Stuffed Bell Peppers

I remember the first time I had these at my Great Aunt Mary's farm. I was probably 5 or 6 years old. My mom uses this same recipe. I really don't have a specific recipe because it's one of those dishes that I just make.
Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients:
1 pound beef or turkey
4-5 bell peppers
1 onion
rice (however much you want to use - I just used a microwaveable pouch of Uncle Ben's Garden Vegatable rice to save time)
2 14.5oz cans of diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cup pasta sauce
cheese (however much you want to use.)
Dice onion and brown onion with ground beef. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove tops and insides of bell peppers, boil to soften while preparing the other ingredients. Once meat and onion is browned, add diced tomoatoes to the pan and heat through. Prepare rice and add rice to the mixture. Remove peppers from boiling. Stuff peppers with the mixture, pour pasta sauce over the stuffed peppers. Bake peppers for about 55 minutes, add cheese to tops of stuffed peppers and bake for 5 more minutes to melt cheese. Serve and enjoy!

Chewy chocolate chip cookies

I have really beed craving something sweet and chewy. I googled chocolate chip cookies because the recipe I use now comes out crunchy - I wanted a more chewy cookie. I ended up cutting this recipe in half because I am almost out of flour. These did come out very chewy! Close to the best chocolate chip cookies I've had.

The Chewy
Alton Brown via The Food Network
Ingredients
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I only had ghiardelli milk chocolate chips on hand)
Directions
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
3. Pour the melted butter in the mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed.
4. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet.
6. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes.
7. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup with Sausage

We had some horrible storms with tornadoes the other night and it was prefect soup weather. I wasn't sure what kind of soup to make, though, because I didn't have many ingredients on hand. I did have Italian sausage and found this recipe via google. It tastes a lot like spaghetti. It was very good with French bread on the side.
Creamy Tomato Basil Soup with Sausage
Picky Palate
Ingredients
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1 lb Italian Sausage
10 fresh basil leaves, chiffonade (stacked, rolled and thinly sliced)(I just used dried basil)
1 26 oz jar of your favorite pasta sauce or homemade sauce
1 14.5 oz diced tomatoes, partially drained (don't drain and add less than a cup of water instead of a whole cup)
1 Cup water
1 1/2 Cups half and half
Pinch of salt and pepper
Directions
1. Place olive oil and onion into a medium sized dutch oven over medium heat.
2. Add sausage until browned, about 5 minutes. Add garlic.
3. Stir in basil leaves, pasta sauce, tomatoes, water, half and half, salt and pepper.
4. Cook until warm then reduce heat to low.
5. Simmer until ready to serve.

Chicken Burritos

So, I wanted to make chicken, but not the usual baked chicken or chicken on the George Foreman grill, etc. I found this recipe and, since I just made tacos Monday night, was able to use the remaining tortilla shells, lettuce and tomatoes. I also added to these tacos some salsa from Trader Joes. Yum I love their salsa, it's like fresh pico.
Chicken Burritos
from Cook Like a Champion
Ingredients
2-3 chicken breasts (I used 2)
4 tablespoons minced red bell pepper (I used a whole red pepper)
1 small white onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic
2/3 cup frozen corn (I used 1 can, drained and rinsed)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons canned jalapenos, diced (Omitted)
2 teaspoons fresh parsley, minced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash red pepper flakes
2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
9 flour tortillas (I don't think we used 9)
lettuce
tomato
Directions
1. Drizzle the chicken breasts with olive oil and sprinkle with Kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper.
2. Grill until chicken is cooked through. (I cooked it in a saute pan and then used that same pan to cook the vegetables.)
3. Allow chicken to cool slightly and then shred.
4. In a medium skillet, add red pepper, onion and garlic and cook over medium high heat for one minute. (I cooked this for much longer, probably 7-8 minutes, adding the garlic towards the end.)
5. Add shredded chicken and remaining ingredients through red pepper flakes and cook until warmed through.
6. Meanwhile, microwave tortillas in a damp paper towel for 15-20 seconds.
7. Add cheese, mixing until incorporated. (I just topped ours with the cheese...I forgot to mix it in!)
8. Fill tortillas and eat immediately or wrap in foil to freeze. (If freezing, burritos take about 3 minutes to reheat.)

Velveeta Rotel Dip

Sunday nights around here are for leftovers or frozen pizza. Since I'm not really cooking I've been making some kind of dip to eat with the pizza or the leftovers. I first had this dip at a friend's party and it's easy and yummy. I also got some of the new Hint of Jalepeno Scoops chips to eat with the dip this time.

VELVEETA ROTEL DIP
1 lb. ground beef (I usually omit this - it's good with or without meat)
2 lb. box of Velveeta cheese
1 med. onion (omit)
1 can Rotel tomatoes

Cook ground beef and drain off grease. Add chopped onion and let cook until onion is tender. Add Rotel tomatoes (break up tomatoes with your hand). Slice up Velveeta and add to other ingredients. After cheese is melted, remove from heat and let stand until thickened. Then serve with plain Doritos or Tostitos.
I usually heat the velveeta on the stove then add it to the crock pot to keep it warm.

Hamburger Casserole

I desperately needed to go grocery shopping so I was trying to make something with the few ingredients I had on hand. After searching google I came up with this mixture of a few different recipes and it came out ok. It reminded me of kid friendly casseroles my mom made for us when we were growing up. It's not something I would make often but it worked in a pinch.

Hamburger Casserole
Ingredients
4 potatoes, boiled until tender (I used red potatoes because that's what I had, I didn't peel them but they can be peeled)
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper (you could do less but we like it peppery)
1 pound ground beef (or turkey)
1/2 onion, chopped
1 (10.5 oz) can condensed tomato soup
1 (15 oz) can green beans, drained
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Blend potatoes with butter, salt and pepper. Set aside. Brown meat with onion. Drain grease. Stir in tomato soup and beans. Spoon into a lightly greased 2-quart casserole dish. Spoon potatoes on top. Bake for 35 minutes, or until top is lightly browned. Serves 6 to 8.