Snow?? Really???

So, I'm a little behind on blogging but i have been taking pictures...does that count? Maybe not. *Sigh* I will get better at time management..someday...

In Weather news, here in Virginia we had rain, sleet and then snow on April 4th. I think it surprised a lot of people including me. Jonathan was inside picking up the pizza and I was waiting in the car when I heard this *ping* *ping* *ping* sound and I'm all  like..wow..that is sleet? Really? and it really was. Jonathan got in the car and we headed home and then I said..that looks like snow..and it was..LOL It snowed for awhile but since the temperature had been in the 60's the ground was too warm and it didn't stick. There were some accidents around since the sleet started during rush hour and I think people just didn't realise that it was slick! Anyway, just a little bit of excitement.

 

I guess i should say that we really don't get much snow around here at all during Winter and hardly ever during Spring.

Crispy Cheddar Chicken

I have featured this recipe before when I made Parmesan Chicken. I took Jamie's recipe and changed it just a little to make a totally different recipe. This time I made it like the recipe because it is SO stinkin good this way too. My parents came to visit and I wanted to have a nice dinner for them but I needed something quick and easy since I worked all day and then had some last minute chores to do before they got here. I passed off one of the chores onto Jonathan as he made the brownies. YEAH! I have to add here that he really isn't feeling well since it is Spring and he has allergies but he made them and they were fantastic!

Anyway, I digress...

This is where I got the recipe from.. I found this web site from Pinterest and she has great recipes!

http://jamiecooksitup.net/2011/10/crispy-cheddar-chicken/

Crispy Cheddar Chicken

Time: 15 minute prep + 45 minutes baking

Yield: 7 servings

Chicken:

4 large chicken breasts

2 sleeves Ritz crackers

1/4 t salt

1/8 t pepper

1/2 C milk

3 C cheddar cheese, grated

1 t dried parsley

Sauce:

1   14 ounce can cream of chicken soup

2 T sour cream

2 T butter

  1. Cut each chicken breast into 3 large chunks.

2. In a small food processor grind up the ritz crackers. (I only used 1 sleeve)

3. Pour the milk, cheese and cracker crumbs into 3 separate small pans. Toss the 1/4 t salt and 1/8 t pepper into the cracker crumbs and stir the mixture around to combine.

4. Dip each piece of chicken into the milk then the cheese and finally the cracker crumbs.

5. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray and lay the chicken inside the pan.

6. Sprinkle the dried parsley over the chicken.

7. Cover the pan with tin foil and bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes. Remove the tin foil, bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until the edges of the chicken are golden brown and crispy.

8. Into a medium sized sauce pan combine the cream of chicken soup, sour cream and butter with a whisk. Stir it over medium high heat until the sauce is nice and hot. Serve over the chicken.Enjoy!

                        My ingredients I only used one sleeve of Butter rounds (Walmart brand)

 and it was plenty. I also used McCormick Rotisserie Chicken seasoning which is not in the picture.

 
 Grind up the crackers. It's a mini food processor so I do a few at a time.

 Line up the pans with the milk, shredded Cheddar Cheese and cracker crumbs with the salt, pepper, parsley and Rotisserie seasoning in it. Dip the chicken in each pan pressing the cheese and crackers onto the chicken. After all the chicken pieces are coated I sprinkle the rest of the cheese and cracker crumbs on top. I didn't have much left. Then I sprinkled a little salt, pepper, rotisserie seasoning and parsley on top, covered with foil and put in the pre heated oven.

 

I baked this for 30 min. covered, then I turned the oven up to 450 so I could put the garlic cheese biscuits in to bake and baked them both for 10 min or so. If you do this watch the chicken cause it will burn!

 

 I took  2 cans of green beans and 1 can of corn, drained them all and poured them in a glass 8x8 baking dish. I sprinkled a package of Italian Salad dressing mix over both vegetables and then put a few pats of butter over that and put that in the oven with the chicken to heat.

 

After I took the foil off of the chicken and put the biscuits in the oven I took the can of Cream of Chicken soup, Sour Cream and Butter and mixed them up in a small sauce pan until it was hot. When the Chicken came out of the oven I served up the chicken onto plates and then poured a ladle of this sauce over each persons serving of chicken. This recipe is phenomenal! You HAVE to try it!

 

My parents came about the time dinner was ready to come out of the oven so I served it up and we ate it so there aren't any *after it came out of the oven* pictures...oops...

 

Peanut Butter Chip Banana Bread

This recipe is from Pinterest.  I followed the pin to Six Sisters Stuff. I have tried other recipes of theirs and loved them so figured this one would be good too! They have TONS of great recipes so be sure and check them out. If we have bananas on hand that are getting too ripe and no one is eating them then I just peel them and mash them up in a measuring cup and scoop them out into a baggie and freeze them. Most bananas are about a half of a cup each. I label the baggie when I put it in the freezer with how much is in each baggie. I had enough on hand so I thought I would try this recipe.

http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/search?q=peanut+butter+chip+banana+bread

Peanut Butter Chip Banana Bread

 Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup peanut butter chips

 Directions:

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease your loaf pan (like an 8 x 4" pan) with shortening.

In a bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside.

In a large bowl stir together bananas, peanut butter, oil, egg and sugars.

Pour dry ingredients into bowl with wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Batter will be lumpy (do not over-stir).

Fold in peanut butter chips and spread batter into prepared pan.

Bake for about 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then loosen the edges of the pan with a knife and remove from loaf pan, transferring bread to a cooling rack.

 

The ingredients I used

                                                                                    DONE!

This bread was good. My loaf pan must have been smaller than theirs so my bread cooked 15 min. longer.  I thought it was very rich. I took some to work and shared it. One person thought it would have been better without the chips in it. I think next time I make it I will probably use a lot less peanut butter chips and add a few chocolate chips. It had a very nice peanut butter taste from the peanut butter in the batter. I'm not sure it needed that many chips. I sent several slices to some co workers in another location and was told they loved it and wanted more. Several other people where I work loved it also and wanted the recipe. So, very mixed reviews...most absolutely loved it and the others just thought it needed less chips but was still very good.

Chicken Enchilladas

Today's recipe is from Susie, who is a  Mom of 7 children. I found her blog and LOVE reading all about the antics of her young children and also about her goal to get back in shape. She is truly an inspiration! Go ahead..read her blog..later..
after you check out the recipe..


http://not-your-average-mom.com/chicken-enchilada-recipe/

I did make some changes. Saturday I put several boneless chicken breasts in the crockpot with Rotisserie seasoning and Italian Salad dressing and cooked them. Jonathan likes to use this chicken for chicken, bacon, cheese and ranch wraps for his school lunches and I have pre-cooked chicken to use in recipes like this one. Susie uses the Rotisserie chicken you can get in the deli...I hate de- boning chicken so this works for me. I didn't have enough cheese (I have to save some for Taco's on Tues) so I used some Salsa con Queso I had on hand. (Salsa with cheese)

 

So, here are my ingredients, corn (drained), 3 pre-cooked chicken breasts diced or shredded, 1 can cream of chicken soup, a half a soup can of water, a half a jar of Salsa with Cheese and a couple cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese, and a pack of flour tortillas and a 13x9 baking dish.

 

Mix the soup, water,

and 1 cup of shredded cheese in a bowl.

 Scoop out about 1/3 of the mix and set it aside

then add the 1/2 jar of Salsa with cheese, the corn and shredded chicken in with the 2/3rds of the mix you have left. (Mine was a little soupy so I will probably leave out the water next time.)

I took about 1 cup of mix and put it on my flour tortilla and wrapped it up placing it in the sprayed baking dish seam side down. Like I said..my mix was really soupy...I lined 6 of them up and then poured the mixture that I had set aside over the top of the wrapped tortillas..then put the remaining 1 cup of shredded cheese on top. I sprayed a piece of foil wrap with cooking spray and covered the dish. This baked in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes. I then uncovered them and put them back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

 

 

I thought these were very good. It is definitely something I will make again. It is very cheesy. Susie added Cumin and Cilantro which I didn't have. I think this recipe is very versatile. You can add whatever you want. You could add rice or broccoli instead of corn some sour cream or whatever you think would be good. I like to keep it simple and use what I have on hand. If you like spicy you will need to add some spicier salsa and the Cumin.

Easy Honey Mustard Mozzarella Chicken

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Easy-Honey-Mustard-Mozzarella-Chicken/Detail.aspx

Easy Honey Mustard Mozzarella Chicken

Rated: Submitted By: SARAHBEA Photo By: mominml Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 35 Minutes Ready In: 50 Minutes Servings: 4

"Chicken is glazed with mustard and honey, then baked with bacon and cheese. A favorite!"

Ingredients:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves 3/4 cup honey 1/2 cup prepared mustard

lemon pepper to taste 4 slices bacon, cut in half 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2.	Place the chicken breast halves in a baking dish, and drizzle evenly with honey and mustard. Sprinkle with lemon pepper.
3.	Bake chicken 25 minutes in the preheated oven. Top each breast half with 2 bacon slice halves, and sprinkle evenly with cheese. Continue baking 10 minutes, or until chicken juices run clear, bacon is crisp, and cheese is bubbly.   My ingredients: I used Dijon mustard instead of regular mustard and Garlic Pepper instead of Lemon Pepper and real Bacon pieces instead of raw bacon. It's what i had on hand...   The recipe doesn't say to mix the honey with the mustard so I just squirted some on..didn't measure anything. Sprinkled the Garlic Pepper on then put it in the oven. My chicken baked for 35 min. before it was done and then I sprinkled the cooked bacon pieces over the top and put a couple handfuls of Mozzarella cheese on top. Then put it back in the oven and kind of forgot it so the cheese got a little over cooked.   I really liked the taste of the bacon with the chicken and the cheese. I will be making this again since it really was easy and tasty. I will keep a closer eye on the melt the cheese step though! haha Bobby and Jonathan both liked it too. I included a link to the actual recipe so you can read the reviews on the web site. They have a lot of suggestions.                        Had to include this picture.. see my friend?? teehee

Confusius Says...

Confucius says, man who *toots* in church

Sits in own pew...

Words of wisdom from Jonathan....

Orange Dreamsicle Cake

This is our recipe for the day. I found it on my Facebook page. I think it came from a Pampered Chef consultant but not sure. Oops...

ORANGE DREAMSICLE CAKE

 Ingredients:

 1  Pkg Yellow Cake Mix

 2 small Pks Orange JELL-O

 1Large  Pk Vanilla Instant Pudding

 1 Cup 2% Milk

 2 Tsp Vanilla

 1 Tub Cool Whip

 

Directions:

 Bake the cake as directed in a 9x13" pan. Let cake cool completely. Poke holes in cooled cake. Mix 1 package orange gelatin dessert with 1 c. boiling water and 1 c. cold water. Pour over cake. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours. Mix pudding mix with cold milk the other package of orange gelatin dessert and vanilla. Beat by hand with a whisk until thickened. Fold in the whipped topping. Frost the cake with the pudding mixture. These instructions will make a single layered amazing cake that is delicious!

                                     I used a white cake mix. I
                                         don't think white or yellow would make
                                        any difference except with the white cake
                                              you only use the egg whites.

                                      So, this recipe my favorite tool
                                              is my Tupperware egg separator!!
                                                   How handy is that?? Love it!

 

You bake the cake as per the box directions

 Let it completely cool. Then poke holes. I used

the end of my wooden spoon. After you pour the Jello over the top

You put it in the fridge for 4 hours. Then you make the frosting.

The frosting says to mix the pudding with 1 cup of milk. This made the pudding VERY thick right away but I kept going and added the box of dry Jello and mixed that..Didn't look very good and it was VERY thick...I added the vanilla and then folded in the cool whip. Oh my goodness it was delicious!!!!

 

This cake was ok. I think next time I will poke smaller holes. The big blobs of jello to me was like eating wet cake or not done cake. Jonathan and Bobby loved it. Maybe I just need another piece..teehee