Fast & Easy

This recipe is super fast, easy, and according to Michael super yummy!

Here's what you need:
1 cup bbq sauce of choice
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
16 thinly sliced pieces of pepper jack cheese (I use the kind that comes in a big block, that's why it takes 16.

This is all there is to it:

Wash the chicken

Cut a pocket into each piece of chicken

Put about 4 slices of pepper jack in the pockets

Slather the top side with bbq sauce

Finally close the pockets with soaked toothpicks

Broil for 6-8 minutes on each side (or until the juice from the chicken is white), be sure to keep lots of bbq sauce on the chicken to keep it moist!



This recipe is courtesy of the Taste of Home Cookbook

Homemade Sloppy Joe's

Since I will be out of town all next week, I decided to make & freeze some sloppy joe's for Michael. This might sound easy, but Michael HATES manwich, so SJ's have to be homemade for him!

Here's how you do it.

-Saute one green pepper & one onion (diced into 1/4 in slices)

-When the pepper & onion start to look done, throw in 1 small clove of garlic (don't crush it) and brown it.

-Remove peppers, onions, and garlic from heat and place in a prep dish.

-Brown meat

-Once the meat is browned drain a bit of the grease off, and move meat to one side.

-Saute about 4 spoonfuls of tomato paste, then mix back into meat.

- Stir in pep, onion, & garlic

-Add the following items to taste: Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, chili sauce or ketchup, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, and molasses. (Imagine with my eating habits how hard it is to guess how much of each to put in)

-Add a bit of water to give it some "sloppiness"

-Bring to a simmer

-After about 2 minutes simmering, drop the heat to a low setting and let it go.

Italian Stuffed Peppers

This recipe is one of Michael's favorites. I didn't realize how cumbersome it was until I tried making it today.

Here's how you make it

First off you want to make a tomato sauce. Which is easy!! Really, if I can do it anyone can. Anyway, here's how I make my sauce.

-Saute 1 small onion in olive oil (you can add more or less if to taste) Salt the onion lightly

-After your onion has had about 7 minutes on a low heat, cut one clove of garlic into thin pieces. put into pot with onions *Important!!!! make sure that the garlic does not burn! If it burns your entire sauce will taste like burnt garlic!

-Once the garlic has started to brown lightly add a small amount approx 3T of tomato paste Stir tomato paste in with onions and garlic.

-Optional step: pour in about 1/4 cup red wine after stirring in the paste & allowing it to brown slightly. This "deglazes" the pot and makes it easier to clean later

-Now it is time to put tomatoes in. During the summer months when Debbie & Joe give us tomatoes we use their fresh plum style tomatoes. However, most of the time we use Private Selection canned tomatoes. You can get whole ones, crushed, or pureed. Just make sure they are skinless.

-Typically I use 1 can pureed and 2 or 3 cans crushed. Dump tomatoes into pot!

- At this point the hard work is done. Just add about 2t or basil to sauce, turn on low heat, place the lid on your sauce and stir ever 10-15 minutes



Now for the peppers!

Hollow out peppers (I pre-check my sauce pot to see how many I can fit in it) Be sure to get all of the seeds out as well as the little side ridge things.

-Mix bread crumbs (Again we make our own with cheese, garlic, dehydrated bread, and black pepper, but any will do) and raw ground beef. There should be more crumbs than meat!

-Once the peppers are stuffed, place them into a skillet and brown the sides of the peppers.

-After all sides are browned, place peppers into sauce. Let them sit in the sauce for several hours stirring every 15 minutes.

-Serve sauce & peppers with pasta of your choice!

Total cook time is approx 3-4 hours, but if you have no job and nothing big going on, it passes the time!