Chicken & Rice Casserole

This isn't going to give much detail but maybe when I perfect it I'll fix it. My friend made this for me awhile ago and Karson ate a lot so I've been wanting to try it. But, she doesn't use a recipe so I got what was in it from her and guessed. I used canned chicken and now that I've been cooking a lot more than I used to I've decided I no longer like canned chicken so I won't do that again. Karson ate all his rice but he picked out the chicken. This is similar to Hawaiian haystacks, which we eat often. I think I need to tweak this a little because my friends was much better than mine, but I still liked it a lot.

Ingredients

2 cups cooked rice

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 cup sour cream

a little bit of milk

Parmesan cheese

croutons (my friend makes her own. Maybe someday I'll try that, or not.)

salt

pepper

Directions

Cook rice. Mix in the rest of the ingredients. I mixed in some Parmesan cheese. I don't know how much I used. I also poured some on top along with the croutons. I cooked it on 350 for about 35 minutes. It's good served with cesar salad. If you can eat salad that is, because I can't :(

Candied Yams ~ Sweet Potatoes

I never liked yams until a few years ago. Kyle's sister makes the best ones with pecans on top. I hate pecans so I'm not sure why I fell in love with her Yams, but I did. Then I discovered Texas Roadhouse and I will go there and eat salad, rolls and a loaded sweet potato and I love it. I found several similar recipes online and combined them to come up with this. I used a recipe from all recipes and one from cooks.com plus guessed a little. They tasted yummy. I had to force Karson to eat just 1 and he was gagging with every bite. Funny, pretty much the only baby food he'd eat when he was a baby were sweet potatoes.

Ingredients
4 large sweet potatoes
1/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup butter (I used 5 tsp of butter instead of 4)
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups mini marshmallows

Directions
Boil water, add salt, white sugar, and potatoes. Boil until tender, probably about 30 minutes. I put them in before I peeled them. After cooking peel potatoes and slice into approx 2 inch slices and cover bottom of baking dish. Slice butter into small pieces and spread over the potatoes. Sprinkle brown sugar then marshmallows. I may have used to many marshmallows because they didn't brown like they should, but they tasted yummy so I'll probably use that many again.

The recipe I found said to cook for 20 minutes then add marshmallows and cook until the marshmallows are melted. I put everything on, including the marshmallows and cooked for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. I think they turned out fine this way.

Cheddar Bay Biscuits ~ Red Lobster Biscuits

Once again from The Girl Who Ate Everything blog...I think I needed more butter glaze or more butter mixed in, but these were so good. A little more time consuming than the Magelbys rolls recipe I've posted before, but these are so good.

Cheddar Bay Biscuits
by LettucePray

Biscuits:
2 1/2 cups Bisquick
4 Tbsp cold butter
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
3/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Butter Glaze:
3 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp dried parsley flakes

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease or line one cookie sheet with parchment; set aside.

Combine Bisquick with cold butter in a medium bowl using a pastry cutter (I just used 2 forks). Don't worry about mixing too thoroughly; there will be small chunks of butter in the mix about the size of peas. Add cheddar cheese, milk, and garlic powder. Mix by hand until combined, but don't over mix.

Drop 1/4 cup portions of the dough onto the lightly greased or parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 13-15 minutes in preheated oven until the tops of the biscuits begin to turn light brown.
While the biscuits are baking, melt butter is a small bowl in the microwave. Stir in garlic powder and dried parsley flakes. Use a brush to spread the garlic butter over the tops of all the biscuits. Sprinkle a little kosher salt on the freshly coated biscuits. Makes one dozen.

Snikers Pie

My friend gave me this recipe, but it is from Taste of Home. This is the pie I wanted to make on Thanksgiving, but since Easton can't have peanut butter, and he wants to eat everything, I decided I better not make it. But, I have had it and it's very good.

5 Snickers candy bars (2.07 ounces each), cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1 pastry shell (9 inches), baked
12 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 C. sugar
2 eggs
1/3 C. sour cream
1/3 C. smooth peanut butter
2/3 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream

Place candy bar pieces in the pastry shell; set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, sour cream, and peanut butter; beat on low speed just until combined. Pour into pastry shell. Bake at 325 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until set. Cool on a wire rack.

In a small heavy saucepan, melt chocolate chips with cream over low heat; stir until smooth. Spread over filling. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Coconut Cream Pie

I got this recipe from taste of home. I didn't love this pie, but it was good and super easy. I'd still probably make it again. But, I think I would prefer chocolate or banana cream pie for Thanksgiving...This was nice because it made two though and I was worried we wouldn't have enough pie. However, I took 4 pies and my sister took 4 and we both had some leftover.

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups cold milk

1/2 teaspoon coconut extract

1 package (3.4 ounces) instant vanilla pudding mix

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

1 cup flaked coconut, divided

1 carton (8 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed

2 graham cracker crusts

Directions

In a bowl, whisk the milk, extract and pudding mix for 2 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set.

In large bowl, beat cream cheese. Stir in pudding and mix well. Fold in 1/2 cup coconut and whipped topping. Spoon into the crusts. Toast the remaining coconut (I didn't know how to do this, but all you do is dump it on a pan and stick it in the oven for a few minutes, mixing it around until toasted) Sprinkle the coconut over the pies. Refrigerate until serving. I'm not sure how long you are supposed to refrigerate. I think mine were in there for a couple of hours and they seemed fine.

Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

This recipe came from HERE but she got it from Allrecipes.com.

I asked Kyle what kind of pie he wanted and he said Pumpkin. Only problem is, I hate pumpkin pie so I didn't really want to make something I wouldn't eat. But, I saw this recipe and thought it sounded good because it wasn't pure pumpkin. I tried it today and besides being so incredibly fast and easy it was really good.

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup homemade whipped cream (or frozen whipped cream, thawed if you are in a crunch)

1.Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2.In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Blend in eggs one at a time. Remove 1 cup of batter and spread into bottom of crust; set aside.

3.Add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter in the crust.

4.Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Don't worry if there are a couple of cracks; when you refrigerate it they will close up. Allow to cool, then refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Garnish with whipped topping before serving.

I just ate it with cool whip but I'm planning to make whipped topping for Thanksgiving. See recipe below.

1 Cup heavy whipping cream
3 tbsp of sugar (or 1/3 cup powdered sugar)
Optional: add a splash of vanilla

Put whipping cream and sugar in mixing bowl. Mix on medium for 2-3 minutes depending on speed, just until cream creates stiff peaks. Don't over whip it.

Pumpkin Blondies

Also from The Girl Who Ate Everything Blog. I haven't decided yet if I love them or if they are just OK. I keep eating them. I know strange, it's like they taste good but I don't take a bite and think they are the best thing ever so I just keep taking bites.

Pumpkin Blondies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 T. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1¼ cups brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup pecans, chopped (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a 9×13-inch baking dish with foil. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt. Stir together and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well combined. Mix in the pumpkin puree. With the mixer on low speed add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated. Fold in the white chocolate and butterscotch chips (and pecans, if using) with a rubber spatula.

Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake until the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs, about 35-40 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely before cutting.

To serve, lift the cake from the pan using the foil and transfer to a cutting board. Peel off the foil and using a sharp knife, cut into 24 squares.

White Chicken Chili

My friend gave me this recipe and she said it came from The Recipe Club. It's way yummy. It made a ton and I didn't like the flavor left over for some reason but the night I made it I thought it was way good. It's easy too.

16 oz. box low-sodium chicken broth
2 or 3 frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 white or yellow onion, chopped (of course this was left out)
2 4-oz. cans mild diced green chilis, undrained (I only used one can)
2 14.5-oz cans great Northern beans, undrained
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper (I didn't have this)

Place ingredients in slow cooker and cook on high 3-5 hours. About 30 minutes before serving, shred chicken and return to slow cooker.

Right before serving, add:
1 C. sour cream
4 oz. cream cheese

Top with shredded pepper jack cheese, avocado, Fritos, extra sour cream, sliced jalapeno peppers, cilantro, pico de gallo, etc.

Club Calzone

As a silly snake, don't laugh...

I got this recipe from my sister however the snake idea came from Jay Leno. This has been a fast and easy recipe that I've made for years.

Ingredients

1 Can (10 oz) Refrigerated Pizza Crust
1/4 C Italian Dressing

1 C Mozzarella cheese, shredded

1/4 C chopped green pepper

1 Pkg (9oz) variety pack lunch meat

1/3 C chopped black olives

Unroll pizza crust on lightly greased cookie sheet. Stretch to form 15X10 inch rectangle; brush with dressing & sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Layer mozzarella cheese, green pepper, olives & sliced meat down center of crust. Fold crust over meat; pinch edges to seal. Make small cuts across top to vent. Bake at 425 for 12 minutes or until browned.

For the snake I didn't put everything in the center, instead I spread it all over then rolled it up. Then I mixed a little bit of egg yolk with green food coloring and let Karson use a brush to paint on the green. Karson also put on the eyes and even olives on the tail for his rattles.