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Cheesy Grits Casserole

July 14, 2012 by Hannah

Cheesy grits casserole

My mom made this shortly after I had the baby, and thankfully she left the recipe! Or at least we thought she did… I couldn’t find it, so I called her to get it again, and she realized she forgot to leave me the recipe to begin with. At least having a baby didn’t make me completely lose my mind (only partially).

Speaking of having a baby, anything this cheesy and delicious HAS to help shed baby weight, right? …Right? *cricket*

Ingredients

It’s a pretty flexible dish, and as long as you keep some grits on hand, you can probably whip it up without ever having to buy anything. Since running to the store now involves a lot of carseat buckling and diaper bag hauling, I like to keep those random last-minute trips to a minimum.

  • 4 cups milk
  • 1 1/4 cups uncooked grits (not instant)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 cups shredded cheddar
  • 1/2 cup parmesan
  • 1 clove garlic, minced (or mashed with a garlic press)
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • Optional: onions, can of green chiles, corn, chopped sausage, chopped turkey bacon, smoky paprika, etc.
For this one, I used a can of green chiles and some chopped breakfast turkey sausage, because that’s what I found in the freezer.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

  1. Bring the milk almost to a boil (but not quite!) and slowly whisk in the grits. Reduce heat to low and simmer 5-7 minutes until the grits thicken. Remove from heat.
  2. Mix in all the rest of the ingredients and spread into a greased 9×13 dish.
  3. Bake at 350° F for 40-45 minutes. You can eat it right away, but it will be a little mushy and won’t look pretty on the plate. It’s best to let it set for about 10 minutes.

It’s a really easy dish, which is great when you’re wrangling kids or, in my case, trying to cook between feedings and diaper changes and bouts of fussing (le bébé, not me… most of the time…).

Before putting it in the oven:

uncooked grits casserole

After taking it out of the oven:

cooked grits casserole

A slice of cheesy goodness:

serving of cheesy grits

And just for kicks:

Sleeping is his superpower.

sleeping baby superpower

Be still, my heart:

baby sleeping heart

Posted in Easy meals, Kids, Recipes | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Southwest chicken wraps

June 18, 2012 by Hannah

southwest chicken wrap

I made these wraps sometime last winter and just never got around to writing the blog post until I stumbled across the pictures again today.

I think there’s probably an easy-but-still-yummy way and a complicated-but-extra-special-touch way. Of course I made things more complicated by doing extra things to the chicken and letting the bowl of wrap filling sit on the counter for an hour to let the flavors mingle. (The flavors mingling thing was entirely on accident, since I forgot cheese and had to run to the store, then had to defrost the chicken in the microwave before cooking it.)

The recipe is from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe, but I’ll include my slightly tweaked version of the recipe here.

Ingredients

This is a really flexible recipe, but here’s what I used.

  • 1 cup cooked rice
  • 1 cup shredded cooked chicken (I sautéed chicken breast using the Cholula chili-lime seasoning and then shredded it.)
  • 1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 2 green onions, sliced
  • 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped (Fresh cilantro makes my heart sing.)
  • lime juice (1 lime’s worth, or a few squirts from a bottle of lime juice since I never have limes)
  • 1/2 Tbs chili powder
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 cups shredded cheddar (or less if you’re trying to be healthy… I wasn’t.)
  • 6 large flour tortillas (burrito size)
  • sour cream (optional)
  • salsa (optional)
  • homemade guacamole (optional)

You will also need a small amount of butter (or cooking spray, but butter tastes better) for lightly smearing on the seam of the burrito roll before cooking.

Directions

It’s especially quick and easy if you have the rice and chicken cooked ahead of time, but I didn’t. It’s even quicker if you don’t have to run to the store in the middle of assembling it to pick up the cheese you forgot…

  1. Mix the chili powder, cumin, garlic and salt into the rice.
  2. Add the chicken, beans, green onions, cilantro and lime juice and stir it all together.
  3. Sprinkle the cheese onto the tortillas and smear a little sour cream over the cheese, if desired.
  4. Spoon the rice mixture into a line down the center of each tortilla.
  5. Roll up the tortillas, leaving the edges open, and smoosh each wrap just a tiny bit with your hand to create flatter sides for cooking. Smear just a little butter (or cooking spray) on each of the two flat sides (one of the flat sides should include the “seam”).
  6. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the wraps 2-3 minutes on each side, starting with the seam side down first. Serve with salsa and guacamole.

beans cilantro onions

chicken wrap filling

crispy chicken wrap

Posted in Easy meals, Recipes | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment »

Nun’s puffs

June 3, 2012 by Hannah

Nun's Puffs dessert

I really have no idea why they’re called “nun’s puffs,” but if anyone knows where this deceptively stoic name came from, I’d love to hear it. (Sorry for the dark pictures, by the way… I seem to always be cooking after the sun goes down and may also not be interested in taking the time to arrange my photos before chowing down.)

They have a unique cooking process, and they call for ingredients you probably have on hand. They end up with a pretty significant pocket of air inside, but that just means you can eat more with less guilt, right? Don’t listen to me...

Stephen loves them (I do too!) and has asked for them several times since. Though still delicious by themselves, they’re not very sweet, so they make a great dessert drizzled with some honey.

Random side note: My friend owns a “bee farm,” Desert Creek Honey, and we get our honey from him. You cannot beat local, all-natural, raw North Texas honey – so good for you, and so delicious! I highly recommend them.

Ingredients

The recipe comes from Better Homes and Gardens. They’re pretty “eggy,” so if you just can’t stand eggs for some reason, you may want to avoid nun’s puffs.

  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 cup milk
  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 Tbs sugar (optional: you can also mix in about 1 tsp cinnamon with the sugar if you want a light cinnamon flavor)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375° F.

  1. Grease a muffin tin, including around the edges and top of all 12 cups.
  2. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan, then add the milk. Bring to a boil.
  3. Add the flour all at once and stir vigorously until it forms a ball that is somewhat solid and doesn’t run all over the place.
  4. Remove from heat and let it cool for 5 minutes.
  5. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon for 1 minute after each addition or until smooth.
  6. Divide dough into the 12 muffin cups (they should be about 2/3 full) and sprinkle with sugar (or cinnamon-sugar mixture).
  7. Bake 30 minutes or until puffy and golden-brown. They will deflate a little after a while, so they’re best served immediately, but they’re still wonderful the next day!

I made them a few months ago, but I never got around to posting the recipe. However, now that I don’t have time to cook much, I’m glad I have an arsenal of pictures/recipes that haven’t yet been posted!

Nun Puffs recipe

And while I’m at it, may I just say that these expressions on that tiny face are enough to make me smile uncontrollably?

Baby Lightning Faces

Posted in Kids, Recipes | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments »

Frozen mocha

May 27, 2012 by Hannah

frozen mocha drink

Memorial Day is around the corner, and even though I haven’t spent much time in the kitchen except for washing dishes because of this little dude, I thought I’d pass along this basic frozen coffee drink “recipe.”

We had some leftover cold coffee from a pot we made and forgot about, so I froze it in an ice cube tray. The water here tastes nasty without a filter, and we don’t have a filter for our freezer ice maker yet, so we pretty much can’t make any frozen drinks with ice or it will have a funky taste. Enter, frozen coffee cubes.

So easy. So cheap. So wonderful. Or maybe I’m just easily impressed. But I already want another one.

Ingredients

I kind of just made it up as I went along and tossed stuff in, so these “measurements” (ha) are approximate.

  • Entire tray (12 cubes) frozen coffee
  • 1 Tbs cocoa powder
  • 3-4 Tbs sugar
  • 1-2 Tbs heavy cream
  • 1/4 – 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup milk

Directions

You kind of just toss it all in the blender, but for those who prefer formal instructions:

  1. Empty frozen coffee cubes into a blender or food processor.
  2. Add remaining ingredients.
  3. Blend until smooth.
  4. Pour into cups.
  5. Insert straws.

I’ve already got another set of coffee ice cubes in the works from a pot of coffee I made solely for that purpose. My name is Hannah, and I might have a new favorite drink.

frozen drink up close

frozen drinks on table

Posted in Recipes | 1 Comment »

Baby Lightning

May 24, 2012 by Hannah

His nickname had been “Baby Lightning” for months and months. Then, after a mere 4 hours of labor + pushing, he popped out ready to join the world 5 days early. Meet Baby Lightning!

newborn 3 days old

He’s almost 3 weeks old now and we love him to pieces.

baby 3 weeks

Hopefully soon I’ll be able to post more recipes, but for now we’re adjusting to life with this fun little guy.

Posted in Everything else, Kids | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments »

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