Recipes 9 & 10

I have no idea how many weeks behind I am now... oh well.

Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos (from Our Best Bites)

I have many friends who own this cookbook and swear (not literally) by this taquito recipe.  I never buy the frozen taquitos, even though they're tasty...  This is a much healthier version of a more hearty and tastier taquito.  We were supposed to have the missionaries over for dinner last night, so I thought I'd try this out on them.  Turns out, one of them was sick so our family enjoyed almost an entire cookie-sheets worth of these puppies on our own.  We will definitely be making them again.  (I also made the cilantro-lime dressing to use as a dipping sauce, as recommended in the recipe).

Salsa Chicken (Crockpot)

This is a simple and quick throw-it-in-the-crockpot chicken.  It's not the best chicken for eating as a main dish, but it is awesome for use in the above-described taquitos, soups, tacos, etc.

Dinner/Recipe #7: Fast Muffins

So, I decided as much as I am enjoying having new 'dinner' meals it's already getting a little old after only seven weeks... Not a good sign if I'm going to make it to 52!  We really enjoy breakfast for dinner so I thought I would start including other types of recipes to my 'new meals' goal.

Blueberries were on sale last week so I bought a bunch and froze them.  I love to eat frozen fruits and veggies... and tater tots (Jeff thinks I'm crazy) so I've been munching on frozen blueberries all week.  This morning I figured I'd better make something with them so Jeff could enjoy some too before they are gone.  I've had the hankerin' for some blueberry muffins so I pulled out my trusty Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook to find a simple recipe. 

I found a basic muffin recipe that provided instructions on how to add various items like poppy seed, blueberries, cheese, etc and how to adjust the recipe if necessary.  Perfect!  I whipped these puppies up with half whole wheat and half white flour and had them done just in time for Jeff to go to work.  We thought they were simple and tasty, and a nice way to change up breakfast.

http://mcmitchells.blogspot.com/2012/02/fast-muffins.html

Dinner #6: Texan Ranch Chicken Casserole

I personally have not made this yet, but I found this in my mom's refrigerator while I was visiting her and it was stellar.  I had about 3 helpings for lunch one day...  This is a good freezable recipe, which is something I've been wanting to do more of.  My mom had made this ahead of time and my dad, or whoever was home, threw it in the oven.  It was seriously delicious - I'm pretty excited to make it for Jeff!
http://mcmitchells.blogspot.com/2012/02/texan-ranch-chicken-casserole.html

Dinner #5: Citrus Garlic Shrimp Pasta

I got this recipe off of the Mitchell Family blog from my sister-in-law.  I substituted chicken for shrimp and lime zest for the lemon zest because that's what I already had in my kitchen. :)  It was a very "refreshing" dish, as Jeff described it.  Good stuff! (And it made a ton - Jeff and both have leftovers for lunch... plus some)

http://mcmitchells.blogspot.com/2010/02/citrus-garlic-shrimp-pasta.html

Dinner #4: Easy Chicken Alfredo (w/ cottage cheese base)

I'm already falling behind and it's only been a month...
A couple weeks ago I made a basic alfredo sauce using a cottage cheese base (instead of cream cheese).  I had about a cup of cottage cheese that I didn't want to go bad so I went to allrecipes.com and typed 'chicken' and 'cottage cheese' in the ingredients list.  The following recipe is what I got:

Easy Chicken Alfredo (w/ cottage cheese base)

It's a "Lite" recipe and tasted good.  I don't know that I will make it regularily, but it was a great use for my leftover cottage cheese and it's always nice to have a lighter calorie alternative.

Dinner #3: Calzones with Rhodes Rolls

I've had several Rhodes Rolls coupons in my possession for a long while... like 2 years.  They were about to expire so I went to the grocery store and conveniently enough, Rhodes brand everything was on sale.  I stocked up!  Now we have hundreds of little frozen rolls so I've been trying new things with them.

These calzones were incredible.  We used whatever we had around as filling.  (Spaghetti sauce instead of pizza sauce, string cheese instead of shredded mozzarella, etc.)  They turned out fabulous - we've already made them twice!

http://www.rhodesbread.com/recipes/view/1587

Dinner #2: BBQ Jack Chicken

This was tasty chicken and cooked really fast, I was shocked.  It's only 3 ingredients, so simple! Jeff said he'd definitely eat it again. :)

http://mcmitchells.blogspot.com/2012/01/barbecue-jack-chicken.html

52 New Dinners in 2012

A friend of mine decided she was going to try one new meal each week last year and write about it on facebook.  I mentioned this to Jeff the other day thought it would be something fun for us to try this year! When we were living in Provo we tried to make something new at least once a month and it was very beneficial - many of those recipes are our weekly staples today. 
My goal is to make something new each week and write a brief post on how we liked/didn't like the meal.  If the recipes are deemed worthy to replicate for meals in the future I will post them on the Mitchell Family recipe blog which I've been meaning to contribute to more anyway!
With the first week of 2012 underway I have tried a new recipe and am ready to share...

Turkey (or Chicken) Pot Pie with Lion House Pie Crust
This came from a good friend of mine (different from the friend with this fabulous 52 dinners idea) from our new ward in Centennial.  (We've acutally already made this twice because it's so yummy... the first time was a couple days after Christmas and the second time... a few more days after Christmas, New Year's Day!)