Welcome to a double dose of features this week!! With the Thanksgiving holiday last weekend, we were running around for 4 days straight between the Hubs family & mine! I don't think I even got to touch the computer!
Let me also say thank you to Jill from Dreaming All Day for being my co-host this week & sharing her Buffalo Chicken Baked Ziti with us! Who knew leftovers could look so good!!
All six of you feel free to grab a features
button! And congratulations!!
The features will be pinned to my MTM Monday's
Features Pinterest Board
which you can check out HERE, tweeted &
posted on FB!
Thank you all again for joining me this week! And I
hope to see y'all again this coming Monday as we get ready to share our favorite
pumpkin recipes. I will be joined by my wonderful co-host & friend Dawn from Dawn's Disaster!! So be sure to join Dawn
& I Sunday night at 9:00 pm CST!!!
And remember, if
anyone is interested in being a co-host for Mom's Test Meal Mondays, please
email me at momstestkitchen (at) yahoo (dot) com! I'd love to have
you!
I'm so excited to be a co-host this week with Julie for her new link party, the Grow Your Blog Link Party!! Come join in & network with us!
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Good morning and welcome to the Grow Your Blog Blog Hop! This blog hop is all about networking and building your blog. Each week from Thursday through Sunday I will host the Grow Your Blog link party, along with a few co-hosts, in order to promote blog networking.
Why is blog networking great for you?
Simply put, it increases readership and traffic to your blog.
Comment to let them know that you stopped by and how you followed their blog (GFC, BlogLovin, etc)
Invite them to visit your blog (be sure to leave your blog web address - too many times have I seen bloggers comment and request a visit to their blog without leaving their blog web address)
Communicate with them about what you like on their blog. Let them know you are interested in their blog. USE THEIR NAME! A simple "I'm so and so stopping by. I followed you please follow me." just isn't going to interest someone into visiting your blog. Sure, you can request a visit to your blog or a follow along but engage in some type of conversation first.
Grab a button and promote the party! The more participants, the more bloggers to network with!
This recipe was originally shared as a guest post at This Gal Cooks
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Do y'all have a favorite herb? Ours would be cilantro. The Hubs can eat the leaves straight off the stems. He loves it! Any dish that has cilantro in it I know will be a hit in our house and this chicken was no exception! It was so easy to throw together and made for a perfect meal served over rice!
INGREDIENTS:
1 & 1/4 poundschicken tenderloins
1 cup Italian dressing
juice from 1 small lime
1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
1/4 cup sour cream
1 red onion, sliced
1red bell pepper, sliced
LETS COOK:
Combine the Italian dressing, lime juice & about 2 tablespoons of the cilantro. Reserve 1/4 cup of the mix, pour the remaining marinade over the chicken & vegetables in a Tupperware containers or gallon Ziploc bags. Turn the chicken to coat & marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour up to overnight. I kept my chicken & veggies in two separate bags.
Add the remaining cilantro to the reserved 1/4 cup of marinade & combine with the 1/4 cup of sour cream. I gave mine a quick blend in my food processor. Chill until ready to serve.
Heat a large skillet over medium to medium high heat. Remove the chicken & vegetables from the marinade, discard the remaining marinade.
Saute chicken until the chicken is no longer pink & juices run clear. Add the vegetables to the chicken after the first few minutes and cook until the vegetables are tender.
Serve the chicken & veggies over rice & topped with the Cilantro Cream Sauce.
If you like this recipe, I hope you'll stop by & check out some of my others! You can also stay up to date on my newest recipes by joining any of my social network communities!
I'm so honored to have the group of people on my sidebar that I do! A few of my sponsors have gotten together to offer a fabulous giveaway for y'all this month!!!
Let me introduce this wonderful group to you & then we'll get to the prizes!!
The Ease of Freeze is all about freezer cooking, baking, and homemaking. Freezer cooking can be easy and doesn't have to be an all day event. I also love to bake, sometimes healthy goodies. Oh and I love taking pictures and keeping home on a budget.
Sarah is giving away Ad Space for 2 months + a $5 Target Giftcard
I am a wife and mother to five kids ranging in age from 1 to 19. So needless to say, our house is crazy busy 24/7. I actually get a little concerned when it quiets down... this usually means trouble or someones gone missing. In either case, it'd be bad! This blog is about how I try to survive the toddler, pre-teen and teenager years with the kids while trying to keep my sanity (well...what I have left of it) In my spare time (he, he...it does happen occasionally) I love to craft, bake, garden, read, organize, play tennis and be outside. The key to doing any of these things is to get the kids to believe THEY wanted to do them! To me, blogging is my creative outlet where I write about whatever's on my mind or going on with the kiddos. Chasing Hailey is a culmination of my unpredictable life experiences and random thoughts... Come back to visit often...you never know what you might find.
Anissa is giving away Ad Space for 2 months + a Custom Design Area for your blog
Hello, I'm
Marie! I'm an outgoing twenty-year
old. I want to be a
teacher/social worker/something to do with children. I work in fast-food
average time. I work in coffee
full time.
I made my blog to be
able to speak freely about everything that is on my mind, to
be able to meet new people and learn from them, I made this blog to
express myself.
First off, let me apologize that I did not get features done for last week's party! With Thanksgiving celebrations with 3 families, we we're going non-stop from Wednesday - Saturday & I barely had time to be on the computer at all! So this week I will have a double dose of features from both parties!!
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend! Even though ours was busy, it was great! We had so much great food & great time with all of our family! But I won't lie, it's nice to now be spending a relaxing Sunday at home doing pretty much nothing :)
I don't know about y'all but I've now got a refrigerator full of leftovers & I need some ideas on how to use them up! So that's what this week's party is all about!! Come let those creative juices shine & show us your favorite ways to repurpose leftovers {doesn't just have to be holiday themed leftovers}!!
My awesome co-host this week is Jill from Dreaming All Day & not only does she have a recipe to share but she has compiled a list of 50 Thanksgiving Leftover Recipe Ideas!! So y'all head on over to her page & check out her amazing list!! But first, check out her amazing recipe!
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I love using leftovers to develop a new recipe! It doesn't really bother me to eat the same thing a few days in a row, but my husband loathes the idea. The other day, I made Slow Cooker Shredded Buffalo Chicken sandwiches for dinner, but we had tons of leftovers the next day; we will usually throw the leftover buffalo chicken on some crackers or chips and snack on it here and there. The following comic pretty much depicts the following conversation between my poor deprived
hubby and myself.
A lack of crackers | Old Familiar Way[/caption]
I started off by preparing my Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken the day before...you don't have to do it the day before. This recipe was just my making good use of the leftovers. You can find the recipe for the Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken here.
Fast forward to day 2! I gathered the following ingredients: Slowcooker Buffalo Chicken leftovers, leftover Ranch Dressing, Rigatoni, Ricotta & some good quality Smoked Fontina cheese.
Buffalo Chicken Baked Ziti
Recipe Type: Casserole
Author: Dreaming All Day
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8
Slow Cooked Buffalo Chicken Mixed with Rigatoni, Ricotta, topped with Smoked Fontina
Ingredients
4 cups Shredded Buffalo Chicken
6 oz Ricotta
1/2 lb shredded Smoked Fontina
3 cups Ranch Dressing
16 oz Rigatoni
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit
Cook Rigatoni Pasta according to package
Use a light coat of cooking spray on casserole dish
In large bowl mix Shredded Buffalo Chicken, Ricotta, Ranch Dressing, and Rigatoni
Pour into casserole dish
Top with 1/2 lb shredded Smoked Fontina
Place in oven, set timer for 25 mins
After 25 mins, broil for 2-3 mins or until cheese is slightly browned
And now you can head over to Dreaming All Day to check out Jill's list of Thanksgiving Leftover Ideas!!
Remember this week's theme is Repurposing Leftovers.
The party is open to any and all of your favorite
recipes, but only recipes that fit the theme will be featured at the end of the
week. :)
Just the reminders:
Myself & Jill would love to have
you as new friends!! Please take a minute to follow us both via GFC, Twitter,
FB, or any other social media you prefer
You are welcome to link up any recipe you like but
only recipes that are consistent with the week's theme will be featured at the
end of the week.
Please feel free to grab the button in the sidebar
or add a direct link back to the week's party that you are linking up to
And finally, go make some new friends ~ spend a few
minutes checking out some other recipes that you might want to try out yourself
& comment! Everyone loves comments!!
Please note that by linking up you are
giving permission to use the photos along with a link back to your post in the
Mom's Test Meal Mondays Features post & on Mom's Test Kitchen's Social Media
Networks
And remember,
if anyone is interested in being a co-host for Mom's Test Meal Mondays, please
email me at momstestkitchen (at) yahoo (dot) com! I'd love to have you!
Wow can't believe that it is already Link Party #27, I have changed the link party back to "DESSERTS ONLY" Thanks to all of you that make this Link Party successful, each week I meet new people, so many wonderful comments! Thank you again!
I am so excited to have a Co-Host this week at Heavenly Treats Sunday Link Party! I am so happy to have one of my lovely friends Jaime from Mom's Test Kitchen she is a wife, momma and lover of all things food. You can tell that when you visit her blog! Make sure you go over and say hi!
~Jaime has a YUMMY dessert Recipe for us~ _________________________________________
I'm so happy to be back here at Pamela's Heavenly Treats & to be co-hosting Heavenly Treats Sunday! Since my friend Pamela is all about the healthy desserts, I decided to share one of my favorite cookies for the calorie counters! Each of these chocolate beauties only has 105 calories & 4 grams of fat so feel free to enjoy dessert!!
Ingredients 1 package Devil Food Cake Mix 2 eggs 2 tablespoons butter, softened 2 tablespoons water 1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips Instructions 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. 2. In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, eggs, butter and water - it will be VERY thick 3. Fold in the chocolate chips. 4. Drop by tablespoons onto the baking sheet about 2 inches apart. 5. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the cookies are set. 6. Cool for just a minute or two on the baking sheet and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. ~Recipe inspired by Taste of Home A big thanks to Jaime for being my Co-Host today, I will be pinning these yummy cookies to make for later. If you would like to be a Co-Host for Heavenly Treats Sunday Link Party please email me at phtreats@yahoo.com I will be glad to have you!
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This recipe was originally shared as a guest post at My Favorite Finds
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We are a pasta loving household. I personally am a fan of pasta because frankly, its cheap & that provides a great deal of benefit to my grocery budget. But I also like the fact that I can make a hearty & filling meal with simply pasta & vegetables and no one misses the meat! See, again, just more ways pasta stretches my dollars! :)
When I first saw this Tomato & Mozzarella Pasta al Forno recipe from Annie's Eats, I knew it would be one that would be a hit for us! So I took her recipe, added a little spinach & we had dinner PLUS I had lunch the next day! I'm a grocery budget stretching fool!
ITALIAN PASTA BAKE
INGREDIENTS:
4 clovesgarlic, minced
1 tablespoonvegetable oil
1 poundmini farfelle pasta
2 cans (14.5 ounces)diced Italian style tomatoes
3/4 cupfresh spinach leaves, roughly chopped
mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
LETS COOK:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch casserole dish.
Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the garlic & cook over medium heat ~ only about 30 seconds, making sure not to burn the garlic.
Add the tomatoes and simmer rapidly, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 15 minutes or so
While the tomatoes are simmering, cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain pasta.
Toss the pasta with the tomatoes. Stir in the chopped spinach. Mix one large handful of mozzarella cheese in with the pasta, tomatoes & spinach.
Pour the pasta into the oiled dish. Top the pasta with more mozzarella cheese & Parmesan cheese, covering the pasta well.
Bake for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted & starting to turn golden brown.
If you like this recipe, I hope you'll stop by & check out some of my others! You can also stay up to date on my newest recipes by joining any of my social network communities!
So first off, let me just take a minute to gloat before I have to pass on my GYCO Crown to the next winner! If you missed my Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Stuffed Cupcakes, you seriously need to go check them out. They pretty much kick boot-tay!
Ok so, moving on. I was so excited for this round of GYCO. I got the dates wrong on when the secret ingredient was going to be revealed so I waited impatiently for a week to see what ingredient I was going to get to use to make my next prize winning dish. And then it happened. Those two evil ladies conspired against me & had to pick the damn holiday berry!
In case the evil or the damn didn't give it away, I'm not a fan of cranberries. But just actual cranberries. You can set a can of jellied cranberry sauce in front of me & I'll eat the whole thing. I'll drink cranberry juice without hesitation. You fix true cranberry sauce made with whole cranberries, I won't touch it.
Hi, my name is Jaime & I have some crazy texture eating issues.
But I put my big girl panties on and I got to work. I searched & searched for recipe ideas. From my searching I learned that quite a few people like cranberries in their cookies. I knew I wanted to do a dessert again but I didn't want to go with just a standard cookie so I put my thinking cap on & came up with a holiday whoopie pie!
Oh and Julie & Jenn aren't really evil. I <3 them both very much!
for now, we'll see what happens when they reveal the next secret ingredient, lets be sure to steer clear of blue cheese please ladies ;)
ALMOND WHOOPIE PIES WITH CRANBERRY BUTTERCREAM
INGREDIENTS:
1 box (18.25 ounces)white cake mix
2eggs
2 tablespoonswater
2 tablespoonsbutter, softened
2 teaspoons almond extract
CRANBERRY BUTTERCREAM:
1/2 cupcranberry juice
1/4 cupdried cranberries
1 stick (1/2 cup)butter
3/4 cupbutter flavored shortening
2 pounds powdered sugar
1 teaspoonvanilla extract
LETS COOK:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, eggs, water, butter & almond extract. Batter will be thick.
Drop the batter by 1/2 tablespoons onto the baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Use the back of a spoon to slightly flatten out the dough.
Bake the cookies for 8 minutes or until the cookies are set ~ just starting to brown.
Cool for a minute or two on the baking sheet then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
While the cookies are cooling, combine the dried cranberries & cranberry juice in a small saucepan. Simmer over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until the berries have softened. Let cool completely.
In a large bowl combine the butter, shortening and vanilla. Beat with a mixer until smooth.
Add the cranberries with the juice ~ I spooned out the cranberries & added them first then slowly added the juice to not overpower the flavor or make the frosting to runny.
Beat in the powdered sugar one cup at a time until you reach your desired consistency. I used all but about 1 cup of the two pounds but I like my frosting thick.
Create your whoopie pies by spreading half of the cookies with a generous spoonful of the cranberry buttercream. Top with the remaining cookies, pressing down lightly to seal.
NOTES:
*I ran my cranberries & the juice through my food processor after they had cooked & cooled to chop them up some but I'm not sure that it would be necessary ~ the mixer chopped them up some too
Welcome to another week of Mom's Test Meal Mondays!!
This week to get us ready for the Thanksgiving holiday we are talking all about pumpkin recipes! Sweet or savory, pumpkin is such a versatile & perfect ingredient for Thanksgiving Day. I can't wait to see y'alls favorites!
My wonderful co-host, Cindy from Vegetarian Mamma, is getting the party started with an amazing pumpkin muffin recipe! Not only does it contain chocolate chips but it's also GF!!
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Okay, these little puppies are really good! I love chocolate and I love pumpkin! Put them together in an easy to make muffin recipe and you have perfection! I found this recipe on Moneysavingmom.com Please visit her site; you will fall in love with it! I did adapt her recipe by using dairy free butter and gluten free flour. I used Better Batter for the flour; I would highly recommend that as well! My recipe did contain eggs, that was the only allergen. So for us that means no soy, dairy, peanuts, gluten or tree nuts. Remember that this recipe originally had regular flour and butter. So we know it tastes good both ways! I really like that the recipe makes 2 dozen! Makes for some easy freezing cooking!! To see the recipe in original format, please click HERE.
Here is my adapted recipe:
Ingredients
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 (16 oz.) can pureed pumpkin
1 1/2 cups oil
3 cups flour (we used Gluten free Better Batter)
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 package chocolate chips (we used Enjoy life, allergen free)
Instructions
In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil until smooth.
Add in dry ingredients and mix well.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Lightly spray your muffins tins with oil. Fill each muffin spot 1/2- 3/4 full.
Bake 16-20 minutes at 400 degrees. (Mine were actually done at 14 minutes) Be careful...they burn quickly!
So now let's party!
Remember this week's theme is Pumpkin Recipes.
The party is open to any and all of your favorite
recipes, but only recipes that fit the theme will be featured at the end of the
week. :)
Just the reminders:
Myself
& Cindy would love to have you as new friends!! Please take a minute to
follow us both via GFC, Twitter, FB, or any other social media you prefer
You are welcome to link up any recipe you like but
only recipes that are consistent with the week's theme will be featured at the
end of the week.
Please feel free to grab the button in the sidebar
or add a direct link back to the week's party that you are linking up to
And finally, go make some new friends ~ spend a few
minutes checking out some other recipes that you might want to try out yourself
& comment! Everyone loves comments!!
Please note that by linking up you are
giving permission to use the photos along with a link back to your post in the
Mom's Test Meal Mondays Features post & on Mom's Test Kitchen's Social Media
Networks
And remember,
if anyone is interested in being a co-host for Mom's Test Meal Mondays, please
email me at momstestkitchen (at) yahoo (dot) com! I'd love to have you!
How was every one's week? Can you believe we're less than a week away from Thanksgiving?? Which means we're barely over a month away from Christmas??!! I feel so behind already!!
Did everyone get their carb fix this week?? I know I did!! There were so many delicious recipes shared! This weekly party has curbed my Pinterest addiction! I've got so many great recipes from y'all each week that I don't even have time to go find anymore on Pinterest!!
I want to say thank you to my wonderful co-host Laura from Storybook Reality! I am honored that she shared such a wonderful family recipe with us!
All three of you feel free to grab a features
button! And congratulations!!
The features will be pinned to my MTM Monday's
Features Pinterest Board
which you can check out HERE, tweeted &
posted on FB!
Thank you all again for joining me this week! And I
hope to see y'all again this coming Monday as we get ready to share our favorite
pumpkin recipes. I will be joined by my wonderful co-host Cindy from Vegetarian Mamma!! So be sure to join Cindy
& I Sunday night at 9:00 pm CST!!!
And remember, if
anyone is interested in being a co-host for Mom's Test Meal Mondays, please
email me at momstestkitchen (at) yahoo (dot) com! I'd love to have
you!
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