Chicken Tamales

As promised, here is a super easy TAMALES recipes :) I don't know about you, but we're loca for tamales! I used to buy them from someone. Then one day, I decided, dang it! I'm the Great Mrs. B! I can do anything. So, a recipe was born :)

What You Need:

6 C Corn Masa

6 C Chicken Broth*

1 C Corn Oil

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 whole chicken (or 4-6 chicken breasts)*

2 cans or 1 bottle of Salsa Verde (I'm super picky and will only use one brand, but feel free to branch out :)

1 bag of Corn Husks

What You Needs To Do:

Fill pot with chicken and enough water to cover. Boil for one hour minimum. You don't wanna run the risk of under cooking the chicken :) Once it's done, drain the water into separate bowl and let chicken cool. Now it's time to shred el pollo. You can either use your friendly food processor to shred the chicken or 2 forks and your hands work too :)

Once the chicken is shredded, pour the salsa verde over it and set a side. Next on our list is the maza and the corn husks. Place the husks in WARM water to soak. You need 'em soft :) **Remember that water from the boiled chicken? Now you're going to make some chicken broth :) I use the chicken bullion from the "latino" section of the store. 3 cubes of this tasty stuff is going to make your 6 cups of chicken broth. SOOOO much cheaper than buying it :) In a large mixing bowl, combine the maza and the dry ingredients with the oil and chicken broth. I suggest using an electric mixer, and mix the sheesh to a good consistency :) Now, take out the corn husks. Spoon some maza onto a corn husk. Spread it out evenly onto the husk. Word of advice-use a wet tablespoon to spread it out. Drop a spoon full of chicken onto the lovely maza and fold sides into the center so they over lap. Fold the ends toward the seam. Place into steamer.

Now, I don't have a fancy "tamale steamer" so I just use a colander type thingy and a big pot with a lid. You just gotta make sure you steam 'em good. Steam them for roughly 45 mins. When the maza pulls away from the husk easily, you're golden.

Peel corn husk and serve :)

**Some of you wonder why I use a whole chicken instead of just getting the boneless sheesh. Well cost my love, cost. Your local market will have specials on whole chickens. When I see those specials, I'll buy a few and freeze 'em. It usually ends up saving me roughly $6.

Enchilada Pie (pictures to come tomorrow)

Okay, this one is mostly courtesy of FoodStorageMadeEasy.com Those ladies ROCK!! I made some adjustments to my family's taste. I made the black beans, but you can use canned in you like. I also made the enchilada sauce. I'll include the recipe for that in a nother post :)

What you need:

1 1/2 C cooked black beans

1 medium onion, chopped

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

1 can of cream of chicken soup

3/4 C milk

1 4 oz can of diced green chiles-i just used some salsa verde

1 C enchilada sauce

1 pkg of soft tortillas
1/2 lb of shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 lb shredded monterrey jack-i used colby jack
3 shredded cooked chicken breasts

What to do:

Combine everything but the tortillas and cheese together. Spray the bottom of a 9*13 pan and line with tortillas. I used 4 to make sure the whole bottom was covered. Pour half of the bean mixture onto the tortillas. Cover with 1/2 of the cheese. Layer the tortillas again. Top with remaining mixture and cheese. Bake at 350 for 40 mins.

Crumb Top Apple Pie

****UPDATE****

HEY GUYS! With the holidays coming up, I've been thinking of ways to update some pies. My buddy Tisha hook me up with a cool trick :) To make this super easy, SUPER tasty pie tastier, add 12 caramels, chopped up, to the apple mixture.!!!! OH SO TASTY :) Caramel Apple Crumb Top PIE! OH BABY!!

Hi ya kids! So again, spoiled hubby :) But this time, he wasn't the only one! We were going to family get together on the 4th of July and I was in charge of dessert. I had no clue what to make. I knew that I was outta cocoa and other fun stuff. I looked in the fridge at least 3 or 4 times. Apples. Apples. Apples. But I didn't want to make the effort to make 2 pie crusts and stuff. It was FREAKIN' hot. How could I do this easy?! I didn't wanna make a crisp...to plain LOL So...I did a google search for one pie crust apple pies. CRUMB TOP was the first thing I saw. So, I went with it! Now, this recipe is strictly a made by Mrs. B's. Some of the measurements are not EXACT. I got that nasty habit from my Grams-no measuring everything :) But, I have faith it will turn out no matter what :)

What you need:

Filling:

1 unbaked pie shell-

you can use either a store bought one, or make my super easy pie crust

1/4 C sugar

1-1 1/2 tsp cinnamon.

1/8 tsp salt

Enough apples to fill crust-roughly 5-6-peeled, cored and sliced. I usually use some red delicious, fujis and at least 1 granny smith.

Topping:

3/4 C brown sugar, packed

3/4 C flour

1/3 C butter, NOT margarine.

What to do:

Preheat over at 375. Combine apples, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Spoon into crust. In seperate bowl, or if you hate during dishes like me, you just use the bowl from the apple mixture :), using a pasty cutter, cut together the brown sugar, flour and butter. Cover entire pie with crumb mixture. Bake for 35-40 mins at 375.

It's super tasty with french vanilla ice-cream.

Chicken Jambalaya

When I lived in Pocatello, I had the wonderful pleasure of sharing a living space with Super Woman, Debbie Cook. Well, she's Debbie Cook now :) Back then she was Deb Christiansen. :) She was honestly one of the best roomies I ever had! She now lives in Colorado with her hubby, Jesse. She's going to be having a baby girl soon and I couldn't be more happy for her! She's an amazingly talented woman and she's gonna ROCK as a mom. But I digress, lol. While we were living together, she made this dish a few times! I LOVED it! I've made a few variations, but it's still pretty much the same! The first time I made it for Josh, he FREAKED and is now just as addicted as I am :) So, try it. You'll like it.

What you'll need:

1/4 C chopped onion

1/4 C chopped green bell pepper

2 TB butter or margarine

1 14oz can of diced tomatoes

1 1/2 C chicken broth (i just make my own using chicken bullion and water)

1 C uncooked rice

1tsp dried basil (not SWEET)

1 tsp crushed thyme

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp of pepper flakes

1/2 tsp hot sauce (i add alittle more bcuz we like it hot LOL)

2 C cooked chicken

**optional**

sour cream

shredded cheese

Saute the pepper and onion and the but er until tender, NOT brown.

Add in remaining ingredients, except sour cream and shredded cheese

Bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is tender.


Serve topped with sour cream and shredded cheese or by itself. Either way, HOLY TASTY BATMAN!!!!

Easiest Lasagna EVER

"Lasagna"

I'm all about cheap and easy. There's days when I really want to make an effort and create a masterpiece for the fam, but most of the time...eh, no. Both Josh and Stevey are huge "red" sauce fans. Stevey has discovered the tastiness of tomatoes. I've been craving Olive Garden "Tour De Italy" and since I can't have that...

What you'll need:

1 lb hamburger
1 medium onion, diced (or you can used dried onion)
1 TB garlic powder
salt & pepper
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 16 oz container of small curd cottage cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 package of oven ready lasagna noodles

Preheat oven at 375 degrees. Spray a 9*13 baking pan with non-stick spray. Brown the hamburger with the onion, garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste. I also use roughly a tsp of oregano, but that's just me :) Drain and mix spaghetti sauce with hamburger. Heat. Pour roughly 1/4 c of sauce mixture into bottom of pan. Layer noodles and then sauce and cottage cheese. Repeat until your top is a layer of noodles. Pour remaining sauce onto noodles. Cover with foil and bake for 20 mins. Remove foil, top with cheese and bake until cheese is melted. :) Yummy stuff dude :)

Pizza Rolls :)

"Pizza Rolls or Calzones"

Again, cheap and easy :) For that pizza lovin' family (MINE) its a great way to get the pizza flavor without having to take tons of time to make it or tons of money to buy it :)

What you need:

Rhodes rolls (2 per roll)
4-6 slices of Pepperoni per roll
2 slices of Mozzarella cheese per roll
Pizza sauce
Melted butter
Parmesan cheese (i used leftover packets from Pizza Hut lol)

Take the Rhodes rolls out of the oven and thaw according to the instructions. I made 2 adult size rolls and 2 Stevey size rolls, so I used 6 rolls. I got them out at noon and they were ready by 4pm even with my swamp cooler blowing :) I made Stevey's rolls first. You flatten out the rolls and put a TB of pizza sauce then pepperoni and then cheese. Close the ends and roll similar to a burrito. With the adult size rolls, you do the same, only flatten 2 TWO rolls together. You can use more or less cheese or pepperoni depending on your taste.

I brushed them with butter and then sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. You can also roll them in the cheese if you want them super coated. Bake at 350 degrees for roughly 10 mins.

Brush with butter when you're done and TA DAH!

They come with the Stevey seal of approval :)

**you can also use other pizza toppings like crumbled sausage and my fave-black olives! :) **

Poor Man's Stroganoff

"Stroganoff"
I am a HUGE fan of Stroganoff. I've usually seen it made with flank steak or cubed stew meat. I can't always find this tasty cuts of meat for cheap, so I improvised.

What you'll need:

1 lb hamburger
1 medium onion, diced
2 cans of cream of mushroom soup
1 16 oz container of sour cream
milk
1 package of egg noodles

Brown hamburger and onions. Drain.

Boil egg noodles. Drain and rinse.

In separate bowl, combine soup and sour cream. Add one soup can of milk. Mix well. Mix with hamburger. Slowly mix with egg noodles. Heat thoroughly. Add salt and pepper to taste :)
**if you'd like, you can also add fresh mushrooms to the hamburger when it's close to being done.**