What's cookin' at the Larson household

Last Friday, my cousin Mark and his wife Amy came over and spent the night. I had the Hostess bug and decided to make a special meal for them for dinner. I made Chicken Cordon Bleu, Baby Red Potatoes with Garlic, and Sauteed Sugar Snap Peas. And for dessert, Apple Crisp. Everything turned out really well. I've made the Chicken Cordon Bleu before and it is one of my favorite recipes. It is served with a delicious white wine cream sauce that is to die for. You can find the recipe here.

I didn't follow a specific recipe for the potatoes or snap peas. I just boiled the potatoes in salt water, drained them and added butter, minced garlic and parsley. For the sugar snap peas, I sauteed them in butter and olive oil for maybe 4-5 minutes and then salted and peppered them.

The Apple Crisp was a new recipe I tried and it turned out great! It has a bottom crust that is pressed into the pan and then a top crust that is crumbled over the top of the apples. You can find the recipe here.

On Saturday, I made French Toast using thick sliced Panera Cinnamon Raisin Bread. It was so good! I loosely followed this recipe.

And for lunch, we had sandwiches and one of my standby favorite soups, Slow Cooker Taco Soup. It's so easy, so good and makes so much that we had leftovers for a couple days! I just finished the last of it off for lunch today. I substituted black beans for the red kidney beans since that's what I had on hand, and I added the taco seasoning to the browned taco meat. I think it gives the meat more flavor. I cooked it in the crock pot for maybe 4 hours on high and it came out just fine. I topped the soup with sour cream, shredded cheddar and Frito corn chips. Yum!

Tonight I'll be baking a meal some friends of ours brought over for us yesterday -- a chicken broccoli casserole. We should have leftovers for tomorrow night, and then Friday through Sunday we'll be camping at Willow River!

Tonight I am going to try to make these granola bars. They look so good! I hope they turn out. The last time I attempted to make granola, I burnt it. Oops.

And tomorrow, I think I'm going to have this crock pot oatmeal ready for us to eat for breakfast. I like that this recipe has apples, raisins and bananas in it. I think it will give it a nice natural sweetness. Yum! I'll let you know how it turns out.