Tuesday, May 24, 2011

This Week's Menu

Monday: Chicken & Two Cheese Pizza
Salad

Tuesday: Philly Cheesesteaks
Green beans
Fruit

Wednesday: Jambalaya
I have no idea what to eat as a side for this...

Thursday: Rachel!

Friday: Chicken Fajitas
Rice
Vegetable

Saturday: Grilling!!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have found the BEST recipe ever for soft chocolate chip cookies.

I don't know about you, but i totally love soft chocolate chip cookies compared to the crunchy ones. Now, of course, I will totally eat a million of the crunchy ones if that's all that around, but soft cookies? Mmmm....I'd definitely eat 2 million of those.

I made one batch of these and had friends over for coffee and chit chat and they oohed and ahhed about the cookies. Then my kids oohed and ahhed about the cookies. Then Evan oohed and ahhed about the cookies and before i knew it, they were gone. So, I *had* to make another batch and share the recipe with all of you!!

The ingredients:
3/4 C. butter, softened; 1 C. brown sugar; 1/2 C. white sugar; 1 tsp. baking soda; 6-12 oz chocolate chips (I used 12 cause I love chocolate); 3 eggs; scant tsp. of salt; 1 tsp. vanilla; 2 1/2 C. flour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Start by creaming the sugars and the butter together until creamy.

Then, in a small bowl, take the baking soda...
and add 2 Tbsp. of HOT water. Stir together and then blend it into the mixing bowl with the butter and sugar.
Next, add the rest of the ingredients and mix until blended, but don't over mix!
Couldn't you lick that whole spatula clean?!
I heart cookie dough. It should be it's own food group and we should be required to eat three servings of it a day. I'm just saying.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until the bottoms of the cookies are browned. the tops won't get very brown, which is a good thing. (I just channeled Martha Stewart there, did you notice?!)
Ta da! The perfect soft chocolate chip cookie!
This batch didn't last any longer than the first batch! I over cooked one sheet of cookies a bit, and they weren't as soft, but still so yummy.

When you store these cookies, keep them in an air tight container. I accidentally left half a dozen of the cookies out on a plate and they were not soft the next morning. Don't worry, I totally made the sacrifice and ate them so no one would be forced to eat a non-soft cookie.

I am a martyr.

Make these pronto and enjoy!!!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

This Week's Menu

Monday: Swedish Meatballs
Egg Noodles
German Green Beans

Tuesday: Chicken with Spinach & Mushrooms
Roasted Cauliflower

Wednesday: Chili-beef Quesadillas
Refried Beans
Rice

Thursday: Wild Rice & Beef Casserole
Carrots and Green Beans

Friday: Leftovers

Saturday: Spicy Tofu with Broccoli and Cashews
Rice

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Chicken Pockets

So, you know how much I love the church recipe book I own. I used to own two or three church cookbooks, but the other two ended up having way more icky recipes than good ones, so they got donated to some poor soul who actually liked the weird, icky recipes those cook books offered.

May their families forgive me.

This recipe is from my beloved church cook book and we've actually eaten it a couple of times. Each time it's on the menu, Evan wrinkles his nose and says, "Have you made this before? Cause it sounds weird."

Yeah, Chicken Roll-ups is not a great name. It reminds me of Fruit Roll-ups and it's not fun to think of chicken in a leathery, fruity manner. Maybe Chicken Pockets is better? Hmmm...I shall ponder this name change...

But, this recipe is flipping awesome and easy to assemble. And if you don't microwave it to death, makes great leftovers!

The ingredients:
2-3 cans of crescent rolls; 4 C. cooked chicken; 3 oz. cream cheese; 2 Tbsp. butter; 2 Tbsp. mayonnaise; 1/2 C. chopped celery (which I did not have in my fridge, but thought I had, but totally needed, so make sure you buy it!); 1 Tbsp. pimento; 1 1/2 C. chopped green onions; 1 jar of chicken gravy. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Start by cooking your chicken. I always try to cut the chicken while it's raw and then cook it in small pieces cause it is a helluva lot faster than cooking whole pieces.
Chop up those green onions. I didn't quite chop a cup and a half due to me not liking green onions that much. You'd also be chopping the celery here too, if you didn't forget it like I did.
In a small mixing bowl throw in the pimentos, butter, cream cheese, mayo, celery and green onions.
Once it's done cooking, chop up the chicken even more.
Add it to the small mixing bowl and mix! mix! mix!
Now, with those crescent rolls, take them out of the can and take two triangles and smoosh the edges together to make a square. Please make sure the edges are sealed so there is no leakage.
Take a scoop of the chicken mixture and put it in the middle of the crescent roll square.
Wrap up the crescent roll like it's a present, making sure to seal the edges. I have no worries about prettiness with these because that is not how I roll and I'm just going to dump gravy over the whole thing anyway!
Once you've made all your chicken roll-ups, put them in a 9x13 baking dish. Bake them gravy-less for 10 minutes.
For the life of me, I could not find a stupid jar of chicken gravy at the store. So, I just used 4 cups of chicken broth and heated it in a pot. I mixed 2 Tbsp. of flour with 2 Tbsp. of cold water and whisked it into the hot chicken broth. I stirred it until it was a thick consistency. You might need to add more of the flour/water mixture as needed, but just remember it's Tbsp. for Tbsp. with that mixture.

Mmm...perfect!
Pour the gravy over the chicken roll-ups. Bake them an additional 30 minutes until they're browned like this:
I served ours with green beans and cooked carrots. You do not see cooked carrots on my plate due to my intense dislike of the taste of cooked carrots. (Seriously, they are so much better raw!)
Once he ate them again, Evan remembered that he did, in fact, enjoy this meal! It simple and delicious.

In fact, it was so good, that Julia insisted I take a picture of her eating hers.
It's also an easy meal to make and throw in the fridge to be cooked the next day or to cook and freeze for later consumption.

Enjoy!

Quesadillas!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!!! I super enjoy this holiday because our family loves Mexican food and this is a fabulous time to either go to our favorite Mexican restaurant or make some yummy food at home.

A super simple and delicious Mexican dish that the girls really like are quesadillas. And the thing is, I always forget about them.

All you really need to make quesadillas is tortillas of any size and cheese. Warm some oil in a large skillet throw in a tortilla, the cheese and another tortilla, flip it so both sides are cooked and viola! You have quesadillas.

Now, of course, you can always add lots of extras to your quesadillas. We like spinach and chicken in ours. I also enjoy peppers, mushrooms, onions and sometimes beef.

Today, I am going to share with you our spinach quesadillas.

I bought frozen spinach and cooked it in a small skillet.
In a large skillet, I warmed some olive oil (about 2-3 Tbsp.) and used the burrito tortillas I had left over from a previous meal. I put one in the hot oil. (Note: if you don't have a huge pancake flipping spatula like I do, then I'd suggest cutting burrito sized tortillas in half before constructing the quesadilla so you don't make a giant mess in your skillet when you try to flip the super large quesadilla, resulting in you saying a string of swear words in front of your toddler. Just a bit of advise.)
Added some spinach.
A good amount of cheese (a heaping cup is what I used).
Add the other tortilla on top.
Now, be careful not to burn the bottom tortilla. Just use your spatula to check it's doneness before flipping it. I, of course, burned one pretty badly because I am a terrible listener.

I threw my quesadillas on a pizza pan and used my pizza cutter to nicely cut them. It made me feel like a professional, I tell you!
Delicious!
I served our quesadillas with spanish rice and oranges. I also had salsa and sour cream to top the quesadillas with. Honestly, this is such a simple dish and can be totally custom made to your taste buds. Try them immediately!!!

Enjoy!