Grilled Chicken and Veggies

With summer coming to an end I am trying to do some grilling at least once a week. If I was home more often, I would probably grill every night! Monday I grilled some chicken and veggie kabobs. So super good!!The longer you marinate the meat, the better. You can also use this marinade on the veggies too. Chicken and Veggie Marinade

anna can cook

1 1/4 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp mustard

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

2-3 crushed garlic cloves

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

salt and pepper

4-8 chicken breasts, depending on how big they are.

Cut up chicken breasts into cubes and place in bowl. Combine all marinade ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Pour marinade over chicken cubes and make sure all the chicken is coated. Place lid on bowl and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight. Thread chicken onto skewers and grill on either an outdoor or indoor grill.

Tamale Chicken Casserole

This is a fast and yummy dinner. I love Mexican food and my family loves this dish. You can tone down the heat by leaving out the red pepper flakes or make it an even faster dinner by using rotisserie chicken. Tamale Chicken Casserole

1 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend, divided

1/3 cups milk

1 egg

1 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

1 box corn muffin mix

1 can (15oz) cream style corn

1 can (4oz) chopped green chilies

1 can (10oz) red enchilada sauce

2 cups shredded chicken

Preheat oven to 400*

In a large bowl, combine 1/4 cup cheese, milk, egg, cumin, red pepper, corn muffin mix, corn and green chilies; stir until moistened. Pour into a 9x13 sprayed baking dish. Bake 15 minutes. Pierce surface with fork liberally. Pour enchilada sauce over top. Top with chicken and remaining cheese. Bake an additional 15 minutes or until cheese melts. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting. Serve topped with some sour cream and a little salsa.

Tessa's Birthday

I had such good intentions of spending the summer trying new recipes and blogging about them. Sadly, I haven't really had time to cook anything exciting all summer-we have been so busy! I would like to think things are going to calm down in the fall, but at this point I am not holding my breath.

My baby turned 2 this week and so we had a fun little party for her. She LOVES Disney's Little Einsteins, so we had a party around that theme. I made the cake and must say I was pretty proud of myself. It even tasted good! Just wanted to share and say hi to the blogging world. I will be back-soon I hope.

Sesame Noodles and Asian Chicken

Tried this new recipe last week and tweaked a few things for us. It was so easy and super delicious! This is one of my new favorites. It's a little spicy for the little ones, but that is easily fixed by omitting the crushed red pepper. This would be a great dish to serve for a dinner party....maybe I should have one.

Asian Chicken

adapted from jamiecooksitup.blogspot.com

2 tsp garlic

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 tsp Hoisin sauce

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp ginger

pinch of red pepper flakes

1 tbsp peanut butter

1/3 cup hot water

5 chicken breasts, cut into long strips

Place peanut butter and 1/3 cup water in the microwave and heat for 1 minute. Stir until smooth and combined well.

Place all ingredients but the chicken into a 9x13 pan. Stir them around to incorporate. Place chicken in sauce, turning to coat. Cover the pan and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Grill the chicken for about 7 minutes over medium heat. Turn the chicken and cook until cooked through. Serve with sesame noodles.

(Could also put the chicken on skewers before placing in marinade. Make sure you soak your skewers for about 20 minutes before adding the chicken on them. This prevents them from burning on the grill.)

Serves 5

Sesame Noodles

adapted from jamiecooksitup.blogspot.com

4 tbsp soy sauce

3 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp sesame oil

1/2 tbsp peanut butter

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp white sugar

3-4 green onions, chopped

1/2 tbsp sesame seeds

1 (14-16 oz) pkg thin spaghetti noodles

Cook pasta according to pkg directions. While noodles are cooking, add all ingredients but the onions and sesame seeds into a large bowl. Stir until they are all mixed together. When the noodles are done cooking, drain all of the water. Immediately add the noodles to the sauce. Add the sesame seeds and stir everything together. Sprinkle with green onions and serve with Asian chicken. Delicious!

Serves 6-8

Mississippi Mud Bars

Last night we had a recognition program for one of my Laurels. My counselors and I can't seem to do anything small. We had delicious treats for everyone. My contribution were these Mississippi Mud Bars. You can't go wrong with Paula Deen-lots of butter and sugar makes anything taste amazing!

Mississippi Mud Bars

paula deen

1 cup butter

1 cup milk

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup water

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups sugar

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

3 cups mini marshmallows

Mississippi Mud Frosting (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease a 15x11 inch jelly roll pan. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in milk, cocoa, water and eggs. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.

In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour and baking soda. Pour butter mixture over sugar mixture, whisking to combine. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Immediately sprinkle marshmallows evenly over hot cake. Pour hot Mississippi Mud Frosting over cake, spreading it with knife if necessary. Let cool in pan completely. Cut into squares and serve.

Mississippi Mud Frosting

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla

4 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in milk, cocoa and vanilla. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Remove from heat. Whisk in confectioner's sugar until smooth.

I had such good intentions for doing some amazing cooking this summer-I've been cooking, just not blogging. This summer has been so busy! Between work, my family and young women, I pretty much don't do anything "extra". I am hoping that now that girls camp is over and once swimming lessons are over, life will calm down just a bit. Did I mention girls camp is over? Hallelujah!!!

One thing I have been doing this summer is watching this beautiful garden grow. We planted a garden with our neighbors this year and it is growing beautifully! We have lots of tomatoes, squash, radishes, carrots, green onions, peas, beans, potatoes, peppers and some pumpkins. We picked a huge bowl of peas last week that taste so good! It has been a great experience to take care of our garden. I'm grateful everything is growing!

Grilled Pork Chops and Baked Sweet Potatoes

I have only one word to describe our dinner last night-DELICIOUS!!!! We recently splurged and finally bought a grill-we have never had one before and we are loving it!! Last night we grilled pork chops. They were amazing! Yahoo for summer!Pork Marinade

4 pork loin chops
2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp ginger

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp olive oil

dash of salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a Ziplock bag and add pork chops. Marinate in fridge 30 minutes to 4 hours. Cook pork chops on indoor or outdoor grill and discard remaining marinade.

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

4 sweet potatoes

1/4 cup buttermilk

salt and pepper

paprika

shredded cheddar cheese

green onions, sliced

Preheat oven to 450*. Wash sweet potatoes and coat in olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake on baking sheet for 35-40 minutes, or until tender. Cut potatoes in half and scoop out insides of potatoes. Place potato filling in bowl with buttermilk, and season with salt and pepper and paprika. Mash it all together. Place mashed filling back in potato skins. Place back in oven on baking sheet and cook another 10-15 minutes to heat through. Once heated through top with cheese and onion. Yummy!