Banana Bread

1 c. sugar
1/2 c. shortening
1 egg
2-3 bananas
3 Tbl. milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 c. flour

Grease small loaf pans and fill about halfway full. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on countertop before serving.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

I got this recipe from a college roommate, Carli. This is so good I had it usually have it for my birthday cake every year. The cinnamon in this cake is just perfect. The zucchini makes it very moist. It doesn't need frosting.

I usually just make this in a 9x13 dish and sprinkle the chocolate chips on top, but as you can see my sister found this awesome cake pan that we love. When we make the beehive cake, we stir the chocolate chips into the batter. Like I said, this cake doesn't need frosting, but it looks pretty on the beehive. We've tried it different times with white frosting or chocolate frosting. I didn't have a picture of our white icing so that picture is from Williams-Sonoma. I'll try to track down that recipe and put it up here.

1/2 c. soft margarine
1 3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. oil
2 eggs
1/2 c. sour milk (1/2 c. milk, 1/2 tsp. vinegar or lemon juice)
4 Tbl. cocoa
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 c. flour
2 c. shredded zucchini

Cream margarine, oil, and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, and milk. Beat with mixer. Mix all dry ingredients together and add to creamed mixture. Beat. Stir in zucchini. Pour in 9x13 pan. Sprinkle top with 1 c. chocolate chips. Bake at 325 for 40-45 minutes.

Chicken Parmesan

6 boneless chicken breast halves
2 eggs slightly beaten
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. salt
3/4/ c. bread crumbs
1/2 c. olive oil
1-15 oz. tomato sauce
1/4 tsp. basil
1/8 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese
1 Tbl. butter
8 oz. Mozzarella cheese

Place chicken between in a Ziploc bag and pound to 1/4" thickness. combind eggs, salt, and pepper. Dip chicken in mixture and roll in bread crumbs. Brown lightly in oil and drain.

Sauce:
Combine tomato sauce, basil, garlic, and warm butter. Place chicken in 9x13 baking dish, pour sauce over, sprinkler with Parmesan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes covered, put mozzarella on and bake an additional 10 min.

Serve chicken with pasta (I use egg noodles) with additional sauce and parmesan cheese over the top.

Mom's Meatloaf

Grind or blend: 1 potato, 1 carrot, 1 onion

Mix with 3 pounds of hamburger, 1/2 lb. sausage, 2 eggs, 3 tsp. salt, 1-8 oz. can tomato sauce, and 1 cup of Italian bread crumbs. Form into a loaf and bake at 350, 1/2 hr. per pound. Squirt ketchup on top while cooking.

Gravy: Add tomato juice to leftover meat juices after cooking and thicken until right consistency. Serve gravy over mashed potatoes and meatloaf with a vegetable.

Salsa Salad

This is really, really good. Thanks to Jen for sharing her picture with me.



1 can black beans
1 can black eyed peas
1/2 bag frozen corn
2-3 diced tomatoes
2 large avocados, diced
1/2 purple onion, diced
Small bottle Wishbone Zesty Italian dressing

Mix together, and serve with corn chips. May be served chilled or at room temperature.

You won't need the whole bottle of Italian dressing. I usually get double of everything, except the onion and Italian dressing and I can make two batches a few days apart.

Turkey Tenders

I don't make these very often but whenever I do my husband and I always say "Wow! These are so good! Why don't we make these more often?" I love this marinade. Yes, I realize they are really chicken; Turkey Tenders is a much catchier name than 'Chicken Tenders', don't you think? I grew up calling them Turkey Tenders so it's too hard for me to change it now. These are a staple at family get togethers at my Grandma's house.

Marinade chicken tenders or chicken breasts overnight in the following:

1 c. oil
1 c. soy sauce
2 c. 7up or Sprite (the carbonation makes the meat tender)

Cook 'em up on the grill. Serve with chicken flavor Rice a Roni.

I'm interested in gathering more marinade recipes. What do you use as a marinade? Send them to me in the comments for this post.

Pork Chops and Potatoes

4-5 pork chops
2-3 potatoes, peeled and sliced in 1/4 in. slices
1-2 cans cream of mushrooms soup

Pour a little bit of oil in the skillet and brown both sides of the pork chops. Cover with potato slices and salt as desired. Pour mushroom soup on top, enough to make a gravy. Cook over low heat for 45 min. to an hour, or until potatoes are soft.

Also works in the crockpot.

Potato Cheese Soup

6-8 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
Chicken boullion
1/2 - 1 lb. Velveeta, cubed
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can milk

Put potatoes in large pot with enough chicken boullion to cover the potatoes (several cups). Boil potatoes for half hour with the lid off, then remove from heat and mash the potatoes to desired consistency. I like to leave a few small lumps in there. Sprinkle Velveeta over the top and put the lid on to melt the cheese. When cheese is melted, add cream of chicken, mushroom soup, and milk and stir well.

Stir in parsley or black pepper as desired.

(I have made this without the milk and it was still good.)

Chicken Divan

2-10 oz. bags of broccoli florets
3 chicken breasts cubed or shredded
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 c. Miracle Whip
1 tsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. curry
grated cheese

Spray 9 x 13 pan with Pam and spread broccoli evenly in dish. Cover with chicken. Combine other ingredients and spread over chicken and broccoli. Sprinkle grated cheese over the top and cover with bread crumbs (about 3 pieces of bread torn into bite size pieces).

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Serve over rice.

Stew

This is one of my husband's favorites that he requests a lot.

2 lbs. stew meat
2 cans cream of celery
1 can cream of mushroom
1 envelope Lipton onion soup
3 soup cans water
Kitchen Bouquet (for color) - to taste

Combine ingredients, and chopped onion, potatoes, carrots, and celery to taste - as much or as little of each as you like.

I bring it to a boil on the stove top and reduce to low heat so it simmers for 3-4 hours. Stir often and scrape the bottom as it may burn.

You can add frozen petite peas just before serving. Also cooks in the oven for 3-4 hours at 325 degrees.

Hint: Kitchen Bouquet comes in a dark colored bottle with a yellow label and yellow lid. It is on the same section of the grocery store as ketchup, barbeque sauce, etc.

Edit: I recently made this in the crockpot for the first time, and it just didn't work. I will be sticking to the stovetop or oven in the future.

Tweety Pancakes (Crepes)

This name comes from my little cousin who couldn't say "Sweedish Pancakes."

10 eggs
2 c. flour
2 c. milk
1 Tbl. sugar

Add small amounts of milk if needed for right consistency.

Beat together with electric mixer and add milk to make the consistency of gravy.

Set burner on stove at #7. Spray small fry pan with “Pam” cooking spray before pouring batter into pan. Pour 1/3 cup of batter into the center of the pan and roll pan around until completely coated with batter. When crepe is barely starting to brown, turn over and cook other side. It doesn’t take very long. Makes about 20 crepes. Can be stored in the fridge or frozen (layered between sheets of wax paper).

Serve with butter and cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top for breakfast or with strawberries and whipped cream for a dessert.

Honey Butter

1 stick butter (not margarine)
1/4 tsp. vanilla
about 1 Tbl. marshmellow creme
1 c. honey

Whip cold butter in KitchenAid with whisk attachment. Add marshmellow creme and vanilla. Slowly add honey while mixer is going. When all of honey is added, scrape down sides and mix again until combined.

Gingersnaps

These are one of my favorite things to bake at Christmas.

3/4 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1/4 c. light molasses (yellow lid)
2 tsp. soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
2 c. flour

Roll into small balls and roll in sugar. Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 7-10 minutes. (Watch them closely, you want them to be soft and chewy when they cool.)

Chicken Dumplings

Mix: 6 oz. cream cheese
1/8 tsp. pepper
4 tbl. butter softened

Stir in 2 c. cubed chicken, 2/3 c. chopped mushrooms, and 1/2 c. chopped celery. Separate 2 packages crescent rolls into triangles. Put about 1/4 c. mixture in the widest part of each crescent roll.


Roll wide sides to point, tuck point underneath and seal the edges well so mixture does not come out during baking.





Roll each dumpling in melted butter (4 Tbl.) and roll in bread or corn flake crumbs. (2/3 c.) Cook on ungreased cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.



Serve with gravy: 1 can cream of chicken soup mixed with 1/2 c. milk.

Serving suggestions: mashed potatoes and additional gravy, vegetables.

Note: This last time I made these I chopped the mushrooms and celery very fine with my new food chopper. Didn't like it as much as when they are in bigger chunks just cut up with my knife.

I got the food chopper after cutting the end of my thumb really bad last summer while dicing an onion. The food chopper now mostly specialized in onions, and it is so worth it! PS. My thumb is just fine.

Broccoli Chicken

2 packages Rice-a-Roni Chicken flavor (6.9 oz.)
4 Tbl. butter
2 tsp. basil
chicken tenders
2 c. of broccoli, fresh or frozen
1 chopped tomato
mozzarella cheese

1. Saute rice with butter until it browns.

2. Add 4 c. water, seasoning packets, and basil. Bring to a boil. Lay chicken on top of rice (cover rice and pack closely as they will shrink). Cover, set on low heat. Simmer 10 minutes.

3. Spread broccoli and tomato on top. Cover 10 more minutes.

4. Sprinkle cheese over top. Cover. Let stand 3 minutes.

Tip: I have also used green beans in place of broccoli since my family doesn't like broccoli. I actually cover half the dish with broccoli and the other half with frozen green beans and it turns out great.

Sausage and Rice

3/4 lb. sausage
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 small bunch of celery, chopped small
1/2 c. uncooked rice
1 package Lipton noodle soup
2 1/2 c. water

Brown sausage. Combine rest of ingredients in a covered casserole dish. Bake covered at 350 for 1 hour or on high in microwave for about 30 minutes, until rice is cooked and water is absorbed.

Italian Crockpot Chicken

4-6 frozen chicken breasts
3-4 Tbl. butter or margarine
1 packet Good Seasonings Zesty Italian
(in the salad dressing section)

Cook on high in crockpot for 4 hours. Shred chicken, then mix in the following:

4 oz. cream cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
milk as needed

Serve over rice or mashed potatoes. Chicken mixture also makes good sandwiches.