Chili's Monterey Chicken

Jon and I LOVE this recipe. It is super easy to throw together and it only has 5 ingredients! If you want to be extra healthy, you can wrap your chicken in bacon like some recipes call for... but I like it without. I know!! You never thought you would hear me pass on bacon! It is a rare occasion, but it in this case it is too hard to get your chicken cooked right and your bacon crispy. Nobody likes soggy bacon. :(

If you shred your chicken before you garnish it, this recipe also lends itself well to quesadillas, enchiladas, and pizza! And I think they actually serve it on a bun as a BBQ Chicken Sandwich at Chili's.

Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 c. BBQ Sauce (i.e. Bull's Eye)
1/2 cup monterey jack cheese, grated (or whatever you have on hand)
1 fresh tomato, diced
chopped chives (you could also use green onions, if you don't randomly have fresh chives laying around your kitchen)

Directions:
1. Pound chicken breasts until somewhat flattened, season with salt and pepper if desired (if your chicken breasts are really thick, slice them in half horizontally so you have longer, thinner pieces; that way you don't spend 30 minutes pounding your chicken to death to get it thin enough)

2. Place chicken in greased casserole dish and top with BBQ sauce and shredded cheese.

3. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees, or until your chicken is cooked throroughly and your cheese is nice and bubbly (varies depending on thickness of chicken).

4. Sprinkle with a generous amount of fresh chopped tomatoes and chives. Serves 4.

Double Tree Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are by far my favorite cookies. They always come out looking thick and chunky because of the ground oatmeal and nuts. I am not a huge fan of big nuts in my desserts, so I love how I get the nutty flavor in these cookies without running the risk of chipping a tooth! If I don't have walnuts on hand, I have used almonds and pecans. I also think these would be delicious with cranberries or raisins instead of chocolote chips!

Ingredients:

1 c. softened butter (TIP: you can soften butter without melting it by using the defrost setting on your microwave for 30-60 seconds)

3/4 c. brown sugar

3/4 c. white sugar

2 eggs

1/4 tsp. lemon juice (can be skipped, but really adds alot!)

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 1/4 c. flour

1/2 c. chopped oats (I use my food processor, but you could simply chop with a sharp knife until it is the consistency of coarse sand, but not flour)

1 1/2 c. chopped walnuts (or whatever nuts you have on hand; again I use my food processor and chop them into small pebble-size, but you could go bigger depending on your preference)

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon (my sister-in-law always puts less, but I like the strong cinnamon flavor)

3 1/2 c. chocolate chips (about 1 1/2 bags)

Directions:

1. Combine butter, brown sugar, sugar, eggs, lemon juice, and vanilla in your mixer.

2. Mix flour, oats, nuts, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in another bowl.

3. Slowly add flour mixture to your butter mixture until well blended, then stir in chocolate chips.

4. Drop in 2" balls on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 11-12 minutes, or until lightly brown. TIP: If you take the cookies out just as the underside is set but the top is still a little gooey, and then immediately transfer them off the pan to a cooling rack, the cookies will set as the cool and come out super soft and chewy instead of hard and crunchy.

Easily makes 4 dozen decent-sized cookies. You can freeze the batter or half the recipe if you don't need so much all at once, but I like saving some of the cookie dough to sample through out the week. :)

Breaded Pork Tenderloin

I love all things breaded, and this recipe is a nice twist on traditional pork chops. You wouldn't think to use mustard and Stove Top for breading, but this dish has a lot of flavor! Prep is a snap and the mustard flavor is a nice undertone without being overwhelming.

Ingredients:

1 pork tenderloin (1 pound), cut crosswise into 1-inch medallions (or you can use boneless Pork Chops)
¼ cup butter, melted
¼ cup mayonnaise
4 to 5 teaspoons prepared mustard
1 ¼ cups crushed herb-seasoned stuffing mix (i.e. Stove Top Stuffing)

Directions:

1. Flatten pork tenderloin pieces to ¼-in. to ½-in. thickness (if you are pressed for time, you can skip this step!)

2. In a shallow bowl, combine butter, mayonnaise and mustard; dip tenderloin pieces, then roll in stuffing crumbs.

3. Place in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan.

4. Bake, uncovered, at 425 degrees F for 13-16 minutes or until juices run clear. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Anna's Fruit & Cream Torte

1 box yellow cake mix
1 small box instant vanilla pudding
1 1/2 c. cold milk
1/2 cup sour cream
2 pints strawberries, sliced
1 8 oz. carton of whipped cream

Bake cake in 2 round pans according to box directions. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from pan and cool completely. Beat pudding, milk, and sour cream until well blended. Let stand until thick (3-5 minutes).

Cut each cake round in half, horizontally, making a total of four layers. Trim each layer flat, if needed, so cake will stack evenly. Spread 2/3 cup pudding mixture to the edge of bottom layer cake and top with sliced strawberries. Stack next layer of cake on top and repeat until all layers are covered with pudding and strawberries except the top layer.

"Frost" top and sides of cake with whipped cream, and refrigerate. Garnish with strawberry slices just before serving.

Chicken Noodle Soup With Homemade Noodles

My girls were sick today, so I went on a hunt for a good homemade chicken noodle soup recipe and found this one from Pam at For the Love of Cooking. It was delicious, and everyone loved the homemade noodles! She blogs:

Making homemade noodles is really easy to do and it makes a really good soup even better. I always add extra noodles to the soup because my kids love them. Make sure to dry them out for at least an hour before adding them to the soup. I served this with hot crusty bread and butter.

Soup:

• 8 cups homemade chicken stock (or store bought)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 onion diced
• 1-2 cloves of garlic diced finely
• 1 1/2 cups of carrots diced
• 3 stalks of celery diced
• 2 tsp good chicken bouillon (I use Herb Ox)
• 1 bay leaf
• Sea Salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme or basil
• 1 1/2 cup cooked chicken diced (I use meat from leftover roasted chicken)
• Fresh parsley, chopped

Sauté onions in olive oil until soft, about 3-4 minutes. Add garlic & cook for 30 seconds. Add broth & the remainder of ingredients. Cook over medium low heat for 1-2 hours.

Noodles:

• 2 cups of flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup of milk

In mixing bowl combine flour, salt, egg and milk. Mix until you produce a slightly sticky ball of dough. Flour the counter and roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. You want them very thin because they thicken when cooked. Cut noodles (I use a pizza cutter) to desired size and place on wax paper. Let the noodles dry out on the counter for at least 1 hour before adding them to the soup.
About 30 minutes before serving soup, drop noodles in and cook. Add some fresh chopped parsley right before serving. Enjoy.

We're Live!

Hello Ladies! After the success of our Monday Recipe Swap, I think we all agreed a community recipe blog would be a good idea. Well...skadoosh! Here it is!

Please feel free to add your favorite recipes (with pictures, if you can!) so we can all enjoy. Also, please label your recipes so we can search for them later. I am thinking we should all use basic labels, like "dinner," "dessert," "side dish," "soup," "salad," "bread," etc., to keep everything uniform. Happy posting and good eating!

-Leah