Taco Soup

Taco Soup

In large sauce pan brown ½ lb to 1 lb of ground turkey or ground beef. When meat is almost browned add ¼ cup of diced onion. Saute until onion is tender. Add ½ -1 package of taco seasoning mix. 1 can of red beans or kidney beans (un-drained), 1 can of Mexican style stewed tomatoes (cut up the tomatoes into smaller pieces, I do this with my spoon). Add one can of water. Cook until warm and serve with crunched corn chips and cheese. You could also cook this in a crock pot. Just put the browned ground meat & onion and the rest of the ingredients into the crock pot. Put it on low if it is going to be a while before eating, or high if eating within an hour or two.

A Healthy Twist on Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are some really yummy cookies! Best thing is I've made them a little more healthy! My favorite thing lately is to modify recipes to make them more healthy. A great way to do this is by substitution. When a recipe calls for shortening or butter you can substitute applesauce (this recipe I did half shortening and half applesauce). When it calls for all purpose flour, do half all purpose and half wheat. Another thing is you can usually cut some of the sugar out and still be fine with thing still being sweet, I also like using brown sugar rather than white. Just experiment, sometimes thing won't turn out, but most of the time you'll find you like the healthier version better.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:
1/4 cup shortening (no tans fat)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
Mix the above ingredients together. Then add:
1/4 and 2 TBSP wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 to 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Mix well then add:
1 cup Quick Oats
Mix then stir in:
1 cup of chocolate chips (if you would like you could do 1/2 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 cup white, peanut butter flavor, or butterscotch chips, or you could do raisins)

On a lightly sprayed cookie sheet place large spoonful of cookie dough and flatten out slightly with back of spoon. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Makes 1 and 1/2 to 2 doz cookies (depends on size you make them).

Quick and Easy Rolls

Preheat oven to 375 degrees about 10-15 minutes before putting them in.
Ingredients:
½ Tbsp active dry yeast
1 Tbsp Sugar or honey
½ and 1/8 cups of warm water
Stir together and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes.
Then add:
1 Tbsp oil (I use canola or olive)
¼-1/2 tsp salt
1 ½ cups flour (if you want to make it a little for healthy then use 1 cup unbleached white flour and ½ cup wheat flour)
Stir together. Turn out onto floured surface and knead for 5 minutes adding more flour as necessary to keep from sticking. Then roll out to about ¼-1/2 inch thickness and cut (either circular, triangular, rectangular, how ever you want. Cups are a nice tool for circular or using a pizza cutter works great for anything else) Spray a pan with cooking spray and place rolls on pan. Let rise 15 minutes or so, of course the longer you let sit they bigger they’ll be. (I have also done them without having them rise and they still taste okay they just aren’t that big) Place in oven for 10-15 minute or until lightly golden on top.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts cut into chunks
garlic salt
Olive Oil
1/8 cup ketchup
1/8 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp soup base(chicken)
1/8 cup water
1 clove garlic chopped
1/4 onion diced
cornstarch

Directions:
Sprinkle chicken with garlic salt and let sit ½ -1 hr. Make sauce: combine ketchup, brown sugar, soup base, water, soy sauce and vinegar. Stir until well mixed. Heat 1 to 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Dip chicken in cornstarch. Place chicken in the skillet. Rotating chicken until all sides are nicely browned. You'll want to add garlic and onion right before chicken is browned, so the onion and garlic can soften. Then pour sauce in with chicken. Let cook on medium low until sauce is thickened and chicken is cooked thru.

Lemon Jello (Sharon)

1 large pkg cooked lemon pudding (follow pkg instructions)
1 lg pkg jello (any flavor, whatever color you want jello to be)-follow pkg
Mix the above together on ghigh speed for 1 min. Refridgerate in 9 x 13 dish. When set up add topping.

Topping:
1 sm pkg instant lemon pudding
1 cup milk
1 pt whipping cream or cool whip
mix spread & garnish with lemon zest

Dipped Pretzel Sticks

Ingredients:

½ cup light corn syrup
½ cup butter
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ tsp vanilla

Directions:

In saucepan combine brown sugar, corn syrup and butter. Bring to boiling over medium heat stirring constantly. Stir in sweetened condensed milk. Return to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium-low. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan. Continue cooking stirring constantly; until mixture reaches 236 degrees F (approx 10 minutes) adjust heat as necessary to maintain a steady boil. Remove saucepan from heat and stir in vanilla. Cool 15 to 30 minutes or until slightly thickened. The mixture is easier to work with when it is completely cooled. Dip each pretzel into caramel mixture, covering about 2/3 of the rod. Let caramel drip off slightly. If not dipping in chocolate then roll caramel rod in your toppings. If you are going to dip in chocolate then after dipping in caramel place on cookie sheet lined with wax paper or non-stick foil and place in fridge until caramel hardens slightly. Melt chocolate chips in microwave for 30 seconds stir if not melted heat for 30 seconds again until you can stir chocolate smooth. Let cool slightly. Spoon chocolate over caramel rod, place back on cookie sheet if you are adding toppings or swirling a contrast chocolate on top then do so now. Then put rods back in fridge until chocolate is set. Store in airtight container between layers of wax paper in the fridge for 4 days or freeze for up to a month.

Orange Julius Drink

Ingredients:
9 oz frozen orange juice concentrate
8 ice cubes
1 tsp vanilla
9 oz. Cold water
9 oz. Milk
1/8 to ¼ cup of sugar
(for extra yumminess add a banana & some berries. Or for an extra kick of vitamin C add a kiwi)

Directions:
In blender add ice cubes and crush. Then add orange juice, water, milk, sugar, vanilla & any fruit that your adding. Blend together until smooth and frothy. Poor into glasses and enjoy!