Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Slow Cooker Orange Chicken

Hi guys! This is what we had for supper last night. It was kind of nice to be home on a Tuesday...this one is from Kraft Food & Family Fall 2007.

Slow Cooker Orange Chicken
8 small chicken thighs (about 1 lb)(I only had 4 thighs but they were still over 1 lb and it was fine)
3 tbsp flour (I only used 2 because it looked like a lot. Again, fine)
1/3 cup orange marmalade
1/3 cup barbeque sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp minced fresh ginger (that was too expensive. You only could buy like a huge piece of root for like almost 3 dollars, and I knew I would never use it all, so I was like, no way. I just used dried ginger in my cupboard)

Place chicken thighs in slow cooker and toss w/ flour. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours or high 3-4 hours.

How easy is that? It was quite good, as well. It's a keeper. Emma ate it, not sure if she liked it or not, but wanted peanut butter pie. Sam ate all his, and Steve and I thought it was really good. We had it w/ rice (with some of the sauce poured over) and carrots. A yummy easy recipe.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Hi girls. On Sunday I made this. I've had the recipe for a while, Terri gave it to me a long time ago, I've just never made it because of all the ingredients you had to buy. But since someone else bought my groceries, it made the cut this week. I'm not sure where Terri got this from, but it was very tasty. Still is, really. We still have some in the fridge...anyway here it is.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
20 oreos
2 tbsp butter, melted
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar, divided
16 oz cool whip
15 mini reese's peanut butter cups, chopped
4svg size chocolate fudge instant pudding
1 cup milk

Crush 16 of the oreos and toss w/ melted butter. Press into bottom of 9x9 inch pan (I used a deep dish pie plate). In separate bowl, combine cream cheese, peanut butter, 1 cup of confectioner's sugar until well blended. Fold in 1/2 of the cool whip (this took a while but it does eventually all incorporate). Spread over oreos. Sprinkle w/ chopped peanut butter cups. In a different bowl, combine pudding mix, milk, and other 1/2 cup of confectioner's sugar. Stir for 2 minutes. Pour over peanut butter cups. Crush last 4 oreos and sprinkle over chocolate layer. Chill for 4-6 hours.

I think I may have copied this recipe down wrong from Terri, because it never says what to do with the other half of the Cool Whip. Maybe you save it to serve with it, I don't know. Anyway, I never used the other half of it, and it still tasted great. I highly recommend this one. Talk to you guys soon!!

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Chicken Club Pasta

Hello! Finally, a good one from this cookbook! I have been rather disappointed thus far, but this recipe has renewed my faith in the Gooseberry Patch cookbook...

Chicken Club Pasta
1 1b pkg bacon, diced
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
2 to 3 tbsp dried parsley
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
optional: sliced mushrooms (I opted to not)
garlic salt and pepper to taste (I used a lot of garlic salt and just a little pepper)
12 to 16 oz pkg pasta, cooked (it says use any pasta you have on hand...I used penne)

Fry bacon til almost crisp; drain (I actually drained it twice...there was so much fat after like 5 minutes that I drained it, then cooked it longer, then so much fat I drained it again. Kind of gross...but bacon is so yummy so I try to block that out). Return bacon to skillet; add half-and-half (why is that hyphenated?), parsley, cheese, chicken, and mushrooms. Season to taste (with the garlic salt and pepper). Reduce heat; stir and heat for 4 minutes. Spoon over pasta, toss to coat. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

So we all really liked this. Emma didn't eat the bacon (I helped with that). Sam & Steve lapped it up. My mom liked it, too...she came over right after lunch and was picking at it. This was good for a meal, and I also think it would be good if you had to bring a dish somewhere, like a potluck or something. The only thing is it did take a little longer than some other recipes I have tried. But it was still really good and I'm quite sure I'll make it again. Going in the save file. =) Talk to you all soon!!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Speedy Chicken Stir-Fry

Hola! This was what we had this past Wednesday before church, with minor variations, which I will, of course, expound upon. It's out of the Fall '07 Kraft Food & Family...

Speedy Chicken Stir-Fry
8 oz angel hair pasta, uncooked (we were just about pasta-ed out this week, so I made ours with rice instead. It was still good.)
2 cups broccoli florets (I hate broccoli. I made it with cut up carrots)
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
1/2 cup Kraft Asian Toasted Sesame dressing
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp each ground ginger, garlic powder, crushed red pepper (I only used 1/8 of the c.r.pepper because we don't like spicy.)
1/3 cup chopped dry roasted peanuts

Cook pasta as directed on pkg, adding broccoli to the boiling water for last 3 minutes of pasta cooking time (if you're me, cook the carrots and rice separately). Meanwhile, spray lg nonstick skillet with cooking spray, heat on med-high heat. Add chicken, cook 6 to 8 minutes or until cooked through, stirring occasionally. Stir in remaining ingredients except peanuts, cook for 1 minute. Drain pasta mixture, place in large bowl. Add chicken mixture, mix lightly. (If you make it w/ rice, put the rice on the plates and spoon the chicken mixture over it.) Sprinkle with the peanuts.

So this was good, even though I had to buy salad dressing that I normally wouldn't. Emma only ate 2 bites of the chicken. Sam ate all of his & the carrots, too, but didn't like the peanuts. Steve and I both really liked it. So it goes into the permanent file. Next week is another one from the Gooseberry Patch. I have not been having good luck with them...I'm a little nervous but it should be okay...................see you all soon!!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Cheesy Volcano Meatballs

This one went much better. We had this for lunch today, since Steve has been coming home for lunches on Tuesdays. Everyone liked this one, including the dog. Wait, we don't have a dog. Well, I bet if we did, he would've liked it. It's from Kraft Food & Family Fall 2007

Cheesy Volcano Meatballs
1 lb lean ground beef
6 ritz crackers, finely crushed
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
3/4 cup spaghetti sauce, divided
12 kraft cheddar cheese cubes (or if the Wal-mart doesn't have these, which ours doesn't, just buy a block of cheese (such as Heluva Good) and cut some into like 1/2 inch square chunks. That's what I did)
4 hot dog buns, split

Preheat oven to 400. Combine first 4 ingredients, using 1/4 cup of spaghetti sauce. Shape into 12 meatballs (mine actually made 15, and I could've gone smaller and probably will next time) and place 2 inches apart in shallow baking pan sprayed w/ cooking spray. Press 1 cheese cube deep into center of each meatball. Bake 14 minutes or until cooked through. Then microwave remaining 1/2 cup of sauce. Fill each bun w/ 3 meatballs and top w/ sauce. So yummy. This is the first recipe for homemade meatballs that I have actually liked, so we may have something here. I'll definitely make this one again. Talk to you all soon!!

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Overnight Oriental Salad

Who can make a salad unhealthy? Monika can, Monika can! I made this one last Thursday, thinking I would take it to work on Thursday and Friday to have for my supper there. But it didn't really work that way. This one is from the Gooseberry Patch again...

Overnight Oriental Salad
3/4 cup oil (I used olive oil)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 pkg Oriental ramen noodles w/ seasoning packets
1 head cabbage, shredded
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1 cup roasted sunflower seeds

Mix oil, sugar, vinegar, and seasoning packets from Ramen noodles together; refrigerate overnight. Crush noodles in a serving bowl; add cabbage (I actually don't like cabbage, so I used iceberg lettuce, my personal fave and the only lettuce I like), onions, almonds, and sunflower seeds. Pour oil mixture over the top, toss gently. Makes 10-12 servings.

Okay. The actual salad part was pretty good. Like having the almonds & sunflower seeds mixed with the lettuce. That part I liked. But the dressing was so oily. It separated immediately (of course) and never really did completely mix. Even after multiple attempts at different times, as soon as I would stop shaking, it would separate. So when I ate it, I tried to like shake it really fast and then really quick dump it on so that wouldn't happen, but I don't think it worked. Whenever I took a bite it just seemed really oily. So I only brought it on Thursday, not Friday. Oh well, a little money down the drain...

Monday, October 1, 2007

Chocolate-Cherry Fudge Bars

Today whilst the baby was napping I made these with Emma. It is from Kraft Food & Family Fall 2007.

Chocolate-Cherry Fudge Bars
4 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1 pkg (4 svg size) instant chocolate pudding
3/4 cup chopped maraschino cherries (save 7 tbsp of the juice they come in)
2 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Microwave chocolate and butter on high for 2 minutes in large microwaveable bowl, or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Add sugar, mix well. Blend in eggs & vanilla. Add flour & dry pudding mix; mix well. Stir in 1/2 cup of cherries and 1/3 cup of the reserved cherry juice; spread into prepared pan. Bake 30-35 minutes or until wooden toothpick comes out with fudgy crumbs (do not overbake)(like anyone would on purpose). Cool completely. Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, and remaining cherry juice until well blended, drizzle over cooled brownies; top w/ remaining cherries.

I couldn't get the glaze to come out right. I mixed and mixed and it just seemed like the cream cheese wouldn't mix with the other two things. Maybe it wasn't "softened" enough, but I left it out for like an hour before I did it. So I never used the frosting, I just threw away the sad effort. But the actual brownies were good. But I'm not keeping this recipe because I didn't like the frosting. So there.

Superbad

Hi guys. I had a total flop on Wednesday, such that I am not even going to type out the whole recipe. But I will describe it for you, so you will know to stay away if you see/read it. These were both from the Gooseberry Patch cookbook...the dessert I made from this cookbook was good, but they didn't impress me with these two things. I made "Easy Potato Casserole" and "Mini-Meatloaves." Okay so the potato casserole even Steve didn't like (which may be a first). It was frozen shredded potatoes, sour cream, cream of celery soup, salt, pepper, & cheese, with ritz crackers crumbled on top. That sounds so bad even as I type it out, I don't know why it looked good on the page. Nobody liked it. We had it with mini-meatloaves. You get pillsbury refrigerated biscuit dough and flatten one biscuit into each of 10 muffin cups. Then you make meatloaf by their recipe (ketchup, oatmeal, onion, etc w/ the hamburger), divide it into 10 balls and put them in the muffin cups, then bake. Well, we buy lean hamburger and there was still a LOT of fat and this brown gummy stuff that spilled out of the muffin cups onto the tops of the pan, and looked so so so gross. Once out of the pan and on a plate away from the grossness, it looked slightly better, and the taste wasn't so awful, but the presentation definitely left something to be desired. So that's the bad news from last week...as the song says, Who knows what tomorrow brings?