Nessa is a full time wife and mother of two, living the small town life in rural Texas. She loves cooking everything from tried and true recipes to her own wonderful creations. Catch her blogging at Ramblings of a Texas Housewife and on Twitter @Nessa_TX.

This is one of my husband’s favorite recipes. His Granny made this for years and his entire family loves it.

I posted the recipe on Recipezaar, so I would never lose it, because it took me quite a few tries to get it it right. We serve this with crackers and a green salad. I hope your family enjoys it as much as my bunch does.

View the complete recipe here: Taco Casserole Recipe aka Tex Mex Mess. The recipe is pretty straight forward.

1. You brown ground beef and garlic until done.
2. Next run the can of Ranch Style beans through the food processor until they reach a paste like consistency. Then mix into ground beef.
3. The recipe says to soften the corn tortillas in the reserved meat grease, but I usually soften them in a bit of vegetable oil in a small frying pan.
4. Once your grease is hot, it takes no more than five seconds per side to get the tortillas soft. Be sure you blot each tortilla well with paper towels to remove excess grease.
5. Also, be sure to grease the pan thoroughly or spray with nonstick cooking spray. This will stick and be a pain to clean otherwise.
6. Then you fill the tortilla shells with the meat and bean mixture.
7. Next cover with soup & water mixture. My advice is to reserve a bit of the soup mixture to layer on top of the Velveeta. It helps keep the Velveeta from getting too brown.
8. The layer of lettuce comes next.
9. Top this with the thinly sliced Velveeta. Top this with remaining soup mixture.
10. Then into the oven it goes.
11. Check it after 20 minutes, as the Velveeta will brown quite quickly and you do not want it to burn. All you really need to do is heat it through and melt the cheese.

That’s it! I hope you enjoy it!

Did you like this In the Kitchen with Nessa article?  Stay tuned next Monday for Nessa’s new column, Out of the Box Lunch Ideas.

Find more cooking articles at Kitchen Tip Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays, and Homemaker Mondays.

Related Articles:

• Hubby’s Best Recipes: Stuffed Tortilla Chips
• Easy Recipes for Homemakers: Nacho Salad
• Simple Blackberry Cobbler Recipe
• Recipe: How to Cook White Gravy
• Recipe: Grilled Tuna Steaks

Nessa is a full time wife and mother of two, living the small town life in rural Texas. She loves cooking everything from tried and true recipes to her own wonderful creations. Find more of her wonderful recipes on What’s Cookin’ and catch her on Twitter @Nessa_TX.

Quick and Easy Dinner Recipes

These two recipes, cheesy Italian chops and quick and easy gumbo,  help make an easy week night meal that is a cinch to put together! It can be made in thirty minutes and is so simple that even the newest of cooks can easily make this for the family.

We added two premade, store bought side dishes caught on clearance sale, but any of your family’s favorite sides will round the meal out nicely.

Cheesy Italian Chops

Ingredients

• 4 thick cut, boneless pork chops
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup Mozzarella cheese
• 2 slices of bread, dry toasted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place 3 tablespoons butter on shallow baking pan and let melt in the oven while it preheats. 
3. Place cheeses, Italian seasoning, and toasted bread that has been torn into pieces into a food processor or blender. Pulse to make finely ground bread crumbs.
4. Wash pork chops off, then dip in breadcrumbs, turning to coat well. Make sure both sides are thoroughly coated.
5. Place coated chops in melted butter on baking pan.
6. Bake for 30 minutes or until chops reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees F.

Did you like this In the Kitchen with Nessa article?  Stay tuned next Monday for Nessa’s new column, Frugal Cooking with Fresh Produce.  Make sure you subscribe to our free updates so you don’t miss any of her great kitchen how to articles!

Find more cooking articles at Tasty Tuesday, Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays, and Homemaker Mondays.

Related Articles:

• Take & Make Menu Plan: Martha Stewart Dinner Recipes
• Take & Make Menu Plan: Ragin’ Cajun Recipes
• Recipe: Hubby’s Best Mac and Cheese
• Hubby’s Best Recipes: Stuffed Tortilla Chips
• Hubby’s Best Recipes: Crab Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

Nessa is a full time wife and mother of two, living the small town life in rural Texas. She loves cooking everything from tried and true recipes to her own wonderful creations. Catch her blogging at Ramblings of a Texas Housewife and on Twitter @Nessa_TX.

Snacks for a Couples’ Game Night

My husband and I decided rather last minute to have our neighbors over for dinner and games the other night. We had about an hour to prepare and I really did not feel up to cooking. We threw together this quick, fuss free menu of wonderful snack foods.

There was very little prep work involved, but everyone raved about the food. 

We Served:

• Fritos
• Store bought bean dip
• Apples
• Peaches
• Pineapple
• Cherries
• Bananas
• Tuna dip
• Ritz crackers
• Cheese salsa dip

We simply washed and sliced the fruit, then arranged in serving trays. The fresh fruit was a lovely treat on a hot summer night. Fresh vegetables would make a nice addition as well. Fruits and vegetables are very easy to serve and a welcome addition to any menu.

Bean Dip: If you do not want to buy premade bean dip, you can quickly whip up some on your own. Take a can of refried beans and simply add a jar of salsa. Mix well with an electric mixer. That is all there is to it and it makes a delicious dip.

Tuna Dip: This is a family favorite. Mix one package of softened cream cheese with a can of well drained tuna. Add a teaspoon of liquid smoke and beat well with an electric mixer. It is not the prettiest dip, but everyone loves it!

Cheese Salsa Dip: For a different twist on queso dip, mix a jar of your favorite salsa or picante sauce with two cups shredded cheese. This is excellent with tortilla of Frito type chips.

To decorate the table, we scattered pieces of various board games, dominoes, and other game related items around the serving trays. It made for a cute and fun presentation. It looked great, took all of five minutes, and was super easy.

You don’t have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen to make a meal folks will enjoy. Just make simple things that your family enjoys, present it in a fun way, and enjoy. Sometimes the simplest things are the most enjoyable. This game night snack menu was definitely a hit with our friends. Give it a try with yours!

Did you like this In the Kitchen with Nessa article?  Stay tuned next Monday for Nessa’s new column, Quick and Easy Dinner Recipes. 

Find more cooking articles at Tasty Tuesday, Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays, and Homemaker Mondays.

Related Articles:

• Top 5 Cheap Kids’ Snacks for Summer Vacation
• Take and Make Menu Plans: Valentine’s Recipes
• Take and Make Menu Plans: Tex-Mex Recipes
• Take and Make Menu Plans: Crockpot CDKitchen Edition
• Take and Make Menu Plans- With Superbowl Appetizers

Nessa is a full time wife and mother of two. She loves stirring up new creations in her country kitchen. Catch her on Twitter @Nessa_TX or check out her original recipes on her site What’s Cookin’.

We were recently given several pounds of blackberries. After eating our fill, I wanted to bake up a tasty treat with the remaining berries. I decided on a wonderful cobbler. Blackberry cobbler is one of my favorite foods!

Cobbler Shortcut Tip

There are lots of good cobbler recipes around. A fast and easy short cut is to mix up a yellow butter cake mix. Grease a 9 x 13 cake pan, then add the fruit to the pan. If your fruit is a bit tart, go ahead and sprinkle some sugar on it. Then top with the mixed cake batter and bake according to cake mix directions.

The berries will rise to the top of the cake as the cake mix cooks. It’s so yummy! This is the quickest, easiest cobbler I know of.

I decided to use my Poor Man’s Cobbler recipe. It is just as easy, can be made with pantry staples, and is very versatile. You can use any fruit you want to in the simple, tasty dessert. I used butter rather than margarine today.

Did you like this In the Kitchen with Nessa article?  Stay tuned next Monday for Nessa’s new column, Game Night Snacks.  Make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed so you don’t miss any of her great kitchen how to articles!

Find more cooking articles at Kitchen Tip Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays, and Homemaker Mondays.

Related Articles:

• Take and Make Menu Plans: Valentine’s Recipes
• Take and Make Menu Plans: Tex-Mex Recipes
• Take and Make Menu Plans: Crockpot CDKitchen Edition
• Take and Make Menu Plans- With Superbowl Appetizers
• Recipe: Grilled Tuna Steaks

Everyone loves breakfast for dinner, which is why our menu plan this week is filled with breakfast recipes!  Your kids will love this idea, and it’s a welcome change from your regular dinner rotation.

Print out the free printable Take and Make Menu Plans each Sunday, which include:

• A printable grocery shopping list of ingredients.  Print out the list, check off what you already have on hand, then take your shopping list to the store.
• A dinner meal for each day. Click the name of the meal to print the recipe and directions.

Homemaker Barbi’s Take And Make Menu Plans:

Breakfast for Dinner Recipes

Printable Grocery Shopping List:

Click the button below to view, download or print the shopping list. Grocery shopping checklist is divided into sections by type of food to make your shopping trip faster.

Meals with Recipes:

Monday

Dinner: Secretly Healthy Coffee Ring.

Tuesday

Dinner: Full English Breakfast.

Wednesday

Dinner: Healthy Cheddar Sausage Strata.

Thursday

Dinner: Cinnamon Belgian Waffles.

Friday

Dinner: Bacon & Rice Croquettes.

Saturday

Dinner: Maple Bacon Muffins.

Sunday

Dinner: Leftover Love. Spread out a buffet table of all the leftovers from the week’s meals.  This means a day-off for the chef!

If you’d like to suggest your recipes to be featured, email tips(at)homemakerbarbi.com.

Related Articles:

• Take and Make Menu Plans: Valentine’s Recipes
• Take and Make Menu Plans: Tex-Mex Recipes
• Take and Make Menu Plans: Crockpot CDKitchen Edition
• Take and Make Menu Plans- With Superbowl Appetizers
• Take & Make Menu Plan: Martha Stewart Dinner Recipes

Nessa is a full time wife and mother of two, living the small town life in rural Texas. She loves cooking everything from tried and true recipes to her own wonderful creations. Catch her blogging at Ramblings of a Texas Housewife and on Twitter @Nessa_TX.

I have recently discovered that I adore tuna steaks. They may very well be one of my favorite foods. I have created a recipe for grilled tuna steaks that makes absolutely delicious tuna steaks. Not only is it tasty, but even cooks with limited experience can make this dish and wow their family.

The prep time on this one is quite quick, just be sure to plan ahead and allow time for the tuna steaks to marinate.

Recipe:  Grilled Tuna Steaks

Ingredients 

• 4 (4oz.) tuna steaks 
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• !/3 cup soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 Tablespoon Grey Poupon mustard
• 1/2 cup olive oil

Directions

1. Place tuna steaks in gallon size zip top freezer bag.
2. Combine soy sauce, honey, lemon juice, lemon peel, mustard, and olive oil in a small bowl. Whisk until well blended
3. Pour marinade mixture over fish and gently flip a couple of times to coat the tuna steaks really well.
4. Place the plastic bag in the fridge, laying flat on a cookie sheet and marinate overnight.
5. Get your BBQ grill ready, you need the heat to be medium-high.
6. Place steaks on hot grill and cook about 6 minutes per side over moderate heat.
7. Baste with marinade mixture every two minutes or so while cooking.

This grilled tuna steaks recipe make a wonderful, light summer supper. Just add a salad, some crusty bread, and maybe a nice bottle of wine and you are all set. It is very simple and quick to prepare, which is great for busy working families.

Just remember to plan ahead for marinating time. If you cannot let the steaks marinate overnight, you can get by with only three hours. This dish is impressive enough to serve to company, something I really love about it. Plus, the tuna steaks do not taste “fishy” so most kids who turn up their noses at fish will enjoy this entree. Enjoy!

Did you like this In the Kitchen with Nessa article?  Stay tuned next Monday for Nessa’s new column, Simple Blackberry Cobbler.  Make sure you subscribe to our free updates so you don’t miss any of her great kitchen how to articles!

Find more cooking articles at Tasty Tuesday, Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays, and Homemaker Mondays.  Grilled tuna steak photo by cote.

Related Articles:

• Simple Blackberry Cobbler Recipe
• Video Recipe for Barbi’s Kraft Zesty Summer Cafe Sandwich
• Take and Make Menu Plans: Valentine’s Recipes
• Take and Make Menu Plans: Tex-Mex Recipes
• Take and Make Menu Plans: Crockpot CDKitchen Edition

We want to be outside doing fun family activities as much as you do for the remainder of summer vacation!  Take advantage of quick cooking meals that will have you in and out of the kitchen in no time. 

Print the shopping list and recipes below for a no-fail menu plan this week!

Homemaker Barbi’s Take And Make Menu Plans:

  Easy Summer Recipes

Printable Grocery Shopping List:

Click the button below to view, download or print the shopping list. Grocery shopping checklist is divided into sections by type of food to make your shopping trip faster.

Meals with Recipes:

Monday

Dinner: Fried chicken with mashed potatoes and white gravy.

Tuesday

Dinner: Stuffed tortilla chips.  Melty and portable, you can make these stuffed tortilla chips and send them with your kids to eat outside in the warm summer weather!

Wednesday

Dinner:  Hubby’s Best Mac and Cheese recipe. 

Thursday

Dinner: Chipotle chicken sandwiches.

Friday

Dinner: Steak and Ale Style Hawaiian Chicken cooked on the barbecue grill. 

Saturday

Dinner: Taco foldovers.  You know we love portable food for summertime!  These taco foldovers are a great option for kids to take on the go for a healthy dinner.

Sunday

Dinner: Leftover Love. Spread out a buffet table of all the leftovers from the week’s meals.  This means a day-off for the chef!

If you’d like to suggest your recipes to be featured, email tips(at)homemakerbarbi.com.

Related Articles:

• Menu Plan: Cook on the Grill BBQ Recipes
• Take & Make Menu Plan: Martha Stewart Dinner Recipes
• Menu Plan: Summer Salad Recipes with a Twist
• Menu Plan: Summer Dinner Sandwich Recipes
• Take and Make Menu Plans: Valentine’s Recipes

Nessa is a full time wife and mama of two. She shares her love of family, cooking, and the frugal life on her blog Ramblings of a Texas Housewife . Catch up with her on Twitter @Nessa_TX.

During the summer months we do a lot of cooking outside. One of my favorite foods is chicken. I love it done BBQ style, grilled, or smoked. chicken is a great budget meat and very versatile.

I love it grilled with simple seasonings, slathered in BBQ sauce, or seasoned and tossed on the grill. I want to share with you some tricks I’ve learned for cooking a tasty bird.

Chicken Marinade Tips

For grilling, I usually throw the chicken in a gallon size zipper bag with my marinade of choice the night before cooking. You can buy jumbo packs of chicken then divide into meal size servings and put in large freezer bags with your favorite marinades. Toss these in the freezer, then when you want to cook them up, place in the fridge to thaw and it will marinate while it defrosts.

If we don’t use a marinade then we normally just season with salt, pepper, and garlic. It is simple and quite tasty.

BBQ Style Chicken

When it comes to BBQ style, it is very simple. We usually just grill it and baste often with BBQ sauce, either homemade or store bought. This is a simple, frugal meal that tastes delicious! Be sure to have plenty of napkins handy, as this one will get you a bit messy.

Recipe: How to Cook Smoked Chicken Outside

When smoking a chicken, I use a variety of spice blends. The only thing that never changes is my use of butter and onions. You can easily make a seasoning blend to suit your family’s tastes, just be creative and use spices you enjoy.

For this chicken I used sea salt, coarse black pepper, dill, and garlic.

	1.  Soften a stick of butter then mix desired seasonings into it.2.  Using your hands, loosen the skin all around the chicken, then shove your seasoned butter mix under the skin.
	Do this to both sides of the chicken, the legs, and all over. This will season the meat rather than just the skin. 3.  Then spread any left over butter and seasoning all over the outside of the bird.
	4.   In the cavity I place a stick of butter and half an onion, cut into quarters. 5.  Then place on the smoker.  This method is also great for grilling poultry.
	6.  As far as cooking times and temperatures go, it depends upon your cooking method. When smoking, I keep the temperature at about 250 degrees and it takes quite awhile.

My favorite piece of cooking equipment when it comes to outside cooking is a meat thermometer. Just cook until the thermometer reads done for chicken. You can’t go wrong this way!

Did you like this In the Kitchen with Nessa article?  Stay tuned next Monday for Nessa’s new column, Grilled Tuna Steaks.  Make sure you subscribe to our free updates so you don’t miss any of her great kitchen how to articles!

Find more cooking articles at Kitchen Tip Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays, and Homemaker Mondays.

Related Articles:

• Menu Plan: Cook on the Grill BBQ Recipes
• Recipes: 4th of July Party Menu Texas Style
• In the Kitchen: Baking Cookies with Kids
• Thrifty Thursday: Rubber Bands From Asparagus
• Taco Casserole Recipe

Try these easy dinners for a week, and use the extra time you save to do something fun with your family outside.

Print out the free printable Take and Make Menu Plans each Sunday, which include:

• A printable grocery shopping list of ingredients.  Print out the list, check off what you already have on hand, then take your shopping list to the store.
• A dinner meal for each day. Click the name of the meal to print the recipe and directions.

Homemaker Barbi’s Take And Make Menu Plans:

Easy Dinner Recipes

Printable Grocery Shopping List:

Click the button below to view, download or print the shopping list. Grocery shopping checklist is divided into sections by type of food to make your shopping trip faster.

Meals with Recipes:

Monday

Dinner: Nacho Salad.  Tex-Mex can be a great way to hide veggies from your little ones.  They’ll love devouring down this vegetable-filled nacho salad!

Tuesday

Dinner: Enchilada Casserole.

Wednesday

Dinner: Chicken Lo Mein.  This oriental favorite gets a new twist by using spaghetti in this easy dinner recipe.

Thursday

Dinner: Aloha Pork Chop Skillet.  Inexpensive pork chops make this Hawaiian summer dish an easy dinner recipe you’ll want to check out.

Friday

Dinner: Chicken and Spinach Risotto.  Thought you could only get risotto at a restaurant?  Think again! This fast and easy version of a dinner risotto will let you bring the restaurant dish home.

Saturday

Dinner: 5-Minute Southwest Layered Salad.  This light and easy summer salad has the protein side of dinner taken care of.

Sunday

Dinner: Leftover Love. Spread out a buffet table of all the leftovers from the week’s meals.  This means a day-off for the chef!

Related Articles:

• Take and Make Menu Plans: Valentine’s Recipes
• Take and Make Menu Plans: Tex-Mex Recipes
• Take and Make Menu Plans: Crockpot CDKitchen Edition
• Take and Make Menu Plans- With Superbowl Appetizers
• Take and Make Menu Plan: Spring Recipes

Below you can view the video of me showing how to make my Zesty Summer Cafe Sandwich using fresh, healthy ingredients that are easy on the grocery budget but big on taste! The full recipe card is provided with directions and ingredients at the end of the video.

(Subscribers will have to click through to this article to watch the video.)  

I am in love with the beautiful Kraft test kitchen and wish I could cook in it every day!  Find more cooking articles at Tasty Tuesday, Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays, and Homemaker Mondays.

Related Articles:

• Menu Plan: Summer Dinner Sandwich Recipes
• Take and Make Menu Plans: Valentine’s Recipes
• Take and Make Menu Plans: Tex-Mex Recipes
• Take and Make Menu Plans: Crockpot CDKitchen Edition
• Take and Make Menu Plans- With Superbowl Appetizers