Broccoli and Ham Casserole

6 T butter
6 T flour
2 C milk
2 C shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 C sour cream
3 C chopped cooked ham
2 C broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces, nuked in the micorwave for like 5 minutes
6 C prepared rice (3 Cups water, 3 Cups Minute Rice)
Salt and pepper

Over medium heat melt butter and whisk in flour. Add milk and whisk till smooth. Simmer for about 2 minutes until thickened. Add salt and pepper if you want. Remove from heat and stir in cheese.
In a 13 x 9 mix together rice, broccoli, ham, sour cream and cheese sauce.
bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes

Caramel Sauce (for ice cream or apples)

1 1/2C Sugar
1/2C brown sugar
1/2C butter
2C heavy whipping cream
1C corn syrup

In a saucepan combine everything and bring to a rolling boil stirring constantly. Reduce heat to med/low and continue to simmer for 30 minutes stirring frequently. It will thicken slightly and turn a darker caramel color.
store in the refrigerator.

I let this cool a little and poured it in small jars for Christmas gifts. Looked cute wrapped in cellophane with a big bow and a tag along with a bag of apples.

makes 5 cups.

Veggie Pot Pie

1 pkg refrigerated pie crusts (top and bottom)
2 T oil
1 garlic clove
1/4 C chopped onion
4 C fresh veggies cut into bite sized pieces
    carrots, beans, broccoli, cauliflower
3 C chicken broth (divided)
2 tsp soy sauce
3 heaping T cornstarch
salt and pepper

Place one pie crust in the bottom of a 9" deep dish pie plate ( I bet a regular old pie plate would work too)
Heat oil in skillet, saute onion and garlic for about 2 minutes, then add vegetables and 2 1/2 C chicken broth. Boil for 5-6 minutes. Combine remaining broth, soy sauce and cornstarch and stir till smooth, add to skillet and continue cooking for about 2-3 minutes till sauce thickens. Salt and pepper to taste.
Pour into pie crust. Lay the second crust over the top and pinch the sides together to seal the pie shut.
Cut 5 slits in the top. Bake at 425 for 30 minutes. Let sit for 10 before you cut it.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (From Mom's old orange Betty Crocker Cookbook)

Cream together:
2/3 C Butter
2/3C Shortening
1 C Sugar
1C Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
2 tsp vanilla
Then add:
3C Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
almost a whole bag of Chocolate Chips
Bake for 8-10 min at 375

Lemon Bars

Find the original recipe HERE on Greaves Recipe blog

-- excuse the picture, I couldn't wait for them to cool --

Crust:

1 cup butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

Mix with a hand mixer. Press into 13x9. Bake at 350 for 15 min.

Filling:

4 eggs

1/4 cup flour

2 cups sugar

6 T lemon juice

Mix with a hand mixture and pour over warm crust. Bake 25 minutes longer

Sprinkle with powdered sugar


**In my opinion, these are the best lemon bars I've ever tasted. The crust is perfect and the filling sort of crisps on the top.

Banana bread

2-3 ripe bananas
2 1/2 C flour
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 T oil
1 egg
1/3 C milk

Mash bananas. Add all other ingredients. Mix just until combined.
Grease bottoms of loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes

Makes 4 mini loaves (pampered chef mini loaf pans)

Greek Chicken & Spinach Rice

This recipe could be a main or a side dish, depending on how much chicken you use.  I used less chicken and more mushrooms. Delicious!  Skip the chicken completely for a vegetarian dish.

2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1  8 oz pkg fresh mushrooms, sliced (original called for only 1 cup)
1 cup frozen, chopped spinach
1 cup quick-cooking brown rice, uncooked
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 chicken breast, cut into 3/4 inch cubes (original called for 1 lb chicken)
1 cup plus 2 TB chicken broth, low sodium
1 TB lemon juice
2 TB Feta cheese
2 TB slivered almonds

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 2 qt casserole dish with cooking spray.
Heat 1 teaspoon oil in medium skillet. Add onion and garlic. Cook and stir for 3 minutes. Stir in mushrooms and cook until tender, 3-5 more minutes.

Stir in frozen spinach. Cook until thawed and moisture evaporates. Pour into prepared casserole dish. Stir in dry rice, oregano and pepper.

Return skillet to medium heat and add remaining teaspoon of oil. Add chicken and cook 5-6 minutes, stirring frequently until chicken is done.  Add chicken to casserole and stir. Pour chicken broth over top.

Cover and bake 30 minutes.  Sprinkle with lemon juice, feta cheese and almonds.  Bake uncovered 10 minutes more.  Serves 4-6 as a side dish.

Potato Salad

2 lbs Potatoes (6 medium)
1/4 cup chopped onion
3 eggs, hard boiled and sliced
1 tsp salt
dash pepper
1/4 cup Italian Dressing
1/2 cup Miracle Whip salad dressing
1/2 cup celery


Wash Potatoes, peel and cut in half. Put in salted water.  Cover and boil until you can easily stab them with a fork, but not mushy.  Cool completely and cut into chunks.  Combine with onion, salt, pepper and Italian Dressing.  Refrigerate for 2 hours. (I've skipped this and done it all at once.) Stir in miracle whip, celery and eggs.  Refrigerate.

White Bread

 5 C warm water
2 T instant yeast (not active)
3/4 C sugar
1 rounded T salt
3/4 C oil
12-14 C flour

Put all ingredients in your mixer's bowl as listed with only six cups of flour. Mix for 1 minute. Then add another 6 cups flour and begin mixing. Slowly add additional flour 1/2 cup at a time until dough cleans the side of the bowl. Cut dough into 4 or 5 equal pieces depending on your pan size. Roll out onto floured surface into rectangle. Start on one end and roll up to form loaf and place in greased pan. Cover with towel and let rise for 1 hour. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Cool on wire rack.
Makes 4 or 5 loaves depending on pan size.

This is my neighbor, Heidi's, recipe. She makes this bread instead of buying bread from the store. It's so good!

Dilly Bread

2 pkgs. yeast
1/2 C warm water
1 tsp sugar
2 C cottage cheese , room temperature
2 T butter
4 T sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 T minced onion
4 tsp dill seed
1/2 tsp dill weed
2 eggs
5-6 C flour

Combine yeast, water and 1 tsp sugar, let stand 10 min.
Blend cottage cheese, butter, sugar, salt, baking soda, minced onion, dill seed, dill weed and eggs in blender about 5 minutes. In a large mixing bowl start with 5 cups flour and gradually combine yeast mixture and if necessary add remaining flour to make a soft dough. Knead a few minutes.
Transfer dough to generously greased bowl, cover, let rise until doubled in size. Shape into loaves and place into greased loaf pans. Let rise until doubled in size.
Bake at 350 for 15 min. Lower heat to 325. Continue baking for another 45 min.
Remove from oven and rub tops of bread with butter and lightly sprinkle with salt.
Remove from pans and let cool on wire rack.
Makes:
3) 9" loaves
or
2) 9" and 1 round
or
3) 8" and 1 round

Corned Beef casserole

Before you judge, just try it!! If you like corned beef you'll love this!

3 C left over corned beef, cubed
4 C fresh broccoli, steamed till tender
5 C prepared minute rice
2 cans cheddar cheese Soup
1 can cream of mushroom
1/2 C sour cream
1 small onion, chopped
1 T butter
salt and pepper

cook onion in butter till tender. combine all ingredients and pour into 13x9
bake at 350 for 45 or until golden brown and bubbly.

Cookie Dough Brownies

Brownies:
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour (whole wheat or all-purpose)
1/4 tsp baking soda
Frosting:
1/2 cup butter softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cups sugar
3 TB milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour (whole wheat or all-purpose)
1 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips. Or substitute regular sized

Preheat oven to 350. Melt 1 cup chocolate chips. Cool slightly.  In separate mixing bowl cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Stir in melted chocolate.  Combine flour and baking soda and add to batter.
Spread into a greased 13 x 9 pan.  Bake at 350 for 22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool completely.

For frosting: Cream butter and sugars. Beat in milk and vanilla. Add flour. Stir in mini choc chips.  Drop by tablespoonfuls over cooled brownies. Carefully spread over top. If using mini choc chips it will spread much more easily.  Store in the fridge.  I love these even more the next day when the cookie dough layer is cold. 

This recipe adapted from Taste of Home June/July 2001.

Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting

FILLING:
4 T butter
1 C sugar
3 tsp cinnamon
-Combine into a crumbly mixture and set aside

DOUGH:
2 C flour
2 T sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tsp. baking powder
3 T butter
3/4 C milk
Mix together to form a soft dough.
Roll out into a rectangle onto floured surface. about 1/4 inch thick
Top with crumble mixture and roll up.
Use dental floss to cut into 10 cinnamon rolls.
Place in 13x9 baking dish
bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes
Top with frosting and serve warm..

FROSTING:
3T cream cheese
1 1/4C powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Cream together. (add more powdered sugar if it's too runny or milk if it's too thick)

Oreo Cookies

COOKIES:
2 boxes Devil Food cake mix
4 eggs
1/2 C shortening
FROSTING:
1 brick of cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2-2 C powdered sugar

Mix together cake mix, eggs and shortening.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet
bake at 350 for 8 minutes
flatten slightly with back of spatula
remove to wire rack to cool

Meanwhile, cream together the ingredients for the frosting, gradually adding the powdered sugar until it gets to your desired consistency. If it gets too thick you can add a little milk.

Use the frosting between two cookies.
This recipe made 30 oreo cookies (60 single cookies) Just depends on the size you make them.
*This recipe came from my friend Kristy.

BEST Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are our 'Sunday" cookies! Joey makes them at least twice a month after church. Most times we deliver them to neighbors but lots of times we eat them all ourselves! They're SO good!

2 C sugar
2 C brown sugar
2 C shortening
4 eggs
4 tsp vanilla
4 T milk
4 C flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
4 C oats
2 C chocolate chips

Cream together sugars, shortening, eggs and vanilla. Add milk. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add to sugar mixture and mix with hand mixer. Add oats, then chocolate chips.
Place rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased stoneware pan (could use a regular old cookie sheet)
Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Let then sit on the pan for 2 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.
This recipe makes a TON!!!! If you're not planning to give any away to neighbors you might want to half it!

Almond Chicken

Almond Chicken

½ onion, chopped

1 small pkg sliced almonds

2 T. butter

2 T. flour

2 c. chicken broth

3 c. cooked chicken

½ head cabbage, chopped

1 can water chestnuts

Sauté onions and almonds in butter; stir in flour, then whisk in broth. Season with salt & pepper or as desired. Stir in chicken and cabbage; simmer ‘til cabbage is tender. Just before serving, stir in water chestnuts. Serve over chow mein noodles.

Taco Seasoning

• 1 heaping Tablespoon chili powder
• 1/4 tsp garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp pepper

Mix it all together.  Use it to season ground beef, chicken or any other meat you use for tacos.

Makes about 2 1/2 Tablespoons

Marshmallow popcorn

1 Cube of Butter
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Corn Syrup
1 tsp Vanilla
2 bags microwave Popcorn
3 Cups mini Marshmallows

Combine butter, sugar and corn syrup. Bring to a boil, Boil for 3 minutes stirring occasionally, remove from heat and add 1 tsp vanilla.
Combine pop corn and marshmallow in large bowl and drizzle sugar mixture over top.
Spread onto a lightly greased foil lined pan to cool.

This recipe came from my friend Kristy. She brought it to a YW activity.

Chicken Vegetable Stir Fry over brown rice

Ingredients:
Canola oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped or pressed
2-3 chicken breasts, chopped
9 cups TOTAL of the following vegetables. Or whatever you like.
carrots, broccoli, green onions, crookneck squash, mushrooms, zucchini, snap peas and cabbage
6 TB chicken or vegetable broth
5 TB soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons corn starch
Cooked brown rice. About 4 cups when cooked.


Start with the sauce:  Mix together the chicken broth, soy sauce and corn starch.  Set aside for later.
Then get your rice cooking.  I add the rest of the can of broth to my rice in place of some of the cooking water.

Pour a couple tablespoons oil into a heated wok.  Cook and stir your chopped chicken along with the garlic.  When chicken is no longer pink inside, take it out of the wok and keep warm.

Add a little more oil to the wok and stir fry the veggies for about 3 minutes. You can add little water or chicken broth if they start to stick.  Then pour on your sauce and stir it in.  Cover and cook at medium heat until veggies are as tender as you like.  Add the chicken back in and heat through.

Serve over brown rice.

Serves 6
You can adjust this recipe to fit your family by using less (or more) vegetables and rice.
Most of your time is spent in cooking the rice and chopping the vegetables. I'll chop them earlier in the day so I can cook this up pretty quickly at dinner time.

Easy Alfredo Sauce

I have seen a couple versions of this recipe but I found this one on http://www.ourbestbites.com/ and I had all the ingredient so I tried it. It was so good.

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/08/guiltless-alfredo-sauce.html

2 C low-fat milk
1/3 C (3 oz) low fat cream cheese
2 T flour
1 t salt
1 T butter
3 garlic cloves
1 C grated Parmesan cheesePut milk, cream cheese flour and salt in the blender. Blend until smooth. In a pan over medium-high heat melt the butter and saute the garlic. Then pour the blended milk mixture into the pan, stir until it comes to a simmer and is thickened. Remove from heat add the Parmesan cheese, stir again and then cover. Let sit for 10 minutes to thicken some more then serve.  Makes 8 Servings


pardon my camera phone picture:

   
We had it with penne pasta (multi grain, I might add) and broccoli. and it took about 15 minutes total to make dinner.















Nutrition Info:
Serving Size 59 g


Calories 128

Calories from Fat 84

Total Fat 9.4g

Saturated Fat 5.8g

Cholesterol 29mg

Sodium 536mg

Total Carbs 4.1g

Sugars 1.7g

Protein 6.9g

Baked Oatmeal

This recipe is pretty tasty.  The texture is different from regular oatmeal, which is why I like it.

2 cups uncooked old fashioned oats
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1-2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup raisins
2 T dried cranberries
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups skim milk
1/2 cup applesauce
1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 large egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine the milk, applesauce, butter, egg, and vanilla in a separate bowl. Add milk mixture to oat mixture; stir well.
3. Pour oat mixture into an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray.
4. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.


This keeps in the fridge for few days. I always chop up an apple, scoop the oatmeal on top and microwave to reheat it.  
This recipe came from www.twopeasandtheirpod.com

Easy Pancakes from scratch and vanilla syrup

Ingredients

1 C flour
2 T sugar

2 T baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 egg, beaten

1 C milk

2 T vegetable oil

Directions

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in milk, egg and oil. Mix until smooth.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

This is our favorite recipe for pancakes.
The syrup recipe below is our favorite too. I don't like maple flavoring so instead we use vanilla. This is runnier than store bought syrup but in my opinion it's so much better.

SYRUP:
1/2C sugar
1/2C brown sugar
3/4C water
2tsp vanilla

Combine sugars and water and bring to a rolling boil. Boil for 3 minutes stirring often. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.