Spicy Smoked Sausage Pasta

I have a lot of catching up to do on recipes!! This recipe I pulled from Kevin and Amanda's blog who got this recipe from the cookbook, The Best Simple Recipes! Smoked sausage is one of those things I love to eat, but often forget exists when I'm at the grocery store! This is an absolutely delightful, hearty dish that we had no problems polishing off in just a couple of days! Let's get started...

Ingredients

1 TB olive oil

1 lb. smoked sausage

1.5 c diced onion

2 cloves garlic-minced

2 c chicken broth

1 (10 oz) can Rotel

1/2 c heavy cream

8 oz. Penne Pasta

1/2 tsp. salt & pepper 

1 c Mont Jack shredded cheese

1/3 c thin sliced green onion

To begin, you're going to want to add your olive oil to your pan over medium/high heat! You're going to want the oil to get hot enough it's smoking before you add the sliced smoked sausage and diced onion. 

Cook these two together until slightly browned, which should take about 4-6 minutes! Add in the 2 garlic cloves, and saute about 30 seconds, or until fragrant! 

Add the chicken broth, tomatoes, heavy cream, pasta, salt and pepper and stir together!

Bring this all to boil and cover leaving the heat on medium/low and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the pasta is tender!

Stir in 1/2 of a cup of the shredded cheese and mix together well! Top it off with the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese and sliced green onion, and place under the broiler for a just a few minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and getting brown!

Ready for the broiler

Out of the broiler!

All finished and ready to eat :)

This recipe was absolutely wonderful since it's been so cold outside, it helped warm us up! I did sprinkle a little dash or two of red pepper flakes in there to spice it up a little more! 

Stay tuned for another recipe from a friend of mine!

Until then...

 

Photo Challenge Update 3/25/2013

Photo Challenge This Past Week Included:

Something Green

Something Funny

Something Yellow

A Toy

Corner of our home

A Sign

An Animal

My something green picture is of a green bell pepper! I try and keep sliced bell peppers in our fridge for easy snack ideas! They are absolutely delicious and only about 30 calories for one large bell pepper! You really can't beat that!

My something funny picture is of "Shelly Beans"! I rarely see my name out there (which is nice, I like having a unique name), and this one definitely takes the cake! D called me, "Shelly Bean" the rest of the day! I've heard these are actually very yummy, I have yet to try them out! :)

My something yellow picture is of a fishing jig out of our tackle box! I had to do some major cleaning out of the fishing bag because these things were just floating around everywhere, and it's an awfully nice surprise when you reach in the bag and one of these little guys comes out attached to your hand! OUCH

Ah, yes! Our Nintendo! I can remember putting the stickers on this when I was a little girl! And yes, we still have two controllers and the gun! Oh what fun! 

This is a corner in our kitchen! Let's see, it's not the prettiest (I need cute cord covers or something!) but this is probably the most used corner of our home! 

In other words, you better not even take your foot off the break while driving! 

My animal picture is of a little sheep off of a blanket my Grandma Hendrix made for me and all of my cousins! I named it Snuggles when I was a little girl (and yes, I can't refer to it as a blanket; still to this day I will ask D to hand me Snuggles!) It's pretty worn out since it's been around for probably 25+ years...but it's still as soft and cozy as ever! I hope someday our kids can snuggle up with it on the couch with us and it will bring them just as many warm and cozy moments as it has brought me! 

I have a lot of catching up to do with my recipes! I've got about 3 that need to make their way on here! So stay tuned! I'll be posting one tomorrow! 

Until Then...

Fried Honey and Cinnamon Bananas

Okay, so this isn't exactly a "fried" banana more of a heated through banana! It's delicious and healthy! I pinned this awhile back, and couldn't wait to try it, so today was the day! You can see the health information on this snack at The Crohn's Journey Foundation's website! They break down each ingredient with all the nutritional facts about each one! It's worth the read even if you don't make this yummy snack! Let's get started...

Ingredients

One organic banana

Coconut Oil Cooking Spray

1 TB Organic honey

1/2 TB water

Cinnamon

Cut your banana into small rounds and set aside. In your skillet spray your coconut oil spray, and heat the skillet over medium/high heat. Add the banana rounds and brown on one side. Once they are browned, flip the over (carefully) and start browning the other side. Turn the stove off at this point and add your PRE-MIXED honey and water. At this point it's going to start getting very bubbly, and once that dies down you can sprinkle on the cinnamon. If you LOVE the taste of cinnamon be generous, if you are just adding for a touch of flavor, a light dusting will do! Remove them from the pan and let them cool, then enjoy! 

Honey and water mix

I didn't have the cooking spray, so I added a little bit of coconut oil to the pan! I use this for SOOOO many things including, toothpaste, hair conditioner, lotion, sunscreen, etc etc! It's awesome!

Here is the banana in the skillet getting browned! 

I LOVE cinnamon! If you'll take my advice and read up on the website where this recipe was pulled, you'll find that you might start adding cinnamon to recipes when you can :) I've added it to sloppy joe mix before and it was awesome! If you like Coney Island, did you know they add cinnamon to their chili!? (Not that that will make their coney's healthy lol but they are delish!)

Here it is just finishing up! I can still smell ALL of the ingredients in the house! 

Stay tuned for a new recipe...Shrimp & Grits! 

Until then...

Broccoli & Chicken Casserole

This recipe was a hands down winner in our home!! I found the recipe off of a fun blog titled, Just Get Off Your Butt and Bake! (Since you said it so nicely lol)! She has tons of great looking recipes that I can't wait to try out! I threw this one together fairly quickly, and once all your ingredients are put together, it goes by more smoothly! (I should also add I was in a major hurry trying to get this done before DJ left for work, and finished just in time!) Let's get started...

Ingredients

1 lb. fresh broccoli-broken into pieces & steamed for 2 minutes

3 cups of cooked chicken-broken into little pieces

1 1/2 c Cheddar Cheese-shredded

2 tubes of Ritz Crackers

1 stick of melted butter

1 TBS Poppy Seeds

SAUCE

1/3 c butter-melted

1/4 c cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 of a cup of cold water

1/3 c Chicken Broth

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

2 c Milk

1 1/2 c shredded Cheddar cheese

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. In a greased 9x13 pan layer the steamed broccoli on the bottom, then add the shredded chicken. Set this aside for now! In a saucepan, melt the one stick of butter and add the poppy seeds. Set the temperature to low once these two ingredients have been incorporated. In a large Ziploc bag, add the Ritz crackers, and take a rolling pin and crush the crackers. Don't make the pieces too small (more chunky pieces)! Once you have your cracker crumbs, pour the crumbs into the saucepan with your butter and poppy seeds and stir together! Add the 1 1/2 c of shredded cheddar cheese to the pan (on top of the chicken). Keep the saucepan on low for now! In a separate sauce pan, you're going to melt the 1/3 cup of butter. Add the cornstarch, broth, salt, pepper, and milk and stir together! I waited until this was all heated through before I added the 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese. Once you have all the ingredients stirred together, your sauce should now be a much thicker consistency. Pour the sauce over the cheddar cheese layer in your pan, then top it off with your Ritz cracker crumb mixture from the other pan! Place all this in the oven (uncovered) for 30 minutes! Let it cool for a couple minutes, and the rest is history!! Seriously, we probably would have taken down the whole pan by ourselves last night if we had been given the chance...it was THAT good!! This is now going in our "favorite dishes" book!! It seems like a lot of work, but there's no chopping, just a lot of standing by the stove making sure all your saucepans are behaving! Had I not been rushing around like a crazy person, this would have been a very easy dinner to make! 

Fresh broccoli (prior to tearing it all apart and steaming it)

Here is the broccoli in it's steam bath!

Make sure when you are making the corn starch and water mixture that your water is VERY COLD! This will thicken up quickly and stick to the bottom of your bowl! So, I made my mix right before I was ready to put it in the sauce pan!

The good thing about this recipe is that it doesn't take all the Ritz crackers from the box! I love to snack on these and club crackers!! 

This is the Ritz cracker, butter and poppy seed mix! If you look closely you can see the tiny poppy seeds in there :)

Here it is out right out of the oven, and part of it is already gone! 

DELICIOUS!! 

Stay tuned for some great recipes!! 

I don't know about ya'll but I am more than excited for Spring to finally be here and STAY here!! We had beautiful weather this past weekend (partially), and now we are back to chilly. cloudy days! (I'm pretty sure it might have just sleeted a little bit here)! I have been looking up Spring accessories, clothes, decorations and recipes for a couple weeks now! I came across this fun Etsy shop with some great items! Check it out if you haven't already found her yourself! 

Jimmy Pickles

This pocket purse is only $14... DEAL!! She really has some crazy cute stuff! 

Now I need to go decide what's next on the menu!

Until next time...

Roasted Chickpeas

So, I'm trying this on my phone today because our computer is up at the office! I cannot get enough of these sweet and salty chickpeas!! They are easy to make, and a great idea for a snack at home or you could double/triple the recipe to take to a party! Lets get started!

Ingredients:
I can of chickpeas
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon of salt

To start out you're going to drain the can of chickpeas and then scatter them out on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes. The last can I made I had to bake for about 32-35 (the chickpeas around the edges might get burned, just remove them and pop the sheet back in.) You are looking for them to have a crunch! Once they have roasted let them cool and put them in a small bowl. Add the olive oil, cinnamon, brown sugar, and salt and stir together. Serve and enjoy!! I about took down a whole can by myself the first time I made these! I originally came across this recipe at cupcakeproject.com! If you check out her recipes you will quickly find she puts together things that might seem out of the ordinary, but end up being satisfying and delicious! Stay tuned for more great recipes this week!! Until then...

Happy Eating

Taco Salad

Taco salad is an easy dinner and absolutely delicious! I can remember eating this when I was a little girl! I never seem to remember it when I'm stuck for something to make for dinner, but I remembered last night and I couldn't be happier I did! It's fairly easy to put together and will leave you happy and coming back for seconds! Let's get started...

Ingredients

1 lb. ground beef

1 onion

2 small tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic

1 pkg. (or pre-made) taco seasoning

Corn Tortillas

Canola oil

Shredded Cheese-I used the Mexican blend 

Shredded Lettuce-

(I didn't have this on hand last night but I normally always put it on there)

Catalina Dressing

You're going to want to brown the meat in a large skillet, and add about half of the onion (chopped), garlic cloves and one small tomato (diced). Once your meat is cooked through you're going to add the taco seasoning and water. Keep the meat on warm, and add a little canola oil to a small skillet. Heat the oil until it's smoking and add one tortilla at a time for about 10-15 seconds per side. All you're trying to do is give the tortilla a crispy crunch!! Place tortillas out on a paper towel to soak up any remaining oil. Dice the remainder of the onion and the second tomato and add to a plate! Here are the steps to putting these together...

1) Place tortilla on a plate

2) Add meat

3) Top with onion, tomato, and lettuce

4) Add shredded cheese

5) Top it off with the Catalina Dressing

6) ENJOY!!

Meat mixture in the skillet staying warm!

This is the size of the onion I used! 

Step 1) Add crispy corn tortilla to your plate! (You need to use corn, the flour tortillas don't get crispy like these do)! 

Finished Taco Salad! YUM! 

Stay tuned for a chickpea snack tomorrow! 

Until then...

Photo Challenge Update 3/17/2013

Happy St. Patrick's Day folks!! Hope everyone is wearing green! This is not typically a holiday I do much for, so I added some shamrocks, and I'm sitting here typing this out in a green shirt...for what it's worth this is the extent of my "celebration" lol! 

Here were my photo prompts for this week:

My Favorite Accessory

Tree

Flower

Colorful

Sunglasses

Fork

My Name

This is my favorite accessory! Dee Jay bought it for me a little over a year ago! It's an infinity necklace that says "I love you...I love you more"! He just melts my heart!! 

This is my tree picture! Love seeing all the shades of an Oklahoma sky! The sun was setting, and it almost looks like nighttime right above us, and daylight out on the horizon! 

This is my flower! These delicate buds, are seen all over the place in the Spring! We have two trees right outside that are covered in them! We have been watching them, waiting for the blooms to know that Spring is really on it's way! 

My colorful picture is of a T-shirt I own! I love all the bright colors!! Hurry up Summer!!

Here is a snapshot of my sunglasses! (Of course the day after I take pictures of sunglasses shirt, I need to take a picture of sunglasses lol)! I don't know about you guys, but I am really rough on my sunglasses IF I can actually keep a hold of them! This pair has lasted me one Summer so far! I always like to buy them cheap, because I know they will probably be ruined or lost in a short amount of time!

Well, this picture is pretty self explanatory! Here is a fork! A what? A fork! A what? A fork! OH, a fork!! (If you have never played that game with a large group of people, your brain has truly never been scrambled haha!)

We have three different pictures that a couple cute little munchkins have drawn for us! What you can't see in the picture is my "portrait"! Dee Jay has one too, and we then we have one with the two of us! I LOVE watching kids learn to write and draw!! They are so cute when they are all focused on something like a name, and it comes out PERFECT like this! I have millions of these stashed away from over the years, because I can't bring myself to toss them! When we have children of our own someday and they start coloring and writing, I have a feeling I'm going to run out of room on the fridge and walls! And yes, I will frame their first coloring experience, because everyone starts somewhere!! 

So there you have it! I've been slacking on the blog this week, but you guys have been back day after day checking out past recipes and that makes me happy! I promise I will do much better this week! Have a great Sunday, and until next time...