Chicken Casserole

Sometimes I have a crazy craving for something to eat from my childhood. When I was little I remember going to a church function and my grandma brought this for the potluck. I had had it before, but for some reason it tasted especially delicious that day. From that point on I loved it when she made it. She used cream of celery soup because she didn't like cream of mushroom and canned chicken, but I am not really a fan of celery so I use cream of mushroom and I always make cook my own chicken. I'm sure everyone has a variation of this recipe, but I just thought I would share mine. Here's what I did:

1 large chicken breast, shredded or cubed
1 can of cream of mushroom
1 can of cream of chicken
1 can of milk (just regular milk poured into soup can)
1 small onion, chopped
garlic cloves, chopped (I used three because my family loves garlic)
About 1 cup of frozen sweet peas
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
About a half bag of egg noodles cooked

Open cans and put into a large bowl. Add milk and mix thoroughly. Add a little black pepper. I always use reduced sodium cream soups so I added just a little salt too.

Saute onions in a little bit of olive oil. Cook until onion starts to get a little color then add the chopped garlic. Cook for just about 30 seconds then add the shredded chicken. When the bottom of your pan starts to get a little brown because the oil has been absorbed add the peas. Stir for a few seconds as the peas start to unthaw. This will start to loosen up the brown bits a little. Then add a couple of ladles of the cream soup mixture. Scrape the bottom of the pan to get all of those yummy brown bits. Make sure you don't skip the step of really allowing browning in the pan because that adds so much flavor.  When you've gotten all of the brown bits mixed into the sauce dump the mixture into the bowl with the remaining cream soup mix, stir thoroughly, then add the cooked noodles a little at a time until you get your desired noodleness (totally made up that word, aren't I clever?).

Pour into a buttered dish and bake covered in 350 degree oven for about 30-45 minutes (until bubbly). Uncover and sprinkle on cheese then bake until cheese is melted. Remove from oven and let it sit for a few minutes.

Dish up and enjoy!

Homemade Sloppy Joes and Buns

My husband and I love sloppy joes, however, every time I made them with the canned stuff my hubby got really bad heartburn. I then made it my mission to make a homemade version. I've been making this for a while now and it's tasty! Here's what you need:

2 lbs Ground Beef
1 1/2 C Ketchup
2-3 Tbsp Brown Sugar
3 Tbsp BBQ Sauce
2 tsp mustard
1-2 C Water

I season my beef with salt, pepper, bell pepper, 3 cloves of garlic, oats, carrots, onion, and spinach. After it's cooked and drained I add the rest of the ingredients. Obviously everything can be adjusted to your taste. My amounts vary depending on how I season my meat. If I add more carrots I use less brown sugar for example and sometimes I don't need to add as much water. Cook everything for about 20-30 minutes and you're done! I freeze half of it for a quick meal some other time.

I decided to make rolls one day (I love my bread machine), but time was not on my side so my dough rose way too much. I thought for sure that it wasn't going to turn out right, but what ended up happening is really large dinner rolls that I decided to use as buns. Here's what you need:

3 1/4 C bread flour
1/4 C sugar
3 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
1 C warm water
1 egg
2 Tbsp butter

I put water, egg, and butter into the machine first. Then I add my dry ingredients. I put the flour and sugar in (I combine them in a bowl first), make a well in the center and put my yeast in. Off in one corner I add the salt because you don't want your salt to touch your yeast yet. Put it on dough cycle and work it's magic. After it's done, take it out and make 12 balls. I put mine in a 13x9 glass dish and let it rise for 30 minutes. Brush with butter and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes and you have delicious soft buns!

Put your sloppy joe mix on the buns heat up some tator tots and dinner is served!

Enjoy!

Apple

Gumbo?

I don't know if what I made is gumbo, but it sure is good! I've never had gumbo before but I've been wanting to add more rice dishes to our menu. The only thing is I hate okra and I don't eat shrimp. For dinner tonight I made red rice and used 1/2 pound of smoked sausage. I had a grilled chicken breast leftover from the other night and decided I needed to do something with it so I thought why not gumbo?  I didn't take pictures, but here's what I did:

1/2 lb smoked sausage
1 grilled chicken breast; shredded
2 cans chicken broth
1 can diced tomatoes
1 onion; chopped
1/2 bell pepper; chopped (you can use more if you want, but I'm not a huge fan of green peppers)
3 cloves garlic; chopped
3 T oil
3 T flour
cooked rice
salt and pepper to taste

Saute your smoked sausage in a little bit of olive oil until browned. Add onions and peppers and cook until crisp tender. Add garlic and cook just enough to take out the "rawness" of the garlic, probably about a minute. Take everything out of the pot and set aside. Add 3 Tbsp of flour and 3 Tbsp of oil to the pot (I added a little more flour because I had a bit more oil in the pot from the onion mixture). Stir the flour mixture until it turns a nice reddish brown color, it took me about 5 minutes for this to happen. Start adding chicken broth and whisk to keep smooth. When it stops looking like a gravy add the rest of the broth and tomatoes. Next add the sausage/onion mixture. Then add chicken. At this point everything smelled delicious! Let it simmer (covered) for about 15 minutes. To me it smelled like Chinese food which made me think Jasmine rice would be tasty with it. I think in traditional gumbo you're supposed to put the gumbo over rice, but I just dumped in 1 cup of uncooked Jasmine rice. Let it cook for an additional 15-20 minutes and it's done.

Oh my goodness! When I tasted this it made me smile. I couldn't help it. I thought it was really good. My hubby agreed and my little one agreed also. To me it was a Chinese/Southern cooking fusion and it was yummy. Not a bad use of leftovers.

Smothered Chicken

Last night I made something I haven't made in a long time...Smothered Chicken. It is pretty tasty. It's easy to make, but does take a little longer to make than some of the other meals I've posted. Here's what you need:

Chicken
Mushrooms
Spinach
Onions
Garlic
Bacon
Cheese

I'm not putting any sort of measurements on here because it all depends on how much you need for your family. Just use these ingredients and adjust to your taste.

1. Saute your mushrooms, onion, garlic, and spinach.

2. Cook and chop your bacon (I used turkey bacon)

3. Season and cook your chicken. Go light on the salt because when you put everything together, if you use your usual amount of salt, it will be way too salty. I only seasoned one side.

4. Cover your chicken with the mushroom mixture.

5. Cover with bacon.

6. Cover with cheese.

7. Melt cheese in oven.

8. Dish up and enjoy!

Apple

Stuffed Shells

Update...I took pictures so here they are:

Last night I made stuffed shells for dinner. I had too much leftover meat sauce from a spaghetti dinner and was trying to figure out what to have instead of leftover spaghetti. I didn't have enough for a lasagna, but just enough for stuffed shells. I didn't take a picture because we were so hungry, we just gobbled it up. Anyway, here's what I did:

1 8oz pkg of cream cheese
2 C mozzarella cheese (divided)
Enough meat sauce (I used Ragu Roasted Garlic) to coat the bottom of an 8x8 dish, plus enough to cover the shells (maybe 3C, I didn't measure)
garlic powder
spinach
oregano
1 egg
12 jumbo shells partially cooked

Mix the cream cheese, 1 C mozzarella cheese, and egg thoroughly. Add garlic powder and oregano to taste (you might want to add this before the egg so you can taste it). Add spinach and mix well.

Put enough sauce to coat the bottom of dish. Stuff shells with cheese mixture and add to dish. Cover with remaining sauce and sprinkle 1 C mozzarella over sauce. Bake in 350 oven for about 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and cheese is slightly browned.

Enjoy.

Apple

Thanksgiving in a Bowl

In one of my previous posts I mentioned Thanksgiving in a Bowl. I decided to make that for dinner so I'm going to show you how to make it. It really is one of the easiest meals you can make and it packs a lot of flavor. I know it's the middle of summer, and a big Thanksgiving meal is the last thing on your mind, but trust me on this one. I think you'll love it! One little tip though...if you have it, use reduced sodium creamed soups. I didn't once and it was too salty. Here's what you need:

2-3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
swiss cheese
2 cans of condensed cream soups (I used one cream of chicken and one cream of mushroom)
1 box of Stovetop Stuffing, moistened

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease casserole dish, I used a 13x9 dish.

 Add shredded chicken to the bottom.

 Top with condensed soups, then add the cheese.

 Spread stuffing all over the top and bake for about 30 minutes or until stuffing starts to brown.

That's it! Add some cranberry sauce to the side and a veggie and dinner is done! I always have chicken breasts cooked up and frozen, so this meal is put together in about 10 minutes. Can't really beat that! I don't usually like Stovetop Stuffing, but it works in this recipe. You have to use swiss cheese, it makes a difference. I've tried other cheeses, but it does not taste as good. Another thing I've thought about trying is adding the cranberry sauce to the layers, but haven't done that yet because if it doesn't turn out I haven't had a backup meal :-)

Anyway, I hope you like this recipe. Enjoy!

Apple

Peach Cobbler

This peach cobbler recipe is like none I've ever seen. This is my grandma's recipe and it's delicious. My husband even said it's the best peach cobbler he's ever tasted. My grandma didn't go overboard with a lot of different spices in most of her fruit pies. She just let the fruit make the pie. This recipe is old school. It may not be for everyone, but I think it's the best!

I bought peaches that weren't ripe and let them sit for a while to ripen. Apparently I waited too long and they turned to mush, so I didn't have as many peaches that I would normally to make a cobbler, so this is more like a peach cobbler pie. Here's what you need:

Pie crust (again, I used my trusty crust here)

12 peaches, pitted and sliced
3-4 cups of sugar, depending on how tart your peaches are or how sweet you want it.
1 cup water, you can use less if your peaches are extra juicy
3-4 Tbsp flour, again this depends on the juiciness of the peaches
1 tsp vanilla
butter to dot the peaches with

Preheat oven to 375. Let bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Start checking at 45 minutes.

For the crust, I LOVE crust, so I add a bottom crust. My grandma never did. She also didn't do a lattice top, but I like the lattice. If you don't like as much crust omit the bottom crust. Here's what I did:
Roll out your top and bottom crusts as you normally would for any pie. With another piece of dough cut it into strips maybe 1x2 inches. Place them on a cookie sheet and stick them in the oven at 375 for about 10 minutes. These are going to be the dumplings for the cobbler. While these are baking, work on the filling.

Mix the peach filling together and add half of it to the dish with a slotted spoon. Dot with butter.

 Add dumplings

Add remaining peaches

Cover with top crust and pour remaining juices over the top. This will make it beautifully golden and even more delicious.

Take out of the oven and let cool for at least an hour. My husband rarely waits longer than that before he's asking when am I going to slice it. You might want to wait longer to be sure everything is set. 

Be sure to put a cookie sheet beneath the pie to catch any drippings. Enjoy!

Apple

Strawberry Cream Pie

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend. Our weekend was a little frustrating because I hate running around all day. On Saturday we were out all day going from store to store and on Sunday it was the same sort of day, only we went to church first :) Monday was a fulfilling day because a lot of housework was accomplished. At the end of the day, I made a yummy Fourth of July meal which always includes BBQ and macaroni salad (or potato salad) and this time the dessert was Strawberry Cream Pie. I first tasted this pie about five years ago at Bob Evans (I don't care for that restaurant, but hubby wanted a Thanksgiving style meal, and this was before my Thanksgiving in a bowl recipe. I'll post that recipe in the future). Anyway, they had this pie and it was pretty tasty. But a whole pie costs close to $15 which is ridiculous, so I figured out how to make it at home. Here is what you need:

Graham cracker crust (store bought is fine)
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 small container of Cool Whip
1 c powdered sugar
strawberries
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
vanilla and lemon juice (optional)
whipped cream (for garnish)

Cream together the cream cheese and powdered sugar. If you want, you can add a splash of vanilla and lemon juice at this point. Fold in the Cool Whip. Pour into graham cracker crust and refrigerate. I put mine in the freezer for about 30 minutes to help speed up the process.

I made my graham cracker crust. Here's how I did it:

1 sleeve of graham crackers (about 1 1/2 C)
6 Tbsp of butter, melted
1/4 C sugar

Mix everything together and press into pie pan. Bake at 375 for about 7-8 minutes. Let cool before adding filling.

For the crust I let my pan cool just enough so it wouldn't crack in the freezer, then I put it in there to cool down enough to add my filling. After I put my filling together, I just added it to the crust and put it back in the freezer. Make sure it doesn't freeze though because it will be nearly impossible to cut a slice that has any crust on the bottom. Before serving, mix granulated sugar and strawberries together. Add to pie and garnish with whipped cream. Enjoy!

After we ate, we went to see fireworks. It was a really nice day!

I like this shot. Doesn't it look like a flower?

I really wish this picture turned out better because these were cool to see. It looked like it was raining fireworks. They let off a few of the "raining" fireworks so that it looked like a tree. It was pretty!

 

Apple

Quick and Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

My little one was sick the other day so I decided to make some chicken noodle soup. I didn't make a lot, but it was enough for me, my hubby, and our little one. There was also enough for lunch for my little one the next day. I don't usually use boullion cubes because of the massive amount of sodium, but I did this time and it was good. I accidentally used too much water and needed the salt and flavor. I had a chicken breast from the night before and just used it. If you don't want the boullion cube, just add another can of broth and reduce your  water. Here's what you need:

1 chicken breast, cooked and chopped
2 cans of reduced sodium chicken broth
3 1/2 cups of water
2 carrots, sliced into rounds
1 stalk of celery, sliced
3 chicken boullion cubes
italian seasoning
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 cups of dry egg noodles

I sauteed the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic. Then I added the chicken and a couple dashes of italian seasoning. Add the chicken broth and water. Bring it to a boil and add the boullion cubes. After the cubes are dissolved, add the noodles and cook for approximately 6-7 minutes. Take it off the heat and let it rest for a few minutes. You shouldn't need any extra seasoning because of the italian seasoning and boullion cubes. And that's it! You're done. My little one took a bite and said "Mmm, Yummy for my Tummy!

Apple Pie

This is the best apple pie in my opinion. I'm not a big fan of fruit pies, but this one won me over. I got the recipe from here and just check out the ratings. Anyway, like I said in my baked beans post, I didn't take a picture of the finished product, but it always turns out beautiful. I was in a rush and my lattice wasn't very pretty, but it still looked beautiful when I pulled it out of the oven. You can use whatever crust you like, but I always make my own.

Crust:

3 C all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 C shortening (I usually use butter, but this time I used half butter, half Crisco)
1 C cold water (I know that sounds like a lot, but that's how much I use and it turns out perfect everytime. I'm sure many grandma's would beat me with a rolling pin for using that much, but there it is nonetheless. Just use a little at a time).
1 tsp vanilla

Mix the flour and the salt. Cut in the shortening until it resembles small peas. Add the vanilla to your water and start adding the water a little at a time with a fork until dough holds together. Make into a ball and divide dough into thirds. This recipe only calls for two crusts, so feel free to freeze the other one. Roll out and put into pie dish. Cut your strips for your lattice. I put my crusts in the freezer while I get the rest of the mixture together. You might want to put the lattice strips in the refrigerator because I had to wait for mine to unthaw before I could use them, but it was warm in my kitchen, so it didn't take too long.

Just like my biscuit recipe I grate frozen butter into my flour.

I made four balls thinking I could use half of one for the lattice. I ended up going back and rolling out the other ball ;)

Apple Pie Filling:

This filling is different from the original. I followed some of the reviewers advice and it turns out great!

3 Tbsp all purpose flour

½ cup unsalted butter
½ cup white sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup water minus 1 Tbsp
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
5 apples - peeled, cored and sliced

Melt butter in a sauce pan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add white sugar, brown sugar and water; bring to a boil. Reduce temperature, and simmer 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.

Bake 15 minutes at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes.

Here's what I did differently: I poured about 3/4 of the sauce into my apples and mixed well. Then I added them to the crust. After putting on the lattice, I poured the remainder of the sauce onto the crust. I didn't bother to brush it all over this time (again, I was in a hurry). It still turned out beautiful.

 Melting butter. Nothing spectacular.

Here's the sugar mixture. Don't laugh at my broken bowl :) I can't bring myself to get rid of it. It was the first bowl I bought after my husband and I got married!

Sauce mixture. I totally forgot to add the flour and it still turned out fine.

I used my Pampered Chef Apple peeler, corer, slicer to save time. If you don't like your apples this thin, cut them by hand. 

Here's my poor excuse for a lattice. This is what happens when guests will be arriving in 20 minutes and you still need to do your hair and makeup!

This is a picture of the first time I made this pie. This is what it will look like after baking. See I know how to do a lattice top ;)

Serve warm and with a nice helping of vanilla ice cream! This is another hit with everyone. Enjoy!

Oh, one more tip. Make sure you put your pie pan on a cookie sheet or something to catch any drippings that might bubble out.

Apple

Baked Beans

We had a some friends over this past Saturday for Memorial Day weekend. It was nice. I enjoy spending time with friends, and it's fun to see the kiddos playing together. We've known everyone since before they had kids and now it's cool to see everyone as parents and see the kids interact. This water slide kept them entertained for a while:

We had typical BBQ goodies: Hamburgers, hotdogs, bratwurst, macaroni salad, baked beans, corn on the cob, fruit, drinks, and apple pie. Everything was DELICIOUS! So I decided to post a couple of recipes. Today I'm posting the beans and in a couple days I'll post the apple pie. I didn't take a picture of the finished product because by the time they were done baking, everyone was here and I didn't think about taking a picture.

Here's the recipe (you can halve it, this was for 14 people):

2 large cans of baked beans (28 oz)
1/3 plus half of 1/3 of a cup (6 tsps) of brown sugar
1/3 plus half of 1/3 of a cup (6 tsps) of BBQ sauce
1 tsp of mustard
1/2 of a large onion, chopped and sauteed
8 slices of bacon, crisply cooked and chopped

Mix everything together and put it in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes.

I didn't have two big cans, so as you can see I just used two small cans and one big can.

Sautee your onion.

Add beans and bacon.

Next comes the brown sugar.

Add the BBQ sauce.

Add the mustard. I don't know how much I actually used. I just squeezed some in. Don't forget to add this. I've forgotten it before and it tasted a little off. I heard someone say before that leaving out certain ingredients is like a harp in an orchestra. You don't really notice it's there when everyone is playing, but when it's not there, you can tell somethings missing. Mustard is the harp in this recipe :)

Here's where you stick it in the oven and bake. If you halve the recipe, use 1/3 C of brown sugar and BBQ sauce. It works. But if you doubled the 1/3 C to 2/3 it's too much in the double batch, did that make sense?

Sorry for the weird measurements. I squeeze the sauce into a 1/3 measuring cup and then fill it up again halfway. I suppose I could say 1/6 of a cup, but who says that? I don't know. Maybe Queen Martha?

These beans are always a hit. There are hardly ever leftovers. Enjoy!

Apple

Cheater's Salisbury Steak

I like Salisbury Steak, but I don't always feel like making the patties so I just cook up the meat like regular ground beef and add the flavors to that. It's easy and fast. My little one likes it too. You can either use egg noodles or mashed potatoes. I usually use egg noodles. Here's what you need:

1 lb of ground beef
1 can of french onion soup
1/4 C ketchup
1/4 C water
1 tsp mustard
1 Tbsp flour
1Tbsp Worchestershire sauce
1 shredded carrot
1/4 C oats
Handful of frozen spinach
8 oz sliced mushrooms (optional)
1 onion chopped
Cooked egg noodles

Cook up the meat and drain some of the fat, but leave a little so the oats can have something to absorb (I always season my meat with salt, pepper, and garlic powder). Add the oats, carrots, spinach, mushrooms, and onion. Add flour and french onion soup. Add ketchup, water, mustard, and worchestershire sauce. Mix well. Bring down the heat and let simmer until noodles are done. Add to noodles and your done! This is a tasty meal that my whole family enjoys.

Apple