Roasted Chicken & Garden Veggies

So I looked at a bottle of Lawry’s and went hmmm…no I want to save it.  But it calls for wine & garlic marinade.  So I put a cup of cooking wine on my chicken and then added a spoonful of diced garlic.

Roasted in the oven for 2.5 to 3 hours.  Beautiful.  The skin was tasty and delicious and I won’t be tempted to buy any more bottles of expensive marinade or over season with a lot of seasonings now because this was also full of flavor.

My husband also picked two fresh zucchini’s from our garden.  The first of the year and I wanted to eat them.  So I dug through the produce drawer and found carrots.  I was thinking about Applebee’s yummy vegetable mix but those were the only two things I had to put in this.  So I melted a tablespoon of butter(margarine) in a frying pan, added the carrots and my son stirred those around while I chopped zucchini.  Added those a few moments later and covered with a lid.  Stirred them every few minutes and cooked them about 5-10 minutes total.  They are tender, delicious, and better than Applebee’s.  So easy!

Easy and delicious

Aunt Adeline’s Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti

This has been passed around the family quite a bit but with a new generation of young ladies about to embark on their new lives, I thought they might appreciate it being posted.     In the early days of email & AOL my mom used to gather recipes from my aunts.  This one orginated from Aunt Adeline.

This is another favorite and is extremely versatile.

You need:

1 lb of chicken or turkey – you can use leftovers from a boiled chicken, left over roasted chicken, left over roasted turkey meat, left over rotisserie chicken meat….you just need some cooked chicken or turkey.

2 cans of Cream of soup: Pick and choose your two favorites but the original was cream of chicken & cream of celery.  I have mixed and matched celery with mushroom, broccoli with mushroom, mushroom and celery, or mushroom and chicken.  Like I said pick your favorites you can’t mess this dish up.

1 package of spaghetti noodles

1 Jar of Cheese sauce, again the actual recipe calls for Cheese Whiz I have used the Ragu Cheddar if you use Ragu or a runny cheese sauce do NOT add milk.  If you use a thick cheese sauce add 1 can of milk.

2 cups of shredded cheddar

If you are using uncooked chicken go ahead and boil or fry it in a quick cook method of your choice.  Add the cans of soup & cheese sauce to a pot and start heating.  Boil your noodles.

Mix everything together and add shredded cheddar to the top.  Bake at 350 for approx 30 to 45 minutes.

Absolute perfection and death by cheese.  But it’s a wonderful way to utilize holiday left overs.   It’s also a great and easy meal anytime.  One of my personal favorite choices.

  Thank you so much Aunt Adeline for sharing this with all of us and I hope you don’t mind my re-post and that many of my cousins will enjoy this one too!

Chicken Tortilla Stacks

This is an old favorite for the last few years in our house. I decided to post the recipe and dedicate this post to Baby Mercy. Her mommy was interested in it and Mercy wants her to share yummy food with her right now. LOL

Okay the recipe was found on the back of a Membership’s Mark can of chicken. I had bought a 6 pack of canned chicken from Sam’s club so I could try a recipe found on Food Network & make some chicken salad sandwiches for lunch. Eventually I got sick of the chicken and needed to use it and saw this on the can. We have made our own adjustments to it, though.

You need 1 can of chicken – I have used chicken strips, or chopping up 1 or 2 chicken breasts and then frying them up in a skillet with a little bit of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. So any kind of chicken you have on hand works very well.

Tortilla’s
Refried Beans
Shredded Cheddar Cheese (we used Mexican cheese tonight)
Salsa
Sour Cream
Cream Cheese (Tonight I actually had on hand the new cooking cream in plain flavor and that worked just as well, I cut back a little on the sour cream using that instead of plain cream cheese though)
Guacamole (Optional layer)
Your Family’s Favorite Toppings for taco night on hand to top these with. I go lighter than taco’s and use some tomato, sour cream, & salsa if I have these but lettuce would work really well on them too. I didn’t have any this evening but fresh cilantro sprinkled on these or in them would add an extra flavor too.

Preheat the oven to 425.

If using fresh chicken meat, go ahead and skillet cook it now. If using pre cooked meats like canned or strips, skip this step.

While it’s heating mix 1/2 cup cream cheese with 1/8 cup sour cream. When it’s mixed well, add 1/2 cup salsa – you know how hot your family likes these meals. You can add a little more or less, I use a mild salsa so I like to go for a very nice light pink color of mixture. Then add chicken.

Using a cookie sheet lay two tortilla’s side by side (like you are making two pizza’s). Spread refried beans on each tortilla (at the end of this process I had a 1/2 can of beans left which I will tell you what to do with while this is cooking)

Sprinkle some shredded cheese over the beans and add a tortilla.

Spread 1/2 of your chicken mixture on each stack you are making. Add another tortilla.

(OPTIONAL Layer) I don’t make this one but if you like guacamole now is the time to spread it on the stacks and add a tortilla or skip this step.

Sprinkle cheese on top tortilla. Slide in the oven for 10 minutes.

While they cook, throw the rest of the beans in a microwave safe bowl with your favorite Taco Bell sauce (you can buy this in a bottle if you don’t want to open 100 leftover packets from Taco Bell but both methods work) sprinkle the top of this with cheese. Microwave 3-4 minutes. These are an excellent side dish to any Mexican style dinner & taste exactly like the old Taco Bell bean side dish they used to offer for 59 cents. (Did I just show my age?)

Take the stacks from the oven and cut them with a pizza cutter in pizza style slices. Top with your toppings and eat.

The whole family loves them and they are really easy. You really can play with the flavors and the ingredients, even the amount of work that you put into the chicken is entirely your choice. There is no method we’ve loved more than the others as far as chicken choices. It’s what you have on hand.

Mars Sweepstakes

Great odds of winning!

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This ends Feb 5, 2012 so enter quick!

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Celebrity Wife Swap Wilson/Gold

Did anyone else catch the premiere episode of this last night? Carnie Wilson from Wilson Phillips & Tracy Gold from Growing Pains swapped homes, families, & lives on wife swap last night.
Shows like this aren’t meant for deep discussion or explaining the meaning of life. They are just about watching absolute train wrecks collide With that in mind – some random, uncensored thoughts as I viewed follow:

1. Two maids later and you’re house still looks like mine. You need to watch Cat in the Hat with your kids and practice the phrase, “Fiiiiirrrreeedddd!”

2. Is Tracy Gold so obsessed with family, order, etc because her entire puberty was spent in “perfect family sitcom” life?

3. Listen up little dude if you are big enough to worry friends will laugh at your “Santa” shirt, you are big enough to march your butt to the dresser and pull out your own clothes to wear for the day. In fact, you probably should.

4. I defend/like overweight celebs but seriously all big people don’t fart, belch, and act like un-mannered slobs. That irritates me and grosses me out. Stop it. Don’t talk about your farts, say excuse me and move on. Don’t bend over and do it like you are on stage getting groceries. Gross. Stop trying to shart yourself.

5. “From what I gather Tracy & her husband are together every minute of the day where Carnie & I just hook up at the end of the day.” She’s your wife, not your bootie call.

6. Poor Carnie, she thought the flowers were for her and her husband could barely be bothered to come out of his music room and go get her much less take her flowers.

7. Tracy and her husband almost made Baby #5 at the meet up in front of the other couple & camera’s.

8. Tracy lying for him was beautiful. He didn’t talk about you, he talked about himself & his creative side. Sorry. You deserve someone who loves more than the luxury of laziness your money has bought him.

9. How awkward for the Golds to become their marriage counselor.

10. While it followed the wife swap format it did cut off some rules and they didn’t show us any change follow ups but then again, I didn’t really expect much to change in these two families unless Rob throws away his “me, me” mirrors and starts being a part of his family.

Let’s Talk Stuffing……

Stuffing is the one thing the traditionalist will make sure is on the table on Thursday.  But how do you like yours?

My mom was a devoted fan of Stove Top.  I didn’t even know there was another way to make stuffing until after I’d been married a few years.  She never stuffed the bird because my dad hated the stuff and didn’t want it to touch his sacred turkey.

My mother in law is big on tradition.  She & her sisters use their mother’s recipes for most of the Thanksgiving dinner on the years she hosts.  The stuffing is stuffed in the bird and done the old fashioned way.

I tend to be more of an experiment cook.  I will try new things.  I will try old things.  I rarely do the same thing two years in a row where the stuffing is concerned but I’m still on the search for that elusive stuffing that is absolutely perfect.  My sister in law makes one but she now lives 19 hours away and I have yet to bribe her efficiently enough to get her recipe.  Therefore I am left to guess and randomly combine identifiable ingredients until the year I figure it out.

I have tried stuffing the turkey but I just don’t care for it that way.  The stuffing seems overly soggy and mushy.  I want a little bit of texture with my stuffing.  There are the obvious health reasons not to do so as well.

This year I set out with a goal in mind – to rip my sister in law’s recipe off.  I miss her stuffing!!!! Will I be successful? Probably not but maybe seeing my blog post of desperate attempts will cause her heart to have empathy for me?  I set out on a shopping spree to make sure I had everything I could see & taste in her stuffing.  I am all excited and ready to cook it in two days.  Then I realized – I didn’t buy water chestnuts.  And I know there are water chestnuts in her stuffing.   They are crisp and not only have their own flavor but help absorb some of the other ingredients and give you a perfect bite.    So I will be off to the store (or crazy hell known as last minute holiday dinner shopping) to pick those up this evening.

Aside from the forgotten water chestnuts, this is the recipe I intend to test out Thursday, feel free to leave yours! (Especially if you use one similar to this one!)

1 box of Mrs Cubbison’s Stuffing

1 can of chicken broth

1 Tablespoon of Sage

1 package of fresh Baby Bella Mushrooms (sliced)

Fresh Celery (chopped)

Onions (chopped)

A few spoons of butter or Best Life spread

Saute the fresh veggies in a skillet with the butter.  Combine all the ingredients in a casserole dish and bake in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes.  Uncover and bake another 5-10 minutes to “crisp” the top.

 

Update: I decided to whip it up stove top and the cubes got added with the veggies so the texture was a little mushy but the flavors were spot on delicious.  I haven’t made one this good before.  I wound up adding a pinch of nutmeg, a pinch of cinnamon, and sage as seasoning and foregoing the water chestnuts.  I also added a spoon of butter to the finished product.

Free Shirts!

Quick head over to NoMoreRack.com and sign up or sign in with your Facebook account and nab  the completely FREE no shipping, 20.00 YMI Jean Voucher – good on ANY item including clearance.

There are about a half dozen shirts priced at 14.99 so you can get those FREE though you will have to pay aprox 5.00 for shipping.  You can pay using a CC or Paypal.

I think it’s a pretty cute shirt, it’s normal retail is 28.00 so you can’t beat….FREE !!!!

http://www.nomorerack.com/daily_deals/view/51423-ymi_divine_e_voucher_deal

Paula Dean Wins In our House

My mom, bless her heart, tried to text me her recipe for cobbler and it came through as half the ingredients and half the directions.  Her emails weren’t going through on Facebook so we tried giving her a call.  She didn’t answer so in a pinch and craving home made cobbler we turned to Google.

Now my mom doesn’t care for Paula Dean and I have my own theory about why.  It’s because Ms Paula is making money cooking the same style and taste my mom has done all my life.  So when I want something close to my momma’s I know Paula has the answer and she didn’t disappoint.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/peach-cobbler-recipe/index.html

We had to add a tablespoon of baking powder to our flour and we used home canned peaches & pears mixed.  It was the most delicious cobbler I can remember having.  And almost a dead ringer for momma’s! The one thing the recipe left out was telling us how much fruit syrup to use.  So we made a bit of a soup our first try but mom quickly corrected that when she called me this evening.   She suggests 3/4’s of a cup to a cup of syrup is all we needed and that you could forgo the milk and mix the syrup directly into your batter if you wanted a stronger fruit taste.

Daily Checklist for Freebies, Deals, & Coupons

In order to find the great deals, freebies, & coupons without wasting a lot of your own precious time it’s important to have a handy checklist of the Internet resources available to you.  By having a few great sites you check daily, you will save yourself valuable hours in the deal hunt.  There are tons of great promotional products offered by companies.  What could you find in your mailbox soon?  This is a list of my favorite resources which should get you started.

Before you start hunting resources let’s get you registered with a few of the great sites, this will take only a few moments but will have you ready to begin collecting when these sites release new point offers.

<a href=”http://bit.ly/jjH7Mb”><img alt=”Girls125x125″ src=”http://cdn0.crowdtap.com/images/ads/girls125x125.jpg?1308606698&#8243; /></a>

Crowdtap seems to have a vast offering.  For instance you can do the daily quick hits for points to level up, some of these offer cash win chances.  There are also offers to get free tanks from Old Navy if your approved by your application.  The cash you accumulate will also go to support a charity of your choice.  There are other networking offers for cash as well.

http://www.houseparty.com

This website offers you the chance to host parties and they supply your party items.  I’ve seen a lot of freebies offered this way so it’s a win/win.  For instance the 21+ crowd had an opportunity to apply to host for Budweiser on the 4th of July.  There were beer rebates, cups, frisbee’s, and several other freebies in this lot.  There is currently one going for Thai food as well as Norton Back to School – the Norton party could get you 100% free software! And you can enjoy a couple of hours with your friends & family!  What better excuse do you need when someone else is footing the bill?

Welcome to Vocalpoint

This one seems very slow and glitchy but does offer coupons,samples and I haven’t had a chance to fully explore it or enter my referral link for this one 😦

http://www.listia.com/signup/253098

There is no better way to dejunk, declutter YOUR home AND get valuable FREEBIE items than Listia! I highly recommend this website.  List a few things of your own to get started accumulating points.  Then use those points to bid on other people’s decluttering – this can save you a FORTUNE at Christmas and on birthdays!!!! I have gotten Coach purses, PSP/Xbox360/Wii games, brand new dvd’s, clothing and much, much more on this site! It’s sooo easy!

http://www.recyclebank.com/referafriend/?___store=us&bl=S2F0eWJ1ZzI3M0B5YWhvby5jb20=&utm_campaign=Refer-a-friend&utm_medium=direct%20link&utm_source=G3406784&cm_mmc=Refer-a-friend-_-direct%20link-_-G3406784-_-referral

Recyclebank is a great site to gather points.  To gain a lot of points quickly refer to my list of daily freebies as her blog has a lot of the older offers already outlined for you.  It took me about an hour one night to get all of the current point offers built up and you use those free points given to you by companies toward coupons to get free products, discount products, free magazine subscriptions, & even free Club Pogo memberships.  There are a lot of ways to make this site work for you in the free deal hunt!

DisneyRewards.com – there are a lot of ways here to accumulate little points as there are always offers floating around on the web for ways to stack on the points you can then redeem those for Disney rewards.  Great program and well worth starting to collect those points!

Now to the list of check daily on Facebook (look for these pages):

Missouri Coupon Queen – She lists national coupon offers and other great deals!

Freebies 4 mom – her website link is on her page as well and this is the one that will guide you quickly and efficiently through your Recycle bank point system.

Pinching Your Pennies – their website is also linked in.  I live in Utah but they also serve a small group of other states very efficiently.  The grocerysmarts.com checklist they do for comparing your coupons with the weekly grocery ads is invaluable and may even point out some chances to snag a local freebie with your coupons that you have missed.

This seems like a lot of websites and groups/pages but believe me they are true time savers.  I spend about an hour at the most hunting out my freebies & coupons.  I’m too busy to scour the web constantly and visit 200 blogs looking for the information but these pages have made the job so much easier.  Anytime there is a freebie it is outlined with precise links & directions on how to claim your coupon or freebie.  Many companies are now using Facebook as a promotional freebie tool but if you are not in the loop with a few great pages you could miss your opportunity.  Most of the Facebook giveaways are gone within the first 5-15 minutes.  Having pages that alert you when the giveaways have started really makes life simple! And easier for you to gain!

For example when I logged online today at Facebook within the first hour I had gotten in on three great giveaways!  A full size Tide stain remover, a free bottle of Bayer aspirin, & a free sample (6 loads) of Downy.  Not a bad start to the week.

Roasted Mushrooms

The orginal recipe was found here: http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/12/garlic-butter-roasted-mushrooms/

but I realized I only had “most” of the ingredients.  So I made some tweaks and adjustments and they are still delicious! So here’s an option for adapting the above:

3 tbsps olive oil

3 tpbs butter

Baby Bella mushrooms (1 lb)

Fresh Parsley

Fresh Dill

2 cloves of garlic

(we used dill in place of the lemon juice)

we also mixed all the ingredients before roasting.  Instead of adding parsley afterwards.  It took about 15 mins to roast them at 450.