Spicy Chili Crockpot Meatballs

On a mission to find a new recipe for the crockpot.  I searched Pinterest for inspiration. I was limited with ingredients on hand and I already visited the market. Below is the recipe created with what I had.

Spicy Chili Crockpot Meatballs

1.5 pounds lean ground beef
2 eggs with white thingies removed
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped white onion
a few shakes Lawry's garlic salt
a few twists of fresh black pepper grinder
a few shakes dried parsley
a few shakes dried chives
1 tbs Lea & Perrins Worchestershire sauce

Mix the above ingredients together until well combined and shape into tablespoon sized meatballs.  Brown meatballs in a pan with olive oil until they are lightly browned OR bake on an aluminum foil lined cookie sheet for 25-30 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

In your lightly oiled crockpot combine the following ingredients

1 10.1 ounce bottle of Trader Joe's Sweet Chili Sauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
a few shakes Lawry's Garlic salt
a few twists of fresh black pepper grinder

Add meatballs and gently stir until all meatballs have a little sauce on them.  Set the crockpot on low and cook for 6-8 hours.

Serve over

Chive Parsley Calrose Rice

2 cups Calrose rice
4 cups water
2 tablespoons butter
1 tbs dried chives
1/2 tbs dried parsley
a few shakes Lawry's Garlic salt

Combine in a rice cooker
Serve your Spicy Chili crockpot Meatballs over rice and enjoy.  The husband tasted and approved the recipe.  I had it for dinner last night and today for lunch.  It is excellent day off and even better the next day as left overs.

Spicy Meatball Sloppy Joes

Sloppy Joes seasoned like a Spicy Meatball. Hmmm? What do you think? These were FANTASTIC! Oh my gosh!

Spicy Meatball Sloppy Joes

One pound lean ground beef
Lawrys Garlic salt
fresh cracked pepper
1 Tbs. Dried chives
1/2 tsp. Italian seasonings
one small can tomato paste
one can diced tomatos with jalapenos

whole wheat hamburger buns or rolls
provolone cheese

Brown the ground beef with the seasonings until cooked. Add the tomato paste and diced tomatoes. Stir and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Put a slice of provolone on each half of the bun. Top one side with meat mixture and top with the other half of the bun. Serve and Enjoy!

Buffalo Chicken Taquitos!!!

Yum, Yum and YUM! People will go nuts with this twist on Buffalo Wings. I tried this about a year ago and our the garage guests went wild. Less mess and less finger licking.

Buffalo Chicken Taquitos

36 corn tortillas softened in heated oil set aside on paper towels
3 chicken breasts cooked and shredded
1 6 oz. Red Rooster Louisiana Hot Sauce
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack Cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl combine, chicken, cheese and sauce. Stir. Spoon 1-2 tablespoons of the chicken mix onto the corn tortilla. Roll the tortilla and fix it with a toothpick. Keep rolling and tooth picking until all of your ingredients are used up.

Bake on cookie sheets for 15-20 or until flautas are browned and crispy. Allow to cool a bit and serve with celerey sticks and ranch dressing. Be sure to remove toothpicks from the flautas before serving.

We double and triple this recipe. (Uncooked flautas can be frozen. I did this and sprayed some with oil spray and cooked them. They were perfect)

Refrigerate leftover flautas. They are fabulous nuked in the micro for 15 seconds.

Cut these flautas in half to make appetizers.

Rob's Pork Chops and Rice

I am fortunate enough to have a man who will cook for me once in a while. Monday night he made his favorite family dinner and his specialty... Pork Chops and Rice. I purchased the ingredients and helped dice up the green onions but he created the amazing dinner. He only complained once that I bought a pork tenderloin, instead of pork chops with the bones. (Silly me, I hate to dissect things from bone)

Fiello Family Pork Chops the Rob Way

One Pork Tenderloin or 6-8 pork chops with bones
one bunch green onions, sliced
1 stick butter
salt and pepper
celery salt
1 1/2 cups white rice
3 cups water

In a large skillet, melt half of the stick of butter. Take a handful of the green onions and saute them a bit in the butter. Add the pork, season with salts and pepper and cook until pork is done. Remove pork from the skillet and place on a plate. Wrap with aluminum foil and place in the microwave or oven so pork stays warm.

Pour the water into the skillet that you cooked your pork in. Stir and scrape bottom of the skillet until broth turns brown. Add remaining butter and green onions and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer. Add rice and cook for approxiamately 20 minutes. Allow rice to cool for 5 minutes. Serve pork over a bed of buttery pork flavored rice. Enjoy.

Foil Packs

Back in the day, when I was a little Girl Scout we would go on little camp outs. We learned how to make our own mess kits. Pretty cool in concept by the way, if only we could train family members and guests to use one. Wow, the dish time would be practically eliminated. Back to this post. Oh the Foil Pack. What a fun and wonderful meal wrapped in aluminum foil. I don't remember exactly what the contents were of the Girl Scouting Foil Packs but below you will find the recipe for the Foil Packs I made for Robby's last trip to Pismo. (The Foil packs did not make it in the cooler. So sad for the campers, lucky me, I won't have to make dinner a few times!)

Hamburger Patty Foil Pack Jamie Style makes 6

One pound lean hamburger or ground turkey
Garlic Salt and Pepper
Onion Powder
a little diced onion

Combine and set aside.

3 potatoes cleaned and sliced (soak them in water so they won't turn)
1/2 bag Trader Joe's frozen green beans
1/2 bag Trader Joe's Yellow or white corn or a can of Green Giant Niblets

Garlic Salt, Pepper, whatever seasonings you like

6 12 inch or longer pieces of heavy duty aluminum foil

Divide the meat up into six portions. Take one sheet of aluminum foil. Form meat portion into a patty. Place patty in the middle of the foil. Take a few pieces of potato and top the patty. Sprinkle with seasonings. Top a handful of green beans and sprinkle some corn on top of that. Bring the foil up length wise and roll the ends of foil down, then take the ends and roll both sides up. Set aside and assemble the remaining Foil Packs.

Place in a freezer bag and freeze for camping use or Cook them up in the oven at 375 degrees F for 30-45 minutes.

If you use them for camping they can be barbecued or thrown into the open fire. Just make sure you have some really long tongs to pull them out. There is really nothing like a Foil Pack when you are out camping.

I popped two of these foil packs in the crockpot on 7/15/08. They cooked on low all day and they were fantastic!

Chicken Curry Style Pot Pie a la Crescent... no curry

This is an experiment. I have been craving Chicken Curry. So I bought chicken and broccoli at Trader Joe's last night. I baked my chicken in the oven with Garlic Salt and Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle. I steamed my broccoli over the stove and I below is what I made.

Chicken Curry Style Pot Pie a la Crescent... no curry, no mayo, no lemon juice

2 cooked chicken breasts shredded or chopped into bite size pieces
1 bag broccoli steamed
4-8 oz cubed Pepper Jack Cheese
2 cans 98% fat free cream of chicken soup

One roll Pillsbury Crescent rolls

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F. Spray the bottom of a pie plate with oil. Layer chicken and then broccoli, chicken and then broccoli until you have used up those ingredients. Strategically place cheese cubes where you thing a cheese part need to be. Bury all of that with two cans of cream of chicken soup. Place in the oven and bake for approximately 30 minutes or cheat and microwave for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven or microwave. Open crescent rolls and separate. Start with the wider end of triangle place rolls like slices of pizza around the pie plate as if making the shape of a pizza, sealing the first four ingredients in. Use all the rolls as long as top covers. Bake left over rolls or use them for Pioneer Woman's Apple Dumplings at thepioneerwomancooks.com for dessert. Bake an additional 15 minutes until top has browned.

Remove from oven and serve and eat it and like it!

Sloppy Joes! They are SLOPPY!

Ok, so I looked Sloppy Joe's up on the net. Wikopedia says... A Sloppy Joe is an American dish of ground beef, sweetened tomato sauce or ketchup and other seasonings, and served on a hamburger bun. I surfed a bit more on the net and found that there is no exact origin of the Sloppy Joe, but recipes began surfacing in the 1940's.

My Mom would make Sloppy Joe's for us once in a while. It was always a nice treat and it was fun to watch her cook them over the stove. From what I remember she would brown the meat, drain the fat into a can, add a can or two of Campbell's Tomato Soup, minced dried onion, salt and pepper, dump in a little brown sugar and then a big squirt of ketchup and a smiley face of mustard and then stir it all together. They sure were good.

When we would go to our cousin Steve and Debra's, (when they lived in California) she would add a can of Campbell's Chicken Gumbo soup. They were good too.

This morning I cooked up my Sloppy Joe's and put it in the crock pot to cook all day. I used my Mom's recipe minus the brown sugar and thought about the Chicken Gumbo but did not have any in the pantry. Below is what I did. I like mine a bit spicier so I added more spices.

28413 Sloppy Joe's

2 pounds Lean ground beef sirloin
1/2 of a red onion diced
1 Tbs. minced garlic
a little olive oil
a few shakes celery salt
a few shakes onion powder
a few shakes Lawry's Garlic Salt
a few shakes Garlic Powder
Salt and pepper
a few shakes Mrs. Dash Seasoning blend Southwest Chipotle
2 cans Campbell's Tomato Soup
a big squirt ketchup
a mustard smiley face
1/2 a red bell pepper diced
1/2 a green bell pepper diced

Whole Wheat buns or rolls
Cheddar cheese slices and or Pepper Jack Cheese slices

Brown your beef with the onion, garlic and a little olive oil. Drain fat. Sprinkle various seasonings. Add cans of tomato soup. Stir until well combined. Make your ketchup and mustard smiley face and stir again. Dump mixture into your crock pot set on the low setting. Add two kinds of chopped bell pepper and stir. Let it cook for a few more hours. This is great for company or serving at two dinner servings. The meat gets really tender and all the flavors blend together very well. The fat kinda comes to the top of the crock pot so if you want you can skim it off with a spoon.

Serve your Sloppy Joe's on hamburger buns or rolls and eat them the messy way or serve open faced with fork and a knife. Either way they are yummy. Enjoy your all American meal!

Tonight I ate mine, open faced with pepper jack cheese and Heinz pickles slices on the side. It was great! Share your recipe in the comment section if you want. I would love to read how you make them Extra Sloppy!

Spicy Crescent Hamburgers

I bought a few too many tubes of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. Those things expire. Anyway, I was trying to figure out how to use them up in a dinner entree. My Mom used to make a Chicken one with water chestnuts and a few other things, that I don't remember. I also bought some ground beef from Trader Joe's. I was going to make Tacos but we have had them weekly for about 5 weeks straight and well, I'm tired of tacos. So wha-la I created Spicy Crescent Hamburgers. This way I use up the rolls, use the ground beef, and still have a little spice in my meal. This recipe will serve 4-8 depending on the appetites of the people you are serving or sides you will be serving with it.

Spicy Crescent Hamburgers

1 Pound 15-20% Fat Ground Beef
1 small can green chili's
4 oz Pepper Jack Cheese cut in small cubes
garlic salt, pepper, whatever seasonings you like to taste

1 tube Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
4 slices Pepper Jack Cheese (stack them and then cut the into 4, you should have 16 small pcs.)

Mix the top four ingredients well and form into 8 patties. Try to bury cheese chunks into meat as best as you can. Put in 'frige to chill. (I heard a rumor that if you chill the meat before cooking it makes it really moist.)

After a while pull the patties out of 'frige and fry them up in a pan. Brown both sides. I didn't time it but don't cook them all the way done.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Open container of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. Unroll and separate the 8 triangles. Place a small slice of the pepper jack cheese on the larger part of the triangle. Place one patty on top of that. Then top patty with another small slice of the cheese. Carefully pull the 3 points together to the top of cheese topped patty. Do this same thing for all ingredients. Pop those little goodies in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.

Once cooked pull them from the oven and serve with any of the things listed below.

Oven baked french fries
My Mediocre Version of Tiger Fries (posted at another time)
Lettuce salad
Potato salad
Baked beans
The possibilities are endless, I was kinda lame tonight and served mine with pickle slices and decorative ketchup on my plate.

Robby really liked this! He liked the spiciness of it all. You could change this recipe to a non spicy version by substituting chopped onion for chilis and cheddar for the Spicy jack. Again the possibilities are endless.

Try it you might LOVE it! I will be making this again soon. I still have more rolls! Ha. And it really was tastee!

Mmm MMMonte Cristo Sandwich

The first time I had one of these sandwiches was on my 29 4ever Birthday celebration at the Blue Bayou restaurant at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. It was freaking AMAZING! As my friend Kandy Johnston would say it was a Food Orga_m! Holy Moly! Simply amazing combinations of sweet and savory and cheesy and crunchy. They served this culinary masterpiece with a delicious lettuce salad with sweetened crunchy pecans, cranberries, crumbly cheese, and a sweet vinaigrette! Curly noodled pasta salad and a side of boysenberry jam to spread on the Monte Cristo.

What is the Monte Cristo exactly? Black Forest Ham, Turkey, and Swiss Cheese, battered and fried, then sprinkled with powdered sugar. Sounds a bit weird. But OMG! You gotta get one.

Locally there is one restaurant in the SCV that serves one of these sandwiches. Eggs and Things. They are open for breakfast and lunch. Their sandwich is quite good. They serve theirs with maple syrup and Marion blackberry preserves.

My dear friend Amy, says that the Black Cow in Montrose, Ca has a mean Monte Cristo. I have yet to dine there with Amy. Not for lack of trying to plan a lunch/shopping date. I'll let you know about the experience shall I ever get there.

Tonight I'm hungry. Robby came home and had already eaten dinner with one of his friends. A little bummed. I opened the 'frige and remembered I bought turkey and black forest ham! Yippee. I had bread and three kinds of sliced cheese. So below you will find the recipe for my very own Monte Cristo Sandwich at 28413!

28413 Monte Cristo Sandwich

This recipe will serve 2

4 slices wheat bread
8 slices shaved black forest ham
8 slices oven baked turkey
2 slices mozzarella cheese
2 slices tillamook cheddar cheese
2 slices pepper jack cheese

1/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 cup beer
toothpicks

Oil for frying (I used canola oil)

Powdered sugar
any kind of jam you like
real maple syrup

Heat oil to 365 degrees F. While oil is heated mix batter. In a medium sized bowl mix flour, cinnamon and beer. Stir. Set aside

Take two pieces of the bread. Top each with one slice of mozzarella. Then place 4 slices of Black forest ham on top of mozzarella on each sandwich. Now place a slice of cheddar on the two sandwiches. Layer the slices of turkey on each. Top that with the pepper jack cheese and other two pieces of bread. Put both sandwiches on a plate and nuke for 30-45 seconds.

Remove sandwiches from microwave. Cut the sandwiches into 4 triangle pieces. Pierce each quarter with toothpick to hold it together. Dunk sandwich piece into batter. Use a spoon and cover all sides with batter. Place in hot oil and fry. Remove toothpick and use tongs to flip sandwich. Fry until all sides are golden brown. Dust with powdered sugar and serve immediately with syrup or jam.

ENJOY! I know I did! (:

Flautas! ! !

What exactly is a flauta? A flauta is much like a taquito, except the fillings differ a bit. My sister Jessica first found this amazing recipe while working at Lucky's Supermarkets which over the years have turned into Albertson's Supermarkets. When she worked at the market she would always hear about amazing foods. I will never forget the day when she bought the ingredients, came home, slaved in the kitchen and created for us, one of the best dinners ever! To this day, our entire family loves them and will painstakingly stand in the kitchen for hours and make them. The ingredients are simple but they do require prep work and assembly.

The original recipe calls for Pace Picante Sauce, any flavor will do. I recently tried Herdez Salsa Verde and it was amazing!

Chicken Flautas

36 corn tortillas softened in heated oil set aside on paper towels
3 chicken breasts cooked and shredded
1 (16 oz) jar Herdez Salsa Verde (use whatever you like)
2 cups Tillamook Pepper Jack cheese shredded (use whichever cheese you like)
toothpicks

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl combine, chicken, cheese and salsa. Stir. Spoon 1-2 tablespoons of the chicken mix onto the corn tortilla. Roll the tortilla and fix it with a toothpick. Keep rolling and tooth picking until all of your ingredients are used up.

Bake on cookie sheets for 15-20 or until flautas are browned and crispy. Allow to cool a bit and serve with guacamole and or sour cream. We double and triple this recipe. (Uncooked flautas can be frozen. I did this and sprayed some with oil spray and cooked them. They were perfect)
Refrigerate leftover flautas. They are fabulous nuked in the micro for 15 seconds.

Make it a combo meal and serve flautas with Spanish rice and beans. YUMMMMM

PLEASE NOTE: If you freeze your flautas they will take more time to cook. Maybe double the time. Just bake them until the ends are crispy and centers are warmed through.

Chicken Tamale Casserole/Pie?

I had one of these types of meals at one of my high school friend's house back in the early 90's. It was so good. I got my friend's Mom's recipe. Tried to make it and it was totally disgusting. Her recipe called for cornmeal. I made it wrong, apparently all wrong.

When one of my friend's was on Maternity leave I created this as one of the meals to put in her freezer. So at a moment's notice she could just pop one of the frozen meals in the oven and wha-la dinner is ready. I was also inspired by that yummy concoction from the 90's and The Green Corn Tamales from El Cholo (they are only available like 3 months out of the year). This is my combo/dream creation of the two.

Chicken Cheese Tamale Casserole

2 boxes Jiffy corn muffin mix
1/2 cup frozen corn
1 small can green chiles or jalapenos (if you like it spicy hot)
a few shapes garlic salt
3/4 cup buttermilk or milk
2 eggs
2 chicken breasts cooked, seasoned and shredded
3/4 pound cheddar cheese or Spicy Jack (if you like it spicy) cubed
Save a 1/4 pound of cubes to top the Casserole/Pie

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease the bottom of a medium sized casserole dish or two smaller oven safe containers.

Pour contents of the two Jiffy boxes into a medium sized bowl. Add corn and chiles or jalapenos. Sprinkle salt. Pour buttermilk or milk onto the above mentioned and begin to stir. Stir until all ingredients are mixed. Spread 1/2 the mixture for one or a 1/4 of the mixture for two on the bottom of dish.

Sprinkle chicken on the muffin mix layer. Then press cheese cubes into mix. Spread remaining batter over chicken and cheese layer. Press remaining cubes into the top layer of muffin mix.

Bake 30-45 minutes until Casserole/Pie passes the toothpick test. I make this recipe into two, cook one and double wrap one to freeze to use at a later date. Bon Appetit!

New Year... New old school FOOD

Do you ever get tired of making the same old things for dinner all the time? Or do you ever get sick of paying the high price for mediocre food at a restaurant? Don't be afraid. YOU CAN COOK! Cook at home and save money. With all the money you will save eating at home, when you want to splurge at a restaurant you can afford to and the price of gas it takes to get you there.



It seems as though in our busy lives, convenience is key. We eat what is convenient. But those foods are not always the best for us. For some of us, it is easier to make reservations than open the refrigerator or pantry. Dust off those cookbooks or search the web for something that tempts your palette. One meal we can make convenient is CASSEROLES!



Crazy to think that the word casserole entered the English language in 1708. Casseroles have been around for a long time. They are a great way to incorporate leftovers into a new meal. Try an old family classic for a new meal.


Casseroles are awesome! They can even be made ahead and frozen to be used for a night when you don't want to prepare a meal. You can even make them in disposable tins so you don't have to do any caked on casserole dishes. The two casseroles below can be made ahead using one main ingredient, chicken. On a weekend mess up the kitchen and make a few meals to freeze.



This casserole is one from my Grandma Esther Getskow Johnson. She made this for us when she would visit from the Midwest. It is excellent comfort food.



Overnight Casserole



1 3/4 cups cooked macaroni noodles

2 cups shredded cooked chicken (or cooked hamburger)

1 can Campbell's Cream of Celery Soup

1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup (I use Cream of Chicken)

2 cups milk

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Buttered bread crumbs or croutons



Combine soups and milk in a large bowl. Add macaroni, chicken and cheese, stir until mixed. Pour mixture into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Cover and refrigerate overnight. When ready to cook, place casserole in a 350 degree oven for 1 1/2 hours. Serve with crusty bread and a fresh lettuce salad.

Chicken Tortilla Casserole

from the kitchen of Bonnie Olson

4 chicken breasts cooked and shredded

1 can Campbell's Cream of Chicken

1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom (I use another Cream of Chicken)

1/2 cup chopped onions

1 cup milk

1 cup sour cream

1- 4 oz can diced green chilis

10-12 corn tortillas (cut into bite size pieces)

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese

Combine milk, soup, onions, sour cream and green chilis and set aside. Spray bottom of 9 x 13 pan or smaller pans with cooking oil spray. Layer tortillas, sauce mix, chicken and cheese. Repeat until all ingredients are used up. Refrigerate 12-24 hours. Bake for 1 hour in a 350 degree oven.

These two casseroles are tasty and easy to make.