Enchiladas

I saw this recipe on The Novice Chef and thought it looked awesome...and they were! My main complaint with homemade enchiladas is that they get too dry. This is not the case here since you coat the tortillas in sauce and then add more sauce to the tops. I did make some changes though, and since my husband is a picky eater, I make two separate batches of filling for the two of us. I will list the recipe as I make it and with everything in it. I make these at least once a month, maybe twice if Jeremy has a say!




Enchiladas

1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 pound lean ground beef
1 medium red onion chopped
1 bell pepper finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, pressed
1 15oz can of Old El Paso Enchilada sauce
8-10 8 inch tortillas
1 1/2 - 2 cups shredded cheese

Preheat over to 350 degrees.

In a large skillet heat the vegetable oil and then cook the onion and bell pepper for about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for an additional 30 seconds. Next, add the meat to the pan and brown. If the meat is too greasy then drain and return to the pan.

Pour 1/2 of the can of sauce onto a plate. Dip each tortilla into the sauce and coat on both sides. Spoon 1/4 cup of the meat mixture onto each tortilla and add cheese and then roll the tortilla around the filling. Place in an ungreased baking dish. Repeat until you've used all of the filling.

Pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas and then top with the remaining cheese. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes or until the cheese and sauce is bubbly.

Breakfast Casserole

I was looking for something easy to make for dinner tonight. I knew that I had eggs, cheese, and sausage at home, but the regular scrambled eggs and sausage didn't sound that great to me. I then thought that I could make a breakfast casserole. I didn't use a certain recipe, just what I knew about the ingredients to make this. It turned out pretty good although next time I will use more salt and pepper and cheese.



Ingredients

1 1/2 -2 cups of shredded potatoes (hashbrowns)
6 eggs
1/4 cup of milk
1/2 lb sausage
1 cup shredded cheese, divided
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 350°. Spray your 1 1/2 quart casserole dish with a non stick spray. Add the potatoes in the bottom. Cook your sausage and drain then add to the top of your potatoes. In a small bowl beat your eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and half of the cheese. Pour the egg mixture into the casserole dish and top with remaining cheese. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Enjoy!

Easy Asian Porkchops

I got a new slow cooker for Christmas! It has a retractable cord, lock in lid, digital display and non stick interior! Here it is:



I was pretty excited to try it out, so I've been looking for slow cooker recipes here lately. My parents had given Jeremy and I some pork loins and chops, so I figured I would look for a recipe to use up some of those. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and thought that I'd give it a try. I made a few changes to the original recipe and I will list the modified recipe that I used. I LOVED this pork. It was so tender, it almost melted in your mouth! The sauce is a little sweet, but definitely savory too. This will definitely be put into our regular rotation and since its a slow cooker recipe it is soooo easy!




Easy Asian Porkchops

Ingredients
4 boneless pork chops (I put mine in frozen)
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 cloves of garlic, minced or 1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup honey
pepper to taste


Add your chops to the slow cooker. Add the remaining ingredients to a bowl and wisk together. Pour the ketchup mixture over the chops and cook on low for 5-6 hours, until the pork is falling apart. Tear the chops apart with two forks into large chunks. Serve pork and sauce over rice.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

It's been awhile since my last post, sorry everyone! For those of you who are still reading, I hope you enjoy this new recipe, I know we did! I've tried to find recipes for dinners that we would normally go out and pay for, so that we can save some money and make them at home. This recipe seemed to be a bit of a pain, since you have to turn the chicken every 15 minutes, but it really wasn't that bad. We followed the recommendations on the original post and made extra sauce to put over the rice too, but to tell the truth I thought that we had enough left over from the baking, that i wasn't really needed. We will definitely be making this again!




Sweet and Sour chicken
Source: My Kitchen Cafe


Chicken:
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup canola oil

Cut boneless chicken breasts into chunks. Season with salt and pepper. Dip chicken in cornstarch and then in egg. Fry in a little oil until brown but not cooked through. Place in a single layer in a baking dish. Mix sauce ingredients (below) together and pour over chicken.

Sauce:
¾ cup sugar
4 tablespoons ketchup
½ cup vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt

Bake for one hour at 325 degrees. Turn chicken every 15 minutes. If you like extra sauce, make another batch of sauce and bring it to a boil on the stovetop. Stir constantly and let cook over medium heat until thickened and reduced - about 6-8 minutes.

Baked Ziti

Garlic. Tomato Sauce. Pasta. Crusty bread. Italian food rocks! Its probably my favorite type of food, which in a way kind of stinks since Jeremy doesn't care for tomatoes or tomato sauce (but he loves ketchup..go figure!). He will amuse me every once in awhile though and eat spaghetti or lasagna. When I asked him if he thought he would like this baked ziti from Cook like a Champion and he said, "Sure, go ahead and make it!" I was thrilled! I think the only reason why is because its full of cheese too, which he loves. Anyway, this ziti is awesome! Its so super simple, but full of flavor. We served it with garlic Texas toast for a very filling meal!



Original Source: Everyday Food

Ingredients
Coarse salt and ground pepper
8 ounces ziti rigate (ridged) or other short pasta
1 cup part-skim ricotta
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup finely grated Parmesan
1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella
1 jar (24 to 26 ounces) best-quality tomato sauce (about 3 1/2 cups)

*note: I also add about 1-2 tsp of dried parsley to the cheese/egg mixture*

Preheat oven to 450°.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta until al dente, according to package instructions; drain and reserve. In a small bowl, combine ricotta, egg, 1/4 cup Parmesan, and half the mozzarella; season with salt and pepper. In the bottom of a shallow 2-quart casserole dish, spread half the tomato sauce. Top with ziti, then ricotta mixture and remaining sauce. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan and remaining mozzarella. Place casserole on a rimmed baking sheet, and bake until top is browned and sauce is bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes.

It's beginning to feel a lot like fall!

Last weekend was pretty chilly here and it got me into a fall mood. I love the fall, it most definitely my favorite season. Not only is the air cooler and crisp, but fall brings football (woohoo!!), bonfires, the smell of burning leaves, the smells of apple pie, and pumpkin! I had seen a recipe back at the beginning of summer on Cook like a Champion for a pumpkin bread and now I really wanted to try it! I was kind of curious about the use of pumpkin and chocolate together. I had never had that combination before. It works wonderfully together! This bread is so incredibly moist and not too bad for you either, since it's orginally from Cooking Light. It's a win, win!

**NOTE**I made this bread again, but I didn't have chocolate chips or pure canned pumpkin. I used Libby's pumpkin pie mix in place of the pure pumpkin and left out the chocolate...it was awesome as well!!



Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
2 cups canned pumpkin
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup fat-free vanilla pudding (or fat-free vanilla yogurt)
4 large egg whites (or 2 eggs)
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (you could also use walnuts or pecans)
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture, stirring just until moist. Stir in chocolate chips.
Spoon batter into 2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack, and remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

Crispy Baked Chicken Strips and Mac & Cheese

Let me first start off by saying that I love the Food Network! One of my favorite shows is called Good Eats. Alton Brown is the host of the show and a genius if you ask me! His shows are full of great recipes, but he also tells you the science behind why you do things a certain way to make your recipe work.



Yes, I guess you could say that I'm a food geek! Anyway, back to my post. I found this recipe by Alton Brown for homemade mac & cheese awhile back. Ive made it many, many times and never been disappointed. I do, however, make some changes. I will post his original recipe, but put my changes in parentheses ().

Source:Food Network

Ingredients

1/2 pound of elbow macaroni
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp powdered mustard
3 cups of milk
1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced (I leave this out, since Jeremy doesnt like onions)
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp paprika
1 large egg
12 ounces sharp cheddar, grated (I use a bit less than 1/2 pound of velveeta in the actual dish, I like the way it melts better. I use shredded cheddar on the top instead of the bread crumbs)
1 tsp kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

topping
3 Tbsp butter
1 cup of panko break crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes to make the sauce thicker and remove the bay leaf.

Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.

Melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.



To go along with this fabulous mac & cheese, I need an equally fabulous main dish. I searched through some food blogs and found this recipe by Bridget from The Way the Cookie Crumbles. Who doesnt love chicken strips, especially with mac & cheese? I loved the way that these are baked, not friend, but they still have that crunch to them when you bite in! The brine really does give a lot of flavor to the actual chicken.

1/4 cup table salt
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch strips (I used chicken breast tenderloins)
1/4 cup flour
6 Tbsp (1/2 stick butter), melted
2 cups finely crushed corn flakes cereal

Dissolve the salt in 1 quart cold water. Add the chicken, cover, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Remove the cutlets from the brine and pat dry.

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400F. Place an oven-safe baking rack in a baking sheet.

Place the flour and butter in separate small bowls. Add the crushed cereal to a medium-sized bowl. Dip the chicken pieces in the flour, then the butter, then the cereal. Place the coated chicken strips on the baking rack in the baking sheet.

Bake 15-20 minutes, until chicken is no longer pink. Serve.