Sweet n' Sour Chicken

3 pounds chicken breasts (approx. 16 chicken tenders)
1 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 beaten egg
6 Tblsp. flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup chicken stock
3 1/2 Tblsp. ketchup
1 Tblsp. soy sauce

Cut up chicken, sprinkle with garlic salt & pepper.  Let stand for one hour or more.  It's almost always too late for me to do this by the time I'm trying to cook dinner, but it still tastes good if you don't let it sit for this amount of time.  The flavor is more strong if you do.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Dip chicken pieces in beaten egg, then get it good & covered with flour.  Brown in hot oil.  Place in greased baking dish.  Mix sugar, vinegar, chicken stock, ketchup and soy sauce in a saucepan.  Heat & pour over chicken.  Bake uncovered for 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Serve over hot, cooked rice.

Another recipe from The Recipe Society.  This dinner was sooooooooooo YUMMY!!!!!  If you're ever craving Chinese, but don't want to pay the price for it, this is a recipe I've found that tastes just as good (if not better!) than the sweet n' sour chicken that you can order from any Chinese restaurant.  Tyler raved about this dinner.  He's never been so excited to take leftovers with him to work the next day for lunch!  :)  You have GOT to try this, especially if you love Chinese food!!!

Stuffed Hot Dogs

This is one of the easiest, quickest, satisfying dinners to make on my list. All you need are hot dogs (however many you & your family members want to eat per person), prepared mashed potatoes and cheddar cheese. Slice hot dogs down the middle, stuff with mashed potatoes and top with shredded cheese. Place on a cookie sheet covered with tin foil and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until hot dogs are cooked and cheese is melted.

This recipe has been in my family for generations. When my Grandma was a little girl (on my Mom's side of the family), she remembers going to visit her grandmother Emily all the time. One night, Grandma Emily wasn't expecting company, and she apologized to my Grandma about not having anything special to give her for dinner. When it was time to eat, this was what she served. My Grandma couldn't believe how great it tasted. Grandma Emily had come up with this idea all on her own, and we've had it many, many times both while I was little, and now my kids get to eat something that was invented by their great-great-great grandmother. Both my kids LOVE these. We had them for dinner again last night & Aubrey had two whole hot dogs because one wasn't enough to satisfy her! :) I highly recommend these to everyone because they're so fast, easy, and kids just love 'em. :)

Poppy Seed Chicken

4 chicken breasts
2 cans cream of chicken soup
8 oz. sour cream
1 sleeve Ritz or Town House crackers, crushed
1/4 cup butter
3 Tblsp. poppy seeds

Cook chicken & cut into bite-sized pieces. Place in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Mix together soup and sour cream and pour over chicken. Melt butter, add crushed crackers and poppy seeds. Stir to combine, then sprinkle over soup and sour cream mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes until bubbly. Serve over rice.

Here's another recipe that I found on The Recipe Society food blog. This was soooooooo yummy!!! Tyler cleaned his plate in nothing flat when I served this earlier this weekend. The kids were a little skeptical because of the poppy seeds, but they still ate it without complaining. I only buy chicken tenders because they're more kid-friendly, so for this recipe I cooked 8 of them. I also prefer Town House crackers over Ritz. I've tried a few other poppy seed chicken recipes over the years that Tyler & I have been married, & this one is definitely my favorite.

Baked Parmesan Chicken

2 cups crushed Ritz crackers or bread crumbs
3 Tblsp. grated Parmesan
Dash of garlic salt
8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup butter, melted
8 oz. sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup

Combine cracker crumbs and cheese. Dip each chicken breast in yogurt to coat, then dip into crumb mixture. Arrange in greased 9x13 pan. Drizzle with melted butter. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes. Serve with sour cream/cream of chicken sauce (all you need to do to make this is to place both ingredients into a saucepan & heat) and rice.

I got this from The Recipe Society. The first time I made it I served it with mashed potatoes. Tyler really liked the potatoes with it but I prefer the rice with the sour cream sauce. Last night I served this with steamed broccoli & it made the entire dinner even more yummy & satisfying. Both of my kids never complained; their plates were both clean by the time dinner was over. :)

Strawberry Walnut Breakfast Cake

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup margarine, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
18-oz. strawberry preserves
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

Combine cream cheese, margarine & sugar in a large bowl; beat until light and fluffy. Add milk, eggs and vanilla; mix well and set aside. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to cream cheese mixture and blend until smooth and batter is stiff. Spread half the batter evenly in a greased and floured 9x13 pan; spread preserves over batter. Add remaining batter in dollops over preserves. Sprinkle with walnuts and brown sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Cut into squares; remove from pan while hot. Serve warm or let cool on a wire rack. Makes 12 servings.

This is another recipe I found in my Gooseberry Patch casseroles cookbook. I usually make some type of hot breakfast on Saturday mornings since Tyler doesn't really like having cold cereal every morning, so I decided to give this recipe a try. Surprisingly, it was really good. I didn't add any walnuts because I don't like adding nuts into anything that I bake, but it was still really good & our kids asked for more when they were finished! :)

Peach Cobbler

1 or 2 large cans peaches (depending on size of cans)
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. lemon juice

Mix and turn into a square baking pan.

1/3 cup margarine
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
3 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt

Cream margarine and sugar. Add egg and milk. Combine dry ingredients and to milk mixture. Mix thoroughly. Drop the batter by tablespoonfuls evenly over the peaches. Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until light brown. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

This is the BEST peach cobbler recipe I've ever tried!

Turkey & Pasta Bake

6 cups prepared penne pasta *
2 cups cooked turkey, cubed
2 cups plum tomatoes, coarsley chopped & drained
8 oz. container cottage cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
4 green onions, sliced *
1 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried oregano *
1/3 cup dry bread crumbs
2 Tblsp. dried parsley

Combine pasta, turkey and tomatoes. Spread in greased 9x13-inch pan; set aside. In a small bowl, combine cottage cheese, cheddar cheese, onions, basil and oregano. Mix well. Spread over turkey mixture, smoothing with the back of the spoon. Toss bread crumbs with parsley and sprinkle over top. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Serves 6.

This is a fantastic way to use up leftover turkey. I found this recipe in my Gooseberry Patch casseroles cookbook. I really needed to use up leftover turkey from earlier last week. It was really tasty & Tyler told me to make this again. Both of our kids loved it too. Now, for my little changes for this recipe. Instead of penne pasta, I used macaroni, because it's the easiest pasta for my kids to eat, and instead of plum tomatoes I used sliced grape tomatoes. I didn't think that 8 oz. of cottage cheese was nearly enough to cover the entire top of the casserole, so the next time I make this I'm going to use 16 oz. Tyler hates green onions, so I didn't add those in, and I didn't have any oregano so I used ground sage in place of that. Anyway, I can't recommend this recipe highly enough. I'm also going to try & be better about posting pictures with every recipe. Enjoy! :)