Wingers Sticky Fingers

We recently perfected this recipe while making a plate of sticky fingers to share. We were out of eggs and were surprised when these turned out better than any other we have made before. I have posted the new recipe below. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Wingers Sauce
6 TBSP Franks Red Hot
4 TBSP water
1 1/2 c. brown sugar

Combine in a sauce pan over low heat until smooth.

Chicken Strips
Milk
seasoning salt
salt
pepper
flour
raw chicken tenders (or chicken breasts cut into strips)
vegetable oil

Start heating oil in a large pan/pot. Pour 1 - 2 cups of milk in a container. Put flour in separate container, add seasoning salt, salt and pepper to taste and mix together. Place your chicken in the milk mixture and let sit for a minute or two. Next dip the chicken into the flour mixture until covered. Place the covered pieces back in the milk and then dip in the flour mixture once more. Place coated chicken on a separate plate. Once oil is heated to about 350, place the chicken in the oil. You can place around 6 chicken strips in the pan at a time. Let them cook for about 10 mins, flipping halfway through. Use a meat thermometer to make sure the chicken is done, or cut the thickest one open to check. Place the done chicken on a cooling rack and then dip into the sauce immediately. Dipping the chicken in right way will help the sauce stick to the chicken. It's now time to dig in. Serve with ranch and celery. Enjoy!!

Chicken Enchiladas

2-4 chicken breasts
2 10 oz cans green chile enchilada sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
1 can northern beans
tortillas (about 8)
cheese

Put chicken in crockpot with enchilada sauce. Cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or on low for 7 to 8 hours.

Take chicken out of crockpot and shred it. In crockpot mix sour cream with sauce. I used my little hand blender to make it nice and smooth. Put about 1/4 cup of sauce on the bottom of a casserole dish. Mix drained beans with chicken and about 3/4 cup of sauce. Take tortillas, place spoonful of chicken mixture in the middle of it, add some cheese, roll it up and then place it in the casserole dish. Continue this til you are out of the chicken mixture. Pour sauce over the tortillas. Sprinkle cheese on top. Place in oven at 350 and bake for about an hour.

Sticky Finger Rice Bowl

A few months ago I found an amazing Winger's sticky finger sauce recipe here. We have used it to make sticky finger salad and sticky fingers. It is the best. Well tonight I was craving the sticky finger rice bowl, so we made it :) Here is what I came up with.

Sticky Finger Rice Bowl

chicken cut into strips/pieces

rice

veggies

homemade wingers sticky finger sauce

First start making the chicken sauce. The recipe for the sauce can be found here. Here is the recipe so you don't have to go there to find it:

6 Tbsp Frank's Hot Sauce

4 Tbsp water

1 1/2 c. brown sugar

Heat all in pan until the sugar is dissolved. Instead of regular franks sauce we used their Red Hot Wings Sauce: Sweet Heat BBQ this time and it was sooo good. Regular Franks is amazing too.

Next cook the chicken in a few tablespoons of oil until done. Drain most of the oil. Add the sauce to the chicken and cook for a min or two, mixing well the whole time. Take pan off heat and mix a bit more. Let the chicken sit in the sauce for a bit.

In the meantime cook the rice and veggies. While rice and veggies are cooking- start the sauce to put on top the rice.

Sauce:

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
5 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
a spoonful or two of wingers sauce

Add all ingredients into a small sauce pan except 1/4 c water and cornstarch. Mix those together in separate bowl and then add to the rest. Bring to boil, then turn down to low and keep warm til everything is done.

Once rice and veggies are done plate up the food. Place desired amount of rice on plate, top with veggies, chicken and sauce and ENJOY!

Potato Soup

4 cups chicken broth
2 cups peeled and cubed potatoes
garlic powder
seasoning salt
pepper
onion powder
2 heaping spoonfuls sour cream
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
4 tbsp corn starch
cheddar cheese

Combine potatoes, broth and seasonings to taste. Boil on medium heat until potatoes are tender. Mix milk with corn starch, pour into soup. Reduce to low. Add sour cream and have cream, mix til blended. Add cheese, mix, serve and enjoy :)

roughly based off of this recipe: http://manouvellemode.blogspot.mx/2012/01/creamy-potato-soup.html

Calzones

Tonight pizza was on the menu. I knew Thomas needed something a little more filling for dinner, so I decided to make some calzones for the first time ever. They didn't turn out the prettiest, but they were AMAZING!

Calzones

1 Jiffy Pizza Dough Mix
melted butter
desired fillings

Make the Jiffy pizza dough as instructed on box. Split dough in half. Roll one half into ball and then roll out into a large circle.  Spread desired sauce onto half of the rolled out dough, leaving the edges clean so that you can pinch it closed later. Add topping on top of that. Fold dough over and pinch edges. Transfer to greased cookie sheet. Brush top with butter. Bake at 375 for 20-30 mins or until done.

Suggested toppings: BBQ sauce with chicken, cheese and spinach; ranch with chicken, cheese, spinach and tomatoes

Raspberry Cream Brownies

All of the following recipes are from my fabulous Aunt Jeanette Gulbransen. Count yourself lucky, these are top secret recipes that she doesn't share often and she gave me permission to share it.

Raspberry Cream Brownies

Brownies
3 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
3 cubes softened margarine or butter
5 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour
Mix all ingredients together until creamy. Scrap bowl and mix more. Use a deep pan cookie sheet to bake. Butter pan and flour it.

Hint: batter should be fairly thick when putting in the pan, poor batter in the middle of the pan and spread out leaving an inch space between batter and edge of pan. When it cooks it will fill to the edge. If you don't the batter will cook over the edge. Cook at 350 for 20-25 mins or until done.

Raspberry cream filling
8 oz cream cheese softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup raspberry preserves (or any preserves, I added blackberry to mine as well)

Mix until smooth, you might add more powdered sugar to make it thicker, spread over brownies put in fridge or freezer. Then make chocolate glaze and put that on top.

Chocolate Glaze
1 cube butter/margarine
1 cups chocolate chips

Melt together and then spread on top of brownies. Refrigerate to harden.

Chicken Parmesan

2 raw chicken breasts cut in half
2 eggs
1/4 c milk
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
garlic salt
onion salt
italian seasoning
4 slices mozerella cheese
spaghetti sauce
angel hair pasta
olive oil

In a pan mix together milk & eggs. In a seperate pan mix together bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, garlic salt, onion salt and italian seasoning. Add however much garlic salt, onion salt and italian seasoning you prefer. Dip chicken into milk/egg mixture, then into bread crumb mixture. Heat about 2 tsp of olive oil in a frying pan.

Place coated chicken in pan and cook until browned on each side. Place in greased baking pan. Top with a spoonful of sauce and one slice of cheese. Bake for about 30 mins at 350 until chicken is done.

While chicken is cooking boil the pasta and heat or make the sauce. Serve with corn, breadsticks and pasta and enjoy!

(sorry about the horrible pic, I was in a hurry)

Chocolate Chip Raisin Cookies

My Aunt Jeanette gave me a fun little cookbook as a wedding gift full of her favorite recipes. It is one of my favorite cook book and this recipe came from that cookbook. It has become one of my favorites over the last year and a half. These are my Great Grandma Davies chocolate chip raisin cookies. They are sooo yummy, plus they bring back great memories of my grandma, who passed away almost over 2 years ago. I prefer these cookies over any other and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Chocolate Chip Raisin Cookies
This first step you will want to do about an hour before making the cookies, either that or you can put the mixture in the freezer while mixing the other ingredients.
Add 1 cup water to 2 cups of raisins and boil for 5 mins. Let cool.

Cream Together:
1 C shortening
2 C sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Then add:
3 1/2 C flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg

To make sure the spices are evenly disturbed I usually mix the above ingredients together in a separate bowl before adding to the creamed mixture.

Next add:
Cooled raisin mixture and chocolate chips (I use a full bag, but you can use as many or as little as you would like).

Drop by the spoonful onto greased or nonstick cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 12-15 mins or until golden brown.

My favorite way to eat these is to dip them into a glass of cold milk. Seriously the best!

Creamy Vegetable Casserole

1 package of frozen vegetable blend (we used Mediterranean blend)
Cooked chicken
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can milk (fill one of the empty cream of chicken soup cans with milk)
2 heaping spoonfuls cream cheese
onion salt to taste
cheese

Blend soup, milk, cream cheese and salt together until smooth. Add veggies and chicken, mix. Pour into greased baking dish. Sprinkle cheese over top. Put aluminum foil over dish. Place in oven and bake on 350 for about a half an hour. Take foil off, mix cheese in and then sprinkle more cheese on top. Broil for 5 mins. Serve over cooked rice. 

Biscuits and Gravy

I have always love biscuits and gravy. If we go our for breakfast it is always what I order, but I had never made them myself. My dad made them all the time for us growing up. Thomas and I decided to make these Saturday morning. All I can say is they aren't that hard to make and they are AMAZING!! The biscuit recipe came out of a betty crocker cook book my mom has and the gravy recipe is from my dad.

Biscuits
1/2 cup shortening
1 3/4 cup flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Cut shortening into flour, baking powder and salt with a pastry blender (or use a fork like we do) until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in milk until dough leaves side of bowl (dough will be soft and sticky). On lightly floured surface, gently roll dough in flour to coat. Knead lightly 10 times. Roll or pat 1/2 inch thick. Cut with floured 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter. On cookie sheet, place biscuits about 1 inch apart for crusty sides, touching for soft sides. Bake in oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Top with gravy and enjoy!

Gravy
Breakfast sausage
about 1/4 cup flour
milk
salt and pepper to taste

Cook breakfast sausage in a sauce pan. When sausage is done, take it out of the pan, leaving the run off in the bottom of the pan. Add flour to run off til it's creamy and browned. Then start adding milk and mixing until it is your desired consistency. Add salt and pepper. Pour over biscuits and enjoy!

Chocolate Cake with Caramel Topping

Chocolate Cake
cake mix or homemade cake batter
2 to 4 oz semi-sweet chocolate baking bar
about 1 TBSP butter

Pour cake batter into greased pan. Melt chocolate on stove top with butter. Pour chocolate onto top of batter. Swirl or spread as you please.

Bake cake as directed. Take out of oven and let cool.

Frost with favorite frosting (we used canned frosting this time, which we rarely do).

Caramel Topping
1 can sweetened condensed milk

fill large pot with water, place can in water. Place on oven and bring to simmer or low boil. Simmer/boil for 2.5 to 3 hours.

Take pot off of heat, let sit for a few minutes. Next take can out of pot and place in cool water. Let sit until cool to the touch. Next open the can and you have caramel!

Cut a slice of cake, drizzle caramel over top and enjoy!

We cooked caramel on stove for 2 hours and feel like it could have gone for 30 mins to 60 mins longer. But it was still delicious as is.

Creamy Chicken Pasta

Adapted from this recipe

1 or 2 large chicken breasts
2.5 cups crushed cornflakes corn flakes
1/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk
2 T olive oil
1 12 oz package of Ronzoni Garden Delight noodles (we used rotini)

Sauce:
1/2 container of 10 oz Philadelphia Cooking Cream (Italian Cheese and Herb Flavor)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 c chicken broth
1/4 c milk

Start the water for the noodles. Put cornflakes, flour & salt, and milk in 3 separate containers. Cut chicken in half (horizontally, to make chicken thinner). Dip chicken in the flour, then the milk, then the corn flakes. Heat olive oil in sauce pan. Place chicken in olive oil and cook for about 5 mins, until golden brown on the bottom side. Flip the chicken over, place a lid on the pan and turn the heat down to medium and cook for about 7 mins, until done all the way through. Watch it to make sure it doesn't burn. Once the chicken is done place it on a plate, put tin foil over it and place aside. In the same pan (make sure there is not very much oil left in it, just drops) that you cooked the chicken in combine cooking cream, cream of chicken, broth and milk. Whisk together and let cook until bubbling. Place noodles on plate, top with sauce and chicken. Serve some veggies on the side and ENJOY!!

Penne Florentine

We thought of this recipe while making our Chicken Pizza last week. We hope you enjoy it!

Pasta Mixture:
1 package penne noodles- cooked to al dente
1 chopped tomato
1/2 - 1 cup chopped spinach
chopped cooked chicken (however much you want)

Toss together. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Sauce:
2 T butter
1 T - 2 T flour
1 c milk
1/2 c - 1 c Parmesan cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup

Melt butter in sauce pan, add flour to butter. Cook until bubbly. Add 1/2 c milk and cook again until bubbly. Turn stove off and parm cheese. Mix until smooth. Add cream of chicken soup and 1/2 milk. Mix again until smooth.

Combine sauce and pasta mix.

Put in buttered casserole dish, sprinkle cheese over top. Bake until brown and bubbly.

We didn't have extra cheese for on top, so ours isn't very brown on top, but it was really bubbly

We were lazy tonight, but normally we would serve it along side broccoli and bread sticks or garlic bread. Enjoy! It is so delicious and your kids will love it too!

Little Thomas was very happy with dinner tonight

Chicken Pockets

recipe adapted from a recipe from Robyn Stafford

Filling:
1 cooked shredded chicken breast or one can of canned chicken
1-2 cups of chopped broccoli
3 oz. cream cheese
2 tablespoons butter, melted
onion powder to taste
garlic powder to taste
handful of Parmesan cheese

Mix together in a small bowl.

Pockets:
1-2 packages Crescent rolls (depending on how many you are feeding and how full you want your pockets)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups Italian bread crumbs

Open package of rolls. Lay them out on pan and configure them into desired shape, fill with filling and pinch shut. Here are two different shapes you can make:

Dip each pocket into 1 melter butter butter then bread crumbs. Place on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Sauce:

1 can cream of chicken soup, diluted with milk, if you want thicker sauce don't add full can of milk.

Heat slowly in small sauce pan over stove or microwave.

After baking serve with sauce.

This recipe came from my fabulous mother in law and I added some of my own things to make it my own. We LOVE this meal, but our kids aren't fans yet, so we usually cut some of the chicken breast off before shredding for them and save them some broccoli and serve it with rice or just cook them up some noodles. I have served this for guests many times and always get a great response. We have put chopped spinach in the pockets instead of broccoli and served broccoli on the side also. Hope you enjoy this meal as much as we do! Feel free to make it your own as well.

Tatertot Casserole

1 bag of tatertots
1 lb ground beef
1 package of ranch dressing powder
1 can green beans
1 can corn
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup

Cook ground beef, drain and add ranch powder. In a bowl mix together the cream of mushroom + cream of chicken with 1 can of milk (just fill up one of the soap cans with the milk you have in the fridge). Mix until smooth. (I used my hand blender to make ours smooth). In separate bowl mix together the corn, beans and beef. Add 3/4 of the soup mix. Pour mixture into greased casserole dish. Next top the mixture with tatertots in whatever way you want. I like to just dump the bag out and spread them as evenly as possible, but Thomas likes to put them in perfect rows.

Pour the remaining soup over, and top with grated cheese.

Cook at 350 for about 30 mins or until tatertots are done and casserole is brown and bubbly.

Enjoy!! Your kids will LOVE this- I know ours do.

Chicken Pizza

Pizza Dough
Cheese
Cooked Chicken
Chopped Tomatoes
Chopped Spinach
Garlic Ranch Sauce (recipe to follow)

Spread pizza dough on pan of choice.(we bought some pre-made mix and just had to add water). Spread garlic ranch sauce over dough,

sprinkle cheese, chicken, tomatoes and spinach and then top with a little more cheese.

Follow instructions for your pizza dough on how long to cook. Enjoy!

It is an easy and delicious meal and to make it a little healthier you can use wheat dough and use less cheese and sauce.

Garlic Ranch Sauce
Ranch
Garlic Powder

Put ranch in a bowl, add garlic powder to taste. Use on pizza :)

Taco Soup

Taco Soup
based off of a recipe from Melissa Borders, check out her blog here

1 onion
2 lbs ground beef
3 packages of ranch dressing powder
2 package taco seasoning
2 can corn- drained
1 can pinto beans
2 can black beans
1 can red kidney beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomatoes with chilies

Brown hamburger. Then add onions, 2 ranch dressing powder and 1 taco seasoning. Cook until the onions are translucent.

 Put in crock pot. Add all beans, tomatoes, corn, taco seasoning packet and ranch dressing packet. Cook on low for 4-6 hours.

  Serve with sour cream, cheese and homemade tortilla chips (see below for recipe). Enjoy!

Homemade Tortilla Chips

corn tortillas
vegetable cooking spray
salt (if desired)

Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray. Cut corn tortilla chips into to desired shape (we cut ours into strips) and place on cooking sheet. Spray the top of the tortillas with cooking spray. Sprinkle with salt. Place in the oven and cook for 10-20 minutes at 425. Be sure to check often, they burn easily. Serve over taco soup.

I hope you enjoy these recipe as much as we do.