Falling Behind!

Happy Fall Ya'll

WOW! It's been a long time since I've been active here. We have started school, Emilie and Olivia are both doing Far Above Rubies. Bella is doing Learning Adventures. I'll post more about school later as the "sisters" ( Emilie and Olivia) need to use the computer for school research.

Menu for the week:

*Cowboy Soup

Hot Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Pasta

Hamburgers

Pizza

* I got this recipe from my mother in law. My husband and Bella made this last year when I was sick and I have since lost the recipe card so what follows is totally by memory.

1# ground meat browned

chopped onion to taste ( I use 1/4- 1/2 cup of onion)

1 can ranch beans ( I use whatever beans I have in the house tonight will be black beans)

1 can corn *UNDRAINED*

1 package of taco seasoning

1 can tomato soup

1 can "rotel" tomatoes and chilies

I honestly can't remember if it is 2 cans of corn and 2 cans of soup. Use your own judgement.

Anyhow, nice on a Fall/Winter day, served with warm corn bread.

*********update*********

well I used spicy tomato sauce instead of tomato soup and didn't add the rotel as I didn't have any. I did add some leftover beefstew, and a can of water. Bella made cornbread. It was really good.

Dealing with leftovers

I like to find creative ways to deal with leftovers rather than just reheating them.

I bought 4 whole chickens on sale. I cooked and deboned 2 of them, divided all the meat into 4 ziplock bags for later use. I also divided and froze the chicken broth. I roasted one chicken and froze the other for roasting later.

So dealing with leftovers....
I had 2 different containers of leftover mac and cheese. I made a chicken sauce, with 2 cups broth, thickened with 4 TB flour. I added the leftover mac and cheese and a package of the deboned chicken, & frozen peas. Topped with buttered cornflakes. Baked at 350 for 20 minutes.

Other add ins could be chopped pimentos, mushrooms, mixed vegs, extra cheese.

Taco Seasoning Mix

6 tsp chili powder

4 1/2 tsp cumin

5 tsp. paprika

3 tsp onion powder

2 1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper

Mix all the ingredients and store in an airtight container. I just use an empty spice shaker bottle. This is pretty strong in flavor, use wisdom when using this substitute in place of prepackaged seasoning mix.

Transform Leftovers

Mac & Cheese leftovers stay leftovers in my house. No one wants to eat it, I don't really blame them, leftover boxed Mac & Cheese needs a lot of help.

I make Macaroni Salad with my leftovers.

Just add Miracle Whip/Mayo

chopped onion and green/red peppers

I've been known to make this macaroni salad fresh when I'm in a pinch and need to take something to a summer potluck or picnic.

Gramma's Ice Cream

3/4 cup sugar

2 TB flour

1/4 tsp. salt

2 cups milk

cook over low heat until thicken

Temper 2 beaten eggs, then add to the above "pudding"

cool then add 2 cups heavy cream 1 1/2 tsp vanilla.

ready for your ice cream maker.

For a "carmel" flavor ice cream, use brown sugar instead of white.

Taco Rice

This is an excellent way to stretch ground meat for tacos, burritos, nachos or taco salad.

1 pound ground meat ( beef, *chicken or turkey)

1 cup diced onion

1 package taco seasoning

16 oz canned tomatoes

2 cups cooked rice, brown or white

Brown meat and drain. Combine meat, onion, seasoning, rice and tomatoes in saucepan, simmer until thick, about 30 minutes.

Use anywhere you would use taco meat.

*I've also made this with cooked shredded chicken too.

Food and flowers

Today's stuff

Supper in Crock-Pot

Roasted chicken in the crock pot.

paprika, kosher salt, black pepper, poultry seasoning,

lemon zest, juice of lemon, celery seed, ground cloves

(sounds weird I know but tastes really good with chicken)

Azaleas are blooming

Changed out wreath to spring flowers

Decorated living room for Easter.

I've also mopped the kitchen, and cleaned the oven.

Weekly Menu January 26-30

Chicken Divan *
Taco Casserole*
Chicken Strips
Hamburgers
Pizza

Can you tell chicken was on sale? LOL

* CHICKEN DIVAN
5 chicken breast (thawed)
2 packages of Chopped Broccoli (thawed)

Sauce:
4Tablespoons milk
2 Tsp lemon juice
4TB chicken Broth
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 cans of Cream of Chicken Soup

Place broccoli in a 9x13 pan place chicken over broccoli, cover with sauce and parmesan cheese.
Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until chicken is done.


*TACO CASSEROLE
Make taco meat as usual. I add a can of chopped tomatoes and sometimes a can of black beans, or even frozen corn.
Place in a greased casserole dish. Cover with shredded cheese.
Mix a batch of corn bread batter, either homemade or a box mix. Pour batter over the meat and cheese.
Bake according to the cornbread directions.

This recipe came about when I had a bunch of taco meat leftover but not shells or tortillas.

Oven Chicken?

Someone asked me today what "oven chicken" was, so thought I'd let everyone know.

It is oven fried chicken. I have a large heavy baking pan, I pour oil in the pan and turn the oven on 400. I let that get hot while I flour the chicken with seasoned flour. Once the oil in hot I place the chicken skin side down in the hot oil, and let it cook. Don't ask for times, cause I don't time stuff. I turn the chicken one time, other wise the crust will stick, and that's the best part.