White Chicken Chili

Tis the season for that yummy pot of Chili after coming in from the cold weather outside.  Well here is a little twist to your regular chili.  I often make a White Chicken Chili and it is , to say the least, a HUGE hit always. The best part is its cooked in the crock pot with virtually NO clean up and that is the best:)


Ingredients:
3-4 Chicken Breast shredded or 2 cans of  Tysons White Canned Chicken (this is the only canned chicken that tastes good in my opinion
1 package of Shredded Monterray Jack Cheese
2 Cans of Great White Northern Beans
1 can Rotel Tomatoes
1 jar of Salsa
1 large box/can of Chicken Broth


Combine all above ingredients and cook in a crock pot for 4-6 hours on high.  I like to serve this with Tortilla chips or Sante Fe Tortilla Strips. 

Pumpkin Muffins

  I know its been a while since I have blogged and I am so sorry but be on the look out as I plan to start posting recipes again:) 

Here is the recipe for Pumpkin Muffins that a friend shared with me several years ago and I look forward to this time of the year as I bake them often. They are delicious and a must try:)

Pumpkin Muffins

3 ½ c. flour
3 cups sugar
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 ½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. soda
4 eggs
2/3 cups water
1 cup of vegetable oil
2 cups of pumpkin
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Chocolate Chips ( Optional but a must at our house)


Mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients in 2 separate bowls, gradually add dry ingredients to wet until well blended. Bake at 350 in well greased muffin pans for about 25 minutes or until done. Enjoy!!!
Makes about 36 muffinsJ

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.