Cheddar Baked Chicken

Found this on allrecipes.com. Very Scrumptious!

I was looking for a good baked chicken recipe. I had one from my mom… but I kind of wanted to branch out a little and add some more flavor. This recipe had a great rating and lots of good reviews. After making it for a double date with my brother and soon-to-be wife we give it our full support!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
2 eggs
2 Tbl milk
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1 1/2 cups cornflakes, crunched up
3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts- cut in half
2 Tbl butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a medium baking dish with 1/4 cup of melted butter.

2. In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. In a separate bowl, but together the eggs and milk. In a third bowl, mix the cheese and cornflakes. Dredge chicken pieces in the flour mixture, dip in the egg mixture, then press in the cornflakes. Arrange in the prepared baking dish.

3. Pour your remaining cornflakes and cheese over the top of the chicken then drizzle the 2 Tbl butt evenly over the chicken.

4. Bake for 35 minutes in the oven. Make sure to check the temperature (170 degrees)

Guiltless Alfredo Sauce

WOW!!! This is my new favorite recipe! Seriously!!! It tastes amazing and is so much healthier than your normal stuff. Thanks to Pinterest and wonderful friends who pointed it out on Facebook. This really is an amazing recipe.

Ingredients:
2 cups low-fat milk (I used 1%)
1/3 cup cream cheese (you could also buy low fat)
2 Tbl Flour
1 tsp salt
1 Tbl Butter
1 tsp garlic powder or 1 Garlic Clove
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Place milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt in a blender and blend until smooth.

2. If you’re using a Garlic Clove: In a non-stick sauce pan, melt butter on med-high heat and add garlic. Let the garlic saute for about 30 seconds, you don’t want to burn it.

3. If you’re using Garlic powder, In a non-stick sauce pan, melt butter then add your garlic powder. Mix it together, then add milk mixture to the pan. Stir constantly until it just comes to a simmer. Once it has come to a simmer keep stirring and let it cook for 3 more minutes. It should be getting much thicker at this point.

4. Remove pan from heat. Add the cheese, stir it up and then cover as quickly as possible. Let it stand for at least 10 minutes before using. It will continue to thicken upon standing

If you have leftovers in the fridge the sauce will thicken to almost a solid. Just re-heat it and add a little milk. It will be back to normal and just as good.

Santa Fe Chicken

This was inspired by some Pinterest Recipes I’ve seen floating around. I didn’t have everything on hand that I wish I had, but it was still really good.

Ingredients:
2-3 Chicken Breasts
1 can Black Beans
1 can Kidney Beans
1 bottle Salsa
1 bag Freezer Corn (Canned corn would work too)
Southwestern Seasoning

Wish I had had:
1 bunch of Green Onions, diced
1/2 bunch of Cilantro (or more depending on if you like it a lot)

1. Cook your chicken up (170 degrees internal temperature) with some of your favorite Mexican-like seasoning. Mine is Pampered Chef’s Southwestern Seasoning. Once it’s cooked, dice it up and throw it in your crockpot.

2. Drain and rinse your beans.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients into your crockpot. Where everything is already cooked or safe to eat you are mainly letting things simmer and heat up. The mixture of flavors…. yum! Cook it on HIGH for 1-2 hours or LOW 3-4. Make sure to put it on high for the first little bit either way so that your food can all get to the safe food temperature fast, then turn it down if you are using your low setting.

If I had had Green Onions and Cilantro I probably wouldn’t have put them in, but left them for a topping afterward.

This was really good over rice. It would also be good on salad.

Green Monster Smoothie

There is a new trend going around about these things. It is blowing up on Pinterest and I’ve seen them a few times on Facebook. I decided to try my hand at them and see what I thought.

I’ve kind of been on a health kick lately (counting calories and such). That’s kind of what piqued my interest on these. I wanted something healthy, yummy, and easy to put together in the morning or for a snack during the day. These are so easy to put together and to change up to your liking also.

Ingredients:
1 cup (or generous handful) fresh and clean spinach leaves
1 frozen banana
1/3 cup yogurt (I used WF Vanilla)
1/2 cup milk

1. Put everything in your blender and blend it on up.

This is 235 calories and makes about 1 1/2 glasses full. I didn’t actually measure it yet, but that is what it serves as in my glasses. I you want it a little thinner you can add another 1/2 cup of milk (50 more calories) and it will probably be two glasses of smoothie.

This is kind of a starter recipe that would be easy to add more things to. Here are suggestions:

1 Tablespoon of Peanut Butter (90 Cal)
Some frozen or fresh berries
Cocoa Powder
Flax Seed (tons of health benefits and adds a fun flavor)

Have fun with it!

Chicken and Black Bean Wrap

While trying to lose some weight lately I’ve been focusing on some fairly simple and healthy recipes.

Ingredients:
2-3 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
1 can Black Beans
1 cup Freeze Dried Green Bell Peppers
1/2 cup Freeze Dried Onions

1. Get your bell peppers soaking so they can hydrate. Make sure that they are covered in water and then let them sit.

2. Cook your chicken in a skillet deep enough to prepare everything in. (Don’t you love one pan meals!) Once some of the juices and oils from the chicken start working around in the pan go ahead and throw in your Freeze Dried Onions. I didn’t reconstitute mine because I often like to just use the natural juices from the meats to do that. You can reconstitute them if you’d rather.

3. Once your chicken is cooked through and the temperature is at least to 170 degrees go ahead and slice it up. I don’t have a nylon knife that is safe to use in my non-stick pan so I forked them out and cut them into strips on my cutting board.

I guess I added the beans and drained peppers before I cut it. It really doesn’t matter.

4. Add your peppers and beans to your hot pan so they can get warmed up.

5. Serve over some rice or in a tortilla

Golden Graham Smores

I found this recipe on cooks.com.

Ingredients:
3/4 c. light corn syrup
3 Tbsp. butter
1 pkg. (11.5 oz) milk chocolate morsels
3 c. miniature marshmallows
1 tsp. vanilla
1 pkg. (12 oz) Golden Graham cereal (9 cups)

1. Grease 9x13 pan

2. Heat syrup, butter and morsels to boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla.

3. Pour over cereal; toss until coated. Fold in Marshmallows (it suggests one cup at a time, but I just poured it all in at once. Press in pan with buttered back of spoon. I added some extra marshmallows on top for fun. Let it stand for 1 hour.

4. Cut into 2 inch squares (or the serving size you want). Store loosely covered at room temperature up to 2 days. Makes 24 squares.

These are DELICIOUS!!! I heard my sister talking about something similar to this and I had to try them. This is the only recipe I’ve tried, but I love the proportions and the easiness of it all. It comes together really quick.