Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) Butter, softened
3/4 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup White Sugar
1 small pkg Instant Vanilla Pudding mix
2 eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 pkg ( 12 oz) Milk Chocolate Chips

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Beat the butter, both sugars, pudding mix, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat until creamy and fluffy. Then slowly mix in flour and baking soda. Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop by tablespoon, onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for ONLY 9-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool about 10 minutes before eating.

Ultimate Grilled Cheese

What You'll Need:
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
10 slices sourdough bread 
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, softened 

What To Do:

1. In a medium bowl with an electric mixer, beat mayonnaise and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Stir in Cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, and garlic powder; mix well.
    
2. Spread each of five bread slices evenly with cheese mixture. Top with remaining bread slices. Spread butter on both sides of the sandwiches.
    
3. In a skillet over medium heat, cook in batches until golden on both sides and the cheese is melted.

The  Real Scoop
by Andrew
I liked it better than regular grilled cheese.  It was cheesier.  You can add anything you want.  I added turkey to mine, Cliff added ham, and Mom added feta cheese.

Loaded Potato and Buffalo Chicken Casserole

2 pounds boneless chicken breasts, cubed (1")
8-10 medium potatoes, cut in 1/2" cubes
1/3 cup olive oil
1&1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp. black pepper
1 Tbsp. paprika
2 Tbsp. garlic powder
6 Tbsp. hot sauce


Topping:
2 cups fiesta blend cheese
1 cup crumbled bacon
1 cup diced green onion

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Spray a 9X13 baking dish with cooking spray.

In a large bowl mix together the olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder and hot sauce. Add the cubed potatoes and stir to coat. Carefully scoop the potatoes into the prepared baking dish, leaving behind as much of the olive oil/hot sauce mixture as possible. Bake the potatoes for 45-50 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes, until cooked through and crispy and browned on the outside.

While the potatoes are cooking, add the cubed chicken to the bowl with the left over olive oil/hot sauce mixture and stir to coat.

Once the potatoes are fully cooked, remove from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Top the cooked potatoes with the raw marinated chicken.

In a bowl ix together the cheese, bacon and green onion and top the raw chicken with the cheese mixture.

Return the casserole to the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and the topping is bubbly delicious.

Serve with extra hot sauce and/or ranch dressing.

If I were to make this again, I would make it more like my usual Buffalo Chicken Dip and add the potatoes.  This tasted a little bland.

Southwest Pasta

This is VERY similar to the chicken pasta a few posts ago, but I added to it and wanted to share the yumminess.

Ingredients

3 cups whole wheat farfalle (bow-tie pasta), uncooked

1 lb.  boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces (or 1 lg. can of chicken)

3 slices  OSCAR MAYER Bacon, cooked, crumbled (or use Hormel pieces)

1 can  (14-1/2 oz.) Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained

3/4 can black beans

1 can whole kernel corn, drained

4 oz.  (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) cream cheese, cubed

1/2 cup  water

1/4 tsp.  pepper

3 Tbsp.  KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese

COOK pasta as directed on package, omitting salt.
MEANWHILE, cook chicken in large skillet on medium heat 5 to 6 min. or until done, stirring occasionally. Add rest of ingredients; mix well. Cook 3 min. or until cream cheese is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring frequently.
DRAIN pasta; place in large bowl. Add sauce; mix lightly. Sprinkle with Parmesan.

Andrew didn't even get a chance to taste this one...Cliff and I had it for lunch on one of his rare days off of work.  It was gone before Andrew made it home from school. 

Chicken Chili

"That sounds GROSS," said Andrew.

Turns out, it's quite possibly going to be the winner of the upcoming chili cook-off that we're participating in next week.

Ingredients:2-13 oz. cans chicken
1 can white beans
1 can white beans with jalapenos
1 can kidney beans
15 oz. salsa
2-12 oz. cans chicken broth
1 tablespoon ground red pepper OR cumin

Mix together and heat.
Serve with tortilla chips.

The Real Scoop
by Andrew
You can use tortilla chips as a scoop for the chili, or you can crush them on top.  If you do that, they get mushy fast, though.  Just use them as a scoop.  Trust me.  This is very good chili even without the chips.

Applesauce Recipe

The sugar amounts are just guidelines, depending your taste, and on the sweetness of your apples, use less or more. If you use less sugar, you'll likely want to use less lemon juice. The lemon juice brightens the flavor of the apples and balances the sweetness.

Ingredients

• 3 to 4 lbs of peeled, cored, and quartered apples. (Make sure you use a good cooking apple like Golden Delicious, Jonagold, Granny Smith, Fuji, Jonathan, Mcintosh, or Gravenstein.)
• Juice of one lemon, about 3-4 Tbsp
• 2 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar
• up to 1/4 cup of white sugar
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Preparation

1. Put all ingredients into a large pot. Cover. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
2. Remove from heat.  Mash with potato masher.
Ready to serve, either hot or refrigerated. Delicious with vanilla ice cream or cottage cheese.
Freezes easily, lasts up to one year.

Yield: Makes about 1 1/2 quarts.

Pretzel Rolos

Ingredients:

Rolo chocolate candies
Mini pretzels
Nuts - pecans/almonds/hazelnuts/walnuts

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350

Upwrap your Rolos. Place pretzels on baking sheet. Top with a Rolo.

Bake in oven for 3-5 minutes, until the chocolate just begins to melt. The Rolo should be soft but not completely melted.

Remove from oven, place on cooling rack and immediately squish the chocolate with a nut. Watch the caramel oooze out. YUM!

The Real Scoop
by Andrew
These were so easy that one of my friends helped Mom make these.  She took some home and her mom loved them, too.  They should make these again.