Kirsten Surprise

This meal was affectionately titled by one of my really good friends and her husband.  My friend and I were roommates and I would make this nameless dish and once they got married they made it too.  They needed a name to call it and so it became "Kirsten Surprise."

Ingredients

• 1 Box of Beef Rice-a-roni
• 1 Can of corn
• 1 lb beef
• Salsa
• Sour Cream
• Chips

Directions

1. Brown beef and set aside
2. Cook rice a roni as directed
3. Add can of corn during the last 5 minutes of cook time
4. Add Beef and mix together
5. Serve Rice mixture over chips and add salsa and sour cream to taste. 

Pasta Bake

Easy Pasta Bake

Ingredients 

• 1 lb dry pasta
• 1 jar of pasta sauce 
• 1 tub of cottage cheese
• Parmesan cheese
• 1 "jar-full" water
• 1 lb of cooked meat (hamburger, sausage etc)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 
2. Mix cottage cheese, sauce and water together in a bowl
3. Add meat and mix
4. Add noodles and mix
5. Dump into a casserole dish 
6. Top with Parmesan cheese
7. Cover with foil and cook for 30-45 minutes
8. Pair with a fresh salad and enjoy

Snacks

Here are some yummy and mostly healthy snacks that don't really require a recipe but are easy to forget about. This will be a ever-growing list.    

apple slices (w/peanut butter)
applesauce
avocados
bananas
blueberries
celery w/peanut butter
cucumber slices
deli meat (turkey or ham) wrapped in lettuce
granola bars
grapes (frozen)
gum
hard-boiled egg
homemade whole wheat bread
hummus w/carrots or celery
jello
mixed nuts (almonds)
oranges
peanut butter and banana on toast
peanut butter and banana smoothie

rice cakes
salad
strawberries
string cheese
sweet potato fries
yogurt, granola and fruit parfait 

Cake Batter Cookies

These easy cookies only take 3 simple ingredients.

• Box of cake batter (any variety)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup oil

Mix all the ingredients, spoon onto a pan and bake at 350 for 5-10ish minutes. 

OPTIONAL: add any candies or chips to the batter prior to baking

You can customize them any way you wish.  Tonight the version was Devils food cake with peanut butter chips.

Beef Stew

This is the quick beef stew recipe that I made today.  I've never made stew before and although I'm not a huge fan of stew in the first place Brett said it was delicious so I guess it turned out good.  We had some stew meat that the Brett's parents gave us and we needed to use up.

Beef Stew (Crockpot style) 

• Stew meat (cut into bite size pieces)
• Potatoes (cubed)
• Carrots (cut into similar sized chunks)
• Onion (cut into medium size pieces) 
• Large container of Beef broth (it was 3 cups I belive)
• Packet of Beef stew seasoning/mix

Add all ingredients into the crock pot and cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 3-4.

I served it in a bread bowl and we were thoroughly full by the time we finished.  I'm glad we got it in on a cold day although I'm hoping spring will be here soon!

Zangy BBQ Chicken

Zangy BBQ Chicken

A quick and easy sauce for chicken that you can use in so many ways. 

• 1/2 cup bbq sauce
• 1/2 cup Italian dressing
• 1 1/2 lbs. boneless chicken breast

1. Mix the BBQ and Italian dressing together.  Pour over the top of the chicken.  
2. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour.
   OR stick it in a crock pot for 5-6 hours on high or 7-8 hours on low.
   OR use it as a marinade and then grill it up on the BBQ

Homemade Granola

There are lots of way to do homemade granola.  This is the recipe I typically follow.  You can adjust it easy to meet your need/preferences.  It makes a lot and we love having it around for a quick snack or to throw into yogurt or ice cream. 

Ingredients:

-6 C Quick Cooking Oats

-1/4 C Flour

-1/2 T  Cinnamon

-1/4 t Nutmeg

-3 C Random dry ingredients (raisins, coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, slivered almonds, small chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, dried banana chips, rice crispy puffs)

-1/2 C Vegetable Oil

-1/2 C Honey

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all of the ingredients but oil and honey. Mix oil and honey and microwave until hot. Pour oil and honey mixture over dry ingredients and mix well. Spread mix over 2 baking sheets and bake until lightly golden brown on top (appx 20 min, stir and cook for longer if necessary).   Let cool, then break up into chunks.