Mom's dinner nachos

As a kid, I loved when my mom made these for dinner. I "helped" so that I could eat all of the extra green olives. yum! I made these for Jeremy for the first time last night, not sure why I never did it before. Since Jeremy loves nachos, and its a fun alternative to tacos.

- brown 1 lbs. ground beef with taco seasoning (according to pkg.)
- lay out chips on baking sheet. (Don't overlap, let each chip have its own space)
- place small spoonful of meat on each chip.
- sprinkle with shredded cheese of your liking.
- Bake in oven (at 350 degrees) until cheese is melted. This won't take long. I didn't time it, but maybe 5 minutes? Keep an eye on them. :)
- top with sour cream and half of a green olive (my favorite part!!)
- CRUNCH!

I served this with my favorite salad on the side.

Pioneer Woman's Chicken Parmigiana

This is FANTASTIC!! (I'm channeling my best Tyler Florence impression.)

I recently started reading The Pioneer Woman's blog, and I thoroughly enjoy it. I saved about 15 recipes from her site that I want to try. But this one caught my eye the most. Either that, or I already had 2 large chicken breasts in the fridge. The smells of the kitchen are fantastic, and tasting the sauce as I was going was even better. And even fantastic for my lunch leftovers today.

(Adapted from Pioneer Woman)

Ingredients:
4 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, Trimmed And Pounded Flat (1/4 - 1/2")
1/3 cups All-purpose Flour
Salt And Pepper, to taste
1/3 cups Olive Oil
1 Tablespoons Butter
1 whole Medium Onion, Chopped
3 cloves Garlic, Minced
1/3 cup of chicken stock
1 large can (28 Oz.) Crushed Tomatoes
1 Tablespoons Sugar
Handful  Chopped Fresh Parsley
1/2 - 3/4 cup Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
1/2 pound Thin Linguine

Directions:

• Mix flour, salt, and pepper together on a large plate.
• Dredge flattened chicken breasts in flour mixture. Set aside.
• At this time, you can start a pot of water for your pasta. Cook linguine until al dente.
• Heat olive oil and butter together in a large skillet over medium heat. When butter is melted and oil/butter mixture is hot, fry chicken breasts until nice and golden brown on each side, about 2 to 3 minutes per side.
• Remove chicken breasts from the skillet and keep warm.
• Without cleaning skillet, add onions and garlic and gently stir for 2 minutes. Pour in splash of chicken stock and scrape the bottom of the pan, getting all the flavorful bits off the bottom. Allow stock to cook down until reduced by half, about 2 minutes.
• Pour in crushed tomatoes and stir to combine. Add sugar and more salt and pepper to taste. Allow to cook for 30 minutes. Toward the end of cooking time, add chopped parsley and give sauce a final stir.
• Carefully lay chicken breasts on top of the sauce and completely cover them in grated Parmesan. Place lid on skillet and reduce heat to low. Allow to simmer until cheese is melted and chicken is thoroughly heated. Add more cheese to taste.
• Place cooked noodles on a plate and cover with sauce. Place chicken breast on top and sprinkle with more parsley. Serve immediately.

EXTREME banana nut bread

I recently made this EXTREME banana nut bread from allrecipes.com.
It is the very non-healthy version- and TASTE LIKE CANDY!!!



I usually make just half the batch- since I only have one loaf pan and usually only have a few over-ripened bananas at a time. So here is the recipe for just ONE loaf.

Ingredients
* 1 cup1 all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoons baking soda
* 1/2 cup butter
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 cup mashed overripe bananas
* 2 eggs, beaten
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. Sift the flour, salt and baking soda into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together the butter or margarine and sugar until smooth. Stir in the bananas, eggs, and walnuts until well blended. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture, and stir just until blended. Pour into loaf pan.
3. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted into the crown of the loaf comes out clean. Let the loaf cool in the pan for at least 5 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack, and cool completely. Wrap in aluminum foil to keep in the moisture.

Teriyaki Sesame chicken pasta

We went to a fun ward pizza party at the Bishop's house last night. They have an outdoor pizza oven and everyone got to make their own mini personalized pizza. Bishop's wife made homemade pizza sauce and dough that was fantastic.

So Jeremy signed me up to bring a salad. I usually always sign up for dessert (vs. salad), so I was a bit nervous but up for the challenge. I looked through my file folder of recipes I've collected over years but haven't gotten around to making yet. I found this one torn out from a Taste of Home Magazine from August 2007. Yum Yum Yum!! I made it Thursday night first to make sure it was good, and it sure was!! I was snacking on it all day Friday. This isn't a very good picture, but feel I always have to have a picture when posting a recipe.



Teriyaki Sesame Chicken Salad
1 package (16 oz.) bow tie pasta
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup white wine vinegar (I didn't have this so i used half red wine vinegar/half rice wine vinegar)
2/3 cup teriyaki sauce (I used Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki which I would recommend using)
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 cans (11 oz each) mandarin oranges, drained
2 cans (8 oz. each) sliced water chestnuts, drained
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
1 package (9 oz) fresh spinach, torn
1 package (6 oz.) dried cranberries
6 green onions, chopped
1/3 cup minced fresh parsley
1/4 cup sesame seeds, (toasted in oven at 400 degrees for 3 minutes)

Cook Pasta according to package directions; drain and place in a very large bowl and add cubed chicken. In a small bowl, combine the oil, vinegar, teriyaki sauce, sugar and pepper. Pour over pasta and chicken and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Just before serving, add the remaining ingredients; gently toss to coat.
(Yield: 22 servings at 1 cup each)

Tomato Basil Pizza

I've seen and heard about the Pioneer Woman for quite some time, so I figured it was about time for me to make something from her website. I love all of her pictures and the step-by-step commentary and visuals.

I followed her directions for TOMATO BASIL PIZZA (with a Pesto Sauce).



It was a yummy and fresh meal last night. Head over to her blog for the recipe.


I'm still on the lookout for a good pizza crust recipe. I wasn't a big fan of hers. I thought it was a bit dense and heavy on the olive oil flavor.

Thai chicken peanut noodles

I saved this recipe from the Sister's Cafe a long time ago. I've been on a cooking roll lately! And I love it! This is one of Jeremy's and my new favorites... seriously DELICIOUS!!! especially if you like Thai or peanut sauces. I changed just a few tiny little things in the recipe, so I wrote what I did below.



1 lb regular thin spaghetti noodles ( I only used 3/4 of noodles, because I didn't want to dilute the sauce too much.)
2 garlic clove, peeled
1 (1 inch) piece of fresh ginger, peeled
½ Cup smooth peanut butter
2 Tablespoons sesame oil
¼ Cup soy sauce
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
1 scant teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
½ Cup hot water
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3/4 Cup finely chopped white onion
½ Cup finely chopped red or orange bell pepper
2½ - 3 Cups cooked, shredded chicken breast
¼ Cup finely chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
¼- ½ Cup dry roasted peanuts, chopped

First I boiled 2-3 chicken breast for 10 minutes. And then boiled the noodles according to package. And while the chicken was boiling and noodles a-brewin', I made the sauce.

The sauce was incredibly EASY to make in the food processor.
Place garlic and ginger in food processor until well chopped. Then add peanut butter, sesame oil, soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar and red pepper flakes. Pulse until well combined and slowly add hot water. Set aside.


{picture of sauce before pouring in hot water.}

Place olive oil in hot skillet over medium heat. Saute onion and bell pepper for 5 minutes or until softened. Stir in chicken breast, cilantro and salt. Stir until heated through.


Add sauce.


Then Add the chicken and sauce mixture to pot of drained noodles. Toss to coat and garnish with peanuts and more cilantro if desired.

foiled wrapped dinner

The last time we were at Jeremy's parents home, I raided Leslie's (my mother-in-law) cookbooks and recipe box for recipes. She is an amazing cook, and Jeremy raves about her meals growing up all the time. I tried to type as many recipes as possible until my fingers got tired.

I found this particular recipe in her recipe box, so this one Jeremy said his mom made more than once. It was fun doing something different with chicken. It kinda reminded me as a kid when my mom made us foil dinners for a camp-out that were super yummy. Don't remember what was in them exactly.

Anyways... here is a quick picture of the chicken foil packages before I wrapped them and put them on cookie sheet in oven.

• 4 bone, skinned chicken breast
• Dijon mustard
• Flour
• 4 green onions, sliced
• 4 T. butter
• 4 mushrooms
• 4 T. soy sauce

Brush chicken on both sides with mustard. Roll in flour. Place on square of foil. Divide onions and mushrooms between breasts. Add 1 T. butter, 1 T. soy sauce to each package. Wrap and seal in foil. Bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve over rice.