Cream Cheese Chicken

An easy chicken recipe:

4-5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cube butter
1 envelope dry good seasons italian salad dressing
1 can cream chicken soup
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese

mix dressing and melted butter and place 1/2 mixture in crockpot. lay
breasts in crockpot and cover with remaining mixture. Cook on low 4-6
hours. Take breasts out, and add cream of chicken soup and cream
cheese to butter mixture in crockpot. mix until melted together.
Return chicken to crockpot. Serve with rice.

This is my cousin's recipe, and we've really enjoyed making it!
-Karla Baer

Cowboy Caviar

1 c. black-eyed peas
1 c. pinto beans
2 c. shopeg corn
1 med. jar pimentos
1 c. pepper (red or green) chopped
1/2 c. onion

Drain first four ingredients and rinse. Mix everything in a bowl.

Sauce:
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup sugar

Boil until sugar dissolves. Cool and pour over other ingredients.
Refrigerate overnight for a better flavor.
Enjoy it with chips!!!

Monica Wheeler

Corn Meal Rolls

1/3 cup yellow corn meal

2 cup milk

½ cup butter

½ cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1 pkg yeast (1 Tbs)

1/4 cup warm water

2 beaten eggs

4 cup flour

In a small bowl add water and yeast, covering the yeast completely with the water. Set aside for 10 minutes. In medium saucepan combine corn meal and milk. Cook until it boils for about 30 seconds stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add butter and sugar. After butter is melted add yeast mixture, salt, and eggs. Add to a large mixing bowl. Add one cup of flour at a time and mix well. Knead dough into a large firm ball. Place dough in large mixing bowl well greased and cover with clean towel. Let rise for about 1-2 hours, or until double in size. Spread dough out and cut with round cutter. Fold dough rounds and place on greased baking sheets. Let rise for about 20 minutes. Bake for 20 minutes at 350.

Prize winning Bread

1 ½ cup warm water

1 pkg yeast

½ cup sugar

1 tsp salt

4 cup flour ( or wheat flour)

In large mixing bowl add water, sugar and sprinkle yeast on top. Let set for 10 minutes, until yeast softens and doubles in size. Add salt and flour one cup at a time. Knead dough into a large firm ball. Let rise for about an hour. Cut off little balls of dough at a time and form into rolls. Place on a grease baking sheet next to each other. Let rise for 20 minutes. Bake for 20 minutes at 350.

Sally Leavitt

Chocolate-Marshmallow Cookies

1/2 cup Butter
1 cup Sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. Vanilla
1/4 cup Milk
1 2/3 cup Flour
1/2 cup Cocoa (powder)
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
24 Big marshmallows (cut in half)

Cream together: butter,sugar, egg, vanilla. Add milk. Add: flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda. Mix well. Put on greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 7 minutes on 350 F.
Put a marshmallow half on each cookie and bake for 2 minutes. Take off cookie sheet and cool. Frost cookies with icing.

Chocolate Icing

2 cups Powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. Salt
4-5 tsp. Milk
5 tsp. Cocoa
3 tsp. Butter

Mix well with electric mixer all ingredients at same time.

Sally Leavitt

A Few More Family Favorites...

By: Rebecca Wagner (Pork is actually from Rebecca Rasmussen and lasagna is from our beloved Kamy Cannon who we miss so much! Just thought I should give proper credit...)

Pasta with Pumpkin Alfredo

My sister found this recipe on "Our Best Bites" blog and loved it. I have made it several times, for different people and have gotten great feedback on it. I like it because it's different--when I think pumpkin I think pie, muffins, bread, not alfredo!! I think it's yummy and tastes like fall to me. Also, it's easy, easy, easy. If anyone tries it and likes it, let me know!

1 Package Fresh Pasta
1/2 batch Guiltless Alfredo Sauce(also posted below)
1/2 T real butter
1/4 C Finely minced onion
1/2 C canned pumpkin (try more if you love pumpkin, this is really mild)
2 T Chicken broth (vegetarians substitute milk or veg. broth)
1T chopped fresh sage (1t dried leaves)
1/2 T fresh thyme (1/2 t dried leaves)


Follow instructions on pasta to cook. In a separate sauce pan melt butter on medium heat. When melted, add onion. Make sure your onion is really finely diced. Since you have a nice smooth sauce, you don't want big chunks of onion, you just want little bits.

Saute until soft. Since they're small it should only take a couple of minutes. Add chicken broth and herbs. (I used fresh herbs, but I'm sure dry is great too, just go for leaves as opposed to ground spices so not to muddy the color)

Use a spatula to deglaze the pan a bit and get any cooked bits of onion off the bottom. Add pumpkin and whisk to combine. Add alfredo sauce, stir to combine, and cook until heated through. Depending on the alfredo you use you may need to adjust salt and pepper. Mine didn't need anything added.

Serve on top of prepared pasta and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and a sprinkling of extra herbs. Pair it with a salad and breadsticks or a grilled chicken breast. YUM!

Rebecca Rasmussen

Guiltless Alfredo Sauce

I found this recipe on the "our best bites" blog. I like it because it uses low fat cream cheese and flour as thickening agents--not whipped cream so it's not super fattening and it's SO EASY! It's awesome for dipping bread sticks and mixing w/ marinara. But I mostly use it as a base for the Pumpkin Alfredo found on the same blog. It's SUPER

DUPER yummy!

2 C low-fat milk
1/3 C (3 oz) low fat cream cheese
2 T flour
1 t salt
1 T butter
3 garlic cloves
1 C grated Parmesan cheese

Toss the milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt in a blender.

In a non-stick sauce pan, melt butter on med-high heat and add garlic. Let the garlic saute for about 30 seconds, you don't want to burn it.

Then add milk mixture to the pan. Stir constantly for about 3 or 4 minutes or until it just comes to a simmer. Keep stirring and let it cook for a few minutes more. It should be much thicker now.

When it's nice and thickened remove the pan from the heat. Add the cheese, stir it up and then cover immediately. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before using. It will continue to thicken upon standing. Also, if you have leftovers in the fridge, the sauce will thicken almost into a solid. Just re-heat and add a little milk and it will be back to normal again.

Rebecca Rasmussen

Baked Ham and Cheese Croissants with Apple and Honey Dijon Mustard

I just made this the other day and it was good. A perfect lunch idea for kids or an easy party finger food. I was wingin it so everything is appx. It was so quick and easy!

2 cans refrigerated croissants

1/4lb thin sliced deli ham (I used a brown sugar ham but I might try black forest next time.)

1 apple (I used gala and it was good something less sweet would be good too.)

cheddar, muenster, havarti or jack cheese.

dijon mustard

honey

-preheat oven according to croissant package

-line two baking sheets with foil and spray with cooking spray or use parchment paper

-slice apple into thin slices - I kept the skin on mine

-cute ham slices in half

-shred or slice cheese

-mix dijon and honey together to your likeness

lay out your croissant triangle, spread on some mustard, next the ham, then the apple and lastly the cheese. Roll up and bake! The cheese melts out a bit so you might want to try and pinch the ends together a bit to avoid too much mess.

Enjoy!

Ross Tiner

Love this recipe blog:

http://www.ourbestbites.com/

-Karen Edwards

Popsicles

Just wondering if anyone has a recipe for homemade popsicles? I'm looking for something fun to make with the kids.

Holli Moore

For All those ladies and families wanting to know a yummy way to use up their food storage oats--this has become a fast favorite for us:

Peanut Butter Granola

1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
2 TBS oil
1/2 Cup Peanut Butter (creamy or chunky)

Mix the above and stir in 3 cups of oats. We like to double this recipe and put on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for about 12 minutes.

Add dried cranberries or raisins if desired and serve as cereal.

Brownie Trifle

8 Health bar candy (or a bag of chocolate covered Heath baking bits)
1 box fudge brownie mix
2 c. chocolate chips
2 lg. boxes chocolate instant pudding
5 c. cold milk
2 lg. containers cool whip
1 c. miniature chocolate chips

Bake brownies according to directions, except fold in 2 c. chocolate chips before baking. Bake in greased 9x13 pan for 28 minutes. Do not overbake. Cool completely. Cut into 1/2 inch cubes.

Make pudding mixture as follows: Mix pudding and milk together and stir with wire whip or mixer 1 to 2 minutes. Fold in 3 cups of Cool Whip and 1 cup miniature chocolate chips. Place 1/2 of brownies in bottom of large trifle bowl, then 1/2 of pudding mixture, 4 Heath bars (crushed), and a layer of Cool Whip. Repeat layers. Decorate with crushed Heath bars. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Tip: Freeze Heath bars; crush in wrapper with wooden mallet or handle of table knife. I used large punch bowl for serving.

-Karen Edwards