Getting High Tech

I am one of the least high tech people I know.  I don't even own a smart phone and have no ability to scan a QR myself but for some reason I think I needed one for my blog!  Well at least my kids can scan the QR on their phone. I wonder when I will ever need one of these little guys but hey there was a free QR generator web site I went to and I had a lot of fun doing it! Special thanks to my friend Jacob for helping me!

Chicken Enchiladas

I must be in a Mexican food mood lately.  Yesterday I made Fajitas for the family.  They were delicious.  Today I made Chicken Enchiladas .... also delicious.  I don't make them like everyone else that's for sure.  I usually always do an enchilada casserole as opposed to rolled individual enchiladas.  I personally feel that I get more servings that way.  Tonight we had a great dinner and I was still able to make 2 lunches for Erick.  Here is my version of Chicken Enchiladas.

 

I am not picky about what cut of the chicken I use.  If I have chicken breasts I use them, If I have thighs then I use them.  I happened to find a really good deal on chicken thighs so that is what I used today.  They needed some prep work but it was worth it.  I cut the chicken thighs into bite sized pieces and chopped one onion.

  I also added about 1 T. Minced Garlic.

I put all of that into a skillet and added salt and pepper to taste.

I cooked the meat until it was no longer pink and I drained the fat.

In a mixing bowl I combined about 30 oz of Green Chili Sauce

with 16 oz. Sour Cream.  I used Stokes brand today but I have used other brands also and it has been good. 

I places 1/4 of the green chili mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 pan

and topped with 4-5 flour tortillas.

I placed 1/2 of the green chili mixture over the tortillas

and topped with the cooked chicken.

I topped the chicken with about 1 1/2 C. shredded Mozarella cheese

and topped that with 4-5 flour tortillas.

I placed the remaining 1/4 of the green chili mixture on top

and covered with about 1 1/2 C. shredded Mozarella cheese.

I covered the pan with foil and baked at 350* for 1 hour

Delicious Chicken Enchiladas!

 

 

 

 

 

 



Layered Jello Salad

Is Jell-O a salad or a dessert?  I was raised that Jello was a salad.  Of course my mom never got very fancy with her Jell-O.   It was always a can of fruit in the Jell-O - use the fruit juice as the cold water in the mix.  I was awed when my sister in law put her Jell-O liquid into the blender and made a frothy top to her Jell-O salad.  I have a friend who insists that Jell-O is a dessert and it even says so on the box.  Perhaps if I treated Jell-O as a dessert instead of my Chocolate Cake or my Chocolate Brownie Trifle or even my Chocolate Chip Cheesecake I would be a little less jiggly (to reference Jell-O) ... But since you can see the theme of my desserts seems to be Chocolate you can see why

 Jell-O is not the first thing I think of when making dessert.  It is actually not even the first thing I think of when making Salad.  I make Jell-O rarely and it is eaten as a snack and it usually is plain with nothing in it.  I took the challenge to bring Jell-O to an event today and it was not bad.  I made a pretzel crust which I personally am not so sure I liked. Maybe I should have put Jell-O on the top and the bottom and skipped the crust...hummm...I might try this again!

 

Pretzel Crust

2 C. Crushed Pretzels

1/2 C. melted Butter or Margarine

3 T. Sugar

 

Crush your Pretzels in a zipper baggie

Mix them with the melted butter and sugar and

press into the bottom of a 9X13 pan

Bake @ 350* for 7 minutes

Set aside to cool and make the filling

 

Filling

1 (8 oz) pkg softened cream cheese

1 C. Powdered Sugar

1 8 oz. Container Cool Whip

 

Mix with your hand mixer and spread on the cooled crust

Place your pan in the fridge and let it cool while you do your Jell-O

 

Jell-O Top

1 (6oz) box Raspberry Jell-O

2 C. Boiling Water

1 (12 oz) bag Frozen Raspberries

 

You can use any flavor Jell-O and fruit that you want. 

 Mix the Jell-O and boiling water and whisk to dissolve the powder.

  Let it sit for about 5 minutes on the counter to cool down a little. 

 Add all the Raspberries.  Be sure they are straight out of the freezer so they cool the Jell-O down.

Pour over your filling layer

(I used a ladle to avoid splashing)

Put this in the fridge overnight or for several hours until set. 

Serve and enjoy!

 

 

 

 



Chicken and Dumplings

Today was a snow day.  No school for the kids.  I worked from home.  My husband went to work and thankfully made it there and back without incident.  This cold snow was the perfect weather for some comfort food.  This is the only picture I took..and it's not even a good one!  The recipe is easy.  It's something I don't remember my mom making so I pretty much just faked my way through it.  I am sure there are others who make it differently or even better but my family must have liked it because the pot is empty.  Here's my quick and easy recipe:

 

1 lb. Ground Chicken

2 C. Chopped Carrots

1 Chopped Onion

1 T. Minced Garlic

1 (26 oz) can Cream of Chicken Soup

Water

1 Batch of Biscuits

 

Brown ground chicken along with carrots, onion and garlic in a large stock pot.  Add condensed soup and a full can and a half of water.  Mix your biscuits.  If you don't want to use my recipe then use your favorite, or open some canned biscuits.  Roll your biscuit dough into a log and cut nickle sized pieces off and drop into boiling chicken mixture.  Let the dumplings cook for 4 or 5 minutes and you are done.  Dinner is quick and easy!

Toffee Bars

I need to go grocery shopping.  The kids open the cabinets and I can count on hearing "There's nothing to eat"  The reality is as long as I still have things I can cook for dinner I am not very motivated to go shopping.  The girls are out at church activities tonight.  You can bet that they will be hungry when they get home so I decided to try a new recipe from my old Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book.  It's not bad.  If the girls like it I would make it again.  The nice thing is from start to finish this took 45 minutes.  That's something I do like!  It has a few steps but none of them are very hard.

 

 

First combine 1/2 C. Butter or Margarine, 1/2 C. Sugar,

1/4 tsp. Salt and 1 C. Flour

Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 pan

Bake at 350 * for about 10 minutes

Honestly I didn't time the crust. 

When my toffee layer was done I took it out.

For the Toffee - in a heavy sauce pan combine 1 can (14 oz) Sweetened Condensed milk and 2 T. Butter or margarine.  Stir constantly.  Bring to the point of bubbling and cook for 5 minutes.  I started out with a spatula but found that a whisk worked better for this process.  Once 5 minutes is up it will be thick and smooth.  Stir in 2 tsp. Vanilla

I used an offset spatula and spread the toffee mix over the crust

Put back into the oven and bake 350* for 15 minutes

While it is baking make your frosting.  Now I didn't think the recipe looked like enough frosting so I doubled it.  In hind sight I would have had enough but hey...I am not going to complain about too much chocolaty frosting.  I will give you the recipe for a single batch. 

Combine 1 square unsweetened chocolate with 2 T. Butter or Margarine in a heavy sauce pan.  Stir occasionally until melted together.  Add 1 tsp. Vanilla, 1 1/2 C. Powdered Sugar and 1 T. Hot water.  Mix well.

Take the finished toffee out of the oven and spread

the chocolate frosting on top

Immediately cut into bars.  I actually took a bar out while it was still hot with no problem.  These are soft on the bottom with the crust, chewy in the center getting more firm as it cools and chocolaty on the top.  All in all I would say not a bad treat for the girls when they get home!

 

Red Velvet Cupcakes

My Niece is getting married in September.  She asked me to make her wedding cake.  I am by no means a professional but what she is wanting seems like something I can accomplish.  She wants Red Velvet Cake.  Personally I don't think Red Velvet has a lot of flavor but after researching several recipes I learned that it is basically a chocolate base with red coloring.  I have 2 recipes I want to try to see which one I like the most.  One is my Chocolate Cake recipe which I plan to add red food coloring to.  The other is this recipe.  I clipped it some time ago when I researched Red Velvet for another event.  I never made it so I wanted to give it a try.  My daughter needed cupcakes for the concession stand at the school basketball game tomorrow night and I figured it was a great time to test this Red Velvet recipe.  I do not know where it came from and I am unable to give proper credit.  If it is yours I will gladly credit you in this post.  This is not my recipe.....but let's just say that when my oldest daughter tasted this tonight she said "I don't care what the other cake tastes like.  I will be eating several pieces of this cake at the wedding"  So here we go.....

 

Red Velvet Cake

1 pkg (18.25 oz) German Chocolate Cake Mix

1 pkg (3.4oz) Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix

1 C. Sour Cream

1/2 C. Water

1/2 C. Vegetable Oil

1 (1 oz) bottle Red Food Coloring

3 Large Eggs

 

Put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix it all together. 

It's pretty easy!

I made cupcakes so I baked this at 350* for 20 minutes.  A cake will take longer but I don't have the exact time since I didn't make cake!

 

Going into the oven.....

 

 

Coming out of the oven......

 

 

I have been wanting to try the new Cool Whip Frosting. 

 I even had a coupon....

OK....I forgot to give the cashier the coupon....

 

 

And here they are...all frosted with a dusting of cocoa powder!

 

 

Yes, they are a little fancy for a school basketball game...

but we eat first with our eyes, right?

 



Good Enough

 

There are days when all I can do is open a can of Manwich, brown some ground beef and cook some frozen french fries.  Is this wrong?  Definitely not.  I find that I compare my cooking to all these other blogs out there wanting to do the next big thing, the greatest invention in cooking.  It's just not fun to me to compete.  Seriously...do these people cook like that every night?  And how can they afford to do that?  Sometimes simple is better.  And dinner from a freezer some nights is just good enough.  As I enter into this second year on my blog I will think less of trying to impress and just post what I do every day.  Sometimes I will make unlikely substitutions....For example today.  I think for dinner I will make Beef Enchiladas but I am running low on tortillas and have no plans to go to the store today so I think I will turn it into an Enchilada Lasagna.  I have plenty of noodles and I will just use them in place of the tortillas.  Think outside of the box...if you don't have all the ingredients to make a recipe then use what you have to adapt it.  Cooking is supposed to be fun!