Tastee Apple Giveaway

YAY....I'm so happy to announce another Giveaway sponsored by my favorite caramel covered apple company, Tastee apples!

Roasted Garbanzo Beans

I love snacks that not only taste great but are good for you too! These roasted garbanzo beans are easy to make and so addicting to eat!

Creamy Vegetable Stuffed Pork Chops Topped with a Light Cheese Sauce

This is a delicious way to get your kids to eat their vegetables! These pork chops are stuffed with broccoli, onions, garlic, bacon bits and hash brown potatoes that are sauteed in a little butter. Then they're pulsed a few times in the food processor and stuffed into the pork chops. The pork chops are then pan seared and finish cooking in the oven. Before serving they are topped with a light creamy cheese sauce.

Scattered Chicken Tortilla Casserole!

We love Mexican food in our house, but sometimes I just don't feel like assembling a dozen tacos or burritos! That's why I decided to try this easier way! It tastes just as good but is so much quicker to make and less messy to eat!

Smothered Pork Chops with Onions and Cheddar Grits...and some Bacon Wrapped Potatoes!

I found this recipe on My Recipes.com and drooled over the sound of the title! I love everything about it...pork chops smothered with onions and served with cheddar grits?!?! The ingredients were so simple and this was so easy to make! The only change I made was to cook the onions til they were very dark and caramelized! I also added chopped,  jarred,  jalapeno to the grits! I served this with some bacon wrapped oven roasted potatoes too! Yes, I'm a carbaholic and loved every single bite of this delicious meal!

Perfect Hawaiian Chicken

The first time I ever tried Hawaiian Chicken was at a catered party many, many years ago. It was love at first bite! Since then I was on a journey to find that same delicious meal in restaurants. I would order Hawaiian Chicken whenever I saw it on the menu...but most times I ended up disappointed. The meal was either too sour or too tangy or too sweet. I finally stopped wasting my money on bad Hawaiian Chicken.

Moroccan Chicken Stew

I've been wanting to try a Moroccan recipe since I first received a bottle of 'McCormick Moroccan Seasoning' from the McCormick Company. Well, I finally found this recipe...Moroccan Chicken on Weelicious.com. After reading some of the comments on that recipe I decided that I would add fresh garlic and a veggie. But then during the cooking process I realized I needed to tweak the technique also.

Breakfast Pizza

We love to have breakfast for dinner once a week, so this recipe came in very handy! This pizza is filled with so many fresh and flavorful ingredients like smoked chicken chipotle sausage, roma tomatoes, mozzarella, parmesan cheese, eggs and green onions! All baked on top of homemade bread! But you can use store bought bread. This is easy and very filling! The recipe is from the Johnsonville sausage company. It's called Morning Terrace Pizza and you can find it on Allrecipes.com.

 This is a very versatile recipe that can be made to suit your own tastes. You can use any flavor sausage and your favorite cheeses! That's what I did and it worked perfectly.

I used fresh roma tomatoes and green onions and mozzarella along with spicy and smoky chicken chipotle sausage. I used ciabatta bread for a nice crisp crunch! The eggs and cheese gave it creaminess and held it all together!

 

This was another one of my delicious brand ambassador assignments for Allrecipes.com. I'm really enjoying all the Johnsonville recipes. I was only asked to make 2 sausage recipes but these sausages are so good that I wanted to make more! I have one more recipe I want to make...I'll be doing that next week. It will be my own creation! I can't wait to try it!

 

Take a look at the large selection of recipes on the Johnsonville Pinterest Boards! They have them all nice and neatly put into different categories like 'breakfast', 'lunch', 'dinner', 'appetizers' and soooo much more! When you click on any of the recipes from their Pinterest boards it will bring you to the Johnsonville recipe page. There you can rate and review the recipes you've made, for other cooks to see!  I love that feature on their recipe site!

 

 

 

 

Watermelon Cubes with Feta

I told you that I would be trying more watermelon recipes, in this blog post called "Watermelon Used 3 Ways". So here is another one.

Easy Tortellini Salad

This is my recipe for Tortellini Salad. I make it often for family gatherings. There is usually never any leftovers! I always use dried tortellini pasta...never frozen because the frozen kind are too gummy when cooked. And grocery stores don't usually have much choice of fillings for the frozen variety.  For this recipe I always use spinach/cheese filled and 3 cheese filled. This really makes a huge difference in the taste of this salad. And I always use my own homemade dressing because it's simple and light, which lets the flavor of the other ingredients shine through. I hope you'll give my recipe a try!

Crockpot Chicken and Kraut

This is just so simple to make and so delicious! The chicken and sauerkraut melt in your mouth. The sauerkraut becomes sweet from the dressing but still has a nice tanginess. The juices are perfect for dipping with bread. This is a 'must try' recipe!

Caramelized Onion Jam

Oh, let me tell you...this is some kind of wonderful, yes it is! Sing it with me!!! I can totally eat this whole bowl of onion jam ALL by myself! Did I say I CAN...I meant I HAVE eaten it all by myself!  It's kind of a small bowl. ..well, not really, but that's what I always tell myself. Everyone that I've served this to has loved it just as much as I do!

Caramel Cashew Chewies!

 

This is a dangerously delicious recipes because you just can't stop eating these. They're crunchy, nutty, chewy, chocolate squares! And they are so easy to make, which just doubles the danger...but I looooove to live dangerously!

 

Jalapeno Pork with Garlic Sauce

I've been so happy with the results of all the Asian style recipes I've been trying lately, as I mentioned in this recipe post for Dragon Noodles.  So delicious!!!
 
This next recipe was just as delicious and went perfectly with the Dragon Noodles!

Caprese Dip!

I'm a dip fiend! So I love coming up with new recipes for unique and delicious dips! Sometimes I like warm dips and sometimes I'm just in the mood for an easy, fresh, healthy, low fat, chilled dip! This one hits all the marks!

Watermelon Dippers!

It's watermelon season so I'm always looking for ways to serve this naturally sweet fruit! I love serving it this way because it's fun to dip and I love the contrast of the creamy, tangy dip with the cold, sweet watermelon! It's just perfect!

Zucchini Alfredo

 

I just love this recipe for so many reasons! It's low fat, creamy, healthy, easy and my kids eat it because they don't realize that there is zucchini in it! This recipe is shredded zucchini in a creamy parmesan/basil sauce!

 

Chicken Capricciosa

This is one of my favorite chicken dishes to order from my local Italian restaurant. Capricciosa means 'fickle' or 'whimsical'...which explains this dish because the breaded and baked chicken cutlet is served warm, but the bruschetta/mozzarella topping is cold. I love that contrast!

Stove Top Summer Lasagna

I never realized you could make lasagna on the stove top until I tried this recipe! It was perfect and easy!

Quick and Easy Arroz Con Pollo

I love Arroz Con Pollo! I have made it many times and have ordered this in restaurants! The recipe I usually use (see here) has many more ingredients and is a little more difficult to make, but is very delicious with deep rich flavors! So when I found this new easier recipe I was very eager to give it a try!

Apple and Feta Pan Fried Pizzas

Eating healthy is part of my assignment this month in the Allrecipes Allstar Brand Ambassador Program. The ambassadors were asked to choose recipes from the My Plate healthy eating recipe collection. That's exactly where I found this pizza recipe! There are so many other recipes to choose from but this one stood out to me because of the combination of ingredients! It sounded so unique and flavorful! And that's exactly what is was! Plus I never thought to pan fry pizza dough! I think I'll be doing that more often!

A Pioneer Woman Recipe!

I found this recipe on the Pioneer Woman's cooking site. I knew I would love it as soon as I saw the title!  Then I tried it and I was right...I loved it! Very easy to make! I tweaked it slightly to make it less fattening and to make the sauce thicker. And I used white wine instead of brandy. I also added parsley for color. I think I'll try it with the brandy next time...and there will be MANY next times...YUM! Using the white wine made it taste VERY similar to chicken picatta, but more creamy and tangy. I'm posting the recipe with my tweaks.


Chicken with Mustard Cream Sauce

A Healthier Easter Treat!

This cute little candy bird nest is made from 'Fiber One'  original bran cereal and melted chocolate. These are so easy to make! My kids loved them! This recipe makes about 8-10 nests that are about 3" x 2" diameter each.

Chocolate Birds Nests

Banana Dogs

I know this looks and sounds very strange but it was surprisingly good! I found this recipe on my favorite cooking site, Allrecipes.com. This seems to be a very popular meal because I've seen it posted MANY times on Pinterest. I've eaten bananas with peanut butter, but I never thought to put it on a hot dog bun and add jelly! Check out some of the reviews on this recipe**here**.

So be adventurous and try this for yourself...or try it out on a small child! Either way it's worth a try!

Tiramisu Bread Pudding!

***Click Here*** to see original recipe

Did you ever see a recipe and after reading it you realize, "where has this recipe been all my life?" Well, that's exactly what happened as soon as I saw this recipe! And the best part was that I had all the ingredients to make it right away! I was so happy that I actually ran to my kitchen and started making the recipe as soon as I was done reading it!

30 Quick and Easy Soups

I almost forgot to share with you these really cool soup recipes! In the link you'll find some of the easiest and quickest soups you'll ever see! I've made these 4 shown above, from the list of 30, and was so surprised how delicious these simple soups tasted. I always thought soups had to be complicated to be good. I'm posting the recipes below for the soups I've made,

Sweet and Tangy Grilled Chicken

I know it's very cold outside in most places this time of year. As I write this post, here in New York, we actually have over a foot of snow on the ground from the last storm that rolled through. But this recipe is so worth digging out the barbecue and braving the frigid low temps. Yes, I've done that many times for great grilled food!

Look at the bright golden color of this grilled chicken cutlet! That color comes from the

Valentine's Day Recipes

In honor of Valentine's Day I've made a list of some of my favorite romantic recipes that I've shared on this blog over the years! If you're a regular reader of my blog you may remember some of these...and if not, I hope you'll enjoy seeing these for the first time.

This first recipe is so much fun to serve for a romantic breakfast. 

But even my kids loved this one.

 So it's not just for that special man or woman in your life!

Soups On

Here are a two of my favorite soups that I tried many years ago from various cooking websites! I've made these many times since finding them!



Chicken Tortilla Soup

This is a delicious and easy soup! What is so great about this soup is not only the authentic Mexican flavors but that it can be made and ready to serve in less than an hour! Here is the link to that recipe...

Sauteed Apples

I'm not a huge fan of canned pie filling because it's just too sweet for my taste. So when I need cooked sweet apples for recipes, this is how I make them. It's so quick, easy and costs less than the canned variety. These sautéed apples are heavenly when served warm with a scoop of ice cream!

I've used these sauteed apples as a filling in recipes such as

Chili Stroganoff

I enjoy making other peoples recipes more than trying to create my own! Although sometimes I end up tweaking someone's recipe so much that it becomes a totally different recipe! I call that a 'Super Tweak'...sounds like 'Super Freak' doesn't it? Now try to get that song out of your head!

No Eggs, No Milk, Banana Bread!

That's right!!! I didn't think it was possible, so I tried it! You know what? It is possible...and it's delicious!!! Below is my photo of the banana bread. It was moist and very flavorful! But the best part is how quick and easy it is too...not to mention low fat! The only change I made was to add a splash of pure vanilla extract to the batter. This recipe is from a cook named Pam Wilson McNicol...thank you Pam!

No Eggs, No Milk, Banana Bread

Easy Chicken Parmesan Soup

If you are a regular reader of my posts you'll know that I just love to take classic recipes and add a new twist because I just can't leave 'well enough' alone! Some of my past 'twists' were...