Pita Bread

JR wanted to take a sandwich for lunch today. Too bad, so sad. No bread in the pantry. Whoops. Then I had to cancel my lunch plans to go out for a pita sandwich with my girlfriends because I had to work. Too bad, so sad. Then I put the sweetest baby on the planet down for his nap and looked at my little bloggers that I check and low and behold the Lord giveth me a pita bread recipe that I had everything to make. He’s cool like that. So I whipped up these sandwiches for lunch and have plenty of bread leftover for breakfast pitas in the A.M. and also the hubby can happily pack up his lunch tomorrow. These were super good. CLICK HERE for the recipe. Now for my comments. I don’t have one of those fancy pants cooling rack things to cook these on so I hunted for something to use. I ended up cooking them on my crumb rack from the bottom of my oven. Yes, I washed it off first! The nerve of you people! Then toward the end it started getting too hot so I just flipped those babies right onto the oven rack which worked out fine and dandy. That’s what you should do if you don't have the pan she speaks of (side note for the retarded friends.) For you workin gals you could make a batch of these on the weekend and have some yummy pitas for lunch all week long. Go ahead and do it. You will be the envy of the office.

Meatballs (Yup, nothing fancy Meatballs)

So I can’t believe I haven’t posted a Pioneer Woman recipe yet. I know you can’t either right? It just occurred to me that I have a few newer cooks/bloggers following and you may not know the Pioneer Woman? Say it isn’t so? Surely you know about this lovely lady who resides right here in Oklahoma. Anyway I love her and have made several of her dishes and they are ALL amazing!! CLICK HERE for this meatball recipe. It was oh so good. I have several recipes for meatballs/meatloaf that I use to change it up. But JR (shall we call him that from now on? Let’s.) commented that these were really good. It made a big pan so tomorrow we will have leftover meatballs on an open-faced sub that I will cook in the oven with cheese on top. I know I’m a genius. What can I say…?

Cream Cheese Carrot Muffins

Okay. I had to try these muffins I saw on Full Bellies Happy Kids. And since our dear Kelly whom I refer to as my sweet baby kitten already gave me credit for this recipe I must post it. Now I am adding my own photo to keep it real. My muffins didn’t turn out as cute as the ones shown on her blog. Mainly because you were only suppose to add one Tbs. of the filling. As you know I cannot waste perfectly good cream cheese so I went ahead and just loaded it on there. Then since Meredith had eaten about half the batter and she was “helping” I didn’t have enough left to cover the tops. They were still a super tasty treat. JR (I heard him refer to himself as JR the other day. Hilarious! I guess so he didn’t have to go thru the ordeal of explaining how to pronounce Jamon and all that) Anyway JR and I like these much more than the kids. I assume because it isn’t a super sweet muffin. More like a muffin than a dessert but I served it as dessert. Would also be lovely for a brunch or breakfast I think. Click Here for the recipe.

Hash Brown Casserole

If you live in Oklahoma you have probably had a hash brown casserole at some point in your life. We serve this for breakfast, brunch, or as a side. My Mom used to serve it with BBQ. Here is the recipe I use. Don’t mind the funky picture. I took a bath in idiot juice on the day I took it.

1 (32 ounce) package of frozen hash browns
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 (8 ounce) carton sour cream
3/4 stick butter melted
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
½ cup finely chopped onion or 1 tsp onion powder

Topping:
2 cups crushed corn flakes
2 Tbs melted butter

Break apart hash browns and put them in a big bowl. In another bowl combine soup, sour cream and melted butter and mix it all up until it’s creamy. Stir in salt, pepper and onion. Pour mix over hash browns and add the cheese and stir it up. Spray a 9 X 13 pan and dump it in there and spread around. Mix the cornflakes with the melted butter and spread over the top. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes and there you have it.

French Toast Casserole

I made this for Heathers shower. This is really good and can be made ahead of time. The bottom has a layer of sticky syrup/candy stuff. Try this for a brunch or if you are having quests over. Click here for the recipe.

Chicken and Cornbread Casserole

This isn't a great photo. My friend Julie was at my house and I split this in half to share with her. Next time I would just double the recipe instead of splitting this one. It is a small casserole anyway and wasn't as thick as it should have been once I split it. Anyway it was still tasty. I got this out of Southern Living a couple of years ago and have been making it since.

Ingredients

2 celery ribs, chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 cups packed crumbled cornbread
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
3 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 1/4 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 cup sour cream
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon dry crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Directions
1Sauté celery and onion in hot oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat 7 minutes or until vegetables are tender; set aside.

2Combine cornbread and poultry seasoning in a large bowl.

3Layer half of cornbread mixture on bottom of a lightly greased 11- x 7-inch baking dish.

4Combine onion mixture, chicken, and next 6 ingredients in a bowl. Spoon mixture evenly over top of cornbread mixture in dish.

5Top evenly with remaining half of cornbread mixture, and drizzle with butter.

6Bake, covered, at 350° for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

7Remove from oven, and top with cheese.

8Bake, uncovered, 10 more minutes or until cheese is golden.

Black Bean Nachos

Here’s an easy weeknight meal or perhaps a party appetizer. I got this from an old Pampered Chef cookbook.

6 (7 inch) flour tortillas
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
4 green onions with tops, thinly sliced
3 Tbs salsa
2 cups shredded Mexican-style cheese
½ tomato chopped

Preheat oven to 400. Slice the tortillas into wedges using a pizza cutter. Spread out on a baking stone. I think if you don’t have one of these just put them on a pan with a little cooking spray on it. Bake for (recipe says 10 minutes) it took mine about 20 to turn into chips. While that’s cooking mix your beans, onions and salsa in a bowl. I also had a few chopped onions and red peppers left from last night so I threw those in. I really think you can add whatever toppings you like. Even some meat if you want. Take your chips out of the oven, top with 1 cup of cheese, then your bean mixture, then the other cup of cheese. Bake for another 3 minutes or until cheese melts. Take out and top with tomato. Serve with sour cream and guacamole. Just sour cream at the Reid house as I had no avocados. Enjoy! Kim

Pizza Casserole

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. Hopefully things are settled down and I will start posting more. I have decided to stop posting about my groceries and focus more on recipes since that seems to be more interesting to you all. And also put up my menu plan each week so that if you want to copy cat some of it you can. Would you find that helpful? Otherwise I must not waste my time. Or would you rather see all my groceries. I don’t buy as much in the summer as we eat a lot out of the garden. What are you thoughts?
Last night I made this pizza casserole. That is what we will call it since I put it in a casserole pan. I finally found a crust recipe that I really like. The reason I put this in a casserole dish is sometimes when I make a pizza I put too much junk on it and then the crust doesn’t rise good and I make a mess. This turned out great and we enjoyed it. Go ahead and try making your own crust. It is easy and delicious and doesn’t take long at all. Ps. I found this crust recipe via Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures.

Crust:

1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

In a bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Stir in sugar, salt, oil and flour. Beat vigorously 20 strokes. Cover and let rest about 15 minutes. With buttered fingers, pat crust into a greased 9 x 13-in. baking pan. Push the crust up around the sides a little so you will have an outside pizza like crust. Note: This make a super “pan” pizza with a really thick crust.

Spread with pizza sauce (as much as you like) and add toppings and cheese. On this pizza I have Italian sausage, mushrooms, red bell pepper and onions. The cheese is a mix of mozzarella, parmesan, and a little Colby jack mix (only because I didn’t think I had enough cheese). I try to mix the cheese and the toppings all together with just a little extra cheese on top. Otherwise the pizza is like crust, toppings layer and then cheese layer and it doesn’t turn out like a pizza more like a casserole dish. No good. So mix it up a little.

Orange Chicken

I saw this and thought I would give it a try since I love the Chinese food and it is something I like to eat out. Yes, it does require some frying. I know, shameful. Just the other day I was telling Buffy how I wanted to start eating more healthy foods and start being more aware of what I put in my body. She goes, yeah right you fat pig. Get in the kitchen and fix us something to eat! Can you believe she said that to me? The nerve! Not really but I did just tell her I was going to get healthy and then look what I go and do. Here is the recipe. It was a hit at the Reid house and I will be serving it again. Now let me give you some tips should you decide to try your hand at this. It took a little more time that I usually spend preparing the evening meal. If you were having guests this would be a tasty treat.

1. 3 pounds of chicken is a lot. You will have leftovers by the truckload unless you are serving a bigger crowd than just your family. I realized this about halfway through trying to fry up 3 pounds of chicken. Benjamon woke up from his nap (not good) so as I was trying to finish he sat at my feet crying out Momma, Momma. Then he proceeded to pull my shorts down to my ankle as he attempted to pull up on my leg (again not good) but what could I do? I must get this chicken cooked I thought to myself as I stood there with my pants around my ankles. Granny panties fully exposed as I stood there and fried chicken. No shame in my game, right?

2. Slow down sister! I know you’re going to try and dump all this chicken in one pan. You must fry a little at a time leaving room around the sides. If you put it all in it will stick together and make a scene from a Freddie Kruger movie. For real ya’ll!

3. You need a big ole pan to bake it in! I started off with a 9 X 13 and couldn’t fit it all so I moved up a size. A big fine woman such as myself has larger pans than 9 X 13 in her house. If you don’t then you might want to cut this in half or use two pans.

I served this with my fried rice recipe minus the chicken as a side dish. I hope that you will try this. It is oh so good and well worth the effort. Benjamon enjoyed it too by the way.