Teriyaki Chicken Kabobs

I fixed these kabobs for the first time two weekends ago for a cookout at my son's house. They were a hit with us... even with those of us, myself included, who normally wouldn't touch a pepper or a zucchini with a ten-foot pole! 

Ingredients:
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
3/4 c. Lawry's Teriyaki Marinade with Pineapple Juice, divided
2 zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 or 2 (I used two) red or green bell pepper(s), cut into 1-inch pieces
1 8-oz. can pineapple slices, drained and cut into 1-inch pieces


Instructions:
Place chicken and vegetables* in large resealable plastic bag or glass dish. Add 1/2 cup of the marinade; turn to coat well. Reserve remaining marinade for brushing.

Refrigerate 30 minutes (or longer for extra flavor). Remove chicken and vegetables* from marinade. Discard any remaining marinade. Alternately thread chicken, vegetables, and pineapple onto eight skewers.

Grill kabobs over medium heat 10-15 minutes (I think it took longer than this), or until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are tender, turning occasionally and brushing with reserved marinade.

*The recipe said to marinade the chicken and the vegetables, but didn't mention the pineapple, so I didn't. But I'm not so sure that it would have hurt anything!

Note: If using wooden skewers, soak in water for at least 30 minutes to prevent burning. I read a tip somewhere that you can also soak them in a liquid that goes with what you're cooking, so I added some pineapple juice to the water that I soaked them in. 

Tangy Cranberry Meatballs

I've seen this recipe several times over the years, but never tried it until tonight. I think it's meant to be more of an appetizer, but we had it as a dinner, served on rice, with green beans. It got the thumbs up from 4/5 of us! The man who took a bite and spit it into the trashcan shall remain nameless.  Since I am currently following the Weight Watchers program, I made this recipe with turkey meatballs rather than beef meatballs.  Turkey meatballs are an acquired taste, and apparently the above mentioned nameless man has yet to acquire it.  :)

Ingredients:

1 lb. frozen precooked meatballs 

12-oz bottle chili sauce

16-oz can jellied cranberry sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

Instructions:

Place meatballs in slow cooker.  In a mixing bowl, combine chili sauce, cranberry sauce, and brown sugar, breaking up the cranberry sauce as well as you can.  Pour over meatballs.  Cover and cook on low 3 to 4 hours.

Sweet & Tangy Kielbasa

We always have this with Kraft macaroni and cheese as a side dish.  ALWAYS.  It's the law.

Ingredients:
2 lbs. kielbasa or smoked sausage
1 c. brown sugar
6 Tbsp. spicy brown mustard

Instructions:
Combine brown sugar and mustard in crockpot.  Cut kielbasa into bite sized pieces. (You could cut it into bigger pieces and put toothpicks in them, if serving as an appetizer.)  Add kielbasa to crockpot.  Stir to coat.  Cook on low 2-1/2 to 3 hours on low or 1 to 1-1/2 hours on high.  (Alternatively, you could cook this on the stove.)

Nachos: Chili Cheese and Regular

It's impossible for our family to eat nachos without running this joke into the ground: "Get your hands off my nachos, because they're NACHOS." Get it? Not yours. Yep... a joke that never gets old.

Chili Cheese Nachos
My favorite nachos to make are chili cheese nachos. The chili is mixed in with the velveeta, so it's not what you might think of chili cheese nachos as being. It ends up looking more like it's hamburger mixed with velveeta... I don't think anyone would know that there's chili in it unless you were to tell them. As long as you don't use chili with beans, that is!

Ingredients:
1 lb Velveeta
1 can chili, no beans
1 can rotel (as mild or hot as you prefer)
tortilla chips

Instructions:
Cube Velveeta. Combine all in a crockpot or saucepan and heat until cheese is thoroughly melted, stirring occasionally (often if using saucepan... which you might want to spray with cooking spray first). Serve on top of tortilla chips or on the side for dipping.

Yield: I dunno. If you double this recipe, it'll give you a full crockpot (I think mine is a five quart crockpot??).


Rotel Nachos
I think everyone in the world already knows this recipe.

Ingredients:
1 lb. Velveeta
1 can rotel (as mild or hot as you prefer)

Instructions/Yield:
Pretty much the same as above. :)