Spoonbread

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 (8.5 oz) corn muffin mix
• 1 (12 oz) can creamed corn
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp garlic & peppercorn seasoning
• 1 cup shredded cheese

Directions:

1. Combine eggs, muffin mix, creamed corn, softened butter, and sour cream in a large mixing bowl.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Prepare baking dish with cooking spray.
4. Stir seasoning and shredded cheese into batter.
5. Turn batter into prepared baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Hint: Have leftover corn? Or frozen corn instead or creamed corn? Easily substitute either one in this recipe. Like a little more heat? Add a some can of chopped green chilies to the batter - or a couple dashes of hot sauce, or both!

Twice Baked Potato Casserole

Ingredients:

• 4 potatoes, baked and mashed
• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• bacon crumbles
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• salt & pepper as desired

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Prepare baking dish with non-stick spray.
3. In a mixing bowl combine: mashed potatoes, cream cheese, sour cream, onion, and skim milk.
4. Top with shredded cheese and bacon crumbles.
5. Cover dish with foil and bake for 35-40 minutes.

Hint: Whenever we make boiled or mashed potatoes for a meal, I try to make extra so we will have leftovers. In the back of my mind I always plan on making potato pancakes with the leftovers...but I usually find another way to use them up before we ever get around to making the potato pancakes. This casserole is a great example! I used leftover boiled potatoes to make this dish for my husband and me for lunch. His favorite part? No potato skins :) Enjoy!!

Tired Mama Taco Salad

Ever have one of those weeks where there don't seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything accomplished that needs to be done?

That describes this week in our house.

Monday night we were supposed to have tacos.

Instead we opted for a taco salad of sorts that was a smashing success.

The key ingredient:

DORITOS

If Taco Bell can do taco shells made of Doritos, why not taco salad?

(In my opinion, this taco salad was better than the Doritos Tacos, but that's me...)

Ingredients:

1 family size bag of Doritos

shredded lettuce

1 1/2 lbs ground beef, browned & drained

(taco seasoning for ground beef, if desired)

white corn

salsa

fresh tomato salsa (onion, cilantro, jalapeno, and tomato)

chunky prepared salsa

shredded colby blend cheese

guacamole

*sour cream*

Directions:

1. Brown ground beef and drain. Season with taco seasoning if desired.

2. Steam corn until thoroughly heated.

3. Layer taco salad with ingredients as desired.

4. Enjoy!

Hint: Don't forget the sour cream - we did! Not everyone likes sour cream, not everyone likes guacamole - but that's what is great about this meal. Each person can pick and choose what ingredients they want to include. A good meal for fostering independence! No leftovers makes for an easy clean-up too!! Another tip is to skip the taco seasoning in the ground beef. There is enough seasoning on the Doritos and in the salsas to make it up - it wasn't missed at our house!

Buffalo Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

3 TBS vegetable oil

3 cups chopped celery

2 cups chopped onion

1 TBS minced garlic

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 quarts chicken broth

1 cup buffalo wing sauce

1 (16 oz) container sour cream

5 boneless skinless chicken thighs

1 cup uncooked rice, prepared as directed

For garnish: blue cheese crumbles, bacon crumbles, chopped celery & additional buffalo wing sauce

* Saute onion, celery, and garlic in vegetable oil over medium heat in deep skillet or pot on the stove top.

* Add AP flour, stirring constantly for approximately 2 minutes.

* Slowly add chicken broth, whisking into flour and vegetable mixture until smooth.

* Next add buffalo wing sauce and sour cream. Continue to whisk ingredients.

* Pour over chicken thighs in crock-pot.

* Cook on low 6-8 hours, or on high 4-5 hours.

* Add prepared rice, just before serving.

* Garnish with blue cheese crumbles, bacon crumbles, chopped celery & buffalo wing sauce.

**Would be excellent served in bread bowls**

Chicken Enchiladas

We started with 1 whole chicken. Roasted in the crock-pot with only seasoning. From that 1 whole chicken...we got 3 different meals. This is meal #2:

Ingredients:

2 1/2-3 cups cooked chicken, shredded or chopped
1 cup sour cream
1 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chilies
1 cup shredded cheddar blend cheese
1 cup salsa
8-10 fajita size flour tortillas
1 (10 oz) can green enchilada sauce
1/2 cup shredded cheddar blend cheese
sliced black olives for garnish**
2 chopped green onions for garnish**

- Begin by combining the chicken, 1 cup of shredded cheese, sour cream, green chilies, and salsa.

- Spray freezer safe/oven safe casserole dish with cooking spray.
- Spoon chicken mixture into flour tortillas, roll and place in casserole dish seam side down.

- Cover filled tortillas with enchilada sauce, 1/2 cup shredded cheese, and black olives and green onions if desired.

- Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until heated through.

- OR -

- Cover and freeze for up to 3 months before reheating and serving. To reheat and serve, allow prepared dish to thaw in refrigerator prior to cooking. *Placing a frozen glass dish in a preheated oven may cause glass to break.**