Mighty Big Weekend and Tasty tuesday

This past weekend was filled up to the rim as usual. I think Shane and I are trying to make up for the first 5 years of our marriage where we had no money or friends to ever go and do ANYTHING. Literally, we did nothing. So for the past 2 1/2 years we've been packing it in to make up for it. This past weekend was no exception! On Friday we got a sitter for the girls and we went out to eat at PF Chang's with some of Shane's clients from work. They were so much fun!!!! They were a "younger" couple from India (I say "younger" because they were both older than us, but younger than the people we usually hang out with!!! lol!). The guy is a nano technologist and his wife has her masters in something smart. They both speak several languages and were really hilarious. My favorite part was when his wife commented on how even though her husband is Indian, everyone always thinks he's Hispanic. From that time forward we kept calling him "Jose". It was pretty funny!

On Saturday we decided to take the girls to the Science Museum. We had received some free tickets a while back and were just now getting around to using them. The girls had a blast just running around everywhere and getting their hands in all the good stuff. We also got to watch a movie at IMAX -- it was something about fish. (Very descriptive, I know) . The girls enjoyed the science center a lot, but I still don't understand why anyone would pay full admission for it. It's not THAT cool. Anyway, here are some pictures:





Sunday was filled with meeting after meeting and fun walks. But also, it was filled with finishing up my brother's birthday present. This is the same brother that gave me the awesome Jean Luke Picard plate. Monday was his birthday and I really wanted to have it finished for him. Now, as a fair warning, I think my brother and I have a very different sense of humor than most. Just about anything dealing with poop and farts makes us giggle. So yes, fair warning to what you are about to see:

Knitted toilet paper and crocheted poop!

I love the picture of his cat sniffing the poo.... it totally cracks me up! The best part is that the poo is stuffed with this rose petal scented stuff, so it smells really good! I'm a freak, aren't I??? I'm definitely not classy, that's for sure.

Alright alright alright... I'm done with the "potty" humor. For now at least. Well, if any of you are still interested, here's the recipe for today's Tasty Tuesday:

The recipe for today I got from a friend of mine a long time ago. I'm not sure if she made this up or it is a widely known recipe. All I know is I really like it and it's pretty easy to make. Also, if you haven't noticed, we eat a lot of chicken in this family. We also like to eat things more "mexican" in nature. So here it is:

Green chili Chicken Tacos

6-8 chicken tenderloins
1/2 red onion (more or less depending on your taste)
1 can chopped green chilies (for some reason, the wal mart brand tastes disgusting! This is one of the few times I spend extra to get the name brand!)
oil for frying
cheese (cheddar or colby jack)
taco sauce
sliced green olives
taco size flour tortillas
Sour cream (optional)

Cook chicken, onion, and green chilies in hot oil until chicken is cooked thoroughly. then, cut the chicken up into bite-sized pieces. Place cooked chicken mixture and place on top of flour tortillas. Use the rest of the ingredients as toppings. Serve with Spanish rice and refried beans.

Tasty Tuesday: "Stovetop" chicken casserole

This is a recipe that my Aunt Debbie gave me right before I left for college. It's so simple it's mind boggling, but it's soooooooooo good!!!! Enjoy!

"Stovetop" chicken casserole

Place cooked, chopped chicken on the bottom of an ungreased 13x9 casserole dish (amount of chicken will depend on how much you want!). Pour over 1 can undiluted cream of chicken soup. Add 3 cups chicken broth. Pour 1 box Stove Top stuffing (or generic equivalent) over all. Bake for 30 minutes in 350 degree oven.

I'm almost positive you don't cover this dish in the oven, but gosh darn it, I can't remember! I think I'm going to make this tonight for dinner, so I'll let you know later!!!

**UPDATE**

So I made it for dinner tonight and you DON'T cover the dish with foil. Also, Cassie sent me a recipe that is similar to this one, only you don't have to cook the chicken before hand:

4 chicken breasts, boned, skinned & split
6 slices Swiss cheese
1/2 cup white wine or water
1 can cream of chicken soup (or celery, mushroom or asparagus, you choose)
1/4 lb. butter or margarine, melted
2 cups herb stuffing mix (dry)

Place chicken in a 9x13 ungreased baking dish & top with cheese. Thin soup with wine or water. Mix until smooth & pour over chicken & cheese. Mix stuffing mix with melted butter or margarine & sprinkle over top. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Looks good to me!

Tasty Tuesday -- Cream of Mushroom Chicken

I found a basic version of this recipe on the back of a can of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup a long time ago. At first I didn't think I would like it since I am not a huge fan of mushrooms, but this quickly became a family favorite. Once again, in order for my girls to eat the chicken, I have to rinse off the creamy stuff after it's cooking (they are so weird!). We always eat this meal served over rice, with steamed broccoli on the side. I always use those bags of cheap frozen chicken when making this. You can either use the tenderloins, or you can use chicken breast cut lengthwise (kitchen scissors will make cutting this very easy).

Cream of Mushroom Chicken

6-8 frozen tenderloins, thawed
2 cans cream of mushroom soup (any variety)
1/4 cup water
1 cup sliced yellow onion (more or less, depending on preference)
ground red pepper, to taste

Place onions in the bottom of a crockpot. Add chicken and rest of ingredients. Stir to incorporate. Cook on LOW 4-6 hours. (usually I will cook the first hour on HIGH just so I meet safety standards, and then I cook it on LOW the rest of the time)

The original recipe tells you to cook this dish in a skillet. I, however, hate standing there watching this stuff cook. The crockpot is soooooooooo stinkin' easy and makes the food taste that much better! If you cook this on an electric skillet or frying pan, cook only 6 tenderloins instead of 8. Also, only use 1 can of cream of mushroom and increase your amount of water to 1/2 cup. First you will need to heat a little bit of oil in the pan and onions and chicken. Brown the chicken on both sides. Add remaining ingredients and stir to incorporate. Cover and cook on med-low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Tasty Tuesday -- Pizza Edition!

For those of you who don't know, my dear sweet Kelly is probably the pickiest eater in the entire world. This poor child would rather starve then have to actually sit down and eat. Not at all like her mother, I might add! But anyway, the one thing for sure that we can always get our little darling to eat is Pizza. She still likes to keep it basic (cheese or sausage pizza), but hey, food is food in my opinion! I'm just happy when the kid eats! So even though I know you can either buy a Little Ceaser's pizza for $5 or get a frozen one for the same amount, we all know those pizza's are NOT filling. Sure, they might fill you up at the moment, but within two hours your stomach starts growling and screaming for more food.

That's when I decided it was time to try making my own pizza. At first I tried making it using those cheap packages of pizza dough mix you can buy at the store, but the same thing happened -- Not filling enough! So then I went in search of a good pizza dough recipe. One that was easy and required very little effort. This is the recipe that I use now. I picked it because the dough always comes out nice and crisp, but also because it's so freakin' easy!!!! This recipe is from the book "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman. Here you go:

"You can knead this dough with a mixer (use the dough hook), or by hand, but I like the food processor best. The pizzas can be grilled or baked in an oven-the hotter the better (commercial pizza ovens are usually about 700 degrees). This is the simplest, most basic pizza (and bread) dough you can make. Olive oil makes a smoother, more flavorful dough and a slightly cracklier crust -- but you can omit it if you like -- just add a little more water to the dough if you do.

Basic Pizza dough recipe

1 tsp instant or rapid-rise yeast (I actually use one square of those envelope packs you buy)
3 cups all purpose flour or bread flour (I use 2 cups all-purpose flour and one cup whole wheat flour so the dough is heartier)
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt or sea salt, plus extra for sprinkling
1 to 1 1/4 cups water
2 tbl plus 1 tsp olive oil

Combine the yeast, four, and 2 tsp salt in the container of a food processor. Turn the machine on and add 1 cup water and the 2 tbl of oil through the feed tube.

Process for about 30 seconds, adding more water, a little at a time, until the mixture forms a ball and is slightly sticky to the touch. If it is dry, add another tablespoon or two of water and process for another 10 seconds. (in the unlikely event that the mixture is too sticky, add flour, a tablespoon at a time)

Turn the dough onto a floured work surface and knead by hand a few seconds to form a smooth, round dough ball. Grease a bowl with the remaining olive oil, and place the dough in it. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp cloth and let rise in a warm, draft free area until the dough doubles in size, 1 to 2 hours. (My house is always cold in the winter, so it takes at least 2 hours for my dough to rise) You can cut this rising time short if you are in a hurry, or you can let the dough rise more slowly, in the refrigerator, for up to 6-8 hours.

Roll out dough as usual."

Obviously we all have our own recipe toppings that we prefer, so there's no real need to get into topping ideas. As I was doing some searching, I found this one blogger who said she liked a thinner crust, and therefore was able to get a large and a medium pizza out of this dough recipe. If you do use it all, it will make a very thick, dense dough (which I really like). when we get a frozen pizza, Kelly can easily eat 1/2 to 3/4 of it. With this one, she can eat one big slice and she's stuffed (and not hungry again 2 hours later). We also cook our pizza on a pizza stone. I'm a huge fan of pizza stones, but I know not everybody has one. I found ours for $5 on cheapcycle AND it was already well seasoned and ready to go. That being said, I'm not sure how the dough will come out on a regular cookie sheet.

To cook the pizza, I heat the oven with the pizza stone in it (on the bottom rack) to 500 degrees. Once the oven is preheated, I slide the dough with all of the toppings onto the pizza stone and cook until the cheese is sufficiently melted -- usually about 10-12 minutes. OH! And for the pizza sauce, I just use the cheapy jarred pizza sauce you can buy at walmart. It's pretty darned tasty.

Well, that's it! Happy pizza making!

** Below I included a Potato Chowder recipe as a follow-up from last week's Tasty Tuesday edition. Enjoy!

Tasty Tuesday -- Potato Chowder Revisited

Okay, I just wanted to share with you guys really quick a Potato Chowder recipe that my friend Keri sent me. It looks really great and it's also one more potato chowder recipe to throw into your rotation.

Garden Potato Chowder

Serves 8

3 large potatoes
8 T. butter, divided
1 c. coarsely chopped carrots
4 slices bacon (turkey bacon works great & reduces the fat)
6 T. flour
1 c. fat-free half and half
4 c. milk
1 c. frozen peas, unthawed
1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
½ c. fat-free sour cream
3 green onions, diced

Clean potatoes and prick with fork. Microwave until easily pierced, about 9-10 minutes on high. Allow to cool enough to handle, then peel and cube; set aside. Meanwhile, melt 2 T. butter in large stockpot and cook carrots over medium-high heat until tender, about 5 minutes. Remove carrots from pot and set aside. In same pot, cook bacon until crisp. Drain bacon on paper towels and set aside. Drain most of bacon fat from pan, leaving only the solid particles. Add remaining 6 T. butter and melt. Add flour and whisk to combine. Cook over medium heat until golden and bubbly, about 2 minutes. Add half-and-half, stirring constantly with a whisk. Add milk, stirring constantly. Add diced potatoes, carrots and frozen peas and cook another 15-20 minutes until thickened, stirring frequently to prevent scorching. Add cheddar cheese and sour cream and stir and cook until melted and well incorporated. Ladle into serving bowls and top with crumbled bacon and green onion. Serve immediately. (Also great as a leftover!)

Tasty Tuesday and an Old Man

So this is going to be the longest post in Blogger history! Today is of course Tasty Tuesday and therefore I will be posting a fantabulous recipe that costs $5 or less. I will also be announcing that today is the day that my main man turns 30! That's right... my big stud is now officially an old man! How great is that????

Okay, so lets get started:

This recipe was sent to me by Emily. It definitely looks like a great quick family meal. Obviously, as we have discussed before, this would not satisfy my caveman husband and his ravenous appetite. I would at least have to have some grilled cheese sandwiches to go with it. He really likes it when I add slices of canadian bacon to the sandwiches, but that's only when we have it on hand. So here's what Emily sent me:

"I have a recipe to share. Odd, I know, 'cause I don't really like to cook. I think it's under $5. I've never really priced it out. It's a great recipe if you have milk in your fridge that is about to expire and needs to be used...I can't stand to throw out something so expensive.

Potato Chowder

About 1 cup of frozen corn
1 and 1/2 cup peeled and cubed (bite size) potatoes (I usually use about 4-5 potatoes, depending on how much I want to make)
1/2 cup diced onion
2/3 to 1 cup water (just enough to simmer)
6 cubes chicken bullion
1/2 tsp (+) pepper

Bring this all to a boil in a pot. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 10-15 minutes (until potatoes are soft).

Dump in: 3 cups milk and 2Tbsp. butter
Mix together: 1/2 cup milk and 5 Tbsp. flour; pour in through strainer

Cook until it boils and thickens. Serve topped with cheese, bacon bits (I use real bacon diced up because this is the only time I'm allowed to have bacon), green onion or sour cream."

So I was at my friend Kym's house one time and she made the most amazing corn/potato chowder I have ever eaten. I can't remember everything she put in it, but one thing she did was use those frozen tater tot things instead of peeling and dicing potatoes. I thought that was pretty cool AND she just added them to the pot straight from the bag (frozen and all). The tater tots ended up breaking down a bit so you weren't getting big chunks of potato.

I also realized that after reading Emily's recipe that I bet almost every family has their own easy "potato chowder" recipe. I would love to see what the rest of you guys have. Here's my recipe:

Super Easy Broccoli Potato Soup (really cool name, huh?)

2 cups frozen broccoli florets
1 small onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 tbl butter
1 (10.75 oz) can condensed cream of potato soup, undiluted
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1-2 shakes dried basil
1/4 tsp pepper
1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese

In a large saucepan, saute broccoli and onion in butter until tender. Stir in soup, milk, basil, and pepper; heat through. Add cheese; stir until melted.

BUT... when I wanna make it REALLY good, I will add these ingredients:

1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup corn
a small baked potato (just cook it in the microwave)
1/4 cup more water
3/4 cup sliced lil' smokies
pinch of sugar at the very end

Now, I only add these ingredients when I have them as leftovers. You know, leftover corn from last nights dinner or leftover lil' smokies from some other meal (I use them sometimes in my spaghetti sauce or as a pizza topping). I don't know if I would ever just go out and buy the ingredients just to make this soup. Maybe, but doubtful.

So now onto talking about my great hubby. He's 30 years old, can you believe it???? It's so weird to think that he can even be that old. He definitely has a baby face!


I totally love how he does silly, dorky things just to make the kids laugh. Even blowing out his candles he can't help but make a silly face just for the kids. I love this man and I can't believe he's all mine!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHANE!!!! (I'll post more birthday stuff tomorrow)

Tasty Tuesday -- Mexican Lentil Casserole

Mexican Lentil Casserole (or use as a topping for taco salad)

2 tbl vegetable oil
1 med onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
4 cups water
1 cup dried green/brown lentils
1 1/2 cups cooked rice (brown is best)
1 can tomato paste
1 pkg taco seasoning mix
1 tsp chili powder, or more if desired

In a large saucepan, saute onions and green peppers in oil over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add water and bring to a boil. Stir in lentils. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes. Do not drain. In medium sized, lightly oiled, casserole combine lentils with other ingredients. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes at 350.

** We use this as a topping for taco salad instead of ground beef -- It also freezes REALLY well if you use brown rice.

** To make this as a casserole, during the last 5 minutes of baking, top with corn chips and shredded cheese. Great dish for a vegetarian meal.


This probably isn't a recipe where you are going to be able to find everything in your cupboard today to fix dinner for tonight (Sorry Christa). I know this seems awfully complicated for something where you could just use ground beef, but it's sooooooo much better for you! It's still under $5, and it won't expand your waist line every time you eat it. Also, when you use this as a topping, there is no need for refried beans (another fattening ingredient). Just top with cheese, lettuce, and whatever else you use for taco salad. Usually when I make this, I will freeze several portions so I can have a dinner ready for after church or whenever I don't feel like cooking. You can easily re-heat this in the microwave.

Oh... this recipe also came from the book "Easy Beans".... if you can't tell, I really love that book! Also, if you are making this for a Vegan, do not add cheese and make sure your taco seasoning packet is vegan. I was surprised that not all taco seasoning packets are vegan. If you are wondering why I am sharing this, it's because I have a brother that is vegan and I discovered that when I was making the casserole for him. Okay, hope you guys like it!

Tasty Tuesday -- Italian Chicken Veggie Bake

So my friend Cassie emailed me this recipe last week. I still haven't had a chance to try it, but it sounds freakin' good and easy! The only problem I see with feeding it to my family is that Shane is a total wimp when it comes to canned vegetables. I think I might try this with just the chicken and potatoes and then broil some Asparagus for a side dish. Or, I could always do the standard salad loaded with lots of raw veggies to fulfill his desire for crunchy vegetables.

What's also great about this recipe, is that if you have any leftover chicken, you can easily use it for making chicken salad for the next night. You know, the kind with chicken and lettuce and veggies, not the creamy sandwich kind. There really should be a better distinction between the two. I would also probably use any leftover chicken for some soup as an appetizer for another dinner. But anyway, here is the recipe she sent me:

"I'm not sure if this is under $5 or not....I know I spend less than that on it, but I buy everything w/ coupons and on sale.

Italian Chicken & Vegetable Bake

4-6 chicken breasts

3 potatoes, peeled and cubed

1-2 cans cut green beans, drained and rinsed

1 small onion, coarsely chopped

½ bottle Italian dressing (the cheap generic works just as well)

Line a 9x13 pan with aluminum foil with enough hanging over the edges to cover the top (or use a baking bag). Place chicken, potatoes, onions, and green beans in pan. Cover with dressing. Cover pan with the remaining foil. Bake at 375 degrees for an hour or until chicken is cooked through.

Notes: You can also make this with pork chops (it tastes just as yummy-that is how mom makes it, but I just prefer chicken), and the onion and potatoes are optional (sometimes I'm in a hurry and don't want to take the time to peel them, so I just add extra green beans). "

Tasty Tuesday

Tasty Tuesday's first installment!!! This recipe I got from a book called "Easy Beans" by Trish Ross and Jacquine Trufford. It's been a great reference book for cooking meals with beans usually as the main ingredient. This time, the beans aren't the main ingredient, but they are still good!

Salsa Chicken

(1) 15 oz can kidney beans
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut in 1/2 (I just use the cheap, frozen kind -- thawed)
Medium or hot salsa (I prefer pace, but it's whatever your family likes!)

Drain and rinse kidney beans. Place them in the bottom of an ungreased casserole dish. Put the 4 chicken pieces on the beans. Cover with salsa. Bake, covered, at 350 for 40 minutes.

-- This dish makes a LOT. Usually when we cook it, I only use one chicken breast. When I do this I use a smaller casserole dish. When it's done cooking, I like to cut up the chicken into bite-sized pieces and stir it with the beans. Then, we use it as taco filling. My kids won't eat the beans or taco shells, so they just eat the chicken with some ketchup. Even with one chicken breast, we ALWAYS have left overs. The beans really stretch how far the chicken will go and it makes the meal more filling. Give it a try and tell me what you think!

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