Pre-Thanksgiving activities!

Y'all. We are the weekend before Thanksgiving. O_O 

We are compiling lists - comparing ads for the best deals - and getting ready to go grocery shopping so that we can start cooking in a couple of days! Can't wait!

Soul Smothered Chicken over rice

Soul Smothered Chicken - AllRecipes.com

This is the recipe I recently tried out for the first time. It's not for us though. So as I type this...and look at the very true to life photos...it's cooking on the stove and I'm smelling it and my sister is asking if we'll get to take a bite. Oh the agony of cooking yummy meals for other people. Now, rather than continue to go on and on about the hardships of smelling amazing food in the kitchen that you won't be indulging in yourself, I'll begin my timeline. 

First, set out the ingredients. Ok, I don't actually do this but for the sake of a picture I did. 

Then you brown the chicken on all sides...which I forgot to take a picture of. Yeah, I'm on the ball here. 

The already browned chicken.

Then you take the chicken out and saute the vegetables. I did not know how amazing fresh garlic smells as you saute it! Wowza!

Add some S&P to that and some flour then add the broth and drop the chicken back in. (So I'm not following the recipe to a "T"; but that's why I'm putting the recipe up too. So you can. :-) )

Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or so and Presto! You have a delicious (Yes, we tasted it. What?!?! You wouldn't have???) chicken dinner in seconds! Well, unless you're cooking it and not reading it on a blog. 

Now comes the fun part. 

Clean up. :-/

(Click here for the post where I shared the after pic :p)

Thanksgiving Leftovers??

What are those???

Thanksgiving leftovers aren't much of a thing at our house lol with seven adults and now three little girls most of our Thanksgiving meal is gone by Sunday :) but on occasion (usually when we make an extra large load of food) we still have a little of this and that the week following Thanksgiving. Believe it or not, stuffing was one that we had a little left of the following week. Sooooo I decided for my lunch I was gonna throw together one of my favorites that I don't do very often. I'm pretty sure they were originally called Poor Man's Crab Cakes lol but I just call them Tuna Cakes and they are delish!!! It's a really basic recipe than has a lot of room for adjustment or error! So excuse my terms of measurement but don't let them scare you away from trying them yourself!

Ingredients:

Most of a can of tuna (because I made myself half of a tuna sandwich first lol!)

1 plop of mayonnaise 

Small handful (1/2 cup?) or your choice of shredded cheese 

Heaping cup of stuffing (dressing whatevs 😉)

Mix it all up and ball up into about 5 patties (depending on how big or small you want them - I've done them really small too for a more formal dinner party) and place into a greased pan over Med/high heat. Cook until both sides are nicely browned. Plate and enjoy!

Happy Post Thanksgiving, y'all! 

Banana "ice cream"!

If you love ice cream but not the calories this is a great recipe for you! I got it from a friend and tried it myself just a couple of days later. It's good either way so if you don't have Nutella, make it any way!!!




Ingredients:


4 bananas 
1 Tbsp peanut butter
1 Tbsp Nutella/cocoa




Directions:


Cut the banana into medium size pieces and freeze at least overnight. Take the frozen banana pieces and put them in the food processor and blend, constantly scraping the sides down, until it creates a whip almost. I added a little bit of milk to help the process along... Then add the peanut butter and Nutella and blend until blended. Makes a pint. 


Note: If you use cocoa instead of Nutella like I did (didn't have any) you might not want to put a whole Tbsp...maybe add slowly to taste. Also could maybe add chocolate syrup if you want but I didn't want to because I felt that would take away the "goodness" of it, if ya know what I mean. :-)

Creamy Dill Dip

This is apparently a hit wherever it's taken and I needed a dip to make for a church wide birthday party we're having next week. So I'm giving it a shot! From the reviews that I read I'm so confident in it that I'm posting this before I make it! :-O Will let you all know how it turns out! :-)


Ingredients:


1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp dried dill weed
1 Tbsp dried minced onion, re hydrated (I'm just going to mince fresh onion)
1 tsp Beau Monde seasoning *


Directions:
In small bowl combine all ingredients and blend well. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Serve with veggies, chips, bread cubes, or crackers.


I'm making this for a chip dip. Also, I will be looking for the Beau Monde seasoning at Wal-Mart but if I can't find it I am going to substitute * 1/4 tsp each - celery seed, salt, sugar, and onion powder.  

Brownie Pudding Cake

Made this other day (for the second time) for my Mama's birthday. I don't know how I "forgot" about this cake! It is so yummy!!! Topped with chocolate ice cream, my brother said it must be a sin. It was that good. :-) Had a request for the recipe and in thinking about how amazing this cake is, thought it was blog worthy. Here it be! :-)
Note: This recipe makes an 8x8 so when I made it I doubled it for a 9x13. Also, I substitued evaporated milk for the milk and it tasted great. Didn't even notice!

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
3/4 cup white sugar
2 Tbsp cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk (or 1/4 cup evap milk & 1/4 cup water)
2 Tbsp oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (opt. I didn't but it sounds good so I might next time)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 cup boiling water


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 8x8 pan. In medium bowl stir together the flour, white sugar, the 2 Tbsp cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the milk, oil, and vanilla. (Stir in walnuts here if adding them)
Pour batter into pan. In a small bowl stir together the brown sugar and the 1/4 cup cocoa. Stir in the boiling water. Slowly pour mixture over the batter.
Bake for 40 minutes. Place pan on wire rack and cool for 45 to 60 minutes.

It says to serve warm which is amazing but the cake was still good the next day. I can't tell you how it tasted after 2 days because it didn't last that long. :-)

Sorry!

Hey fellow cookers! Just wanted to offer you a quick apology for not finishing the Thanksgiving Menu project I started...last Thanksgiving. lol I will work on getting the rest of the recipes up here...by Thanksgiving this year. :-P Maybe I'll even have a couple of new ones to add for this year! :-)