Asian Chicken Sandwhich

Chicken Sandwiches are my all time favorite when we go out to dinner. We rarely ever make them at home. But when you have 2 kids and one is only 3 1/2 months old, it's a little bit harder to go out. So I decided to make them at home for once. I found this recipe in my Taste of Home Chicken Cookbook. Now this recipe calls for marinating the chicken overnight...well I didn't read the directions until I decided I wanted to make them that night and only marinated them for about an hour and they turned out AWESOME!...Imagine what they would taste like marinated overnight!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Orange Juice

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

2 hamburger huns, split

Lettuce leaves and tomato slices, optional

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Set aside 1/4 cup for basting chicken; cover and refrigerate. Pound chicken breasts to 3/8-in. thickness. Place in a resealable plastic bag; pour remaining marinade over chicken. Seal bag and refrigerate overnight.

2. Discard marinade. Grill chicken, uncovered, over medium heat for 6-8 minutes on each side or until chicken juices run clear, basting several times with reserved marinade. Serve on buns with lettuce and tomato if desired.



Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes

This was so easy and so good!! I love Philly Cheesesteaks! My husband doesn't mind them...but only without onions and green peppers. Well I'm always trying to find recipes for him but for once I wanted to try something that I wanted. I chopped the onions and green peppers up so tiny that he wouldn't see them. Of course the smell of onion stunk up our kitchen so he knew before it even landed in his mouth. But I convinced him to just try it and if he didn't like it, he wouldn't have to eat it..He barely noticed it!!! keyword being "barely" but he ate it all!! Woo hoo!!!!

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground beef
1 softball-sized onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 tablespoons steak sauce
1 cup beef stock
Salt and ground black pepper
4 dinner rolls
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup milk
1 cup provolone, shredded

Directions:

1. In large skillet over medium-high heat add the oil and then brown the ground beef, about 5-6 minutes. Add the onion and green pepper and cook another 3-4 minutes, until the vegetables start to get tender. Stir in the steak sauce and beef stock, season with salt and pepper, bring up to a bubble and cook about 2 minutes.

2. Split open rolls and remove most of the soft insides, leaving a bed to hold the meat mixture. Toast the rolls and set aside.

3. While the meat is cooking, melt the butter in a medium-size pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the flour and cook about 1 minute. Whisk in milk, bring up to a bubble and let thicken, about 2 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in the cheese.

4. To serve, place a scoopful of the meat mixture onto the bottom of the rolls, then top with the cheese sauce and replace the top of the roll.

Adapted from Rachael Ray

Buffalo Chicken Salad

(I've been slacking on updating this the past month, it was crazy busy for us!) My husband likes Chef Salads. I like them but get bored with them so I try to find new salads. My husband is a suck for hot wings so I thought this one I thought would be perfect for us!

Ingredients

1 head Romaine, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 cup matchstick cut carrots
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
4 slices crispy bacon, chopped
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in half lengthwise to make thin cutlets
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
salt and pepper
your favorite hot sauce or wing sauce
homemade blue cheese dressing recipe

Blue cheese dressing ingredients

1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 clove grated garlic
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
a drop or two of Worcestershire sauce

Directions:
1. Preheat grill or skillet. Add bacon and cook until crispy. Season chicken breasts with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and paprika. Remove bacon when done. Add chicken to the same skillet and cook until done.

2. Prepare salad by adding romaine, celery, tomatoes, carrots, blue cheese and cooked bacon to a large bowl.

3. When chicken is done, slice and add to a large bowl. Toss with hot sauce. Add to salad. Add all ingredients for blue cheese dressing to a bowl and mix well. Drizzle dressing on salad and serve.

Bird's Nest Cupcakes

These were perfect for our Easter Dessert! And they were a big hit!!!!

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

4 eggs

2 3/4 cupscake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 8 ounce carton sour cream

1/3 cup orange juice

1 tablespoon finely shredded lemon peel

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 recipe Citrus Frosting or 1-1/2 cups other frosting

6 ounces vanilla candy coating

4 cupschow mein noodles

Pastel-color candy-coated egg-shape milk chocolate candies or jelly beans (about 84)

Directions:

1. Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Line twenty-eight 2-1/2-inch muffin cups with paper bake cups. In a medium bowl stir together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a small bowl combine sour cream, orange juice, lemon peel, and lemon juice. Set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a very large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium speed about 3 minutes or until light and fluffy, scraping side of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternately add flour mixture and sour cream mixture to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined.

3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each about three-fourths full. Use the back of a spoon to smooth out batter in cups.

4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in muffin cups on wire racks for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from muffin cups. Cool completely on wire racks.

5. Frost cupcakes with Citrus Frosting. In a small microwave-safe bowl microwave candy coating on 100 percent power (high) for 30 seconds. Stir; microwave for 20 to 30 seconds more or until completely melted. In a large bowl combine chow mein noodles and the melted candy coating. Shape chow mein mixture into a nest on top of each cupcake.*

6. Add candy-coated milk chocolate candies to each nest. Makes 28 (2-1/2 inch) cupcakes.

Citrus Frosting

Ingredients

1 16 ouncecancream cheese or vanilla frosting

1/2 teaspoonfinely shredded lemon peel

Directions

In a medium bowl stir together frosting and lemon peel.

Twice-Baked Potato Casserole

I made these for Easter yesterday and they were so good!!

Ingredients:

1-1/2 pounds red potatoes (about 6 medium), baked

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 pound sliced bacon, cooked and crumbled

3 cups (24 ounces) sour cream

2 cups (8 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese

2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

2 green onions, sliced

Directions:

1. Cut baked potatoes into 1-in. cubes. Place half in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Sprinkle with half of the salt, pepper and bacon. Top with half of the sour cream and cheeses. Repeat layers.  

2. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until cheeses are melted. Sprinkle with onions.

(So Easter got a little busy and I forgot to take a picture after it was done...this one is before it went in the oven.)

Sweet and Sour Meatballs and Pasta

When my husband and I first started dating he made me these for dinner one night. I wasn't so sure about it at first but thought I'd give it try. (If you know me, you know back then I didn't like to step outside of my comfort zone) I'm so glad I did! I absolutely love this meal!!!!

Ingredients:

Sweet and Sour Sauce

Meatballs

Pasta Noodles

Directions:

1. Once water is at a rolling boil, turn stove to medium and add noodles. Cook for approx. 8-10 minutes.

2. Prepare meatballs in microwave followed by directions on the bag. (All depends on which brand you use) I added a little water to the meatballs. Half way through I cut them in half  and rotated them so they would cook better.

3. Once meatballs and pasta are fully cooked I added the sweet and sour sauce to both!

Such an easy fast meal and tastes soooo good!

Car Emergency Kit

The other day we were driving home from my in-laws and our daughter kept saying she needed a tissue. And of course it happened to be the one time we didn't have one. I remember I came across a Emergency Car Kit on pinterest and decided I had to do this. Most of the things I already have in my car but they are scattered around in compartments and I forget where they are so today during my spare time (little that I had) I made one.

I took an old wipe box I was literally about to throw away and found some fabric laying around (okay that's a lie it wasn't just laying around. I took it off one of the Easter baskets we have :-O )

Inside I put...

-Kleenex

-Wipes

-First Aid Kit containing bandaids, alcohol pads, gauze, hand sanitizer pads

-Advil

-Hand Santizer Gel

-Lotion

- Safety Pin

-Hair tye

-Pen

-and a couple Fruit Snacks