July 29 Thought For The Day

Layered Tex-Mex Taco Salad

I love taco salads but don't always want to make them up in the tortilla bowls. This is a great way to make up taco salad for a potluck or family get together. You can make as much or as little as you will need. If you have people who may not care for the salad dressing you can always leave it off and serve it on the side. The salad looks pretty in the bowl and when tossed well and served, tastes great!

2 Ingredient Angel Food and Fruit Cake

This recipe is super easy to make and can be made with lots of different flavors. I made mine with cherry pie filling and it turned out delicious. It can also be made with crushed pineapple or with any flavor of pie filling that you like. As I said it's super easy to make, just pour the 1 step angel food cake mix into a bowl, dump in the pie filling, stir together and pour into the pan. It took me about 3 minutes to mix it up. It does sink some when taken out of the oven, so don't let that panic you. It makes a super moist, flavorful cake, though not with a normal angel food cake look. This will definitely go on my make in a hurry for unexpected quests list! I hope that you decide to give it a try and let me know what you think!

July 25 Thought For The Day

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

This is a great recipe from the Betty Crocker site made with sugar cookie mix. I was in a hurry when I needed to make up a batch of cookies and since I had a pouch of the mix I decided to give these a try. I plan on making some soon from scratch with my sugar cookie recipe and basically rolled up and sliced the same way - not that these are bad, they are actually very tasty. I just prefer to have things made from scratch. This dough was not hard to work with and rolled out easily and rolled into a log with only a couple of very small cracks. After chilling they sliced up nicely and baked up looking pretty. They also taste great - so what more could you ask for???? They are definitely worth trying since the idea of them is different and will get positive comments, plus who doesn't like the taste of cinnamon rolls?

July 22 Thought For The Day

Salsa Chicken

I have seen this recipe on various sites and finally decided to give it a try. I'm really glad that I did! The chicken was moist and tender and the seasonings gave it a wonderful Mexican flavor. I used the Taco Seasoning II recipe posted on this site, which I make with a little less cayenne pepper than the recipe calls for as I don't care for seasoning which is very spicy hot. That's the nice thing about this recipe for Salsa Chicken, you can make it spicy or not, your preference, by the spices you use and the salsa you choose. I will definitely be making this chicken again, as not only was it tasty, it was also very very easy! I would love to hear your comments if you give it a try!

July 21 Thought For The Day

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found this recipe at Rachel Schultz's blog and decided to give them a try as she lists them as the "Softest Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever", and the recipe uses pudding mix rather than white sugar. Intriguing! Well, the cookies do cook up soft and they do stay soft for days. The only changes I made in Rachel's recipe was that I used sugar-free instant pudding, rather than regular, and semi-sweet chocolate chips, rather than milk chocolate chips. I really like the idea of less sugar in the cookies, though you certainly can't tell from the flavor that they aren't chock full of sugar! Nestles Toll House Cookie recipe calls for 3/4 cup white sugar and 3/4 cup brown sugar. In this recipe I used only 3/4 cup brown sugar, and so I feel much better about eating them at only 1/2 the sugar - I love cookies so I'll take any little rationalization I can get (and no, I'm not even going to think about all the butter that's in them, lol!) Rachel has some great recipes on her site so wander on over if you have the chance. And, these cookies are really worth trying!

July 13 Thought For The Day

Homemade Enchilada Sauce

This is another homemade recipe from Maeghan at The Way To His Heart. I really like knowing what is in my food and definitely like not having a whole list of chemicals with names I can't even pronounce in the list of ingredients! This sauce is easy to make and you can adjust the seasonings according to your personal preferences. Hope that you enjoy it!

July 11 Thought For The Day

Chicken and Spinach Enchiladas

This is another recipe from Recipe Girl that I'm anxious to try. The picture is from Recipe Girl also. When I have a chance to make the recipe I will be posting my own picture, but until then her picture will show you what it looks like - her picture is probably better than mine would be anyway, LOL! This recipe also looks to be quick and easy, one of my favorite requirements, as well as delicious - I love the idea of the spinach added to the filling. The only changes I will make when I prepare it is to add sliced black olives and onions to the chicken mixture. If you give this recipe a try I would love to hear your opinion on it!

July 9 Thought For The Day

Chalupas

Picture from RecipeGirl.com

I found this recipe at Recipe Girl which has now become one of my favorite recipe sites. She has tons of recipes listed and all of them look so good I don't know where to start on trying them. These looked very simple and like they would work really well with homemade flour tortillas, and sometimes, especially during the summer, I just want something really quick and easy to make but that still tastes delicious. These qualify on all levels! You can get as fancy as you want with the toppings or eat them with just a little salsa and sour cream and either way they are quick, easy and taste wonderful!

July 5 Thought For The Day

Angel Pudding

I came across this recipe in one of my Mom's old cookbooks. I really can't remember if she ever made it or not but she had noted on the recipe that it was really good so she must have at least been served it on some occasion. It sounded good to me so I decided to give it a try and I was mostly pleased with the way it turned out. It is a very simple, easy dessert to put together. I baked my angel food cake but it would really be quick to put together if you purchased an angel food cake already prepared. I am not a big fan of instant pudding so if I make it again I will make it with cooked pudding - then I think that I would be great.

I will be keeping this recipe handy though, for when I need a fast dessert to put together for unexpected company.

July 4 Thought For The Day

Cheesy Taco Casserole

I saw this recipe on Averie Cooks  and decided to give it a try with a few minor changes. I'm really glad that I did. I was pleased with the flavor and with the ease of making it. The recipe suggested lining the baking dish with foil, which I did, and that made the clean up really easy also. So.....what's not to like? The recipe has a rice base and no tortillas. Taco's with no tortillas??? Well, the taco flavoring is so good I didn't even miss the tortillas! If you like tacos, have a family to feed and need something easy to throw together, you really ought to give this a try!