Quick Cheesy Grits

These grits make a great side dish for any meaty/saucy meal, but also taste great on their own. I made these grits to go along with my BBQ Chipotle Ribs and they were the perfect side!

First, cook a cup of grits according to the package directions. In this case it was 3 1/2 cups of water for one cup of grits. Once the water was boiling, I slowly stirred in the grits. The the entire mixture cooked in a covered pot for 20 minutes on a low heat.

When the grits are done, mix in 1 cup of cheddar cheese (I used fat free cheese and it turned out great!) and 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese. Recover the grits and let it sit off the heat for an additional 10 minutes and then serve!!

Recpie Recap
1 cup of grits cooked according to the package directions
1 cup cheddar cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Cook the grits and stir in the cheese. Let sit off the heat for 10 minutes and serve.

3 Ingredient Chipotle BBQ Ribs

These ribs are delicious and so easy to make! You will need a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce, a rack of ribs and 2-3 chipotle peppers. You can find these peppers in a can in the ethnic aisle of your grocery store.

To make this recipe, I used my pressure cooker, but you could just as easily make these in your crock pot or in the oven after marinating in the sauce.

First, cut up the ribs into 2-3 bone sections.

Second put the ribs into your pressure cooker, pour the BBQ sauce on top and top it all with the peppers. Then you will need to add a cup of water, I used the BBQ sauce bottle in order to get all the last drops of the sauce out at the same time.

Then just set your pressure cooker to high and cook for 25 minutes.

Serve on top of some Easy Cheesy Grits and enjoy! The sauce from the ribs goes great with the grits!

Recipe Recap
1 bottle BBQ sauce
2-3 chipolte peppers (depending on your heat tolerance)
1 rack of ribs cut into smaller sections
1 cup of water

Save $$, Buy a Rotisserie Chicken

I have a friend who says that she won't buy the precooked rotisserie chickens at the grocery stores because they cost too much money. I disagree, I think that they actually help me save money!

After the hubby and I eat a meal from the chicken, I then pick the rest of the chicken for meat. Do people pick chicken anymore? My mom would always do this growing up to make sure that all of the meat was used.....people just aren't frugal anymore!

To prove my point, while picking this particular chicken I got out my 1 cup measuring cup to see how much extra meat I was able to get. This time I was able to get 4 cups!!!!!!!! of extra meat. I sectioned this off into plastic bags and stuck them in the freezer, perfect for adding to salads, chicken quesadillas and other meals at a later time.

For $5.99, I would say we got our money's worth!!

Antioxidant Rich Chiliquiles

Have you ever heard of chiliquiles? They are like a yummy Mexican casserole, but this version is lighter and packed full of antioxidants. Its also meat free, but you would never never know it....I promise, just give it a try.

First, gather your ingredients. Most of this you will already have in your pantry/fridge. You will need eggs (1 per person), 2 cups cheddar cheese (low or fat free if you want), 1 can of black beans, 1 can of rotel, 1 can of diced tomatoes, 6-10 corn tortillas, 1 onion, some garlic, 1 can green chilies, cumin, chili powder, oil, cooking  spray, an avocado and a lime.

Cut the tortilla using a pair of scissors and spray them with a good amount of cooking spray. Put them in a 350 degree oven for 5-10 minutes until the get some color and crisp. In the meantime, begin cooking an onion (red, white, whatever you have) and a few cloves of garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil.

\

When the onion is cooked through, add the spices, chilies, rotel, tomatoes, and drained beans. Do not drain the tomatoes. Allow the mixture to warm through and let the flavor meld. If you want at this point you can add some more liquid (like chicken stock or beer) and then allow the liquid to cook down, concentrating the flavor. If you have time, this will give the dish more depth of flavor. You can get creative here and add anything that you might have around the house.....bacon comes to mind.....

Next, you are going to pour this mixture on top of the tortillas and layer is with the cheese. This dish goes back into the oven to melt the cheese, it will take about 10 minutes.

While this is baking, use the same dish that you used to cook the tomato and bean mixture to cook up a few eggs. Also, cut up the lime and avocado. Squeeze some of the lime juice onto the avocado to stop it from becoming brown. Also, if you happen to have anything that would make a good garnish, chop it up. We happened to have cherry tomatoes and black olives.

When the cheese is melted, take the baking dish out of the oven. Serve a generous amount of the casserole with one of the eggs and plenty of the garnishes. Enjoy!

Yes, its actually vegetarian (minus the egg)....but shhhhhh, don't tell anyone and they will never know....trust me. This is a hearty and comforting dinner, they will never miss the meat!



Recipe Recap:

6-10 corn tortillas
Cooking Spray
Olive Oil
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 can rotel
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can black beans (drained)
1/8 cup canned green chilies
2 Tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
2 cups cheddar cheese
1 small can black olives
1 avocado
Cherry tomatoes
1 lime
1 egg per person

Cut up the tortillas and spray with cooking spray. Cook in 350 degree for 5-10 minutes. Using 1 tablespoon of olive oil, cook the onion and garlic. Add in the rotel, diced tomatoes, black beans, spices and chilies. Cook for about 10 minutes until all of the ingredients are warm. Pour this mixture on top of tortillas and cover with the cheese. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes, until the cheese melts. Finally, top with any garnishes you have, as well as an egg any style.

Hanging Photo Display

After seeing something similar to this on Pinterest, I had to give it a try! The origional poster offered kits for purchase, but since they were out of stock, I had to take matters into my own hands!

Supplies: 4- 4x4 canvases, 1 long thin piece of wood,  modgepodge, ribbon in the color of your choice, strong glue to attach the ribbon to the wood, pictures of your choice cut just smaller than 4x4, 3M strips to attach canvases to the ribbon

Use the ModgePodge to attach the pictures to the canvases.

Use the glue to attach the ribbon to the wood.

Use the 3M strips to attach the dried canvases to the ribbon.

Tie a ribbon to the top.

Make sure to give the glue pleanty of time to dry.

Garlic Roasted Potatoes

Simple Simple Simple!!

Chop the garlic thin and be careful not the slice through the potato!! Use your knife to cut thin slices into the potato without cutting all of the way through.

Carefully stuff the garlic slices into the potato. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with a coarse salt.

Bake at 400 degrees to an hour, until they are roasted all of the way through!

Recipe Recap:
6 potatoes
1 head of garlic sliced thin
Olive Oil
Salt

Wash and cut the potatoes. Thinly slice the garlic and place within the potato slices. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 400 degrees for an hour.

Grandma's Beef Stew (with Dumplings)

The perfect dinner for a cold, snowy winter night.....Grandma's Beef Stew with Dumplings! Here is my version of my grandmothers beef stew recipe along with my mothers drop dumplings. Whenever I make this my husband eats seconds, thirds, fourths, you get the idea!

This recipe couldn't be more simple. First I gathered the ingredients: carrots, beef stock base, an onion, salt/pepper, oil and some stew meat.

I chopped up the onion and cooked it in a heavy bottom pot until it was translucent.

Then I added the meat (that had been salt and peppered) to the pan and browned it on all sides.

Next I added in the pealed and chopped carrots for a few minutes, just to coat them in the onion and meat mixture.

Finally I added 2 teaspoons of the beef stock base and 4 cups of water. I let this come to a rapid boil for 5 minutes and then covered and cooked the stew on a medium low heat for an hour. At this point, salt and pepper to taste. At the end of the hour I brought the stew back up to a rapid boil to make the dumplings.

To make the dumplings I mixed flour, milk and an egg into a thick dough.

I then poured the dough into the boiling stew, put the lid back on the pot and cooked for 5 more minutes until the dumplings were cooked through.

Recipe Recap:
1 lb stew meat
Carrots (peeled and chopped)
1 medium onion chopped
1 tbsp Beef Stock Base
4 cups water
1 Tsp Vegetable Oil
1 cup flour
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
Salt/Pepper

Cook the onions in a heavy bottom pot. Add the meat to brown. Add in the carrots, water and stock base. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes and then cover and simmer for an hour. Salt and pepper to taste. Bring the stew back to a boil. Mix together the flour, egg and milk and pour into boiling stew. Cover and allow the dumplings to cook.