The Briar Patch

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili

Ingredients 

1 onion, chopped

1 - 16 oz. can black beans

1 - 16 oz. can light red kidney beans

1 - 8 oz. can tomato sauce

1 package frozen corn kernels

2 - 14.5 oz. cans diced tomatoes w/chilies -rotel

1 packet taco seasoning

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp chili powder

3 boneless chicken breasts

optional - chopped chili peppers

chopped fresh cilantro

1. Combine onion, beans, tomato sauce, corn, diced tomatoes, taco seasoning, cumin, and chili powder. If you would like a little more eat add the optional chopped chilies.
2. Place the uncooked chicken breasts on top of mixture and cover.
3. Cook on low for 10 hours or high for 6 hours.
4. 30 minutes before serving remove chicken breasts from crock pots do shred with a fork. Return the shredded chicken to the crock pot and stir in. Top with fresh cilantro.
5. Serve with reduced fat shredded cheese and light sour cream.

     My entire family enjoyed this recipe!! It is easy to make and the chili portion is 0 Weight Watcher points! You have to try this. It is so flavorful. Thanks for stopping by!!

Vicki

 

Easy Brushetta Pasta

Last night Madison and I made Brushetta Pasta for dinner.  I thought I would share the recipe with you...it’s so easy to make and dinner can be ready in just 30 minutes.

Ingredients

1 lb spaghetti

32 oz chicken broth

4 small tomatoes 

2-3 oz Fresh basil

3-4 garlic cloves

1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 oz fresh Parmesan cheese, grated

Directions

1. Break spaghetti noodles in half and place in a covered microwaveable bowl.  For this recipe I used my covered Pampered Chef Deep Dish Baker.  Add chicken broth, cover and microwave for 8 minutes.
2. While the spaghetti is cooking, cut tomatoes into cubes and place into a food processor.
3. Finely chop basil leaves and add to food processor. Add garlic to food processor.
4. Add olive oil. Roughly chop ingredients in food processor. You want it to be chunky.
5. Remove spaghetti from microwave and stir. Place back into microwave and cook for 8 more minutes.
6. When spaghetti is done, stir and add brushetta mixture. Grate fresh Parmesan cheese over spaghetti. Stir and serve.

     We served this with a salad and Italian Bread. This was so simple and dinner was ready in 30 minutes! Give this one a try. Thanks for stopping by.

Vicki

Pretzel Crusted Chicken Tenders with Honey Mustard Dip

This recipe was so easy to make and the kids and I loved it!! It is a Weight Watcher Recipe and is 3 points per serving.

Ingredients

3 Tbsp Flour

1 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Black Pepper

1 Egg

1-2 cups of crushed pretzels

1lb Chicken Breast Tenderloins

Cooking Spray

2 Tbsp Honey Mustard

1 Tbsp Whole Grain Mustard

1 Tbsp Light Mayonnaise

1 Tbsp Warm Water

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place a wire rack over a baking sheet; lightly coat with cooking spray.

2.  Combine flour, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Beat egg in a second shallow bowl. Place crushed pretzels in a third shallow bowl. Dip each chicken tender first in flour mixture; shake off excess. Next dip into egg and then into crushed pretzels; turn to coat.  Place on prepared rack in a single layer.  Repeat with the remaining chicken tenders.  Bake until cooked through; about 15 minutes.

3.  While chicken cooks, whisk together both of  the mustards, mayonnaise and water; serve with chicken.

4.  Serving size is 4 chicken tenders plus 3 tsp sauce.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did!!

Vicki

 

 

 

 

I'm Back!!!

Oh my, it has been forever since I last posted.  The past few years have been crazy!  I am still married to the love of my life and we are still living in West Virginia.  The kids are now teenagers...Madison is a senior in high school and Reagan is now in 9th grade.  Their school schedules are keeping me busy.  The only thing that has changed recently is Tom is now deployed.  He will be gone for 4 more months.  I decided to jump back into blogging recently.  I thought this would be a great way to share with everyone all of the great recipes I have tried lately, my new found love for essential oils, and to keep everyone updated on Tom's deployement.  I hope to post on a regular basis and I hope you will stop by to visit!  Check back soon for my recipe for Cream of Crab Soup. 

Vicki

Japenese Steak House Yum Yum Sauce

     Wow, it has been forever since I last posted.  It has been a typical busy school year.  Most of my Sunday afternoons are spent cooking ahead for the week.   I recently tried this recipe and was very surprised how it tasted just like the Yum Yum sauce they have at our Japenese Steakhouse here in town.  I made it with shrimp and fried rice for the kids and they loved it!  I hope you enjoy it.

1 1/4 cup mayo.

1/4 cup water

1 tsp tomato paste

1 TBSP melted butter

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp paprika

dash of cayenne pepper

     Use a wisk to blend thoroughly until smooth.  Refrigerate overnight.  Serve at room temperature.  This will make 12-1/8 cup servings.  I also mixed a little into my fried rice like they do at the Japenese Steakhouse.  Enjoy!!

 

Vicki

 

 

 

Creole-Spiced Shrimp Po'Boys

Wow, it has been forever since I last posted something.  I have the same old excuse...life has been crazy!  I have been cooking up a storm and I have a bunch of yummy new recipes to share with you. This recipe is one that I found today while I was at the beauty salon getting my hair highlighted.  Even though it has fried shrimp in it..it turned out to be a very light sandwich.

Ingredients

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup ketchup

1 teaspoon prepared horeradish

1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

Oil for frying

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cornmeal

1 tablespoon Creole seasoning

1 teaspoon salt

1 pound uncooked medium shrimp, peeled, devained, & tails removed

4 French rolls, split

2 medium tomatoes, sliced

2 cups shredded lettuce

1.  In a small bowl, mix the mayonaise, ketchup, horseradish, and pepper sauce.  Cover and chill until serving.

2.  In a skillet heat 1/2 nch of oil to 375 degrees.  In a large resealable plastic bag, combine flour, cornmeal, Creole seasoning, and salt.

3.  Add shrimp, a few at a time; seal bag and toss to coat.  Fry in oil for 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden brown.  Drain on paper towels.

4.  Spread rolls with some of the sauce.  Layer bottoms with lettuce, shrimp, and tomatoes; serve with remaining sauce.

This recipe serves 4 and will make about 1 cup of sauce.  I served the remaining sauce over sliced tomatoes.  I will definately be making this again!  Thanks for stopping by!

Vicki

Savory Sunday - Slow Cooker Lasagna

    Oh my...it has been forever since I last posted!  I am going to try posting my favorite new recipes every Sunday.  I usually cook ahead for the week on Sunday afternoon.  Most recently I tried a new recipe for Slow Cooker Lasagna.  This was quick and easy to make.  It turned out great!

Slow Cooker Lasagna

1 lb. bulk Italian sausage or hamberger

1 medium onion

3 cans (15 ounces each) Italian-style tomato sauce

2 teaspoons dried basil leaves

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (8 ounces)

1 container (15 ounces) part skim ricotta cheese

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

15 uncooked lasagna noodles

1.  Cook sausage (or hamberger) and onion in a skillet over medium heat until meat is no longer pink: drain. Stir in tomato sauce, basil and salt.

2.  Mix 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese and the ricotta and Parmesan cheeses.  Refrigerate remaining mozzarella cheese while lasagna cooks.

3.  Spoon 1/4 of the meat mixture into a 6 quart slow cooker: top with 5 noodles, broken into pieces to fit.  Spread with 1/2 of the cheese mixture and 1/4 of the meat mixture.  Top with 5 noodles, remaining cheese mixture and 1/4 of the meat mixture.  Top with remaining 5 noodles and remaining meat mixture.

4.  Cover and cook on low for 4 to 6 hours.  Mine was done in 4 hours.  The noodles will be tender.

5.  Sprinkle top of lasagna with remaining 1 cup of mozzarella cheese.  Cover and let stand about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.  Makes 8 servings.

    I hope you will give this recipe a try.  It was very easy to make and my kids really liked it.  I was nervous about adding uncooked noodles...but it turned out great.  Have a great week!

Vicki

Sloppy Joe Recipe

 

Today was kind of a rainy day here in West Virginia.  A great day for sloppy joes and french fries!  I posted my recipe a while back...click here for the details.  They were so good!  I hope you had a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!

Vicki

My Weeping Cherry Tree

 

 

 

My weeping cherry tree was so full of blooms this year!   It was so pretty!  Whats blooming in your garden?  I think warm weather is finally here in West Virginia...time to start working in the garden.

Vicki

Spring Break 2011 - Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

This year we decided to upgrade our camper.  We sold our pop up back in the fall...we wanted something with a little less pop up!  So here she is...all the way from Iowa.

 

Here is The Titan...

 

We decided to go camping in Harpers Ferry...yup...a few miles down the road! 

 

Here we are all set up.  Madison was playing around with a hose...I guess she was bored.  Little did she know...she was playing with the sewage hose!  For the record...it is clean and just out of the box!

 

 

We spent one afternoon visiting Harpers Ferry.  The water was very high due to recent heavy rains.  We hiked up to Jefferson Rock.

 

 

The kids enjoyed the climb!

 

 

 

I love this picture that I took of the kids!!

 

This picture is for my Dad!  There must have been 10 trains that went thru that afternoon!

 

Here are a few pictures of the inside of the camper...

 

 

 

 

Griffen...he loves look out the window.

 

The kids got a chance to color eggs and the Easter Bunny even found us at the KOA!

 

 

We had a great time camping in Harpers Ferry.  Here we are all ready to head home.

 

Happy Easter everyone!!

Vicki