S'mores Charcuterie Board

Looking for an easy but fun treat?  This spin on S'mores was a huge hit at our house last night, and the best part was that it only took me about 5 minutes to put together!

I layered Hershey's chocolate on the bottom of a mini cast iron skillet and topped it with the marshmallows and popped it under the broiler for just a couple of minutes.  I added pretzel sticks to our board and they were so good dipped into the chocolate and marshmallows!  

If you want to follow along with more of our every day happenings, be sure to follow along on Instagram!  Be sure to tag me if you give this s'mores board a try!

-Emily

2014 Top 5!

Wow, can you believe that we are already at the end of 2014?!  Seems impossible!  I want to take a minute to just thank you so very much for all of your support, likes, shares, comments, etc through out the past year!  I truly appreciate each and every one of you taking time to visit my little space on the internet.  Your presence here means the world to me.

I thought to wrap up the end of the year I would share the top 5 posts from 2014.  If you missed one of these be sure to check them out just by clicking on the pictures!  Here they are in order, starting with your most favorite:

Pantry Organization

Cookware Storage

Controlling Paper Clutter...an Update

House Number Post

Spicy Chicken Enchiladas

So there you have it!  I am looking forward to the new year and sharing some fun new things with you!  Hope you will join me in 2015!!

Taco Casserole

Hey guys!  I am so excited to be guest posting over at Table for Seven today!  Erin is an amazing food blogger and the creator of Share Your Stuff Tuesdays!  Such an honor to be asked to post there today!  Please stop by and be sure to follow her if you don't already-your mouth will water every time she posts!

I am sharing an easy weeknight recipe-Taco Casserole.  Click on the picture to take you to it.

Chicken Scampi

Here is a quick and easy weeknight version of Chicken Scampi!

I originally found this recipe from Campbell's a few years ago, but have made a couple tweaks along the way to make it just right for our family.  Here's how I put it together:

You will need:

2 tablespoons butter

4 small chicken breasts (or 2 larger breasts cut in half)

1 can (10 3/4oz) Cream of Chicken soup

1/4 cup water

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons garlic powder 

1 package angel hair or spaghetti pasta

Directions:

1. Boil water and begin cooking pasta according to the directions on the box

2. Melt the butter in a 12 inch skillet over medium heat

3.  Add chicken and cook until lightly browned on both sides, then remove and set aside

4.  Add the soup, water, lemon juice and garlic powder into the skillet and mix well.  Once the mixture is boiling add the chicken back in to coat.  

5. Take the drained pasta and toss it in the sauce mixture until coated before plating 

ENJOY!

Stand Mixer Milk Shakes

This past weekend I was let in on a little secret that will change my life forever-milk shakes made in the stand mixer!  It might sound crazy, but this is seriously exciting to me!  Making milk shakes for a family of 6 takes a long time when you have to do each one by hand.  We love shakes, so finding out that I can make an entire batch in one swoop is fantastic!  So, thank you to my friend Jana who has introduced me to this life changing process ;)

All you need is ice cream, milk, and whatever you want to add to it (that night we made some with chocolate chip ice cream and melted peanut butter mixed together-YUMMY!!!)

Here's how we made just a basic chocolate shake:

We put a half gallon of vanilla ice cream in the mixer with the wire whip attachment and slowly let that begin to mix.

 Then we added in 2 cups of milk and let it continue mixing.

 We just drizzled in the chocolate until we had it to the flavor (actually went more by the color) that we wanted it. 

And that's it! So good and so easy!  I can't wait to make them again and experiment with different flavors! 

Enjoy!

-Emily

Smoked Mac n Cheese

I love food from the smoker, and I love mac and cheese, but I have never combined the two!  I have heard that it is great so I decided to give it a try.  After much searching online and in cook books for a recipe to use, I wasn't finding a combination that sounded good to me so I decided to experiment a little and made up my own. 

-16oz. large shell pasta

-2 cans (10 3/4oz) Cheddar Cheese soup

-8oz Velveeta cut into 1/2 inch cubes

-2 cups whipping cream

-1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs; divided. 

I started by ALMOST cooking the noodles all the way through.  I wanted to leave them a bit firm so they would continue to cook in the smoker. 

I drained the water and quickly rinsed the noodles with hot water then returned them to the pot.  I added 2 cans of Cheddar Cheese soup.

Then I added the 2 cups of whipping cream and stirred it all up. 

Stir in the cubed Velveeta.

Add 1/4 cup of the bread crumbs and mixed it into the macaroni.

Convert to a 9x13 dish (I used a tin baking pan for easy clean up since it was going in the smoker).

Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of bread crumbs on top.

We cooked it in the smoker at 225°F for about 1 1/2 hours. 

Enjoy!  

-Emily

Chicken Manicotti

1 can (10 3/4 oz) Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup

1 1/2 Cups water

4oz Velveeta (cut up into 1 inch chunks)

Manicotti noddles, uncooked

1lb Boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into small strips

Parmesan Cheese (grated)

Preheat oven to 400°F. 

Mix soup, water, and Velveeta in a microwavable bowl.  Microwave on high for 4 minutes, stopping to stir half way through. 

Cover the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish with some of the mixture.

Stuff pasta with chicken strips and line up in the dish.

Cover pasta with remaining sauce mixture. 

Sprinkle Parmesan Cheese on top.

Cover with foil and bake for 45-50 minutes.

I like to keep the sides simple so I usually do some frozen vegetables and garlic bread to go with it. 

Enjoy!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

I apologize for my horrible picture, I forgot to snap a picture before we left home, so I took one with my phone while driving down the highway on the way to our Super Bowl party! (Clarification-my husband was driving, I was riding :) )

I found this recipe for Buffalo Chicken Dip in the Rachael Ray magazine that you can see here, but I made a few changes to mine when I made it this past weekend.  Here's what I did:

-1 package softened cream cheese (8oz)

-1/2 Cup Blue Cheese salad dressing

-3/4 Cup Franks Original Hot Sauce

-3oz Blue Cheese crumbles

-1lb chicken breasts

-Chicken Broth

I started by baking my chicken breasts in a little bit of chicken broth for about 30 minutes at 350°F.  Then while the chicken was still hot/warm, I shredded it in my stand mixer. 

To make the dip, soften the cream cheese then whisk it until smooth.  Add in the salad dressing, hot sauce, and crumbles.  Then stir in the shredded chicken. 

I put mine in my mini crock pot and set on low for 3-4 hours, and just left it on low for the duration of our party.  You could always crank it up to high for a couple hours to get it heated through then back it down to low once you start eating on it.

Serve with cut up peppers, celery, pretzel chips, and tortilla chips.  Enjoy!   

Kid Friendly Lasagna

I found this recipe in a Better Homes and Gardens Junior Cookbook several years ago.  It is super simple to put togeher, and kid friendly in taste!

12oz Ground Beef

2 1/2 Cups Spaghetti Sauce

Dried Lasagna Noodles

1 1/2 Cups Cottage Cheese

1 1/2 Cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Parmesan Cheese to taste (optional)

Coat the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish with some of the spaghetti sauce.  

Brown the ground beef in a skillet.  

 Drain any fat and stir in the remaining spaghetti sauce. 

Layer dried noodles in the baking dish.

Add half of the meat and sauce mixture.  

Layer half of the cottage cheese on top of the noodles. 

Add a layer of half of the mozzarella cheese.  

Add a second layer of noodles, meat, and cheeses. Add Parmesan if desired.  

Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour at 350°F.  

ENJOY!

Spicy Chicken Enchiladas

There are only 2 times that I allow the kids to eat something different than what I am cooking-when we have steaks (for obvious reasons), and these enchiladas, because they are quite spicy.  But they are so good!  You can alter the spice level a little if you don't want as much of a kick.  To tone it down a little use just the chipotle sauce.  You can either strain it out of the can or we have actually found smalls cans of just the sauce-often labeled Chipotle Salsa.  

3T Vegetable Oil

1 1/2 lbs. Chicken Breasts

Sale & Pepper

2t Cumin Powder

2t Garlic Powder

2t Taco Seasoning

1C Corn

5 Canned Green Chilies, Chopped (or small can all ready chopped)

4 Canned Chipotle Chilies, Chopped (or 2 cans of Chipotle sauce)

1 Can (28oz) Stewed Tomatoes

16 Tortillas

4 Cans Enchilada Sauce, Mild or Medium

4C Cheddar Jack Cheese

 Coat a large skillet with oil.  Season chicken with salt and pepper.  Combine cumin, garlic powder, and taco seasoning and sprinkle on both sides of the chicken.  Cover and cook until chicken is cooked through. 

Shred the chicken finely.  I like to pull out my big Momma mixer (6qt, I also have Baby 4.5qt) and use the flat beater for this.  It is SO much faster than shredding by hand!!  Just make sure the chicken is warm when you put it in to shred. 

When the chicken is shredded, add some of the chipotle sauce and mix in.  (You can skip this step if you want to tone down the spice level.  Just add it in the next step).

 In the same skillet that you cooked the chicken in, add corn, green chilies, chipotle chilies,  and tomatoes.  Allow that to simmer for about 5 minutes.

Then add in the chicken and simmer for another 5 minutes. 

Coat the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan with some enchilada sauce, then begin to assemble your enchiladas.  Dip the tortilla into enchilada sauce then spoon the chicken mixture in and sprinkle in a little cheese.  Roll it up and place in the pan.  Do this until the pan is full (we usually fit 6 in each pan).  

Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.  Bake at 350°F for about 15 minutes or until cheese is completely melted.  

ENJOY!