The Jolly Kitchen

Have you ever wondered what the color of your bread tag means? Click on the picture below to find out.




Here is what Snopes has to say about it. Looks like it is true, but the guide above may not be enough to tell you how fresh your bread really is.

Crunchy Chicken Fingers

Ingredients:
4oz reduced fat sour cream
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups dry stuffing mix
2 lbs chicken tenderloins

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a large baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Combine sour cream, mustard, salt and pepper in a shallow bowl.
3. Put stuffing in a ziplock bag and crush stuffing into smaller pieces. Transfer to a shallow bowl.
4. Dip each piece into sour cream mixture and then roll in stuffing coating each piece as thoroughly as possible.
5. Put chicken strips onto baking sheet and spray tops of chicken with cooking spray.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes until they are cooked through and lightly golden.


Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients:
2-3 large sweet potatoes, peeled
2 tbsp Olive oil
salt and pepper

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Cut sweet potatoes into fries and place into large bowl.
3. Add olive oil, salt, and pepper to fries and stir.
4. Spray a large baking sheet with cooking spray and place fries in a single layer on the pan.
5. Bake for 20-30 minutes until fork tender and slightly crispy.

I found a gem of a blog called, Lolly Chops that I just had to share with my blogging buddies. You have to visit Lolly's blog and see all of her free printables she designs herself. She has many different designs, but I thought my readers could benefit from her recipe cards and measurement equivalents cards. The measurement card would be great to laminate and add a magnet to the back so that you could put on the fridge.

Here is a wonderful guide on how to host your very own cookie exchange party!

Download Now

My Great Grandmother's Unbaked Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

6 Tbsp cocoa

2/3 cup peanut butter

2 cups quick cooking oats

Directions:

Combine sugar, milk and vanilla, bring to a rolling boil and boil one minute. Add peanut butter, combine oats and cocoa; add to mixture. Spoon onto waxed paper. Let set about one hour.

This week The Jolly Kitchen is featuring some delicious recipes courtesy of Felicia from Go Graham Go. Felicia is helping us stay out of the kitchen by bringing us simple recipes for busy moms! When you get a chance, stop by her blog and let her know how much you love her recipes!

Ingredients:

Family pack of cubed steak

Flour

Cream of chicken soup

Beefy onion soup mix

1 Cup of water

Directions:

Add water and cream of chicken soup to crockpot and set to HIGH

Coat the cubed steak in flour lightly

lightly brown in frying pan

Mix Beefy Onion Soup mix in with water/cream of chicken soup mixture in crockpot

Put browned cubed steak in crockpot with mixture and cook on HIGH for about 5 hours (more or less depending on how much cube steak you have)

Serve as is or over rice!

This week The Jolly Kitchen is featuring some delicious recipes courtesy of Felicia from Go Graham Go. Felicia is helping us stay out of the kitchen by bringing us simple recipes for busy moms! When you get a chance, you should stop by her blog.

Enough Chicken Salad to feed an army! Cut it in half for a family of four!

Ingredients:

4 Cans of White Meat Chicken (larger cans usually 2 for $5)

1 8oz block of cream cheese

1 cup of mayo

1/2 cup of chopped celery

3 tbs of chopped onions

4 cups of pecans chopped into fine pieces

Crumble chicken into bowl with celery, onions, and pecan pieces

Melt mayo and cream cheese in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds and mix together.

Mix in mayo/cream cheese mixture with the chicken mixture

Eat and enjoy alone or with crackers or bread!

This week Felicia from Go Graham Go is helping us stay out of the kitchen by bringing us simple recipes for busy moms!




Chicken Squares
Ingredients:1 tube of crescent rolls
1/2 cube of cream cheese
6-8 chicken tenderloins
1/2 small onion finely chopped
1 can of cream of chicken soup

Directions:
Cook chicken thouroughly. Finely chop cooked chicken. Melt cream cheese for about 15 seconds in microwave for easy mixing. Mix all ingredients together.
Lay crescent rolls out flat, spoon mixture onto the biggest section of crescent roll. Wrap sides around the mixture to form a "square" or pocket. Bake according to crescent roll package. Serve with cream of chicken soup on top for gravy!

If you want, you can also shape the dough into a ring as featured in the picture above. Just lay the crescent rolls out like a star and fold over top. This is a wonderful presentation if you are having dinner guests!

This week The Jolly Kitchen is featuring some delicious recipes courtesy of Felicia from Go Graham Go. Felicia is helping us stay out of the kitchen by bringing us simple recipes for busy moms! When you get a chance, you should stop by her blog. She has some great giveaways going on right now and always has the best product reviews.


Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

1 box of spice cake mix
One can of pumpkin (the regular sized can not the jumbo)
About 1/4 cup of water (use more or less to liking)
3/4 cup chocolate chips (tossed in flour so they don't sink to the bottom)

Mix it all together and bake them for 15 minutes at 350!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Here are some ideas for what to do with all of the food sitting in your refrigerator.

Turkey Pot Pie

Potato Croquettes

Pumpkin Bars

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Shepherds Pie

Turkey & Mashed Potato Frittata

Mr Breakfast's Holiday Leftover Tips

1. Mix leftover cranberry sauce with cream cheese to make a spread for toast and muffins.
   
   
2. Cranberry sauce makes an excellent topping for pancakes and waffles. Its flavor even blends well with maple syrup.
   
   
3. Shredded turkey can be added to almost any omelet recipe. Take a mushroom and cheese omelet; add some leftover turkey and it becomes a Turkey Tetrazzini Omelet. Here are 122 omelets you can experiment with.
   
   
4. Refrigerate your leftovers as soon as possible. Use leftover turkey within 3 days. Cranberry sauce keeps for about a week.
   
   
5. You know those crispy French Fried Onions on the top of your green bean casserole? Toss a little handful over scrambled eggs or omelets. Trust me.
   
   
6. Instead of hashed browns, fry up some leftover stuffing in a little bit of oil. Pat it down in rounds as its frying and it turns out like little pancakes.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my readers!

Yes! This is The Jolly Kitchen! My friend Felicia at Go Graham Go made this awesome design for me! I'm still working on getting the tabs to work. It will probably be a few days before I have everything worked out so please bare with me.

Make Thanksgiving a relaxing day for all by planning and preparing ahead of time. There are many time saving tips that will help lessen the workload on Thanksgiving. This way you can have a relaxing, stress-free holiday as well!

1. Chop any vegetables you will be using to make your stuffing or casseroles. Place them in airtight containers.
2. Bake your pies or desserts the day before. Cover tightly with saran wrap.
3. If you are making mashed potatoes, go ahead and boil them until they are fork tender. Place them in an airtight container. The following day reheat the potatoes in the microwave and follow your recipe from that point.
4. Assemble your green bean casserole the day before. Do not add the french onions though. The next day, add the french onions and heat right before it's time to eat.
5. Wash all of your glasses, plates, polish silver, iron linens, make centerpieces, print place cards, and arrange flowers.
6. Set the table.
7. Remove turkey from packaging. Rinse with cold water and pat dry. Store in the refrigerator tightly covered with foil or saran wrap. Make sure to place a platter underneath to catch any liquid.
8. If you will be serving any cocktails, go ahead and premix and store in decorative decanters or bottles.
9. Tidy up the house if it needs it.
10. Gather anything you know you will need or will be using the next day.

Here are some free Thanksgiving printables that I found online.

Adorable turkey place cards from Martha Stewart




Place Cards











Conversation Starters