Bacon baked Chicken

Easiest Chicken recipe ever.  Few ingredients that add a world of flavor to the chicken.  I would accompany this dish with a side of Mashed tots and some gravy.. 

1.  Set your pieces of chicken on a greased roasting pan.  I used Chicken Breast for this recipe, but it will work with thighs and legs as well. 

2.  Season your chicken with your favorite chicken seasonings.  I use a regular store bought Lawry's Chicken Seasoning.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

3.  Now you will drape your seasoned chicken with Bacon slices.  The bacon gives it a delicious flavor while keeping it juicy at the same time.  Once you have these steps done, you can cover with foil and stick in a 350 oven for 45 minutes.  Once the time is up, uncover and let finish for another 15 minutes. This also lets the bacon get a little crispy.

This is a great dish to put together, very simple to prepare, and above all full of flavor.  If you want to make it healthier you can leave remove the skin from the chicken.  I haven't tried it with Turkey bacon, but it might be good too.

You end up with a very delicious Chicken dinner..

Spinach & Bacon Omelette

This has got to be one of my favorite breakfast dishes.  I love making omelettes for breakfast, I like it because it's so flexible.  You can put it together with stuff you have on hand . You can get as creative as you want, and you always end up with a fabulous morning dish.

One word of advice on making a good omelette: always have all your ingredients ready, before you put the egg mixture in the pan.  Once the eggs are cooking, it goes very quick from there! so like I said, it's best to have all the ingredients ready and close by.

1.  Start by setting all your ingredients out.  I like mine with Spinach, Bacon and mushrooms. In this one I also added green onions. 

2. Of course, make sure you shred your cheese, an omelette is not an omelette without it's cheese.  I prefer marble Cheddar.

3.  Saute your vegetables in a pan with some butter and a bit of salt and pepper (to taste)  Do not over cook, vegetables will finish cooking in the omelette.

4.  by now you can beat 2 eggs with 2 tablespoons of milk. Mix good with a fork till the egg mixture is well incorporated.  Pour into a pan that has been heated with 1 Tbsp oil.

5.  Let the eggs sit for a little, with spatula move cooked part towards the middle, giving way for the raw egg to go to the edges. Do this till the egg looks semi cooked, but sturdy enough to flip over.  This part is a bit tricky, but with practice you will get better and better.  With the spatula well under the eggs, quickly flip it over.  Do it with alot of determination and confidence.

6.  Now it's time to add your ingredients.  Do it quickly, adding the cheese on top.



7. Once the ingredients are in the omelette, close it up by folding one side onto the other.   Let it cook a few minutes on each side, but not for too long.

Serve and Enjoy..  goes good with a side of hash browns.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

A very easy dish, you can prepare it the night before and just set it in the crock pot before you start your day.  It's a four ingredient recipe you put all in one pot and walk away .
I like to do mine in the crock pot, and do nothing more to it through the day, till dinner time comes around.

First you will need 1 - 11/2 lbs of pork shoulder (preferably boneless)

Second step, you will add the following to the meat already in the crock pot.

20 oz. Coca cola, 2 garlic cloves, Salt to taste.

Cover and set on high, cook for at least 5 hrs. I like to start it in the morning, and by dinner time it's ready to be served.  Then you would take the meat out and shred it as follows.



Once you shred the meat you can prepare the sandwiches, I use hamburger buns, but it would be great in good size dinner rolls.  My family adds BBQ sauce to the sandwiches, the meat already has a great flavor from the Coca Cola and garlic, but other types of sauce would be great on it.

Very tasty pulled pork sandwiches, and extremely easy to make  :)

Tomatillo Salsa

This is a simple Tomatillo salsa... it takes a few minutes to put together; and best of all.. it's delicious.

Ingredients needed:

Tomatillos  (6-8 med)

1/4 onion (leave skin on)

3 chunks of garlic (skin on as well)

3 chile de arbol (dried red peppers)

1 Jalapeño

1 bunch cilantro (too taste)

2 green onion stalks

Salt (to taste)

1.  Peel Tomatillos and rinse. Cut 1/4 onion, 3 garlic chunks, and Chile de Arbol and Jalapeño.

Once you have all these ingredients ready you will heat up a pan with 2 teaspoons oil.

2. Add ingredients to hot oil, careful not to get burned with splattering oil.  I leave the skin on the onion and on the garlic, this makes it alot easier and the onion and garlic don't burn too fast.

3.  Leave charred ingredients in pan for a while and turn flame off.  Let sit and cool a little.

Once cooled, peel the onion and garlic skin off.

4. Place all ingredients in blender and mix on low speed, this leaves the salsa kind of chunky.

5.  After the ingredients have been blended, you can chop up some cilantro and add to the finished salsa. I also like to add chopped green onions to make it more chunky.

And Enjoy!!!!!

Taco Soup

This is one of the easiest, quickest recipes I like to use; specially on those days when I don't have a whole lot of time to prep and stand in front of a stove before getting dinner on the table.  But it's just as well one of the most delicious hearty meals I've served my family.  I borrowed the recipe from my niece and have made a few changes along the way.  As with any recipe, this is only the base from which you can experiment and make your own.

Get all your ingredients together on the counter, this recipe is so quick to put together, it's best to have everything ready to go in the pot.  Then all you do is let it simmer on it's own.  It would be a great Crock-Pot meal... just brown the ground beef in advance and cook on low heat throughout the day.

First brown 1 lb of ground beef.  The leaner beef is better, makes for less fat to have to get rid of before adding the other ingredients.  I try to use at least 15% or less.  Ground sirloin would be the best, but not the cheapest.

Once the beef has been browned, you add the following ingredients: 32 oz can of Pinto Beans,  16 oz can of each; Great Northern and Kidney Beans.

add two 8 oz cans of Tomato Sauce.  Fill each empty can with water and add to the soup; add more water if you would like your soup a little more runny..  I usually make mine chunky.

Now this is what will add all the flavor.. I usually use two of these packets to make the soup very flavorful. I also add some garlic, and onion powder; to taste, as well as the salt.  I recommend that you always taste a little before finishing the meal, at that time you can add more seasonings if needed.

I serve the taco soup plain and let my family add their favorite toppings... such as shredded Cheese, Sour Cream, Salsa, Black Olives, Avocado.. etc.  and never leaving out some delicious chips to scoop up the chunky goodness.  Enjoy!!!

GREAT WINTER DISH....

Green Enchiladas

Some people shy away from making enchiladas... I don't. 

1. Because I love them
2. Because they aren't as hard as you'd think.

First you start with a can, yes a can, of Las Palmas Green Chile Enchilada Sauce.  Open the can, pour it in a 12" frying pan and heat till bubbly, after that lower the flame to Low.

Have on hand a bowl of shredded chicken and a stack of corn tortillas, preferably Thin tortillas.

First you are going to fry the tortillas in heated oil, next pass the tortilla through the heated sauce. Place sauce covered tortilla on a dish, and layer after repeating the oil, sauce steps.

Put tortillas, one at a time in the hot oil, turning once and then moving on to the Green sauce.

It makes it easy if you stack them up on a plate randomly.  I don't stack them straight up because they end up sticking to each other and it's a huge mess once you go to fill and roll.

Here's an example of how I stack them up.

Once you are done with the oil and sauce step.  Put everything close together to make it easy to roll.

Place chicken on the tortilla and roll like a rolled taco.  Place in baking dish and keep filling and rolling till done.

Once done with the fill and roll process, I pour all the remaining green sauce on top and top with shredded cheese.  I like to place in Broiler for 5 minutes or so, till cheese is brown and bubbly.

Enchilada dinner in no time....

I always like to accompany with a side of Mexican rice.

You can also top with shredded lettuce and sour cream.

Sausage, Vegetable spaghetti sauce

First brown the sausage, or turkey.. whatever you prefer to use.  I personally love to use sausage in my spaghetti sauce.

Cut an assortment of your favorite vegetables to add to the sauce.

My favorites and most common vegetables are Zucchini, Mushrooms and Onion.

Add vegetable mixture to the sausage.  Keep on medium flame.

Add spaghetti sauce... yes from the jar.  Why complicate it? this is a quick recipe that is super easy to prepare, and also loaded with lots of delicious flavor.

Serve on top of your favorite pasta.  I usually have different types on hand.  For this recipe I used some Linguine, but any other type would work just as well.  Enjoy!!

Chicken Parmigiana....

Start by making a mix of crumbs, flour and seasonings.. I use garlic, salt, pepper.

 At this time, get the egg mixture ready too.  Beat 2 or 3 eggs, depending on how much you are making, .

Using boneless chicken breast, slice each breast lengthwise to give you two thin pieces. (I rather cut the chicken than use it whole, it's thinner and juicier this way)

 Coat chicken by passing it through the bread crumb first, then egg, and back through the bread crumb.

Then fry in hot oil, make sure oil is hot enough when you start the frying process.

While you are frying the chicken, put a jar of Marinara sauce to heat in a small pot.

This will go under the chicken once you are ready to plate.

Once you have all the chicken fried, place in tray and place a slice of Mozzarella on top of each.

Place tray in broiler for 5 minutes or till cheese gets brown and bubbly.  Keep an eye on it, it can burn fast.

Once the cheese looks toasty, bring the tray out of the oven and get ready to plate.

Place Marinara sauce on plate, place chicken on top of sauce .. and voila! Chicken Parmigiana. 

AGUA DE JAMAICA

AGUA DE JAMAICA

First step is to boil 1 cup dried hibiscus flower in a small pot with 2 cups water.

Bring to a boil, turn off stove and cover pot.  Let cool for at least 1 hour.

Once the concentrate of the hibiscus is cooled.  Drain into empty pitcher.

Add 1/2 cup of sugar and mix till dissolved.  Add more sugar as needed to your taste. I usually add up to 3/4 of a cup of sugar. 

Fill rest of pitcher with water. Recipe makes 1 liter.

Always add ice to the Agua de Jamaica.  It tastes delicious nice and cold.