Corn casserole side dish

This is a great dish to bring to a thanksgiving potluck. Hmmmm, exactly what I did last Thursday.
In a mixing bowl, combine:
1 package jiffy corn mix
1 cup sour cream
1 can creamed corn
1 can whole kernal corn not drained
1 stick melted butter.
Mix and pour into a pan. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. If desired, sprinkle grated cheddar on the top and return to the oven for it to melt.

Pumpkin Pie in a Bag

Zachary made this at preschool and loved it, so we gave it a whirl at home, too. It was very fun for the kids, and yummy, too. It would be easy to whip up the pumpkin layer not in a bag, too, if you aren't after the bag experience.

First place graham crackers into a gallon sized ziploc. Since there were 6 of us I used 6 crackers. Zachary told us to crush it with a "roller coaster" and although I think a rolling pin would have worked, we went with the hammer method. In Zachary's class they put them in the bottom of dixie cups. We put them in the bottom of 6 bowls.


In another gallon bag pour 1 1/3 cup cold milk and 2 4oz boxes of instant vanilla pudding. Remove the air, close the bag and squish, squish, squish.

Add 1 15oz can of pumpkin, 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp ginger. Remove air, seal bag, and squish, squish, squish.
Cut a hole in the corner of the bag and squeeze onto the top of the graham crackers. We had enough for 6 healthy servings in the bowls, plus another full bowl left over.

We put them into the fridge to eat after dinner, but they would be ready to eat right away as well. Top with a dollop of whipped cream, if desired.

Food Processor Pizza Dough

I love this pizza dough recipe because it gives you the homemade, yeasty taste of fresh dough, but is ready, start to finish, in less than 45 minutes.

1/2 to 3/4 cup warm water
1 package (or 1 Tbl) yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 cups flour
1 Tbl vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt

Combine 1/4 cup of the water with the yeast and the sugar. Let sit about 5 minutes, or until all bubbly.

Put the flour, oil and salt into the food processor and blend about 10 seconds, or until all combined.

Turn on the food processor and drizzle the remaining water slowly down the tube until the dough forms a ball that cleans the side of the bowl. Knead the dough by letting the ball turn around the bowl 25 times.

Put the dough ball onto a greased pizza pan and cover with a bowl. Let stand 10 minutes.

Pat the dough out into desired shape. I usually make one big pizza, but last night we made 6 personal pizzas. Add desired toppings.

Bake at 425 until the crust is golden and the cheese is bubbly. A full size pizza takes 15-20 minutes. The little ones took under 10.

Playing with the dough. Nathanael's little pizza made several flying trips over his head.

The finished products

Down Home Country Meal

How to make a country meal...
First turn on country music really loud.

Then get the dessert ready first.

Then prepare every stick-to-your-ribs kinda food you can think of. Deep fried chicken:

Potato salad:

Baked beans:

Doritos:

corn casserole with potato chip topping:

Yee-haw!

Muddy Buddies

This one is straight off of the Chex box.

Ingredients:

9 cups Chex (any)
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup PB
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside.

2. In 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag.

3. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

The only thing I did different was separate the mix into 3 1-gallon bags, because I had three shakers. Interestingly, all three bags turned out a bit different. The more vigorously they were shaken the darker they looked.

Potato Chip Casserole

This one is delicious but not for those on a diet...

In a large bowl, combine 4 chicken thighs (cooked and cut into small pieces), 3/4 standard bag of hash brown style potatoes, 8 oz sour cream, 1 can cream of chicken, and 2 cups cheddar cheese. Spread into a baking pan and cook for 30 min at 350 degrees. THEN crush Ruffle potato chips and stir them together with melted butter (you could probably skip the butter part, it was good but very greasy). Spread chips on top and bake another 20 minutes.

Hawaiian Chicken

This one is similar to Suzi's Russian chicken.

In a large bowl, mix 3/4 large bottle of California or Catalina dressing (you can substitute Russian if you want but it makes it more tangy and less sweet), 1/2 jar of apricot pineapple preserves, and one packet of dry onion soup mix. I usually put the mixture in the microwave for a minute to soften the preserves... makes it easier to stir!

Pour over chicken breasts in a glass baking pan. Top with pineapple rings and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

For extra fun, wear a hawaiian shirt and mix a tropical cocktail!

Yummy Yams

I saw a recipe in a magazine for sweet potato crunch, but of course, I didn't have all the ingredients or the time to make it according to the recipe. So I'll start with the original recipe, and then follow up with what I did.

4 each - sweet potatoes (8 - 9 oz each)
1 1/2 cups vanilla non fat yogurt
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
2/3 cups low fat granola
Cooking spray

1-Place washed sweet potatoes in the oven and back at 350 for approx 40-60 minutes, or until they are soft to the touch. After they have cooled remove the skin.

2-Place the sweet potato flesh in a mixing bowl. Add yogurt, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Whip with a mixer until well mixed.

3- Spray baking dish with cooking spray. Scoop potato mixture into the dish. Sprinkle granola on top and coat with cooking spray.

4- Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes.


What I did....

Peel and cube two huge yums. Boil until fork tender. Drain and place into a mixing bowl along with a heaping scoop of vanilla yogurt, a sprinkle of cinnamon, a sprinkle of nutmeg, and about a tsp of salt. Beat with the mixer until fluffy. Either serve promptly or put into a baking dish and into the oven to keep warm.

Pumpkin bread

Lucas found the recipe on-line... it's really easy and really yummy.

Ingredients
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups white sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two bread pans. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
Bake for about 60 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Chicken Taco Soup

K...its really hard for me to post recipes because I NEVER follow one! This started out as Patty Thomas' chicken tortilla soup and it evolved into something like this!

1/2 cup chopped onion
3 garlic cloves
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped green or red peppers
1 sm. can green chilies
I've done without the celery, green chilies and/ or the peppers before and its fine.
3 or 4 cups cooked, cut up chicken
a box of chicken broth, or a couple cans (about 3 or 4 cups)
jar of spaghetti sauce
taco seasoning packet
1 cup sr. cream

So...obviously, you boil the chicken (I've used this leftover liquid for the broth too, maybe just adding a boullion cube or two), cut it up.
Saute the veggies in a bit of olive oil(except green chilies)
then just dump all ingredients (except sr. cream)back in the pot. I usually add several cups of water to the pot at this point. Can adjust spice level by adding more or less taco seasoning.
Simmer for an hour or so. Remove from heat and when its stopped boiling gradually stir in 1 cup of sr. cream.
Serve with crushed tortilla chips and shredded cheddar cheese and an extra dollop of sr. cream if desired.
The hubby and I LOVE this, my older two kids LOVE it, my younger two kids won't touch it! Can't win em' all.
I'll post a picture soon!

Oreo Bark

After I made the Oreo truffles I had extra melted almond bark and Oreo crumbies, so I stirred them together, spread it on some wax paper, let it cool in the fridge, and broke it into bite sized pieces. It was pretty tasty, too! Definitely the way to go with the leftovers, but would also make a VERY easy dessert.

Oreo Truffles

These are SO easy and SO good! Especially impressive for a three ingredient recipe.

Take one 1 box of Oreos (or if you get the big Costco one use three tubes.) Toss them all into a food processor and blend until you get a fine powder. It will look like the bowl on the left. The white cream filling just blends right in. Leave three cups in the food processor and set the rest aside.

Add one 8oz block of softened cream cheese to the food processor and blend it together. It will now look like the food processor on the right of the picture.
Roll into 1" balls. I used my trusty cookie scoop and then just rolled the edges a bit.

Melt either chocolate chips or white almond bark. (I doubled the recipe, so did some of each.) Dip the balls into the melted chocolate, and place onto cookie sheets covered in wax paper. Sprinkle with the extra Oreo crumbs. Refrigerate for at least an hour.