Puppy Chow

Ingredients:
9 cups Corn Chex, Rice Chex, Wheat Chex or combination
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside.


In microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir.

Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated.


Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag.


Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool.

Let settle for an hour. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

Peanut Clusters

Really tough recipe here... but you may or may not know it...

Ingredients:
Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts
Chocolate Almond Bark

Depending on how much you want to make... Melt almond bark in microwave safe bowl (I did five squares here).

Eyeball the peanuts - or just dump in the whole jar (I would not do this with the jar in the photos, but the regular jar would be perfect.) Stir. If all the peanuts are completely covered, add more for a more peanutty experience. I basically add peanuts until there isn't enough Chocolate to cover them.
Take a medium scoop and drop clusters onto wax paper. Let them sit and harden for an hour. Store in an air tight container.

Chicken Salad

Now mind you, I've never made or tasted Chicken Salad. I didn't know what to expect. But since I've started to eat a little mayo here and there I thought I'd give it a shot. To me... it was great... but it made too much for just me and Jerome so I shared a bit with coworkers!

Ingredients:
1 whole cut up fryer, cooked either boiled, baked or I suppose fried (or just use one of those precooked chickens from the grocery store like I did!)
1/2 cup Mayonnaise
1/2 cup Sour Cream
Salt
2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
Pepper
2 Tbsp. Lemon Juice
2-3 stalks of Celery
3 Green Onions
2-3 cups Grapes

Slice grapes in half... unless you have unusually large grapes like I did and that case I just sliced them.
Chop your celery. Note to self, Jerome complained about the size of mine - apparently I have to make it invisible for him.

Don't forget to chop the onions too...

I let the precooked chicken cool before handling it a bit - basically while I was gathering ingredients, rinsing the fruits and veggies, even when I was prepping the "sauce". Then I cut the chicken up into bite size pieces. I placed the chicken, grapes, onions, and celery in a bowl and gave it a quick toss.

In a separate bowl I mixed the mayonnaise, sour cream, brown sugar, lemon juice, salt and pepper together. You need to get it to the right taste... so you may need to add more sour cream if it's to sweet for you or more brown sugar if it's not sweet enough. All in your taste buds... or in my case... my husband's taste buds.

Once the "sauce" has the right taste to you and your family pour it on top of the chicken, veggie and fruit mixture and mix until everything is nice and coated.

You can eat this straight out of the bowl like crab or potato salad or do what we did the first night and make it the main course by toasting two pieces of wheat bread, add a few pieces of bacon and call it a night. YUM!

Salmon Cakes

Ingredients:
1 can (6 oz) pink salmon (boneless, skinless, in water)
2 tbs cornmeal
2 egg whites
1 tbs EVOO (Extra virgin olive oil)

Heat EVOO in a small frying pan.

Drain canned salmon. In a small bowl mix salmon, egg whites, and cornmeal together.




Split salmon mixture and make patties. Place patties in hot pan.


Cook on both sides until golden brown.

Green Bean Casserole

Ingredients: 1/3 stick butter 1/2 cup diced onions 1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms 3 cans sliced green beans 3 cups chicken broth 1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup 1 (2.8-ounce) can French-fried onion rings Pinch House Seasoning, recipe follows 1 cup grated Cheddar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a large skillet.

Saute the onions and mushrooms in the butter.

Boil green beans in chicken broth for 10 minutes and drain. Add the green beans, mushroom soup, onion rings, and House Seasoning, to taste, to the onion mixture. Stir well.

Pour into a greased 1 1/2-quart baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes, then top the casserole with the Cheddar and bake for 10 minutes longer, or until the casserole is hot and cheese is melted. Woops... forgot to take a picture after the cheese melted in the oven. Forgive me! House Seasoning:

1 cup salt

1/4 cup black pepper

1/4 cup garlic powder

Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

This recipe was originally from Martha Stewart's magazine.