Cooking With Alicia and Annie Contest: Cheesy Sausage Muffins

This is my second entry into the Cooking with Alicia and Annie Contest. I thought these muffins sounded really good. I omitted the green onions...not my favorite. The taste reminds me of the Impossible Cheeseburger Pie by Bisquick.

I made the muffins using the regular muffin pan, not miniature sized. They came out yummy and I would definitely make them again.

Ingredients:

1/4 lb of ground pork sausage - cooked and drained

1 cup Bisquick baking mix

3 oz cream cheese - cubed

2 large eggs - lightly beaten

1/2 cup cheddar cheese - shredded

2/3 cup milk

1/4 cup green onions - chopped (I omitted)

Directions:

Combine eggs and milk. Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl.; make a well in center of mixture. Add eggs and milk to sausage mixture, stirring just until moistened. Spoon into greased miniture muffins pans, filling 3/4 full.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Remove from pan immediately. (I baked mine 30-35 minutes).

Makes 2 dozen miniture and 9 regular size.

Peace River Weekend

I know this has nothing to do with cooking or baking, but I thought I would share a few photos from this past weekend. My son, boyfriend and I went with my son's Boy Scout troop camping and canoeing. We had a lot of fun. We had record breaking temperatures Friday night - in the 30's. We woke up to frost...I live in Florida. We were in Arcadia, FL at the Peace River, about 3 hours nw of Fort Lauderdale. The first night we sleep in Arcadia in the parking lot at a boat ramp. The second night we were in Brownsville at a camp site.

The canoeing was great. The Peace River lives up to its name. We canoed with the current. The only bad thing was the water was low and we had to jump out a few times to push our canoe to deeper water. Sunday, before we were done, we saw one alligator about 10 feet away. It wasn't very big and it ignored us. We did 16 miles in the two days.

I still feel like I'm recuperating....arms are sore, sunburned (my earlobes peeled)...but, it was worth it!

These pictures are only from my cell phone. I'll have more later.

Peace River. Picture taken during a break.

Our resting spot.

Jimmy eating lunch.

One of our dads, Bob, caught a catfish on Sunday with his bare hands. He put it back.

Red Beans and Rice

I am constantly looking through all my cookbooks. I found this recipe in Christmas Cookbook by Gooseberry Patch (I know...Christmas!). It looked delicious and it was. My son did not want to try it, so I halved the recipe. I omitted the green pepper and oregano. Oregano is not my favorite spice and the diced tomatoes had oregano in it. It was very simple to make which is a plus for me. I enjoyed it and have a bunch left over for lunch tomorrow.

Ingredients:

1 lb. kielbasa, cut into 1/4 inch slices

1 medium onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 (16-oz) cans dark kidney beans, drained

14.5 oz can diced tomatoes

1/2 t. dried oregano

1/2 t. black pepper

4 c. hot cooked rice

Directions:

Cook sausage in a Dutch oven over low heat 6 minutes, stirring often. Add onion, green pepper and garlic; cook over medium-high heat 5 minutes or until tender. Add beans, tomatoes, oregano and pepper; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve over rice.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Cooking with Alicia and Annie Contest: Easy Chicken Tacos

I had looked at Tami's Kitchen Table Talk site and saw these easy crockpot tacos. It was the second time I'd seen them. I thought....hmm...they look delicious and easy. What could be better.

What a super simple recipe! Just what I need for a week night, especially scout night! My son and I loved them.

Ingredients:

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 package taco seasoning packet

1 cup water

Directions:

Mix ingredients togehter in crockpot. cook for 6-8 hours on low.

Shred chicken with fork until evenly shredded.

Put mixture in hard or soft tortiallas. Add shreded cheese, lettuce, sour cream or whatever other ingredients you want.

This is my first entry to the Cooking with Alicia and Annie Contest.

BBQ Beef Sandwiches

Again...another recipe from Jennifer at Cooking for Comfort. This one has a whopping 3 ingredients and cooks in the crock pot. The hardest part of this meal was shredding the beef. But, the beef was so tender, it almost shredded itself.

As usual the recipe came out delicious. I put some up in the freezer for another evening. There is a lot of juice. It's really good to dip your sandwich in.

Ingredients:

2 pounds beef stew, cubed
18 ounce bottle barbecue sauce (I combined 2 different kinds)
12 ounce can Coca Cola (I used Coke Zero)
6 to 8 sandwich bun, split, buttered and toasted

Directions:

Mix together first three ingredients in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low setting for 6 to 8 hours. Shred the beef with two forks. Serve on buns.

Makes 6 to 8 sandwiches.

Cream Cheese Banana Nut Bread

Again, I made a wonderful recipe from Jennifer at Cooking for Comfort. Everything I've tried has been great so far! This is another yummy one! Thanks, Jennifer! I had a piece straight from the oven....awesomely delicious!

I made 1 large and 2 small loaves. They are a must to make again!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

8 oz cream cheese, softened

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 very ripe bananas, mashed

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.

Combine flour and next 3 ingredients; gradually add to butter mixture, beating at a low speed until just blended. Stir in mashed banana, pecans and vanilla. Spoon batter into 2 greased 8×4 inch loaf pans or 5 mini loaf pans.

Bake at 350 for one hour(8×4 pans) OR 45 minutes for mini loaves, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached.

Cool bread in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on racks.

Burrito Grande

I found this recipe looking through one of those Pillsbury magazines you buy at the check out stand of the grocery. This magazine was Make It Easy Mexican from January 1998. Yes, I said 1998! This was the one recipe that I wanted to make. Now I will pass the book on to my daughter.

When I asked Jimmy how it tasted, he gave me thumbs up since he had his mouth full!

I didn't have the 10 inch tortilla shells, but the smaller ones. I layered 5 on the bottom, put the filling and cheese on and layered 4 more on top without rolling. It was very good!

Ingredients:

1/2 lb ground beef, or chorizo (I used ground pork)

15 oz spicy chili beans, undrained

1 tsp cumin

4 10-inch flour tortilla shells

10 oz taco flavored cheese blend (I used a 2 cup package)

1 cup mild taco sauce (I used 1/2 hot; 1/2 mild)

3/4 cup sour cream (I skipped)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spray 15 x 10 x 1 inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.

2. In large skillet, cook beef over medium high heat until well browned. Drain. Add chili beans and cumin; mix well.

3. Place tortillas, overlapping, down one side of the sprayed pan. Spoon mixture down center of tortillas; sprinkle with 1 1/2 cups of the cheese. Roll tortillas over meat mixture to create one large burrito, seam side down. Sp;oon taco sauce over burrito; sprinkle with remaining one cup cheese. (I added some black olives I had leftover)

4. Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until thoroughly heated. To serve, cut burrito into slices. Serve with sour cream.

Yield: 6 servings