Easy Chicken and some "ghetto" cheesecake

Alright so last night was one of those nights where I didn't put a lot into what I made but all that matter was the DJ was totally 100% loving what he ate. The chicken dish is actually one that Kelly from Kelly's Korner makes. She calls it poppy seed chicken but I didn't have any poppy seeds so I made it without and it still tastes awesome. DJ even said "I could eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner"

Here's the original recipe ~ Poppy seed Chicken (Easy Chicken)

2 or 3 chicken breasts, boiled and cut in small pieces

1 16 oz sour cream

2 cans cream of chicken ( or cream of mushroom ~ its whatever you have in your cupboard)

****(2 tbls of poppy seeds (I don't measure - I just shake a ton in) I didn't have any handy so I did without and it was still so good!

Ritz crackers

1 stick of butter

Mix the first 4 ingredients and put in a baking dish. Cover with crushed up Ritz crackers. Melt a stick of butter and pour on top. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 350.

I made some white rice in the rice cooker and poured the chicken and gravy over it! Its such and awesome weekday meal because its quick easy and the leftovers are great.

Sorry this picture was taken after we had already dug in! Ha!

Dessert ~ "Ghetto" Mini Cheesecakes

I probably shouldn't say ghetto just in case I offend someone. I just think its funny when recipes like this are passed down through families. Instead of the "made from scratch" cheesecake recipe, I give you my "ghetto", super easy, quick cherry cheesecake recipe.

The other night me and my sisters got together and we were talking about family recipes that were kind of funky but because we grew up with it, we still love to eat the food. Here you go: (don't judge or else I will post my Grandma's jello recipes) ha!

Mini Cheesecakes

12 vanilla wafers
2 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla2 eggs

Line muffin tin with FOIL liners.

Place one vanilla wafer in each liner. Mix cream cheese, vanilla and sugar on medium speed until well-blended. Add eggs. Mix well. Pour over wafers, filling 3/4 full. Bake 25 minutes at 325 degrees.
Remove from pan when cool. Chill. Top with cherry pie filling (or whatever your heart desires)

Swiss Bacon Dip

Hold on to your arteries! Seriously this dip is so bad but soooooooooo good! A co-worker of mine brings this dip to all of the company events and I like to plant myself right in front of it and go to town. I made this last night for DJ and I, then DJ went at hit a bucket of balls and the driving range, so I took it upon myself to eat half the dip for my dinner/entire day worth of calories, while watching "He's just not that into you". Needless to say all I'm eating is yogurt today! Ha! Anyways, pay no attention to the fatty ingredients, that's what makes it so good. Just dive right in you wont regret it!

Swiss Bacon Dip

Ingredients:

8 slices bacon, chopped
8oz. cream cheese, softened
½ cup mayo
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 ½ cups grated swiss cheese
3 green onions, chopped

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400°. Brown bacon until crisp. In large bowl, combine cream cheese, mayo, mustard, swiss cheese, and green onions. Add bacon bits. Bake in small, shallow casserole dish until golden and bubbly (approximately 15-18 minutes). Spread on sliced baguettes.

That is some cheesy goodness!

Aunt Renee's Pasta Salad

My Aunt makes this awesome pasta salad for all the family occasions. Just thinking about this salad along with my Mom's baked beans are enough to make my mouth water! Alright here is the secret family recipe for the my Aunts Pasta Salad, I will post the baked beans another time!

Aunt Renee's Pasta Salad

1 Lb Rotini Noodles
1 bottle of Bernstein's Restaurant Recipe Dressing
1/2 C Parsley flakes
2 T Dill

Boil the noodles as directed on the package, don't overcook.
Place the noodles in the pan. Marinate in the dressing, parsley and dill.

While marinating cut up the following ingredients:

4 tomatoes
4 green peppers
1-2 red onions
5 dill pickles
5 sweet pickles
1 8ounce package salami
16 ounces (4 small cans) sliced black olives-can add more if desired

Mix cut up ingredients together minus the pasta.

Final step before adding back in the pasta;

Make the following dressing for cut up ingredients

1 C Mayo
1 C Sour cream
3/4 C milk
pepper-to taste

Mix dressing with cut up ingredients then add pasta mixture.

The recipe above is the original recipe, no changes made. DJ and I have made this quite a few times and have made a few changes along the way. We always double the noodles. Instead of 1 lb we use 2lbs. Also, we only use 2 green peppers, 1 red onion, no sweet pickles, and only 2 cans of olives. But we add cheese and pepperonchini's. The nice thing about this recipe is that you can add or subtract any of those ingredients and tailor it to your liking. Just don't mess with the dressing...oh and the dill is key!

My take on Biscuits and Gravy

Saturday morning we woke up starving and wanted to get a good meal in our belly's before our busy day. We had some ingredients in the fridge to work with so this is what I came up with.


Biscuits and Gravy

1 Can Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
1 package of Jimmy Dean Sausage (we used Hot)
Southern Gravy


I took the sausage and made them up into little patties. I then took the crescent rolls and shaped them around the sausage. Make yourself a little southern gravy and your good to go! I would post the southern gravy recipe but DJ is the expert in that field. If you don't know how to make homemade you can always buy one of those little packets of southern gravy mix at good ole Safeway! This recipe also would have been awesome with a little fried egg on the side or right on top of the beautiful sausage biscuit!

Right out of the oven

This is my attempt at "presentation" ~ Ha! See a fried egg on top woul have sealed the deal!

Food Network - Easy Marinade

Whoever came up with the concept of Food Network deserves a big ole prize in my book. I keep this channel as my background noise throughout the weekends or on weekday evenings. I love it and it never disappoints me.

The other day I was watching Paula Dean and one of her Sons cook up an awesome lookin' dinner. They were out side grillin' together just as Mother and Son should. Anyways, they were making up some yummy looking lamb chops and used the most simple, yet delicious, quick marinade. It caught my attention too since the marinade can be altered very easily with little to no culinary expertise and all the ingredients I already had in my house.

Ok you ready....

You're going to probably laugh at me because its so simple.....

Or say something like "duh, we knew that! are you saying you didn't Mandy?"

Umm....yes, that is exactly what I'm saying. I had no idea it was that easy to make a delicious marinade in such a short amount of time. I'm new to this cooking thing, give me a break. Here you go:

Easy Marinade Recipe

Olive Oil
Minced Garlic
Salt
Pepper
Herb- of your choice (Paula Dean used Rosemary, but DJ doesn't care of for that herb)

Take a big ole Ziploc Bag, add your Olive Oil (I didn't put an exact amount because it depends on how much meat you have), and add the garlic. Take your meat of choice (we used steaks last night) and give them a good rub with salt, pepper, and your herb of choice. Toss the meat in the bag and there you go.

You can let it marinade for 1-24 hours depending on how hungry or prepared you are. We let ours sit last night for about an hour and then threw them on the hot grill. The steaks turned out awesome!!! DJ and Rob were ranting and raving about the flavor and how tender the meat was even though it didn't marinade that long. Success, thanks to Paula Dean!

Ranch House Crock Pot Pork Chops over Rice

We like to eat Pork Chops at least 2-3 times a week in our house. We love them!!! It all started last year when DJ wanted to make me a special meal when I was on maternity leave with Maya. He whipped up and awesome meal (including pork chops) and it has been a staple in our house ever since. We have a ton of different variations of this meal but this weekend I wanted to try something new. Oh and also, for families on a budget pork chops are really inexpensive. I bought 18 pork chops (family pack) at Safeway for $11. What a deal!!! Alright lets get to it...



Ranch House Crock Pot Pork Chops

6 pork chops, 1/2 inch thick
1 packet dry Ranch Dressing Seasoning
10 oz can Cream of Chicken Soup

These turned out great. The chops fell apart when we tried to scoop them out of the crock pot. The only thing that I would change is I would add another can of the Cream of Chicken Soup. We like a lot of gravy to put on our rice and there wasn't quite enough. If you like it extra creamy you could also add a little cream cheese or sour cream the last hour or so when cooking it. That would be pretty good too!

Almost forgot...

Check out this cooking blog where I got this recipe from. This some good reading!

http://realmomkitchen.blogspot.com

Honey Glazed Chicken

This weekend I tried out a few new recipes and want to share them with you because they are so easy and SO yummy!

As I share these recipes I will also give credit where credit is due and share the blog in which I found recipe. Make sure you have some time on your hands when you click the link to these blogs because they are hours of entertainment! Anyways, here is the recipe for Honey Glazed Chicken, found at http://mysisterscucina.blogspot.com/2009/01/honey-glazed-chicken-chocolate.html

Honey Glazed Chicken:

Step 1

1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 cup butter
4 chicken breasts (you could use chicken tenders too! I used about 3 of the frozen chicken breasts from Costco cut up)
Preheat oven to 350. Mix flour, salt and cayenne pepper together in a large ziploc bag. Drop chicken in bag and shake to coat. Melt butter and place in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Place flour coated chicken in baking dish and turn to coat both sides with butter. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

Step 2
Honey Glaze Sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp curry powder
1/4 cup butter, melted

Combine all ingredients. Pour over chicken until well coated. Bake for an additional 45 minutes. Serve over rice.

***For the picky eaters out there you could leave out the curry powder and the glaze would be just fine. I also found that the first step makes a good basic oven fried chicken. You could complete the first step and then add whatever sauce you wanted to coat the chicken, teriyaki, bbq, etc. Whatever your little heart desires.