Lemon Chicken (from Taste of Home Potlucks and Parties Special Edition)

Lemon Chicken
Yield: 6 servings

1 tsp dried oregano

½ tsp seasoned salt

¼ tsp pepper

6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (6 ounces each)

2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules

¼ cup boiling water

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1-1  ½ tsp minced garlic

1-1  ½ cups (12 ounces) sour cream

2        tsp minced fresh parsley

Hot cooked brown rice, optional

Combine the oregano, seasoned salt, and pepper; rub over chicken.  Place in a 3-qt. slow cooker.

In a small bowl, dissolve bouillon in boiling water.  Stir in lemon juice and garlic.  Pour over chicken.  Cover and cook on low for 4 hours or until a meat thermometer reads 170 degrees.

Remove chicken and keep warm.  Stir in sour cream and parsley; cover and cook for 15 minutes or until heated through.  Serve chicken with sauce and rice if desired.

Hint: wisk the sour cream into the sauce at the end. I didn't stir mine enough, and it turned out looking strangely lumpy, although it still tasted amazing! I remember the sauce being thicker as well, but my mom said she made it recently and it was runny too. I hesitated to put my picture on this post, because it does not look as wonderful as it really is. You should try it anyway. You can make the sauce (and entire dish really) on the stovetop if you would rather. This is one of my favorite meals, and it's very very easy.


Husband's reaction: He didn't love it as much as I do, but, of course, his sauce was lumpy. Poor guy. :) I'll make it again, and he'll see how wonderful it is. Promise.

Angel Hair Pasta with Lemon and Garlic (from In the Kitchen with Rosie: Oprah’s Favorite Recipes)

Lemon Pasta
Serves 4

1 tsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 cup chopped tomato (1 medium tomato)

8 ounces angel hair pasta

¼ cup chopped fresh basil

2 Tb freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat and maintain at a boil.

Put the olive oil and garlic in a sauté pan and cook over medium heat just until the garlic begins to brown.  Stir in the lemon juice and tomato.  Remove the pan from the heat.

Place the pasta in the boiling water and cook to desired doneness.  Drain the pasta and put it into a warm serving bowl.  Add the basil, Parmesan cheese, and black pepper, along with the tomato mixture.  Toss and serve immediately.

This recipe originally calls for white wine, but of course I deleted that part. J Perfect recipe for summer, when tomatoes are fresh and you want something light. You can use dried spices and bottled lemon juice, but fresh tastes so much better.


Husband's Reaction: "I LOVE it this way [as he piles it on top of the garlic toast I made to go on the side]. It's like a pasta sandwich!"

My Secret Love

Oh how I love allrecipes.com. There seems to be a reason every day to look up something on that website. I've used it to make frozen hot chocolate when I needed a chocolate fix. I've used it to help me dress up a can of pork and beans that didn't look very appetizing. I found a recipe for homemade fortune cookies on there that looks difficult, but I can't wait to try it. When I can't call my mom to ask how to cook something, I go to allrecipes.com.

I like that people write reviews of the recipes too. That way I can kind of get a feel for how difficult and yummy each one is, before spending money and time trying a recipe blindly. I have been pretty happy about how easy it is to find and compare recipes. You can even search by ingredients if you have a few things on hand but don't know what to make. You all probably already use this website, but in case you don't I'd like to introduce you. Go check it out, and it might just become your new secret love too.

What do you like about allrecipes.com?

Spinach Burgers (from Dad)

Spinach Burgers
When a regular old beef burger just won't cut it.

1 pkg frozen spinach (thawed)

3 eggs        

½ onion, chopped

2-3 Tb oil

4 slices cheddar cheese (I used grated mozzarella, leftover from a pizza we made a few days ago) 

Combine spinach, eggs, and onion.  Beat together.  Poor into heated oil (should constantly make a sizzling sound).  Cover and simmer till almost cooked through.  Carefully flip over, cover with cheese, and brown other side.  Spread open hard rolls (It's IMPORTANT that the rolls are hard or the bread is toasted or the hamburger buns are dry, because these burgers make regular soft buns soggy pretty fast) with salad dressing and place long slices of spinach burger inside.  I like adding catsup and tomatoes to mine.

This was one of the few things Dad made us when he had to cook dinner.  We hated it.  But now I have come to like them, if not eaten too often.  It’s healthy too, which is a bonus. Try it. You might not hate it as much as it looks like you will hate it. :)

Husband's Reaction: "It's good, but I think I like real hamburgers better. . . .I wonder what turkey burgers taste like."

Pasta Carbonara

Pasta With Carbonara Sauce

My dad served a mission in Italy, and he brought this recipe back with him. Nobody ever complained at our house when we had this for dinner.

4 eggs

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/4 cup whipping cream (I used half and half again)

1/2 lb. Bacon, cut up (I used two strips...it was all we had left. Use as  much/little as you want.)

1 lb. Fettuccine or spaghetti

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Pepper

Parsley (to garnish--optional)

1-Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Let eggs, butter or margarine, and cream (half and half) stand at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours.

2-In a skillet, cook bacon till brown. Remove bacon and drain on paper toweling. 

3-Heat an oven-proof serving dish in a 300 degree oven.

4-Meanwhile, beat together eggs and cream (half and half) just till combined. Add pasta to a large amount of boiling, salted water. Cook 10-12 minutes or till tender but firm; drain well. 

5-Turn hot pasta into the heated serving dish; toss pasta with butter. Pour egg mixture over and toss till pasta is well coated and the egg is cooked. *If you are worried about the egg being cooked well enough, you can put the pan back in the oven to heat it up some more or do this step on the stove in a hot skillet. The pan should be hot enough to cook the egg if you everything around in it.*

6-Add bacon, cheese, and parsley; toss to mix. Season to taste with pepper. Serve immediately.

Tossing in the hot pan to cook the egg and cream mixture.

Husband's Reaction: "New favorite!" 

Me: "Really???"

Husband: "At least for today, yeah."

But really, it really was so so good.

Caramel Popcorn!

Easy Caramel Corn -From Char Mills

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup light Karo

1 square butter

6 qt. popped popcorn

Pop corn. Bring to boil the other ingredients. When it boils, pour over popcorn. Mix well. Enjoy! 

Very easy, even if it's not very healthy. 

Husband's Reaction: ...well, he didn't say much. His mouth was full, and his fingers were very sticky. Actions speak louder than words, right? :)

Ice Cream In A Bag (From Science Class)

Ice Cream In A Bag


1 cup half and half or cream (I preferred half and half. Cream sometimes leaves a greasy film feeling on my tongue).

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup sugar
      

Fill big ziplock bag ½ full of ice. Add in 1/4-1/2 cup of salt. I have used both rock salt and table salt before. Rock salt is best, but table salt also works...you just might need to add more or shake longer.  Fill a smaller ziplock bag with half and half, milk, vanilla, and sugar. *I have made this ice cream with only skim milk before. It works if it's all you have on hand, but it's more ice-crystally the less fat you use.* Seal the zipper part of the bag with tape (duct tape works really well).  Put smaller bag inside bigger bag. Then fill the big bag up the rest o the way with ice and add 1/4-1/2 cup more salt.  Seal with tape and mix up.

The above picture shows only half of this recipe. 

We did not have any big bags, so I could not make very much.

*Be sure to seal the small bag very tightly.  You don’t want salt water to get in.  Also, squeeze all the air out before sealing.


*It's fun to wrap newspaper around the bags with tape and play catch to mix up the ice cream. You want to constantly shake the bags until the ice cream is frozen. This takes about 10-15 minutes, but freezing time seems to vary based on how much ice and salt you add, how much you mix it, and how hot it is. Just squeeze the bad when you think it might be ready to judge the hardness of the ice cream. If it's not frozen enough, keep shaking.

*When you are ready to eat, wash the inside bag off a little with cold water so that salt water does not get in your ice cream. Then cut one of the corners of the bag off with scissors, push the ice cream out through the hole, and enjoy!

Used this when we went camping with the extended family. Very fun! Also useful for when kids are bored in the summertime.


Husband's Reaction:"This is great! It takes like a rootbeer float!" (Not sure how much it really tastes like rootbeer, but the consistency is similar to ice cream in a rootbeer float.)