Favorite Recipes

I've been meaning to post some of the yummy dinner recipes I've made over the last 2 months. I'm finally getting around to it. All of these dishes are yummy, inexpensive, healthy, and EASY!!! Hope you enjoy them, we sure have!!

Tortellini Primavera (5 stars from DH=Amazing!)
1 package cheese tortellini, 20 ounces
1 bag frozen sugar snap stir-fry peas
1/2 pound sugar snap peas, halved if desired
1/2 cup Diced tomatoes
1 jar Alfredo sauce, 16 ounces

Cook tortellini as per package instructions. Add vegetables two minutes before pasta is done. Cook until tender. Drain. Pour sauce into pasta pot and cook over low heat until hot. Remove from heat, add pasta and vegetables and toss to mix and coat.

Pasta Faglioli (thick soup, crock pot)

--1 pound lean ground beef, browned and drained
--1/2 large red onion, chopped
--1 cup carrots, chopped
--2 celery stalks, sliced
--2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (and juice)
--1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
--1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
--4 cups beef broth (check label for gluten!)
--1 jar (16.5 oz) pasta sauce
--2 tsp oregano
--1 T Tabasco sauce
--1/2 tsp salt
--1/4 tsp black pepper
--1/2 cup dry pasta, to add at end of cooking time (I used TJ's brown rice fusilli)

The Directions.

Use a 6 quart or larger crockpot, or cut the recipe in half. This makes a lot.

Brown the meat on the stovetop, and drain well. Let it cool a bit.

Chop up the carrots, onion, and celery. Add it to the empty crockpot.
Drain and rinse the beans, and add them. Add the whole cans of tomatoes, and the pasta sauce. Add the beef broth. Add the salt, pepper, oregano, and Tobasco sauce. Stir in your meat.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4. When the vegetables are tender, stir in the 1/2 cup of dry pasta.

Favorite White Bean Chicken Soup
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and chopped
1 package frozen white corn, 9 ounces
2 cans Great Northern beans, undrained
7 ounces green chilies, diced
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon Oregano
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional
3 cups Chicken broth
3 tablespoons lime juice

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil. Add cooked and chopped chicken, corn, beans, green chilies, spices, broth, and lime juice. Stir until well blended. Bring to a boil, then turn heat to low and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Garnish with sour cream, corn chips, and grated cheddar cheese.

Apricot Chicken
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 bottle Russian salad dressing
1 cup Apricot jam
1 package onion soup mix

Place chicken in a greased casserole dish. Combine dressing, jam and soup mix. Pour sauce mixture over chicken. Bake uncovered at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Pretty Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c margarine, slightly melted
1 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3-3 1/2 c flour (not too sticky, but be sure dough isn't dry, I always use 3 1/2 cups)
1 pkg of your favorite baking chips, and nuts if desired (semisweet, butterscotch, whatever!)

Mix all and bake at 350 for 11-12 minutes. (don't overcook!)
Enjoy! These are seriously amazing. I got the recipe from a ward cookbook, and I always get compliments on them!! And SO easy to make!

Chicken Slow cooker week!

Next week is Chicken Slow Cooker week! I've posted some recipes on the google calendar (scroll to the bottom of my blog to view). On Saturday I will add a linky thingy for you to blog about your favorite slow cooker chicken recipes and link up! It will be a Chicken slow cooker McLinky party! Yeah!

*Image from Foodnetwork.com*

Disciples of Christ

I LOVE Christmastime! It has always been a magical, spiritual time of year. I love the decorations, the treats, the music, the lights, and the remembrance of the Savior's birth. However, there is one thing that eats away at me: the "getting."

When I was a child, we didn't have much, yet Christmas did tend to focus on what we got, no matter how hard our mother tried to focus it on the Savior. This year, as I've wandered through stores, thinking of what the people on my Christmas list would enjoy and including my toddler in the preparations, I've tried to explain to her that we give gifts as Christmas as a reminder of the following:

"God so loved the world that he GAVE his ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, that whose believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:!6, KJV)

There are not one, but two gifts mentioned in that powerful scripture:
1. God gave His Son.
2. His Son can give us Everlasting Life.

I'm not sure how you feel, but compared these two gifts, the ipods, DVD's, books, jewelry, or whatever else we "get" at Christmas mean absolutely nothing.

So I'm trying to take a different focus. I've been studying about how to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost in order to help others. Honestly, I don't think I'm very good at this, but I am motivated by something from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency:

“Disciples of Christ throughout all ages of the world have been distinguished by their compassion. … In the end, the number of prayers we say may contribute to our happiness, but the number of prayers we answer may be of even greater importance. Let us open our eyes and see the heavy hearts, notice the loneliness and despair; let us feel the silent prayers of others around us, and let us be an instrument in the hands of the Lord to answer those prayers” (“Happiness, Your Heritage,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2008, 119, 120).

I WANT to be a disciple. I'm sort of clumsy at it. But luckily I know that my efforts will be magnified by the Grace of my Savior, and if I focus on him this Christmas, and all year, and remember that this is His work, perhaps I can be an instrument in God's hands to help answer the prayers of His children.

That's my Christmas wish for this year. :)

Image found here.

Divine Destiny

I read this today and was touched:

Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: “The Good Shepherd said, ‘Feed my lambs.’ (John 21:15.) So a woman feeds her loved ones, providing succor and sustenance just as the Savior would do. Her divine gift is to nurture, to help the young, to care for the poor, to lift the brokenhearted.

“The Lord said, ‘My work and my glory [is] to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.’ (Moses 1:39.) So His devoted daughter-disciple may truly say, ‘My work and my glory is to help my loved ones reach that heavenly goal.’

“To help another human being reach one’s celestial potential is part of the divine mission of woman. As mother, teacher, or nurturing saint, she molds living clay to the shape of her hopes. In partnership with God, her divine mission is to help spirits live and souls be lifted. This is the measure of her creation. It is ennobling, edifying, and exalting” (“Woman—Of Infinite Worth,” Ensign, Nov. 1989, 22).

Wow!