Friday, March 18, 2011

7-Up Chicken-Dutchoven turned oven recipe.

Got this awesome recipe from my Aunt Verla years ago and my Mom figured out how to do it in the oven.  Easily a family favorite, Home style meal.
Makes a lot, so you may want to half it.  Serves 8-10 depending on how much chicken you want.
Basic ingredients: 
1/2-1 pound bacon
little flour
8 chicken breast or 12 thighs
Lawry's seasoning salt
Garlic powder
pepper
Carrots 
potatoes
onions
1 can of 7-UP
Butter/margarine

Fry up bacon.  I cut mine before with my chicken shears to make it easier. 
Then  place your bacon in the roasting pan.  Save the bacon grease to brown your chicken.

Flour your chicken breast and then pan fry them in the bacon grease.  Add more oil if needed.




Then placed browned chicken breasts  in roasting pan.  Season LIBERALLY with Lawry's seasoning salt, garlic powder, and pepper.  This is where it gets most of the flavor.  I do it over board and then do some more.  You can always add it later in your cooking if it isn't flavorful enough for you.


I just use baby carrots so I don't have to cut them.  (I go for easy) And then I quarter a large onion when I'm making a half batch, but quantities all depend on your own preference of vegetables.

Then I peel the potatoes and throw them through my Bosch food processor french fry cutter (Love my Bosch)  A whole post in itself I'm telling you!!

Add 1 cube of butter/margarine, 1 cup of water, a can of 7-up and into the oven at 350 degrees.  Now depending on the size of your potatoes it can take between almost 1.5-2.5 hours .  With my potatoes cut like this 1.5 hours is usually sufficient.  If you are still in a dutch oven, it cooks over hot coals for about 45 minutes -1 hour. 

NOTE: this is not a meal that freezes well for later,unless you removed some for freezing before all the vegetables are done.  Otherwise you loose all the texture once you freeze it.  I suggest just halving and eating leftovers for a small family.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Wednesday week menu #2


I feel like I'm becoming a cooking blog...Not that this is my intention, but between work and my family this is about all I've been doing lately. But I'll be posting quite a few recipes in the next week.


Monday- Lasagna/breadsticks Green salad with Olive garden dressing HMMM.

My mom's recipe. Not anything overly different than most Lasgna recipes I've seen...But we bought a bottle of Olive garden's Italian dressing and did a knock of salad!! It was yummy.

Tuesday- Washington Pork chops over rice with Mixed veggies

Got this recipe from my friend Amy. It made a very moist Pork chop with the perfect blend with apples and cinnamon(for those of you that love the pork chops and apple combo). I'll have to share this recipe someime soon. I do have it in a Word doc if anyone want a copy. I'll have to take pictures the next time I make it.

Wednesday- Country fried chicken, gravy, Mashed potatoes, and spinach salad.

Used this Recipe for the marinade and coating. Did a double dip as a few of the comments suggested and then I pan fried my thin pounded chicken breast in just a few Tbsp of olive oil. I also used This gravy packet (old fashioned Peppered gravy mix) that I got at my local Eddy's bread store, wonderful on mashed potatoes. Added my favorite Strawberry spinach salad to round it off. (This mini recipe will come this week) Not necessarily low-fat meal, but what comfort food!!

Thursday-Leftovers

Friday- Ham Fried rice and Thai won tons from my friend Tiffany's cooking blog.

Just your typical fried rice with pre cooked rice added with cut up ham, scrambled eggs, minced green onion, and soy sauce to taste. Then with the Won Tons, I used freshly ground coriander and I think I would go lighter on it by my taste, but it was all yummy!! Will make again.

Saturday-Chicken, Broccoli, and cheese soup- 
Recipe with lots of pictures to follow this week!! Can be adapted to make a topping for baked potatoes!!

Man I'm seeing how many fried food we had this week.  Man I enjoyed them all though!! I was just using what items I had in my fridge from my bountiful basket that I needed to use up when I made up the menu.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Wednesday Week long menu plan

So I've been a really slacker at sharing my menu plans for the week.  I have to admit that I didn't do a plan one week and chaos came back into my house!! I love having a menu, or even a list of ideas to pick from. I usually only come up with 6 ideas cause we'll eat leftovers or go on a date night at least once a week


I thought I'd share my first week that I thought came together great and I tried 2-3 new recipes that week.  Loved 2 of them and liked the 3rd.



Monday-Chicken Milano a made up recipe trying to knock off the Johnny Carino's Italian Restaurant (it's a work in progress, but it's getting closer, eventually I'll share a recipe) and Light whole wheat baguette from Here
Tuesday-7-Up chicken- It's a dutch oven recipe adapted for the oven. Recipe with pictures to follow shortly.  Eventually I get a link posted.
Wednesday-Black bean pizza from Here (using the same dough I made on Monday night) I did a few changes like no corn since my hubby doesn't like corn, but we enjoyed it for a change.
Thursday-Chicken Rosemary BLTs- Toasted hoagie buns with grilled/sauteed chicken with a little Rosemary, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and Ranch.  Just thrown together for a tasty warm sandwich 
Friday- leftovers
Sat/Sun-Tyler Florence's shrimp scampi from Food Network (with a few tweaks, I may still do a few more next time though) and bread sticks (In reality we liked the baguettes from Monday that I didn't go the mess of going smaller with bread sticks.  Again using the same dough I made on Monday.  Had my parent's and my brother over for dinner and we loved it!!

I hope this makes some one's week of cooking less hectic.  I know I'm in love with that baguette dough!!  I love that you can just keep it in the fridge all week!!
 

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Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Jungle animal vinyl

So I had a friend that saw some little animals that she wanted to put in her little boys room.  So I played around with the images that she got me and tried to fix some lines that came out weird and these are what I came up with.


And here is what her end results were.  She ended up changing her color scheme from her original plan, and they still worked for her.  I can't believe how much cuter these are finished!!  Thanks Stacey for the picture and the fun project to work on.
What do you guys think!!?


If you'd like different sizes let me know.  Maybe if you have pictures of something you need made up in vinyl.  I love to give it a go and see if we can get you what you picture in your home. 

daisydotdecor@gmail.com


Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Valentine's Subway art!

I know, I know, Subway art is by any means a new thing, but it's so popular right now and I do love the way it looks.  So I had to see what I could come up with on my own.
And I couldn't just do it one color.  I mean that would be too easy right.  So I went with 4 colors and pieced the other colors around the black ones. 

 Here's an up close view of it.  I totally meant to keep the back of the frame out, but after I was finished applying my vinyl to the glass, I realized that I didn't pay attention to how the frame kept it's glass in. Unfortunately the swivel hooks are on the backing with the stand and then swivel into groves built into the frame.  I might have to brake out my own little tab gun and make it work for me.  That way I can back in scrapbook paper, or even keep the paint color showing through!! You'll find that I love to put vinyl on glass, windows, and mirrors.  
10x16= multicolor to piece together=$20+ $5 s&h
10x16= one color=$15+ $5 s&h
8x10= multicolor to piece together $15+ $2.50 s&h
8x10= one color= $10+ $2.50 s&h

You can pick what colors you'd like.  Go here to see current available colors.
and email at daisydotdecor@gmail.com to make and order and I'll send you a pay pal invoice!!


Now some of you may have noticed the other little item that I had in my picture.  My argyle Hugs&Kisses.  I actually made this about 2 years ago I think.  Yeah really sad cause it hasn't quite been finished, yet!!  I swear I'm going to do it.

You can see in the picture below that it's slightly poking out of the frame.  Well that frame already has a different saying on it, that I use in my kitchen decor most the year round, so I improvised and just set it inside for the picture

What do you think about the pink and purple version.  Again another one I need to frame.


Anyone out there wondering how I made these?  I could probably put together a tutorial..... and I did make these before I had a vinyl cutter, but now days with cricuts and silouettes, this would be cake!!  

Now I'm out to go to the dollar store to find a nice glass container and bright colored candies to sit on a shelf and help me soak in the Valentine's VIBE!! 

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