Our Dinner Tonight: Turkey Delight

Tonight, I made a recipe that I have made many times. I've been making it since I was a child. But this was the first time I've made it in a long time, and I made an important change in it.

My two youngest children have autism, and about 2 years ago we switched to a new pediatrician who is very interested in autism and in particular he subscribes to a lot of methods used in the DAN philosophy (Defeat Autism Now). We haven't been able to follow everything he has suggested (vitamin B12 shots at home, organic food), but one we have followed pretty well is to avoid fish or seafood, due to the possibility that mercury contributes to their symptoms. So we don't have tuna, fishsticks, anything that is fish or seafood when we are at home. At first it was hard because D's favorite lunch food was a tuna fish sandwich. We've had to switch him to other meats. For a while it was Spam Spread, and now it is canned chicken or turkey with mayo.

So back to my story, I haven't made this particular casserole in a long time because the original recipe calls for tuna fish. But finally I thought I'd try it with turkey. And it was pretty good! So here is the recipe:

Turkey Delight (original recipe with tuna in parentheses)

1 large can turkey or chicken meat (2 cans tuna)
2 cans cream of chicken soup (2 cans cream of mushroom soup)
1/2 cup milk
1 large bag potato chips (10-12 oz.)

Crush the potato chips. You can do this by opening the bag and then crushing the chips right inside the bag, or by putting it in a bowl and letting the kids mash it up with their clean hands. Next, add the remaining ingredients and mix it all up. Add a little more milk if it is too dry. Grease a 9x13 baking dish. Put casserole in pan and bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

When we were still making this with tuna, we found that we liked the flavor a little better if we used 1 can cream of mushroom and 1 can cream of chicken. I might try this next time with one can of each, just to see what it's like.

It seems weird to put potato chips in a casserole but it's really good! I hope you'll try it.

Chicken Enchiladas

Today I'm posting a recipe for chicken enchiladas. My daughter in Florida asked for the recipe so I figured I might as well post it.

Chicken Enchiladas

1 chicken, cooked and cut into small pieces (no bones)(or the equivalent amount of leftover chicken, or cooked cut up chicken breasts, whatever you have)
1/4 large onion, chopped
1 lb. cheese, grated (ok with any kind of cheese, but Monterey Jack or Mexican blend is best)
12 oz. diced chilies
1 doz. flour tortillas
Mix first four ingredients. Place some of the mixture in each of the tortillas. Roll up tortillas and place close together in a casserole dish. Cover with sauce:

Sauce:
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 cup chicken broth
1 pt. half-and-half cream (can use milk, but use less, because it will thin it out more)

Bake, covered, at 350° for 15 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with grated cheese, and bake for 10 more minutes.

Updating My Websites

This morning I spent some time updating my personal websites in FrontPage and posting them onto Comcast. I had had them on Geocities, but it seems that a while back they decided to "inactivate" sites that weren't getting a lot of visitors. I tried to "reactivate" it, but even with their "suggestions" I was unable to delete my site and re-post it. So now they're on Comcast, and since I pay to have Comcast internet every month, I assume they won't get rid of my website no matter how many or how few people visit them.

So here are the new URL's for my websites:
http://home.comcast.net/~meadclan/ (Mead Family Website) This one has Primary Helps and the Beaverton 1st Ward Cookbook from 1997 (slightly incomplete) and my genealogy stuff.
http://home.comcast.net/~meadclan/worldkrahenbuhl/index.htm (World Krahenbuhl Website, a genealogy website for the original spelling of my maiden name)
http://www.geocities.com/giftsinajar/ (Gifts in a Jar website. This one's still at Geocities, because evidently it was getting enough visitors to warrant it staying. I might move it later though.)

I'll be adding these to my favorite links on the right later, but for now if you're bored you can poke around in them from here.

Crockpot Recipe Sharing

Last night some women from our church got together to share Crockpot recipes. It was a fun night and I got some good new recipes. Here is one of my favorites:

Hot Crab Dip

SERVINGS: 20

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/3 cup salsa
• 3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, cubed
• 2 packages (8 ounces each) imitation crabmeat, flaked
• 1 cup thinly sliced green onions
• 1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies
• Assorted crackers

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine milk and salsa. Transfer to a greased 3-qt. slow cooker. Stir in cream cheese, crab, onions and chilies. Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours, stirring every 30 minutes. Serve with crackers. Yield: about 5 cups.

I hadn't made this in years. Cooking it in the crockpot tones down the spiciness of the salsa and the chiles quite a bit, so it is not really spicy at all. But quite delicious.

My First Blog Post

So here it is, I am finally joining the world of blogging. We'll see if it's interesting or if I remember to keep it up on a regular basis. I do enjoy reading my friends' blogs, and blogs about topics that interest me, so maybe this blog will be useful or interesting to others as well.

I'm planning to post my weekly coupon expeditions on here. I've just started discovering the fun of using coupons with double coupons and sales to get groceries for barely any money! Hopefully I'll get better at it as I go along. One thing I've decided I won't do, is buy coupons from e-bay or other sources. I might buy multiple copies of the Sunday paper, but no more than 2 or 3, if there are some really good coupons in it. There are so many places you can get coupons, and limited storage space, even for the greatest deals.

I'll also post an occasional recipe, and maybe some pictures of scrapbook pages or other crafting I've done.