Corn Casserole From Heather

One of my favorite Side dishes

Ingredients:
2 cups Cheese
2 cans Cream Stlye Corn
1 onion
1 stick butter
1 box jiffy corn muffin mix
tinsy bit of garlic (I use the jar stuff on just put a teeny tiny bit)
Chopped Green Chilies small can for some spice (Optional)
Sliced Jalapenos (Optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat Oven to 350
2. Melt butter and saute in Onion & Garlic, till onion is soft.
3. Mix in a large bowl. Butter mixture with everything but Jalapenos.
4. Pour in greased 9 x 12 or simliar size baking dish. do not fill to top becuase it will rise.
5. here is where you can place some additional cheese on top and the sliced Jalapenos on top.
6. Bake for about 50-60 miutes till top is golden brown and middle is not to mushy.

Cajun Dirty Rice From Heather

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground pork
1 lb. ground beef
1 large bell pepper
1 medium onion
5-6 cloves garlic, peeled
1-2 fresh, cayenne peppers
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
2 4-6oz cans mushroom steak sauce
3-4 cups cooked rice

The Dressing Mix:Pan fry the ground meat well until all of the meat is well done. Put bell pepper, onion and garlic into food processor and "nearly" liquefy it, then add this to the meat. The pepper/onion/garlic should sizzle as you stir it well into the the meat. When the sizzling fades, add the mushroom steak sauce and a little water and allow the entire dressing mix to simmer for at least a half hour.

Dirty Rice: Cooked rice can be added to this mixture and thoroughly stirred. The more rice you add, the drier and "whiter" the resulting dressing will be. Adding the right amount of rice will result in a dress that is moist with the rice appearing very brown ("dirty").

Quick and easy homemade biscuits by Megan

This recipe is so yummy and it only takes ~20 minutes TOTAL.

I got the original recipe from http://www.allrecipes.com/, but I have switched it up based on comments and my own ideas. so, here ya go!

Ingredients:

2C all purpose flour

4 tsp baking powder

3tsp sugar

1tsp table salt

1/2 C shortening (if you sub salted butter, reduce the salt to 1/4 tsp or less)

1 egg

2/3 C milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450*F

2. Combine flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl. Cut in shortening until it looks like coarse bread crumbs--here is how to do this quick and easy: Dump the shortening in the bowl and use your hand mixer to 'cut in' the shortening. It takes 5 seconds.

3. Combine the milk and the egg, use the same hand mixer you used to cut in the shortening to beat them together for a few seconds (no need to wash) then dump the egg mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture. Use a rubber scraper/spatula to combine.

4. Here you have the option of kneading a few times and rolling out and using a biscuit cutter to make biscuits. But that is not quick and easy! Instead, I mix it really well with the spatula and 'knead' it a few times using the spatula (getting my hands messy would not be quick or easy) and then use an ice cream scoop to get biscuit sized batter balls on my cookie sheet.

5. Bake 8-10mins or until golden on top. Serve with jam or (my personal fave) apple butter. yum!

**also, if you sub butter, make sure it is COLD and i'm not sure using the hand mixer to cut it in will work quite as well. I haven't tried it, if you do let me know!

Lemon Chicken & Rice

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 boneless chicken breast halves
Salt and pepper
4 cups canned low-sodium chicken broth
1/3-1/2 cup lemon juice (depending on how lemony you want it)
2 cups long-grain rice


Melt 2 Tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and cook until softened, stirring occasionally, 4 to 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute longer. Scrape into slow cooker.

Sprinkle chicken with salt. Melt remaining 2 Tbsp butter in skillet over medium high heat until foaming. Add chicken breast halves and cook until browned, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to slow cooker.

Add 1 cup broth and lemon juice to skillet and bring to a boil, scraping browned bits from bottom of pan. Add to the slow cooker, along with remaining broth, rice and 1 tsp. salt. Stir, cover and cook on low until chicken is cooked through and rice is tender, 2 to 3 hours.

Divide rice onto 4 plates and top each with a piece of chicken; serve immediately.

Bex's Quinoa Salad

Delicious on it's own for lunch, or a perfect side to salmon!

1 Cup Quinoa, cooked.
1 roasted red pepper, diced. (you can find them jarred in the pickle isle).
1 cucumber, diced.
1/4 C sliced almonds
1/4 C feta cheese, or more to your taste. (I LOVE feta, so I add more like 1/2 C)
basalmic vinegar
olive oil
lemon pepper seasoning
italian blend seasoning (I use Herbs de Province, but you can use anything really)

Just mix it all together, adding olive oil, basalmic, and seasonings to taste. I also sometimes add italian sausage to it as well! A market around here has apple sausage that is perfect in the quinoa!

Garlic & Herb Roasted Potatoes from Lisa

*2.5-5 lbs of red potatoes cubed (skin left on)

*One-half package (or a whole pkg for 5lbs) of Lipton Garlic and Herb soup/dip mix

*2 Tbs (or more if you like--I just eye-ball it) EVOO

*Heat oven to 400*

Spray pan with non-stick spray
Spread potatoes in pan.
Coat with EVOO
Add Garlic and Herb mix and mix together
Cover and cook for 20 mins (or until potatoes are fork tender)

I usually take the foil off for the last 10 mins or so and broil them so they get nice and brown.

Oven Roasted Broccoli from Kim

• 1 head broccoli, cut into pieces all the way through the stem
• 2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons (eyeball it) extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

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Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Liberally drizzle EVOO over broccoli, add garlic, salt and pepper, and toss to coat.

Transfer to oven and roast for 15-20 minutes, until broccoli is nice and crispy on the ends and a little brown.

Roasted Southwestern Potatoes from Nicole

 

2 lb red potatoes, cut into ¾ inch wedges

3 T extra virgin olive oil

Salt & pepper

Southwest Mixture:

2T butter

1t cumin

1t chili powder

1t dry mustard

1/8 t cayenne pepper

1 clove garlic

Preheat oven to 425. Toss potatoes in oil, salt & pepper. Bake in single layer on baking sheet covered with foil for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 15 minutes. Turn potatoes over and bake 10 more minutes.

In a skillet, cook Southwest Mixture 1 minute or until fragrant. Remove potatoes from oven and toss in a bowl with the Southwest Mixture.

Denise's Spicy Oven Rice

1 cup uncooked Rice

1 cup water

1 can Rotel

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

2 Tbs Olive oil

1 tsp salt

 

Mix all ingredients in a covered casserole dish.  Cook at 375 for 45 mins covered.  Remove lid, stir and bake for 15 mins longer.

Green beans from Kim

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 pound fresh green beans, cut into 2 inch pieces (i used frozen beans that were thawed and not cut, and it was still yummy)

1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over medium heat. Add sesame seeds. When seeds start to darken, stir in green beans. Cook, stirring, until the beans turn bright green.
Pour in chicken broth, salt and pepper. Cover and cook until beans are tender-crisp, about 10 minutes. Uncover and cook until liquid evaporates.

Twice Baked Potatoes from Jen

Serves 4

Ingredients:
4 whole bacon slices
cooking spray
3 whole garlic cloves
4 medium russet potatoes
1 cup sour cream, low-fat
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar
1/3 cup green onions
1/4 cup milk, fat-free, skim
1/4 teaspoon salt
For garnish, fresh black pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Cook bacon in a medium nonstick skillet over medium high until crisp. Remove from skillet. Crumble and set aside. Wipe skillet clean with paper towels.
3. Place skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat until hot. Add garlic, saute 1 minute. Set aside.
4. Bake potatoes at 400 of 1 hour or until done, cool slightly. Cut a lengthwise slit across top of potatoes. Carefully scoop pulp into a bowl, leaving shells intact. Add half of crumbled bacon, garlic, sour cream, 1/4 cup cheese, 3 tablespoons onions, milk and salt to pulp; mash.
5. Increase oven temperature to 450. Stuff shells with potato mixture, top with half of crumbled bacon, 1/4 cup cheese and remaining onions. Place the stuffed potatoes on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until potatoes are throughly heated. Sprinkle with pepper, if desired.

Bobby Deen's Couscous from Jen

Paula's son is cute-and HE COOKS! :)

2 1/4 c. water or chicken stock (use the STOCK-trust me!~Jen)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. butter
10 oz. couscous ( or 1 whole box)
1 c. FRESH diced tomatoes
1 c. crumbled Feta cheese
1/2 c. sliced green onions

Combine water or chicken stock, salt, and butter in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir in couscous. Add diced tomatoes, crumbled Feta, and green onions. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 5 minutes.

Uncover, fluff with a fork and serve hot or cold.

Mika's Easy Ranch Potatoes

10 small red potatoes

1 envelope Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix

Olive Oil

Wash, and pierce potatoes with fork. Cook in microwave for 7 minutes and let cool. Once cool, quarter. Lightly dip in olive oil to coat. Toss with dry ranch dressing mix. Cook at 350 for 20 minutes or until soft and golden brown.

Oriental Cole Slaw from Mika

1 lb Cole Slaw Mix

4 green onions, chopped

2 pkg Ramen noodles, crushed (I use 1 chicken and 1 oriental)

4 oz slivered almonds

4 oz sunflower seeds

Combine above ingredients together.

Dressing

½ cup white vinegar

½ cup sugar

½ cup vegetable oil

2 tbsp soy sauce

Flavor packets from Ramen

Mix together well (shaking works best) and pour over slaw no more than 30 minutes before serving. Slaw can be refrigerated overnight without dressing.

Nicole's Crash Hot Potatoes

The Cast of Characters:

New Potatoes (or other small, round potato--the smaller the better)

Olive Oil

Kosher Salt

Black Pepper

and whatever herb you like (rosemary, chives, etc)

Clean & boil potatoes whole for 20 minutes, or until fork-tender. Remove from water and place on lined (Reynolds Release works GREAT) baking sheet. Coat with a drizzle of olive oil. Smash coarsely with potato masher (2 mashes should do it) into little rounds (think cookies). Drizzle with olive oil, salt (generous), and pepper. Sprinkle on your herbs and bake at 450 for 20-25 minutes. They should be nice & brown and crispy. YUM!