Taco Chili Skillet

If you are looking for a quick easy meal, this is it.  I started with a recipe, but realized I didn't have the right ingredients, so I created my own.  My chili loving daughter really liked this!

Ingredients:

1 lb ground pork

14.5 ounce diced tomatoes

30 ounce Pinto beans, drained

1 1/2 cup Salsa

1 cup shredded taco cheese

Tortilla chips

Directions:

Cook beef in a skillet until browned, pour off fat.

Add diced tomatoes, pinto beans, salsa, and half the cheese.  Heat to a boil.  Cover and cook over low heat 5 minutes or until hot.

Top with remaining cheese.  Serve over Tortilla chips.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

I am still not sure why we would want to put zucchini into a chocolate cake, except perhaps to hide vegetables from children, but this cake was very good.  You would never have known there was zucchini in it.

I did make a mistake, I did not have chocolate chips, so I put caramels on top.  Not a good substitution, the caramel just got hard and sticky.  If you try this, stick with chocolate chips!

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups sifted all purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 3/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 cups grated unpeeled zucchini (about 2 1/2 medium)

1 6 oz. package semi-sweet chocolate chips (about 1 cup)

3/4 cups chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325*.  Butter and flour 13x9x2 inch baking pan.  Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl.  Beat sugar, butter, and oil in large bowl until blended.  Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in vanilla.  Mix in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in 3 additions each.  Mix in grated zucchini.  Pour batter into prepared pan.  Sprinkle chocolate chips and nuts over.

Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.  Cool cake completely in pan.

The Bon Appetit Cookbook

Pork Chops with Apples and Stuffing

This was a wonderful Fall recipe that received 5 stars on the Taste of Home website.

As you may have noticed, I have started getting more creative as I am learning to cook and am now able to substitute when I am missing an ingredient.  With this dish, I had no apple pie filling, so I made my own.  It turned out great and had a wonderful flavor.  I loved the sweet with the pork and stuffing.  A definite must try!

Ingredients:

6 boneless pork loin chops (1-inch thick and 4 ounces each)
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 package (6 ounces) crushed stuffing mix
1 can (21 ounces) apple pie filling with cinnamon or:
3 medium apples cored and chopped.
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup raisins
1/2 + 1/4 cup water
2 tbsp corn starch

Directions:

In a saucepan, prepare apples. over medium heat cook apples, sugars, raisins, and 1/2 cup water until apples are very soft (simmer about 45 minutes, stirring every 10). In a measuring cup mix 2 tbsp corn starch with 1/4 water; add to apple mixture. Stir and cook until mixture gets thick, pie filling consistency.

In a large skillet, brown pork chops in oil over medium-high heat.

Meanwhile, prepare stuffing according to package directions.

Spread apple pie filling into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Place the pork chops on top; spoon stuffing over chops.

Cover and bake at 350° for 35 minutes. Uncover; bake 10 minutes longer or until a meat thermometer reads 160°.

Yield: 6 servings.

www.tasteofhome.com

Traditional Lasagna

I love lasagna and enjoy trying to make it in different ways.  This was delicious, but time consuming.  To shorten the prep time I would use ready made spaghetti sauce.

Make sure you put tin foil under this lasagna in the oven, it will be very full and mine spilled over.

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef
3/4 pound bulk pork sausage
3 cans (8 ounces each) tomato sauce
2 cans (6 ounces each) tomato paste
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 eggs
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
3 cups (24 ounces) 4% small-curd cottage cheese
1 carton (8 ounces) ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
9 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained
6 slices provolone cheese
3 cups (12 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided

Directions:

In a large skillet, cook beef and sausage over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, garlic, sugar, seasoning, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

In a large bowl, combine the eggs and parsley. Stir in the cottage cheese, ricotta and Parmesan.

Spread 1 cup of meat sauce in an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Layer with three noodles, provolone cheese, 2 cups cottage cheese mixture, 1 cup mozzarella, three noodles, 2 cups meat sauce, remaining cottage cheese mixture and 1 cup mozzarella. Top with the remaining noodles, meat sauce and mozzarella (dish will be full).

Cover and bake at 375° for 50 minutes. Uncover; bake 20 minutes longer or until heated through. Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting.

Yield: 12 servings.


Nutrition Facts: 1 serving equals 493 calories, 27 g fat (14 g saturated fat), 143 mg cholesterol, 1,144 mg sodium, 29 g carbohydrate, 3 g fiber, 35 g protein.

Taste of Home Winning Recipes 2010

Super Easy and Delicious Chicken Sandwiches

Chicken BLTs

These are so good, yet really easy!  They look great and taste even better!

Ingredients:

1 lb bacon

4 breaded chicken patties (frozen works fine)

4 slices provolone cheese

4 large tomato slices

Romaine lettuce leaves

4 Kaiser Rolls

condiments - Mayo, Miracle Whip, Blue Cheese, Ranch, Italian Dressing (Use your imagination!)

Directions:

In a pan cook the bacon over low heat until crispy.  Remove bacon from pan.  Add chicken patties to pan and fry until cooked through.

Assemble sandwich.  Cut Kaisers in half and spread condiments on the top half.  Layer your ingredients on the bottom half starting with the lettuce, then chicken patty, bacon, cheese, and tomato.

 BBQ Chicken Sandwich

Another really easy and delicious dinner sandwich.  Great with leftover BBQ chicken or from scratch.

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

BBQ sauce

4 Kaiser Rolls

8 tomato slices

8 slices of provolone cheese

Romaine lettuce leaves

condiments of your choice

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat oven to 350*.  Spread BBQ sauce on chicken breasts.  Grill until chicken is done.  

Cut Kaiser rolls in half.  On each half spread condiments, add tomato and cheese.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cook in oven until cheese is melted and lightly browned.  

Place chicken piece on bottom bun and cover with lettuce.  Cover with the top half, so it should have the following layers: bottom bun, tomato, cheese, chicken, lettuce, cheese, tomato, and top bun.

Chicken and Broccoli Primavera

I found a similar recipe to this in Taste of Home, but decided to make my own modifications.  What resulted was a great pasta dish with a real kick.  It is spicy, but not too spicy.  Great flavor and easy to make!

• 
  
• Ingredients:
• 
  
• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into strips
• 1 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper, divided
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium sweet red pepper, julienned
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 8 ounces uncooked linguine
• 2 cups fresh broccoli
• Shredded Parmesan cheese, optional

Directions:

Sprinkle chicken with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. In a large skillet, cook chicken in oil over medium-high heat for 8-10 minutes or until no longer pink. Remove and keep warm.

In the same skillet, saute the red pepper, onions, broccoli, nutmeg, and cayenne just until vegetables are tender. Add evaporated milk and broth. Bring to a boil; cook until sauce is reduced by a third.

Cook the linguine according to package directions; drain. Add the chicken, linguine, and remaining salt and pepper to sauce; heat through. Garnish with Parmesan cheese if desired.



 Yield: 4 Servings