Recipes

This right here is THE MOST AMAZING chicken you'll ever eat, and I'm not exaggerating in the slightest! We love it on top of a salad with strawberries, grapes, almonds, and a berry vinaigrette, but we've also eaten it by itself with potatoes and corn. Quite honestly I'd eat it in any form... This is what Levi said about it the last time we ate it: "My mouth watered even after I'd already eaten it! It's THAT good!" Needless to say, this chicken speaks for itself :)

AMAZING Chicken Marinade

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

3 tablespoons orcestershire sauce

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons dry mustard

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon parsley

In a medium bowl, mix together all ingredients. Use to marinate chicken before cooking as desired. Just remember, the longer you marinate, the more flavor it will have! (We usually marinate it overnight, but it's still tasty for only a few hours!)

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Here at the Anderson household, we really like our mac and cheese. But sometimes we like to shake it up a bit :) This is a good use for eggs you don't know what to do with, and a mighty fine twist on your average mac and cheese.  It's creamier, has more protein, and is more like a casserole I think...

Old-Fashioned Mac and Cheese

2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces

8 oz cooked elbow macaroni

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup milk

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

2 cups grated cheese

In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients leaving out 1/2 cup of cheese for later. Pour into 9 inch baking dish and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F. Top with remaining cheese and broil until golden. (We've also added breadcrumbs on top before the remaining cheese, which is also delicious!)

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This recipe is incredibly flavorful for the amount of time and ingredients that go into it (aka barely any!) It's easy and delicious, and appears on the menu board at least once a month!

Italian Chicken and Potatoes

2 lbs skinless chicken thighs
1 lb potatoes, cut into wedges
1/2 cup italian dressing
1 tablespoon italian seasoning
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Place the chicken and potatoes in a 9x13 pan. Pour dressing over chicken and potatoes. Sprinkle seasoning and cheese. Bake @ 400 degrees F for 1 hour. Yummy yummy!

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Tonight's masterpiece: "Sonnett-Safe" Pork Kabobs! Seeing as it's summertime, Levi would grill every night if I let him. Unfortunately I try to limit him to only twice a week ;) These turned out super tasty though! We LOVED them! Well, I could care less for the onions and pepper, but Levi took care of those for me ;)

Pork Kabobs

Decided to start adding pictures! Good idea eh?

1 1/2 pounds pork tenderloin
3 medium zucchini
1 bell pepper
1 medium onion
1 8-ounce can pineapple chunks, undrained
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon mustard
1 garlic clove, minced
pepper to taste

Cut the pork and vegetables, and pineapple into 1-inch cubes. Drain the pineapple and reserve the juice. Place pork and zucchini in a large Ziploc bag; set aside bell pepper, onions, and pineapple for later. Stir together the pineapple juice you saved and the remaining ingredients. Set aside about 1/3 cup of marinade and pour the remainder into the bag with the pork and zucchini. Chill for 2 hours to 6 hours. Kabob the pork, vegetables, and pineapple onto skewers. Grill over medium-high heat for about 20 minutes, or until a meat thermometer reads 160 degrees F. Turn and baste periodically with the reserved 1/3 cup of marinade. 

Obviously the variations to this are endless! Mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, etc... Have fun with it!

Enjoy!!  

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Kiera was here for the weekend, and we decided to be really domestic and try to make our own cherry pie filling. Let me just preface this with the fact that I am a HUGE cherry pie fan! It's my dessert of choice for birthdays and Thanksgiving, so I'm a little particular with my selection. But this cherry pie was the BEST I've EVER EATEN! I KNOW! Not to mention it was such a simple recipe! Kiera and I both had to splurge and eat two pieces each it was just so good! (Plus we'd just been to Zumba, so we figured we deserved it ;))

Cherry Pie Filling

4 cups pitted cherries
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch

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  Place cherries into a saucepan over medium heat, and cover the pan; heat cherries until they release their juice and come to a simmer, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir often. In a bowl, whisk the sugar with cornstarch until smooth; pour the mixture into the hot cherries and juice, and thoroughly combine. Return to low heat, bring to a simmer, and cook until the filling has thickened, about 2 minutes; remove from heat, let cool, and use as pie filling.
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• Just don't eat the whole pie! I know it's tempting, but the guilt of eating a whole pie is pretty heavy...trust me ;)

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Levi and I are primarily chicken and beef people (well elk to be perfectly honest, but that's besides the point). So when we were coming up with this week's menu, he suggested we try pork. Sure, why not! I found a recipe that looked really good and tweeked it a little bit (which I'm known to do) and ended up with this! And let me just say, they were delicious! Not to mention I just threw them in the crockpot, talk about easy!

Crockpot Applesauce Pork Chops

6 boneless pork chops
1/2 cup applesauce

2 cups ketchup

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (regular vinegar would be fine too) 

Salt and pepper the pork chops and put them in the bottom of the crock pot. Then pour the applesauce on top of the chops followed by the ketchup, vinegar, and dry ingredients. Cook on high for six hours and enjoy! I served them with mashed potatoes and corn, and Levi couldn't get enough!

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I love cooking so much it shouldn't be legal! I have a weekly menu planner in my kitchen that was given to me by my sister that I use to help keep me somewhat organized, but that doesn't mean I always follow it to a T... Anyway, I'll be posting some of our favorites as they come up each week so that way you'll know what I'm talking about when I say how good it was!