Toddler Trail Mix

Ingredients
1 cup cheerios
1 cup baby goldfish
1 cup raisins
1 cup stars (Gerber fruit puffs)

Directions
- Combine all ingredients in a large ziploc bag
- Serving size - 1/4 to 1/2 cup

Hints
- Mini M&M's are a great addition to this snack.
- Measurements are really arbitrary. Feel free to add more or less of anything.

Submitted by Amy

EASY Lasagna Casserole

Ingredients
1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. cottage cheese
1 lb. mozzarella cheese
1 lb. dried pasta noodles (not lasagna noodles)
1 large jar spaghetti sauce


Directions
- Cook pasta to al dente
- Brown ground beef
- Combine all ingredients reserving about 1/3 of mozzarella
- Pour mixture into case role dish
- Top with remaining mozzarella
- Cook at 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes or until bubbly

Hints:
- For a low-fat version use ground turkey, fat free cottage cheese and low-fat mozzarella (or omit mozzarella)
- If mixture seems crumbly or too dry before you put it in the casserole dish add more spaghetti sauce
- If you want to make this more complicated you can make your spaghetti sauce from scratch
- Any pasta noodles will work except for lasagna noodles

Submitted by Amy

Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore

Ingredients
1 jar spaghetti sauce
2 cans petite diced tomatoes (do not drain)
4 cloves garlic (minced or pushed through garlic press)
6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 diced green pepper (optional)
10 diced mushrooms (optional)

Directions
- Arrange chicken breasts in bottom of crock pot
- Combine spaghetti sauce, diced tomatoes, garlic, green peppers and mushrooms and pour over chicken
- Cook on low heat for approximately 8 hours
- Use knife and fork to break up chicken and stir into sauce

Hints:
- Cooking this too long in the crock pot will dry out the chicken.
- You can use a large metal spoon to 'cut' chicken and stir into sauce. Chicken will appear shredded.
- The green pepper and mushrooms are truly optional. They add some nice flavor for those who like a chunky sauce but are not necessary for this dish to be flavorful.
- Serve with pasta

Coconut Carrot Salad

Ingredients
4 medium carrots, shredded
1 cup finely chopped apple
1 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup sour cream
2 Tbs. honey
4 tsp. lemon juice

Directions
Mix and chill
Serves 4

Submitted by Genelle

Chicken Grape Salad

Ingredients
5 chicken breasts halves - cooked and shredded
4 stalks of celery
2 cups of almonds (toasted)
1/2 medium onion
1/2 bag of green or red grapes (Red ones are more colorful!)
Romaine lettuce

Dressing Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
- 4 Tbs vinegar
- 1/4 cup sugar (or Splenda)

Directions
- Chop the celery and onions
- Cut up the grapes into halves (or thirds if they're large grapes)
- Chop up the almonds with a chef's knife
- Add each ingredient in with the chicken
- Mix the dressing ingredients together to taste. It should be sweet, but have a "bite" from the vinegar.
- Add the dressing slowly to the ingredients until well coated.
- Refrigerate
- Serve on romaine lettuce

Hints
- Toast almonds in the toaster, in a skillet or spread them out on a PAPER plate and microwave them for 1-2 minutes or until they are "toasted"
- Splenda dissolves better in the dressing

Submitted by Kelly

Crock Pot Pot Roast

Ingredients:
2 stalks celery
4 large potatoes cut into 2" chunks
1 small bag baby carrots
1 large onion (or one small bag pearl onions)
10 large mushrooms cut in half
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 envelope onion soup mix
2 Tbs ketchup
1 3-5 lb Beef Pot Roast
ground black pepper

Directions:
- Place pot roast in the bottom of the crock pot
- Add all other ingredients
- Cook for 9-10 hrs on low

Hints:
- Adjust amount of veggies and size of pot roast to what your family will eat but keep the other ingredients the same.
- Adjust types of veggies to what your family will eat.
- Browning the roast in a pan before putting it in the crock pot will yield a richer flavor.

Submitted by Corinne

Poppy Seed Chicken

Ingredients
2-3 lbs. shredded boneless, skinless chicken
1 can cream of mushroom soup
8 oz. sour cream
40 Ritz crackers (1 pkg), crumbled
2 Tbsp. poppy seeds
1 stick of margarine/butter

Directions
- Melt the margarine in frying pan over low heat
- Add crackers and poppy seeds - mix well
- In a bowl, mix soup and sour cream
- In a 2 1/2 qt. greased casserole dish, layer 1/2 the chicken, 1/2 the
soup mixture, and 1/2 the cracker mixture. Repeat layer - top with
cracker mixture
- Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes

Hints:
- You can double the soup/sour cream mixture for a creamer casserole
- You can substitute low fat soup, sour cream and crackers and use less margarine for a low fat/low calorie version of this recipe
- In a time crunch you can mix all the ingredients except for the cracker/poppy seed mixture, put it in a 9X13" baking dish and top with all the crackers. It tastes the same and is faster

Submitted by Julie

Hamburgers

Ingredients
1/2 cup cubed (1/4" pieces) white sandwich bread, crust removed and discarded,
2 tablespoons milk
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 medium garlic clove, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1 teaspoon)
2 teaspoons steak sauce
1 1/2 pounds 80% lean ground chuck

Directions
- Mash bread and milk in large bowl with fork until blended (you should have about 1/4 cup)
- Stir in salt, pepper, garlic, and steak sauce.
- Break up beef into small pieces over bread mixture. Using fork or hands, lightly mix together until mixture forms cohesive mass.
- Divide meat into 4 equal portions and form hamburger patty approximately 3/4" thick patties
- Grill.

Hints:
- Press center of patty down with fingertips until it is about 1/2 thick, creating a slight depression in each patty, this way, the hamburger is FLAT rather than ROUNDED when it's done!

Submitted by Kelly

Stuffed Shells

Ingredients
Stuffed Shells
1 pound pasta shells
1 cup parmesean cheese
tomato sauce

Filling
2 pounds ricotta cheese
1 cup grated mozerella cheese
1/4 cup parsley
2 eggs beaten

Cream Sauce
1/4 cup butter
4 tablespoons flour
2 1/2 cups half and half - sometimes I substitute 1 cup milk (to be a little healthier)
6 tablespoons parmeasean cheese

Directions
- Boil the pasta shells 2 minutes less than cooking time. Drain and run cold water over them.
- Mix filing ingredients together
- Melt butter in sauce pan, whisk flour in. Add half and half and parm. cheese. Whisk on low heat until creamy.
- Fill Shells
- Line 13x9 pan with tomato sauce and cream sauce. Place filled shells in, top with more tomato and cream sauces.
- Bake at 350 for 20 minutes

Submitted by Erin

Ramen and Broccoli Slaw Salad

INGREDIENTS:
1 (16 ounce) package broccoli coleslaw mix
2 (3 ounce) packages chicken flavored ramen noodles
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 cup peanuts
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup cider vinegar

DIRECTIONS:
- Combine the slaw, broken noodles and green onions in a large salad bowl
- In a small bowl whisk together the sugar, oil, vinegar and ramen seasoning packets.
- Pour over salad and toss to evenly coat.
- Refrigerate until chilled (approx 1 hr.)
- Top with peanuts and sunflower seeds before serving.

Hints:
- Don't make this too far in advance or the ramen noodles will soften.

Submitted by Amy

Oreo Truffles

Ingredients
1 package of oreos
1 8 oz. package of cream cheese - softened
2 packages of Bakers white chocolate (melted)
1 package of regular chocolate (milk, semi-sweet or dark) (melted)

Directions
- Crumble the oreos in a food processor for this (you may use a blender if you don't have a food processor) until they're like powder
- Hand mix in the cream cheese until it is blended well
- Form into balls and put in the refrigerator until cold
- Dip into white chocolate and drizzle the regular chocolate on top
- Allow to harden before serving

Submitted by Joyce

Cappuccino Pie

Ingredients
Filling
1 large (makes 6 1/2 cup servings) pkg pudding
1 cup milk
1/2 of an 8oz tub Cool Whip
2 Tbs instant coffee
2 Tbs milk
Topping
1 tsp instant coffee
1 tsp milk
1/2 of an 8oz tub Cool Whip
Crust
1 Oreo cookie pie crust (find it with the graham cracker crusts)

Directions
- Make pudding with one cup of milk. The pudding will be VERY thick. Whisk it until all the lumps are gone.
- Combine 2 Tbs instant coffee with 2 Tbs milk. Stir until dissolved.
- Stir coffee mixture into pudding mixture. Whisk until smooth.
- Fold 1/2 of Cool Whip into pudding/coffee mixture until smooth.
- Pour pudding/coffee/cool whip mixture into Oreo crust. Spread evenly.
- Combine 1 tsp instant coffee with 1 tsp milk
- Whisk coffee mixture into remaining Cool Whip.
- Spread coffee/cool whip mixture on to the top of the pudding in pie crust.
- Chill for at least two hours before serving.

Helpful Hints and Suggestions
- You can use vanilla pudding if you want a pure cappuccino pie and chocolate pudding if you'd rather it be chocolatey.
- You can increase the instant coffee amounts to your taste but don't add any more milk or it will be too soupy.
- If you add too much instant coffee your pie will be bitter so be careful.

Submitted by Amy