Basic Sauce Mix

This is a recipe I learned in college and keep in my pantry. It can replace a can of cream soup in any recipe. You can add in chopped chicken or a 4 oz can of mushrooms if desired.

2 cups powdered instant non-fat milk
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup chicken bouillon
1-2 tablespoons dried onion flakes
1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning

Combine all ingredients in a plastic bag mixing well. Yeild: Equal to 9 cans of cream soup. Store in a closed plastic bag or airtight container until ready to use.

To substitute for 1 can of cream soup: Combine 1/3 cup of dry mix with 1 1/4 cup cold water. Cook and stir on stove top or in microwave until thickened. Add mixture to casseroles as you would a can of soup.

Back In Action-Ground Turkey Noodle Bake

I actually have a week full of meals planned for the first time in I don't even know how long. I'm not sure if this is an excuse or not, but I was in a 4-wheeling accident about 3 days after my second to last post. After that I didn't do much cooking for a while. I do have a few pictures of meals that I made over the last 3 months, but not much! The accident combined with end of the school year and a very busy summer and I have been slacking in the cooking department. Last night I cooked Sunday Dinner one of the few times in the last 4 years I have had to cook on Sunday. We live a few miles from my in-laws and they make us dinner almost every Sunday. It was Fast Sunday so I wanted something quick and easy. We have 1:00 church so I made this up before going to church and then just had to throw it in the oven when we got home and made up a quick salad with lettuce, tomato, and cucumber from this weeks basket. It was SO delicious!

Ingredients
4 cups uncooked wide egg noodles
1 bunch asparagus, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1 pound ground pork or turkey
1 garlic clove
1 medium onion, chopped
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/3 cup BASIC SAUCE MIX
1 1/4 cup water
4 oz reduced fat cream cheese
1 cup shreaded mozzarella cheese (or more realistically I put 2 cups)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375*. Cook noodles with asparagus acording to package directions (al dente), drain and set aside. In same pot combine basic sauce mix, water and cream cheese. Bring to a low simmer until thickened. Add noodle mix back in and toss. Meanwhile, in a large skillet cook ground meat with onion and garlic, drain and return to skillet. Stir in tomato sauce and italian seasoning. Bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes. In a 9X13 baking dish layer noodle mixture, meat mixture, and top with cheese. Bake 25-30 or until hot and cheese is melted.

Notes: I assembled this before hand and refrigerated it then increased cook time to 40-50 minutes.

Instead of basic sauce mix you can use 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup.

Mandarin Pasta Salad

WOW! Has it really been over a month since I last posted?!? Summer is SO busy! (I have 4 kids doing swimming and dance and 3 kids playing baseball) and add to that we are finishing our basement ourselves and it's hard to find time for anything! This is one of my ALL TIME favorite recipes, Bountiful Baskets was nice enough to deliver all the ingredients right to my site this week! YEA! I was planning it as a main dish but we got invited over to a bar-be-que so I omited the CHICKEN and took it as a side. Either way it's delicious! TIP: Do not put the dressing on until you are ready to serve!

Dressing

1 teaspoon finely chopped gingerroot

1 garlic clove, pressed

1/3 cup vinegar

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon seasame oil

1 envelope onion soup mix

2 teaspoons sugar

Salad

8 oz uncooked pasta (I used penne because that's what we had, the recipe called for bowties)

1 cucumber, sliced thinly

1 red bell pepper, diced

1/2 cup chopped red onion (I didn't put this in because I prefer no onion)

1 bunch spinach, chopped (I tripple wash and spin my spinach because fresh spinach is DIRTY!)

1-11oz can mandarin orange segments

2 cups diced cooked chicken (also I omited as mentioned)

1/2 cups sliced almonds, toasted

For dressing, whisk together ingredients, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

For salad, combine ingredients, when ready to serve toss with dressing!

Easy and Delicious, just the way I like it!

Broccoli Chicken Casserole

When we first got married I had NO idea how to cook, I grew up on hamburger helper and mac and cheese. My husband was always asking if I could make a casserole. I don't know why, but it took me years to learn how. I never seemed to be able to find recipes. Anyway, now casseroles are about my favorite thing to make, and this one is SO YUMMY!

Cooked Rice (2 1/2 cups water to 1 cup rice)
3 cups broccoli, chopped and cooked
3 cups chicken, cooked and chopped
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 cup mayonaise
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. curry powder
3 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
Layer bottom of greased 9X13 dish with rice, broccoli and chicken. Mix soup, mayo, lemon juice and curry powder. Layer mixture on top of chicken. Top with cheese. Mix bread crumbs and butter and sprinkle on top. Bake at 350* for 35-40 minutes or until heated through.

Grilled Steak with Jicama Corn Slaw

One of the fun things about Bountiful Baskets is getting to experiment with produce I might never have bought at the store. This was really fresh tasting and flavorful.

Steak

1 pound beef sirloin steak, 1 inch thick

2 tablespoons southwest seasoning

Dressing

1 orange, zested and juiced

2 limes, zested and juiced

2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, snipped

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 garlic clove, pressed

1 teaspoon chipolte powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Slaw

1 medium jicama, peeled and cut into julienne strips

1 can corn, drained, or 2 ears kernels

1 medium carrot, peeled and julienned

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

For steak rub southwest seasoning, heat grill pan over medium heat 5 minutes, cook steak 6-8 minutes turning once for medium. For dressing combine zest, juice, cilantro, oil, garlic, chipolte, and salt in a small bowl. For slaw combine jicama, corn, carrots, bell pepper and half of the dressing. To serve, thinly slice steak and serve over slaw. Drizzle with remaining dressing.

Potato Corn Chowder and Salad

Today when I cut into my lettuce it was all yucky on the inside, bummer! So I did a Tomato/Cucumber/Mozzarella salad topped only with Salt and Pepper. It was delicious! It has been rainy, rainy, and more rainy, so it was perfect weather for a fast, easy and yummy soup. BTW, I used my VEGGIE WEDGER to slice the tomatoes and cucumbers, I simply placed the whole tomatoes in the wedger, cut one time through, then cut the wedges in half. For the cucumbers I peeled them and sliced them with the wedger then quickly chopped the long wedges into small pieces.

3 medium red potatoes, cut into 1/2 in cubes

1 cup cooked ham, diced (I usually just use deli meat because I always have it on hand, but a ham steak would be delish!)

1 small red bell pepper, diced

2-3 stalks celery, chopped

1 teaspoon butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 can chicken broth

1 can evaporated milk

1 can creamed corn

2 tablespoons sliced chives

salt and pepper to taste

bacon bits or cooked crumbled bacon (optional

Heat butter in 3 qt. saucepan over medium heat, add bell pepper and celery. Cook 3-4 minutes. Stir in flour and heat until bubbly. Gradually add broth, evaporated milk and corn whisking to incorporate. Add potatoes, seasonwith salt and pepper, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook uncovered 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Stir in ham heat through. Remove from heat, stir in chives. Serve with bacon if desired.

The Winner is "k"!

True Random Number Generator

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I couldn't figure out how to make it show the cool little box from random.org, so I copied and pasted the result. Our winner is comment #1-k. To claim your prize e-mail me at kristystaker@yahoo.com. Congratulations! Here is a picture of me on the beach at Cabo San Lucas.

I had one of my back-ups order me a basket so I would be ready to get back to cooking! Just for fun, here is the link to a Jicama Salad Recipe that looks DELICIOUS! It also tells a little bit about Jicama. Also, I have used sunchoke in place of jicama in many recipes so if you click on the sunchoke label to the side you can use any of those recipes for your jicama! I have on the menu for this week:

Easy Corn Chowder and Salad-Red Potatoes

Chicken Divan-Broccoli

Steak and Corn Slaw-Jicama

Paprika Chicken and Egg Noodles-Green Beans

Believe it or not, Friday I leave AGAIN for another 9 day trip! This time we are taking the whole family to Albuqurque because my hubby has to go for work...FREE FAMILY VACATION! Well almost anyway. If anyone has any great suggestions for activities for us while we are there please share!