Grilled Chicken Pasta Salad

What do you do with a three year supply of pasta? Figure out different ways to eat pasta. I'm not even kidding, I got 10 boxes of pasta for free with coupons and two great sales recently. That means I need to make pasta often. This was just an experiment but it worked. It was very yummy. 

Ingredients:

Pasta, I used about half of this box

grilled chicken (you could grill your own but I had this package of chicken that I just warmed on the stove)

ranch dressing

avocado

Cook pasta according to package directions, add chicken, avocado and as much ranch as you want. Mix everything together. We ate this warm. I thought it tasted better but this could be served cold as well.

Taco Braid

Another recipe from Life as a Lofthouse. I liked this recipe, but I liked the spaghetti braid, that I posted a while back also from Life as a Lofthouse, more. However, I think Kyle liked this one more.

Taco Braid

Recipe By: Holly Lofthouse

1 lb ground beef

1 pkg taco seasoning

1 cup water

1 can refried beans

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup salsa

1 can Pillsbury Pizza Dough

Unroll the Pizza Dough and let it sit out on a greased cookie sheet while you brown the ground beef. Once beef is cooked, add the taco seasoning and 1 cu water. Mix well and let simmer for 5 - 10 minutes on low.

Now that dough is room temp and easy to work with, shape out into a large rectangle. Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut one inch strips along sides of dough. In the center spread out the refried beans.

Next spread the seasoned ground beef on top of the beans, and then drizzle the salsa over the meat. Least sprinkle the cheese evenly. Now start braiding the one inch strips over the top.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool 5 minutes.

Salsa

I finally made home made salsa. First time ever. I need to change the recipe a bit, but I still am in love with it already. It was a little to runny and it had to much cilantro. Other than that I think it was pretty dang good.

A few weeks ago I posted on Facebook asking for salsa recipes. Kyle's aunt suggested this one from the Pioneer Woman. I have a few others I want to try, but this was the one I decided to make first. Click on the Pioneer Woman's link, she has a ton of pictures...

Ingredients

1 can (28 oz) Whole Tomatoes

2 cans (10 oz) Rotel (diced tomatoes w green chilies)

1/2 cup Onion, chopped (I didn't put ANY in because I hate onions, even in Salsa)

1 clove Garlic, minced

1 whole Jalapeno, chopped

1/2 tsp Sugar

1/2 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Ground Cumin

1/3 cup Cilantro (I think the recipe called for a 1/2 cup to 1 cup. I only used 1/3 cup and it was still very strong)

juice from 1/2 a Lime

Directions: Chop your garlic and jalapeno. Pour the canned tomatoes, garlic, jalapeno, sugar, salt, cumin, cilantro and lime juice in a blender OR a food processor. Pulse about 12-15 times, depending on how chunky you like your salsa. Pour into a bowl. Let sit in the refrigerator for at least an hour to chill . Serve with tortilla chips 

I don't have a food processor so I used my blender. I think it worked fine, other than like I said it was a little runny so I probably just pulsed it to many times.

Cake Batter Truffles

I saw this recipe HERE. Then a short time later my niece made them for her little boys birthday party and I made myself sick eating them. They were so good. So I decided to try them for Karson's little Preschool graduation program. I should know that anything that involves dipping isn't my thing. They weren't terribly hard, but they were much more time consuming than I like. And, I think they looked pretty sad. They did taste good though.

Cake Batter Truffles
by The Girl Who Ate Everything

1 ½ cups flour
1 cup yellow cake mix
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
½ cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
3-4 Tablespoons milk
2 Tablespoons sprinkles

Truffle Coating:
16 ounces (8 squares) almond bark (or white candy melts)
4 Tablespoons yellow cake mix
sprinkles

Beat together butter and sugar using an electric mixer until combined. Add cake mix, flour, salt, and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add 3 Tablespoons of milk or more if needed to make a dough consistency. Mix in sprinkles by hand. Roll dough into one inch balls and place on a parchment or wax paper lined cookie sheet. Chill balls in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to firm up.

While dough balls are chilling, melt almond bark in the microwave in 30 second intervals until melted. Stir between intervals. Once melted, quickly stir in cake mix until incorporated completely. Using a fork, dip truffles into almond bark and shake of excess bark by tapping the bottom of the fork on the side of your bowl. Place truffle back on the cookie sheet and top with sprinkles. Repeat with remaining balls until finished.

Chill cake batter truffles in the refrigerator until serving. Makes around 24-30 truffles.

Bean Dip

One of my co-workers brought this dip for our Cinco de Mayo party. It was so good. When I made it, it wasn't as good. But, my husband loved it and I ended up loving it the next day.

Ingredients:
1 can refried beans
1 package (8 oz) Cream Cheese, softened
1 package dry ranch dressing mix
1 can peppers (I didn't have any so this was left out. Maybe that's why it tasted different.)
Directions:
Warm the cream cheese until softened. Beat with beaters until well blended and serve with chips. It's that easy!

Marshmallow Peep Monkey Bread

Sorry, one more Easter recipe. I saw this recipe on Good Things Utah. It came from HERE. It seemed interesting, yet I wanted to try it. It was pretty good. Karson thought that monkey bread was pretty cool. I almost forgot to take a picture so there wasn't much left when I remembered. I'm pretty sure I halved this recipe, but I posted the full recipe.

Marshmallow Peeps Monkey Bread
Dough:
2 cans (16.3 ounces) reduced fat buttermilk biscuits (or homemade recipe)
Coating:
3/4 cup pink granulated sugar
16 pink marshmallow Peep bunnies
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Lightly spray a 9″ circular pan, bread pan, bunt pan, or other pan of choice. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Open both cans of biscuits. Cut each biscuit into fourths. Set aside.
In a large microwave-safe bowl, microwave marshmallow Peeps, butter, and vanilla extract on high for 1-2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds. Whisk until smooth.
Lightly dip each biscuit fourth into marshmallow mixture, letting excess syrup drip off. Roll lightly in pink sugar and place in prepared pan. Repeat with all remaining biscuit fourths. Pour remaining mixture over biscuits.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through.

Cadbury Mini Egg Cookies My Version

I know more Cadbury Mini Egg cookies. I've been slacking on my recipes. And Easter is long gone, which means so are the Cadbury Mini Eggs, but these cookies were so good. Make them next year! Everyone was raving over the chocolate Cadbury Mini Egg cookies, in my last post, but I didn't love them. I decided to make just my regular chocolate chip cookies and add these. They were so delicious! Especially warm when the chocolate was all melty. Yum

1 Cup sugar
1 Cup brown sugar
1 Cup butter or margarine (I use butter)
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 Cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 package of Cadbury Mini Eggs (I think the bag is like 10 ounces)
Mix sugars, butter, eggs and vanilla well. Sift flour, salt and baking soda together. Gradually add flour mixture to sugar mixture until well mixed. Stir in chopped candy. (you can add some pieces on to the top) Drop by teaspoon onto greased baking sheet 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 - 12 minutes or until they start to crack. They may not look done.