Recipes

Here are a few recipes that I've made in the past couple of Months that I thought were yummy!!

Chicken with Creamy Bruschetta Pasta
2-3 sprigs fresh basil (rinsed)
2 plum tomatoes (rinsed)
1 (8 oz) package garlic/herb flavored spreadable cheese (Rondele is the brand I tried)
1/2 cup reduced-fat milk
8 oz tomato trinity mix (fresh diced tomatoes, onions, bell peppers)
3 chicken fillets (about 1 1/2 lbs)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon canola oil
8 oz dry linguini pasta

Steps
1. Fill large saucepan half full of water. Cover and bring to a boil on high for pasta.
2. Chop basil leaves coarsely. Cut tomatoes in small pieces. Place cheese in medium bowl; whisk in milk until smooth. Stir in tomatoes, basil, and toamato trinity mix; set aside
3. Preheat large saute pan on medium-high 2-3 min. Season both sides of chicken with Salt. Pace oil in pan; swirl to coat. Add chicken; cook 4-5 minutes on each side or until golden. Meanwhile, stir pasta into boiling water. Boil 10 minutes, stirring occasionally,, or until tender.
4. Reduce heat on chickent to medium; cover and cook 5 more minutes or until internal temp. reaches 165 F.
5. Drain pasta. Remove chicken from heat cut into 1/2 inch think slices. Arrange chicken over pasta and top with cheese mixture. Serve.

(They actually made this at Publix grocery store and I thought it was so good! I licked my plate clean and wanted to go back for more. I added fresh mushrooms to mine as well.)

Saltine Toffee
1 sleeve saltine crackers
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350, LIne a large cookie sheet w// aluminum foil and spray heavily w/nonstick Spray.
3. Place saltines in a single layer on foil.
3. In small sauce pan melt 1 cup of butter; add brown sugar and bring to a boil-boil 3 minutes. Pour over crackers
4. Bake for 5 minutes or until crackers float and sugar mixture bubbles. Remove from oven. Turn oven off.
5. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top. Put pan into warm oven to soften chips. Remove and spread chocolate with knife.
6. Allow chocolate to harden (YOu can freeze entire recipe so the chocolate sets quickly)

(This recipe I got from Kara Love we had a little craft/recipe exchange at church the other night. Everyone seemed to have already known about this delicious toffee, but I had never had it and I LOVED It. So this is for those of you who had never tried it.)

ORANGE CHICKEN

4 half chicken breasts
1 beaten egg
1 Tbs. water
1/4 cup Corn starch
2 Tbs. butter

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Yoshida sauce or soy sauce
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 Tbs. corn starch in 2 Tbs. water

Combine egg and water. Cube chicken and put in egg/water mixture and coat it with corn starch in a bowl. Brown chicken in margarine until golden brown and place in shallow pan or casserole dish.
Combine remaining ingredients except corn starch and bring to boil. Add in corn starch with water as needed to thicken sauce. Pour over chicken and bake at 350 covered for 20 minutes. Remove cover and bake another 20 minutes and serve over rice.

(This recipe is from Diane Dixon's Blog Actually that isn't her last name anymore, anyways, we made it and LOVED IT!!! Thanks Diane!!)

Calzones
Rhodes frozen bread loaves
mozzarella cheese
pepperoni (and any other pizza toppings you like)
olive oil or melted butter
garlic salt or powder

I just put my frozen bread loaves in the fridge all day to allow them to thaw. Roll out the bread dough. Spread tons of cheese and pizza toppings on half of dough, fold over and press sides together. Spread the top with olive oil or melted butter, sprinkle with garlic, cut a few slits in the top, bake for however long it says to bake the bread on the bag. I think we baked ours for about 30 minutes.

(Haha sorry about that last recipe, I was totally just writing it from memory, my sister just told me about it over the phone and I just kinda made it up as I went along, THIS is SOOO good, one Calzone is HUGE Chad and I made our own, but I got 3 meals out of mine. haha. We got the kids biscuits in a can and let them make their own mini pizzas they loved it. This was a fun meal to make as a family.)