Monday, October 25, 2010

Meal Idea Monday- Cheese Enchiladas, Salad, and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Debbie and her daughter Jenna brought my family and I dinner after we had our fourth child, and it was delicious. Upon my request, they have shared the recipes with you all!

They brought us cheese enchiladas (served in a disposable container), a green salad (lettuce in a big ziploc bag, and all veggies cut up to go on it in their own separate snack size baggies- great idea!), homemade strawberry dressing for the salad (the most amazing dressing ever- my husband said he wanted to just drink it straight up!), and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. :)

Cheese Enchiladas

2 ¼ lbs. grated Cheddar or Monterrey Jack Cheese

1 28 oz. can of Macayo Enchilada Sauce (Use only Macayo brand)

12 medium Corn Tortillas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat enchilada sauce on low.

Prepare 13x9 oven baking pan by spraying with Pam and placing a ladle full of sauce on the bottom.

Heat 3 tortillas at a time in microwave for 30 seconds (repeating until all 12 heated).

Dip each tortilla in the warmed sauce, place in pan add desired amount of cheese, roll and place seam side down. Repeat this step with each tortilla.

Bake 15-20 minutes.


Strawberry Salad Dressing

2/3 c. sugar

1 tsp. dry mustard

pinch of salt

1/3 c. honey

5 tbsp. cider vinegar

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. grated onion (this will make you cry :))

1 tsp. celery seed

**1 cup oil….to be added later

** strawberries

Combine all but oil in blender & whirl until smooth. Gradually add oil with blender running. Add a few strawberries for color.


Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

¾ stick Crisco Butter Flavor shortening

1 ¼ cups firmly packed light brown sugar

2 tbsp. milk

1 tbsp. vanilla

1 large egg

1 ¾ cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

¾ tsp. baking soda

1 6 oz. package of semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 cup)

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat shortening and brown sugar in large bowl with mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add milk, vanilla and egg. Mix well. Stir in flour, salt and baking soda. Mix well. You will need to stir the chocolate chips in by hand.

Drop rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes. Makes 3 dozen.


Monday, October 18, 2010

Meal Idea Monday- Make Ahead Freezer Meals

How is it Monday again already? Time flies when you're having fun I guess! And the weather is getting cooler, how nice is that? For us here in AZ, it's AMAZING. :)

One of our blog readers, Renee, suggested a great resource for make ahead freezer meals. I've come across a few Food Tidings schedules that ask for freezer meals. I've even seen in the notes section that a cooler will be left out front, and to put the meal in there. These meal ideas could be perfect for that. Or maybe you signed up for a day, then realized you have something else going that day as well. I'm totally guilty of doing that! If you needed to bring the meal a day or two before your scheduled date, bring them a freezer meal.

Here's another great resource for make ahead freezer meals. I've blogged about Once A Month Mom before, but this site is worthy of getting another mention! :)

Monday, October 11, 2010

Meal Idea Monday- Apple Cinnamon Pull Apart Rolls

These apple cinnamon pull apart rolls from Once A Month Mom look AMAZING. This could be a wonderful dessert to bring with a meal, OR a yummy breakfast to bring for the next morning to someone!

Monday, October 4, 2010

Meal Idea Monday- Spaghetti and Cupcakes

Christina sent us a message via facebook about a meal she brought to someone...

"We did spaghetti for dinner and dessert one time... seemed to be a big hit! We made normal spaghetti (easy and inexpensive) and for dessert we made spaghetti cupcakes... the kids loved them. Yellow cupcakes with white frosting tinted yellow, drizzled over the cupcakes that were all very close together. The sauce was sugar free strawberry jam with Ferrero Rocher candies as the meatballs and shaved white chocolate as the cheese. Fun fun and easy. Got the idea out of the Hello Cupcake book by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson"

What a creative idea, Christina! Thanks for sharing. Enjoy your Monday, everyone!