Nacho Cheese!!!

At our house we love nachos!! I was never really satisfied with the store bought stuff so I found a recipe on line and then tweaked it and this is what I came up with.

Ingredients:

3 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. corn starch

1 cup evaporated milk

2 oz. cream cheese, cubed

2 1/4 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

1 tsp. hot sauce

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. paprika

optional additions: diced chilies or jalapenos

Directions:

In a small saucepan over low-medium heat, melt butter and stir in corn starch.

Pour in the milk, add cream cheese, and continue to stir until mixture is fully incorporated.

While stirring mix in cheddar cheese, chili powder, paprika, and hot pepper sauce.

Continue to stir until cheese has melted and all ingredients are well blended.

Pour over tortilla chips.

Creamy Tomato Soup

-4 Cups milk
-3 (14 ounce) cans dived tomatoes, drained
-2 rounded tablespoons tomato paste
-1 medium onion- chopped
-1 stalk of celery, coarsly chopped
-salt and pepper
-1 tsp sugar
-4 Tbs all-purpose flour
-2 Tbs butter, cut into peices
-1 Clove of Garlic
- 1/2 Cup store bought prepared basil pesto (I didn't have this so I used a tsp basil)

Heat the milk over moderate heat in a medium pot. Put tomatoes, tomatoe paste, onions, salt and pepper, sugar, glour, butter and celery into a food processor* and grind until smooth. Pour micture into milk and raise heat to bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes.

Pour soup into shallow bowls and add a couple or rounded spoonfuls of pesto into each dish and stir into the soup.
Serve with grilled cheese sandwiches and/or gold fish crackers!!

*My food processor is to small for all of these things, so I did them in small batches. Then I just used a hand mixer for a couple minutes to mix everything together!!

Sneak Those Veggies In

This recipe is great for picky kids who won't eat their veggies. This Mexican casserole is so good they won't know that it is full of veggies. Adults will love it too!!

Tacozagna

3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided

2 1/2 pounds ground turkey or ground sirloin

1 zucchini

2 carrots, peeled

1 onion, peeled

3 cloves garlic, peeled

3 tablespoons chili powder, 3 palm fulls

2 teaspoons ground cumin, 2/3 palm full

1 tablespoon coriander, a palm full

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 cup beef stock

6 (8-inch) flour tortillas

3 cups shredded Chihuahua cheese or Monterey Jack

4 scallions, chopped

2 hearts romaine lettuce, chopped

3 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Heat a large high sided skillet over medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. Add the meat and brown, 5 minutes. While meat browns, grate the zucchini and carrots with a box grater. Add the vegetables to the meat and grate in the onion and garlic. Season the meat with chili, cumin, coriander, salt and pepper and cook 7 to 8 minutes more to soften vegetables. Stir in beef stock. Grease a 8 by 13-inch baking pan with vegetable oil. Layer in 3 overlapping flour tortillas and top with 1/3 meat, 1/3 cheese. Repeat the layers twice and bake 10 to 12 minutes to brown cheese. Top with scallions, lettuce and tomatoes, cut into squares and serve.

Best Baked Chicken Nuggets

This recipe came from a kids cookbook that Mylie has. It is one of her favorite this to help make and we all love them!! The only thing I do different is I don't put the oil in the bread crumb coating, instead I just spray the pan with Pam spray and then spray the tops. Also you can just use chicken breasts cut up into chunks if you don't have chicken tenders on hand.

Honey Nut Chicken Nuggets

2 pounds chicken tenders

Salt and pepper

1 cup all-purpose flour

3 eggs

A splash milk

2 cups honey nut flavored cereal (recommended: Honey Nut Corn Flakes)

1 cup bread crumbs

1 tablespoon sweet paprika

1 tablespoon poultry seasoning

2 tablespoons grill seasoning (recommended: Montreal Seasoning)

1/4 cup vegetable oil, eyeball it

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Season chicken tenders with salt and pepper. Place flour in a large shallow dish. Coat chicken in flour. Beat eggs and milk in a shallow dish. Combine cereal, bread crumbs, paprika, poultry seasoning, grill seasoning and vegetable oil in food processor. Transfer breading to a shallow dish. Place a nonstick baking sheet near chicken breading station. In batches, take flour coated chicken and coat in eggs then in breading and place on nonstick cookie sheet. When all the chicken has been coated, transfer to oven and bake 15 minutes, until evenly brown and cooked through. Cool and serve, or pack up for a picnic! This chicken may be served hot or cold.

Breakfast Sandwiches

This morning Ben had the Priest Quorum Presidency over for Breakfast and a meeting. We decided to make McD's style Breakfast Sandwhiches (hopefully more healthy). Mom once had these available for Michael and I when we were in seminary. They are quick and easy.

Sausage Patties (We got the ground sausage and shaped our own. You can make a lot, cook them and freeze them until you are ready to eat- then just zap them with the microwave and they are ready.)

Egg- we cooked our overhard (no runny yoke) and lightly peppered them.

Cheese slices

English Muffin- Toasted

It is pretty self explanatory but you put the sausage, cheese and egg on the english muffin. (If you put the warm egg on the cheese, it melts beautifully) We wanted them to stay warm so I made some up and stuck them in the oven at 170 to keep warm. They were very good, really easy and tasted healthier than fast food!

Conference Sunday

Growing up my family always made donuts on conference Sunday, we have continued this tradition. This morning we tried a new recipe and it was fairly easy for homemade donuts. Both frostings were outstanding.

Ingredients

2 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water (110° to 115°)

1/2 cup half-and-half cream

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup shortening

1 egg

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3 to 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Oil for deep-fat frying

MAPLE FROSTING:

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon half-and-half cream

1/8 teaspoon maple flavoring

1 cup confectioners' sugar

CHOCOLATE FROSTING:

2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

2 tablespoons butter

1 cup confectioners' sugar

2 tablespoons boiling water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the cream, sugar,

shortening, egg, salt, nutmeg and 3 cups flour. Beat until smooth.

Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (dough will be

sticky).

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about

6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the

top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down; divide in half. Turn onto a lightly floured

surface; roll each half into a 12-in. x 6-in. rectangle. Cut into

3-in. x 2-in. rectangles. Place on greased baking sheets. Cover and

let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 30 minutes.

In an electric skillet or deep fryer, heat oil to 375°. Fry long

johns, a few at a time, until golden brown on both sides. Drain on

paper towels.

For maple frosting, combine brown sugar and butter in a small

saucepan. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until

sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat; stir in cream and maple

flavoring. Add the confectioners' sugar; beat for 1 minute or until

smooth. Frost cooled long johns.

For chocolate frosting, in a microwave, melt chocolate and butter;

stir until smooth. Stir in remaining ingredients. Spread over cooled

long johns; let stand until set. Yield: 2 dozen.