Dinner Pockets

I made these one day and they have been a HUGE hit ever since. A once a week go to for me! They are super simple and you can fill them with anything you want! Start with your favorite pizza dough recipie. Here's mine taken from a friend of the family, Thanks Connie:
2 Tbl Yeast
1/2 C Warm Water
2 tsp sugar
put in bottom of mixer and let disolve and foam
while that's working heat, melt and disolve
1 1/2 C Milk
1/2 C Shortning (I use Crisco)
4 Tbl Sugar
when the shortning has melted add to your yeast slowly while mixing, then add 4 C Flour and 1-2 tsp dried pizza seasoning. Mix well. Dump onto floured surface and knead. roll into ball and let rest.

Filling:
I use a chicken mixture and a taco mixture.
Chicken mixture:
3 Chicken tenders cooked ( I bake mine in the oven for 15-20 mins/frozen 10 mins/thawed)
1/2 can Cream of chicken soup
1/2 C Cheese
1/2 tsp Dried Pizza seasoning

Taco Mixture:
1/2 lb Hamburger
1/2 can Refried beans
1/2 Pkg Taco Seasoning.

Take a handfull of dough and roll it out to the size of a personal pizza, or the size of your hand.

Take a scoop of your filling, and put a little pile in the middle to one side of the dough

This is an example of that Taco with the cheese on top. Next fold the dough over the top and seal it by pressing the sides together. I like to put cheese on top of it before I put it in the oven so that I can tell the Taco apart from the chicken

Bake for15 mins or until golden brown!

These will be an instant favorite! They are perfect for lunches and meals on the go!

I store leftovers (on the off chance that there are any) In a ziplock bag in my fridge.

They would also be good filled with chicken pesto, alfredo, mushrooms, spinich cream. . .the possiblities are endless! Good luck!

Pumpkin Pancakes

You can also do this with French Toast! It's so good the only topping you need is butter and whip cream!

Your Fav Pancake Recipe!
My kids like the Krusteaz, just add water stuff. I like it to because it's easy.
A spoon full of Can Pumpkin.
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Allspice
Whip Cream
Graham Cracker Crumbs
Make your pancakes, Add pumpkin and spices to your liking! They take just a little bit longer to cook then regular pancakes because of the density but SOOO worth the wait.
Butter when they come off and top with whip cream and graham cracker crumbs. The graham cracker crumbs were Isaac's idea. when he first asked for crackers on his pancakes I told him he was silly, but figured what the heck...we'll give it a shot and it turned out awesome! Like eating pumpkin pie for breakfast!

Variation - Pumpkin French Toast
Add pumpkin and spices to your egg mixture and cook. I like to cook these low and slow because the pumpkin makes these super thick and yummy!!

Festive Cupcakes

This was a super easy, Super fun treat for the boys to help me with! All you need is:

1 Box Chocolate (or your fav flavor) Cake mix

1 Container chocolate Frosting

1 pkg white Fondant

Food Coloring

Make cupcakes, Frost Cupcakes, Color Fondant to your desired color, roll out, cut out and decorate!

Hot Chocolate!

I LOVE Hot Chocolate! How much?! This much! This is the best hot chocolate I've EVER had (next to my dad's Mexican hot chocolate)

1 c. Marshmallows

1/4 c. Cocoa

1/4 c Sugar

3 3/4 c. Milk (I don't use 4 c. because I like to cool it down once in mug with cold milk especially since I have small ones)

1/4 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla

Melt Marshmallows into Milk, cocoa, cinnamon, and sugar. remove from heat and add vanilla. Pour in to mug 3/4 full add milk to cool down. If desired add extra Mallows on top!

The NEW Baby Cassarole!

Sometimes I amaze myself! A Gal in our ward just had a baby and I was asked to bring her dinner! I love doing stuff like this so I very willingly accepted this opportunity to serve. I racked my brain of all the things I could make, chicken noodle casserole, spaghetti, lasagna....you know the usual "congrats you had a baby, here's some dinner" meals. Well I decided that I would make something that you usually don't get when you have a baby. I decided to be brave and make something that was a little special! I made a creamy chicken pesto casserole! Woah!! I know!! So here is how I did it!

4 chicken tenders

1 box whole grain rotini pasta

2 pkgs creamy pesto mix. (I use Knorr brand)

1 8oz ball of mozzarella cheese

cook pasta according to pkg directions and drain, place chicken tenders (mine were frozen) on baking pan and cook for 20-30 mins until completely done. When done, remove from oven and cut into cubes. add to noodles. Mix up pesto sauce according to pkg directions and pour over noodles and chicken. Pour into a 9x13 *dish! Top with mozzarella cheese that you've "Crumbled" (more or less broken into pieces. I suppose if you wish you could grate it")
*Glad makes these AWESOME oven safe containers! Makes it SOOO easy to take dinner to your friends because you, and more importantly THEY don't have to worry about getting the dish back to you!

Add a note on top to give baking directions which are Bake at 350 for 30 mins and let it sit for 5 mins. I was feeling particularly clever at the moment to I went the distance! Here's what my note says. Feel free to adopt this!

Welcome Sebastian Lehi Boyer!!!

I know life is CrAZy
But don't you fret
cuz when it comes to dinner
I've got you all set!
Into the over is all that it takes
350 for 30 is all that it bakes!
When the cheese is all melted
Just let it set 5
Then into this meal
Your family can dive!

I added a note about the pan at the bottom because you have to put those Glad containers on a cookie sheet or the oven will melt the pan. I also added that they need not worry about returning it to me!

Try it! You'll like it! And so will your friends!

Baby Friendly Fancy Fakeout

Even my 1 yr old loved this one!

1/2 box of Rotini pasta

2-3 Tbl Sun dried Tomato Paste

3 Sun dried tomatoes (not in oil)

1 Tbl Butter

Cook pasta to your liking. The last minute of cooking time add sun dried tomatoes. Drain pasta and put back into pot. add butter and tomato paste. cut up tomatoes and toss with pasta. Enjoy!

LIGHT-AS-AIR MEATBALLS in CREAMY TOMATO SAUCE

A few weeks ago I made these light, tasty meatballs and the creamy tomato sauce for some girlfriends of mine. One friend was down with a thrown back, another requested some of my cooking as payment for a haircut for my daughter. They (and their families) loved this dish! I made it all again tonight and thought of Sonya's invitation to contribute to her blog. So here's my first contribution to Sizzlin Sonya!

I found a similar recipe on the 99 Cent Chef website and modified it.

LIGHT-AS-AIR MEATBALLS

1 lb ground turkey
1 lb ground pork (pork sausage)
1 6 oz. package spinach (chop it coarsely, or tear it a bit)
1 egg
1/2 bell pepper (optional) chopped
1 onion chopped
1 stalk celery (optional) chopped
2 tbsp. crushed garlic
2-3 slices toasted bread
2 tbsp. Italian herbs, fresh or dried, including basil, oregano and parsley

Saute the pepper, onion, and celery in frying pan till just tender. Add spinach till wilted.

Meanwhile, mix both ground meats with egg, garlic, spices, and crumbled toasted bread (tonight I had to use bread crumbs and a corn bread muffin - cooking is an ART. Don't be afraid to color outside the lines!). Add the sauteed veggies to the meat mix. Combine. Form into meatballs - any size you wish. Cook on a cookie sheet at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes (or till cooked through). These meatballs are so delicate and fluffy that cooking them in a fry pan seems too rough to me. They'd likely break apart. When they're done put them in a bowl and keep the drippings on the pan.

CREAMY TOMATO SAUCE

1/2 cup cooking wine (any kind - white or red or burgundy...or maybe some balsamic vinegar if you refuse to cook with wine)
2 tsps Worcester Sauce
Meatball drippings
1 can diced tomatoes
1 or 2 fresh tomatoes, chopped
3/4 cup heavy cream or half & half
1 small can tomato paste
(may add whole or 2% milk if needed to thin sauce)
Fresh or dried Italian spices, especially basil, also Thyme, Rosemary, Oregano)

In the frying pan used for the sauteed vegetables add the cooking wine and the Worcester sauce and boil for a minute or two. Add all the meatball drippings from the cookie sheet. Add canned and fresh tomatoes, cream, tomato paste, spices, and milk (if needed - I used about 3/4 of a cup tonight, maybe more).

Heat through and serve over meatballs.

We served this with angel hair pasta, a fresh green romaine and spinach salad, and garlic bread. It's also great over rice or other pastas.