Sweet and Sour Sauce

3/4 cup white sugar

1/3 cup vinegar

2/3 cup water

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 TBSP Ketchup

2 TBSP cornstarch

mix all ingredients together in a saucepan. Stir continually till boiling and thick. about 10 minutes.

Debbie's Dip

Easy, had this at a Christmas Party

1pkg. sausage cooked up

2 pkgs. cream cheese

1 BIG can Ro Tel Tomatoes

warm it stove top or crock pot, keep warm when serving. Serve with chips

Taco Soup

• 1lb ground beef (or substitute)
• 2 pckgs. taco seasoning
• 1 can of corn
• 2 cans of beans
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 cup of water
• sour cream and cheese (to top)
• corn chips (to eat with)
• marie callendar's corn bread mix (so easy, just add water)
• honey butter (to top corn bread with)

1. preheat oven and make corn bread. while that is in the oven, cook up the beef in a LARGE skillet.

2. when it's ready, add taco seasoning canned ingredients and water until warm.

3. serve with cheese, sour cream and chips and corn bread topped with honey butter.

SO good. SO easy. healthy and cheap.

Tortellini Soup

Laura Sessions made this for me after I had Andrew. It is the BEST soup. I am not a huge fan of soup, but this served with a roll or garlic bread is SOOO DANG GOOD (AND EASY!)

• 2 TBSP olive oil
• 2 zucchini diced
• 3 medium carrots diced
• 2 med onions diced
• 5 1/2 cups stock
• 1 large can of tomato juice (IF you are doubling)
• 1 can diced tomatoes (blended)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 bay leaf
• 8-9 oz fresh or frozen tortellini (I like cheese)
• 2-3 TBSP fresh chopped Parsley

1. Med heat skillet and olive oil. Saute diced zucchini, carrot and onion until onions are soft.

2. While the veggies are cooking up, start boiling the stock, tomatoes, salt, basil and bay leaf. Add veggies when they are done.

3. When this is boiling, add tortellini for 2 min.

4. Reduce heat and cook for 5-6 min. stir in Parsley at the last minute.

add shredded chicken for more protein and serve with some kind of bread to dip. yum yum.

Chicken Veggie Burrito

We went to Parker, CO recently and ate at a Mexican Restaurant, don't remember what it was called though. Anyway, Since I can't have dairy, Mexican can be tricky and/or yucky. But they have a healthy section of the menu with a really yummy burrito. I haven't made it yet, but this is what I'm gonna try sometime.

grilled veggies:

zucchini

green pepper

carrot

red onion

yellow onion

mushrooms

tomatoes

cilantro

black beans

rice

seasoned, grilled, and shredded chicken

all wrapped in a tortilla topped with guac.

Cheryl's Avocado Salsa

When we visited the Larsen's last week, Cheryl taught me this DELISH mixture

1. italian dressing packet
2. red wine vinegar
3. oil
4. 3 avocados
5. 8 roma tomatoes
6. green onion
7. 1 can corn
8. 1 can black beans
9. cilantro

Wash veggies and chop. Drain and add canned ingredients. Mix all together. Mix together dressing (as instructed on packet) and stir into veggie mixture.

Serve with:

fajitas

tacos

burritos

chicken salad

(we had leftover chicken from the deconstructed gauc chicken sammies added it to greens and topped it with this salsa.)

pomegranate fruit salad

pear

banana

grapes

apple

strawberry

(depending on what you've got)

1/2 pomegranate

Clean, cut, pop out the seeds and mix together. toss in some lemon or lime juice so the fruit doesn't discolor. The pom has a tart crunch, which means, this isn't your average fruit salad. YUM!