Kettle Corn

1/4 cup virgin light olive oil (veg oil will work, but I like the taste of olive oil better)
1/2 unpopped white popcorn kernels
1/4 - 1/3 cup sugar coarse salt

• Heat oil over medium high heat
• Add popcorn
• When the popcorn is sizzling in the oil, sprinkle sugar over popcorn.
• Stir quickly.
• Cover with a tight fitting lid.
• Move pan constantly over burner to prevent burning. (The sugar will burn quickly)
• Reduce heat to medium as soon as it starts popping, keep shaking the pan
• Remove from heat for the last few to pop, remove from pan quickly.
  
  Salt to taste (be careful, coarse salt is really salty LOL)
  

Alfredo Sauce

This is very similar to Olive Gardens and it it super yummy!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of butter (or one stick) use butter not margarine
8 oz of cream cheese
1 pint heavy cream ( I did 1 cup heavy cream and 1 cup of half and half and it was fine don't use milk though)
1 tsp garlic powder
salt
black pepper
2/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Directions
Melt butter in med-large sauce pan
Add cream cheese and cook until soft ( I use a wire whip and kind of whipped mine to mix it better and make sure it was smooth)
Add heavy cream and season with garlic powder, salt and pepper
Simmer 15-20 minutes at least over low heat stirring constantly (the longer you can let it simmer the better)
Remove from heat and stir in Parmesan.

Super easy doesn't take much time! Serve over fettuccine noodles or whatever you want to serve it with. I served mine with sauteed shrimp :)

Cheesy Chicken Chili

Ha I feel like all I post is Mexican/Tex-Mex dishes. We eat a lot of them but that's ok because my family loves them and I do cook other things :)

The other night I had some left over Velveeta so I figured I needed to use it and wanted a chicken dish so I searched and found this.

Ingredients:
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
2 cans with beans, drained
1 can chicken broth or 2 cups
1 can green chilies, undrained
1/2 pound (8 oz) velveeta, cut into 1/2 inch cubes.

Directions:
Cook chicken and onions in a large saucepan sprayed with cooking spray until chicken in done (about 7 minutes), stirring occasionally.
Stir in seasoning and cook while stirring for 1 minute
Add beans, broth and chilies, stir
Bring to boil and then simmer on medium-low for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Stir in Velveeta; cook until melted stirring frequently.

I made a double batch of this too and froze about 8 cups. It was spicy and oh so good! The girls really liked it too. We topped it with sour cream.

Taco Soup

Last night the girls and I had Taco Soup. Its super easy and I made a double batch and was able to freeze about 12 cups in addition to having it for dinner last night. I averaged out my cost and it ends up being about $2.25 for the whole meal for the 4 of us :) Not to bad at all.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1/4 cup onions
1 pkg taco seasoning
1 16 oz can kidney beans
1 16 oz can diced tomatoes
1 16 oz can corn
1 8 oz can tomato sauce.

Directions:
Brown ground beef in pot, add onion and cook until tender.
Add rest of ingredients, do not drain or rinse anything, just dump them in there juices and all. Heat through. Serve with cheese, sour cream and tortilla chips or Fritos. Simple and so tasty.