Six Can Chicken Tortilla Soup

This recipe is one of my favorite winter crock pot meals.  

You'll be glad you made it.  Enjoy!

Adapted from AllRecipes. 

A friend of mine let me have this recipe that her husband had made the night before.  I'm all about quick and easy meals and I knew this one would work perfectly in the crock pot.  It was also a chilly week, so soup ended up being the perfect dinner! Her husband made a few changes to the recipe, which are in red below.  I threw this baby in the crock pot on low for 4-6 hours.  ENJOY!

Ingredients

• 1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 2 cups of shredded chicken 
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans
• 1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers, drained
• 2 cans of cream of chicken soup 

Directions

I used rotisserie chicken that was already cooked.  I threw everything in the crock pot and cooked it for 4-6 hours, stirring a few times along the way. 

French Toast Casserole

Recipe from Pillsbury

This casserole is our new Christmas morning tradition. 

 Ah-mazing!

INGREDIENTS

French Toast Bake

1/4

cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, melted

2

cans (12.4 oz each) Pillsbury® refrigerated cinnamon rolls with icing

6

LAND O LAKES® Eggs

1/2

cup heavy whipping cream

2

teaspoons ground cinnamon

2

teaspoons vanilla

1

cup Fisher® Chef's Naturals® Chopped Pecans

1

cup maple syrup

Garnish

Icing from cinnamon rolls

Powdered sugar

1/2

cup maple syrup, if desired

DIRECTIONS

1Heat oven to 375°F. Pour melted butter into ungreased 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish. Separate both cans of dough into 16 rolls; set icing aside. Cut each roll into 8 pieces; place pieces over butter in dish.2In medium bowl, beat eggs. Beat in cream, cinnamon and vanilla until well blended; gently pour over roll pieces. Sprinkle with pecans; drizzle with 1 cup syrup.3Bake 20 to 28 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 15 minutes. Meanwhile, remove covers from icing; microwave on Medium (50%) 10 to 15 seconds or until thin enough to drizzle.4Drizzle icing over top; sprinkle with powdered sugar. If desired, spoon syrup from dish over individual servings. Serve with the additional 1/2 cup maple syrup.

Candy Cane Punch

Recipe found on Pinterest.  Originally from Taste of Home. 

My mom and I made this punch for our annual Christmas Eve party.  My picture is definitely not as pretty as the Taste of Home picture, but the punch was definitely just as delicious.  I'm sure of that.  This will be a traditional drink on Christmas Eve from here on out! 

Ingredients

• 2 jars (10 ounces each) strawberry jelly
• 2 liters lemon-lime soda, divided
• 2 quarts peppermint stick ice cream
• Miniature candy canes, optional

Directions

• In a large saucepan, melt jelly with 2 cups soda.
•  Chill the jelly mixture and remaining soda. 
• Just before serving, place 6 cups ice cream in a 
• punch bowl.
•  Gently stir in jelly mixture. 
• Add remaining soda. Add remaining ice cream by scoopfuls. 
• Garnish with candy canes if desired. 
• Yield: 3-1/2 quarts. 
• 
  

10

Zesty Chicken & Pasta

Recipe courtesy of Kraft Foods

A delicious and healthy dinner.  

what you need

1 pkg. (8 oz.) fusilli pasta, uncooked (I used whole wheat penne)

1/2 cup  KRAFT Light House Italian Dressing, divided

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 cups  small broccoli florets

1 large red pepper, chopped

1 small  onion, thinly sliced

1 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

1/4 cup  KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese

make it

COOK pasta as directed on package, omitting salt.

MEANWHILE, heat 1/4 cup dressing in large skillet on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook and stir 5 min. or until done. Add vegetables and parsley; cook 5 min. or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.

DRAIN pasta; toss with chicken mixture and remaining dressing. Top with cheese.

Nutella Cookies

This recipe comes from Tasty Kitchen.  I LOVE Nutella.  I add it to my cream of wheat, love it on bananas, etc.  When I found this recipe with so few ingredients, I had to give it a try.  I made Nutella cookies last year, but these are much better!  You'll definitely want to add these to your Christmas cookie platters! 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Nutella
• ½ cups Sugar
• 1 cup All-purpose Flour
• 1 whole Egg

Preparation Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Blend all ingedients together well. Form into 1″ balls. Place on a cookie sheet. Press down firmly with the bottom of a glass. Bake 7-8 minutes or until set. Cool.

Hot Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats

Thank you to Pinterest for another fabulous sweet treat!  I love making rice krispie treats for my class.  They are very easy to make and take no time at all.  A few weeks back I saw hot chocolate rice krispie treats on Pinterest.  I decided to give them a go for our Polar Express movie day.  I didn't follow a recipe, I just winged it.  

I followed the directions on the box for regular rice krispie treats.  When the marshmallows were melted, I added a packed of hot chocolate.  I mixed the hot chocolate with the melted marshmallows.

   

Then I poured in the 6 cups of rice krispie treats.  After the marshmallows were mixed with the rice krispies, I added another half of bag of mini marshmallows.  I lightly mixed these in because I didn't want them to melt.  I packed them into a well greased 13x9 baking dish and pushed it down with the bottom of a glass.  After they were cool, I cut them into pieces.  They were a hit with my students.  Enjoy! 

Pampered Chef- Chocolate Peppermint Cups

While at Target at the beginning of December I came across peppermint icing.  I love peppermint and was eager to try this new (to me) icing.  I'm obsessed with making these little bite sized cups for all gatherings (you may remember the red velvet, halloween, or snickerdoodle).  They are so quick to make and so very easy.  I actually make them at all of my Pampered Chef shows.  Knowing you can't go wrong with a peppermint/ chocolate combination, I decided to use chocolate cake mix to create these bites.  The peppermint icing isn't too strong and paired perfectly with the cake mix to create a one bite dessert that I couldn't stop eating!  ENOY! 

Ingredients: 

Chocolate Cake Mix

1 egg

1/2  cup (or 1 stick) melted butter

1 tub of Peppermint Frosting 

Mini Tart Shaper 

2-3 Candy Canes

Directions: 

1. Melt your butter, add the cake mix and then the egg and mix together in the classic batter bowl. 

2. Once you get your  dough, simply scoop it into a greased mini muffin pan. using the small scoop.  

3. Bake at 350* for 8-10 min (until light brown)

4. When your cups come out of the oven they will be slightly brown, spray your mini tart shaper with cooking spray to help them not stick and press down the center of each cup. 

5. Once all the tops are pressed down, move the bites to a cooling rack.

6. Once the cups have cooled, fill with peppermint frosting using the easy accent decorator.   

7.  Using the food chopper, chop the candy canes into small pieces

8.  Sprinkle the candy cane pieces on top of the icing.  

ENJOY!

*Use any cake mix and frosting combination for a variety of sweet treats!

Yields: 30 bites 

Pringles Containers Cookie Jars

I'm always looking for creative and inexpensive ways to package gifts (especially cookies) over the holidays.  A while back, I saw these Pringles containers turned cookie containers on Pinterest.  I knew they would come in handy over the holidays. So, for the past few months I've been buying and eating Pringles when they go on sale.  I was able to save a few containers for gifts this season. I rinsed out the containers a few weeks before I used them. After that, I just used one sheet of scrapbook paper for each container.  They had to be trimmed down a little.  I just measured the length of the container and used a paper cutter to cut it evenly. From there, I glued the paper to the container, wrapped the rest of the paper around and glued the other side down.  To finish it off, I just added a little bit of ribbon.  If I had more time, I would have attached a little gift tag. I love how they turned out and will definitely be saving them next year as well!