Early Christmas Present

Look what Betty is sending me!! :) I had an email today letting me know that Betty Crocker was sending me a FREE 2009 Recipe calendar... definitely another thing to be thankful for this week!

Zesty Minestrone

I just made this (was very easy!) and now it's in the crockpot slow cooking for tonight's dinner! It came from Kraft recipes and had a lot of good reviews... hopefully it'll be a good one! I'm going to serve it with a tossed side salad.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup KRAFT Zesty Italian Dressing
1 cup chopped onions (about 1 medium)
1/2 cup chopped celery (about 1 stalk)
1/2 cup chopped carrots (about 1 medium)
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (19 oz.) red kidney beans, drained, rinsed
2 cans (14 oz. each) vegetable broth
2 cups water
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1-1/2 cups small shell macaroni, uncooked
1/2 cup KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese

HEAT dressing in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat. Add onions, celery and carrots; cook 2 min. or until crisp-tender, stirring occasionally. Spoon into slow cooker. Add tomatoes, beans, broth, water and Italian seasoning; stir. Cover with lid.

COOK on LOW for 6 hours (or on HIGH for 3 hours).

STIR in macaroni; cook 10 to 15 min. or until macaroni is tender. Sprinkle with cheese just before serving.

Deluxe Cheeseburger Salad

Made this salad for dinner tonight, and Mathis and I both loved it!! It was simple, delicious and healthy! It was also pretty filling for a salad. This recipe came from Pampered Chef's website an you can see the recipe by clicking here. Normally, I would give you the recipe directly on this post, but I can't copy and cut the text AND I'm too lazy tonight to re-type it. :) Hey... I cooked dinner after all! ;) But don't let that stop you from enjoying this delicious meal. And don't get caught up by the Pampered Chef lingo -- you don't need all their special tools to make this meal, I promise!! If I can make it, so can you!!

Light King Ranch Chicken Casserole

After getting this recipe from Laura, I made this for dinner tonight and it's amazing!!!!

Ingredients
1 large onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
Vegetable cooking spray
2 cups chopped cooked chicken breasts
1 (10-ounce) can fat-free cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 (10-ounce) can fat-free cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 (10-ounce) can diced tomato and green chiles
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
1 (8-ounce) block reduced-fat Cheddar cheese, shredded

Preparation
Sauté onion and bell pepper in a large skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat 5 minutes or until tender.
Stir in chicken and next 6 ingredients; remove from heat.
Tear tortillas into 1-inch pieces; layer one-third tortilla pieces in bottom of a 13- x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Top with one-third chicken mixture and one-third cheese. Repeat layers twice.

Bake at 350° for 30 to 35 minutes or until bubbly.

Note: Freeze casserole up to 1 month, if desired. Thaw in refrigerator overnight, and bake as directed.

Hashbrown Casserole

I planned on making a different meal for tonight's dinner, but after spending all afternoon cleaning and organizing I decided I wanted some quick and easy tonight. This meal was both! It's also a great meal to make on those nights you're wanting to eat breakfast for dinner. I had Mathis fry up some eggs to eat with the casserole, and it tasted great!! We have a lot left over which will make for some good breakfasts this week.

Definitely a good recipe to have on hand for those holiday breakfasts coming up!

Hashbrown Casserole

1 package frozen hashbrowns
1 8 oz container sour cream**
1 can cream of chicken soup**
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Cornflakes
1 stick butter melted**

Combine the first 4 ingredients and put in a 9 x12 baking dish. Top with cornflakes and melted butter. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

**I used reduced/fat-free items here**

Welcome to Our Kitchen!

A few days ago I posted about my desire to learn how to cook. After receiving some great advice from friends and discovering several new recipes I was excited to try, I realized I had a lot I wanted to share. I could already envision myself blogging about each week's recipes and new cooking tips and techniques I had learned along the way. I also wanted to keep receiving advice from others at the same time.

So without further ado... welcome to our kitchen!! I hope this blog is a way for me to stay motivated in my pursuit of culinary expertise, and a fun place for bloggers to exchange recipes. I've already got four different meals lined up for this week, and I hope to post the success of each along the way! Tomorrow I'll be doing my grocery shopping... check back later to see what's cooking with the Kenningtons! :)