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Mary Beth's Menu - A Sweetheart Of A Meal

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Here's a Valentine's Menu consisting of a salad, stuffed mushrooms, pork chops and a coconut cake. I hope you enjoy it and remember, cooking should be fun, so experiment and let your creative side shine.

For the salad, I just used a spring mix and added cherry tomatoes and yellow peppers. I thought the colors worked really well together.

Stuffed Mushrooms

1 pound mushrooms

1 small onion, chopped

1/4 cup green pepper (I used an orange pepper this time)

8 slices of bacon, cooked crispy and drained

4 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons butter

seasonings to taste; celery, salt, garlic salt, curry, pepper, etc.

Wash mushrooms thoroughly and remove stems. Discard 1/2 of the stems and dice the other half.

Dice the pepper and the onion. Melt butter in a skillet, then add the diced mushroom stems, onions and peppers. Simmer and stir occasionally until transparent. Remove from heat.

Place cream cheese in a mixing bowl and pour cooked veggies on top. Stir well.

Add crumbled bacon and cheddar cheese. Mix well. Season to taste.

Stuff each mushroom with mixture.

Melt two tablespoons of butter in a baking dish and place filled mushrooms on top of the melted butter. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for approximately 15 minutes.

Watch closely to avoid over cooking. Serve hot.

The original name of this next dish is, Pork Chops Stuffed, but after making it again, I am considering changing it to, "Smothered Pork Chops".

Ingredients

2 cans cream style corn

1 bag Stove Stop stuffing

5 oz. can sliced water chestnuts

1/4 cup chopped onions

8 boneless pork chops

1/2 cup butter

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, stir together the cream corn, stuffing, onion and water chestnuts. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a 9" x 13" baking dish. Place pork chops on top of the melted butter.

Spoon the stuffing mixture on top of the pork chops.

Cover tightly with foil and bake for 1-1/2 hours. Remove foil and continue to bake for one more hour. Voila!

As you can see from the photos, I only needed 4 pork chops, so I just cut all the ingredient measurements in half. : )

Coconut Cake

1 box yellow cake mix

1 small package vanilla instant pudding mix

1-1/3 cup of water

4 eggs

1/4 vegetable oil

2 cups flaked coconut

1 cup chopped nuts, of your choice (I generally use walnuts)

Blend cake mix, pudding mix, water, eggs and vegetable oil in a large mixing bowl on medium speed for about 4 minutes.

Hand stir in coconut and nuts.

Pour into 2 or 3 greased and floured 9-inch layer pans (depending on if you want a two or a three layered cake. I made two this time.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Remove from oven and allow the cake to cool in the pans for at least 15 minutes then remove and completely cool on a rack or a counter top.

I usually top the cake with a homemade coconut cream cheese frosting (I will share that recipe in the future), but I was short on time and mixed 2 cans of white fluffy Betty Crocker frosting with one and a half cups of flaked coconut. Be careful not to add too much coconut or the frosting will be too thick and too hard to spread.