Chicken Florentine

Another yummy recipe from Brittsapron!  This one is so good...it tastes like it's from a really good Italian restaurant.

Spinach and mushrooms on the bottom

The creamy sauce.  I hadn't added the sun dried tomatoes yet.  It smelled amazing!

Ready to cook!

Added the mozzarella cheese

All done!

Served over fettuccine with home made bread and asparagus spears.  The chicken was so tender.

Ingredients:

2 (13.5 ounce) cans spinach, drained (you can also use fresh spinach)
4 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced

1/4 cup butter

3 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1/2 cup half-and-half
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Sun dried Tomatoes, sliced up

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, raw (I just use 8-10 chicken tenderloins)

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

 

Directions:

 

Preheat oven to 350.
Saute the mushrooms and spinach in a little butter. Place in the bottom of the 9x9 pan.
Melt 1/4 cup butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stirring constantly, mix in the garlic, lemon juice, cream of mushroom soup, Italian seasoning, sun dried tomatoes, half-and-half, and Parmesan cheese.
Pour some of the mixture over the spinach & mushrooms, place the raw chicken on top, and then pour the rest of the mixture over the chicken. Top with bacon.

Place in oven for 30 minutes, top with mozzarella cheese and bake for another 10 minutes.
Serve over your favorite pasta. (I like to serve it with fettuccine)

Cheesy Chicken Cordon Bleu Rice Casserole

This is a great recipe for a casserole.  I got this from picky-palate.com.  My whole family loved it.  Very tasty!

The white onion, red bell, fresh garlic and ham.

The shredded chicken.

The smell was amazing.  I love when my house smells good at dinnertime!

Before the chicken broth was added.

With the chicken broth

All mixed together

Look at all that cheese!

This is a smaller portion on one of my kiddos plate.  We served this casserole with freshly cooked corn on the cob.

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 clove fresh garlic, minced

½ lb diced ham

2 Cups cooked shredded chicken breast

4 Tablespoons butter

¼ Cup flour

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon fresh cracked pepper

14 oz can chicken broth

3 Cups cooked rice of choice (I used white long grain)

1 Cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 Cup shredded mozzarella or swiss cheese

Directions:

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.   Heat oil into a large 5 qt rimmed skillet over medium heat.   Saute onion and bell pepper until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, ham and chicken.   Cook for an additional 5 minutes.   Melt butter then stir in flour, salt and pepper until combined.   Slowly stir in chicken broth until well combined.   Stir in cooked rice then transfer to a 9×13 inch baking dish.   Top with cheddar and mozzarella cheeses.   Bake for 20-25 minutes.   Cover the dish with foil the last 10 minutes for oozing cheese.

Garlic Parmesan Mashed Potatoes

These are so good!  I got this tasty recipe from Brittsapron!!

I used red potatoes. I left a few of the peels on just for texture.

All the ingredients ready to be mixed

A very yummy side dish.

We had these with the Brown Sugar Spiced Pork Loin.

Ingredients:

6-8 small potatoes, peeled and diced

2 tablespoons butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup heavy cream (I used half and half)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
green onion, diced
salt and pepper

Directions:

In large pot, add water, potatoes and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and let cook until potatoes are tender. Drain water. Mash potatoes until creamy. Add all ingredients and mix well.

Brown Sugar Spiced Pork Loin

Here is another one from Brittsapron.  This was so easy and tastes like a lot of work was put into it.  This is a new fav in my family.  I served this along with Garlic Parmesan Mashed Potatoes also from Brittsapron, so yummy.  I will be posting the recipe for that. 

The pork loin with the spice rub

covered with the glaze

Right out of the oven.  Smelled great!

Look how great that looks and it tasted even better!

Rub Ingredients:

2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pork tenderloin

Glaze Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon Tabasco

Mix together all rub ingredients and coat pork loin. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in an oven safe pan and brown pork loin, appx. 2 minutes on each side. While that is browning, mix together brown sugar, garlic and Tabasco and heat for 30 seconds in the microwave. Pour over the top of the pork. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, or until center of tenderloin reaches 140. Let rest for 10 minutes (or until temperature at rest is 155) before slicing

Jalapeno Poppers

These are a favorite at my house.  We had these at a restaurant in TX and wanted to have them at home so we came up with this recipe and it tastes great.

I forgot to start taking pictures until this stage.  These are the jalapenos filled with the cheese mixture.

Dipping in the eggs

Then the breadcrumbs

Ready to go in the oven.

All done, someone snatched one!

Serve with sour cream or ranch dressing is really good too!  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

12 Jalapeno Peppers

6oz cream cheese (softened)

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 Tbl Red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 Lg Eggs

1 C breadcrumbs

Sour Cream (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cut off tops of jalapenos and slice them in half, lengthwise.  Clean out insides of jalapenos by scrapping the seeds out.  In a bowl mix cream cheese, shredded cheese, red pepper flakes and garlic powder.  Fill each of the jalapeno halves with the cheese mixture. 

In a bowl lightly beat the eggs until combined.  Put the breadcrumbs in another bowl.  Roll each of the filled peppers in the egg and then the breadcrumbs.

Place on a baking sheet. Bake until tender, about 30 min.  Serve with sour cream.

Thai Peanut Chicken

I got this recipe off of my friend Brittany's blog, brittsapron.blogspot.com.  She has a lot of good recipes we have tried and a lot we want to try.  We love this one!

:

Ingredients:

1/2 c. peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)

1/3 c. honey

1/4 c. soy sauce

2 T curry powder

2 cloves minced garlic

2-2 1/2 lbs cut-up chicken (I used chicken tenderloins)

Directions:

Blend peanut butter with honey and soy sauce until smooth. Stir in curry powder and garlic; mix well. Place chicken in a large plastic bag or bowl. Pour peanut butter mixture over chicken and mix well. Close bag or cover bowl and chill 2-12 hours. Remove chicken from marinade and broil or grill over medium heat 4-6 inches from heat. Turn chicken and brush with marinade occasionally while cooking. (Do not brush with any more marinade less than 10 minutes before chicken is done.) Cook until chicken is no longer pink in thickest part (cut to test), 15-30 minutes depending on size and piece. Serves 6 (each serving about 6 ounces chicken). Enjoy

Crispy Southwest Chicken Wontons

I got this yummy recipe from Picky Palate.  I really love her website, she always has really yummy recipes that my entire family will eat.

The white onion, red bell pepper, garlic and cilantro.  So fresh and smelled so good. 

Everything in the bowl, ready for mixing

Ready to go in the wonton wrappers.

Ready for frying

I put everything in the oven to keep it nice and warm for dinner time.  I served the wontons with egg rolls and fried rice.  So tasty!

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
½ Cup finely diced white onions
½ Cup finely diced red bell pepper
2 large cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 12 oz can chunk chicken, drained (from Costco)
¼ Cup packed fresh cilantro leaves, finely chopped
¼ Cup Verde Salsa (I use Herdez brand)
2 Tablespoons prepared ranch dressing

½ package wonton wrappers (I used the brand Nasoya, found in produce section of grocery store)
1 egg white whisked with 2 Tablespoons water

Directions:

1. Heat oil into a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onions and bell pepper for 5 minutes or until softened. Stir in garlic for 1 minute and remove from heat.

2. In large bowl add onion mixture, chicken, cilantro, salsa, ranch, salt and pepper. Mix until well combined.

3. Place 1 Tablespoon chicken mixture in center of wonton wrapper. Brush bottom edge with egg white wash, fold over filling and press edges together firmly, forming a triangle shape.

4. 2 options of cooking. 1^st is place about 1 inch of canola or vegetable oil in a medium skillet over medium high heat. When hot, place 4 wontons at a time into oil. Cook 1-2 minutes per side or until golden brown. 2^nd option is place wontons on a baking sheet; bake at 375 degrees F for 15-20 minutes or until crispy, flipping once half way through cooking.

5. Serve with Ranch dressing or salsa if desired.

S'mores Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies!

These cookies are to die for!  They are huge so one serving is plenty.  I just made these for the YW in our ward for our last activity! I got the recipe from Picky-Palate.  She has a bunch of fun stuffed cookies on there!

The sugars, butter, eggs and vanilla.

Ready for the flour

Added the flour, salt and baking soda

Last but not least the chocolate chips.

The S'mores stuff ready for stuffing.  Note - I broke apart the Hersey bars into individual pieces but didn't need to b/c I used three squares of chocolate in each cookie.  So break the chocolate into three piece sections, it's much easier. :)

Put as much cookie dough as you need to cover the s'mores

They are already huge but they get even bigger!

Almost done!

All done and they are just calling my name!

A sweet treat!

I use my favorite chocolate chip cookie dough recipe, it's a little bit different from the one on Picky-Palate.

Ingredients

1 C butter (2 sticks), softened

3/4 C granulated sugar

3/4 C packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2&1/4 C all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

24 graham crackers quarters

12 Lg Marshmallows, cut in half lengthwise

3 Hersey chocolate bars, broken into rows of three

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. In a stand or electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, continue to beat until well combined.

3. Place flour, salt and baking soda into a bowl; mix to combine then add slowly to wet ingredients along with the chocolate chips.

4. Layer a graham cracker quarter with 3 Hershey chocolate squares and 2 marshmallow halves.  Top s’more with a large scoop of cookie dough. Place in hands and place another large scoop on bottom then front and back sides as needed. Form dough around s’mores. Will get messy, but stick with it, it does not have to be perfect. S’mores will move around but it’s no big deal. Place large cookies onto prepared baking sheet and bake for 15-17 minutes or until edges are golden and centers are cooked through. Let cool for 10 minutes before transferring to cooling rack or serving plate.