• Tweet

• Tweet

Well today is day 8 of our challenge and I haven’t blogged in a few days.  I have been taking pictures along the way and so, will cover the highlights.  Saturday my awesome husband brought take-out pizza, so I didn’t have to cook anything at all for supper! What a nice break.

Sunday, I made a typical family favorite, “roast beast”.  It’s been so long, I can’t even remember which one of our children started it, but at some point, one of them thought we were saying “roast beast” when we said roast beef.  They would get so-o-o-o excited any time they knew we were having  it and proclaim the wonders of “roast beast” to anyone who would listen.  Over the years, the name has just stuck.  Going through the freezer, I found a top round roast and fixed “roast beast” with potatoes and fresh string beans.  Yum!  The highlight of Sunday was a new recipe I found for brownies.  No more box mixes for us.

I found this yummy brownie recipe at Recipezaar and I didn’t change one single thing.  That’s a HUGE deal for me!  They are moist, chocolatey and delicious!  A big thank you to their contributor, Karen=^..^= .  We doubled the recipe posted at Recipezaar and baked in a 9×13 pan with excellent results.

“Whatever Floats Your Boat” Brownies

• 1 cup butter
  

  

• 1 cup cocoa
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 Tbls. vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp salt

Melt butter in microwave safe mixing bowl.  Mix in cocoa.

Add sugar.

Mix in eggs and vanilla.

Add flour and salt and mix until incorporated.

At this point we added a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips and a half cup of pecans.  The recipe author makes suggestions for other add-ins, like: chocolate chips (semisweet, white, butterscotch, peanut butter) or raisins or chopped maraschino cherry or chopped nuts or M&M’ or Reese’s pieces or miniature marshmallow.

Spread batter in greased 9×13 pan and bake at 350° for 25 minutes.  Do not overbake or they will be too dry.  Delicious!  The perfect fix for a chocolate attack!

****************************************************************************************************************

Monday, I tried something brand new with chicken and I love it, love it, love it!  It was fast and simple to prepare, delicious and made tons of leftovers that will be excellent lunches!  When I first read the recipe, it seemed like an unusual combination of ingredients, but it was awesome.  The original recipe is at Recipezaar and posted below is the way we made it with my typical adjustments and changes.  I did not have black beans in the pantry, but I cook my dry beans in bulk and then freeze them in quart bags, so I used red beans from the freezer instead.  We also eat frozen corn, not canned, so I substituted that.  We had a bag of 6 chicken breasts and so I increased amounts in the recipe to create leftovers.  Our pantry never contains taco sauce, but spicy, thick picante sauce and it was amazing!  The other great thing about this recipe is you don’t have to remember to thaw the meat – just throw the chicken in frozen.

Crockpot Chicken with Black Beans and Cream Cheese

• 6 frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2 cups Pace Picante Sauce (mild, medium or spicy)
• 1½ cups frozen corn
• 1½ – 2 cups cooked red beans (black beans would be excellent, too.  Be sure they are drained.)
• (2) 8 oz packages of cream cheese

Put everything except the cream cheese into your crockpot.  Set crockpot on high and let it cook for 4-5 hours, until chicken is tender and easy to break into bite-size pieces.  Remove chicken breasts from crockpot.

Shred or chop chicken and add back to sauce in crockpot.  Cube the cream cheese and lay it on top of the chicken/sauce mixture.  Replace the lid and allow to heat for another 30 minutes.  Once the cream cheese has melted, stir it into the chicken.

Serve over rice or noodles or serve wrapped in warm tortillas with your favorite “taco” toppings.  Delicious!!!!

Keep exploring that pantry and freezer.  You will be amazed at what you can create from what you already have on hand!.  Happy Tuesday!

Printable “Whatever Floats Your Boat” Brownie Recipe

Printable Crockpot Chicken with Black Beans and Cream Cheese Recipe

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday.