Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner!

Happy Spring!
Once again I am listening to some great 80's hits, and writing a blog for the few that read it! Thank you for your support! I know I am pretty bad at updating in general, but the muse has got to hit me. Or there is nothing good on TV.
Chicken Pie in a Pan
I got this recipe from my Taste of Home Casseroles cookbook. I had a few issues with the recipe, which I will address. But other than that it was a good one. I am taking my husbands word for it. I would not eat this stuff unless paid a good bit of money.

Ingredients:
2 diced celery ribs, 2 diced medium carrots, 1 small chopped onion, 3 tablespoons butter, 1/4 cup flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup 2% milk, 1 cup chicken broth, 1 can(10 3/4 oz) cream of mushroom soup undiluted, 4 cups cooked cubed chicken.
This recipe has pinwheels on top, the crust ingredients and directions will follow after the main part, but keep in mind you will need more ingredients!

So, I didn't picture the veggies because I was running late to make dinner and my husband had somewhere to go that night so I just didn't picture them. See that little gold cube? That's my chicken broth.

This is not in the directions, but I will show you how I cooked my chicken. I cooked them whole on the stove top in some extra virgin(teehee)olive oil with a little salt and pepper. It probably woulda been faster and easier to cut the chicken raw, then cook it. But if you have read my past chicken casserole you would know I can't stand raw chicken. I can't touch it, its so slimy and gross! So I cooked it then cut it. It took longer then I thought, which is why I was running so late.

I sampled a piece or too and found it quite yummy! Cooked chicken is much easier to deal with then raw! When I was taking this picture I looked behind me because I felt a presence. Rufus was on the back of our couch staring at the chicken.

"Can I have a smackeral of chicken?"
He was very good and didn't try to get on the counter, so yes I gave him just a tiny piece.

Directions:

In a large skillet, saute celery, carrots and onions in butter until tender.

I have been watching a ton of Food Network and I like when the cooks go to the fridge to get stuff and the camera zooms on the fridge. I like seeing what else is in there. I have no idea why, I just do! So I took a pic of just a spot of my fridge, since it is no where near as orderly as the ones on TV. At this point I called my husband to let him know 2 ribs of celery where called for in this recipe, I had already chopped them but I thought I should check with him. He is not a fan of celery, but said to use just 1 rib since its not so bad cooked. I didn't mind. I made my self a snack with the celery I didn't put in the recipe.

Snacking, doing it right!

While the verggies sauted, I made the broth. It took like a minute for the water to boil, and another minute for the cube to dissolve. So easy.



Stir in flour and salt until blended; gradually add milk and broth. Bring to boil; stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.

Stir in soup and chicken. Spoon into greased 13x9 in baking dish. Set aside.

To quote Milhouse from the Simpsons episode 'Boy Scoutsz N the Hood', where he and Bart purchase a Super Squishee made entirely of syrup, "Its so thick!"

For the Crust:

1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 tsps baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 3 Tbsp cold butter, 1/2 cup 2% milk, 2 cups shredded cheese

Oh, btw I used fat free milk, cuz thats all I had. I wasn't gonna buy specail milk for one recipe. Use whatever you want!

For crust, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut butter until crumbly. Add milk, tossing with a fork until mix forms a soft dough. Shape into ball.

On a lightly floured surface roll dough int oa 12x10 in rectangle.

I have NO idea if that was 12x10 inches. I just eyed it up.

Sprinkle with cheese. Roll up jelly roll style. Cut into 12 slices. Place on top of of chicken mix. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until crust is lightly browned.

So, I totally did the jelly roll things wrong! I cut them while they weren't rolled up, so I just had a big mess trying to cut them, then roll them up. I only got like 8 doing that way. Cheese was every where, it was a mess. So I will def try to do better next time.

Here it is, all done. My husband liked it, but he said that is was so thin on the bottom. Next time I think I will use a slightly smaller baking dish to fix that. Since the chicken mix is basically already cooked I don't think it will affect anything too much. Well I hoped you all liked it. I didn't. Cream of mushroom soup? No thanks! Onions? No thanks. Oh! Yes, I once again just used half an onion. A whole onion would be very oniony. See yinz next time!

Easy as Pie

Good day! Well here I am again, with another All Recipes.com recipe. That is the best site ever. Well, best site without kittens.
I am currently listening to great 80's hits, the sun is shining, its not windy, all in all a perfect day to go outside. Which is why I will stay inside and write my blog, and watch tv. I might open a window. Maybe. For those that don't know, I am what you would call an "Indoor Girl". On with the recipe!
"Burrito Pie"
Once again, I refrained from partaking of this casserole.

Ingredients

2 lbs ground beef, 1 chopped onion, 2 tsps minced garlic, 1 (2 oz) can sliced black olives, 1 (4 oz) can diced green chili peppers, 1 (10 oz) can diced tomatoes w/ green chili peppers, 1 (16 oz) jar taco sauce, 2 (16 oz) cans refried beans, 12 (8 in) flour tortillas, 9 oz shredded cheddar cheese

Just a couple of notes, I usually never by name brand canned veggies. There is such a huge difference in price, and not in taste(mostly) that its not worth getting name brand. But the reason I got Del Monte was because I could not find Kroger diced tomatoes with the green chili peppers. It was late, I was hungry and tired and was sick of being in the store. So I just bought the more expensive tomatoes. Convenience has its price. And the tortillas, I have no idea if they are 8 inches or not, but I bought them for the same reasons as the tomatoes. I wanted to leave the store. And once again, I just used half of an onion. A whole onion seems super over powering. I used my handy dandy manual food processor from Pampered Chef to chop the onions.

Before


After! I am never using a knife to finely chop onions again!

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees(This could probably wait until after the meat simmers). In a large skillet brown meat with onions and minced garlic. Drain excess fat(the recipe says to drain "if desired" I totally drained it because otherwise its super gross!).

This is my hand me down measuring spoon that my mother in law gave me. She never used it and let me have it. From the Pampered Chef, of course. This is the older version, they have brought a new and improved spoon, but this still works for me just fine!


Before I used my Mix-n-Chop from Pampered Chef!

After! I am such a good spokes-person for Pampered Chef! I could never sell the stuff though, I hate public speaking, so I shall endorse it this way.

Mix in olives, green chili peppers, tomatoes, taco sauce, and refried beans. Stir thoroughly, reduce heat to low and let simmer for 15 to 20 minutes(I turn the oven on after this, other wise your oven would just be on with nothing in it for like a half an hour!).

Yes, I realize the chili peppers are supposed to be diced, but I grabbed whole. It was a surprise when I opened it up to see these gross snake like green things when I expected diced. Oh well, I just had to dice them myself.


Good as new!

I had to switch to a big pot, because all those ingredients were not going to fit in that skillet. This is a 5 qt pot and it worked perfectly.

15 minutes of simmering and viola!

Spread a thin layer of the meat mix in the bottom of a 4 qt baking dish. Cover with a layer of tortillas followed by more meat, then cheese. Repeat tortilla, meat, cheese until tortillas are used, topping with meat and cheese.

Ok, so it didn't work out exactly as the recipe said, but there are 2 reasons for that. First is that I used a 3 qt dish(9x13), because I don't have a 4 qt dish. Second I only used about 6 or 8 tortillas because I am not sure if they were 8 inches. But it still worked. It fit fine in the 9x13, and I had like 3 layers of tortillas. I went easy with the cheese on the inside, and layered the most cheese on top. And here it is all cooked!

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until cheese is slightly brown and bubbly.

Doesn't that look good? My husband loved it, of course. He loves spicy stuff. I suggest using a bowl to eat it from, it was pretty runny. That makes it sound less appetizing, huh? Don't know how else to explain it though. Hope you liked this recipe. The next one I blog will be an epic fail recipe. Well maybe not epic, but still a fail. But my mom encouraged me to to share my harrowing experience with Scotch Eggs, and I will. Until then, keep calm and love cats.

Meatloaf, Smeatloaf, Double-Beatloaf

Why, hello there. I have returned! After a long absence that included laziness, lack of supplies, and sickness. All of those factors kept me from updating. But here I am again, and I hope it was worth the wait.
My sister told me to make something that I would eat, but I didn't. But she knows I rarely, if ever, listen to what she tells me. My wedding dress was one that my sister said was ugly, so I tried in just because and ended up loving it. There is a rather telling home video of me when I was tiny(age like 4 I think)that shows me out right disobeying her, and rubbing it in. But she also knows that I love her a lot. Now on with the show!
Lil' Cheddar Meatloaves
I do not like meatloaf at all. Even if they are tiny.



Ingredients:

1 egg, 3/4 cup of milk, 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup quick cooking oats, 1/2 cup chopped onion, 1 tsp salt, 1 lb lean ground beef, 2/3 cup ketchup, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 1/2 tsp prepard mustard
Directions:

In a bowl beat egg and milk.

The whisk I am using is a new one I got from Pampered Chef that is really tiny, great for eggs! I hadn't used it yet(my husband is the one that makes eggs usually) and I wanted an excuse to use it. Even if it was a bit on the smaller side for this big bowl.

Action shot!(I love action shots)

Stir in cheese, oats, onion, and salt.

Add beef and mix well.


Shape into 8 loaves; place in a greased 9x13 inch baking dish.

I just guessed on the size, and it worked out well!

In another bowl, combine ketchup, brown sugar, and mustard; mix well.

Spoon over loaves.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Pretty gross looking, huh?

Still look gross.

Its over! These will work great for my husband's lunches because they are tiny! I also don't see how it couldn't be a good big meatloaf as well. My husband loved this recipe, and definatly wants it again. He said though, that next time to cut back on the brown sugar. So I mught just do like, a half of a half. Whatever that is.

Yes, I realize I am picky.

Hi! So this was a new recipe(blurg they are all new basically)from my Taste of Home Casseroles cookbook. And I cannot stand touching raw chicken! Its so gross! Slimy and cold, smelly and just plain gross. So by the time it was a finished product there was no way I was going to eat it. Also its smothered in cream of mushroom soup. This was my face for most of making this recipe:

But if you can stomach through making something with raw chicken, here is the recipe!
Stuffed Chicken Breast

Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, salt and peppar to taste, 1 package (6 oz) chicken stuffing mix, 1/2 cup chopped pecans, 2 Tbs butter, 1 can (10 3/4 ox) condensed cream of mushroom soup

The main reason I made this recipe was the soup. As I was searching through the cookbook, I found this recipe and saw it called for the soup. Which I just so happened to have in my pantry! Don't you love stuff like that? And I knew I would never eat it just as soup, I needed to make this recipe. And I know what you are thinking, those nuts look like almonds, not pecans. I will get to that in a moment.

Directions:

Flatten chicken to 1/4 inch thickness, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Prepare stuffing mix according to package direction. For those that are curious, here are the directions.

I have never made any form of stuffing. I grew up with the handmade stuffing, that was cooked in the trukey at Thanksgiving time. My husband grew up with the box kind. Wanna know something funny? I don't like the homemade stuffing, I like the box kind. My husband loves my mom's homemade stuffing, and doesn't really like the box kind anymore. I don't know why, but that's the way it is. The homemade kind is to squishy or something. My dad would probably say the boxed kind actually tastes like a box. Oh well, to each thier own!


Should I have melted the butter first, before I added it to the water? I chose not too(duh)and I think it went all right.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet, saute pecans in butter wuntil lightly browned; add to stuffing.

Ok, so the pecans. In the store I had every intention of buying pecans. Until I saw the price. $8 dollars! For like half an ounce! No way! So we got a Mixed Nut container for like $2, that had pecans pictured on the front. I figured there wouldn't be half a cup of pecans, but something close. There were 3 pecans in the whole container. 3! My husband said he didn't really like pecans anyway.Thankfully we had almonds, he likes those so when they are on sale(still very expensive)we sometimes splurge on them.

This was my first attempt at sauting something. Ever! See how well it went? A few factors helped in the burnanation of these almonds. My gas stove, which I am still getting used to, gets so hot so fast! And Rufus, my cat. He was trying to get on the counter to get at the chicken, so I turned away from the skillet, scared Rufus out of the kitchen, turned back and boom! Burnt almonds. Good thing, I had extra almonds. And when I tried again, I watched them like a hawk.

See? Much better. I might have under cooked a tad, but I didn't want to risk burning.

Here is my mallet. It kinda sucks. But its all about the Jackson's in this house and a good mallet was way to expensive. So you get what you pay for. Its better than using my husbands rubber hammer, and plastic wrap over the chicken.

Place 1/2 cup stuffing( I didn't measure, use as much or as little as you want)down on the center of the chicken breast. Roll up and secure with a toothpick. Place seam side down in greased 1 quart baking dish. Spoon soup over chicken, and sprinkle with remaining stuffing. Cover and bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.

There you have it! The finshed product! My husband really liked this one. He said it tasted like Thanksgiving all rolled into one. Don't forget to remove the toothpicks! I of course passed on this one. I have nothing against chicken or stuffing. But everything against the other ingredients. Plus seeing the chicken raw before hand just turned me off to eating all night. Don't worry. I will be fine! I am sure there is some ramen in the pantry. ;)