Nothing like comfort food on a rainy day.

Since the forecast for today was pretty much all day rain (which actually didn't start until suppertime-who knew?) I decided to make an old standard for dinner tonight. The recipe I originally used was called Swiss Chicken, but my hubby has renamed it Chicken Delicious-you try it and see if you agree:


Swiss Chicken Casserole a/k/a Chicken Delicious

3-4 Frozen chicken breasts (thawed)
3-4 Slices of Swiss cheese
1/4 C. Milk (I use skim)
1 Can cream of mushroom soup (I use the light kind)
1 Package of stuffing mix-herb, chicken or turkey flavor.
1 Stick of butter

Place thawed chicken breasts in bottom of slow cooker; place cheese slices on top of chicken (layer chicken and cheese if necessary). Combine milk and soup. Spoon soup mixture over chicken & cheese. Pour stuffing mix over soup mixture. Melt butter and drizzle over stuffing mix. Cook in slow cooker on low for 8-9 hours or high for 3-4 hours.

What I love about this recipe is that it's a throwback to good old fashioned turkey and dressing. It just warms you inside out. The cheese gives the chicken a great flavor. I sometimes will add fresh mushrooms to the soup mixture, and if I'm feeling really creative, I'll chop celery and add it to the stuffing. But the recipe is great on its own, too. After all, it's Chicken Delicious!

Pick a peck of peppers.

This weekend I decided to make my hubby happy and cook his favorite meal. I really like it, too. It takes a little time, but it's well worth it.

Skillet Stuffed Peppers

3 Green bell peppers
Cooking spray
1 lb ground beef or ground turkey
1/2 C. water
1/2 - 1 package taco seasoning (depending on how spicy you like it)
1 batch of mashed potatoes
1/2 shredded cheddar cheese
black pepper

If making mashed potatoes at time of recipe, start before all steps.

1. Place pepper halves cut sides down in a microwaveable dish; cover with plastic wrap. Microwave for 3 1/2 minutes. Let stand until done with rest of steps.

2. While peppers cook, heat a large non-stick skillet over med-high heat. Coat skillet with cooking spray. Add meat to pan; cook 3 minutes or until brown and crumbled. Add water & seasoning, stir to combine. Cover, reduce heat & cook 5 minutes or until done.

3. While beef cooks, heat up refrigerated mashed potatoes (if frozen, defrost first). If you are using packaged mashed potatoes, just follow directions on package. If you are heating up homemade, just heat in one minute increments, stirring in between until hot. I have also made instant mashed potatoes for this recipe-they work fine, too.

4. Spoon 1/2 C meat mixture into each pepper half; top each with 2/3 C potatoes. Sprinkle each pepper with a little cheese. Top with black pepper if desired.

Big man took the kids on a walk to the park while I prepared the meal this time, so it was a great time for me-I love uninterrupted cooking. I put on my Ipod and sang off key the whole time I cooked. As I mentioned before, this is my hubby's favorite recipe. What surprised me when I made it this time is that our daughter actually gobbled her portion all up, also. I'm slowly winning them over, I think. If I can just get the two year old to appreciate my culinary skills we'll be set.

Speaking of green peppers, my little pepper plants are sprouting up in their yogurt cups nicely. Just a couple of more weeks, and we'll be able to introduce them to their new homes. The countdown to my garden begins!

Not you Nana's Meatloaf

It was a wet, wet Sunday here in our small Midwestern town. I decided to warm up our tummies with some comfort food. Good old meatloaf. Of course I needed to spice things up a little-the plain old recipe wasn't quite enough tonight. So, I made my own:

Italian Meatloaf

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground turkey-Italian flavor (in freezer section)
2 eggs
1 C Italian style bread crumbs
1 can tomato sauce-divided
1/4 C chopped onion
1/4 C chopped green pepper
1/4 C chopped celery

3-4 Potatoes, 1 onion & 1/2 bag baby carrots
Salt & pepper

Combine beef, turkey, eggs, crumbs, 1/2 of the tomato sauce, onion, green pepper & celery thoroughly. Shape into a loaf size and put in the middle of a roasting pan. Slice potatoes and quarter the onion. Place potato, onion & carrots around the meatloaf in roaster. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top loaf with remaining tomato sauce. Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

This makes a nice slightly spicy meatloaf. Two out of four of my family members thought it was fantastic. The two people that didn't like it are both of my children. My daughter had one taste and amazingly came down with a tummy ache immediately. My two year old nibbled at the meatloaf once and mumbled something (perhaps line from one of my favorite movies? "Meatloaf beetloaf, I hate Meatloaf.") So, it may have been a little too spicy for my kids. I didn't think it was, but you never know. If you like old classics with a new twist, this is the loaf for you!

Tastfully tempting tilapia.

Tonight I made a fish recipe for my family. Up until a few years ago we never at much fish (other than tuna salad), then we went on a vacation to Michigan. We found a place in Mackinaw City that serves the best whitefish I have ever had. After that I was hooked. While we still don't eat fish all of the time, I try to get a fish recipe in once a week to every other week. Below is the recipe I used tonight- Three fourths of my family liked it, and the fourth person is only a toddler, so no surprise...

Tilapia with Lemon Pepper Sauce

3/4 C Chicken broth
1/4 C lemon juice
1 tsp. capers (optional)
1 tsp. black pepper (freshly ground if you have a grinder)
1 tsp. butter
1 tsp. olive oil
12 oz pkg of frozen tilapia fillets (thawed)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper (once again fresh if you have it)
1/4 C flour (I use whole wheat, but all purpose is fine)
2 tsp. butter

1. Combine first 4 ingredients.
2. Sprinkle fillets with salt and pepper. Place flour in a shallow dish. Dredge fillets in flour (don't need to be completely covered, just lightly).
3. Melt 1 tsp. butter and oil in a large nonstick skillet over low heat. Increase heat to medium for another minute.
4. Add fillets to pan; saute for 3-4 minutes on each side or until they flake easily with a fork. Remove fillets from pan. Add lemon/broth mixture to pan, scrape pan to loosen bits. Bring to a boil; cook until reduced to 3/4 C (3-4 minutes). Remove from heat, stir in remaining 2 tsp. butter until melted. Serve sauce over fillets.

I usually serve with a side of rice-tonight I made Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice (most fish recipes I've seen call for white rice, but I need more flair than that!)
Since it's fish, it's a pretty light recipe-only about 280 calories (give or take), and as I mentioned before, 3 out of 4 of my family loves it!

About the easiest dessert recipe EVER!!

It is my job to bring a dessert to our large family Easter dinner tomorrow. I decided to go with a recipe that my Mom taught me when I was new to the kitchen and all the scary appliances that come with it. Even though it is so simple that even my hubby could make it (actually he's pretty handy at the stove), it is still a family favorite. Here's the recipe (sorry the pic is missing the pie filling-I'd already taken the can out to the recycling bin):

Cherry Crunch

1 box of white or yellow cake mix
1 can of cherry pie filling
1 stick of butter

Preheat oven 350 degrees, Melt butter and combine with cake mix. Crumble cake mixture over pie filling. Bake for 20 minutes or until top is golden brown. (Really good with whipped cream or warm with vanilla ice cream)

I have made this recipe with other pie fillings, but always come back to the cherry-it's the hubby's favorite.

On a gardening note-I now not only have little marigolds, I also have grape tomatoes, tomatoes and (finally) green peppers! I was so excited to see that the peppers were finally up that I did a little dance. Now my daughter keeps asking me to do my "happy dance" for her. If I could only remember the steps! Happy Easter everyone-have a good one!

Yummy smoothies in our tummies

Tonight the hubby golfed before coming home, so I tried to think of something easy yet popular to make the kids and I for dinner. I decided on blueberry toaster waffles topped with a smidgen of butter and strawberry jam. When I asked the kids if they would like this supper option, of course they were all for it. As a Mom, I felt like they needed a little something more to fill them up. They had both eaten veggies pretty well at lunch time, so I wasn't going to force any on them tonight. The kids and I had all been battling a cold today, so I decided to go with another family favorite-Yummy yogurt and fruit smoothies. They really soothe a sore throat and have good vitamins, too. Here's the recipe I use:

Yogurt and Fruit Smoothies

1 banana
1/2 to 1 cup of milk
1 yogurt cup of choice
1/4 cup pomegranate juice
fresh or frozen fruit of choice
1-3 cups of ice

Blend all ingredients in a blender. Serve with straws if you have them (kids love it and it gives Mommy a few quiet moments while they're trying to sip their smoothie.)

You may need to play with the recipe a little to get it just the consistency that you like. The pomegranate juice isn't necessary, but I picked up a small container to use for smoothies, since it is supposed to have good antioxidants I never do exact measurements, and I always try different fruits and yogurts, so we never no exactly what we'll end up with-but we ALWAYS love it! And what did the "critics" say tonight? Well, my daughter told me "This is the awesomest supper ever Mom!" And my two year old... He didn't say much, but he sipped all of his smoothie and proceeded to use the straw to suck the strawberry jam out of the squares of his waffle-I think that means he liked it!

Cooking and Gardening and Eating, oh my!

As I have had requests to post some of my favorite recipes on my other blog: Displaced Momma, I decided to start up a whole new blog. So I welcome you to Tastefully Tempting! I will try to tempt you with mouthwatering recipes and also chronicle my 3rd garden. In fact, the garden is what I will be talking about in this post...

It's that time of year again. Time to start planning and plotting (literally) the lovely spot where I will have my vegetable garden. This is my first time growing one since we have moved into our current house (with a smaller backyard), so we have really had to mull this over.

I started out by heading to the library and picking up my favorite gardening book: Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. I have checked this book out so many times that after returning it two weeks ago (and of course remembering something that I needed to look up AFTER it was returned)-my hubby said "You might as well just buy a copy-it's an investment". And he's right, it is an investment! So I got on Amazon and bought myself the "All New Square Foot Gardening" also by Mr. Bartholomew (it was a whole dollar more than the "old" book). I just love this book, it does a great job of helping me get the most plants out of the smallest space. I plotted out my garden using copies of the helpful grids at the back of the book.

I then bought my seeds. I was a little frustrated over this fact, as I had (emphasis on the had) a great supply of seeds up until this winter when a couple of mice decided to take up residence in our garage and found our seed supply "tastefully tempting". So, all new seeds it was. Then came one of my favorite parts of gardening-getting dirty! My two kids and I put on old shirts and planted seeds in starting soil placed in egg cartons and yogurt cups. My kitchen window looks like a recycling center right now with all of those mismatched containers, but it's the best place for the sun at this time. Yesterday brought another one of my favorite parts of gardening-we have plants! The marigolds we planted in the egg carton are sprouting up nicely. The kids (and this big kid, too) were so excited to see something we helped bring to life!

I will keep you posted on how my garden grows (pardon the pun-my name isn't even Mary!), and will post the next delectable recipe I make. As I mentioned, this blog is about eating, too-so I aim to please!