chicken enchilada soup/chili

This is the EASIEST- and cheapest-Mexican inspired recipe I have ever made. Everything comes in a can and you just dump it in the crock-pot, and serve it eight hours later. HOW SIMPLE!!!!! 

Ingredients:

1 package (20 oz) boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 can (15.2 oz) whole kernel sweet corn, drained, rinsed

1 can (15 oz) Progresso™ black beans, drained, rinsed 

1 can (10 oz) Old El Paso™ mild enchilada sauce

2 tablespoons Old El Paso™ taco seasoning mix (from 1-oz package)

2 cups shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese blend (8 oz)

4 cups tortilla chips

Chopped green onions and sour cream, if desired

Directions:

1. Spray 4-quart slow cooker with cooking spray.

2. In slow cooker, mix chicken, corn, beans, enchilada sauce and taco seasoning mix.

3. Cover and cook on Low heat setting 8 hours or High heat setting 4 hours.

4. Stir in 1 cup of the cheese.

5. Top with green onions and sour cream. Top with remaining cheese; serve with tortilla chips.

oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

These cookies are quite tasty, and relatively easy to make. I made these for Father's Day and distributed to all the fathers in my life. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon (optional)

½ tsp sea salt

1 cup butter (room temperature)

¼ cups granulated sugar

1 cup light brown sugar (packed)

2 large eggs (room temperature)

2 tsp vanilla

3 cups rolled oats

2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Set aside

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars on med-high until pale and fluffy (approx. three minutes)

3. Add eggs one at a time, fully incorporating after each addition, and beat on high for 1 minute. Add vanilla.

4. Turn mixer to low and add flour mixture, mix until combined.

5. Add oats and chocolate chips. Mix until just combined.

6. Chill dough in fridge for an hour.

7. Preheat oven to 350° and line baking sheet with parchment or Silpat

8. Using a small cookie scoop, place cookies on baking sheet 2” apart.

9. Bake for 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned but center is still soft an unset.

10. Cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet, and then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

strawberry lemonade cupcakes

Ingredients:

cake
1/2 packet Jell-O vanilla pudding mix
2 tsp strawberry Kool-Aid drink mix

frosting
12oz. Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened (1 1/2 packages)
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp heavy cream
1 packet lemonade Kool-Aid drink mix (you won't be using the whole packet, start with about 1/2 tsp and adjust from there after tasting)
Yellow food coloring, optional
16 oz. Cool Whip frozen topping, thawed
Fresh strawberries, sliced, for decoration
Lemon rind, for decoration
Strawberry licorice twist, cut into 3" sections, for decoration
Yellow decorating sugar, optional, for decoration


Directions:

Look at your cake mix box and preheat to suggested temperature written in the directions.

Add the dry mix to the bowl of a stand mixer, then follow instructions on the cake mix box (remembering to substitute milk or buttermilk for the water, and adding an extra egg). Pour in the vanilla pudding mix and strawberry Kool-Aid mix. Beat until combined.

Prepare muffin tin by lining with cupcake liners. Fill liners about 2/3 of the way full and bake, according to package directions, or until a toothpick inserted in the cupcake comes out clean.


for frosting
To the bowl of a stand mixer, add the softened cream cheese, powdered sugar and heavy cream. Beat until well combined. Add in a bit of the lemonade Kool-Aid mix and beat to combine.


Spoon in the cool whip and mix until light and fluffy. Taste, and add more lemonade Kool-Aid mix if desired.


Add frosting to a large piping bag (or large zip top bag with a corner snipped off) and use any decorating tip you desire. I used a large closed star tip.

Box of strawberry cake mix (plus milk, eggs and oil, as indicated on the box)

chicken poppyseed casserole

This is another delicious recipe that we enjoy during the week because its quite easy to assemble. As always I make some changes to mine and deviate from the recipe just a tad. I only use two chicken breasts and I find that that is plenty, but I use two cups of uncooked rice in order to fill the bottom of the casserole dish. 

I also like added some chopped steamed broccoli to the mix. It's just the kind you can steam in the microwave inside the bag-then chopped into finer pieces because broccoli is not my favorite. 

There you have it.  A quick dinner for weeknights that will leave you with plenty of left overs. 

Ingredients:

4 cooked and shredded chicken breasts

1½ sticks butter

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

2 tablespoons poppy seeds

1 ½ stacks of Ritz crackers, crushed

8 oz sour cream

2 cups cooked rice-cook in chicken broth or use rice pilaf from box

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Melt butter and add Ritz crackers

2. Layer chicken, soup, poppy seeds, salt, pepper and sour cream over the rice in a casserole pan

3. Spread cracker mix on top and bake at 350° for 35-45 minutes or until bubbly. 

spicy garlic lime chicken

I feel like I start every recipe post out the same way...."I didn't follow the recipe exactly and I made some changes", but isn't that what cooking is all about! For this recipe I didn't use the measurements given because I used chicken breast tenderloins instead of an actual chicken breast. I find that I eat smaller portions when I use the tenderloins for dinner. Anyway, I also didn't add thyme to the recipe because I didn't have it in the pantry. Here is the basic outline for you to follow if you want a quick and delicious dinner. 

Ingredients:

¾ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

⅛ teaspoon paprika

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

⅛ teaspoon onion powder

¼ teaspoon dried thyme

¼ teaspoon dried parsley

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts halves

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons garlic powder

3 tablespoons lime juice

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, mix together salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika, ¼ teaspoon garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, and parsley. Sprinkle spice mixture generously on both sides of chicken breasts.

2. Heat butter and olive oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Sauté chicken until golden brown.

3. Sprinkle with 2 teaspoons garlic powder and lime juice.

4. Cook, stirring frequently to coat evenly with sauce. 

easy breakfast casserole

I will start by saying that this recipe is meant to serve 10 people! So if you aren't feeding an army you could probably half this recipe, like I did. This is super easy and can be made the day before and refrigerated-which makes it an easy dinner for hectic nights. You also don't have to cook the tater tots! You put them in the pan straight out of the freezer-AWESOME!

I did make some substitutions based on what we had in our fridge. Instead of tater tots I used the mini round hash browns, which are basically the same thing, I also used regular breakfast sausage-not hot sausage. That's just a personal preference so you could potentially use the maple flavored sausage if you wanted. 

Ingredients

2 lb. hot breakfast sausage

1 (30-32oz) bad frozen tater tots

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

¼ tsp garlic powder

¼ tsp onion powder

1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese

½ cup mozzarella cheese

8 eggs

2 cups milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°

2. In a large skillet, cook sausage until no longer pink. Drain fat.

3. In a large bowl, toss together tater tots, cooked sausage and cheeses. Pour into a lightly greased 9x13 inch pan.

4. Whisk together eggs, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and milk. Pour over tater tor mixture.

5. Bake for 35-40 minutes

parmesan crusted pork chops

I was looking for something to cook that wasn't part of our usual routine of burgers and pasta, and I stumbled upon this one on Pinterest-shocker! We love cheese in our house so I knew this would be a big hit. I paired the pork chops with green beans and a brown rice/quinoa mix. The verdict after dinner was two thumbs up! The full recipe is below. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

4 boneless pork chops

1/3 cup Parmesan cheese

2-3 tbsp. Italian breadcrumbs (dried)

1/8 tsp paprika

1 tsp parsley

½ tsp garlic powder

2 tbsp. olive oil

¼ tsp pepper

Directions:

1. Mix parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, paprika, parsley, and garlic powder and place on plate

2. Dip pork chops in the mixture (making sure mixture sticks) and sear in a pan of olive oil on medium-high heat. Sautee for 5 minutes on each side

3. Place pork chops in a glass baking dish and cook according to thickness. If the pork chops are regular thickness cook at 350° for a half hour. If the pork chops are thicker cook at 300° for one hour. 

italain seasoning chicken

This is a recipe straight from Pinterest....that actually works and tastes delicious! It's super easy because you only need one baking dish-which makes cleaning up a breeze. I made a few modifications since there are only two of us. I used about five small red potatoes, instead of the three cups. I also used three smaller chicken breasts. Lastly I only used half a stick of butter, and one and a half seasoning packets. You can add more or less seasoning based on taste preference. Here is the recipe, enjoy!

Ingredients:

3 cups red potatoes, quartered

2 cans green beans- you could use frozen

1-1 ½ lb chicken breasts – three or four, depending on family size

¾ stick butter, cut into pieces

2 Italian dressing seasoning /mix packets

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°

2. Line one side of the pan with the green beans. Line the opposite side of pan with cut and quartered potatoes. Place the chicken breasts down the middle of the baking dish.

3. Cut butter and layer over the green beans, potatoes, and chicken

4. Sprinkle Italian seasoning over the entire pan

5. Cover with foil.

6. Bake for 1 hour. 

on the go omelettes

I know that I have a bad habit of not eating breakfast when I wake up, because I'm just not that hungry in the morning. I am trying to get better about eating within an hour of waking up-which will be quite difficult since I'm not a morning person at all! I found a recipe for omelettes made in a muffin pan and gave it a try. I will caution you that this is not a true "recipe" more than it's eyeballing the ingredients and measurements.

Ingredients:
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
diced ham (pre-cooked)
cheese
chopped spinach leaves
about 8 eggs
milk


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375°
2. Grease the bottom and sides of each muffin tin on the pan. This is an important step!
3. Chop/dice all your "inside" ingredients for your omelette. Again, this is preference on what you prefer to use for your eggs.
4. Place equal amounts of "inside" ingredients into each muffin spot- including the cheese.
5. Crack all your eggs into a bowl or measuring cup with spout. This will come in handy when it comes time to pour into the muffin pan
6. Add some milk to make the eggs stretch a bit further when pouring. If you don't want to add milk you will need a few extra eggs. The eggbeaters that come in a container will work as well.
7. Whisk your egg/milk mixture.
8. Once mixed, gently pour over the "inside" ingredients.
9. Be careful not to over fill the tins, as the eggs tend to rise when cooking.

10. Bake for 20-25 minutes, depending on how full your tins are.

no-bake grasshopper pies

These turned out to be quite easy to make. The recipe I used said it would only fill five jars, but I managed to have it fill all dozen of my Ball jars. I did use the smaller ones since that was closer to the serving size, so if you use bigger ones you may need to double the recipe. They turned out great and were a big hit at the lunch I made them for! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1½ cups coarsely chopped oreo cookies (remove the icing centers first) See instructions.

3 cups mini marshmallows

½ cup milk

¼ cup Creme de Menthe (see notes)

1½ cups whipping cream

chocolate shavings

5 mini mason jars

Directions:

• First, remove all the icing centers of your Oreo cookies (about ½ a package), and using a food processor, coarsely grind the chocolate cookie parts up. Or if you are feeling really adventurous, keep the icing in! It will just make your dessert more sweet...maybe too sweet? (is that even possible?!

• In a saucepan, melt the marshmallows with the milk over low heat. Then chill the mixture, stirring it occasionally, until mixture begins to set.

• Once the marshmallow mix has cooled and set, stir in the Creme de Menthe. Set aside.

• Using a mixer, whip the whipping cream until soft peaks form. Then fold the whipped cream into the mint mixture. Set aside.

Now it's time to put the pies together!

• For the crust, evenly spread the cookie mixture into the bottoms of your mason jars, then pack it down. 

• Add the mint mixture on top of the cookie mixture, evenly spreading it out between the 5 jars.

• If you like, top the mini pies with a little dollop of whip cream, and some chocolate shavings. I just grated some semi-sweet chocolate, and sprinkled it on.

• Chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

chili pasta bake

One of my go-to dinners is this chili pasta bake. It's super easy to make and quite affordable at the same time. I'm not a fan of "chili" usually, but I like the comfort chili brings in the cold winter months. This is a nice tex-mex spin on traditional chili and keeps you nice and warm.

Chili Pasta Bake

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef

½ lb. shell pasta (you can use any kind really)

½ tablespoon canola oil *no one in our house likes onions so I leave this out

1 whole onion, chopped *no one in our house likes onions so I leave this out

1 dash salt

1 dash black pepper

15 ounces tomato sauce

14 ½ ounces canned diced tomatoes and green chilies

115 ounces canned kidney or black beans

1 ½ tablespoons chili powder

2 teaspoons cumin

3 dash cayenne pepper

¼ cups water

2 cups shredded cheese

½ cups sour cream- topping

4 tablespoons green onions-topping

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°

2. Normally here you would drizzle the oil into a large sauce pan and saute the onion, but since no one in our house likes onions-we eliminate this step. 

3. Brown the ground beef, seasoned with salt and pepper

4. While the beef is cooking cook your pasta according to the package for al dente, Once cooked, drain water and set aside. 

5. Once the beef is cooked add the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and green chilies, beans, chili powder, cumin, cayenne and water. Give it a stir and let simmer for about 5 minutes. 

6. After 5 minutes stir in the cooked pasta. Combine

7. Pour the chili pasta mixture into a 9x13 pan. Flatten it out with a spatula nad sprinkle with cheese. Place in the oven for 30 minutes or until he edges are bubbling and the cheese has melted. 

8. Scoop into bowls and serve with desired toppings.

southwest pasta salad

I made this pasta salad for a Mother's Day cookout over the weekend, and it was a big hit. I'm not a fan of normal pasta salad recipes because they call for Italian dressing or some sort of vinegar based dressing. This recipe is different,  and calls for Ranch dressing- so unhealthy, i know- but totally delicious. I will note that I substituted out the tomatoes for a can of Rotel for ease and quickness since this was made sort of last minute. 

Ingredients:

16 oz. rotini pasta

2/3 cups Ranch dressing

1 15 oz. can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 15 oz. can whole kernel corn, drained and rinsed

2 large tomatoes, chopped

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 ½ tbsp ground cumin

½ tbsp chili powder

1 tsp onion powder

¼ tsp dried red pepper flakes

salt and pepper as needed

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Drain and rinse in cold water.

2. Place in a large mixing bowl. Mix with Ranch dressing, beans, corn, tomatoes, cheese, and spices.

3. Chill salad in refrigerator until ready to serve. 

shredded chicken tacos

This is sort of an eyeballed recipe from Pinterest- with some modifications. The recipe is shredded chicken tacos so there is room for lots of creativity and customization. The original recipe is as followed:

Ingredients: 
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup salsa
1 tbsp taco seasoning

Directions:
1. In a crock-pot, place chicken breasts (frozen) in the bottom
2. Sprinkle with the seasoning
3. Top with the salsa
4. Cook on low for 6 hours, or high for 3 hours.
5. Shred and serve.

Here is where my customization comes in:

I used four chicken breasts-which was waaayyy too much- but now we have leftovers. I also used most of the jar of Newman's Own salsa so the chicken would stay moist, and I used about half a packet of taco seasoning.

I laid out a taco bar of sorts in our kitchen so that we could make our own tacos. I had lettuce, cheese, sour cream, sriracha, and Spanish rice as options for toppings. Again, here is where you can choose whatever toppings you want or you can make it into a taco salad. My plans for leftovers are either pulled chicken BBQ sandwiches or taco salad using tortilla chips.

mini cheesecakes- easter edition

I made these miniature cheesecakes a while back- Easter weekend to be exact- and thought I had posted the recipe to share. Clearly I forgot to post about these little desserts so now is my chance. They were fairly easy to make since I have a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer. Below is a photo of the finished product and the recipe to go along with it. 

Ingredients:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

¾ cup sugar

2 tbsp. sugar

3 tbsp. butter or margarine, melted

3 pkg (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

1 cup BAKER’S ANGEL FLAKE Coconut

2 tbsp.  BAKER’S ANGEL FLAKE Coconut

54 speckled malted milk eggs (about 9 oz.)

Directions: 

1. Heat oven to 325˚

2. Mix graham cracker crumbs, 2 tbsp. sugar and butter; press onto bottoms of 18 paper-lined muffin cups

3. Beat cream cheese, vanilla and remaining sugar with mixer until blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended.

4. Spoon over crusts

5. Bake 25-30 minutes or until center are almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate 2 hours.

6. Top each cheesecake with 1 tbsp. coconut; shape to resemble bird’s nest. Fill with malted milk eggs. 

semi-homemade spaghetti and meatballs

Let me start by saying this was a two day recipe because my Thursday nights are usually busy with yoga so I didn't want dinner to be served at 9 pm. I opted to make the meatballs on Wednesday evening after work. The recipe for the meatballs is below, but I don't have a picture of just the meatballs once they were made. This recipe was pretty easy to follow and required minimal cleanup. 

On to Thursday evening! The sauce is semi-homemade (hence to title of the post). I don't have a recipe for the sauce since I kind of wing-it and so some taste testing throughout. The base for the sauce is a can of Prego original spaghetti sauce from the grocery store. I pour the jar into the saucepan an then add a clove of garlic, 1/2 pound of ground beef (cooked) some fresh ground parsley, and some Italian seasoning. I will also add some salt and pepper depending on how the tasting goes while cooking. While the sauce is simmering together with the previous nights meatballs, I throw some spaghetti noodles in a pot of boiling water and that's it. Seriously. The recipe is not hard its just a tad time consuming. Once the noodles are finished I drain them and add them to the meatballs and sauce. 

Italian Style Meatballs:

Ingredients:

½ lb. ground beef

½ lb. Italian sausage

½ cup bread crumbs

1 tsp minced garlic

2 eggs

2 tsp finely chopped parsley

½ cup Parmesan cheese

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 350˚

2. In a medium size bowl add each of your ingredients into the bowl and mix well after each addition 

3. Make slightly larger than golf ball sized meatballs and place them into a muffin tin that has been coasted with non-stick cooking spray.

4. Place in the oven and cook for 40 minutes, flipping them halfway through

porcupines in a skilllet

This was such an easy recipe for nights that you don't have much time to cook. It's a one skillet dish which also makes for easy cleanup. It can easily feed 4 people or more with some leftovers to spare. 

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef

1 pkg. dry onion soup mix

1 ½ cup hot water

¾ cup uncooked rice

1 (16oz.) can tomatoes

1 cup shredded cheese

1 small can mushrooms – optional

Directions:

1. In a large skillet, crumble beef and brown

2. Drain and stir in onion soup mix, water, tomatoes, and (optional mushrooms)

3. Add rice and stir

4. Cover and cook on low heat for 25 minutes or until rice is tender

5. Sprinkle with cheese, melt and serve

brown sugar glazed pork chops

So I am THE WORST at pinning recipes to my Pinterest board, and then just letting them sit there. I never actually attempt to make them even though the headline-that caught my eye to begin with-says fast and easy or six simple steps. I know we all have this bad habit on Pinterest with at least one board.

I finally decided to put some recipes to the test. First up was Brown Sugar Glazed Pork Chops. These were SUPER easy-no joke- and they turned out delicious. I am always a big fan of dinners that are still good as left overs that I can take for lunch the following days, and this meal delivered. The pork was really juicy and had a nice balance of spicy, yet sweet from the brown sugar.

I would definitely make this again and this is easily a recommendation for a quick easy meal that anyone would love.

Ingredients:

4 pork chops

¼ cup brown sugar

½ tsp cayenne powder

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp paprika

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

Directions:       

1. Preheat oven to 350˚

2. In bowl, combine the brown sugar and spices

3. Remove pork chops from package and rub spice mix on both sides of the meat

4. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in skillet over medium/high heat. Add pork chops. Cook for about 5 minutes on each side, or until it is nicely browned

5. If your skillet is oven safe transfer the pork chops directly to the oven. If your skillet is not oven safe you must transfer the pork chops to a foil lined baking sheet. Once in the oven, let the pork chops cook for about 5 minutes, or until cooked thoroughly

6. Remove and serve