Chocolate covered strawberries

Who knew this could be so easy!

1 large bag chocolate chips
1 tablespoon plain shortening
Strawberries with the leaves on

Rinse and thouroughly dry strawberries. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Melt ingredients in a small saucepan on low heat, stirring constantly. I made a mistake the first time and doubled the recipe and the chocolate began to cook before I could coat all of them. Dip individual straberries in the chocolate and set on the wax paper lined cookie sheet. Chill in the refridgerator for 2 hours. Once they were chilled, I repeated the process with white chocolate and drizzled it over them and set back in the fridge until I was ready to serve.

I don't like strawberries but I really liked these, plus it was so simple to make.

I made them for Jessica's Pure Romance party, click on her name for a link to her site: Jessica Vosika (THIS IS AN ADULT ONLY SITE)

My niece Natasha at the goodie table:

SOUP-er cheap chicken dinner

Last night I made a very easy and CHEAP chicken dinner that turned out great!

1 can cream of mushroom soup
3 chicken breasts, cubed
1 package frozen broccoli
1-2 package ramen noodles (these have half the carbs of rice)
1 cup milk

Cook cubed chicken breasts and broccoli in a large skillet. While these are cooking, boil water for noodles. Add cream of mushroom and milk to chicken and broccoli. Cook the noodles for a couple of minutes; drain then add to chicken mixture. I let this simmer for 10 more minutes until it was thickened and the noodles were done. Add the ramen seasoning packet, stir and serve.

Zucchini pie

I wanted to take a picture of the finished product but James and Jacob dove into dinner to quickly....but it looks just like this!



This is one of my absolute FAVORITE recipes. I did not have sausage so I used hamburger and the can of crescent rolls expired December 29, 2008 (you can tell how often I clean out my fridge), so I just made a basic pie crust recipe. The best part, other than the finished product, was that I got to use my shiny food processor 3 times for this recipe. I detested making pie dough from scratch until I began using my food processor to do so, now it's a snap! For the seasonings, I just used garlic powder and Italian seasoning.



Note: This recipe freezes and doubles well. Freeze before baking.

Zucchini Pie

1 pound ground sausage (Johnsonville Bratwurst with the skin removed, or in a pinch you can use hamburger)
1/4 Cup butter
4 Cups thinly sliced zucchini
3 Cups chopped onion
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon minced fresh oregano
1 teaspoon minced fresh basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 Cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 Cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
1 (8-ounce) can refrigerated crescent rolls

Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease an 11x7 baking dish.
In large skillet, cook sausage over medium-high heat until browned and crumbly. Drain and set aside.
In the same large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add zucchini and onion; cook over medium-high heat for 10-12 minutes, stirring frequently, or until most of the liquid has evaporated.
In large bowl, whisk together eggs, parsley, mustard, oregano, basil, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Stir in sausage, zucchini mixture and cheese; set aside.
Unroll crescent roll dough and press into bottom and up sides of prepared baking dish, pressing edges together to seal. Pour zucchini mixture over rolls. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until top is golden brown and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes before cutting into squares to serve.