Category: MISC

SOUTH WESTERN CHICKEN CASSEROLE

SOUTH WESTERN CHICKEN CASSEROLE
3-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 cups frozen hash brown potates
1 large can Durkee’s french fried onions, divided
1 can Old El Paso green enchilada sauce
1 can Rotel tomatoes, drained
1 can white niblets corn, drained
1 cup grated sharp white cheddar, divided
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
PURE

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  • Spray large casserole dish with PURE.
  • Spread potatoes along the bottom.
  • Top with first half of french fried onions.
  • Top with first half of cheese.
  • Salt and pepper chicken breasts layering them over cheese seasoned side down.
  •  Salt and pepper top sides of chicken.
  • Layer corn and tomatoes over top of the chicken.
  • Melt the butter in heavy saucepan. 
  • Blend in flour and salt. Cook until bubbly. 
  • Remove from heat and gradually stir or whisk in liquid. 
  • Return to heat and cook, constantly stirring until smooth and thickened.
  • Whisk in enchilada sauce.
  • Pour over corn and tomato layer.
  • Top with remaining cheese.
  • Ring French fried onions around the edge.
  • Bake 30-45 minutes covered.
  • Bake another 15-30 minutes uncovered.
  • Let stand 5-10 minutes.

 These were our wonderful potato leftovers below and they tasted better and more full of flavor on day 2 and 3.

I participate in the following memes and this recipe may be linked to one or all of them 🙂 Cookbook Sunday, Decidedly Healthy or Horribly Decadent, Eat.Live.Be. @ Eats Well With Others,  Family Friendly Friday, Fat Camp Friday, Feed Me Friday, Food Friday, Food Trip Friday, Foodie Wenesday, Fresh, Clean, and Pure Friday, Friday Favorites, Friday Potluck, Full Plate Thursday, Fun with Food Friday, Garden Variety Wednesday,  Hearth and Soul, It’s a Keeper Thursday,  Just Another Meatless Monday, Let’s Do Brunch, Made it on Monday, Magazine Mondays, Midnight Maniac Meatless Monday,  My Meatless Monday,  Our KrAzY kitchen,  Recipe Swap Sundays,  Saturday’s Party, Saturday Swap, Seasonal Saturday, Souper Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen, Sundays at One Food Club, Tailgating Time!, Tasty Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, This Week’s Cravings, TMS Show & Tell,  Tuesdays at the Table,  Vintage Recipe Thursday, What’s on the Menu Wednesday, What’s on Your Plate?,  Wicked Awesome Wednesday

Fire Day Friday: Grilled Pork Chops with Pineapple Cucumber Relish

When I was in college (in Nebraska), we used to frequent this little place called Cliff’s Lounge.  Cliff’s Lounge was known for it’s Kamikazes.  Fifty (yep..5-0) different flavored Kamikazes to be exact!  It was a college students little heaven, trust me!  And we aren’t talking shots…we are talking large (did I mention LARGE) glasses of the devils’ own liquid!  My top 3 picks from that list of 50 were:  Purple Hooter, Troutwater (don’t judge), and Pineapple.  I have a vague memory of consuming all three one night… but we’ll skip over those stories as my mom might be reading this!!

So, I guess you are probably asking yourself why I’m telling you this, right?  Well, it seems that every time I eat or drink something pineapple, I am reminded of the Pineapple Kamikazes at Cliff’s.  Don’t ask me why, it’s been years since I’ve been to Cliff’s, but there was just something about those tasty drinks and the green tissue paper balls hanging from the ceiling that I will never, ever forget.  Plus, this is a little plug for Cliff’s – if you are ever in Lincoln, Nebraska, I highly recommend stopping by for a drink or two (or three).  The atmosphere alone is worth checking out!!
ANYWAY…on to what we are really here for:  If you have followed by blog at all, or have read at least one of my posts here since the beginning of the year, than you will probably know that I have a thing for sauces.  When I say sauces, I do have to include salsas and relishes to that mix…as I see it, salsas and relishes are just chunky forms of sauce anyway 🙂
My only problem with this meal was that I could not find thick cut pork chops.  UGH!!  It’s getting harder and harder for me to find anything but paper thin cuts.  What I hate the most is that the cook time has to be very hot and very fast so that it doesn’t dry out.  If you find thicker chops, grab them…just remember to keep them on the grill longer.  Other than that, this meal was perfect.  The flavors melded perfectly together… but I believe one of the best flavor combos out there are pineapple and pork!

Grilled Pork Chops with Pineapple Cucumber Relish
Adapted from Food Network Magazine
Printable Recipe 
Ingredients:
1 cup chopped or crushed pineapple
1 Tablespoon pineapple juice
2 teaspoons lime juice
1 teaspoon creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
1/4-1/2 English cucumber, finely chopped
salt and pepper
4 pork chops (whatever cut you can find will work – ours were boneless loin chops)
2 teaspoons olive oil
garlic salt
pepper
cayenne

Directions:

Rub the pork chops on both side with olive oil.  Season with garlic salt, pepper, and cayenne.  Allow to sit in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.  If using thin chops, leave them in the fridge until you are just ready to throw them on the grill…the colder your thin chops are, the better.
In a food processor, puree 1/2 a cup of the pineapple along with the lime juice, peanut butter, and fish sauce.  In a bowl, add the cucumber, jalapeno, and remaining pineapple.  Pour the puree over and toss to combine.  Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat your grill to 425 degrees.  Grill, covered, for 3 minutes, flip and grill another 2-3 minutes.  Remove pork from the grill, serve with relish.  Enjoy!

YOUR BODY IS A TEMPLE ~ THE ABC’s OF HEALTHY EATING

Many of you know about the ongoing struggle I have been having after being diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer.  Even before the cancer, I struggled with living a clean eating and healthy lifestyle to cope with the aspects of Systemic Lupus.  Now sandwiched right before the cancer diagnosis was also a a diagnosis of Systemic Scleroderma which now labels me with a “mixed connective tissue disease“.  Oh and by the way none of them have cures.  This makes want to find a way to live even more healthy so I’ll be around for the cures!
Without going into a long story, many years ago after the Systemic Lupus diagnosis when I was in college and after 6 months of taking Progesterone and various other drugs, I went to my Rheumatologist (a fortunate recent referral and a truly great doctor and caring woman after several other doctors who really had no clue) and said I can’t live like this!  The Progesterone had put almost 60 pounds on me, I could no longer play racquetball (something I did 3-4 times a week) or jog (something I did 5-7 times a week after being a cross country runner in high school).
This great and caring doctor sighed with relief and asked me to sit down so we could talk!  Really, she just wanted to chat and chat we did for an hour and a half.  I truly believe that she changed my life forever!
The first thing she did was refuse me a support group – I know that sounds strange, but she truly felt I was better off with my positive attitude working through the steps with guidance.  Step 1 was to change my eating habits.  Remember I was in college, always eating on the run from whatever vending machine was close and diet everything to keep from putting on any more weight.  So, she had me write down my diet for a week and guess what?  When you see it in writing you realize how much all those “a little here” and “a little there” things add up! After that realization was Step 2 – eliminate the “non food” items from my diet.  She qualified these “non food” items as anything that didn’t have a direct receptor in the body.  This included saccharin, aspartame, splenda, anything processed with ingredients the average person can’t pronounce and preserved in a box or a can.  Below is the new food pyramid in an easy to read and follow format.

And here is an easy to follow breakdown!

It is a personal choice, but she also asked me to stay away from pork and shellfish – you know the bottom feeders of the world that will eat anything!  As she put it, garbage in, garbage out via your kidneys and liver!

Step 3 was to get regular exercise, proper rest and meditation to care for my whole being.  Oh and to avoid stress – yeah right in this world.  Sound advice for anyone, healthy or not!

So, the bottom line is that you were given only one body and despite popular belief, it cannot be easily replaced and does require the proper fuel and rest to work properly.  The easiest way is to start with a good diet.

Save Room for Dessert…Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Icing

Andrew and I had a baking day yesterday.  Last week, I won an auction at a PTA function, the annual Pelican Palooza.  My win was a large basket filled with cookbooks, measuring spoons, and Andrew’s favorite, a kid’s baking set.  All week long he asked when he was going to be able to use his baking stuff.  I asked him what he wanted to bake and he chose cupcakes, chocolate, of course.  Before we even starting on the cupcake batter, he had pulled all of the gel food coloring out of the pantry.  I asked him to choose 5 colors, and voila, you can see his choices.  I mixed the icing, but I let him do the rest.  He chose pink, because “moms like pink.”  His favorite was the blue.
The recipe I used was from Rebecca Rather’s The Pastry Queen.  I adapted her Mexican Chocolate Fudge-Pecan Cake for the cupcakes, leaving out the cinnamon and halving the recipe.  It’s a nice cupcake; Andrew was happy, and I’m sure you will be, too, so be sure to save room for dessert when you make these!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Icing Printable recipe
1 stick unsalted butter
¼ cup cocoa powder
3 oz water
1 cup sugar
½ cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 large egg
1 cup flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
⅛ teaspoon salt


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a muffin tin with paper liners (15-18)
Over medium heat, melt butter, add cocoa and stir until smooth.
Pour in water and continue to stir over medium heat.
Pour mixture into a bowl, the add the sugar, buttermilk, vanilla, and egg; whisk mixture until smooth.
Add flour, soda and salt, whisking until dry ingredients are incorporated in the wet.
Divide batter amongst liners and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a tester inserted comes out clean.  
Allow to cool before applying the icing.


Buttercream Icing
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons milk
2-3 cups powdered sugar


Cream together butter and vanilla until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  With the mixer on low, gradually add 2 cup powdered sugar, then slowly pour in the 2 tablespoons of milk, 1 tablespoon at a time. Add more powdered sugar or milk, to reach desired consistency.
Divide icing and mix in gel food coloring.
When cupcakes have cooled, frost as desired.