Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

These cookies? One of my all time faves. I have people ask for the recipe all the time. Because really, can you go wrong by dumping some chocolate pudding powder into the dough?

2 sticks butter or margarine
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 c. flour
1 package (4 oz.) instant chocolate pudding
1 package (12 oz.) chocolate chips

Combine. Batter will be stiff. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 375 for 8-10 minutes.

Alternate: use the larger size box of chocolate pudding and reduce flour by 1/4 c.

Chicken Alfredo

I just got the recipe for this white sauce off the box of fettuccine. I'm sure there's a better recipe out there, but for saying I threw this together for dinner one night it turned out pretty good. I added chicken, doubled the amount of sauce, added a little more cheese for the right consistency, and stirred in some parsley. Next time I would use whole wheat pasta. It's my latest discovery and I really like it. I just had to use up the other pasta first. I used some leftover chicken pieces I had browned in olive oil and the rest of the chicken were those grilled chicken strips from Costco that are already cooked.

12 oz. fettucine (1 package)
2 c. half and half
2 sticks butter or margarine (I used light margarine)
2 cups parmesan cheese
parsley - to taste - I probably used 2-3 tablespoons
cooked chicken pieces - to taste - I probably used 1 1/2 - 2 cups

Cook pasta according to directions and drain. Return to pot and stir in butter, half and half, and parmesan cheese until the butter and cheese melt. Stir in parsley and chicken pieces.

Taco Soup

This is a great meal when I am pressed for time, or my husband calls on his way home from work and I realize I haven't started dinner yet. This is really easy, really fast, and very tasty. When I'm really in a hurry I will skip chopping an onion, just cook the meat and add dried onion to the soup.

1 lb. ground beef
1/3 c. taco seasoning (1 packet)
1 can chili beans
1 onion or dried minced onion
1 8 oz. can of water
1 can tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1 can corn

Cook the ground beef and onion together, then add the remaining ingredients. Serve with sour cream, grated cheese, and olives, and corn chips.

Alternate serving suggestion: with corn bread.

Café Rio Sweet Pork Burritos

Pork:

6 lbs pork roast
1 16 oz bottle taco sauce
1 can coke
2 cups brown sugar

Cook pork in crock pot about 6 hours, until it shreds easily. 2 hours before serving, shred pork and return to crock pot (discard juice from pork). Pour taco sauce, coke and sugar over pork and mix well. Cook for 2 more hours.

Black Beans & Rice:

Prepare as directed on package. I use Zatarain or Vigo brands.

Make enough to put some inside burritos and also to serve on the side (about 2 packages to serve 8 – 10).

Monterrey Jack Cheese - grated

Tortilla Shells :

Cook up some of your favorite and mine - uncooked tortillas.

Fill tortilla shells with rice and beans, cheese and pork. Close shell and fold in both ends to make small package and place in 9 x 13 dish with fold side down.

Wrap up the long sides of the tortillas, then fold your short ends under and place in a dish sprayed with PAM.

This dish is an oversized lasagna pan (11 x 15) instead of a 9 x 13, so don't try to squish that many into your 9 x 13.

Cover with green chile enchilada sauce (not too much) and more cheese. Bake at 350° for 20 min.

Serve with salsa salad (in the picture it's on a lettuce leaf) and chips, more black beans & rice, and a wedge of lime.

Key lime pie makes a perfect dessert.

Homemade Burritos

This is an old reliable family favorite at our house.

Mix a can of refried beans with some salsa and cheese until it is warmed through and creamy.


Cook your tortillas and melt some cheese on top.



Add some beans and fold it up into a burrito.




Sometimes I like to put cottage cheese on top of mine.

We usually end up making a few cheese quesadillas to go with it.

Broccoli Cheese Fettuccine Sauce

So this wasn't my fave, but it wasn't bad. My family ate it. It's all a part of the "try new recipes" kick I have been on this last week. The recipe called it Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce, but the overall flavor was Broccoli Cheese so I changed it. It may just have been different from what I was expecting. Here's to mixing it up with new food at the dinner table.

1 can Broccoli Cheese soup
3/4 c. milk
1 tsp. basil
3 fresh plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
3 cups hot cooked fettuccine

In saucepan mix soup, milk, basil, tomatoes, and cheese. Over medium heat, heat to a boil cook over low heat 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Toss with fettuccine.

Beef Stroganoff

So I just made this recipe myself for the first time and it was delish. I used whole wheat pasta, I didn't thicken the sauce at all (besides the flour on the meat), and I didn't saute the mushrooms. This meat practically melted in your mouth it was so tender.

My other discovery: steam your broccoli in salted water. It didn't need any other seasoning on top of it and my family inhaled it. I've been cutting up the broccoli really small into nice size bites and everyone is eating more of the baby size broccoli bites than when I just cook the florets straight out of the bag. (As a side note, don't you think broccoli should be spelled with one "c" and two "l"s? Brocolli looks so much better than broccoli.)

4 lbs. top sirloin steak
2 can French onion soup
1 lb. sliced mushrooms
32 oz. sour cream
egg noodles
1 tsp. of sugar for each can of soup used

Cut meat across grain in thin strips. Dust the meat in seasoned flour and brown in electric skillet in a small amount of butter.

Remove meat from pan and add 2 cans of soup - deglazing pan at the same time (scrape off all the flour and meat pieces from the bottom of the pan).

Thicken soup with flour and water, then return meat to pan. Add mushrooms (can saute in butter first). Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours on low heat.

Reduce heat to warm and add sour cream. Don't let it boil as it will curdle the cream.

This works well in a crock pot.

Fajita Quesadillas

This is our own creation, perfected over many trials before Kevin entered it into the cooking contest at work.

1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 orange pepper, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
olive oil

Cook the onions and peppers in a little bit of extra virgin olive oil. This mixture will make 4 quesadillas.

1/2 package bacon, cooked till crispy and drained - this will also make you 4 quesadillas

We would cook the peppers and bacon ahead of time, save the leftovers to make them more quickly next time.

Then, per quesadilla:
about 3 grilled chicken strips, or 1 smoked mesquite chicken breasts (from Costco - these are small), depending on what flavor you want
1 1/2 c. shredded colby jack cheese
1 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
2 uncooked tortillas

Cook 1 side of each tortilla on a griddle. When you flip them over to cook the second side, cover each tortilla with 3/4 c. colby jack cheese and 1/2 c. mozzarella, spreading the cheese all the way up to the edges of the tortilla.

As the cheese melts, cover 1 tortilla with bacon, chicken, then the pepper mixture. When your cheese is completely melted, put the other tortilla on top of it all off and let it melt together a little bit before serving.

M&M Cookies

One of the few cookie recipes I like that uses shortening instead of butter. The hardest part is remembering to buy M&Ms at the store.

1 c. shortening
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 c. flour
1 1/2 c. M&M's

Blend shortening and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Stir in 1/2 c. of candies. Drop by teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. Decorate cookies with remaining candies.

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

*It was a good activity to let my kids decorate the cookies with M&M's right before they went into the oven. We could tell which cookie belonged to which kid because each happened to decorate with only their favorite color. For awhile we had several cookies with only blue, only orange, or only red M&M's.

Twice Baked Potatoes/Potato Boats

My kids call these potato boats.

Bake potatoes in the microwave. (Poke each potato several times with a fork, cook 10 minutes on high. Flip over, cook another 10 minutes. Let sit in the microwave and they will keep cooking.)

Cut each potato in half length wise, so that it will make a nice little "boat" to hold you filling. Carefully scoop out the soft inside, leaving the empty skins (it's okay to leave a little bit of potato in there to help hold the skin together).

Mix up your mashed potatoes however you like them. You can add butter, milk, salt, a little dry ranch dressing mix, whatever. Just make them creamy.

Put some bacon bits or bacon pieces in the bottom of the skins, along with some grated cheese. Spoon the mashed potato mix back into the skins.

Top with more cheese, bacon, green onions, whatever you like. Bake them at 350 for a little while until they are warm, or if you are in a hurry, just put them under the broiler to melt the cheese.