Category Archives: Dinner

Jan15

Easy Oven BBQ Chicken

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Rachel

Do yall ever just feel so exhausted you feel like making dinner is equivalent to climbing Mt. Everest? That’s how I felt yesterday after doing 4,573 piles of laundry. I was actually buried alive there for a little bit and things got iffy, by I made it out ok. I was craving my other BBQ Chicken, but as I said before, I had no energy and no ability to baste my chicken because I knew my arms would fall off. So I did it this way instead, and it was just as delicious and very easy to do!

Ingredients:
3 lbs chicken thighs bone in skin on (the cheap chicken thigh pack)
2 garlic cloves chopped
1 sweet onion
1 c BBQ sauce (Head Country is the best)
6-8 oz apricot jam (Mine was an 8 oz jar I had eaten some out of already, but you get the drift 😄)
1/2 stick butter
Salt and pepper

1. Melt your butter in a heavy duty Dutch oven and once it’s hot, place your chicken skin side down to get a nice sear on it. Make sure to season it with salt and pepper. Flip it over after a few minutes and then set it aside. It’s far from cooked, but we just want to get the skin crispy for later.

2. Now toss in your onion and turn the heat down a bit if you need to. Again, season it with salt and pepper and cook it 15-20 minutes or until they’re golden and cooked through. Toss your garlic in there during the last five minutes.

3. After that’s all cooked, add your cup of BBQ sauce and apricot jam into it and stir all together. Turn off the heat.

4. Now lay your chicken in there with the skin side up, put the lid on it, and set in your oven at 325 for one hour.

5. Now it’s done! If you don’t have a Dutch oven, but you do have a slow cooker, you could do all the cooking on your stovetop in a skillet (preferably cast iron) and dump it into your slow cooker on high for 4 hours or low for 8. We had ours with baked potatoes and it was perfection!

Jan14

Broccoli Rice Casserole

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Rachel

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We’ve all had broccoli rice casserole at one time or another, and this isn’t too far off from the original recipe from Cambell’s. It’s just got a few tweaks to give it some extra dimension and flavor!

Ingredients:
1 lb (16 oz) frozen cut broccoli
8 oz Velveeta
1 onion
1/2 stick butter
1 1/2 c rice
2 oz cream cheese
2 cloves of garlic chopped
Roasted red peppers
1 can cream of chicken and mushroom soup (the blend is really good!)
1/3 c milk
Salt, pepper, cayenne pepper

1. Sauté your chopped onion in your butter for about 15 minutes until they start to turn golden. Meanwhile, cook your 1 1/2 c rice according to the package instructions.

2. Put your broccoli in a microwaveable safe container and fill halfway with water. Pop it in your microwave for five minutes to steam them so they’re cooked but still crunchy.

3. After your onion is mostly cooked, add your chopped garlic and sauté another few minutes. Season it all with salt, pepper, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. I also added chopped up roasted red peppers. I only had a half a jar, but would’ve done a full jar if I had it.

4. Add your cheeses and cream of mushroom & chicken and cook on low until it’s melted.

5. Add your milk and it will thin out the sauce a bit.

6. Now add your broccoli…

7. …then add your cooked rice 😄

8. Now pour this into a buttered casserole dish and bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes. So good!

Jan3

The Best Hot Chocolate Mix Ever

Posted on January 3, 2015 by Rachel

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I know that’s a pretty ballsy claim, but it’s true! My husband likes to put a scoop of hot chocolate in his coffee every morning and we were going through Swiss Miss like no one’s business! Then I took a look at the ingredients and things like “corn syrup solids” and “hydrogenated oil” weren’t making me feel too great about him drinking it daily. So I tried a few recipes online and still wasn’t too happy with the taste of the mixes. I found plenty of delicious recipes for stovetop hot chocolate, but I needed something in a dry mix for his coffee, so I came up with my own recipe and to me, it’s absolutely perfect. Also, I’m sorry I don’t have any awesome pictures of my hot chocolate in a neat mug with marshmallows on top, so I’ll let you feast your eyes on this “mug shot” instead.

My sister got this for me for Christmas and it’s absolutely perfect! Ok, let’s get down to business.

Ingredients:
1 c MILK CHOCOLATE chips (notice I said milk chocolate, not semi-sweet)
1 c powdered sugar
1/4 c cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s)
3 c powdered milk (instant non-fat)

1. Put the chocolate chips in a food processor and pulse until fine crumbs. Then add the rest of your ingredients and blend until it’s a smooth powder. That’s it! You can store in a Tupperware with a snap top for delicious hot chocolate anytime!

Two ways to enjoy this hot chocolate mix:
1. Add 1/3 c to 1 c hot water or milk, stir, and enjoy.
2. This is the best way and definitely decadent… Add 1/3 c to 1 c hot half and half with a splash of vanilla. Omg it’s out of this world!

Jan2

Easy Glazed Ham

Posted on January 2, 2015 by Rachel

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Glazed ham has got to be one of my favorite things to eat and cook. It’s so easy and that delicious ham can feed your family for a week!

I remember years ago when I first tried to bake a ham for my first Easter away from home. If you’ll google ham recipes, you’ll find lots with cloves that you stick into the ham, then later remove. It’s pretty tasty, but cloves are expensive, plus time consuming to put in and remove before eating. I’ve tried all these complicated and expensive (to me) recipes, but I’ve finally settled on my favorite glazed ham recipe and it only requires three ingredients! I even have a solution to cloves and it keeps your ham moist, plus it adds some awesome flavor to your juice that you save and make a pot of peas, green beans, or anything else with. I’ll give you a bonus recipe as well with what I did with this leftover ham 🙂

Ingredients:
1 c apple cider
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c honey
Ham (I mean, obviously…)

Ok, first lets talk about the ham. Sure, everyone loves the spiral cut runway model of hams. But who has $50 to blow on a ham? Especially when you can spend $10-$15 on the same amount of meat and you just cut it yourself. Do yourself a favor if you’re penny pinching like me and buy the cheapest ham at your grocery store, which will most likely be the shank end of a ham. Remember you’re glazing it yourself, so no need for any extras like pre-packaged full of preservatives and other stuff glaze. Just a cheap ham shank. Also, this glaze is going to work for any ham up to about 12 pounds, so if your ham is bigger, just make a little more glaze.

1. Take a paring knife and cut all around your ham in one direction about 1/4 inch into the ham, then around it again in the opposite direction making little diamonds all over your ham. Now it sorta resembles a checkerboard. This will let the skin crisp up and allow the glaze to flavor the inside of the ham once we get there. Place your ham in a large roasting pan. Do not underestimate the amount of juice your ham will make and put it into a roasting dish that’s too small. You’ll end up cleaning up your oven forever! Ask me how I know this 😳

2. Pour one cup of apple cider in with your ham. Any apple cider will do. They’re spiced and seasoned with yummy flavors like clove, cinnamon, and who knows what else. I just know it’s delicious and really gives the ham a yummy flavor, plus it keeps it moist. Then cover in foil and place in your oven 15-20 minutes PER POUND at 325. So, if your ham is 10 pounds, that’s 150-200 minutes baking time. The last 30 minutes of your baking time we will glaze the ham, so set a timer for yourself. Also, you pick the cooking time based on how your tastes are, so my suggestion is set a timer for the shorter time, look at it, and if you want to cook it longer (like I did), then cook it longer.

3. The last 30 minutes of your baking time remove the foil from your ham and pour the glaze all over it. To make the glaze, just put your brown sugar and honey in a microwave safe bowl and nuke it about 1 minute, stirring halfway through. If you don’t have a microwave, you can do it on your stovetop. After you’ve poured the glaze on, put back in your oven for another 30 minutes.

4. After 30 minutes your ham is done! Take it out and let it rest about 10-15 minutes before slicing into it.

Things to do with leftover ham:

1. Similar to the Hawaiian Sweet Roll ham sandwich recipe I’m sure you’ve all tasted at parties, here is my spin on that: Using 24 dinner rolls from your store’s bakery, cut in half and place on a sheet pan. Cover bottom roll with 50/50 miracle whip/mayo and top with leftover ham and Swiss cheese. Place top back on rolls. In a microwave safe dish, mix 1 cup baked ham juice from roasting pan and 1 stick melted butter. Pour over the rolls and allow to sit anywhere from 10 minutes to overnight in the fridge wrapped in foil. Place covered in foil in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes, then serve the most delicious little ham sandwich straight from heaven.

2. Save the leftover ham juice and ham hock. You can use them separately in different dishes to stretch out the use of your ham. Check out my turnip greens recipe if you like those. Or put the ham hock in a pot of beans, cream peas, soup, etc. You can’t go wrong! I even used part of my leftover juice to boil a bag of frozen green beans with salt and pepper and they were fantastic!

Hambone, hambone, have ya heard?! I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist 😄

Dec4

Beef Stroganoff

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Rachel

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Back in college I used to eat frozen dinners all the time, and this was one of my favorites. Thankfully, I’ve learned to cook since then and no longer shop in the frozen meals section. But I was craving beef stroganoff the other night and thought I could make it myself! You can use practically any beef for this. I used the “boneless family steak” cut from the 40% off clearance meat section of my grocery store. I have no idea what cut of beef “family steak” is, but when I figure it out, I’ll let ya know! You can use top sirloin or ground beef for that matter in this recipe.

Ingredients:
1 sweet onion
1 package of mushrooms (8 oz – 10 oz)
2 cups beef broth (about 75% of a box)
2 garlic cloves
1 stick of butter
1-1.5 lbs beef
12 oz (1 bag) egg noodles
4 T flour
Splash of worchestishire sauce
Splash of wine (optional)
Splash of heavy whipping cream (optional)
Salt and pepper

1. I forgot to take a picture (oops), but take about a tablespoon of butter and melt it in a hot skillet for your steak you’ve seasoned with salt and pepper. Cook your steak until pink in the middle, then take out and let it rest. Leaving the juices in the pan, now throw in 1/2 of your butter and chopped onion and cook for about ten minutes. I like to let the onions go first so they get a little golden before adding the mushrooms.

2. Now add your mushrooms, garlic, a few dashes of Worchestishire sauce, the rest of your butter, and salt and pepper. Cook for another ten minutes or so until everything is golden and delicious.

3. Are you drinking wine while making dinner? Lean over your sauté pan and spill some wine from your cup into the veggies and deglaze your pan. If not, you can skip this part, but it makes it soooo yummy 🙂 Oh, hello Mr. Box!

4. Now add your flour to the pan and stir around for 3-4 minutes. You want the flour to thicken up your veggies and cook a little bit before adding your liquid.

5. Now add 2 cups of beef broth and allow this to come to a boil. While you’re waiting for this to happen, go slice up your steak into this bite sized strips.

6. Once it’s boiling, add your steak strips to the pan and turn the heat down to a simmer. This will continue to cook the meat and make the meat tender. Also, it gives the flour a chance to thicken up the sauce. Allow to simmer 20-30 minutes. Now is a good time to start your noodles if you want everything to come out at the same time.

7. Lastly, and this is optional, add a splash of heavy whipping cream to your pan. It’ll take this sauce into a creamy heavenly perfection. Ahh, so good 🙂 If you don’t have heavy whipping cream, a few dollops of sour cream will do or 1/2 and 1/2. Or you can omit entirely if you’d like. Taste for salt and pepper needs before serving over egg noodles. It’s so perfect 🙂

Nov22

Green Bean Casserole

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Rachel

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Are y’all so excited for Thanksgiving? I can hardly wait! I’ve been looking forward to this delicious meal for the last month, and I’ve been prepping to get everything ready for the big day. This green bean casserole is creamy, cheesy, and so yummy! I am going to freeze it today and then take it out of my freezer Wednesday night before Thanksgiving and let it defrost in the fridge overnight. It’s one of those side dishes I can easily prepare ahead of time so I’m not swamped doing everything the day of.

Ingredients:
2 frozen bags of whole green beans
1 large sweet onion
2 cloves garlic
1/2 stick of butter
1 jar of pimentos or 1/4 c roasted red bell peppers chopped
8 oz Velveeta
2 oz cream cheese
1 can cream of mushroom
6 oz (1 can) French’s fried onions
Salt and pepper
Cayenne pepper (optional)

1. First boil your green beans in salted water for about 10 minutes. You want them cooked all the way through, just not so cooked that they’re soggy and limp like canned green beans. Bleh! Fresh is what makes all the difference in this recipe. Once they’re done, drain and set aside.

2. Meanwhile, saute your onions, garlic, butter, salt, and pepper over medium heat until they start to turn golden.

3. Once your onions are done, add your cream of mushroom, cream cheese, Velveeta, and roasted red peppers to the pan. Also add a pinch of cayenne pepper if you want to. You’ll want to watch this and stir often so it doesn’t burn on the bottom.

4. Once that’s all melted and smelling delicious, add 1/2 your can of fried onions to this and stir together.

5. Now add your creamy mix to the green beans and stir together gently.

6. Lastly, sprinkle the last of the fried onions over the top of the green beans and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Enjoy 🙂

Nov9

Homemade Chicken Broth

Posted on November 9, 2014 by Rachel

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Chicken broth made at home is so much tastier than the boxed/canned stuff you get at the store, not to mention much cheaper when you compare how much this makes! This broth is great for any recipe, like Chicken Noodle Soup, Texas Cornbread Dressing, or any other recipe that calls for broth or stock. What’s the difference between broth and stock? Stock is really more about the carcass of the animal (chicken bones, beef bones, etc.) and broth boils the meat. They’re both delicious, but broth is a bit quicker to make and doesn’t take all day boiling away, plus it leaves you with leftover meat you can chop up and make just about anything with (soup, chicken salad, enchiladas, the possibilities are endless!). Also, I should note I used chicken thighs for this broth recipe because that’s what I had in my freezer and not a whole chicken. Either one will work perfectly. The key is you want your chicken to have skin and bones, because it’s going to deliver the most flavor.

Ingredients:
1 bunch of celery with leaves
3 carrots
1 large onion skin on
2 bay leaves
2 Knorr chicken bouillon cubes
1 T garlic herb seasoning
1.5 gallons of water (24 cups of water)
1 large package chicken thighs or 1 whole chicken between 2.5-3.5 pounds (my chicken thighs were 3 pounds)

1. Don’t even bother peeling or skinning your veggies, just give them a rough chop and throw them all in your stock pot.

2. Add your chicken and seasonings into the pot.

3. Cover with water and bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and leave uncovered.

4. After about an hour and a half your broth is done cooking! Take out a strainer and place over another large pot or bowl in your sink and pour everything out of your stock pot into it. I suggest pulling your chicken out first before trying this move, because if your strainer is like mine, it’s probably not big enough to hold all of that.

5. Now you have lots of delicious broth left in your bowl and you can use it now or freeze in containers and use whenever you want. So good!

Nov6

Perfect Pot Roast

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Rachel

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I love easy dinners like this pot roast you can just throw in all one dish and let it cook away all day! I made mine in the oven only because I wanted to use my shiny orange ovenware dish, but this works perfectly in a crockpot too. Crocktober lasts pretty much all fall and winter at my house, and this is one of my favorites. Also, I know some of you may be hesitant about using sweet potato in this recipe, but I promise you it’s so delicious, and once you’ve tried it you’ll never cook pot roast with just plain potatoes ever again!

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato
1 large sweet onion
8-10 purple potatoes (you could use new potatoes too, I just love the color of the purple ones)
1 large Yukon gold potato
3 garlic cloves
3 carrots
1 can cream of mushroom and chicken (if you can’t find this, just use regular cream of mushroom)
1 package Zesty Italian Seasoning
4 cups of water
Your favorite all purpose seasoning (something with salt, pepper, garlic, etc)
2-3 lb pot roast

1. Chop all your veggies and put in your crockpot or casserole dish. Combine in a separate bowl can of cream of mushroom/chicken, Zesty Italian Seasoning, and 4 c water. Stir until combined and pour over the veggies.

2. Season pot roast liberally on all sides with your favorite all purpose seasoning and place on top of veggies and cover with lid.

3. Bake in oven for six hours at 300 degrees or place crockpot on high for 6-8 hours (depending on the strength of your crockpot and weight of your roast). Serve over rice or with tortillas in a pot roast taco for a delicious cool weather meal! If you’re serving with rice, I like to cook the rice with some of the pot roast liquid after it’s done cooking to give it extra flavor. Yum!

Oct27

Chicken Noodle Soup

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Rachel

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There’s nothing better than homemade chicken noodle soup on a cool weather day, or when you’re recovering from an illness. Mmmm 🙂 This is only about a million times better than the canned version! I think the trick to making the chicken extra tasty is letting it marinade overnight in your favorite all purpose seasoning (something salt-free like a garlic herb seasoning) in the fridge (or at least for four hours if you can’t do it overnight). Let’s get started…

Ingredients:
1 package chicken thighs with bone and skin on
4 carrots
4 celery sticks (with leafy tops)
2 onions (I love sweet onions)
Chicken bouillon cube (as always, I use the Knorr brand)
6 oz egg noodles
1 stick butter
1/4 c flour
2-3 small garlic cloves chopped
Your favorite all purpose seasoning, salt, and pepper

1. Chop 1 onion, 3 carrots, garlic, and celery and place in saute pan. You’re going to reserve the celery leafy tops and bottoms, 1 carrot, and 1 onion sliced in half and place all of that in a pot to make your broth.

2. Add your marinated chicken to the pot with the veggies and add your chicken bouillon cube and enough water to completely cover the veggies and chicken. Set to a boil and let this go for about an hour.

3. Meanwhile, add your butter, salt, and pepper to your veggies in your saute skillet and set that on about medium heat. You don’t want to brown these – you want to sweat them out and cook until they’re soft and the onions are transparent. This should take about 20-25 minutes. You’ll notice in this picture there is only 1/2 stick of butter present. I decided halfway through cooking these they needed more butter. I think the lesson here is clear: When it doubt, add more butter! Amen.

4. After your veggies are done cooking, add your flour and stir the veggies around for 3-4 minutes while the flour cooks through and it will thicken up the veggies. Then turn the heat off and set aside.

5. At this point your kitchen smells delicious! Don’t worry, you’re almost done… Now you’ll get out a strainer and dump your broth and chicken pot into it, allowing the broth to go into a bowl under the strainer and then pick out the chicken to cut into bite sized pieces on your cutting board (discard skin and bones).

6. Discard the stuff in the strainer and pour the veggies, chicken, and broth mix all back into the pot and bring to a boil. Also, I added about 2 cups of water after dumping the broth in to thin it out a bit, but you can use your own judgement here. Then add 6 oz or so of your favorite noodles (I love egg noodles here) and allow to boil until the noodles are cooked. That’s it! Now the most delicious homemade chicken noodle soup is ready to eat 🙂

Aug6

Hot Chow Chow

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Rachel

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Do yall understand that hot chow chow is one of the best things on earth? I absolutely love it and look forward to eating it every summer on my peas, greens, hot dogs, etc. This recipe was made up this year after my mom’s garden had a huge crop of green tomatoes (10 pounds!) and I am so looking forward to having enough chow chow in my pantry to last me the next couple of years! This recipe is spicy and uses lots of peppers, so if you don’t like it hot, I suggest taking the seeds out of maybe 1/2 of the peppers used. Also, this recipe can easily be cut in half (or more), but I’m going to post the recipe for the 10 lbs of tomatoes I used since that’s what you’ll see in all the pictures. It made 15 pints of chow chow and 5 pints of hot pepper sauce to keep for my greens and other deliciousness! That’s because after the chow chow was drained out of pot we had so much delicious liquid leftover we decided it would’ve been a sin not to keep it! After drizzling it on buttered cornbread last night we decided we were definitely glad we did 🙂

Ingredients:
10 lbs green tomatoes
2 bags sweet mini bell peppers (or use 2 each of yellow, orange, and red)
2 cups of hot peppers chopped (we used an assortment from the garden of jalapenos, serranos, and a few banana peppers)
6 onions
4 c white vinegar
2 c apple cider vinegar
2 c water
5 c sugar
1/2 c salt (use pickling salt if you have it)
8 whole cloves
1 T mustard seeds
1 T whole black peppercorns
24 dried cayenne peppers
1 tsp turmeric

1. First you’re going to get your pickling liquid going. In a sauce pot combine vinegars, water, sugar, salt, spices, and dried cayenne peppers. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and allow to simmer for 30 minutes.

2. Now start prepping all your veggies to go into your food processor (tomatoes, peppers, onions). For tomatoes cut the tops off and cut in half or quarters depending on the size of the tomato. Quarter up your onions and make sure your peppers are small enough for your processor to handle. Start processing in batches and add to a large pot.

3. Once your pickling liquid is done simmering and all your veggies are processed and combined in the large pot, pour STRAINED pickling liquid over the chow chow mix and bring to a boil. This will take a while and you’ll have a considerable about of liquid in there, so be patient:) After it comes to a boil, bring the heat down and allow it to simmer about 40 minutes or until it looks like this.

4. Now it’s time to start canning! Start putting chow chow into your hot jars (I’m assuming you’ve prepped your jars) and filling them up to about 1/2 inch from the top. You’ll want to sort of let the juice run out, not quite straining the liquid, but getting mostly the chunky stuff to fill up your jars first, then pour the liquid in at the last. This will give you 15 pint size jars. After you’ve canned your chow chow, you can take liquid that’s leftover at the bottom of the pot and save it for yummy hot pepper sauce. I can’t even tell you how delicious this is!

5. Water bath the jars for 15 minutes, then allow to sit and seal on your counter top.

6. Now it’s time to make yourself a southern meal of peas, greens, cornbread, chicken, etc, and sprinkle some hot chow chow all over it and go ahead and sign out for the evening! You’ll be so glad you took the time to make these little green gems into this delicious concoction!

Blonde Bitchin' West Texas Kitchen

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Category Archives: Dinner

Easy Oven BBQ Chicken

Broccoli Rice Casserole

The Best Hot Chocolate Mix Ever

Easy Glazed Ham

Beef Stroganoff

Green Bean Casserole

Homemade Chicken Broth

Perfect Pot Roast

Chicken Noodle Soup

Hot Chow Chow