Dinner in Marksville

I know it has been quite some time since I have done a dinner post but life happens and there is only so much time in a day to get everything done. I actually picked these two recipes out last night to make this evening. 

For dinner we went with Lemon Butter Chicken , Creamy Parmesan Rice, and Green Beans. We did happen to have dessert tonight which was Snickers Ice Cream from Breyers. 

The only things I changed with the Lemon Butter Chicken was using Chicken Quarters instead of just thighs, and I did the whole process on the stove top instead of transferring over half way to the oven. 

With the Creamy Parmesan Rice we doubled the recipe and I would suggest adding the parsley and cheese while the rice is still on the liquid side instead of being dryer for a more even flavor distribution. Both of these recipes went well together and the family enjoyed them. 

Have you tried any new recipes lately? 

Dinner in Marksville

I have been preoccupied with my family for the last few days and haven't gotten a post up on what we have been eating, which has mostly been pizza and left overs. Last night was the first night in a few nights that I have made dinner for the family. We had breaded pork chops, baked potatoes and carrots for dinner last night nothing too fancy. 

Even though I am still not feeling well I decided tonight I would look through some recipes and make something a little different for dinner. 

I decided on Cheddar Broccoli Soup, Garlic Bread for dinner with Baked Pears with Walnuts and Honey for dessert.  

I didn't change the recipe for the Baked Pears at all so you can see the recipe at the above link, but I did change the Cheddar Broccoli Soup recipe up a bit. 

As always anything changed is in red next to the original recipe. 

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 stalk celery, chopped (about 1/2 cup) omitted because we didn't have any.
• 1 large carrot, chopped (about 1/2 cup) I used a can of sliced carrots with liquid instead
• 1 small onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves, crushed (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups water, divided
• 1 box (10 oz.) frozen chopped broccoli, thawed and drained I used a 16oz bag of Broccoli spears 
• 1 can (14.5 oz.) low sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
• 1 jar Ragu® Double Cheddar Sauce

1. Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat and cook celery, carrot, onion and thyme until vegetables are almost tender, about 3 minutes. Stir in 1 cup water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. I only cooked the onion and thyme with the olive oil, then added in the can of carrots with liquid, broccoli and let come to a boil.  
2. Process vegetable mixture and broccoli in food processor or blender until smooth; return to saucepan. I like my soup with some body so I just mashed the vegetable up with my potato masher. 
3. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup water, broth and Sauce. Cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through, about 10 minutes.

With the Baked Pears if you are using crisp pears I suggest baking them a bit more and serving with yogurt, or vanilla ice cream. This recipe would be best with super ripe pears. 

Dinner in Marksville x 3

Have been quite busy so I didn't get around to putting up my posts so here they are. Thursday I went shopping after my husband got out of college. I am a big coupon shopper and I new this was going to be a big order 3 carts actually for $150.00 to be exact and to think this store has triple coupons next week, so excited.

One of the deals we were able to get were Freshetta Pizza's for $3.24 each dinner done for Thursday night, we then stopped to feed the girls, they were home with the stomach flu that is going around these parts. Then after we went to Walmart to pick up a few other things we needed. Stopped by to drop of my Grand daughter Lainy's Birthday Presents, then I had enough time to drop my husband and Deanna off before heading off to Girl Scouts with Dorothy.

When we were done with Girl Scouts, we stopped to get chicken, and apple juice that was on sale at our IGA store. Next was over to do my merchandising jobs, with a quick stop to the Dollar store to finish off the Valentines Presents I have been working on for my girls. Then we made a quick stop to Kmart and took advantage of their 90% off sale, and I found a pair of King Size Sheets for 24.99. Grabbed those because King Size is so expensive.

Then we filled up on gas and headed home, where we had pizza and wings for dinner. I usually do a Salad but forgot to pick up a green to make one with.

Friday was pretty quite, Dorothy ended up staying home again because during the night she started vomiting again. This stomach bug was really holding on. Stayed home and just relaxed with the family after a long week of 3 of my girls being sick as well as one of my grand daughters.

We had Candied Chicken over white rice with green beans and carrots. The only thing I would change with this recipe would be to use less water and maybe even make the chicken pieces smaller. It tasted a lot like the Sweet Chicken my husband likes to get at the Chinese Buffet.

Today came with some snow. Basketball Game was canceled so we just picked up my News Papers, gotta get those coupons. I buy 10 papers a week. Other then that we have pretty much all done our own thing. We are getting ready to have dinner now which is Very Greek Grilled Chicken, couscous with pine nuts, and spinach with garlic and nutmeg. 

I didn't change the recipes so I am just listing the links in the names of the recipes. I will say however that the Green Seasoning for the Very Greek Grilled Chicken I was able to find the recipe for online under Greek Seasoning.

Going to finish the night off with some Rice Pudding. What did you have for dinner? 

Dinner in Marksville

Hello everyone, had a rough night last night with Dorothy being ill, I stayed up all night with her, and then today I had my two grand daughters on top of having both Dorothy and Deanna home. Deanna is now sick and sleeping on the couch across from me.

I have been trying dinners out that can be frozen ahead of time but don't want to go and freeze four of something and find out no one likes it. Last nights dish was a success you can read about it here. Tonight we had Swiss Cheese Chicken but as you know I often change up the recipe to accommodate our family so the original is in black and ours is in red if it is changed.

INGREDIENTS:
4 Chicken Breasts (or enough to fill pan) we used 3 large breasts our store which is IGA has the best chicken that I have had since we raised our own chickens when I was growing up. 
6 Slices Swiss Cheese I used 8 slices of American Cheese it is all we had.
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
¼ cup milk 1/2 cup of milk
Stove Top Turkey Stuffing (about ½ box) Whole Box for us
¼ c butter
DIRECTIONS:
Cover bottom of pan with chicken.
Lay Swiss Cheese over chicken. we used american
Mix 1 can cream of chicken soup and ¼ cup milk. we used 1/2 cup of milk
Pour mixture over chicken.
Top with ½ bag (or more) of Stove Top Turkey Stuffing. we used a whole box 
Drizzle ¼ cup butter on top.
Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes.
Serve over rice.  We served ours along side long grain rice and mixed vegetable blend of broccoli, cauliflower and corn.

What our family thought about this dish. Another winner for the freezer meals. We talked about ways to change it up. My husband says when we freeze ours we are going to change up the mixture each time. One we are going to try is adding Ham before Swiss Cheese, Mushroom soup, then the rest of the ingredients to make a kind of Chicken Cordon Blue dish. You can do so many things with this recipe. Sorry I didn't snap a photo but if you follow the link above you will see how great it looks when it comes out of the oven. Super easy and yummy for your tummy.

Dinner in Marksville

At one of my other favorite Social/Blog sites I used to do posts about what we ate each night, well when I got a chance to anyways. It was a great site where you could earn for your posts, but sadly went belly around the time I decided to blog seriously. Coincidence? Maybe, but I was taught when one door closes another door opens.

I have been thinking about what I want to add to my blog and what I want to take away, and thought about what my readers liked about my other social network/ blog posts and wanted to bring those kind of posts to my blog.

Both of these recipes come from other sites, once which I kept as written, and another which I changed up Marksville Style.

Tonight's dinner will be Campbell's Chili Corn Chip Bake and Creamed Corn Cornmeal Muffins.

Creamed Corn Cornmeal Muffins

Ingredients

• 2, 8.5 oz. packages of Jiffy cornbread mix
• 14.75 oz. can of creamed corn
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/4 c. sour cream
• 2 eggs, beaten

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients in large bowl.
2. Stir till just combined; batter should be slightly lumpy.
3. Line muffin pan with liners (or lightly grease cups if not using liners).
4. Pour batter in cups till two-thirds full.
5. Bake in 350° oven for 25-35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Campbell's Chili Corn Chip Bake/ Marksville Style Recipe

What You'll Need

2 1/2 cups corn chips about 4 cups of corn chips

1 medium onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)  1 super large onion 

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese or Mexican blend cheese  2 cups of liquid cheddar cheese

1 can (14.5 ounces) Pace® Spicy Chili 3 cans of hormel chili (any kind you like)

1 large 28oz can of diced tomatoes 

1/2 cup sour cream  

Original recipe said it serves 4 people but our family of 5 ate the whole updated Marksville Style batch so if you have big eaters you are going to want to double or use my recipe. 

How to Make It

• 1
  Set the oven to 350°F.
• 2
  Layer half the corn chips, the onion and half the cheese in a 9-inch pie plate  13 by 9 inch glass baking pan.  Spoon the chili over the cheese. I mixed my 3 cans of chili and large can of tomatoes together then put over cheese. Layer with the remaining corn chips and cheese.
• 3     Bake for 20 minutes or until the mixture is hot and bubbling Bake for 1 hour.  Serve               with the sour cream, if desired.

What I like best about both recipes is that if you keep them original they both cook for the same amount of time, but with the Marksville Style recipe you want to add the muffins in half way through the baking time of the Chili. 

Our family really enjoyed it as in all 5 of us ate every bit of it. The Creamed Corn Cornmeal muffins were good but I generally make homemade cornmeal muffins instead of using Jiffy mix so will try and implement this into my homemade recipe the next time and see how it works out for us. 

I hope you enjoy these recipes and will come back to see what we have for dinner now and then.