Chicken Pasta Salad

Ingredients:
Box of penne noodles
box of bow tie noodles
5 chicken breasts shredded
purple grapes cut in half
craisins
mandarin oranges
2 bottles of coleslaw dressing
chopped green onions

Cook noodles according to package.  Combine that and all ingredients except coleslaw dressing togther (grapes, mandarin oranges, onions, and craisins add as much or as little as desired).  Add dressing just before serving.  Chill.

Goodbye Ranch Dressing

I'm not a HUGE ranch dressing fan.  In fact, I abhor bottled ranch, but restaurants seems to have good versions.  So the other night when I was making salads for dinner I decided to try a new dressing recipe.  The dressing tastes similar to ranch even though its not suppose to be a ranch dressing and was probably the best salad dressing I've ever had!!!  The best part is that its not that unhealthy.  The recipe said it would serve four but I generously put it on four salads and probably had enough dressing for two more.  If you divided over four salads the nutritional information would be : 83 calories, 5 carbs, 5g fat, 5g protein.  If you divided over six salads the nutritional information would be : 55 calories, 3 carbs, 4g fat, 4g protein.


In a small bowl combine: 
1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1/3 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
3 tablespoons light mayonnaise
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 clove garlic
black pepper to taste. 

Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes or until ready to serve.

Six-Bean Barbecued Beans- Slow Cooker

Fix-it and Forget-it Cookbook (Gladys Longacre, p.213)

1 can kidney beans, drained
1 can pinto beans, drained
1 can Great Northern beans, drained
1 can butter beans, drained
1 can navy/white beans, drained
1 can pork & beans (I used a vegetarian can)
1/4 cup barbecue sauce
1/4 cup mustard
1/3 cup ketchup
1 small onion, chopped
1 small bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup molasses (or sorghum molasses)
1 cup brown sugar

Mix together all ingredients in slow cooker.
Cook on Low 4-6 hours.

Makes 15-18 servings

(That's the only downside with this recipe- if you only intend on feeding up to 6, you'll have a mountain of beans left over, and as you're emptying out entire cans, I can't see how you could easily cut this recipe in half.  I'm just hoping they freeze well as that's what we ended up doing with our leftovers...)

Sweet Potato Casserole with Gingersnap Streusel

-Parenting Magazine

What can I say? I was hungry while looking through this magazine, and ripped the page out to give it a try. It's more of a Thanksgiving dish, but I love sweet potatoes any time of the year too.

5 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled & diced (about 4 large sweet potatoes)

1 1/4 tsp salt divided, plus more for boiling

15-20 coarsely broken gingersnap cookies

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup half & half (I used milk)

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

2 large eggs

Grease a 9x13 baking dish.

Boil potatoes with generous pinch of salt, simmer til tender (14-16 min).

Meanwhile, make the topping by combining gingersnaps, flour, sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, and melted butter. (Should look like a crumble topping.)

Drain potatoes and puree in blender or mash til smooth.

In a large bowl, whisk the maple syrup, half & half, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, eggs, and remaining 1 tsp salt. Add the potato puree and mix. Put in baking dish and sprinkle topping mixture on top.

FROM HERE--

This can be wrapped up and stored in the freezer for up to three weeks (in preparation for Thanksgiving, for example) OR go ahead and bake it for 45 minutes on 350 F.

SO very good.