds ground meat

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cups water

2 cans tomato sauce

1 can Rotel tomatoes

2 cans whole kernel corn, drained

1 can Ranch-Style beans

1 can pinto beans, drained

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2-4 teaspoons taco seasoning

1 envelope original dry ranch dressing mix

Directions

Brown meat in a large stock pot until no longer pink, rinse and drain. Return to pot, add next 9 ingredients and bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer about 30 minutes.  Serve with garnishes of choice.

It is very close to my goulash recipe; without the noodles.

Oh yeah, and, it makes a lot of soup.  I'm going to freeze some for later and take some for work this week.

Sharing: Mealtime Monday,  Marvelous Monday, Make the Scene Monday, Scrumptious Sunday, It's Party Time, Wonderful Food Wednesday, All My Bloggy Friends

Italian Baked Chicken

I saw this recipe on Pinterest and knew I would have to make it one day.  I only wish I would have remembered to re-Pin it so I could give proper credit, but I didn't.  So, if you know where this one originated, shoot me an email. 

This is a one dish dinner.  How awesome is that?  Easy. Simple. Tasty.  Couldn't ask for any more. 

Like I said, I didn't re-Pin the original recipe, so I just winged it:

Italian Baked Chicken with Green Beans and Potatoes

Ingredient:

6 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts

5 Red potatoes, quartered

1 can green beans

1 package dry Italian dressing

Salt and pepper

Butter

Directions:

Spray a 9X13 baking dish with cooking spray.  Salt and pepper the chicken breasts and line the center of the pan with them.  Add the quartered potatoes to one side and the green beans to the other.  Cover everything with pats of butter, and sprinkle with the dry dressing.  Bake at 350˚ for 1 hour. 

Wonderful.

 Now, on a side-note; I cannot be the only one who is getting bombarded with Spam comments.  They are driving me crazy!  I love comments, don't get me wrong, but I don't want my site littered up with 'bad loans', 'casino' and 'legit ways to make money'.  So, I have recently made all comments moderated.  I'll check my email several times throughout the day, so if you're a real person you will be published quickly.  If you are not a person truly interested in my blog, you will be reported as spam.  

Thank you to all who have stuck by during my 'radio silence' days.  

Hope your week is going great!

Chicken with Honey Beer Sauce

I'm on the constant lookout for good recipes that aren't loaded with fat and calories.  Started my weight-loss journey. Again.

There are many great sites with wonderful, low-cal, recipes.  And they taste great, so please don't tell Maintenance Man that he, too, is on a diet. Shh!!  Mum's the Word.

First, of hopefully many, post is Chicken with honey beer sauce that I found on Cooking Light.  It had good flavor, and it will be wonderful in a salad.  I plugged the nutritional facts into the Weight Watcher calculator, and it is worth 6 Points+! 

Chicken with Honey Beer Sauce

Ingredients:

2 Tsp Canola oil

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1/8 tsp salt

pepper

1/2 cup beer

2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoon whole grain Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon honey

Directions:

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.  Add chicken to pan and saute for around 6 minutes, or until done.  Remove chicken from pan but keep warm. Combine beer and next three ingredients and whisk together.  Add to pan and bring to a boil.  Continue to cook for about 3 minutes or until it has reduced down to half.  Return chicken to pan, turn to coat with sauce.  Serve.  

Yum. 

 Hope you try it!

Homemade Chili

It was a cold weekend here in Texas.  I spent the most of it in bed...sick.

Oh, btw, maybe I should introduce myself.  I'm Dana, the owner/author of this little blog.  We may have already met, but I have been missing for awhile.  I've been failing trying to get back in the hang of being a working Mom and a great wife, and a great cook. It's hard work, folks!

As I was saying, it was cold here last weekend.  Freeze warning for Sunday night.  We are not used to being this cold this early, but we managed.

I had my crock-pot brewing up this little recipe; waiting for us for when we got home Monday afternoon. {which, btw, warmed up to the middle 60's}  You know what they say about Texas: If you don't like the weather, just wait a couple of minutes, it'll change.

Homemade Chili

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground meat

1 large onion, chopped

2 tsp garlic powder

1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce

2 tablespoons chili

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cans pinto beans, rinsed and drained

Directions:

Brown meat in a skillet over medium heat and drain.  Mix beef and remaining ingredients, except beans, in the slow cooker.  Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.  Stir in beans and cook for an additional 15-30 minutes. 

I served with grated cheese, crackers and ketchup. Yes, I said ketchup.  Maintenance Man is sure I have lost my mind when I squeeze the ketchup all over my chili, but I love it!  

What do you eat on your chili?  

Link Your Chili

Easy Crock Pot Barbecue Chicken

You know I love {lurve} my crock pot, right.  This meal was, by far, the easiest and the quickest.

Let me go back to the beginning of my day, Thursday.  I went to the Elementary School yesterday for meet the teacher.  It's inevitable...my Riri is going to Kindergarten.  I was reading through the ABC's of Kindergarten when we got home, and started crying.  I'm going to be the mess Monday morning.

Q was quick goodbyes leave drier eyes.  WAAAHHH!!! For child or Mom?

But, I was sitting on the couch reminiscing about Riley's 5 years and {just occasionally} staring lovingly at him and realized that I had NOTHING planned for dinner.  It was 3:15.


 I found a great, easy chicken recipe on Six Sister's Stuff and I went for it.

Easy Crock Pot Barbecue Chicken

Ingredients

4-6 chicken breasts

1 medium onion, quartered

1 lemon, quartered

1 bottle of barbecue sauce (I used Great Value honey flavored)

1 can cola

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Salt and pepper chicken breasts and place in bottom of crock pot.  Top with onion and lemon quarters. Pour entire bottle of sauce and entire can of cola over the chicken.  Cook on high for 3-4 hours. {or low 6-7 hours if you're not like me and do things in the morning} 

Don't be like me.  

I also threw my breasts in partially frozen. 

Again, don't be like me. 

Plan. Be prepared.  

I honestly cannot believe that Maintenance Man hasn't started thinking we're on a health kick again with all this chicken and pork we've been having.  He's more of a steak and potatoes kind of guy.

Sharing with: Weekend Potluck,Marvelous Mondays, This Week's Cravings,

Mexican Pork Chops

I know, I said the old blog would be down today.  I got so excited about my new layout, I just had to go ahead and apply it!  I hope you like it.

Oh, it has been so nice in Texas the past week!  We are actually feeling up to eating again.  Last night, we had a recipe I've had for so long.  I think I originally found it on Food.com, could have been AllRecipes.  I'm really not sure!

Mexican Pork Chops

Ingredients

8 boneless pork chops

2 cups brown rice, uncooked

2 cans pinto beans, drained

2 cans whole kernel corn, drained

1 can Rotel tomatoes, drained

1 can stewed tomatoes, in juice

1-2 tbs oil

salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 350˚.  In a big skillet, heat oil.  Salt and pepper pork chops to taste, then brown them on both sides, set aside.  Stir in undrained tomatoes, Rotel, beans, corn and rice, bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute.  Transfer rice mixture in to a baking dish.  Arrange pork chops on top and bake covered for 30 minutes.  Uncover, and bake for 10 minutes more.

I had honestly forgotten how great this recipe is!  If you ask my kids, the rice should be made without the tomatoes.  I hope you'll try them one night.  

Happy Thursday!

Sharing with these fabulous parties: All My Bloggy Friends, Making You Crave Monday, Mix it up Monday, Made Monday, Marvelous Monday, Weekend Potluck, Marvelous Mondays,This Week's Cravings,

Crock Pot Cheeseburgers

It was late in the afternoon when I decided to throw this together.  I didn't feel like cooking, even though the afternoons have been comparatively cool, warm. herm. Not so hot. That's the term because 98 technically isn't cool or warm.

I found the recipe weeks ago, but it got stuffed alongside the other mountains of paperwork on my desk.  Looked like my kind of meal...quick and easy.

Crock Pot Cheeseburgers

adapted from: Food.com

Ingredients

1 pound ground meat

1 small onion, chopped

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 garlic gloves, pressed

1 tablespoon milk

2 ounces Velveeta cheese

1-1 1/2 tablespoons pickle relish

1 tablespoon prepared mustard

1 1/2 tablespoon ketchup

Directions

In large skillet, brown ground meat with onion, garlic and black pepper.  Drain off excess fat and transfer to crock pot.  Add all other ingredients, cover and cook on low 5-7 hours.  Serve with your favorite hamburger sides on toasted buns.

Linking to: Full Plate Thursday, Weekend Potluck #31,

South of the Border Chicken

I told you I would get back to our regularly scheduled blog posts.  Y'all this day has been, again, one thing after another.  MM gets home to ask me if I had gone out to look where the 'roof' landed.  No, I hadn't made it out there.  He said it landed end down and left big divots in the field.  Yikes! If the wind had been any stronger, it could have made it to the highway!  Scary stuff, folks.  I don't really even want to think about all the 'could haves'.

I decided to dig through my actual cookbooks for a chicken recipe (as opposed to just hanging out on Google or Pinterest)  Now, don't get me wrong, I did hang out on Pinterest today; just not for recipes.

My small home-town has a sorority of sorts for the ladies of the town.  This sorority has been responsible for the _________ County Cookbook since the 1970's. (I'm assuming it's been longer, because I just Googled said cookbook and the new one is called ....Celebrating 60 years) Now, I don't know if that means the oldest member has been cooking for 60 years, or the club itself is 60 years. Hahaha! That's funny.  I'm sure the club is 60 years old.

Well, talk about going around the block to walk across the street......This particular recipe came from that cook book.  In fact, I just may be featuring several recipes from that little cookbook.

South of the Border Chicken

Ingredients:

1-2 pounds chicken breasts (I actually used tenderloins)

1 1/2 cup bread crumbs

3 eggs, beaten

1/4 plus 1 tsp picante sauce

1 TBS chili powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 cup butter, melted and divided

salt and pepper 

Directions

Melt butter and pour half into a baking dish and set aside. 

In one small bowl, combine the eggs and picante sauce; and in another, combine the bread crumbs, chili powder and garlic powder.  Salt and pepper the chicken to taste.  Dip chicken into the egg mixture, then dredge in the bread crumb mixture. Place in baking dish. Once all the chicken is in the dish, pour remaining butter over it.  Bake on 375˚ for 30 minutes or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked.

A definite keeper!  Kolby said "I've died and gone to Heaven"  LOL!  The original recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of chili powder, but I have to keep it pretty mild for my family.  

Linking to these great parties: All My Bloggy Friends #8, Full Plate Thursday,Weekend Potluck #31

Garlic Bread Pizza

Have you ever been watching TV and see a commercial for a food and think "why didn't I think of that?" or "I could totally do that."

When I saw the Pizza Hut commercial for the Garlic Bread Pizza, I was actually half mad at myself for not thinking of it. lol.  Whodathunkit?  Pizza toppings on top of simple garlic bread.

Kolby, also, had the thought..."hey Mom, we could make that!" So, we did.

Garlic Bread Pizza

Ingredients:

1 box of buttered garlic bread (I used Pepperidge Farms)

shredded mozzarella

pizza sauce

toppings 

Directions:

Place frozen garlic bread on an un-greased cookie sheet. Cover with pizza sauce, sprinkle with cheese and add your toppings of choice. Bake at 450˚ for around 10 minutes or until cheese is melted. 

Super-easy lunchtime idea. A lunchtime idea that the kids can make on their own!  (even better)  We just used pepperoni, obviously, but the choices are limitless.  Enjoy your Wednesday!

Shared: Tasty Thursdays #3, Moms Test Meals #3, Full Plate Thursday, Weekend Potluck #31

Honey Glazed Chicken

I made a vow to not cook this week.  It's just so hot that I can't bear to heat up the kitchen any more than I have to.  Well, remember I told you Wednesday, we were going grocery shopping?  We went, and spent. {yuk} As I was making room in the freezer for more meat, I took out a bag of chicken and put it on the floor.  Yeah...forgot about it.  We found it about an hour later half frozen.

Well, I remembered, for whatever reason, you are not supposed to refreeze chicken, so in the fridge it went.  But, I didn't remember that it was in there until oh...about an hour ago. (it's 2:45 here).

A quick google search led me here.  Wow, what great recipes for dump chicken!  Fantastical chicken recipes.

I chose the Honey Glazed Dump Chicken recipe and went to work.

Honey Glazed Dump Chicken

Ingredients

5 lbs chicken 

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup honey

Directions

Salt and pepper chicken, and place in it the bottom of your crock pot.  Mix remaining ingredients and pour over chicken.; turn to coat.  Cook on high (in my case) for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours.

Shared with these fabulous parties: All My Bloggy Friends #7, Tasty Thursdays #3,

Dr Pepper Pulled Pork (take two)

I'm not one to let sleeping dogs (or babies) lie.  So, ever since I made the Spicy Shredded Pork that Maintenance Man liked, but said they were too hot, I've been wanting to try again.

Our local store had pork products on sale, so I bought a pork tenderloin and got another one for 1¢.

Enter...my crock pot.  Here's what you'll need:

4-6 pound Pork Tenderloin

Sea salt and pepper to taste

onion, quartered

ground mustard

garlic powder

brown sugar

apple cider vinegar
Dr Pepper (I've been told you can use any soda, but I lurve DP!)
barbecue sauce

Quarter you onion and place in the bottom of your crock-pot.  Rub the tenderloin with the salt and pepper and place on top of onion.  Pour the Dr. Pepper over the pork.  Mix together the ground mustard, garlic powder, brown sugar and apple cider vinegar. Mix in with the Dr Pepper in the pot.
Cook on low for 2-3 hours.  Flip the loin.  Cook for another 2-3 hours.
Take the pork out of the pot and place on a cutting board. Use 2 forks to shred the pork.
Place the it back into the pot and pour the barbecue sauce over it and mix well.
Cook for an additional hour.
Serve on warm buns and top with cheese.

Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork

Ingredients

4-6 lb pork tenderloin

1 tsp ground mustard

1 tsp garlic powder

2 Tbs brown sugar

1 Tbs apple cider vinegar

sea salt and pepper to taste

medium size onion, quartered

1 can Dr. Pepper

1 bottle of barbecue sauce

Directions

Place quartered onion in the bottom of the crock pot.  Rub salt and pepper over tenderloin and place on top of onions.  Pour 1 can of Dr Pepper over the pork.
Mix the mustard, brown sugar, garlic powder and apple cider vinegar together and mix with Dr. Pepper in the pot.
Cook on low for 2-3 hours and flip the loin.
Cook for 2-3 hours more.  Take the tenderloin out and place on a chopping block.  Using 2 forks, shred the pork.  Place it back into the pot and cover with barbecue sauce.  Mix well.  Cook for 1 hour more.
Serve on warm buns and top with cheese.

This was the one!  Maintenance Man loved it!  He told me 'don't change a thing; keep it just the way it is'  Perfect.  {I'm secretly trying to figure a way to keep the chipotle flavor but leave out the heat.}

Shared with All My Bloggy Friends #5, Show Me What You Got #24, Weekend Potluck #27, Terrific Tuesday #25, Church Supper #48, Freedom Friday #11, Made Monday #30, Scrumptious Sunday #21, Whimsy Wednesdays #21, Show and Share #50, Uncommonly Yours #38, Blog Stalking Thursday #51, Sunday Round-Up #19, Melt In Your Mouth Monday

Ground Beef Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches

Ever make one of those meals that no one really loved, but they didn't really hate it either?  This was, surprisingly, one of those meals.

We all finished our sandwiches, but commented the whole time.."hmm, not too sure about these".  Maintenance Man said "they have potential, but something's not right." LOL!

So, I'll keep the recipe, just tweek it a bit if I ever cook it again.

Ground Beef Philly Cheese-steak Sandwiches

adapted from Rachel Ray

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 softball-sized onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup steak sauce
• 1 cup beef stock
• Salt and ground black pepper
• Buns
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup cheese of choice, shredded 

• Directions:

• In large skillet over medium-high heat with 1 turn of the pan of olive oil, brown the ground beef, about 5-6 minutes. Add the onion and cook another 3-4 minutes, until the onions start to get tender. Stir in the steak sauce and beef stock, season with salt and pepper, bring up to a bubble and cook about 2 minutes.
• While the meat is cooking, melt the butter in a medium-size skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in the flour and cook about 1 minute. Whisk in milk, bring up to a bubble and let thicken, about 2 minutes. Turn off heat and stir the cheese in a figure-eight motion until it is all incorporated.
• To serve, place a scoopful of the meat mixture onto the bottom of the buns, then top with the cheese sauce and replace the top of the bun.

Shared with: Show Me What You Got #24, All My Bloggy Friends #5, Weekend Potluck #27,Terrific Tuesday #25, Made Monday #30, Scrumptious Sunday #21, Whimsy Wednesday #21, Show and Share #50, Uncommonly Yours Link Party #38, Made it Monday,Tasty Thursday #1, Blog Stalking Thursday #51, Sunday Round-Up #19, Melt in you Mouth Monday

Spicy Shredded Pork- PW Style

I have to preface this whole post by saying that I knew better.  Anything with the word 'spicy' in the title isn't for my husband.  

I even left out the word 'spicy' when he asked me 'what's for dinner?'  

"Oh honey, we're having shredded pork.  Doesn't that sound yummy?"

But, when it came down to it; the recipe was way too spicy for my Maintenance Man and the 5 year old.  

Kolby is 9 and had no problem with it.  He just kept drinking his V8 Fusion and adding more cheese. :)  My Maintenance Man must have a baby mouth.

How can one get through life; IN TEXAS, and not eat hot stuff?  

He did say that the chipotle added wonderful flavor; it was just too hot.  I know he liked it because he asked me to make a to-go plate so he could take it to a couple of guys at work.  Now, that's saying something. 

So, here goes: 

I followed Ree's recipe.  I call her Ree because we're tight like that. 

She has absolutely NO idea who I am.  So, I wonder, with that being said, if I should call her Mrs. Drummond?  Or perhaps HRH Pioneer Woman?  hmmmm.  

But, I digress.   

My changes were: 

My pork roast was only 3 pounds, I only used about 1/4 of a can of chipotles, and I used 3 TBS of brown sugar.  

As you can see, I served ours on buns, with Colby Jack cheese.  

These were soooo good!  I cannot wait to make them again.  I need to find a new way though; without the chipotle.  

Any suggestions?  How to keep the flavor, but take the 'hot' out?  

I'm scared about tonight's dish, too. I already have Salsa Lime Chicken in the crock pot.  

AHHH! I'll let ya know, Monday how that turned out.  

See y'all then.  Have a safe weekend!

Country Fried Steak

I was going to get back in to the habit of making today my Menu Monday post.  My menu is made, and hanging on the fridge.

I had the weekend all planned.  Honey-Mustard Grilled Pork Chops~ yum!  Maintenance Man saw that there was leftover hamburger meat in the fridge, so he made the executive decision to have hamburgers.......again.   I tell ya, I'm running out of ways to season them.  But, this time, I added some Worcestershire sauce and seasoned with Paula Deen's Season All.

Anyway...the pork chops got pushed back to Sunday (supposed to be Lime Grilled Chicken). However, God blessed Texas with some wonderful rain on Sunday afternoon, so no grilling at our house.  But thank You for the rain!

VERY long story short...my menu is all messed up.  I hope he is ready to do some week night grilling. :)



We did a great job sticking to the menu last week. :)

Country-Fried Steak

adapted from The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook

Ingredients:

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 1/2 pounds cubed steak

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 medium onion, sliced

1 cup water

Salt and pepper your steak.  Dredge steak in flour. 

Brown steak in hot oil in batches in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat.

Remove steak from skillet, set aside.

Add onion to drippings in skillet; cook 5 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally.

Return steak to skillet; add water and bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 45 minutes or until tender.  

We, of course, served this with cream gravy and Creamy Cheesy Garlic Mashed Potatoes. 

Delish!

Chocolate Almond Pudding Pops

We are always looking for new summer recipes to keep us cool.  So, when my new Taste of Home magazine came and had this recipe, I knew we had to try it.   What made it even better?  I could adapt it to include things I already had in the house!  

Chocolate Almond Pudding Pops

Ingredients:

1 3.9oz pkg instant chocolate pudding

1 cup half n half

1 cup 2% milk

3 T powdered nonfat amaretto creamer

1/8 tsp almond extract.

Directions:

Whisk all ingredients together until creamy.  Pour into 8 ice pop molds or paper cups (3 oz each).  Top molds with holders or insert wooden sticks into cups.  Freeze for 4-6 hours or until solid.

If you noticed, the original recipe called for 1/2 cup sugar.  I didn't add any extra sugar to mine, and the boys didn't mind at all!  Enjoy!

Shared with: Weekend Potluck
Sunday Round Up {14} 
Made Monday #25
Church Supper #43
Uncommonly Yours Linky Party #33
Whimsy Wednesdays 16
BBQ Bash Link Party

Flag Day and Yummy Banana Pudding

Today is Flag Day.  Flag Day is a day to show respect for our flag, it's designers and it's makers.   Our flag is a great reminder of our Independence and the men who died serving to provide and protect it.

Fly your Stars and Stripes proudly today!

Well, more bananas almost bit the dust again.  If it weren't for great banana desserts, my trash would be extremely full of them.  

I realized, after making this, that Kolby and I are the only two in the house that like banana pudding.  What the what?!?  That's un-American, un-Texan and maybe just plain un-human.  No offense to any of  you out there who don't like banana pudding.  I, on the other hand, love banana pudding.  

My mom used to cheat when she made banana pudding and just stir the bananas and wafers into plain vanilla pudding.  (I didn't know it was cheating until I grew up, lol).  But, after having the 'real' stuff as an adult, I can't make it that way anymore. 

We had a day of rain on Tuesday.  Thunderstorms blew through so I unplugged for a couple of hours.  Perfect time for making some 'naner pudding.  

Banana Pudding

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups cold milk

1 pkg (3.9 oz) french vanilla instant pudding

1 pkg (3.9 oz) banana cream instant pudding

1 can condensed milk

1 container of Cool Whip

bananas

'Nilla Wafers

Directions:

Mix the pudding with the cold milk until well mixed.  Stir in the condensed milk until smooth.  Fold in 1/2 of the Cool Whip.  

Line the bottom of a baking dish with 'Nilla Wafers, cover with bananas.  Spoon the pudding mixture over the top.  Continue layering until pudding is gone.  Top with the other 1/2 of the Cool Whip; and garnish. 

No, I did not eat this for breakfast; okay I did. And, I just might do it again this morning.  Technically, it IS bananas and milk.  Works for me!

I know, I know, many of you will consider this version a cheater's version, but work with me.  Baby steps, one day I'll make my own custard and meringue.  Just not today.

Shared with: Weekend Potluck

I Can't Believe I Did It!

Last night night's menu was taco salad.  Now, I had never made taco salad before I met maintenance man.  When we got married, he made it one night, but instead of using a taco 'bowl' he used crunched up Doritoes.  It was actually very good.  We have been making them this way ever since.

That is...until last night.  I saw a commercial for a taco salad bowl maker over the weekend.  What a better alternative.  Because they are baked, not fried.  Well, little miss frugality is not going to spend money on something when she has Google.  Google is my friend.  

I found this recipe; or maybe more of a tutorial on how to make them myself.  

Whew..authors note to self. Don't take pictures on your black stove. 

I did skip placing a piece of aluminum foil over the cans just out of sheer forgetfulness, but the tortillas came off just fine.   

Maybe they aren't as 'formed' as they would be if I bought the pan.  But, you know what?  They held my taco salad just fine. ;)