Chicken Enchiladas

Enchiladas are one of those foods everyone seems to make just a little bit differently, and there are countless ways of making them taste delicious.  After wading through a long list of enchilada recipes, I finally settled on this one, taking inspiration from multiple sources.  Hopefully you like them too!

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Chicken Enchildas

1 Tbsp oil
1 chicken breast
1 tsp Montreal Chicken Seasoning Mix
Dash of cayenne pepper
1 can (10.75 oz) cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
8-10 large flour tortillas
1 small can green enchilada sauce (or choose red to mix things up)

1. Heat oil over medium heat in a skillet.  Cook chicken breast, sprinkling with Montreal Chicken seasoning and cayenne pepper until cooked through. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).
2. Remove chicken from heat and shred with two forks in a medium-sized mixing bowl.  Add cream of chicken soup, sour cream, and 1 cup of the cheddar cheese.  Mix well.
3. Prepare a 9x13 baking dish by either coating lightly with cooking spray or by spreading enough enchilada sauce to just cover the bottom of the entire dish.
4. Warm tortillas in the microwave (I usually do about three tortillas at a time for about 15 seconds, fill those three, then warm the next three.  This way they stay warm enough to roll without cracking).  Spoon about 1/4 cup of the chicken filling onto each tortilla and roll the tortilla up into a roll.
5. Place enchilada rolls into the baking dish and cover with remaining enchilada sauce.  Any spots you leave without enchilada sauce will get crispy, so be sure to spread it evenly.  A basting brush helps with this.
6. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 25 minutes or until bubbly.  Uncover and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese.  Bake for 5 more minutes or until cheese is melted.
7.  Serve, and revel in the deliciousness.

Sweet Cornbread

Cornbread is wonderful, isn't it?  I sure like it, but what happens when you want to eat cornbread and you're out of honey to go with it?  Still good, but not nearly as great...unless you made this recipe.  This one is sweet enough on its own that you don't even need the honey.  It's delicious the way it is!  Don't believe me?  Make it yourself and see.

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Sweet Cornbread
(adapted from "Golden Sweet Cornbread" on allrecipes.com)

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup yellow corn meal
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/3 cup oil (if yours is too crumbly, try adding a bit more oil to hold it together)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees (F) and grease a 9-inch round cake pan or an 8x8 square casserole dish.  (If you're going to make muffins instead, grease the muffin tins and reduce cooking time to 15 minutes.)
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, corn meal, white sugar, brown sugar, salt, and baking powder.  Stir in egg, milk, and oil until well combined.
3. Pour batter into prepared dish and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.
4. Slather on some butter and enjoy your glorious cornbread creation.

What to do with Potatoes?

Potatoes.  They're cheap, and like a lot of people, I need cheap ideas for dinner.  So when my grocery budget is spent and I look in the pantry to see a big bag of potatoes, here's what I do with them.  I make Dirt Cheap Potato Soup, Garlic Parmesan Potato Wedges, or good old fashioned Mashed Potatoes.

 
Dirt Cheap Potato Soup
(adapted from "Peppery Potato Soup" in The Best Slow Cooker Recipes cookbook)

The thing we love about this recipe is that we can make a whole crock pot of soup for approximately $1.50, and it makes about 8 servings.  That's like 19 cents a serving!  Delicious and dirt cheap--a wonderful combination.

4-5 potatoes, halved and thinly sliced
4 cups chicken broth (or two 14.5 oz cans)
1 large onion, quartered and sliced
1-2 stalks celery, sliced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup half-and-half
1 Tbsp butter (optional)

1. Combine broth, potatoes, onion, celery, flour, pepper, and salt in slow cooker; mix well.  Cover and cook on LOW 6-7 hours. (Or, if you're short on time, just switch the slow cooker to high and half the cooking time.)
2. Stir in half-and-half.  Cover and continue to cook on LOW for one more hour.
3. Remove slow cooker lid.  Slightly crush potato mixture with a potato masher (or a whisk if you don't have a potato masher).  Continue to cook, uncovered, for another 30 minutes or until soup is slightly thickened.  Stir in butter, if desired, just before serving.
4. Eat, and revel in the fact that you just fed your family for pennies.
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Garlic Parmesan Potato Wedges
(adapted from Parmesan Potato Wedges in the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook)

This one is a favorite of my husband.  It makes a surprisingly filling snack or side dish.

3-4 potatoes, cut into wedges (usually I cut them into 6 or 8 wedges per potato, depending on the size of the potato)
1 Tbsp oil or melted butter (olive oil tastes the best if you've got it)
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic salt
Parmesan Cheese (to taste)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees (F).
2. Wash and cut potatoes into wedges, leaving skins on.
3. In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine oil (or melted butter), Italian seasoning, and garlic salt.  Toss potatoes in oil mixture until evenly coated.
4. Line a small baking sheet (with sides) in aluminum foil and spread coated potatoes evenly across the pan.  Bake for 30 minutes at 425 degrees, flipping over the potatoes after the first 15 minutes.  Not crispy enough for you?  Just keep them in there for a few minutes longer.  The longer they cook, the crispier they will be.
5. Remove potatoes from oven and let cool for a few minutes.  They will be very hot.
6. Grab some napkins and enjoy.
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Mashed Potatoes 

Nobody makes better mashed potatoes than your mom, so think of her while you eat this comfort food.

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4-5 potatoes, diced
2-4 Tbsp butter (depending on how flavorful versus how healthy you want them to be)
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
Salt & Pepper to taste

1. Dice the potatoes.  No need to skin them--they're healthier that way.  Put diced potatoes in a large pot with enough water to just cover the potatoes.  Boil potatoes for about 15 minutes or until they're tender.  Drain water.  If you overboil, you'll have mushed potatoes, rather than mashed, and nobody likes that except for maybe babies.
2. Either using a hand masher or an electric mixer, mash potatoes.  Add butter, and keep mashing/mixing until all of the butter melts.  Add milk, sour cream, and salt and pepper, mixing until you achieve the desired consistency.
3. Eat!

Summer Lemonade

I love lemonade.  Who doesn't?  But I don't like lemonade that's too tart or too sweet or too...fake.  I adapted this recipe from one I found on allrecipes.com.  It's great plain, or if you're feeling like giving it something extra, go ahead and put it in the blender with some strawberries or peaches or even both.  Just make sure that if you are going to add fruit of some kind that you use less sugar to begin with (since the natural sugar in the fruit may overpower the tartness of the lemon).  So go ahead and invite summer a little early with some delicious lemonade.

Summer Lemonade

1 1/4 cups sugar (remember, less if you're adding fruit for strawberry or peach lemonade)
8 cups water
1 1/2 cups lemon juice

1. Combine sugar and one cup water in a small saucepan.  Bring just to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar completely.  As soon as the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.  Once cool, refrigerate until chilled.
2. In a pitcher, combine sugar water, lemon juice, and remaining 7 cups of water.  When serving your lemonade iced, be sure to include the volume of the ice in that 7 cups or it could end up tasting diluted. 
3. If adding fruit, blend fruit and a cup or so of the lemonade in a blender.  Then add the fruit to the lemonade pitcher, stirring until well blended.  If the fruit sweetens it too much for your taste, just add a little bit more water and a tiny bit more lemon juice.
4. Sit on the porch and sip away.

Beef Stroganoff

This is a total comfort food for me.  I would claim credit for this recipe, but in reality I pretty much stole it from my sister.  It's not just your everyday cream of mushroom soup on noodles.  It's actually extremely flavorful.  Give it a shot if you're feeling adventurous.

Beef Stroganoff

10 oz wide egg noodles
1/2 lb ground beef (You can always use more, but that also means that your meal will cost more)
1/4 onion, diced
1/2 bell pepper, julienned (Orange is my favorite, but green or red work well too.  Save time by cutting up the whole bell pepper and freezing the other half for next time you make this recipe.)
1 can mushroom pieces
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1-2 tsp lemon juice (more if you want more of a kick)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Cook egg noodles according to package directions.  Use the time waiting for the water to boil to chop up your vegetables.  If you start the sauce at roughly the same time you put the water on to boil, they will be done at about the same time.
2. Meanwhile, heat a skillet over medium heat.  Brown ground beef in skillet with peppers and onion.  The juices from the meat will saute the peppers and onion.  Drain excess drippings.
3. Add mushrooms, cream of mushroom soup, our cream, lemon juice, salt, and pepper to meat mixture and reduce heat to low.  Simmer covered, stirring occasionally until noodles are finished cooking (approximately 5-10 minutes more).
4. Drain noodles and top with sauce.
5. Eat and taste the deliciousness.

Cinnamon Nutmeg Banana Bread

Do you ever buy a bunch of delicious looking bananas, only to discover the next day that they're already turning brown?  I do.  And since I found this recipe, sometimes I even buy older-looking bananas specifically to use for banana bread.  Remember, the key to good banana bread is in having really, really ripe bananas.  If they aren't ripe enough, you could put in 12 bananas, and it still wouldn't taste much like banana bread.  I got this recipe from Heather Chapple and adapted it just a bit to my taste.  It is delicious every time.

Cinnamon Nutmeg Banana Bread
3-4 large, very ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup applesauce
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).
2. Combine mashed bananas, sugar, egg, butter, and applesauce.
3. Add four, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg until well blended.  A lot of people say that it turns out better if you mix all of the dry ingredients in a separate bowl before mixing them into the wet ingredients, but if you want to save time, just dump them all in the same bowl and try to make sure that you sprinkled them fairly evenly.
4. Pour into an ungreased loaf pan.  Bake for one hour at 350 degrees.
5. Cool for 5-10 minutes in pan, then remove to cooling rack.
6. Eat!  I love it best warm with butter.

Italian Chicken Soup

After searching for the perfect chicken soup, I decided that it was taking way too long to find one that called for the ingredients I had.  As a result, I meshed together a few recipes that sounded tasty and ended up with this.  I love this recipe because it's incredibly easy to make, tasty, and has a bit of a different flavor from ordinary chicken soup.  It's definitely become a comfort food for me.

Image thanks to quick-and-easy-dinner.com

Italian Chicken Soup

1 chicken breast (don't worry if it's frozen, just stick it in the slow cooker and it can thaw as it cooks)
5 cups chicken broth
1/4 large onion, diced
2 stalks of celery, sliced
1/2 cup carrots, sliced
1 Tbsp italian seasoning
2 clove garlic or 1/2 tsp garlic salt (real garlic will give the best flavor, but I usually use garlic salt because it's cheap and convenient)
Salt and pepper to taste
10 oz wide egg noodles
1 cup half and half
Hot water as needed

1. Place chicken breast, whole into crock pot.  Add 3 cups of the chicken broth (yes, just 3 cups--the other 2 cups will come in later), onion, celery, carrots, and seasonings.  Cover and cook on low for about 6 hours.  If you're running late on time, just turn the slow cooker to high and cook for half the time instead.  The chicken may not be quite as tender this way, but it will still taste delicious.
2. Remove the chicken breast from the slow cooker.  Shred chicken and replace chicken into the broth mixture.  Don't forget to put the lid back on while you're shredding the chicken or too much moisture will escape.
3. Add half and half, egg noodles, and remaining 2 cups of broth.  Add just enough hot water to cover all ingredients, and replace lid.  Cook on HIGH for approximately 15-20 minutes or until noodles are just tender.
4. Serve and enjoy!

Legendary Coffee Cake

This is probably my most requested recipe.  I found the recipe originally on allrecipes.com (one of my favorite spots to find new recipes) and altered it a bit to make it healthier and more to my taste.  After a few adaptations, this is what we've got.  It tastes incredible right out of the oven, but you'll find that every day it seems to get better and better as the flavors all blend together into coffee cake goodness.

Legendary Coffee Cake

1 pkg yellow cake mix (or try butter recipe yellow for variety), unprepared
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
2/3 cup oil
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (F) and grease a tube or bundt cake pan.  I find that a tube pan works best for this recipe because it's easier to get the layers right, but either works great.
2. Combine cake mix, sour cream, eggs, and oil in a large mixing bowl.
3. In a separate, small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon until well-mixed.
4. Pour half of the cake batter into the pan.  Sprinkle with brown sugar mixture until there is a thin layer covering the top of the cake mix.  This should take no more than half of the sugar mixture.  Finished it up by layering the rest of the batter on top and sprinkling it with another layer of brown sugar mixture.  If you end up having extra brown sugar mixture, no worries!  You can just mix it into the glaze when you get to that step.  
5. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean.
6. Prepare glaze by mixing together powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and any extra brown sugar mixture (if you had any left over) until well blended.  If you find that you want more glaze, just double the recipe, but I usually find that this works well, since the cake is sweet already.
7. Drizzle glaze over warm cake while still in pan.  Continue cooling cake until ready to serve.  It can be served warm or cool, whichever you prefer.

Why I started this blog

Welcome to my new recipe blog.  I've been wanting a way to keep track of my best recipes (without stacks of index cards) and share them with others.  I love trying out new recipes and increasing my knowledge about cooking and baking.  I used to be scared of cooking--and I had a particularly large fear of yeast--but in the last year or two I decided to conquer my fear.  And it turns out that I'm not a bad cook after all.  I can cook! And so can you.  All it takes is a little courage, a few inexpensive ingredients, and a bit of creativity.  So give some of these recipes a shot and let me know when one works out for you.