Stuffed Pepper Guts

So, I am sure you have heard of stuffed peppers - right? Well, this is the same, just with out the stuffing of a pepper. I use to always buy about 5 green peppers, slice off the tops, wash and clean out the insides and load them up with the meat mixture, place in a dish and bake. I found however, that we never ate the pepper, just carved it out and discarded. What a waste! So now I save a little money, and effort and still get the pepper yumminess. Here is my easy way:

Recipe:
1 lb ground beef or ground turkey
1 green bell pepper
Finely shredded Colby and Monterey Jack cheese
1 Jar (24 oz) of Prego Sauce (I use garden variety)

1 Cup of White Rice
1 large skillet

1. Get your rice cooking first, as it takes the longest. Use a rice cooker or stove top. (remember, 2:1 ratio... 2 cups of water or 1 cup of rice -- boil, then cover/simmer)

2. Cut off the pepper ends, discard then slice up into the rest into fine pieces. Cook meat in skillet, halfway through adding the peppers - when cooked fully drain fat out.

(picture without rice added)

Now place back on burner and add the whole jar of Prego Sauce, and most of the cooked white rice. Mix around and turn to a low/swimmer. Add cheese, or allow your family/guest to serve their desired amount when dished up.
((*NOTE: If your skillet is not large enough to manage the amount, transfer the meat to a large pot, then add sauce/rice..and place on stove burner**))

Yes, you're done! It was that easy! Goes great with some home made bread sticks too! Yum Yum Yum~

Swiss Steak

Mmmhmm my husband loved this! The flavors were SO good, and the meat extremely tender! It was easy to cook and did not require any foreign ingredients/spices! I love when I can just open up a recipe and find that I have all the ingredients already...love that! :)

Recipe:

• 1 lb boneless beef round steak (cut 3/4" thick if needed)
• 1 Tbs All-Purpose Flour
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 Tbs Cooking Oil
• 1 (14.5oz) can dice tomatoes with basil/garlic/and oregano - undrained
• 1 small Onion, sliced and separated into rings
• 1/2 cup sliced celery
• 1/2 cup sliced carrot

1. Trim fat from meat. Cut meat into four serving-size pieces. Combine flour, salt, and pepper. With a notched side of a meat mallet, pound flour mixture into meat. (*note: I do not have a meat pounder (gasp!) - but what I do that works well is I take a knife and jab the meat a few times, than place the meat and ingredients into a large sealed plastic bag and shake around and coat real well, pounding in with my hand and squishing, etc...)

2. In a large skillet brown meat on both sides in hot oil. Drain off fat. Add undrained tomatoes, onion, celery and carrot. bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, about 1 and a quarter hours or until meat is tender.

3. Hey, guess what. No step 3. You're done! Yes, it was that easy. Nice job~ I served mine with mashed potatoes, green beans and Nun's Puffs! (see recipe post for Nun's puffs)

Chicken and Rice Casserole

I am not a big fan of Casseroles, but this looked interesting. very easy to make, and I served it with the previous post of Wheat Bread. :) ... *Kid Approved* again! Wow, Carter really enjoyed this. I did not think he was going to take to it like he did. He was shoveling large portions into his mouth and even had seconds! Wow...this is noted for sure.

Recipe:
1 Tbs Butter 1 Medium Onion, peeled and diced
3 Cups diced, cooked chicken
2 (14.5 oz) Cans of green beans, drained and rinsed
1 (8 oz) can of water chestnuts, drained and chopped (or left whole if you like the large crunch)
1 (4 oz) jar of pimentos (I actually did not have any, so this was exempt)
1 (10.34oz) can of cream of celery
1 cup Mayonnaise (did not have this either! so, added a whole can of cream of chicken - it worked)
1 box of wild rice, cooked
1.5 Cups of Cheese
Pinch of Salt

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2. heat butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and add the onions. Saute until translucent - about 5 or so mins. Remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl.

3. Cook your wild rice, according to package.

4. Cook the chicken! I actually cooked 3 small breasts whole, then shredded and added to bowl. I like shredding better than having cubes awkwardly placed in my dish.

5. Add all remaining ingredients top a bowl and mix together until thoroughly combined.

6. Pour into a greased 3 quart casserole dish and bake for 20-25 mins, or until bubbly. Let stand for a few mins, than serve! Yes, it is that easy. :)

Breaded Pork Chops

I am trying to catch up all my recipes that I have gotten behind with - so my explanation will be brief. I read, I made, We ate. Plain and simple :D Sorry for the photo quality, I was in a hurry to get this meal cooked, because I was rushing it to Don at school before his next class. I just threw it into a Tupperware, so only a skillet shot for y'all. - It was very tasty though! :)

Recipe:
1/4 Cup Original Bisquick
7 Saltine Crackers
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1 Egg
1 Tbs water
4 boneless pork loin chops

(SUPER SIMPLE!)

1. Mix the Bisquick and Saltine crackers (crushed), salt and pepper in a shallow bowl. Mix egg nd water into another bowl.

2. Take your pork chops and dip them in the egg mixture, wetting both sides well.

3. Take your pork, and one by one, coat both sides well with the Bisquick mixture. Pat, squish, sprinkle...whatever you must do to layer that dry ingredients on well. :)

4. Spray your skillet with some PAM and heat over a medium-high temperature (6/7). Cook pork in the skillet 8-10 mins, turning once - until pork is white when cut through.

5. WOW, you're done. How easy was that!?

I served mine with french styled green beans and potatoes. Also, I made a pound cake earlier and cooked in little tin foil pans (the give away type) - cut up some strawberries - and put some whip cream in a jar and gave to Don for a little dessert afterward. A strawberry shortcake...but with pound cake. hehe :) Sorry....no pictures. But a nice idea for ya! :-D

Chicken Marsala

Carter actually liked this chicken recipe! Sorry, not going to write much- trying to catch my recipes up. Don and I liked it as well - nice and tender and the garlic made for a good flavor with the coating. :)



4Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts halves
1/4 Cup Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
2 Tbs Olive oil
2 Gloves Garlic, finely chopped
1/4 Cup chopped parsley (or 1 Tbs parsley flakes)
1 cup of sliced mushrooms (I left this out, neither of us care for mushrooms)
1/2 cup Chicken Broth (or marsala wine, but I used the broth)


Mix flour, salt and pepper together. Then coat chicken with flour mixture. (I used a large zip lock bag, and just shook the chicken inside one by one)

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium (5/6) heat. Cook garlic and parsley in oil for about 5 mins, stirring frequently.

Add chicken to the skillet. Cook fully (white all the way through) Turning once, until brown. Add the mushrooms (if you want) and chicken broth now. Cook about 8-10 mins, turning chicken once.

Serve with pasta and/or veggies. I served mine with a creamy cheesy potato soup and snap peas. ENJOY!

Asian Orange Chicken

I am sorry everyone (everyone, being my 2 or 3 devout followers)!! I am still making food, but have been very busy and accidentally forgot to document a few of my creations...and then I was hit hard with a stomach virus last Monday and took the whole week to recover. I mean seriously, that virus wiped me out! The smell of food was revolting, so that was the last thing I wanted to use my ounces of energy toward. Carter got a little sick too, so this past week has just been a yucky one. I had some yummy sounding meals planned for that week too, oh well. I will just have to get my food groove on this week!

One meal I did make that I never posted on here...and that Don enjoyed thoroughly was an Asian Orange Chicken dish. Yum! I served over white rice with snow peas, carrots and chow mein noodles.

Recipe

Sauce:

1 1/2 cups water

2 tablespoons orange juice

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/3 cup rice vinegar

2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons chopped green onion

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

(for another bag)

3 tablespoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons water

Chicken:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut

into 1 inch cube pieces

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

3 tablespoons olive oil

	Okay now pour 1 1/2 cups water, orange juice, lemon juice, rice vinegar, and soy sauce into a saucepan and set over medium-high heat. Stir in the orange zest, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, chopped onion, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat, and cool 10 to 15 minutes. Now place the chicken into a resealable plastic bag. When your saucepan has cooled, pour 1 cup of sauce into bag. Reserve the remaining sauce. Seal the bag, and refrigerate at least 2 hours. ( I only did about 30mins...the longer the better though!)
	In another resealable plastic bag, mix the flour, salt, and pepper. Add the marinated chicken pieces, seal the bag, and shake to coat. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat (4/5). Place the chicken in the skillet and brown on both sides. Scoop them out into a large bowl (don't worry, they are going back into the pan soon). Wipe out the skillet and add all the sauce. Bring this to a boil over a medium/high heat (6/8) Mix together the cornstarch and 2 Tbs of water - stir into the sauce. Reduce the heat to medium low and add the chicken pieces. Simmer and cook till chicken is tender and white in the middle. You are done my friend! Good job~ Now go sit down and enjoy your hard work. Yummy Bunny!

Creamy Cajun Chicken

My mother came to Arizona from Tennessee to visit us for the week. Unfortunately Carter got sick that weekend and was an extreme grumpaholic all week that she was here. Sorry mom! We did manage to go to the park a few times, but that was the extent of our exciting adventures. My mother and I did bake/cook a little though! After eating "Cafe Rio" on Monday (delicious restaurant in the western USA... mmmmmm) I tried out this recipe on Tuesday. It is called "Cream Cajun Chicken." I found it on delish.com and thought it looked interesting and wanted to give it a try. It smelled great, but was too hot for me. Hot, as in spicy. It was hot for my mother too, but she liked it - and as for Don he loved it and thought it was not hot at all! So, I guess it just depends on your level of tolerance. I think it would taste just as good without the cajun....but, I guess it would not be a creamy *cajun* chicken recipe then....
(oh, and p.s. I did forgot an important step/ingredient in this recipe!! That's what happens when you cook and take care of a sick kid at the same time) So this probably would taste 10x better with the... CREAM in it.... :-P haha ... I seriously thought something was off! Now I know...

Recipe:

• half a bag of rotini noodles
  
• 1 Tbs) canola oil
• 4 slices of Turkey bacon, chopped
• 1 large sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced
• about 1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breast, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 medium green bell pepper, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 tsp Cajun seasoning
  
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 1 Tbs all-purpose flour
• 1 can (28-ounce) crushed tomatoes
• 1/3 cup reduced-fat sour cream

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook pasta until just tender, 8 to 10 minutes or according to package directions. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a skilled about medium heat. Add bacon and onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to brown, about 2 minutes. Add chicken, bell pepper, garlic, Cajun seasoning, and pepper. Cook stirring, until the onion and bell pepper are beginning to soften, about 4 minutes.
3. Add flour and stir to coat. Add tomatoes and their juice; bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring often, until the sauce is bubbling and thickened and the chicken is cooked through, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in sour cream. -----NOTE: I forgot about the sour cream!! Guess I left out the "creamy" part of my creamy cajun chicken) WHOOPS! - please include the cream people!
   
4. Stir the pasta into the sauce
5. Serve up! I sprinkled Parmesan cheese over mine :)
   
6. ENJOY~
   

Hoisin and Cranberry Chicken (**Good**)

Sounds kinda iffy, eh? Well don't hear... taste! :) It was fantastic! I improvised from the original recipe and made it my own. The chicken was very juicy and tender and the sauce ingredients complimented one another very well. My mother came into town this week and loved it! So did Don...and Carter thought it was "interesting". He was more into the ranch dressing and chips on top of the salad than anything else...

Recipe:
Turn oven on to 450F

• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts. Trim all the fat off.
• Place in a gallon "Ziplock" bag:
• 1 Tbs Chinese Five-spice powder
• 1 tsp Salt
• and 3 Tbs white flour

Shake around the mixture in the bag then add your chicken. Bounce around the room and sing while you shake the bag, coating the chicken. The dancing and signing is very important. Do not skip that step...
Now spray a glass cooking dish and evenly space chicken out and cook for about 15-20 mins uncovered. Cut into your fattest chicken and make sure the meat is white.
(while chicken cooks)
In a Medium saucepan add:
1 can of Cranberries
1 and 1/4 Cup of Chicken Broth
3 Tbs of Hoisin Sauce
1 Tea of Brown Sugar
~1/4 cup of Lemon Juice

Mix well and bring to a boil slowly. (Careful, it foams up! - blow on the mixture if the froth gets too high) Then lower the temperature. Slowly mix in about 1 Tbs of flour to thicken the sauce up a bit. You could even add a tiny bit (1/4 tsp or so) of Corn Starch to help with the thickening. Mine was pretty runny...so no worries.

When the chicken is done take it out of the oven and pour generously the sauce over the top. Flip the chicken with a fork and cover both sides. Mmmmmm. Pour the rest of the sauce in a small bowl for dipping if desired.
Now transfer your delicious chicken to a plate and serve with whatever catches your fancy.
Enjoy~

(I served mine with a small salad and wild rice)

BBQ Chicken topped with Turkey Bacon and Swiss Cheese

The other night I made a tantalizing dish that will please all men, even though chicken is used instead of steak( *gasp*). BBQ is the secret! What is it about men and BBQ? Not sure...but it almost always get's a 100% approval just because of the word Barbecue! :-P

So I made this to get the taste-buds of my man going:

I normally would have made this in a crock-pot so the chicken would soak and get extra tender, but time was of the essence this evening. I took about a 1.5lb of chicken breast and trimmed the fat and placed in the skillet. Then I loaded the skillet with Honey BBQ sauce. Just generously pour, turning the chicken around in it (coating both sides). Turn to about a 4 (low/medium) and let the chicken slowly cook. Cover the skillet if you have a top large enough. Flip the chicken every so often to make sure the BBQ is being applied and the chicken is cooking thoroughly. After cooking, check the fattest chicken piece by cutting through with a knife to make sure it is nice and white (pink=raw). Now turn the heat down to a warm/simmer and place a half strip or two of Bacon/Turkey Bacon (I only use Turkey Bacon) over each piece of chicken. Now take a slice of Swiss Cheese and lay on top, over the (T)Bacon. The heat will cause the cheese to melt nicely.

Whew, nice work y'all! You're done. Now dish up and serve with veggies, bread, fruit..whatever you like! I served with a mixed veggie combo, with some leftover homemade bread and a salad. YUM!

Beef Barley Stroganoff

Sounds good, uh? Well, it is! I grew up with "Stroganoff" where my mother would cube chunks of meat, with a sour cream/cream of mushroom sauce over egg noddles. So, when I saw this recipe I was hesitant, because it didn't sound or resemble the stroganoff mama use to make. It was great though! Certainly a little different, but in a good way.

Recipe:
Box of Barley
2.5 Cups of Vegetable Broth
1.2 tsp dried marjoram
1lb Lean Ground Beef
1.5 cups of Chopped Celery
1.5 Cup minced green Onion
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
1/2 Cup Half-and-Half
1 package/6oz Mushrooms (optional)

Cook the lean beef, while Barley cooks. Chop up the celery and green onions. After meat is thoroughly cooked add the mushrooms (I don't like mushrooms, so never add) and celery, green onions (I did not have any tonight) plus pepper, marjoram and half/half to the meat. Turn down to about 2-3 heat. After Barley is soft and cooked add a little at a time for desired barley/meat ratio. (about half the sauce pan for me). Stir around and serve hot. ENJOY~

p.s. I also made Italian Cheese bread, that is what you see as well in the picture. However, it did not turn out how I would have desired it. Thus, no recipe or picture for you. Sorry! :-P

Black Bean with Sausage Soup

What happened to last nights meal? Uhhhhh my dog ate it...? Okay, okay! Fine...my dog did not eat it. In fact, I don't even have a dog! The truth is, my cat ate it. Yes, I have a cat thank you...and no, I can't seem to pull anything pass you - my cat didn't touch a thing. Not because he didn't want to, but because (*hold breath*) I DID NOT MAKE ANYTHING...gulp. Yes, I said it. I made not one tantalizing tid-bit for anyone to taste. It was a "left-overs" kinda night. Don has school late twice a week and Carter and I were out with some new friends. I predict this type of post to possibly happen a few more times in the future.

So, did I make anything tonight then? Yes, yes I did. Thanks for asking. I indeed cooked and baked up quite a special treat! The treat won't be done till tomorrow, but dinner tonight was very tasteful. The past few days have been cold here in Arizona. Very windy! So this was perfect to warm up my frozen husband when he came home. I tried and tested "Black bean and Sausage Soup", and it was YUMMY!

(Came from Better Homes and Garden New Cook Book)

Recipe:
(quick version, with black beans already cooked, not dry)
2 - 15oz Can Black Beans
1.5 Cups Chicken Broth
2 Cups Water
1 cup chopped Onion (one large)
1 cup chopped Celery (2 stalks)
1 tea ground Coriander
1/4 tea Salt
1/4 tea Cayenne Pepper
4 cloves Garlic, minced
8 oz cooked, smoked, Sausage (I used Italian, and 16oz)

First cut up your sausage and cook thoroughly. Set aside. In a large pot combine all the above ingredients (excluding meat) and bring to a boil. Boil for a minute or two then turn down to a simmer for about 15 mins. Check the veggies to see if they have softened and then toss in the sausage. I turned the temperature of mine up to about a 3-4, till is was starting to bubble --then back down to a simmer. Leave it on simmer/warm until ready to serve. SUPER easy and very tasty! That coriander is awesome - and the celery really give it a special taste too.
You can add some sour cream if desired as well. I put some on mine and Don left it out. We ate warm with saltine crackers. Mmmmm just right. :)

I thought this Celery base looked pretty after I chopped off the stalks...is that weird? ;)

Onions and Celery chopped and ready to get in the Pot
Black bean and Sausage Soup with sour cream (optional)