Green Chili Enchilada Casserole

I got this amazing recipe from my step mother last summer.  This is a great and simple Mexican dish that is lower in fat.  My kids really love this recipe so it's definitely kid friendly!

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 4.5 green chilis
corn or flour tortillas
cheese
minced garlic

Again, I forgot to take a picture of the packaged meat. I remember to start taking pictures after I start cooking.  This is pretty versatile.  You can swap out the cream soups to either mushroom or chicken.  The tortillas can be flour or corn. Cheese, I've done mexican and cheddar.  Both are great.

                              You want to brown your meat in a skillet and then add in the garlic

Then just mix in your soups and chilies with the meat and let it simmer.  You can also add any other spices you might like at this point.  I just put in some salt and garlic powder.

While the meat is simmering just rip up about 5 tortillas and place them in the bottom of the pan.  I sprayed some pam in the bottom just to keep it from sticking.  

Basically you just layer this is tortillas, meat, and then cheese.  You'll repeat this twice. 

 You'll then put this in the oven on 350 for about 30 mins or until the cheese is melted.  Then you enjoy!

Crockpot Pasta with Sausage

Yeah, it's been a while since I posted.  Hopefully I will begin to post at least once or twice a week!  Anyway, this pasta sauce is amazing.  I've made it once and I will NEVER go back to a jarred sauce.  We've been through every jar known to man.  Everything is just way to sweet or just yucky.  This sauce tastes extremely fresh and has minimal ingredients! Guess what else??? It's healthy! WOOHOO!  Ok, so on to the good stuff.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb lean chicken Italian sausage, casings removed
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 5 cloves garlic, smashed
• 28 oz crushed tomatoes
• fresh cracked pepper
• 1 small can tomato sauce

I added another can of tomato sauce because Hubby thought it wasn't "saucy" enough.  This will be an experiment!  I also used regular Italian sausage.  Why? Well because I'm in the middle of nowhere and they don't sell the good stuff here.  

Yeah I know I forgot to show my sausages.  I got a little to happy to get them in to the pan.  You'll want to remove the yucky casings on the sausages.  Just take a knife and slice down the side of the sausage.  They will come off easily that way!  

Smash you up some fresh garlic.  YUM!

Brown your sausage minus the casing in a pan.  As it's browning you'll want to break it up into smaller pieces. 

After you brown your sausage set it aside and wipe out your pan.  Let the pan get hot and add your oil.  Toss in the garlic and let it get a little brown.  Just don't burn it!

You'll want to toss all this into your crockpot.  Nothing fancy just dump it in.  Then add your pepper!  Then you just cover this and let it cook for 6-8 hours on low.  I know, I know, that's the hardest part.

Peanut Butter Pie

I'm trying to eat a little healthier but we all know I have a sweet tooth.  There is this peanut butter pie that my Aunt Lisa makes every year for Christmas. It's my favorite pie and I believe I've asked her about three times for the recipe and I fail to write it down every time.  I know I shouldn't of looked for a pie recipe but this one caught my eye and I had to make it.  Anyway, here are the ingredients:

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3/4 cup whipped topping
• 10 peanut butter cups, divided
• 1 chocolate crumb crust (9 inches)
• 
  
• Of course you can adjust this to your liking.  I added more peanut butter and more Reeses. My husband being the peanut butter and chocolate fiend would kill me if I just added what the recipe called for!  Now for the instructions:

Cream together the cream cheese, sugar, and peanut butter until smooth.  It should look something like this:

Now you'll fold in your whipped cream and your Reeses.  Make sure to get it mixed thoroughly because my whipped cream sort of took over my bowl.  Just keep mixing I promise it will calm down.  

Now for the fun part.  Put the mixture into a pie crust.  This one calls for chocolate but being here on this crappy island doesn't allow that.  I just used a regular graham cracker crust.  Just use whatever you like! I added some extra Reeses on top.  You could also add some chocolate chips or even peanut butter chips!  I know it will be hard but you have to put this in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours before you dig in!

 Here is the finished project.

My Family

Before I give this blogging thing a shot, I guess I better tell you about my family.  As I said before I'm a 25 year old mother of two.  Noah my two year old has a Thomas the Train addiction.  I never figured a child could have this serious of an addiction but he has proven me wrong.  My one year old daughter is a real character.  She believes she truly is a princess and should be toted around all day. Daddy, doesn't seem to think anything is wrong with that.  My husband Mark, what can I say about him.  He has been a trooper.  For the most part of our relationship I have been pregnant and I am willing to bet that wasn't the most pleasant of times.  We have spent much of our time moving, driving, and flying.  We have moved 6 times in the past few years. Oh and I guess I should mention the dog.  We have a dog named Max.  He's a german shepard mix.  We weren't sure how big this dog was going to be and over night he grew to be 50 pounds.  Lets just say that this dog is probably going to be a monster.  Anyway, this completes my first post and I hope to show you some of my cooking skills soon!


Here are a few pictures of my kiddos!