Lipton's Crock Pot BBQ Chicken and Drop Biscuits

I made this for dinner when we were snowed in last night. It was a big hit!

Ingredients:
3-5 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3/4 c BBQ sauce
3/4 c brown sugar
1 packet Lipton's dry onion soup
1/4 c water
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper

What to do:
1. Spray crock pot, put chicken breast in
2. In a small bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients.
3. Pour over chicken
4. Cook on low for 5-6 hours or until chicken is cooked through

Serve with brown rice and Drop biscuits (listed below)

Drop Biscuits:

Ingredients:
2 c all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tarter
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c melted butter
1 c milk

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar, cream of tarter, salt.
3. Stir in butter and milk. Combine until just moist.
4. Drop batter by the spoonful onto greased baking sheet
5. Cook in preheated oven until golden brown around the edges (8-12 minutes)

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Another amazing cookie recipe for Christmas baking! Can you tell I like the chocolate and peanut butter combo??

Ingredients:

Cookies:
2 eggs
1/2 c vegetable oil
1/4 c flour
1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix

Frosting:

4 oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 c smooth peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 c powdered sugar
3 tbsp milk

Directions:

Cookies:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Lightly whisk eggs and oil in a small bowl.
3. Mix in flour and cake mix until well blended. Lick the spoon.
4. Roll into 1 inch ball and bake 8-10 minutes.
5. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Frosting:

1. Beat cream cheese, peanut butter, and vanilla.
2. Add in powdered sugar and beat until smooth.
3. Add in milk a little at a time and beat until desired consistency. Taste test. It will taste wonderful, but you should just MAKE SURE (wink, wink).
4. Add a spoonful of frosting onto one cookie and top with another cookie. Repeat until all cookies are used.

Muddy Buddy Cookies

Have you ever had Muddy Buddy Mix? (Also commonly know as Puppy Chow or White Trash...) Well imagine this in the form of a COOKIE. That's right, a cookie. Below is the recipe for quite possibly the best cookie you've ever eaten. Get ready!

Ingredients:

For the cookie:
2 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 sticks butter, softened (no one said they were diet cookies.)
1 c peanut butter
1 c brown sugar
3/4 granulated sugar
2 eggs

For the coating:
1 stick butter
2 c chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla extract
powdered sugar for rolling

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease 2 pans or line with parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.
3. In a large bowl, beat butter until smooth, then add peanut butter until and beat until well blended.
4. Beat in sugar and then eggs, one at a time.
5. Gradually beat in the dry ingredients.
6. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheet. Use a fork to make criss cross pattern on top.
7. Bake about 12 minutes or so.

Coating:
1. While the cookies are cooling, melt the butter with the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl.
2. Stir until smooth, then add vanilla.
3. After cookies have cooled, dunk them in the chocolate mixture.
4. Roll each in powdered sugar.

Bisquick Chicken and Dumplings

These chicken and dumplings are super easy and very delicious! I made them last night to warm us up in the snow and Jeremy requested that we have them at least twice a week from now on. We might get a little sick of them, but at least I know he liked them! Give them a try and see what you think. This recipe made enough for 4 large bowls.

Ingredients:

Soupy part:
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
32 oz chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 c milk

Dumplings:
2 c Heartsmart Bisquick mix
9 tbsp milk

Instructions:
1. Put boneless, skinless chicken breasts in large pot, cover with broth. If chicken is not totally covered, you may need to add a little water too. Cook chicken until tender and no pink is left.

2. Remove chicken from broth. Shred chicken into bite sized pieces and return to the broth. Careful not to burn yourself on the hot chicken! It did just come from boiling water, you know.

3. Make the dumplings. To do this, put 2 c Bisquick into a bowl. Add in 9 tbsp milk. Stir until well blended. Coat hands with flour (this will prevent the dough from sticking to your hands) and roll dough into 1 in balls.

4. When all the dough is rolled, bring the broth back to a boil. Once boiling, drop each dumpling one by one into the broth. Make sure each dumpling fully submerges at first. They will pop back up, but that is ok!

5. When all the dumplings are in the pot, add 1/2 c milk. Gently poke the dumplings back down again but DO NOT STIR. This will cause the dumplings to fall apart and that's no fun, now is it? Reduce the heat to medium low and allow the dumplings to cook for 10-15 minutes. You may want to cover them after the first 7 minutes or so.

6. Once the dumplings are starting to cook and solidify, THEN you can stir to make sure the chicken doesn't stick to the bottom. But don't get too vigorous with this! Add salt and pepper to taste and serve! Yummy!

Sweet Potato Casserole

In honor of Thanksgiving coming up, I thought I'd post one of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes...sweet potato casserole! Warning: You may want to eat this until you make yourself sick. And then you'll probably want to eat some more.

Ingredients:

Filling:
4 c sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1/2 c sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 c milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Topping:
1/2 c packed brown sugar
1/3 c flour
3 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 c chopped pecans (optional if you're not in to that kind of thing.)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°. Put sweet potatoes into a saucepan and cover with water. Cook over medium high heat until tender (Poke them with a fork to test, don't stick your fingers in there. Trust me, it will burn you.) Drain, peel, and mash.

2.In a large bowl (probably the same one you mashed the potatoes in, since they're already in there), mix sweet potatoes, eggs, salt, 4 tbsp butter, milk, and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Pour into greased 13x9 dish.

3. In a medium bowl, mix the sugar and the flour. Cut in the 3 tbsp butter until the mixture is crumbly. Stir in pecans. Sprinkle this over the sweet potato mixture.

4. Bake for 30 minutes until the top is golden brown.

5. Try your best to wait until Thanksgiving dinner to dig in. If resisting is not possible, CAREFULLY transfer the rest of the casserole to a smaller dish so as to avoid being judged by your family/guests at Thanksgiving.

Chocolate Chunk Pumpkin Coffee Bread

This is one of my absolute favorite pumpkin recipes.  It's like heaven in a pumpkin loaf, topped off with a coffee flavored icing.  Mmmm...I think I drooled on my computer just thinking about it.  Make it.  It's that good.

Here's what you need:

Wet Ingredients:

1 c sugar
½ c brown sugar, firmly packed
1 c pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie mix)
½ c applesauce
½ c strong brewed coffee, cooled completely
1 egg

Dry Ingredients:

1 2/3 c unbleached flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder

1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chunks


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 1 loaf pan, 4 small loaf pans, OR a dozen muffin cups.

1. Combine the wet ingredients in a bowl, mix well.
2. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients slowly to the dry, mixing well as you combine.
3. Stir in the chocolate chunks.
4. Pour into pan, place on center rack of the oven. Bake until tooth pick comes out clean—about 35-40 minutes for large loaf, 25 minutes for small loaves, 15 for muffins.
5. Remove from oven, allow to cool before removing from pan. Cool completely before icing.

Icing Recipe:

3 c powdered sugar
¼ c strong brewed coffee, cooled completely
2 tbsp melted butter

Beat all ingredients on low speed until well blended and reaches the consistency of icing. Spread over top of COOLED bread. (Will melt and run off otherwise). Enjoy!!

Grilled BBQ Chicken and Pineapple Quesadillas

I made these for dinner last night and YUM!  They turned out great.  I hope you enjoy them as much as Jeremy and I did.

Here's what you need:

• 8 whole Whole WheatFlour Tortillas
• Just a little Butter Or Margarine
• 2 cups Grilled Pineapple, Sliced
• 3 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
• Salt And Pepper, to taste
• 3 cups Monterey Jack Cheese, Grated
• 1 whole Jalapeno, Sliced
• Cilantro
• 3 Tablespoons Barbecue Sauce

Of course, the amounts vary depending on how many people you're feeding.

What to do:

1. Grill your pineapple in a grill pan (or on a real grill if you're feeling adventurous.  Me?  I was feeling lazy.  So I used the pan.)

2.  Put your chicken breasts into a large Ziploc bag, pound with a mallot (or a large jar of spagetti sauce if you have the same proper culinary etiquette as me) it to make it flat.  It will grill quicker this way. 

3. Season the flattened chicken with seasoning of  your choice.  I threw a little salt, pepper, and ground red pepper on mine.

4.  Spray grill pan with cooking spray and grill chicken until no pink shows in the middle.  Brush a little BBQ sauce over it as it finishes grilling.  Dice chicken into bite sized pieces.

5.  Grill tortilla on both sides with a bit of butter on them.

6.  To assemble quesadillas:
-Spread cheese over 4 grilled tortilla
- Arrange chicken pieces evenly over the cheese
-Add pineapple slices and jalapeno slices
-Drizzle BBQ sauce over top (you could add cilantro here if you're a fan.  I did not.)
- Add 2nd grilled tortilla on top of each one, giving you 4 complete quesdillas.

7.  Put in oven for a few minutes to warm or throw back into the grill pan (Careful not to miss the pan when you throw them though.)

8.  Cut each quesadilla into 6 wedges, serve with a slice of lime, sour cream, pico de gallo, whatever you fancy with your quesadillas!  Enjoy!

Stuffed Pepper Soup

I made this soup for the first time the other night.  It was yummy and it freezes well, so you can save some for later!

**The amounts in the recipe are intended to be either for a large group of people, or for you to eat a few meals now and freeze some for later.  If you don't want to do that, cut it in half.**

Ingredients
2 lbs lean ground beef or ground turkey
2 green peppers, seeded and chopped
2 red peppers, seeded and chopped
5 cans lower sodium tomato soup + 5 soup cans of water
1 can lower sodium beef broth
2 tsp brown sugar
2 small can tomato sauce
1 c uncooked brown rice
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese
Black pepper to taste

What to do

1.  Brown your beef and peppers together until cooked through.  Drain.
2. Put into large pot.  Add remaining ingredients except for cheese.  Allow soup to simmer on low until rice is cooked, about 20-30 minutes.  Stir in cheese to melt in the last 5 minutes to prevent sticking.

If the soup seems too thick, you can add more water as needed. 

Pumpkin Spice Cake

Ingredients
Cake:
1 box spice cake mix
1 16 oz can pumpkin puree

Topping:
1/2 c flour
4 tbsp cold butter
4 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2- 2 tsp cinnamon

Other:
Cinnamon and white sugar mix to sprinkle over pan

Process:
Preheat oven to 350.
1. In a medium sized bowl, mix together spice cake mix and pumpkin puree. 
2. Spray loaf pan with cooking spray.  Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture over the pan, shake to cover bottom and sides.
3. Pour batter into pan. 
4. In a small bowl, mix together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon.  Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly.  Sprinkle over top of batter.
5.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into middle of cake comes out clean.

**Can also be made as muffins.  Bake only for 15-18 minutes.

Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Sauteed Apples

I fixed this for the first time for dinner tonight and it was delicious!  I will definitely make it again.

Ingredients:
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg (I didn't have any nutmeg, so did 1/8 tsp ground allspice)
4 boneless pork chops
2 tbsp butter
2 c thinly sliced unpeeled Gala apples
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 c apple cider or apple juice (I used juice)
1 tsp thyme

Preparation
1.  Heat large pan over medium heat.  Combine first 5 ingredients (salt-nutmeg) and sprinkle it evenly over the pork.  Coat the pan with cooking spray.  Add pork to pan and cook on each side until cooked through. 
2.  Meanwhile, melt butter in a separate pan.  Add apple slices and 1/8 tsp salt.  Saute for four minutes until apples start to brown.  Add apple cider (juice) to the pan and cook for two minutes until apple is crisp and tender.  Stir in thyme.  Serve apple mixture over the pork.

I served it with green beans, Stove Top stuffing and yeast rolls.  Yum!!

Three Cheese Penne Florentine

Ingredients

• 1  teaspoon  olive oil
• Cooking spray
• 3  cups  thinly sliced mushrooms
• 1  cup  chopped onion (I left this out and it was still good!)
• 1  cup  chopped red bell pepper
• 3  cups  chopped fresh spinach
• 1  tablespoon  chopped fresh oregano
• 1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
• 1  (16-ounce) carton  low-fat cottage cheese
• 4  cups  hot cooked penne (about 8 ounces uncooked tube-shaped pasta)
• 2  cups  shredded cooked skinless, boneless chicken breast
• 1  cup  (4 ounces) shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese, divided
• 1/2  cup  (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese, divided
• 1/2  cup  2% reduced-fat milk
• 1  (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed reduced-fat, reduced-sodium cream of chicken soup, undiluted

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425°.
Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, onion, and bell pepper; sauté 4 minutes or until tender. Add spinach, oregano, and black pepper; sauté 3 minutes or just until spinach wilts.

Place cottage cheese in a food processor; process until very smooth. Combine spinach mixture, cottage cheese, pasta, chicken, 3/4 cup cheddar cheese, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, milk, and soup in a large bowl. Spoon mixture into a 2-quart baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup cheddar cheese and remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Bake at 425° for 25 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly.

Barbie Cups aka "Beefkins"

I got the recipe for Barbie Cups from one of my roommates at UNCW.  It's simple and delicious!!  I took it to small group one night and they renamed it "Beefkins", which is a combination of beef and muffins...?  Too funny!  Anyway, no matter what they're called, they're usually a hit!

Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground beef
1 can biscuits
1/2 c BBQ sauce
1/2 c brown sugar, packed
shredded cheddar cheese for topping

Instructions:
1. Brown the ground beef, drain.
2. Stir in BBQ sauce and brown sugar, mix.
3. Meanwhile, roll out the biscuits flat.
4. Using a greased muffin pan, press the biscuits into the bottom of each cup, allowing the extra to come up over the sides of the cup.

An idea of what this should look like...

5. Put a scoop of the BBQ beef mixture into each biscuit cup.  Top with cheddar cheese.
6. Follow baking time and temperature on the biscuits.

Blueberry Crisp

 Ingredients
3 large containers fresh rinsed blueberries
2 tbsp+1/4 c packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c quick-cooking oats
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 c sliced almonds
Vanilla icecream or Cool Whip

What to do
Preheat oven to 350°F. Rinse blueberries. Drain, allowing some water to cling to berries. Place berries in 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons brown sugar and cinnamon; stir to blend. Let stand until sugar dissolves and coats berries. Stir oats, flour, salt, and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar to blend in medium bowl. Add butter and rub in with fingertips or fork until moist clumps form. Stir in almonds. Sprinkle oat mixture evenly over blueberries. Bake crisp until berries are bubbling and topping is golden, about 35 minutes. Serve warm, each serving topped with a spoonful of icecream or Cool Whip.

**Personally, I like to almost double the amount of topping made.  It's really up to you!

Pumpkin Crunch

This is a yummy fall recipe with one of my favorite ingredients: pumpkin!

Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix
1 can solid packed pumpkin
1 can fat free evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 1/2 c sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c chopped pecans (optional)
1 c butter

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350º.  Combine pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl.  Pour into a greased 13x9 dish.  Sprinkle dry cake mix over pumpkin mixture.  Top with pecans.  Pour melted butter over the pecans.  Bake for 45-50 minutes.

It's best served warm with vanilla icecream!  Yummy!!

Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread

In honor of fall, I decided to bake something with pumpkin in it today.  I ran across this recipe using peanut butter and pumpkin (two of my favorites!) but was a little skeptical of using them both together.  The result was excellent!  Both flavors are subtle and neither outdoes the other.  Yum!

Ingredients:
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
1 15 oz can solid packed pumpkin
1 c applesauce
3/4 c water
2/3 c peanut butter
4 eggs
3 1/2 c flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

What to do with it all:
Preheat oven to 350º. Combine the sugar through the eggs on the ingredient list.  Beat until well blended.  In a separate bowl, combine flour-spices.  Add slowly to the other bowl, mixing well.  Pour into TWO greased loaf pans at bake for 60-70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove from pans and cool on wire racks.

Chicken Enchilada Soup

I found this soup recipe online and have enjoyed making it and tweaking it many times!  It's one of our favorite cold, rainy day meals!

Ingredients:
1 lb chicken- cooked, shredded
1 clove garlic, pressed
4 c low sodium chicken broth
1 c masa harina (this is a mexican corn flour-I found it at Harris Teeter)
3 c water
1 can enchilada sauce
16 oz Velveeta OR 16 oz shredded cheddar cheese+ 2 tbsp milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 can low sodium black beans, drained and rinsed

Optional garnishes:
sour cream
shredded cheddar
crushed tortilla chips
salsa

The process:

1. Add garlic and chicken broth to large pot, heat on medium.
2. In a medium sized bowl, combine masa harina with 2 c water.  Whisk until well blended.  Add into pot with broth.
3.  Add remaining 1 c water, cheese, enchilada sauce, and spices.  Bring to a boil stirring frequently (I learned the hard way that it will stick easily!)
4. Shred chicken into small bites and add to the soup.  Allow to simmer for 20 minutes until mixture has thickened.  Add black beans in during the last 5 minutes or so.  (They stick very easily to the bottom no matter how much you stir if you add them in before.)
5.  Serve!  It's great with Jalapeno Cheddar Bread...yum!

This picture was borrowed from the Chili's website

Chicken Enchilada Wreath

This is a recipe that I found online and modified to create my own version.  It was a big hit with Jeremy and at small group!

Ingredients:

2 c cooked chicken
1 pack low sodium taco seasoning
1 8 oz pack shredded cheese (save a handful to sprinkle on top before going in the oven.)
1 8 oz lite sour cream
1 can Rotel with green chilies
2 c raw spinach (optional)
2 cans crescent rolls
1 lime (juiced)
Finely crushed tortilla chips

The process:

1. Chop the cooked chicken, add in taco seasoning, cheese, sour cream, Rotel.  Juice the lime and add this to the mixture. Add spinach if desired.
2. Unroll the crescent dough and separate the triangles.  Arrange on a greased round cookie sheet or baking stone with the wide end overlapping and the points toward the outside.

This is not MY picture, but a picture of what it should look like at this point!

3.  Add a spoonful of the chicken mixture on the center of each triangle.   Sprinkle crushed tortilla chips on top of the mixture.
4.  Bring the pointy end of the triangle up and over the filling, tuck under the wide end in the center.  Top each piece of dough with more crushed tortilla chips and a little bit of shredded cheese.
5.  Bake according to the crescent roll package, probably 375º for 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted and dough is golden brown.

Again, not my picture, but an idea of what the final product should look like!

I served it with Spanish rice one night and with Chicken Enchilada Soup another night.  Both were great!