Category: Food

Beano’s Sauces Review

A couple of weeks ago, I got in contact with Cara from Beano’s Brand on twitter then emails. She kindly let me pick out three of their sauces to try. Y’all I had a tough time choosing. Check out all they offer & see what you’d pick . I ended up getting Buffalo Sandwich Sauce, Southwest Sandwich Sauce & Original Submarine Dressing.

I plan to spice-up frozen chicken tenders, make Buffalo chicken sandwiches with the Buffalo sauce, or even using this Beano’s recipe for Buffalo Chicken Quesadillas. But I haven’t done any of those yet. I promise I’ll update with photos of those when we enjoy them.

The Southwest Sauce grabbed me first. We love spicy in our house {if you couldn’t already tell by other recipes I’ve posted & the Beano’s sauces I chose}. Although their website offers recipe suggestions, it was Sunday night & I was feeling spicy but lazy {anyone recognize that blue box in the background?}. So I chose to marinate our basic boneless skinless chicken breast in the Southwest sauce for around 30 minutes then top with a little more sauce before baking for 40 minutes. It was delicious! If we’d had leftovers {Jason was a member of the clean-plate club}, we both commented that leftover chicken would be great as a sandwich with a little more of the sauce.

The sweet & spicy flavor was great for chicken & I really want to trying the Beano’s recipe for Southwest Buffalo Chicken Salad Wrap.

Mondays are busy for me. I only have 45 minutes between work and my small group Bible study. This Monday I decided to through in Harris Teeter shopping trip {it was the next to last day of super doubles}. I really had no time to make dinner. Instead I purchased subs for us both, but chose to have them made pretty basic {meat, cheese, lettuce & tomato} so I could try out the Original Submarine Sauce. The sauce made the sandwich. Like from blah sub to holy-crap-this-is-awesome sub! The blurb online says in stays on your sub without soaking your bun. This was so true even after I’d loaded it up with the sauce. Don’t you love when a product is as good as they say?!

I ate half the sub Monday night then took the other half {& a small container of the sauce} with me to work for lunch Tuesday. My next grocery trip I plan to buy deli meats & bread so we can make our own yummy Beano’s’d up subs at home.

If these look yummy to you, check out their Facebook page. Or even better, find which stores near you sell Beano’s. I know I’ll keep an eye our next time I’m at Walmart, Food Lion or Lowes Food to pick up additional sauces. I’m hooked.

Beano’s Brand did supply us with the sauce but that did not sway my review. The way to this girl’s heart might be her stomach, but these opinions are honest & all mine.

Tags chicken, product review

Family/Travel Food

Family Saturday Night

After the SPCA Dog Walk, Mom & I ran a few errands. We stopped at Costco for last few ingredients for that nights dinner. We also picked up lunch for four of us for $8 {can’t beat that right?!}.

My parents had offered to host my brother’s future in laws & family to dinner last Saturday. There was a total of 12 of us. So after errands we rushed home to prepare. Mom had made a shrimp & crab pasta casserole the night before {it was awesome! I will be sure to post the recipe when she sends it to me}. We put together a salad with greens, strawberries, mandarin oranges, & mushrooms. We snapped the asparagus so it was ready to throw in the oven while the casserole was baking.

Mom had planned some great appetizers too. We made her famous meatballs {Jason had almost half of them!}. I also put together a recipe she’d told me about last time I was there since she know I love hummus. Crazy enough I saw it posted on one of the cooking blogs I follow this week. {I don’t remember which one but she called it her friend’s famous recipe!} I think her copy of the ripped-off-the-back-of-hummus-container recipe called it 5-Layer Greek Dip.
Ingredients
1 pkg hummus (we used larger size of roasted red pepper)
1 pkg crumbled feta cheese
1/2 c chopped tomatoes {we used quartered cherry}
1/4 c chopped cucumbers
2 T chopped kalamata olives {we omitted because we forgot to buy!}
Spread hummus on the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate. Cover with the remaining ingredients. We refrigerated for a couple hours then served with pita chips.

Top photo taken in the frig 🙂

Beth’s brother Chris’ wife Emily is quite the cook. Like I’m in awe of cook. She brought a veggie pizza & a made from scratch lavender blueberry pie {see what I mean!}. Since my Dad’s birthday was Tuesday, we had also picked up a Cotco cake for dessert.

Emily & Chris have two awesome children. Marley is 4 and Miles is 2. They were so well behaved even though Miles wasn’t feeling so hot. Mom was a little worried what we’d do to entertain two young children in their not-childproofed-house. She decorated for Easter last Friday & got excited when she found Easter eggs. Y’all, while the guys played pool & watched basketball in the basement, Emily, Mom, Beth, Janie, Marley, Miles & I hid & found eggs for probably two hours!

Marley is quite the ham. Emily has a DSLR, so she’s used to being photographed & loved it while I pulled out mine. I’d show her a photo I’d taken, & she’d say “ok. another one”. {She’s a much more willing model than Moekitty & Jason!}

With upcoming wedding events this summer & fall, it was so nice to have a low key night to get to know everyone better! Can’t wait to hang out with the fam & my brother’s soon-to-be family again soon!

After everyone left the four of us were all smiles over how much fun we had together. Also how cool & bright was the moon that night?!

Tags appetizers, family

Food

Chicken Spaghetti

When I told Beth that I’d bring them dinner once they got home and settled with baby Reagan, I knew exactly what recipe I’d try: Pioneer Woman’s Chicken Spaghetti. It’d been flagged in my cookbook since the day it arrived on my doorstep. My mom has similar recipes & combined PW’s with her own & warned me it made a lot of food. So as a heads up to you, make this dish with friends or a freezer in mind.

I’m going to list exactly what I did which was a little different than the fabulous PW. Only because I’m a little lazy and I don’t do whole chickens.

Ingredients
1 rotisserie chicken, deskinned, pulled off the bone & chopped by your husband {he rocks & he’s all mine}
box of chicken stock
1 lb thin spaghetti, broken into pieces
4 oz jar diced pimientos, drained
1 small onion {we don’t love onions & my medium-small one was too much for us}
1/4 c finely diced green bell pepper
2 can cream of mushroom soup
grated cheddar cheese {I used a whole 12 oz bag plus a little extra from another bag}
1 tsp seasoned salt {I used Lawry’s}
ground white pepper
1/8-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper {I used 1/8 since Beth’s breast feeding. For us, I’d have used more}

Directions
As you can see from my ingredients, instead of boiling a whole fryer chicken then using that stock. I bought an already cooked chicken & bought the stock. While Husband took care of the chicken, I mixed water & stock to make a little less than 3 c that I set aside. In a pretty large pot, I mixed water & the rest of the chicken stock. Once that had boiled I broke up the spaghetti into fours & added them to the water.

I sliced the onion {should have done even smaller} as well as the green pepper. I also drained the pimientos. I drained the spaghetti and threw it in what I considered to be a large bowl. Use the LARGE bowl because I had to dump it into another bowl. Add the soups & 2 c of cheese to the spaghetti. Top that with the onion, pepper, pimientos & seasonings. Finally, top with the chicken as well as the stock. Stir it all together. See why I said to use the LARGE bowl?! PW said to taste test. I try to do what she says, so I tasted!

Pour into pan(s). I used a aluminum 9×13 pan for our friends & a 8×11 not as full one for us. Top with remaining cheese. PW recommends another 1/2 c in the cookbook but says more online. I probably did a little more. Recipe says ok to keep covered in frig for a couple days or frozen for a couple of weeks. It didn’t last that long in our house. I covered both and refrigerated for a couple of hours before taking one to our friends & us having the other for dinner.

Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes. I baked covered for 30 then uncovered for the last 15 minutes. Enjoy! Then keep enjoying the leftovers!

Tags chicken, pasta

Food

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Post author By Suz
Post date March 10, 2011
6 Comments on Chocolate & Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

I recently picked up a bag of Nestle’s peanut butter & chocolate chips. If you haven’t seen or tried them yet, run to your Target or Harris Teeter or where ever you shop. I wanted to make cookies for my work trip & these we’re perfect. I found the recipe off the back of the bag {thanks Nestle!}. Orginal & creative? No. Made with basic, already-in-my-pantry-ingredients & Delicious? Hells yeah.

Ingredients

2 & 1/4 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c brown sugar, packed {I used light}
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 pkg Nestle Tollhouse peanut butter & chocolate “morsels”
1 c chopped nuts {omitted}

Directions
Mix flour, soda & salt in small bowl & set aside.

In large mixer, cream together butter & sugar then vanilla. Add eggs one at a time being sure to beat them in well.

Gradually add in the flour. {Don’t do what I did and think there wasn’t any left, slap the bowl & send flour flying.} Stir in chips.

Using soup/tablespoon, drop cookie balls onto cookie sheets. I used non-stick or parchment covered ones.
Bake 9-11 minutes at 375. Let cool for a few minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Official recipe says makes 5 dozen cookies. Mine must have been really big because I made more like 3 dozen amazingly yummy cookies. They might’ve been the perfect late night snack & breakfast three days this week. They might’ve.

Tags cookies, dessert

Everything Else Food

Chi O Dinner Club

Last night, after meeting baby Reagan for the first time {blog post to come tomorrow}, I joined 4 other Chi O alum sisters at a dip themed dinner club. I planned to make a crock pot spinach & artichoke dip. Instead, I didn’t have time & picked up Whole Foods spinach & artichoke dip, black bean hummus, pretzel chips & a couple of bottles of wine! I brought home 2 bottles of wine, some of the pretzels chips & the hummus. That spinach artichoke dip was amazing!

Rhiannon made her signature Buffalo Chicken dip {aka crack dip for the nest girls}. Lauren made a spinach dip. Erin made a beer dip that was unlike anything I’d had before {I’ll share that recipe when I get it}. Jennifer brought strawberries, grapes, & a wonderful cream cheese dessert dip.