Black Bean Chili Over Rice

I got this recipe from a roommate in college.  I'm not really sure how it qualifies as chili... but, oh well.


Ingredients:
1 onion
2 celery stalks
1 green pepper
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup water
1 can (14 oz.) stewed tomatoes
1 can (15 oz.) black beans (rinsed and drained)
1/4 tsp (or more) chili powder
rice

Directions:
Saute onion, celery and green pepper in 1 Tbsp. olive oil.  Add water and simmer until veggies are tender.  Add stewed tomatoes and black beans.  Stir in chili powder.  Simmer 5 minutes.  Serve over rice. 

Serves 4.

Chicken and Rice Stir-fry

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp salad oil
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1 1/2 cups diced, cooked chicken
1 cup uncooked rice
1/8 tsp peper
2 cups hot water
1 1/2 cups shredded lettuce or spinach
2 Tbsp soy sauce

Directions:
Cook together oil and garlic salt in large frying pan/wok.  Add cooked chicken, uncooked rice, pepper and hot water.  Mix, just to moisten rice.  Bring to a quick boil. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. 

Just before serving add: lettuce (or spinach) and soy sauce. Toss lightly.

Variations: Use diced turkey, ham or beef in place of chicken.  Add additional vegetables such as grated carrots, peas or bean sprouts.

Apple Recipe Round-up

So far, I've made:
2 quarts of apple sauce (recipe)
6 cups of apple butter (recipe)
1 apple pie (and one frozen apple pie filling) (recipe plus my
     favorite apple picture books)
1 batch of apple bundles (recipe)
Apple Chicken Curry (recipe)

Still to make:
Apple Dumplings (recipe)
Apple Bread/Muffins (recipe)  - yummy, but not as good as a remembered it
Apple and Onion Stuffin' with pork chops (recipe) - 
     yummy, although I like the stuffing recipe further down the list better.
Apple Pie Pastries (recipe)
Apple-Stuffed French Toast (recipe)
Mini Caramel Apples (recipe)
Apple Fritters (recipe)
My sister-in-law's Thanksgiving Stuffing (sort of, but not quite,
      like this recipe)  -yummy, even my husband, who HATES stuffing, liked it.
Apple Strudel Muffins (recipe) - can't find cinnamon chips anywhere!
Sour Cream Apple Bars (recipe)-  
     YUMMY!  I would use all the apples I have remaining (about a peck) to make these over and over again if it didn't mean getting extremely fat and not trying any other recipes.
Apple Fritters (recipe) - Yummy!

Apple recipes I love, but probably won't get around to this time:
Glazed Apple Pie Squares (recipe)
Carver Salad (recipe)
Taffy Apple Pizza (recipe)
Apple Dip (recipe)*
Candy Bar Apple Salad (recipe)

Apples recipes I plan to try, just maybe not this time:
Caramel Apple Crisp (recipe)
Apple Crisp (recipe)
Peabody's Apple Turnovers (recipe)
A list of Martha Stewart Apple recipes that caught my eye (here)
Upside Down Apple Tart (recipe)
Candied Apple Pie Cheesecake (recipe)
Apple Turnovers  (recipe)
Bavarian Apple Tort (a friend's recipe, but close to recipe
      minus the raspberry jam and switch out almonds for walnuts)
Caramel Apple Sticky Buns (recipe)
Apple Dumplings (recipe)
Apple Fritter (recipe)


*The recipe I use is my friend Kristi's, but it's very similar to the one I link to.  The main difference is it makes a smaller batch and uses white sugar in addition to brown.  I should also note, this freezes well.  I actually have a little tub in my freezer I should pull out to dip all our apples in.

Kelley's Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

1 lb. cooked, shredded chicken (boil chicken with garlic, onion, & lime)

2 cans cream chicken soup

12 oz. sour cream

½ envelope of Lawry’s Mild Taco Seasoning

1 ½ cups cheddar cheese

10-12 flour tortillas

Directions:

In a bowl, mix soup and sour cream. Take out ½ and set aside. Add shredded chicken, taco seasoning, and half cheese to soup mixture. From the set aside soup mixture... use about ¼ of that to “grease” your 9x13 pan. Roll about ½ cup of chicken mixture into tortillas. Place in dish. Cover with remaining soup mixture... especially edges. Sprinkle with remaining cheddar cheese. Bake at 350 for 20-25 min. Serve with olives, salsa, sour cream, etc.

Chicken Tortellini Casserole

Ingredients:

4 boneless chicken breasts

9 oz. package of tortellini (frozen or refrigerated)*

4 oz. Mushrooms (optional)

4 green onions, chopped

½ cube butter, melted

1 cup sour cream

1 can cream of mushroom soup**

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 ½ cups grated cheddar cheese

Directions:

Saute chicken breasts in skillet, seasoned with garlic, salt and pepper. Cut into bite sized pieces. Boil tortellini according to package directions and drain. Mix all ingredients together, using half the grated cheese to sprinkle on top. Place in buttered casserole dish. Bake at 350 until hot and bubbly (20-30 min.).

I've also steamed little pieces of broccoli before and baked it in with the casserole. Yum.

*I usually double the amount of tortellini.

**I use two cans of cream of chicken soup because I'm anti-mushroom.

Pioneer Woman's Ranch Style Chicken

PW's Ranch Style Chicken (review: Yum. A little too mustardy for me, but I hate mustard. And it was still delicious. Plus the kids all gobbled it up, and that's always a plus.)

Orange Chicken

Orange Chicken (review: Super yummy, but I wish the orange flavor had been stronger. But still the best orange chicken I've ever had that wasn't from an actual Chinese restaurant.)

Chicken and Pasta

Chicken and Pasta Dinner -I got my recipe from a church recipe exchange, but, minus the crock pot, it seems a lot like this one I linked to and this one. (review: this is a lot like Penne Rustica (which we've all LOVED) but Princess Sparkley and Jed both said they preferred this version).

Enchilada Lasagna

Made this for dinner tonight and loved it!

Sorry, my mom just pointed out that this recipe is only visible to Taste of Home subscribers. I don't want to just copy and paste, so basically, this is my version of it.

1-1.5 lbs. ground beef cooked with onions and garlic (to your taste)
Add one 14.5 oz. can of chopped, stewed tomatoes and 10 oz. of enchilada sauce.
Simmer for about 20 minutes.

Mix 1 1/2 cups cottage cheese and one egg.

Have ready: Flour tortillas, 3 cups of shredded cheeses.

Layer in a 9x13 pan: meat, cheese, tortillas, cottage cheese, meat, cheese, tortillas, cottage cheese, meat, cheese. About three layers each.

Cover and bake for 20 minutes at 350, remove cover and bake 10 more minutes. Cool slightly before cutting.

Chicken Pot Pie

But before I go, here's tonight's recipe:

Old-Fashioned Chicken Potpie

Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup flour
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1-1/2 cups water
2/3 cup milk
2 tsp chicken bouillon granules (about 3 cubes?)
2 cups cubed, cooked chicken
1 cup veggies (I like carrots, green beans, corn)

Pastry Ingredients:
1-2/3 cups flfour
2 tsp. celery seed
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, cubed
1/2 cup cold butter

Directions:
In a saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour, garlic, salt and pepper until blended. Gradually stir in water, milk and bouillon. Bring to a boil; boil and stir for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in chicken and veggies; set aside.

For pastry, combine flour and celery seed in a bowl. Cut in cream cheese and butter until crumbly. Work mixture by hand until dough forms a ball. On a lightly floured surface, roll two-thirds of dough into a 12 inch square. (Or, if you suck at making crusts like I do, I cheat and roll it out directly in my square pan.) Transfer to an 8 inch square baking dish. Pour filling into crust. Roll remaining dough into 9 inch square; place over filling. Trim, seal, and flute edges. Cut slits in pastry.

Bake at 425 for 30-35 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Serves 6.

Crockpot Roast

*

image from www.Target.com

One of the nice things about living close to family is never having to cook fancy Sunday or Holiday meals. I'm all about desserts, but meals, involving meat, not my strong point. So when we moved to Kansas almost three years ago I started making roasts in my crockpot. Which was not how my parents did it, but I didn't have any oven proof pots (which is how they cook their roasts). I now like to think that I've become an expert on roasts. Not really. I have no idea how to pick a good roast, I like it when they turn out stringy and that only happens about 1/3 of the time. But the potatoes turn out great, and that's my favorite part. And I've become rather successful at gravy making, last night's gravy turned out fabulously. I don't really have a roast recipe, but here's the gist of it.

Sunday Pot Roast

Ingredients:
Roast
Carrots
Potatoes
Onions
Garlic
Lipton's Onion Soup mix**
Water
2 TBSP flour
Lawry Seasoning Salt

Directions:
Cut onions into huge chunks (the easier to pick them out for those of us who hate onions), peel a few cloves of garlic, peel potatoes, get a couple handfuls of baby carrots. Throw all of this into the crockpot. Meanwhile, flour your roast and brown it on all sides in a frying pan. Place roast in crockpot. Mix onion soup mix with water (following directions on soup mix), pour over top of everything. Cover and cook 5-6 hours on high, 8-9 hours on low.

For the gravy, remove about 2-3 cups of juice from crockpot to a pot. Whisk two tablespoons of flour with 1/4 cup water* and add to juices. Stir constantly over high heat until thickened. Cool slightly.

Sprinkle Lawry's Seasoning Salt on potatoes and meat. So tastey. That's my brother's addiction, well, my whole family's really. Lawry's Seasoning Salt.

*As for crockpots... mine is way too small. It's the 4-5 quart variety, which seemed huge when registering for it for our wedding when there was just the two of us and I wasn't really sure what to do with a crockpot. Now, when I make a roast the lid hardly fits on because I use so many potatoes to ensure that I get a ton. I need to invest in a much larger crockpot but need the cupboard space first.

**There's a roast recipe on the back of the soup mix, I basically follow that. For the gravy as well.

Chicken and Rice Casserole for a Crowd

Recipe for a meal?? you ask! Yes, I'm actually posting a recipe for a non-dessert item. Shocking, but true. This is actually what I'm making right now. It's a different spin on a chicken and rice casserole and my kids really like it (as long as I cut the green things big enough for them to pick out). This is doubled and makes two 9x13 casseroles (I half it.*) So it's called...

Chicken and Rice Casserole for a Crowd

Ingredients:

6 boneless chicken breasts, cooked and cut in bite size pieces
2/3 cup chopped celery
6 green onions, chopped
2 TBSP lemon juice
1/2 cups maynnaise
1 cup evaporated milk
4 cups cooked rice
3 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cups Pepperidge Farm herb stuffing mix
1 cup slivered almonds (optional)
1 cube butter

Directions:
Mix first 8 ingredients (all but stuffing, almonds and butter). Divide mixture and place in two 9x13 casserole dishes. Make topping by melting butter and adding stuffing mix and almonds. Sprinkle topping on both casseroles. Bake at 35o for 30 minutes.

*I made up this perfect table showing the halved recipe and the huge recipe and how much for each, but Blogger won't allow the HTML and I'm not HTML fluent enough (or at all) to fix it. So sorry.

Pizza Bubble Ring

image from food.yahoo.com

Jed is in some tiny class this semester that is basically discussing the economics of the current financial crisis. Each week someone is in charge of bringing refreshments. He joked that yesterday's refreshments should be bubble themed since they were talking about some sort of bubble dealing with the topic... he's explained it all to me, but it's too early for my mind to function on that high of an intellectual level right now. You can ask him if you really want to know.

Anyways, he joked about bubble theme food, and then ended up being assigned the refreshments for that meeting. I got the fun challenge of bubble foods. Yea. His first thought was cream puffs, but was worried that the people in the class (half girls) would be the kind of people who would freak out about fattening, treat foods. So I did a Google search for bubble food recipes and landed on this one. I made it for us and then another batch for his class. Yum. And even though I made it twice, I only remembered to take one picture (not the one above) and it's when they are in dough stage, waiting in another dish to be put into the fluted tube pan. Whoops. Oh well, the picture on the website that I posted above is much better anyway.

My adjustments to the recipe:
Cover with tin foil for the first half or so of baking so the top ones don't get to brown. They aren't really burnt without the tin foil, but to my kids, they are.

And I made Trailer Trash Truffles... also ball or bubble shaped.

Creamy Italian Crockpot Chicken

*This isn't the exact recipe, although I thought this was the blog where I got my recipe. Here's how I make it:

Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts**
1 packet Good Seasons Italian dressing mix (an envelope of powder)
8 oz. cream cheese ***
2 cans cream of chicken soup
egg noodles

Directions:
In a crockpot, cook 3 chicken breasts sprinkled with dressing mix for about 3 hours. Shred chicken and return it to the crockpot. Add 8 oz. of cream cheese and two cans of cream of chicken soup***. Cook an additional 2-3 hours. Serve over egg noodles.***

**The original recipe I found called for frozen chicken breasts. The first time I made this recipe I made it this way and it turned out fine, I just used the full time so it was cooking 6-7 hours. But I worry about frozen chicken in a crockpot, so this time the chicken I used wasn't frozen and after the first 3 hours with just Italian dressing seasoning, it seemed a bit dry as I was shredding it... but turned out fine once everything else was added in.

*** Since we're trying to be healthy and all, I used 1/3 fat cream cheese and fat free, low sodium cream of chicken soup and served it on top of whole wheat noodles.

Bacon-Wrapped Corn Dogs

Can you feel your arteries clogging? It reminds me a bit of this creation Cristin and Erik made. The recipe name actually sounds worse than this picture makes them seem.

click picture to enlarge

This recipe is from Kraft Foods Food and Family magazine, Holiday 2007. I couldn't find it online with a picture, so I had to scan it in for you all to enjoy how much prettier these are than when you just do a google search for a bacon wrapped corn dog.