Ham & Potato Breakfast Skillet

This is so fast, easy, cost-effective, and delicious... had to share it! Copy cat of Village Inn's breakfast skillets!

Ham and Potato Breakfast Skillet
6 potatoes
2 Tbsp butter
6 eggs
1 lb ham, chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies, drained
1 Tbsp minced onions
Seasoning salt, to taste
Salt & Pepper, to taste

In a large pan, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Dice the potatoes and cook them in the butter until golden brown, stirring frequently. Season with minced onions, seasoning salt, and salt and pepper.

Keep the heat on and stir in eggs. When the eggs are all cooked, throw in the ham. Dump the can of tomatoes with green chilies, mix in the cheese, and stir it all together till the cheese is all melted.

It does not take long and this meal will feed a lot of people for a lot of happy tummies! :)

Side note- try it with other kinds of meats too! I bet bacon or sausage would be delicious!

Homemade Rumbi Rice Bowls

This turned out great. Healthy, filling, delicious, and much cheaper than eating out at one of our favorite restaurants- Rumbi Island Grill! :) I'm excited about this new recipe! It tastes quite a bit like the restaurant version! I got the inspiration from Favorite Family Recipes. Mine's just a little easier :) Hope you like it!

Rumbi Rice
2 cups uncooked white rice
1 can coconut milk
2 1/2 cups water
1/2 Tbsp sugar
Vegetable oil
1 can red beans

Line the bottom of a large pot with oil. Stir fry the rice until it's coated and sizzling. Add the coconut milk, water, and sugar. Cover and cook until all the liquid is absorbed. Immediately remove from heat and stir in the red beans.

Teriyaki Sauce
1/2 C soy sauce
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 tsp ginger

Stir till sugar dissolves

Chicken and vegetables
1-2 lbs chicken breast
1 pkg frozen chopped veggies (I used broccoli stir fry)
Vegetable oil
Teriyaki Sauce (recipe above)

Cut the chicken into small pieces and cook with oil on a frying pan. When the chicken is cooked tender (easy to cut into), drizzle half of the teriyaki sauce on it and stir fry for a few minutes. Add the vegetables and stir in the rest of the teriyaki sauce. Cover and let simmer till the vegetables are thawed. Stir fry till they're cooked through. Remove from heat.

Combine the chicken and veggies with the Rumbi rice, and enjoy!

Crock Pot Hawaiian Haystacks

It's so easy, and you can make this meal as simple or as elegant as you want! Yum!

Crock Pot Hawaiian Haystacks
1 1/2 cups uncooked rice
2 cans condensed cream of chicken
1/2 package frozen broccoli
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Salt to taste

Optional topping ideas:
Chow mein noodles
Diced tomatoes
Coconut
Shredded chicken

Canned pineapple

Cook the rice with 3 cups water, and salt to taste, in the crock pot on High for about 1.5 hours. When the rice is cooked, add cream of chicken, broccoli, and cheese. Stir it together and set crock pot to "warm" until you're ready to eat it. Top it how you want, or eat it as is. Enjoy! :)

Chicken Bacon Florentine Pasta

I used the recipe from 5 dollar dinners. Here is my slightly adapted version. It was OH so delicious :)

Chicken Bacon Florentine Pasta
1 box penne pasta
2 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
5 strips of bacon, cut and cooked
10 oz package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
3 medium tomatoes, diced
1/4 C Olive oil
Dried Oregano, to taste
Dried Thyme, to taste
Dried basil, to taste
Salt and pepper, to taste

Cook and drain the pasta, then toss in all other ingredients. Serve warm. It was so delicious!

How to make the BEST Pasta Salad you've ever had!

Okay, here goes!  First, you get the crazy curly pasta.  I can't remember what it's called, but here's what it looks like:

Yup, that one.  You can get it at the grocery store, in a bag.

Anyway, then you boil it till it's tender and squishy, salt it and stir it while you boil it, then drain it when it's ready.  Then put it in the fridge until it's cool.

Chop up some Cheddar Cheese into little squares.  Chop some Broccoli.  Chop some Carrots.  Get some cherry or grape tomatoes.  Then add these ingredients to the noodles, mix it all up, and put a whole bunch of Light and Zesty Italian Dressing on it!  It is to DIE for!  Seriously.  The first time my mom made it, I was in Heaven.  And I've loved it ever since.  And it's my favorite thing to make!  It's so easy and, seriously guys, SO delicious :)  Yum!

Beef, Pork, Chicken, Mmmm!

Name that line!  Anyone?  Anyone?  Let me help you: Disney's.... Mulan!  :-)

So here's a poll:  which of those three meats is YOUR favorite?

I grew up on Pork Roast.  We had it every Sunday.  And then we ate chicken with just about everything else.  Then of course there was turkey and ham on the holidays, and the occasional barbecue of hot dogs and hamburgers.

But I realized the other day that none of those things is beef!  Weird!  Of course I have had beef before, but it was not something I grew up with much at all.  Anyway, I went to Lee's the other day to buy a pork roast, and all of their Pork Roasts were ginormous, and I was only cooking for two people.  So I looked over and saw Beef roasts!  I had never had a beef roast before, but decided to try it.

I am converted.  Totally, and fully converted.  Beef roast.  Why did I have such a shortage of beef in my childhood?!  I love it love it love it!  Brock pointed out that it makes sense that I love the beef roast more- at restaurants I always order the steak.  And I love ground beef so much in tacos and soup.  And Roast Beef is hands down my favorite lunch meat on a sandwich.  And hamburgers are just delicious.  Plus, beef is totally healthier than pork.

So there's my story of my conversion to Beef over Pork.  It is so delicious!  And now let me share with you the easiest way to cook a delicious roast!


Crock pot!!

Add some oil and some water, and put the roast in it.

Add a bunch of salt and pepper, and season the whole thing (I like Italian Seasoning the best).

Cook on low for longer time; that helps it cook more evenly.

So delicious!  You can also add red potatoes and carrots in the crock pot with it if you want to make a full meal out of it.  It is so easy and healthy and not very expensive and super tasty!  Bueno!

Chicken Burritos!

I was sitting in my kitchen pondering on what I could possibly make for dinner because I had not planned ahead and didn't want to drive to the grocery store.  So I decided to concoct my own recipe....  Chicken Burritos!

Boil chicken and then dice it.

Make Rice (if you want details on how to do it, see my previous blogpost entitled "How to Make the Perfect Rice") and make sure you include minced onions and salt.
Drain and heat up some black beans.
Mix some canned green peppers in with your cooked rice.
Heat up some Tortillas and put the above ingredients inside them.
Top with shredded cheese and heat up til the cheese melts.

It turned out delicious!  If I did it again, I would have added some lettuce and tomatoes, and put some cheese inside as well as on top.  Here's to inventing new recipes!  Hooray!

Chicken Enchiladas!

Last night's project.  Brock told me this is his very favorite thing that I make, so I feel comfortable bragging a little in saying I ROCK at making Chicken Enchiladas!!!

They are also super easy and they make delicious leftovers!  You've gotta try this recipe!


1 dozen Medium Flour Tortillas
2 cans Cream of Chicken Soup
1 pt Sour Cream

Mixture #1:
1 chicken (or about 5-6 breasts) boiled and diced
1 small can green chilies
3-4 cups shredded colby jack cheese (depending on how cheesy you want it!)

Divide Mixture #1 evenly into tortilla shells and roll up next to each other in a greased 9 x 13 pan.  Mix Sour Cream and Cream of Chicken and spread generously over the top of the tortillas.  Top with more cheese!  Cook 350° 30-40 minutes.  Ready to serve!

Secret time-saving tip:
Canned white chicken breast instead of boiling chicken is WAY faster and easier!  So if you're in a hurry, that's the way to go!

Enjoy!

How to make the Perfect Rice

Get out the frying pan and put it on the stove.

Chop some onions and sautee them in Corn Oil.

Add the rice and stir it around a bit, letting it fry until it's a light golden color.

Pour in warm water (careful- the steam will attack you!).  You don't need to measure it, just add it.

Cover it completely with a lid or a plastic grocery bag :)

When all the water is gone, test the rice.  If it is too crunchy, add more water and cover it again.

When the rice is the perfect texture (soft and chewy but not too gooey) add a bunch of salt.

Voila!  The perfect rice!

And if you want a real Nicaraguan meal, fry some red beans and add them to the rice.  Mix together...  and you have Gallo Pinto!  The famous meal that all Nicaraguans eat all day every day.  It is SO delicious.  Try it with some sour cream and some chips.  Mmmmm good!

Or, you can make ham fried rice!  Like I did last night!  Scramble some eggs, cut up some ham, add some peas, mix it all together with a bunch of Soy Sauce.  So easy and SO delicious.

In the Beginning.

So if any of you knew me at all in my Teenage years, you know that I have a lot of fun in the kitchen. I love to cook, experiment, come up with new recipes, and most of all make lots of messes. Until I fulfilled it in my first year of marriage, I had been working very hard towards my goal to be able to make cookies without spilling all over the floor... Needless to say, it was not my parents' favorite thing when I decided to cook!

But I still did anyway! And I was not good at it at all. Brock will testify to that. He can tell you about my cooking when we first got married :) It was pretty funny. But I have gotten soooooooo much better since then. In fact, I would call myself a fantastic cook! It is one of my joys in life.

As my 2011 New Years Resolution, I set a goal to cook at least 2 good meals every week. Then it would pretty much add up to 4 good meals because there's only two of us at home so we'd have plenty of leftovers!

And I am proud to say that it is now February 1st, and I have kept my resolution so far! Yay! Some of the highlights I've made: Chipotle BBQ Chicken Wings, Ham Fried Rice, Crock Pot Lasagna, White Chicken Chili, and Honey BBQ Ribs. All were brilliant successes and so delicious!

So as I was going about this resolution, I realized that pretty much all of my Facebook Status Posts were about food! First I thought, "How incredibly embarrassing!" But then, I decided it was awesome. And I want to make a blog about food. Oh, and by the way, my name's Aubrey. And here is my blog... about what happens when you give a girl a spatula. ;) Enjoy!