Nacho Bake

I loathe Mac N Cheese and Hot Dogs...however this is a meal that I resort to often for daycare because: 1 - it's EASY, no oven, one pan... 2 - it's QUICK... 3 - It's CHEAP.... So yesterday I announced we were going to have this for lunch and I got at least three groans of "yuck!". I don't normally get that response, but I had to agree with them on it! So I turned over the box and found this recipe. It was still fairly easy, quick and cheap. The kids and I both loved it. I actually had Shells and Cheese on hand, instead of Mac N Cheese, but I'm sure either would work great.

Nacho Bake

1 pkg Shells and Cheese

1 lb ground beef

1 pkg Taco Seasoning Mix

3/4 C water

3/4 C sour cream

3/4 C shredded cheddar cheese

3/4 C salsa

1/2 C coursely crushed tortilla chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the shells and cheese according to basic directions. While Pasta is cooking, brown meat and drain. Add taco seasoning mix and water to the meat. Simmer 5 minutes.

Stir sour cream into the prepared shells. Spoon half of the shells mixture into medium size casserole dish. Top with a layer of meat, half of the cheese, another layer of shells and another layer of meat. Cover.

Bake 15 minutes. Top with salsa, remaining cheese and crushed tortilla chips. Bake uncovered an additional 5 minutes.

Skillet Chicken Parmesan

I was in a hurry tonight and had some things I needed to use, so threw this together improved from a "Saving Dinner" recipe.  It turned out really good.  And for what it is, it was actually very easy.  It took me no more than 30 minutes from start to table time (excluding thawing the chicken).  That included getting the Garlic Broccoli ready to go with it.  (Which if you haven't tried that you HAVE to!  It is SO good.)

Skillet Chicken Parmesan

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (I used 2 large breasts, cut in three pieces each and it more than fed my family of 4)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Italian Bread crumbs (I just had normal bread crumbs and added some italian seasoning)

Olive Oil

Egg Noodles (sorry about the lack of amounts...I just cooked enough to feed my family!)

1 jar spaghetti sauce

1/2 to 1 cup of your favorite cheese

Heat the oil in a large skillet on medium heat.  Dip your chicken into egg batter first, then coat with bread crumbs.  Add to skillet and cook through.  (I turned mine several times to try and prevent burning.  I think I had the heat on too high though - medium high - because they still were "blackened".  I thought they were good still, but Joey was a bit bugged).

While the chicken in cooking put your Garlic Broccoli in the oven and cook your egg noodles.

When the chicken is done, put one breast on top of a bed of noodles.  Cover with Spaghetti Sauce and sprinkle with cheese.  (The original recipe called for Mozzarella and Parmesan.  I had Colby Jack on hand, so that's what I used!)

This was another one of those recipes that called for a transfer to the oven after just browning the chicken (which would probably solve the blackening problem), but I just didn't have the time or desire to do extra dishes!  Besides the broccoli was in the oven :)

OK, so my proud moment of the day....for lunch I had attempted to make "Easy Peasy Tomato Soup" from a recipe I got off this blog.  I had to make some substitutions though.  Her recipe called for homemade veggie stock, which I didn't have time to make.  So instead I used Chicken Broth and boiled some mixed veggies for the puree.  As a result the "tomato soup" was looking pretty much like puke (although I'm sure it tasted fine), and I didn't think I'd have real success serving it to the daycare kids.  So I also added a can of tomato sauce and one of tomato paste.  My blender isn't working real well these days either though so it wasn't as pureed as it should have been.  That said, most of the daycare kids didn't love it.  I actually did like it, but after lunch thought...is it even worth saving the rest of this?  Joey doesn't like tom soup anyway, and is pretty picky about stuff so I didn't think he'd even try it.  Then the thought...chicken parmesan came to me.  And I remember hearing about that book where she hides veggies in things like bread and sauces by pureeing them.  So where did I get my spaghetti sauce today?  I used the leftover soup seasoned with italian seasoning and garlic salt.  I thought it was great.  I didn't ask Joey because I was in a hurry to get out the door and he was grumpy because his bread crumbs were charred....but I was very proud of myself and felt very frugal.  There are few things I hate more than throwing perfectly good food (or what was good food three days ago before you forgot about it!) in the trash.  Yeah for me!

Creamy Crock Italian Chicken

There are several versions of this on the web.  I took one I liked and then we tweaked it.  It was really easy, but you have to play ahead.  Just a note:  this meal was totally cheap for me!  I got bottles of Kraft Dressing at Walmart last week for $.08 with a coupon and some help from coupon bloggers.  Everything else in the meal was on sale as well!  Good, cheap, easy...can't ask for more!

Creamy Crock Italian Chicken with Pasta

4 - 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 C Italian salad dressing ( I actually didn't measure this...just threw some in until it seemed good)

Put these in the crock pot on low for 6 hours or so.  No need to add extra water, chicken will make it's own juice.

30 minutes before you are ready to eat, mix 1 can cream of chicken and 1 block cream cheese.  Mix into crockpot with chicken.  Put some pasta on to cook.  We used Penne, but Fettuccine or other would be great I'm sure.  After the cream cheese mixture is well incorporated take the chicken out and cut up into chunks.  (You can probably skip this step, but I think ours would have been a little dry if I had.  The smaller pieces allowed the sauce to do it's magic).  Return the chicken to the sauce.  Drain pasta and mix directly in with the chicken mixture.

Season the dish with garlic salt (a few teaspoons, depending on your taste) and parmesan cheese (1/4 C or more if you like).

Make sure to add some good veggies as this meal lacks any.  If fact, you probably could add some directly into the pasta and meat if you wanted to be really efficient.  

Chicken and Pasta

Firstly...SO sorry about not posting. I've been busy with other things lately and this site has been neglected. I hope you all are still visiting and trying the recipes posted however. I still come here frequently to find new recipes to try as I haven't got through them all yet. Secondly...thanks to Kathy and Frances for the recent recipes...so excited to try them both. Frances also has another recipe blog that I plant to post a link to on here soon because there's been some great things on that site as well...just don't have time to look it up right now.

OK, so I threw together this pasta for a dinner party the other night. SO yummy and so easy. Since it was an improvisation, there's a lack of precise measurements, for which I apologize. I am a direction follower most of the time and this would drive me nuts, reading someone else's recipe like this. But this is as good as it gets tonight.

Chicken: I was making it for a lot of people so I used the better part of a whole roatisserie chicken. You could use whatever, but I'd happen to get this for $1 at walmart (reduced at 10 PM to get rid of them for the day!) and needed to use it.

Veggies: I just used a Frozen Veggie Mix (basic, carrots, peas, corn, green beans) I had on hand, but I think something with brocolli would be good, or mostly anything really. I think I used the whole bag.

Pasta: I used twisted noodles.

Cook everything individually, drain pasta and veggies. Then toss together with some olive oil, and seasoning. We used parmesean cheese and mozzarella cheese as well as garlic salt and italian seasoning. Joey and I just mixed it together until we got the flavor we wanted. There are really endless variations with this and it is really easy to tailor to your families tastes. Let me know if you try any other variations on this theme and how they turn out!

Crock Pot Fettucine

Disclaimer:  I haven't tried this recipe.  I stole it off of my friend Lara's blog.  She's who basically inspired the idea of this website with her post asking for help.  She got a lot of recipes in response to her request...this is one of them.  I might post more later.  This is just one of the first and sounds good.  PLEASE post a review if you try it...

Fetuccine in crock pot
2 chicken breasts (frozen or not)
1/4 C butter or margarine
1 pkt. italian dressing mix
Cook for 4-6 hrs in crockpot, cut up chicken, then add 
1 8oz cream cheese
1 can cream of chicken
1/2 can water
cook for another half hour. while this is cooking, boil fetuccine noodles. Mix together with chicken/cream cheese mix. I always serve this with french bread.

From scratch tuna casserole

I really, really hate cooking with cream soups most of the time (I do have two exceptions that I can think of and I will share them later) so I make the sauce for my tuna casseroles from scratch, it is so easy and the taste is so much better.

Ingredients:

· 6 Cups medium noodles (about 8 oz.) or 2 cups elbow macaroni (about 7 oz.) (I usually use either egg noodles or small shells)

· 1 sleeve saltine crackers (I like to use whole wheat or multi-grain ones the best. most people top a tuna casserole with bread crumbs but I tried saltines once when I was out of bread crumbs and have never gone back)

· a few shakes garlic powder (optional)

· 2 Tbsp. butter, melted (for cracker topping, more if you would like)

· 1 C. chopped celery

· ½ C. chopped onion

· 1-2 cloves garlic, chopped or a few shakes of powdered (optional)

· 6 Tbsp. butter

· ½ C. all purpose flour

· 1 tsp. dry mustard (optional, although it is good with it, if you don't have any leave it out)

· salt and pepper to taste

· 2 C. milk

· 2 C. chicken broth (or 2 tsp. chicken bullion dissolved in 2 cups hot water)

· 3 (6 oz) cans tuna, drained and broken up into chunks

· 1-2 cups frozen peas (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°
2. Cook noodles or macaroni according to package instructions. While pasta is cooking, take your saltines and crush them inside the sleeve. Combine saltines with 2 Tbsp (or more) melted butter and a few shakes of garlic powder if you are using it.
3. Cook celery, onion and chopped garlic (if using) in the 6 Tbsp. of oil until tender. Stir in flour, mustard powder, salt and pepper. Add milk and chicken broth. Cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly (it should look like any good thick white sauce). Combine sauce, tuna, peas and noodles. It will look a little like there is too much sauce for the amount of noodles but it will thicken more during baking. Transfer to a 13”x9” sized pan (I use a glass pyrex one) and sprinkle top with buttered saltines.
4. Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until bubbly.

Improvising, Skillet Pasta

OK, so much hubby has issues with spaghetti.  I like homemade spaghetti for many reasons, including that it's EASY and FAST.  Well tonight was one of those nights, it was after 5 and I had no dinner plans.  I have shied away from that above mentioned dish most of the time because I only get complaints when I make it.  But he agreed tonight that was fine.  I had to get out the door to book group.  As I started cooking however I decided to "improvise" (which always scares Joey...I swear I get no appreciation!).  Inspired by Rachael Ray and the "Dinner Diva" I threw this together:

Skillet Pasta (Anyone have a better name, let me know)

Get Pasta cooking.  I used Penne.

Saute Veggies and pressed garlic in some olive oil until tender. (I used one chopped onion and some left over green peppers.  You could also add mushrooms, shredded carrots, whatever you have on hand.  You could also skip this step if your in a real crunch!)

Add 1 lb ground beef, brown and drain off fat.

Add 1/2 - 1 C oats.  (this may sound weird, but you can't taste it, it adds whole grain and some bulk to the meat, extending the food for just a few pennies)

Mix these until incorporated.

Add 1 jar store bought spaghetti sauce and 1 C cottage cheese.  Mix well.  Top with Mozzarella Cheese and let melt.  Serve over pasta.

You can also mix the sauce and pasta together, top with cheese and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until the cheese is melted, but this adds more time and more dishes...

The end result...Joey really liked it and Tyler had 3 helpings (he ate more than my husband!)

The Soup that Started it all

This is yummy, easy and quick.  For the most part it can be done with things you probably already have in your pantry.  Add a veggie on the side and it's totally well rounded...good luck, let me know what you think.

Black Bean and Salsa Noodle Soup

3 cans (14 oz) vegetable or chicken broth (I used chicken because I had it)
1 16 oz jar salsa
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 package (5 oz) curly noodles or other uncooked pasta
1/3 C chopped fresh cilantro (optional, I didn't use this in mine)
1 TBLS lime juice
1 tsp chili powder (I think I goofed and used a TBLS and it was still really yummy)
1/4 tsp each of ground cumin and pepper
Shredded Parmesan or other cheese

In 4-QT pan heat broth to boiling.  Add all ingredients except cheese.  Reduce heat to medium.
Cook until noodles are tender, stirring occasionally.  Sprinkle with cheese and serve.