Itty Bitty Kisses

Chicken with Mushrooms

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:18:00 +0000

This is so easy and so flavorful. You could make this, and freeze before the baking step. Then, thaw and bake for easy dinner night. So yummy.

Ingredients

3 cups sliced mushrooms
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to taste
2 tablespoons butter
Garlic
6 ounces mozzarella cheese, sliced (I used pre-shredded pizza cheese)
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 can cream of mushroom soup

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Saute the mushrooms in a little oil and garlic to desired tenderness.
Place the mushrooms in a 9x13 inch pan.
In separate bowl, mix the chicken broth with cream of mushroom soup. Set aside.
Dip chicken into beaten eggs, then roll in bread crumbs, salt, pepper and seasoning.
In skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Brown both sides of chicken in skillet. Place chicken on top of mushrooms, then pour the soup/broth mixture over the chicken, and top with mozzarella cheese.
Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.
Serve over noodles or rice.

Twice Baked Potato's

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 03:36:00 +0000

Such an important detail here with regards to freezer cooking...don't forget the sides! I have lots of breadsticks and things frozen, some rice, and lots of veggies. But, why not potato's? Well, yes potato's!

I bought a bag of large potato's at 15lbs for $7.50. Not bad. I simply scrubbed the skins, and baked for an hour at 425. Once cool enough to handle, scoop out most of the insides, and make your favorite mashed potato's. I used butter, dash of milk, sour cream, garlic salt and pepper. Mixed it up with my hand mixer in a bowl, then scooped back into the potato skins. I didn't have any cheese, but if I did, I would have shredded it, and frozen it all together. Once completely cool, I laid wax paper over the top, then wrapped tightly with foil, and sealed in freezer bags, removing most of the air. Label, and store, and you've got side dishes! I still have the other half of the potato's to do tomorrow. I was thinking, why not just freeze mashed potato's? :)

Homemade Chicken Broth

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 03:28:00 +0000

Well, I figured since I needed to boil chicken for my freezer stockpile, may as well use the broth too! I'm going to freeze it in 1 cup portions in freezer baggies and use as needed. There is a ton left from boiling 8 chicken breasts today.

I diced 1 onion, 2 celery stalks, and 2 carrots and boiled in enough water to cover until soft. Then I added the chicken breasts and covered with water. Boiled the chicken for an hour, then shredded and removed the bones. Added the bones back to the liquid and continued to cook for a couple hours. Then, I strained all the broth in a colander and set out to cool.

And just for organization purposes, the extra shredded chicken from tonight.

King Ranch Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 01:45:00 +0000

This is a recipe from an old church recipe book I have. I was too obsessed with sweets as a child to really get into this kind of cooking, but I'm so glad I got that book! This is a great recipe, that I tend to have most ingredients for at any given time. You can always boil chicken in larger quantities, shred, and freeze in meal size servings for ease in the kitchen on other nights.

This recipe can also be assembled and frozen before or after baking!

King Ranch Chicken
1 chicken or 2-3 chicken breasts
1 bay leaf
1C chopped onion
1C chopped green pepper
1 stick butter (1/2C)
2 cans cream of mushroom
2 cans cream of chicken
1 can diced tomato's
1 small can diced green chilli's
12 corn tortillas, torn into pieces
1 1/2 C shredded cheddar

Boil chicken with salt, pepper and bay leaf. After cooking, bone the chicken and cut into bite sized pieces (return the bones to the pot to continue making homemade broth!).

In a large saucepan, saute onions and green peppers in butter until tender. Stir in soups, tomato's and chilli's.

In a 9x13 pan, arrange alternate layers of tortillas, chicken, soup mixture, and cheese, using 1/3 of all ingredients. Repeat layers 2 more times.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes until hot and bubbly and cheese just starts to brown.

May be frozen before or after baking.

To continue making homemade broth, just boil the bones for several hours, then strain through cheesecloth or colander. Cool, and freeze in 1 Cup portions in freezer safe baggies.

Apple Cuties by Lauren P!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:09:00 +0000

Pre-heat oven to 425'

To start-
3 TBS of butter in large pan
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

melt the butter and mix in the sugar and cinnamon

THEN you take 1 green granny smith apple and peel it, slice it and dice it into little bitty apple chunks and you add the apples to the cinnamon, butter, sugar mixture and cook on medium heat for a few minutes (like 4 minutes), stir frequently

In a sep. bowl- add
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbs of sugar
1/8 tsp of salt
and whisk together until well beaten

-Pour the batter over the top cinnamon apple mixture (leave it in the large skillet/pan) and put it in the oven for 15 minutes. This will not hurt your pan. Cut like a pizza when finished and you can add powdered sugar or syrup over the top. Its SUPER yummy and a good way to get some apples in your kiddo for breakfast!

Basic White Suace and Cream Of_ Recipes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:44:00 +0000

Tucking this in here for safe keeping. A friend of a friend posted this on Facebook.

Basic White Sauce (thick):
3 Tablespoons butter or oil
3 Tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash of pepper
1-1/4 cup liquid, milk or stock

Melt butter or oil in saucepan. Stir in flour and seasonings. Cook over medium heat until bubbly. Add liquid slowly, stirring with wire whisk to prevent lumps. Cook until thick. Makes 1 cup or 1 can of condensed soup.
Tomato Soup: Use tomato juice for the liquid. Add dashes of garlic, onion powder, basil and oregano.
Chicken Soup: Use chicken broth for half the liquid. Add 1/4 t. poultry seasoning or sage.
Mushroom/celery/chive soup: Saute 1/4 C chopped mushrooms, celery or chives and 1 T minced onion in butter before adding flour.

Homemade Granola Bars

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 21:16:00 +0000

These are absolutely perfect! The crunchy, the chewy, the easy. This recipe has it all, and I had it all in my stockpile! Sweet! But, speaking of sweet, these are very very sweet. Next time we will try cutting the sugar in half and limiting the chocolate/peanut butter chips to 1/2 Cup total. I will also vary this recipe another time using craisins and chopped dark chocolate...maybe even almonds as well. Yum yum!

Thanks again to Simple Organized Living for this recipe!

Ingredients:

1/2 c. honey or corn syrup {I used 1/4 c. of each}
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. peanut butter
2 c. quick oats
2 c. Rice Krispy cereal
1/4 c. ground flax seed
1 or 2 T. wheat germ {optional — and I did not add this}
1 c. total of your favorite mix-ins {I used chocolate chips, but you could also mix and match dried fruit, nuts, seeds, etc.}

Directions:

:

In a small sauce pan, mix honey {or corn syrup} and brown sugar.
Cook over medium-high heat until sugar is completely dissolved – stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and quickly stir in peanut butter.
Mix the oats, cereal, flax seed, and optional wheat germ in a large bowl.
Pour honey mixture over dry ingredients — mix well.
Stir in chocolate chips, nuts, fruit, and any other “mix-ins”

Press mixture into a 9″ x 13″ pan that has been greased or lined with wax paper. {I find it works best when I put another piece of wax paper on top of the bars and press down with a measuring cup.}

Let cool and “firm up” — kind of like Rice Krispy Bars

Cut into bars and store in an air-tight container. I cut mine into 24 bars that were about 1″ x 4″ {8 rows by 3 rows}. I used a pastry cutter/scraper because it cuts really straight lines — but a long knife would work just fine too.
And since I used chocolate chips, I figured it would be best to store our granola bars in the refrigerator so they don’t melt!

English Muffin Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 20:58:00 +0000

I made this delicious bread as part of my freezer stockpile. I am working very hard in the next few weeks to stock my freezer with ready to eat foods. I am on the breakfasts right now complete with oatmeal pancakes, cinnamon swirl pancakes, French Toast, homemade poptarts, breakfast burrito's and this bread of course. Stay tuned in the weeks to come for all those recipes!!!

I really enjoyed this blog where I found recipe for English Muffin Bread. Thanks Simple Organized Living!

INGREDIENTS:

{print recipe}

3 c. flour
2 packets active dry yeast {or 4 1/2 t. if you buy it in jars like I do}
2 t. salt
1 T. granulated sugar
1/4 t. baking soda

2 c. milk
1/2 c. water

2 1/2 c. additional flour

DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl, mix the first 5 dry ingredients together

In a small bowl, combine milk and water. Heat in the microwave until hot {usually a minute or two}

Pour milk mixture into flour mixture and beat well {I like stirring it with a wooden spoon}

Stir in the remaining 2 1/2 c. flour until you have a very stiff batter

Spoon batter into two WELL GREASED bread loaf pans

Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes

Preheat oven to 400*F

After bread rises, bake {uncovered} for 25 minutes or until done

Remove from pans immediately and let cool completely

Cut both loaves into thin slices and freeze in air-tight containers or freezer bags {see picture above}

Once the bread is frozen, it will stay fresh for months, and whenever you want a slice, just pull one out of the freezer and pop it in your toaster — just like an English Muffin!

More Applesauce

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 20:09:00 +0000

Well, I promised and now have delivered. I sent hubby to the store for 50lbs of apples. Turns out he couldn't bear to fill another bag and brought home 40lbs instead. He's forgiven, both for the flowers he got for me while he was there, and the cashier accidentally wrung up the Honeycrisp apples at .69cents/lb like all the rest.

I borrowed help from friends, and their crockpots, to make them all in 1 day. I hate putting off until tomorrow, what can be done today!

So, I canned 18 Pints this morning using the same recipe as before. This time, I used 1/4C. packed brown sugar in each crockpot. 1 full crockpot made 9 jars. I'm a nerd...that's 55grams of sugar per crockpot. 9 pints means there is 6.11grams of added sugar per pint jar. Not bad! That's 1-2grams per serving. Told you...NERD!

I used a selection of about 6 varieties of apples. I have never bought Red Rome, and was delighted to see the flesh was red/pink! That was so cool. The Jonagold sprayed me in the face when they were chopped...each and every one of them! But, with the help of a friend, this went very quickly. Many hands make light work, eh?!

Total of 24! Exactly what I wanted!

Chicken Parmigiana

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 02:03:00 +0000

This is from The Pioneer Woman. It's nothing short of fabulous! I am not going to post her recipe, as it is so beautifully written and photographed by her on her blog. This is definitely one to try and to keep in the dinner rotation. I think 2 necessities of this recipe are red wine and tenderized chicken!
Here's the recipe.

Homemade Applesauce

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:06:00 +0000

I was so thrilled this week when my store had all their apples on sale for .69cents/lb!!! I bought 15lbs, but will go back and get more. The recipe couldn't be any easier. Thank you Balancing Beauty and Bedlam!!! Since I don't own a food mill, I peeled, cored and cut the apples by hand. It didn't take very long, but if you have a food mill you will not have to do that and your sauce will be much more creamy. I don't mind a little bit of chunky. I used 7lbs in my crockpot, put 2 cinnamon sticks in the apples, and sprinkled a little more cinnamon on top of the apples.

I cooked it on low all night long to smell that beautiful smell in the morning! Then, I used my hand mixer and mushed it all up, and added a little brown sugar and cinnamon (about 1/3 Cup sugar and more cinnamon to taste).

It made almost 5 pints canned...and a few bowls fresh for the kids.

Processing time in the canner was 20 minutes according to my favorite canning site Pick Your Own! They have instructions for the way I did it, as well as if you use a food mill.

Green Chili Cubes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:50:00 +0000

So, my friend Kathy had a fantastic idea for freezing green chili's. Roast your chili's. I used an outdoor grill. Char the chili's on all sides, then place in a plastic bag for 15 minutes. Using gloves, peel the skins off, and scrape out the seeds. Then, the wonderful idea she gave me is to dice the green chili's, and put them in ice cube trays. Freeze them for several hours, then place in an airtight bag for the deep freezer. Freezing them this way means you can just pull out a little at a time for recipes or toppings. I love this idea so much! I plan to get more green chili's and do them this way.

This is about 1 pound fresh chili roasted then chopped and frozen.

Okra!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 23:22:00 +0000

It may be 105 or more for the past month, but man do my okra plants love it! In case you're wondering, this is 1 weeks worth of okra. I blanched it, breaded it, and froze it on cookie sheets before transferring to this 2 GALLON sized bag. :)

I used Paula Dean's recipe for the breaded okra using buttermilk. Yummy and so crispy!
Click Here for Paula's recipe
And this is my favorite site for gardening, canning and freezing.

I think my peppers would do well if I had a shade over them. Unfortunately they all sunburned. :(

Cucumbers pulled, and the okra "trees"! Ready for some cooler weather and a fall garden now.

Garden in August

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 23:12:00 +0000

So....what happens to cucumber plants when you do this...

Well, sadly, you get this. Goodbye my loves! The dozen or more jars of pickles you gave this summer will be loved all year long!

Hatch Green Chili Season

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 22:58:00 +0000

This first batch I got were from my local Kroger. The price was unbeatable for roasted and peeled green chili's. So delicious. I only bought 10lbs.
More pics coming of the green chili's I'm roasting at home and the nifty idea I'm going to try! Stay tuned!!

I really don't know what they were thinking with such a small, dinky little roaster. They were roasting both green chili's and corn this day.

Here's my 10 lbs! I put them on trays and freeze like this for a few hours, then transfer into airtight freezer bags for the deep storage.

My next post on green chili's are one's I'm roasting at home. Keep watching!

Cherries!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 23:08:00 +0000

I saw these cherries on sale at the local Farmer's Market, and had my husband buy 14lbs. Crazy, I know, lol. But they looked so good! We decided to eat a few, and can the rest for use this winter. I'm thinking cherry cobbler's and such. So much fun. Only 1 problem...I had no cherry pitter! OMG, what a nightmare. I did about half of them by hand, which made 9 pint jars. It was messy, and tiring, and my forearms and hands ached all night long....my fingers still look like I slaughtered an animal...nice.
For the rest of the cherries, I went to my local outlet mall that has a kitchen store and bought a cherry pitter that does 4 at a time. What a lifesaver! Can't wait to share recipes with these this winter.
This is the 2nd batch in a 2 gallon Ziploc bag.

Jars cleaned, hot and ready to use.

I used a mixture of half juice, half water to bathe the cherries. In the baggie is a lemon juice/water mixture to prevent browning after the pits were removed. Looks like blood. Seriously, for Halloween I know what to do to paint blood on costumes.

Heat the liquid and cherries to boiling, takes about 5 minutes. Then, fill your hot jars, leaving 1/2in. headspace.

Boil in the canner 15 minutes.

And finished result. There were 3 more jars processing during this photo. So, about 8 lbs for 9 jars? That's a guess.

And the pitter I got today for $15. Already pitted a bowl-full for the kids in under a minute. :) Love it, love it, love it.

Ropa Vieja

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 21:10:00 +0000

Made it to the store in the morning, just in time for the meat markdowns! Oh yeah! The roast I got was marked down $5! But, who wants a pot roast in the summer? Well, think about that roast in a whole new way with this incredible recipe.

Cook meat in crockpot with garlic, pepper and season salt. Shred (save 1/3C. liquid from the crockpot).

Layer meat, then veggies (cilantro, jalapeno, tomatoes, and onion), then repeat.

Pour 1/3 cup of crockpot liquid over the top.

Top with cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Wrap em up and enjoy!

Ropa Vieja
Ingredients:
3 lb chuck roast
pinch pepper
1 oz crushed garlic
1 T season salt

2 large tomatoes, chopped
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 package cilantro, chopped (yeah, a whole bunch!)
2 medium jalapeno's, stems and seeds removed, finely chopped
8 oz Monterrey jack cheese, shredded

10-12 flour tortillas

Recipe:
Cook the roast, galic, pepper and season salt in crock pot on low for 8-10 hours (do not add water). Shred the meat. Then place half the meat in a 9 X13in baking dish. Layer half of the veggies on top of the meat, then repeat layers. Pour 1/3 Cup juice from the crockpot over the meat layers, top with cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Warm the tortilla's and place the meat mixture in them, wrap like a burrito and enjoy!

Chicken Borscht

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 23:34:00 +0000

Ok, so you could argue that it's not truly a borscht for the lack of beets...however, this is absolutely fabulous and that's what I'm calling it.
I cannot convey with enough enthusiasm, how great it feels to fill up a large pot of vegetables that I grew, and prepare a delicious, nutritious meal for my family. That is what I did today, and I feel so good, inside and out, even though my house stinks of cooked cabbage, lol!

These are the vegetables I grew. The potatoes I did not, but the cabbage, onions, carrots and tomatoes are all mine!

I know it sounds weird at first, but you HAVE to trust me...you must use the Allspice! OMG! Necessary.
I apologize for the sideways photos, I don't know why they are like that or how to fix them.

Boiling the chicken. Tossed in 3 boneless, skinless breasts. I would have used my own chickens, but I don't have any yet. So I opted for the all natural chicken from my local market, which is fabulously flavorful.

Tossed in the onions, potatoes and carrots.

Sorry, but boiled chicken is so ugly by itself.

Yet so beautiful in my pot of veggies!

Boiled down.

All ready to eat. This is one tasty, hearty meal! We will be putting this on our list of dinners, after all, I have more cabbages to cook ;)

Ingredients

1 whole chicken (or 3-4 breasts)

1 large onion
4 potatoes, diced
3 carrots, sliced
1 16 oz. pkg. shredded cabbage, or 1 lb fresh cabbage, shredded
4 peppercorns
4 whole allspice berries (or 1 tsp. ground)
1 bay leaf
2 chicken bullion cubes
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes (or 2 medium)
1-2 quarts water
1 cup Half & Half
1 tsp salt

Recipe

Cook chicken in salted water until tender. Remove from broth, remove meat from bones and cut into bite-sized pieces.
Add potatoes, carrots, and onions to broth and cook until almost tender.
When vegetables are almost cooked through, add diced chicken, tomatoes, cabbage, bullion cubes, and a spice ball containing the peppercorns, allspice berries, and bay leaf.
Continue cooking until cabbage is tender.
Add half & half and allow to heat through.
Note: Do NOT omit the allspice! That is what makes this recipe so good.

Adventures into Canning

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 03:34:00 +0000

So excited to have been a hostess for the Ball Canning House Party! Love all the freebies and coupons they sent. I was so nervous to can, but my gosh it was easy and fun!

Raspberry jam!

Harvest!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 03:28:00 +0000

So happy to have such a wonderful garden! I'm getting lots of ideas for next year, but still thoroughly enjoying this year. We have a very long season in TX, so I think it's about time to plant some more for a late summer harvest. :)

My little friend, golden garden spider. She eats wasps and other creatures that scare me to death. She can stay. :)

New trellis for the beans/peas

1 day late picking these...too yellow. :(

Future pickles!

New trellis for the cukes!

Okra blooms

Cukes

Salmon Steaks with Lemon Tomato Sauce.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 03:01:00 +0000

I have been making this dinner for several years now, and it is my absolute favorite recipe for salmon. Trust me, if you don't like fish, you should try this. I call it my zippy zingy salmon...for the kids of course!
Oh, and the tomatoes and green onions came from my own garden!

2-4 Salmon Steaks
2T EVOO
16 small tomatoes, quartered
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1T oregano
1T parsley
2 green onions, minced
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt & Pepper

*Preheat oven to 375
*Heat oil in frying pan, brown salmon steaks about 3 minutes per side. Season to taste. Transfer to baking dish and bake 6-8 minutes.

*In the same skillet you cooked the salmon, over medium heat, add tomatoes, garlic, oregano and parsley.

*Add onions and lemon juice. Heat through, and season to taste.

*Arrange steaks and cover with tomato lemon sauce. Serve immediately.

First harvest

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 01:53:00 +0000

I pulled up a few things today, and picked a few others. I need to plant some summer veggies, so other's had to go. I hope some of this food tastes good, lol! There's lettuce, onions, peas/beans )I have no idea what kind), broccoli, tomatoes and carrots.

Gardening

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 13:31:00 +0000

Early June update on the garden. It's growing like crazy! Now, just working on keeping it well watered and getting rid of the insects. I had to add a trellis for the peas and beans.

This lily plant was a surprise this year, and we have another one growing too. I think I'll split them up, and replant them throughout this garden for a beautiful surprise in the years to come. I bought them last year, and they died after I planted them. So nice that the bulbs survived and have come back!

My Texas Gold Star Columbine! We planted this 6 years ago, and it comes back every summer when it's almost 100 degrees. It blooms until Fall!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 May 2011 23:59:00 +0000

Here's an update on the garden. A few beans and a tomato are about ready to eat.

Just 1 of the many radishes you can see.

Lettuce

Carrots

Cabbage

Cucumbers

Tomato plants

yummy!

Some of the strawberries

Beans...lots and lots of them!

Corn with the beans

1 of my baby corn!

Peas

Onions looking great!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 13 May 2011 18:24:00 +0000

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