Pot Roast

I didn't get a picture of this (yet) but it was definitely the best pot roast that I've ever made in the history of pot roasts that I've attempted to make - therefore, it must get recorded. 

Pot Roast 

Source: Recipes that Crock

Ingredients:
2-3 lb beef roast
5-6 potatoes, peeled and quartered
3-4 medium baby carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 medium onion, quartered

2 pkgs brown gravy mix
2 c water


Directions:
Spray your crock pot with cooking spray. Rinse roast and brown in a hot frying pan for a couple of minutes on each side to brown. Place roast in crock pot, fat side up. Surround the roast with potatoes, onions and carrots.
Mix together one brown gravy packet with 1 c cold water and pour over the roast and veggies. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours (total). 

An hour before serving, mix together the remaining brown gravy mix and 1 c cold water. Pour over roast and veggies. Cover again for the last hour of cooking.

Mini Burritos

These were such a fun appetizer. I loved them! We took them to a party and they disappeared in minutes. I also think that I will be making them frequently for kids lunches/dinners. They are the perfect size for little hands. Plus, I almost always have these ingredients on hand.
Mini Burritos = Success! 

Mini Burritos
Source: The Girl Who Ate Everything

Ingredients:
1 1b ground beef
½ small onion, diced finely
1 packet (1 oz) taco seasoning mix (Chili Powder, Onion Powder, Garlic Salt, Cumin, Paprika)
3 tablespoons water
1 (15 oz) can refried beans

3/4 cup cooked rice (optional)
3/4 cup salsa
1½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 package flour tortillas for burritos (10 tortillas; 8 inch)
butter for basting
Toppings: sour cream, guacamole, salsa


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large skillet, brown the beef and onion until beef is no longer pink.
Add the taco seasoning and 3 tablespoons of water. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the refried beans, rice, salsa, and cheese.
Quarter each flour tortilla with a pizza slicer making 4 wedges from each tortilla. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of meat mixture onto the wide part of each tortilla. Fold the sides in and roll up towards the small end creating a mini burrito. Place burritos on a cookie sheet. If preparing ahead of time cover and refrigerate until serving.
Brush burritos with melted butter if desired. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until burritos are warm.

Add your favorite toppings such as sour cream, guacamole, and salsa.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Wraps

So here's the deal with cooking new things. Sometimes you find something awesome, like these chicken cordon bleu wraps. Sometimes you serve your family food that you don't even want to eat, even though the pinterest picture looked delicious. (I'm looking at you, Honey Curry Chicken.) The goal in my life is to have more of the former meals than the latter. We make a lot of things that we know and love, and by trying new things a couple of times a week, I'm slowly adding to that list. This meal is definitely going into the rotation. And as long as you have the ingredients on hand (swiss cheese and ham aren't things I always have) this is a super quick fix for a delicious dinner!

Chicken Cordon Bleu Wraps
Source: Taste and Tell

Ingredients:
½ cup miracle whip
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1 tablespoon honey
3 cups cooked, shredded chicken
6 (6-8 inch) flour tortillas
9-12 slices Swiss cheese
6 oz deli sliced ham

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the mayonnaise, mustard and honey. Stir together and season lightly with salt and pepper. Add in the chicken and stir to coat.
Heat an electric skillet to medium heat. Spray lightly with cooking spray. Heat the tortillas in the microwave for 10 seconds or until pliable. Place 1 to 1½ slices of cheese down the center of each tortilla, followed by 1 oz of ham. Add about ½ cup of the chicken mixture, then roll up the tortilla.
Grill the wraps, seam side down until warm and until it has light to medium grill marks. Flip over and cook the second side until the wrap is warmed through and the cheese is melted.
Serve warm.

Italian BMT (Subway)

The Italian BMT is one of my favorite sandwiches to get when eating at Subway (right below the Grilled Chicken with Ranch dressing). This Italian classic is filled with salami, spicy pepperoni, and ham. As I was making this recipe to post, I searched out what BMT actually stands for. Turns out that the acronym BMT stands for Biggest, Meatiest, and Tastiest. (lame!) However, in the early days of Subway restaurant history, it was a promotion that was based on the Brooklyn Manhattan Transit system in New York City that went along with the subway theme. (I love things like that.) 

If you are looking for a spicy, hearty sandwich, this fits the bill!

Italian BMT

Source: Subway Restaurant Knock-off

Ingredients:

4, 6-8" loaf soft sandwich bread, like this Italian Sandwich Bread
4-6 ounces sliced sandwich pepperoni
4-6 ounces salami
4-6 ounces sliced Ham
8 slices provolone cheese
1 tomato, sliced thin
4-8 leaves green leaf lettuce

Dressing of choice

Directions:
Slice the bread in half length-wise. Add the meats, cheeses, tomato, and lettuce. Top with dressing of choice. Secure the bread with toothpicks and cut into eight equally-sized sandwiches.

Italian Sandwich Bread

The recipe for this said it was a French Bread recipe but turned out to be more like a delicious loaf of Italian Bread perfect for sandwiches. I made some yummy Italian BMT sandwiches and felt like we were eating at Subway. The bread was the perfect addition.  

*Note: The rising time for this is SO long. I pretty much halved all of the rising times because I was in a hurry. The loaves turned out pretty heavy, but still tasty. If you plan the time to let everything rise I'm sure it would be lovely and fluffy. But if you don't have the time, know that you can shorten rising time and it will still turn out decent. 

Italian Sandwich Bread
Source: Food.com

Ingredients:
1⁄4ounce dry active yeast(1 packet)
1⁄4cup warm water
1⁄4teaspoon sugar
1cup hot water
1 1⁄2tablespoons granulated sugar
1⁄2tablespoon salt
1⁄4cup oil
2 1⁄2-3cups all-purpose flour


Directions:
Dissolve yeast, warm water, and sugar in a small bowl.
In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine hot water, granulated sugar, salt, and oil. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour to the mixture in the large bowl/mixer and mix well. Stir in yeast mixture.
Add 1 – 1 1/2 cups more flour and mix until well blended. (At this point your dough will still be quite sticky). Leave in bowl and let rise for 1 hour, mixing a few strokes a couple of times during the hour.
Divide dough into 2 (or 3 if you want smaller loaves) pieces. Roll out each piece on a floured surface into the length desired then roll up length wise like a jelly roll.
Put on a greased cookie sheet, sealed side down, and tuck the ends under. Slash the top diagonally across the top every couple of inches with a sharp knife. Brush with egg white. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Let loaves rise 30 more minutes.
Bake for 25 - 30 minutes.

Ranch Chicken Enchiladas

Anyone who knows me really well knows that my mom's chicken enchiladas are pretty much my favorite food in existence. Covered in white creamy goodness and loads of cheese... mmmm.  I usually scoff at all other enchilada recipes, because hello - if I'm going to make enchilada's, I'm going to make those ones. However, I came across this recipe and thought they looked delicious. They have a yummy flavor combination and in all honesty - are much healthier than my favorite enchiladas (stuffed with cream of chicken soup and sour cream). I'll definitely make them again! (I also like that you can cook the chicken in a crock pot, or you can use pre-shredded chicken to make this really fast! Plus I always have these ingredients in my house.



Ranch Chicken Enchiladas

Source: The Recipe Critic

Ingredients:

3-4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
Chicken taco seasoning (2 tsp chili powder, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion salt, 1 tsp cumin)
1 package ranch dry salad dressing
½ cup bottled ranch
½ cup salsa
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 can chicken broth
1 package white flour tortillas

Instructions
Prepare chicken.  Option 1: Cook in the slow cooker with the ranch packet, taco seasoning and, chicken broth on low for about 3-4 hours. Option 2: Combine seasonings with already cooked and shredded chicken, omitting chicken broth. 

Mix the ½ cup of ranch and ½ salsa in a bowl. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray and spread a very thin layer of the mixture on the bottom.
Assemble the enchiladas by putting 2 Tbs of the ranch and salsa mixture on the bottom of tortilla, and layering shredded chicken and sprinkling with cheese before rolling it up.
Line up the enchiladas in the 9x13 pan and top heavily with the cheddar cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and enchiladas are heated through.
Drizzle the top with ranch and enjoy!

Greek Chicken Gyros

I was feeling adventurous and wanted to try some different flavors than I normally do. I really liked this, although the tzatziki sauce was a bit much for the kids (and David doesn't like red onions). I subbed HVRanch for the sauce for them and they liked it much better after that. I like having some different recipes up my sleeve and really liked the flavor of the chicken.
















Greek Chicken Gyro 
Source: Le Creme De La Crumb
Greek Seasoning Blend: All Recipes-Misty Jane Pilgrim


Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts, pounded to ½ inch thickness
1 tablespoon mediterranean/greek seasoning (you can substitute Italian seasoning in a pinch)
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
½ red onion, thinly sliced
4 pitas (this is a Greek-style flatbread you can find at almost any grocery store near the bread and tortillas or in the bakery)
optional: lettuce, feta cheese crumbles

Seasoning:
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoons dried Greek oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon ground thyme
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Tzatziki Sauce:
½ English cucumber, peeled and diced
2 cups cold plain Greek yogurt
4 teaspoons minced garlic
⅓ cup chopped dill, fresh or frozen (may sub 2 tablespoons dried dill)
1½ Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (juice of ½ medium lemon)
½ tsp salt, or to taste
⅛ tsp black pepper

Directions:
Puree all Tzatziki Sauce ingredients in a blender or food processor making sure to get as much moisture out of the diced cucumber as possible (use a paper towel to blot it out). Cover and chill until ready to serve. Making this the night before is ideal as it gives the flavors time to marinate.

Season chicken breasts with mediterranean/greek seasoning on both sides. Cook in a large skillet over medium heat 5-6 minutes on each side until cooked through. Cut into strips.

Lay pitas on a clean surface. Add lettuce (if desired, chicken, red pepper strips, and onions. Top with tzatziki sauce. Fold pita in half or roll it into a burrito shape.