Fried rice!

So this girl ventured into cooking fried rice! I found a recipe on Pinterest and then I tried it. I love that website. 

So enough jabber let's get down to it. 

You will need: 

3 Tbs Sesame seed oil

1 cup of the mixed peas and carrots thawed 

1/2 an onion or one whole smaller one

2 teaspoons minced garlic

2 eggs 

3 cups (cooked) white rice. I made mine right away but the website I went off of said to use day old rice because it works best. 

1/4 cup soy sauce (I did use the less sodium soy sauce and it still tasted great) 

Start off with your burner on medium-high heat. Use either a large skillet or wok. (I used a large skillet) Add in your sesame seed oil and let it heat up a little. Then add your mixed veggies, garlic, and onion sautée until soft. This is the part where if you needed to cook some white rice (because you don't have any leftovers)- do it. I just used minute rice. Three cups of that stuff is 1 and a half cups of uncooked rice and 1 and a half cups of water. Follow their cooking instructions on rice. I find that 5 minutes does not get y rice the right texture so I usually wait about 8 minutes until I am at fluffy consistency. 

In a bowl LIGHTLY scramble the eggs (don't go all crazy now). In the pan push the veggies, garlic and onion over to one side and pour your lightly scrambled egg on the empty side of the pan. This part sould only take about a minute but you are cooking the egg-scrambling it. Once it's no longer runny you mix all of it together. Turn your heat down to medium-low. By this time I am

Pretty sure your rice is either about done or completely done- so were going to just pour it in the skillet. If you want to follow it just like me then you don't even mix it yet- pour over the soy sauce then mix it all up. Now all you are waitin for is it to be heated thoroughly. 

I am pretty sure I you used leftover rice then you would be waiting for it to heat up but since our new rice was just made it's basically done unless you want the flavors to mingle ;) a bit. Viola!!!

Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

Okay so after feeding this to numerous people I have gotten enough requests for the recipe and raves about how yummy it is to put it on my blog.

Are you sure you can handle all the cheesy-ness?
Buckle up.

Ingredients
1 lb boneless chicken breasts
1 large can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup
1 large bag of cheddar cheese
1 regular size bag of monterey jack cheese (you can absolutely choose a different cheese here like pepper jack, or another cheddar, or mozzarella)
1  small can of green chiles
1 small container of sour cream
1 table spoon garlic powder
1 table spoon pepper
1/2 tablespoon of salt
1 tablespoon of cilantro
1 tablespoon of oregano
approx. 6 tortillas LARGE


This is what you do!
1.  Were actually going to boil this chicken. So chop it up into chunks. and drop it into boiling water. You can certainly season the water. I usually put minced garlic in there with it. But you don't have to --I just love garlic.

2.  Depending on the chunk size of your chicken- it could take anywhere from 5-10 minutes for the chicken to be cooked. After it is cooked drain out the water (leaving the chicken in the pot still) and place back on burner. Reduce heat to medium or medium low.

3.  Add the large can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup in the pot and mix.

 

4. Next add your seasonings

5.  Then add your green chiles to the mixture.

6. Then add the sour cream. 

7.  It will be simmering after a short while and then you add half the bag of cheddar cheese and mix. You will only need about a minute till it's melted and bubbling hot.

8.  Now grab yourself a large casserole pan. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. open your tortillas. Your going to palm it. Like so: 

9.  Now your going to spoon the mixture from the pot into the tortilla center. And about 6 table spoons later were going to wrap it up and place it seam side down inside the casserole dish working from left to right filling it in takes approximately 5 to 7 tortillas wrapped. 

  My casserole dish was smaller so it only took 5 folded ones.

10.  What ever sauce mix was left I out on too of all the tortillas and spread it around. 

11.  Then cover it with the rest I the cheddar and half the bag of the other cheese you selected- in my case Monterey Jack cheese. 

12.  Put it in the oven for about 20 minutes. And boom----

 You are so welcome.

Ps. Thank you to J.R. ( and his mom) for sharing a variation of this recipe with me!! 

Stuffed Crescent Rolls

Okay I experimented with this idea when I had a friend coming over for lunch. Sorry, you were my guinea pig. But then again I'm not sorry because we ate practically all of them.


What you need:
1 package pillsbury crescent rolls
and all sorts of stuff you can stuff into a roll. I used:
Cheese, avocado, chicken salad, bacon, broccoli, mac n cheese.
Other ideas I had but I ran out of time and rolls to fill:
Pulled pork
canned chicken
spinach and cheese

PREHEAT oven for 350 degrees

For the first ones I rolled out all my crescent rolls, and placed one on the cutting board. I made three total of these. I steamed some broccoli and put it (after it was cooked) onto the crescent roll with a good size of cheddar cheese.

I also took the liberty of cooking about 3 pieces of bacon till crispy! For the next three I made mac n cheese and bacon stuffed ones. My husband had made some Kraft mac n cheese the day before for my sons lunch so we had some left overs in the fridge. I didn't even need to heat it up. Spooned cold mac n cheese onto the crescent roll and topped it with more cheddar cheese and chopped bacon pieces.

Now I only had two empty crescent dough pieces left. So I made one avocado and cheese and left over bacon. And the other one I put some chicken salad into it and some cheese.

Sorry no picture :(

I folded over the sides to all my crescent rolls so now they kinda just looked like egg rolls.
 After spraying a cookie sheet I placed them all on there. And baked for 10 minutes.

THEY TURNED OUT SO PRETTY. and TASTY!!

Meatballs. Yeah commence happy dance

Okay so apparently, I do more cooking than anything. I realized I should probably give away one of my favorite SECRETS...Cooking secrets that is. I'm talking about Meatballs. Homemade, hands messy, a part of your soul, and a whole lot of love poured into each little ball you hand form. These babies are moist, and they taste amazing. I have REFERENCES.


What Cha Need:

1 lb ground beef. (I dont care what percentage...but I use lean ground beef)
garlic powder
salt and pepper
1 egg
3/4 cups of water
3/4 cups fancy cheese (I used asiago, romano, & parmesan combined)
1/2 cup bread crumbs (I use these A LOT don't I?)
and a honkin' bowl.


Now you see all the ingredients up there? Exactly as they are listed LAYER...See that....I SAID LAYER everything. NO MIXING, no combining early. LLLAAAYYYYEEERRRRRRR. Don't question me on my madness.
This means you put the meat on the bottom, then the garlic powder right on top (now some people in my family are sensitive to garlic so use your best judgement on how much to use), then salt and pepper on top (same use your best judgement rule) and so on and so forth.

Here we are in order

Now when everything is sitting pretty on top of one another in the order listed wash your hands.


Then take off any jewelry that means anything to you that is on your hands. I would hate for meat or crumbs or cheese to get stuck in a diamond, or a crevice you cant clean on your wedding ring or something. See i did it...

This is the part when i usually heat up my pasta sauce for spaghetti and meatballs.

Mixing time!
Now this is fun for the kids to get in on too.

SQUISH SQUISH SQUISH mix that with your hands. Feel the icky gooey, and mush it all together. I would say do this for about 3-4 minutes.

once everything is mixed and loving one another in that bowl you will need to form little balls about the size of a golf ball maybe a bit bigger, depending on how big you want them. I then place them all in the sauce as its heating up and i cover it. 

Occasionally i will come by and jostle the pan, but be careful not to rough them up too much for they might break apart and you end up with just a "meat sauce".

After about 5-7 minutes on one side in the sauce I turn mine GENTLY over. Recover pan. Again these babies are fragile. Another 5 minutes and i would normally take one lucky pup out of the pan and cut it in half to make sure its cooked through. And i sample too...NO big deal. Usually at this moment i revel in my awesomeness because my mouth just went to some sort of sicilian heaven. MMMM

You are welcome! Now you make!

The poor man pasta

The poor man pasta... how do I explain this? 

I came up with this pasta idea, when all I had were a few ingredients to make something for dinner. I became a master at this task when I went to college. You know the saying "starving artist". Well I know it first hand. Now I made this batch just for me and my two year old. so you will have to adjust accordingly.

Ingredients:

Egg Noodles

frozen corn

frozen peas

Frozen spinach (I always bought fresh spinach in the produce section, then when i get home i stick it in the freezer)

1/4 cup bread crumbs

garlic

oregano

salt

pepper

Olive oil

Tyson Grilled and Ready Chicken breasts (always have some of these on hand-salads, quesadillas, pasta dishes such as this, wraps) 

Instructions are easy.

Cook the chicken in the oven at 375 for 18-20 minutes. Or if your really short on time it's microwavable.

Cook pasta. Cook the amount you feel your family will devour.

Cook the corn, peas, and spinach in the same pot...its okay i promise. (since the spinach was frozen all I had to do was crunch it in my hands and it was pretty much shredded into the mix of veggies. hidden from sight..ninja like)

In a little bowl while the stuff is cooking mix breadcrumbs, garlic, oregano, salt, pepper together. 

After pasta is complete drizzle some olive oil over the pasta. Chop cooked chieken-add it to pasta. Drain water from veggies and add to pasta. Mix together. Then add the little bowl of mixed seasonings. mix well. You can add some butter or more olive oil to the mix if i needs a little extra moisture. I added about 2 more tablespoons of butter to it and mixed until it was melted. Thats it your done. Pretty easy.

Pork Chops

Imma break this down for you a bit nasty today. 

So something i should probably mention to ya'll. I am usually cooking for only 3 people (myself included) I know right...must be nice. PFT whatever. Control your self now girly. So if you have like 17 kids and the 2 (boneless) pork chops i used in this recipe wont be enough for you then guess what sweetness- you're going to have to increase portioning on here. Simple math i promise. 

two thick cut boneless pork chops

Half an onion

2 eggs

1 cup flour

1 cup italian style bread crumbs

tin foil

1 table spoon minced garlic

1/2 stick of butter. Divided.

2 tablespoons honey

AN OPTIONAL SAUCE

3 tablespoons sour cream

1/3 cup milk

1 tablespoon flour

1 teaspoon lemon juice

salt and pepper

PREHEAT OVEN 375 degrees

Break out that skillet and get 3 tablespoons of butter a melting in that SON B. You know when i said half of a stick of butter...well sweet cheeks your "hips wont lie" after this meal it's good. SO suck it up and melt those tablespoons of butter away. Or if you wanna be a pansy you can use some olive oil..pppffftttt. Now i left my onion in the rings just cut it into "sections" i guess and placed those in the pan to get them all nice nice **well caramelized (you happy now). Add some salt, pepper, garlic to the pan. 

Now go on and get yourself one bowl and combine the 1 cup of flour and the 1 cup bread crumbs....MIX THEM

Then in another bowl whisk the two eggs. fo sho.

Get out yer pork chops. Now we are going to DOUBLE DREDGE these babies just like we did when I made the CHICKEN TENDERS. (click that puppy if you want to make some homemade chicken tenders)

Pork chop in hand, cover in egg, cover in flour/breadcrumb mixture, back into egg, back into flour/breadcrumb mixture- set that meat aside. Repeat for how many pork chops you have there chicklet. 

Now by the time you have all your chops ready your onions had time to sit in the butter- garlic- pepper- salt mixture and are starting to smell glorious. Take some tongs or your grabber/utensil of choice and place them onto the pan (i had my heat on medium) They can go on top of the onions it is quite alright deary. 

Give the chops some time to have a little meet and greet with the onions and get browned on one side. 

About 3 minutes go by and its now time to see if they need flipping....They do?! awesome flip that puppy over and let it work on the other side. Drizzle a tablespoon of honey over each porkchop.

******Insert sauce instructions here if using*******

Right now I need you to get out your baking/cookie sheet and get two pieces of ton foil out (or however many pieces of pork you have) out in squares large enough to make an amazing flavor pocket. After about 3 or 4 minutes pass and the other side of the pork chop is browned I need you to transfer each pork chop and designated onion/juices/sauce like stuff in the pan evenly between each piece of tin foil. Create a pouch. Not tightly wrapped. Just to seal moisture and all the flavors inside. You can certainly add a tablespoon of butter to each pouch to create a little bit more juice in there. Not required though. 

place all pouches onto cookie sheet, and place in the oven for about 20-25 minutes. Check occasionally if you need to. Now since i DID opt in to use the sauce creation my chops came out not as crispy as they would have if i ya know-didnt use a sauce. 

After about 22 minutes my chops looked like this in the foil

and now on a plate

Now the sauce instructions are as follows.

1 tbs honey

the sour cream

the milk

salt and pepper

and lemon juice

Mix it together and pour over chops where is says "INSERT SAUCE HERE" in my instructions. 

These golden babies were yummy. and i paired them with greenbeans sautee'd with onions and a little bacon grease...just cuz. Lol. oh good lord. Relax It wasnt a lot.

ENJOY them!

Homemade chicken tenders

Now this ladies and gentleman is my recipe for some homemade chicken tenders. I'm talking breading them and frying them yourselves. ALL THAT JAZZ. 

You will need:

1lb boneless chicken tenderloins (or breasts just cut in strips) 

3 cups canola oil

2 large eggs

1/3 cup milk

Salt and pepper

2 cups flour

1 cup progresso bread crumbs (I used garlic&herb)

1 tbls cayenne pepper 

1/2 tbls garlic powder

1/2 tbls parsley 

The process!!

-Wisk together in a bowl the eggs, milk and some salt and pepper.

-On a plate I pour the flour And then use my finger to create a volcano to pour the garlic, parsley, cayenne and top it off with the progresso breadcrumbs. I used my hands to mix those together. Get them nice and incorporated. ITS A BREADING PARTY! 

-Now I use my Paula Deen skillet to use for the frying, mind you I have a deep fryer, (actually it's my father in laws) but it smokes a lot and makes the house smell so I opted for pan frying these babies with my overhead fan blasted. Now for the people like me who don't have an oil/food thermometer I just put my burner on medium and allowed my oil to heat up for a bit. Pretty much by the time it takes you to bread all the tenders your oil should be good and hot. So pour the 3 cups of canola oil in there and turn your burner to medium.

Let's bread these things

Take a tenderloin piece and coat it with the egg and milk mixture. Then place it in the flour/breadcrumbs mixture and coat evenly. THEN> put that tenderloin back in the egg and coat, then back into the breadcrumbs for a second visit!! So we are going to DOUBLE COAT all the tenders. Set them aside.

-Now a way to make sure the oil is hot enough for frying is (while your fingers are coated in breadcrumbs and egg) shake your hand over the oil allowing some tiny pieces of breading to fall into the oil. They will instantly start to sizzle if it's been long enough. 

-I placed about 3-4 tenders in my pan at a time. Too many will lower the oil temp and increase cooking time and might dry out the chicken. So 3 was the majority unless they were tiny end pieces. 

-I cooked each for about 2 minutes on each side until golden brown. If you are paranoid like me the first couple batches I was taking a tender out (the thickest one) and cutting it at its thickest point to see if it was cooked all the way through. It was for the record. I just am scared to accidentally feed my son undercooked meat and causing food poisoning. So if you want to do that too I do not blame you at all!! 

-After the chicken is nice and cooked I placed them onto a plate covered with a paper towel to soak up the excess oil. 

This is what mine looked like after they were all done. 

I am that weirdo that when I am given extra dipping sauces at like those fast food chains I save those suckers for times like these. My husband makes fun of me but WHO CARES! I paired mine with some honey mustard and zesty dipping sauce. Mmmmmm. 

I hope yours turn out wonderful! 

Oh My Breakfast Bake

• 6 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 6 strips of bacon cut into chunks (cooked)
• 1/2 lb sausage (I used ground but you could buy the already cooked kind in the links and just microwave it- if its raw you need to cook it before adding to breakfast bake
• Day old french bread 
• Shredded cheeses (any type you like- i used cheddar, and swiss because its what I had on hand)
• Salt and pepper
• 4 tablespoons butter

Since I used a 9x9 baking dish my amounts might be need to be doubled for a family larger than 4.
OPTIONAL Add-ins
red onion ( I added this )
garlic powder
mushrooms
spinach
peppers
frozen/thawed hashbrowns (I think these would be best if they were thawed and water drained from them)

The more items you add to the bake the longer it might take to bake in the morning. (you could manually adjust the baking time if you were to sautee the mushroom/peppers/onions before so they were already soft)
NOW this is what I do and my breakfast bake was nice and fluffy. PREPARE THE NIGHT BEFORE COOKING. Stick it in the fridge overnight with a cover like saran wrap or press n seal and allow the flavors to get real comfy and nice with one another.


SINCE THIS IS THE NIGHT BEFORE:
Spray or grease 9x9 baking dish
Cube (or tear up) french bread and cover the bottom if the 9x9 baking dish with it. You might not use an entire loaf if you are only making a 9x9 size bake.

Add the sausage and bacon to the top of the bread.

This is when i add the cheeses just CHEESE that sucker up.

whisk the eggs and milk together add salt and pepper to taste
Pour over the top of the bake

Then put butter on top of the bake just take either the spoonfuls or squares and place them on top of the it all, no need to spread it around.

Cover and place in the fridge overnight. Now if one of your kiddos wakes up at like 6 or 7 am it would be a good time to place the bake in the oven.
THIS GOODNESS takes 45 minutes to bake properly in the oven at 350.
after the bake comes out you will want it to rest on the counter for about 15 minutes.


Now the the additions that you may or may not have added all are depending on your preferences. If you don't like sausage and you would much rather load it up with bacon -by all means- GO FOR IT! If you wanted hashbrowns i am pretty sure you need to put those on the bottom of the pan though.
Or you would like a veggie version get creative and put your veggies in there. This isn't rocket science...its science for sure, but not rocket science. If ANYONE wants me to make something before they try it leave me a comment and i will let you know how it turns out with pictures. Or if you want to share what you tried and loved, or didnt love I would be happy to hear about it!

Homemade chocolate chip muffins

• CHOCOLATE CHIP muffins
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions: preheat: 400 degrees     makes 12 muffins

1. Combine first four ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, sugar) in a large mixing bowl. mix

2. Combine the next four ingredients (vanilla, egg, oil, milk) in another bowl. mix

3. Combine solids and liquid and mix well. 

4. Add chocolate chips and Fold into batter. 

5. Spray with grease/PAM or line muffin tin pan and fill each spot 3/4 full. 

6. Bake 16 minutes in a conventional oven at 400 Degrees.

7. After cooking time allow few minutes to cool. AND ENJOY!!!