Chicken Bow Tie Spinach Salad

I found this recipe at Six Sisters Stuff.  It is SO delicious!!  My family loved it!!  I don't really love dried cranberries, so I substituted chopped strawberries.

Chicken Bow Tie Spinach Salad

Ingredients:

1 pound bow tie pasta, cooked

2 cups chicken, cooked and shredded

1 recipe marinade (see below)

1 (10 oz) bag baby spinach

3 (11 oz) cans mandarin oranges 

1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced

1 (6oz) bag dried cranberries, or 1 lb of chopped/sliced strawberries 

1/2 cup thinly sliced almonds

Marinade:

1 cup vegetable oil (I use canola oil)

2/3 cup teriyaki sauce

2/3 cup white wine vinegar

3 Tablespoon sugar

3 Tablespoon brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Instructions:  In a medium bowl, mix together marinade ingredients.  Pour half of marinade in a resealable freezer bag, place other half in a container and place in the fridge until later.

Add chicken and pasta to bag with marinade in it and seal closed.  Let pasta and chicken marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

In a large bowl, mix together baby spinach, mandarin oranges, green onions, dried cranberries(or strawberries), and almonds.  Add pasta and chicken and mix well.  Add remaining marinade (as much or as little as you prefer) and mix until all ingredients are coated.  Serve and enjoy!!

Southwest Pork Chop Foil Packs

So, it has be over a year since I last posted.  Life is busy!  My boys are growing up TOO fast!  And this blog has gone to the end of the list of 'things to do'.  But I have a few new FAVORITE recipes that I have found that I need to share!

I found this recipe over on Pillsbury's website.  My family LOVES it!!  Even my youngest, pickiest eater eats it all gone!  It is a perfect summer recipe that you can cook on the grill, so that you don't heat up your house.

I know my pictures are terrible, so if you want to see good pictures...go to Pillsbury's website.  They even have step-by-step pictures :)

Southwest Pork Chop Foil Packs

Ingredients:

1 can(15 oz) black beans, drained, rinsed

1 1/2 cups frozen sweet corn, thawed

1/2 cup salsa verde

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

4 boneless pork chops (5 to 7 oz each), 3/ to 1 inch thick

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese

lime wedges, if desired
avocado, if desired

Directions:  Heat gas or charcoal grill. Cut 4 (18x12-inch) sheets of heavy-duty foil. Spray with cooking spray.

In small bowl, mix black beans, frozen corn, salsa verde, chili powder and cumin. Sprinkle pork chops with salt; place 1 on center of each sheet of foil. Dividing evenly, spoon about 3/4 cup bean mixture around and on top of each pork chop. Top each pork chop with 1/4 cup shredded cheese.

Bring up 2 sides foil so edges meet. Seal edges, making tight 1/2-inch fold; fold again, allowing space for heat circulation and expansion. Fold other sides to seal.

Place packs on grill over medium heat. Cover grill; cook 10 minutes. Rotate packs 1/2 turn; cook 5 to 8 minutes longer or until pork is no longer pink and meat thermometer inserted in center reads at least 145°F. Remove packs from grill. Carefully fold back foil. Garnish with lime slices.  And...we like to add avocado...mmmm!!

**To make in oven, place packs on cookie sheet. Bake at 375°F 30 to 35 minutes or until pork is no longer pink and meat thermometer inserted in center reads at least 145°F.

I hope you enjoy these as much as my family does :)

Toffee Brownies

This guy had a Blue and Gold Banquet last night for cub scouts.  We had a great time!!  Delicious food and great entertainment :)  I wish I could crop myself out of this picture.  Zac looks so cute and I look...well, tired!!  Oh wait...I was tired!

Anyway(is it anyway or anyways?), we were asked to bring a dessert.  We decided to make brownies. I have made these brownies before, but it has been a few years.  This is a Paula Deen recipe.  These brownies are super simple and SO yummy!!  

Toffee Brownies

Ingredients:

1 family size brownie mix...9x13 size mix(and the ingredients it calls for on the box...water, oil, eggs)

3 Giant(6 oz) Symphony chocolate bars with toffee and almonds...my store only had the XL size(4.25 oz), so I bought 4 and used a little of the the 4th bar

Directions:  Prepare the brownie mix according the package directions.  Line a 9x13" baking dish with aluminum foil and spray with vegetable oil cooking spay.  Spoon in half of the brownie batter and smooth with a rubber spatula or the back of a spoon.  Place the candy bars side by side on top of the batter.  Cover with the remaining batter.  Bake according to package directions.  Let cool completely, then lift from the pan using the edges of the foil.  This makes it easy to cut the brownies into squares.  

NOTE:  If you would like the brownie part to be thicker....use an 8x8" or 9x9" inch pan.  Or you could use two brownie mixes for a 9x13".  I used one brownie mix and loved the ratio of brownie to candy bar :)

What we ate....menu #6 and Texas-style Vanilla Ice Cream

Last week's menu:

Monday:  Pancakes and Fruit Smoothies...at about 7:30 after basketball games:)

Tuesday:  Browned Butter Honey Garlic Salmon, Salad, Roasted Potatoes and Roasted Asparagus

Wednesday:  Leftovers

Thursday:  Little Caesar's....another night of basketball games

Friday:  BBQ Chicken Pizza and fresh veggies

Saturday:  El Cupidos ....My husband and the two older boys flew to Chinle to watch High School basketball...so the younger boys and I ordered El Cupidos and ate while we watched some all-star festivities and the high school basketball game online...GO LOBOS!! :)

Sunday:  French Toast with Buttermilk Syrup and Jalapeno Bacon

We love eating breakfast foods for dinner :)

Now for the homemade ice cream that we made last week for our Superbowl Party...and when I say party, I mean just our family upstairs watching the game on TV :)

I don't know what makes this 'Texas-style', but that is what the recipe is called.  If anyone knows, please comment.  I got this recipe from my Mom's White Mountain Ice Cream Maker recipe book.

Texas-style Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients:

2 eggs, separated

1 cup milk

1/ cup sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 cup white corn syrup

1 cup whipping cream

Directions:  Scald milk.  Mix the egg yolks with the sugar and add to scalded milk.  Add the corn syrup and cook until the mixture coats the spoon, remove from heat.  When cool, add the egg whites beaten stiff, the vanilla and the whipping cream.  Freeze according your ice cream freezer directions.  Makes ~2 quarts.

Cookies for Valentine's Day

Since Valentine's Day is tomorrow.  I just thought I'd share 3 of our favorite cookies to make for Valentine's Day.  These are in no particular order...we love them all nearly equally!

Cookie #1:  Homemade Oreos...here and here

Add a little red food coloring to your frosting, to make them a little more Valentine.  Mmmm....my boys love these!!  

There is one thing I don't like about making these cookies....frosting them :)  It really isn't a big deal, but I just don't like doing it.  SO....my boys and I made these a week or two ago for a scout meeting and we decided to just use the cookie scoop for the frosting.  It was great!!  Also perfect ratio of frosting to cookie for me :)  ...2:1...2 tablespoon sized cookies and 1 tablespoon size portion of frosting.  AND....so quick and easy!!

See how great that is :)  Oh...and don't mind the upside down honey bear in some of the pictures.  Sometimes we store it that way when we are trying to get that last little bit of honey out. :)

Cookie #2:  Sugar cookies with butter cream frosting

Mmmm....these are SO good!!  Melt in your mouth good!!

Cookie # 3:  Peanut butter blossoms with Hershey Kisses or Reece's Peanut Butter Hearts...here or here

If you make the peanut butter blossoms with Reece's Peanut Butter Hearts instead of Hershey Kisses, just make sure you let your cookie cool longer before pressing it into the cookie...~10 minutes...so that it doesn't melt.

OR....

If you don't want to make cookies....I'd recommend making Raspberry Rolls...So good!!  

Reheating Pizza

We love pizza at our house!!  Especially homemade!  It seems like when I order pizza, I always buy way too much....or not enough.  Usually we are all starving, and pizza sounds SO good, so I order an extra one and then we can't eat it.  When we have homemade pizza, we almost always have a few pieces leftover.

So...today I am going to tell you how we reheat our pizza.

Place your pizza stone or baking sheet into a cold oven and then turn your oven on to 400 degrees.

When your oven has preheated, place your pizza onto your stone/baking sheet and bake for ~10 minutes until heated.  If you have thick pizza, it might take a little longer to heat all the way through.

It won't be as good as fresh pizza, but it is much better than heating it in the microwave :)

What we ate....Menu #5

This week was one of those weeks....I just didn't really feel like cooking, ever.  I did cook, but most nights it was a struggle.

Monday:  Black beans, rice, chips, avocado and salsa

Tuesday:  Mexican Pizza....my kids ask for this almost every night now, so it might be on the menu again next week :)

Wednesday:  Leftovers or cold cereal

Thursday:  Pasta with alfredo, grilled chicken and roasted asparagus

Friday:  Stuffed Shells and garlic bread (found the stuffed shells in the freezer from a few months ago and luckily they weren't freezer burnt!  I had a couple of homemade bread bowls left over from last week, so I sliced, buttered, garlic salted them and put them in the oven to toast.)

Saturday:  Chicken Corn Chowder

Sunday:  Taquitos, Queso, chips, salsa with avocado....and homemade ice cream