Chicken Chow Mein (Crock-Pot)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2-2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 1/2 small head of cabbage, chopped
• 1/2 lb baby carrots
• 1/2 large white onion, chopped
• 1 small can sliced mushrooms, drained
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 TBS rice vinegar
• 1 TBS sesame oil
• 3 chicken bouillon cubes
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 4 cups water
• crispy chow mein noodles (for garnish)
• rice

Directions:

1. Combine in the crock-pot:  chicken, chopped cabbage, baby carrots, chopped onion, drained mushrooms, rice vinegar, sesame oil, bouillon cubes, minced garlic, and water.  Stir well.
2. Cook on LOW for 6-7 hours, or on HIGH for 4-5 hours.
3. Add chopped celery approximately 1 hour before serving. Stir well.
4. Serve over rice, garnished with crispy chow mein noodles.

Broccoli Chicken Lasagna

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1/2 cup AP flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/8 tsp gr nutmeg
• 1 can (14 1/2 oz) chicken broth
• 1 3/4 cups milk
• 2/3 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 (16 oz) package frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
• 9 lasagna noodles, (we use no-boil noodles)
• 1 1/3 cups diced ham
• 2 cups Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
• 2 cups cooked chicken, diced

Directions:

1. Saute mushrooms and onion in butter until tender.
2. Gradually add flour, salt, pepper, and nutmeg until well blended
3. Next stir in broth and milk, continue to mix well. Bring mixture to a boil. Stir while continuing to cook for an additional 2 minutes - or until mixture has thickened.
4. Add Parmesan cheese and broccoli to sauce - remove from heat. Stir well.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare baking dish with cooking spray.
6. Begin layering lasagna by first spreading the bottom of the baking dish with the 1/2 cup of the thickened broccoli sauce.
7. Layer 3 noodles on top of the broccoli mixture.
8. Next top the noodles with 1/3 of the remaining sauce, 1 cup of ham, 1 cup of shredded Monterey Jack cheese, and 3 more lasagna noodles.
9. Begin the next layer with 1/3 of the sauce mixture, all of the chicken, and 1/2 cup of the shredded cheese - then the 3 remaining lasagna noodles.
10. Last, top the lasagna noodles with the remaining sauce and ham. Sprinkle any remaining cheese on last.
11. Cover with foil, and bake in a 350 degree F oven for 45-50 minutes. Remove foil cover for the last 5-10 minutes to allow cheese to brown slightly.
12. Remove from oven and allow lasagna to rest for 10 minutes before slicing or serving.

This recipe is being shared at the Old Fashioned Recipe Exchange over at Lil House on the Prairie Living - go check it out!!

Pepperoni and Ziti Casserole

Ingredients:

• 1 lb uncooked ziti
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 (26.5 oz) can prepared spaghetti sauce
• 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
• 1 (8 oz) can sliced mushrooms, drained
• 1 (9 oz) package frozen, chopped spinach - thawed & drained
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 4 tsp Italian seasoning
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 2 oz mini-pepperoni

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside to cool.
2. Brown ground turkey over medium heat until no longer pink - then drain.
3. In a large bowl, combine: browned ground turkey, large can spaghetti sauce, 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, chopped spinach, cottage cheese, Italian seasoning, minced garlic, red pepper flakes, and pepper. Mix well.
4. Fold drained pasta into the turkey mixture.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
6. Prepare 2 baking dishes with cooking spray. (One to bake, one to freeze - if desired.)
7. Fill both baking dishes with ziti-turkey mixture.
8. Combine water with regular tomato sauce. Pour that combination equally over both pasta dishes.
9. Top with remaining shredded mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, and mini-pepperoni.
10. Bake the casserole at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes - OR - cover and freeze until ready to use.

Pork Tenderloin Stir-fry

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lb pork tenderloin, thinly sliced
• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 (4 oz) can sliced mushrooms, drained
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 1/2 small head cabbage, thinly sliced
• 1 can bean sprouts, drained
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 3 TBS soy sauce
• hot, cooked rice

Directions:

1. Start with a preheated deep skillet or wok. Stir-fry the sliced pork in hot oil until no longer pink.
2. Add mushrooms, onions, and peas: continuing to stir-fry for 3-5 minutes.
3. Add cabbage, bean sprouts, garlic, ginger, and sugar. Stir-fry for 5-10 minutes.
4. Stir in soy sauce.
5. Serve over hot prepared rice.

Hint: My teenagers cooked this meal for our family. From assembling the ingredients, to prepping the vegetables, to reading and following the recipe directions. Get your family involved in the kitchen! It is good for them, (and you too)!

Savory Rice

Ingredients:

1 cup, uncooked long grain rice

4 TBS butter or margarine

1/2 large white onion, sliced

1 (4 oz) can sliced mushrooms, drained

*house seasoning* optional

3 TBS soy sauce

Directions:

1 - Prepare rice as directed by package instructions. (We use a rice cooker: 1 cup rice + 2 1/8 cups water.)

2 - In a deep skillet, melt butter or margarine and add sliced onions and sliced mushrooms.

3 - As onions begin to become transparent, add house seasoning if desired.

4 - Combine cooked rice to sauteed vegetables, then mix in soy sauce.

5 - Ready to serve - enjoy!!

Hint: Our version of house seasoning. is a shaker filled with equal parts ground black pepper, salt, garlic powder, and red pepper - used sparingly. Yes, a little goes a long way. We eat a lot of rice in our house and tonight I just needed to mix it up a bit, this recipe turned out beautifully! One of our children will not touch mushrooms, so I made sure to carefully portion him a serving without mushrooms. Poor guy doesn't know what he's missing!!

Pasta Sauce Plus

Tonight we are eating Spaghetti for dinner. Spaghetti like my Mama used to make!

Since we are going to cook a batch of pasta sauce, I decided to go ahead and cook enough to have sauce in the freezer ready for the next time we want to eat pasta.

We put a lot of vegetables in our sauce, and when in doubt - we add more tomatoes.

Making a double batch of pasta sauce to use half now and freeze half for later is a wonderful way to make the kitchen a more productive place in our home.

Ingredients:
1-2 lbs ground beef, browned and drained
1 large green pepper, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 TBS minced garlic
1 (4 oz) can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 (26.5 oz) can prepared spaghetti sauce
1 (14.5 oz) can stewed tomatoes
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes with onions & green peppers
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 cup water
1/2 cup red cooking wine
2 tsp Italian seasoning blend
1 tsp sugar

- After browning ground beef and draining, combine with all other ingredients in the crock-pot.

- Stir occasionally while cooking on LOW for 3-4 hours.

- Divide prepared sauce. Use half for dinner and freeze the other half in a freezer safe zipper bag or freezer safe container with a lid. (Don't forget to label!)

Pepperoni & Mushroom Stuffed Heart Pizza Bread

As Valentine's Day approaches, I've been looking around my kitchen for a package of heart shaped cookie cutters in graduated sizes. As of this post, those cookie cutters are still MIA. (Sounds to me like a good reason to head to Hobby Lobby!)

What I did find in my cabinets were some heart shaped mini-cake pans, a silicone small hearts cupcake pan, a heart shaped cookie baking pan....and way back in the corner were the bread tubes that I fell in love with and never use but once in a blue moon. Why? Mostly because the recommendation for use is to buy the refrigerated bread dough to bake in them.

While I'll admit, I have in the past. I will also admit I don't like to buy the refrigerated bread dough in a can that costs more than a loaf of baked bread. It seems a bit over the top, so I just don't do buy it.

Then I came across a recipe for a basic bread dough that works beautifully in place of those store bought cans of dough, has many other uses, and doesn't cost nearly as much to make.

That allows to me to spend money on those other Valentine's Day specials: M & M's, candy sprinkles, conversation hearts, the boxed cake mix with the pretty Valentine colors and matching icing.



I decided to use that basic bread dough recipe with the heart baking tube, and experiment by making a Pepperoni & Mushroom stuffed Pizza Bread. I could have made cinnamon rolls in the heart tube with this same dough recipe, but I think I'll save that idea for this weekend!

Ingredients:

1 bread dough ball from Basic Bread Dough recipe
1 small can of tomato paste
1 small package of deli sliced pepperoni
1 small can of sliced mushrooms, drained
1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tsp Italian seasoning blend

- Allow the dough to come to room temperature. On a well-floured surface roll the dough out to a large rectangle shape.

- Top first with tomato paste, spreading almost all the way to each edge. Next add pepperoni slices, mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese. Last top with Italian seasoning blend.

- Using a pinching method, roll the covered dough along the longest side until you have a tube shape pizza roll.

- Prepare bread tube by spraying inside, (including the lid). Make sure oven is preheated to 350 degrees F and the racks have been removed or lowered so that the bread tube can bake standing upright in the oven for 1 hour.

- Carefully slide the pizza roll into the prepared tube with one end capped. I folded the end of my roll so that it would be sealed. (As it cooked, the melted cheese and sauce escaped, so this really had no impact.)

- Bake for 1 hour in the 350 degree F oven with the tube standing up, open end of the tube toward the top of the stove. To prevent spills or leaks, putting an oven liner or cookie sheet below the bread tube is a good idea.

- After the pizza roll has cooked for 1 hour, allow it to rest for 10 minutes before removing it from the bread tube.

- This stuffed Pepperoni & Mushroom bread is great served with additional pasta sauce for dipping and will make a great after school snack for my kids.

Chicken-Spinach-Mushroom-Alfredo-Extra Cheese Lasagna

Every once in a while, I hit the Mommy jackpot with a dinner meal. Tonight was one of those nights. I can happily report that my 12 year old who can never, ever, ever, never manage to finish a meal did in fact finish his dinner and asked for seconds. Score!!

The upside is we will get to enjoy this meal again for lunch tomorrow (and probably the two days following), but the downside is...there was enough to feed a small army.

This is comfort food to the 10th power.

Seriously.

And it has spinach.

Seriously.

Ingredients:

2 - 13 oz cans cooked chicken breast, drained

2 jars prepared Alfredo sauce

1 large container, small curd cottage cheese

1 package frozen spinach, thawed and drained

1 small can of mushroom stems and pieces, drained

1 lb of shredded Mozzarella cheese

shredded Parmesan, Asiago and Romano cheese blend

1/2 package of oven ready, no boil lasagna noodles

Italian seasoning blend - to taste

garlic blend seasoning - to taste

1 - Prepare baking stone or pan with cooking spray

2- Combine 1/2 cup of Alfredo sauce with 1/2 the container of cottage cheese and 1st can of chicken. Spread over bottom of baking dish.

3- Cover chicken-cheese mix with drained spinach and drained mushrooms. (Our mushrooms were only on half - otherwise my 16 year old would never speak to me again)

4- Top vegetables with 1/3 of the shredded Mozzarella cheese and a portion of the Parmesan cheese blend. Sprinkle lightly with Italian seasoning blend and garlic seasoning blend.

5- Next, add the first layer of bake-ready lasagna noodles.

6- Combine remaining cottage cheese, 2nd can of chicken, and 1 jar of Alfredo sauce. Spread over lasagna noodles.

7- Cover with more shredded cheese, (leaving enough to cover noodles a final time.)

8- Add additional seasoning if desired, final layer of noodles, then top with last of the shredded Mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese blend. Top with seasoning before baking, if desired. (I definitely added more seasoning.)

9- Cover with foil and bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes.

We served this delicious lasagna with fresh bread and a Bacon-Caesar salad.

And lucky for me, more Chicken-Spinach-Mushroom-Alfredo-Extra Cheese Lasagna for lunch tomorrow!!

That's okay, I do not mind at all!!

Cashew Chicken

1 - 1/5 lbs. boneless skinless chicken thighs

3 Tbs soy sauce

1 teas ground ginger

1 can Golden Mushroom soup

1 (4 oz.) can mushrooms stems & pieces, drained

2 cups cashew halves & pieces

green onion, for garnish

Place chicken, soy sauce, ginger, soup, and mushrooms in crock-pot and cook on low 4-6 hours. During the last hour of cooking add cashews. Serve over rice - garnish with green onion.

YUMMM!

**We served with egg rolls, pot stickers, and steamed broccoli. Family pleasing meal!!**

Quiche Me Baby!!

I have a love-hate affair with breakfast.

In my mind, breakfast is always best when someone else cooks it.

Having a diabetic teenager in the house means breakfast is not an option - it is a requirement.

I stumbled across a lovely spinach-quiche recipe a couple of weeks ago and after tweaking it a little here and there...I've found a breakfast recipe that even I don't mind to cook.

*Start by preheating the oven to 375 degrees F.

*Next assemble the ingredients:

1/2 cup butter margarine
1 small can, drained, sliced mushrooms stems & pieces
1/2-1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 cup diced frozen onion & pepper seasoning blend
6-8 oz baby spinach

4 eggs
1 cup skim milk

3 oz feta cheese
3-4 oz shredded cheese (colby jack for us...)
1 deep dish pie crust

- Begin by melting the butter or margarine in a deep skillet on the stove top.

- Once melted turn the heat down to medium and add mushrooms, onion & pepper blend, and garlic. Saute until well combined and onions are slightly translucent.



- Turn heat down slightly more, and add spinach allowing it to sit on top of the butter mixture briefly before stirring. This allows the spinach time to begin wilting.




- As the spinach begins to wilt, mix eggs and milk together gently in a separate some bowl or in the blender. If you use the blender - do not over blend.

- Stir spinach into butter mixture, and continue stirring slowly until spinach has completely cooked down and mixture begins to thicken slightly.

- Remove skillet from heat.




- Add feta cheese, shredded cheese, and milk-egg blend. Combine carefully.

- Pour contents into the deep dish pie crust and bake for 40 minutes.

- After the first 40 minutes baking, sprinkle additional shredded cheese lightly over the top and continue baking for an additional 15 minutes. HINT: Go lightly on the cheese topping...a little goes a long way.




- Full cooking time should be 55-60 minutes total. Check quiche for doneness by using a fork into the center to see if quiche is fully set or still runny. Cooking longer will set the eggs more.

- Do not under cook.

* Our breakfast was served with a glass of orange juice...without pulp of course! Great way to start the weekend!!