New Year's eats!

Hi everyone! I can't believe how fast Thanksgiving and Christmas flew by. It seems like time just goes too quickly. In this new year, I am going to be more attentive to my blog. Other things have just kept my attention away and I have missed it greatly! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus!

I know many of us entertain on New Years Eve, so I thought I would feature some of my past recipes that would be great to have for guests. Hope you enjoy!

Savory

Baked Sandwiches with Pesto



Burrito Pizza


Jalapeno Chicken Dip


Heavenly Ham Dip


Buffalo Chicken Wing Dip


Mini Burgers/Sliders


Fried Pork Dumplings with Peanut Dipping Sauce


Chicken Quesadillas



Sweets
Strawberry Margarita Squares



Heath Bar Crunch Cake


Cream Cheese Bars


Peanut Butter Cup Trifle


Chocolate Crescent Rolls


No Bake Cookies


Ooey Gooey German Chocolate Brownies


Blondies


I hope you enjoy these recipes and have a safe and happy New Year! God bless!

Happy eating,
Amanda

A Civil War Recipe..... Oatmeal Pie

Princess came home with an assignment to to a Civil War project. There were several options but she and I always gravitate to the ones that involve cooking. So we chose to make a recipe from the Civil War time to share with her class. Can I just say how grateful I am for the internet when it comes to these school projects? We looked online and found many different recipes. I wanted one that used ingredients I already had on hand and hopefully one that would be a bit tasty.

I finally found a forum where people were sharing Civil War recipes and someone had shared one for Oatmeal Pie from Charleston, South Carolina. Apparently, during the Civil War, pecans were in short supply. So oatmeal was subbed for pecans to make a sort of mock pecan pie.

This recipe is very tasty and really easy. It does remind me of a pecan pie, but at the same time a little reminiscent of an apple crisp because of the oatmeal and the cinnamon. Very delicious! I'm hoping her class really enjoys it. She said they've mostly been bringing in Johnny cakes and hardtack so this should be a nice break from those.

Old Fashion Oatmeal Pie

Ingredients:

1 (9 inch) pie crust
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup light corn syrup
1/8 to 1/4 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup quick cooking oatmeal (uncooked)

Directions:

Preheat oven 350 degrees. Beat eggs until frothy. Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt in small bowl. Add eggs and mix well. Add corn syrup, melted butter and vanilla. Mix oatmeal. Pour into uncooked pie shell. Bake for 45 minutes.

Happy eating!

This is being shared at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed With Grace.

Chicken Casserole

Can't believe that fall will be here soon! I love fall. The colors of leaves changing, the crisp blue skies, cooler weather and yummy foods that are so nice to enjoy during that time of year. For me, that means more soups, chili's, casseroles, yummy breads and muffins. What are your favorite things about fall?

Speaking of casseroles, I am totally addicted to this yummy delicious chicken casserole! It's a great quick dinner for those nights you don't have much time if you keep cooked chicken in your freezer. Having precooked chicken and ground beef is such a help for those nights you need something fast.

To me this is pure comfort food. I usually serve it with brown rice and steamed broccoli. It would also be great with mashed potatoes or noodles. Delicious!

Chicken Casserole

2-3 cups of chicken, cooked and chopped
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1/2-1 cup of sour cream (I usually don't measure and this really depends on personal preference)
1 cup of shredded cheese (I like to use sharp or mild cheddar)
1 sleeve of buttery crackers, crushed
4 tbsp of butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine soup, sour cream, and cheese. Add chicken to mixture and mix well. Pour into a 2-2 1/2 quart baking dish. In another bowl, combine crushed crackers with butter. Coating crackers well. Spread on top of chicken mixture and bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly and browned a bit on top.

Serves 4-6 You could also easily double this to feed more or have more leftover.

To make this healthier, I use healthy request cream of chicken soup, low fat sour cream, 2% shredded cheese if I have it on hand, low salt ritz crackers and I skimp on the butter since the crackers are already buttery. It still tastes great!

Happy eating!
Amanda

This is being shared at What's On Your Plate? at Good Cheap Eats and on Cooking Thursdays at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

Dill Pickle Faux-Fried Chicken

I love looking at the Cooking for your Family board over at Babycenter. They have a recipe review thread where everyone reviews the recipes they made. It's a great way to find new ideas. Well, one lady posted that she had made this recipe for Dill Pickle Faux-Fried Chicken which is from A Good Appetite. I was really happy with this recipe! The kids loved it! Definitely something different to do with chicken and a good way to use up that pickle juice.

I did the recipe a bit different but not much. For the original recipe, click on the link above. Here's what I did....

Dill Pickle Faux-Fried Chicken

2-4 cups of pickle juice
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 cups of Pepperidge Farms Herb Seasoned Stuffing mix
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese (you could use more or less if you wanted)
2 eggs

Marinate chicken breasts for at least 2 hours (I did all day) in the pickle juice.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a cookie sheet lined with foil and then place a greased cooling rack on top of the foil. Remove chicken from the marinade. Discard remaining marinade. Dry chicken and set aside. In a pie plate or other dish, crack two eggs and mix well. In another dish, add the stuffing mix and cheese. Mix well. Dredge chicken in the egg and then into the dry mix and place on the cooling rack/cookie sheet. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Flip over halfway through cooking to crisp both sides.

I served with mashed potatoes, corn and green beans. Very delicious!

I do want to add that you could taste the pickle taste in the chicken. Not in a bad way but in a different, good way. However, if you're not a fan of pickles you may not enjoy this recipe. If you didn't marinate it as long as I did it might not take on a strong flavor though. I let mine marinate all day.

Happy eating!

Pork Chops in Mushroom Gravy

I had been craving pork chops and hadn't had them in awhile. I like to get the boneless pork loins and have them sliced into chops. I can usually catch them on sale for a little under $2 a pound so that's when I get them. This time I thought I'd bake them but wanted to do something that wouldn't dry them out since they are on the leaner side. I decided to do these Pork Chops in Mushroom Gravy and they were so yummy!

Pork Chops in Mushroom Gravy

8 boneless pork loin chops (mine ere 1/2" thick)
1 can of healthy request cream of mushroom soup
1/2 packet of onion soup mix
1/2 cup of reduced fat sour cream
1/2 cup of milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine soup, onion soup mix, sour cream and milk together. In a baking dish, arrange pork chops in a single layer. Pour soup mixture on top of the chops and spread around coating each one. Cover and bake for about 1 hour or so. I went a little over an hour. They were tender and yummy!

I served it with noodles, and mixed veggies. The gravy is absolutely delicious! You could easily do this in a crock pot as well. These definitely don't photograph well but they are tasty!

Happy eating!

Easy Almost Chicken Parmesan

I say almost because this is not breaded and fried like most. I had a pack of chicken breasts in the fridge that I needed to use up and wanted to try something different. I decided to do this and it turned out very yummy!

Easy Almost Chicken Parmesan

3-5 chicken breasts depending on size (I have found this can vary greatly depending on brand)
1 jar of spaghetti sauce (I used Classico Fire Roasted Tomato and Garlic)
shredded cheese (I used a pizza blend that contained mozzarella, provolone, parmesean and romano)
1 box of spaghetti noodles (I used Ronzoni Garden Delight Spaghetti noodles)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Layer chicken in a baking dish and pour spaghetti sauce on top of the chicken breasts. Cover with foil and bake for 1 to 1.5 hours. I always check my chicken with a meat thermometer so you may be able to go on the shorter end of cooking depending on your oven.

During the last several minutes of the chicken cooking, cook noodles as directed on the package. I strained them and added some butter to help keep them moist until serving the chicken.

Plate noodles, top with a piece of chicken and some sauce over the noodles. Top with cheese. Enjoy!

You could put the cheese on the chicken/sauce mixture and let it melt there but I enjoyed letting each person decide how much cheese they wanted so it worked better for us this way. This was a very tasty different way to use chicken. You could serve with some steamed veggies or a salad and it would be wonderful!

Happy Eating!
Amanda

Strawberry Margarita Squares

My mom had us over for the 4th of July to have dinner. I made a dessert to bring along to share. I had these a couple of years ago and had always meant to make them but never did. They are a very refreshing dessert for summertime. You have the salty of the pretzel crust, sourness of the 1st layer from the margarita mix. Then the sweetness of the strawberry top layer. It's a perfect combo! So delicious!

I meant to garnish these but didn't have a chance. They would look lovely with some whipped topping, sliced strawberry and maybe a small slice of lime on top.

Strawberry Margarita Squares

Crust:
2 cups pretzels (1 cup crushed)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar

Filling:
2 pkgs. (8oz each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup thawed, frozen margarita mix, concentrate (non-alcoholic)
2 containers (8oz each) cool whip, thawed
1 pkg. (3oz) strawberry gelatin
1/2 cup boiling water
1 pkg (10 oz) frozen sliced strawberries in syrup
fresh strawberry slices (for garnish-optional)
lime slices (for garnish- optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For crust, finely crush pretzels in small food processor. Melt butter in small bowl in the microwave. Add crushed pretzels, sugar and melted butter into a bowl and mix well. Press mixture onto bottom of 9x13 baking dish. I used a small glass to help press it into place. Bake 10 minutes. Cool completely.

2. For filling, beat cream cheese and margarita mix in a bowl with a hand mixer until well-blended. Fold in 2 cups of cool whip. Using an offset spreader, carefully spread cream cheese mixture evenly over crust. Refrigerate while preparing strawberry layer.

3. Place gelatin in a bowl. Stir in boiling water; stir until completely dissolved. Add frozen strawberries and stir until strawberries separate and gelatin is thickened (a spoon drawn through mixture will leave an impression). Whisk in 3 cups of the cool whip. Pour over cream cheese layer, spreading edges. Refrigerate 3 hours to set.

4. Cut dessert into squares. Garnish each with remaining cool whip. Top with sliced strawberries and lime slices.

Hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

Happy eating!
Amanda

Burrito Pizza

I found this Burrito Pizza recipe at Good Cheap Eats. I thought it looked so different and fresh and wanted to try it right away. The results were out of this world!

I did two things differently. I bought a crust from Papa Murphy's. They only charge $2 for an unbaked pizza dough already rolled out and on a pan for baking. Not too bad IMO! The other thing I did was use jarred jalapenos instead of fresh. I happen to have them on hand and enjoy their flavor. Next time, I think I will serve the peppers separately though. I had some who felt it was too spicy and others who liked it. So I think serving them on the side would be a great idea. Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did!

I'll let you check her site for the recipe in case you want to make homemade dough. She has a recipe for that too. Lots of yummy goodies on her site!

Happy Eating!
Amanda

Birthday Freebies

Hi everyone! I am so sorry that I have disappeared for so long. It's been a rough little bit for us. We had a bad car accident right before Thanksgiving, lots of sickness and snow mixed in there as well. I've just had things going on that didn't allow me to blog like I would have liked. I've missed blogging and all of you very much!

Now on to what my post is really about. Birthdays! Tomorrow is my birthday and all week I have been receiving some wonderful coupons from different restaurants in my email. Most restaurants have some sort of email list you can join. For many of them, you actually receive a coupon for some kind of discount/free food just for joining. Most also send something on your birthday and the anniversary of the date you subscribed to their emails. Plus special email only discounts throughout the year.

I would encourage you to look up your favorite restaurants and see what you can find. These are the ones that I have signed up for. I'm also including what I received for my birthday from them. I am assuming all coupons will be the same but I'm sure it could change at any time.

Ruby Tuesday Free Handcrafted Burger and Fries
Steak 'n Shake Free Double Steakburger with Cheese and Fries
Captain D's Free choice of three meals (I think it was tilapia, shrimp or fish) or $5 off another dinner
Fazoli's Free Dessert
LongHorn Steakhouse Free Dessert with purchase of entree
O'Charley's $5 off $20 or more (they may also give you a piece of Caramel Pie, you need to check with your local restaurant)
Logan's RoadHouse Free Nutter Butter Fudgeslide with any entree
IHOP Free Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity or menu item of equal or lesser value
Chili's Free Brownie Sundae

I'm sure there are more out there. Feel free to share any that you all know of. :) It's always nice to get free food. Especially since it can be so costly to go out to eat.

Happy Eating!

God bless,
Amanda

P.S. DISCLAIMER: I was not asked by any of these companies to list them here, these opinions are mine and mine only. Just wanted to share as I enjoy eating out but it's usually just too expensive. Thanks!