Wilted Spinach and Bacon Salad

I feel like a newly inspired woman!

I went to a cooking class featuring ShirleyJ cooking essentials
Universal sauce, seasonings, etc.
This is a recipe in their order book. I am waiting for my sauces to come in,
so future ShirleyJ recipes to come.

Here is the real recipe:
2 T ShirleyJ Pizza and Pasta Seasoning Mix
8 strips of bacon
3 oz feta cheese
12 oz bag of baby spinach
1/3 C red onion diced
1/3 C dried cranberries
1 Fuji apple, sliced
1 t brown sugar
1/4 C balsamic vinegar
1 T water

Cook the bacon, save the drippings. Crumble bacon in a bowl with spinach, cranberries and apple. Into a small saucepan combine the bacon drippings, onions, vinegar, water sugar and seasoning. Cook on low 4-5 minutes. Toss warm dressing in the salad. Garnish with Feta.

My twist:
The dressing seemed to need a little bit more brown sugar
after only pouring on half of the dressing I added more to the remaining
=much better, I think 2 t of brown sugar instead of 1 {maybe more}
I didn't have red onion, I used dehydrated {still delicious}
I always cook my bacon in the oven, 400 degrees 15 minutes
it always cooks perfectly, always.
I will also put on walnuts or pecans next time for a little crunch!

Monkey Bread Muffins

2 tubes of biscuit dough
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup brown sugar

Spray your muffin tin with non-stick spray. Cut each biscuit into 4ths. So in total you should have 80 little pieces of dough. In a bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Dip each piece of dough into the cinnamon-sugar mixture until totally covered. Divide evenly between the 6 cups. (about 13-14 in each cup) In a saucepan boil the butter and brown sugar. Spoon about a tablespoon of the brown sugar/butter mixture over each muffin cup. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes or until baked through. Best when hot and fresh out of the oven!

Enjoy!

Chicken Croissants

Another of my husband's favorites
2 packages of crescent rolls in a tube
breadcrumbs
2 chicken breasts shredded
1 brick {8oz} cream cheese
chopped green onions
s&p

I boil my chicken breasts then shred in my cuizinart
combine with softened cream cheese
green onions, s&p
place a scoop in the middle of two crescents
dip in breadcrumbs
place all on sprayed cookie sheet
cook 35 minutes @ 350 degrees

Kahula Pork

Yummy crockpot recipe

2-4 lbs pork roast
soy sauce
garlic powder
worchestire sauce

place your roast in your crockpot
no real recipe here
just splash on soy, worchestire and sprinkle
with garlic powder
cook on low 6-8 hours and shred, serve on rolls

Fried Chicken

This is my husband's favorite meal
his Mom has made it for him for years
and it is sooooo easy.

2-3 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
flour
salt
veg oil

first cut your chicken breasts into smaller portions (usually just in half)
then soak them in water
I pull them one by one out of the water
while holding it up shake your salt all over the chicken
then dredge in flour, keeping lots on the top
place in an electric skillet @ 325 degrees
cook for 45 minutes to an hour flipping occassionally
let it get nice and crispy

to make a homemade gravy drain most of the grease off except for a few tablespoons of grease in the bottom. add a few tablespoons of flour and fix until it soaks up the grease, turn up your heat and add milk until gravy consistency. Add S&P

Sweet Potato Soufle

Ingredients:
3 C mashed sweet potatoes
1/2 C sugar
1/4 C milk

2 T butter, melted
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1tsp vanilla

For the topping:
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 chopped pecans
1/4 flour
2 T butter

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine sweet potatoes, sugar, milk, and butter. Add eggs one at a time, stirring well after each addition to fully incoporate the eggs.

Stir in salt and vanilla. Pour into a baking dish.

In a medium bowl, combine brown sugar, pecans, flour, and butter until very crumbly and well combined. Sprinkle over the sweet potato mixture.

Bake at 350 1 hour

Cilantro Lime Dressing

1 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped fine
1 pkg ranch dressing mix
4 Tbs salsa verde (green salsa)
2 cloves garlic pressed
1/2 t Tobasco sauce
juice of one lime
put in a blender (I used my cuisinart small blender)
Directions:
Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend or pulse until well combined. Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.
Think Cafe Rio baby!!!

Poppyseed Dressing

Ingredients:

1/3c cider vinegar
1/2c + 2 Tbsp canola oil
3-4Tbsp finely grated red onion
1/2c sugar
1tsp dry mustard powder
1 1/2tsp salt
1 1/2tsp poppy seeds

Combine all ingredients in a lidded jar and shake until well combined. (You can also use a blender or food processor if you don't want to use a jar.)

Taste and adjust seasoning by adding more vinegar, oil, or sugar. Store in the refrigerator.

Will keep up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Easy Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup=creamy

2 chicken breasts in one can of cream of chicken soup

what you will need

Viola!

Always serve with rolls

Really there is no recipe, this is just how you do it :)
put 2 chicken breasts in your crockpot and cover with one can Cream of Chicken soup
let cook 2-4 hours, then shred chicken
bring to boil 32oz chicken stock {1 box}
and 2 more cups of water
add your diced onion, chopped celery and frozen chopped carrots
1 clove chopped garlic {or used pre minced}
s&p to taste
add your shredded chicken including the soup it cooked it
when all simmered and veggies cooked add your Grandma's Noodles.
sooooo good!

Creamy Taco Stuffed Shells

Just tried this recipe and it is so good!

1 1/4 lbs lean ground beef
6 0z cream cheese
1 t salt
1 t chili powder
18 jumbo pasta shells
2 T butter
1 cup taco sauce (I used Taco Bell Mild)
1-2 cups shredded cheese
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 cup crushed tortilla chips
sour cream to top

Boil your pasta shells, rinse and toss in butter, set aside. In skillet brown ground beef with the onion, add cream cheese, salt and chili powder to ground beef. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill pasta shells with beef mixture arrange in baking dish. Pour taco sauce over top and cover with tinfoil. Bake for 15 minutes. Uncover and top with cheese and crushed up tortilla chips, cook for another 10 minutes longer.
Top with sour cream.

Ham and Cheese Sliders

12 good white dinner rolls/slider rolls

12 pieces good honey ham
12 small slices provolone cheese
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup miracle whip

1 T poppyseeds
1 1/2 T yellow mustard
1/2 stick butter, melted
1 T minced onion
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

In a small bowl, mix together mayonnaise and miracle whip. Spread onto both sides of the center of each roll. Place a slice of ham and a slice of Swiss inside of each roll. Close rolls and place them into a large baking dish or heavy cookie sheet. Place very close together.

Whisk together all of the poppy seed sauce ingredients. Pour evenly over all of the sandwiches. Let sit 10 minutes or until butter sets slightly. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until cheese is melted. Uncover and cook for 2 additional minutes. Serve warm.

Crab and Cream Cheese Wontons

1/2 pkg wonton wrappers
1 (8oz) pkg. cream cheese
1 c. fresh crabmeat (optional)
1 egg white, whipped
oil for frying

Put about 1 heaping tsp. of cream cheese in the middle of each wonton wrapper (if you are using crabmeat, mix the crab and cream cheese together before adding to the wonton wrapper). Brush egg white (or you can just use water) around the edge of the wrapper and fold over to seal (if you are confused on how to fold it, look on the back of the wonton wrapper package.. it will show you step by step how to do it). Fry in oil until golden brown. That's it! Serve with sweet and sour sauce combined with chili paste (or if you are a wimp and don't like it spicy, just serve with sweet and sour sauce).

Close as you can come to Wingers Sticky Fingers

Make sure you get Frank's hot sauce

Okay this is seriously the best copy-cat recipe I have ever tried. Krista and I found it and she made it (thanks for telling me how good it turned out)

15-20 of your favorite frozen chicken tender breasts
3 T. Frank's Hot Sauce
3/4 C Brown Sugar
2 T. Water

Cook chicken to directions then combine ingredients for sauce. When chicken done toss in a plastic bowl with a lid to coat. Serve with Ranch or Bleu Cheese. You'll be thinking you are eating at Winger's. We like to serve ours on lettuce and make Sticky Finger Salads.

Fried Pickles

So easy!

Start with as many dill pickles as you want
I bought the ovals, you can use the chips too.
Mix up a small amount of pancake batter and dip the
pickles it it first. Then dredge in a flour/bread crumb mixture
to which I added pepper
and fry in a fry daddy until golden
Dip in Ranch and enjoy!

Italian meat loaves

2 eggs beaten
17-20 saltine crackers crushed
1 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded parm cheese (shaker kind)
1/4 t garlic salt
1/2 t dried basil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 t worcestershire
1 1/2 lbs of ground beef
ground pepper
combine these and shape into mini little loaves (bigger than the picture)
about the size of your palm
Then on top of each with a squirt ketchup and spread
then shake more parm cheese and sprinkle some dried basil

Bake @ 350 for 35-45 minutes in a glass baking dish

*this a recipe from Jeremy's Mom, she made it while she was here and we just made it
again. It is super yummy and easy. I am weird about leftovers and I ate this the next day heated up in the oven again, and it was as good as the first day.