Chicken Taco Filling

1 packet taco seasoning (4 tbsp. bulk seasoning)
1 c. chicken broth
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts
Dissolve taco seasoning in chicken broth. Place chicken breasts in Crockery Pot and pour chicken broth over.

Cover and cook on low 6 - 8 hours.

With two forks, shred the chicken meat into bite-sized pieces.

Use in any kind of tacos, burritos, nachos, taco salad or anything else.

You might want to increase the recipe and freeze some. Put shredded meat in freezer bags with juice. Press all the air out and seal.

Cuban Style Monte Cristos

Adapted from Rachaelrayshow.com
I saw this yesterday on her show and I decided to make it for dinner! I loved it!

Ingredients
5 tablespoons butter, divided
1 clove garlic, finely chopped or pasted
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk, divided
1/4 cup yellow mustard
8 slices good quality sliced white bread
8 thin deli slices of Swiss cheese
8 thin deli slices baked ham
8 thin deli slices of smoked turkey or roast pork
4 thin horizontal slices of dill pickles or slice your own from 1 pickle or use store-bought sandwich stacker sliced pickles
3 eggs
Yields: Serves 4

Preparation

In a small pot over medium heat, melt 3 tablespoons butter. Add garlic, sauté 2 minutes then whisk in flour and cook 1 minute. Whisk in about 1 1/4 cups milk and let thicken 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in mustard and turn off heat.
Spread yellow mustard béchamel on 8 slices of bread. Build sammies with 2 slices Swiss, ham, turkey or pork and sliced pickle. In a shallow dish, whisk together eggs and remaining 1/4 cup milk.

Heat large skillet or griddle over medium heat. Add remaining 2 tablespoons butter and melt. Turn sandwiches in the egg and milk mixture and add them to the pan. Cook 3-4 minutes on each side, until deep golden brown.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Adapted from foodnetwork.com
I love these as a breakfast food: I add a fried egg, cheddar cheese, and either sausage, bacon or ham
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 heaping tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup mashed cooked sweet potatoes
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) softened butter
2 to 4 tablespoons milk (depending on the moisture of the potatoes)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate, large bowl, mix the sweet potatoes and butter. Add the flour mixture to the potato mixture and mix to make a soft dough. Then add milk a tablespoon at a time to mixture and continue to cut in. Turn the dough out onto a floured board and toss lightly until the outside of the dough looks smooth. Roll the dough out to 1/2-inch thick and cut with a biscuit cutter. Place the biscuits on a greased pan and coat tops with melted butter. Bake for about 15 minutes. (Watch your oven: If the biscuits are browning too fast, lower the temperature.)

Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients:
1 Stick of Margarine melted
1 Cup of Sugar
1 Cup Pumpkin
2 Cups Flour
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Cup butterscotch chips (or chocolate chips if you prefer)

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 400 Degrees, grease cookie sheet
2) Mix all ingredients together in medium mixing bowl
3) Drop by teaspoonfuls onto the greased cookie sheet
4) Bake 10-12 min

Yields: 3-4 dozen

Tuxedo Brownie Cups

Pampered Chef Style
1 package (19-21 oz) fudge brownie mix (plus ingredients to make mix)
2 squares (1 oz each) white chocolate for baking
2 tablespoons milk
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup thawed, frozen whipped topping
1 pint small strawberries, sliced
orange zest, mint leaves, melted semi-sweet chocolate for baking
(optional)*

1. Preheat oven to 325. Spray cups of deluxe mini-muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray. Prepare brownie mix according to directions for cake-like brownies. Using small scoop, fill each cup 2/3 full. Bake 14 minutes or until edges are set (do not overbake).

2. Remove pan to cooling rack. Immediately press tops of brownie with tart shaper to make indentations. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Loosen edges and gentle remove the brownies from pan. Cool completely. Repeat with remaining batter.

3. Microwave white chocolate and milk, uncovered on high 1 minute; stir until smooth. Cool slightly. Combine cream cheese and powdered sugar; mix well. Gradually stir in white chocolate mixture until smooth. Fold in whipped topping.

4. Pipe mixture into cooled brownie cups using the Easy Accent Decorator (or other piping tool). Arrange strawberry slices on top. Garnish as desired. Place in airtight container and refrigerate 1-3 hours before serving.

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

INGREDIENTS

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil (I substituted this with one cup of applesauce for a low fat version and the still tasted great)
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 12x18 inch half sheet pan.
2. In a large bowl, using a wooden spoon, mix together the eggs, oil (or applesauce), sugar and pumpkin until well blended. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg; stir into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until bars spring back when lightly touched. Cool before frosting and cutting into bars.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese (I use light)

8 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Blend together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in powdered sugar and vanilla

Chocolate-Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies

I found this yummy recipe on my friend's recipe blog Click here to check it out!
Adapted from Food Network

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 4 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 3 cups oatmeal
• Waxed paper

Directions

In a heavy saucepan bring to a boil, the sugar, cocoa, butter and milk. Let boil for 1 minute then add peanut butter, vanilla and oatmeal. On a sheet of waxed paper, drop mixture by the teaspoonfuls, until cooled and hardened.

Pumpkin Spiced Cream Cheese Breakfast Rolls

Adapted from http://picky-palate.com

4 0z cream cheese, softened

1/4 Cup brown sugar

1/4 Cup canned pumkin (Libby’s)

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Unroll crescent rolls to form 4 rectangles placed side by side. Pinch seams together to form one long rectangle. Place cream cheese, brown sugar, pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg into a mixer; beat until well combined. Spread mixture over crescents leaving a 1/2 inch border around edges. Starting at long end, roll up then cut into 1 inch pieces. Place around 2 9 inch cake pans that have been sprayed with cooking spray. I left the centers open so the rolls form a circle.

2. Bake for 28-30 minutes or until rolls are golden brown. Remove and let cool for 10 minutes. Frost warm rolls with cream cheese frosting recipe below.

Frosting

4 oz softened cream cheese

1/2 Cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 Tablespoon canned pumpkin (Libby’s)

1. Mix all ingredients into a large bowl until smooth. Spread over warm rolls.

Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

6 chicken breasts (cooked and shredded) *

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1-2 cups sour cream (use more if you like sour cream)

1 can green chiles

1 large onion chopped (I like it with green onions)

1 can olives, chopped

2-3 cups cheese of your preference

12 tortilla shells

1 can green or red enchilada sauce, (I omit this and they still taste great!)

Crock Pot Directions:

*I like to cook frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot with the soups, green chiles, and onions for about 4hrs on low! Once chicken is cooked I shred it, then add the sour cream, cheese, and olives; mix all together!

If cooking chicken by boiling or other method:

Mix in a bowl:

cooked chicken, soups, green chiles, onion, olives, and about 1 1/2 cups of cheese

Fill tortilla shells with filling

Roll and put into 13x9 in greased pan

Now pour desired enchilada sauce on top with lots of cheese

Bake at 350 degreese for about 40 min

White Chicken Chili

Tonight we had a ward Chili cook-off and I won first place!! I had a few people ask for this recipe, so here it is!

Ingredients

• 1 32-ounce box chicken stock
• 3 cans white beans, left undrained
• 5 cups cooked chicken, shredded (rotisserie or boiled, I cooked mine in the crockpot a few hours before with the chicken broth)
• 1 16-ounce jar salsa....I LOVE Jack's Special Salsa from Costco...YUM!!
• 1 8-ounce block pepper jack cheese, grated
• 2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Black or white pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup finely crushed corn tortilla chips (optional, if you like your chili thicker)
• Sour cream, for garnish

Yields: 6 servings

Directions:

Place all ingredients except the corn chips in a crockpot.

Cook on high until the cheese is melted.

Chili may also be cooked on the stovetop over

medium-high heat until cheese is melted.

When the chili is ready, add the crushed corn chips,

if using, and simmer for 10 minutes

to thicken. Garnish with more chips, cheese and/or

sour cream and serve.

Hershey Bar Pie

There are so many different Hershey Bar Pie recipes out there, but here is my version!! It has a cream cheese layer on the bottom...which is my personal favorite!

Ingredients:

1 Graham Cracker Crust

8 oz Cream Cheese or the low fat version, softened

1 cup Powdered sugar

1 Large Tub whipped topping

1 Large Hershey Bar with Almonds

Directions:

1) Mix softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, and 1 cup whipped topping in medium bowl until smooth, spoon into bottom of pie crust

2) Break up hershey bar into top of double boiler over high heat and add a splash of milk, stir until melted. or melt in microwave for 30 min or until melted..be careful not to burn

3) Fold melted chocolate into the remainder of whipped topping

4) Spread chocolate mixture on top of cream cheese mixture, refridgerate or freeze for at least an hour.

When ready to serve decorate with redi-whip and chocolate shavings if you like! Enjoy!

Grilled Corn and Avocado Salsa

My husband brought home this recipe from work the other day! They had it as a sample there and he loved it! So i had to try it out! They actually got this recipe from weightwatchers.com, so it is tasty and pretty healthy!

Ingredients:

3 Medium corn on the cob, grilled, cooled to room temperature (we don't have a grill so I just used 1 can of corn)

1/2 cup scallion or green onion, chopped

1 medium jalapeno pepper,cored, seeded and minced (I omitted this my to cut down on the heat)

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (I omitted this too because I didn't have any on hand)

1 small garlic clove, minced

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1 medium avocado, ripe, peeled, pitted and cut into 1/2 (or for more of a guacamole texture mash up a little)

2 Tbsp Cilantro, fresh, minced

Directions:

1) if using corn on the cob break each ear of corn in half; place flat end on corn and use a sharp paring knife to slice kernels off

2) Place kernals or can of corn into medium bowl; add scallion, jalapeno, red pepper flakes, garlic, cumin, salt and pepper

3) Cover and refrigerate if not using right away

4) Just before serving stir in avocado, lime juice and cilantro.

Yields about 1/4 cup per serving (8 servings)

2 WW Points per serving

Funeral Potatoes

Ingredients:

1 32 oz bag frozen potatoes ( I like to use southern style hash browns)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

16 oz sour cream

1 cup of shredded cheese (I like cheddar)

1.5 cups of corn 0f corn flakes *optional

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees

2. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl

3. Bake 1.5- 2hrs depending on oven

4. Sprinkle corn flakes on top and bake for another 10 min

Thanks Ashley for the great recipe! :)

Caramel Pecan Pie

At Thanksgiving last year, a friend made this yummy pie and I couldn't get enough of it!!

28 Kraft Caramel Squares

¼ cup Water

¼ cup Butter or Margarine

¾ cup Sugar

¼ teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Vanilla

2 Eggs, beaten

1 cup Pecan Halves

1 - 8 inch Unbaked Pie Shell

Melt caramel squares in water with butter over low heat. Stir until sauce is smooth. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, salt, vanilla and eggs. Gradually add caramel sauce to sugar mixture. Mix well, and then stir in pecan halves. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake at 325 degrees for approximately 40 – 45 minutes. Let cool until pie sets up. Enjoy!

Basic Crepes

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter; beat until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.
3. Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Serve hot.

Click here to view All Recipes website!

NEIMAN-MARCUS COOKIES

(Recipe may be halved)

2 cups butter
24 oz . Chocolate chips
4 cups flour
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp. Soda
1 tsp. Salt
2 cups sugar
1 8 oz. Hershey Bar (grated)
5 cups blended oatmeal
4 eggs
2 tsp. Baking powder
2 tsp. Vanilla
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)

Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the
butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour,
oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda Add chocolate chips, hershey
bar, and nuts. Roll into balls, and place two inches apart on a cookie
Sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees..
Makes 112 cookies.

Noodle Casserole

1 pound egg noodles

2 cans cream of chicken or mushroom soup
4 oz cream cheese, regular or onion and chive flavored
2 splashes of milk to thin sauce
Dash of garlic powder
Handful of dried parsley
1 12oz can of chunk chicken, or tuna (can use leftover chicken and cut into chunks)
1 cup frozen peas (totally optional)
White cheese (Monterrey jack, provolone, mozzarella, etc)

Boil water and cook noodles, drain. Mix soup and cream cheese in a fry pan until heated through. Thin with milk to the consistency of a cheese sauce. Add garlic powder and parsley, and peas if desired. Stir, then add chicken or tuna and stir until blended. Put noodles in a 9x13 pan then pour sauce over it. Mix until noodles are well coated. Top with cheese. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes

Note: I usually use cream of mushroom and tuna together, and cream of chicken with chicken.

I found this recipe on this food blog!

30 Minute Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients

• 2 pounds potatoes, such as russet, peeled and cubed
• 2 tablespoons sour cream or softened cream cheese
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1/2 cup cream, for a lighter version substitute vegetable or chicken broth
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 turn of the pan
• 1 3/4 pounds ground beef or ground lamb
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup beef stock or broth
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire, eyeball it
• 1/2 cup frozen peas, a couple of handfuls
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

Directions

Boil potatoes in salted water until tender, about 12 minutes. Drain potatoes and pour them into a bowl. Combine sour cream, egg yolk and cream. Add the cream mixture into potatoes and mash until potatoes are almost smooth.

While potatoes boil, preheat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add oil to hot pan with beef or lamb. Season meat with salt and pepper. Brown and crumble meat for 3 or 4 minutes. If you are using lamb and the pan is fatty, spoon away some of the drippings. Add chopped carrot and onion to the meat. Cook veggies with meat 5 minutes, stirring frequently. In a second small skillet over medium heat cook butter and flour together 2 minutes. Whisk in broth and Worcestershire sauce. Thicken gravy 1 minute. Add gravy to meat and vegetables. Stir in peas.

Preheat broiler to high. Fill a small rectangular casserole with meat and vegetable mixture. Spoon potatoes over meat evenly. Top potatoes with paprika and broil 6 to 8 inches from the heat until potatoes are evenly browned. Top casserole dish with chopped parsley and serve.

Tater Tot Cassorole

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 can mushroom soup
• 1 can cream of chicken or celery soup
• 1 cup grated cheese
• 1 32-ounce bag tater tots

Preparation

Brown ground beef and drain.

Add the soups and cheese.

Grease baking dish.

Pour mixture into baking dish and lay tater tots on top to completely cover.

Cook according to temperature on bag for tater tots or until brown.