Loaded Cauliflower
Now that I’ve booked my cruise, it’s time to start eating more healthy. I’ve tried low carb before and it really seems to work, so I’ll try it again. I found this recipe on Facebook, and it kind of reminded me of loaded cheese fries, but with cauliflower instead of fries. I can’t find the website where I found this recipe. When I find it again, I’ll add the originator’s website. This was SOO good. I WILL be making this again!!
Ingredients:
1 large head of Cauliflower cut into bite size pieces (approx 6 cups)
6-8 strips of bacon cooked and crumbled (Cooked in oven at 400° for 20 mins)
6 Tbs chopped Chives
1/2 cup Mayonnaise
1/2 cup Sour Cream
2 cups Sharp Cheddar Cheese
8 oz container sliced mushrooms
Jalapeños to taste (optional) (I only put it on half)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425°
In a large pot steam the cauliflower for about 10 minutes.
In a large bowl combine sour cream, mayo, 1/2 of crumbled bacon, 3 tbs chives, 1 cups of cheese,mushrooms, and cauliflower. Place the mix in a baking dish and cover with remaining 1 cup of cheese, chives, and rest of bacon crumbles. Bake for 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted.
Black Eyed Peas with Hog Jowls
Happy New Years!! My mom always would make us Black Eyed Peas for the New Year. It’s about the only thing she cooks all year and it gets the year off to a good start!! My mom is the only person I know that puts lentils in her Black Eyed Peas. I looked it up and Lentils on New Years is an Italian custom and since she is Italian, that makes sense!! Both Black Eyed Peas and Lentils are eaten as a symbol for good luck and prosperity! I really want both, so this year I decided I was going to make my own Black Eyed Peas!
Recipe:
8 ounces Hog Jowls
2 cups of Black Eyed Peas
1/2 cup of Lentils
Pico De Gallo (I got this pre-made from Krogers)
1 can of Rotel
Pinch of salt and pepper
Tsp of sugar
1st step: Pick through the Black Eyed Peas and then soak them over night. 
2nd step: Boil the Hog Jowls for about an hour. 
Using the same water, add in the black eyed peas, lentils, and rest of the ingredients and simmer with the lid on for 2.5 hours or until the peas are tender
Jalapeño Sausage Balls
This is a year of creating new Christmas traditions!! My new German Shepherd puppy, Kaizer, finally has all of his shots and is able to go to places that other dogs go. First stop on Christmas morning was to take him to the Katy Trail for a walk. While we were out, we noticed that the Katy Trail Ice House had the fire pits going, so after our walk, we went and warmed up by the fire. I’m not sure if they were open on Christmas day, but they were nice enough to come build a fire and leave water for all the people who exercise on the trail. Kaiser absolutely loved being out there and greeting all the other dogs. We have hereby renamed the Katy Trail to the Kaizer Trail and the Katy Trail Ice House is now the Kaizer Trail Ice House.
After the walk on the Katy Trail, we went home and made Jalapeño Sausage Balls. They were so delicious and will be how we start off all of our future Christmas mornings!! They are SO easy to make and they are SOOOOO good!! I wasn’t sure I’d like the jalapeño in them, so I made half with peppers and half without. From now on I will make them ALL with the jalapeños!!
2 Cups of Bisquick
1 Cup of Cheese
1 lb of browned sausage (I prefer the Hot)
Diced Jalapeños to taste
Combined the ingredients until all the Bisquick is mixed together and there is no dry flour. Roll the mixture in to small balls and put on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 20 – 25 minutes until brown.
Campout Chicken Taco Soup
Instead of dealing with all the drunks out on the road for New Year’s Eve, I decided to head out to Lake Tawakoni and go camping. I guess I should use the word “camping” lightly, because going in a travel trailer isn’t exactly roughing it! In fact, a lot of people actually LIVE in their travel trailers. I stayed at the Sunset Resort; I think 99% of the people who were there actually live there. My two favorite parts of the trip were starting a campfire each day and cooking out, not that I cooked over the campfire or anything.
One of the best things I cooked was a Chicken Taco Soup. I’m not sure why, but everything tastes better when it’s cooked outside, even if you use regular kitchen utensils like I did. This crockpot soup was made ALMOST entirely from cans so it was really EASY!! Not only that, I bought all generic cans, so it was really cheap!
- 1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (15 oz.) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (14.5 oz.) can petite diced tomatoes, drained
- 1 (15.25 oz.) can sweet corn, drained
- 1 (10.75 oz.) can cream of chicken soup
- 1 (10 oz.) can green enchilada sauce
- 1 (14 oz.) can chicken broth
- 1 packet taco seasoning
- 1 Shredded Rotisserie Chicken
Pour all of the ingredients in the crockpot, cook on high for as long as you want. I think I had it on for a couple hours. Stir it occasionally.
Garnish it with chips, shredded cheese, sour cream, or anything else you can come up with! This was delicious!!! I will probably even make this for dinner at home!!
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!
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.
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!!
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.
Rolo bites
My mom’s idea of cooking for the holidays is ordering all the food, picking it up, then bringing it to the party. That can get really expensive, so my sister and I said we would make the food ourselves this year and she could pay us. We were only (half) joking about the pay us part… We did manage to make my corn casserole, green bean casserole, stove top stuffing, and these rolo bites on our own and everyone seemed to love it all! My sister also made a turkey and a ham, but I can’t claim that I helped with that at all.
It was extra exciting this year because it SNOWED on Christmas in Dallas. The weatherman said that it hadn’t snowed in Dallas on Christmas for 83 years. I’m so glad my niece and nephew got to have that experience, even though they probably won’t remember it since they are so young.
Ingredients:
Pretzels (the waffle looking ones work best)
rolos
pecans
m&m’s
Put the pretzels on a cookie sheet, put a rolo in the center of the pretzel and put in the oven at 250 degrees for 4 – 5 minutes. 
Add an m&m or a pecan on the top of the semi melted pretzel/rolo.
Put in the fridge for about twenty minutes or so to cool them off. Put on a plate and enjoy!!
Italian Lemon Chicken
I love an easy recipe! I think this could be the easiest one I’ve made yet. I put the Italian Lemon Chicken in the crockpot and when I got home, the house smelled SOOOOO good!!! Once I ate it, I found out that it tasted just as good as it smelled!!!
Ingredients:
1 cube of butter
3 lemons (juiced)
2 packages of Italian Dressing Mix
Chicken
I threw all the ingredients in the crockpot. The chicken was even frozen.
Crockpot was on high. I was surprised that there was a lot of juice in the crockpot after cooking it a few hours. Chicken is done when it hits 170 degrees. It took about 3 – 4 hours.
YUM! Seems like I should have thought to make a vegetable or something to eat with my chicken…but I guess I will have to learn how to do that another day!
Fabulous after FIFTY 