Chicken Taco Ring

I've seen recipes for these taco rings floating around blog land for awhile now and after having my MIL fix a ground beef ring for our Christmas dinner I figured why not give one a shot. I created this recipe on my own because I did my grocery shopping without a recipe and much to my surprise it turned out really well. The chicken mixture smells so good!! Not only am I excited to share the recipe with you but I'm also excited to share this tip with you.

We all know my love for pinterest here lately and I saw this technique there. Anyone dislike having to shred chicken as much as a I do? I have shredded chicken with my hands and with forks and I hate both ways. This time I threw the warm chicken in my kitchen aid mixer with the paddle attachment and set it on low speed. I'll be darned if that mixer didn't shred my chicken perfectly, it even mixed in all of the added ingredients! I will never shred chicken by hand again, never I say!!

Chicken Taco Ring~

Ingredients:

2-3 lg. chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

1 8oz. block of cream cheese, softened

1 14.5 oz. can of Red Gold petite diced tomatoes with green chilies, drained

1/2 sm. onion, finely diced

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. paprika

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cumin

2 cans crescent rolls

1 cup shredded mild cheddar cheese

Directions:

1.) Preheat your oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit. In a mixing bowl combine shredded chicken, cream cheese, drained tomatoes and chilies, onion, and seasonings. Set aside.

2.) On a round pizza pan lay out your crescent rolls. You will lay the wider portion of the roll in the middle of the pan, with the narrow section pointing outward. You will end up with what will look like a sun. Make sure the wider portions overlap each other a little bit and press them together.

3.) Spread chicken mixture on wider section of crescent rolls. Sprinkle the top of chicken with your shredded cheese.

4.) Taking the narrow portion of your crescent roll, lay over the top of your chicken and cheese.

5.) Bake for 17 to 20 minutes or until your crescent roll is golden brown.

My all time favorite scrambled eggs!

I'm not sure if it's because it the holiday season, or if it's because of what I am going through right now health wise, heck, it might be both, but I've been thinking about my Grandma Murphy a lot lately. I think most of my family has. So many things are happening to us right now, good and bad, that we can't help but think of her and the calm that she would bring to everything. A few weekends ago, during one of my Grandma moments, I whipped up these scrambled eggs for us. They aren't anything special and I'm sure you are wondering why in the heck I'm posting a recipe for scrambled eggs but I am. Mainly to remember, to remember all of the good times our family has shared eating these eggs. They remind me of Grandma and all of the early mornings I spent with my Uncle Dan and Aunt Robin, sitting in their camper on one of our family camping trips eating these eggs along with a piece of peanut butter toast drinking a big ol' glass of orange juice, because apparently everyone needs a healthy dose of vitamin D, or is it C. I still can't get my peanut butter toast to taste like my Aunt Robins...she must have a secret butter to peanut butter ratio that I am not aware of and sadly, my days of drinking a big ol' glass of orange juice are long gone thanks to my disease but these eggs...there is no screwing them up. And even if it was for a few short minutes, I was a little girl again, huddled around the campers kitchen table, surrounded by my favorite people at one of our favorite places.

Murphy's Scrambled Eggs

~Source: The Murphy's

Ingredients:

10 eggs

2 tbsp. milk

6 slices of bacon, finely diced

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.) In a large skillet, fry finely diced bacon. Once browned remove from pan and allow to cool on a paper towel lined dish, dispose of bacon grease.

2.) In the same skillet add a tablespoon of butter or so to help prevent eggs from sticking. Add your scrambled egg mixture, which includes salt, pepper, and your milk. Add cooked bacon to the egg mixture half way through the cooking process. Personally I like my eggs well done...no slimy eggs for this gal.

3.) Serve alongside a piece of two of peanut butter toast, and your big ol' glass of orange juice and you have yourself a pretty good breakfast.

Baked Ziti

Man do I have a recipe for you today. Recently I have been trying out quite a few new recipes and let me tell, none have knocked my socks off until last night. That is saying a lot coming from someone who has zero appetite the majority of the time because of my Crohns disease and the ugly flare that I am battling. This recipe though, oh my goodness, it was delicious. So delicious that my Mom had two helpings as did my dear husband. Daniel started off with his regular portion size and for round two he came back to the table with a heap of ziti on his plate. This will definitely go into rotation at our house, especially since it was so easy to put together. Seeing as by most evenings I've hit my maximum energy level and have started going downhill, easy is always best for me. It's always a plus that easy also equals totally awesome! Serve alongside some hot from the oven garlic bread, a fresh green salad, and a tall glass of wine and you my friends, would have a lovely date night dinner.

Baked Ziti

~Source: allrecipes.com

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-ziti-iv/detail.aspx

Ingredients:

1 lb. dry ziti pasta

1 1/2 tsp. olive oil

1 onion, sliced

1 tsp. minced fresh rosemary

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 lb. ground beef

1/2 lb. ground pork sausage

1 1/2 jars (26oz) spaghetti sauce

salt to taste

1 (6oz.) package of provolone cheese, sliced

3/4 cup sour cream

3/4 cup cottage cheese

1 (6oz.) package mozzarella cheese, shredded

2 tbsp. freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1.) Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook pasta in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente; drain.

2.) Meanwhile, heat olive oil in large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Cook onion in oil until tender. Stir in rosemary and garlic. Transfer to a small bowl.

3.) Place ground beef and sausage in the skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Stir in the onion mixture and spaghetti sauce. Season with salt. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for 10 minutes.

4.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. In the prepared dish, layer 1/2 of the cooked pasta, provolone cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese, and a little less than 1/2 of the meat mixture. Then layer the rest of the pasta, mozzarella cheese, remaining meat mixture, and parmesan cheese.

5.) Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 30 minutes, or until heated through and cheeses are melted.

* Since we all know I can't follow directions well enough to save my life, here we go with how I made this dish. First of all, I cooked the onion and garlic along with the meat mixture also meaning I didn't need the olive oil the recipe called for. I omitted the rosemary for the simple fact of I just don't like the stuff. Also, I did two layers of the cheeses, sour cream, and cottage cheese. I just split all of it in half. Lastly, just in case you wondered, I used probably about 3/4 of a 45 oz. jar of Prego Meat Sauce.

I can't stress to you guys enough that you must try this dish. As I sit here typing up this post, at almost midnight thank you...why is this Mother not in bed, I am salivating at the thought of having this for lunch tomorrow. Yes folks, it is that good!

Holiday Crunch

I can't believe I am actually sharing this recipe with the blogging world. My Mom made this dish for us growing up so often that there came a point in time that I hated it. At the mere mention of it I would cringe and then would quickly start begging and pleading that she make something else instead.

There is nothing special about this dish. There are no fancy ingredients or cooking techniques and why my family loves it so much is beyond me. They love it so much that there were many Christmas Eve dinners where my Mom wanted to serve it as the main course. It was on those Christmas Eve's where because of my hatred for it, that I offered to make the entire Christmas Eve dinner just so that we wouldn't have to endure Holiday Crunch.

I have no clue where my Mom got the recipe, nor do I know why it's called Holiday Crunch. I get where the crunch comes from but not the holiday part. What I also don't get is why after all of these years my hatred for it has turned into love. My love for it has grown so much that for the first time ever, I actually made it for dinner the other night. Never in a million years did I see myself eating this stuff again, let alone make it and serve it to my little family. I just know my Mom was secretly laughing inside the night I made this for us. All of those years that I did nothing but moan and groan when she would make it and here I am craving the stuff. It's horrible I tell you, absolutely horrible. Mom-1, Katie-0...lol.

Holiday Crunch

~Source: My Mother

Ingredients:

1 lb. elbow macaroni, cooked and drained

1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

1 bag shredded sharp cheddar cheese, add an extra half a bag if you like it cheesy.

1 lg. container French's Fried Onions

Directions:

1.) Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2.) In a large mixing bowl, combine the cooked elbow macaroni, browned ground beef, cream of mushroom soups, and shredded cheese.

3.) Transfer to a greased, deep baking dish. Top with fried onions.

4.) Bake for 30 minutes or until heated through and onions are lightly browned.

I hope your family enjoys it as much as mine.

*I apologize for the way my posts are appearing. I promise that I put in the proper spaces and what have you but for whatever reason when I publish the post using our lap top, everything scrunches together. When I do it on our desktop everything looks fine. Unfortunately, my Mom has gotten virus' on both of our desk top computers...as in ours won't even turn on. This means I'm stuck using the lap top until the desktops are repaired.

Easy Turkey Tetrazzini

I actually have a few recipes to share with everyone that I've been holding onto for a few weeks now. I just haven't had the motivation required to blog. Some of you may already be aware of my health problems and for those of you who aren't, if you jump over to my baby blog you can find out whats going on with me right now. I am having some serious Crohns issues that is going to require surgery. I'm not looking forward to it is all I'll say about that.

Anyway, I wanted to make sure I shared this recipe this week because its a great way to use up leftover turkey for your holiday lunches/dinners. This is a dish that Daniel's Mom made for him growing up and he's asked me before to make it for him, I never got around to it but I finally decided to give it a spin a few weeks ago. I bought a frozen turkey breast and roasted it up with mashed potatoes for dinner one night and for the second night I used the leftover turkey and made this meal. We all really enjoyed it, even with the mushrooms. I used fresh mushrooms by the way!

(Sorry for the less than stellar picture...I took it with my phone.)

Easy Turkey Tetrazzini~

Compliments of: allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

1 (8oz) package cooked egg noodles

2 tbsp. butter

1 (6oz.) can sliced mushrooms, I used fresh sliced mushrooms and sauteed them in the butter.

1 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

2 cups chopped cooked turkey

1 (10.75 oz) can condensed cream of celery soup

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1.) Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit.

2.) Melt butter in a large heavy skillet. Saute mushrooms for 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper, and stir in turkey, condensed soup, and sour cream. Place cooked noodles in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Pour sauce mixture evenly over the top. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

3.) Bake in a preheated oven for 20 t0 25 minutes, or until sauce is bubbling.

*I mixed the noodles and the sauce together instead of layering everything.

I hope you enjoy...I know we did!!

Scooter's Spaghetti

Anyone notice a change with the blog? Not only have I given it a minor face lift I've made the decision to combine Babies make Three and Four together with Katie's Korner. I figured with as little as I blog between the two there was really no need to keep them separate. Now the goal is to get really creative and come up with a new blog title...lol. Suggestions???


Anyway, can you believe I have another recipe to share with you? I originally saw this recipe over at Cassie Craves where she had included it on one of her weekly menus. Go figure right? Cassie Craves and Kaitlin in the Kitchen are becoming what allrecipes.com used to be to me...lol.


I thought it looked really good then, but was hesitant to give it a try mainly because I figured everyone would freak when I served them spaghetti with the fried onions on top. Well after then seeing it on my new favorite website Pinterest, I figured why not. So...I gave it a try, used a little more spaghetti then the recipe called for, how Katie like right? It's was a little dry for my liking BUT it was because I used to much spaghetti. I will say though, as leftovers, it was delicious.

This is a recipe that will definitely be made again, this time either using the correct amount of spaghetti or adding extra sauce but either way, it's gonna be made again, and don't fret about the fried onions...they were totally awesome on top!!


Scooter's Spaghetti~
Compliments of: Salad in a jar

Ingredients:
8 ounces cooked spaghetti
1 lb. ground beef
1 large can spaghetti sauce (26.5 oz.)
1 tbsp. butter
1/2 cup chopped green peppers (I used red peppers)
1/3 cup chopped onion
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp. milk
Fresh grated Parmesan cheese
French Fried Onions (small can)

Directions:
1.) Cook spaghetti according to the directions on the package. Cook to al dente, drain and set aside.
2.) Brown ground beef. Drain excess grease. Add spaghetti sauce to skillet and heat.
3.) Combine onions, peppers, and butter in a small glass bowl. Cover and microwave four minutes on high until soft.
4.) Add cream cheese and milk to vegetables and stir well.
5.) Using a 10x6 dish, assemble in the following order: thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the casserole dish, spaghetti, cream cheese/vegetable mixture, remaining spaghetti sauce, and Parmesan cheese. Add the fried onions to the top during the last five minutes of cooking.
6.) Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Remember, top with the fried onions and then bake for another five minutes. That's thirty minutes of baking total...just helping you all out...lol.

The author of Salad in a jar says this is a great dish to make ahead and refrigerate or even freeze. She does recommend doing so without adding the fried onions though, just add those during the baking process.



Looks yummy right? Her picture is even better so please scoot on over to her site to check it out!

Copycat Chili's Salsa

Boy do I have a recipe for you...

I don't know about everyone else but when we go to our local Mexican restaurant the thing I enjoy most is the free chips and salsa. I usually get so full on that stuff that I very rarely finish my dinner. Normally in this house I make my pico de galla but when I saw this recipe over at Kaitlin in the Kitchen I knew I had to give it a try because it looked so similar to the stuff you get at the restaurant. I doubled all of my ingredients and used an entire bunch of cilantro because, well, we love cilantro in this house. I'm so glad I made a big batch because Daniel took some into work and ended up sharing with a few people. They loved it so much that I sent the rest in with him the next day and one lady went as far as drinking it out of a cup because she didn't have chips.

While I don't think it's good enough to drink out of a glass, it was pretty darn good. It has a bit of a kick too it which I could do without because I'm a wuss like that, but the kick didn't slow me down one bit...the stuff is addicting. Even my Mom was eating it and she hates spicy stuff even more so than I do...lol.

Copycat Chili's Salsa~

Compliments of: Kaitlin in the Kitchen

Ingredients:

1- 1o oz. can tomatoes and green chilies

1- 14.5 oz. can whole tomatoes, use juice as well

1/4 cup diced onion

1/2 tsp. garlic salt

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/4 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. cilantro, chopped

Directions:

1.) In a blender add all of your ingredients and mix until everything is chopped up and fine.

2.) Put in an air tight container and allow to sit for 24 hours.

Once again blogger isn't allowing me to link up to Kaitlin's blog. If you go to the bottom of my blog you will find a link to her blog where you can find the original post. I'm honestly starting to consider moving away from blogger and combining both of my blogs into one. I wonder how much something like that would cost me? LOL