Easy Cowboy Cornbread Casserole
I saw this recipe on Facebook last month and it’s been on my mind ever since. I’ve been waiting on the weather to get a little cooler since cool weather and cornbread go hand in hand! I’m pretty sure that this isn’t low carb, but sometimes you have to live a little! This was well worth the wait! Where has this been all my life!?
Ingredients:
Corn Bread
2 packages of Mexican Cornbread Mix
1 can of Cream Style Corn
Jalapeño slices
Eggs
Milk
Center
2 lbs Hamburger Meat
2 cans rotel
1 can Ranch Style Beans
Chopped onions
Bag of shredded Cheese
Brown the ground beef, drain the grease….add ro-tel, onions, and ranch style beans. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Make the cornbread according to directions on the back of the bag, add Can of Cream of Corn, jalapeños and half of the bag of cheese.
Grease the bottom of the 8×12 casserole dish. Pour half of the cornbread mix to the bottom of the pan. 
Add the meat mixture, then put the other half of the cheese on top.
Cover the meat mixture with the other half of the cornbread mixture.
Cook in the oven at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or until you can poke a toothpick in the middle and not get any mix on it.
Serve and eat!
Low Carb Burger
I’m still attempting to do a low carb diet, although the Labor Day Weekend set me back a little bit. I’m pretty sure Blue Bell ice cream has no carbs these days, so I may be ok! The best thing to do when you get off track, though, is to get right back on track.
The hard part of doing a low carb diet is that you really can’t have any bread. This usually means no comfort food like hamburgers. One of the worst things about eating a hamburger is that after you eat it, you feel all bloated because of all the carbs in the bread. Today was the day I decided to fix that problem. I thought I’d attempt to pair my low carb bread with a burger. I was so excited when it tasted MARVELOUS! I don’t think I’ll ever eat a burger on regular bread again. The low carb bread didn’t get all soggy or anything!!
I might also want to mention that I made the pre-made burgers from Krogers on my George Foreman Grill!! What a winning combination!
Ingredients:
Hamburger
Low Carb Bread
Cheese
Lettuce
Mayonnaise (This probably wasn’t a great choice, but I like mayonnaise)
Dallas ISD Chess Pie
Dallas ISD had the best cafeteria food in the 80’s. Almost everything was made from scratch. Even with the good food, I used to get a chocolate bar from Mr. Lancaster’s class and get two $.10 rolls with butter for lunch. Some of my favorite school cafeteria food, (when I ventured off from my lunch of champions), were Fiesta Salad, Rectangular Pizza, and Chicken Fried Steak!!! I even liked those fried fish squares with tartar sauce.
I think DISD was most famous for Chess Pie, but when everyone started to worry about childhood obesity, pies were off the menu. My friend, Flo, has been trying to recreate the recipe, and he thinks he has it!! Since this is a little more than my skills will allow, someone has to try to make this and let me know how it turns out!!!
Photo by The Merry Gourmet!
DISD Chess Pie
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons Cornmeal
1/2 Cup Melted Margarine
3 Whole Eggs
1 Teaspoon Vinegar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1/4 Cup of Milk
Mix sugar and cornmeal. Add melted margarine and mix thoroughly. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each. Add liquids and mix well. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until done.
Chicken on the Inside Grill
I started my low carb diet this week. The key to being successful is being prepared. I planned out what I would eat this week and made all my lunches on Sunday. I went and bought a George Foreman Grill at Target so I could have grilled chicken. The thing I like best about the George Foreman Grill is that it is built on an angle, so all the fat drains to a little cup that you put at the bottom of the grill opening. So far I have made sausage and chicken on the grill. Both have tasted great! I’m happy to say that the diet seems to be working, too. I’ve already lost 4 lbs! I don’t think I’ll lose that kind of weight each week, but it’s good to get some of that summer weight off!!!
Lemon Pepper Chicken
Ingredients:
Chicken
Lemon Pepper
Apply lemon pepper on the chicken generously and put it on the George Foreman grill until cooked!
Low Carb Bread
I’ve had a great summer so far. I’ve gotten to do a lot of fun stuff like the Perot Museum, George W Bush library, Arboretum, Katy Trail, Rangers Baseball Games, Swimming, Playing with the CUTEST two kids ever, and much more. All this activity has helped me to decide it’s time to go on a low carb diet. I say I’m going to try to lose weight every week, but today I actually bough the food to do it. I’m not really a bread person, but when I CAN’T have some type of food, that’s when I NEED it. I found this recipe on facebook, so I don’t really know who to credit.
No carb bread
6–8 depending on size.
Ingredients
3 eggs
100 grams (3.5 ounces) of cream cheese
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder or cream of tarter (can be excluded)
Separate the eggs, with the egg whites in one bowl and the egg yolks in another.
Whip the egg whites together with the salt until very stiff. You should be able to turn the bowl over without the egg whites moving
Mix the egg yolks and the cream cheese well. If you choose, 1tsp of cream of tarter or baking powder (this makes the Oopsie more bread-like).
Gently fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mix – try to keep the air in the egg whites.
Put 6 large or 8 smaller oopsies on a baking tray.
Bake in the middle of the oven at 150° C (300° F) for about 25 minutes – until they turn golden.
Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada Casserole
I haven’t posted a blog in a while! I have been so busy that I have gotten a little behind on things. I haven’t even been walking, which is really starting to affect my mood. I’ll get back going with that next week and maybe catch up on my blog. I actually have two more recipes to blog about, but since I made this one tonight and had my phone camera there, I thought I’d post a picture of this first!
This was supposed to be enchiladas, but I didn’t feel like making little rolls of chicken.
Ingredients:
Chicken (I bought a pre cooked chicken from Krogers)
Corn Tortillas
Chopped Onion
Green Chiles
Sour Cream (I used sour cream light)
Mozzarella Cheese
Colby Jack Cheese (only because I didn’t have enough Mozzarella Cheese to cover the Casserole)
Spray Pam on the casserole dish. Put corn tortillas all over the bottom of the dish. Put ripped up chicken on the tortillas. Spread chopped onions on top of the chicken. Cover with tortillas.
In a bowl mix sour cream and chiles. Cover tortillas with mixture. Top with cheeses. Place in the oven for 30 minutes at 350.
Taco Salad
One of my favorite places in Dallas is the Arboretum. This week, they had one of my favorite Austin bands, The Spazmatics playing at their Thursday concert. I was so excited when I saw they were playing that I bought tickets immediately. The Arboretum concerts are so much fun because you can bring a blanket, food and drinks and enjoy the music while overlooking White Rock Lake. Unfortunately, they announced that the Spazmatics weren’t going to be there because their plane had gotten delayed in Atlanta. Luckily, they found another band to play, the Metal Shop. This band was a hair band and they were so much fun. They had choreography and didn’t take themselves too serious. It was funny watching all the ladies rush the stage and dance to the 80’s hair band music. It ended up being a lot of fun, and the Arboretum said they would refund the money, so it was a fun-filled free evening for me!
This week, I decided to make a taco salad for dinner. It turned out pretty good and I think it’s pretty healthy.
Ingredients:
Lettuce
Hamburger Meat
Taco Seasoning
Cheese
Sour Cream
Salsa
Tomatoes
Onions
Italian Dressing
Brown the ground beef and add taco seasoning and water. Make sure to follow the directions on the back of the packet. 
Put Lettuce on a plate.
Chop the onions and tomatoes
Put meat on the lettuce.
Add sour cream, cheese, tomatoes and onions to the salad. Put Italian dressing on it for extra flavor.
Broccoli Chicken Casserole
Last weekend I ran in the Rock and Roll Half Marathon. I guess “ran” may be a bit of an exaggeration. I ran part of it. I ran for the first 2 miles and then I hit a real steep hill and had to walk to the top of it. I ran for another 2 miles and then had to take a bathroom break, (which is kind of gross when all you have is a port-o-let). After that I had to alternate walking and running in much shorter increments for the remaining 9 miles. I got a little added motivation to keep going at miles 5, 9, and 13 when I saw a very good friend cheering me on with a poster made especially for me with my favorite colors on it. Every time I thought I couldn’t go another step, I thought about how I would be seeing her standing there in just a little bit. I appreciated her being there more than she will ever know!! I kept all my miles, (except the bathroom break mile), at under 13 minute miles. I finished at 2:43:02. The last time I attempted a half marathon, I finished in 3:07, so I was pretty proud of myself. I love my medal. I want to start doing more races that give medals so I can start a medal collection. I’ve found lots of cool display frames for them, but it would look pretty silly with just one medal hanging there. This weekend I will be riding in the Tour Dallas, but no medals for that!! 
This week’s recipe turned out really good. It is low carb, so I’m hoping by eating it for dinner this week, I will start to lose some weight. I’ve put on a few pounds and I don’t want to let my weight get out of control!! I’m getting back on track with my food and my exercise!
Ingredients:
Rotisserie chicken (I guess you could cook you’re own chicken, but why?)
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
8 oz of cheddar cheese
1 bag of frozen broccoli
Sliced mushrooms (I bought them pre-sliced)
2 tsp of lemon pepper
Get a Rotisserie Chicken from the grocery store.
Put Pam in a 9 X 9 casserole dish and tear up the chicken for the bottom layer.
Put broccoli over the chicken.
Put mushrooms on top of the broccoli and sprinkle lemon pepper over the mixture.
In a bowl, mix cream of mushroom soup, half a can of water and about 6 ounces of cheese.
Layer the cheese/soup mixture over the chicken, broccoli and mushrooms. Put in the oven at 350 for about 45 minutes.
Pull out of the oven and cover the casserole with more cheese and put back in the oven for another 10 – 15 minutes.
Pull out of the oven and eat. This casserole was even better the next day!!
Jalapeño Spinach Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken
Not only was this a long weekend and Easter Weekend, it was also the first Monday of the month, which means Canton Trade Days was going on this weekend. I was looking on Facebook and saw a notice reminding me about the events in Canton and decided to take an impromptu trip out there to see what they had. I was so excited when I found some fun flip flop sandals for myself. They had a really good deal in one of the booths to buy two and get the third pair for a reduced rate. Since I really only liked two of the pairs they had, I bought the third pair for my sister. I think my favorites were the ones that I got her, but they didn’t have that style in my size. I’ve already worn both pairs I bought two times, and my sister wore hers for Easter brunch, so I’d say the trip to Canton was a success!!
The zebra ones next tot he pink flip flops are the ones I got my sister.
These aren’t the ones I bought my sister, but they are very similar.
I saw a stuffed chicken on pinterest and even though it looked a little fancy for my cooking skills, I decided to give it a try. It really was an easy recipe and I have to say one of the best things I’ve made. I’m pretty sure it’s all the cheese that is in the stuffing that made it taste so good. The only advice I have is to remember to take the toothpick out when it’s done cooking. I learned that one the hard way!!
Ingredients:
Chicken breasts
Block of Cream Cheese
Cheddar Jack Cheese
Spinach
2 Jalapeños
Garlic
Lemon Pepper
Paprika
I didn’t put any amounts because I just put in the amounts I liked. I only used 2 Jalapeños and I just put a spoonful of minced garlic that was already preminced from the grocery store.
Cut the jalapeños in to small pieces. I cut out all the seeds first. You can leave a few in if you like it kind of spicy.
Sautee the jalapeños and garlic in olive oil. This was way too much olive oil and I had to drain it. 
Add Spinach to the sauteed jalapeños and garlic.
Put cream cheese, cheese and sautéed spinach jalapeno mix in a bowl and mix it up.
It will look something like this. This is what you stuff inside the chicken.
Cut the chicken in half like a pocket. Do not cut all the way through.
Stuff the chicken and poke a toothpick through it to cook it through.
Top off the chicken with lemon pepper and paprika
Cook in the oven on 375 for about 45 minutes or until cooked through.
Again, DON’T FORGET to take out the toothpicks!!!!!
Crescent Roll Breakfast Casserole
I love getting to cook Sunday breakfasts for my family, but I want to find a way to mix it up a little. I ordered a waffle maker from Amazon.com, but it didn’t show up in time for me to make waffles. I looked online for another breakfast casserole and I found one that was very similar to the last one I made, but just different enough to make it something new. Luckily, I have 3 weeks until the next time I have to cook for everyone. I’m pretty sure my waffle maker will be here by then!!
Ingredients
12 eggs
1 cup of cheese (or more if you like a lot of cheese like I do)
1 tube of sausage
1 tube of crescent rolls
Salt
Pepper
Brown the Sausage
Put Pam on a casserole dish and then roll out the crescent roll on to the dish. 
Mix eggs, cheese, salt, and pepper in a bowl.
Put cooked sausage on the crescent roll.
Crescent Roll Breakfast Casserole
Pour the egg/cheese mix over the sausage
Bake on 350 for 45 minutes or until cooked through.
Fabulous after FIFTY 