I tried a lot of new recipes toward the end of the year, between the wonderful site Pinterest.com, recipes from friends, and my own personal experimenting... Some were misses and some were HITS!
Starting with the best...
Mexican Stuffed Shells
Pound of ground beef
4 oz. softened cream cheese
taco seasoning
salsa
taco sauce
salsa
Jumbo pasta shells
Shredded cheese
I am a huge taco bell fan, so when it comes to taco seasoning that's always my go-to, and when looking for taco sauce the first time I made this recipe they were completely out in the wonderful small town walmart here lol... Turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because I stumbled upon something I had never seen before, Taco Bell Mild sauce in the bottle!!! Best store find of 2011 I must say :) Of course on a following trip to walmart I had the opposite result, with the taco bell resteraunt sauce no where to be found, and I ended up using normal red taco sauce. So whatever you preffer is equally yummy!
So you cook up the ground beef like your making regular tacos, brown it, follow the taco seasoning instructions, which usually requires adding the seasoning and water and let simmer. THEN you add in the cream cheese and heat until all blended, let that cool for a minute.
Meanwhile you should be boiling up your pasta ( I always add oil to my pot of water, to prevent noodles sticking) Boil those up, drain, and let cool.
Put a thin layer of salsa in your baking dish. Then fill the pasta shells with your meat filling. Drizzle your taco sauce over the stuffed shells, cover with tin foil, and bake at 350 degrees for 25mins. Then remove foil, add your shredded cheese and cook for another 15 minutes uncovered.
I serve with refried beans, sourcream, and green onion... But that's just my mexican dish staple :) Enjoy!
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Buffalo Ranch Chicken Sandwiches
Definitely fell in love with my crock pot all over again the last few months of 2011, got a little addicted to new recipes for it.
We loved these spicy sandwiches! They pack some heat, I recall describing it to my husband as like that "hot cheeto" heat, you know? That heat that's addictive and delicious, not the heat that ruins the meal. You can also use less of the sauce if you are wimp like my mom ;)
3 or 4 chicken breasts
Franks redhot Buffalo sauce
Hidden Valley Ranch "Dips" Seasoning
2 Tbsp butter
Hoagie rolls
Just throw your chicken (frozen or thawed) into the crock pot, pour your bottle of buffalo sauce and ranch seasoning into the crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. About an hour before my husband was due home I took out each breast and shredded on a plate and added it back into the pot to soak up all that yummy sauce, add the 2 tbsp on butter and let cook a little longer. We loved this sandwich dipped in ranch dresing (Best ranch is the Hidden Valley dressing seasoning, 1 cup milk, 1 cup mayo... delish)
Definitely made my 3 and 5 year olds a seperate meal that night, but it was yummy all the same!
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Pork Tacos
My husband often goes on "chicken strike"... I favor chicken a little, you can do so much with it, you can buy it in a big cheap package and well it's just easy and yummy... however I have to make sure to divide up the chicken nights with some beef and pork, as my husband gets chickened out pretty easy :)
I loved my chicken taco recipe, however I figured I would try pork out to change it up. Found this recipe on Pinterest and it turned out yummy!
The recipe called for a 1lb pork tenderloin, however I had no luck finding one at walmart that wasn't already seasoned. So a pork roast worked just fine.
1lb. pork tenderloin or roast
1 12oz jar salsa (or 15 oz tomato sauce) I used salsa and a little left over tomato sauce I had in the fridge.
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp cumin
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 Tsp salt
3 cloves minced garlic
Throw the pork in the crock pot, mix all the other ingredients up in a bowl and pour over your pork. Cook on low for 8hours, and serve on tortillas and your favorite toppings.
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Italian Chicken and pasta
4 chciken breasts
1 pack zesty Italian dressing seasoning
8 oz. cream cheese softened
2 cans of cream of chicken
Throw it all in, cook on low for 6 hours (If sauce is too thick add milk) And serve over pasta. So easy and so yummy!!!
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Salsa chicken
1 lb chicken breast
1 can cream of chicken
1 cup salsa
1 pkg taco seasoning
1 cup sourcream
Place chicken, soup, salsa, and taco seasoning in crock pot and cook on low for 6hours. I shredded it up a little and let cook some more. Right before dinner time add in the sourcream and heat until blended. Serve over rice and it is DELISH!
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Bacon cheese chicken
So I definitely had chicken in the freezer with no plans for it (The OCD radar must have had a delay that week). But it led to me to just wing something and it turned out yummy. I defrosted the chicken in warm water. they were larger breasts so I halved them just to get more out of it. I flattened them out by pounding on them inside the ziplock bag. hammered them out flat, and then added some Bbq sauce, a few splashes of Teryiaki sauce, and a couple squirts of dijion mustard. Primarily I used the bbq to be safe ;) let them marinate for a couple hours, then I preheated the oven to 350 degrees while I pulled out each flattened marinated breast, I had in the fridge some of that precooked bacon (the kind you can just throw in the microwave) and some misc packs of cheese (a provolone slice and some shredded mozzerella) So in each breast I layed a couple slices of the cold bacon and some cheese. rolled it up as tight as I could (which wasn't very tight at all) and used 2 toothpicks in each one to hold it in place. Then I put all the chicken rolls into a asserole dish and cooked uncovered for 30-40 minutes. Whipped up some homeade mashed potatoes and boy oh boy was it yummy! For something that had no recipe and was simply improvised with what I had on hand it was a hit! Definitely an accident I will be repeating :)
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Corn Dip
This is my favorite dip in the whole wide world! Got this recipe from a good friend back in Texas and I get so excited when I get to make it for pot lucks or parties. My husband has yet to try it because he is picky to the ingredients, but everyone else that has tried it has given much praise! I could eat this everyday! lol.
3 cans of mexican corn
1 cup mayo
2 cups sourcream
1 cup cilantro
lots of chopped green onion
1 jalepeno diced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cayanne pepper
1 tsp lemon juice
1 2cup pkg of fiesta blend shredded cheese
Best made the night before.
For more heat you can add more jalepeno and cayanne pepper.
SOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!
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I defintiely enjoyed these new recipes, and it's like once you find one good new one, you need more new ones! lol. So these among the normal usual dinners we are used to we've added these into the mix permanently :) Pinterest brought me to the pizza casserole, my first hack at brocolli and cheese soup, a yummy egg, potatoe and meat breakfast that cooks in the crock pot all night (we tried this out christmas morning), a yummy baked ziti recipe, and bacon ranch chicken mac n cheese.
One of my favorite holiday treats that come to find out my husband has never had... so I'm not sure if he doesn't remember trying them, or if it's really been that long since I've made them. But the classic recipe from chex...
Snow Buddies
9 cups of chex cereal
3 cups of powdered sugar
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut buetter
1/4 cup butter
1/4 tsp vanilla
Pour cereal into large bowl and set aside. Combine chocolate chips, peanut butter, vanilla, and butter into microwave safe bowl and microwave until melted. Cover cereal with chocolate mixture and stir until all coated. Then I get a freezer bag and pour hald the powdered sugar into it and half the coated chex and shake until covered with sugar, and empy into serving bowl, then I do the remaining half. (splitting it made it easier for me personaly) Regardless it's a simple yummy treat that I love around the holidays :)
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The best recipe and most simple one this past christmas was by far the one consisting of a pkg of Swiss Miss hot chocolate a couple heaping handfuls of mini marshmellows, 2 straws and my 3 year old :) It was his first time trying hot chocolate and we enjoyed it together over a big pyrex glass :) Was some of the good stuff :) Easy recipe for happiness!
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Wishing everyone a happy and yummy 2012!
Tonight on the menu is my favorite recipe from my mom (aside from the best enchilladas) is pork and rice pillaf :) One of the great ones that all my picky eaters will inhale!
