Parmesan Crusted Chicken

Heres is my version of the yummy Parmesand Crusted Chicken that has been posted  on Pinterest recently.  I read this recipe and immediately decided it was one I wanted to try.  Mayo, Chicken, and Parmesan....yummy:))) This recipe was so simple and literally took about 5 minutes to prep and looks like you spent and hour on it. My 11 year old told me it was his favorite dish that I had made so anytime your kids like it as well then I count it a big success.

Parmesan Crusted Chicken

Ingredients
Chicken Breast (rinsed and patted dry)
1/2 cup Mayo(I used light to cut back on calories)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder(I used garlic salt instead)
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil (i used 1/2 tsp)
1/2 sleeve of Ritz crackers (once again I used the reduced fat Ritz crackers)

Mix Mayo & Parmesan Cheese together in a mixing bowl.

Pat Chicken dry and spread Mayo mix on each piece. (note I had 6 pieces so they were touching each other so I could fit them all  in one dish)

Next crush your crackers in a bowl and had remaining seasonings. Mix well then add to chicken. Sprinkle on top then pat into chicken.  Spray a little butter on top(I use a little parkay spray but this is optional).

Bake on 425 for 20 minutes. (note Cooking time will vary depending on the size of your Chicken.  Mine were the thinly sliced pieces so took a little less time than a regular size breast would take).

I cheated and instead of making some homemade pasta I used the Pasta Roni which is very quick and easy and goes perfecctly with the chicken.

Enjoy!

Lemon Bars via Pinterest

I saw this super interesting recipe on Pinterest and so I thought I would give it a try.  If you like lemon then you will love this 3 ingredient bar:) Best part is each square is only about 2 points on weight watchers if your a point counter.  Very good!!

Lemon Bars

Ingredients
Angel Food Cake Mix
Lemon Pie filling(1 can)
powdered sugar

Mix Cake mix and pie filling together.

Pour into greased 9x13 dish.

Bake on 350 for 20 minutes.

Remove from oven and sprinkle a generous amount of powdered sugar on them.  Let cool then slice and serve.

Applewood Marinaded Pork Roast

A friend of my husband is quite the chef so when he brought a pork roast to work one evening my husband came home and said "you have to get that recipe".  I will be honest I am NOT a huge pork fan so I rarely make anything pork for dinner except bbq.  So I decided to give this recipe a try and it was delicious to say the least.  This is definitely a must try for you and I WILL be having it more often since both my boys loved it as well.

Pork Roast

Ingredients:
Pork Roast (I used a large one I picked up at Walmart for only $12.00. )
Stubbs Pork Marinade
Applewood Rub (by grill mates)
Creole Seasoning
Turkey Roasting bag

Take a large 2 prong fork and poke holes in your Pork.  Pour entire bottle of marinade over it and cover . Place in refridgerater overnight to marinade. 

The next day remove from fridge and place in turkey roasting bag.  Rub the Applewood Rub on it while in the bag on top and bottom.  Sprinkle a small amount of Creole Sseasoning on roast.  Then pour the excess left over marinade over pork and tie bag.  Bake on 350 for 2 to 2 1/2 hours.(be careful to not over bake it so it doesnt dry out)

Remove from oven and untie bag.  Place in serving dish and pour the au jus from bag covering pork.  Slice and serve.

I will tell you this tend to be a little on the spicey side so if you dont like spice then replace your Stubbs marinade with Teriyaki and you will still get the same great tast without the spice I'm told.

Thanks David for this fabulous recipe.  We LOVED it:)

Snowball Tree Cookies

This recipe makes the most adorable and festive tree cookie but let me start off by telling you it is extremely time consuming so if you venture to make this cookie make sure you have plenty of time and lots of patience:)

Snowball Tree Cookies

Ingredients:

For Cookie:

1 cup butter,softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp milk

1 teas vanilla

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

Green food coloring



For icing:

4 cups powdered sugar

1 teas vanilla

3-4 tbsp milk

decorative candies

In large bowl beat butter with an electric mixer for 30 seconds.  Add sugar scraping sides of bowl periodically.  Beat in milk and vanilla until smooth.  Gradually add flour (I added 1/2 cup at a time to ensure it mixes well.) 

The origianl recipe said to divide the dough in half and then add food coloring to one half however when I make again I will only remove 1/4 of the dough for the tree stumps because I had lots of plain dough left over. 

Preheat oven to 325. For each cookie use the ggreen dough to make 10 1/2 inch balls and begin shaping like a tree in a triangle shape(Make sure you keep your balls small or your cookies with be huge. Start with the top and work your way down making 4 rows. 1 on the 1st, 2 on the 2nd, 3 on the 3rd, and 4 on the 4th.  Make sure to press slightly together to make sure dough bakes together. Add a slightly larger plain ball at the bottom for the tree trunk.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are slightly brown.  Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes then remove and add to colling rack to cool completely.

TO make your icing:
IN a small bowl mix together powdered sugar, milk and vanilla until desired drizzling cinsistency.  This can be slightly messy. You want to drizzle your icing back and forth like a string of lights. I used my pampered chef icing decorator and used the smallest tip for decorating but remember this icing is slightly runny and quite sticky so be careful when applying.  Ice 3 cookies at a time so the icing doesnt dry out before you place your decorative candies(lights)  This was the hardest part because they wont just sprinkle on them you actually need to place them idividually to make them look right.

Now your ready to tray them up and serve this adorable cookie.  This is a great recipe that I found on the Better Home & Gardens recipe and will be a party hit:)

This recipe will make about 24 cookies.

Mint Chocolate Thumb Print Cookies

Looking for some fun Holiday Cookies I have found some fun treats while surfing the internet so I thought I would share a couple for you to enjoy with your family.  This Betty Crocker recipe is very simple and an extremely tastey Mint Chocolate Thumbprint Cookie! Hope you enjoy:)

Mint Chocolate Thumb Print Cookies

Here are the Ingredients you will need:

Cookies
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter (softened)
1 teas. vanilla
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 Cups All purpose Flour
1/4 cup Unsweetened Baking Cocoa

Mint Filling
1/4 cup butter (softened)
1 cup powdered Sugar
1 TBSP. milk
1/4 tsp. peppermint extract
2 drops of green food coloring

Drizzle topping
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 teas. shortening

To make your cookies Heat oven to 375. In large bowl cream together sugar, butter and vanilla until fluffy.  Beat in egg yolk until smooth.  Then gradually add flour and cocoa (I will tell you the recipe only calls for 1 1/2 cups of flour and my batter wqas a little cream and unrollable so I added a little more flour until desired consistency. 

Shape dough into balls about 1 inch in size.  Place on ungreased cookies sheet and then with your thumb make an indentation in the middle of the cookie then bake for 7-9 minutes.  Remove from oven and immediately place cookies on cooling rack.  Let cool completely before adding filling (about 30 minutes).

For filling:
In small bowl cream butter and powdered sugar together on low speed until smooth.  Meat  in milk & peppermint extract then add desired food coloring.

Pplace chocolate chips & shortening in a ziploc bag and heat in microwave for about 1 minute.  Gently squeeze bag until chocolate is smooth. Cut a tiny corner off of the bag then drizzle over each cookie.  Let stand about 1 hour before serving. I placed mine in the fridge to allow filling to set up better.


A variation of this recipe. You could also do red food coloring instead of green adn then sprinkle Crushed Peppermint candies on top and they would be very tasty as well:)
This recipe make about 4 dozen cookies.
Serve & enjoy.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

So heres a new pizza recipe for all you Buffalo Chicken fans.  I love coming up with new recipes and this one definitely is one of my favorites. It was so good that I will make 2 pies next time because we wanted more:) Hope you enjoy this simple recipe.

BUFFALO CHICKEN PIZZA

1st step is preparing your chicken & onions before you can put your pizza together. Cut 3 Chicken breast up into bite sized pieces and melt 1/4 stick of magarine and stir into the chicken.  Add a little garlic and onion salt to your chicken and stir.

Next you want to cook your chicken(now keep in mind you can use canned chicken if you want but I love the taste of real bites of chicken versus the shredded chicken for this particular recipe). I always line my pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking sprays for easy clean up.  Bake in oven on 375 for 25 minutes.

While your chicken is baking go ahead and saute your onions. Slice onions however you prefer you can either dice them or slice them I prefer longer strips so I slice them. Then put on stovetop and cook with butter and season with garlic & lawrys seasoning.(just for a yummy flavor). Cook the onions down until they are nice and sauteed.( I always cook mine a little longer because I love the carmelized taste they get when cooked all the way down).

Remove onions from pan. When Chicken is finished cooking in the oven I like to take it out and put it in my pan on the stovetop to make it a little crisp. Cook on medium  for about 5-8 minutes then remove.

Add your buffalo sauce to you chicken and stir. (You can use whatever buffalo sauce you prefer but I like to use the Franks Red Hot Buffalo sauce. It has just enough kick without being too spicy).

Now your ready to assemble your pie.  Roll you dough out onto your pizza dish. You can also use a bakers pan if you would rather have flatbread style slices. I use the Pillsbury Pizza Crust but once again that is just my preference for ease. Make you own crust or use your favorite.  Bake your crust according to the directions on the can. For my particular recipe this is what I did. Roll your crust out onto pan and bake on 400 for 5 minutes then remove and add your ingredients on top of crust.(this just helps to cook the bottom of your pizza).

To assemble: spread a nice layer of Ranch dressing covering your entire crust.

Then its time to put your yummy toppings on. Add you chicken 1st then layer with your onions, mozzarella & fresh parmesean cheese.

 I will tell you I used about 5 tysons breaded chicken tenders and left off the onions on a fourth of the pizza for my boys liking:)

Bake in oven until Crust is nice and golden. Remove and your ready to serve.

Below is a list of all the ingredients I used so you will have it for your shopping list.

3 Chicken Breast(diced into bitesized pieces)
Franks Red Hot Buffalo Sauce(I only used about 3/4 cup)
1/4 cup of Ranch Dressing
1/4 cup of Parmesean Cheese
1 Cup of Mozzarella Cheese
1/2 of a white peeled onion (sliced or diced)
Pillsbury Pizza Crust
Garlic
Onion Salt
Lawrys Seasoning

Putting up Fresh Green Beens without canning them!

Did you know you can freeze green beans?  I thought I would share a few tricks for those of you who do not can but would still like to enjoy fresh veggies through the winter.  Its simple but a little time consuming.  The end result is worth your trouble though.

1. String & Snap Beans then rinse.

2. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil add 2 cups of beans to boiling water and return to a boil. Cover and boil for 3 minutes.

4. Remove beans from pot with a slotted spoon and add them to ice cold water to cool for 3 minutes.

5. Once Cooled drain your beans and they are ready to store.
6. Repeat the last 3 steps until all beans have been cooked.(You can use the same boiling water 3-4 times just be sure it comes back to a rapid boil before repeating)
7. Once drained then pour into your freezer storage bags.  You can use regular storage bag but you must make sure you remove all the air. I use a vacuum sealer which is ideal for this project.  You place your beans in the fresh seal bags then seal it with your device.  It sucks all air out and seals it completely.

Now all you do is store in the freezer and bring out when your ready to enjoy:)