Chili Cheese Dogs

Ingredients:

Hot dogs

Bun

Chili

Cheese (I'm a big fan of Kraft processed stuff!)

Directions:

Warm the hot dogs. Place them in a bun.

Warm the chili. Place a piece of cheese on the hot dog, cover with chili.

Verdict:

This is a quick meal for the days you don't feel like cooking! (Which was exactly the case today!) Quick, easy, and delicious! Scott had a genius idea to cook the hot dogs on the george forman and they were really good!

Ratings:

Ashley: 8.5 belches       Scott: 7.9 grunts       Payton: 10 wags

Lemon Chicken

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts

6 tablespoons lemon juice

1 lemon

1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Directions:

Dry chicken with paper towels. Pour 2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice over chicken.

Shake chicken in a ziplock bag with salt, paprika, and flour until coated. 

Brown chicken in a frying pan in oil (1 tablespoon).

Put into crockpot.

Mix brown sugar and 3 tablespoons lemon juice. Pour over chicken.

Cover with thin lemon slices and cook on low for 2-3 hours.

Verdict:

Barf.. this meal was just plain out awful!! WAY too lemon tasting. I don't even know if it would be good with less lemon juice.. it just was too strong tasting. We both scraped the breading with all the lemon flavor off, til it was just plain chicken.. I was not impressed with this meal at all and I don't suggest anyone try it!!! Unless you like eating meals that taste awful, then go for it! The recipe says for those craving pure lemon juice rather than the bottled stuff I used, if you squeeze 1/2 a lemon you'll get about 2 to 3 tablespoons of juice. Probably will be just as nasty with real lemons though! Very disappointing meal! At least the twice baked potatoes were good...

Ratings:

Ashley: 3 belches       Scott: 3 grunts       Payton: 10 wags

Mushroom-stuffed Chicken Breasts

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts

Sliced mushrooms

2 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons cream cheese (softened)

1 teaspoon garlic salt

1/2 cup water

1 can (10 oz) cream of mushroom soup

Directions:

 Make a large slit in the widest portion of the chicken breast to form a pocket.

Saute mushrooms in butter until soft.

Stir in cream cheese and garlic salt.

Stuff chicken breasts with the mixture.

Place breasts in crockpot.

Stir water into soup and spread on top of each breast.

Cook on high to 4-6 hours or low 6-8 or until cooked through.

Verdict:

This meal was really good! Left overs were great too! We are big fans of mushrooms so this meal was perfect for us!! I wasn't quite sure how to cut the pockets into the chicken, but it all worked out in the end. The recipe I got this from said the filling should serve 6 people.. so 6 chickens. We ended up using almost all of it between our two chickens, so maybe double it if you are planning on feeding more, or just put less in each chicken. This is one I'll cook again.. once I can start repeating recipes!

Ratings:

Ashley: 8 belches       Scott:  8.9 grunts       Payton: 10 wags

Teriyaki Steak

Ingredients:

 Thinly cut steak (1 per person)

Teriyaki marinade (I used kroger)

2 zucchini squash

1 package sliced mushrooms

1 onion

3 tablespoons butter

Garlic powder

Directions:

 Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat.

Cut zucchini and onion into bit size pieces.

Add zucchini, onion, and mushrooms to buttered skillet.

Sprinkle with garlic powder and pour in some teriyaki sauce.

Cook vegetables until soft.

Cut steak into bite size pieces.

Place meat in a skillet, add teriyaki sauce and sprinkle garlic powder.

Cook meat over medium heat until cooked through.

Verdict:

 Delicious! We served it with rice and were full to the brim after. Sometimes when we have delicious meals like this one Scott gets mad at the rules of the blog because he wants to repeat the good meals. He'll just have to wait! We really couldn't get enough of this dinner!! It was pretty easy to cook too!  

Ratings:

Ashley: 9 belches       Scott: 9 grunts       Payton: 10 wags

Glazed Pineapple Chops

Ingredients:

 4 pork chops (boneless)

1 bottle brown sugar BBQ sauce

1 can (8 oz.) crushed pineapple (undrained)

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

Directions:

 Mix BBQ sauce, crushed pineapple, cinnamon, and mustard.

Put pork chops in the crockpot and pour BBQ mixture over them.

Cook on high for 4-6 hours or low 6-8 hour or until cooked through.

Verdict:

 We really liked this one! We added some pineapple slices that we grilled on a frying pan and it tasted delicious with the meat. The meat was really tender, it cooked really nice. Overall, a really good and easy dinner to make.

Ratings:

Ashley: 8 belches       Scott: 8.5 grunts       Payton: 10 wags

BBQ Chicken

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts

BBQ sauce

Directions:

Put chicken in a crockpot.

Pour BBQ sauce on top of chicken.

Cook in the crockpot on high for 4-6 hours or low 6-8 hours or til chicken in completely cooked through.

Verdict:

BBQ chicken is a great american dinner.. however, when it's cooked in the crockpot it's not so great. It ended up being really dry and didn't cook well. It's a good meal idea if you want to make it in the oven or on a grill. When we make this next year, we'll do one of those options, crockpot is out!!

Ratings:

Ashley: 6 belches       Scott: 5 grunts       Payton: 10 wags

Chicken Curry

Ingredients:

Chicken Breasts (I used 3)

1 onion

1 jar thick and chunky salsa

2 Tablespoons curry 

1 cup sour cream

Directions:

Put chicken in the slow cooker.

Combine the onion, salsa, and curry and pour on top of chicken.

Cook on high for 5 hours or low for 8 to 10 hours. 

Take chicken out and add sour cream to crockpot.

Add sour cream and mix til well blended.

Pour over chicken. 

Serve with rice, or steamed veggies, or both!

Verdict:

This was an easy meal to put together (I did it in about 3 minutes becuase I was in a hurry!). I've never had curry so I don't have much to compare it to, but it wasn't Scott's favorite curry that he's had. I don't think I would cook it again to be honest.. it just wasn't something I loved. It's not that it was bad, just not great either. The picture looks a little on the vomit side.. but it does taste better than it looks, I'll at least give it that much.

Ratings:

Ashley: 7 belches       Scott: 6.3 grunts       Payton: 10 wags

Tacos

Ingredients:

 1 pound ground beef

1 package taco seasoning

Cheese

Lettuce

Tomatoes

Salsa

Hard shell taco's

Directions:

 Brown ground beef in a skillet til there's no pink.

Drain grease and add taco seasoning as directed on package.

Fill hard shell taco with meat and other toppings as you desire!

Verdict:

 Just a good, easy, normal meal. It's not something to rant and rave about, but they are good! Scott likes to put ketsup on his.. I guess you learn something new every day right? We had some chips and salsa to go with the taco's. It was a nice dinner! The only downfall is trying to find a hard shell that won't crunch and fall apart while you eat it!

Ratings:

Ashley: 8 belches       Scott: 8.9 grunts       Payton: 10 wags

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Ingredients:

Spaghetti noodles (I use angel hair)

Italian sausage

1 egg

1 jar traditional ragu sauce

Directions:

Cook noodles as directed on package.

Mix egg and sausage in a bowl. Make small meatballs.
Place meatballs in a skillet and rotate until cooked through. 
Add sauce and heat til warm.

Verdict:

Classic dinner! My meatballs ended up a little lopsided.. and not round at all. They tasted great though!! I'm a big fan of angel hair pasta but really noodles are noodles so use whatever your heart desires. This is a quick easy dinner for days that you don't have much time to cook. Leftovers are just as good as day one... until you spill them on the floor like I did.. then they aren't so good anymore.. Oops!

Ratings:

Ashley: 8 belches       Scott: 6.6 grunts       Payton: 10 wags

Mushroom Artichoke Chicken

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts

Artichoke heats in oil (14 oz.)

Sliced mushrooms

Alfredo sauce

Sliced toasted almonds

Directions:

Cut chicken breasts into small bit size pieces and place in crockpot.

Add mushrooms, artichokes, and pour alfredo sauce over the top.

Cook on low for 4-6 hours, or high 6-8 hours or until cooked through.

Serve on rice and top with toasted almonds.

Verdict:

Not great, not gross.. Probably not one that we'll make again. The chicken was a bit tough.. and really there was nothing special about this meal. If you are feeling the need to try something new you could try it, but there's nothing spectacular about this dinner.

Ratings:

Ashley: 6.5 belches       Scott: 5.5 grunts       Payton: 10 wags

Beef Brisket

Ingredients:

2-3 pounds beef brisket

3/4 cup red wine vinegar

3/4 cup brown sugar

Directions:

Combine red wine vinegar and brown sugar.

When mixed, pour into a crockpot. Add brisket (fatty side up).

Cook on high 5-6 hours, low 7-8 hours or til meat is cooked through.

Verdict:

This was a really good meal. We served it with Worcestershire or BBQ sauce and both were really good. I came home from the grocery store with a huge chunk of meat because I was too nervous to ask the butcher to cut the brisket down, so I bought 6 pounds worth (we split it into 3 chuncks and froze 2). It does shrink down a lot when it's cooked but one third of that chunk was plenty of meat for Scott and I. In my opinion it tasted pretty much like roast, so I would say cut down the cost, since brisket isn't cheap, and just buy a roast. However, the meat was very tender and absolutely delicious!!

Ratings:

Ashley: 8 belches       Scott: 10 grunts       Payton: 10 wags

Pizza

Ingredients:

Dough:

1 package (.25 oz) active dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup warm water

2 1/2 flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tsp salt

Marinara sauce

Mozzarella cheese

Cheddar cheese

toppings of choice

Directions:

Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let it sit until creamy (10 minutes)

Add flour, salt and oil. Beat til smooth. Let it sit for 5 minutes.

Flour a flat surface and roll dough out flat and round. 

Grease a pan and place rolled out dough on it. 

Add marinara sauce, cheese, and other toppings.

Cook in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes at 450 degrees.

Verdict:

Way fun to make! I thought homemade dough and pizza might be a long, difficult process but it wasn't at all!! It was really easy! I liked that I didn't have to let the dough rise for hours, so it was a pretty quick process! The idea was to each have one half to put what we wanted on... but the pepperoni's ended up being a bit expired so we combined what we had (pineapple, canadian bacon, and olives). Go getters would probably make their own marinara sauce, I just used Ragu traditional and it worked wonderfully! The dough recipe also called for corn meal to dust on the pan so the dough won't stick.. I didn't have corn meal and just used some good old pam and had no problems! The pizza we made turned out pretty big (Scott's guessing 15 inches). It was a bit of a messy one with the flour all over the counter, but the meal was it was a lot of fun and ended up being really delicious!! However.. leftovers tasted awful! The crust was super soggy so eat it all the first night!

Ratings:

 Ashley: 8.5 belches       Scott: 8 grunts       Payton: 10 wags 

Spicey Wingers Sauce Salad

String Cheese Marinara Manicotti

Ingredients:

 Manicotti shells

Italian sausage

1 onion

1 green bell pepper

1 clove garlic

1 jar spaghetti sauce

string cheese

1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese

Directions:

 Cook manicotti according to package directions.

Saute italian sausage, chopped onion, and chopped bell pepper in a large skillet.

Cook until sausage is no longer pink. Drain fat. Add spaghetti sauce.

Spread half of the meat mixture in a greased 9 by 13 pan.

Stuff each cooked shell with a string cheese.

Place on top of meat sauce and top with remaining sauce.

Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top.

Backe for 25 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Verdict:

 This meal was ok. Nothing great, nothing awful.. just a usual pasta dish. I wasn't a fan of the texture of the string cheese.. it didnt' melt much and just wasn't what I was expecting. We each had 2 manicotti and were full. I don't know that I liked this meal enough to want to cook it again.

Ratings:

Ashley: 4 belches       Scott: 6.7 grunts       Payton: 10 wags

French Dip Sandwiches

Ingredients:

 Roast beef (I used slices from the deli)

Swiss cheese

Submarine rolls

1 package au juice

Directions:

 Cut submarine roll in half. Place desired amount of roast beef on roll.

Top with swiss cheese.

Place in the oven and broil til cheese melts.

Make au juice as directed on package.

Verdict:

 This is another quick and simple meal. Our submarine rolls ended up a litle crunchy because we toasted them first, then added the meat and toasted again, so I suggest only toasting once. I do need to thank Scott for cooking this one. I had a busy day and he helped out by cooking dinner. For a quick, easy meal this wasn't too bad!

Ratings:

Ashley: 7 belches       Scott: 8 grunts       Payton: 10 wags

Chicken Enchilada Soup

Navajo Tacos

Ingredients:

 Rhodes rolls

Vegetable oil

Chili (I used Nalley's)

Olives

Salsa

Cheddar cheese

(and for dessert scones.. honey butter!)

Directions:

5 hours before you want dinner set out Rhodes rolls to thaw.  

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat for 5 minutes or til hot.

Stretch out thawed rolls, and set into oil to cook.

Flip over after a few minutes to brown both sides.

Remove from oil and top with chili, cheese, olives, salsa and whatever else you like.

Verdict:

 This is a fun dinner because everyone gets to make whatever they want really. Scott likes thick scones, I like thin... You put what you want on it.. it gives you some options. This is another dinner that for some reason I'm just not a fan, but Scott likes it and I'm not repeating dinners.. so I gotta use all the options I can. I topped most of mine with honey butter (so much better that way)! Also, the oil temperature is a bit tempermental. If it's too hot you'll have to turn the scones really fast or they'll burn, and if it's not hot enough the rolls will soak up the oil and be nasty. The oil should bubble and sizzle when you place the scone in if that helps. Also tongs are helpful when it comes to flipping the scones!

Ratings:

Ashley: 6 belches       Scott: 8 grunts       Payton: 10 wags

Hawaiian Haystacks

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts

1 can cream of chicken

1 can pineapple chunks

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup milk

La choy chow mein noodles

Cooked rice

Directions:

Cut chicken into bit size pieces and cook on a skillet til done.

In a small saucepan heat soup and milk til it boils. Drain pineapple chunks.

Put rice into individual bowls and top with desired amounts of chicken, soup mixture, pineapple chunks, and chow mein noodles.

Verdict:

This is a safe classic dinner. It's a meal everyone enjoys. We had no complaints about it and were stuffed to the brim after dinner. I like how easy this meal is to put together. It took hardly any time and was delicious.

Ratings:

Ashley: 8 belches       Scott: 8.2 grunts        Payton: 10 wags