First Chili of the Season

Made my first chili of the season today for our Sunday Dinner.

Chili & Grilled Cheese

The secret to this great chili is V8 Juice!  It's my dad's recipe.  I remember growing up and my dad making the best chili.  My dad died very unexpectedly and I never got his chili recipe.  I had to recreate it myself.  The one thing I always knew is that he used V8 juice.  

I also made some homemade grilled cheese sandwiches.  I used sliced sour dough bread bought from the bakery, spread a thin layer of dijon mustard on one side and thin coat of butter on the other.  I used a longhorn colby and muenster cheeses with some tavern ham. Grill with the buttered side down.  So good!

The full recipe can be found here

Sunday Night Dinner - New Recipe

Sunday night dinners around here are pretty simple and easy.  I am trying to get everything ready for the week ahead and I like to keep it simple and easy.  This new recipe I tried was just that!

Spaghetti Stuffed Garlic Bread

I found this recipe on Pinterest (of course) and I surprisingly had all the ingredients, so I thought I would give it a try.  Use whatever cheese you have on hand.  The original recipe called for mozzarella cheese cut in cubes, but I had shredded and it worked fine.  While it turned out good, and everyone liked it, which is the most important thing.  There are a couple of changes I will do when I make this again.  

1.  I am going to give the dough a good sprinkling of garlic powder before I put the filling in.

2.  In the last few minutes of baking brush bread with some garlic butter and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.  

Give it a try!  The original recipe can be found here.

New Recipe Review - Easy Chicken Dinner

If you are on Pinterest, you probably have seen this recipe floating around.  It looked so simple and good, I just had to try it.

You can see on the chicken where
 my pats of butter were :)

I thought this recipe would be great to try on a Sunday.  After church we are usually famished.  We normally eat at home and we don't want to wait around to have something prepared.  This recipe  seemed like a good one to prepare before church, put in the oven, and program the oven to bake and when we got home dinner would be ready!  Boy was I right!  When I walked in, my house never smelled so good!  We couldn't wait to try it.

The chicken was very tender and moist. I used two forks to split the breasts apart.  The potatoes were perfectly cooked, as well as the green beans.  

The original recipe can be found here.

But in a nutshell here is the recipe.

Chicken, Green Beans & Potatoes

In a 9x13 dish place green beans on one side, chicken breasts down middle and cut up potatoes on the other side.

Top with pats of butter and a package of dry Italian seasoning.  Cover with foil and bake 1hr on 350.

Before

After

It's so easy!

This will be on the menu in October!

Sunday Dinner - Pork Tenderloin w/Pan Seared Gravy

I was so proud of myself!  I have been trying to perfect a gravy for my pork tenderloin for a very long time. After countless hours and recipes, I think I finally did it.

 Pork Tenderloin with Pan Seared Gravy

The Recipe:

For the Pork

1 Pork Tenderloin

Lowrys Seasoned Salt

Lemon Pepper

Garlic Powder

Sprinkle the pork with all the above ingredients

Heat 1 T of olive oil in a cast-iron skillet and sear meat on both sides

Add 1/2 C of water and about 2 T of worcestershire sauce to pan. 

Place meat in a 350 degree oven and bake for 45 minutes

The Pan Seared Gravy

1/2 C chicken broth

1 T cornstarch

1 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp bottled BBQ sauce

1/2 tsp Wright's liquid smoke

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

Salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste

When the pork comes out the oven, place the pork on a cutting board to rest.

Pour the chicken broth into the pan that had the meat, and heat on high, stirring and scraping the bottom of the skillet with a fork. 

Take some of the chicken broth out into a bowl and stir in corn starch, until well mixed.

Pour the cornstarch mixture back into the pan and stir constantly, until your desired consistency is reached.

Turn down to low and add remaining ingredients, stirring regularly.  

Slice Pork and serve with gravy.

Your finished tenderloin will look something like this:

I also made a side of easy creamy and cheesy potatoes to go with this along with green beans.