Ham and Pasta Skillet

Well the busy season has begun in my little corner of the world - all the more reason to cook easy, quick dishes like this! I double this recipe if the hubby is able to be home to eat with us, and that will make enough for me to bring a dish of leftovers in my lunch the next day.

Ingredients:
1 - 10 3/4 ounce can condensed broccoli cheese soup
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard
2 cups broccoli florets OR 1 - 10 ounce package frozen broccoli cuts, thawed (if you put them in the fridge the night before or even in the morning before you leave for work, they should be thawed when you get home)
1 1/2 cups cooked ham, cut into strips
2 1/4 cups medium shell-shaped pasta, cooked and drained (or whatever similar pasta you have - elbow macaroni and spirals work as well)

And here is what you want to do with it all:
Heat the soup, milk, mustard and broccoli in a 10 inch skillet over medium-high heat to a boil, reduce heat to low. Cook until the broccoli is tender - about 5 minutes.
Stir in the ham and pasta. Cook until hot and bubbling.

And that's it - you've got your meat, you've got your veggie - what more could you want? Biscuits? You want biscuits? Well, go ahead! Bake some! You have just enough time to preheat the oven and bake some refrigerated biscuits and have them nice and warm when the pasta is ready. Little bit of budda, little bit of honey...MM MMM MMM MMM MMM....

Potato, Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole

This is NOT a quick recipe. But it is definitely worth making! This was part of our Christmas morning brunch. I boiled the potatoes on Christmas Eve afternoon to save time assembling this on Christmas day. I think next time I'll peel them and slice them as well. We'll also leave out the sun-dried tomatoes. It was delicious, but we think it would be even more so without the tomatoes. The other thing that would save a little time on Christmas morning is to shred the cheese the day before as well.
Here are the ingredients needed:

2 1/2 pounds Yukin gold potatoes, unpeeled
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes (not oil-packed) - optional
12 ounces ham, finely chopped (2 cups)
8 ounces fontina, Gruyere or Swiss cheese, shredded (2 cups) - I used Swiss because it's what I could find in the store.
2 tablespoons flour
8 eggs
3 cups whole milk or half-and-half (I used milk and it was fine)
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Place potatoes on a large pot with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium or medium-low and simmer for 15 to 25 minutes, until potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork. Drain and let cool.
Melt butter in skillet over medium heat. Cook onion for 5 minutes or until golden brown and softened, stirring occasionally.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 13x9 inch glass or ceramic baking dish with cooking spray. Remove skin from potatoes with paring knife and slice 1/4 inch thick.
Layer half of the potatoes in the baking dish. Top with half of the tomatoes, half the onions and half the ham. Toss the shredded cheese with flour and sprinkle half over the potatoes. Repeat layers with remaining potatoes, onions, ham and shredded cheese.
Whisk eggs until blended. Gradually whisk in the milk, salt and pepper. Pour over the potatoes and sprinkle with the Parmesan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until browned and bubbly and knife inserted in center comes out moist but clean. Center will set as casserole cools. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Casserole can be made up to 4 hours in advance and kept refrigerated until baking time. Bake 5 or 10 minutes longer than stated in recipe.



*recipe found in the January 2011 Cooking Club magazine.

30 Minute Meatloaves

We are a meatloaf loving family. I usually reserve it for weekends when I have a little more time to make it; but occasionally we need a meatloaf fix mid-week. Here is a nice quick way to make some cute mini-loaves. First, gather your ingredients:

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 1/2 cup baking mix, like Bisquick or Jiffy
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 egg

Then, start cookin':

-Heat oven to 450 degrees. Stir ketchup and brown sugar together in a small bowl. Reserve 1/4 cup for topping. In a large bowl, stir remaining ketchup mixture with the rest of the ingredients until well mixed.

-Spray a 13x9 inch pan. Place meat mixture in pan, patting into a 12x4 inch rectangle. Cut into 12 sections and separate so no edges are touching. Brush reserved ketchup mixture on each loaf (I admit, I sometimes make more of the ketchup mixture. We're also ketchup lovers.).

-Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until no longer pink in center and meat thermometer reads 160 degrees when inserted into center of loaves.

Delish!

Pasta & Meatballs

This is SUCH an easy recipe, and it's a favorite here at the homestead. I actually double this recipe if the DH is home for dinner. The ingredient list is short and sweet:

• 1 cup water
• 1 - 26 ounce jar pasta sauce
• 1 1/2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
• 20 frozen cooked regular or Italian style meatballs
• grated Parmesan, optional

And the directions are short and sweet as well. And EASY:

Heat water and pasta sauce to boiling in a 10 inch skillet. Stir in macaroni and meatballs. Return to boiling. Reduce heat to medium and cover. Cook 15 to 20 minutes longer, stirring occasionally, until macaroni is tender. Sprinkle with cheese.

Yup, that's it. Easy and good. I may even make this tonight.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

Well I'm back, with a new computer - a laptop, which is proving to be WAY more convenient than the tower I had. Still have, but it's been demoted to just games and things for the younger 2. And the DH. Because this laptop is MINE darn it.
No, really, I DO share...
I'm not going to make any promises that I'll be posting often. I THINK I'll do better now that I can chill on the couch and type, but you know. I may still be Lazy.

On to the recipe. This is one that I really thought I would like, was pretty sure the kids would like, but really didn't think the hubby would like. Turns out I was wrong, we ALL really liked this one.

Here is the list of ingredients:

*2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
*bread crumbs
*1 egg, mixed with 1/2 cup milk
*8 ounces Swiss cheese, cubed
*8 ounces ham, diced
*1 can (10 ounces) cream of chicken soup
*1 cup milk

And it's pretty easy to throw it all together:

First, dip the chunks of chicken into the egg and milk mixture, then into the bread crumbs; coating well. Brown in a little oil until golden. Place chicken chunks in baking dish. Add cubes of Swiss cheese and diced ham. Mix the soup with 1 cup of milk and pour over all.

Bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degreees, or until tender and bubbly.

I did small red potatoes in the microwave with this: rinse potatoes; pierce each potato a few times with a fork. Place in microwave safe dish and add about 1/4 inch of water. Cover and microwave until done. I usually do 10-12 small potatoes in about 10 minutes. Eat them like a baked potato, smothered with butter and/or sour cream. Yum!!

*thank you Chevy for this recipe.

Stir-Fried Beef and Vegetables

I love going out to Chinese restaurants. My wallet doesn't. So I've been trying to find some 'sort of' Chinese recipes to make at home that are good and easy. Haven't found many. But this one - it's good. The entire family liked it. So here we go...
Your Ingredient List:

-4 tablespoons soy sauce
-4 tablespoons water (actually could use sherry as well, but I have water, no sherry. It tasted great with water)
-2 teaspoons sugar
-1 pound beef top round steak
-2 ounce cellophane noodles, broken or 1 package rice noodles, broken (I haven't used the cellophane noodles, but we LOVED the rice noodles. They were different but good. You could probably boil up some thin spaghetti as well.)
-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
-2 teaspoons ground ginger
-4 garlic cloves, finely chopped (just bought myself a garlic press. LOVE IT.)
-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
-2 cups fresh snow (Chinese) pea pods or 12 ounces frozen snow pea pods, thawed and drained
-2 medium onions, cut into thin wedges

Mix soy sauce, water and sugar, set aside. Trim fat from beef and cut into 2 inch strips. Cut strips in 1/8 inch slices. This is much easier to do if the beef is partially frozen.
Soak noodles in enough water to cover, about 15 to 20 minutes, then drain.
Heat wok or large skillet over high heat. Add 2 tablespoons oil, rotate wok to coat. Add beef, ginger and garlic. Stir-fry until beef is no longer pink – about 5 minutes. Remove from wok.
Add 2 tablespoons oil to wok, rotate to coat. Add pea pods and onion. Stir-fry until vegetables are crisp-tender. Stir in beef mixture and noodles. Heat to boiling. Stir in soy sauce mixture. Cook and stir about 2 minutes until heated through.

Serve with some egg rolls or egg drop soup.
Enjoy!

Chile-Chicken Enchiladas

1 can (19 oz) enchilada sauce
2 cups diced cooked chicken
1 ½ cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese (6 oz.)
1 cup sour cream
1 can (4.5 oz) chopped green chiles
8 – 8 inch flour tortillas
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Heat oven to 350°. Spray bottom of 13x9 inch (3 quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray. Spread ½ cup enchilada sauce in bottom of baking dish. In medium bowl, stir together chicken, Monterey Jack cheese, sour cream and chiles.
Spoon about 1/3 cup chicken mixture down center of each tortilla. Roll up tortillas; arrange, seam sides down, in baking dish. Top enchiladas with remaining enchilada sauce. Sprinkle with Cheddar cheese. Spray sheet of foil with cooking spray; cover baking dish with foil, sprayed side down.
Bake 35 minutes. Remove foil; bake 5 to 10 minutes longer or until hot and cheese is melted.
If desired, serve with avocado, green onions, lettuce, chopped tomato and additional sour cream.

Pizza Sandwiches

We started a new 'thing' at our house. Well, it's not new anymore, but new since my last post. Tuesday nights are "Kid's Night". Which basically means each week the boys take turns planning a meal. They do this over the weekend before I get groceries, they make sure we have all the ingredients, and when Tuesday rolls around, they make dinner. I supervise. I chose Tuesday because we normally don't have a lot going on on Tuesdays, so if dinner takes a bit longer that's okay. I'm hoping that eventually my supervisory role will be diminished as their cooking skills improve. And looking into the future, I also hope that my daughter-in-laws thank me for making sure their hubbies know how to cook for them. And eventually the princess will learn how to cook this way as well.
Pizza Sandwiches is one of the first choices my 11 year old made, and they were fairly quick, and certainly easy enough for him to make.
Here is the list of ingredients:

• 8 slices Italian bread (3/4 inch thick) - but seriously, we used regular white bread, and they were just fine
• 8 slices part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 8 slices tomato (slice thin)
• 4 teaspoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
• 24 slices pepperoni
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• Pizza sauce, warmed

Obviously this only makes 4 sandwiches, but it's easy enough to double up everything and make 8. Or only make 6. Hey, you could even be crazy and only make 7. Whatever floats your boat.

Let's put these sandwiches together.

On four slices of bread layer one slice of mozzarella, two slices of tomato, 1 teaspoon Parmesan cheese, a dash of garlic salt and six slices of pepperoni. Top with remaining mozzarella and bread. Spread outside of sandwiches with butter.

Grill sandwiches for 3-4 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Serve with pizza sauce.

These were really quite good. I did help with the flipping of the sandwiches, as he tends to get carried away and I didn't want any pepperoni stuck to the ceiling.

White Chili with Chicken

I love chili. I could eat it almost daily. As a matter of fact, when I was pregnant for my second child, I went through a phase when I did eat it daily. He still loves spicy food to this day. But not chili. Go figure. I guess it's the beans. But you can't very well have chili without beans, now, can you?
Well anyway, he did manage to eat a bowl of this white chili and said it was "Okay". The rest of us liked it, and I'll definitely be making it again.
With that, let's begin...
Here's what you'll need:

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped* (optional) (and I skipped this. The cumin gave it a little bit of a spicy flavor, and that was enough for us.)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 4 cups chicken broth (I had about a cup of drippings left from the chicken I made on Sunday which I used, to that I added 3 cups of water and 3 chicken flavored bouillon cubes. Wasn't sure what would happen, but it worked out.)
• 2 cans (15 1/2 ounces each) great northern beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley (which I don't ever have, so I poured about a teaspoon and a half of dried parsley into my palm, decided that looked reasonable, and threw it in. It worked. I know, SO Rachael Ray. If I'd used 'EVOO' you'd be thinking I was her, wouldn't you? No, I know...not in a million years....)
• 1 tablespoon lime juice (why, I don't know, but I used it, and it was fine. Honestly not sure if I'd notice if it was gone. But maybe...)
• 1 to 1-1/4 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 2 cups cubed cooked chicken (I actually ROASTED A CHICKEN yesterday just so I'd have some for this recipe. No, really, I did. My husband thinks I did it so he would have a nice meal, but NO, it was for THIS recipe.)

Let's get started...

In a large saucepan, or dutch oven style pot, cook the onion, jalapeno (if you're more daring than me) and garlic in oil until tender. Stir in the broth, beans, parsley, lime juice and cumin. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Combine the cornstarch and water until smooth. Stir into chili. Add the chicken. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. I think I went with three minutes myself.

I had planned on taking the leftovers in my lunch tomorrow. Well, there aren't any leftovers to take! This was delicious! And easy (okay, not 'easy-peasy', but still...). It took just over 30 minutes to make, and that included the time spent chopping the onion and taking my 2 year old to the bathroom.

Enjoy!!

*a note on the chopped jalapeno. Now, I don't really know much about them, except they're hot, hot, hot, mon. I've never actually worked with a raw jalapeno, but I do know that you have to be very careful handling them. You should always wear rubber or plastic gloves while handling them, and avoid touching your face.

Easy Parmesan Chicken Fingers

Well, when I started this blog I never intended for it to be a 'once-a-month' kind of thing, but sadly that seems to be what it's becoming. I'll try to do better in the future.

I know, I say that or something like that pretty much every time I post, don't I?

Well, to make up for it, I'm giving you one of the most easy-peasy recipes I have. And they're good too, which is a bonus.

Did I just say 'easy-peasy'?

Gather together the following:

• 2 lb. chicken tenders or boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips


• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese


• 1 pouch extra crispy seasoned coating mix (like Shake N Bake)

And that's it! THREE things! Could it possibly get any easier?? No! Unless you just want to go through the drive-thru, but these are much better, and you know it's real chicken. Really. Do you really know what you're getting when you go through the drive-thru? No. I recently got a fly in my salad when I went through the drive-thru at a restaurant that shall remain unnamed. Unnamed because they took care of me nicely when I told them what they'd done.

Anyway...enough fly talk. Gather your three ingredients and let's get busy...

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Moisten your chicken with water, shake off excess. I'm not sure what the point is of this particular step, unless it helps the cheese and coating stick to it better. Ours is not to reason why....

Place the coating mix in the shaker bag that came with it and add the parmesan cheese. Kind of mix it together.

Kind of. No...mix it good. Give it a couple extra good shakes, just for fun.

Add 2 or 3 chicken tenders to the bag at a time. Shake around until evenly coated. Place on nonstick baking sheet or a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Repeat until you've coated all your chicken. Discard any remaining coating mix.

Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

---

That's it. How simple. Serve this with ranch dressing and/or barbeque sauce for dipping. I also made up a box of mac & cheese and heated up a veggie to go with it.

And everyone loved it.

And here's a tip - use the leftover chicken in a salad. Yum. Just watch out for flies.

Creamy Ham and Potatoes

Yes...I know...it's been almost another month. It's been busy on the home front! Ya'll are beginning to think I never cook, aren't you? Well I do...I just never type. I mean to, honest. I thought I was going to have an awesome ham and bean soup recipe a few days ago. But, well, it was so NOT awesome we had mac & cheese instead. Big "F" for Failure there.
But we're not here to talk about the failures, we're here to talk about the successes. And this one was definitely a success, and will be added to my tried and true list.
This is another plan-ahead, use the crockpot recipe.
Here is your list of ingredients:

• 4 medium red potatoes, thinly sliced
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped (I just used one big one)
• 1 1/2 cups cubed fully cooked ham - great way to use up leftover ham!
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon ground mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of celery soup, undiluted (and it was good with the celery soup, but I think next time I'll try the mushroom)
• 1 1/3 cups water
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese, optional (which I totally forgot to do, but it was fine without)

Night before:

Slice the potatoes, chop the onions. Mix together & store in the fridge. Cube ham.

In the morning:

Layer potatoes, onions and ham in crock pot. Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in flour, mustard, salt and pepper until smooth. Combine soup and water. Gradually stir into flour mixture. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until bubbly and thick (You might be able to do this the night before as well, I wasn't sure how much it would thicken up even more overnight in the fridge. But if you want to try it, go for it!). Pour over ham. Cover and cook on low 8-9 hours (or until potatoes are tender). Sprinkle with cheese before serving, if you remember.

This was a great dish and it was great for heating up for lunch the next day at work.

Enjoy!

Zesty Chicken Tortilla Bake

Yes, I know, it's been a MONTH since I posted a recipe. I have a whole STACK of them here waiting for me to have time to enter them. At work, they're making me, well, work, and at home we're in the throes of potty training. You wouldn't think that would make life chaotic, but it does.
Make that extra-chaotic.
And then there are nights like tonight. According to this recipe, it should take 35 minutes plus whatever time you need to cook your chicken, if you're not using leftovers (which I wasn't). So like, 45 minutes, tops. And I really think, in a perfect world, it would have. But it is not a perfect world, and it took nearly 2 hours. Well, the recipe itself didn't take 2 hours, but once you add in LIFE, all together we're talking 2 hours.
We ate way later than I like to, but I will say, when we finally did eat, the food was darn good. I had every intention of taking a picture before we scarfed it down, but by then we all were so stinkin' starving there was just no time to find the camera; by then the hubby and the boys would have inhaled it and I would have got nothing!
Enough of that. Let's get on with the food....

Your ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Miracle Whip dressing
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3 cups milk (Problem #1...we were out of milk. The Boys, who were home all day, knew this, but didn't think that maybe I should know. I didn't discover we were out until well after I'd dealt with Problem #2, below.)
• 1 package (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese (divided)
• 1 1/2 pounds of chicken breasts, cooked and cut into 1-inch pieces (Problem #2...when I called The Boy to get chicken out of the freezer, he couldn't find it, so didn't. Apparently I hid it under the bucket of ice cream. And his arms don't work so he couldn't lift it up and check underneath it. So I had to wait for the chicken to thaw.) You could also use a bunch of leftover chicken.
• 1/2 cup salsa (slight Problem #3...I only had 1/4 cup. I substituted 1/4 cup taco sauce for the rest. I'm still trying to figure out what happened to my new jar of salsa.)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (Okay, that was Martha Stewart talking. I say, a palmful of dried parsley. Who has fresh parsley? Not me....)
• 16 taco-sized flour tortillas

Mix the Miracle Whip and flour in a medium saucepan with a whisk until well blended. I had to use a fork to get the gobs out from in between the wires a few times, which truly I wasn't too impressed with, but I think it may have been the whisk more than it was the gunk. Add about 1 cup of milk and stir until blended, then add the rest and continue stirring until well blended. Cook and stir on medium heat until the sauce comes to a boil and thickens, which at this point, seemed like forever but was probably, oh, 7 or 8 minutes. Stir in half the cheese. Reserve one cup of the prepared sauce.

Add the chicken, salsa and parsley to the remaining sauce and stir until well blended. Spoon 1/3 cup of the sauce/chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla and roll up. I just used a big spoon and eyeballed it; actually using a measuring cup just seemed like it would be really messy to me. Place roll-ups seam side down in baking dish. The recipe I have says to use 2 11x8 inch pans. I don't have 2, so I ended up using 3 pans all together. It also doesn't say to spray the pans, but I did, and I'm glad of it, so I would recommend you do too. Top evenly with the reserved sauce and remaining cheese.

Bake at 375 for 25 minutes.

I served this with corn. Everyone gave this a thumbs up. Not the corn, the tortillas.

Enjoy!

Award-Winning!!

Well, I thought no one ever read this blog, but apparently I was wrong...as I was just nominated for having such a 'brillante' blog, by White Kitchen, who, I think, has an excellent blog (and excellent taste in blogs!) as well. Now it's my turn to nominate seven blogs. Here are my nominations:

1. My Vintage Kitchen - It's the watermelon pickles. Never heard of them, I find them fascinating.

2. A Year of Crockpotting - I love my crockpot! This site (c)rocks!!!

3. I think I have a recipe for that... - an Australian blog I stumbled upon. I just like seeing what they eat over there. Because I've never been there. And I'd like to go. And I'd like to know what I can expect to eat, if I ever DO get there.

4. What Recipe? - A blogger after my own heart, with a nice organized spice cabinet. Note to the DH: See, I'm no freak just because I organize my spices alphabetically! I'm sure he could come up with many other reasons why I'm freak, though...

5. Beck's Recipes - Everything I've seen on her blog sounds so good.

6. Dinner on a Dime - With the price of everything rising these days, it's good to have some economical, but GOOD, recipes on hand.

7. Crista's Kitchen Creations - Because of the peach enchiladas. I mean, YUM.

Congrats, winners! Here are the rules:
1. Post the award logo on your page.
2. Link back to the person who awarded you.
3. Nominate seven other blogs, and add links to their blogs.
4. Make sure your nominees know they’ve won!

Cheesy Meatball Subs

These were so incredibly easy and I can't believe I never thought about making them sooner. A co-worker mentioned making these, and shortly after I ran across a recipe for them. This is similar to the recipe I found, though not exact, because really, it's a 'play it by ear' kind of thing.
Here are my ingredients:

• 2 cups spaghetti sauce
• 4 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
• 24 ounces frozen meatballs
• 8 crusty buns (I just used a package of 'sub' buns, but something crustier would be better, like a mini Italian loaf or something)
• shredded mozzarella cheese

Combine spaghetti sauce and parmesan cheese in a large skillet. Add meatballs. Stir gently to coat. Bring to a boil.

Simmer 8 minutes or so until meatballs are heated through. Stir occasionally so that they all get heated!

Spoon onto buns and sprinkle with cheese.

This recipe could easily be cut in half or adjusted to how ever many sandwiches you need.

Crispy Baked Pesto Chicken

This recipe was my first foray into the world of 'pesto'. Turns out we like it....it is garlic-y, after all, and we all like garlic. This is a very simple recipe; only takes about 35 minutes. Perfect for a weeknight.
So, here we go. Here is what you will need:

• 4 small boneless skinless chicken breasts - about 1 pound (though I actually had about 2 1/2 pounds. It's an easy recipe to adapt to more chicken though.)
• 1 pouch chicken seasoned coating mix (like Shake 'N Bake, for instance. I used a store brand though because it was cheaper. Tasted fine.)
• 2 tablespoons pesto (no store brand here. They didn't have any. It was a little pricey for the size jar it was. But no worries, it'll go far. It doesn't take much. And I've already used more because it was so yummy.)
• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat chicken evenly with coating mix. Place in baking dish.

Bake per directions on coating mix box, or until chicken is cooked through (when it registers at 170 degrees in the thickest part).

Top chicken evenly with pesto. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake an additional 5 minutes or so, until cheese is melted and lightly browned.

This was SO GOOD. I served it with green beans (the princess loves green beans!) and a rice dish.

Country Vegetable Beef

I made this the other night for the whole fam damily. I questioned one particular step, which you probably will too, when we get to it, but it turned out just fine. This is by no means gourmet (but then, what have I posted so far that is? - Nothing!) but it was good. Good enough to be gone when the meal was over.
So let us begin:

*2 cups water
*2 tablespoons cornstarch
*1 pound ground beef
*4 cups frozen mixed vegetables
*2 packages beef flavored ramen noodles - with seasoning packets

That's it - five ingredients - EASY. So easy my son finished it up for me when my parents stopped over unexpectedly when I was in the middle of it. Anywho, this is how you throw it together:

In a small saucepan, mix water, cornstarch and seasoning packets. Stir constantly over low heat until mixture thickens. (I actually did this part last, thinking that way the mixture would still be hot when I mixed everything together. I don't think I really needed to.)

In a frying pan, brown and drain beef. Add vegetables and cook until tender. This is the part I questioned. There's no liquid for the veggies to cook in. I really wasn't sure about this part. But I worried for nothing. The veggies were fine.
Once the veggies are cooked, add the gravy and stir.
(Next time I make this I will add chopped onion to the beef as I brown it. Onion adds just a little more flavor that we like, though this was good without it.)

Cook noodles in water according to package directions and drain.

Now, you have two options.
Option 1: Serve gravy over warm noodles. (per the original recipe)
Option 2: Mix the noodles with the gravy and serve. (per, well, ME. That's what we did and it was delicious)

According to the recipe this makes 2 - 4 servings. But please, we're talking about 2 packages of noodles, 4 CUPS of veggies, and a pound of burger. It served the 5 of us. It was gone when we were done, but we were also STUFFED.

Cashew Brownie Pizza

Okay, I know, this was originally a blog for dinner items. We've been doing a lot of grilling so no new recipes. Last night we had Sesame Pork - okay, but in the words of my son, "It was okay, but not a 'keeper', Mom."
Okay then.
So as I eat the leftovers of my 'Okay, but not a Keeper' Sesame Pork, I decided it was time to expand the blog. No cooking blog is complete without CHOCOLATE. So here is my first entry in the dessert category.
I've made this quite a few times; most recently for the hubby to take to work for his office buddies. They liked it so much a GUY actually asked for the recipe.
So here it is:

BROWNIE
1 package (21 ½ ounces) Pillsbury Traditional Fudge Brownie Mix
1/3 cup water
¼ cup oil
1 egg
2 Tablespoons flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (maybe a little more so you can taste test as you go. You wouldn't want to put "bad" chips in your dessert)

*Now, I totally screwed up and bought a brownie mix that was too small. Worse, I didn't notice until I had all the rest of the ingredients mixed in with it. So I figured, what the heck, I'll throw it in the oven anyway. It was flatter and less 'brownie-chewy' than normal, but apparently still good.

TOPPING
2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 can (10 ounces) cashews (again, I'd get extra; you want to taste test.)
½ cup hot fudge ice cream topping

Heat oven to 350. Line 15” round pizza pan with parchment paper. In bowl, combine brownie mix, water, oil, egg and flour; beat 50 strokes by hand. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour brownie mixture on parchment paper. Spread into 14” circle. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. DO NOT OVERBAKE. Remove brownie from pan, do not remove parchment paper. Let cool completely.
Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth. Spread evenly over brownie. Sprinkle cashews over cream cheese mixture. Microwave fudge topping on high for 45 seconds or until warm. Drizzle over cashews.

*this was originally from a Pampered Chef flyer I received many years ago.

Roasted Vegetable Combo

This was SO GOOD. and actually healthy! I have a hard time finding things that are both 'healthy' and 'good'. So this is definitely a keeper!
I served this with the Homestyle Chicken and Gravy. Yea, I know, the gravy totally ruined the 'healthy' aspect. It was still good. SO good.
The veggies take almost an hour between prep and roasting time, so I got them started and then went on to the chicken.
Here are the ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups fresh baby carrots
• 1 pound small red potatoes, unpeeled, quartered (about 3 cups)
• 1 medium onion, cut into thin wedges
• 1 tablespoon olive oil or vegetable oil (I used the olive oil - yummy)
• 1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 - 14 ounce package frozen whole green beans (that's 'beans', not 'beens' for those of you who confuse easily) (private joke, just for Mel)

This couldn't be much easier to throw together. Here we go:

Heat your oven to 425. Spray a 15x10x2 inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. In a large bowl combine everything except the green beans. Mix well so everything is pretty evenly coated. Spread evenly on the pan. Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove from oven, mix in green beans.

Bake 20 to 25 more minutes, or until the veggies are tender, stirring once.

DEE-LISH!!

Home-Style Chicken and Gravy

Did you know that Paprika is made from a pepper? I did not know this. All I knew, was that it was a spice. Now, according to what I've found online about paprika, it's not real spicy. Here is the link: http://www.mccormick.com/content.cfm?id=8225
Well, I am here to tell you, SOMETHING about it is spicy. This recipe was delicious - the only problem was, the outside was a bit on the spicy side. Okay, some bites were a lot. Now we use seasoned salt a lot - it's never been spicy. The garlic-pepper blend is black pepper, and I went light on that. But the PAPRIKA - now THAT I went a little crazy with.
So my tip of the day, before you go making this is, USE THE MEASUREMENTS BELOW. I did not - I 'eyeballed it'. Hey it works for Rachael Ray.
Didn't work for me though.
Paprika aside, this was some good chicken. On with the recipe....

Your ingredients:

• 6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (I actually used 3 - but they were HUGE)
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 3/4 teaspoon paprika (trust me on this - do NOT use more)
• 3/4 teaspoon garlic-pepper blend (you can buy it all blended. If you don't want to, it looked to be about a 50/50 mix - just do it yourself)
• 1 - 12 ounce jar home-style chicken gravy
• 2 tablespoons half-and-half or milk (the recipe actually says "fat-free half-and-half" - I didn't know it came that way)
• 1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce (I shared with the husband what is in Worchestershire sauce. He was disgusted. But he enjoyed the chicken anyway.)

Let's throw everything together:

Spray a large skillet with nonstick cooking spray. I don't have a large skillet, so I used the medium one I have. They were crowded, but it worked. But then, I only had 3 pieces. But, like I said, they were HUGE. Anyway, back to the recipe. Heat skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Sprinkle chicken with seasoned salt, paprika and garlic-pepper blend. See, here's where I went wrong. I thought, "Why measure? I can sprinkle without measuring..." So I did. The hubby ended up with hickups because of it. It was kind of funny. He NEVER has hiccups.

On with the recipe....

Add the chicken to the skillet. Cook 4 to 6 minutes or until browned on both sides. I did mine a little longer because they were so thick. More like 4 to 6 on EACH side. I really wanted to make sure the inside was done.

In a bowl, combine the gravy, half-and-half (or milk) and Worcestershire sauce, mix well. Poor over chicken. Cover and simmer over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 mintues or until chicken is fork tender and juices run clear.

Everyone loved this recipe, other than the spiciness of it, which really wasn't supposed to be there. We gave the peanut some chicken without coating so she could enjoy it too. I served this with the Roasted Vegetable Combo. We had NO leftovers, and we were all stuffed when we were finished.

Parmesan Chicken

This was good, good, good. Even the little peanut ate like crazy, having 2 helpings of everything. She's usually bored with eating and ready to be done long before that. This one is definitely a keeper.

What you need:
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano, divided
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves. Okay, this is what the recipe says. I bought 4, but they were so big I could only fit 2 in my skillet. And they were THICK. I ended up only cooking the 2, and we'll be grilling the other 2 (which are currently in a bath of BBQ sauce in the fridge - oh yummy!) tomorrow.
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 cups meatless spaghetti sauce (per the recipe - I actually used a whole jar, which was about 3 cups)
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt (per the recipe - since it's mixed with the spaghetti sauce, I increased it to 3/4 teaspoon)
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
hot cooked pasta of your choice - fettuccine, spaghetti....(I had spaghetti, so that's what I used)

It's a long list. Lots of ingredients. Trust me, it's WORTH IT.
Let's get started:
In a bowl, combine the bread crumbs, 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese, 1 teaspoon of the oregano, the basil, salt and pepper. In another bowl, combine the egg and water. Dip the chicken in the egg mixture, then in the crumb mixture. Cook the chicken in the butter (melted of course) in a skillet, on both sides, until done. This took awhile for the chicken I had, because, like I said, it was THICK, and I had to be careful not to burn the outside while I was waiting for the inside to get done. Of course, when I say done, I mean the juices should run clear. This is chicken - we want it done THROUGH.
While the chicken is cooking, combine the spaghetti sauce with the garlic salt and remaining oregano. I added another 1/4 teaspoon of oregano since I had extra sauce and garlic salt. Heat through. I just did this in the microwave, covered, since we have a crappy stove with only 2 burners. Instead of 2 more, we have a grill on the other half of the stove. We use our outside grill, so I'd rather have the extra burners, but we didn't buy the stove - it came with the house, so we make do. Anyway, on with the recipe. Spoon some of the sauce on the finished chicken and sprinkle with mozzarella and the remaining Parmesan cheese. Mix the rest of the sauce with the cooked pasta. For kicks I sprinkled this with mozzarella and Parmesan as well.
I served this with green beans (in case the peanut didn't like it - but she did - as I said, a LOT) and garlic bread.
We did not have ONE BITE of leftovers. We were all stuffed and happy, too. Can't beat that!