Hot Beef Sandwiches

Ingredients:
cheap round roast no need to thaw
one pack of Lipton Beefy Onion dry soup mix
2-4 beef bullion cubes (depending on the size of your roast and how beefy of a flavor you like)
1 to 1-1/2 inches of water
salt and pepper to taste

Toss your cheap round beef roast in your crock pot. Sprinkle the soup mix over the roast and add the bullion cubes. Add water till there is about 1 -1/2 inches of the roast standing in water. Cover crock pot.

If you turn your crock pot on low before you head out to work you'll come home to a very tasty aroma. When you get home open the crock pot and break up the roast - it should be very easy to break apart with a spoon.

Turn the crock pot on high for a half hour or so if the roast seems a little pink still. If not... slap it in a bun and take a bite!

Chicken Flautas with Jalapeno Sauce

Ingredients:
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped red pepper
2 cloves of garlic
2 chicken breasts
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup chicken broth or water
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp. Southwestern Seasoning from Pampered Chef
shredded cheddar cheese
oil for frying
flour tortillas
picante sauce

Ingredients for 2nd recipe:
jalapeno jelly

Place your chicken breasts in a frying pan on medium high. Flip as needed. When it looks like the chicken is done, cut to make sure that the inside is all the way cooked. If it is, remove the chicken breast from the heat and chop into bite size pieces.

Add chicken back to pan and add onion, peppers, garlic, corn, salt, seasoning, and broth. Heat uncovered, about 5 minutes or until liquid has evaporated, stirring occasionally. In large skillet, heat 1/2 inch oil to 350 degrees.

Spoon about 1/3 cup of chicken mixture across one end of tortilla. Add a layer of cheese. Fold left and right side in and roll tortilla together like an envelope. Pin the tortilla closed with a toothpick or two.

Fry rolled tortillas in hot oil for about 1 minute on each side or until golden brown. Drain on paper towel. Serve with picante sauce or/and sour cream. You can also add fresh tomatoes and lettuce if you want. I served with Yellow Zatarain's Rice.

2nd recipe... Jalapeno sauce. Take a few Tablespoons of jalapeno jelly (found right next to grape and strawberry jelly in the store) and put into a microwave safe bowl. Heat for 1 minuet in microwave... drizzle on flautas.

YUM. This will become a favorite in our home.

Pizza Burgers

With all the good new recipes we've made this week I guess it was bound to happen. A dud. Tonight I had a craving for those old cafeteria pizza burgers. You know back in middle school when they gave you 1/2 a bun with meat and cheese on it. That's what I wanted. That's not what I got.

Here's what I did... see if you can make it better if this sounds good to you.

Ingredients:
Hamburger Buns
Ground Beef
Onion
Pepperoni Slices
Cheese
Davanni's Pizza Sauce

I browned the onion and ground beef in a skillet on high. Then drained any and all grease from the pan. I added the Pizza Sauce. Thinking that it was Davanni's it should taste even better, right, wrong. When it was mixed together and heated I placed the meat mixture on 1/2 of a bun. On top of the meat I sprinkled a little cheese (I used both cheddar and mozzarella). On some I put slices of pepperoni. Into the oven they went. Really just to crisp up the bun and melt the cheese.

I made a batch of french fries too.... now those were delicious. The pizza burgers on the other hand... ICK. I'm thinking maybe some brown sugar needs to be added but I didn't want to add it since Jerome usually loves Davanni's pizzas I didn't want to change the taste just in case he liked it. Neither of us really enjoyed it.

Easy Shirmp Pasta for Two

Well it was Jerome's night to cook tonight and we just found so many recipes in that Kraft mag that he made another new recipe for us.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing
1/2 lb. uncooked large shrimp, peeled, deveined (we used small ones)
1 tomato, chopped
2 oz. Cream Cheese, cubed
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil leaves (we used dried)
4 oz fettuccine, uncooked
2 Tbsp. Parmesan Cheese

Pour dressing over shrimp in small bowl; cover and refrigerate for 20 minuets to marinate. Cook pasta as directed on package. Meanwhile, cube cream cheese and chop tomato.

In large skillet on medium heat add shrimp mixture. Cook 3 minuets or until shrimp turn pink, stirring frequently. Remove shrimp from skillet, using slotted spoon; cover to keep warm and set aside.


Add tomatoes, cream cheese and 1 Tbsp of basil to same skillet; cook and stir 3 minuets or until well blended. Add shrimp; cook until heated through, stirring occasionally.

Drain pasta. Place on large platter; top with the shrimp mixture. Sprinkle with remaining 1 Tbsp. basil and shredded cheese.

Makes 2 servings, 1 3/4 cups each.

If you prefer is saucier, stir a small amount of milk into the shrimp mixture.


My suggestions:

• Do add the milk... I still don't think it had enough sauce and I'd say Jerome added a 1/2 cup.
• Take the tails off of the shrimp too... the picture looked like they were on... so Jerome left them on.
• We used 2 Roma tomatoes... I'd say 3 would be better.
• We also used 1 Tbsp. dried basil instead of the 2 Tbsp fresh basil... 2 Tbsp of dried would have been too much for us.

Gram's Chicken Pot Pie Updated

Kraft has this mag called Food & Family that I just got the Winter edition of. On the cover (shown) they had the following recipe and I tried it out tonight. I did make a few changes to it and have some suggestions for the next time I make it. Below you will find my version of this recipe. If you want the original click the link above.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. Italian Dressing
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cups frozen California mix vegetables
1 can (10 3.4 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup
1/4 lb. (4 oz) Velveeta
1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 can sweet peas

Preheat oven at 400 degrees. I cooked two frozen chicken breasts in my grill pan. Once they were 99% cooked I chopped them into bite size pieces. In a different skillet I added the dressing and chicken and cooked on high until the chicken was cooked thoroughly. Stir in vegetables, soup and Velveeta.

Stir until cheese has melted. Spoon into 9x9 square stoneware that has been sprayed with Pam. Unfold pastry sheet and place over chicken mixture.Brush pastry with egg. Be sure to cut a few slits in the pastry to permit steam to escape.

Bake for 30 minuets or until deep golden brown. Let stand 5 minuets before serving.


Now for my suggestions for next time. I recommend not using canned peas. Next time I will use frozen peas. I'll also add some potatoes to the mix. Other than those two things it was PERFECT!

Tator Tot Hotdish

Ingredients:
1 package of polish sausage
1 package Tator Tots
1 package California mix vegetables (cauliflower, carrots, broccoli)
salt and pepper to taste

Slice polish sausage into half and then slice again into smaller bite size pieces. Brown sausage over medium heat in large skillet. Remove sausage from skillet and place whole tator tots into skillet.

Place cover on tator tots and let soften. Once they have soften a tad crush tots. I've found that the Pampered Chef Mix 'N Chop works great for this...

Add bag of vegetables to tator tots. Cover. From time to time stir.

Once vegetables and tator tots are heated add the polish sausage back into the skillet. Heat thoroughly and serve! Add salt and pepper to taste.



NOTE: I also have made this for brunch or lunch as a main dish. Enjoy.

Chex Mix

Ingredients:
Stick and a half of butter
3 Tblsp worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. Lawry's Seasoning Salt
1 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 tsp. onion powder
3 cups Corn Chex cereal
3 cups Rice Chex cereal
3 cups Wheat Chex cereal
2 cups Cheerios (original)
1 cup mixed nuts
1 cup pretzels

In a small microwavable bowl, microwave butter uncovered on High about 40 seconds or until melted. Stir in seasonings.

  Gradually stir in butter mix into remaining ingredients in a super big bowl.

  Stir until evenly coated. Microwave uncovered on High 5 to 6 minutes, thoroughly stirring every 2 minutes. Spread on paper towels to cool.

  Store in airtight container.

Tweaked Mac and Cheese a.k.a. Adult Mac

Ingredients:
box of macaroni and cheese (I'm partial to Kraft)
milk and butter as recommended on box
Velveeta cheese

Now since I've been married to Jerome he's started to give me a few hints about Southern cooking. He knows of my love of macaroni and cheese... what can I say... I have the pallet of a kid! So.... he gave me the heads up on this one.

Make the mac and cheese as directed on the box. While the noodles are boiling I cut the Velveeta in to small chunks.

When the noodles are soft drain them in a strainer. Leave them in the strainer while you add the butter to the warm pot to melt. Then adding the noodles back into the pot, then the powdered cheese and milk. Stir until mixed.

Keep the heat on under the pot. Add the chunks of Velveeta cheese to the pot. Stir until the chunks are gone - usually only about a minuet.

Now if you want to make this even more adult you start adding more items by folding it into the cheesey mac and cheese and this could become your main dish for dinner.
Some other items you could add:
bacon
tomatoes
onions
green/red peppers
sausage
ham