Bacon Potato Chowder

This recipe is from a church cookbook that my friend Barb got for me and it is very easy and very good!

Bacon Potato Chowder

8 slices bacon, cut up
1 c onion chopped
1 c celery chopped
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 c chicken broth
1/4 c fresh parsley
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c sour cream
1 1/2 c milk
salt and pepper to taste

In a saucepan, cook bacon, onion and celery until bacon is lightly browned and veggies are tender. Pour off drippings and add potatoes, broth, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer 12-15 mins until potatoes are tender. Stir in soup, sour cream, milk and parsley. Heat through.

Serves 6

I had some heavy whipping cream to use up so I used that instead of the milk and it just made it even  thicker and creamier, so use whatever you have on hand.

Well I am going to yet another scrapbooking weekend and this time I only needed to bring a treat to share. I made these to take with and boy oh boy are they addicting! Worth all the time needed to make them, ha ha ha, really it took more time to break the pretzels than anything. This is another great Pinterest find and it came from blog called Sweet Little Bluebird.

Homemade Sourdough Ranch Pretzels

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups Canola Oil
• 2 envelopes Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing (not the dip)
• 2 teaspoons Garlic Salt
• 1 rounded teaspoon Lemon Pepper 
• 2 teaspoons Dill Weed
• 2 bags of Sourdough Pretzels (1 lb bags)

Directions

Break pretzels into small, bite size pieces.  Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl, then toss in the pretzels until coated well.  Lay coated pretzels on a jellyroll pan and bake at 200 degrees F for 1 hour - stirring/turning every 15 mins.  Cool & ENJOY!

Weight Watcher's Sticky Chicken

I started Weight Watchers back in November and I am always looking for really good diet recipes and if you have ever been on a diet, most recipes are lacking in flavor. Well I hit the jack pot when I found this recipe. It's another very easy and very good tasting one at that! The best thing of all is that it is only 5 pts + for each serving!

Weight Watchers 5 Pt Sticky Chicken

4 boneless chicken breasts

1/2 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons dry mustard

Place chicken in baking dish.
Mix other ingredients, spoon over chicken.
Bake uncovered at 350F for 40 minutes or so.

I used bone in chicken thighs and I didn’t have regular vinegar

I used balsamic vinegar

My meal for the scrapbooking weekend was breakfast so I tried a breakfast bake that I found on Pinterest and it was very easy to make and great tasting too! With this I served my Bapple Bread, the recipe can be found under breads.

 Tator Tot Breakfast Bake

Ingredients

1	pound ground pork breakfast sausage (or cubed ham or bacon, whatever you like best) shopping list
2-4	cups shredded cheddar cheese
2	cups milk
4	eggs
2	pounds frozen tater tots

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spread the sausage, bacon, or ham evenly in the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan. Spread cheese over meat. I use 4 cups of cheese, but you can use less if you prefer to reduce the calories. In large bowl, beat together milk and eggs. Pour over cheese. (May be refrigerated overnight at this point). Top with frozen tater tots. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes. Some ovens may take more or less time. Cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Here's another recipe from the scrapbooking weekend. These were AMAZING and very easy to put together.

Chicken Pockets

4 chicken breasts cubed and cooked

1 ½ pkgs cream cheese

paprika to taste

dried onion flakes

Salt, Pepper and Garlic Powder to taste

2 pkgs crescent rolls

butter

Croutons

Mix the first 4 ingredients together. Unroll crescent rolls,

Keeping 2 triangles together and press seams together. Put

A scoop of chicken in the middle, fold over and seal the

Edges. Brush with butter and top with crushed croutons.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 mins or until golden brown.

I went to a Scrapbooking weekend where each of us brought a meal to share and boy did we eat good. Here is one of the recipes that at we had. This was soooo incredibly good and so very easy to put together and make.

Liz’s Chicken

2 c cooked chicken

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 c sour cream – She used lite

Mix and put into a baking dish. Crush one sleeve of any

Kind of crackers such as Ritz or Club crackers. Sprinkle

On top of chicken mix and drizzle ¼ to ½ melted butter

Over crackers. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 mins.