Spicy Sausage Potato and leek soup

We had a cold day. A cold awful day and I wanted soup. Which is weird because I don't like soup. So I looked in my freezer and lo! There was hot sausage. So that made me think of Olive Garden. They have this awesome potato and sausage soup. This is not that soup. But don't worry, it's still delicious.

You need:

2 cups of milk 

2 cups of water 

1 pound hot sausage

1 1/2 cups of thinly sliced potatoes

1/2 cup thinly sliced carrots

1/2 cup thinly sliced leeks

3 chicken bouillon cubes

Brown your sausage just barely. You want it partially cooked but not crispy. Break it up as much as possible. Drain off your grease and set the sausage aside.

In a large pot bring your water and milk to a boil. Add all your other ingredients, including your drained sausage. Season with garlic salt and pepper. Allow to boil until your potatoes and carrots are tender. It will take about 40 minutes. 

Serve with crackers. Or sandwiches. Or in a bread bowl. All of those options sound delicious. I also added a sprinkle of parmesan. Because yum. So there you have it! Another great meal from my kitchen to your table.

Cream cheese stuffed pistachio monkey bread

So that's one heck of a title huh? It's soooo good though. If not a little... Green. Guess who doesn't own a bundt pan. Yeah. Me. So I used my cute little, uh, 8x8 square brownie pan. Lame, I know.

So you start with 15 frozen yeast rolls. Follow the directions and let them rise naturally. None of this quick rise nonsense. Once they've more than doubled in size, rip those babies in half! Yay! Now we have thirty blobs of dough. Yes? Yes. 

Now cut a chilled brick of cream cheese into thirty pieces. Oh yes. 30. Easiest way to do this is to cut the brick into ten even slices and slice each slice into three slices. Slices slices slices! 

Now, flatten each dough ball into a disc. Place a slice of cream cheese on that disc. Cover the cream cheese. Roll back into a ball. Repeat 29 times!

Now take one cup sugar and three teaspoons of ground cinnamon and mix them together. Place this mixture into a bowl or plate. Roll each individual ball of dough into the mixture until it's all coated. Now place these coated dough balls into a greased pan. Once you complete a layer sprinkle two tablespoons of pistachio pudding mix over top of them, as evenly as possible. 

Then take half a stick of melted butter and pour it all over! The dough balls. Not like, on the floor. OR if you're lucky enough to have spray margarine in your fridge like I do, spray each dough ball twice. Yeah that unpleasant green color appeared didn't it? Still super tasty though!

Repeat this process for each layer. I had two. Bake your green blobs of deliciousness for 25 minutes on 350. Now you have all these puffy pull apart gooey tasty blobs that have melted cream cheese in the middle. Mmm! 

So there you have it! An easy snack from my kitchen to your table! 

Rainbow Cinnamon Rolls

Two blogs in one day? This girl is on fire. Please tell me you sang that. Because I did. Any Alicia Keyes fans? No? Ah well. 

Anywho. We start our cinnamon rolls with the dough. I cheated. Like crazy. Two cups of jiffy baking mix, 4oz cream cheese, five tablespoons sugar and 1/2 cup milk. Oh my good gravy Katelyn it's a sticky horrid mess! Well that's what you get for not reading the directions first! Don't go throwing all that together, it'll be awful, you'll cry. Or be mad and cuss me out. Both maybe.

Start by mixing your cream cheese into the jiffy mix. You'll get a crumbly moist mixture that holds together if you squeeze it but crumbles apart easily. Now add that milk. Oh holy tater tots it's STILL a sticky awful mess?! Why Katelyn why?! Yeah I noticed that it was horrid. So I added flour a tablespoon at a time until my dough came together in a nice soft not at all sticky ball. Took five tablespoons of all purpose flour for me. But I do suggest adding one at a time. 

Got a nice ball of dough? Good! Now flour your work surface and plop it out. Roll it out into a nice rectangle-ish shape. If you absolutely must have it a perfect rectangle go ahead and trim it into one. I did not. Lopsided cinnamon rolls for my family it is! Now take a heaping tablespoon of butter and smear it all over your faux rectangle. This will add ooey gooey later so don't skimp! 

Now sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar as evenly as possible. Now sprinkle 1/8 cup of cinnamon as evenly as possible. Now for the sprinkles. That's the rainbow part. I used rainbow non perils and they're so cute. But I bet rainbow jimmies would be awesome too. About a quarter cup of those. 

Now very carefully roll your rectangle up. Got a nice log? Good now slice it into twelve even pieces. Lay them onto a greased baking sheet and bake at 425 for 16 minutes. 

Could you ice these? Absolutely. I didn't but that doesn't mean you can't. 

So there you have it! A tasty and quick dessert from my kitchen to your table!   

Creamy Crock Pot Golumpki Casserole

I am aware that the picture above is less than appetizing. It's a rather nondescript bowl of reddish glop. But I'm telling you, it's rather delicious. Perhaps you're familiar with cabbage rolls, or as I grew up calling them, golumpkis? For those who aren't, a golumpki is seasoned ground beef, rice and onions held together with an egg, wrapped in a cabbage leaf, covered in a tomato sauce. Bake them until delicious and enjoy. There's parboiling of cabbage, rolling of the cabbage and meat mixture, so much work. Don't get me wrong. It's worth it. Sooooo worth it. They taste so good, you may want to slap your matka! Haha. Polish joke, because golumpkis are Polish? Eh my comedic genius goes ignored.

But in all honesty, I was busy today. And wanted golumpkis. No time for all the prep work. Hmmmm. So I turned to my beloved crockpot and had a lightbulb moment. I put my pound of ground chuck in the crock pot with three cups of beef broth, some garlic powder, dried basil, salt, pepper, onion powder and a tiny bit of chili powder. 

Let that cook for an hour before adding two cups of uncooked rice, a sliced medium sized onion and let that cook for two hours. 

Chop up about two cups of cabbage. I used red cabbage because I had it. Green is just fine though. Add your chopped cabbage into the crock pot and allow to cook for another hour. 

Your casserole is nearly done! Just add in one can of tomato soup, a tablespoon of sugar and four ounces of sour cream. Now sour cream isn't really a traditional part of golumpkis but mmm is it good! Let this cook another ten minutes and boom! A delicious and easy meal from my kitchen to your table!

Thanksgiving Casserole

There are days like today that just bring on the nostalgia. Wake up to a chilly house, a warm snuggly bed and visions of cider and pumpkin doughnuts. It felt like fall when I woke up, which made me think of thanksgiving. 

I didn't have a turkey in the freezer. But that's okay, I had chicken breasts and poultry is poultry right? Eh,well it's close anyways. So how can I make this dish scream Thanksgiving? I scoured my cupboards and moved all my vegetables aside. Hidden in the darkest recesses of my pantry (next to canned sauerkraut and one lonely jar of lima beans) was a can of jellied cranberry sauce. Yes, I eat the can shaped cranberry mystery that those fancy tv chefs seem to abhor. And I LIKE it. Once a year.

So what did I do? Naturally I diced my chicken into bite sized chunks and seasoned it with salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. THEN I chopped up half of a can of the jellied cranberry sauce and threw it in with the chicken. Why? Because it melts down and forms a nice sauce. And that's one layer!

Another layer is mashed potatoes. I uh, baked some potatoes and smashed them up with some butter and salt. I also snuck in horseradish when the other members of the household weren't looking. If they don't know it's in there, they don't complain. 

Another layer is creamed corn! I'd like to say I made it, but I didn't, I opened a can. It's just that easy!

The final layer is stuffing. I am proud to say I DID make that. From scratch. With two different kinds of bread. Wheat sandwich bread, because I had it. And about 1/5 of a loaf of pumpernickel. The pumpernickel was a remnant of my crippling spinach dip addiction. But that's another blog. 

I tore up the bread into large chunks and let it sit out for hours, to dry up a bit. To speed up the process, you can always light toast your bread or bake it for half an hour at 200 degrees. While my bread dried out I chopped up some celery and some onion. Nice and small if you please! 

Once your bread is dry, your veggies are diced and your tummy grumbles, it's time to mix the stuffing. To your bread add your veggies, one large egg, one cup of chicken broth, one teaspoon salt, one tablespoon ground sage, one teaspoon garlic powder and two tablespoons bacon crumbles. Mmm bacon crumbles. 

Now to assemble our casserole! Place your mashed potatoes at the bottom of your baking dish, then your creamed corn, then your chicken and finally your stuffing. Bake at 350 degrees until warmed through and your stuffing is all crunchy on top. I love the crunchy part!

There you have it! Another great dish from my kitchen to your table!  

Mediterranean Tilapia

I love my grill. Love it. I love cooking things in foil. Love it! You see where I'm going with this right? Foil packets full of glorious tasty food on the grill! Tonight my foil packets involved tilapia, green beans, red onion, snow peas bell pepper and dill. I have an unhealthy love for dill and fish together. 

I had three tilapia fillets. So I measured out three pieces of foil. The foil needs to be big enough to wrap around your fish and veggies but doesn't need to be huge. 

Place one fillet on the center of the foil. Drizzle with lemon juice. Tear off a few sprigs of dill (I used more than a few but we've already established I have a problem) then sprinkle on some pepper and some garlic powder. 

Pile your veggies high! On top of the fish place all the aforementioned vegetables, sliced to taste. Personally, I left my beans and peas whole, and had my bell pepper and onion cut into strips. Once you've piled your veggies on, drizzle them with Greek dressing. No I didn't make it. Yes, it's shameful but meh. Then top with crumbled feta cheese. I used tomato basil feta because mmm. 

Seal your dinner in and place it on the grill. Cook for eight minutes, then flip and cook for another eight minutes. What do you have? A glorious tasty fantastic (and many more enthusiastic adjectives) meal that is healthy and fun from my kitchen to your table.

Chili Cheese Stuffed Corn Muffins

Remember how I mentioned in my S'mores Cupcake blog that I love filling cupcakes? Well I decided to try that with a savory food. I had some leftover chili and everything to make cornbread. Thus, chili cheese stuffed corn muffins were born. 

Now my way of making cornbread is... different. I'm aneyeballer. But here are the rough measurements:

1 cup yellow cornmeal 

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder 

1 can creamed corn

1 large jalapeño, diced

1/4 cup green onions, diced

1 tbsp. garlic powder

1 large egg

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

1/2 cup granulated sugar. 

Now mix all the ingredients. Are they mixed? Good. Now grease your muffin tin well or use the cupcake liners. I used the cupcake liners and they stuck to the liner a bit. Fill each muffin cup a third of the way. 

Now put a generous glop (my standard unit of measurement) of chili on top of the batter. I used leftover chili. You could make a new batch just for these, or you could even buy a can of chili. No. Don't buy a can. Make the chili. It will make these 1000x better. 

After you've placed a glop of chili in each muffin tin, cover the chili with the remaining batter. Bake at 375 for 22 minutes. Now for the hard part... Let them cool! Not completely, just enough to set up a bit and not scald the ever loving bazooka out of your  poor mouth. A certain grown man who knows better did that in my house. There you have it! Another great dish from my kitchen to your table!

Carmel Apple Cake

Last night I made Carmel apple cake, and it was divine. Very simple, very tasty. So I thought I would share. 

For The Cake:

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon sugar

2 tbsp. melted butter

1 large egg

2 tsp. baking powder

For The Apples

2 Granny Smith apples, diced

2 tbsp. melted butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp milk

For The Cinnamon Swirl

2 tbsp softened butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon 

Prepare your cake by mixing all your dry cake ingredients before mixing in all your wet cake ingredients. Pour into a greased 8x8 pan.

The preparation of the apples is also fairly simple. Put your butter and brown sugar in the pan. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved, add your milk and bring to a simmer. Add your diced apples, stirring frequently, cook until tender

The cinnamon swirl is easier yet. Mix all three ingredients together and place the resulting filling in a ziplock baggie. Snip off the tip of the bag, boom instant squeeze bag.

Squeeze some of your cinnamon swirl onto your cake batter. Iet my daughter do this part and we ended up with some fabulous spirals. Pour your apples and remaining sauce over your batter and top with the remaining cinnamon swirl. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. There you have it! Another great dish, from my kitchen to your table!

Easy S'mores Cupcakes

I don't make a whole lot of desserts. But I saw something in my local grocery store that made me think. On one end cap there was a display for the cake mixes and frostings they had on sale. On another end cap, right next to the first was a whole display dedicated to summers favorite treat, S'mores. That made me wonder what a s'mores cake would taste like. Then I decided I had to know, so I bought a chocolate cake mix, chocolate frosting, a box of graham crackers and a bag of mini marshmallows. Then just to be safe I bought a jar of marshmallow fluff.

My original intention was to mix the chocolate frosting with the marshmallow fluff and put the mini marshmallows in the cake and sprinkle crushed graham crackers on top of the frosted cake. It was the pure genius of my three year old daughter to make cupcakes instead. And I LOVE stuffing cupcakes. I think it adds a whole new level of awesome. 

So I prepared the chocolate cake mix as the box directed. I used the cupcake liners because I had them but I imagine you could just grease the cups well if you don't.

I filled each cup a third of the way with the chocolate batter. Then I piped in a glop (that's a unit of measurement right?) of marshmallow fluff. And by piped I mean I scooped it into a ziplock bag and snipped off the tip with scissors. Remember this intricate piping technique for the frosting stage, it will be implemented again!

The next step is to cover the marshmallow fluff with the remaining batter. I got 24 regular sized cupcakes when it was all said and done. Bake the cupcakes in accordance to your cake mix box. The box is incredibly helpful. 

While your cupcakes bake, prepare your frosting. And by that I mean crush up your graham crackers and mix them into your chocolate frosting. Scoop into your fancy piping ziplock and wait. The cupcakes need to cook and cool completely before you pipe your frosting onto them.

Once they are cooled and frosted, top each cupcake with a mini marshmallow. If you're ambitious like I was, you can toast the marshmallows. I used a regular old lighter because I'm not one of the cool kids with a food grade torch. 

There you have it! A fun and delicious dessert from my kitchen to your table! 

Lasagna is a favorite dish in my household, and is usually pretty standard. This time though, I decided to go above and beyond and make a fancy lasagna loaded with tasty healthy veggies. You know, to offset all that cheese. So featured in this fabulous lasagna is a rainbow of vegetables. Zucchini, summer squash, red onions, orange bell pepper and black olives compliment the ground chuck, Italian sausage and thick tomato sauce. And of course, three kinds of cheese to make it ooey gooey and delicious. I used mild cheddar, mozzarella and parmesan. 

The process is very simple. Brown your ground chuck and Italian sausage with minced garlic and drain off the grease. Add your chopped rainbow of veggies to the meat, then a jar of sauce. 

I precook my noodles, I know not everyone does but I do. So I layer my cooked noodles into my pan before I add a generous portion of the meat and veggie mixture. Ordinarily I would add ricotta cheese, but I forgot to buy ricotta so there is none. I used cottage cheese as a substitute. Feel free to add it to your lasagna though. It can only make it better. 

Top the meat mixture with your cheeses and add another layer of noodles on top. Repeat this process as many times as your pan will allow. I got three layers before my pan was full. Remember to add extra cheese to the top of yours. I had leftover black olives so those went on top as well. Bake at 350 until all your cheese is melted and the whole house smells fantastic. So there you have it, another great meal from my kitchen to your table!

Jalapeño Cream Cheese Burger Photos

Jalapeño Cream Cheese Stuffed Burgers

I love the combination of cream cheese and jalapeño. They balance each other out so well, and are just a classic combo. Naturally when I sought to make stuffed burgers cream cheese and jalapeño came to mind. The preparation is simple, if not a little time consuming. 

You start with two pounds of ground chuck. Split this into ten equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball. Now you have ten medium sized meatballs. Press each ball into a thin patty. Make it as thin as you can. 

Season each patty with salt, pepper and garlic powder on both sides. Set them aside and prepare your filling. 

The filling is simply one large jalapeño, seeded and diced, half a small onion diced and 4 oz of cream cheese, softened. Mix them all together. 

To stuff the burgers, place a large dollop of the filling onto the center of five of the patties. Carefully top each patty with another patty. Press the edges together to seal but don't don't DON'T press on the middle. You'll lose your filling if you do. Top with a nice brushing of worcestshire sauce.

Grill your burgers for about five minutes on each side. I served them on a bun with mayo and a slice if cheese. Ketchup and mustard are too strongly flavored, they would detract from the filling. These ate definitely the best burgers I've ever tasted. Another great meal from my kitchen to yours!

Southwestern Corn and Potato Chowder

Winging it in the kitchen doesnt always yield delicious results. There are times my husband looks at his plate in horror and quietly slips away to make a grilled cheese. Tonight was not one of those night.

I boiled five cups of cubed potatoes in two cups of milk until tender. I then added one cup of shredded cheddar cheese, 1/4 cup diced onion, 1/4 cup diced green pepper and half a cup of jarred salsa con queso cheese dip.
Once everything is incorporated well add one more cup of milk. Then I added a cup of corn, a cup of grilled sliced pork chunks and a tablespoon of butter.

The result was a delicious and satisfying meal from my kitchen to your table.

Strawberry Banana Bread

I am not a baker. My sister is the baked goods queen, champion of cookies, sultina of sweets. I have been obsessed with Pinterest lately, and it's a bakers paradise. So I have been dabbling in a little baking. Today I was very successful.

What you'll need:

2 bananas, mashed
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sliced strawberries
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
A pinch of salt
2 teaspoons baking powder

Mix your mashed bananas with your butter. Add your sugar, salt vanilla and egg. Mix well. In a seperate bowl mix your flour and baking powder. Add your wet mix to your dry and mix well. Fold in your strawberries and pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake for 65 minutes at 350° or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let rest in the pan for at least fifteen minutes before removing the loaf from the pan. And there you have it! A delicious and easy dessert from my kitchen to your table!

Cornbread Ham and Bean Bake

I had half a pound of leftover ham in my fridge and I was low on ideas. I also happen to be low on groceries. So when I grabbed a family size can of baked beans and a can of kidney beans I wasnt too hopeful.

I fried one inch ham cubes in butter and honey. Then I added both cans of beans, half a cup of honey mustard, half a cup of brown sugar, half a cup of bbq sauce and half a cup of diced white onion. I simmered it for twenty minutes before turning off the heat.

I prepared homemade cornbread but any premade mix will do, as long as its big enough to make two loafs. I made sweet cornbread because thats what I love but a cheesy spicy cornbread would be just as tasty.

Pour your bean mixture into a 9x13 baking dish and top it with your cornbread batter and bake for 25 minutes at 400°. You know have a delicious and easy meal from my kitchen to your table.

Slow Roasted Lamb Tacos

This isnt a quick process. But it is SO good and SO easy. Lamb shoulder is tender and delicious, and slow roasting it just amplifies its delicious qualities.

I put my roast in the crock pot on low with two eigthed onions, a cup of chopped cilantro and season it with salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder and smoked paprika.

Now let it cook on low for 18 hours. Yes eighteen. What does that mean? Well if you wanna eat at 5pm the next day, throw it in at 11pm. The night before. Of course you cant just leave it be. You have to add a little water or lamb stock every so often. Fresh outta lamb stock but loathe to water down all that flavor? Vegetable stock works great too.

As you know shoulder roasts have bone. Fight the temptation to take the bone out. Fight it! Bones keep meat moist! The bone can be removed at the last minute.

After the meat is prepared, whip up some mango cilantro sauce (thats another blog) and chop up any fixings you desire. We had lettuce, black olives, onions, cheese, sour cream and taco sauce. Spread refried beans onto your tortilla then top it with your fixings. Drizzle on your mango cilantro sauce and you have an amazing slow roasted lamb taco from my kitchen to your table.

Mango Cilantro Sauce

This sauce is pretty universal. I put it on pork, lamb, tacos, in meatloaf, on a salad, everything. Sometimes I add jalapeno, sometimes I add pineapple.

Cut up one large mango into large chunks. Chop a half cup of fresh cilantro, half a cup of onions and two cloves of garlic. Put all the componants into a food processor and puree. Now you have a light fresh tasting sauce that really adds to any dish from my kitchen to your table.

Sweet and Sour Pork Sandwiches

Sometimes we need to try something new. At least in my house we do. So since I have been trying to do things a little healthier, I decided to make my own sweet and sour sauce. Its very simple.

Pour one can of diet orange soda, a quarter cup of soy sauce and one teaspoon of ginger paste. Fresh grated ginger works just as well. Let this come to a simmer before adding bite size chunks of pork tenderloin. Simmer the meat covered for 30 minutes or until the internal temperature of the pork is 165°. Uncover and allow the sauce to thicken.

I added half a cup of crushed pineapple before spooning onto a split cibatta loaf. I topped it with white american cheese before popping it into a 400° oven for ten minutes.

The result was a delicious easy meal from my kitchen to your table.

Healthy Apple Strawberry Tart

Sometimes a rich dessert is just what you want, but other times a nice light dessert is really refreshing. I made a beautiful tart that was delicious AND low calorie.

I sliced up two large granny smith apples and a pound of strawberries. I tossed them with a tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice and a cup of splenda.

I filled a store bought crust with my strawberry apple filling and brushed the edges with some melted butter. I baked the tart at 350° for 40 minutes. A nice healthy dessert from my kitchen to your table.

Easy Banana Poke Cakes

Need a dessert in a pinch? Only have twenty minutes? Then this is the dessert for you! All you need is two packages of six personal sponge cakes, two ripe bananas, one tub of cool whip some banana cream instant pudding and a plastic straw.

Make your pudding according to the directions on the box and let it set up in the fridge while you use the straw to poke hokes in six of the sponge cakes. Once your pudding has set spread a liberal dollop of it onto each cake. Add banana slices onto each cake and top with cool whip. Repeat these steps for the second layer, then add one more slice of banana to each cake for garnish. Then you have a super quick super easy dessert from my kitchen to your table.

Catfish Po'boy Sandwiches

My local butcher shop had fresh catfish nuggets on sale for $1.50 a pound. What is a catfish nugget you ask? Basically the leftover chunks of catfish fillets. Thats why its so cheap. I dont cook a lot of seafood and this was my first time cooking catfish. I am very pleased with how this turned out.

To start, I cut my catfish into bite size chunks, careful to trim off any skin that was left. Then I soaked it in a bowl full of milk to plump it up and leech out any extra fishy flavor.

Then I drained the milk off and prepared my shake n bake. I chose shake n bake for this because I wanted a healthier alternative to breaded, fried fish. I dropped in my catfish pieces and coated them well.

I baked my fish for 35 minutes at 350°. While my fish baked, I prepared the other componants to the sandwiches. Since I bought pre made cole slaw I only needed to jazz it up a bit. I added some hot sauce, cheddar cheese and cracked black pepper. Then I made a special sauce composed of honey mustard, buffalo sauce and sour cream. Then I split my beautiful ciabatta buns.

I put sauce on the buns, then the catfish. I topped the fish with some of my doctored cole slaw. I served these beauties with steamed broccoli and cheese sauce.

This is a delicious and quick meal for the whole family to enjoy. From my kitchen to your table!

Stuffed Pancakes

Sometimes you just get bored. You look in your freezer and sigh. Breakfast is my least favorite meal to make, because I find breakfast food monotonious to prepare. Today I decided to try something new.

The construction of a stuffed pancake is simple. Fry your sausage patty to the crispness you desire. Scramble an egg and fry it into a patty. Aim to make it a little smaller than your sausage patty, but a bit thicker. This can be accomplished by folding the egg over on itself as it cooks. Season the egg patty with pepper and salt.

Remove your eggs and sausage from your griddle or frying pan and prep your cooking surface to make pancakes. I use a griddle so I just used the sausage grease to grease the griddle and provide a non stick zone for my pancakes.

Using your favorite batter, make a pancake the is just a little bit bigger than your sausage patty. As the pancake starts to bubble and is ready to be flipped, place your egg and sausage patty on top and GENTLY press down. Top your egg and sausage with more pancake batter. Carefully flip and allow to cook through.

Now you have a stuffed pancake! Another tasty dish from my kitchen to your table!

Sweet Birds Nests

My nieces spent winter breal with me and Ive had a lot of fun coming up with activities to keep all the lovely ladies occupied. One such activity was making chocolate birds nests. Theres even a peep garnish because every nest needs a bird.

The nests themselves were easy to assemble. I melted a pound of chocolate chips and a cup of peanut butter in a large plastic bowl. I just microwaved them for a minute, stirred it up and microwaved it for another minute. Then I stirred in six cups of chow mein noodles. We made A LOT of nests, halving the recipe will give you ten good sized nests. We have 20.

Drop dollops of your chocolate covered chow mein noodles onto wax paper. With a spoon press down onto the top of each dollop, creating an indent. Allow these to harden for at least four hours. We made them in the evening and let them sit out overnight.

After your nests are hardened, place your eggs in. we used cookies n cream eggs and secured them in place with peanut butter. You can secure the peep to the side of the nest with peanut butter too.

These were a big hit, and very tasty to boot!

Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Boneless Skinless chicken breasts are as tricky as they are versatile. They can be used in just about anything but they dry out easily. Especially in the oven. So to stop that from happening, I wrapped my chicken breasts in bacon. In addition to fantastic flavor, bacon adds fat to the dish, keeping it moist.

To start I trimmed off all the little extra bits of fat and meat that would just burn in the oven. Then I made a slit in the large part of the breast. I was very careful not to cut through any of the sides because I didnt want to ruin my pocket. Once I was done I had three chicken breasts ready to be filled.

I used pre made stuffing mix, but homemade would have been better. I didnt cook the stuffing, I just added the liquid. I also added an egg to help hold it all together and stay moist. I stuffed each pocket as full as I possibly could.

After the chicken breasts are stuffed I wrapped three slices of bacon around each breast. For larger breasts you may need more bacon, and for smaller you may need less. Then I seasoned liberally with salt pepper and garlic powder.

Bake at 350° for thirty minutes or until the juices run clear. Now you can serve these as they are or sear them in a frying pan to get some crisp on them. I left ours as is.

There you have it! Another easy and delicious meal from my kitchen to your table.

Loaded Baked Potatoes

In my house we enjoy potatoes. They're a very versatile tuber. Filling and loaded with nutrients, potatoes are a wonder food!

These fantastic roots saved my butt tonight! We don't have much but leftovers. So while surveying the fridge contents I came across some roasted carrots, seared kielbasa and not much else. I recently made a country bake so I figured we would just have leftover and baked potatoes. When text messaging my husband this information my phone decided to say we were having kielbasa and carrots IN baked potatoes.

Divine intervention aside, I thought it was a great idea. So I baked my potatoes,  scooped out the insides and smashed them with a half a stick of butter, a quarter cup of sour cream and a cup of shredded cheese. I then mixed in my chunks of kielbasa and roasted carrot, before putting the mixture back in the shell. I baked these for 20 minutes at 400°. The end result was a crispy skinned potato stuffed with a creamy mixture, only enhanced by the meat and carrots. I didn't add adirional seasonings because if how well my carrots were seasoned, but a half a teaspoon of garlic would do these taters good.

And there you have it! A quick and easy way to utilize leftovers! From my kitchen to your table!