Bruschetta Chicken Skillet

Tonight I found a recipe on Hunts.com that was so easy and fast plus it was delicious! My kids loved it and so did my husband. I will for sure be making this again! Thank you Hunts! The original recipe can be found here

Bruschetta Chicken Skillet
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
3/4 cup shredded Italian blend cheese
1/8 cup dried basil
4-5 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 - 2 tsp garlic powder
thin spaghetti noodles

Stir together drained tomatoes, cheese and basil in a bowl, set aside. Next pound the chicken to 1/2-inch thickness. This can be done using a meat mallet, or even a rolling pin. Top the chicken evenly with the tomato mixture, pressing onto the chicken. Combine tomato sauce and garlic powder in large skillet; add chicken. Bring sauce to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook 15 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in centers (165°F). Serve over cooked thin spaghetti noodles. Enjoy.

Chicken Surprise Casserole

My sweet friend Annamarie brought this meal to us right after we had our son and it was so yummy. We have made it many times since because it is delicious! Our kids love it too. To make it easier on me I cook the chicken in butter and onions in the crockpot in the morning and then combine the ingredients whenever David is napping. Then around 4 I pop it in the oven. Super easy and really delicious! Thank you Annamarie!

Chicken Surprise Casserole
7 or 8 chicken breast halves (I have gotten away with only using 4)
1 box butter crackers crushed (about 2-3 sleeves Townhouse)
1 stick melted butter
1 can cream of chicken
1 can cream of celery
1 can water chestnuts, chopped
1 onion, chopped
16 oz sour cream
3/4 cup chopped celery

Cook chicken and shred. Saute onions in a bit of butter. Combine crushed crackers with melted butter, reserve 1 cup for topping. Pat remaining cracker crumbs into 13x9 baking dish. Combine chicken, soups, water chestnuts, onion, sourcream and celery and spread evenly over crust. Sprinkle reserved crumbs over top. Cover and bake for 30 mins at 350. Uncover and bake 5-10 mins longer. Eat alone, or serve with noodles.

Beef Stroganoff

My husband and I have always disagreed on stroganoff. I liked mine creamy and he liked his bold. Well one night I was making stroganoff for dinner and I decided to marry the two recipes. This is what I came up with and we haven't looked back. We love it and so do our kids! We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Beef Stroganoff
1 lb ground beef
1 can cream of chicken (or mushroom)
1 packet brown gravy
4 heaping spoonfuls sour cream
milk
garlic powder
minced onions or onion salt
pepper

Cook and drain beef. To beef add soup and gravy packet- mix till smooth, then add sour cream and milk. Add as much milk or as little milk as you prefer. We probably add about 1/3 c. Add seasonings to taste. Serve over egg noodles, baked potatoes or rice and enjoy!

Potato Soup

4 cups chicken broth
2 cups peeled and cubed potatoes
garlic powder
seasoning salt
pepper
onion powder
2 heaping spoonfuls sour cream
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
4 tbsp corn starch
cheddar cheese

Combine potatoes, broth and seasonings to taste. Boil on medium heat until potatoes are tender. Mix milk with corn starch, pour into soup. Reduce to low. Add sour cream and have cream, mix til blended. Add cheese, mix, serve and enjoy :)

roughly based off of this recipe: http://manouvellemode.blogspot.mx/2012/01/creamy-potato-soup.html

Calzones

Tonight pizza was on the menu. I knew Thomas needed something a little more filling for dinner, so I decided to make some calzones for the first time ever. They didn't turn out the prettiest, but they were AMAZING!

Calzones

1 Jiffy Pizza Dough Mix
melted butter
desired fillings

Make the Jiffy pizza dough as instructed on box. Split dough in half. Roll one half into ball and then roll out into a large circle.  Spread desired sauce onto half of the rolled out dough, leaving the edges clean so that you can pinch it closed later. Add topping on top of that. Fold dough over and pinch edges. Transfer to greased cookie sheet. Brush top with butter. Bake at 375 for 20-30 mins or until done.

Suggested toppings: BBQ sauce with chicken, cheese and spinach; ranch with chicken, cheese, spinach and tomatoes

Chicken Parmesan

2 raw chicken breasts cut in half
2 eggs
1/4 c milk
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
garlic salt
onion salt
italian seasoning
4 slices mozerella cheese
spaghetti sauce
angel hair pasta
olive oil

In a pan mix together milk & eggs. In a seperate pan mix together bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, garlic salt, onion salt and italian seasoning. Add however much garlic salt, onion salt and italian seasoning you prefer. Dip chicken into milk/egg mixture, then into bread crumb mixture. Heat about 2 tsp of olive oil in a frying pan.

Place coated chicken in pan and cook until browned on each side. Place in greased baking pan. Top with a spoonful of sauce and one slice of cheese. Bake for about 30 mins at 350 until chicken is done.

While chicken is cooking boil the pasta and heat or make the sauce. Serve with corn, breadsticks and pasta and enjoy!

(sorry about the horrible pic, I was in a hurry)

Creamy Vegetable Casserole

1 package of frozen vegetable blend (we used Mediterranean blend)
Cooked chicken
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can milk (fill one of the empty cream of chicken soup cans with milk)
2 heaping spoonfuls cream cheese
onion salt to taste
cheese

Blend soup, milk, cream cheese and salt together until smooth. Add veggies and chicken, mix. Pour into greased baking dish. Sprinkle cheese over top. Put aluminum foil over dish. Place in oven and bake on 350 for about a half an hour. Take foil off, mix cheese in and then sprinkle more cheese on top. Broil for 5 mins. Serve over cooked rice. 

Biscuits and Gravy

I have always love biscuits and gravy. If we go our for breakfast it is always what I order, but I had never made them myself. My dad made them all the time for us growing up. Thomas and I decided to make these Saturday morning. All I can say is they aren't that hard to make and they are AMAZING!! The biscuit recipe came out of a betty crocker cook book my mom has and the gravy recipe is from my dad.

Biscuits
1/2 cup shortening
1 3/4 cup flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Cut shortening into flour, baking powder and salt with a pastry blender (or use a fork like we do) until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in milk until dough leaves side of bowl (dough will be soft and sticky). On lightly floured surface, gently roll dough in flour to coat. Knead lightly 10 times. Roll or pat 1/2 inch thick. Cut with floured 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter. On cookie sheet, place biscuits about 1 inch apart for crusty sides, touching for soft sides. Bake in oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Top with gravy and enjoy!

Gravy
Breakfast sausage
about 1/4 cup flour
milk
salt and pepper to taste

Cook breakfast sausage in a sauce pan. When sausage is done, take it out of the pan, leaving the run off in the bottom of the pan. Add flour to run off til it's creamy and browned. Then start adding milk and mixing until it is your desired consistency. Add salt and pepper. Pour over biscuits and enjoy!

Chicken Pockets

recipe adapted from a recipe from Robyn Stafford

Filling:
1 cooked shredded chicken breast or one can of canned chicken
1-2 cups of chopped broccoli
3 oz. cream cheese
2 tablespoons butter, melted
onion powder to taste
garlic powder to taste
handful of Parmesan cheese

Mix together in a small bowl.

Pockets:
1-2 packages Crescent rolls (depending on how many you are feeding and how full you want your pockets)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups Italian bread crumbs

Open package of rolls. Lay them out on pan and configure them into desired shape, fill with filling and pinch shut. Here are two different shapes you can make:

Dip each pocket into 1 melter butter butter then bread crumbs. Place on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Sauce:

1 can cream of chicken soup, diluted with milk, if you want thicker sauce don't add full can of milk.

Heat slowly in small sauce pan over stove or microwave.

After baking serve with sauce.

This recipe came from my fabulous mother in law and I added some of my own things to make it my own. We LOVE this meal, but our kids aren't fans yet, so we usually cut some of the chicken breast off before shredding for them and save them some broccoli and serve it with rice or just cook them up some noodles. I have served this for guests many times and always get a great response. We have put chopped spinach in the pockets instead of broccoli and served broccoli on the side also. Hope you enjoy this meal as much as we do! Feel free to make it your own as well.

Tatertot Casserole

1 bag of tatertots
1 lb ground beef
1 package of ranch dressing powder
1 can green beans
1 can corn
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup

Cook ground beef, drain and add ranch powder. In a bowl mix together the cream of mushroom + cream of chicken with 1 can of milk (just fill up one of the soap cans with the milk you have in the fridge). Mix until smooth. (I used my hand blender to make ours smooth). In separate bowl mix together the corn, beans and beef. Add 3/4 of the soup mix. Pour mixture into greased casserole dish. Next top the mixture with tatertots in whatever way you want. I like to just dump the bag out and spread them as evenly as possible, but Thomas likes to put them in perfect rows.

Pour the remaining soup over, and top with grated cheese.

Cook at 350 for about 30 mins or until tatertots are done and casserole is brown and bubbly.

Enjoy!! Your kids will LOVE this- I know ours do.

Chicken Pizza

Pizza Dough
Cheese
Cooked Chicken
Chopped Tomatoes
Chopped Spinach
Garlic Ranch Sauce (recipe to follow)

Spread pizza dough on pan of choice.(we bought some pre-made mix and just had to add water). Spread garlic ranch sauce over dough,

sprinkle cheese, chicken, tomatoes and spinach and then top with a little more cheese.

Follow instructions for your pizza dough on how long to cook. Enjoy!

It is an easy and delicious meal and to make it a little healthier you can use wheat dough and use less cheese and sauce.

Garlic Ranch Sauce
Ranch
Garlic Powder

Put ranch in a bowl, add garlic powder to taste. Use on pizza :)

Taco Soup

Taco Soup
based off of a recipe from Melissa Borders, check out her blog here

1 onion
2 lbs ground beef
3 packages of ranch dressing powder
2 package taco seasoning
2 can corn- drained
1 can pinto beans
2 can black beans
1 can red kidney beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomatoes with chilies

Brown hamburger. Then add onions, 2 ranch dressing powder and 1 taco seasoning. Cook until the onions are translucent.

 Put in crock pot. Add all beans, tomatoes, corn, taco seasoning packet and ranch dressing packet. Cook on low for 4-6 hours.

  Serve with sour cream, cheese and homemade tortilla chips (see below for recipe). Enjoy!

Homemade Tortilla Chips

corn tortillas
vegetable cooking spray
salt (if desired)

Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray. Cut corn tortilla chips into to desired shape (we cut ours into strips) and place on cooking sheet. Spray the top of the tortillas with cooking spray. Sprinkle with salt. Place in the oven and cook for 10-20 minutes at 425. Be sure to check often, they burn easily. Serve over taco soup.

I hope you enjoy these recipe as much as we do.

Parmesan Chicken

Sorry we haven't posted in a while. I was letting my husband do this post, but he has been so busy that he never got around to it so I am doing it instead. This is an amazing recipe that my friend Janette shared with me. It is simple and goes great with mashed potatoes and stuffing.

First mix about 1 cup of bread crumbs with 1/2 c. Parmesan cheese. Next add salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste. After that melt some butter and dip the chicken in it. Next coat the chicken in the bread mixture.

Put it in a pan (we use a glass 9 x 13) and bake it at 350 until it's done (usually about 50 min).

It is so easy and seriously amazing. We served ours a long side some homemade potatoes, stovetop stuffing and rolls. It is a meal your whole family with love.

Lazy Lasagna

Way back in 2008 I was rooming with my dear friend Erika. She introduced me to baked ziti and I fell in love. Since then I have been making my own versions of it (okay they are not that much different, just with penne instead of ziti usually). Here is the recipe for it. I am going to call if lazy lasagna, because that is the first thing that popped into my head.

1 lb ground beef
spaghetti sauce (1 jar or some homemade, whichever you prefer)
1 box noodles (penne, ziti, etc)
1 16 oz container cottage cheese
1 handful shredded cheddar cheese

Cook the ground beef. Then add the spaghetti sauce.

While the beef is cooking you will be cooking the noodles

 After the noodles are done add them to the sauce, mix well, then add the cottage cheese. Blend all 3 ingredients together.

Poor that into a casserole dish, top with cheese and cover.

Bake at 350 for 30 - 40 minutes. Uncover for the last 5 - 10 minutes.

Enjoy! I like to serve mine with corn and break sticks.

 

Slow Cooker Chicken Bean Burritos

I thought for the first post I would start out with something easy. I came up with this while my husband was deployed. It became a favorite of mine very quickly and we still make it often in our home.

Slow Cooker Chicken Bean Burritos1-2 chicken breasts (frozen or not, doesn't really matter)
1 packet fajitas, taco or chicken taco seasoning
1-2 Tbsp water
1 can black beans, drained
tortilla shells
cheese
guacamole
sour cream

In a measuring cup, mix together the seasoning with the water. It should still be thick, but enough to cover all of the chicken. Place chicken in crock pot, cover the top of the chicken with seasoning water mix. Next flip the chicken over and cover the other side with the seasoning as well. Put the lid on the crock put and cook on low for 3-4 hours. Once the chicken is cooked all the way through, but still fairly moist, take the chicken out of the crock pot and shred it. Place the chicken back in the slow cooker along with the can of beans. Mix the two together, place the lid back on and cook for an additional 30 mins.

Serve on tortillas with cheese, guacamole and sour cream.

My version:

 My daughter's version:

 My husband's version: