Chicken Nachos for a Crowd

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup prepared salsa
1 large bag tortilla chips
1 lb cheddar cheese, shredded
1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz can corn, drained
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
Handful chopped green onions or cilantro

Set oven to 400 degrees.

Set a large pot of water on to boil. Once boiling, add the chicken breasts. Boil until cooked through, about 10 minutes. Remove chicken breasts from the water and set on a cutting board to cool. Once cool enough to handle, shred and put into a medium bowl. Pour salsa over the chicken and toss to coat.

Spray a large baking sheet with non-stick spray. Add half of the bag of tortilla chips and spread into an even layer. Sprinkle on half of the shredded chicken, half of the black beans, half of the corn and half of the onion. Sprinkle on half of the shredded cheese. Repeat again, beginning with the rest of the tortilla chips.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted. Sprinkle on green onions or cilantro as garnish. Serve with more salsa if needed. (I also like to add sour cream and avocado.)

Yields 6 servings.

Ranch dressing/dip

Ranch Dip

Ingredients

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon dried chives
• 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream, chives, parsley, dill, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.

Note:  use butter milk in place of sour cream for Ranch dressing.

This is A LOT cheaper than making the store bought ranch packet, and just as good if not better.

Navajo Tacos

We've had Navajo tacos before, however we've never made them until tonight.  Stuart found a fabulous recipe online that actually gives the story behind Navajo Fry Bread as they call it.  If you'd like to see the site, click HERE. 

Navajo Fry Bread:

1 cup unbleached flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon powdered milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup water
Vegetable oil for frying

Sift together the flour, salt, powdered milk, and baking powder into a large bowl. Pour the water over the flour mixture all at once and stir the dough with a fork until it starts to form one big clump. 

 

Flour your hands. Using your hands, begin to mix the dough, trying to get all the flour into the mixture to form a ball. NOTE: You want to mix this well, but you do NOT want to knead it. Kneading it will make for a heavy Fry Bread when cooked. The inside of the dough ball should still be sticky after it is formed, while the outside will be well floured.

 

Cut the dough into four (4) pieces. Using your floured hands, shape, stretch, pat, and form a disk of about 5 to 7 inches in diameter.   

 

Heat the vegetable oil to about 350 degrees F. Your oil should be about 1-inch deep in whatever you choose to fry your bread in.

 

Take the formed dough and gently place it into the oil, being careful not to splatter the hot oil. Press down on the dough as it fries so the top is submersed into the hot oil. Fry until brown, and then flip to fry the other side. Each side will take about 3 to 4 minutes. 

Making it into Navajo Tacos:

We made Chili with small red beans and no meat (this was one of our meatless meals) so just use your favorite recipe for chili.  We then added lettuce, tomato, cheese and sour cream to taste.  It was WONDERFUL!  We quadrupled the recipe, however each fry bread is enough for one person.  It's very filling!

Bread....with no milk, or oils

A friend gave me this recipe. It's wonderful...well technically I've never made it but I have eaten it and it's great!

10 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
3 Round Tbl spoons of saf-instant yeast
3 Tablespoons of honey or Lecithin
4 cups hot tap water

Mix dry ingredients. add honey and water. Mix for 1 min and check consistency. Add Flour or Water as needed. Mix for 5 more min. Spray counter and pans with pam. Shape loaves and cover with a dish towel. Let raise for 25 min. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 min. This recipe makes four loaves of bread.

For Wheat bread use the same recipe but add one cup of applesauce as aprt of the hot tap water. Mix for 10 min.

Amish Breakfast Casserole

Ingredients:
1 pound sliced bacon, diced
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
6 eggs, lightly beaten
4 cups frozen shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed
2 cups shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 1/2 cups small curd cottage cheese
1 1/4 cups shredded Swiss cheese

Directions:
In a large skillet, cook bacon and onion until bacon is crisp; drain. In a bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; stir in bacon mixture. Transfer to greased 9x13 baking dish.
Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until set and bubbly. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.

My modifications:
Instead of frozen hash browns I made my own by just grating the potatoes. I also used only Cheddar Cheese since that's what I had on hand. I sprinkled over the top onion powder and garlic powder; I thought this tasted fantastic...no one else noticed the powders.

This got 6 thumbs up here!

Pizza Chicken Bake

This is FABULOUS! Phillip had 4 servings...WOW!

Pizza Chicken Bake

3 1/2 cups uncooked bow tie pasta
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup sliced mushrooms (I used a can of mushrooms)
1 jar (26 oz) herb-flavored spaghetti sauce
1 teaspoon pizza seasoning blend (I didn't have this so didn't use it)
3 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, quartered
1 cup (4 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 2-quart round casserole with nonstick cooking spray.

Cook pasta according to package directions unitl al dente. Drain and place in prepared dish

Meanwhile, heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add mushrooms; cook and stir 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in spaghetti sauce and pizza seasoning.

Pour half of the spaghetti sauce mixture into casserole; stir until pasta is well coated. Arrange chicken on top of pasta. Pour remaining spaghetti sauce mixture evenly over chicken.

Bake, covered, 50 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in centers. Remove from oven; sprinkle with cheese. Cover and let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Recipe says it serves 4....I used a box of bow tie pasta from Walmart and used 5 small pieces of Chicken that we broiled for 15 minutes while the pasta was cooking. The chicken was only a little pink when we put everything in the oven. I also used about half of the cheese in the spaghetti sauce mixture and put the rest on top. We only baked it for about 30 minutes because the chicken was almost done. It was Awesome!

Cheesy Chicken Bake

I got this recipe off of a friend's recipe blog, and I had to share it. Check out the picture (and her blog) here. She has a lot of recipes we've used lately like Taco Lasagna and Cowboy Casserole...all of which have been added to my menu collection. I did however modify this recipe (see bottom to see my modifications).

Cheesy Chicken Bake

1 pkg. (6 oz.) Stuffing Mix for Chicken
1-1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces (or use canned chicken)
1 pkg. (14 oz.) frozen broccoli florets, thawed, drained
1 can (10-3/4 oz.) condensed cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk
1-1/2 cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese

HEAT oven to 400ºF.
PREPARE stuffing as directed on package.
COMBINE chicken and broccoli in 13x9-inch baking dish. Stir in soup, milk and cheese; top with stuffing and a little more cheese.
BAKE 30 min. or until chicken is done and casserole is heated through.

Note: Instead of stuffing mix...because I'm too cheap to buy it and because I try to do a low sodium diet in our house...I made my own. I used this recipe for the stuffing:
3 c. soft bread crumbs
1/4 c. melted butter
2 Tbsp. chopped onion
1/4 tsp. sage
1/4 c. water

I also added 1 teaspoon of Chicken Bullion after doubling the recipe. I would only add 1 1/2 teaspoons if I quadrupled the recipe however.

Next time I make this I will quadruple the stuffing recipe. This time I only doubled/tripled...didn't measure 100%.

I also used canned chicken because it's Sunday and I was trying to keep the meal simple. Next time however we are going to grill chicken to put in it.

Cream Soup

A couple of weeks ago I started making Chicken and Rice for dinner, only to get right in the middle of it and realize that I was out of Cream of Mushroom Soup. So I called my dear neighbor Cecily to see if I could borrow some. She said, "Oh, I don't have any because I never buy it. I just make my own." So I took the recipe and it turned out really well. I've used it a couple of times since then and I don't think I will every buy another can of cream of anything soup again!

Cream Soup

1 1/3 c water
1/3 c powdered milk
1/4 c flour
1 tsp bullion (or more for a little more flavor. You could also probably add some mushrooms.)

Combine ingredients in small saucepan and heat on medium. Whisk until thick.

Ranch Parmesan Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 package dried ranch dressing mix
1 cup Parmesan, grated
2 cups corn flakes, crushed
3 tablespoon butter, melted

Combine corn flakes, parmesan and ranch dressing. Dip each breast in butter then roll in corn flake mixture. Place in bottom of shallow baking dish and bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes.

I got this recipe from a neat website, Simplify Supper. Looks like there are some good recipes there.

French Toast Strata

4 cups day-old French or Italian bread, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
1/3 cup golden raisins
1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, cut into cubes
3 eggs
1-1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup maple-flavored pancake syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Additional maple-flavored pancake syrup (optional)

Spray 11X7-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Place bread cubes in even layer in prepared dish; sprinkle raisins and cream cheese evenly over bread.

Beat eggs in medium bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until blended. Add milk, 1/2 cup pancake syrup and vanilla; mix well. Pour egg mixture evenly over bread mixture. Cover; refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine sugar and cinnamon in small bowl; sprinkle evenly over strata.

Bake, uncovered, 40 to 45 minutes or until puffed, golden brown and knife inserted into center comes out clean. Cut into squares and serve with additional pancake syrup.

Aimee's note - James calls this dessert. Also we prefer it without the raisins and with more cream cheese. I have made this when I only refridgerated it for half an hour and it seemed fine.

No Bake Cookies

This recipe came from my Parker-Egin cookbook and was submitted by Bron Orr.

2 c. sugar
1 cube of butter or margarine
1/2 c. milk
2 1/2 Tbsp. cocoa

3 1/2 c. oatmeal (quick oats or regular)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. peanut butter

Combine the first 4 ingredients in saucepan and boil for 1 1/2 min.
Remove from heat, then add last 3 ingredients. Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper and let cool.

Taco Soup

1 lb. ground beef
1/4 c chopped onion
1 can tomato sauce + 1 can water
1 can diced tomatoes with juice
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn with juice
1 7 oz can green chiles
1 tsp chile powder
1/2 tsp cumin

In a 3 qt sauce pan (or bigger) brown hamburger and onion. Add remaining ingredients and cook till heated through. Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips or Fritos.

Chicken and Rice

This is Anne's favorite.

5-8 pieces of chicken, I use drumsticks and thighs but just about anything works
1 1/2 c rice
1 1/2 c water
1 can cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup

Combine the rice, water, and soup in a 9x13 baking dish then put the chicken pieces in it. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for about 90 min. or till chicken is done.

Crock Pot Chicken

I got this recipe from Dixie, who got it from Lisa.

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 8 oz. pckg cream cheese
1 pckg dry italian dressing mix

Put everything in and let it cook for a long time. Serve over rice or egg noodles.

When I made this I actually used 5 chicken breasts and added 1 can of water. I didn't have any italian dressing stuff so I put in a package of dry onion soup mix and it was really good.

Oven-Fried Pork Chops

This is from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, and we love it

4 pork chops
2 T margarine or butter melted
1 beaten egg
2 T milk
1/4 tsp pepper
1 c herb-seasoned stuffing mix crushed or italian style bread crumbs

Pour margarine or butter into a 9x13 baking pan. Combine egg, milk, and pepper. Dip chops into egg mixture. Coat with crumbs and place in pan. Bake at 425 for 10 min. then turn chops over. Bake about 10 min more or till meat is no longer pink and juices run clear.