Pumpkin Cheesecake

And yes, I made it. For those of you who fell on the floor after reading that, you may get up now. I usually don't cook or bake. But I wanted something pumpkin. And this was fairly easy. We ate some before it chilled completely. Definitely needed to chill more. And could use more pumpkin. Not an overly strong pumpkin flavor. But still very yummy! I'm pretty proud of myself.

PS: Must give kudos. I used my sister's recipe.

Crockpot pizza

A friend gave me this recipe, so I thought I'd give it a try. Daddy gave it 4 thumbs up! He loved it! And the kids liked it! And I liked it! And it's fairly easy! SCORE!

The recipe makes a lot. I cut it in half and still had leftovers.

1 pound ground beef (I used sausage cuz that's what we like on pizza)
1 package egg noodles
1 1/2 to 2 bags shredded mozzarella cheese
1 package pepperoni slices, cut in half (I used turkey pepeproni)
1 jar spaghetti sauce
2 jars pizza sauce
Italian seasoning to taste

Brown meat; drain. Mix meat and sauces together.
Boil noodles; drain.
In crock pot, mix all together.
Cook on low 2-4 hours.

There is some prep work, but once you put it in the crock pot--your done! I think what made it so good was the combination of spaghetti and pizza sauces. I used Prego 3 cheese sphaghetti and Wal Mart off brand pizza.

It heats up well for left overs too. YUMMO

I was told to put this "in the rotation" of our meals.

New recipe

I don't like to cook. When I try a new recipe, it usually fails. However, once in a while, I score!

I tried a new recipe last week and SCORED! K girl even ate some. So I will share what I made. I saw a recipe in Taste of Home's Quick Cooking and adapted it to us (that's an even bigger deal for me; that's usually how I mess up a new recipe)

So here is how I made it.
Chicken with Onion Gravy
1 pkg chicken tenders (Tyson all cut up and ready to go)
1 pkg onion soup mix (the dry kind)
1 can chicken broth
16 ounces 1/2 and 1/2
flour, garlic salt, and cracked black pepper
EVOO

In a gallon ziplock bag, mix flour (enough for the amount of chicken that you have), garlic salt and pepper (to your taste). Place chicken in bag and coat.

In a large pan, heat EVOO. Cook chicken in pan just long enough to start getting brown (they won't be cooked the entire way through). Remove chicken from pan.

In the bottom of the same pan, carefully pour in the broth. Whisk all the bits up off the bottom of the pan. Pour in soup; mix well. Slowly pour in 1/2 and 1/2. Once it is all combined, add chicken back to the pan. Stir often. Cook until chicken is cooked through.

I served this with mashed tatoes (pre-made Bob Evans brand) and Sis Shubert rolls (YUMMY huh sissy?). K loved the mashed tatoes! She helped "make" them and ate 2 helpings. I figured out that if she helps, she's more willing to eat it. The gravy that the chicken cooked in was wonderful over the tatoes. The only thing--the house smelled like onions for a long time afterwards!

Southwestern Chicken Salad

A few weeks ago we went to O'Charley's for dinner and I had a southwestern chicken salad. It was HUGE! and very good! So last week I decided to try to re-create it for dinner--for Daddy and I anyway (the kids had popcorn chicken and mac & cheese). It was actually really easy to make and was very good. I did take a lot of help from the store (as Rachel Ray says). I would say it was really healthy too. So here is my very own recipe.

*1 bag of salad (I chose romaine, purple cabbage, and carrots)
*2 chicken breasts (we had some leftover from grilling out; that would be the best tasting option), cut into thin strips
*Taco blend shredded cheese (amount would be your preference)
*chopped onion, red pepper, green pepper (again, according to your preference; Daddy didn't do the onion and I was very light on the peppers) I found in Wal Mart's produce section, these "pre-made" salad kits. These peppers were already diced (which was more economical for me then buying 2 whole peppers) which was really nice.
*Corn--I bought one ear of corn and "grilled" it on my George Forman. Next time I would like to grill it on the grill and would probably get more than one ear. I lightly sprayed it with cooking spray and sprinkled it with taco seasoning.
*I also added chopped tomaotes (could use cherry ones) and sliced mushrooms--not so for Daddy.
*1 can black beans, rinsed well (we had a lot of beans leftover, but I don't know if I could have bought any smaller can)
*chipotle Ranch dressing-we made this ourselves. I looked at W-M for a bottle of it and didn't find anything that was close to what we wanted. We just mixed some Ranch dressing and some Chipotle sauce (made by Tabisco) and viola' our own dressing.
*tortilla strips: this was my favorite part of making this salad! Again, I looked for these at W-M and couldn't find them. So I made my own. I bought corn tortillas and cut them into very thin strips with a pizza cutter. I then put them on a sprayed cookie sheet, sprayed them with cooking spray and sprinkled them with Taco seasoning. Then I baked them at 500 degrees until they started to brown. For just a few seconds I put them under broil (I wish I would've done that longer). They were very yummy! The kids and I snacked on them all morning. They were the prefect topper to the salad.

So there you have it. My very own recipe. It was good. I had fun making it. It was mostly healthy. And we will have it again!

Congratulations Grad!

Since C is homeschooled, he doesn't get to have a traditional kindergarten graduation. Although, I have found out that up here, kindergarten graduation is not a big deal. Only some of the local private schools do a graduation. So sad. Instead of figuring out how to do an actual graduation, I just skipped straight to the party. Nice, huh? Thursday night we had about 11 people or so come for a party. I had snacky food (one recipe in a future post) and drinks. (definition of snacky foods: veggies/dip, crackers/dip, fruit/dip, desserts/dip) Everyone got something to eat first and then C opened presents. He made out pretty good. Let's see if I can list everything: $15 cash, $10 Wal-Mart gift card, a wood USA puzzle (that talks and tells you state & capitals), pencils (already sharpened--cute idea), word search book, 2 Cul-de-Sac books (Beverly Lewis), Connect 4, sun catcher kit (another messy project), a really nice Earth and Space book, a travel chess set, 2 more books, and a really nice wood 4-in-one chess/checkers/tic tac toe/something else. The last set of books deserves its own post (another future post). They are called the Flat Stanley series. Such a cute idea! Oh and another cute game he got is called Find It! Check out this web site for more info (it's too hard to explain here) (Since I can't get the link thingy to work, here's the web site http://www.finditgames.com/) Two funny things regarding C opening presents: he could NOT conquer opening cards! I think we need a lesson. He mutilated every envelope. and he kept turning his back on everyone. Turn around!

I think everyone had a good time, even though it was VERY hot! We were able to sit outside (a bonus because we would not have had enough room inside) but it was almost miserable. One thing I forgot, we got C a Jr. golf glove. Within 5 minutes the writing on the glove had flaked off, so I am taking that back. But the glove gave C the idea to get out his clubs and drive some golf balls. Kept him and K busy for awhile. After everyone left, C hit one so hard (good shot) that it went in the pond behind our house! But for some reason, that bothered him A LOT. He cried over that ball. Crazy kid. Later while we were cleaning up, C went running FULL SPEED into the house---except the sliding door was closed. He bounced off that door about four feet and landed on his rear end. He's lucky the door didn't break, he was running that hard. He was pretty upset over that (I don't blame him; he hit hard). So we got quick showers, gave him some Tylenol and put the 2 kids to bed. It was late. He did have a small bump the next day, but there is no sign of it now. Poor kid.

Side note: Grandma got K a little present to open too. She was so excited. We told her that she could open it after C was all done. So after EVERY present "Mommy, is it my turn?" She got some new Dora panties. (BTW: she's doing really good still; I'm hoping.....) Oh and by the way, we had another naked moment w/ K girl. She decided to try her new panties on-out on the patio-w/ guests still there. I rushed her cute naked little butt inside to finish putting them on.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

I mentioned something about this soup on Facebook and had many requests for the recipe. So I thought I'd post it here. It's not very hard, just time consuming. And for some reason, I can't get it thick like I would want. I've tried heavy whipping cream instead of the 1/2 and 1/2 and I've tried doubling the flour and decreasing the broth by one can. Nothing has solved the problem. If you get a solution, please let me know. And by the way, this is one of those soups that just gets better the next day, and the next, and so on. Enjoy!


MCALLISTER'S CHICKEN TORTILLA SOUP
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
3 tablespoons margarine
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 (14 ounce) cans chicken broth
4 cups half-and-half
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup fresh salsa
1 (15 ounce) can creamed corn
6 boneless, chicken breast halves - cooked, skinned
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 (1.27 ounce) packet dry fajita seasoning
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
TO SERVE:
16 ounces tortilla chips
8 ounces shredded Monterey Jack cheese
In a large pot over medium heat, saute the garlic and onion in the butter or margarine for 5 minutes. Add flour and stir well, cooking for 1 minute more.
Add the broth and half-and-half. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low.
Add the soup, salsa, corn, chicken, cumin, fajita seasoning and 2 tablespoons cilantro. Stir and continue to heat for 15 minutes.
Crumble tortilla chips into individual bowls, add 1/2 ounce shredded cheese to each bowl and ladle in soup. Top each bowl with more crumbled chips, remaining 1/2 ounce cheese and remaining 1 tablespoon cilantro, and serve.

Recipes

(Disclaimer: I have not made either of these recipes but have eaten them and they are very yummy! Also, my recipes are not precise, but you should be able to figure them out)


Taco Ring

1 can of crescent rolls
1 pound taco seasoned and browned hamburger
taco cheese blend
typical taco toppings

Unroll the rolls and place on a greased cookie sheet, long end to long end to form a circle. Place meat and desired amount of cheese on half of the roll (towards center of the pan). Pull short, pointy ends over meat towards center of the baking sheet till all the points meat in the middle. Bake at 350 until golden brown. Top with remaining cheese. Serve with typical taco toppings.
Hint: my blog savy friend said that you could make this by using chicken, Ranch, and mozzarella cheese. Hmmmmm. Something to try.

Bacon wrapped Green Beans

2 cans whole green beans
1 pound maple pepper bacon, thick cut (the flavoring is very important)

Gather a small bunch of beans (5-6), making sure all ends are approximately the same length. Wrap bundle with bacon. Place on baking sheet. Bake at 350 for a very long time (that's exactly what I was told). Bake until the bacon is fully cooked. These taste good hot or cold. Yummo!