Smothered Chicken and Baked Potato

I made this on Thursday night.  You can use chicken wings, legs, or thighs to make this meal.  Happy cooking and eating!

Recipe: Smothered Chicken and Baked Potato

Ingredients:
Chicken
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 medium size onion
1 green pepper
Seasoning (garlic, season all, black pepper, Pampered Chef Chipotle Rub

Directions:
1. Wash your chicken.  Using the Pampered Chef food chopper, chop your onion and green pepper.  Then season your chicken with the seasonings listed above.

2. In a large skillet, add about 2-3tbsp of canola oil or olive oil.  Put your stove top on medium heat.  Once your oil is hot, add chicken to the pot.  You are pre-cooking the chicken.  You only want to leave it in the pot until all sides are light brown (about 3 minutes total).  Once all your chicken is pre-fried and placed in a separate pan (large baking pan), add your onions and green peppers to the skillet (with the oil).  Cook for about 3-5 minutes.

3. In your large baking dish (that your pre-cooked chicken is in), add ONE can of cream of chicken soup, and your cooked bell peppers/onions to the pan.  Cover and bake for 1 hour.  After one hour, uncover the chicken and cook for about 5 minutes.  I also put my oven on broil for about 2 minutes, just so my chicken can have a pretty brown color.

4. Serve and enjoy!

A Down Home Southern Style Dinner Menu: YUMMY!

So for dinner last night, I made BBQ Pork Neck bones, my mom made the best green beans I have ever had as well as her famous (TOP SECRET) cornbread dressing!  I wish I could give y'all that recipe, but this is a family recipe I dare not share :).  Some of you may not know what neck bones are.  The neck bones are from the neck and they are often cooked to season vegetables, but there are plenty of other ways to cook them. They are very tasty and I think you will enjoy the recipe below.  If you find you can't jump on the neck bone band wagon, please check out the recipe for the green beans also listed below.  Happy cooking and eating!

Recipe: BBQ Neck Bones and Green Beans

Ingredients for neck bones:
1/2 onion chopped
1/2 green pepper chopped
Seasoning (garlic, season all, black pepper)
Neck bones (I used 20 neck bones)
BBQ Sauce (At least 2 full jars of whatever flavor you like most)
1/4 cup of water
Cooking spray (PAM)


Ingredients for Green Beans:
2 cans of french style green beans
1 potato diced
1/4 cup of onion chopped
2-3 strips of bacon chopped


Directions for Neck Bones:
1. Wash your neck bones off thoroughly.  In a large pot, add water to the pot until it is 3/4 full.  Then add your 1/2 of onion and 1/2 of green pepper to the pot.  Then add seasoning to the pot (not too much, just enough to season the water...YOU DO NOT WANT IT TOO SALTY). Then add the neck bones to the pot. On medium high heat, boil the neck bones for one hour (stirring every 20 minutes).

2. In a large baking dish (I AM USING MY PAMPERED CHEF LARGE RECTANGLE STONE), spray it with cooking spray.  Then add some BBQ sauce.  After your meat has cooked for one hour, use a spoon with holes (I USED THE PAMPERED CHEF NYLON SLOTTED SPOON) to take the neck bones out of the pot and into the baking dish.  Then add some BBQ sauce on top.  It's like a layering process: place enough neck bones in the pan until you have one layer, add BBQ sauce and then add more neck bones/BBQ sauce.  You want every piece of meat to be covered with BBQ sauce.  Then using a spoon without holes, add some of the juice from the pot to your baking dish.   

3. Add about 1/4 cup of water to the baking dish.  Cover with aluminum foil.  Then bake in the oven on 350 degrees for one hour.  It should be good and tender!  Also, when I used a full jar of BBQ sauce, I added a little water to the jar, shook it, and then added that to the baking dish.  

Directions for Green Beans:
1. Chop your onion, potato, and bacon.  In a medium sized pot, add some olive oil (about 2 tbsp).  After the oil is hot, add onion, potato, and bacon to the pot.  Stir and cook for about 5 minutes.

  
2.  Then add your green beans to the pot.  Add seasoning (my mom used garlic powder and season all).  Stir well.  Cover and cook for about 15 minutes.  The stove temperature should be on medium.

3. SERVE!!!!

  

Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins

This is a great recipe for breakfast, for a snack, for a classroom party, and many other occasions.  I wasn't big on muffins until I tried this recipe.  Happy baking and eating!!!

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins

Ingredients:
1 package of refrigerated chocolate chip cookies with walnuts (make sure it is softened...I used Pillsbury)
1 package of softened cream cheese (about 6-8oz)
2 and 2/3 cups of flaked coconut
1/2 cup of coffee-flavored liqueur (optional)

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 12 muffin cups with baking cups (PAPER baking cups).  In a large bowl, combine cookie dough and cream cheese.  Then stir in the coconut.  Using my pampered chef medium scooper, scoop dough evenly into paper lined cups.
2. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until the muffins are brown and cooked throughout (use a toothpick to determine if muffins are done: insert in center and if it comes out clean, you know they are done).  Pour 1-2 tsp of liqueur over each warm muffin.  Let it cool for about 5 minutes.  Then remove from muffin cups and SERVE!

ENJOY!