Egg Salad for An Easy Lunch

I love good egg salad!  It's great on toasted bread, a crispy bagel or just a fresh leaf of lettuce (if you're cutting down on bread).  The way that I throw together my egg salad is very easy;  the most Time-consuming part of the process is boiling the eggs!  But, once you have the eggs peeled and chilled, this salad is very quick to make.  (It's great to have a container of this in your fridge for a fast lunch.)

1.  Use 2 forks or a pastry cutter to shred your boiled eggs-whites and yolks.

2.  Add 2 TBSP Miracle Whip Salad Dressing (no substitutions).  Then, 1 TBSP French's Yellow Mustard.  Mix Well.

3.  Finally, fold in a TBSP of sweet pickle relish.  Chill in the refrigerator.  Spread on sandwiches, toast, crackers or mound a scoop on a leaf of lettuce.  Enjoy!

Shirley's Taco Bake

Here's a recipe (that my mom originally gave me) that I've been making for my family for years!  It's perfect when you want something easy!

Shirley's Taco Bake

1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease a baking sheet that has edges.  Spread one can of refrigerated crescent dough and make a crust. Lightly dust top of crust with cornmeal.  Put in the oven and half-bake it.

2.  Take the crust out of the oven when it's puffy and light golden brown.  While your crust is resting, brown a half pound of ground beef (or turkey) and season with taco powder and a couple of TBSP of salsa (Mom uses a small can of tomato paste).

3.  When beef is browned and has simmered with the seasonings for a minute, spread over the crust.

4.  Top with finely-shredded cheddar/Monty Jack cheese.

5.  While baking at 350 degrees until the cheese melts, prepare your favorite taco toppings:  lettuce, chopped tomatoes, black olives, sour cream!

6.  Take it out of the oven.  Slice it up and let everyone stack their own toppings!  So easy😉

Halloween "Chicken Feed" for the Candy Dish!

With Halloween just around the corner, I thought I would show you a candy mix that I've made since our sons were little.  Every fall I make some of this for our candy dish and it magically disappears!

This mix is like popcorn...if a dish of it is sitting around, it's hard to pass up!  It's that mixture of salty and sweet that's hard to resist!  We call this item,"Chicken Feed"!

1.  Assemble your ingredients:  a bag of Brach's candy corn, a bag of M&M's (we like the candy corn-flavors for this), a can of salted peanuts or salted mixed nuts and containers or candy dishes.

2.  In a large bowl or other container big enough to mix the batch, dump your bag of candy corn.  Next, layer the nuts and then, the M&Ms.

3.  Mix gently, but thoroughly!  Put in candy dishes, treat bags...or just sit there and munch on it straight from the bowl!  Delicious!

Save That Bread! Toast Your Own Croutons!

Don't toss those few leftover slices of bread.  Toast them and make your own croutons!  It's so easy to do that you can be toasting the slices of bread while you're cleaning your kitchen or loading the dishwasher.

1.  Spread slices of any kind of bread in a single layer on cookie sheets that have been sprayed with olive oil.  Spray tops of slices with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with garlic salt or your favorite crouton seasoning.

2.  Toast in preheated 400 degree oven.

3.  Using a bread knife, cut bread into cubes.  Let cool.  Place in ziplock bags to store.

Chicken Carnitas in Your Slow Cooker

After a couple of end-of-summer trips to Texas and Mexico, I'm happy to be back enjoying the mild fall weather of NWA!  I got back just in time for my favorite season to begin. 

  I love the crisp air in the mornings when I walk Abbey, and although our leaves haven't really changed yet, I know it's coming!  It's time to pull out a couple of sweaters and jackets for that occasional cool day or early morning dog-walk!

  Around our house, the beginning of fall means searching for soup, chili and stew recipes for my slow cooker to "work on" all day.  What a great way to make your house smell wonderful. 

   I've got a Tex-Mex recipe for you that uses chicken in a tangy citrus/garlic sauce that cooks all day in your slow cooker, and then finishes under the broiler (to put a crisp edge on the meat before filling corn tortillas with it!). (Here are pictures of my process first and then the recipe). I found this recipe on ClosetCooking that I pinned to my board in Pinterest;  so glad that I saved this one!  Delicious!