Salsa Chicken

This was really easy and it turned out really good! The flavor was kind of a bbq sauce with a kick. I used chicken leg quarters so I had to up the cooking time to 40 minutes instead of 20.

Ingredients:

1 jar of salsa
1 c brown sugar
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp garlic salt
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
rice
water

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a medium cookie sheet and place chicken breasts on top. Set aside. In a mixing bowl mix salsa, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic. Pour mixture over chicken breasts and bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes. While the chicken is cooking make however much rice you want.

(Right now Smith's has La Victoria salsa on sale in their Mega Sale Event for $1.49 each when you buy 10 participating items.)

Potato Soup & Beef Stew

The only part about winter I like is soup! Unfortunately Derek isn't a big soup fan, but he does like the following two recipes. I made the potato soup for a Relief Society meeting the other day and it all got eaten, so I guess it was pretty good. The beef stew, in Derek's words, is "the best I've ever made" so I guess it was pretty good too.

Baked Potato Soup

Ingredients:

5 bacon strips
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp dry mustard (I didn't have any and it tasted fine without it)
1 T Worcestershire sauce
2 T chicken bouillon granules
4 T real butter (I used margarine, it was fine)
4 T flour
6 c milk
4 potatoes, boiled and diced

Cook bacon until crisp, and crumble into pieces. Saute onions and garlic (I did it in the bacon grease). Drain. Melt butter in large pan. Whisk in flour, salt and pepper. Stir until smooth and bubbly. Stir in 4 cups of milk. Add sauteed onions, garlic, dry mustard, Worcestershire sauce, bouillon granules, bacon and potatoes. Cook on low until thickened. More milk or half and half can be added as needed. Top with cheese, chives, and sour cream if desired (I just added cheese [pepper jack and cheddar] and chives when I cooked it).

Beef Stew

I love crockpot recipes and this is a great one.

Ingredients:

2 lb. lean beef stew meat in 1 inch cubes
1/4 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 c. beef broth
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 clove garlic
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. paprika
4 carrots in 1/2 inch slices
3 potatoes, diced
2 onions, chopped
1 stalk celery, sliced

Place meat in crockpot. Add flour, salt and pepper. Stir to coat meat. Add remaining ingredients, stir well. Cover and cook on low 10 to 12 hours or on high 4 to 6 hours. Stir thoroughly before serving. Remove bay leaf.

*Note: I used garlic salt and Montreal steak seasoning instead of the clove of garlic, bay leaf and paprika. My crockpot also cooks really fast, so I cooked it on low for about 7 hours and it was fine.

Snickers Cake

(I used my old camera, so sorry for the poor quality picture!)

I made this for my mother-in-law's birthday last week. It was my first time making it, so I was kind of nervous for other people to eat it because I didn't know how it would turn out. The verdict: It was so good! The caramel made it really moist, and how could you go wrong with so much chocolate?

Ingredients:

1 German chocolate cake mix
1 lb Kraft caramels (the bag of caramels is 14 oz which worked just fine)
1/2 c margarine
1 c milk
6 oz chocolate chips
1 c nuts, chopped
Milk chocolate frosting

Prepare cake mix as directed. Pour 1/2 the batter in greased and floured 9x13 pan. Bake 20 minutes. While cake is baking, melt margarine, caramels, and milk in an iron pan or microwave. Blend until smooth. (You can use caramel ice cream topping instead, but it's not as good.) Pour caramel over baked cake, then sprinkle nuts and chocolate chips over caramel. Pour remaining batter over that and bake 20 minutes more. Cool and frost.

*Note: Next time I will probably use less milk and let the caramel mixture cool a little. It seemed really runny to me and most of it just soaked into the cake - tasted great, but I wanted a little more caramel flavor. Also, when I baked it the second time it didn't seem like it was done in the middle, so I ended up cooking it for 10 minutes longer.

Lasagna Rolls

This is a pretty good vegetarian recipe, although I did add some ground beef that I had leftover from tacos the night before. If you really want to load on the veggies, you could add chopped or grated zucchini or another type of squash, or any other vegetable that sounds good to you.

Ingredients:

1/2 pkg (8 oz) lasagna noodles, uncooked (since there are only 2 of us, I usually just use 8 noodles, which is about 1/3 of the box)
1 (16 oz) cottage cheese (I use about 2/3 of the package)
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 tsp seasoned salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp onion powder
1 pkg frozen, chopped spinach thawed and well-drained (I had fresh spinach so I used that)
2 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese (I just use whatever cheese I have)
1 (32 oz) jar spaghetti sauce (I never use that much, personal preference)

Cook noodles as directed on package, drain.

In small bowl mix the next 6 ingredients. Stir in spinach and 1 cup of cheese.

Spread cottage cheese mixture on noodles, then roll up each strip (it helps to use the spoon to kind of pat the mixture down a little before you roll).

Spread layer of sauce in bottom of 13 x 9 pan. Lay rolls, seam side down, in pan. Pour remaining sauce and sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Cover with foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Three Cheese Chicken Penne Pasta

This is my mother-in-law's recipe and it's so yummy.

Ingredients:

2 cups (8 oz) multigrain penne pasta, uncooked (I just had regular pasta, so I used that instead. Also, I might use 2 1/2 cups next time.)
1 pkg (9 oz) fresh spinach leaves (I didn't use that much, but next time I will use more)
1 T oil
1 - 1 1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces (I used one breast and it was plenty)
1 onion, cut in half and sliced thin
1 T minced garlic
1 tsp dried basil leaves
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 can diced tomatoes, drained (I didn't use them this time because the sauce already had tomatoes in it and Derek doesn't really like them)
4 oz (1/2 pkg) cream cheese, cubed
2 cups mozzarella cheese, divided (I used whatever cheese I had)
1/2-1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Cook pasta until al dente. Add spinach to boiling water with pasta (after it is done) for abou 30 seconds. Drain pasta mixture and return to pan (you'll want a good-sized pan).

Heat 1 T oil in another pan, stir in chicken, onion, garlic and basil on medium-high heat for 3 minutes. Add sauce and tomatoes, bring to a boil. Simmer 3-5 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Stir in cream cheese.

Add chicken mixture to pasta mixture and stir in 1 cup mozzarella cheese and parmesan.

Spray 9x13 pan and spoon mixture into pan.

Bake 20 minutes or until heated through. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake 3 minutes until melted.

*Note: I also used less cheese and it seemed like there was still a lot

Crockpot Green Pepper Chicken

Photo courtesy of crockpot365.blogspot.com

I made this chicken before starting this blog so I didn't take a picture, but this is what it looked like. We just ate it over rice, minus the tortillas, and it was really good. Very tender and moist.

Ingredients

3 chicken breast halves
2 large green bell peppers, seeded and chopped (I only used one)
1 (7-ounce) can whole or diced green chiles (mine were mild)
1/2 teaspoon basil
1 tablespoon dried minced onion, or 1 large yellow onion, diced finely (I used onion powder)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup sour cream (to add before serving)
corn tortillas, optional

Put the chicken into the bottom of the cooker, and add the bell peppers and the whole can of chiles. Add basil, onion, salt, and pepper. Stir a bit to combine. Pour in the 1/4 cup of water. Cover and cook on low for about 6 hours, or on high for 3-4.

Before serving, use tongs to remove the chicken, and set aside. Using an immersible blender, blend the peppers and sauce left at the bottom of the slow cooker. If you don't have an immersible blender, carefully pour the slow cooker contents into a traditional stand blender and pulse until fully combined. Pour back into the cooker.

Stir in sour cream until melted. If you don't have sour cream in the house, plain yogurt or cream cheese would work just fine---this is only to thicken the sauce a bit and to mellow out the peppers and chile flavor.

Slice chicken, and return to the cooker. Set to high for 20-30 minutes, or until your dinner is fully hot. Serve the meat in corn tortillas, or over rice.

*Tip: You can make extra and freeze the leftovers!

Pizza

The recipe for this dough came from one of the blogs I read, Money Saving Mom. We've tried a few different dough recipes, and really like this one! I make pizza quite often and lately have been using the pepperoni and salami that Smith's has for $1. I also use whatever cheese we have on hand, but I try to use mozzarella or a combo of mozz/cheddar.

Pizza Crust:

1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups flour

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Add the rest of the ingredients in and mix.

Dump onto a floured surface and knead into a smooth dough (five minutes or so).

Roll out and press down onto a greased pizza pan. Add toppings.

Bake at 450 degrees F. for around 12-15 minutes until the crust looks crispy and lightly browned.

*Tip: You can double the recipe and freeze half the dough for another day!

I decided to follow the trend and post recipes for the food we eat. I also forget some of the good food I make, so this will help me remember so that I don't make the same thing all the time. I'm not a huge fan of spending tons of time in the kitchen, but I love good food, so most of these recipes will be quick and (hopefully) delicious. Enjoy!