Greek/Vinaigrette salad dressing

I found this recipe online for a Greek dressing, but of course I had to tweak it a bit to fit what I had on hand and/or to suit my tastes. It's darn right tasty. As follows is how I make it. I put everything in one of those salad dressing cruets and shake it up. If you've got a Mason jar, that'll work too.

Ingredients:
1/2 olive oil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
3/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon onion salt
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1-2 teaspoons sugar (use one, then taste. If the acidity is still too high for your tastes/if it's too tart, add another teaspoon).

Stove Top One Dish Chicken

This is in the oven right now for dinner tonight. There are 2 methods, either in the oven or on the stove top, I'm going for in the oven tonight, but have made it both ways. Gonna have a can of wax beans and salad with it, with homemade Greek/vinaigrette dressing (recipe to follow in new post).

Stove Top One Dish Chicken
1 1/2 cups hot water
1/2 stick melted butter
1 pkg chicken flavored Stove Top
6 small bnls sknls chicken breast halves (1 1/2 lbs... I just use whatever pack of about 1 1/2 pounds I have on hand in the freezer, there are never 6 pieces in the packs I buy, but most are big enough that I slice them lengthwise in half to make thinner pieces)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/3 cup sour cream (I use reduced fat)

Mix hot water, butter, and stuffing mix. Cook chicken in nonstick skillet on med-hi 5 minutes each sideor til browned. Mix soup and sour cream; pour over chicken. Top with stuffing; cover. Cook on low 10 minutes or til chicken is done.
Oven method: Heat oven to 375. Prepare stuffing as directed. Place chicken in 13x9 baking dish. Mix soup and sour cream; pour over chicken. Top with stufing. Bake 35 minutes or til chicken is done.

WW Broccoli Cheese Soup

For a lighter broccoli cheese soup, give this one a try. It isn't as thick and rich as the previous broccoli cheese soup entry, but is just as good. Again, gotta have hot, fresh bread with it.

Ingredients:
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup onion(s), minced
16 oz frozen chopped broccoli
29 oz canned chicken broth
4 oz Kraft Velveeta Light Reduced-Fat Pasteurized Processed Cheese Product, cut into cubes
1/2 cup fat-free skim milk
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup cornstarch

Instructions:
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook 3 minutes, until soft. Add broccoli and broth and bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium and simmer 3 minutes, until broccoli is tender.
Reduce heat to low, add cheese and stir until cheese melts; stir in milk and garlic powder.
Whisk together water and cornstarch. Add mixture to pan and simmer 2 minutes, until thick. Serve hot. Yields about 1 1/2 cups per serving.

Velveeta Broccoli Soup

Very simple, very tasty. J has been asking me to make this again so I'm going to have to break down and make it soon, it just feels more like a strictly cold weather soup to me. It's really thick and rich, it really fills you up. I make a loaf of fresh, hot, homemade bread to go along with it to dunk in the soup. I've used the light velveeta in this as well as regular, both worked fine. I also add some garlic powder, I think that little hit of flavor really ties it all together, but I left the recipe listed as it was written. If you want a little extra flavor, just shake in some garlic powder while it's cooking, probably about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon. Start with 1/4, then taste, add more to your taste.

2 Tbsp. butter or margarine
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 Tbsp. flour
2-1/2 cups milk
3/4 lb. (12 oz.) VELVEETA Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product, cut up
1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen chopped broccoli, thawed, drained
1/8 tsp. pepper

MELT butter in large saucepan on medium heat. Add onion; cook and stir 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Add flour; cook 1 minute or until bubbly, stirring constantly. STIR in milk. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer 1 minute. ADD remaining ingredients. Cook until VELVEETA is melted and soup is heated through, stirring occasionally.

Recipe tonight is for applesauce. Tonight's dinner will be shake 'n bake pork chops, homemade applesauce, can of green beans, and a box of Betty Crocker skillet hashbrowns. Applesauce is cooking right now and smells so good. I love how it makes the house smell like fall, even though it's like 86 outside. This is the doubled version of the recipe coz I like to make a bigger pot so we can have some leftovers. Here we go:

2 tbsp butter
6 apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped (I use 3 granny smith and 3 braeburn, a little tart and a little sweet)
1 cup water
6 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp fresh lemon juice (usually 1 1/2 to 2 lemons)
1/4 tsp salt

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add apples; cook about 6 minutes, stirring frequently. Add water, sugar, lemon juice, and salt; cover and cook 30 minutes or til apples are tender, stirring occasionally. Mash gently with back of a spoon. Perfect with pork!

Pepperonci slow cooker Roast and homemade dinner rolls

Meals are all pushed up a day...we were out and about Monday, and decided since it was getting late to just stop by and pick up some Chinese. So tonight was spaghetti (noodles that were already cooked and thawed from being in the freezer as leftovers, jar of sauce, and frozen garlic bread). Tuesdays always have to be easy nights, nothing too involved, coz it's Cub Scouts night. Tomorrow night is crock pot Pepperoncini Roast (recipe at the end of this post), carrots (not sure if I'm gonna steam them, or just throw them in the crock pot with the roast), rice, and homemade rolls (recipe also at end of post). This recipe kinda sounds gross, actually. I wasn't too sure about trying it, but my mother claimed it was very good and I should just suck it up and try it, so I did. And we love it. It's one of J's absolute favorite meals, he even requested I make it for his birthday one year. So regardless of the strange combination of ingredients, give it a shot, it's delicious. It gives your same old average roast with gravy a new little twist. It has a nice little bit of tangy, and a touch of spice. I actually use jarred sliced banana pepper rings instead of the whole pepperoncini peppers. I think they're a little sweeter so I figured it would work better for the kids, and it worked out well so that's how I always do it.

Pepperoncini Roast:

1 beef roast (any roast, about 3-4 lbs, and remember it's going in the slow cooker so a cheaper cut of meat will still cook up tender)
1/2 package Good Seasons Zesty Italian dressing mix
1 envelope Lipton onion mushroom soup mix
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 jar pepperoncini peppers, with 1/2 of the liquid (as I said, I use sliced banana peppers)

Add all ingredients to slow cooker and stir. Place roast in slow cooker with gravy/sauce mix. Cook on low about 8 hours or low 4-5 hours.


Also, here is our favorite dinner roll recipe, that I'll be making along with the roast. This is for a bread machine.

Dinner Roll Dough:

1 room temperature egg plus enough slightly warm water (about 80 degrees F) to equal 3/4 cup PLUS 3 tbsp
2tbsp veg oil
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast

Place in bread machine in order recommended by manufacturer. Select dough cycle and press start. When finished, turn out dough onto lightly floured surface. Divide into pieces and shape. Place in a greased baking pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place or 1 hour or until doubled in size. Bake at 350F for 20-30 minutes or til done. Makes about 12-15 rolls.

Meal Plan for the week of Oct 4-Oct 10

This is always subject to change, but I try to stick to the meal plan each week.

Sun Oct 4- whole roasted chicken, mushroom couscous (recipe has been posted, search for "side dishes" in search box to the side), roasted carrots, baby spinach salads, Hawaiian rolls
Mon Oct 5- spaghetti, garlic bread, salad
Tues Oct 6- crock pot pepperoncini roast, rice, carrots, homemade rolls (recipes for roast and rolls to come in the next few days)
Wed Oct 7- veggie burgers on homemade buns (recipe posted for buns, I'll figure out how to link to one of my own posts later :P), boxed macaroni, steam in the bag frozen corn
Thurs Oct 8- pork chops, homemade applesauce, green beans, some kind of rice or potato dish, leftover homemade rolls
Fri Oct 9- Fridays are normally an open day. We sometimes watch a movie together as a family or play video games, so we sometimes do something fun like order pizza or chinese, or I make frozen or homemade pizzas. I don't know what we'll decide on this Friday yet.
Sat Oct 10- tacos, refried beans, mexi rice (recipe for rice to come)