Bunco Menu

Tonight I will be hosting Bunco at my house. I decided to go with a Cinco de Mayo theme. Here is a look at the menu.

Baked Chicken Taquitos
with Ranch, Sour Cream, and Salsa for dipping

Cilantro Lime Rice/Chicken Fajita Rice
Refried Beans
Margaritas

Chips and Queso, Chili's Salsa, and Delicious Salsa @ all the tables

Sopapilla Cheesecake Pie

Ruby Tuesday's Potato Cheese Soup

Wow. Who knew it would be such a perfect day for making soup. It is super cold here and is currently SNOWING...yes snowing and it is May 6th. Ridiculous. Anyway, on with the recipe.

Ingredients

* 2 large russet potatoes
* 2 tablespoons finely minced celery
* 1 tablespoon finely minced onion
* 1 tablespoon grated carrot
* 2 cups chicken stock or chicken broth
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 teaspoons white vinegar
* 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 cups milk
* 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, plus
* 1 tablespoon shredded cheddar cheese
* 1 tablespoon shredded monterey jack cheese
* 2 slices bacon, cooked and drained
* 1 tablespoon chopped green onion

Directions

1. Peel potatoes and chop into bite-size pieces.
2. Grate carrot.
3. In a large saucepan, combine vegetables chicken stock, salt, and vinegar.
4. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.
5. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and milk.
6. Add flour and milk mixture to the pot.
7. Simmer,for 5 to 8 minutes until soup thickens.
8. Add 1 cup of shredded Cheddar cheese to soup and simmer until melted.
9. Serve with Monterey Jack cheese, bacon, and onions sprinkled on top.


Ooooops!!!! I really screwed up tonight when making this recipe. The recipe calls for 2 Tbsp. of minced celery and for some crazy reason, I must have read the recipe wrong and I thought it called for 2 Tbsp. of celery salt. I thought that was going to be way too much, but I went ahead and did it anyway. When it was time to eat, the results were horrible...way too salty. That's when I figured out what I had done wrong. So, there are no ratings for this recipe. But, I do think it would have been good, had I made it the right way. Ugh... I hate it when that happens.

Tex Mex Chicken and Rice

I found this recipe a few years ago in a magazine. I had made some notes on the side of the recipe of ways to modify it. The following recipe is my modified version.

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped, cooked chicken
3 cups cooked rice
1 1/2 cups of salsa
1 can black beans-rinsed and drained
2 cups shredded Cheddar Cheese
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1 can corn- drained

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 2 qt. baking dish with cooking spray. Combine all ingredients- reserving some cheese to sprinkle on top of ingredients. Transfer to baking dish and top with extra cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes.

Rate It!
Jen: 8
Kile: 7.5
Kiley: 8
Madee: 7.5
Destrie: good
Baylee: 8 (Madee had a friend for dinner-
she thought this would be good on a tortilla.)

Chinese Casserole

This is a recipe that we ate all the time when I was growing up. It is easy to make and when I first got married, this dish was something I was very comfortable making- just ask Kile. He got really sick of eating this and as a result, I have not made it in many years. We were telling our kids the "Chinese Casserole" story and they all said they had never eaten it before... Wow, it has been along time since I made it! So tonight, the Chinese Casserole is making a comeback. Hopefully Kile has had enough of a break from it that he won't mind eating it tonight =)

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
1 T. minced onion flakes
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/4 c. uncooked rice
1/2 c. water
1 T. soy sauce
*Chinese Noodles for serving on top of casserole


Brown the ground beef along with the minced onion. Combine soup, rice, water, and soy sauce in a bowl and mix together. Add ground beef and stir to combine. Pour mixture in to a greased 9x13 baking dish. Cover with tin foil and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve with Chinese Noodles on top.

Rate It!
Jen: 7
Kile: 6
Kiley: 7.5
Madee: 4
Destrie: not good

* I followed this recipe exactly as it was given to me. I think that if I made this again though, I would double everything except the meat. I'll let you know if I make it again with my modifications.

New Food Finds

These are sooo good- almost addictive I would have to say. We buy these at Dollar Tree. I don't know if the grocery stores carry them...I will have to look next time I am there.

Menu Planning Monday

To create this week's menu, I simply went to my recipe box and pulled out the first couple of recipes I came across.

Monday: Chinese Casserole, Corn, Rolls
Tuesday: Taquitos, Chips and Salsa, Spanish Rice
Wednesday: Tex Mex Chicken and Rice, Tossed Salad
Thursday: Potato Cheese Soup, Breadsticks

Easy Mexican Dip

This recipe is one I adapted from Our Best Bites Blog- (link is on the side)
The original recipe called for sausage, but I figured I may as well be resourceful and use ground beef, which I have plenty of in my freezer-thanks dad and mom!

1 lb.ground beef
1 packet McCormick cheesy taco seasoning
3/4 milk


1 8-oz. package cream cheese-cut in to chunks
1 c. salsa

green onions

Brown the ground beef and drain the fat if necessary. Add the taco seasoning and 3/4 cup milk as per package directions. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes. Add the cream cheese and salsa to the pan and heat through. To serve, garnish the dip with thinly sliced green onions. Serve with tortilla chips.

Rate It!
Jen: 8
Kile: 8
Kiley: 7.5
Madee: 7.5
Destrie: Good