Food Watch: Homemade Chili Cheese Sauce

This chili cheese sauce is like the stuff you buy in the jar. You can make this completely to your liking. Make it spicy by putting in a spicy salsa or spicy chili. Put in a lot of cheese to make it mostly cheesey. Or have a little more chili than cheese. You can also make it as thick or thin as you want. Here's a good recipe for cheese sauce, too.

Chili Cheese Sauce

Half of a block of Velveeta style cheese, diced
1 cup chili
1 cup salsa

Put in microwave for 2 minutes or until cheese is melted.

The measurements are just something to go by. Try it the way like it.

Here's a recipe for Zesty Chili Cheese Dip that sounds really good. I'll have to try it next time.

Food Watch: Homemade Chili Recipe

There are so many chili recipes. This is just one that I made today.

Chili

1 pound Italian Sausage
1 1/2 cups of salsa (I used homemade)
1 can or cup of beans (I used white beans this time because I boiled them from dry yesterday)
2 tablespoons of chili powder (or as much as desired)

Simmer until desired thickness. This can be spicy depending on how spicy the sausage and salsa are. Mine had a nice kick to it.

Food Watch: Chili Cheese Fries and Other Things

My kids wanted different things to eat today, so okay, "What do you want?"

My daughter said, "Chicken sandwich and fries with gravy."

My son said, "Chicken sandwich and chili cheese fries."

"Well, ya don't want much, do you? No problem. Gotcha covered."

I had Italian Sausage in the fridge, so I started frying that up. When brown, I took the sausage out, and put it in a saucepan along with a cup and a half of my homemade salsa. I boiled dry beans yesterday for bean soup but I had some leftover, so I put the beans in, along with some chili powder. Okay, chili simmering.

With the pan drippings from the sausage, I put in 2 tablespoons of flour and a little milk, stirring constantly. As the mixture thickens, add enough milk to make it your desired thickness. Okay, gravy, done.

I have potatoes on hand all the time. I peeled them, and sliced them into french fry slices and put on a baking sheet. I put a little oil on them, salt, pepper, and chili powder, and mixed it up so they all had the same amount of oil and spices. Preheat over to 350 degrees and bake until done. Fries done.

Taking a few scoops of my chili, I put it in a bowl with some diced up Velveeta cheese, put it in the microwave for 2 minutes or til cheese is melted. Stir. Instant cheese sauce.

Chicken breast in fridge leftover from night before last. I sliced it up and made their chicken sandwiches. When the fries were done, I put my daughter's plate together with her chicken sandwich and fries with gravy, and my son's plate had his chicken sandwich and his chili cheese fries. The gravy, chili, and cheese sauce turned out really good.

Food Watch: Impossibly Easy Sausage Breakfast Pie Recipe

This morning, I tried this Impossibly Easy Sausage Breakfast Pie. I was looking for something I could make that was different and that I had all the ingredients.

Impossibly Easy Bacon Pie

12 slices bacon, crisply cooked, crumbled
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese (4 oz)
1/3 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup Original Bisquick® mix
1 1/2 cups milk
3 eggs
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Instructions

This was really good, and I ended up making two pies. One for today and one for tomorrow morning.

Food Watch: Apple Pie Filling

I found a great recipe this morning that called for apple pie filling. I don't have any. I know I can make some to use now, but was curious to know if I could make it to freeze for later. Of course, I can. I have all the stuff. It's apple season. Right now is a great time to buy bushels of apples. I got one for $4. Now I am going to make and store this (Oh, and for all those that think I have a big freezer. Nope. I wish I did. Right now it's crammed full of stuff. I will have to start carting things over to my mom's basement freezer soon.

Apple Pie Filling

18 cups thinly sliced apples
3 tablespoons lemon juice
4 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup cornstarch
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
10 cups water

Instructions

Now I will always have it in my freezer.

Food Watch: Making the Most

I try to make the most out of things, so tonight with my daughter wanting Sweet and Sour Chicken, I decided to triple duty the chicken. I love those triple duty foods.

First I used one whole chicken breast (boneless, skinless) and put it in a pot of water with diced onion, celery, green pepper, parsley, salt and pepper, and let it simmer for an hour and a half to make chicken broth to store in the freezer for soups. With half of the chicken breast, rice, broccoli, celery, onion, green pepper, and homemade sweet and sour sauce, I made the Sweet and Sour chicken. Tomorrow I have the other half of the chicken breast to make chicken salad for lunch tomorrow with a side dish of leftover Sweet and Sour Chicken. I wish I could do that with everything.

Food Watch: Sweet and Sour Sauce

Sweet and Sour Sauce in the store costs too much and isn't always that great. My daughter LOVES Sweet and Sour Chicken. I got sick of buying sweet and sour sauce, so here's what I make, and it's really good!!!

Sweet and Sour Sauce

2 cups water
2/3 cup distilled white vinegar
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 (8 ounce) can pineapple tidbits, drained
3 tablespoons cornstarch

In a saucepan, mix all ingredients, let simmer until desired thickness.

I had all the ingredients on hand, so this was terrific.