Sweet and Spicy Chicken

I really like this chicken seasoning. I like it cuz it's fast to pull together. I like it cuz there's no marinading time (I always forget that until the last minute.). I like it cuz it goes with just about any side dishes. I like it cuz it's great on a salad. I like it cuz the leftovers are flexible, they work on any thing from pizza to sandwiches. I like it because it tastes good. I like it because it tastes summery. I like it cuz my family likes it. I just like it. (And how. I think I've used it 4 times in the last month and a half.)

I should also make clear that this is not hot-spicy. It is flavor-spicy. The kids are not burning their mouths or drinking gallons of water when I serve this. : ) You could easily make it hot if you want though. Add some cayenne to it or some such powdered fire in quantities you determine, and burn your tails off, if that's what you want!

Grab yourself:

2 T Brown sugar
1 T Paprika
1 t Chili powder
2 t Onion powder
1 1/2 t Salt
4-5 Boneless skinless chicken breasts, or any other chicken you want to use

Mix all the seasonings and sugar together. Rub over chicken. Grill 5 min on each side, or until done. I have not cooked this in a pan yet, but I should be doable, right? Maybe a bit sticky? You might want to use adequate butter/oil/spray in a pan.
The first time I served this we did as recommended by the recipe source (Real Mom Kitchen), and served it on a big salad with ranch salsa dressing. YUM!!! Since then I have served it with various sides and even on pizza. No complaints yet!

Burrell Menu

OK! I finally got on the ball, made a menu, grocery shopped, and we're EATING (er, not right at this exact moment...)!!! Well, I guess we eat even if I don't do that. But still, I'm very proud of myself :). Here ya go! (this actually starts last week)

Thu: Macaroni & Cheese Soup (thumbs up!)

Fri: Pizza!! I tried OBB's idea with the spinach, feta, and caramelized onions (no chicken... sniff sniff) and it was good!!

Sat: Beef Sliders (thumbs up!)

Sun: Double Decker Tacos (thumbs up!)

Mon: Florentine omelets & sausage with something bready (pancakes/cinnamon rolls/waffles?)

Tue: hmmm, this is blank. Um... leftovers? I do have enough in the freezer from Sat for another meal!

Wed: French Dip

Thu: Popcorn chicken and crash potatoes

Fri: PIZZA!!!

Sat: Italian Burgers

Basically its a bunch of new recipes for things we already like :). So I'm having fun playing around in the kitchen! We have broccoli in the freezer and salad fixings to go along with whatever.

OH! And if you want some good broccoli, I just mince up 2-3 garlic cloves, throw it in a pan with half a bag of frozen broccoli and steam it for 5ish minutes. When I put it in a bowl, I just plop on a Tbs or two of butter and voila! Easy peasy, and the cool thing is that Titus LIKES it! Caleb likes to suck on it and play with it too! So there you have it!

Crash Potatoes

I have to thank Pioneer Woman again for another recipe that we love. We've been making these for quite a while now, and they still bring jumping up and down happiness to my kids. : )

When I buy a bag of potatoes I almost always sort out the little ones for "crashing". The original recipe suggests redskins but I can usually buy 2-5 times as much Idaho or white potatoes so guess what I usually buy/use in this recipe? (Hint: not the expensive ones!)

This is also another recipe that kids love helping with. One of Kenton's chief joys in life is to "crash" the crash potatoes. It goes faster without help, but funner and more peaceful with help, and in a while I'll be able to pass the whole job over to my well practiced helpers, right? Right! (We hope.)

I'm going more for an ingredients and techniques than exact amounts approach, so I'm going to list those and tell you how I do it, but here's PW's recipe so you can see what I'm talking about. OK? OK. It is also very easy to eliminate all dairy as I found when I made this for Jon and Katie's family. I used coconut oil instead of butter, and left out the optional Parmesan. PW makes it with only olive oil, but that tastes SO olive oily to me and olive oil also helps with weight gain. As in causes it. It's a healthy fat, but since I'm not trying to gain weight, I use more butter and coconut oil which amazingly (according to my sources), do not contribute largely (haha!) to that issue. Yum! Good stuff however you make it!

Potatoes: enough to feed your crowd (if they're big, I do 1 per person, if they're small I do 2, if tiny 3 or so per person), red, yellow, white: use what you have.
Olive oil (I may try switching to coconut oil as it has a higher smoke point, and I have smoked up a house on several occasions when the bare oil patches burned: yuck. Abby's house was my most recent smoke job: embarrassing!)
Butter 1-2 T per person, can use more olive oil, coconut oil, ect in place of this
Salt
Seasonings: I use a garlic/salt/onion/paprika/bell pepper blend I grabbed at Sam's (Canadian Chicken Seasoning if you really wanna know.), but plain old garlic powder, black pepper, onion powder and so on would be great. If it tastes good on a potato, it will most likely work. I also often sprinkle Parmesan cheese on before baking.

1. Scrub your potatoes and boil until you can stab a fork into them. If they are crunchy, they don't crash. This step can be done ahead of time. You could do it a day or two ahead if you were so inclined.
2. Spread olive oil in a baking pan. I use a metal pan with sides because I don't want oil and butter in the bottom of my oven, and metal because it helps the potatoes crisp up. You don't want to go too light on the oil here, the potatoes will stick, and won't get as as crispy.
3. Lay the potatoes on the pan and smash them out into pancakes with the bottom of a drinking glass, a potato masher, or anything else handy. I do them about 1/2 -3/4 inch thick.
4. Melt butter, brush over potatoes. Sprinkle with seasonings and salt. Potatoes need salt. They need plenty of salt. Don't go all skimpy here. Unless you like blah-crisp potatoes.
5. Bake at 450 degrees for 25-40 min, or until they are browning and crispy. This is going to depend on how big your potaotes are. If I only have big ones to work with, I cut them into smaller potato sized pieces-halves, quarters, whatever works for you.

Matthew's family food for 3/19-4/1

Spaghetti , bread Bread

Lasagna bread

Country fried steaks Rolls Friend potatoes

Pizza/ breadsticks Chips

Easy chicken tetrazzini Cheesy potatoes

Pepper poppers

Cheese burger soup bread

Pigs in a blanket Mac and cheese

Enchiladas, Spanish rice Rolls

Venison stroganoff

Marinated venison steaks, beer bread

Sloppy Joes, buns Cheesy potatoes, salads

Chicken strips Sweet potatoes fries

Macaroni salad

Death by chocolate trifle

Chicken Thai Cabbage soup

We have a few potlucks as well as our tuesday night group so the ones that are not complete meals are because of that :)

Death by Chocolate Trifle

I do many variations of this recipe for events but my two favorites are the toffee bits or Andes bits. SOOO good! Another thing that I have done is to buy the compote dish and fill it with the ingredients and recipe and pretty serving spoon for a bridal shower.

 

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package German chocolate cake mix
• 1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 2/3 cups milk
• 3/4 cup strong brewed coffee
• 1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 6 (1.4 ounce) bars chocolate covered toffee bars, frozen and crushed

Directions

1. In a 9x13 in pan, bake cake according to package directions. Cool and crumble. Make pudding, according to package directions, with milk.
2. In a large trifle or other glass serving bowl, place half of the crumbled cake. Pour half of the coffee over the cake, and spread half of the pudding over that. Top with half of the whipped topping, sprinkled with half the crumbled candy bars. Repeat layers in the same order. Refrigerate until serving.

Mama's Macaroni Salad

This is one of my favorite recipes for summer time and potlucks. I got it off of Allrecipe.com a long time ago and people rave about it every time :) I don't have a pic of my own but here is the pic from the web site.

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package elbow macaroni
• 3 cups mayonnaise
• 3/4 cup prepared yellow mustard
• 1/3 cup sweet pickle relish, or to taste
• 1 (10 ounce) can sliced black olives, drained
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 pinch paprika, for garnish

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the macaroni, and cook until tender, about 8 minutes. Drain and cool.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, mustard, relish, olives, celery and green onions. Mix in the macaroni, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add more mayonnaise if you like. For best flavor, cover and refrigerate over night. Sprinkle with paprika just before serving.