Oven-Baked Chicken Nachos

1 13 oz. bag of bite-size Tostitos (as many as you can put on the pan before they get ate)
1 13 oz can cooked chicken breast meat, drained
1 2.24 oz can sliced black olives, drained
1/2 medium white onion, diced small
1 10 oz can rotel, drained
1 tsp Pampered Chef, Southwest Seasoning mix (sub. chili powder or mix)
4 oz shredded Colby-Jack cheese blend
**sliced jalepenos - to taste**

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.




Spread chips over baking sheet or stone.





Combine chicken, black olives, onion, rotel and cover chips.




Top with seasoning.

Cover with shredded cheese.

Add jalepenos if desired.




I desired!

Bake 15-20 minutes.

Sweet & Tangy Chicken

Another crock-pot recipe we tweaked a bit - it was a hit here!

Put in crock-pot first:

2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp allspice (we used Pampered Chef Cinnamon Blend)
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 TBS soy sauce
1/4 cup cider vinegar
**Juice drained from 20 oz. skinny fruit pineapple slices - save the pineapple to add later**
2 TBS quick-cooking tapioca
1 TBS sugar

Cook on low 5-6 hours, stirring occasionally.



About one hour before you are ready to eat, add to crock-pot:

reserved pineapple
1 1/2 green peppers (diced, large chunks)
1/2 medium red onion (diced, large chunks)



We decided to go with rice on the side tonight. Noodles would be good too but the resident 16 year old was fussing about "pasta, pasta, pasta"...so we switched it up a bit. Yep, we're sneaky like that!

Create Your Own Sourdough Starter

Hints Before you Begin -

- use a rubber spatula when mixing, will make this a lot easier
- measure, weigh, measure, use a thermometer...super important
- make sure your container is big enough to hold the starter, it's gonna grow so bigger is better
- take it from me, it is easier to just take the lid OFF the trashcan before discarding the throw away portion than it is to try to clean it up off the lid...floor...cabinet...whatever...
- have fun!! Get your kids involved, make it a family experiment!

Day 1:

1/2 cup (4 oz) 80 degree F water
3/4 cup (3 1/2 oz) whole rye flour
1/8 tsp molasses

Mix ingredients thoroughly in a nonreactive container that has a lid and the opening is large enough to add and remove starter as needed. The container should be 2-4 quarts in size...I use a gallon size Rubbermaid plastic canister with a square top/opening.

Once mixed, cover tightly with lid and allow to rest for 24 hours.

Day 2:

Throw 1/2 the starter away and add:

1/2 cup (4 oz) 80 degree water
3/4 cup (3 1/2 oz) whole rye flour

Mix thoroughly, cover, and allow mixture to rest (ferment) for 24 hours.




Day 3, 4, 5 & 6:

By now the mixture should be beginning to bubble. Lots of bubbles mean good fermentation, and starter that has visible creases shows signs that it has recently fallen - also a good sign.

Again, throw away 1/2 the starter mix.

Add to the remaining mix:

1/2 cup (4 oz) 80 degree F water
1 cup Unbleached All-Purpose flour

8 hours later, repeat.

**If you miss a scheduled feeding, it's okay! Just continue the schedule of feeding & discarding twice a day on days 2-6.**




Day 7:

Stir the mixture well. Discard all but 4 oz (about 1/2 cup)and put it in a clean 2-4 quart, nonreactive, wide-mouthed container and add:

1 cup (8 oz) 80 degree F water
2 cups (8 1/2 oz) Unbleached All-Purpose flour

Stir this mixture until it is free of lumps. Cover and all mixture to ferment for 6-8 hours.

Now, the starter should be active and have bubbles that break on the surface. The texture should be somewhat elastic, and is now ready to use, or used to keep your sourdough starter going.

There are two methods...on the counter and in the fridge. We'll come back to that.

Today we are on Day 6 at my house. Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles!! Very Exciting!!

Trying New Smoothie Mixes today...

PSAT's this morning...starting the day with some strawberry banana smoothies to go with Levi's staple of oatmeal.

Using the coupons we found for Yoplait's frozen smoothie mixes, we paid $1 for 2 mix pouches...so $0.50 a piece and added skim milk. Excellent way to start the day!!

Dinner, errrrrrr - Brenner

Dinner, errrrr - Brenner in a Hurry:

*sausage patties

*hashbrowns with red and green peppers and onions

*tangelo wedges

*cinnamon waffles........skip the syrup, it's not needed here

This is what we ate at our house - what's for dinner at yours??

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Buffalo Chicken Pizza:

1 seamless crescent roll

3/4 lb cooked chicken breast fajita meat

ranch dressing *

hot sauce *

bacon, cooked & crumbled

1/2 med red onion, diced

mozzarella cheese shredded (I use the 8 oz. bag)

Preheat oven to 375.

Unroll and press crescent roll onto cookie sheet or stone. Mix ranch dressing and hot sauce by 3 parts ranch to 1 part hot sauce (or as desired by taste). Use dressing mix as pizza sauce, reserve small amount to drizzle over top of pizza before cooking. Add precooked chicken, diced red onion, and bacon crumbles to top of sauced crust. Mostly cover with shredded mozzarella cheese. Drizzle remaining ranch-hot sauce mix sparingly over cheese.

Bake until cheese begins to bubble and brown.

After it cools a bit........Enjoy!!

Throw Together Pork Roast

I took the kids to school and came home to find that Jon had already started getting dinner assembled while I was away.

He announced, "I put the pork roast in the crock-pot with an onion and a green pepper in the crock-pot. Now come do something with it."

Well, alrighty.




3 - 3 1/2 lb pork roast
2 TBS Worcestershire sauce
1 medium onion, diced large cuts
1 medium green pepper, diced large cuts
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
1 11.5 oz can V-8 juice

*Cook on low 6-8 hours, or in our case...until the boys come home from school.


Now, thanks to my handy-dandy crock-pot...we can go back to bed.

At least until lunchtime!!

P.S. We served this with spaghetti noodles (carrots & applesauce on the side) and it was so good that we may start making this the HOW TO RECIPE for spaghetti at our house!!

Loaded Pineapple-Upside-Down Cake

Ingredients:

1 Pillsbury Moist Supreme Pineapple cake mix
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 20 oz can pineapple slices, drained
*Maraschino cherries*
1 cup water
1/3 cup oil
3 eggs
**1/2-1 cup crushed pineapple - excess juice removed**
**1/2-1 cup chopped walnuts**(or Sweet Caramel Sprinkle in my case)

Follow mixing instructions on box, adding the crushed pineapple and walnuts (sprinkle) to the batter prior to pouring into baking dish.


We are barely into October and I am sick of Halloween candy already. Sick of it I tell you.

So it was time to bake a cake. Not just any cake. But a really, really good cake.

So with fond thoughts to my brother, I decided it would be a Loaded Pineapple-Upside-Down Cake. Makes my mouth water just to say it!



I started off melting the butter to combine with the cup of brown sugar as directed on the side of the box. While that was melting for mixing, I started pulling the pineapple out of the cabinet. Choices, choices!



I decided on the crushed pineapple in natural juice, no sugar added to go in the batter and the pineapple slices in natural juice, no sugar added for the top. The Skinny Pineapple in splenda...well, we'll save it for another day!

I also decided to add some chopped walnuts. Unfortunately, the last batch of Magic Cookie Bars used all the walnuts, so I grabbed what was left of the Pampered Chef Sweet Caramel Sprinkle. And poured it all into the batter. That and the 1 cup of crushed pineapple were the only extra add-ins today.



Before adding the batter to the baking dish, I assembled The Top. In my opinion, the best part of any Pineapple-Upside-Down Cake. The melted sugar and butter go in first, next the pineapple rings and finally whole maraschino cherries with the stems removed. Yummm!

Then I covered that beautiful Top with the creamy pineapple loaded batter.

Into the 350 degree oven for the next 45 minutes.



Now all that was left was to wait.

Waiting can be a challenge when your house smells like cake. Not just any cake either - this is a really, really good cake!



Wish my brother was here to share, but since he's not I'll eat a piece for him. Because I love him! That's my story anyway...