Green Chili Cream Cheese Enchiladads

When I had a baby this spring my Aunt Jackie brought us these enchiladas.  I have many an enchilada recipe that I enjoy, but once I took one bit of these I knew they needed to be added into my recipe rotation.  I like it because they are yummy and creamy, but they are a little bit different because they do not use any cream soups, and they are topped with green enchilada sauce, which I love.

Green Chili Cream Cheese Enchiladas

6+ soft tortillas
8 oz. cream cheese
2 small cans diced green chiles
2 cups cooked, cubed or shredded chicken
28 oz can green enchilada sauce
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Saute cream cheese, green chiles, and pre-cooked chicken until it is warm and nicely combined.  Fill tortillas with meat mixture and some of the cheese, reserving some cheese to sprinkle on the top.  Roll up tortillas and place in a 9x13 baking dish sprayed with PAM.  Pour enchilada sauce on top and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.  Bake for 40 minutes at 375 degrees.

Pinapple Soy Pork Chops

 We bought a grill this week, and I am one happy woman. It is amazing how easy it is to whip up an impressive tasting meal on a grill. On Sunday, I made one of our mom's old classics and was reminded how yummy it is. Enjoy!

Pineapple Soy Pork Chops

About 4 pork chops (I use boneless because I am anti-bone, but either would work)

Soy Sauce (about 1/2 cup)

Pineapple juice (about 1 cup)

Fresh pineapple for grilling

Mix 1 part soy sauce to 2 parts pineapple juice and pour over the pork chops in a dish, baggie, tupperware, whatever. NOTE: My mom did equal parts soy sauce and juice, but I like a stronger, sweeter pineapple flavor and less salt. Play around with it until you find your favorite ratio. Marinate the pork chops for at least four hours, but the longer the better. Grill until the internal temperature is 155 degrees or white with no pink but still juicy. I like to cut fresh pineapple spears and throw those on the grill to eat with it. 

Yum!

Bran Muffins

This recipe is awesome.  And HUGE.  Seriously, you will not be able to use your Kitchen Aid mixer.  I start with mine to truly whip up the shortening/butter, but once all of the liquids are in it is full and I transfer it over to a HUGE bowl and a hand mixer when I add the dry ingredients.  It is huge, people!  And here's why.....

This recipe rocks because it "keeps" in the refrigerator for up to SIX WEEKS!!  Can you believe it?!  Mix up the batter, put it in a big ol' tupperware or jar, and stick it in the fridge.  You can cook up a few warm muffins every morning!  Yummer!  I wouldn't expect bran muffins to be sweet and tasty, but these sure are!!  I think it would be fun to give a friend with a new baby a jar of dough so that they could have a tasty snack with minimal effort whenever they crave it.  And, for those who are "counting". . . . these muffins are only 3 points per muffin on the new Weight Watchers Points Plus system.

Bran Muffins

(This bottle keeps up to 6 weeks in the refrigerator.  Makes 3 pint jars plus a little.)

5 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups All-Bran
2 cups Bran Flakes
2 cups chopped dates
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

2 cups boiling water
5 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups sugar
1 cup shortening (or butter)
4 eggs
1 quart buttermilk

Mix boiling water and baking soda.  Set aside to cool.  In a large bowl stir flour, salt, All-Bran, Bran Flakes, chopped dates, and chopped nuts.  Cream sugar and shortening (or butter) in a large bowl.  Stir in eggs one at a time.  Beat well.  Stir in buttermilk and soda liquid.  Stir in bran mixture.  Tightly cover.  Better if refrigerated 12 hours (or more) prior to baking.  To bake, drop by spoonfuls (don't stir) into a greased muffin tins.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.  Yield: 5 1/2 dozen.

Ginger-Lime Chicken

This is a Weight Watchers recipe.  I tried it the other day and it was a huge hit with the whole fam.  Very flavorful!  We had it with grilled pineapple.  They say it serves 4 and is 5 points per serving, but we used bigger chicken breasts than 4 oz breasts, which is what they always use, so it was a bit more for us.

Ginger-Lime Chicken

Marinade:

**(WE DOUBLED THIS AMOUNT SINCE WE WERE USING 5 BIG CHICKEN BREASTS.)**

1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tsp. finely minced lime zest
3 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
2 Tbsp. finely minced or grated ginger root
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp. honey
1/2 cup fresh, chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp. chili oil (We didn't have any so we used normal vegetable oil with some hot sauce dashed into the marinade.)

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts (four 4 oz. pieces)
2 Tbsp. finely minced, uncooked scallions

Mix marinade ingredients in a large bowl.  Remove and reserve 2 Tbsp. of the marinade.  Add raw chicken to the bowl, tossing to make sure each piece is coated.  Refrigerate for 2 - 4 hours.  Grill or broil the chicken, brushing on the extra marinade toward the end of the cooking process.  Spring chicken with scallions and enjoy!

Crockpot BBQ Chicken

Rachel found this great recipe here and Pinned it.  We've been loving it ever since!  I usually double it.  I make one batch in my crockpot and put everything for the second batch into a freezer bag.  Then I dump it into the crockpot and just cook it for a bit longer on another lazy day.  YUM!!!!


Crockpot BBQ Chicken


4-6 pieces boneless skinless chicken breasts (She throws them in frozen... even easier!)

1 bottle BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's all the way!)
1/4 c vinegar
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 - 1 tsp. garlic powder

Mix BBQ sauce with all ingredients listed under it.  Place chicken in crockpot.  Pour sauce over it and cook on LOW for 4-6 hours. Toward the end you can shred it up if you would like.  Then let it cook a bit longer and use it on rolls for yummy sandwiches!  You pretty much don't even have to stir it... how easy is that!?

Awesome Pancakes

This recipe was contributed by Rachel but was originally found in the America's Test Kitchen Cookbook.

We have "brinner" at our house at least once a week.  These pancakes are our favorite!  We love them with blueberries, but they'd also be good with chocolate chips.  If you really want to get decadent, serve with Buttermilk Syrup.  Yum!

2 cups flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups of buttermilk (you can do 2 cups of milk with 2 T lemon juice mixed in if you don't have buttermilk)
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 large egg
1 cup blueberries (optional)
      *If you use frozen blueberries, thaw them and rinse them before adding to pancakes

1.  Melt the butter in the microwave, and immediately transfer it to the medium-sized mixing bowl you will use to whisk together your wet ingredients.  (I do this first because the butter needs to be cool before you add the buttermilk.)

2.  Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl.

3.  In the medium mixing bowl, add the buttermilk and egg to the cooled butter.

4.  Heat a skillet over medium heat.  Coat with cooking spray or brush with vegetable oil.

5.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients.  Gently whisk together  until just incorporated with a few lumps remaining.  (It is important not to overmix.  The lumps will disappear as the pancake cooks.)

6.  Scoop about 1/4 cup of batter onto the skillet.  If you are adding blueberries or chocolate chips, sprinkle a few over the top of the pancake now.

7.  Cook until large bubbles appear (about 2 minutes) and flip to the other side.  Cook until golden brown.

Penne with Roasted Asparagus and Balsamic Butter

We made this for dinner tonight from the Food and Wine website:

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/penne-with-roasted-asparagus-and-balsamic-butter


It was so incredibly easy, and I loved it because I love balsamic vinegar.  
In the future, I will cut down the amount of butter and add more asparagus.  It's not very often that I think a recipe has too much butter, but in this case, I did.

Enjoy!

P.S.  I don't know why the font above is so big.  Sorry.

Avocado "Pesto" Sauce

This might be the EASIEST recipe I have ever made in my entire life.  Seriously.  I think it took me less than five minutes to make. I added more garlic or more lemon to temper the taste of the avacado.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium sized ripe Avocado, pitted
• 1/2 lemon, juiced + lemon zest to garnish
• 2-3 garlic cloves, to taste (I used two)
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste
• 1/4 cup fresh basil
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 servings/6 oz of your choice of pasta 
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 
  

Directions:

1. Bring several cups of water to a boil in a medium sized pot. Add in your pasta, reduce heat to medium, and cook until Al Dente, about 8-10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, make the sauce by placing the garlic cloves, lemon juice, and olive oil into a food processor. Process until smooth. Now add in the pitted avocado, basil, and salt. Process until smooth and creamy.  The sauce will be thick, almost like guacamole.

3. When pasta is done cooking, drain and rinse in a strainer and place pasta into a large bowl. Pour on sauce and toss until fully combined. The warmth of the pasta will thin the sauce.  Garnish with lemon zest and black pepper. Serve immediately. (Don't try to save any of the sauce because it will go brown due to the avocado.)  Makes 2-3 servings.

Cranberry Chicken

Rachel keeps telling me over and over that she's the only person ever to post on this blog anymore, so I decided to contribute something new.  If you think about it, our lack of posts should just serve to reassure you that we truly ARE lazy chefs!  We are never going to be like Rachel Ray, whose recipes in her "30 Minute Meal" cookbook take me hours to make!  Sheesh!  No experimenting in the kitchen around here!

This recipe was my favorite of the loads of freezer meals that my awesome mother-in-law made for us when my son was born.  I love my meat a little sweet.  I haven't really made it a ton since then, but last month Rachel and I did a big cooking day when we made several freezer meals in one day---once again, so we could avoid cooking for a while---and we made this meal.  It reminded me of how crazy-easy it is.  You can throw all of the ingredients in a ziploc bag or a small foil pan in the freezer, or you could make it fresh.  Either way, it's yummy and great served over rice.

Cranberry Chicken

Chicken Breasts (4 - 6 or more....depends on how much sauce you want)

1 can whole cranberry sauce
1 package dry onion soup mix
8 ounces catalina dressing

Mix ingredients together.  Pour over chicken.  Bake for 1 - 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees.  (Depending on whether or not it's totally thawed.  I usually bake it for an hour.)  Serve over rice.

Cream Pie (Coconut, Banana, Chocolate)

Recipe Contributed by Rachel Nielson

First of all, why am I the only person who ever posts anymore?  Since when did I become the domestic sister??

My husband and I recently moved from Buffalo, New York, and anyone who is familiar with western New York knows about the grocery store called Wegmans.  It is amazing.  Truly.  We miss it daily.  One of the many amazing things about Wegmans is the phenomenal in-store bakery.  Over the four years that we lived in Buffalo, I became addicted to their cream pies.  They sell small "personal" size ones for $4 (I put personal in quotes because these little pies should probably feed two, but I could easily eat one by myself), and I often found myself eating one after a long grocery trip.  Mmmmm.  Heaven.  My personal favorite was their banana cream, and I've been craving it ever since we moved.  Well, over Thanksgiving weekend, my mother-in-law made a bunch of cream pies, and I think hers are almost as good as Wegmans!!  And guess what??  They're super easy!  You basically make the same "base" (a creamy custard) for all of the pies, but you add different ingredients at the end to make the pies different flavors.  I love them all!

Sally's Cream Pies


5 Tbsp cornstarch
1 cup sugar*
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup half-n-half
3 egg yolks (beaten)
2 Tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
Baked 9-inch pie shell (this can be homemade or storebought)

*For a chocolate cream pie, reduce the sugar to 3/4 cup.

1. Mix cornstarch, sugar, and salt in 3 quart saucepan.
2. Add milk and cream and cook over medium heat until smooth and think, stirring constantly.
3. Pour small amount of hot mixture into beaten egg yolks; blend, then pour back into saucepan.
4. Cook another 2-3 minutes.  (I do a full three minutes because when I've done two minutes, the pies didn't ever set up.)
5. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla.
6.  Mix in flavoring:

       Coconut Cream: Add 1/2 cup coconut to pie filling.

       Banana Cream: Slice two bananas into the pie shell and pour filling over the bananas.

       Chocolate Cream: Don't forget to decrease sugar when making the filling!  Add 1/2 cup chocolate    syrup to the cooked filling.

7.  Pour filling into baked pie shell and refrigerate at least 3-4 hours or overnight.  Top with whipped cream!

"Guiltless" Alfredo Sauce (Our Best Bites)

This recipe was shared by Rachel Nielson

This is another recipe that I found in the Our Best Bites cookbook. It's very easy and fast.  I love fettuccine alfredo from the Olive Garden, so I was skeptical of this recipe which is a lower-fat version of the old classic.  I was so pleasantly surprised that it tasted so yummy!  (It's not Olive Garden good, but really, what can you expect??  I still thought it was delicious.)

You can serve it over pasta or on a pizza.

Check it out:  http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/08/guiltless-alfredo-sauce/

French Dip Sandwiches (Our Best Bites)

This recipe was shared by Rachel Nielson

I consider this blog to be a repository of EASY recipes, no matter where they come from.   None of the recipes is original (we are, after all, NOT chefs).  I recently got the Our Best Bites cookbook, and I have been trying several recipes each week (remember, I just became a stay-at-home mom for the first time).  I still hate cooking, but it's a little more fun when I have more time to do it.  Anyway...I tried this recipe from Our Best Bites last week, and my husband and I thought it was really tasty, and it was so easy.  

Give it a try:  http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/03/french-dip-sandwiches/

P.S.  Since it's just the two of us (plus our baby who doesn't eat anything but formula right now), I cut the roast in half, put the portion that I would not be using in a tupperware, added one of the packets of dry onion soup mix and one of the cans of beef broth, and froze it.  When I am ready to use it, I will dump it in a crock pot, add a cup of water, and add 1-2 hours on the cooking time.  (By the way, these were the freezer directions provided in the cookbook.  I am not smart enough to figure this out on my own.)

Poppyseed Spread for Hot Sandwiches

My mother-in-law recently made sandwiches using this spread for a wedding reception.  They turned out so delicious!  You can use any combination of deli meat and cheese that you would like.  I love ham and swiss or turkey and provolone.  Make a basic sandwich on a yummy soft roll (it doesn't matter what kind or what size--you decide).  Then spread some of this poppyseed mixture on the top of the sandwich (yes, on the outside).  Bake at 350 degrees just until the cheese is melted (5-10 minutes).  You want the spread on top of the sandwich to be moist, melty, and delicious.

Okay, and now for the recipe.

Mix together:

1 T poppyseeds
1 1/2 T yellow mustard
1 stick butter, softened but not totally melted
1 T minced onion
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

This spread is enough for at least 10 sandwiches, I'd say.  So you can half the recipe, or you can store the extra spread in your refrigerator for a quick lunch or dinner any time.  It will be good for a few weeks.

Pumpkin Waffles

I looove these waffles!  They scream fall, and they are a quick, easy, and cheap meal.  The recipe looks a little complicated, but it comes together very quickly.  To really do them justice you should serve them with the Magelby's Fresh Copycat Buttermilk Syrup.  Yummmmm......

Pumpkin Waffles

2 cups flour
2 Tablespoons baking powder
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix and set aside.

4 eggs (Separate the yolks and whites!)

Beat egg yolks with a mixer, save the whites.

Add to the beaten egg yolks:

1/2 cup milk
1 cup pumpkin
3/4 cup margarine or butter (softened)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix well.  Add dry ingredients and mix well.

Beat egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into mixture.

Cook and enjoy!  Don't forget the Magelby's Fresh Copycat Buttermilk Syrup!

Caprese Salad

If a caprese salad doesn't say summer then I don't know what does!  I love this salad because it just tastes so FRESH!  You do have to splurge for fresh mozzarella and basil, but it is so worth it!  As long as you like tomatoes you will love this perfect combination of flavors!

Caprese Salad

Really good tomatoes, sliced
Fresh mozzarella, sliced
Fresh basil, chopped
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Salt

Chop everything up and either lay it out on a plate or throw it in a bowl.  Sprinkle with salt to taste.  Drizzle a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the top to taste.