Easy Stroganoff

This is one of my favorite quick recipes. It's probably not the healthiest...but it's oh so yummy!

- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup
- 1 cup sour cream
- dilute with milk
- 2 cups elbow noodles

Brown ground beef. (You can also add an onion in with the beef for more flavor, I just usually make this meal when I'm in a rush and I don't bother, and it still tastes fine.) Cook noodles according to package. Drain. Mix soups, sour cream, and milk. Add ground beef. *You can either mix it all together with the noodles or serve the soup mixture as a sort of gravy over the noodles. I just always mix it together. Simmer until it's all warmed through. 

Apple Cider Gravy Pork Chops

So there's not much of a recipe to this one, but we sure love it in our house! I just kind of made stuff up for this meal one time and it has turned into a classic in our house.

(I know there's no color variation on this plate...Braden doesn't like vegetables, and right now, neither do I!)

Prepare pork chops by poking holes in them with a fork and season them with garlic salt & pepper. Saute in olive oil or butter until done. Top with caramelized onions (sliced onions sauteed with some salt & sugar until transparent and the color of caramel) and serve with mashed potatoes (I use yukon gold for this meal) and apple cider gravy.

Gravy:

3-4 tbsp. butter

3-4 tbsp. flour

2 c. chicken broth

3/4 c. apple cider (the good stuff makes a difference!)

salt/pepper to taste

Create a roux using the butter & flour. Allow to cook 1-2 minutes, or until light brown (I do this in the pork chop pan so I have the yummy drippings from the meat). Whisk in the broth & cider on med-high heat. Allow to simmer & thicken for about 3 minutes, or until desired thickness. Season with salt and pepper.

Tortellini Soup

I am so in the mood to make warm stuff!!! Lovin that I finally can. This was a favorite of ours last winter and I am excited to make it again soon!

Tortellini Soup

1 pound mild Italian sausage

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup water

4 cups beef broth or 2 cans

1/2 cup apple juice

3 carrots, sliced

1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes

1 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon oregano

1 cup sliced zucchini

1 cup sliced yellow squash

4 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

8 ounces cheese tortellini (you can add more if you want. And I buy the fresh stuff out of the refrigerated pasta section)

fresh grated Parmesan cheese

In large soup pan, brown sausage. Drain fat and add chopped onion and garlic and cook until tender. Add water, broth, apple juice, carrots, tomatoes, basil, oregano, zucchini, squash and parsley. Simmer for 30 minutes or longer. Add tortellini 5 to 10 minutes before serving (time depends on if you are using fresh or frozen) and cook until tender, but not soggy. Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese over each serving.

Mexican Casserole

So, I failed. I meant to take a photo of our meal tonight and show you how amazingly yummy this casserole is... but I forgot. And taking a picture of the leftovers in my fridge might turn you off, because cold leftovers never look as appetizing. Oh well. You'll have to picture it and make it yourself! Super yummy, people!

3 cooked, shredded chicken breasts (I just boil mine)

1 diced green pepper (I did about 3/4 of green and 1/4 of red)

1/4 c diced red onion

1 can corn (drained)

1 can kidney beans (drained and rinsed)

1 can garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed)

1 can tomato sauce

1 c salsa (or you could add a little more salsa or tomato sauce to make it more moist when cooked - ours was a little dry tonight for some reason)

1/4 c chopped cilantro

2 cloves garlic, minced

salt & pepper

Mix all ingredients together in a big bowl. Spray a 9x13 pan with pam and put a layer of crushed tortilla chips on the bottom. Layer half the mixture, then some cheddar & monterey jack cheese, then the rest of the mixture, and then top with more cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 mins.

p.s. This is a great drop-off meal if you are making someone dinner. It's super easy to do, but I admit it's a little time-consuming chopping things up, cooking the chicken, and rinsing beans. Anyway, we did that tonight and it made enough for one of those throw-away 8x8 pans to drop off to our friends and then another whole pan to keep for our dinner.

Pumpkin Dip

I can't get enough of the pumpkin flavor this fall! My sister raves about this recipe she gave me, and now I do too! Try it out!!

Stir together:

15 oz can of pumpkin

1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Cream the above ingredients with:

4 oz. cream cheese

1 small package vanilla instant pudding

Fold in:

8 oz. cool whip

I'm serving this with soups, salads and rolls at a ward lunch bunch tomorrow. Gingersnaps, pirouettes, and graham cracker sticks are delicious with it! Enjoy!

Garlic Chicken Pasta with Spinach

I had my doubts...but this was amazing!

Garlic Chicken Pasta with Spinach

Another delicious recipe from http://www.melskitchencafe.com/!

6 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (this doesn’t add spiciness – just the right amount of flavor)
6 tablespoons olive oil
2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 pound)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound penne pasta
1 (5-ounce) bag baby spinach
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil or 1 tablespoon dried
6 tablespoons juice from 2 lemons
1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Bring 4 quarts water to a boil in a large pot. Meanwhile, combine garlic, pepper flakes and oil in a small microwave-safe bowl and microwave until garlic is golden and fragrant, about 1 minute. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and cut into bite-size pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer 1 tablespoon of the garlic/red pepper oil to a large skillet and heat over medium heat until oil is rippling. Add chicken and cook until well browned and cooked through. Transfer to a plate and tent with foil. Add 1 tablespoon salt and the pasta to boiling water and cook until tender but still slightly firm (al dente). Reserve 1/2 cup cooking water. Drain pasta and return to the pot. Stir in chicken, spinach, basil, lemon juice, Parmesan, and remaining garlic mixture, adding reserved pasta water as needed. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Banana Muffins

So I know it's WAY past my day to post (okay only 3 days) but I figured since I am thinking of it now I will follow the motto "better late then never".

These muffins are super yummy! I just made them last week and am glad I was able to leave them for my husband to devour while I am gone.

Is it just me or is Fall  the perfect time of year to bake!? I love it!!

I hope you enjoy!

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, melted(I added 1 tsp. of cinnamon and 1 tsp. of vanilla in my mixture)!
DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat muffin pans with non-stick spray, or use paper liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Combine bananas, sugar, egg, and melted butter in a large bowl. Fold in flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Scoop into muffin pans.

Bake in preheated oven. Bake mini muffins for 10 to 15 minutes, and large muffins for 25 to 30 minutes. Muffins will spring back when lightly tapped. (My muffins were done at about 20 minutes and I checked them at 15. )

Apple Toffee Dip

This is a simple, super-yummy dip to use for apples (or any other fruit, I suppose!).

1 pkg. cream cheese

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 pkg. Heath toffee chips

vanilla

Mix softened (very important!) cream cheese, sugar, brown sugar, & vanilla together. Stir in Heath toffee chips. Enjoy!

There are 2 kinds of Heath toffee chips - sometimes one is hard to find. There's one without any chocolate covering it (which is what the recipe technically calls for, and is the tricky one to find), and there are toffee bits covered in milk chocolate. Either works, but the one without chocolate creates a cleaner looking dip because the chocolate kind of melts off into the dip. Either way...

Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

(picture borrowed from here)

Alright girls...you MUST try these! Not only do they taste AMAZINGLY good, but the smell that fills your house when they are baking...oh...there is nothing better :) The cream cheese frosting is SOOO good with the added pumpkin pie spice. I promise you will not be disappointed! These are my most favorite pumpkin cookies ever!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 oz. cream cheese
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugars. Add pumpkin, egg, and vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Stir in the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture by hand until just combined. Drop on prepared baking sheets by heaping tablespoonfuls; Butter the bottom of a drinking glass and then dip the bottom of the glass in a bowl of sugar. Flatten the dough balls with the bottom of the glass until they are about ¾ inch thick, dipping the glass in sugar as necessary to prevent sticking.
Bake in preheated oven for 13 to 15 minutes. Cool cookies on wire rack. Once cookies have cooled completely, frost or drizzle with cream cheese frosting.
While the cookies are cooling make frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and pumpkin pie spice and beat until smooth and creamy.

This recipe is from www.sweetpeaskitchen.com

Baked Chicken Parmesan

So I found this recipe the other day. Made it for dinner last night. Oh.My.Deliciousness. I LOVED IT!! My husband loved it. And my toddler ate it up (which is always a triple plus for a meal in my book). Hope you guys like it as much as we did!

Baked Chicken Parmesan

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Worchestershire sauce
2 tsp mustard
2-3 lb chicken breasts
1 T dry Italian dressing mix
1/2 cup parmesan
2 T parsley
3/4 cup bread crumbs

Melt butter in a 9x13 pan in oven at 350 degrees. Add salt, Worchestershire sauce, and mustard to the butter. Cut up chicken (I did it in strips) and soak in butter mixture. Mix dry ingredients. Dip chicken in dry mixture. Place back in pan. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Chocolate Revel Bars

It seems like everybody's family has their favorite "B.T.S." (aka "better than s--") recipe. This one is mine. :) It's dangerous to make this recipe though because they're INCREDIBLY addicting and it makes a ton... so plan on sharing or freezing plenty of extras. Anyway, trust me when I say you'll never make a regular old cookie bar after this.

(picture borrowed from here)

CHOCOLATE REVEL BARS / B.T.S. BARS

Combine:

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups flour

1 t salt

2 cups brown sugar

2 t vanilla

1 t soda

3 cups oats

Press 2/3 of mixture into bottom of a 17x11 cookie sheet. Over low heat, melt together:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 12 oz package of chocolate chips

2 T butter/margarine

1/2 tsp salt

Remove from heat and stir in another 2 tsp vanilla.

Spread chocolate mixture over dough. Dot with remaining oat mixture. Bake at 350 for 25-30 mins. Cool completely and cut into bars. Makes roughly 75 small bars.

Mmmm, just thinking about these babies is making my mouth water...

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Can I just tell you how much I love all your recipes? I've made butternut squash soup, sweet and sour meatballs,  and pizza this past week from all your yummy recipes! Thanks everyone!

These cookies are yummy, the perfect blend of spices in them makes them very flavorful.

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 cups (12-ounce bag) milk chocolate chips, not semisweet


Directions: Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick spray or line them with parchment paper. Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter in thirds. Stir in the chips. Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cookies are browned around the edges. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Take the cookies off with a spatula and cool them on wire racks.

Banana Bars

Tomorrow is going to be busy, so I'll post my recipe tonight while I'm sitting here doing nothing...

Truthfully, I've been dying to share this recipe since I made them earlier this week. I had seriously like 12 ripe bananas that I had frozen and needed to make banana bread with. (I have A LOT of banana bread in my freezer if anyone wants some!) But then I came across this recipe on this website.

And I made banana bars.

And they are heavenly. I'm not exaggerating.

I've been completely obsessed with her recipes ever since. I have tried out a few others and there are many more I'm going to try this week.

The frosting isn't completely necessary in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, it's incredible. Simply amazing. But, they tasted really really good without frosting as well...and you can save a few...ahem...hundred....calories that way! Enjoy!

Frosted Banana Bars

- ½ cup butter, softened
- 1 ½ cups white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (I used three ripe bananas)
- Frosting (recipe below)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 X 13 in. pan. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the sour cream and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; stir into the batter. Finally, mix in the mashed banana. Spread evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow bars to cool completely before frosting.

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

- 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream (I didn't have whipping cream, but I did have whipped cream which I used and it tasted good to me!)

In a large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. Set aside. In another medium bowl, beat whipped cream until stiff peaks form - it helps to use a chilled bowl and chilled beaters - (I skipped that part and just folded in my whipped cream). Fold whipped cream into cream cheese mixture. Frost to your heart’s delight!

(I borrowed this picture from http://www.melskitchencafe.com/) 

Comfort Chicken

Is it seriously my turn to post again?!? Now that the cat's out of the bag that I'm pregnant, I can honestly say that I really haven't cooked more than a handful of times in months. Very sad and pathetic. I love to cook and experiment with my own recipes and all that stuff, but with the extreme nausea and food aversion, it just hasn't happened. So I just flipped through my recipes and found one that we like (definitely not a low fat meal so it's not eaten too frequently in our house!)

1 lb. chicken, baked & cut

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 c. butter

4 med. potatoes, bite-size pieces

20 baby carrots, bite-size pieces

1 c. cream

1 tbsp.parsley

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

In a large skillet, saute onion in butter (I actually reduce the amount of butter in this recipe). Add chicken and brown on all sides. Add potatoes & carrots (partially steamed in microwave first). Cover and cook on medium-low until veggies are tender. Stir in remaining ingredients and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer uncovered for 8 minutes. Enjoy!

I adjust my seasonings to make sure it doesn't turn out bland. Simple seasonings, but with the right adjustment it's perfect!

Not your Average Parmesan Chicken

Apologies for not posting yesterday. At least I remembered today right?

This is one of my ABSOLUTE favorite recipes!! Just make sure to only add 2 tsp. and not 2 TBS. of garlic salt or else it won't turn out so great. (Oh the journeys of trying to cook in a hurry and reading the recipe too quickly...and I had even made it a million times before)!!

As the recipe says "This is a winner you can count on". I AGREE! :)

Parmesan Chicken

2 cups crushed Ritz crackers
3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons garlic salt
8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup plain yogurt (I've also made this with sour cream and it was DELICIOUS)! 
1/4 cup butter, melted

1 recipe Sour Cream Chicken Sauce (optional) I've actually only ever made the recipe with this sauce once and it is yummy either way.

Combine cracker crumbs, parmesan cheese, and garlic salt. Dip each piece of chicken in yogurt to coat and then cover breast in crumb mixture. Arrange in greased 9X13 inch baking dish. Drizzle with melted butter. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes. Top with Sour Cream Chicken Sauce, if desired. Serves 8.


Sour Cream Chicken Sauce

2 (10 ounce) can cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 cup sour cream

In a small saucepan heat soup and sour cream together over low heat. stirring frequently.

I most often serve this with mashed potatoes and fresh steamed veggies. It is also delicious with rice.