Bell Pepper Chicken

Ingredients: they're all approximate as I was just throwing things in as I went along

2 chicken breasts, thawed

1 can cream of chicken soup

1-2 t. chicken bouillon

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

5-6 shakes of hot sauce

up to 1/4 c. sour cream

1/2 to 1 c. water

1/2 each red, orange, yellow, and green bell peppers, sliced

rice

Recipe: 

1. Mix soup, sour cream, garlic, water, bouillon, hot sauce and garlic together. Add chicken and bring to a boil.

2. Boil for a 5-10 minutes. Simmer chicken until cooked through. The mixture should be somewhat runny, so add more water if needed.

3. With 5-10 minutes left, add pepper slices to chicken mixture until tender.

4. Serve over hot rice.

Rating: 4 of 5

So, for a throw-in dinner, this turned out really well. It reminded me a little bit of jambalaya. It has great flavor, but very little heat. It's great over rice, but I think it'd be good over quinoa, too. I'd definitely make this one again.

Source: my own

Homemade Buffalo Wing Sauce

Ingredients: Yields: 1/2 cup

1/4 c. rice wine vinegar *

2 t. chili powder

1 t. smoked paprika

1/2 t. sweet paprika **

2 t. garlic powder

1/2 t. onion powder

1/2 t. cayenne powder***

1/4 t. salt

1/2 t. sugar

2 t. canola oil

* I used just rice vinegar

** I had paprika on hand, don't know what kind it was, so I used what I had for both

***Um....I just noticed now that this said "powder" not "pepper." I didn't know there was such a thing as cayenne powder.

Recipe:

1. Cook all ingredients over medium-high heat until just starting to bubble.

2. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

3. Store in an air tight bottle. Keep refrigerated.

Rating: 3.75 of 5
This stuff has some real kick...but maybe that's because I made more than it called for. Either way, it definitely tastes like buffalo sauce. Super easy to throw together too.

Source: Domestic Fits, Homemade Buffalo Wing Sauce

Easy Cajun Jambalaya

Ingredients:

2 t. olive oil

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces *

8-oz. kielbasa, diced (aka: Polish sausage. Think U-shaped meat at the market)

1 onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1/2 c. celery, diced

2 T. chopped garlic **

1/4 t. cayenne pepper

1/2 t. onion powder

3/4 t. salt

1/4 t. black pepper

2 c. uncooked white rice

4 c. chicken broth

3 bay leaves

4 t. Worcestershire sauce

2 t. hot pepper sauce

* We went to the beach today and was just feeling WAY too tired to thaw, cook, and cut chicken. So, I just used canned chicken instead.

** Didn't have any garlic on hand, so I just used minced garlic. Actually, I never have garlic on hand. I always use minced garlic.

Recipe:

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Saute chicken and kielbasa until lightly browned, about 5 minutes

2. Stir in onion, bell pepper, celery, and garlic.

3. Season with cayenne, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Cook 3 minutes or until onion is tender and translucent.

4. Add rice; stir in chicken broth, bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce, and hot pepper sauce.

5. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer about 18 minutes or until rice is tender. Discard bay leaves before serving.

Rating: 3.5 of 5

Loved the kick in this! Not too much, not too little. I was pleasantly surprised by this dish. I was also surprised at how big of a batch this makes. For some reason, 2 c. of rise and 4 c. of broth didn't set off the "cut the recipe in half" alarm in my head. So, now we have a witche's kettle sized jambalaya dish. I also like the kielbasa and chicken combo. The veggies were perfect and I couldn't really tell the bell peppers were bell peppers.

Source: AllRecipe Dinner Tonight, pg. 46

Santa Rosa Valley Salad

Ingredients:

Salad:

1 box Uncle Ben's Wild/Long Grain Rice, cooked

juice of 1 Lemon

3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded or chopped

4 green onions, sliced

1 red bell pepper, chopped

3 oz snap or snow peas

1 avocado

1/2 cup pecans (opt)

lettuce for garnish

Dressing:

2 cloves garlic

1 T. dijon mustard

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. sugar

1/4 t. pepper

1/2 c. rice vinegar

1/3 c. olive oil

Recipe:

1. Mix the salad ingredients together and set aside.

2. Mix together the dressing ingredients.

3. Place lettuce leaves on a plate and pile salad mixture on top.

4. Pour the dressing on top of the salad or mix it in.

Rating: TBD

Once again, this was one I missed at salad night. It looked very delicious though!

Source: Sariah Tolley

Garlic Chicken with Artichokes

No picture! Sorry!

Ingredients:

12 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 c. chopped onion

1 T. olive oil or cooking oil

1 8-9 oz. package frozen artichoke hearts

1 red sweet pepper, cut into strips

1/2 c. chicken broth

1 T. quick-cooking tapioca

2 t. dried rosemary, crushed

1 t. finely shredded lemon peel

1/2 t. black pepper

1 1/2 lb. skinless, boneless chicken breast halves or thighs

4 c. hot cooked brown rice

Recipe:

1. In a small skillet cook garlic and onion in hot oil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes or until tender. In a 4-qt crockery cooker combine the garlic mixture, frozen artichoke hearts, sweet pepper, chicken broth, tapioca, rosemary, lemon peel, and black pepper. Add chicken; spoon some of the garlic mixture over chicken.

2. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 6-7 hours or 3-3.5 hours on high. Serve with rice.

Rating: 3 of 5

This isn't a terrible recipe at all. I liked it, but I felt there was a certain something missing. Like....it needed more spice or something. Somewhat of a bland dish. Super easy though. I love crockpot meals. This recipe does make the chicken super tender, so I ended up kind of shredding it as a pulled in out of the crockpot. I would probably make this again.

Source: Better Homes and Gardens, p. 239

Hawaiian Haystacks

Ingredients:

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 can chicken broth *

3 c. cooked, cubed chicken

steamed rice

* I just made 1 c. of chicken broth with a bouillon cube.

Toppings:

Chow mein noodles

pineapple chunks or tidbits

cheese

oranges

green onions, diced

peanuts

green pepper, diced

Recipe:

1. Mix soups together and simmer.

2. Add chicken and simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Ladle chicken sauce over rice and add toppings.

Rating: 4 of 5

Either this was really good or we just haven't had haystacks in years! We added some extras to the toppings, like cilantro (WAY good) and red peppers. Super good and felt really good to eat after an intense workout. You know how after working out you don't want any thing heavy? Well, this is dense, but not heavy.

Source: Somewhere off the web. I don't have it written down because I looked it up on the ipad.

Zesty Chicken

Ingredients:

6 skinless boneless chicken breasts *

2 packages zesty Italian seasoning **

2 cups water ***

2 cans cream of chicken soup

8 oz. cream cheese

1/8 tsp. parsley

*I usually only use 3-4

**when making a double batch I use 3 packages instead of 4

***I usually cut the water in half to make the sauce thicker

Recipe:

1. In crock pot mix together Italian Seasoning, water, cream of chicken soup, and parsley. Add chicken to mixture.

2. Cook on low for 6-8 hours *

3. 1 hour before serving cut cream cheese into cubes, add to crock pot. You may need to use a fork to break up the cubes of cream cheese.Serve on pasta or rice. **

*I usually cook it on high for 3-4 hours – perfect for cooking while at church!

**I favor wide egg noodles.

Rating: 5 of 5

We LOVE this recipe. It's not new for us, but I still had to share it. It's so easy that LaDon made it when I was on partial bedrest when pregnant with Daniel. We got this recipe from Kristen (who is the Queen of the tastiest and easiest recipes around). Anyways, the seasoning is perfect, it limits the chicken mess you have to deal with, and Ally loves it! Super tasty.

Source: Kristen Lanshe