Lorraina's Pico de Gallo

Again a recipe I received from my friend Lorraina while in Nebraska. Lorraina is originally from Mexico and therefore knows how to cook excellent Mexican food!

Ingredients:
2 big tomatoes
1/4 white onion
2 jalepenos
1 tsp cilantro

Directions:
Dice the ingredients and mix together!

Southwest Chicken Salad or Wrap

We essentially got this recipe while in Nebraska from Lorraine and we tried it last night. It was wonderful. Brian didn't think we had enough lettuce for both of us, so he put a little bit of salad in his but ate it as a wrap. Either way, it was delicious... sorry there aren't any pictures currently.

Ingredients:
1 big bag of salad mix
pico de gallo
cheese
1/2 a pound of chicken
Pampered Chef Southwestern seasoning mix
Olive oil
Tortilla chips
Ranch dressing

Directions:

1. Place chicken in a hot skillet with olive oil. Sprinkle PC seasoning mix over the chicken and cook until done.

2. Remove chicken and place in your salad with pico de gallo, cheese, a few crunched up tortillia chips and serve with ranch dressing.

It was so amazingly easy!

*Note- For ingredients to Lorraina's Pico de Gallo see previous post*

Chicken Fettiuccini Alfredo

Takes about 30-45 minutes... not bad for a whole meal!

Ingredients:
1 jar of Alfredo sauce
5 chicken strips
1 head of broccoli
1/2 a tomato or 6-7 cherry tomatoes
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
Olive oil

Directions:

1. Pour olive oil in a skillet and cook your chicken until the inside is no longer pink and it's easy to shred with a fork.

2. Shred the chicken into small pieces and add broccoli and tomatoes. Add more olive oil if necessary, cook until vegetables are soft. About 3-5 minutes.

3. Pour in Alfredo sauce and add seasoning. Stir while skillet is hot for about a minute, mixing everything together

4. Boil water and add fettuccine noodles- following directions on the box. Serve with sauce.

You can make it healthier by adding more vegetables and/or finding an Alfredo sauce that isn't loaded in calories. The Alfredo sauce is the LEAST healthy thing in the pasta.

Something you can also add is bacon. I know that prevents it from being as healthy, but it does add to the flavor!

Sunflower Cake

This would be the perfect cake to make on Kansas Day (January 29)! It's really simple.

Ingredients:

1 box chocolate cake mix

Everything necessary to make the above chocolate cake mix (i.e. water, oil, eggs)

1 container of chocolate icing

About 15 or 16 Peeps (the yellow chicks)

And less than a bag of chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Follow the directions and make the cake mix. Make sure you put the cake mix in a round pan.

2. Frost the cake once it has cooled

3. Place the Peeps on the edge of the cake (butts facing out... just think... "butt out")

4. Then in the center place your chocolate chips with the top part up.

5. Have fun doing this. Since it was Easter time I couldn't help having a little fun with the eggs before I broke them.

Homemade Cornbread & Honey Butter

Here is another 'knock-off' recipe, but this one comes from Marie Callender. It was so easy to make and with the honey butter it was divine. I didn't make my own honey butter, but I will supply their recipe for it... but I bought Country Crock's Honey Spread... which is essentially the same thing. So if you want to slack a bit (like me), you can probably just pick up the honey butter from the grocery store.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups cornmeal
2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 cups sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 whole milk
1/4 cup shortening
1 egg

Honey Butter:
1 stick of butter
1/3 cup honey

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees

2. Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl and mix together

3. Add milk, shortening, and egg and mix only until all the ingredients are well combined

4. Pour batter into a greased 8 x 8 pan (I just used a small round pan that I had)

5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown, let cool and serve with honey butter

Honey Butter directions:

1. Combine honey and butter together and mix with a mixer on high speed until its smooth and fluffy

... or ... buy it at the grocery store (my slacker method) :)

Spicy Cajun Chicken Pasta

This is a knock-off of TGIF's receipe, and let me tell you it is AMAZING! It feeds 2 people very very generous portions!

Ingredients:
4 Tbsp. butter
1 bell pepper diced
1/2 white onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, diced
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 tsp. olive oil
1 med. tomato diced
4-6 mushrooms, diced (optional)
1 cup chicken broth or 1 boullion cube
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. thyme
4 to 6 quarts water
1/2 package of noodles

Directions:

1. Melt 2 Tbsp. butter in skillet and saute' bell pepper, onion, and garlic until vegetables begin to soften (about 5 minutes)

2. Cut chicken into bite size pieces and place in chicken in the skillet with the olive oil. Stir 5 to 7 minutes and make sure the chicken isn't pink or raw

3. Once vegetables are soft and the chicken is done, combine them together and add tomatoes, mushrooms (optional), salt, cayenne pepper, pepper, and thyme

4. Allow it to simmer for 10-12 minutes until it thickens

5. In the meantime, pour your water into a large pot and bring to a boil

6. Add noodles to cook and then remove (10-12 minutes)

7. Drain the noodles, add butter, and then serve the chicken-vegetable sauce over the top of the noodles.

Overall, I was able to dice everything and get it cooked in about 45 minutes. Not a super quick, but definitely worth it. And with all the vegetables it's fairly healthy and Sophie ate it. I didn't think it was that hot... but some might want to tone down the peppers if they find it too spicy. But for your first attempt... try it using all the ingredients, and then taste, because I really didn't find it too spicy.

Sweet & Tangy Loose BBQ Beef

Ingredients:

7 lbs. beef chuck roast
1 c. water
3 Tbsp. white vinegar
4 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. dry mustard
4 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
3 c. ketchup
2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (aka- red pepper)
6 cloves garlic, minced

Directions:

1. Place roast in slow cooker with water. Cover and cook on LOW for 4 hours or until beef shreds easily with a fork.

2. Shred beef and remove fat. Remove 1/2 c. of the broth. (Removed broth maybe used later to add to beef to keep moist if necessary).

3. Add vinegar, brown sugar, dry mustard, worecestershire sauce, and ketchup and place in crockpot.

4. Mix salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and garlic. Then place in crockpot and mix with the meat so it is well coated.

5. Cover and cook beef on LOW for 4-6 more hours. Add broth if necessary if meat appears to be going dry.

6. Serve on toasted buns.

*No picture available*