Crock Pot Ranch Pork Chops

It doesn't get any easier than this...

Ingredients:

6 pork chops, 1/2 inch thick
1 packet dry Ranch Dressing Seasoning
10 oz can Cream of Chicken Soup

Directions:

Place pork chops, Ranch seasoning and soup into a medium sized crock pot over high heat for 4 hours or low heat for 6 hours.

Tips from a Kitchen of Reality:
I had chicken in the freezer instead of pork... so we had chicken. Super easy and great with Parmesan mashed potatoes!

Cake Batter Blondies

My husband LOVES funfetti/rainbow chip cake and my oldest daughter loves anything with sprinkles. When I ran across this recipe, I knew they'd both love it and I was right.

Ingredients:

1 box yellow cake mix
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:

Combine the first four ingredients in a large bowl. Add the milk slowly – you want the batter to remain as dense as possible. Then mix in the rainbow sprinkles and white chocolate chips. Bake in a greased 9x9 pan at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Tips from a Kitchen of Reality:

You want it to brown on the edges but not get too dry throughout. 30 minutes wasn't quite long enough-- mine was a little mushy in the middle. You'll have to play around with it depending on your oven.

Baked Zucchini with Mozzarella

I'm always looking for a new way to eat vegetables-- after awhile you get sick of cooking them the same old way. And everything is better with cheese, right?! This one is super easy and we loved it. I think I baked mine a bit too long, I'd rather have them a bit crispy, but they were still yummy. Enjoy!


Ingredients:

2 medium sized (or about 5 small) zucchini

Your favorite salt seasoning-- I LOVE Krazy Jane's!!

2 C shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Slice your zucchini into 1/2 inch rings.
2. Lay them out flat on a large greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with seasoning.
3. Bake in the oven at 350 for about 10-15 minutes or until crisp tender.
4. Take the hot pan out of the oven and sprinkle the zucchini with cheese. Turn the oven to broil, put the cookie sheet back into the oven and let the cheese get all bubbly and a bit browned. This should only take about 3-5 minutes. Watch your oven, time will vary.

Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole

I always like a new chicken casserole like recipe. It was a great variation and I had everything to make it in the pantry. The 15 month old ate two helpings, so even the little ones will like it. Enjoy!

Ingredients

5 cups chicken breasts, cooked and cubed

1 cup sour cream

2 cans condensed cream of chicken soup

1 tsp Worchestire sauce

1 tsp minced garlic

1 T lemon juice

1/4 tsp pepper

2 cups crushed Ritz crackers (about 1 1/2 rolls of crackers)

1/2 cup melted butter

1 T poppy seeds

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook chicken breasts with salt and pepper until done. Let chicken cool slightly and cut into one inch cubes. Place cubed chicken in a 9X13 casserole dish.

Stir together the condensed soup and sour cream. Stir in the worchestire, garlic, lemon juice, and pepper to the soup and sour cream mixture. Pour over the chicken.

In a separate bowl, stir together the crushed crackers, poppy seeds and melted butter. Sprinkle over the chicken and sauce.

Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top of the casserole is browned and the sauce is bubbly.

Serve as casserole with veggies, or over rice.


Tips from a Kitchen of Reality:
- I used cream of mushroom soup because that is what I had and less butter on the cracker topping.
- It was a little saucy but I didn't have quite enough chicken in it... so I will have to adjust for this next time. But the flavor was great.

Apple and Sweet Potato Casserole

This recipe just sounded like fall to me so I gave it a try. I enjoyed a new twist with two of my favorite fall things, see what you think!

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
½ cup sugar (brown or white)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. fine sea salt
3 medium sweet potatoes
3-4 sweet, crisp apples (Like Gala or Honey Crisp)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 35o°F. Butter a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan.
Stir together the sugar, cinnamon and salt; set aside.

Peel and thinly slice the potatoes, then the apples. Line the bottom of the pan with a layer of sweet potatoes, overlapping the slices to limit breaks/holes. Next, add a layer of apples. Sprinkle with the cinnamon mixture. Repeat the layers, potatoes, apples, cinnamon sugar, until the pan is filled.* Top with another sprinkle of cinnamon sugar.

Bake 35-45 minutes, until a knife can cut through without much resistance. Let sit for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Tips from a Kitchen of Reality:

Mine needed more baking time, but it was still really good.

Chicken Biscuit Stew

As a couponer, I found myself with two cans of Pillsbury Grands biscuits in the fridge b/c they were crazy cheap with my coupon.  So I got on their site and found this recipe.  Oh so yummy on this cool rainy night.  This will be a regular in my line up during the winter.

1/4 cup margarine or butter
1/3 cup all purpose flour
Dash pepper
1 (10 1/2) can of chicken broth
3/4 cup milk
2 cups cubed cooked chicken breast
1 cup fresh baby carrots
1 cup frozen peas
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 (12 oz) can of Pillsbury Grandes refrigerator biscuits

Directions:
1.  Heat oven to 375.  Melt margarine in 10-inch ovenproof skillet.  Stir in flour and pepper; cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute or until smooth and bubbly.
2.  Gradually stir in broth and milk with a whisk.  Cook until mixture boils and thickens, stirring constantly.  Add chicken, peas, carrots, and onion; cook until hot and bubbly, stirring occasionally.
3.  Arrange biscuits over hot chicken mixture in skillet.
4.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown.

Tips from the Kitchen of Reality:
-We don't eat peas.  So I omitted them.  Also, the veggies need to be precooked a little.  I would steam them for a minute or two in my micro-steamer from pampered chef.  Just until they were tender-crisp.
-I didn't have cooked chicken, so I chopped two boneless skinless breasts and cooked them quickly in the pan I made the 'gravy' in.  This really added some more depth of flavor I believe.
-The recipe calls for no seasoning besides the pepper.  I thought this was odd so I added a little garlic salt to my chicken when I cooked it and seasoning was spot on.
-I don't have an oven safe skillet so I made mine in a skillet and then poured it into a pyrex oval baker before topping with the biscuits.  Worked perfectly.
-Put a cookie sheet under your skillet or baker because mine bubbled over a little.

This was an easy recipe to make, used ingredients I always have (besides the biscuits) and it was super delicious.  I highly recommend it!

Crispy Parmesan Asparagus Sticks

I'm usually an olive oil and Crazy Salt kinda girl when it comes to cooking my asparagus in the oven. Saw this recipe and decided to try it. It was tasty! We will definitely be having it again.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of asparagus

2 egg whites

1/4 cup flour

1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Lay a wire rack on a baking sheet and coat with non-stick spray.

Snap off the tough ends of each asparagus spear.

On two separate plates, add the eggs whites (lightly beaten) and the panko + flour + cheese.

Season the panko mixture with salt and pepper if desired.

Coat each asparagus spear in egg whites, then lay in the panko mixture and thoroughly cover. If the panko won’t stick, dip back in the egg whites and roll in panko once again.

Lay each spear on the wire rack.

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy.

Grilled Romaine with Blue Cheese Bacon Vinaigrette

Who wouldn't love a new YUMMY salad alternative?! My mom has been telling me about this for weeks and since they've been down this week we've had it twice. YUM!! So easy, so different, and so delicious!! Try it!
Food Network... Guy Fieri)


Ingredients:

4 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup chopped red onion
1/2 pound bacon, chopped
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
3 heads romaine lettuce, cut in 1/2 lengthwise
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Preheat the grill to high heat.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a saute pan over high heat. Add the onions and bacon and cook until the bacon is crispy. To the same pan add the balsamic vinegar and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and stir to combine. Remove from heat and set aside.

Brush the lettuce with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil, place on the grill cut side down, and quickly sear.

Serve the lettuce, cut side up, and drizzle the balsamic dressing over the lettuce. Sprinkle with blue cheese and garnish with cracked black pepper.

Apple Cider Floats

This was a new fun drink/dessert I saw online last month (comes from Rachael Ray Everyday) and with all the fresh apple cider that is out in the stores, I thought I'd share. If you don't like floats you probably won't like it, but I was a big fan.

Ingredients:

2 cups apple cider

1 cinnamon stick

1 cup vanilla ice cream

1 tbsp caramel sauce

1 pinch of nutmeg

cinnamon stick

Directions:

- Heat apple cider with cinnamon stick and pour into 2 large mugs.

- Top with ice cream, sauce, and nutmeg.

Tips from a Kitchen of Reality:

- This really doesn't need a recipe, just the idea shared.

- Amounts totally depend on your mug size. So... fill mug with ice cream, top with warm apple cider, and caramel sauce.

- I didn't use the nutmeg or cinnamon stick and still thought it was delicious!

Happy Fall!!

Angel Chicken

Another new crockpot favorite...

Ingredients:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1 pkg (8 oz) button mushrooms, quartered

1 pkg (6 oz) fresh shitake mushrooms, stems removed, caps slices

1 /4 cup butter

1 pkg Italian dry salad dressing mix

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/2 8 oz tub of chives and onions cream cheese

Directions:

- Melt butter, add Italian dry salad dressing, stir in soup, wine and cream cheese.

- Place cut mushrooms in bottom of crock pot.

- Place chicken on top of mushrooms.

- Pour sauce over the top.

- Cook on low for 4 to 5 hours.

- Serve over pasta or rice.

Tips from a Kitchen of Reality:

- I used all button mushrooms. We are on a budget... sorry shitakes! :)