Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas

I am always looking for different recipes to make for dinner. So, when I came across one of Joey's favorite foods, buffalo chicken, and a Mexican dish mixed together, I had to make it.

Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas

• 1 lb. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
• 14 oz. can Red enchilada sauce
• 1/3 c. Buffalo sauce (I use Frank's)
• 5 Chopped green onions, divided
• 1 1/2 c. Shredded mozzarella cheese
• 4 Large whole wheat tortillas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x8 glass dish with non-stick spray. In a medium bowl, mix together enchilada and buffalo sauce. You can always add more buffalo sauce if you like it spicier. In a large bowl, toss together shredded chicken, half of the green onions, and 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese. Pour in 1/2 c. of the enchilada sauce mixture and stir until combined.

Pour 1/2 c. enchilada sauce into the dish and spread mixture to the edges. Working with one tortilla at at time, fill with 1/4 of the chicken mixture. Roll the tortilla and place it seam-side down in the dish. Once all tortillas are filled, pour the remaining sauce on top of tortillas and add the remaining mozzarella cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the sauce its bubbling. Top with remaining green onions. Enjoy!

Meat Loaf and Mashed Potatoes

This is one of the best comfort foods in my opinion. It just takes an hour to bake. It is also a good recipe to sneak vegetables in so that's why I used a whole pepper and onion :)

• 1lb. Ground turkey
• 1 Yellow onion, chopped
• 1 Red pepper, chopped
• 1 Egg, beaten
• 1/2 c. Quick cooking oats.
• Dash of Worcestershire sauce

Topping:

• 1/3 c. Ketchup
• 2 T. Brown sugar
• 1 T. Mustard

Mix all the ingredients together. Place in a baking dish or bread loaf pan. Spread the topping all over. Bake at 375 for 1 hour.

Mashed Potatoes

• 3 Potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1/4 c Milk
• 2 T. Butter
• Salt and pepper

Boil potatoes in a pot with enough water to cover all the potatoes for 15 mins. Drain water and return to pot.  Add milk and butter and blend with electric mixer till reaches desired consistency. Add more milk, butter, salt, and pepper to taste.

French Bread Pizza

I love pizza, but it can get so expensive to buy it from the store or a pizza place. So I thought, why not make my own?

French Bread Pizza

• 1 loaf French bread, cut down middle
• 1/2 jar Spaghetti sauce of choice
• 1 pkg Pepperoni, or meat of your choice
• 1 Yellow onion
• 1 Green pepper
• Mozzarella cheese, shredded 
• Italian seasoning

Set oven to broil. Place bread in broiler for 5 mins. This gets the bread nice and crispy. Spread pasta sauce over bread. You can also sprinkle some italian seasoning over it. Add your meat and vegetables. Lastly, cover with cheese. Bake in oven at 400 for 10-15 mins or until cheese melts. And then I always cover my pizza in hot sauce and ranch :)

Sloppy Joes with Baked Fries

I realize it has been a long while since I made any posts. Sorry! So I am going to try to play catch up today.

Looks tasty, right?

Sloppy Joes

• 8 oz can Tomato paste
• 1 lb. Ground turkey
• 1 Yellow onion, chopped
• 1 c. BBQ sauce
• 1 c. Ketchup

Add to taste:

• Soy sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• Chili powder
• Cinnamon
• Brown sugar
• Mustard
• Hot sauce

Cook the turkey and the onion. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir till it starts to bubble.

Baked Fries

• 3 large Potatoes, peeled
• Olive oil
• Garlic powder
• Tony Chacheres

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place foil on baking sheet to avoid making a mess. Cut potatoes length-wise. Place in container with the rest of the ingredients, to taste. Place lid on and shake till potatoes are fully coated. Place potatoes on cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Flip potatoes over and bake another 10-15 mins.

As you can tell I really don't measure out my ingredients. I guess for people to fully be able to use the recipes I post I need to start measuring. I will try my hardest to start measuring while I cook.

Pumpkin Dump Cake

I thought I would be fancy and do my own version of a pumpkin dump cake, but my cooking skills don’t seem to be advanced enough to make up a baked good recipe yet.  Really what happened is I just didn’t read the entire recipe of what I was supposed to do.

I manged to fix it, but it wasn’t enough for Joey to rave over, so clearly I won’t try my version again. Here’s the real recipe…I suggest you use this and follow the directions and it will turn out great!

http://cookiesandcups.com/pumpkin-dump-cake/

*For the topping I crushed up 8 graham crackers and mixed that with some brown sugar and cinnamon.

**Make sure you pour the butter over the cake mix! That is what I failed to do, so obviously the cake didn’t bake. I had to just mix everything together in the pan and re-bake it. I don’t suggest that.

***I topped it with homemade whip cream. You can never go wrong with that! (Carton of heavy whipping cream with a little bit of vanilla and sugar to taste. Whip it with beaters until it forms peaks. And  make sure you chill the bowl and beaters in the freezer before you make it)

Lasagna

I got this recipe from my mother, who got it from the North County Journal in Florissant many, many years ago. 

What you need:

• 1lb Ground turkey
• 26-32 oz Spaghetti sauce (Prego: Heart smart roasted red pepper and garlic is my favorite)
• 16 oz Diced tomatoes (undrained)
• 15 oz Cottage or ricotta cheese
• 1 Egg, well beaten
• 1/4 c. Grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp. Basil
• 6 or more uncooked lasagna noodles
• 2 or more cups Mozzarella cheese, divided

How to make it:

• Brown meat with your choice of seasonings, add spaghetti sauce and diced tomatoes.
• Combine cottage cheese, egg, parmesan cheese, and basil.
• Spread 2 cups of meat sauce over bottom of 11x7 baking dish.
• Arrange 3(+) noodles on top, pressing into mixture.
• Spoon cottage cheese mixture on top.
• Sprinkle half of the mozzarella cheese on it.
• Top with 2 cups of meat sauce.
• Press remaining noodles into meat sauce, followed by the rest of the sauce.
• Bake at 375 for 45 minutes.
• Add rest of cheese and bake for another 15 minutes.
• Let stand 10 mins before serving.

Corn Dog Muffins

I got this idea from http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/05/mini-corn-dog-muffins-recipe.html

What you need:

• 4 boxes of corn muffin mix (the recipe has you make your own, but I went the easy route)
• 10 hot dogs cut in 3rds

What to do:

• Make all the mix by following all the instructions on the box
• Fill the muffin tins 1/2 way full (I used the tin liners to reduce mess)
• Stick in a hot dog piece
• Fill muffin tins a little more
• Bake for the amount of time said on the box and viola!

*It was supposed to make 24 but I got 30 out of it instead

**Next time I think I am going to cut up the hot dogs in little pieces and mix them into the batter so you get a little bit of hot dog in each bite :)

***I served with ketchup and mustard

Chocolate Chess Pie

My version of a chocolate chess pie. I made this for Joey’s sister-in-laws birthday. It was interesting to say the least, it reminded me of a chewy half baked brownie.

http://www.crunchyrock.com/2011/03/314159-chocolate-chess-pie.html

*I used a glass pie dish, but as you can see the filling barely filled it up, so it is ok to use an 8” pan I do believe.

**The crust browned very fast, so bake the crust for 5 mins.

***It seemed a little plain, so I ripped large marshmallows in half and put them on top. I then set the oven to broil, once it was all done baking, and watched the marshmallows till they started to brown. It took about 3 mins so watch out!

Chicken with Potatoes and Onions

My mom stocked me up on farmers market produce because I don't have time to go in Springfield. She got the potatoes, onions, and garlic from the farmers market in Ferguson, MO.

What you need:

• 1lb Chicken tenderloin (or chicken of your choice)
• Little potatoes (if you can't find small baking potatoes, you can use red potatoes. I would say 4 per person)
• 1 Yellow onion
• 3 Cloves minced garlic

For the seasoning:

• Chardonnay
• Lemon juice
• Oregano
• Rosemary
• Lemon pepper

Bake in the oven at 425 for 45-60 minutes.

Zucchini Bread and Muffins

Joey's parents gave me 2 huge zucchini this past summer. So naturally I had to make some bread.

*I added cinnamon sugar to the top.

**For the muffins I put in some raisins and baked for 30 minutes.

***The bread took an hour to cook, not 40 minutes.

****You can cut down on the sugar. They are rather sweet but still really tasty.

http://hoosierhomemade.com/zucchini-bread/#

Ps. Grating zucchini sucks! I will definitely be investing in a food processor.

S'more Bars

This will be my last post of the the night. I will continue tomorrow when I get off work.

I made these for my friends birthday because she LOVES s'mores. She even had a s'mores bar at her wedding :) They were so good and went very, very fast, because who doesn't like a good s'more? Especially when you can eat it with a fork.

*It says not to cut till all the way cool, but I ran out of time and had to cut them. They were very gooey and messy but tasted even better with the melted chocolate and warm marshmallow in the middle.

http://www.bakedperfection.com/2008/07/smore-cookie-bars.html

Hasselback Potatoes

I made these to go along with turkey burgers one night. They are a different option when you are wanting potatoes with your meal. Plus look awesome!

*The longer you leave them in the oven, the more they taste like fries.

**I omitted the garlic because I didn't have any at the time, instead I put little bits of butter in between some of the slits.

***And of course instead of salt I used Tony's :)

http://www.seasaltwithfood.com/2009/05/hasselback-potatoes.html

Baked Chicken Legs with Mashed Potatoes

This is a little meal that I made up on my own that is quite simple.

What you need:

• 8 Chicken drumsticks
• 1 cup + Dry white wine of choice (I used Chardonnay, but you can also use Sherry)
• 1/2 cup or so Lemon juice
• 1 Yellow onion
• 1/2 bag Carrots
• Season with rosemary, oregano, and what ever other spices you like

What you do:

• Bake in the oven at 400 for an hour.

Strawberry Cream Puff Cake

Delish. Enough said. Plus the recipe was very easy to follow.

http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/04/strawberry-cream-puff-cake.html

Baked Sweet n Sour Chicken with Fried Rice

I have made this recipe many times, but every time I make it I am so excited to eat it I forget to take a photograph.

Since I moved to Springfield, finding St. Louis style Chinese food had been very difficult. Luckily, Pinterest came into my life and I have discovered many tasty Chinese dishes. This beats any other sweet n sour recipe.  Plus it is baked and not fried giving you a not-so-guilty feeling for eating way too much of it :)

*It's a little on the sweet side, so you can definitely cut back on the sugar a little bit.

**I also did not use all of the oil it called for because I felt it was a little excessive and would then have to be considered a fried dish.

http://life-as-a-lofthouse.blogspot.com/2010/09/baked-sweet-and-sour-chicken-with-fried.html