Stir Fry Sauce

This will work for any stir fry.

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon hoison sauce
2 tablespoons bottled minced garlic
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Make It:
Whisk all ingredients together, and add to any stir fry. Enjoy!

Hula Stir Fry

When Kili came to me last week and told me she wanted to cook dinner, I was thrilled. I told her to go through her cookbooks and pick a recipe and I would add it to the menu. After going through all her cookbooks she found a recipe in the Better Homes and Garden Junior Cookbook that she wanted to make. A stir fry with noodles and pineapple in it. I thought it looked like something she could make and something everybody would enjoy. I changed it quite a bit, the original recipe called for frozen veggies and bottled stir fry sauce. I have way to many fresh veggies in this house so thats what I used. Then I created a kid friendly stir fry sauce, and we were ready to go. Here it is, maybe a little bitty in your house would like to try making it.

Ingredients:
2 packages ramen noodles, broken up in a bowl, discard seasoning mix
1 cup stir fry sauce
2 cups blanched veggies, use whatever you have, I used broccoli, carrots and snap peas
1 cup canned pineapple chunks with juice
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced thin
1/4 of a yellow onion, sliced
1/2 cup beef broth
pam or 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Make It:
Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat, add pam or vegetable oil. Once hot add chicken and stir fry for 6 minutes. Add vegetables and onion and another spray of pam or vegetable oil and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add noodles, pineapple, stir fry sauce and beef broth. Stir to combine. Cover and let cook for 2 minutes, uncover and stir. Recover and cook another 2 minutes. Uncover and stir, breaking up noodles if needed. Serve and Enjoy!

Texas Chicken Hash

This is one of the recipe ideas on saw on Diners, Drive In's & Dives. A lady in Texas created this fantastic dish and prepared it on the show. Well if you have ever watched the show they don't give measurements and move quite fast. I had to stop and rewind 3 time just to get the amount of info that I did. I then took the basics from hers and did it my way. I can't not believe how good it turned out. Mike stated after dinner that I could put it on the menu every week! The seasoning on the chicken is delicious, I think i'm going to use it as the base for creating a homemade taco seasoning. We had some hash leftover so the next morning I made burritos out of it, that we ate for breakfast. They were super yummy too. This recipe is a little time consuming, so either prep ahead or make it on the weekend.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon passilla powder
1 tablespoon new mexico chile powder
1 1/2  tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon chile de arbol
2 teaspoons cumin

This is the seasoning for the chicken, mix together in a bowl and save any extra for next time.

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 bell pepper, 3/4 chopped into big chunks, 1/4 finely diced
1 jalapeno, diced
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
2 cups cheddar cheese
7 tablespoons butter, divided
2 russet potatoes, chopped
8 corn tortillas
vegetable oil, for frying tortillas
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons flour

Make It:
Preheat oven to 350. Put chicken in a casserole dish and cover with seasoning, really put a lot on both sides, cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool a little, and chop up.
In a large skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter, add potatoes to pan. Stir and brown potatoes for 5 minutes, add 1 more tablespoon butter. Stir and brown for about 15 minutes or until potatoes have a good crust on them and are tender. Add 1 tablespoon butter to potatoes, and add onions and peppers to pan, stir. Allow to cook for 5 minutes, until peppers and onions are tender. Add 1 tablespoon butter and add chicken, stir to combine, make sure it is well combined because you want all the seasoning on the chicken to get on everything else. Heat the vegetable oil in a small skillet over high heat. Fry each one of the tortillas, one side at a time, like a tostada, until crispy but still soft. Drain on a paper towel. Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add 2 tablespoons butter, allow to melt. Once melted add diced bell pepper and jalapeno. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 2 tablespoons flour and stir to combine, cook for a minute. Whisk in milk, allow to come to a simmer, stirring often. Let simmer and thicken for a couple minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cheese, one cup at a time. Stir until cheese is melted and combined. To serve put 2 tortillas on plate spoon a good amount of hash over them and ladle on the cheese sauce. Enjoy!

Menu for January 25th - January 31st

Well we have reached the end of January already, where does the time go! Football is almost over and we will have to find something else to do on sundays. On to the menu, this week my sweet princess announced to me that she would like to cook dinner one night. She has a couple cookbooks, so we sat down and picked a recipe. I'm very excited! I don't know how often a 6 year old wants to cook dinner. I am so proud of her. Since the kids were born they have been in the kitchen with me. I have mastered cooking with a baby on my hip, in my way, and now 2 big ones asking what are you doing, what are we having. Kili reads the menu board every week with excitement, and I love it. I also have 2 new recipes on the menu this week. I'm making sloppy joe's for the first time in my life! The other new recipe is a stuffing and cheese covered pork loin chop, that sounds really good. Pork and stuffing just seem to go together really well. Dessert for the week is a recipe I found in an old Kraft magazine I had. I have been doing a lot of cleaning out and organizing, and finding things I have not looked at in a long time. The only weekend prep I have to do for the week is make homemade cream of mushroom soup for the pork chop recipe. Everybody have a good week and enjoy!

Monday- Kili cooks Hula Stir Fry, potstickers
Tuesday-Sloppy Joe's, tater tots, Vegetable Chopped Salad
Wednesday- Baked Chicken, Bacon & Cheese Skillet Potatoes, butter carrots
Thursday- Pork Chop Stuffing Bake, broccoli
Friday- Take out
Saturday- Supreme Pizza Pasta, orange slices
Sunday- New York Strip Steaks, mashed potatoes, peas

Dessert of the week- Chocolate Turtle Cheesecake

Cheesy Chicken & Rice

This is a family favorite for us, and very easy to make. It can be made with premade store bought or frozen chicken. Also any rice will do, boxed, white, or brown. Use whatever you are in the mood for. I started making this dish when mike and I first got married, and trust me it has come a long way. It started as 2 plain chicken breasts, on top of white rice, with a can of cream of chicken soup and a can of cream of celery soup poured over the top, sprinkled with cheddar cheese and baked. Don't get me wrong it was good, but it is delicious now!

Ingredients:
2 cups cheddar cheese
4 breaded chicken breasts, store bought, frozen, shake and baked or bread crumb, I cut them in half
4 oz. velveeta
1 1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
3 cups prepared rice, out of a box, long grain white, or brown
1 cup cooked vegetable, I use whatever is in season so today its broccoli. Other ideas are carrots, cauliflower, celery, peas.
salt and pepper to taste

Make It:
Preheat oven to 375. Prepare chicken breasts. Pour rice into 13 x 9 casserole dish. Heat a saucepan over medium high heat. Add butter to the pan, once melted add flour and whisk together, keep whisking for about a minute. Whisk in milk, allow to come to a simmer, stirring often. Reduce heat and allow to simmer and thicken for a couple minutes. Turn heat to low, stir in velveeta, once combined stir in cheese.  Once both cheese are melted, turn off heat. Stir veggie into cheese sauce(if you have a non veggie eater in the house like I do you can just place the veg on the chicken of the people that like it and not in the sauce). Place chicken on top of rice, pour sauce over the top of everything. Sprinkle rest of cheese on top. Bake for 12 minutes or until cheese is melted. Enjoy!

Steak & Mushroom Spaghetti

This recipe is a cross between beef stroganoff and swedish meatballs, yet over spaghetti noodles. Just try it, you will like it!

Ingredients:
1 pound steak strips, I use top sirloin but you can use whatever you like
1/2 package white mushrooms. sliced
1 shallot sliced thin
6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons flour
1 cup heavy cream
2 to 3 cups beef broth, start with 2 and if its to thick add more
1/2 package spaghetti noodles, cooked
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
salt and pepper

Make It:
In a large pot melt butter over medium heat. Add shallot and mushrooms stir and cook until both are tender. Add steak to the pot, cook and stir for about a minute, just brown the steak. Sprinkle flour over mixture in pot, stir to combine. Cook and stir for about a minute. Slowly pour in beef broth, stirring constantly. Once all broth is combined, allow mixture to come to a simmer. Let it simmer, stirring often, until thickened. Stir in cream and dill. Taste and add salt and pepper. Allow to cook five minutes more. Serve over spaghetti noodles. Enjoy!

Menu for January 18th - January 24th

Last week i made a whole box of spaghetti noodles and saved half in the fridge so I will use the other half this week. Also the shredded chicken recipe always leaves me with extra that I either freeze or use the next week. On saturday when I made rice pilaf I doubled it and saved half for a recipe this week. I try to do little things to save me time, but hate eating the same thing so I try to make the second quite different from the first. This week i'm also trying a Michael Chiarello recipe for a pork stew that has lots of winter veggies in it. I recorded an episode of diners, drive ins, and dives this week and in the first 10 minutes got inspiration for 2 new recipes one Texas Chicken Hash is on this weeks menu.

Monday- Steak & Mushroom Spaghetti, broccoli
Tuesday- Shredded Chicken Burritos, green salad
Wednesday- Just In Time Pork Stew, bread for dipping
Thursday-Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli over Rice
Friday- Pizza, orange slices
Saturday- Texas Chicken Hash, broccoli
Sunday- Jambalaya, green beans

Dessert of the Week- S'More Cookies