French Toast Puffs and Dump Chicken

Ok, as far as the Dump Chicken went....uh, I'd say it's safe to say that if it's ever titled 'Dump' something, then it tastes like, well, poop. That's just the sauce without the chicken, but trust me - the chicken didn't help.


These worked out MUCH better. I found the recipe on a needlework blog, and for once I actually didn't change anything! They were an instant hit - Eli ate 3 in one sitting, and they're super easy to make.

French Toast Puffs (Or, as Ryan likes to call them, Snickerdoodle Puffs):

Cream:
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup butter or margarine
2 eggs

Sift into a separate bowl:
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Pour out 1 cup milk in a pourable container.
Alternatively add the flour mix and the milk to the creamed mixture, beating well each time.
Spoon into greased muffin tin up to 2/3 full - they'll puff up huge.
Bake at 350º for 20 - 25 minutes. Check at 15, and when the toothpick comes out clean, you're set.
Immediately take out of the pan. Melt about a stick of butter (margarine is ok) in a bowl, and add into another bowl 1/2 cup sugar + 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Dip the tops of the muffins in butter and then into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Serve warm.
Can be made ahead and frozen, and in my case, I'm taking mine to the RS Board party where I'll heat them up in the microwave.
If any of that doesn't make sense, just let me know.


As a bonus, I thought I'd include the recipe for our Reese's PB Cups that we used for our Christmas treats and are hugely popular wherever they appear, which means they spoil everyone's dinner:

Gretchen's Reese's Peanut Butter Cups But Ten Times Better
2 sticks margarine or butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar (or 1 pound)
1 inner seal package of graham crackers, crushed (1/4 of the box)
1 can peanut butter, or 2 cups
1 - 1 1/2 packages milk chocolate chips, or large chocolate bars that equals approximately 14 oz.

Mix the butter, powdered sugar, graham crackers and pb very well. Spread (sometimes the only way is with your hand) on a cookie sheet. Melt the chocolate and pour over the mixture, spreading it until it covers it evenly. Freeze for best results, but chilling until eating is fine.
You can get away with 1 package of chocolate chips, but it's really better with about a half package more.

Pizza

We had homemade pizza tonight! We bought pizza sauce instead of pasta sauce (since I now know the difference) and I do think it makes the pizza a little better.
We like to top ours with peppers, lots of mushrooms, a little onion, sausage and pepperoni and lotsa cheese!

We'll be visiting family for the next two weeks or so. I plan on posting dinners while we're there, but probably not as often as if I were here at home.

Oh, and fellow contributors, feel free to invite anyone else to join our dinner blog! I'd be most happy to add them too! Just send me their email address!

Lasagna

I am sure everyone knows how to make lasagna. I made this a couple of nights ago. It was pretty good. I shouldn't have put the noodles on top. So much for actually following the recipe.

(We went out last night because it was that kind of a day and tonight is a party. I wanted to post since our internet went down and we are just now getting back online.)

Garlic Rosemary Potatoes & Dredged Chicken

Garlic Rosemary Potatoes: prep time: 10 minutes. bake time: 40 minutes.

Peel & chop 1 large yam and 3 medium potatoes
Mince 3 cloves garlic
Add 1/2 T of rosemary
4 T butter
Combine in a baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes until potatoes are done. Garlic and rosemary is a wonderful combination especially with the yams! SO good!

Dredged Chicken: cook time: 10ish minutes
The chicken actually wasn't good. Brian liked it, but I didn't. So I'll just tell you what I did just to satisfy your curiosity. ;-)

Add salt and pepper and garlic powder to chicken breasts
dredge chicken in flour and shake off excess
pan fry until cooked through

Party Turkey sandwiches

I forgot to take a picture and this is what was left when I remembered. (Thanks Niki Sue.) We had these sandwiches with carrots and fruit smoothies.

Here is the link for the recipe I used. I made my own rolls and only did 15. I omitted the onion since my children are not big fans and also the poppy seeds because they get in your teeth and well, I couldn't find any anyway. We used turkey cold cuts and monterey jack cheese instead. You will find that I rarely follow a recipe unless I have made it up or made it my own. It was super easy actually. After making the rolls it took about 20 minutes from prep to the table.

The smoothie consisted of orange juice for the liquid, frozen yogurt, frozen pineapple, frozen mangoes and a fresh banana. It was tasty. Again the first time for this meal. That seems to be happening a lot this week. Tomorrow we have company coming over. I may or may not post, but we are having lasagna.

Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheesers

After smushing a meeting and Dr. visit in 1 hour, we have yet another quickie meal:

10 minutes. You probably know how to make this one already. ;-)
I like to put parmesan and basil on my soup. Cam likes it just the way it was born.

Meatloaf, Garlic Potatoes, and Apple Crisp

I know, I know. Wretched picture. It's seriously what we've got left, since not only did we have a guest, but this is a hugely popular dinner in our house.

Meatloaf:
1 or 2 pounds of meat - you don't have to be precise
1 or 2 eggs - mix in one, if it looks like it needs to be 'wetter' then add the other. This is the secret to a decent meatloaf; one that isn't all dry and gross
leftovers - rice, vegetables, cheese, breadcrumbs, you name it. I have a container of freeze-dried vegetables I like to use specifically for meatloaf, and I usually add a few bits of cheese.
garlic powder
salt
pepper - all spices added to taste. I'd say roughly a teaspoon of salt per pound, half a teaspoon of the garlic powder and maybe a 1/4 teaspoon for the pepper.
Bake at 350º for 45 minutes to an hour.

Sauce:
This is added on before you put it in the oven. Or you can just make it the first 15 minutes the loaf is in the oven, then pull it out and put this on top. This sauce is not optional.
About 1 C. ketchup
about 2 Tab. mustard, I like spicy brown best, but it doesn't really matter too much
about 2 Tab. brown sugar
garlic to taste
pepper to taste


Potatoes:
Cook how many potatoes you want in the microwave like a baked potato. Cut up into smaller bite-size pieces. At this point you can sprinkle them with oil, add and toss the spices, and then stick them in the oven. But the easier was is to do this on the stove:
Add a few tablespoons oil to a wok or frypan that'll hold your potatoes.
Add potatoes plus garlic, salt, pepper, parsley if you've got it, onion powder if you want OR onions, green peppers if you want...whatever you feel like, but don't skip the first three spices.
Stir every few minutes to crisp up.

Apple Crisp:
We usually have cobbler instead, but this night we had to have a dessert but were in a rush.
I took canned apple pie filling that my mother/grandma had made, but you can premake your own or buy it....whatever you prefer. I dumped two jars into a 9x13 pan, and preheated the oven to 350º.
Stir together in a bowl:
1 1/2 C flour
1 C oatmeal - either regular or quick is fine
1 C brown sugar
1/2 teasp cinnamon
1 C melted butter
stir together and then drop/crumble over apples.
Bake for abotu 30 minutes or until apples are cooked (in my case everything just had to get warm and the 'crisp' part crisp).
Not my favorite recipe, but super easy.

Happy Eating!

Eggs & Hash Browns

I went to a Relief Society (church) Christmas activity tonight and this is what Brian and Cam had for dinner:
Brian took these pictures (I laughed when I saw the one of Cameron cheesing it up) and wrote the following:

Prep & Cook Time: 15 minutes!

Hash browns and scrambled eggs with cheese: Pretty simple, shred two potatoes in the Cuisinart ( I guess you could do it by hand if you had to) Put the potatoes in a tea towel and squeeze out as much water as you can (this is the most important part, they will be soggy otherwise) Put them in a hot skillet, and pour on a few tablespoons of oil, sprinkle on pepper, garlic, and season salt. Flip when it gets all nice and crispy on the bottom. All told it took about ten minutes, and most of that just waiting for the hash browns to get crispy, and fishing out all the egg shell shards after letting Cam crack the eggs.

Cheese Fries Casserole

This was a super easy recipe and was well received by half of my family. (Two don't like potatoes or rice.) I forgot to take a photo before I served it up. I also modified the original recipe.

Recipe:

1 pound ground turkey

1 T. minced dried onion

2 cans (reduced fat cream) of mushroom soup

1/2 c. monterey jack cheese

2 c. frozen crinkle cut fries

1 T. ranch seasoning

Brown the meat with minced onion, salt and pepper. Drain. Mix in soups and cheese and heat through. Put in a greased casserole dish. Top with the fries and sprinkle with the seasoning. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes.

(The original recipe called for 1 can cheddar soup which I couldn't find, so I did 2 of the mushroom and added cheese instead. It called for 2 pounds of ground beef. I don't use a lot of red meat. Also, I try to use less meat than a recipe calls for because it always seems like there is too much in it to me. I added the ranch seasoning to give the fries some flavor. I couldn't find my Season All.)

Porcupines & Baby carrots

Here's what we had tonight:


This is a dish that comes from Brian's family. They call them "porcupines." It took maybe 10 minutes prep time and 1 hour bake time. Recipe:

1. In a bowl combine:
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup uncooked rice
1 tsp salt
1 T minced dried onion
1 tsp chili powder

2. Shape ground beef and rice mixture into balls and place in a baking dish.

3. In another bowl combine:
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 can tomato soup
1/2 can water

4. Pour sauce on top of meatballs.

5. Bake 350 deg for 1 hour.
Pretty tasty! And Cameron liked it too.

Lemon Chicken

We had lemon chicken, rice and broccoli. This photo does not make it look appetizing and I think I lose points for the Mickey Mouse water bottle, Star Trek glass and Hercules "china". But it was well received. (First time making the meal.)

Recipe was super easy:

1 - 3 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast (I used about 1 1/2 because of my family size and appetite.)

1/2 c. lemon juice

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 pkg. onion soup mix

salt and pepper to taste

Mix lemon juice and sugar together and pour on top of chicken in crock pot. Sprinkle onion soup mix on top and set for 7-9 hours on low. (Mine was 7 hours.)

I don't use minute rice, so that took 15 minutes and the broccoli didn't take long either. Simple yummy meal. (How was that Marisa? More? Less?)

About This Blog

Hello friends!

This blog is a collection of ideas. I am always wondering what other people have for dinner, and I figure some other people out there do too. So become an author of this blog (I'll add you) and post a picture of what you had! You can also put up the recipe too if you so choose. Thanks for joining! Or you can just follow. That's cool too.

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