Broccoli Cheese Soup

What You'll Need:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• frozen chopped broccoli, (12-oz)
• 2 cans chicken broth (14.5-oz each)
• 1 lb Velveta, chopped
• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/3 cup corn starch
• 1/2 cup water or chicken broth

What To Do:

1. In a medium stockpot melt the butter over medium heat.
2. Add the onion to the melted butter and cook until softened.
3. Pour broccoli into stockpot and cover with the 2 cans of chicken broth. Simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Add cubed Velveta and stir until melted.
5. Pour the milk and garlic powder into the stockpot and stir.
6. Mix the water or chicken stock and the corn starch until smooth and pour into soup and cook, stirring frequently until thick.

Dish Info:

This dish has 266 calories per serving and came from here.  I also halved the recipe, so this will feed 6 very hungry appetites.

Basic Pot Roast

What You'll Need

• 2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup (10.75-oz each)
• 1 package dry onion soup mix (1-oz)
• 1 1/4 cup water
• 5 1/2 pounds pot roast
• 1/2 pound baby carrots
• 5 or 6  New Potatoes, scrubbed and quartered
• 1 onion, sliced

What To Do

1. Place the carrots, potatoes, onion, and pot roast in your slow cooker.
2. In a bowl mix together the cans of soup, dry soup mix, and water.
3. Pour soup mixture over pot roast and vegetables and cook on low for 8-9 hours.

Dish Info

This recipe will serve 12 hungry appetites and makes for great left-overs. This is adapted from this recipe found on AllRecipes.com

Teriyaki Chicken

What You'll Need

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup Soy Sauce
• 1/2 tsp ground Ginger
• 1 garlic clove, minced

What To Do

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a small bowl combine brown sugar, Soy Sauce, Ginger, and garlic, stirring well to combine.
3. Place chicken breasts in 8x8 baking dish and pour marinade over top.
4. Bake for 30-45 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through, making sure to baste every 10-15 minutes.

** For extra yummy flavor, place chicken and marinade into a Ziploc bag and refrigerate for several hours. When done marinating simply pour the chicken and marinade into the baking dish. **


Dish Info

This recipe will serve 2 hungry adults and was adapted from this recipe on AllRecipes.com.

Sweet Potato & Apple Saute

What You'll Need

• 2 tbsp butter, unsalted
• 2 Golden Delicious apples, unpeeled and diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cans sweet potatoes, drained and diced (15-oz each)
• 1/2 cup apple juice or apple cider
• 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp cider vinegar
• 1/4 tsp Kosher salt

What To Do

1. In a large skillet, melt your butter over medium-high heat.
2. To the skillet add the apples and onions, cooking until tender, about 5 minutes.
3. Stir in diced sweet potatoes, apple juice (or cider), pumpkin pie spice, vinegar, and salt, bringing the mixture to a boil then reducing the heat.
4. Simmer for 10 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Dish Info

This recipe will serve 6 people, depending on your appetites. It is also straight from the Semi-Homemade Queen, Sandra Lee, and her wonderful book Semi-Homemade 20 Minute Meals.

Rosemary Pork Chops

What You'll Need

• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, center-cut pork chops
• 1/3 cup Italian-style bread crumbs
• 1 tbsp Rosemary
•  2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• salt, to taste 
• pepper, to taste

What To Do

1. Season your pork chops with salt and pepper and set aside.
2. On a plate combine the bread crumbs and Rosemary and press both sides of the pork chops into the mixture to coat.
3. In a large skillet heat the olive oil, once hot add pork chops and cook 4-6 minutes per side, or until cooked through.

** I only keep unseasoned bread crumbs in the house for a wider range of uses. For this recipe I simply add Italian seasoning, usually about 1 tbsp or so, to the regular bread crumbs and mix. No buying of "specialized" ingredients! **


Dish Info

This recipe serves 4 hungry appetites. It is also straight from the Semi-Homemade Queen, Sandra Lee, and her wonderful book Semi-Homemade 20 Minute Meals.

Raspberry Lemonade

What You'll Need

• 3 cups cold water
• 1 cup fresh raspberries
• 6-oz lemonade concentrate, thawed

What To Do

1. Combine 3/4 cups of water and raspberries in a blender and process until smooth.
2. Strain the raspberry mixture into a pitcher and discard the seeds.
3. Combine the raspberry liquid, 2 1/4 cups water, and lemonade concentrate into pitcher and chill.

** To make a beautiful presentation, save a handful or rasperberries to thrown into the pitcher, along with some sliced lemons, before serving. **

Peanut Butter M&M Cookies

What You'll Need

• 1 egg
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cups mini M&M

What To Do

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat together egg, brown sugar and peanut butter until smooth.
3. Fold in M&Ms.
4. Drop dough onto baking sheet by the rounded teaspoon and bake for 8-10 minutes.

** If you don't have M&Ms on hand, substitute chocolate chips. **


Dish Info

This recipe  makes 2 dozen cookies.

Brownies

What You'll Need

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup Cocoa powder
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

What To Do

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and coat 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Melt the butter in a microwave safe dish.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together all ingredients in the order given above.
4. Bake for 45-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of pan comes out clean.

Dish Info

This recipe make a dozen delicious brownies.

Pumpkin Pie

What You'll Need

• 1 1/2 pints Vanilla ice cream
• 3 eggs
• 1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp Ginger
• 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
• 1 prepared pie crusts

What To Do 

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
2. Melt the ice cream.
3. In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, stirring in the pumpkin puree, sugar, salt, Cinnamon, Ginger, and Nutmeg.
4. Mix the melted ice cream into the puree mixture until smooth.
5. Pour the filling into pie crust.
6. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 30-40 minutes or until the filling is set.

** To melt the ice cream, let the container thaw to the point where you can easily scoop out the amount you need. Transfer the correct amount of ice cream to a microwave safe bowl and heat until melted. **


Dish Info

This recipe serves 8 pumpkin-lovin' appetites.

Braised Chicken with Carrots & Potatoes

What You'll Need

• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 lb new potatoes, cut into 1/4 inch chunks
• 2 cups baby carrots
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 tsp garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp dried Thyme
• 1 tsp Paprika
• 6 chicken thighs, bonless and skinned

What To Do

1. Slightly grease your slow-cooker and place sliced onions in the bottom, followed by the cut potatoes and baby carrots.
2. Combine 3/4 ts
3. Combine 3/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, chicken broth, white wine, garlic and Thyme and pour into the slow-cooker.
4. Mix together the remaining salt and pepper as well as the Paprika and run the spices evenly over the chicken thighs, arrange them on top of the vegetables when finished.
5. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

** If you prefer not to cook with alcohol, feel free to replace the wine with 1/4 cup of chicken stock **

Dish Info

This recipe serves 6 people, depending on your appetite.

Meat Loaf

What You'll Need

• 1 lb ground beef or turkey
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup green or red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 can diced tomatoes, undrained (8-oz)
• 1/2 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/3 cup Ketchup
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp yellow mustard

What To Do

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix all of the ingredients except Ketchup, brown sugar, and yellow mustard, and place in a loaf pan.
3. Mix together, in a small bowl, the Ketchup, brown sugar, and yellow mustard, and spread over top the meat loaf.
4. Bake for 1 hour.

Dish Info

This recipe serves about 6, depending on your appetite. It is also from non other than Paul Dean; gotta give credit where credit is due!

Black Bean Chili

What You'll Need

• 3 cans of Black Beans, rinsed and drained (15-oz each)
• 1 large sweet onion, chopped
• 1 lb ground beef or turkey
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 tsp Chili Powder
• 1 tsp ground Cumin
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 can of chicken broth (14-oz)
• 2 cans Rotel, undrained (15.4-oz each)

What To Do

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot, and add your chopped onion and ground meat and saute until the meat is cooked through.
2. Stir into the pot the Chili Powder, ground Cumin, salt, and pepper and continue to saute for an additional minute.
3. Add the beans, chicken stock, and Rotel to the meat mixture and bring it to a boil. Cover your pot, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. 

*The long you allow the chili to simmer to spicier it will taste. Rob likes it best when it simmers for 30 minutes*

Dish Info

This recipe will serve about 8 people, depending on appetites.

Fruit Salad

What You'll Need

• 2 cups strawberries, sliced
• 1 lb seedles grapes
• 3 bananas, peeled & sliced
• 8-oz strawberry yogurt

What To Do

1. Mix all ingredients together and serve immediately.

Dish Info

This recipe contains 12 servings, depending on your appetite.

Rosemary Chicken & White Beans

What You'll Need

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 tsp dried Rosemary
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
• 1 can stewed tomatoes, drained (14.5-oz)
• 1 can Navy Beans, rinsed & drained (15-oz)

What To Do

1. While you heat your olive oil in a large skillet, combine the Rosemary, salt, and pepper and sprinkle over one side of the chicken.
2.  Place the chicken in the heated skillet, seasoned side down and cook for about 3 minutes.
3. Turn the chicken over and add the tomatoes and beans to the skillet, cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked through.

Dish Info

This dish contains about 4 servings, depending on your appetite, at 316 calories each. It was also adapted from a recipe on MyRecipes.com.