Mexican Lasagna

Source:  The Newlywed Cookbook, Robin Miller

I received another large care package of vegetables from the garden – green peppers, jalapenos, Anaheim peppers, red onions, green onions, garlic – and I was trying to come up with a meal that would include several of these ingredients.  Something Mexican was naturally my first thought.  Enchiladas sounded good, but I didn’t feel like rolling all of those things up.  Ah ha!  That mexican lasagna!  It’s kind of similar to enchiladas, but it’s a lot easier to just layer everything together.  Yum! 

This dish used at least one of each of the vegetables!  Ah ha! Killing multiple birds with one stone.

Sprinkled some green onions on top and served with some homemade chips made from the leftover tortillas.  And some chili-cheese dip, I snuck a couple extra jalapenos in there too!  So. Good.  Yum!

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 cups sour cream (I used low-fat)

2 cups Mexican shredded cheese

½ cup salsa (I used 1 can of Ro-tel)

4 oz. can chopped green chilis (I used a small chopped green pepper and a small chopped anaheim pepper)

1½ tsp. cumin

flour tortillas (or you can use corn tortillas, I like flour better), cut into quarters or smaller

 

Preheat oven to 350°

Directions:

1. Boil chicken for 10 minutes or so until cooked through.  I season it with salt, pepper and garlic.  Cut chicken into 1 inch cubes.
2. Mix together the chicken, sour cream, 1½ cups of the cheese, salsa, chilis, cumin, and season with s&p if needed.
3. Spay 11x7 baking dish with cooking spray.  Layer some tortillas on the bottom, top with the chicken mixture, and alternate with tortillas ending up on the top layer.  Sprinkle remaining cheese on top. 
4. Bake for 30-45 minutes until bubbly.  You may need to cover it with foil to keep it from getting to brown.

Weekend in Iowa

We went to Iowa this weekend for my cousin’s wedding.  We had a great time, got to see lots of family I hadn’t seen since I was real little, and learned some Haman family history.  The whole southeastern corner of Iowa might as well be called Hamanville.

7 hour drive - I’m exhausted.  We took the Illinois route on the way up Friday and came back the Missouri way so we would have some different scenery both times.

I didn’t realize Iowa was such a pretty place and so different from Missouri.  I thought it was just flat like Missouri is, but the landscape literally changes into rolling hills at the state line!  Very pretty.  And it doesn’t even start to get dark until 10 o’clock!  It’s only 400 miles north of us…how does that work??

Well, that’s all I got for now.  It’s bedtime!

Windows!

Pretty breakfast room windows, it’s a little blurry.

Yeah!

Yeah! Look at our pretty roof!

It's finally done!  Sheesh that took FOREVER!

Color - Estate Gray

Windows will be here today or tomorrow. 

That's all for now!

A little more progress…

Still trying to finish up the roof so we don’t get any more water in the basement!  

  

Oh!  This little lift machine was so neat.  They rigged up some little feet on the end of the basket so it could lift sheets of roof decking up to the top so Adam and Brandon could put it on!  Pretty clever.

That’s all for now!

Memorial Day Cookout

MENU

Pork Steaks

German Potato Salad

Vidalia Onion Casserole

Orzo Salad

Broccoli Salad

Slaw

Fried Zucchini Sticks

Wheat Bread and Rolls

 

DESSERT

Banana Pudding

Mixed Berry Pie

Toffee Pie

 

Oops!  I guess I forgot to take any pictures of the desserts.  I was so full from the main course I wasn’t concerned with dessert!

This was a ton of food for 6 people, but it was all sooo good!

Vidalia Onion Casserole

From the kitchen of: Mom

(it’s the round dish in the back of the photo)

I have no idea where this recipe originally came from, but it has been in our family for a really long time.  It’s one of my favorites!  It almost tastes like a Bloomin’ Onion from Outback!

This is really easy to make, except it takes FOREVER to slice the onions.   Slicing them is the longest part, but then it’s a snap to put together.

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

5-6 Vidalia onions, sliced very thin

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

½ cup melted butter

1 tube Ritz crackers, crushed

¼ cup milk

 

Directions:

1. Place onions and a couple tablespoons of water in a large bowl and microwave for 5-6 minutes, to partially cook them.  Drain.
2. Mix onions, cheese and butter and put in casserole dish.  Sprinkle crushed Ritz on top and pour milk all over the top.
3. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
4. OMG YUM!

Orzo Salad

This is a copy cat recipe for J. Alexander’s Orzo and Wild Rice Salad.  I’ve never had the restaurant version, but everyone who has said it tastes just like J. Alexander’s.

This serves a LOT!  I recommend halving this recipe if you’re not feeding an army.  That’s a 4.5 quart bowl in the picture and that doesn’t include the other container in my fridge.  I made an extra large batch so I would have some to take to a cookout Sunday night and some for our family cookout Monday afternoon.  I still have a good amount leftover, so guess what I’ll be having for lunch all week!

Adapted from AllRecipes and cdkitchen.

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

2 boxes Orzo

2 packages Wild Rice

½ medium red onion

1 red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

1 can corn kernels, drained

3 green onions, chopped

½ cup currants (omitted because I couldn’t find them in the store)

2-3 garlic cloves, chopped

 

Dressing:

½ cup white balsamic vinegar

4 Tbsp. lemon juice

¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil

¾ cup canola oil

4 Tbsp. honey

2 Tbsp. dijon mustard

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 Tbsp. dried basil

S&P

 

1. Cook orzo and wild rice according to package directions.  Cool in refrigerator.
2. For the dressing:  Whisk together the vinegar, lemon juice, honey, mustard, garlic, basil, s&p. Slowly whisk in the oils.
3. Place all ingredients in a large bowl (including dressing) and toss well.