I Heart Faces Weekly Challenge: Pet faces.

There are a few challenges that I have entered, when I see the theme, I sometimes go straight to the picture in my mind of which one I want to enter.

This weeks, I knew right away. A few months ago, my mom got 2 new basset hound puppies. One weekend they came to visit and brought the puppies with them. We fell in love. I couldn't help but take some photos of Walter and Ben. This one photo of Walter is amazing to me. Because I actually got him to sit still, I mean come on, how many times do you know of that you can get a 2 month old puppy to sit still??

So here is Walter. In all his big floppy eared glory.

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Green Chili Chicken Enchiladas.

I saw this recipe on EatatHomeCooks.com, it looked pretty good. And while I don't usually do green chilies, I though I'd give it a try. I deviated from the original recipe and added some fat free refried beans into the mix.

And while I don't have any on hand. I do have to give a shout out to a product that we LOVE. Most everyone knows of the Wholly Guacamole. Did you know that the Wholly brand also makes a queso? They have a white and yellow queso, that is beyond delicious. Seriously, when we had it in the house Michael and I would eat the whole thing in 2 days. That's a LOT of queso. This is the reason why I don't have any in the house, or we would be having that queso. Since Cinco De Mayo is coming up faster than Easter bunnies procreate, I thought I would let you guys know so you can keep an eye out for it for Cinco de Mayo. Heat it up and take it to your party (or eat it at home) and people will think you are a queso genius.

Green Chilies Chicken Enchiladas

Makes 8 enchiladas

• 2 chicken breasts cooked, shredded chicken
• 1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies (Rotel-Normal)
• 2-3 cups shredded reduced fat cheese (I used all of the block of Monterey Jack and added cheddar too)
• flour tortillas
• 1 can green chili enchilada sauce
• Fat Free refried beans

Mix the chicken, tomatoes with green chilies, refried beans and 1/2 or a bit more of the cheese together in a bowl. Fill the tortillas with this.

Place the filled tortillas in a 9×13 pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Pour the can of enchilada sauce over the top and sprinkle with the rest of the cheese.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

We made the mistake of using the Hot Rotel... and BOY it was spicy. We served it with fat free sour cream and guacamole.

Homemade Turkey Pot Pie.

I do realize that it's April and not the normal time you would have leftover turkey on hand. When you find yourself digging through the freezer for the popsicle you dropped, and find a bag of leftover turkey from Thanksgiving, well you've got to find a recipe to use that turkey up (or at least some of it). I'm not sure which magazine I pulled it out of, because it was a Swanson Broth ad.

The other thing that drew my attention is that a lot of times Michael doesn't like all the extra crusts, which I LOVE, I could eat his and mine. But this recipe only had a top crust, no bottom, so I figured it would cut down on some of the calories. I missed the extra crust, but not enough that I would throw this recipe away. It was chocked full of vegetables and had great flavor.

This picture was just because the pot pie looked like something out of a magazine. It was beautiful and smelled delicious.

Then I actually cut it so you could see all the veggies inside. I had a bag of mixed veggies with carrots, corn, green beans and peas in it.

Turkey Pot Pie

(makes 6 servings)

1 egg

1 Tbsp, water

6 cups diced cooked Turkey or chicken

5 cups frozen mixed vegetables

2 Tbsp Butter

1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 cups Swanson chicken broth (low sodium)

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 of a package of Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry (1 full sheet), Thaw

2 Tbsp chopped herbs (parsley, thyme, rosemary and/or oregano)

Heat Oven to 400 degrees. Beat egg and water in small bowl with fork.

Stir turkey and vegetables in 13x9 baking dish. Heat butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and whisk until smooth. Gradually stir stock into saucepan. Cook and stir 5 minutes or until mixture thickens. Stir in black pepper. Pour stock mixture over turkey mixture.

Unfold pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Roll pastry sheet into 13x9 rectangle. Place pastry over filling. Press pastry to the rim to seal. Brush Pastry with egg mixture and sprinkle with herbs.

Bake 25-30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and filling is hot and bubbling.

Super Easy Salisbury Steak.

To add to my confused pregnant cravings, which is getting a little out of hand. My latest craving would make pickles and ice cream sound like chips and salsa to the normal person, 2 items that go together.... Cheese Pringles and Prunes? No, Not so much, huh? The other night I had made my Flounder with mustard cream sauce recipe, that I always enjoy. Except this time around, I had like 4 bites of it and just couldn't eat it. It didn't taste right to me. So I quit eating. 30 minutes later, I decide I want something sweet. Open the fridge to Prunes, they sound good. So I eat a serving of them. Then Michael gets up to go get his dessert and I sweet talk him into getting me the cheese Pringles that I had bought that day. It was delicious and disgusting all at the same time.

After that crazy night, I've had a few normal days, except for the extreme urge to have Taco Bell Nachos. Tonight's is a new recipe that my friend Michelle sent me. She swore by this recipe. She has a family of 5, so I can see why she likes doubling this recipe. It really is super easy. She gave me a great piece of advice for serving kids, make mini patties for the kids portions. Since my munchkin won't eat normal food I just made big patties. They were delicious, and I did improvise with the sauce a little. She found this recipe on Allrecipes.com and I think we both changed the original recipe to make it right for our family. I served ours with Instant Mashed Potatoes and Corn. Not the healthiest options, but just right to go along with this meal, real comfort food. We will definitely make this one again, even if it is giving me really bad indigestion at the moment. Apparently the baby isn't appreciating it as much as I did for dinner.

Salisbury Steak

makes 4 servings

1/2 medium onion diced

1 lb ground lean turkey (you could use lean beef too)

1 -10 ounce can Campbells French onion soup

1/2 cup bread crumbs (I had to use a little more b/c of the turkey needing extra binder)

1 egg

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1 Tbsp All purpose flour

1/8 cup Ketchup

1/4 cup water

1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

1/2 tsp Dried ground Mustard

1 cup Beef Broth or 1 can beef broth

Saute the onion in 1 tsp oil, in a pan. In a large bowl, mix 1/3 can of French onion soup, ground turkey (or beef), bread crumbs, egg, salt & pepper. Shape into 4 patties (or multiple sizes for kids and adults). In same skillet with onions, brown patties on both sides. Pour off any excess fat (I didn't have any excess fat with the turkey).

In a small bowl, blend flour and remaining soup until smooth. Mix in ketchup, water, worcestershire sauce, mustard and beef broth. Pour over meat in skillet. Cover and lower heat to medium-medium low. Cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally and spooning sauce over patties.

Shrimp and Cheese Grits.

Tonight I achieved a new culinary feat. I made grits. I know, some of you are going to roll your eyes and say big whoop. But for a girl that has grown up in the South since she was 6... and have had grits a handful of times (out of not wanting to be rude, so taking the smallest serving possible) rather than the desire to actually eat them.

Tonight's recipe came out of Southern Living "May 2009" issue. There is a restaurant that they got this recipe from. It's called the Hominy Grill. Now I have no idea where in the south this restaurant exists but I have got to give them credit. Their recipe looked better than mine, and I only had 1/2 the recipe instructions... so I had to improvise a little. It was delicious, and besides this pregnancy, I'm not sure I would eat it otherwise. But for tonight, I made it, ate it and LOVED it.

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With all that said, I'm not sure how to make it diet friendly besides cutting back on the amount of cheese it calls for. So this may just end up being one of those "splurge" meals that you enjoy every once and a while. I used Yellow grits, because I couldn't find the grits they called for in the recipe.

Shrimp and Creamy Cheddar Cheese Grits (makes 4 servings)

Creamy Cheddar Cheese Grits

Make recipe according to package just substituting 1/2 water and 1/2 milk, instead of all water.

Then stir in 1/2 a block of reduced fat Extra sharp white cheddar cheese (shredded) and 1/2 cup reduced fat Cheddar cheese. Salt & Pepper to taste. I added 2 tsp of butter to it, which wasn't on the package.

Shrimp

1 lb peeled and deveined shrimp

5 bacon slices, chopped (I left that out)

1- 8 ounce package sliced fresh mushrooms

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions

2 tsp hot sauce

1/2 tsp salt (optional)

Heat saute pan with 2 Tbsp Olive oil. Saute shrimp and Mushrooms until shrimp are pink and done through, should be 3-5 minutes. Remove shrimp and keep warm. Add garlic and saute with mushrooms. Add lemon juice, hot sauce and green onions. Add shrimp back and mix together.

To plate, Put grits in bowl or bottom of plate, then top with shrimp and mushroom mixture. Serve hot.