Southwest Salad

One of my favorite summer dishes is Southwest Salad. 

Heck, I make it year round, we just tend to eat salads more in the warmer months. 

For us, it is inspired by our love of restaurants like Chipotle and Qdoba.
{My husband goes for the ginormous burritos, I opt for a massive salad.}
So, this is a way for us to fill that desire, while staying home, and on budget.

Mexican Macaroni Melt

This is so good, and so easy to make it's ridiculous.

You'll need to cook 1 lb ground beef (or turkey) and cook 1/2 box of macaroni noodles.

Drain and season the meat with taco (or chili) seasoning, then layer macaroni, beans, tomatoes, onions, peppers, lettuce, meat and cheese in a 9x13 dish. Bake on 400 for about 10-15 minutes (just to melt the cheese). Serve with tortilla chips, and enjoy! 

White Lasagna

Tonight for dinner we had a 'white lasagna'.

What's a white lasagna? Something I just made up (I think).

And it turned out pretty awesome. And is easy to make.

(And it's basically baked alfredo, but using lasagna noodles)

Lasagna noodles, chicken, alfredo sauce, cheese, tomatoes & seasonings. 

Cook noodles, then layer noodles, sauce, chicken, cheese & tomatoes in a 9x13 dish. Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes (just long enough to melt the cheese), then serve.

Yum! I baked peppers & onions into ours too, but I think it would also be good with some broccoli :)

Baked Chicken Dinner

I forgot to take a pic before I started chowing down.

Baked Chicken, Scalloped Potatoes, and Green Beans.

This was a pretty easy meal, actually. And my husband came home and ask why I cooked such a fancy meal. Also, I'm pretty sure it's the first time I've ever made baked chicken. I am usually not a huge fan of baked chicken, for 2 reasons: 1 - it's hard to tell if it's fully cooked and 2 - the breading gets all soggy on the bottom.

{Does anyone have any suggestions for preventing the bottom side of the chicken from getting soggy?}

To make the breading I just ground 2 handfuls of 'crunchy onions' and a few crackers together, and added a bit of salt, pepper, red pepper and parmesan cheese. (I baked 3 med. chicken breasts with this, adjust how you need)
I coated the chicken in a honey mustard/bbq mix, then the breading mixture, and baked for 30-35 minutes at 425 degrees. The chicken was perfect, fully cooked but still moist in the center, and the topping was crunchy without being too hard. The only problem was that the breading on the bottom of the chicken was soft and soggy.

And I made chocolate peanut butter cookies, too!

{ Cake Mix Cookies }

Super Easy Broccoli Cheddar Soup

I have made this soup a few times, and everyone seems to love it. And, well, it's seemingly idiot-proof.

You need:
~ Crock-Pot (the bigger kind)
{you could use a pot on the stove, but since I tend to burn 90% of what gets cooked on the stove, the crock-pot is my new kitchen bff}
~ Chopped chicken breast {I took the lazy way out here and used can chicken. You could do turkey or ham too}
~ Cheese sauce (and shredded cheese for topping)
~ Milk
~ Frozen Veggies: about 16oz broccoli, and any other veggies you'd like {I finished off my broccoli bag, and added corn and peas}
~ Optional: salt & pepper

Now, the making it part:
~ Cook your chicken (turkey/ham/whatnot) and slice into small chunks (bite size, I'm not responsible if you choke)
~ Important: plug in and turn on crock-pot to low (I often forget this step, come back 30 mins later, and wonder why it's not cooking...)
~ Add chicken and veggies to crock-pot
~ Add cheese sauce to crock-pot (save the sauce bottle)
~ Fill sauce jar up with milk and add to soup (Do this twice)
~ Optional : If you like your soup more cheesy tasting add about 1 cup shredded cheese to melt in.


Let cook about 2 hours, stirring occasionally and enjoy your easy idiot proof dinner.
Just serve and add extra cheese, salt, and pepper (to taste).
This serves about 4, but you could easily double it for a larger family or get-together.

Also, since I'm lactose intolerant (weird soup for me, right?),  I prefer a less cheesy tasting soup, and let hubby add his own cheese to his. You could probably do 2 jars of cheese sauce and 1 jar of milk for a really thick cheesy tasting soup.

Approximate cost (for 4): $6.00 total (assuming you have milk on hand) - only $1.50 person.

Enjoy!

Let me know how it works out for you if you try it, or any variations you try.