Guacamole

Guacamole

3 Avocados
1 Diced Roma Tomato
2 Heaping Tablespoons Salsa
1/8th Cup Sour Cream or a heaping spoon full
Juice of Half Lemon
1 Teaspoon Garlic Granules
½ Teaspoon Salt
Pepper

Use fork to mash and smash the avacodoes until they are the texture you like it. Add remaining ingredients. Chill and serve.

Notes: Test flavors and tweak until you like it- if it needs more garlic add it, if it needs more twang squeeze in more lemon. Excellent with Chicken Tacos or plain with corn chips! ENJOY!!

Fruit Dip & Vegetable Dip

I am combining posts on this one. Neither dip photographed well so we get words.

Zesty Vegetable Dip
12 oz cottage cheese
1/2 c sour cream
2 T taco seasoning
1 4 oz can green chilies

Place all ingredients in a blender. Blend until well blended. Chill at least 8 hours.

Strawberry Fruit Dip
8 oz cream cheese (softened)
8 oz strawberry yogurt
1 12 oz package frozen strawberries (I pulsed these in the food processor so there were small chunks.).

Mix well. Chill and serve w/ fresh fruit.

Foil Wrapped Dinners

Foil Wrapped Dinners

(before hitting the oven)

Finished product


Foil Wrapped Dinners
1 - 1 1/2 lbs beef
1 10 oz package frozen green peas
4 medium carrots
8 cherry tomatoes
4 med potatoes
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 envelope onion soup mix

1) Mix together can of cream of mushroom soup and onion soup mix.
2) Place 1 chopped carrot, 1 chopped potato, and 1/4 of meat down on a square of aluminum foil.
3)Place 1/4 of mushroom soup/onion soup mixture over the top of the meat.
4)top with peas & tomatoes
5) Wrap securely in foil & place on a baking sheet.
6) Bake 35-45 minutes @ 450 degrees until meet is tender.

Notes: This is an extremely versatile dinner. You can use any kind of meat you want- pork, beef, or chicken. I actually used pork in these pictures. You can add or omit any vegetables you want- for one of my kids, there was no peas, one wanted extra carrots and one wanted broccoli. Also, I put chopped onions and mushrooms in my husbands. Also, you can change up the flavors of the soup- we actually like the cream of celery soup the best. And of course I always add pepper.

Townhouse Chicken

This is not the greatest picture but I can't seem to figure out how to do great shots of food. Oh well. On to the recipe!

Townhouse Chicken

3-4 cooked chicken breasts

1 can cream of chicken soup

8 oz sour cream

(note: equal parts of sour cream and chick soup if you like it creamier)

1 pkg ritz crackers (off brand, okay), crumbled

1/2 stick butter, melted

2 T poppy seeds

2-3 cups cooked rice

1. Combine chicken, cream of chicken, and sour cream in a bowl.

2. Stir crumbled crackers into melted butter. Add poppy seeds.

3. Place rice on the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Spread chicken mixture over rice and then sprinkle crackers on top.

4. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Notes: This meal re-heats very well. Also, you can omit the poppy seeds if you would like but the color is nice. I also added some minced onion to my chicken mixture and some pepper. This will serve 6-8 people. It makes quite a bit. Also, my pickiest eater asked for seconds.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am finally contributing to this blog!!!

There is no picture because I made these Sunday afternoon and then we had the missionaries over and so they were gone before I could think about taking a picture!! Next time I promise!

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 cups chocolate chips, 2 Hershey's chocolate bars, chopped or M&M'S
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl stir together flour, salt, and baking soda. In another large bowl stir together butter, both sugars, eggs, vanilla and cocoa. Gradually stir flour mixture into butter mixture and mix until combined. Stir chocolate chips and walnuts, if using, and stir to distribute evenly.

For cookies: Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheets and bake about 10 minutes. Cool on a baking rack.

For bars: Pat dough into a greased 9 inch square baking pan and bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cut into squares when cooled

Notes: These are so good!! I would only cook them for 9 minutes if you like them softer. We like them softer and mine were a little too hard at 10 minutes. Also, instead of using all that chocolate just use a lot of chocolate chips and that is fabulous too. Lastly, I left out the nuts. These are really easy and yummy. Enjoy!

Cute Ideas for Moms!

I haven't tried these out yet, but saw them at the Family Fun website (here) and couldn't resist sharing!

Butterfly Cheese Sandwich


Ingredients

1 pat butter or margarine
2 slices bread
2 slices cheese
Vegetables (such as celery, carrots, cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper)





Directions

Melt butter in frying pan
Assemble the sandwich, as you would a normal grilled cheese sandwich, with the exception of putting the rounded tops of the bread at opposite ends. then grill.
Cut the sandwich in half so the rounded tops go out to the sides, cut out 2 small triangles from each side's middle to form each wing.
Place celery stick in the middle, with cherry tomato as head, carrots as antennae, and slice carrot or peppers to make spots on wings.
----------OR------------
**Put out the vegetables in bowls and let the kids decorate their very own butterfly!**


Strawberry Shortcake Snake

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
6 tablespoons confectioners' sugar (plus a little extra for berries)
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 quart strawberries
Whipped cream
M&Ms
Green fruit leather


Directions:

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Sift together the flour, 2 tbs confectioners' sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl. Cut in the margarine with pastry cutter. Once the dough is crumbly, slowly stir in the milk. Turn the dough onto a floured working surface and gently roll or pat the dough into a 1 inch thick rectangle (It should measure about 6 by 8 inches) for best results handle the dough as little as possible.
Slice the rectangle into 4 1 1/2-by 8-inch strips. Place the strips on an un-greased baking sheet, then mold and curve them into S-shapes to resemble snakes. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the bottoms are golden brown. Transfer the baked shortcakes to a wire rack to cool.
Slice all but 4 of the berries lengthwise into a mixing bowl. Toss with the remaining confectioners' sugar.
Carefully slice the cooled shortcakes in half lengthwise, arrange the sliced strawberries on the bottom half of each one cover with shortcake top. "Frost" with whipped topping and sliced strawberries as scales. Add whole strawberry for head, dab small amount of whipped cream to hold M&ms in place for eyes, and add a fruit leather tongue. Serves 4!

White Chicken Chili

White Chicken chili

Ingredients

1 1/4 lbs boneless skinless chicken
2 (15 ounce) cans great northern beans or navy beans
1 (15 ounce) can hominy or white corn
1 (1 1/4 ounce) envelope taco seasoning
1 (4 1/2 ounce) can of chopped green chilies
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 (14 ounce) can chicken broth
1/2 cup sour cream

Directions
1.Place chicken in a 4 quart slow cooker.
2.Top with beans and corn.
3.In a medium bowl, combine taco seasoning, chiles, condensed soup, and chicken broth. Pour over top of ingredients in the crock pot.
4.Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.
5. Before serving, stir gently to break up chicken, then stir in the sour cream.

Side note- the flavor of this chili was really good! I don't know that I will use the all the chicken broth it calls for because I thought it was a little salty. I would think if you used dry beans instead of canned beans you would want the chicken broth, but otherwise I am going to omit it next time.

*I know I got this recipe off the internet but I can't remember where. If you come across this and its your recipe, let me know and I will link it.