Cheeseburger Wontons

Looking for something to make for supper tonight, I turned to Pinterest, again.  Have I mentioned I love that whole deal?!  I was perusing the recipes I've pinned and came upon Cheeseburger Soup, originally found here.  While I was getting carrots out of the fridge, I spied some wonton wrappers I bought a few days ago with no particular purpose for them.  I thought, hmm, I bet I could turn this into something interesting.  I followed the first part of the soup recipe for the most part.  This is what I did.

1/2 lb. ground beef
1 med. potato, finely chopped
1/2 c. finely chopped carrot
1/4-1/2 c. finely chopped onion
1 T. minced garlic
1 cube beef bouillon (1 tsp. granules)
1 c. water
1/2-3/4 c. Philadelphia Cooking Cream, Santa Fe Blend
1/2 c. sliced green olives
shredded Cheddar cheese
wonton wrappers
salsa
sour cream

Brown ground beef; drain.  Meanwhile, add potato, carrot, onion, garlic, bouillon and water to saucepan.  

Boil until veggies are tender, then drain.  Add ground beef, veggies, olives and cooking cream to food processor and process until completely mixed and forms a paste.  I had originally planned on just breaking the stuff up into smaller pieces but my food processor is small and old and doesn't offer a lot of options so it ended up a baby food-esque paste.  However, I think this worked out better for the situation.  This is what it looked like.  A bit unappealing, I'm afraid.

I inadvertently left the cheese out so I added it in at the end.  I think that accident worked out well, too.  On each wonton wrapper, sprinkle a little cheese.  

Then top with a tablespoon of meat filling.  I thought I would need to wet the edges but it turns out I just folded the corners up and they stuck to the filling then I smooshed in the corners that were poking out till they made neat little pockets like this.

Place them on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or so, until wrappers are crispy and lightly browned on the corners.  The cheese will melt and kind of move up into the folds.  The amount of meat mixture I had made 28 wontons and there was about a spoonful left that I didn't stress too much about just snitching since the cookie sheet was full.

While they were baking, I mixed together some salsa and sour cream and after we had put a couple on our plates, I spooned some of that mixture on top to add a little moisture.  Here's the final product.

They were really good and I was pretty proud of myself for putting it all together. Donna said these were delicious and asked me to write the recipe down for her recipe box!  

***While these were super yummy, the next time I make them, I will make them as egg rolls or mini egg rolls using the wonton wrappers.  They look cute but they were really kinda of a pain to eat.  We ended up cutting them with forks but I had intended them to be finger foods.  Also, they were a little messy after the sauce was added.  I just think they'd be a lot easier in roll form.***

Ham and Broccoli Bake

This one comes from a sweet little old lady at church.  They're the best source for good recipes!  In classic Linda fashion, I cut this recipe in half but it still filled an 8 x 8" dish and was way too much for the two of us.  Lots of leftovers!  This is the original recipe.

20 oz. Frozen chopped broccoli
1/2 c. Chopped onion
1 T. butter
2 cans Cream of celery soup
1 soup can Milk
1 c. Shredded Cheddar cheese
3 c. Cubed ham
2 c. Minute rice
1/2 T. Worcestershire sauce

Cook broccoli, drain well.  In saucepan, cook onion in butter (do not brown).  Mix soup, milk and cheese. 

 Add broccoli, onion, ham, uncooked rice, and Worcestershire sauce; mix well (It seemed as though it might end up a little dry so I added an extra splash of milk.  Transfer to greased 9 x 13" casserole dish. (I used an 8 x 8" because I cut the recipe in half.)

Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for45-50 minutes or until rice is cooked.  

It turned out nice and creamy and so good.  We served it up with some corn on the cob and grapes on the side.

Chicken-French Fry Wraps

Yesterday, I had a BIG grocery shopping day.  I have really been enjoying Pinterest and all of the recipes it offers so I stocked up with plans to make many of the goodies I have found recently.  I got home from school this morning with intentions of making Chicken Teriyaki only to realize that I had put ALL of the pineapple I bought and chopped into smoothie packs even though I was pretty sure I needed some for something else, namely Chicken Teriyaki.  This left me with nothing for supper and now it's lunchtime and I have no ideas for lunch either.  Dona reads for two hours everyday during the summer and I had an hour of her reading time left to whip something up.  

I looked through the freezer and found chicken patties and french fries for recipes I plan to make in the near future.  I remembered having a wrap a couple of years ago with breaded chicken in it which I thought was really weird until I tasted it.  Yum!  And I thought, well, why not some potatoes in there, too?  So, I grabbed them and some Philadelphia Cooking Cream and set off to make lunch.  This is what I came up with.

Flour tortillas

Philadelphia Cooking Cream, Santa Fe Blend

Tomato, sliced and cut into strips

Shredded Cheddar cheese

Chicken patties

French fries

Bake the chicken patties (any chicken would work, really.  I just used the patties because I had them on hand) and French fries (I used seasoned ones).  In the meantime, spread some Cooking Cream on each tortilla.  Sprinkle some cheese down the center of each and lay slices of tomato on both sides of the cheese.

When the chicken (if you are using chicken patties, cut them into strips) and French fries are cooked, Place chicken on top of the cheese and the French fries on both sides of the chicken.

Then, just wrap the edges up around the filling .  Stick a toothpick in there if you need to to keep it closed until time to eat.  We rounded ours off with half an apple and some Nutella to dip it in.  

These turned out to be a little dry.  I could maybe have made the Cooking Cream a little thicker.  Donna, my 10 year old daughter noted, however, that the tomato makes them a little juicy.

After the big storm that ripped through here on June 29, I learned that Nutella is like magic with apples.  We often dip apples in peanut butter but I get Smuckers natural and it has to be refrigerated.  I pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to make it spreadable.  However, we were without power for 4 1/2 days and without the microwave, peanut butter with our apples was not going to happen unless I set it out on the porch (it was around 95 every day) to soften up in the heat.  I spied the jar of Nutella on the counter and not wanting to wait as long as it would take for the peanut butter, I decided to give it a try. Oh my goodness, we have never been so grateful for not having electricity!  Delish!

Cheddar Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta

I found this recipe on Pinterest and tried it last night.  It's pretty good the first time around, not great for leftovers.  One thing I try to do since I'm only feeding my daughter and myself is cut recipes in half.  A lot of recipes are 4 servings and as a portion control practice, I often cut recipes in half.  I didn't do that this time because the recipe calls for 1 chicken breast and I buy them in bulk and freeze them.  I didn't want to have half a chicken breast laying around.  We don't eat a lot of chicken, so I thought I'd just use a whole breast and be done with it.  The original recipe comes from justapinch.com.  I often take pictures of new recipes I make but I didn't this time.  Last night when I was cooking, it didn't even occur to me that I would be writing this today.  I promise to do better in the future.  There is a nice picture on justapinch.  The first time I make a recipe, I usually make it as it's written but I did make some minor changes with this one.  This is my adaptation of the original recipe.

1/2 lb. pasta (any shape, whatever you have on hand)
4 slices bacon
1/2 T butter
1 lg chicken breast
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 T chopped onion
1 T flour
1/2 pkg. (1/2 oz) dry ranch dressing mix
1 c. milk
1/2 - 1 c. shredded Cheddar cheese

The original recipe calls for frying the bacon in a skillet and retaining 1/2 tablespoon drippings to fry the chicken in.  However, I buy bacon in bulk at a local store and bake it.  I then chop it and freeze it using my Foodsaver.  I have seen many people on Pinterest doing this as well. I have seen that those people are laying the bacon directly on a cookie sheet.  I lay the bacon over a rack on top of a cookie sheet.  This keeps the bacon up out of the grease that drops off.  The bacon comes out crispy and delicious and wonderful.  I pour the drippings into a can with a lid and refrigerate it for moments like this.  When a recipe calls for bacon drippings, I can just scoop some out of the can and use it.

So...

I popped some bacon in the microwave to warm it up (out of the freezer).    Cook the chicken in a little bacon grease (just enough to keep it from sticking to the pan) until no longer pink.  Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to package instructions.  When it's done, drain it and keep it warm.  Remove the chicken from the pan and cut into bite-size pieces.  Return to the pan and add bacon, garlic and onion.  Turn the heat back on around medium and stir the contents around a little to warm it all up.  Combine flour and ranch and sprinkle over the contents of the pan, stirring to evenly coat.  Pour in milk and stir occasionally until thickened and bubbly.  Add cheese and stir until melted.  Add the pasta and stir to coat.  Serve individual servings with an extra sprinkle of crumbled bacon.

My 10 year old daughter, who is not really picky but knows what she likes, said this was awesome!

Reintroduction

So...I first started this blog as a kind of online diary, a way to vent but after a particularly bad weekend with the people I normally have bad weekends with, I have changed my mind and decided that I don't want to vent about it.  I don't even want to think about it.  Therefore, I'm going to write about what I love instead of what causes me pain.  This will be a collection of recipes I've tried (or hope to try) pictures of my garden and flowers, crafts that my daughter an I do together.  I hope you enjoy what you see and come back often to see what we're up to and use our ideas to make yummy, crafty things of your own.

I will say I believe anyone can cook.  All you have to be able to do is read.  A lot of my recipes are adaptations of recipes I've found online or in cookbooks or magazines.  I always make a recipe by the recipe the first time and then add or subtract ingredients to tweak the meal to our personal tastes.  You should feel free to do this, too.  Words on recipe cards are only ever a hand to hold on the road to yumminess.

Having said this, I will also note that I do make some minor adaptations to recipes the first time around.  Every time I fry a pound of ground beef, I add half an onion, chopped and a good scoop of minced garlic out of my big jar.  This is something I'm hoping to remedy in the near future.  I'm a beginning gardener and I'm hoping in a couple of years to have my own home grown garlic to mince.  When I have it on hand, I also throw in half a cup of green bell pepper and around half a cup of celery.  I'm not a BIG fan of green pepper but I'm trying to like it more. Celery is basically tasteless when cooked but adds veggie goodness.

Also, I'm mildly allergic to mushrooms so you probably won't find any here.  If mushrooms are in a recipe, I simply leave them out.  When a recipe calls for cream of mushroom soup, I replace it with cream of chicken or more often cream of celery or broccoli.  I have found that sometimes cream of chicken can be a bit overpowering.

My daughter and I love, love, love broccoli so you will most likely find a good deal of that here.  So, again, I hope you enjoy.  Please ask me questions if you have them and I will do my best to answer.  I am by no means a great chef but I do love food and I think I know a lot about it.  I like to help others with their own culinary greatness, too.  Leave me comments, too, I love to talk about food!