Diane's Chicken Tortilla Soup

This recipe always makes me laugh, my Mom has asked and received this recipe from my Aunt about 20 times.  I'm not sure what my Mom does with the recipe once she gets it but she loses it about an hour after she gets it.  Luckily my Aunt is always there to rescue her when she needs it again.  Fall is starting and for some reason I love the crock pot in the fall and I thought this would be perfect dish to make for dinner, and of course it was.

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts

2 15oz cans black beans - undrained

2 15oz cans petite diced tomatoes - undrained

1 cup salsa

1 4oz can chopped green chilies - undrained

1 15oz can corn - undrained (oops I guess I forgot that)

1 15oz can tomato sauce

1 bag of tortilla chips

Lay the chicken breasts on the bottom of the crock pot

dump in the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce

dump in black beans and green chilies

dump in the salsa (and corn if you remember it luckily my salsa has corn)

Seriously it is that easily

put the crock pot on low and cook for 8 hours

take out the chicken

use 2 forks to shred the chicken

put the chicken back in to the crock pot

mix it up

serve it with tortilla chips and you can top it with sour cream and cheese if you want

Enjoy!

Grandma's Lasagna

Who doesn't love piece of cheesy lasagna? This recipe comes from Grandma but for this version I added some of my own tweaks (I added mushrooms and am trying fire roasted diced tomatoes) and one from my mom (she said to dice up the green pepper and mix it into the cottage cheese).  I once watched my brother Mike heat up some leftover lasagna and put ranch dressing over it, that is one tweak I won't be doing.

Ingredients:

2 lbs hamburger

2 cloves garlic

1 can tomato sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

1/2 mozzarella cheese

16 oz cottage cheese

1 green bell pepper

2 cans of mushrooms

salt

oregano

pepper

onion flakes

Brown hamburger with the garlic, onion flakes, salt, pepper and oregano

after meat is browned, add in mushrooms and cans of tomatoes and simmer for 20 minutes. I also add a couple teaspoons of sugar to the sauce to cut the acid

Dice up bell pepper

Grate cheese

Mix in the green pepper with the cottage cheese

boil 9 lasagna noodles, I just boiled them long enough to make them soft

In a 9x13 pan put a little sauce in the bottom and lay 3 noodles on top

add a layer of sauce 

and then a layer of cottage cheese and green pepper mix, use 1/2 the cottage cheese mixture

add a layer of cheese

continue doing that for another layer, for the last layer just use sauce and cheese

looks good and almost ready to go in the oven

Bake at 375 for 45 minutes

Enjoy!

Grandma's Beef Strogonoff

It was a good night if we were having this for dinner!  I love the homey, cozy feel this dinner makes me think of.  Grandma would make a big pot of this and everyone would dig in!

Ingredients:

1 lb of Egg noodles

1 1/2 lb of beef 9 (I used thin cut round bottom steak)

8oz cream cheese

1 green bell pepper

1 med onion

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

milk

salt and pepper to taste

sour cream (optional topping)

*should have a can of mushrooms but I forgot them

Fry up the beef and then chop into strips

Chop up the green pepper and onion and saute them

mix the beef, onion, green pepper, cream cheese, can of cream of mushroom soup, on can of milk together to make the sauce. Also add a can of mushroom with the juice.

simmer sauce as you boil your noodles according to package

Drain noodles and mix the sauce in

Enjoy!

Shannon's Turkey Feta Burgers

Shannon's turkey feta burgers are tasty and easy to make.  They are great to mix up and then make into patties and freeze them to cook at a later time. 

  Ingredients:

1 lb of ground turkey

4oz of crumbled feta

1tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 Tbs rosemary/thyme mixture

1 tsp garlic 

any other spices that you like

Mix everything together.  Make in to patties.

 Fry up patties.

Enjoy!

Karen's Spaghetti with meat sauce

I LOVE this spaghetti sauce! I will be honest with you, one time when Mom was making this I ate about a bowl full (one spoonfull at a time while it was simmering). I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Karen's Saghetti with Meat Sauce

2 lbs ground beef

1 med onion - Finely Chopped

1 large green bell pepper - Finely Chopped

2 15oz tomato sauce

2 12oz tomato paste

2 1.5oz envelopes Italian style spaghetti sauce mix

3 cups water

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp oregano

2 cloves garlic - Crushed

1 bay leaf - crumbled

Cook meat, onions and pepper until meat is brown and onion and peppers are tender.

Stir in the rest of the ingredients.
Cover and simmer on low for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occaconly.

I serve mine over Spaghetti Squash, if using pasta cook accourding to package.

Enjoy!

Grandma's Taco Salad

This was one of my favorite dinners growing up. I loved everything about it: the taste, that it was always served in the big green Tupperware bowl, the way Grandma shook up the dressing in a Mason jar and let me shake it up too and the way that our family almost finished the whole thing!

Grandma's Taco Salad

1 Package of 3 Romain Hearts - Chopped

1 Onion - Chopped
4 Tomatoes - Chopped
1/2 lb Cheddar Cheese - Grated

1 lb ground beef - Fried

1 15oz can of Kidney beans - Drained and Rinsed
1 Package of tortilla chips - Crushed

Dressing

1 Can Tomato soup
3/4 C Vinegar

2 Tbsp onion - Chopped

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp paprika
1 C vegetable oil
1/2 C sugar

Blend together in blender, if making ahead put in something you can shake it up in, so oil doesn't settle. Grandma used a Mason jar.

Put all salad ingredients in a big bowl and mix in dressing and mix it all together.

Enjoy!