A Sweet and Lovely Start to Christmas

This recipe was actually one I made for Thanksgiving, it was such a hit, I was assigned to make it again for our family Christmas party today! I was asked to bring something with sweet potatoes and saw this super cute looking dish, which turned to be SO easy to make as well! Its a sweet potato casserole!

1. You'll need to cook the sweet potatoes so that they are mashable. If you peel them, cut them into pieces (about 1in.), cover with foil, then put them in the oven at 400ºf for about 30mins, just poke them with a fork to make sure they are soft and cooked. Take them out of the oven and place in a large bowl. Add to the bowl: 1 cup sugar, ½ cup butter, ¼ cup milk, 2 large eggs, a tsp of vanilla extract and ¼ tsp salt. Mix with a mixer until completely blended together.

2. Spread the mixture into a greased casserole sized dish. Preheat the oven to 350ºf.

3. In a smaller bowl, measure out 1¼ cups cornflakes, ¼ cup chopped pecans, 1 tbs brown sugar, 1 tbs butter that is melted. Mix it all together.

4. Pour the cornflake mixture on top in rows to make it look cute. Bake for 30mins uncovered.

5. Remove from oven and fill in the spaces between the cornflakes with 1 ½ cups mini marshmallows. Put it back in the oven and keep an eye on it until the marshmallows are toasted. Its usually around 15mins. And there you have it!

Ingredients: 4lbs sweet potatoes, 1 cup sugar, ½ cup butter, ¼ cup milk, 2 large eggs, a tsp of vanilla extract, ¼ tsp salt, 1¼ cups cornflakes, ¼ cup chopped pecans, 1 tbs butter, 1½ mini marshmallows. Orignal recipe from here.

♥ My camera focus wasn't working well, so I'm going to have to get it serviced. Bear with me in the meantime! I had to post this anyways because I liked it so much despite the pictures.♥ 

Easy Chicken Bake

This isnt at all my recipe. I found it on the box of stuffing I forgot to prepare for Thanksgiving. It just so happened when we had nothing to eat at home (one of those days) I had exactly the ingredients for this recipe! End results: so surprisingly good!

1. This is the stuffing box I had. It had three 30min recipes on the back, and this recipe is the first one.

♥ Special Guest: Siena (11months), My Kitchen Helper ♥

2. Measure out 1 1/2 cup of water 

(Preheat oven to 400°F)

3. Measure out 1/4 cup butter/margarine

4. Add the water and butter to a pot and bring to a boil.

5. Empty contents of stuffing package and mix with water/butter mixture.

6. Cover, remove from heat, and let sit for 5 mins. Then fluff with fork (this is what the package says! Happy fluffing folks!) Set aside for later.

♥ Miss impatient eating crackers ♥

 

7. You'll want to cut up 1 1/2 lbs of chicken breast. I love using scissors when cutting chicken because one, its kinda wierd, and two its fast! Knives will work just as fine here as well!

8. The recipe calls for frozen vegatables, a whole package, but I didnt have any, so I cut up some fresh ones and cooked them.

♥ Look who snuck in for an after school treat! Only good boys get ice cream before lunch! ♥

9. Next, you'll need 1 can Cream of Chicken Soup and 1/3 cup of sour cream.

9.5 Here is the meausured out sour cream. (I really liked this picture)

10. I add a can of corn too to go with the cooked veggies.

11. Put the cut up chicken, cream of chicken, sour cream, and veggies in a dish and mix together.

12. Pour mixture into a greased casserole dish.

13. Pour the stuffing on top of everything and pop into the oven. Reduce heat to 165°F for about 30mins (until chicken is done).

14. And DONE! Yum.

♥ A lovely reminder of the holidays all year round ♥

Noodle Casserole

This recipe was so perfect for an afternoon at home! You can half or 1/3 the recipe down if youre eating alone or just two people. It was originally an recipe for one, but I tripled everything to feed my husband, son and myself...of course, saving the leftovers for when the baby got up!

1. First you'll want to cook the noodles. I used a small bag of shell noodles which was about 1 1/3 cups.

2. Add noodles to boiling water and cook until almost done. Around 8mins.

3. Drain the water from the noodles and set aside.

4. In the same pot, because by now you should know I hate doing dishes (hehe), melt 3T of butter

5.  Stir in 1 tablespoon flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, pinch of pepper, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, and 1 1/2 cups milk. Whisk until its creamy.

6. Measure out 1 cup of cheddar cheese.

7. Add to pot 1 teaspoon mustard, 1/8 teaspoon of worschestershire sauce and hot sauce. Toss the cheese in as well. Once well blended incorporate cooked noodles as well.

8. Place in a baking dish and sprinkle the top with bread crumbs and more shredded cheese! Cook about 15mins. until cheese has melted.

♥ Enjoy!♥

Noodles and Cheese, Please!

Today, for our afternoon snack, I cooked up a homemade version of the classic : Mac n' Cheese!

1. Boil in salted water a medium amount of noodles. Once they are al dente, strain and set aside.

2. For this recipe you only need noodles, 1 can cheese soup and 1 cup milk for the main ingredients!

3. Mix noodles with cheese soup and milk, until noodles are completely covered. (I added bay leaf and paprika for flavor and color!)

4. Put all ingredients into casserole dish and top with breadcrumbs and shredded cheddar. Place in oven set to 350° for 25-30mins.

♥ This was my first time making this, and we loved it! The cream of cheese soup here in Mexico has red peppers in it which added great flavor ♥