Marinade
2 cups water
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons white distilled vinegar
1 tablespoon ground chipotle pepper (or 1 1/2 tsp. ground cayenne pepper)
2 teaspoons hickory smoke flavoring
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 chicken breast fillets

Other Ingredients Needed
4 large flour tortillas
1 cup fancy shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup fancy shredded monterey jack cheese
4 cups shredded iceberg lettuce

1. The chicken needs to marinate for 2 hours, so make the marinade first by combining the ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir well until the sugar has dissolved. Add four chicken breasts to the marinade, cover and chill for 2 hours. Don’t let the chicken marinate for much more than that or it could get tough.

2. When you’re ready to make your roll-ups, preheat your grill to medium/high heat. Grill the chicken breast for 4 to 7 minutes per side or until done.

3. Build each roll-up by first laying a large flour tortilla in a large skillet over low-heat. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of the combined cheeses over the surface of the tortilla while it heats up in the pan. When the cheese begins to melt, remove the tortilla from the pan. Sprinkle about 1 cup of shredded lettuce in a strip across the center of the tortilla, followed by about 3 tablespoons of Salsa. Slice one grilled chicken breast into bite-size chunks and arrange the chicken on the lettuce. Fold the ends of the tortilla over the filling, then roll the tortilla from the bottom. Make a diagonal cut across the center of the roll-up

If you like dipping sauce or homemade pico de gallo you can find the complete recipe here.

Yesterday was our first baking day of the season. We baked 4 batches of my favorite chocolate chip cookies and did about 6 batches of Chex mix. I still have 2-3 other kinds of cookies to get done, but they will have to wait for now. We are sending some of the cookies we made to the soldiers in Iraq as part of a service project for the boys. Their group has made cards and we are putting together care packages with all kinds of goodies at club this week.

All of the children sat down and wrote out thank you cards for some early Christmas gifts that mom brought from relatives while they were here.

Today we are doing some Christmas shopping and looking for dress pants for the Sarge. (What were you doing when the cat clawed a hole through your only dress pants……..WHILE THEY WERE ON YOU!?) We’ll also be mailing out a few packages. The plan is to get all my “out” shopping done before the public school kids are off for vacation. We’re off!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 c. margarine 2 eggs 1tsp. salt
1c. granulated sugar 3 c. all purpose flour 2tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. brown sugar 1tsp. baking soda 2 cups chocolate chips

Mix it all together, drop by heaping tablespoons on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 10-14 minutes.
****Optional: Substitute white chocolate chips and add 1teaspoon almond flavoring

I was feeling all domestic today, and found this nifty little recipe. It works surprisingly well, the smell is better than Mr. Clean, but not as mild as Windex. If you shop at warehouses where they give you a 10 year supply of rubbing alcohol, it will help with that storage problem too. (Honestly, who really needs a gallon of rubbing alcohol!? ) So in the effort of saving big bucks and clearing out some of those monster bottles of rubbing alcohol, I will share my little nugget of info, ENJOY!

Glass Cleaner Recipe
1 cup rubbing alcohol
1 cup water
1 tablespoon white vinegar
Using isopropyl alcohol and white vinegar together makes a quickly evaporating spray glass and mirror cleaner that competes with national brands. This can also be used to shine to hard tiles, chrome, and other surfaces.

We tried out Laura’s Pepperoni Rolls and those were a HUGE hit! Even Hubby liked them!
Variations that would also be good:
Roast beef lunch meat, havarti cheese, with onions and mushrooms
Ham and American cheese
Spinach, feta cheese, and mushrooms

For Christmas this year, we plan to stay home. Our home, that is. The invites are out and we are beginning to plan now, so that we can enjoy our family time together. I’ve done some surfing and found several recipes that would be do-able in my kitchen without making me crazy. We have one person that is allergic to chicken, one with a peanut allergy, several who won’t eat seafood, and 9 children under the age of 10.

Last night was a test night. We found a recipe on the Duggar site for Tater Tot Casserole. Prep time was quick, ingredients were easy to find, and 4 out of 5 family members loved it. (The Imp was having a bad day, so NOTHING would have pleased her royal highness.) We also tried the Ice Cream Cake recipe on the same site. That was a huge hit and we just made individual ones by cutting an ice cream bar in half to stack. Yum!

Momma Duggar, with 16 children, has GOT to have some good tricks up her sleeve to feed everyone inexpensively and happily. Plus the recipes are already sized to feed close to 20 people. We’ll be trying another recipe next week.

1 Boneless Chicken Breast
1 cup mushrooms
1 cup onions
1 tsp. honey
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
½ tsp. lemon juice
dash Paprika
dash Pepper
dash Parsley
¼ tsp. Low salt chicken bullion (Herbox)
¼ cup water
1 oz. Shredded low fat/skim cheddar cheese
1 oz. Shredded low fat/skim monterrey jack cheese
(Optional: Bacon lots of Bacon! )
Step One:
Mix honey, Dijon, and lemon juice to make a sauce, coat meat and let set while preparing veggies

Step Two:
Slice mushrooms and onions, saute in water and ¼ tsp low salt chicken bullion till tender, don’t cook off all water (or add a little to keep meat moist). Set aside in another dish.

Step Three:
Place chicken in same skillet used for mushrooms. Sear chicken on both sides till lightly browned, remove from skillet, place in oven safe baking dish.

Step Four:
Season chicken with pepper and paprika, top evenly with onions and mushrooms. Layer 1oz shredded monterrey jack cheese and 1 oz shredded cheddar.
(Optional: top with bacon )

Step Five:
Bake at 375 degrees until chicken is cooked completely through and cheese is bubbly
(7-12 minutes?) Top with dash parsley.

Even my kids love this one!

1/2 c. butter
2/3 c. parmesan cheese or romano (grated not shredded!)
2 c. Heavy whipping cream (I use 2% milk but it is a bit runnier)
1 tsp. garlic powder (we like more)
1 dash cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
cream cheese (as needed, to thicken 1/4 -1/2 cup?)
1 pound pasta
—————————-
Optional:
fresh parsley for garnish
2 cups fresh mushrooms
chicken or shrimp diced and cooked
2 cups steamed veggies
Over medium-low heat, melt butter. Add cream, garlic, salt, pepper, cayenne, and 1/4 c. cream cheese cut into bits. Simmer for 20-30 minutes while stirring till thickens. Remove from heat and stir in cheese, mix with pasta and with one of the “optionals”. (Note: As sauce cools, it will get slightly thicker.)