Homemade ~~ Cooking!

I'm definately not a from-the-box cooking type person.  Sure, I use pre-packaged stuff from time to time but the majority of our meals are made from scratch.  Its just better if you can add your own twist to something!!



The other day I made some Chicken Tortilla Soup.  Its a favorite of mine (not so much for Damon, he's 'anti-chicken' for some reason!) and very suitable for the cooler fall days.  I'm pretty sure I took this recipe from Rachael Ray and adapted it to suit my own tastes, if memory serves me correct.  Its VERY tasty!

Then I cleaned out my pantry and found some coconut cookies I had bought at the Dollar Tree a while back.  Knowing I needed to use them up asap, I figured they'd make a divine crust for a pie!  So I crushed up those bad boys, added some melted butter, baked it in a pie pan, and let it cool.  For a filling, I went to my old standby, homemade vanilla pudding!  Only I gave it a twist, adding some rum extract, so it was a vanilla rum pudding.

Yum.

 

The only thing that would have made it better was a dollop of lime curd!



And then I tried a new recipe!  I needed something quick to make on Sunday since Damon had to work, so I went to my favorite 'famous' cooks website, Pioneer Woman, for some new ideas!  This lady never disappoints!



I came across a recipe for a Sour Cream Noodle Bake.  So easy!  Cook some egg noodles.  Toss w/sour cream and cottage cheese.  Make a meat sauce.  Put the noodles in the bottom of a pan and top with the meat sauce.  Add cheese.  Bake.  Simple, no fuss.

And it was SO good!  Even the cats wanted some!

It was obviously a dish worthy of a Sunday nap!

 

 

Anyone tried any new recipes?  I'd love to hear about it!