Chicken and Broccolini with Orange Sauce

My family got into these before I could take a picture so here it is half eaten! haha

Chicken and Broccolini with Orange Sauce

2 1/4 cups chicken stock, divided

1 cup white rice

1 small bunch of scallions, thinly sliced on an angle

1 large bundle broccolini, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces

1 1/2 punds boneless, skinless chicken, white or dark (3 pieces breast or 5-6 thighs)

Salt and Pepper

3 tablespoons high temperature cooking oil, such as canola

1 inch ginger root, grated or finely chopped

3 to 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup orange marmalade

Bring 1 3/4 cups stock to boil. Stir in rice, cover, reduce heat to simmer and cook 15-18 minutes until tender. Add the scallions and fluff with fork.

Bring a few inches of water to a boil for the broccolini

Meanwhile, thinly slice thighs, or if using breast meat, butterfly each breast into cutlets, then thinly slice. Season chicken with salt and pepper.

To boiling water, add some salt and broccolini. Parboil the broccolini for 3-4 minutes then drain, run under cool water and reserve.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in large nonstick skillet over high heat. To the very hot pan, add chicken and stir fry until golden, no more than 5 minutes. Remove chicken to a plate and reserve. Add remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan, along with the ginger and garlic. Stir 30 seconds then add soy, marmalade and remaining 1/2 cup stock. Add chicken and broccolini back to pan to heat until sauce is thickened.

Serve chicken and broccolini over rice.

This recipe is from Rachel Ray and when she served it, she put a scoop of rice ob top of the chicken and broccoli which is how I did it too. It was soooo yummy!!!!

Raspberry Delights

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup raspberry jam

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks. Gradually add flour and mix well.

Spread half into a lightly greased 13x9 baking pan. Top with the jam. Drop the remaining dough by teaspoonfuls over jam.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Cool on wire rack. Cut into bars.

This recipe also said you can add 1 cup pecans if you want...

I hope you all enjoy this yummy dinner!!!

Easy Apple Crisp

Easy Apple Crisp

5-6 Apples

yellow cake mix

sugar

cinnamon

butter

Peel, core and slice the apples. Lay them in a baking dish so that the whole dish is covered. Sprinkle a little sugar and cinnamon over them. Take the cake mix and spread over the cinnamon and sugar so that it is covered equally over everything. Sprinkle a little more sugar and more cinnamon over the cake mix. Melt about 2 tablespoons of butter. Pour the melted butter over the cake mix. (You want to make sure the butter is covering the cake mix cause that is what gives it the crisp part of the dessert) Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Watch it while in the oven, when the top starts to brown it should be done.

Our family loves to eat it warm with a little vanilla ice cream!!

Enjoy!!

Happy Easter!!

Here are 2 recipes that I love not only at Easter but all year round! This year I made the Cheesy Hash Brown bake at a neighborhood egg hunt/breakfast. I didn't even get any because by the time I got down the line, it was gone! But, quite a few people said it was good! And it's super easy!!! The Easter Egg Casserole is a recipe that I have used for quite a while. It is kind of a tradition to make this on Easter morning at my house (after the boys see their Easter baskets of course!!) I hope you all have a wonderful Easter!

Cheesy Hash-Brown Bake

1 pkg. (32 ounces) southern style frozen has brown potatoes
2 cups shredded cheese
1 can condensed cheddar cheese soup
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup green onions (those of you who ate this at the neighborhood party...I thought I had green onions in my fridge but they were gone so I didn't add these this morning!!)

Preheat oven 375 degrees. In a large bowl combine all ingredients. Spread in greased 13x9 pan. Bake 50-60 min or until browned.


Easter Egg Casserole

1 pkg (24 oz) frozen shredded hash brown potatoes
1 pound meat (sausage, ham or bacon) I usually use sausage.
1 small onion, finely chopped
8-10 hard boiled or scrambled eggs
1 can cond. cream of mushroom soup
3/4 soup can filled with milk
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
fresh parsley sprigs, optional garnish

Lightly butter 9x13 baking pan. Spread hash brown potatoes in bottom of pan.

Chop ham or bacon, if used. Scramble fry meat with finely chopped onion until meat is cooked through and onion is tranparent. (note: if ham is used, 1-2 tablespoons butter will be needed to saute onion in) Drain excess fat from pan. Spread cooked meat over potatoes.

Scramble eggs or peel dice hard cooked eggs. Place eggs on top of meat. Combine soup with milk and spread over casserole.

Casserole may be covered and refridgerated overnight or covered with foil and baked immediately at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove cover and sprinkle with cheese. Return uncovered to oven to melt cheese. Garnish with sprigs of fresh parsley and serve.

Enjoy!!!

Sunshine Chicken

Ingredients:

8 chicken breasts
2 c. BBQ sauce
1 c. orange juice
1/2 c. water
1/4 c. honey

Directions:

Place chicken breasts in slow cooker. Combine BBQ sauce, water, honey and orange juice. Pour over chicken. Cover; cook on low for 8 hours.

Cafe Rio Sweet Pork

Cafe Rio Sweet Pork

Approx 4 lb pork roast

Rub roast with the following mixture:
1 tsp salt
2 TBS brown sugar
1 tsp red pepper
1 tsp cumin

Place roast in crockpot.

Combine:
1 onion chopped
1 cup chicken broth
1 can coke
2 cloves minced garlic

Pur over roast.

Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Shred pork and put back in crockpot. Add 2-3 cups brown sugar.

Cook for another 3 hours.

I started mine at 1am and the next day around 3 or so I shredded it and cooked until we ate. For the brown sugar, I think 2 cups would be better than 3 cups.
Enjoy!!

Cheesy Nacho Bake

1-1/2 lb ground beef
1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2 cup water
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1 cup sour cream
about 8 cups tortilla chips
1 pkg (8 oz) shredded colby and monterey jack cheese

Brown meat, drain. Add tomatoes, water and seasoning mix. Cook, uncovered, 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in 1 cup sour cream.

Place 1/2 of the chips in 13x9 inch baking dish; cover with 1/2 of the meat mixture and 1/2 of the cheese. Repeat layers.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Top with remaining sour cream, chopped tomato and green onion, if desired.
Special extra: Stir in 1-1/2 cups drained canned whole kernel corn into meat mixture.

This is a recipe that is fast and super easy!! Enjoy!!!

Ok, I started this blog for many of you out there!!

So, I love to cook!! And I have an obsene amount of cook books, recipe cards, recipes copied and stuffed in a folder and many other ways that I will not repeat on here! HAHAHA So, everytime I cook something good, I tell everyone they should try it and then they want the recipe so I end up sending out all these recipes...a few weeks ago I sent an email of a recipe out to 35 people!!! So, a friend suggested I start this blog. So, here it is!! I am not this great cook that comes up with these tastes and ideas and puts them all together...I follow a recipe!! That's all I do, so if there is something you don't like...don't blame me!!! HAHAHA. I like to try many different things and I think that is why I am addicted to collecting recipes. Ok, there I said it...I am addicted!!! I have 3 boys, one of them being extremely picky at what he puts in his mouth! I have even offered to pay him to try something and money doesn't even entice him!! So, I am always trying new things hoping that someday he will find his favorite meal. Other than that, I will try most anything.
Having 3 boys, we are a very busy family! We have at least one sport going on throughout the year with a few breaks here and there between sports. So, at times I have to be pretty creative on what I cook and sometimes we have to do dinner in waves which usually requires my crockpots handy help on those nights!!! (FYI, since Jeff and I have been married, I have gone through 5 crockpots...see I use them alot!!!) I just don't ever want to be one of those moms that has a dinner schedule of: Chicken on Monday, Beef on Tuesday, Pasta on Wednesday, Fish on Thursday and Fridays are leftovers. I CAN'T DO IT!!! I have to be different and try different things. Ok, now don't think that I never throw something frozen in the micro and warm it up if I have to hurry and get a child to a practice or something but for the most part, I cook something as much as I can. We have also been watching what food we eat very carefully. We have cut back on so much salt that if we go out to eat and eat something with too much salt, we almost can't finish it. (This goes for my kids too) Last fall my dad had a heart attack and it really opened up my eyes to what we all put into our bodies. I even have my kids looking for the nutritional facts on food and they absolutely won't eat something if it has too much of something that is not good for us. It has been a great learning experience for all of us. So, one thing I do try to do with receipes, is if it calls for salt, I first try to see if I can substitute it with one of my Mrs. Dash's salt free seasonings but not every time can you do that so I just put about half of what it calls for in the recipe just so you don't loose some of the flavor of the meal. Ok, so there you go...a little summary of why I started this blog. I hope I can be good at adding stuff on here, and baseball season starts this week so just a heads up: Meals might be pretty crazy this 1st week since I am also running the snack bar for the whole league!! But, I will make sure to add stuff when I can!
Happy Cooking!!