Sloppy Joes

https://www.melskitchencafe.com/philly-cheesesteak-sloppy-joes/

These were good. I didn’t have any bbq sauce so I made my own using this recipe and adding a dab of liquid smoke and a bit more brown sugar.

INGREDIENTS 

• 3/4 cup ketchup 
• 2 tablespoons light-brown sugar 
• 1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar 
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 
• 2 teaspoons paprika 
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, (optional) 

DIRECTIONS Mix together

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marthastewart.com/312812/quick-bbq-sauce%3famp

Cottage Cheese Side Salad

I made up my own recipe using our veggies and it was so good! Combine the ingredients and enjoy. Don't know measurements. Sorry!

Cottage Cheese
Chopped Tomatoes
Diced Green Pepper
Chopped Chives
Black pepper sprinkled on top

Chicken Fajitas

We loved these. It was a great replacement to the packets I used to buy. We didn't follow the instructions that well. We just mixed the seasonings in a bowl, put in the veggies and chicken, and cooked it on the grill. We used Costco's rotisserie chicken for the chicken so it was even faster.

12 Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, sliced into strips
• 2 bell peppers, sliced
• 1 onion, thinly sliced 
• 8 small tortillas

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
2. Make fajita seasoning: Whisk together chili powder, cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a cast-iron grill pan or frying pan over medium-high heat. 
4. Add chicken and sprinkle with 3/4 of fajita seasoning. Mix together and cook for 6 to 10 minutes, or until browned.
5. In a second pan, heat remaining2 tablespoons oil over medium heat. Add peppers and onion. Stir in remaining fajita seasoning. Cook until vegetables are soft, about 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. While veggies and meat are cooking, wrap tortillas in tin foil and warm in oven.
7. To assemble fajitas, fill warmed tortillas with chicken, peppers, and onions. Top with favorite garnishes.

BY KELLI DUNNhttp://greatist.com/eat/recipes/chicken-fajitas

Navajo Tacos

We made these again last night for part of our fall meals before Halloween. They are always a hit when we make them so I wanted to write this down so I didn't forget this meal idea.
  The recipe I use for the scone dough is the same recipe for dinner rolls from the Betty Crocker Cookbook. I think it is the secret to making them tasty and fluffy.  I substitute 1/2 of the flour with wheat.   I just mix the ingredients, skip the raising, and use my little tortilla press to make them into scones.  It makes it so easy that way!  We usually fry them in olive oil but this time we tried coconut oil and were happy because the smoking point seemed better and we liked the taste. The only thing with coconut oil was the color turned blackish by the end so I was worried that it had turned carcinogenic?  We dumped it in case at the end but I am going to try coconut oil the next time and then I'll have to report.  Just a note on the oil though:  We usually put the oil in a glass tupperware and store it in the fridge after we use it.  We reuse it a couple of times in frying scones before we dump it.  I was reading online though that if the oil smells like a greasy burger joint then you should dump it.  Good to know because ours did when I opened it up and so I dumped it.    We topped these with canned chili (sometimes we have just done refried beans), cheese, salsa, chopped green peppers, and chopped olives.  We usually do lettuce too but skipped it last night.

Grilled Pepper Meatless Burger

Last weekend, I needed a quick meal and this is what I came up with after looking in the fridge.  It turned out to be a great meal that I would love to make again.  Mark got a new cast iron grill so he threw this all on the grill.

melt cheese on hamburger buns  (we did mozzarella)

Grill together:
minced garlic
sliced onions
sliced mushrooms
sliced bell peppers (I used an orange and a red)

Assemble on warm buns and enjoy!

Crispy Southwest Chicken Wraps

http://www.melskitchencafe.com/crispy-southwest-chicken-wraps/

This was an easy quick one for me.  I had leftover rice in my freezer that I pulled out for this and just used a can of Costco canned chicken.  I skipped the cilantro because we didn't have any.  I loved the sour cream cooked into the burrito. 

Crispy Southwest Chicken Wraps

Yield: Makes 6 wraps

Note: This is one of the most adaptable recipes on here (reading through the comments will prove that – your variations sound amazing!). Feel free to up the cilantro, add in a different meat of your choice, eliminate the pepper, add green chilies – seriously, the options are endless.

Ingredients

• 1 cup cooked rice, warm or at room temperature
• 1 cup cooked, shredded chicken (or other leftover meat, like shredded pork or beef)
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 green onion, finely sliced (white and green parts)
• 1/2 red or green pepper, diced
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 2 cups shredded cheese (I use a combination of Monterey jack and sharp cheddar)
• Sour cream (optional)
• 6 burrito-sized flour tortillas

Directions

1. Mix rice together with chili powder, cumin and garlic salt. Add remaining ingredients except for cheese and sour cream. Sprinkle cheese over tortillas, leaving 1/2-inch border around edges, then arrange chicken and rice mixture down the center of each tortilla. (Optional: I like to dollop little bits of sour cream over the cheese before arranging chicken and rice mixture down the center – it makes the wraps delightfully creamy.) Roll stuffed tortillas, leaving edges open and slightly flatten the wraps with the palm of your hand. Spray seam-side of the wrap lightly with cooking spray.
2. Heat a large non-stick skillet (or griddle) over medium heat for 1 minute. Arrange wraps, seam-side down, in pan or griddle and cook until golden brown and crisp, about 2-3 minutes per side. Cooking them seam-side down first helps seal the long edge so they don’t fall apart. Transfer to a plate and repeat with remaining wraps. Serve warm.

Chicken Salad

This is a recipe that I got from Michelle Evans that she made up.

Serves about 6

Ingredients:

1 can cooked chicken (sometimes I cook my own, but Costco's canned chicken makes it easy and doesn't heat up your kitchen...)
1 red pepper
5 stalks of celery
1 cup of artichoke hearts (once again, Costco!!!)
1/2 red onion
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1/2 cup mayonaise
black pepper

Directions:

Chop everything to a small size, mix and serve with Costco's cook it yourself tortillas, multi grain bread, whole wheat crackers, pita bread, English muffins, croissants, or whatever else sounds good. Sometimes we add tomato, cucumber or avacado slices or lettuce to our sandwiches.

Salad Bar

This isn't anything that tastes amazing and isn't really even a recipe but I want to remember this as an idea for dinner because it was refreshing. We had just gone to pizza factory and had the salad bar. I couldn't figure out a meal to make, looked in the fridge and saw random veggies, and decided to go with a salad bar and the fresh herb batter bread on the side from Betty Crocker.  It was different and a nice meal to have once in a while.  These were the ingredients:
goldfish, sunflower seeds, salad dressing, boiled eggs, chopped green pepper, chopped green onions, diced tomatoes, chopped olives, shredded cheddar cheese, pinto beans, chopped romaine lettuce.

Quinoa Black Bean Burgers

If you liked the spinach burgers you will like these:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/quinoa-black-bean-burgers/detail.aspx

I added cilantro in the burger and loved it!

Chicken & Brown Rice Casserole-good, quick, versitile, healthyish stand by

Was lookin for a brown rice casserole without cream soup and found this. This recipe came from here and some of the comments help if you don't have or don't want to use Lipton soup mix. I didn't use mushrooms(we don't like them) and subsituted half of the brown rice (because we only had one cup on hand) with barley and it turned out great!  I'll remember you can substitute the two for future recipes. We like brown rice and now we like barley, too! who knew? Surprisingly, my kids liked this, too. I think they were hungry, but it was pretty good considering how easy it was. OH! and I only had frozen chicken so I defrosted in microwave for a couple minutes tops and then sliced it into 1.5" strips and layed them on top. I quickly sliced a green pepper and layed that on top to sift through later because my kids wouldn't have eaten it if it had too much of that chopped up in it. I left the house for 1 hour and 45 minutes and it was perfectly done when I got back. Probably could have checked it at 1.5 hours. Next time, I am gonna try to measure the oregano better instead of throwing it in and also gonna try different veggies. Good, quick stand by.

Chicken & Brown Rice Casserole

By Bobbiann on October 25, 2006

3 Reviews

• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Total Time: 1 hrs 25 mins
• Servings: 6

About This Recipe

"This one is a bit healthier and there is no cream soup in it. You can add or remove vegetables and it will still be good."

Ingredients

• 2 cups brown rice(I used 1 cup barley, 1 cup b rice)
• 1 (40 g) packages onion soup mix
• 1 onions, chopped
• 1 (10 ounce) cans mushrooms (optional)
• 4 cups water or 4 cups broth(i used costco's organic broth)
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon parsley
• 1/2 green peppers, chopped
• 2 lbs chicken pieces ( drumsticks or boneless or whatever)

Directions

1. In casserole dish, mix together all ingredients except chicken.
2. Place chicken on top.
3. Cover and bake at 350º-400º for 1 hour 15 minutes or until rice and chicken are cooked.