Grilled Italian Chicken with Basil Butter

This dinner is so easy a caveman could do it. I'm serious. And easy works for me this time of year, or pretty much any time of year. If you time this just right, you can present this chicken to your significant other when they walk through the door and say "hey I slaved over this delicious marinated chicken all day could you please grill it?" It worked for me.

I first saw the recipe for basil butter on Paula Deen, and she made it with chicken too but she just put like pepper on the chicken and grilled it, it was pretty tasteless. So I changed the recipe for the grilled chicken, but the butter is FABULOUS and we use it often!! You'll love the butter so much you'll want it on more than your chicken, so serve with french bread. I've posted a recipe for french bread you'll swear just came fresh baked off the shelf of your local grocery store, so you can use that if you want. It's easy too, but not really for a cave man. Unless he had a way to travel through time and use an oven.

Do you live in Arizona? Please listen up: go to Lowes, buy some basil seeds and plant them in your backyard where there is a drip line and an open space/dead plant. My basil plant is seriously out of control overgrown, pretty much all year round. I crack up when I go to the store and see a little package of fresh basil for like $2.85. I also think "Man, I'm missing the boat. I could be rich!" Friends of mine, you are TOTALLY WELCOME to come get some basil so you can make this delicious easy caveman dinner! Hope to see you soon :)

Print Recipe

Grilled Italian Chicken

1 pound boneless, skinless Chicken Breasts
1/3 cup Soy Sauce
1/3 cup Italian Dressing
1 Tablespoon Sugar
4 Basil Leaves, diced


Mix together soy sauce, Italian dressing, sugar, and basil. Place your chicken breasts in a large bowl or glass dish. Poke chicken with a fork. Pour sauce over chicken and marinate in fridge for 30 minutes to several hours. Grill chicken, discard marinade.
Spread Basil Butter on warm grilled chicken and serve with french bread with more Basil Butter. Oh yum. yum. YUM.

Basil Butter~recipe from Paula Deen
1/2 cup, 1 stick Butter, softened
2 Tablespoons fresh Basil, chopped
1 Tablespoon Parmesan Cheese
1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/8 teaspoon Salt
1/8 teaspoon Pepper

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl with a fork. Serve over grilled chicken and with warm french bread.

Carrot Pineapple Cake

I usually make pie for Christmas dinner, but this year I wanted to start a new tradition of baking a cake for Jesus's birthday. My husband's favorite cake is carrot cake, but honestly I've tried different recipes over the years, and they came out dense, not very moist, and we ate some but never even finished them. But not this cake!! No sir-ee. I first heard about this cake from my friend Kathy. This cake comes from Ina Garten of the Food Network and upon reading the reviews--all 5 stars--where people talked about fights at family reunions to get a piece, I decided to attempt 1 more carrot cake. Boy was my family glad I did! This cake is amazing.

Carrot Pineapple Cake~recipe from Ina Garten

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Ingredients

For the cake:
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
3 extra-large eggs, at **room temperature** This is very important!
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 pound carrots, grated
1/2 cup diced fresh pineapple (I forgot fresh pineapple at the store and substituted 1 8 oz can of crushed pineapple, drained, with great results.)


For the frosting:
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I used 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla, I love vanilla:)
1 pound confectioners' sugar

Optional: Decorate with 1/2 cup diced fresh pineapple


Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter 2 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper**, then butter and flour the pans. This cake is very heavy and parchment paper is a must!


For the cake:
Beat the sugar, oil, and eggs together in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (if you have one, regular beaters work too) until light yellow. Add the vanilla. In another bowl, sift together 2 1/2 cups flour, the cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Toss the raisins and walnuts with 1 tablespoon flour. Fold in the carrots and pineapple. Add to the batter and mix well.

Divide the batter equally between the 2 pans. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Depending on how your oven cooks, I actually recommend checking your cakes at 45 minutes. Allow the cakes to cool completely in the pans set over a wire rack.


For the frosting:
Beat together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until just combined. Add the sugar and mix until smooth.

Place 1 layer, flat-side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top, rounded side up, and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake. Decorate with diced pineapple.

Santa Cookies/Sugar Cookies

Still need to bake cookies for Santa? Why not flatter him with these look alikes!! They are SO easy and fun to make, we make them every year along with other Christmas sugar cookies. But these are the ones we leave out for Santa, just to let him know he's awesome. I first saw these in Family Fun several years ago. They use a red gel icing, but I think it's just easier to use white frosting and color some red. I am also going to share my favorite sugar cookie recipe, I've tried others but always come back to this one. I love how they taste!


Santa Cookies:
You will need:
Sugar Cookie dough
Heart Shape Cookie Cutter (like a medium size)
White Frosting
Red Frosting (just color with red food coloring)
Mini Chocolate Chips
Mini Marshmallows
Coconut

Sugar cookie dough recipe follows, but these are so simple!! Just make sugar cookie dough and use a heart shape cut out, then turn your heart upside down. Then frost the bottom 1/3 of your cookie with white frosting and cover with coconut for Santa's beard. Then frost the top 1/3 of your cookie with red frosting. For the hat, cut a mini marshmallow down the center, and stick onto the frosting on top. Under the red frosting, put a small line of white frosting for the bottom of Santa's hat and cover with a little coconut. Then stick mini chocolate chips on with white frosting for eyes and nose. I will post the pic of one of my kids' cookies from last year, but sometimes they use big chocolate chips and red m&ms for the nose or red hots, since when we make sugar cookies I have lots of little candies out. It's all about their creativity and making fun memories together!
Here is another Santa by one of my kids last year, Santa barely left a crumb :)


And my 13 year old decided to turn Christmas stars into a make believe family of the character "Patrick" from Sponge Bob!! He cracked us up, Patrick is the one with the green diaper looking thing, his "wife" is wearing blue overalls, and their little baby is at the bottom.






Sugar Cookies: I actually got this recipe from my friend Michelle Clark years and years ago and I love it, have used it ever since.

1 cup Butter
1 cup Sugar
1 Egg
3 Tablespoons Heavy Whipping Cream (whole or 2% milk can be substituted in a pinch)
1 teaspoon Vanilla, I love Watkins!
3 cups Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt

Heat oven to 375. Bake for 7-8 minutes.

Cream together butter, sugar and egg. Add cream and vanilla. Add flour on top of wet ingredients in a mound, DON'T stir in. Add baking powder and salt on top of flour, mix into flour with a fork without mixing into wet ingredients. Once dry ingredients are stirred together, then mix flour into dough. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Roll out, don't make it too thin! In my earlier sugar cookie days I made this mistake thinking I'd get more cookies, but they were too thin to get onto my baking sheets and/or would break too easily. Also, another thing I've learned with sugar cookies is that parchment paper on your baking sheets is a MUST. You know how lots of shapes have little pieces like hands or heads or like the bottom little trunk of the tree? Well sugar cookies made on parchment paper just slide off the paper in one piece, still intact. But left on baking sheets? I've learned the hard way that's a no-no~ cookies break so easily coming off the pans. And what little 5 year old girl wants to decorate a headless angel? Not mine I tell you.

Orange Sweet Potatoes with Brown Sugar Butter Crunch

This delicious dish is a tradition for our family at both Thanksgiving and Christmas! I actually remember the first year I spent Christmas at my in-laws home and I asked if I could make these---they make it every year now too!! This recipe comes from my grandmother from Alabama, she is such a great cook, LOVE the food down there! My dad and I added the orange to it many years ago and we love it! The yummy sweet potatoes and buttery, crunchy topping taste like a dessert. In fact my husband is crazy about this dish and calls it "sweet potato pie."

Orange Sweet Potatoes with Brown Sugar Butter Crunch Topping:
3 cups Sweet Potatoes, cooked and mashed (I cook with skins on and let them cool so the peels just fall off easily)
3 Eggs
1/4 cup Butter, melted
1/4 cup Milk
1 tablespoon Vanilla
1/2 cup Sugar
1/8 teaspoon Salt
1/2 of a Fresh Orange

Topping:
1/4 cup Butter
1/4 cup Flour
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Pecans

Preheat oven to 350.
Cook and mash sweet potatoes. Place in greased 2 quart glass baking dish, an 8x8 square or round. You will mix all ingredients in there. Add eggs and "beat" in with a fork or whire whisk. Stir in melted butter, milk, vanilla, sugar and salt. Mix well. Then take your orange that has been cut in half and squeeze all the juice from the half into your sweet potatoes. Then grate the orange zest from the half of orange right into your sweet potatoes, try to use as much of the peel as you can! Mix it all together well.

Next you will mix the topping ingredients together with your fingers til crumbly, then just crumble over your sweet potatoes. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, until topping is browned, YUM!



NOTE: This will feed about 6 people, if you are serving a crowd, then double the recipe and bake in a 9x13 pan. I often double this recipe at Thanksgiving and bake in 2 dishes, then I wrap and freeze one to serve at Christmas!! It freezes and reheats perfectly and saves precious time!

Home Made Noodles

Yummy is all I can say about Home made noodles. I love these in my Chicken Noodle Soup or you can use them in Fettuccine or anything else you need noodles in. Mine are never uniform or look pretty  but they are sure good!!

Home Made Noodles

3 Eggs
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour

Mix all ingredients either by hand or in mixer until a stiff dough is made, adding more flour as needed. Then knead for about 2 minutes. Place on a floured surface and cover and let sit for 15-20 minutes (this makes the noodles more elastic). Then roll on a floured surface (or I like to use a silpat mat) as thin as you can get them. Then cut with a pizza cutter to your desired width and length. Once cut, cook in boiling water for about 3-5 minutes, then add to your soup broth or top with desired sauce.

English Toffee

So in less than 24 hours I have made 3 bathes of this stuff and we have eaten almost all of it ourselves. I am embarrassed to say that, but it is so good and so addicting!! This is a quick yummy candy that makes a great neighbor gift...if you have any left after you sample it :)


English Toffee
2 sticks of Butter (only the real stuff - that goes for all my cooking, NEVER margarine, got it)
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Put on high heat (I don't do my highest setting, but the one just below it) and stir rapidly until butter and sugar combine. Continue to stir and cook until a light brown color (think of a brown paper sack). Take off heat and stir in 1/2 tsp vanilla. Pour on silpat mat that is on a cookie sheet and using a rubber spatula spread out as thin as you can, or want. Top with grated chocolate bar or milk chocolate chips. Then spread the chocolate. Allow the chocolate to set and then break into pieces.

This is the color we are looking for to be complete

This is spread out on topped with the chocolate, the heat of the toffee melts the chocolate

Spread the goodness all around!

Best Chicken Noodle Soup Ever

So this picture is not pretty, but TRUST me when I say that this is the best home made chicken noodle soup you will ever eat in your life! My sister Heidi gave me this recipe years ago and it is a hit to all those who taste it! To make this soup even better, make home made noodles to go in it as well. Yummy!!  But here is a perfect soup for those snowy days...the one's we don't get here in AZ.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Print Recipe

2 chicken breasts

8-9 cups of chicken broth (or 9 cups of water plus 9 tsp of chicken bullion)

1 stick of butter (8 Tbls)

1/3 cup flour

3 carrots, chopped

3 stalks of celery, chopped

1 can cream of chicken soup

Noodles

Cook chicken in broth for about 30 minutes over Med-High heat. Remove the chicken and cut into cubes. In a separate pan melt butter and then add flour. Cook for a few minutes to make a rue, and then slowly pour that mixture into the chicken broth. Add the cream of chicken soup, carrots, celery, and chicken in the broth. Add Salt and Pepper to taste. Simmer until carrots and celery are cooked (or about 15 minutes before you are ready to serve). Then boil noodles (in a separate pan), drain, and add to the soup mixture.
This can be served over mashed potatoes or as plain soup

Lion House Rolls

So my 15th wedding anniversary is in just over a week! And these rolls have special significance since we had our wedding reception at the Lion House and they served them there! Here is a pic I found of the Lion House in Salt Lake City Utah where we had our wedding dinner/reception and where they make and serve these famous rolls: I know, you're thinking "awww, how sweet!" But isn't it so charming?

I have tried several roll recipes, but these are our family's favorites by far. Also, just to note, these turn out AWESOME with Jessica's orange roll recipe, which HINT HINT she totally needs to post! These are guaranteed to get rave reviews at your Christmas dinner!!


Ummm....just need to say that I think the original Lion House roll recipe may have been changed because I have seen these rolls on several blogs and have double checked with my Lion House cookbook I bought while still in college, and the recipe on the blogs is NOT the same one as the one in the First Edition Lion House Cookbook. The amounts of sugar and salt vary slightly. The newer version calls for 1/4 cup sugar and only 2 teaspoons salt. I actually like the amount of sugar in the original recipe which follows, especially with ham sandwiches after Christmas and turkey sandwiches after Thanksgiving, YUM!! Anyhow...this is the recipe I have successfully made over the years....here is the real deal from the original Lion House cookbook~

Lion House Rolls: Makes 2 dozen rolls

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2 cups warm Water (110 to 115 degrees)
2 tablespoons Yeast
2/3 cup Nonfat Dry Milk (instant or non-instant)
1/3 cup Sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons Salt
1/3 cup Butter, Shortening, or Margarine
1 egg
5 to 5 ½ cups All-Purpose Flour, or Bread Flour

Extra butter for spreading on dough and finished rolls


In large bowl or electric mixer, combine water and yeast. Let stand 5 minutes while you gather your other ingredients. Add sugar, salt, butter, dry milk, 2 cups flour, and egg. Beat til very smooth, and add 2 more cups flour, beat til smooth again. Add 1 more cup flour, 1/2 cup at a time. (Dough will be getting stiff and remaining flour may need to be mixed in by hand). Dough should be soft, not overly sticky, and not stiff (It is not necessary to use the entire amount of flour). Turn dough onto lightly floured board and knead til smooth and satiny. NOTE, I just finish this process by continuing to mix in my bosch for about 2 more minutes.
Spread a little vegetable oil over top of dough, cover lightly with plastic wrap or a towel and let rise til double in size.

Scrape dough out onto floured board. I use a silicone mat, no extra flour/mess required! Divide dough in half. Roll each portion out into a large circle, about 1/4 inches thick and brush with melted butter. Cut like a pizza.
Then roll up from bigger end like this.
Place rolls on greased baking sheets.
Cover lightly with plastic wrap or a towel and allow to rise until double in size, about 1 to 1 ½ hours. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 18 minutes, or until light to medium golden brown. Brush tops of rolls with melted butter.

Helpful Tips for Making Rolls

Always add flour gradually and keep dough as soft as you can handle. A soft dough will produce a lighter roll.

It is not necessary to use the entire amount of flour called for in the recipe—add only enough flour to make dough manageable.

To shorten dough's rising time, use one of these methods:

1) When dough is thoroughly mixed, oil bowl and cover dough with plastic wrap. Fill sink or larger bowl with about 2 inches of hot water or enough water to come about half or three-fourths the way up outside the dough bowl. Place bowl of dough in bowl of water and allow to rise until double in size.

2) Just before mixing dough, turn oven on lowest possible temperature. Place a pan of hot water on bottom oven rack. When dough is thoroughly mixed, place in oiled bowl. Cover dough with plastic wrap; place in oven. Turn oven off, shut oven door, and allow dough to rise until double in size. Shape or cut into desired rolls. Place rolls on greased or parchment-lined pans and allow to rise until double in size. Bake according to recipe.

Ginger Spice Cookies

I LOVE the Food Network, and my favorite chef from there is Paula Deen. My dad comes from Alabama and I have been going there since I was a little girl to visit my grandma. She is still alive at age 95, but unfortunately had a bad fall recently and now lives with my uncle in Florida. So anyway, now I'm not sure when I'll get back but.....................I love the South, the friendly people, the cooking, and mostly my grandma and relatives there. And I have to tell you that Paula TOTALLY reminds me of my grandma's sister Betty. My aunt Betty looks like Paula Deen and talks just like her!! So I love watching Paula, and of course making her recipes. Here is one of my favorites from her that I make at Christmastime!! Enjoy, these are SO delicious!!

Ginger Spice Cookies~ Recipe from Paula Deen

Print Recipe

Ingredients:
3/4 cup Butter Flavor Shortening
1 cup Sugar, plus more for rolling
1 Egg
1/4 cup Molasses
2 cups sifted All-Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground Cloves
1/2 teaspoon Salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.


Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Using an electric mixer at low speed, cream the shortening and sugar until thoroughly combined. Add the egg and molasses and beat until completely incorporated. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt and add to the mixture. Stir until combined. Roll the dough into balls about 1-inch in diameter. Roll the balls in sugar. Place 1/2-inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Flatten the balls slightly with your fingertips. Bake for 12 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Chocolate Chip Scones with Vanilla Spiced Butter

Looking for a delicious, easy breakfast to serve all that company coming into town for Christmas? These scones are sure to impress, and they're SO easy to make! I am going to share the recipe for these, 2 ways. One is to make them with half and half, the other is to make them with flavored coffee creamer, they are both scrumptious!

Chocolate Chip Scones with Vanilla Spiced Butter

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Scones:
4 cups all purpose Flour
1/3 cup Sugar (+ a little more for sprinkling)
4 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
3/4 cup cold Butter~ no substitutes!
1 Egg, separated
2 teaspoons Vanilla **
1 1/2 cups Half and Half OR refrigerated flavored Coffee Creamer. I have used both French Vanilla and Hazelnut with delicious results!! **If using flavored creamer, omit vanilla.**
1 1/2 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

In a bowl, combine first 5 ingredients. Cut in cold butter til crumbly. Separate your egg and place the yolk in a bowl. Save egg white for later. Whisk with half and half cream and vanilla or non dairy creamer. Stir cream mixture into dry ingredients til moistened. Stir in the chocolate chips. Turn onto floured surface, knead 10 times. I use a generic silicone mat (like a silpat but cheaper!) so I don't need flour, I love mine and highly recommend it, I use it all the time. Divide your dough in half. Pat each portion into a 7 inch circle, then brush with egg white and sprinkle some sugar over the top.

Cut each circle into into 8 triangles. Place all 16 scones on a 15x10 sheet cake pan sprayed with non stick cooking spray. I kind of stagger mine to make them fit on one pan.
Bake at 425 for 15-18 minutes, until tops are just starting to brown in a few spots. While your scones are baking, make vanilla spiced butter.

Vanilla Spiced Butter:
1/2 cup Butter, softened
3 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Vanilla

In a small bowl, combine above ingredients. Serve scones warm with spiced butter.

Won Tons

This is one of our extended family favorite things to make if we are making home made Chinese food or if we need an appetizer. They are awesome. Although they are a little time consuming, they are not hard at all, and they are worth the work and the smelly house from deep frying. When we made these on Sunday, we invited our neighbors to come try them, they sat and ate an entire plate full. They loved them. We like to serve them with sweet and sour sauce, or I bet they would be great with Amy's dipping sauce.

All of the ingredients in a bowl

Put about a Tablespoon or so of the filling in the middle of the paper.

Wet two of the edges.

Press to seal. They are now ready for deep frying!

The end result! They won't last long!

Won Ton's

Won ton Papers (Square, sold in the produce section)
1 pound ground sausage
1 egg
1 (4 oz) can water chestnuts, finely chopped
¾ cup celery, finely chopped
3 green onions, finely chopped

Brown sausage, drain fat. Put into a bowl and add remaining ingredients. Mix together and put approx. 1 heaping Tablespoon of filling in the center of the won ton paper (you don’t want them to be so full that you can’t close the paper or that the filling falls out while deep frying, but you don’t want it so empty that you can’t taste the filling.) dip your finger into a bowl of water and lightly wet two side edges of the square and fold the paper over the filling (bring the dry edges over to the wet edges) so it forms a triangle and the dry edges touch the wet edges. Press to seal (make sure they are sealed so the filling does not fall out during the frying process). Continue until all the filling is gone. Deep fry in vegetable oil until nice and brown. Do not over crowd the oil, you will have to do a few frying batches, Best served hot.

Gingered Honey-Orange Salmon

**Or if you don't like fish, use this marinade on Chicken or Steak!! I have a confession to make: I broke one of the 10 commandments the other night when I served this for dinner. While the rest of my family was chowing down and saying "this is SO good mom!", one of my 4 year old twin boys was looking at his salmon, trying to decide if he would eat it. Then he looked up and asked "Is this chicken?" Hmmm..I thought for a moment and decided that since this marinade COULD be used with chicken, it was kind of LIKE chicken. So I smiled and enthusiastically said "Kind of!!" And then he ate it! And yes, I kind of lied. But now he has adequate protein running through his little active toddler self. This is really yummy!

Gingered Honey-Orange Salmon

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1/3 cup Orange Juice, fresh squeezed or ready made
1/3 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Honey
1 Green Onion, chopped
1 heaping Tablespoon Fresh Ginger,roughly chopped
2 cloves Garlic, peeled
1 1/2 pounds Salmon or other meat

First of all if you don't normally buy fresh ginger, it is so worth buying! And if you're in the store looking at that big brown blob thinking "I won't ever use all of that", then I have a tip for you! Just bring the brown blob home, peel the whole thing, use what you need for this recipe, and then freeze the rest! Just wrap in seran wrap and place in a ziploc sandwich bag, just make sure to peel first! It is actually easier to grate once frozen and you can use it again in another delicious recipe I will be posting soon!
Ok so for the marinade, just toss all above ingredients in your blender and mix together. Reserve 1/3 cup marinade for serving. Place salmon in a shallow glass container or resealable plastic bag and coat with marinade. Marinate 30 minutes-2 hours in fridge, turning once or twice.

We loved grilled fish but find that it can flake and fall through the grill, so now I always use this no-fail trick. **Before heating your grill** place a sheet of tin foil on grill and spray it with non stick spray.


Then heat grill to medium/medium-hot and place fish on foil, skin side down if it has skin. Pour a little of the marinade the fish was in over salmon. Cover and grill for 5 minutes, check. Grill 10-15 minutes longer or til fish flakes easily with a fork. I turn salmon once when grilling if it is skinless, but the skin on kind I just cook skin side down til done. When ready to serve, heat reserved marinade and place a spoonful over each serving of fish.

Chicken Veggie Tortilla Soup

I love soup, I love Mexican food, I love vegetables--so I created this chicken tortilla soup a few years ago and I love making and eating it! I honestly like it better than the $6 a bowl chicken tortilla soup the Mexican restaurants serve, because they kind of skimp on vegetables, etc.

Chicken Veggie Tortilla Soup
Print Recipe

1 1/2- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts cut into bite size pieces(I prefer thighs, but use breasts when I don't have them on hand)
1 Onion, chopped
5 cups Water
5 teaspoons Chicken Bouillon Powder or 5 Chicken Bouillon Cubes
2 Tablespoons Butter
1 Red Pepper, chopped
1 Green Pepper, chopped
2 cloves Garlic, chopped/minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 Zucchinis, sliced
1 14 oz. can Tomatoes w/Jalapenos or Green Chilies
1 14 oz. can sliced Stewed Tomatoes (if you like spicier dishes, you can use both cans with jalapenos or green chilies)
1 cup Cilantro, chopped
2 cups Frozen Corn
2 teaspoons Cumin
3 Tablespoons Fresh Lime Juice

Tortilla Chips, Sour Cream, Shredded Cheese, Cilantro, and Avocado for garnish

Place onion and chicken in a large saucepan with water and chicken bouillon. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer til chicken cooks through. While you are cooking chicken, melt butter in a large skillet.

Add red & green pepper, zucchini, and garlic. Sprinkle with kosher salt. Cook veggies til they are softened but not mushy. Add vegetables to saucepan with cooked chicken. Immediately add tomatoes, cilantro, frozen corn, cumin and lime juice. Heat through. Serve in bowls topped with chips, sour cream, cheese, avocado and cilantro. You can even squirt a tiny bit of extra lime juice on your bowl if you really like limes like I do! Enjoy!

NOTE: If you live in Arizona and can't find the produce for this soup on sale that week, you can go to a 99 Cent Only store if you live near one! A bit scary I know, but I've never gotten bad produce there! They sell zucchinis 3 for $1, a huge bag of cilantro for $1, packages of 2-3 red and green peppers for $1, and they even have carrots and grated carrots, etc. I use the extra cilantro to make salsa and taco salad.

Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes

I can usually pass pancakes up for breakfast and just grab a yogurt and some fruit, but not when I make these! No, when I make these I pull up a chair and chow down with my kiddos! They are so good! Don't even think about eating these without some whipped cream!

**I have updated this recipe to make these pancakes easier to flip/work with~

Print Recipe

Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes
1 cup old fashioned Oats
1 cup + 1 1/2 Tablespoons Flour
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup Chocolate Chips
1/2 cup Coconut
1/4 cup chopped Nuts, optional
3/4 cup Sour Cream
3/4 cup Whole or 2% milk
2 Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1/4 cup Butter, melted

Whipped Cream and Syrup for Serving!!

In a large microwave bowl, melt butter in microwave. Add eggs and beat with a whire whisk. Add vanilla, sour cream, and milk. Add brown sugar and stir. Add oats and flour on top, don't stir! Then add baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon, and stir into flour mixture with a fork. Then mix all into the wet ingredients. Add chocolate chips and nuts and coconut if using. Stir well. Cook on heated griddle sprayed with cooking spray or spread with butter.

Please NOTE: 1st of all, this is a really heavy batter. So I quickly learned; trying to pour it out of a measuring cup I ended up with a huge blob because it came out too fast. So instead I take a 1/4 or 1/3 cup measuring cup and scoop out individual pancakes that way. Just fill it up as big as you want your pancakes. Also this pancake batter browns and can burn quickly so you have to reduce the temperature you normally cook pancakes at. So for example I usually cook pancakes on my griddle at like 350, but for these I cook them at around 250-300. They may take a couple of minutes more, but they brown much better and more evenly that way.Yumarama!

Caramel Apple Cider

I found this recipe in a Family Fun magazine years ago and I LOVE it! It is my favorite warm drink. I look forward to cooler weather each year just so I can make this recipe!

 

Caramel Apple Cider

Cider

¼ cup heavy cream

¼ cup brown sugar

3 cups apple cider

½ cup water

Caramel Whipped Cream

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 Tbls brown sugar

First, bring the cream and brown sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the cider and the water and raise the heat to medium high, heating just until the cider begins to steam, about 4 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, make the Caramel Whipped Cream by whipping the ½ cup heavy cream and 1 TBLS brown sugar until soft peaks form. Pour Cider in mugs and top with whipped cream and enjoy!

Cheese Ball

This cheese ball recipe comes from my husband's cousin Tyler. It has become my favorite cheese ball and my go to recipe when I need to take an appetizer to a get together. The first time I had it I was not to sure if I liked it, but kept having to take more and more bites of it, just to make sure. My my third or fourth bite, I was loving it! As a side note, I made this last night for my husband's work party, as we were headed out the door and my 4 year old puked everywhere, so my husband had to go alone, he and the cheese ball made a great date!

Cheese Ball

2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese
1 small can crushed pineapple (well drained)
½ package Lipton Onion Soup mix (approx 2 1/2 Tbls)
½ cup chopped green pepper

Mix all together and roll into ball. Roll ball in ½ cup chopped pecans. Chill until firm. Serve with crackers.

Cherry Lime Slush Punch

This has become our family's favorite party punch for birthdays, holidays, and get togethers with friends. My kids' friends love this stuff and have asked their moms to make it! :) So easy, for Thanksgiving my kids froze/did it for me the day before Turkey day while I was baking a cheesecake! I created this recipe because we love cherry limeade.

Cherry Lime Slush Punch
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1 gallon Minute Maid Cherry Limeade (I usually just buy 2 in the half gallon containers)
2 Liter Bottle Cherry Crush Soda (1)
1/2 cup Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice
Sliced Limes

Freeze Cherry Limeade in a gallon ziploc bag overnight. A few hours before you are going to serve, take out of freezer and place bag in punch bowl. When you are almost ready to serve, pour cherry crush and fresh lime juice over frozen limeade, stir and use something sharp, like a large kitchen fork to break up ice chunks. Slice a fresh lime and float on top for garnish.

Microwave Pralines

These are SO easy and SO good! So once I was watching that hot chef guy with the wavy blonde hair(he's almost as cute as my husband) from Australia who meets you in the supermarket and comes home with you and cooks you and your family a delicious meal. And he was making carmelized pecans and just put sugar on the stove and melted it and threw nuts in and made it look so effortless! So I'm like "oh yeah chef baby, I can do that!" Um......I guess not. Didn't quite work out. So I experiemented some and came up with this recipe, it turns out perfect every time, no disasters! And the nuts actually get toasty in the microwave. You can use any nuts you want with this, I usually use pecans but sometimes I use walnuts for salads. These are so delicious on top of holiday pies! The pics I will post show me making more than 1 cup, because I was making extra for Thanksgiving.

Microwave Pralines
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4 Tablespoons Butter
4 Tablespoons Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Vanilla
1/8 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 cup Nuts

In a microwave-safe GLASS or ceramic type dish, melt butter. (The temp on these gets pretty hot, if you use plastic of any kind it will melt. Just trust me.:(
Add sugar and stir in.
Then stir in vanilla and cinnamon. Add nuts, stir again. Cover and place in microwave, cook on high for 1 minute. Take out and stir. You can see here that your nuts will be starting to toast and mixture will be wet still, like corn syrup.
Put back in microwave for 1 minute on high. Take out, and stir again. Your nuts will be almost done and getting toasted! Put back in for 30 seconds on high. You should see clumps of sugar, which will set up as your nuts sit for a few minutes. These are delicious just to eat, I have to hide them from my nut-crazy husband if I'm using them in a recipe!
**NOTES: My microwave is on the high-watt end, and cooks quickly. Yours may take an extra 30 seconds or so, just watch them at the end so you don't fry them. Also, like I said in the beginning of my post I sometimes double this recipe. When you do, just increase cooking time. For example, with 2 cups I will cook them for 2 minutes first, then stir. Then 1 minute. Then about 30 seconds more, with maybe 1 more 30 second interval. You are looking for your nuts to be toasty and for the sugar to be clumping up and hardening some, it will finish setting up on the counter when you are done.

Perfect, No-Fail Brown Rice

Several years ago my brother in law and his family were visiting and I was complaining to him that I loved brown rice, but could never ever get it to turn out. That's when he told me he had seen on Food Network....yes my husband's brother watches Food Network...cool, huh? (My husband doesn't know anything beyond Sports Center exists)...Anyway, he said he saw Alton Brown BAKE it. I was like "Really? In the oven? How weird!" But I looked it up and sure enough, all my brown rice problems were solved! Love love love this recipe! So awesome, always turns out perfect. Below is the recipe from Alton Brown, and following it I've included my recipe that I 1 and 1/2 (1 and 1 halved) to feed my family of 8.

Baked Brown Rice, Alton Brown
serves 4
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1 1/2 cups brown rice, medium or short grain
2 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt (or I sometimes use chicken bouillon powder)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375.

Place the rice into an 8-inch square glass baking dish.

Bring the water, butter, and salt just to a boil in a saucepan. Once the water boils, pour it over the rice, stir to combine, and cover the dish tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, remove cover and fluff the rice with a fork. Serve immediately.

I kind of 1 and a halved the recipe to feed my family of 8. Directions are the same, except I bake it in an 8x11 glass dish.
2 cups Brown Rice
3 1/2 cups Water
1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher Salt
1 1//2 Tablespoons Butter

Shrimp Potstickers with Soy Ginger Dipping Sauce

Is your family sick of turkey and mashed potatoes and turkey sandwiches and turkey and stuffing casserole and on and on and on???? Well so is mine and so when I announced tonight that we were having Chinese food, my kids exclaimed "YAY MOM!!" This is one of our favorite things to make and eat with Asian meals. I first saw this recipe in a Taste of Home Magazine, but I didn't like the dipping sauce so I created this one instead, which is just so so good!

Shrimp Potstickers with Soy Ginger Dipping Sauce
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First make the Sauce:


1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Rice Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Sugar
2 teaspoons fresh grated Ginger Root
1/2 teaspoon Sesame Oil
1 teaspoon Thai Sweet Chili Sauce- if you don't have this then use 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes.

Mix all together, refrigerate while making potstickers.

Potstickers:
Note:I am doubling the original recipe because we love these SO much that 24 wasn't enough! And honestly, I just want to use the whole container of wonton wrappers once I buy it so this uses the whole package.


1 pound uncooked Shrimp, peeled and deveined *(if you're not a fish person, you can substitute pork.)
2 Eggs, Beaten
1/2 cup Green Onions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
8 Tablespoons Canola Oil
1 package, about 56--round or square wonton wrappers. I like using round, but sometimes I only find the square ones.


In a mixing bowl, beat eggs. Add onions, salt, and pepper. In a food processor or blender, pulse shrimp til ground. Add shrimp to egg mixture and stir with a wire whisk til well combined. Place 1 level teaspoon shrimp mixture onto each wonton wrapper.

Brush edges with water and fold; if using sqare into a triangle, if using round into a half moon. Seal. This process of assembling the potstickers goes much quicker if you have some help. Isn't my assistant happy and wonderful?

In a large skillet, heat 2 Tablespoons oil over medium-high heat. Add 12 dumplings and cook for 2 minutes. Add 1/4 cup water, cover and let steam for 3-4 minutes. Repeat with remaining dumplings. Serve with dipping sauce. NOTE: you may be wondering if you turn the dumplings during cooking and the answer is "no", they come out with one side browned, the other steamed-looking. The only time I turn them is when I notice they over-browned in the first part of cooking, but I usually don't! That's more work!
Enjoy these while they last, they go quickly in my home!!