Mama’s French Bread Pizza

I might have just been given the easiest meal in the world to make. Seriously. This is SO GOOD! And ridiculously easy! From Priscilla from our recipe group, I say THANK YOU!! My kids had this gone within minutes, I kid you not! The secret really is the garlic butter, so unless you have a killer garlic butter recipe (and are more gung-ho than I am), then buy a bakery garlic french bread loaf that already has it spread on! We did discover that there was too much in the middle and not enough on the sides so next time I will spread around the butter more evenly first. Perfect as is, my kids have asked that next time we try adding a few toppings (jalapenos for Rachel, pepperoni for baby doll, etc). The best part was how fast this came together. It took about 4 minutes to get into the oven and was ready to eat in 13. It just doesn't get any better than that! 

Garlic French bread (the bakery kind that already has garlic butter spread on it)

Mayonnaise

2 tomatoes

Colby or Pizza blend cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Spread mayo over the garlic butter on both halves. Slice tomatoes and arrange on the halves. Cover with desired amount of cheese. Place in oven and bake for 13 minutes or until cheese is melted and French bread is toasted. Slice up and enjoy!

Cilantro Lime Chicken with Corn & Black Beans

From overthebigmoon.com, this one is a keeper! Holy buckets! Just looking at the picture makes my mouth water! This is definitely going to be doubled for an extra freezer meal! My family loved this one served on heated tortillas with all the toppings. The only thing I would add is some fresh cilantro at the end when it is done.

1 ½ lbs chicken breast

Juice from 2 limes

1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

1 (16 oz) bag frozen corn

2 minced garlic cloves

½ red onion, chopped

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 tsp cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients into a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag. Mix together and zip bag closed. When ready to eat, remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Cook on low for 8 hours. Serve with tortillas and toppings such as sour cream, guacamole, salsa and cheese, and fresh chopped cilantro.

The Best Buttermilk Cornbread

This cornbread is so good that I couldn't even snatch a picture of it before it was half gone! Still ranked in the top 20 on allrecipes.com, this buttermilk cornbread is almost like cake. It's divine! Never really haven eaten cornbread til I married my hubby who lived in the south for 2 years, I was never a big fan. That all changed when I found this recipe a few years ago. Now it's a staple. It's a snack! And it is a requirement for stew! Only 1 thing makes this better... and it requires being awesome, and therefore I am disqualified. But my mom, she's awesome. She dehydrates her own corn. And when she wants a little piece of heaven, she freshly grinds enough corn for the corn meal. And that my friends, makes this even better than best. Yes, that is possible :)

½ cup butter

2/3 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

½ tsp baking soda

1 cup cornmeal 

1 cup flour

½ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375. Grease 12 muffin tin cups.

Melt butter and stir in sugar. Quickly add eggs and beat until well blended. Combine buttermilk and baking soda. Add to mixture. Stir in cornmeal, flour, and salt until well blended and few lumps remain. Pour batter into muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes. (I always double this and just put in a 9x13 and cook a little longer).

Our Fav Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Heaven in a bowl. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com, tweaked it a bit according to other's opinions and voila! Perfection! Out here in Wyoming, this is a staple in our family in the winter! Double batch it for left-overs or freeze for another day. Pair it with some cornbread and you will have one happy family!

2 lbs beef stew meat, cut into pieces

2/3 cup flour

1 tsp seasoning salt

1 tsp pepper

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 bay leaves

1 ½ tsp paprika

2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 onion, chopped

3 ½ cups beef broth

5-6 potatoes

4 carrots sliced

2 stalks celery

1 pkg McCormicks beef stew seasoning. Mix flour, salt, and pepper in bag. Coat the meat with it. Sear meat. Transfer meat to slow cooker. Pour 2 cups beef broth into pan to deglaze then pour over beef. Add rest of broth and all other ingredients. Stir and cook for 10 hours on low.

(Note: I'm rather horrible at adding the exact amount of veggies. I just dice, throw in, and when it fills up the pot just right, I stop :) Therefore, I almost always end up using 3 cans of beef broth or whatever it takes to get it right to the top of the veggies and meat).

Dang Good Wrap!

Some men starve when they have to cook their own meals. Some men eat out. And then some men cook themselves some dang good food!!!! My husband cooks quite frequently in our home as it is (much to our delight), and it is no different when he is left to fend for himself for 5 days! This guy can cook! When he showed me this picture later of one of the meals he made for himself, not only was my mouth watering, but it also became a requirement to make some more for us all to try haha! 

1 lb pork (marinate in your fav sauce)

1 tomato, diced

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1 can black beans

2 cups cooked rice

Shredded Cheese

Tortillas

Cook up the pork and dice meat. Layer rice, beans, onion, meat, tomato and cheese on a tortilla. Enjoy!

Mock Filet Mignon

So these are totally going on the Dang Good menu! My sweet friend Jen invited our family over for dinner and served us these little babies! Talk about good! And even better...they are easy to make and can be frozen! All my kids loved them, and I seriously can't wait to make a batch so that I can make extras for another meal. Hope you enjoy as much as we did! And thanks Jen, for yet another, Dang Good Recipe!

1 1/2 lbs ground beef (uncooked)

3/4 cup cooked rice

1 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp sugar

Enough strips of bacon for however many balls you make.

Combine everything but the bacon. Shape into balls and wrap bacon around each. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 450 for 30 min. Devour :) 

Heavenly French Toast

These really are Heavenly french toast... eaten by the angels. (Ok, lame joke, I know!). But I am quite sure you will agree with me that these french toast are amazing!!!

1-2 loaves of Angel Food Cake
Eggs
Milk
Jam
Cool Whip

Cut the Angel Food Cake into slices. Mix up eggs and a little milk (just like you make normal french toast). Dip the slices into the egg mixture and cook on a preheated griddle. Serve with butter, jam and Cool Whip. Then you will eat like the angels do (ok, another lame joke, but it's no joke you will enjoy it! :)

Strawberry-Peach Crisp

This is the perfect summertime/fall cobbler! When I first got this recipe out of the Kraft Food magazine, I seriously made it every single week for my family! We couldn't get over the flavor! Now it's tradition to have it every summer as the perfect fruity, crunchy, perfect deliciousness treat :) (Guilty confession: My fav fruit has always been peaches and strawberries, and my fav cereal is Honey Bunches of Oats, so this was bound to be my fav dessert :)

1/2 cup flour, divided

2 cans (15 1/4 oz each) peach slices, drained

2 cups halved strawberries

3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp firmly packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) cold butter

3 cups Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds Cereal, lightly crushed

1 tub Cool Whip topping 

Preheat oven to 350. Remove 2 tbsp of the flour; set aside. Toss peach slices with strawberries, 3/4 cup sugar and remaining flour in large bowl. Place in ungreased 8" square baking dish. Mix Reserved 2 tbsp flour and the 2 tbsp sugar in separate large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add cereal and mix until well blended (I find I have to use my hands to mix the crumble mixture thoroughly into the cereal). Sprinkle over fruit mixture. Bake 25 min or until topping is lightly browned. Served with Cool Whip.

Breakfast Casserole

I was shocked when I realized I hadn't posted this recipe yet! This is one of our biggest breakfast for dinner fav's EVER! My kids devour this pan so quickly that unfortunately, there is never enough for next night leftovers haha! This meal freezes so good, and I love to make a couple of extra pans to stick in the freezer. (Just note, that it takes quite a while to thaw out though and if not completely thawed out, plan on an extra 20-30 minutes cooking time!). 

1 lb bacon crumbled (or buy the pre-cooked crumbled bacon for an even quicker version :)

1/2 cup onion chopped

3/4 cup red bell pepper, chopped (optional. We like it both ways)

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

3/4 cup milk

12 eggs

1 pkg frozen hash browns, thawed

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Cook bacon and then remove and saute onion and pepper. Set aside. In large bowl beat milk and eggs. Add the mustard, salt and pepper. Set aside. Grease a 9x13 and spread half of the hash browns in the dish. Spread the bacon onion pepper mixture on top. Sprinkle on 1 cup of cheese. Spread remaining hash browns  over top. Pour egg mixture over the top of hash browns. Bake, uncovered at 325 degrees for 50-60 minutes. Sprinkle remaining cup of cheese (and any extra bacon if you have it) on top! Serve with toasted English muffins or bread.

Slow Cooker Mexican Chicken

This is the easiest meal I think I have ever made! I kid you not! I threw the chicken in still frozen, opened 2 cans and started the slow cooker! Eight hours later, with some cream cheese and chips, I had a meal that my family literally devoured! Baby doll took one look at it and said "I don't like this stuff" (granted, it's not the prettiest looking stuff in the world) but after one bite, she changed her mind and even came back for a big helping of seconds. So glad for another dang good recipe!!

1-15 oz can Pinto Beans

1- 4 oz can chopped green chilies

1 pkg. of taco seasoning

2-3 chicken breasts (depending on size)

1 pkg. cream cheese

Add beans and chilies with juice, chicken and seasoning in slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. An hour before it is done shred the chicken and add the cream cheese. Serve with hot tortilla chips, rice or on tortillas.

Easy Peasy Pumpkin Cookies

I love that Rachel loves to bake! And I love even more that she likes to make my fav sweets :). These awesome cookies are so simple and so quick to make up, you just might find yourself making them more often than you should (not to mention stocking up on Spice cake mixes)!

1 box Spice cake mix

1 small can pumpkin pie

½ tsp cloves

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 bag of chocolate chips

1/4 bag cinnamon chips (optional but super yummy ;)

Mix everything together and then spoon onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake 375 for 8-10 minutes and then let cool on the pan for a couple more minutes.

Frito and Corn Salad

I have been looking for more summer salad recipes, and I am so glad I ran into this one from thethrifycouple.com! We had this as a side to the Baked Creamy Taquitos and it was a hit! Even baby girl kept asking for more! You'll want to stock up on chili cheese Fritos because this is sure to become a fast favorite!

2 (15 oz) cans whole kernel corn, drained

2 cups grated cheddar cheese

1 cup mayo

1 cup bell pepper, chopped

1/2 cup red onion, chopped

1 (10 1/2 oz) bag coarsely crushed chili cheese Fritos corn chips

Mix the first 5 ingredients and chill. Stir in corn chips just before serving. Enjoy!!