Pasta e Fagioli (Pasta and Beans)

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can (any size, depending on how much you want) artichoke hearts, drained & chopped
• 1 can (28 oz.) tomatoes, undrained and chopped
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1/2 tsp dried basil leaves
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1.5-2 cups cooked ziti pasta
• 1 can (15 oz.) Cannellini Beans, drained
• grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. In skillet, heat olive oil. Add onion, garlic & cook until tender, stirring occasionally.
2. Stir in artichoke hearts, tomatoes and seasonings. Simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add pasta and beans. Heat thoroughly, stirring occasionally.
4. Stir in Parmesan cheese.

French Toast w/ Apples & Bananas

Make french toast any way you like.

We use eggs, milk, cinnamin, sugar & vanilla.

Fried Apples & Bananas recipe:


Ingredients:

• 1 apple, sliced into really thin wedges
• 1 ripe banana, sliced
• lots of butter/margarine
• sugar
• cinnamon

Directions:

1. Melt butter in skillet and cook apples until they are soft.

2. Add bananas, sugar & cinnamon.

3. Cover and cook until bananas are carmelized. Flip mixture occasionally.

Use as topping for pancakes, french toast, waffles, crepes or whatever else you'd like.

Lemon Lush (or any other flavor you want)

from the cookbook of Melody Olayan

Ingredients:

• 2 sm. boxes Lemon Instant Pudding (or any flavor you want)
• 3 C Milk
• 9 oz. Cool Whip
• 8 oz. Cream Cheese
• 1 C Powdered Sugar
• 1 C Flour
• 1 Cube Butter (softened)

Directions:

Crust--Mix flour, and butter. Pat into 9x13 pan. Bake 15 minutes @ 350, or until the surface looks dry. Let Cool. Note: I double the crust because I like it thicker.

Lush--Blend cream cheese, and powdered sugar until well mixed. Fold in 1 C cool whip. Spread over crust. Beat milk and pudding for 2 minutes. Pour over cream cheese mixture. Top with remaining cool whip. Refrigerate until serve. Add some decorative lemon peel curls, lemon wedge candy, yellow sugar sprinkles. or anything really.

**You can use any flavor pudding and then put any topping on that. Pictured above is Chocolate Lush with Heath Bar topping.

Cafe Rio Tacos

recipe from the cookbook of Erika Olayan

Cafe Rio Pork

Ingredients:

• 3-5 lbs pork loin or roast
• 1 1/2 cans Coke Classic (I use Caffine free diet coke & it tastes the same to me)
• 1C Sugar
• 7oz. can chipotle chilies in adobo sauce-or plain for a sweeter sauce (my SIL Janel uses enchilada sauce as an alternative & I like it because it's not spicy)
• 1 tsp dry ground mustard heaping
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp minced garlic

Directions:

Remove the chilies (throw away) from adobo sauce. Add all ingredients except pork in a blender. Rinse can of adobo sauce with coke to get all of the sauce out. Blend in blender until well mixed--place pork in crock pot and pour sauce over it. Cook for 4-6 hours on high or 7-9 on low. Turn roast over halfway through. Cook until tender and can be shredded, shred and put back in sauce.Eat with white corn tortillas!

Addictive Cilantro Dressing

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 C Sour cream
• 3/4 C Mayo
• 1 Bunch Cilantro
• 1 package Ranch Dressing Mix
• 4 Tbsp. salsa Verde
• 2 Cloves Garlic
• 1/8 tsp. Tabasco sauce
• 1 Juice of lime

Directions:

Just put it all in a blender and mix it all up.

Chicken Cutlet Sandwiches

My husband asked what I wanted for Mother's Day dinner and this is what I came up with.

Start with some yummy bread. This is asiago bread from Albertson's. Grill the bread with butter in a skillet.

Make some delicious chicken cutlets. Recipe found here. We also melted provolone cheese on our sandwiches.

Cook up some bacon for more yummy flavor.
Add these scrumptious peppers.

And whatever toppings you like.

The chicken takes awhile to cook depending on how much you decide to make. As you can see, I'll be having left-overs for lunch tomorrow! I already can't wait!!

Thanks hubby for the yummy dinner! I love me a good sandwich!

Cheeseburger Doritos

My husband LOVES Doritos and he likes trying new flavors. Since the chips were on sale he thought it would be a good time to try a new flavor, hence the following picture.

This seemed like a strange flavor to make into chips, but here they are. I just had to try them. Let me tell you, if you see this bag on the shelf and you are curious, just walk on by. This is one bag you could do without!! It tastes like Cheeseburgers alright, but that's not really a flavor you want on a chip. My husband says it tastes like Big Macs and pickle juice. I think they taste disgusting. With all that being said, my kids actually like them. Go figure cause they're the pickiest kids around :)

Roasted Pepper & Chicken Ciabatta Sandwich

This is what we had for dinner last night and I just had again for lunch today.

It was oh, so yummy!!!

First I cooked some boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a skillet with olive oil and this yummy seasoning.

This is the yummy garlic bread I used to make the sandwiches.

We added these scrumptious roasted bell peppers & other assorted veggies.

Of course there has to be some cheese on the sandwich too. This time I chose Gorgonzola. Have you had it before? It's super yummy!
This is the final yummy product. Enjoy!