Fajita Salad

I bought a big package of Ramen noodles several years back that came with recipes on it. I cut them out and pasted them in my book o'recipes but haven't got around to trying any of them until now.

I have to admit that Ramen noodles are my most sinful of guilty pleasures. I know they're so bad for you, but there's something so comforting about cuddling up with a bowl of Ramen with enough shredded cheese to make a gooey mess. Om nom...

But THIS is a Ramen recipe I don't have to feel guilty about! It makes four servings, so you don't have to worry about taking in all that Ramen sodium all at once, and it can't hurt that this salad is SUPER delicious!

Fajita Salad

Ingredients

Salad:

• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon chili oil (or vegetable oil)
• 8 ounces chicken
• 1 red pepper, cut into strips
• 1/2 red onion, sliced
• Assorted salad greens
• 1 pkg. chicken-flavor Ramen noodles, broken before opening bag
• Avocado & tomato wedges (optional)

Dressing:

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon chili oil (or vegetable oil)
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil (or vegetable oil)
• 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
• 1 packet Ramen chicken seasoning
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro or 1 tablespoon chopped dried cilantro

Instructions

1. Pat chili powder onto chicken. If using chicken breasts, shred or cut into bite-size pieces.

2. Brown chicken in hot oil. Add pepper and onion. Cover; cook until done. Drain fat from chicken mixture.

3. Meanwhile, whisk together dressing ingredients.

4. Toss together chicken mixture, dressing, and Ramen noodles. Serve over greens. Garnish with tomato and avocado, if desired.

Ham "Sushi"

My friend, Bethany, passed along this lil' recipe to me, and I was immediately intrigued! Hubby has been itching to try making sushi, but I'm still hesitant, unsure of how I feel about preparing raw fish. However, this sushi look-alike is simple with only three ingredients, and I don't have to worry about scary bacteria or cooking sticky rice!

Ham "Sushi"

Ingredients
Sliced ham
Whole dill pickles
Cream cheese

Instructions
1. Spread warmed cream cheese onto one side of a ham slice.

2. Place pickle in middle of ham slice, on top of cream cheese.

3. Roll one side of ham around pickle and follow with the other side.

4. Turn the roll over to where the ends of the ham slice are facing down so it won't unroll while you're slicing it. With a serrated knife, slice the roll into about 1" long pieces and repeat for as many servings as desired!

As the rolls include ham and dill pickles, they're pretty salty, so I'd guess the serving size is about one and a half pickle's-worth of rolls. Or one pickle's-worth. Or just enough to not make yourself sick!

Spicy Turkey Spaghetti

So I know I vowed to never use meat in spaghetti again, but I couldn't resist trying this turkey spaghetti recipe. Turkey sausage is fun, but the recipe's greatest attraction to me is the squash. I love randomly including veggies in pasta! Why not?

Honestly I don't have much to say about this recipe. It's pretty simple but easy to throw together and pretty tasty too!

Spicy Turkey Spaghetti
From Better Homes & Gardens Biggest Book of 30 Minute Meals
4 servings

Ingredients
8 ounces uncooked turkey Italian sausage (remove casings, if present)
1 cup cut-up yellow squash
1 small red sweet pepper, cut into thin strips
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 14-ounce jar red pasta sauce
8-9 ounces dry pasta
2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese (optional)

Instructions
1. In a large skillet cook sausage, squash, sweet pepper, and onion over medium heat until sausage is brown.

2. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions; drain.

3. Drain off fat from sausage and veggies. Stir in pasta sauce; heat through.

4. Serve sausage mixture over pasta. If desired, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Strawberry Muffins

I love our local supermarket. Like every other grocery store nowadays, they have a rewards card program, and not only do you receive gas points and coupons, but throughout the store they often have 2 for 1 specials of which you can take advantage if you have the rewards card. Imagine my delight when there was a 2 for 1 special on strawberries last week! I felt like I had hit a gold mine!

Unfortunately in my foolish excitement, I didn't think Hubby and I could eat two cartons of strawberries before they went bad, so I froze the second carton in a plastic bag. This in itself wasn't a poor decision; the error came when I subsequently thawed the strawberries...and they turned into mush. I knew the only solution was to bake them! So I scoured my recipe books, and while this recipe doesn't suggest strawberries, the Joy of Cooking offers a delightful blueberry muffin recipe which works just as well with strawberries!

The strawberry mush made these muffins incredibly moist, so I think my freezing and thawing mishap turned out for the best!

Strawberry Muffins
12 muffins

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
4 to 8 tablespoons warm melted unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Now I must quote a very wise word of advice from The Joy of Cooking: "If muffins must be made hours before they will be consumed, or even the day before, you are wise to use 6 to 8 tablespoons butter...." I followed this advice by using 6 tablespoons, and my friend Meagan who tasted them a few days later commented on how buttery and moist they tasted. The Joy of Cooking know their stuff!

Instructions
1. Position a rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease a standard 12-muffin pan or line with paper cups.

2. Whisk together thoroughly in a large bowl: flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. Whisk together in another bowl: eggs, milk, brown sugar, butter, and vanilla. Add liquid mixture to the flour mixture and mix together with a few light strokes just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Do not overmix; the batter should not be smooth.

4. Fold strawberries into the batter. I dumped the strawberries in a line in the middle of the batter, then spooned batter from the sides on top of the berries until they were all covered.

5. Divide the batter among the muffin cups.

This photo illustrates why I don't consider myself a "baker." I'm too messy!

6. Bake until a toothpick inserted in 1 or 2 of the muffins comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool for 2 to 3 minutes before removing from the pan. If not serving hot, let cool on a rack.

Ginger-Lime Chicken Salad

I held off on trying this recipe from the Better Homes & Gardens Biggest Book of 30 Minute Meals for a while because I wasn't quite sure how ginger and lime would taste in a chicken salad. It took me a few bites to realize that I was very much enjoying the combination of flavors going on in my mouth!

This was one of the first lunches I made for Hubby when he came home from teaching drum corps this summer. Since we keep chicken breasts and chopped onions stocked in our freezer and lime juice in our fridge, this chicken salad is easy to whip together without a trip to the grocery store. The peanuts are a delightfully crunchy addition and I think any nut would do, and probably the inclusion of some chopped bell peppers would work out quite well too!

Ginger-Lime Chicken Salad
2 servings

Ingredients
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon chopped onion
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon ginger (freshly grated or dried)
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 1/2 cups roasted chicken breast cut into bite-size strips
1 stalk celery, cut lengthwise into thin ribbons, or a dash of dried celery seeds
1 tablespoon chopped peanuts

Instructions
1. For dressing, in a blender combine mayonnaise, onion, lime juice, ginger, and garlic. Cover and blend until onion is finely shopped and mixture is combined. Place chicken in a medium bowl. Pour dressing over chicken; toss to coat.

2. Serve on top of celery or on bread for a sandwich. Sprinkle with nuts.

The chicken salad is great on a sammich, with or without toasted cheese...nommy!

Chicken Veggie Soup & Cheese Spread

This was one of the soups I made in the middle of the summer like the sillyhead that I am. It's not fun to eat soup in the summer when you don't have air conditioning. It can get pretty toasty up here in Pennsylvania, believe it or not!

This soup is very customizable. Have some extra veggies lying around? Throw them in! It could only make the soup more nommy!

Chicken-Vegetable Soup
From the Better Homes & Gardens Biggest Book of 30 Minute Meals

Ingredients
1 stalk celery, chopped (optional)
12 ounce bag frozen green beans
1 medium carrot, thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
14 ounces chicken broth
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1 tablespoon snipped fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken or turkey (about 8 ounces)
1/4 dry white wine (or chicken broth)
Cracked black pepper

Instructions
1. In a large saucepan cook celery, carrot, and onion in hot butter until tender.

2. In a medium bowl gradually stir the chicken broth into the flour; stir into vegetables in saucepan.

3. Add milk, dried basil (if using), and salt. Cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly; cook and stir for 1 minute more.

2. Stir in chicken, wine and fresh herb (if using). Cook about 2 minutes more or until heated through. Sprinkle individual servings with pepper.

I enjoyed this homey soup with one of my go-to recipes taken from the Hellmann's Mayonnaise website. I've made this cheese spread for a couple of parties and also whenever I feel like showing some love to my toast.

I usually have all of the required ingredients, and I sure love when that works out for a recipe! However, since I don't usually have baguettes running around my kitchen, I cut sliced bread into quarters, spread them with the cheese mixture, and pop them in the oven. They're perfect party-size, and the recipe is customizable for any menu whether Italian, Mexican, or Southern; just change up your cheese and substitute the herbs for whatever herbs or dried pepper you fancy!

Cheese Spread

Ingredients
1/3 cup mayonnaise (I highly recommend mayo made with olive oil!)
1 cup shredded cheese, such as asiago or parmesan
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano leaves or 1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves, crushed
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley or 1 teaspoon dried parsley, crushed
5 slices of bread, cut into quarters for "mini" toasts

Since I was cooking for myself, I didn't bother cutting bread into mini toasts, I just slapped some spread on a bagel!

Spaghetti "Bolognese"

This recipe, from Better Home & Gardens Biggest Book of 30 Minute Meals, is on the top of my favorites list for this blog so far. You may look at the photo and think, "Oh, that's just your ordinary spaghetti with meat sauce," but you'd be delightfully wrong because it's vegetarian! That's no ground beef -- that's Grape Nut cereal!

Before you close your browser tab in disgust, let me reveal that because of this recipe, I may never make spaghetti with meat sauce again. The mild-tasting Grape Nut cereal provides the perfect sauce texture while soaking in all the savory onion, garlic, and oregano flavors. In my opinion, ground beef can overwhelm those flavors. Plus the wheat cereal is so much better for you!

I've been dying for two weeks to catch up with my blogs so I could finally post this recipe! I think my vegetarian friends will appreciate it. I'm already planning to make it again next week!

Spaghetti with Vegetarian Sauce "Bolognese"
4 servings

Ingredients
6 ounces dried spaghetti, cooked and drained
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced (optional)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic (3 cloves)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 - 14 1/2 can stewed tomatoes, undrained and cut up
1 - 8-ounce can tomato sauce
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup Grape Nuts cereal

Instructions
1. In a medium saucepan heat oil over medium-high heat. Add carrot, celery, onion, garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper; cook about 5 minutes or until onion is tender.

2. Drain canned stewed tomato juice into saucepan then cut the stewed tomatoes on a cutting board. Transfer tomatoes to saucepan. Add tomato sauce and the water. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in cereal; return to boiling. Remove from heat.

Prizewinning Sunday Salad

This chicken salad lived up to its name because it immediately won our approval and stamp of "nommy" the first time we made it. Like a typical chicken salad, once you prep the ingredients, all you have to do is throw everything together and you have a filling main dish to pair with fruit, crackers and cheese, or smoothies (which is the option we chose.)

I guess the easy instructions along with prep that can be done ahead of time is why the name indicates that this salad is ideal for Sunday lunches after church. I'm sure that was your first thought upon reading the title, but I must admit my brain processes took a less logical approach and assumed the combination of "prizewinning" and "Sunday" in the name suggested that you would be winning prizes on Sunday with the dish. I don't think that's too far-fetched however because I believe this is one of the best chicken salads I have ever had. Honestly, it's second only to chicken salad that I had on tour with the Spirit of Atlanta Drum & Bugle Corps this summer. Their head chef could make a mean chicken salad; I'll have to get the recipe...and cut it down from 400 servings....

Prizewinning Sunday Salad
from the Better Homes & Gardens Biggest Book of 30 Minute Meals
Makes approximately 6 servings.

Ingredients
1 20-ounce can pineapple chunks, drained
2 cups cubed cooked chicken breast (about 10 ounces)
2 cups cubed cooked ham (about 10 ounces)
4 stalks celery, diced or dash of celery seeds (optional)
1 medium green sweet pepper, chopped
3/4 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Dash salt
Lettuce leaves (optional for presentation)

As always, for any recipe that requires chicken, we cooked up some of our frozen chicken breasts in the skillet. We bought a thickly-sliced ham from the supermarket that was significantly more pricey than sandwich ham, but the big salty bites of ham throughout the salad were totally worth it. Plus it provided more than enough meat for this recipe, so it lasted us a good while afterwards for tasty sammiches.

Instructions
1. In a large bowl combine pineapple chunks, chicken, ham, celery, sweet pepper, and almonds.

2. For dressing, in a small bowl combine mayonnaise, lemon juice, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Pour dressing over salad; toss lightly to coat. Serve on lettuce-lined plates if desired.

As I mentioned before, we enjoyed filling chocolate peanut butter smoothies with this summer meal!

Seafood Chowder

With cooler weather upon us (in Pennsylvania at least), soups are now more appropriate! I admit it was a little ridiculous for me to be cooking and blogging about soup in the middle of summer, but when you're on a budget and already have most of the ingredients, soup is pretty convenient.

Fish keeps our chicken company in the freezer; our supermarket usually has good deals on frozen fish, so we stock up for recipes such as this!

Seafood Chowder
from Better Homes & Gardens Biggest Book of 30 Minute Meals
Ingredients
12 ounces fresh or frozen fish fillets (such as salmon, orange roughy, or cod)
3 cups loose-pack frozen diced hash brown potatoes with onion and peppers (aka Potatoes O'Brien)
1 cup water
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
1 10 3/4-ounce can condensed cream of shrimp or cream of potato soup
1/3 cup cooked bacon pieces
2 teaspoons snipped fresh dillweed or 3/4 teaspoons dried dillweed
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 2-ounce jar diced pimiento, drained

Instructions
1. Thaw fish, if frozen. Rinse fish; pat dry with paper towels. Cut fish into 1-inch pieces. Set aside.

Oops! Fish down! Kat wasn't sure what to do....

2. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan combine hash brown potatoes and the water. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 5 minutes or until tender.

We cooked up some turkey bacon and coarsely chopped it for the required bacon pieces.

3. Stir in evaporated milk, soup, bacon, dillweed, and pepper. Return to boiling. Add fish and pimiento; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.

The evaporated milk and cream of chicken soup makes this chowder delightfully creamy and savory. It's perfect for a quick, warm meal this fall!

Cornmeal Cookies

I know what your thinking...I hadn't heard of cornmeal cookies either -- that is until I felt the urge to bake cookies last week and found the curious recipe in The Joy of Cooking. To everyone who tried these cookies, I described them as corn bread as it's should have been. It's not that I don't like corn bread -- I just can't bake it myself! And I call myself a Southerner...for shame! Now I can just bake these cookies instead to accompany Thanksgiving and down-home meals, and I'm pretty sure no one will complain!

The name of these cookies is actually "Cornmeal Citrus Cookies," but I cheated on the required lemon zest and used the same amount of lemon juice instead. We couldn't pick up much lemon flavor at all, but the cookies were so nommy anyway that we didn't mind. I'm sure using the correct ingredients would bring out the correct flavors though....

Cornmeal Cookies
Prep Time: Approximately 1 hour & 20 minutes
Baking Time: 6 - 8 minutes
Yield: About 7 dozen 2.5-inch cookies

Ingredients
(all at room temperature)
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter or margarine, at room temperature
1 cup sugar, processed in a food processor for 30 seconds, or superfine sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 large egg yolk
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup cornmeal
1.5 cups all purpose flour

Instructions
1. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, salt, and lemon juice on medium speed until very fluffy and well blended. Add egg yolk and beat until well blended. Add egg and vanilla and beat until well combined. Reduce the speed to low and beat in flour and cornmeal until just combined.

2. Divide the dough in half and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 2 days or it can be doubled-wrapped and frozen for up to 1 month.)

We ran out of plastic wrap, so I refrigerated them in plastic zip lock bags!

3. To bake, position a rack in the upper third and another in the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Remove one half of dough from the refrigerator and divide in half. Return the unused portion to the refrigerator.

4. Lightly flour the work surface. Roll the dough to 1/8 inch thick. Sprinkle the surface lightly with flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking. Cut the dough into desired shapes. Place the dough shapes on greased cookie sheets, spacing about 1/2 inch apart. Get as many dough shapes as you can out of each sheet, because the dough should be rolled only 2 times. Form the leftover dough into balls and flatten them to about 1/8 inch thick.

5. Bake, 2 sheets at a time, until the cookies are evenly golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes; rotate the sheets halfway through baking for even browning. Using a spatula, immediately transfer the cookies to racks to cool. Repeat steps 4 & 5 to use up desired amount of dough. Store leftover cookies in an airtight container.

I have to admit that our dough was super sticky, so we had to add a lot of flour while rolling. I enjoy rolling cookie dough and cutting out each cookie, so I chose that process over drop cookies, but you could do that instead if you like. You still would get your hands pretty messy by rolling the cookies into balls, so I think you'd need additional flour as well. Perhaps the lemon juice substitution resulted in the unusual stickiness, or maybe the humidity of our apartment did it. I hope your cookies give you less trouble but are just as nommy!

Did you know you can freeze eggs once they've been cracked? Now I don't have to rush to make mayo or other noms with my leftover egg whites or yolks; I can just freeze them until I need them! They can stay frozen for a year and must be thawed a day prior to use. Who knew?

Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie

I had seen this "milkshake" recipe floating around Pinterest for a long while before I convinced myself to purchase the required bananas. History reveals that I'm not the biggest plain banana fan so I never used to buy them just to eat for breakfast or as a snack. The few times that I had bought them were for banana bread (a recipe that I can't replicate to the perfection of Grandmama's...yet.) As a result of this "milkshake" recipe, I now keep bananas stocked in our kitchen because I discovered you can freeze them! Pinterest leads you to several nommy recipes that require frozen bananas for different drinks and even "ice cream"!

Now I don't have to worry about consuming them before they go bad; I just slice them up, remove the peel, and pop them in the freezer for whenever I feel like a cold treat. If you leave the peel on when you freeze the bananas, it will turn brown, but the banana is still good!

I refer to these "milkshakes" as smoothies since they're banana-based instead of ice cream-based. They turn out so thick and creamy that "milkshake" is definitely an applicable description though!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothies
Ingredients
2 frozen bananas, pre-sliced before freezing
1 1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 cup milk
1 Tbsp maple syrup, sugar/sweetener, or honey
1 heaping Tbsp peanut butter

Instructions
Blend all ingredients in a high-power blender until smooth. Turn off blender and scrape sides with a spoon or spatula then blend again to mix.

The first time I made these, I froze the bananas whole and with the peel. I learned quickly that it's much easier to peel and slice them before freezing! As you can see from this photo, it is quite possible to slice them after the entire banana is frozen though! Just watch your fingers!

We enjoy this chocolate-y treat in our designated "chocolate milk glasses." We registered for these glasses for our wedding because they remind me of glasses my grandparents always had for the grandchildrens' chocolate milk. Special drinks deserve special glasses, in my opinion!

One serving of this smoothie makes about twelve ounces of smoothie which contains about 496 calories. You can probably cut down on the calorie count with sweetener, and I can attest to the recipe's nommy-ness when made with honey instead of the syrup. Honestly the maple syrup is a little too sweet for my tastes. Hubby and I split one serving when we make them, and I can't imagine drinking a whole batch by myself. One banana is really filling -- let alone two!

Chocolate Cupcakes

This blog post is inspired by the dentist. I found it ironic that I could watch a woman bake cupcakes on TV while having cavities drilled, and I left the dentist office not wanting to brush or floss more but wanting to bake cupcakes! So I went home and scoured my collection of cookbooks for the perfect new recipe to try.

My friend Miranda, knowing and sharing my love of cooking, gave me "The Complete Book of Chocolate And 200 Chocolate Recipes" a while back. From that gift, I have baked real chocolate banana pudding, peanut butter marble cake, and now the most important creation for any serious baker...cupcakes!

Of course I can't make any recipe the way I'm supposed to, so I used unsweetened cocoa powder instead of chocolate for the cupcakes because, at the time, I didn't have any chocolate bars. I happen to have six in the fridge right now, but that wasn't helping me very much when I baked these over a month ago!

Chocolate Fairy Cakes
(AKA chocolate cupcakes)
Ingredients
4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbsp + 2 tsp canola or vegetable oil
4 tbsp + 2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp water
2.5 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1.5 cups caster sugar (Sugar ground in a food processor for a couple of minutes)
3/4 cup butter or margarine, at room temperature
2/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 24 cupcake tins and line with paper liners.

2. Cook the cocoa powder, oil, 4 tbsp + 2 tsp sugar, and water in a small saucepan, stirring frequently until heated through. Remove from the heat. With a sifter or whisk, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and caster sugar into a large bowl. Add the chocolate mixture, butter or margarine, milk, and vanilla.

3. With a hand-held electric mixer on medium speed, beat the mixture until smooth. Increase the speed to high and beat for 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat for 1 minute after each addition.

4. Divide the mixture evenly among the prepared tins.

I only had enough liners for half my cakes, but I think they turned out fine!

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean. Cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out to cool completely on a wire rack.

I used my go-to cream cheese icing recipe from The Joy of Cooking. You can find it on my carrot cake post and make it while you wait for your cupcakes to cool! I left out the cinnamon this time though; as much as I love cinnamon, it's more appropriate for carrot cake, I think.

Graham Cracker Crisp

My grandmother's 91st birthday was last month, and unfortunately I couldn't celebrate with her and the rest of the family since we live over 1000 miles away from her. However what I COULD do was experience a little bit of her and send her a little of myself by making a recipe of hers then mailing her the resulting goodies. For as long as I can remember my grandmother has made these graham cracker crisps for almost every get-together or just to have around the house.

I had never made this simple recipe before, and, as is my usual habit, I changed the recipe a little bit. Of course there is nothing wrong with the original recipe, but I substituted a couple of ingredients for items I had on hand. I also cut the recipe down by half because I only had one sleeve of graham crackers and no butter. To make matters even more complicated, I only had about 1/4 cup margarine...aaand peanuts instead of pecans. So I guess you could say I botched the recipe. Fortunately it's hard to make graham crackers, margarine, sugar, and peanuts taste bad, and I was pleased when Grandmama wrote back saying my "version" of the recipe tasted great!

Graham Cracker Crisp
Ingredients
graham crackers
pecans, cut up
1 stick butter
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup white sugar

Instructions
1. Line up graham crackers on a cookie sheet touching each other. Sprinkle each with pecans.

2. Cook butter, margarine, and sugar mixture in a small saucepan until bubbly. Cook 3 minutes and pour over crackers and pecans.

3. Bake in oven for 15 minutes at 300°. Transfer grahams to wax paper or wire rack to cool.

If I remember correctly, when you use the right ingredients and proportions for this recipe, the outside turns hard and more candy-like than cracker-like as mine did. As I mentioned before, it's hard to truly mess up these ingredients, so if you change the recipe like I did, they'll probably still turn out to be a nommy treat!

Simple Salsa Chicken

Hubby and I LOVE Mexican food, so we were shocked upon moving to Pennsylvania by the state's severe lack of Mexican restaurants. To appease our cravings (and coincidentally to benefit our wallets) we make Mexican cuisine at home instead!

We were AMAZED by this Tex-Mex dish and gobbled it down. The recipe says it makes 4 to 6 servings, and I'd say it leans more towards the 5 to 6 serving end, and that's a good thing! This dish's leftovers are just as nommy as the first day!

Simple Salsa Chicken
From the Better Homes & Gardens Biggest Book of 30 Minute Meals
Ingredients
1 green sweet pepper, cut into bite-size strips
1 red sweet pepper, cut into bite-size strips
1 tablespoon cooking oil
2 cups cubed cooked potatoes
1 16-ounce jar salsa
1 15.5-ounce can whole kernel corn, drained
1 15- or 16-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1.5 cups cubed cooked chicken (about 8 ounces)
(As usual, we thawed one of our frozen boneless chicken breasts, cut it into cubes, then cooked it over medium-high heat until no longer pink.)
Dairy sour cream (Optional.)


Instructions
1. In a large skillet cook sweet pepper strips in hot oil for 2 minutes. (If you're using the same skillet that you used for cooking your chicken, don't forget to drain the fat out of it!) Add potatoes, salsa, corn, black beans, and chicken. Stir gently.

All our ingredients together (left) and then stirred (right.)

2. Cover and cook over medium-low heat about 10 minutes or until heated through, stirring occasionally. If desired, serve with sour cream.

With the potatoes, corn, black beans, and chicken, this dish is filling, but we couldn't help but bake up some nachos with queso to go with it!

For our nachos, I spread out about half a family-size bag of tortilla chips onto a greased baking sheet then sprinkled about 1.5 cups of grated pepper jack cheese, about 3 Tbsp diced jalapenos, about 1/4 cup chopped banana pepper rings, and about half of a chopped red bell pepper on top. I baked them probably around 350°F until the cheese melted which didn't take very long.

I can't remember exactly what I did for did for the queso unfortunately, but I believe it involved about 1/4 cup cream cheese, red pepper flakes, probably 1.5 cups of grated cheese, and about 1/4 cup of milk, heated over medium heat until bubbly. I wouldn't swear by my memory on that, but ours turned out pretty satisfactory, so just throw in what you think sounds good -- that's what I always do for queso!

Pasta with Tomatoes & Ham

Unlike some other recipes I've been making recently, this dish pairs perfectly with summer! Grab those veggies and herbs out of your garden and get cooking!

Ingredients
1 medium onion, cut into 1/4-inch slices
(We used about 3/4 cup frozen chopped onions.)
12 red &/or yellow cherry &/or pear tomatoes, halved
(...we chopped up a couple of Roma tomatoes instead.)
8 ounces dried pasta
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)
2 ounces thinly sliced cooked ham, cut into strips
(aka deli sliced ham)
3 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil
2 tablespoons garlic-flavor olive oil or olive oil

Instructions
1. Place onion on the foil-lined rack of a broiler pan. Broil onion 4 inches from heat for 5 minutes. Add tomato to pan; broil about 5 minutes more or until edges are brown.

As you can see, we broiled the ham along with the tomatoes and onions to heat it up.

2. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions, adding crushed red pepper (if desired) to water.

3. Drain well. Return to pan; cover and keep warm.

4. Cut up onion slices. Toss onion pieces and tomato with pasta, ham, basil, and oil.

I'm thoroughly enjoying my basil plant that I've succeeded in not killing so far this summer!

This recipe was delicious, and I can't wait to make it again!

Salsa Fish, Squash, & Mushroom Cheese Bread

What could be intimidating about a recipe with "simple" in the title? And what could fail to be nommy when served over couscous that was cooked in chicken broth? Nothing!

This fish dish calls for orange roughy or red snapper fillets, but we used up some frozen tilapia that was swimming around in our freezer, and the substitution turned out fine for our taste buds. I also substituted the vegetable broth for chicken broth made from bouillon.

Simple Salsa Fish
Ingredients
1 pound fresh or frozen skinless orange roughy or red snapper fillets, 1/2 to 1 inch thick
1/3 cup bottled salsa
1/2 teaspoon bottled minced garlic (1 clove)
1 14-ounce can vegetable broth
1 cup quick-cooking couscous
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions or coarsely snipped fresh cilantro
Lime or lemon wedges

Instructions
1. Thaw fish, if frozen. Rinse fish; pat dry with paper towels. Measure thickness of fish. Set aside. In a small bowl combine salsa and garlic; set aside.

2. In a small saucepan bring broth to boiling. Stir in couscous; cover and remove from heat. Let stand about 5 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Stir in green onions or cilanro.

As you can see, we used green onions!

3. Grease rack of an unheated broiler pan; place fish on rack. Broil about 4 inches from the heat until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork (allow 4 to 6 minutes per 1/2-inch thickness of fish). Turn 1-inch-thick fillets over halfway through broiling. Spoon salsa mixture over fish; broil about 1 minute more or until salsa is heated through.

4. Arrange fish on couscous mixture. Serve with lime or lemon wedges.

Perhaps you'll notice our lack of lime or lemon wedges; we drizzled a little lime juice over the end result instead. Perhaps you'll also notice that our fish is not in nice little fillets; we tore the fillets into pieces instead since we had a little less fish than the recipe calls for. Smaller pieces mean more to go around right....?

We enjoyed our salsa fish with squash and peppers and mushroom cheese bread, both featured below!

Summer Squash with Peppers
Ingredients
2 pounds zucchini and/or yellow summer squash, cut into bite-size chunks
1 green sweet pepper, cut into strips
2 tablespoons olive oil
1.5 teaspoons Greek-style or Mediterranean-style seasoning blend
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions
In a large shallow roasting pan combine squash pieces and sweet pepper strips. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with seasoning blend and pepper; toss to coat. Roast, uncovered in a 425°F oven about 15 minutes or just until tender, stirring once.

Mushroom Cheese Bread
Unlike the other two recipes which were taken from my BH&G 30 minute meals cookbook, this simple, toasty recipe was found in my winter guard's fundraiser cookbook. Sorry I forgot to take photos of the process and end result. You'll just have to look at it in the photo of the salsa fish and take my word that it's delicious!

Ingredients
4 oz. shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
4 oz. sliced mushroom
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
1 1-lb. loaf unsliced French bread

In a small bowl, combine the mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese and onion. Cut the bread in half lengthwise; spread cheese mixture over cut sides. Grill, covered, over indirect heat or broil 4 inches from heat for 5-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Slice and serve warm.

I must admit that we broiled the bread instead of grilling it since our oven was on the broil setting for the fish anyway. Consequently, we forgot to set a timer for the bread and forgot it was in the oven which resulted in the slightly burnt edges visible in the photo. Luckily the damage was minimal and we still enjoyed the nommy cheesy toast!

Mu Shu-Style Pork Wraps

I believe this might be my last wrap recipe for a while. Seems like I have more stir-fry and...call me crazy...soup ahead of me now, according to my BH&G 30 minute meals cookbook. I'm going to give the soup a try this week, but with rising temperatures and a lack of air conditioning, I'll probably hold off on those heart-warming recipes until the fall.

Right now, let's just focus on this wrap. With pork, sesame oil, and hoisin sauce, it's hard to not be nommy, so this recipe was obviously a success! Plum sauce is listed as an alternative to hoisin sauce, and, having never even hear of plum sauce before, I'd be interested to try that option. Needless to say, I stuck with my tried and true hoisin this time.

Ingredients
1 teaspoon sesame oil
12 ounces lean boneless pork, trimmed and cut into thin bite-size strips
2 cups loose-pack frozen stir-fry vegetables (any combination)
4 10-inch flour tortillas, warmed
1/4 cup bottled plum or hoisin sauce

Instructions
1. In a large skillet heat oil over medium-high heat. Add pork; cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or just until meat is slightly pink in center. Add the vegetables. Cook and stir for 3 to 4 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender.

2. Warm your tortillas, two at a time, between two paper towels for about 15 seconds in the microwave. This will help you roll them!

3. Spread each tortilla with 1 tablespoon of the plum or hoisin sauce. Spoon one-fourth of the meat mixture onto each tortilla just below the center. Fold the bottom edge of each tortilla up and over the filling. Fold in the sides until they meet; roll up over the filling.

Oops! I didn't follow the directions to fold the ends of my wraps! I felt confident about these little wraps not losing too much filling. I'll be honest and say that this cookbook taught me how to fold tortilla ends even though the process may sound like a no-brainer. Having a nice tucked-in tortilla helps for those large, unruly wraps one frequently encounters!

We enjoyed our wraps with fried rice, and I must admit that I did not make the rice from scratch.... I bought a box on clearance at our super market! Sometimes it's ok to give yourself a meal prep breather!

Curried Chicken & Corn Chowder

This is another great recipe for cooking on a budget, again from the BH&G Biggest Book of 30 Minute Meals. All we had to buy was the can of creamed corn and can of cream of chicken soup. You probably have everything else in your pantry, and if you don't, then well...you will after this meal! (Ok, so maybe you don't have green or red sweet peppers lying around, but we always seem to have a jar of roasted red peppers in the fridge, and they come in handy for recipes such as this!)

As fans of Indian food, we loved this recipe. It's hard to go wrong with curry, in my opinion, but we felt that this dish was even more satisfying with a sprinkle of garlic salt mixed in. It helps to ground the curry's intensity if I may use such an abstract description!

Ingredients
1 17-ounce can cream-style corn
2 cups milk
1 10 3/4-ounce can condensed cream of chicken soup
3/4 cup chopped green or red sweet pepper
1 tablespoon dried minced onion
2 to 3 teaspoons curry powder
1 1/2 cups diced cooked chicken
Coarsely chopped peanuts (optional)
Garlic salt to taste

1. In a large saucepan stir together undrained corn, milk, cream of chicken soup, sweet pepper, dried minced onion, and curry powder. Bring to boiling, stirring frequently.

2. Stir in chicken; cook about 2 minutes or until heated through. If desired, sprinkle with peanuts.

As you can see, we enjoyed our curry over rice. Perhaps July wasn't the best time of year to try this dish because it's really a comfort food with curry that slaps you in the face a bit. But if you don't mind that combination on a hot summer day, go for it! It is still so nommy!

Maple-Pecan Glazed Pork Chops

Yes, you can have maple syrup with dinner, and no, this isn't your typical breakfast for dinner! Really it's only a little hint of breakfast with your dinner, but who knew maple syrup could be so nommy on pork chops?

We can usually find small pork chops on sale at our supermarket, so they're a great option for meals on a budget. This recipe calls for very few ingredients so your wallet can rest easy.

Ingredients
4 boneless pork loin chops, cut 3/4 inch thick (about 1 pound total)
4 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup or maple-flavored syrup
1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted

Instructions
1. Trim fat from chops. Sprinkle chops with salt and pepper. In a 12-inch skillet melt 1 tablespoon of the butter over medium-high heat. Add chops; cook for 8 to 12 minutes or until tender (160°F) and juices run clear, turning once.

2. Transfer chops to a serving platter.

3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine the remaining 3 tablespoons butter and the maple syrup. Spread butter mixture evenly over cooked chops. Let stand about 1 minute or until melted. Sprinkle with pecans.

Don't be scared of the golden/yellow liquid -- that's just the delicious butter and maple syrup! If you're concerned about calories, I think you could cut the butter and syrup amounts in half and still experience the desired flavors. As you can see we had a lot of the mixture for our little chops.

We rounded out this meal with Veggie Mash & Garlic Cheddar Biscuits so I could share those two nommy recipes with Justin since he was out of town when I first tried them.

As usual, this recipe is from the Better Homes & Gardens Biggest Book of 30 Minute Meals; I hope you enjoy!