Crossover: Hostess Appreciation Luncheon, part TWO

Happy Friday! :) I'm glad you came back today! Time to show you the rice and squash/cauliflower casserole from my Hostess Appreciation Luncheon for my Stampin' Up! hostesses!

First up: Becky's Easy Cliantro Lime Rice from allrecipes.com:

It's easy, and it's good, and the flavor is great with Mexican food. I get tired of Spanish rice with Mexican food ALL the time. Of course, I made my "refried" beans, and the two together were really nice.

Next up is this Low Carb Butternut Squash and Cauliflower Casserole from All Day Long I Dream About Food!

As Donna said, they know it's fall when they come eat squash at my house. :D I wanted to make sure that we had a vegetable, in case someone wasn't too crazy about all the Mexican food I made. I USUALLY make squash on the sweet side, like acorn squash with brown sugar and butter - but this is definitely savory, with Parmesan cheese. It was good - I halved the recipe, and used frozen cauliflower instead of fresh. It was good!

For dessert, I made this flan again. :) It's easy, Mexican, and good - everyone had a second piece! :D

Well, now you know one of the reasons my hostesses have been with me for so long: our Hostess Appreciation Luncheon is FULLY homemade. I do all I can to serve them a wonderful meal; all they have to do is host a qualifying Stampin' Up! party once a year. If you'd like to do so, please contact me! We have a BLAST! (And we can do it ONLINE, too!!) And if you'd like to see the projects we made this year, please visit Lori's Stamping Spot and look for today's post. :)

Have a wonderful day and a wonderful weekend, my friend. BE BLESSED!

Crossover: Hostess Appreciation Luncheon, part ONE

Welcome to Wednesday! :D For today and Friday, I'd like to share with you a few recipes I made for my annual Stampin' Up!'s Hostess Appreciation Luncheon; it's a crossover post because I'll be linking you to my Stampin' Up! page and vice versa, so you can see what our projects were, too. :)

We went Mexican Fiesta this year. :) I'll post the main dish and salsa today, and the two sides I'll share on Friday.

These are Simply Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas from Food.com.

Of course I didn't do it quite like the recipe! :D I poached the chicken in water, onion, cumin, salt, and pepper. Then I shredded it, saute'd the onions and added it to my shredded chicken, and proceeded from there.

The sauce was really easy and yummy; my mom "snacked" on the leftovers for a couple days. :D These were simple to make, not overly spicy, baked well, and were pretty impressive. :D

Now, then. On to the salsa!

Honestly? I'm a little leery of salsa recipes. I LOVE pico de gallo, but it's SO labor-intensive!!! I decided to try this, however, and I'm SO glad I did! :D

Everyone LOVED this salsa from Curved Promises on tumblr.


It REALLY doesn't get much simpler than this! However, the longer it sat, the hotter it became - which is unusual, because it didn't have anything hotter than green chilies in it! But it was good on ANYTHING one desired to put it on. :D

OK, that's all for today! If you'd like to see the table setting, invitation, and table favor, please visit me at Lori's Stamping Spot and look for today's post. :)

Have a wonderful day, friends! Be BLESSED!

Mexican Casserole

Happy Wednesday! I hope you're having a fantastic day so far. :) And a fantastic week!

This is one of those recipes I made SO long ago, I'm really having to remember how we liked it. LOL! I actually made DOUBLE of the recipe, and had this little casserole dish left over for Kenn and me. I put it in the freezer, and baked it off about two weeks after I made the dinner for some friends going through stuff.

What is it? :D It's Mexican Casserole from Plain Chicken.

I'm giving this a YES, PLEASE! I may have actually quadrupled the recipe, now that I'm thinking back on it. It was a MESS of casserole fixin's! :D I like that my photo and her photo look very similar - that always makes me feel better.

It was filling and flavorful without being too spicy. It froze well, and it traveled well when I took it to my friends. (I took it unbaked so they could have it hot whenever they wanted to cook it!) And I KNOW it fed a LOT of people. I made the refried beans I love so much (because they're so easy!) and rice.

OK, I'm outta here! :) Have a wonderful day! BE BLESSED!

Mexican Rainbow Salad

Happy FRIDAY! :) Got big plans for the weekend? Whirlwind. That's what life is - how can it be he last Friday of February 2014 already?!?!

SO. This is a Mexican Rainbow Salad from What2Cook.

There IS lettuce underneath all those toppings. :) This was a huge hit with our family; we have such different dietary needs and tastes! With this salad, though, we could choose which rainbow stripes we wanted more or less of. Kenn's a HUGE salad fan, period - he loves anything that tastes fresh. :) And he loves corn. :D The dressing is good, too - we left it on the side, because none of us are huge dressing lovers. I highly recommend this salad - leftovers are easy to get rid of, too! (Make fajitas! Eat more salad! :D )

OK, I'm outta here. Have a WONDERFUL weekend! Be blessed - and thank you for reading my blog. :)

Chicken & Avocado Enchiladas

Welcome to another Monday. :D Did you have a good weekend? Did you try anything new?

I'll get to today's share quickly; with the open house less than three weeks away, time is PRECIOUS, people!! :D It's for Chicken & Avocado Enchiladas from Gimme Some Oven.

First, let me say that I find the name a little misleading. The avocados are in the SAUCE; even though there's a bit of sauce in the enchiladas, I think these are more chicken and pepper enchiladas with avocado and cilantro sauce.

With that being said, these got a YES, PLEASE! from Kenn and me. My mom despises cilantro, so she didn't like them at all. I was happily surprised at how little HEAT the peppers brought, and how much flavor. If you like heat, keep some of the ribs and seeds from the jalapenos in. Not for US, however. :D

I cooked the chicken the day before; when I poach chicken, I always try to give it extra flavor. I used dried minced onion, a bit of onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, salt, and pepper. It gave it a nice flavor without being too cumin-y. :D The recipe made a LOT of sauce. I doubled the whole recipe, because I took some to a friend's family who just had a baby. I gave them a jar of sauce AND had two more jars. I've got a full jar in my fridge; what to do with it?!? :D

OK, I'm outta here! Have a WONDERFUL day!!!! Be BLESSED!!!

Spanish Rice

Happy Wednesday! Are you having a good week? Sorry about missing Monday; I am still fighting this cold, and I couldn't get enthused about talking about food. :D

So, today I'm sharing this Spanish Rice recipe from About.com.

It is an easy recipe; I'm not a HUGE Spanish rice fan, period - unless it's got lots of cheese sauce poured over it, and then it's something else entirely. :D BUT this is a good, simple recipe. I've ALWAYS had to cook it longer than it says, and it's still a bit crunchy, even then. It carries easily, so it's gone to two different homes as a side to Mexican dishes. It can warm in the oven with the entree and refried beans, so that works well. :)

Overall, it's a good recipe to have - so I am gonna call it a YES, PLEASE! :)

OK, I'm outta here! Have a wonderful day, my friends. Be BLESSED!!!

White Chicken Enchilada Casserole

HAPPY FRIDAY! Welcome to the end of August! Can you believe it?!? We're almost to September, the start of fall, the beginning of the snowball's roll to the end of the year! Time to start working on my Christmas open house... :D

But that's beside the point. :D

Today's review is for White Chicken Enchilada Casserole, from Six Sisters' Stuff.

(Hmmm. I can't decide how big to make the picture. This is probably too big, but the other way was too small!)

Anyway. (Can you tell I'm getting easily distracted today? :D ) This casserole got a YES, PLEASE! from everyone in my family - not an easy task for a recipe. Although I would have liked a little more kick - I thought about only using one of the two cans of green chiles, but I'm glad I didn't!

The filling was creamy, the chips on the bottom were crunchy, and the cheese was gooey. :D It turned out to be really pretty, too, I think. Wish I'd had some guacamole in the house... :D It was really easy to put together, and would make a really simple company dish, too.  Thinking about it, I don't know why you couldn't make up this casserole, perhaps without the cheese, and freeze it; your chips might get a little soggy, but I actually liked it better when that happened with the leftovers - its texture was more like an enchilada, rather than chips and dip. :D

OK, I'm outta here. Kenn and I are going to REST this weekend. I'm really looking forward to it! :) Have a wonderful weekend! Be BLESSED!

Tamale Pie

Happy Monday Morning! Did you enjoy your weekend? Did you spend time with people you love - or did you get to rest and relax in the quiet? :D We were at our last church service at Springhouse Worship & Arts Center until we come back in the fall. Happy and sad - they are REAL family.

Anyway. :)

Today's recipe under review is for Tamale Pie from Brown Eyed Baker.

I didn't change a thing on this recipe. :) Oh, wait. Yes I did, by accident. :D But I also cut it in half. I accidentally used organic fire-roasted crushed tomatoes versus diced tomatoes. And when you dice the jalapeno, be sure to get all the ribs and seeds out - I use a knife to make sure!

The heat on this, for me, was perfect. It wasn't too spicy at all, but flavorful. I'm thinking about changing it up next time - what a shock, right? :D - by either doubling the filling and keeping the amount of cornbread topping the same, or adding a can of black beans. Kenn's only criticism was that the bread was too thick on the bite he had - and it did get thicker in one corner. I put out guacamole and sour cream to top with.

I'm definitely giving this a YES, PLEASE - even my dad said, "That'll eat!" and he doesn't like spicy. :D The leftovers warm up beautifully. DO let it sit for the 15 minutes it calls for, and it will slice up beautifully.

OK, I'm outta here! :) Have a wonderful, BLESSED day!

Crockpot "Refried" Beans

Good Monday afternoon! :) I know it's a bit later than normal, but I wasn't home much this weekend. I'm house managing for Lamplighter's Theater Company, and between church and the show, there wasn't a lot of spare time to be found! :)

That doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about what to post. :D I made this recipe last week; it's from Pennies & Pancakes, for Crockpot "Refried" Beans.

Let me just say, from the start, this gets a YES, PLEASE! :) It's a great, inexpensive, adjustable recipe. The only thing I measured was the water, because I didn't want to have it be too soupy or too dry.

The flavor is GREAT on these! I found I didn't need all the cooking time listed; be sure your beans aren't crunchy, for sure, but mine were done about a half-hour after I turned my pot down to LOW. I cut the recipe in half; we don't eat a LOT of refried beans, and I didn't want them going to waste - even though they're so inexpensive to make!

I will recommend this to you, too: keep some of the liquid if you drain off some from your beans. I was worried when I mashed them that I hadn't gotten rid of enough liquid. But they really tightened up, and I now wish I'd left just a bit more. If you keep some of the liquid, you can add it when your beans start to cool. But I don't think I'll be using canned beans if I can do a little planning ahead; these really were tasty!!!!!!

I had these vegetarian beans and melted cheese with organic blue corn tortilla chips for dinner one night; I felt so virtuous! :D And I highly recommend that, if you like cilantro, you sprinkle a little on whatever you serve these beans with. It's one of the top 5 nutrient-dense foods on the PLANET, and it gives a great freshness to the taste. But whatever floats your boat! :)

OK, I'm outta here. Have a WONDERFUL week! Be BLESSED!!! (And be sure to come back Wednesday, for a Valentine's suggestion!)

Tex-Mex Chicken and Tortilla Stack

Good Monday midday! :D I've been busy this weekend, and not in the mood to really blog today, but here I am anyway! :D

Dad was gone last week, but Kenn also had a really bad infection in his tooth. So I wasn't sure I was going to get to make this - but I did. On Tuesday night, I tried this Tex-Mex Chicken and Tortilla Stack from Recipe.com.

First of all, I will admit: I took the METHOD of this recipe more than the recipe itself. Every place I looked for jicama, it was sold out. So we didn't have jicama in ours.

And I don't like precooked chicken, unless it's in a can (and I still don't LOVE it, then!); it almost always gives me heartburn, and I don't care for the chemicals they use. So, I used two boneless, skinless chicken breasts and poached them in water with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and dried minced onion. When they were done, I shredded the chicken and let it cool.

I wasn't sure I was going to like this recipe; it's served cold, and I tend to like COOKED Mexican food. :D You know, HOT and a little spicy. :D But we really did like it! It got a YES, PLEASE! from both of us! And of course, I personalized it. :D

For instance, I made our guacamole. Doing it myself saved at least a dollar - and it's not a CHEAP recipe, although it's not too bad. Part of the cost for US, though, is that I need to use low-carb tortillas. To cut down on the whopping cost of my favorite white flour LC tortillas, I alternated them with whole wheat ones. (I tend to not like those at all because of texture and flavor. It's a personal thing! :D) I would say this, by itself, serves 4 - it makes 8 pieces, if you cut it like a cake. :D but we didn't have anything WITH it.

I also didn't put red peppers in it - again, they don't like me. I also added cilantro to the cheese layers - did you know it's one of the top 5 nutrient-dense foods on the planet?!? - because Kenn LOVES it, and I like it. My mom says its flavor is too "loud" - it overpowers everything else. :D

I used fat free regular refried beans. Kenn doesn't tend to like things too spicy, so no jalapeno, either. And his system is sometimes intolerant of the colors they use in cheeses, so I used Velveeta queso blanco shredded cheese. I also added tomato to the top!

I guess what I'm trying to express is this: don't be afraid to play! :D I wouldn't have tried a "stack" if I hadn't found this recipe. I'd have loved to have had the jicama for the recipe, but oh, well. :D I know what we like, and if I can get things that are good for us into a recipe, I'm gonna! :D

OK, I'm outta here. LOTS to do! :D Have a WONDERFUL day! Be BLESSED!!!!

Copycat: Cafe Rio's Chicken Tortilla Soup

It's FRIDAY! :) Are you ready for some weekend?!?!? :)

Today's recipe is for a copycat of a place I've never heard of, Cafe Rio. If you have one near you, what do you think of their food? Anyway. :D The website that brings you this recipe is the same as Wednesday's, Favorite Family Recipes - because that pico de gallo I reviewed Wednesday is in this soup!

This is one of the meals I made while my parents were visiting my sister. I don't think they'd like it much, but I may be wrong. Maybe it's just Dad who wouldn't like it. :D Because we did! It gets a YES, PLEASE! - except the leftovers, not so much.

This is an assembled soup, which made it nice because I could do prep work the day before - like making the pico, baking the chicken and freezing what I didn't want to use for another meal. And it's a healthy soup - lots of fresh vegetables, not too high in sodium, chicken.... It's pretty, too! :)

When I reheated the chicken to put into the soup bowls, I ladled in some broth - with all the spices, etc., in the broth, it gave the seasoning to the chicken I wanted. I added a little cumin to the chicken, too, but couldn't find any cayenne pepper in the grocery the day I went. That was the strangest thing...! And I didn't use any taco seasoning; Kenn doesn't like it, and I didn't want to buy a package that we weren't going to use all of it, anyway. :)

The tortilla strips absolutely made this soup. Well, for ME, anyway. :D I've never made them fresh before, and oooooooh, were they good just out of the oil and salted. :D I stored them in a paper bag, so it would absorb the extra oil and they would stay crispy.

This will probably be a soup I make when we have people over on the beach; I can get almost everything ready the day before, and keep the broth and beans in a crock pot while we're doing things on the beach. :) It's Kenn's idea of what food should be: fresh and flavorful.

And I'll make extra tortilla strips next time. ;)

OK, I'm outta here. Have a WONDERFUL day! Enjoy your weekend - and let me know if you try anything new!!

Pico de Gallo

Good Wednesday morning! Sorry I wasn't around Monday; between working too hard this weekend, and being sick, I just didn't feel like blogging. :D So!

With that being said, :D, here is Family Favorite Recipes' recipe for pico de gallo.

OK. I have to say this: this recipe is almost EXACTLY what I would use for a bruscetta topping - except the herb is cilantro, not basil, and it's got a jalapeno in it.

But it's GOOD. :) It's just amazing to me how similar Mexican and Italian can be sometimes. :) And it was part of a grander scheme of a recipe, so as an ingredient, it was good. We didn't eat it all, and I think it's because I was trying to squeeze in as much cooking as I could while my parents were gone. :D We ate WELL that week. LOL!

I'd say try it. I'd also say, if you're looking for a bruscetta topping, just change out the herb and don't worry about the jalapeno. :D So, it's going down in the history books as a YES, PLEASE. :D

OK, I'm outta here. Have a WONDERFUL day! Be BLESSED - and try something new!

Flan

It's Friday! Woooo, hoooooo! Have you had a good week? Tried anything new? :D Planning to this weekend?

Today's recipe is from AllRecipes.com - for a simple flan.

We went to dinner with dear friends from church last week, and she told me we were having a Mexican fiesta. :) So I decided to throw right in with dessert, and make a flan.

A flan is an egg-based custard. This one's kind of cheesecakey, too. And it got a definite YES, PLEASE! from everyone. :D

I actually made two flans from this single recipe; I didn't have a pan big enough for the entire recipe, so I made one to leave home, and one to take with us. It's *very* rich, so having it to be thinner so it looks like a large slice but is half of what it would be with the whole recipe! :)

It's good for dessert or for breakfast, too. :) If you have a need for a flan recipe, or just want to try making one, go for it! I think you'll enjoy this! Let me know if you try it!

Have a wonderful weekend! Be BLESSED!

Chicken Enchiladas

 It's FRIDAY!!!! Got anything huge planned for the weekend? I'm going to tell you right now, this is a YES, PLEASE! recipe - you should take the time to make them this weekend. :D

These come from Pearls, Handcuffs, & Happiness. (Yeah, I know, but her recipes are fantastic!!!!! :D )

My tweaks: I needed more than the can of enchilada sauce listed - like maybe 4 ounces. I used low-carb tortillas that are made by Mission. (They cost an arm and a leg, but they're fantastic for when you NEED a tortilla!) I used brown rice, to increase the complex-carb count. And, finally, I used a Mexican cheese blend - it has the two cheeses in the recipe plus two more. :D And I LOVE cheese. :D

This recipe made TWO PANS of enchiladas. And ohhhh, were they good. They were moist, and steamy, and filling. We ate one pan, and froze the other. I'm SO glad to know they're in there, waiting for a night when we need something that will prep fast. They DO take a bit of time for assembly, but don't let that put you off. You seriously NEED to make these enchiladas. :D

Have a WONDERFUL weekend! Let me know if you DO try something new, or if you put these together. Be blessed!