Mexican Chicken

I could not find a recipe that I liked ... so I decided to combine several recipes and came up with this one. It turned out really good! The best I've made in a while! =)

3-4 Chicken Breasts (cooked and chopped)

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup

2 spoonfuls sour cream

2 cans Ro-Tel

1 can green chilies

Tortilla Chips

Cheddar Cheese

Combine chicken, cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, 2 cans Ro-Tel, green chilies and couple handfuls of cheddar cheese. in a large bowl. Cover the bottom of a sprayed casserole dish with crushed tortilla chips. Pour chicken mixture over chips. Cover casserole with more crushed tortilla chips. Bake at 350* for 25 minutes. Sprinkle more cheese on top and cook 5 more minutes. We enjoy having mexican rice and a salad with our casserole.

Cake Mix Cookies

 One of my roommates in college shared this recipe and I LOVE IT!! It's super easy and they taste wonderful! It's a great recipe to use with kids and you can make any color or shape you want! All you need is:

1 Cake Mix (If you are coloring, get a white or yellow cake mix. If not, get whatever you want!)

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

Food Coloring (Optional)

Sprinkles (Optional)

Mix eggs, oil, and cake mix in a bowl. Once all mixed together, add food coloring. We used orange today to make pumpkins for Halloween ... but you can use whatever color you want!

 You can either drop spoonfuls on a greased cookie sheet or spread the batter out on the cookie sheet and make one BIG cookie. If you want sprinkles add them before you bake.

 Bake @ 350* for 12-18 minutes. Take out of the oven and use whatever cookie cutter shape you want. Cool on cooling rack.

Enjoy!!

Tortellini Soup

So glad that soup weather is here ... even though this soup is great any time of year! It's super easy and tastes GREAT!

48 oz. Chicken Broth

2 small cans diced tomatoes (or 1 large can)

2 tbps. minced garlic

1 package tortellini (you can use frozen, refrigerated, or packaged ... whatever you like!)

Fresh spinach (optional)

Mozzarella cheese

Bring broth, tomatoes and garlic to a boil. Add tortellini and cook according to the package. Once the pasta is done cooking, remove from heat and add 3 or 4 handfuls of spinach (or however much you would like). Serve with mozzarella cheese on top!

Romaine Crunch Salad & Dressing

Topping:

1 pkg. Romaine Noodles, broken up

1 cup chopped pecans

butter

Brown noodles and pecans in butter. Cool on paper towel.

Dressing:

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup red wine vinegar (can also use balsamic vinegar)

3 tsp. soy sauce

salt & pepper to taste

Mix together!

Salad:

1 bunch broccoli, chopped

4 green onions, chopped

2 bunches romaine lettuce

Combine!

If you are serving the salad right away, you can toss the salad and the dressing together and top with topping. Or just wait and put dressing and topping on individual salads.

This dressing is also good on a green salad with grapes and strawberries ... or with chicken! I love getting creative! =) Enjoy!

Monkey Muffins

Monkey Bread is something that I remember Mom making when we were little and we LOVED it!! She always let us help ... which now I realize is a lot more time consuming, but is totally worth the extra time spent! I decided to make some last week and thought I would try to make them in muffins instead of a bundt pan and they turned out wonderful! I mean ... how can you go wrong with bread, butter, cinnamon and sugar?!?

Here is what you need:

2 cans of jumbo biscuits

1 Cup Melted Butter

1 Cup Sugar

Cinnamon (as much as you want ... some like more and some like less)

**Preheat oven @ 350*. Either use muffin cups or grease pan.

1. Cut each of your biscuits in 4 pieces and roll them into balls.

2. Mix your sugar and cinnamon together.

3. Roll your biscuits in the butter.

4. Roll your biscuits in the sugar/cinnamon mixture.

5. Put 3 balls into each muffin cup.

6. Sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon sugar on top of each muffin.

Bake for 12-16 minutes.

I didn't use muffin cups, but will next time. They didn't hold together very well ... but tasted wonderful!

Lydia agreed ...

Yumm!!

Blueberry Muffins

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com this morning and they turned out so good! =) They are called "To Die For Blueberry Muffins" ... and just let me say the name fits! Jeff and Lydia really liked them! We'll be making these again for sure!

• Muffin:
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ** I added some cinnamon to my batter **
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 
  
• Topping:
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (I added a little more)

1. Preheat oven to 400*. Put muffin liners in pan (or grease pan).

2. Combine vegetable oil, egg and milk in a bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Mix together. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups and sprinkle crumb topping on top.

3. For crumb topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter and 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Mix with fork and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes until done.

Not the prettiest muffins I've ever seen, but they taste great! =)

Spinach & Fruit Smoothie

A lady I used to go to church with in Searcy shared this smoothie recipe, and it is wonderful! The name of it doesn't sound too good, but don't let it fool you!! This is a great way to get some good nutrients in you and your kids ... and no one has to know!

1. Fill blender a little under 1/2 full with spinach (or kale).

2. Add frozen berries. I used a strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, raspberry mix that was really good! She also suggested a peach and mango mixture ... I'm going to try that next!

3. One banana, sliced

4. Couple dollops of yogurt (She suggested Greek, but I could not find any, so I used regular fat free vanilla yogurt).

5. Orange Juice (to help it mix well)

Mix up and enjoy!! =) Makes 2 large smoothies.

I think Jeff was doubting it would be any good when he saw me put the spinach in, but once he tasted it, he changed his mind! Lydia even had some and asked for more!