Chicken Quesadilla's in a spinach wrap

     This is more like an idea then a recipe other then the spices I use on the chicken.


1 to 2 pds of bonesless chicken
1 red pepper
1green pepper
1 to 2 onions
spinach wraps or any other wrap will do
cajun spice
cayenne pepper
garlic powder
salt & pepper
olive oil
chedder cheese or mexican shredded cheese
sour cream
salsa


     Cut and slice the peppers. In a large frying pan add some olive oil. Set to a med to low heat. Add the slice peppers, and add some pepper to them. Let them cook down a bit. Then slice the onions and add them to the peppers. Add more pepper to the mix.( you could also use some crushed red peppers I use them but you don't have to if you don't want them too spicy) Let them cook down to they are soft.


     Slice the chicken very thin. Add salt, pepper, cajun seasoning (a good covering of cajun),cayenne pepper(only use a little bit of the cayenne unless u like it spicy like I do), garlic powder, then add some olive oil to the top and mix all together.


     Take peppers and onions off pan and onto a plate then put a paper towel on top to get extra oil off.
In the same pan turn heat up to med to high heat, add the chicken and cook on both sides for about a minute or two. The chicken should be sliced thin so it won't take long to cook. As soon as the chicken turn white not pink inside take it off. (the key to great tasting boneless chicken is to slice it very, very thin and do not over cook it)


     Put chicken onto a plate and let stand for a minute, then start chopping the chicken into little pieces.


     Using a flat pan put some pam spray on and heat to med to high heat. Add the wrap onto the pan and then add the chicken, peppers & onions and the cheese to one side of the wrap. Close the wrap so it's in half and heat on both sides turning it a few times. The wrap should get crunchy.

     Set the quesadilla on a plate and I use a pizza cutter to cut them into 3 pieces. Add some sour cream and salsa on the side and there you have it. Chicken Quesadilla on a spinach wrap! This is a great idea for party's also, you can make them up early and serve this cold. Both ways are so yummy!


    Hope you enjoy,


          Your recipe friend, Jamie




   

My Famous Sausage Ravioli Soup

      This soup is one of the best most easy recipe to make and doesn't take much to make this.



1 to 2pds of hot Italian sausage (1package) you could actually use a hot Italian chicken or turkey sausage also if you don't eat pork, although the pork taste alot better.
3 med onions (sliced)
1 can of Italian green beans (large or small can just depends on how much you like green beans)
1 box of beef broth (low sodium) 32oz
2 cans of Italian style stewed tomato's (14oz)
1 bag of small ravioli's


     Heat a large frying pan to med heat, take the skin off the sausage and add it to the pan, start chopping the sausage up in the pan as it's cooking.


     In a med to large pot start adding the beef broth, stewed tomato's & sliced onions. Take the stewed tomato can and add two cans of water to the soup. Start to bring that to a boil while you are frying the sausage in the frying pan. Once sausage is cook thru you want to add it to the soup. You can drain the sausage before adding it to the soup for less grease but i think the grease gives it more flavor. Continue to bring to a boil, and once it comes to a boil then put down to a simmer. Add the green beans (drain the green beans) and let simmer for about atleast a half hour to hour. The longer you let it simmer the better the flavor.


    Once the soup is cooked down, boil the ravioli's in separate pot. When they are cooked drain them and add to the soup.  Top the soup with grated parm cheese, I always like having some fresh bread and butter on the side for this also.


     This soup is my best soup recipe and it is very easy to make. If you would like to make more just double the ingredients.  I like to double the ingredients because my husband enjoys the broth more then anything, So you can just double the beef broth and add one more can of stewed tomato's but you have to add more sausage or you won't get that flavor. I really hope you enjoy this one. This is a great recipe for days like this, when it's cold out side and you want to warm up!

     Enjoy,


          Your recipe friend, Jamie

Breaded Cajun Shrimp w/ steamed broccoli & mashed potatoes

      This is another one of my favorite dishes, very easy to make. You can make these with any side dish or none at all.





2 pds of jumbo uncooked shrimp
about 5 to 6 eggs
wheat or whole flour
cajun spice
salt & pepper
Italian bread crumbs
cocktail sauce


     Peel the shells off the shrimp, slice the shrimp so that they are opened, clean out any shells that are left in them, put them into a bowl & then rinse them off.

    crack the eggs and beat them into a bowl, pour some flour onto a plate, pour some bread crumbs onto a plate

     add salt & pepper to the eggs & flour, add cajun spice onto the shrimp

    take the shrimp & dip into the egg then into the flour, get the flour on the whole shrimp and then shake the excess off,  then put the shrimp with the flour back into the eggs, then coat the shrimp with the bread crumb, set aside on a plate

     Take a large frying pan add olive oil, enough for a good coating, heat med to high heat, then start adding the shrimp and fry on both sides to they turn pink, about 2 minutes on each side, don't over cook. Take out and put on plate with paper towel to get off excess oil.

Put some cocktail sauce on the side for dipping and these baby's are reading to eat!


     Hope you enjoy,

     Your recipe friend, Jamie

Chicken Teriyaki lettuce wraps

     This is a quick meal to make, I was inspired to make these after eating at P.F. Changs.



1pd boneless chicken
Teriyaki sauce
1red pepper
1 green pepper
2 small onions
3 to 4 garlic cloves
1 package of lettuce
1 large skillet

Add some olive oil to your pan
heat to med to low heat
dice the peppers and add them to the oil
dice up the onions, let the peppers cook a bit before adding the onions, peppers always take longer then onions to cook,
dice up garlic, or add it to your chopper and chop it.
let the peppers and onions cook down so they are soft, then add the garlic, garlic doesn't take long to cook and it will burn if you leave it on too long.

Slice your chicken very thin, then add your teriyaki sauce to the chicken, rub all over the chicken, don't use the whole container only use half and set aside the other half to use later. (you can also marinate the chicken for a half hour if you have the time)

Take peppers & onion mix out of pan, set aside and use a paper towel to get some of the oil off.
In the same pan turn the heat on med to high heat, add the chicken and cook for about a minute to two minutes on each side. Don't over cook.

When chicken is cooked put on a cutting board or plate and dice up the chicken into small pieces, add the chicken back into the pan after you sliced it up and then add the rest of the teryiyaki sauce to the chicken, let cook for a few minutes till it's hot, then take chicken off and place in a bowl or plate, add the chicken onto the lettuce, add the pepper mix onto the lettuce, wrap the chicken into the lettuce and there you go, you have your self a Chicken Teriyaki lettuce wrap!

So easy to make, very fast to make and everyone will love these!

    Hope you enjoy,

Your recipe friend Jamie


   

Chicken Meatballs

     I can't add the Chicken Meatball picture from my facebook to this blog. Haven't figured that out yet. I took the picture on my phone. I can only upload pictures that are on my computer thus far. However if you would like to see them just look on my "I eat" album to see the picture. For now on I will take the picture with my camera and put them onto my computer so that you can see the picture with the recipe.


     You will need:

Ground chicken 1pd
2 garlic heads (not cloves you need the whole heads)
grated parmesan cheese/or romano cheese will do
Italian bread crumbs
2 eggs
small squirt of ketchup
salt & pepper
oregano spice, parsley & basil
2 small packages of grape tomato's or 1 large container
3 small cans of chicken broth or 1 box of chicken broth (not sure of those measurements) use the low sodium ones
your favorite pasta
olive oil
a grinder for the garlic
a med to large mixing bowl
1 large frying pan


 Start by pealing the garlic heads and grind them in the grinder so that they are very fine, if you don't have a grinder you have to dice them into small pieces.
Add the 2 eggs into the mixing bowl, I like to put the eggs first so that if i leave any shells into the bowl  I can see them and remove them before any other ingredients are in the bowl.
Add the ground chicken
Add the garlic
Add a squirt of ketchup
Add the parm cheese ( no measurements for this just a very good coating of the cheese it's okay if you put too much, you can never have too much of parm cheese) just a good coating of parm cheese so that you are covering all the chicken.
Add salt (no measurement for this either) use a salt shaker & and give it a good covering of salt (salt is very important to make these taste good so you have to add a good amount.
Add pepper (no measurement) not as much pepper as salt, just a good few shakes of pepper
Add the spices, oregano, parlsey, & basil ( no measurements) just shake a few good shakes of each one, you want to be able to see all these spices once you form the meatball.
Now it's time to add the bread crumbs ( no measurements) you have to add enough bread crumbs so that the meat balls stick together once you form them. I would say about a cup of breadcrumbs but you can add more or less just depending how the meatball is forming for you.
Mix all these ingredients together

     In the large frying pan add a good coat of olive oil, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan and enough so that the meatball can fry in it but not too much that they soak in the olive oil.
Let that heat to a med heat.
     Start rolling the meat together and forming a ball, when the olive oil is heated start adding the meat balls.
     Let the meatballs brown on everyside of it, don't burn them you have to keep a good eye on these.
     Once you have all of your meatballs in the pan and they look brown on everyside you then can add the chicken broth.
     Let the chicken broth come to a boil, then turn down to a med heat
Start cutting the tomato's on the side, you will have to cut them in half and if you like once they are in half you can cut the halves into halves. Depends on how small you want the tomato's to be
Add the tomato's to the pan and cover the pan
Then turn down the heat to a simmer and let them simmer for at least a half hour to an hour
Stir them a few times.
Boil your water on the side and add your favorite pasta

     I like to use a bowl to eat these out of, almost like a soup. That way you can get that chicken broth/tomato flavor in every bite. Add some parm cheese to your bowl and they are ready to eat.


     I hope you enjoy, if you have any questions just leave a comment and I will get back to you.




             Thanks,
     Your recipe friend Jamie










   
    




    


    

intro

     I'm starting this blog because I'm on facebook and share my pictures of my recipes. I have a few people who seem very intrested in my recipes and so I would like to be able to share my recipes with them thru this blog. I think it will be easier for me to write my recipes via this blog so that my facebook friends can all get the recipes with out me sending them to each person.

     I started to learn how to cook about 11 years ago. I met my husband 12years ago and when we were first together I didn't know how to do anything for myself or for him. Luckly his mother loves to cook and I have to say to this day is probably one of the best cooks I know. She has always out beat any restaurant, well at least that's how I feel. She seen that I was intrested especially when I was around her and she was cooking for us. I would sit and watch her and learn from her how to do certain things. Alot of my recipes have originated from her. Although she uses alot of butters and alot of fattning things so I tried to tone that down.

   I didn't grow up eating fresh foods at all. We had a big family and my mom did her best. She always made us breakfast, lunch and dinner but it was mostly processed foods, canned veggies, fruits, and frozen meals. The only fresh fruits we had were probably only banana's and apples. I didn't even learn how to cut up fresh fruits until I was in my mid 20's. I had no clue how to even cut a pinneapple. I had no idea about fresh broccolli, asparagus, how to steam veggies. Nothing I had no clue. I barely knew how to boil water.

     So when I met my husband and he came from a mother who knew how to cook and did it very well I had to learn how to out do her so that I could be his new mama! (haha). I really just wanted to be able to cook for the both of us. Food is a huge part of our lives. I sometimes even get upset because I get sick of thinking up what to make. It's like we all are hungry but what is left to make. Which is why it's nice to have a good full menu of  recipes that you know how to make and can make them each week and everyday of the week switch them out.

    It has taken me some years to figure alot of this cooking stuff out. I have read a few cook books and alot of them have ingredients that to this day I have no clue what they are. So I looked towards the easy recipes and the ones that I know what the ingredients are. I love Italian foods and I love foods that have some kind of dipping thing to them. My husband calls me a dipper! His mother says it started when I was young and had to cover the taste of foods up with ketchup. Whatever the case is I like to dip!

     I'm still learning about food and different foods that I can make. I think by me posting my pictures on facebook and by me writing this blog will help some of my facebook friends out by posting these simply recipes. I hope everyone can enjoy them and always remember it takes time to figure out how to cook. Just because you have a recipe in front of you doesn't mean you will know how to cook and follow those directions. We all make mistakes and it just takes practice.

     There is nothing sexier then a man or woman that can cook. You all know that saying "the way to a mans heart is thru his stomach". I think that is so true and not just for men but for women also. Food is such a great way to connect with someone. Who doesn't like to eat? We all love to eat and most of us would love to know how to cook so that we could have those special dinners at our homes. So we can entertain without calling out.

      I also have to point out that most of my recipes I eye ball, meaning I don't have exact measurements. But like I said before it takes time to learn how to do these and it takes you to taste the foods while making them to make sure you are where you want to be with the flavor. I just hope to get you started in the right direction. That's what my husbands mother did for me. She got me started and taught me the basis of cooking and I just picked it up. It almost becomes second nature for me, I just get it now.

     Well hopefully I at least inspire one or two of you reading this. So that I'm not just doing this to see my self writing this blog. I have limit time for this because I'm a stay at home mom and I have my house and my own cooking to do and not mentioning my 2 year old to look after. He's not the kind of kid I can just sit down and tell him to be quiet while mommy writes her blog. (haha)! I do enjoy inspiring others and I just love to help other people. So this is good for me also. I will feel like I'm doing more with my time then just being a "mom".

      Funny thing is, I won't be cooking this weekend. I'm off this weekend. Of course the week I start this I won't be cooking. However I plan on posting a few recipes that I already posted pictures on facebook. A few people were intrested in them and I really want to get them out.

     My mother in-law is coming to visit, so starting monday I will be posting some really great recipes. We will be cooking alot while she is here.

     I hope you enjoy!


                    Thanks,
          Your recipe friend Jamie

    

    

    

Just created a food blog, via my niece's advice!

I created one of these before and didn't follow thru with it. Maybe the food blog will keep me intrested! Thanks ashley for the advice! Now i have to learn how to do this and post pictures on it!