THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS BLOG PARTY #3 and Easy Homemade Macaroni & Cheese

THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS Blog Party #3

Thanksgiving Dinner & Side Dish Recipes

Now onto our 3rd week of this wonderful blog hop party. We now have 41 Pumpkin Recipes and 39 Thanksgiving Cookie & Treat Recipes for you to refer back to and use anytime you need them (I know I will be making plenty of them this holiday season). This week we will be collecting Thanksgiving Dinner & Side Dish Recipes. PLEASE make sure when you link up your recipe that it matches our theme and please don't forget to leave a DIRECT link back to this post so that all of the blog hoppers can see all the fun recipes. We don't want to have to delete anyone's linky for not following the rules. J

I am sharing one of our many Homemade Macaroni & Cheese recipes. I didn't grow up eating Macaroni & Cheese on Thanksgiving Day but one of my best friends has invited us to Thanksgiving the last few years and it is her tradition to serve Homemade Macaroni & Cheese. I think it's a wonderful idea and now this year I will be making Homemade Macaroni & Cheese with the cutest little turkey pasta I found over at World Market. My twins and her triplets LOVE Mac & Cheese, so they are my taste testers for this and many other recipes.

Our house loves Macaroni and Cheese, doesn't matter if it is homemade or out of the Kraft Macaroni Cheese box. It is our number one go to recipe and I have a few of our favorites to share with you in the coming months, so watch for them.



Easy Homemade Macaroni & Cheese

from a friend: Joleen

16 oz pkg Large Elbow Macaroni
16 oz of  Velveeta Cheese
1 stick of Real Butter
Lawry's Seasoning Salt

Cook macaroni to desired doneness. Melt butter and Velveeta Cheese on the stove top (until almost melted; can still be a little chunky). Heat oven to 350, once macaroni is finished cooking; drain and mix in the cheese sauce and put into a 9x13 baking dish and sprinkle Lawry's Seasoning Salt. Bake for approx 10 minutes.   This is such an EASY recipe that we LOVE.

Strawberry POMegranate Smoothie

I try to make my lovely teenage girls (haha, most of the time they are lovely, but they are 17 years old and yes I do have TWO of them, TWINS) smoothies once a week.  It is a nice change from the normal everyday breakfast. I wish, I wish I knew where I got this smoothie recipe from (If someone recognizes it, PLEASE let me know so I can give proper credit.) Anyway, it is one of our favorites. My girls are VERY VERY picky on their smoothies because they LOVE Jamba Juice, so if my smoothie does not measure up to them, then it's no good! We have just a few recipes that we use for smoothies and this is one of them. ENJOY and HAPPY SMOOTHIE DAY!!!

Strawberry POMegranate Smoothie

recipe author unknown

2 ripe bananas

8 oz Vanilla Yogurt

4 oz POM Wonderful Juice

2 tbsp honey

12 frozen or fresh strawberries

Place all ingredients in blender in order as they appear above. (we sometimes have ripe bananas that we have thrown in the freeze to preserve, these work just as well). Blend all the ingredients well until everything is nice and smooth (or leave it a little chunky if you'd like). Make sure that the honey has not stuck to the sides; if so scrape and remix. Pour into a glass and enjoy with a straw. Complete goodness!

This post is linked to: Real Food Wednesday

Shaved Parmesan Chicken & Lemon Creme

I am so excited to belong to the FOOD BUZZ family. If you have not checked Food Buzz, you MUST, I promise you will LOVE it. Many ideas, recipes and the perfect place for a Food Lover to go. You can sign up for free newsletters and such, create an account you can keep all your recipes saved and so many more fun things. So, don't forget to "FRIEND" me (Tina Hudgens) on Food Buzz and get ready to enter a whole new world of food recipes. I just LOVE the Today's Top 9, I look at them each day and come across lots of new blogs to follow.

Onto today's recipe: Yes, we do alot of baking around our house, but every once in a while we do actually need to eat a real dinner. I receive Your Homebased Mom emails everyday and see and read all of her posts and just love love so many things she finds (this blog was the VERY first blog I ever came across). Here is another recipe we found over at her site and of course we had to try it out. WOW, my kids even said WOW! With my 19 year old step-son moving in with us just a few months ago I have another food critic in the house.  So, when he says WOW too, then you know it's good. He caught on real quick as each day he appears from his room to see what I am making for dinner and then as we all sit around eat, vote, comment, discuss and decide if it's a keeper or not, he has strong opinions too. This meal was no different and I was the one who was like (yea it's good, nothing special, it's just chicken), and when ALL 3 of my teenagers were like WOW, I hope you are gonna make this again. I knew right then it was a KEEPER.  So the next time you have some chicken breast that you want to do something different with, I encourage you to give this a try. You will LOVE it and I am sure your family will too!

Shaved Parmesan Chicken & Lemon Creme

Your Homebased Mom

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 eggs, beaten with a tbsp of water
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Fresh mushrooms (we left these out)
1 tbsp capers (we left these out)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 lemons, juiced
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups chicken stock
Salt & pepper
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated (about 1/2 – 1 cup)
2 tbsp Olive oil
6 tbsp Butter, divided

Preheat oven to 350º and preheat a large skillet over medium heat with olive oil & butter. If using mushrooms, wash and slice them. Pound each chicken breast until flat and even, about 1/2 inch thick.  Season both sides with salt & pepper.

Grate or shave a generous amount (about 1/2 cup)of the Parmesan with a vegetable peeler or grater and add into the bread crumbs and toss together.  Save some Parmesan for the sauce. Using 3 plates or pie tins fill one with flour, one with beaten egg and one with bread crumbs with shaved Parmesan.  Lightly cover each chicken breast in each; flour first, egg second and bread crumb mixture last.

Place coated chicken breasts into a  preheated skillet with olive oil and melted butter.  Brown 2-3 minutes on both sides.  Remove from skillet and place into casserole dish.  Then place in preheated oven for 20 minutes.  Do not overcook or the chicken will be tough.

Add 2 more Tablespoons of butter and mushrooms into skillet and cook until mushrooms begin to brown.  Add capers and garlic to mixture.  Deglaze the skillet with the chicken stock & lemon juice, scraping the bottom of the pan.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  Add 2 more tbsp butter and the heavy cream. Mix together well and turn to low.  Simmer for 10 minutes or until sauce begins to thicken and will coat the back of a spoon. 

Right before serving sprinkle in some shaved or grated Parmesan and stir till it melts. After removing the chicken from the oven place on a serving platter.  Pour the creme sauce over top and serve.



TWO MORE DAYS TO LINK
to our Blog Party
Thanksgiving Cookies & Treats recipes:

"THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS"

This post is also linked to: Family Friendly Fridays, Flaunt it Friday, Hearth and Soul Blog Hop and Friday Favorites

Sloppy Joes



Friday at MOMS CRAZY COOKING "Recipe Only"

Enjoy this good ole' fashion classic!

Every Monday Blog Party,
don't forget to link up this week
Thanksgiving Cookies & Treats recipes at:

"THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS"

This post also linkes to: Gold Star Wednesday and Food on Friday

Avocado & Spinach Omelet

My girls love for me to make them breakfast everyday before school, if I just throw together a bowl of cereal or something simple. I see their sad faces and since my twins just turned 17 years old, I am cherishing every moment as I know these mornings are numbered and before I know it they will be off to college, then off to live without their mommy and I will wish that they were back at home. So, each day I wake up I really try to be creative and innovative in making them something healthy and special. They've had this 2 more times since I originally made it, we just vary the vegetables a little depending on what we have on hand. Enjoy this delicious colorful omelet and kiss those little kidlets before they grow-up! :-)

Spinach & Avocado Omelet

2 eggs

Handful of Fresh Spinach Leaves

1 Avocado

1-2 tbsp favorite cheese (we use whatever we have on hand)

(variations: this morning we used spinach and broccoli, be creative and enjoy)

Add a little olive oil in pan and then add in the Spinach Leaves cook for 3-5 minutes until done; remove from pan. Beat eggs with salt & pepper (we use Grandma's Homemade salt recipe), place eggs into the same skillet over medium heat; swirl with spatula, then let bottom set but not brown. Flip once and the add in spinach leaves, avocado and 1-2 tbsp of cheese, fold and let cheese melt. Serve & Enjoy!

This post is linked to: Foodie Friday and Friday Potluck