Homemade French Fries

Homemade french fries are the perfect addition to your BBQ! They are simple enough to make, but if you are new to frying in a deep fryer, fries are the first food you should try.

Though you can fry any food in any pan/container that can heat oil, I would highly recommend a Fry Daddy deep fryer. The reason why is because you can leave the oil (I use Crisco shortening) inside the Fry Daddy after frying, let it harden, and then reuse it the next time you want to fry something! Other pans and deep fryers require you to remove the oil, which means you have to either throw it out or properly store it elsewhere until next time (which is a pain).

Homemade French Fries

Ingredients:

Potatoes, sliced

Oil (I use Crisco shortening)

Lawry's Seasoning Salt

Instructions: 

1. Heat oil (for a Fry Daddy the oil is ready approximately 15 minutes after being plugged in).

2. Meanwhile, peel potatoes and slice them: slicing lengthwise into thirds and then those into thirds (total of 9 slices per potato) generally makes a good size.

3. When oil is ready, us an oil strainer to place fries in oil. Use the strainer to rotate the fries every once in a while so that they don't stick together. When they are golden brown they are ready (aprox. 2-3 minutes). Remove them and place them on a paper towel to drain.

4. Sprinkle fries with Lawry's Seasoning Salt.

*Note: Fries cool very quickly, so I would recommend having them be the last food you prepare before serving dinner.

Estimated Calories: 210 calories per 9 fries (This is more of a guess than an actual calculation. There are several formulas when figuring out calories for fried foods. I just picked the easiest one. It really depends on the oil you use, how thick you cut the potato, and how long it sits in the oil.)

My favorite burger recipe to serve with these fries is from Kraft:

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/mini-cheeseburgers-112482.aspx

CAUTION: Serious injury can occur when working with hot oil. Please read all of the instructions in the owner's manual of your deep fryer before frying.

Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken Taco Salad

I used to make this shredded BBQ chicken and would serve it with cheesy potatoes. Then one day my husband asked, "Can you make this chicken into a taco or something? Like Cafe Rio style?" Cafe Rio style? Oh yes baby, I can do that. So I came up with this gem:

Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken Taco Salad

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts (1 breast serves 2-3 people)
1 cup BBQ sauce per 2 chicken breasts
1 can Black Beans
1 can Corn
Shredded Mozzarella cheese (or Cheddar)
Avocados (about 1 per 2 people), diced
Ranch Dressing
Shredded lettuce
Tortillas

Instructions:

1. Place Chicken breasts in slow cooker, cover with BBQ sauce mixed with 2/3 cup of water.*
2. Cook on HIGH for 6 hours or LOW for 8 hours.
3. When done shred chicken, return it to the slow cooker and stir it among remaining sauce.
4. Warm up black beans and corn on the stove (in separate pans), dice avocados, warm tortillas in a skillet pan on medium heat.
5. Layer tortillas with chicken, beans, corn, cheese, lettuce, and avocado; drizzle with Ranch.

*Note: The BBQ sauce-water-chicken ratio will be dependent on the size of your slow cooker. It should almost cover  the chicken breasts. My slow cooker is an 8-qt and so I have to do at least 2 cups of BBQ sauce with 1 1/3 cup water.

Like this:

Estimated Calories: 600-700 per salad (It depends on how much of everything you put on)
Recommended sides: Fruit Salad

Very Cheesy Baked Ziti

A local restaurant near me makes DELICOUS Baked Ziti, but my husband does not like that restaurant so I needed to find a recipe to make at home. I came across a promising looking recipe from Kraft. The original can be found below:

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/creamy-baked-ziti-120729.aspx

I didn't like the taste of the cream cheese or the sour cream. So I took the sour cream out entirely and replaced the cream cheese with cottage cheese. I also found the pasta to sauce to cheese ratio off. There was too much pasta. When you took a bite, all of the cheese and sauce came with that first layer of noodles, which left the remaining noodles cheese-less and a tiny bit of sauce.

So here is my Baked Ziti recipe:

WARNING: This has ALOT of cheese in it, so if you aren't a cheeses person, reduce the amount to your liking.

Very Cheesy Baked Ziti

Ingredients:

1 cup Ziti pasta, uncooked
3/4 cup Sphagetti sauce (I use Ragu Old World Style Traditional)
1/3 cup Cottage Cheese (I use small curd)
8 oz. package Mozzarella cheese (approximately)
Parmesan Cheese (amount to your liking)

Directions:

1. Cook pasta as directed.
2. In a sauce pan, combine spaghetti sauce and cottage cheese, cook on medium heat until boiling.
3. Mix pasta with sauce. Spread half onto bottom of a 2 quart casserole dish. Sprinkle desired amount of Mozzarella cheese (try to at least cover the pasta). Spread remaining pasta, sprinkle desired amount of Mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses (try to at least cover the pasta).
4. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

Serves: 4
Estimated Calories: 560 calories per serving (1/4 of casserole dish)
Suggested sides: steamed broccoli and fruit salad