Sweet Potato Crisp

Do you hate sweet potatoes?  ME TOO!!!  Thats why you HAVE to try this one!  My entire family loves sweet potatoes, but I can't seem to get past the part of a potato being sweet...and having to eat it instead of a regular potato.  That's why this recipe is perfect!  This is like a sweet potato dessert, so it is TOTALLY allowed  to be sweet!  Its amazing!  Another recipe thanks to my friend Susan!

Ingredients:
1 Pkg Cream Cheese (8 oz pkg)
1 Can sweet potatoes (40 oz) or 2 Medium/large peeled, then cooked sweet potatoes
3/4 Cup firmly packed brown sugar, divided (or more if you want them sweeter)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Cup chopped/diced apples (peeled first).  I used 1 whole golden delicious apple
2/3 Cup chopped cranberries (I used craisins...found by the raisins at the store)
1/2 Cup flour
1/2 Cup old fashioned quick-cook oats, uncooked
1/3 Cup butter (cold or room temperature)
1/4 Cup chopped pecans (if you want...I didn't have any and it still turned out delicious!)

Directions:
*Pre-heat your oven to 350*F

*Beat cream cheese, sweet potatoes (if you are using canned ones, make sure you drain them first), 1/4 cup of the brown sugar, and ground cinnamon with an electric mixer until they are well mixed.

*Put this mixture into a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish that has been sprayed down with cooking spray.

*Put your apples and cranberries on top of this mixture.

*Mix your flour, oats, and remaining brown sugar in a bowl until well mixed.  Now add the butter.  If you want a very crispy top, use room temperature butter (because it will coat the ingredients now while you are stirring).  If you want a lighter topping, use cut up pieces of cold butter.  The cold butter won't mix as easily now meaning all of the topping won't get super coated.  Its up to you how you want your topping.

*Stir the pecans into the oat mixture.  Now pour this mixture on top of the apple/cranberry mixture.

*Put your sweet potato crisp into the oven and bake uncovered for 35-40 minutes.  Remove and let cool at least 5-10 minutes because it will be super hot!

Onion Soup Mix Potatoes

We make these ALL the time!  Perfect as a summer side!  These are so incredibly easy and they are really, REALLY good!  I got the recipe on the back of a lipton soup mix box, but you can use any onion soup mix (it doesn't have to be liptons).

Ingredients:
2 lbs potatoes (I always use red ones with skins on.  Just enough to cover the bottom of a 9x13 pan)
1/3 Cup oil
1 Pkg onion soup mix

Directions:
*Pre-heat your oven to 425*F.

*Cut your potatoes up into bite sized pieces.

*Spray down a 9x13 glass dish with baking spray.

*Put your oil, potatoes, and onion soup mix into the baking dish and mix it all up.

*Bake for 35-40 minutes in the oven, stirring once halfway through.

Cheddar Biscuits

Here is another recipe from my friend Susan.  She sent it to me a few weeks ago and I kept forgetting about them...until now!  Am I ever glad I made them because they were SO easy to make, they made a ton of biscuits (good for snacks later tonight), and I pretty well had all the ingredients at home.

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups Bisquick baking mix
¾ cup cold whole milk
4 tablespoons cold butter (1/2 stick)
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
1 heaping cup grated cheddar cheese

Bush on Top:
2 tablespoons butter, melted
¼ teaspoon dried parsley flakes
½ teaspoon garlic powder


Directions:
* Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

* Combine Bisquick with cold butter in a medium bowl using a pastry cutter or a large fork. You don't want to mix too thoroughly. There should be small chunks of butter in there that are about the size of peas. Add cheddar cheese, milk, and ¼ teaspoon garlic. Mix by hand until combined, but don't over mix.

*  Drop approximately ¼-cup portions of the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet using an ice cream scoop.

*  Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until the tops of the biscuits begin to turn light brown.

*  When you take the biscuits out of the oven, melt 2 tablespoons butter is a small bowl in your microwave. Stir in ½ teaspoon garlic powder and the dried parsley flakes. Use a brush to spread this garlic butter over the tops of the biscuits.  (NOTE: Only put butter on the ones you plan to eat...they will store better if there is no butter on the tops of the one's you save for later.  Also, I didn't have any parsely flakes and mine turned out great regardless.  I had about 20 biscuits when I made them).

M & M Cookies

These are so easy, and you probably have all the ingredients in your pantry.  My husband told me these are one of my better cookies (so I'm either a terrible cookie maker, or these are really good...I'll let you decide!)

Ingredients:
1 Cup packed brown sugar
1/2 Cup white sugar
2 Eggs
2 Sticks butter, room temperature
1 1/2 tsp's vanilla extract
2 1/2 Cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 Bag M & M's (basic M & M's, and not a small bag...)

Directions:
*Mix both sugars, eggs, butter, and vanilla extract in a large bowl until well mixed.

*Add flour, baking soda, and salt to the mixture.  Mix it up well.

*Put 1 cup of the M & M's into the cookie dough mixture, and stir (by hand).  Be careful not to break them all.

*Drop cookie dough by 1 Tbsp sized serving onto parchment paper (this stuff is amazing.  You DON"T have to spray it down, and your cookies don't stick.  I didn't believe it until I tried it...and this is coming from a girl who using cooking spray even when recipes say not too...).  So yes, if you have parchment paper use it, if you don't (go get some) spray down your cookie sheet/sheets with cooking spray.

*These cookies really thin out while cookies so make sure to not put them close together on your baking sheets!
*Pre-heat your oven to 350*F.

*Now, go back  to your cookies and put extra M & M's all over them (without forcing down the dough).  You need to put 6-7 extra on each one because these cookies really spread out while cooking.  So if you only put 1 or 2 on them there won't be many on your cookies when you pull them out of your oven.  Also, put extra's on the sides of your dough too...  Here is a picture of the dough, and then the same picture underneath of how much they spread out once they are cooked.  (Notice how full the dough is with M & M's, and how not full it looks in the second picture...)

*Once you have put the M & M's on the dough, put the cookie sheet or sheets into your oven and bake for 8 minutes.  The original recipe I got this from suggested cooking them 9-11 minutes, but my first batch I cooked for 9 minutes and they were on the verge of being crunchy.  These are not soft cookies, but I suggest only doing about 8 minutes...unless your oven isn't as hot as most ovens are.  Adjust the time accordingly if you need to!

*I got the basics of this recipe from allrecipes.com, but I changed it up so much that this is pretty well my own recipe now!  It used shortening instead of butter, and baking times and such were different.  Enjoy!

Stew and Dumplings

There are SO many different ways to make a stew.  Here is just a simple one.  If you have never made one before this is a good way to start.  Nobody cooks theirs the same way so use the basics and change it up however you would like!

Ingredients:
1 lb stewing meat
1 Tbsp oil
4 Cups water
1 32 oz container of beef broth
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
3/4 Cup frozen peas
2 Large potatoes cut into bite size pieces
3 Large carrots, cut into bite size pieces (or a handful of baby carrots cut in half)
2 Celery stalks (cut into pieces)
1/2 medium onion, cut into chunky pieces
2-3 Tbsp Cornstarch

Dumpling Ingredients:

1 Cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

salt and pepper to taste

Just enough milk to make flour mixture sticky

Directions:
*Brown meat in skillet with oil until meat is cooked.

*Put meat into large pot with 2 cups of water, 3/4 of the container of beef broth, onion, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Cover and simmer on low heat for one and a half hours stirring occasionally.

*Pour the remaining ingredients (more water if you think you need it and the remaining beef broth if you think you need it) EXCEPT for the cornstarch into the pot.  Cook with the lid cracked on medium high for about 30 minutes.

*Mix the dumpling ingredients together and stir well.  You only want them to to get to a sticky consistency.  Stop adding milk when it looks like this:

*Put the dumpling dough by 6-8 droppings onto the top the stew liquid.  Cover completely and boil over medium-high heat for 12 minutes.  DO NOT REMOVE LID ONCE YOU PUT IT ON OR THE DUMPLINGS WILL NOT WORK.  I stand guard by it to ensure nobody else removes the lid also!

*After 12-13 minutes you can take the lid off and remove the dumplings.  Put them onto a plate and set aside.

*If you want thick stew slowly mix in the cornstarch while using a whisk to stir it while continuing to cook.  If you don't want a thick stew, skip this step and you will have a liquidy stew.

*Pour your stew into bowls and eat with the dumplings on top.

*NOTE: If you do not want dumplings, and you want a thicker sauce, boil the potatoes for 40-45 minutes in the third step instead of just 30.  Then add your cornstarch.

Mini Pie's

We had some blackberries in our fridge that were reaching their "eat or throw away" point.  I didn't think we would eat them all by the time they went bad so I decided to make a pie out of them.  You can do this recipe for ANY berry pie (blackberry, raspberry, blueberry)...  If you can, make your dough from scratch (Google a pie dough recipe.  They are so easy and taste SO much better than frozen or store bought pie dough/crusts).  I had 2 packages of pre-made stuff that my grandmother gave me though so I used that instead.

Ingredients:
2 Pkg's dough (or refrigerated, or homemade)
3-4 Cups berries
1/2 Cup sugar

Directions:
*Spray down your ramekins (if you want mini pie's) or a large pie container with cooking spray.

*Mix up your pie dough as directed.

*Sprinkle your counter with flour and roll out your dough to cover the dish/dishes you are going to be using for your pie/pies.

*Put your bottle dough/crust into your dish/dishes.

*In a large bowl, put your berries.  Now sprinkle 1/4 a cup of sugar into them and stir it up.  If your berries are sweet you probably won't need any more sugar, but if they were tart or sour add more sugar.  You can use as much or as little sugar (or sugar substitutes) as you want, just do taste tests to see when it tastes just right.  You might use up to about 1/2 a cup or so.

*Now pour this berry mixture into your pie dish/dishes.

*Re-flour your surface and roll out your remaining dough.  Put over your pie/pies.

*Since I used ramekins for mine, I let the dough hang off the edge and didn't cut all the side dough off.  If your using a basic pie plate your yours, you will want to cut the dough off flush with the edges.  I like my dough to go over the edge though (the pie crust is always my favorite part of the whole pie!)

*Using a fork, press the top and bottom edges of the dough together so your filling doesn't overflow.

*Put your pie/pies on a baking dish lined with foil.

*In an oven pre-heated to 425*F, put your baking sheet with pies on it and bake for 10-12 minutes for small ramekins, and up to 15 minutes for a large pie.  Just keep an eye on them starting at 8 minutes or so because you don't want them to start to get brown yet.

*After the 10-15 minutes, lower the temperature to 350*F and continue baking for 20-25 minutes for ramekin pies, and 25-35 for a large pie.  You know they are done when they begin to brown a bit on the top.  There are no ingredients in the pie that need  to be cooked to be safe to eat, so if your pie is not fully done you are still fine (as long as the crust is crunchy and flaky you are fine).  :)

Stir Fry

Tonight we decided to do a nice big, fresh salad for dinner.  Fresh berries, chicken, cheese, and all the other fun toppings on it.  We went to Sprouts to get the most important part, the spring lettuce mix, and they didn't have any.  So...we had to scramble to come up with a dinner idea: fresh stir fry.  Since Sprouts is pretty much only fresh fruits and vegetables it took no time at all to grab our ingredients.

Ingredients:
1 Small head of broccoli flowerettes
1/4 Small onion, in big chunky pieces
2 Large carrots, cut into small, round pieces
1 Large chicken breast, cut into small pieces (grilled from yesterdays lunch...)
1 Large handful sugar or snap peas
1 Small green pepper, cut into pieces (if you want it)
1/2 Container Stir fry sauce
1 Yellow squash/zucchini (If you want it)
1 Tbsp oil
2-4 Servings of instant white or brown rice

Directions:
*Put your onion, carrot and broccoli pieces into a saucepan with 1 tablespoon oil and cook on medium heat for 4-5 minutes.

*Add the chicken pieces, green pepper pieces, zucchini pieces and peas.  Continue cooking until items START to soften.  If you want your peas to still be crunchy, don't add them until about 1 minute before serving.

*Add as much stir fry sauce as you would like.  We used about half of the bottle for ours.  (Just remember, stir fry's have no exact way to be done.  Its totally up to you what kinds of vegetables you want and how much of each you want).

*Cook the rice while the rest of the food simmers.

*Once the rice is done, put a serving of it onto a plate and then put a large scoopful of the stir fry on top.

*NOTE:  You can add or take away any of the above listed ingredients.  We thought it might be good to add a handful of peanuts or cashews the next time!

Peanut Butter Cups

Reese's has nothing on these puppies  :)   Well...let me take that back.  If you want to snack on something, these are not for you.  One of these is like a full dessert!  They will melt in your fingers if you hold them, so they are best served with a fork or spoon and after a meal.  These would be AMAZING broken up over ice cream, or in a banana split!  We really liked them.

Ingredients:
1 Pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 Cup peanut butter (I used crunchy peanut butter)
1/4 Cup Powdered Sugar

Directions:
*Cut 9 paper muffin liners in half (so they aren't as tall).  Now put them into muffin pans that have been sprayed down with cooking spray.

*In a microwave safe dish, melt half the bag of chocolate.  Start with one minute, then stir the chocolate, then continue to cook another 30 seconds.  Make sure you don't overcook them and that you stop it to stir because it will burn in the microwave if not!

*Take the chocolate once it is melted and put a scoopful into each muffin liner.  Now using a spoon or spatula, drag chocolate up each side (make sure you drag enough chocolate up because if its just a thin amount they will not come out of the muffin liners later.

*Now put your muffin tray in your fridge for one hour.

*An hour later, mix your peanut butter and powdered sugar together.

*Scoop the peanut butter into the muffin centers.

*Melt the rest of the chocolate chips the way you did the first set of chocolate chips.

*Pour the melted chocolate on top of the peanut butter cups and layer if so that all the tops are fairly flat and all the peanut butter is covered.

*Put back into the fridge for another hour of so until they are fully hardened.

*When you are ready to eat them, gently pull the wrappers off.  Try not to touch the chocolate because it will melt.  Annoying, I know...sorry.  Now eat them however you would like (and win bonus points from everyone you serve them too for being "soooooooo creative").

Chicken, Bean, Spinach Enchiladas

Yesterday we went to the Dallas Farmers Market for some family fun.  We had never been before and decided we wanted  to see what exactly they had down there.  We are so glad we went!  We bought TONS of fresh food...including a bag of fresh spinach.  We had no idea what we were going to do with the spinach, but we bought it anyways!  I dug through the pantry and came up with this recipe.  It is SO good!  My husband said it tastes like something you would get in a Mexican restaurant (I take that as a compliment).

Ingredients:
3 Chicken breasts
1 Can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 Cup sour cream
3/4 Cup salsa
1 Cup shredded cheese
2 BIG handfuls of spinach (not sure how else to measure it...)
6 10-inch flour tortillas
6 Slices pepperjack cheese, each slice cut into 2
1 16-oz can white queso sauce (found by the salsa's in the chip aisle at the store)
1 lime, cut into 4 pieces

Directions:
*Cut your chicken breasts into smaller pieces and put them in a large skillet with 2-3 cups of water.

*Cook the chicken for about 20 minutes until it is fully cooked.  You can cook your chicken any way you want, this way will just keep it nice and moist.

*Once the chicken is cooked, drain any remaining liquid.  Move the chicken pieces to a cutting board and chop them up.  Now put them back into the skillet.

*Now pre-heat your oven to 400*F.

*Add the black beans to the chicken and turn them on to a medium-low temperature to warm them all up.  Add the salsa and sour cream and stir well.

*Once the chicken mixture is hot, add the spinach.  Stir until the spinach has shriveled up.  Now add the shredded cheese.  Mix well.

*Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.

*Put 1/3 a cup or so of queso on the bottom of the baking dish and spread it out to cover the bottom of the dish.

*Take a large scoopful of the chicken mixture and put it into a tortilla.  Roll it up.  Now put it into the baking dish.  Continue to do this with the rest of your tortillas.

*Pour all of the rest of the queso onto the tops of the enchiladas.  Spread it out to cover all of the tops of the enchiladas (areas that are not covered will go hard while baking).

*Take your pepperjack cheese slices and make sure each piece is cut into two.  Take each piece now and layer it on top of the enchiladas.  Each enchilada will need two pieces of cheese (see picture).

*Put your enchiladas into the oven and bake them for 20 minutes uncovered.  Once the cheese has started to brown, take them out of the oven and serve.

*Put salsa or queso on the tops if you would like, and then sprinkle the juice from a lime slice on top.  Hope you like this one, we did!

Peppery Chicken Pasta

I have to admit, there is a reason I changed the name of this dish.  If I wrote "Poblano Pepper Pasta" so many people would skip over it.  I would have.  Honestly, its not something I have ever had before, I don't know anything about it, and I had no need or want to try it...until my husband decided to invent a new dish while out shopping today.  Let me just explain what this tastes like" ground pepper."  See, nothing to be afraid of!  It truly blew my mind with how tasty it was.  I have never had a pepper like this before!  It isn't vegetably at all which surprised me.  We will definitely be looking for more poblano recipes!!!  If you have never tried them, this dish is really easy and super good.  We ended up researching Nick's recipe idea online and found one similar to the one he had thought of.  So we went with it and loved it.  PLEASE try this one, its so good!  And yes, it tastes just like ground pepper!

Ingredients:
3 Poblano chili/peppers
1/2 Cup milk
4 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon flour
1 Cup heavy cream
salt to taste
2-4 Chicken breasts (1 per person)
1 cup shredded cheese (a white cheese)

Directions:
*Cut the top core of your peppers off and pull out the seeds.  Now chop them up.

*In a blender or a food processor, put your chopped peppers and your milk.  Mix it until well blended.

*In a medium saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter.  Once the butter has melted, add the tablespoon of flour.  Now brown it (just cook it over a medium heat until it changes to a bit of a brown color).

*Pour your pepper puree into the butter mixture in the saucepan and stir with a wire whisk constantly until it is all smooth.

*Turn your temperature down to medium-low and add your cream.  Stir with your whisk constantly until it begins to bubble.  This will take a few minutes.

*Once the mixture has bubbled, take your mixture off of the heat and set aside.  Add salt to taste.

*In a frying pan now, put your chicken breasts and cook it in the other 2 tablespoons of butter (we used oil instead).  Cook until fully cooked (takes about 20 minutes, we cover ours to keep the heat in.  Cook on a medium to medium high temperature).

*Spray a baking dish down with cooking spray and put your cooked chicken breasts inside.  We used a small glass dish so that all the sauce would sit right on top and now run all over the place.

*Turn your oven on to 350*F.

*Pour your sauce over your chicken in the baking dish.  Now put all of the cheese over top of the sauce.

*Put your dish, uncovered, in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

*I know its green and looks weird, but the taste isn't crazy at all!  I promise!  We were at a local farmers market today and bought fresh black pepper pasta so ours was a little spicier.  SO delicious!!!

http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/2338-chicken-in-poblano-cream-sauce-pollo-poblano

Sweet Potato Fries

Here is another one of my husbands recipes:  Sweet potato fries.  He LOVES sweet potatoes (I don't, but these aren't too bad coming from a non-sweet potato lover).

Ingredients:
2 Sweet potatoes
1/8 cup oil (just an estimate)
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Directions:
*Cut the potatoes into fries.  We make ours fairly thick in size.

*Put the fries into a big bowl and pour enough oil on top.  Mix them up so that they are all coated thinly in oil.

*Pour the fries onto a baking sheet that has been lined with tin foil.

*Salt and pepper your fries.

*Pre-heat your oven to 425*.  Now bake your fries for about 20 minutes (check them after 15 to make sure the tops aren't burning).  Flip the fries, and continue cooking another 10 minutes or so to crisp the other side.  These aren't super crispy fries since they are baked, but they are healthy, easy, and tasty.  We have made them this way a few times now and there is never any leftover.  My friend sprinkles Parmesan cheese on top of hers once they are cooked so that is an option too if you want to try those!

Chocolate Pretzel Sticks

These are too good not to make!

Ingredients:
20 Large pretzel sticks
2 Cups semi-sweet chocolate chips OR semi-sweet bakers chocolate
Any fun toppings you want (sprinkles, mini M&M's, toffee pieces, peanut pieces, coconut...)

Directions:
*If you have a double boiler use that (the pot that has a pot insidde of it...so you put water in the bottle pot and the chocolate in the top pot).  If not, you can cook it in a glass dish in your microwave.  JUST BE CAREFUL TO STIR OFTEN (if will burn if you don't!).  So, melt your chocolate.

*Put a piece of waxed or parchement paper on a baking sheet and set aside.

*Once your chocolate is melted, dip your pretzel sticks halfway in and roll them.  I usually dip them twice, but you don't have too.

*Do all of the pretzels quickly and before they dry sprinkle whichever toppings you  want onto the wet chocolate.  Let the pretzels dry fully.  (I sometimes put the baking sheet in the fridge to cool them faster...)

Crescent Chicken

Here is an easy recipe I got from a blog called "wearing Gackey's Apron."  This recipe was really easy as pretty tasty.  I didn't change her recipe when I made it but I need to before I cook it again.  Not that I need to change it because of the taste, rather I need to change it because it made so much filling and not enough crescents...

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, cooked then chopped
1 can Crescent Rolls
2 cups Cheddar Cheese
1 can Cream of Celery
1 can Cream of Chicken

Directions:
*Cook your chicken any way you want too.  Then chop it up into tiny pieces.

*Open up both cans of soup mix.  Pour half of each can into a mixing bowl.  Reserve the other halves for after.  Now put one cup of shredded cheese into the bowl and mix it up good.  Now add the chicken and mix.

*Spray a 13x9 baking dish and set aside.

*Open your can of crescent rolls.  Put one heaping scoopful of the cheese and chicken mixture into the bigger part of the crescent roll.  Roll it up ending with the shortest part.  Put each of the crescent roll mixture into the baking dish.  Do not let them touch each other because they supposedly won't rise (mine didn't rise regardless so I way I see it is you can make them touch if you want too!).

*Mix the remaining two cans of soup together and pour it over the tops of the crescents.

*Bake in your preheated oven at 375* for 45 minutes.

*Pull out of the oven and top with the remaining cheese.  Put back in the oven for about 5 minutes until they fully cook.