Recipe: Baked Zucchini and Cheese

We were given some zucchini earlier this week by my father-in-law. I have to confess, I'd only ever eaten zucchini fried or baked into zucchini bread. A friend of mine gave me this super easy recipe and it was delicious. My family enjoyed it so much that I didn't even get pictures until someone had already been sampling :) To make this, you just wash and slice the zucchini. Then, you pour olive oil into a glass baking pan. Line your pan with zucchini. Sprinkle garlic powder and pepper on the slices, and then cover the slices in mozzarella cheese. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Recipe: Southern Skillet Fried Chicken

I realized this week that it has been FOR.EV.ER. since I posted a recipe! I used to post two of them a week, so I can't believe this. I decided to redeem myself and get some cookin' done! I decided to share my super easy skillet fried chicken recipe.

All you need is thawed chicken (either breast or tenderloins), all-purpose flour, margarine, and eggs.

I started by heating some margarine in my skillet on medium heat. Then, I dipped my chicken tenders in some whisked eggs. I rolled them in flour, and then I dropped them into the skillet.

After that, just make sure the internal temperature reaches 170 to 180 degrees. Keep it on medium heat, though, because if you don't, the outside of the chicken will be burned before the inside is cooked.


The flavor was awesome. You should totally make this!

Linking to Stonegable and French Country Cottage!

As always, here is your handy-dandy printable recipe card. For best results, right click on the card and save it to your computer prior to printing. To print on a 5X7 index card, change your paper size to 5x7. 

Linking to Stonegable, Worthing Court, Cedar Hill Farmhouse, Confessions of a Plate Addict, and French Country Cottage! 

Recipe: Sauteed Italian Chicken

There is a wonderful Italian restaurant near my home that I love. It isn't a chain; it's an independently owned restaurant. They have many things on the menu I love to eat, but one of them is amazing. It's called "chicken French," and it's a type of breaded chicken with some sort of lemon and olive oil sauce.

I found this recipe on the back of a bread crumbs box and thought that it might come close to tasting like chicken French. It wasn't too far off, but I couldn't quite figure out the sauce.

Recipe: Sunday Brunch Casserole

Boy, does it feel good to be back! Teachers often find the last few weeks of school are the busiest and most stressful. That was definitely true to me, so I took the past two weeks off from blogging. I'm glad to be back with you- I feel like a farm boy happy to be back in the tractor seat. 

I can already tell you pictures of this dish won't be very pretty. Don't judge the book by its cover- for all the ugliness it has, the flavor is spectacular. This dish contains some of my favorite things- sausage, cheese and eggs. I appropriately made this dish for my family on Sunday morning. My husband immediately commented that it would make a great cold-weather food. 

Recipes: Green beans

This is not really a recipe- think of it more as a serving suggestion. I really like green beans, but if they aren't seasoned properly, they are tasteless. My grandmother makes wonderful green beans, and I thought I'd try to replicate hers. I didn't cook mine exactly like hers, but they still tasted great.

You can do this with garden-fresh green beans, or you can use canned beans like I did. These are The Allens brand Italian-cut green beans. I do not know what it is about these, but to me, they almost taste home-canned.

I chose to put them in a small sauce pan and drain about half of the water off of them. I then added a beef bullion cube and 2 teaspoons of brown sugar. I brought the beans and mixture to a boil and then served them. I did not drain the beans after cooking them; I simply spooned them out with a slatted spoon.  I absolutely loved the flavor!

Next time someone in your house wants to eat green beans for dinner, you should try them like this. It tasted great and I'll definitely fix them this way again. 

Recipes: easy baked ziti

We love Italian food at our house. My husband and I have two restaurants we frequent, and both have amazing food. One of them has a baked ziti my husband always orders. It's delicious, and I've been trying to find a similar recipe for a long time. I wouldn't dare say my ziti is anywhere close to the restaurant's, but it is pretty darn good. I made it for my husband recently and he definitely gave his approval.

It's fairly easy and cheap to make. All you need are cooked ziti noodles, shredded mozzerella, Ricotta cheese, and some alfredo sauce (store bought is fine- I used Classico).

Forgive me, but I only took one picture...and not a very appetizing one. Trust me when I say this is VERY good.



As always, here is the recipe card. Right click on it and hit "save" to save it on your desktop. To print it on a 5X7 recipe card, change your printer paper size to 5X7.

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Recipe: Easy country style steak with mushroom gravy

This recipe was my childhood favorite. My mother used to make this all the time when I was growing up. It's a great recipe because it is easy, but also because there are several different ways to make it and you can't ruin it. It's also pretty cheap to make. If you know me, you know things that are cheap and things that are easy are right up my alley.

First, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees, so it will be ready when you finish preparing the meat.
Warm vegetable oil or vegetable shortening in a nonstick skillet on medium heat.
Next, roll thawed out cube steak in flour, salt, and pepper. Make sure both sides of your meat are well-coated.

Then, brown the meat lightly on both sides in the vegetable shortening/oil. You don't want to thoroughly cook it, but simply just brown it.

Next, mix two cans of cream of mushroom soup and one can of milk in a 9X10 glass baking dish. Make sure the mixture is thoroughly mixed.
Add the browned meat to the mixture and cover it with aluminum foil.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until the meat is 170 degrees Fahrenheit in the center.

Note: You can also make this dish in the crockpot, by cooking it on low for 6 hours. Another option is to pour the gravy into the skillet, (after browning the meat), and let it simmer, rather than baking it in the oven.

As always, you can download the recipe card below by right clicking on it, and saving it to the desired folder on your computer. To print on a recipe card, please make sure your paper size is set to 5X7 prior to printing.

I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Recipes: Easy pan-seared pork chops

Two weeks ago, I posted a recipe for brown sugar glazed pork chops. Today, I am posting another recipe for pork chops. I promise, we do eat things that aren't pork chops. As you well know, I am constantly on the search for low-cost, easy to make ideas for dinner.

Recipe: Easy hamburger steak

I'm a full-time teacher, a mother to an active little child, and a wife, who also has a house to keep up. Needless to say, this girl has lots to do. I am always looking for quick and easy recipes. This one is one of my favorites, because it is cheap to make, and after the prep work is done, I can put it in the oven and forget about it for an hour.

This easy hamburger steak tastes great and is so easy to make, you won't believe it. All you need is a pound to a 1.5 pounds ground beef, worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and a patty press. Patty presses are relatively cheap- I've found them in the grocery store before.

Here is everything you need:

Recipes: Easy apple cinnamon muffins

We love muffins and breads at our house. I realize this is not the healthiest of food groups, but muffins are easy and fun to make, and they tend to disappear fast around here. My daughter likes to help make them. I have been trying to save money by eating lunch at home lately, and muffins are a great "grab-and go" breakfast item. I just take them out of the pan, wrap them in saran wrap, and pop them in the microwave for 10 seconds when I want to eat one.

Recipes: Brown sugar glazed pork chops

My husband and I made these wonderful pork chops last week. They were absolutely delicious and I will definitely make them again. I will say this: We have attempted to make these twice, but the first time, we tried to make them in our George Foreman, and all the rub stuck to the grill plates and burned. :( When we tried again, we made it just like this recipe says. They were definitely a hit.

Recipes: Nana's Famous Meatloaf

Every family has a treasured recipe. Something that you eat frequently when you're gathered in the same place for a holiday or special occasion. In my family, we are blessed to have many good cooks, so we have lots of recipes. One of my all time favorites is my grandmother's meatloaf. 

Organized and Simplified cooking: Easy Chicken Tacos

This chicken taco recipe is one that I have made a lot. Because both of us work full time, we don't always have time to cook a big meal on the stove. This is why our crock pot and George Foreman get so much use :)

Recipes: Scratch-made peach cobbler

Almost six years ago when my husband and I got married, I received one of the neatest gifts for my bridal shower at church. There is a lady at my church who was first introduced to me as "the best cook in the county." It wasn't an exaggeration. She has baked countless delicious treats for church gatherings, and even made our groom's cake at our wedding. She's also just a super-nice person who is fun to be around. 

Simplified cooking: Easy Taco Soup

Lately, as the weather is getting colder, I am on a quest to find delicious soups I can make that will also make more than one meal and are not expensive to prepare. I've never made taco soup before, but a local restaurant makes an amazing taco soup. I decided to attempt to make a copy cat version.

 The most expensive part of this meal was the ground beef, at $5.29 for 1.2 pounds. The Ro-tell and Dell Monte diced tomatoes were each $.97, and the taco seasoning and ranch packets were about $1. I paid $.92 for the pintos, kidney beans, black beans and corn because I bought store brand.

Favorite Fall Desserts: Apple Crisp

It all started a few nights ago when I was flipping through the West Chatham Food Pantry cookbook, looking for my favorite spaghetti sauce recipe. I finished mixing my ingredients, and absent-mindedly began flipping through the desserts section. I landed on a page full of apple recipes. I had just bought an obscene amount of apples on sale and was worried they'd spoil before I got a chance to eat them all.