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.

Chicken and Broccoli Ring - PamperedChef

12 oz. cooked chicken, chopped (2 cups - about 3 cooked boneless skinless chicken breast halves, I used two from my grocery stores deli to save time)
1 C. broccoli, chopped
1/2 C. red bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, pressed
4 oz. sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded (1 cup)
1/2 C. mayonnaise
2 pkg. (8 oz. each) refrigerated crescent rolls
1 egg white, lightly beaten
slivered almonds

This is from the All the Best Pampered Chef recipe book... with some tweaks...

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Chop chicken, broccoli, red bell pepper and place into mixing bowl. Add garlic, cheese, and mayonnaise into bowl. Mix well.

Unroll the 2 packages refrigerated crescent rolls; separate into16 triangles. Arrange triangles, slightly overlapping, in a circle on Large Round Stone with wide ends 4 inches from edge of baking stone. (Points will extend off the edge of the baking stone, I put a large can good under my stone to elevate it.) Roll wide ends of dough toward center to create a 5-inch opening.

Using Large Scoop, scoop filling evenly over center of dough in a continuous circle.

Bring points of triangles up over filling and tuck under dough at center to form a ring. (Filling will show.)
Brush egg white over dough.

Sprinkle with almonds. Baked 25-28 minutes or until deep golden brown.

Taco Taco Taco Dip

Yes, you have to say Taco three times!

Ingredients:
Cream Cheese 1 8oz bar
Milk 2 Tbsp or so (I just splash a dash!)
Taco Seasoning 1/2 package
Lettuce
Cheddar Cheese
Tomatoes
Black Olives
Nacho Cheese Doritos or Tostitos

In large mixing bowl put softened cream cheese with a splash of milk and taco seasoning. Mix with hand mixer till it is spreadable.

Once everything is mixed, spread this mixture onto a plate.

This is the base... layer shredded lettuce, shredded cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes, and sliced black olives. Devour in minuets with nacho cheese Doritos (my favorite) or Tostitos.

Polynesian Dinner

Ingredients:
2 cups. rice
chow mien noodles
chopped turkey or chicken
cubed tomatoes
chopped onions
chopped celery
1 can of pineapple chunks
shredded cheddar cheese
turkey gravy
sliced almonds
shredded coconut

Cook turkey or chicken as preferred. This is a great use of leftover turkey from Thanksgiving. But since Thanksgiving is only one day a year I've found that chicken breast taste pretty much the same in this recipe. Chopped cooked turkey or chicken into bite size pieces.

Cook rice in microwave - I usually do double the amount of servings for the amount of the people that are eating.

Open can of pineapple chunks and place in freezer to chill. Save the juice in the can to add a little moisture if you don't like gravy. Cubed tomatoes, chop onions, chop celery and shred cheese.

All ingredients are served at room temperature except for rice and gravy.

Layer ingredients in order on your plate and devour! Rice, noodles, turkey/chicken, tomatoes, onions, celery, pineapple, cheese, gravy almonds, and coconut. Don't forget the pineapple juice if you like.


I don't like gravy on this... but everyone else I know does... thus why I found the pineapple juice trick.

Grape Salad

Ingredients:
4 lbs. of mix red and green grapes
8 oz. cream cheese
8 oz. sour cream
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
4 oz. pecans (whole)
2 Tbsp. brown sugar

Mix all ingredients, except the grapes and pecans, in a large bowl with hand mixer. Mix until smooth and no longer lumpy.
In hand break whole pecans into small pieces. I like the whole ones broken instead of the pre-chopped pecans which seem to be too small. Add pecans to mixture.

Add grapes and stir until coated evenly.

Refrigerate until you serve.