Secret Ingredient Tater Tot Casserole

Ok, ok I know this is pretty hilarious, posting a tater tot casserole in a food blog. And saying that it has a secret ingredient. I also realize that if any of our 10 readers are foodies, we're really in trouble because that will bring our numbers down to 9. But I will accept the consequences of posting about Napoleon Dynamite's favorite food. And I promise, I'm not even from Idaho. Or close. Although Idaho is beautiful. In the summer. But (some of) the hairstyles are scary.
Back to my point post.  I have been making this casserole since I was first married. And one night I thought "hmmm...since this tastes so good with ketchup, why not substitute half the milk called for with ketchup?" So I did!! And I could tell, just tasting the soup mixture with the ketchup, that this was a winner. Seriously! My secret ingredient is ketchup. This is the only casserole my kids will eat, even my picky 4 year old twins. It's really good, really easy, and totally kid proof. Even husband proof. My husband and I used to eat this even before we had kids. So there you have it. Tater tot casserole in a food blog, who knew?

Secret Ingredient Tater Tot Casserole
Print Recipe
 Makes about 6-8 servings

Ingredients:
1 pound Ground Beef
1 Tablespoon Dried Minced Onion
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/8-1/4  teaspoon Pepper
1 10 oz. can Cream of Chicken Soup
1/3 cup Milk
1/3 cup Ketchup
1 15 oz. can Yellow Corn, drained
1 32 oz. Bag Tater Tots (you will use roughly 2/3 of the bag)

Preheat oven to 400. Place ground beef in a skillet over the stove. Sprinkle with minced onion, salt, and pepper. Cook over heat until no longer pink. While meat is browning, spray a glass 8 x 11 (2 quart) dish generously with cooking spray. Place cream of chicken soup, milk, and ketchup right into the dish and stir til mixed together well. Add drained corn and stir. Add browned beef mixture and stir again. Place tater tots over casserole until completely covered. Like I said, you will probably use a little over half of the bag. Bake, uncovered, until tater tots have browned and casserole is bubbling, about 30 minutes. Serve with extra ketchup if desired! (we always desire this.)

Recipe Source: http://www.ourcookingcafe.com/

Hot Fudge Sauce

The weekend is finally here! It's time to relax and enjoy a yummy treat. But the weather is warming up and the week was crazy and you don't feel like baking, right? Gotcha. Why not buy some ice cream at the grocery store and whip up some homemade hot fudge sauce? That's what I did for mother's day. My husband grilled steak, and for dessert, we had Blue Bell Cookies & Cream ice cream with this sauce. It was pure, creamy, chocolate bliss. This hot fudge can also be used as a fondue; the next day my kids dipped strawberries and pretzels in it as an after school snack--yum. 

Hot Fudge Sauce

Print Recipe

1/4 cup Butter

1/2 cup Sugar

2/3 cup Evaporated Milk

3/4 cup Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

1 teaspoon Vanilla

In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in sugar and evaporated milk and bring to a boil. Cook and stir for about 6 minutes at a low rolling boil. Reduce heat to low, stir in chocolate chips and vanilla. Stir for about a minute or two longer, remove from heat. Sauce will thicken as it stands. Serve warm over ice cream, brownies, cake, or as a dipping sauce with fruit and pretzels.

Recipe Source: http://www.ourcookingcafe.com/

Oven Baked Macaroni and Cheese

This is my kind of meal!! Delicious, simple ingredients, family-friendly, and economical. I have always wanted a great baked mac-n-cheese recipe, and when I saw this in a magazine it looked so good I knew I had to try it. I was surprised at just how yummy it was! My husband and kids gobbled it up and asked me to make it again soon, a request I will very happily fulfill.
The recipe didn't call for ham, but I had some that I froze from Easter. It was awesome with the yummy baked cheese and other flavors, but it's optional. If you have bacon on hand, it would be a great addition as well, but not necessary.

Oven Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Print Recipe

12 oz. Elbow Macaroni
2 Tablespoons Dijon or Spicy Brown Mustard
1 1/4 cup Sour Cream, divided
1 small Onion, chopped ,
8 oz.  (2 cups) Cheddar and/or Smoked Provolone Cheese, divided (1 used 1 cup cheddar, 1 cup smoked provolone)
1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
1 1/2 cups Chopped Ham or 1/2 cup Bacon Bits (optional)

Cook macaroni pasta for half the time recommended on package. I think I cooked mine for 5 minutes. Drain. While cooking, preheat oven to 400. Spray a 9x13 pan generously with cooking spray. Place 1 cup sour cream in pan, mix with dijon mustard. Stir in the onion, salt and pepper. Add the drained macaroni and stir to coat. Stir in 1 cup of cheese and the ham or bacon if using.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, until starting to brown. Remove from oven and stir in remaining 1/4 cup sour cream and 1 more cup of cheese. Return to oven and bake about 20 mintues more, until nicely browned. Yum! Hope you love it as much as we did!!

Recipe Source: Adapted from Woman's Day Magazine

Grasshopper Fudge Cake

Wow, have I got a treat for you!! I'm seriously drooling just thinking about it. A couple weeks ago I was thinking about what kind of cake to make for Easter. I was really craving chocolate, but that didn't sound so pastel-y or Easter-y. So I remembered my favorite mint frosting and thought, "What if I put that on a chocolate cake? That's pastel, it works, right?" Next thing I knew I was at Walmart buying the ingredients and this cake was born. And let me tell you, it has won a permanent place in my heart and our family's treat menu. It is SOOOO good! I couldn't even believe how yummy it turned out, seriously. I started out with a cake mix to make it easy, and made it into 3 layers. Then I topped each round cake with fudge and a generous layer of creamy mint frosting. What I love about this mint frosting is that the mint flavoring in it isn't too overpowering, it's just right. To top it all off I crushed some chocolate mint cookies, much like the ones the cute girl scouts sell. But since girl scout season is over, I found a Walmart brand that worked awesome. The result, wow. Let's just say this, I ate it for breakfast every morning til our family finished it off. No joke, I was thinking about this cake as soon as I woke up. Pretty sure since it had milk in it and lots of chocolate, the calcium and antioxidant levels were super high, making this the healthiest breakfast ever. Please, if you make this and live close by, remember how nice it is to share!!

Grasshopper Fudge Cake
Print Recipe

Cake :
1 package Devil's Food or Triple Chocolate Cake mix
Make cake according to package directions, substituting Milk for the water called for in the recipe. Bake in three 8 inch cake pans til done, ( a toothpick comes out clean), at 350. Start checking cakes for doneness at around 17-18 minutes. Cool cakes in pans for 10 minutes then invert cakes and cool completely on cooling racks. Tip: it is much easier to frost cakes if you wrap them in seran wrap and freeze them for a while.

Chocolate Fudge:
1 cup semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
1/4 teaspoon Peppermint Extract

Place chocolate chips in a bowl. Bring whipping cream to a boil in a sauce pan, then pour over chocolate chips. Let sit for 2 minutes and then stir. Stir in peppermint extract.

Creamy Mint Frosting:
1 cup Butter
4 Tablespoons Shortening
4 Tablespoons Corn Syrup
1 Tablespoon Vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons Peppermint Extract
2 pounds (a 32 oz. bag) Powdered Sugar
a few drops of Green Food Coloring
1/4 teaspoon Salt
Milk and/or Whipping Cream to dampen

Beat together butter, shortening, and corn syrup. Add in vanilla and peppermint flavoring. Beat in powdered sugar. Stir in salt. Add green food coloring. Add enough milk and/or whipping cream to make frosting a spreadable consistency, probably at least 3 tablespoons.

For Garnish: Chocolate Mint cookies, either mint oreos or a girl scout thin-mint knock off

To Assemble Cake:
Spread a cake layer with 1/3 of the chocolate fudge. Place in freezer or fridge for a few minutes to set. Once it's set, spread with a thick layer of mint frosting. Repeat with next chocolate cake layer. Then take the third chocolate cake layer and spread with remaining chocolate fudge, and set in fridge or freezer. Your cake will look like this:

Are you hungry yet? I am. Next you will spread entire cake with the remaining mint frosting. Then crush up some chocolate mint cookies and put on top.


Next, serve yourself a slice of creamy, fudgey, minty heaven. And once everyone leaves for school, be sure and snag some for a delicious yet (hopefully) nutritious breakfast.


 Recipe Source: http://www.ourcookingcafe.com/

Chicken Alfredo

This delicious dish is definitely a family favorite!! My 4 year old twins sometimes shun tomato-based spaghetti sauce, but when I serve this, they each eat like 2-3 helpings, no joke!! So when it seems they are on the brink of a complete malnutrition meltdown due to picky-eating-itis, I make this for dinner. It's super easy and quick to put together, even on a busy weeknight. I usually double the sauce and freeze half of it for another dinner. I got the alfredo sauce recipe from my friend Penny Hager, she is a cooking wonder woman. Coincidentally, the breadstick you see in the photo above is from her too, and is SO yummy when dipped in this creamy sauce!!

Chicken Alfredo

Print Recipe 

Sauce:

1/2 cup Butter

2-3 cloves Garlic, minced

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup

1 cup Parmesan Cheese

2 cups Whole Milk or Evaporated Milk or Half and Half (I usually buy a little 16 oz. container of half and half at the 99 cent store)

a few Parsley Flakes or a few Tablespoons of fresh chopped Parsley, optional

Melt butter, saute garlic. Add chicken soup, whole milk or half and half, and parsley. Stir over medium/low heat until it starts to thicken, and then add the parmesan cheese. Cook and stir a few minutes longer.

Chicken:

To make this easy, I usually use chicken tenderloins. My rule of thumb for this is I use 1 tenderloin per person eating dinner that night.  You could marinate your chicken in Italian dressing and grill or broil it.

But here I just sprinkled my plain chicken with some garlic salt and pepper, heated some olive oil in a pan, and sauteed it,

Flipping it when browned.  

Cook pasta of your choice according to package directions, then top each serving with alfredo sauce and a chicken tenderloin. Voila!! Dinner is served.

White Chocolate Toffee Cookies

 A few weeks ago when we rented "Cool Runnings" from Netflix (totally LOVE their live streaming/mail you movies service!!), I made these cookies for a treat and OH BOY were they delicious!! My family went nutso over them. White chocolate and toffee are a match made in heaven. The secret to these cookies is slowly baking them at a lower temperature to give them that irresistible fresh-from-the bakery taste.

White Chocolate Toffee Cookies

Print Recipe

Makes about 20-24 cookies, goes without saying I always double this for my family of 8!

1/2 cup Butter, softened

1 cup Brown Sugar

1 Egg

1 Tablespoon Milk

1 teaspoon Vanilla (most of you already know I LOVE the Watkins brand!)

1 1/2 cups Flour

2 teaspoons Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 cup White Chocolate Chips

3/4 cup Toffee Bits

1/2 cup toasted Coconut, optional

Cream together the butter and sugar. Then add the egg, milk, and vanilla and blend again. Add the flour on top of this mixture and DON'T stir it in. Then add the baking soda, baking powder, and salt right on top of the flour. Grab a fork and gently blend the dry mixture while it sits on the wet, then blend all together. Stir in the white chocolate chips, toffee bits, and coconut if using. Refrigerate dough for 30-60 minutes. 

Preheat your oven to 300. Scoop out 2 Tablespoon-Balls of dough and place on cookie sheets. I use a pampered chef cookie scoop that is the perfect size for this--I think it's the medium one--love it!! Bake for 12-14 minutes, cookies should appear slightly browned but undercooked. These cookies can get a bit puffy, so I flatten them slightly with the bottom of a cup when they come out of the oven if needed. Yum!!

Recipe Source: Adapted from "Even More Top Secret Recipes" by Todd Wilbur

Orange Chicken

As I've said before, our family loves eating out and one of our favorite fast food meals is Panda Express or the Rice Garden restaurant inside of Basha's. Even though it's great to eat out, it can get expensive!! So I decided to tackle learning how to make a family favorite; Orange Chicken. I'm sooooo glad I did! This is easy to prepare, don't get intimidated by all the steps. Once you've made and tasted this, you may never go back to Panda Express again! The sauce on this is to die for good, made with fresh fruits and ginger. I taught an Asian cooking class at church last week and made this and everyone loved it, I know you will too!! We love serving this with cooked vegetables like snow peas, broccoli, or green beans and putting some of the yummy sauce over those too.

Orange Chicken

Print Recipe

Sauce:

2  cups Water

2 teaspoon Chicken Bullion Powder

4 Tablespoons Orange Juice

1/2 cup Lemon Juice

2/3 cup Rice Vinegar

1/3 cup Soy Sauce

4 Tablespoons Orange Zest (peel)

2 cups Brown Sugar

2 Tablespoons fresh Ginger Root

1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder

4 Tablespoons Green Onion

1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

To thicken later:

4 Tablespoons cornstarch

3 Tablespoons Water

Chicken

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, chopped into bite-sized pieces

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1/4 teaspoon Pepper

1/2 cup Cornstarch

1/4 cup Flour

Olive oil for frying (3-6 Tablespoons)

In a sauce pan, stir all the ingredients together EXCEPT the cornstarch and water under "thicken later." Stir and cook over medium heat til combined for about 2-3 minutes and then bring to a boil. Remove from heat and cool for about 10-15 minutes.

Place the chicken breasts in a Ziploc bag. Remove exactly 1 cup of the sauce and coat chicken. Place chicken in fridge for at least 2 hours.

In another Ziploc bag, stir together the 1/2 cup cornstarch, flour, salt and pepper. Add the marinated chicken pieces, seal the bag, and shake to coat. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. You can do this in 2 batches. Add the chicken

and brown on both sides.

You can see here that I turned the chicken when it was getting nice and toasty brown. It should take about 3 minutes on each side.

Remove to a plate, you can line with paper towels to drain if you want to. Cover with foil.

Wipe out your skillet and place the orange sauce in there. Stir together the 4 Tablespoons cornstarch and water and stir into your sauce to thicken. Heat over medium high heat to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low. Add the chicken pieces and, if using, you can also add cooked veggies and stir for about 5 minutes to coat. Serve over rice!!

Recipe Source: Adapted from allrecipes.com and Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur