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Friday, February 20, 2009

Giveaways on other blogs

Over at Priscilla's Baking Adventures she is giving away some super cute shirts. Go take a look and perhaps you will get a chance to win!

http://priscillabakes.blogspot.com/

Good Luck and God Bless!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Chicken with Peppers, Olives and Onions

Ingredients
2 Chicken Breasts, sliced into strips
1 Green Bell pepper, sliced into strips
1 Medium Onion, sliced into strips
1/2 Can Black Olives, slivered
1 clove Garlic, minced
Salt and Pepper to taste
Oil

Serves 2

Heat a Grill Pan or Sautee Pan on Medium High Heat. Salt and Pepper Chicken and toss with oil.
Add to pan and cook for 6-8 minutes each side until cooked through.

In another pan over medium heat, add 3 Tbsp oil, then add peppers and onions. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally until onions become translucent. Add garlic and olives and cook for another 2 minutes until garlic becomes pungent and sweet smelling.

Spoon vegetables over chicken and enjoy.

We really liked how the vegetables turned out, they were sweet and garlicky but the garlic was pungent and really went well with the black olives. The pepper was a nice balance.

God Bless!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Penne with Garlic Tomato Butter Sauce


Ingredients
1 Package Penne Pasta (I used bowties as well)
2 cloves garlic minced
3 Tomatoes chopped (I would have used about 5 but didn't have that many) or 2 cans
1 Can Cannellini Beans Drained
1 Bunch Asparagus- Chopped into pieces
1/3 Cup Parmesan Cheese
8 Tbsp Butter Melted
2 Tbsp Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Serves: 3 as a meal; 4-6 as a side dish

In a medium pot boil water and cook pasta to desired tenderness.

Chop all vegetables and set aside.

Boil water and blanche asparagus (1.5 minutes), drain.

In a sauce pan, add 2 Tbsp Oil on medium heat. Add tomatoes and garlic to pan, cook for 3 minutes and add cannellini beans. Heat for another 3 minutes. Add asparagus to the pot.


Melt 8 Tbsp Butter, add all vegetables, parmesan cheese and pasta and mix together.

This made me happy when it was cooking, it smelled like Tortellini Paloma from the Family owned Italian Restaurant that I used to work at. This turned out really well and the parmesan cheese had enough bite that it balanced out the sweetness in the butter and tomato garlic mixture. Yum.
Enjoy and God Bless!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Chicken and Mashed Potato Bake



So as I was racking my brain for something to make tonight, I just kinda threw this together. It reminded hubby and I a wee bit of shepherd's pie.

Ingredients
3 Chicken Breasts - Cut into bite sized pieces
1 1/2 cups Broccoli
2 Cups Spinach
2 Large Russet Potatoes
1/2 Cup Cheddar Cheese
1 Egg- Beaten
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375*

In a medium pot, boil water, add potatoes and cook until fork tender.

In a grill pan or skillet over medium high heat cook your chicken until it is no longer pink, add season salt and pepper to taste.

You are almost done. Yup, already. I know. It's fabulous!

Take your potatoes, add about a 1/4 cup of milk and beat until they are mashed potatoes.

Now take a 13 x 9 baking dish. Place your chicken on the bottom, then add a layer of raw broccoli, a layer of raw spinach and a layer of cheese.

Now evenly spread dollops of mashed potatoes on top and using the back of a wooden spoon or a spatula smooth so it covers the top of the entire dish.

Take your beaten egg and spread over the top of the mashed potatoes, this will cause it to brown while you cook.

Put into your preheated oven set to 375* (alright, I'm now adding that to the top, but just so you know, I forgot to put it in before...yeesh)

Cook for 20-25 minutes until potatoes are starting to lightly brown.

Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes.

We liked this but I think it needed something, I'm thinking it was garlic, but I'm not positive, it just didn't have that oomph. hmmm....

Serve and relax, there is just something about comfort food that makes the day better!

God Bless!

Breakfast Burrito's- Breakfast For Dinner



Sometimes breakfast for dinner is just what you need. It gives you a break from the normalcy of dinner time food and who doesn't like breakfast?

I had been planning on making sausage for dinner. But a friend stopped over to visit hubby and while they were gone I cooked dinner. Thinking that I wanted to invite our friend to stay for dinner and seeing that there wasn't going to be enough sausage for two hungry men and one hungry woman (who.can.eat.alot.) I decided to make breakfast burrito's.

Ingredients

3 sweet sausages
3 Red potatoes- Chopped into small squares
9 eggs (4 egg whites/ 5 whole)
Tortillas
Cheese
Salsa
Salt, Pepper and Paprika (to taste)

Put a pot of water on to boil for the potatoes (boil them for 4 minutes and then drain).

Heat a skillet on medium high heat and add your sausage, cook until brown. Remove from pan and place on a plate with a paper towel.

Leaving all the sausage grease in the bottom of the pan add 4 Tbsp of butter to the pan and melt on medium high heat. Then add your par boiled potatoes to the pan add salt, pepper and paprika and cover. Stirring occasionally until browned on all sides.

Now for the eggs, break your eggs into a separate bowl and whisk until smooth (I usually use a bit of milk in mine). Pour into a pan heated over medium heat. Stirring occasionally until lightly scrambled.

Now grab a tortilla, add your sausage, eggs, cheese (optional) and salsa (optional)- try your best to fold it up and enjoy!

God Bless and remember to be thankful for all that you have, it is easy to forget.


Sunday, February 8, 2009

Spicy Chicken and Potato Soup




Crockpot Thursday(yes I know I'm publishing it sunday!)

mmm this soup turned out amazingly well and with a nice firm kick as well!

Ingredients
2 Chicken Breasts (boneless, skinless) cut into bite sized pieces
4 stalks Broccoli (just the stalks)
1 Bell Pepper (I used Green)
1 Medium Onion (chopped)
2 Medium/Large Red Potatoes (chopped)
3 Cloves Garlic, Minced
1 Can Original Rotel (Tomatoes and Green Chilies)
Salt and Pepper to taste ( about 1 T each)
1 Tbsp Chicken Bouillon
4 Cups Water

In a Medium pot bring water to boil. Take your Chicken pieces and boil them until they are cooked through. Take Chicken pieces out of the water with a slotted spoon. Turn the water down on low and let simmer for 40 minutes. This becomes your base for the soup.

Chop up all of your vegetables. Here's how to do the broccoli stalks. I bet you looked at the ingredients and thought this lady is nuts. Well I'm not. The inside of the stalks are very good you just have to take off the outsides. So take a knife and remove all of the darker fibrous outside until you get to a lighter, non-fibrous inside. Do this on all 4 stalks and then chop the insides up and add to the crock pot. This will make you feel good because you won't be throwing them away like you usually do ;) more for your money!


Toss everything into the crockpot, including the broth that has been simmering. Add 4 more cups of water and 1 T of chicken bouillon and your can of Rotel. Stir, cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4.

Now be careful. This has a big kick. If you don't like things that make your mouth burn you might want to try mild rotel, or just switch out for regular tomatoes. If you like things that make smoke come out your ears you could get the hot Rotel. This was about as hot as I could go and hubby thought it was perfect!

God Bless!

Easy Chicken Stirfry


ok, ok, I know I've been a terrible blogger over the last week. It's been super busy, so I just haven't had time to upload some meals, but I have been cooking.

Ingredients
2 Chicken Breasts (boneless, skinless)
4 cups fresh spinach
2 heads of broccoli (cut into florets)
1 Medium Onion- sliced
3 Cloves garlic- minced
1/2 Tsp Ginger
Canola Oil
Salt and Pepper

To start cut your chicken breast into bite size pieces (at this point you can leave them a little larger and as they cook you can break them up more if you like), toss in a medium size bowl with a few tablespoons of canola oil and some salt and pepper. Add the chicken to a large preheated (to medium high) skillet. Cook for about 3-4 minutes each side until cooked through. Then turn down to low until your veggies are finished. At then end toss some teriyaki/soy sauce in with the chicken for the last few minutes.


In another pan (over medium heat) add 1-2 T of Canola oil and add your chopped onion and broccoli florets, add your ginger on top. Cover the pan and cook on medium for about 6-8 minutes stirring occasionally until the broccoli and onions are cooked through but still slightly firm. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute before adding in all of the spinach.


Now if you haven't cooked with spinach before it goes from looking like a whole bunch to looking like very little. So when you add your 4 cups of spinach it WILL overtake the pan. But keep pushing it around and let it get down to the heat and it will start to cook and wilt very quickly.

Once the spinach is wilted. Spoon some vegetables and chicken over white rice add some more teryaki and enjoy!

God bless!