Last week was a good week. I made a chicken dish that I'm very proud of because I created the recipe. :) It was really tasty, and my family really enjoyed it. It was definitely restaurant quality.

We have been enjoying our three-day weekend together as a family. We did not get to go on our backpacking trip due to thunderstorms, but we have had lots of time to relax. We saw the new Indiana Jones movie, Eric and Corey went to see 21, we went to a cookout at Eric's boss's house, and I finally got to go fabric shopping for the two apron swaps I'm in right now. We plan to go to my parents' house tomorrow to go swimming (if it doesn't storm again). Because it's the last week of school this week, we don't have too many evening obligations, so the menu is looking pretty good. My church book club ladies are coming over Friday night, so I get to make some fun picnic recipes. I hope you enjoy! For more menu ideas, go to orgjunkie.com.

Sunday - Homemade pizza

Monday - Citrus Rum Pork Chops, Green Beans, Salad

Tuesday - Chicken Fajita Salad, Peaches

Wednesday - Shrimp Fra Diavolo, Salad

Thursday - Leftovers

Friday - Grilled Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs, Cookie Salad

Saturday - Filets, Foil-pack potatoes, Grilled Asparagus

This is my version of a chicken dish that is served at one of my favorite restaurants in Springfield - Metropolitan Grill. I think I did a pretty good job of recreating it without having a recipe! My family enjoyed it, and it really did taste just like the dish at the restaurant. Because I kind of experimented as I cooked, the amounts may not be exact. Feel free to tweak it to make it work for you. :)

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes

1/4 cup milk

1 cup breadcrumbs

1 T parsley

1 T thyme leaves

1/2 cup parmesean cheese

1 pkg whole fresh mushrooms

olive oil

4 T butter (use real butter, not margarine)

1/2 cup white wine

juice from one lemon

4 T minced garlic

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix breadcrumbs, parsley, thyme, and parmesean cheese together in small bowl. Put milk in a separate bowl. Bread the chicken cubes by dipping them first in milk, then coating them in the breadcrumb mixture.

In a large skillet, brown chicken in about 1 to 2 T of olive oil. Transfer to foil covered baking sheet and bake in oven for about 15-20 minutes, until chicken is done.

While chicken is baking, deglaze pan with wine. Add minced garlic and let simmer. Wisk in lemon juice. Wisk in butter. Add mushrooms and cover to cook. You can add salt to taste.

When chicken is cooked through, return to sauce and mushrooms in pan.

Can be served alone or on rice or pasta.

My friend Kelly brought this dish to a potluck luncheon at school, and it was definitely the hit of the day. I'm going to make it for my book club ladies this Friday. Thanks for sharing, Kelly!

Ingredients:
2 instant vanilla pudding packages
2 cups buttermilk
1 large container of whip cream
1 large can of mandarin oranges (or 2 small)
1 package of fudge stripe cookies, crushed (freeze when you get them home as it makes for less mess when crushing them)

Directions:
In a bowl, whisk the buttermilk and pudding mix for 2 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set. Fold in whipped topping and oranges. Cover and refrigerate until serving. Fold in crushed cookies.

Light easy dinner.

Ingredients:

2-4 chicken breasts, grilled and cut into strips
1 can black beans (15 oz), rinsed and drained
1 bag salad mix (10 oz), about 4 cups
1/2 cup low fat cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup pico de gallo

Directions:

Cook chicken on grill (I marinate in vinaigrette dressing) until done and cut into strips. Put lettuce and black beans in large salad bowl. Top with warm chicken, cheese, and pico de gallo. Serve with southwest ranch dressing.

Nice marinated pork recipe for the grill.

Ingredients:

4-6 lean boneless pork chops
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/3 cup fresh lime juice

1/4 cup rum
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Directions:

Put all ingredients in a large ziplock bag and marinate meat 8 hours or overnight. Cook on grill until done!

My church book club ladies are coming over on Friday for our monthly meeting. I thought I would do picnic foods, so I was looking for something new and fun to throw on the grill. These sound fabulous, and since my book club friends enjoy sauerkraut like I do (my boys can't stand it), I thought this would be a great time to try this one out. :)

Update: These were amazing! I made them with fat free hot dogs, lowfat cheese, center cut bacon, and wheat buns to try to make them healthier. Everyone gobbled them up!

Ingredients
1 teaspoon ketchup
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
4 large hot dogs, knockwurst, or kielbasa (I'm going to use Ball Park Fat Free Franks)
1/2 ounce cheddar cheese, cut into long sticks
2 Tbsp chopped onion
1 cup refrigerated sauerkraut, drained, roughly chopped
4 slices bacon
Vegetable oil
4 long hot dog buns (I use wheat ones to add some fiber)

Directions
1. Prepare your grill for direct medium high heat.

2. Mix together the ketchup and mustard in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the sauerkraut with the chopped onion, set aside. Slice open the hot dogs, down the center, lengthwise, forming a deep pocket in each, but not cutting all the way through. Coat the inside of each hot dog with the mustard ketchup mixture.

3. Place a strip of cheese deep within the pocket of each hot dog. Top with sauerkraut and onions. Encapsulate the cheese at the ends with the sauerkraut mixture as well, so that no cheese is exposed (otherwise it will drip out when cooking).

4. Wrap a strip of bacon around each stuffed hot dog, securing with toothpicks at each end. Make sure you wrap tight enough so that the stuffing stays in, but not so tight so that when the hot dog expands will cooking the bacon would tear.

5. Coat your grill surface with vegetable oil so that the hot dogs don't stick. If you have a grill screen (a screen with smaller holes so that small pieces of whatever you're cooking don't fall through the grill), you can use it, just coat it with vegetable oil first and pre-heat for a couple of minutes. Place the stuffed hot dogs on the grill, stuffing side down. Grill for 2 minutes, until the bacon on that side is cooked, turn the hot dogs a quarter turn and grill for a couple more minutes. Continue to grill for a few minutes each on all sides until the bacon is cooked. Cover the grill in between turnings to help with the cooking.

6. During the last minute of cooking, open up the hot dog buns and place them open-side down on the grill to lightly toast.

7 .Remove the hot dogs and buns from the grill. Remove the toothpicks fro the hot dogs, place them in the buns and serve.

Makes 4 stuffed hot dogs.

(Recipe Source - Simply Recipes)

I know this post has nothing to do with recipes, but it makes me so happy, I just have to share. :)

Last weekend the weather and our family schedule finally cooperated, and we went camping! My favorite place to family camp is Big Spring in Van Buren, Missouri. Part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, this campground is simply amazing. It sits on the banks of the Current River and is nestled in a valley of lodge pole pine trees that look more like they should be in the Rocky Mountains instead of south central Missouri. It is my happy place. As soon as we drive down the hill into the entrance of the park, I can feel all stresses melting away. We happened to camp the weekend before Memorial Day Weekend, so there was no one at the park! This is one of the things I love about this campground. If you come on a non-peak weekend, you will have very little company. There were only two other people at the campground last weekend. It was great! We felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. We have had a lot of rain in Missouri this spring, so much so that it has caused some serious flooding problems. In the picture above, the river looks very muddy, which is not ususally the case. It was just at flood stage on this day. The actually had the river closed to floaters because of how high and fast the water was running. Luckily, we traveled 30 minutes north to the Jack's Fork River for a float, and they had just reopened it. We definitely didn't have to worry about our canoe dragging the bottom of the river on this trip. :) Corey and I are planning to create a blog or website with reviews of campgrounds and trails, so be looking for more information on this amazing place to visit in Missouri!