Molly's Slow Cooker Chicken

I have been trying hard to keep our freezer stocked with pre-assembled meals that are easy to make. I have decided I am not a huge fan of including vegetables in with my meat when I use the slow cooker because they end up all tasting the same... so I have been focusing on finding a sauce/marinade for the meat and then "day of" making rice or potatoes along with a vegetable to go with it. This is one of the many meals that is part of my freezer collection, and since Andrew has requested that I make it again... I figured I should share it!

Molly's Slow Cooker Chicken

• (2-3) Chicken Breasts
  
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce

Directions:

1. Place chicken in a slow cooker. In a medium bowl, stir together soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, and tomato sauce. Pour sauce over chicken.
2. Cover, and cook on Low heat 8 hours or High Heat 4 hours. (I like to do high heat for 4 hours)

** To do the "freezer method" I put the chicken breasts & sauce in a foodsaver bag (or ziploc bag) and froze. The night before I was going to make this I took it out of the freezer and let it thaw in the fridge. Place in slow cooker and follow instructions above #2.

Beef Stroganoff - My Fav

My mom used to make this all the time when I was growing up and it was an absolute favorite of mine! I always asked for her to make it on my birthday and to this day is still one of my favorite meals! Enjoy!

Beef Stroganoff

1 1/2Ibs Beef Sirloin Tips (I buy steak and cut it up )
1/4c. Flour
2 Tbs butter
1/2 tsp salt
pepper
1 Medium Sweet Onion Chopped
1 1/2 c beef broth
8oz Fresh Mushrooms
1tsp Worcestershire
3 Tbs tomato paste
2 tsp yellow mustard
1 1/2 c sour cream
egg noodles

Melt Butter in large saucepan over med heat. In large bowl coat beef with flour, salt and pepper. Add coated beef & chopped onion to saucepan. Let cook stirring occasionally until beef is cooked. Add remaining ingredients except sour cream and egg noodles. Stir and let simmer on low heat 1 hour. Stir in sour cream about 5 minutes before serving. Serve over egg noodles.

Chicken Enchiladas- This One is FINALLY a "Keeper"!

I can't tell you how many different chicken enchilada recipes I have tried! I LOVE mexican food.. I could eat chips, salsa, cheese dip, burritos, fajitas, enchiladas etc every night of the week and be completely fine with it... so the fact I haven't been able to find a good chicken enchilada recipe has been a little frustrating! Andrew just says to make the Old El Paso kind out of the box but I just can't do that!

SO I FINALLY FOUND A KEEPER! When the hubs says "this is good!" that means it goes in the recipe box! Did I mention it was super easy also??

Drum Roll Please......

Shredded Chicken Enchiladas

2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans enchilada sauce (I used Harris Teeter brand)
kosher salt
ground black pepper
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1 cup shredded Monterrey jack cheese, divided
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp. fresh cilantro, roughly chopped, divided
corn tortillas (whatever size you want)
cooking spray

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Add the minced garlic to enchilada sauce in a deep skillet and heat to boiling. Generously sprinkle kosher salt and ground black pepper over the chicken breasts and then nestle the chicken breasts into the sauce. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook until the chicken is cooked through, about 15-20 minutes. Remove the chicken from the sauce, set aside and let both the chicken and the sauce cool.

Using two forks, shred the chicken breasts. Transfer the shredded chicken to a large bowl. Add a quarter of the enchilada sauce from the pan, 1/2 cup each of the Monterrey jack and cheddar cheeses and the 1/2 cup of cilantro to the shredded chicken. Stir to combine.

Wrap the corn tortillas in a damp cloth or paper towel and microwave on high for 20-30 seconds until pliable and warm. Using cooking spray (if desired), oil a 9-inch x 13-inch baking dish. Spoon about 1/3 cup of the chicken mixture along the center of the tortilla. Gently, but firmly, roll the tortilla around the filling and place into the baking dish, seam-side down. Repeat with remaining tortillas.

Lightly spray the tortillas with cooking spray (or brush lightly with olive oil). This will help the tortillas turn golden in the oven and will also help keep them from cracking. Place baking dish in the oven, uncovered, for 8-10 minutes or until the tortillas begin to turn golden.

Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees. Remove the baking dish from the oven. Pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas and sprinkle remaining cheese over the sauce. Sprinkle with 1 tbsp. fresh cilantro. Lightly cover baking dish with aluminum foil and place into the oven for 20 minutes. Carefully remove foil after 20 minutes and bake, uncovered, for an additional 5-10 minutes or until the cheese is golden.

Remove form the oven and let stand 5-10 minutes prior to serving.

I eat mine with a ton of light daisy sour cream... you should too!

Enjoy!

No Bake Peanut Butter Pie & Pumpkin Dump Cake!

For Thanksgiving this year I told my mom I would bring the dessert because I had a few recipes I wanted to "test" on them... I brought the fabulous Kahlua Cake that Amy shared at the recipe part and everyone loved it! Here are the two other recipes I brought that were delish! See comments after both recipes for suggestions for next time I make these.

Pumpkin Dump Cake

Ingredients:

• (1) 29 oz can pumpkin
• (1) C Sugar
• (3) eggs
• (1) can evaporated milk
• (4) tsp pumpkin pie spices
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 1/2 cubes melted butter (3/4) cup

Directions
Combine pumpkin, sugar, evap milk, eggs, pumpkin pie spices & salt in mixing bowl. Beat well. Pour into greased & floured 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle cake mix over pumpkin mixture. Pour melted butter over top of cake mix. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes. (I had to keep checking mine... it took mine 70 minutes to be done)

*My Comments: This was SO GOOD, it was the perfect mixture of pumpkin and yellow cake! My dad doesn't even like pumpkin and he devoured this! It is especially tasty with a little whipped cream on top! When I make this again... I am thinking about using the yellow cake mix/butter as the "crust" and putting it on the bottom. If I do this, I will probably put the boxed mix on the bottom... I would mix the cake mix, butter and ADD one egg to the recipe and then spread over bottom of 9 x 13 pan, put the pumpkin mixture on top and then bake... if anyone does this before me let me know how it turns out!




No-Bake Peanut Butter Pie

Ingredients

• (3/4) Cup dark, semisweet chocolate morsels
• (2) Cups Heavy Cream, Divided
• (1 1/4) Cups Salted Pretzels, finely crushed
• (3/4) Cup firmly packed Dark Brown Sugar, divided
• (6) Tbsp. butter, melted
• (1/2) Cup Cream Cheese, softened
• (1/3) Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
• Chocolate Shavings

Directions

1. Microwave chocolate morsels and 1 cup of heavy cream on high for 60 seconds or until chocolate melts; stir until smooth. Chill for 2 hours.
2. Combine pretzels, 1/4 cup brown sugar and butter. Press into a 9-inch pie plate. Cover and chill 30 minutes.
3. Beat cream cheese, 1/4 cup brown sugar and peanut butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended.
4. Meanwhile beat 1 cup heavy cream and gradually add in remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar, until soft peaks form. Fold into cream cheese mixture. Spoon into prepared pie crust; cover & chill 1 hour.
5. Whip chocolate cream at medium speed with mixture or until soft peaks form. Spread over pie and garnish with chocolate shavings. Chill 3 hours.

My Comments: Perfect balance between sweet & salty! Who doesn't love pretzels, chocolate and peanut butter!! The only thing I would do differently is DOUBLE the "Chocolate Layer" of this recipe... being the chocolate lover that I am, it just wasn't enough! If you decide to do this to just use the entire bag of chocolate chips and make sure you get a large container of heavy cream (enough for 3 cups).

Stuffed Chicken in Puff Pastry -YUM

I have loved puff pastry since I was a kid... but I have never actually cooked with it! I decided to give it a try, it can't be that hard right?? After reading a handful of different recipes for chicken in puff pastry here is what I concocted:

Stuffed Chicken in Puff Pastry

Ingredients:

• (2) Chicken Breasts
• (1) Large Sheet of Puff Pastry (I used Pepperidge Farm)
• (4) oz Cream Cheese
• (4) Slices Bacon Cooked and Crumbled
• Handful of Flat-Leaf Parsley Chopped
• (3) Green Onions Chopped
• (1) Egg (beaten)
• Garlic Salt
• Pepper
• Red Pepper Flakes

Directions:

1. Cook Bacon, let cool and crumble. Place in small mixing bowl
2. Chop Green Onion and Parsley and place in bowl with bacon.
3. Soften cream cheese and add to bowl with bacon, onion and parsley. Add Red Pepper Flakes, Black Pepper and Garlic Salt all to taste. Mix ingredients well.
4. Dry chicken breasts as best you can and cut a slit in each one to insert the cream cheese mixture. (I cut the slit right down the top/center of the breast)
   
5. Stuff Cream Cheese Mixture Evenly between breasts.
6. Puff Pastry: make sure puff pastry is no longer frozen (takes about 40 min to thaw from freezer). FLOUR THE SURFACE you will be using to work with puff pastry (I learned the hard way that wax-paper is an adhesive to puff pastry!!) Roll out the puff pastry sheet and cut in half. (should be a good size to wrap the chicken breasts in)
   
7. Place (1) piece of chicken in the middle of one of the halves of puff pastry. Wrap the puff pastry around the chicken, sealing the edges with the beaten egg. Once chicken is sealed in puff pastry coat the top of the pastry with egg. (this helps to brown it).
   
8. Wrap remaining breast in puff pastry repeating step 7.
9. On a foil covered baking sheet cook chicken in puff pastry for 35 minutes at 400 degrees.

Enjoy!

I forgot to take a photo before I dove into it... so here was a "after" pic

Apple Cake- Perfect for Fall!

I came across this recipe on Pinterest and decided to give it a try because Andrew loves apples... this is definitely a "keeper." =)

Apple Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 2 cups Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped into 1/3-inch pieces

Directions:

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch square baking pan. Dust the pan with flour, or spray with nonstick baking spray with flour.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Gradually add the sugar and beat at medium-high speed until well blended and light, about 2 minutes.

Add the vanilla extract, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating it with the buttermilk in two additions and mixing just until blended (flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour). Stir in the chopped apples by hand with rubber scraper.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes, until it is golden and toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake completely in the pan on a wire rack.

Frost the top of the cooled cake with cream cheese frosting (recipe follows). Cut the cake into squares and serve it directly from the pan.

Store in the refrigerator, loosely covered, for up to 3 days. Bring cake up to room temperature before serving.

Cream Cheese Frosting

3 oz cream cheese (softened)

¼ cup butter or margarine

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar (sifted)

~Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla ‘til light and fluffy. Gradually add powd. sugar and beat ‘til smooth. Ice “cooled” cake.

Kahlua Cake!

I had a recipe exchange last weekend with some girlfriends and WOW... there was some amazing food! I have been talking non-stop about a cake Amy Herring brought to share with us and many people have requested the recipe! Here it is!
Thanks for sharing Amy!!

Kahlua Cake

Shared by Amy Herring

Ingredients

1 Chocolate Cake Mix

1/4 c. oil

2 eggs

1 vanilla pudding

12 oz chocolate chips

1/2 c. kahlua

1 pint sour cream

Mix all ingredients. Cook in a bundt pan @ 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes (until clean with toothpick)

Sprinkle powdered sugar on top if desired once cool.