Sunday, April 27, 2008

What really happened.... Menu day 1 updated

Scrap the Alpine Chicken. Don't even waste your time. It was good but..here is a wonderful substitute that is easier, tastier, less time consuming and more kid friendly.

Chicken Cordon Bleu
Get out your old, pitiful looking 9x13 pan from your great grandmother's. Put in a layer of thawed chicken tenders. Cover the chicken with a layer of the best deli ham you can buy with no nitrites/nitrates. (Yes, I said "ham.") Cover the ham with layer of swiss cheese slices. Cover the swiss cheese with lots of homemade bread crumbs. Dab on 6 tablespoons of butter here and there. Cook at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Deliciouso!

We settled for baked potatoes instead of twice baked because of a time factor. I served with diced onion tops from the garden, sour cream and cheddar cheese. Yum!

The Salad was wonderful but a bit too costly. My boys stated they would just rather have a plain ol salad rather than with the fruit. But keep the Spinach Salad Recipe. It is a crowd pleaser at church functions/pot lucks. Colorful, healthy and tasty. I could not find Caroline's Orange Poppy Seed dressing at Wal-Willy so improvised with fresh orange juice and balsalmic vinegar.

The Strawberry shortcakes were delicious! Very, very good. Dave made the biscuits very thin so I put one biscuit down, covered it with strawberries and whipped cream and then repeated with another thin biscuit, strawberries and whipped cream. Skip the kiwis;they did not add as much color as I thought and the strawberries were sufficient.

Sunday we had beans and rice, rice and beans at church. They were delicious.

Fool Proof Beans
Soak your beans in water for 12-24 hours. Pour off water and rinse. Cook for 3-10 hours, whatever your time factor is; the longer, the better. Add plenty of salt and garlic powder to taste. For the last 30 minutes of your cooking time, pour in a can or 2 of Rotel and as much Cilantro as you like.

Well I never measure but the recipe looks something like this:
3 cups of beans and cover with water and soak as above.
Rinse the beans after soaking, put in crock pot and cover with water and then some. Add 1 T. salt and 1 T. garlic powder and 1 T. onion powder or whatever to your liking.
Add 1 can of Rotel, cilantro to your liking and a cup of sour cream. You just can't go wrong with this recipe. Throw in some brown rice the last 2 hours of your cooking time for a complete protein. Just remember to add some more water for the rice. A cornbread recipe will be forth coming.

I thanked God for the beauty of the day yesterday and then apologized that I wasn't out in it. So that is where I am heading now: OUTSIDE!

So there you go.

More later

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