Monday Menu (9/13/10)

We had a magnificent meal for dinner!  Bill, our master at Mexican food, made enchiladas.  I made two kinds of desserts:  Surprise Brownie Bites and Brownie Pizza.

For the enchilada filling, I prepared some shredded chicken and shredded beef.  For the beef, I knew it needed longer to cook to become tender.  I bought a big hunk of beef (some sort of chuck roast or something - I don't remember) and I cut it into good size hunks (about 3 inches).  I put some garlicky oil in a pan, when it got hot, I added the meat, sprinkled it with salt and pepper, let it brown on all sides, then turned the heat down and put a lid on it to simmer.  After about 40 minutes of simmering, I put it in a glass dish, covered it with foil, and put in a 350 degree F oven.  Then I prepared the chicken breasts (boneless, skinless).  I used the same pan I used for the beef so it had the same juices, then sprinkled with salt and pepper.  I put the lid on the pan and let the chicken just cook thoroughly.  After the chicken was cooked, I put some water in the pan (about a cup total), put the lid back on, then let it simmer on low.

When I checked on the beef, I had to add about a 1/2 cup of water to keep it from drying out.

While I cooked some Four Cheese Rice-a-Roni Bill helped me shred the meats.  Rebekah and Justin grated the cheese.

To prepare the enchiladas, I heated up a few inches of oil in a small frying pan.  I dipped a corn tortilla in the warmed oil then placed on a plate.  Bill took the tortillas and dipped them into enchilada sauce, then put cheese and shredded meat in the tortilla, rolled them up, and placed then in a baking pan that had enchilada sauce on the bottom.  When all the enchiladas filled up the pan, Bill sprinkled on more cheese and drizzled on more enchilada sauce.  We baked them in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

Then it looks like this:

 

 Mmmmm, cheesy goodness!!

For dessert I actually made two:  Brownie Pizza and Surprise Brownie Bites

The brownie pizza is quite easy.  Make some brownie batter, spread some on a greased 12-inch pizza dish.  Bake until done (I don't remember how long it took).  After it was completely cooled, mix about a quarter cup of peanut butter (we used creamy, but I am sure crunchy would have been good) with about 1 1/2 cup milk chocolate frosting.  Then I spread it on the brownie and sprinkled with Reese's Pieces and then took a potato peeler and shaved some white chocolate over the top.  It was very scrumptious!

 Just get out the pizza cutter and slice like so:

For the second dessert, I used the rest of the brownie batter from the pizza and scooped about 2-3 teaspoons of batter into generously sprayed mini muffin tins.  After baking them for about 8-10 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out almost clean), I removed them from the oven and immediately pressed a white chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cup in the center of each brownie bite. I put them in the fridge to cool.  After completely cooled them, I popped them out of the muffin tins and frosted them with milk chocolate frosting.  (Although later I tried some without frosting and thought it was VERY good.  I also tried some with caramel frosting and Bill liked those. )  After frosting the brownie bites, I placed a quartered peanut butter cup on top. 

Here is the bites with one cut in half so you can see the cross-section.

Overall, this Monday Menu was very successful.  :)

Monday Menu (December 7, 2009)

I wish I would have taken a picture of the Quiche we made tonight. It was divine!

Quiche (adapted from a recipe given to me by my mother-in-law)

1 9-inch unbaked deep-dish pie crust
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons flour
a little less than 1 tablespoon Chicken Flavored Better Than Bouillon (you can use chicken flavor instant bouillon)
2 cups cubed cooked turkey or chicken (we used rotisserie chicken)
3 pieces cooked bacon, crumbled
1 cup milk
3 eggs beaten well
1/4 cup finely chopped onions
Extra cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake pie crust for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and reduce temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a medium bowl toss cheese, flour, and bouillon. Add remaining ingredients. Mix well. Pour into pie crust. Bake 45-60 minutes or until set. Sprinkle extra cheese on top. Let bake a minute longer. Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes before serving.

I used a full tablespoon of that Better than Bouillon and felt it was a tad too salty. That is why I mention using less than a full tablespoon.



For dessert, I tried something completely new, with a bizarre dessert ingredient: potato chips. Now, before you start knocking it, you have GOT to try them!! They are very yummy!!


Peanut Butter Clusters

2 cups (12 oz.) peanut butter chips
1 cup (6 oz,) milk chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups dry roasted peanuts (I accidentally bought party peanuts and they still worked well)
1 cup crunched up ridged potato chips

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt peanut butter chips and chocolate chips; stirring every 30 seconds. Stir until smooth. Stir in peanuts and potato chips. Drop by level tablespoonfuls onto wax paper. Refrigerate until firm (I just let mine sit on the counter; it is plenty cold this time of year). Store in an airtight container.

Monday Menu (November 23, 2009)

I absolutely LOVE my husband! He is awesome!! Bill is really good at picking out soup recipes! He made Northwoods Wild Rice Soup and even though we had wild rice, we forgot to cook it first like the recipe said, so we ended up substituting uncooked minute rice and added some extra chicken broth to help it absorb the liquid... but we may have not added enough liquid or too much rice because the soup came out really thick. It was extremely delicious though!! I totally ♥ this soup! Oh, we also added some sliced fresh mushrooms.


We knew the kids might not like it, so we made them Meatball Subs and they loved them!


Now for dessert, I wanted to try this recipe from one of my favorite food blogs and we all LOVED it! It is called Crunchy Caramel Reeses Cookie Bars. It was so simple and easy to make. I didn't crush the pretzels like the recipe said because the lady shows step-by-step directions and it doesn't show crushed pretzels, just broken into hunks. One other thing, the recipe says 3 cups Reese's Peanut Butter miniture cups and it seemed like WAY more than she had in hers, but I am not complaining. :-)
And when she says to let it cool all the way, she isn't kidding. Even though it tastes pretty good warm, it tastes SO much better the next day. I ate WAY too much of this.... Someone save me!!