Red Beans and Rice

I got this recipe from a friend, and it is oh so good!! I love beans, and as we all know, JW is a huge fan of rice. So this was a great meal for us, and easy and cheap too!

Red Beans and Rice

• One package of smoked sausage (can use spicy)
• One bag of red beans
• One green pepper, diced
• One red pepper, diced
• 4 stalks of celery, diced
• 7 cups of water
• 1 T of Cajun seasoning

Add all ingredients to crock pot and cook on high for 7 hours. Serve over rice.

Read Full Post »

Pesto Chicken

Okay, remember that pesto pasta salad?

This one?

The only problem with it is that it only uses half a container of pesto. So you have a few options. You can:

A.) Double the recipe and have pesto pasta salad sitting in your fridge for weeks in that bowl you always want to use but can never find because it’s sitting in the fridge with pesto pasta salad in it

B.) Leave the half-used container of pesto in your fridge to “do something with,” forget about it, and find it two months later in an unusable state

C.) Make this pesto chicken

This was really good, really easy, and tasted awesome. JW commented several times how good it was. A huge thank you to Pinterest for this find (which if you are any sort of creative or foodie or fashion type and you are not on Pinterest, you are missing out on a whole world of new and exciting things), and of course, many thanks to Kalyn’s Kitchen for the recipe.

Baked Pesto Chicken (This is how I made it, when I didn’t have the recipe in front of me. Here is the original if you want to compare.)

• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used 3)
• Salt and fresh ground black pepper for seasoning chicken
• Half of a 7-8oz container of basil pesto
• Mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 375F. Cut chicken breasts into strips, or pieces. Whatever you prefer.

Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with non-stick spray. Lay chicken strips over the pesto, then spread pesto over the chicken. Stir it around a bit so the chicken is covered with the pesto.

Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil (or use a baking dish with a tight-fitting lid) and bake the chicken for 25-30 minutes, just until chicken is barely firm and cooked through. Don’t cook too much at this point, or the chicken will be overcooked by the time the cheese is melted and browned.

When chicken is barely cooked through, remove foil and sprinkle chicken with mozzarella cheese. Put dish back into the oven without foil and cook 5 minutes more, just until cheese is melted. (If your broiler is separate from the oven, start preheating it when you take the chicken out.) Kalyn’s note: After I melted the cheese for 5 minutes I switched my oven to broil and broiled for 5 minutes more, just long enough to get the cheese lightly browned.

We had this over the same tri-colored curly pasta I had used for the pasta salad, and the juice from the chicken dish was delicious over the pasta. You could also use angel hair, or even rice.

Read Full Post »

Chicken Spaghetti Remake

Split chicken breasts were on sale at the grocery this week, and I thought I’d make a yummy chicken pot pie with a latticed puff pastry crust, like I saw somewhere on Pinterest. Now… JW does not like chicken pot pie. I know this. But I thought maybe he’d like it with the puff pastry.

So I cook, debone, and shred the chicken, and as I start to get the rest of the ingredients out, JW comes around the corner.

“What’s for dinner?”

“Chicken pot pie.”

Silence.

He walks over to the pantry, opens the door, glances inside for a brief minute, then proceeds to pull out a box of spaghetti noodles and lay it on the counter in front of me.

Okay, I can take a hint.

So chicken spaghetti it is. Except I don’t have any rotel tomatoes. What I do have is green salsa, which I decide will have to do. I also added a bit of sour cream. And do you know… it was great! And Kathryn loved it too.

Now I have some puff pastry to use. Oh, the possibilities! Love me some puff pastry.

Chicken Spaghetti Remake

• 1/2 lb spaghetti, cooked
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• Half of an 8-oz container sour cream
• 1 7-oz can green salsa
• Couple handfuls of cheese

Mix it all together and bake in a casserole dish until heated through and cheese is melted. Yum.

Read Full Post »

PW’s Pizza Crust, Kind Of

We love making pizza at home. For the longest time I’ve been using the Olive Oil dough recipe from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, which is good and easy to make. But this time around I decided to try Pioneer Woman’s pizza crust recipe, which she raves about, and when have I ever made anything of PW’s that’s been less than stellar? Answer: never.

So I got started and I wasn’t too far into the recipe when I realized it called for 1/3 cup of olive oil, and I had… none. There was no going back at this point, so I used regular ol’ vegetable oil. Did it make a difference? No idea. The crust was awesome. A definite winner over the crust I’ve been making. But I shouldn’t have been surprised. When has PW ever steered me wrong? Answer: never.

This was supposed to be a pepperoni and olive pizza. Unfortunately as I started to put the pepperoni on, I realized they’d been in the fridge a little too long and had mold on them. Sad So we had olive pizza. And it was delicious! I really didn’t miss the pepperoni at all. You can use whatever toppings you like, of course. Even if it’s just olives.

Pioneer Woman’s Pizza Crust (from her cookbook)

• 1 tsp or 1/2 packet active dry yeast
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/3 cup olive (or vegetable) oil, plus more for drizzling

Pour 1 1/2 cups warm water into a bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the water.

Combine the flour and salt in a mixing bowl.

With an electric mixer on low speed, drizzle in the oil until just incorporated. Or, you can use a spoon. Which is what I did.

In a separate bowl, gently stir the yeast/water mixture, and drizzle it into the flour/oil mixture. Mix until the dough forms a ball. You can use your hands if you like, which I did here, until the dough comes together.

Drizzle a little oil into a clean bowl, or mist with cooking spray. Toss the ball of dough in the bowl and turn over to coat in oil.

Cover the bowl with a moist kitchen towel and set in a warm place for 1-2 hours, or cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for up to 2 days.

To prepare the pizza, preheat oven to 500 degrees. Divide the dough in half. Lightly drizzle olive oil on a pizza pan or baking sheet. Or use parchment paper and no oil.

Using your hands, stretch the dough to the desired shape. Spread sauce and/or desired toppings over the dough and bake for 8-10 minutes, until the edges of the crust are golden brown.

The other half of the dough may be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerated up to 3 days before use, or frozen for up to 6 months.

Read Full Post »

Muenster Macaroni & Cheese

Sincerest apologies for the terrible photo – but I figured a phone photo would be better than no photo at all.

This was SO good. I love muenster, and I have Annie of Annie’s Eats to thank for turning it into a scrumptious mac & cheese. Plus its near-ridiculous simplicity just made it that much better. It isn’t diet food by any means, with a cup of heavy cream, 8 oz of muenster cheese, and a buttery Ritz cracker topping, but it sure is worth the calorie splurge!

Muenster Macaroni and Cheese (Original recipe here)

• 16 oz macaroni pasta
• 5 Tbsp butter, divided
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 8 oz Muenster cheese, shredded
• Salt and pepper to taste (Important – salt is hugely important in mac & cheese!)
• ¼ cup Ritz cracker crumbs

Preheat the oven to 400˚ F.  In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta according to the package directions just until 1-2 minutes shy of al dente.

Meanwhile, dice 4 tablespoons of the butter and place in a large mixing bowl.  Warm the cream in a small saucepan or the microwave.  Cover to keep warm.

Once the pasta is cooked, add to the bowl with the butter and toss to coat well.  Stir in the warm cream and the Muenster until the cheese starts to melt.  Mix in salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the mixture into a buttered 2-quart casserole dish (or in my case, a regular ol’ 9×13).  In a small bowl, melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter.  Mix in the cracker crumbs.  Toss with a fork to coat evenly with the butter.  Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture evenly over the pasta in the baking dish.

Bake until the sauce is bubbling and the topping turns golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.  Serve immediately.

Read Full Post »

Chili

It’s officially chili weather! It’s taking a while for the cool weather to set in here, but we’re definitely enjoying lower temperatures.

I’ve made a few chili recipes in the past, but we always end up coming back to this one – it’s one we made up a while back, and it’s also ridiculously easy. You can easily double or triple it, freeze it if you need to, whatever.

I think I may make a BIG batch of this pre-baby to keep in the freezer, so we have it to eat later!

Favorite Chili

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 can chili-ready tomatoes
• 1 can Bush’s chili beans [or regular pinto beans]
• 2 Tbsp chili powder
• Water or broth as desired, to thin

Brown and drain ground beef. Add all other ingredients, stir well, and simmer 30 minutes. If a thinner consistency is desired, add water or broth (I use broth if I’m using regular pinto beans – but water if I’m using chili beans).

Great with cornbread, cheese, Fritos, sour cream… etc.

Read Full Post »

Oven Beef Stew

I am SO ready for fall! Temperatures are still high, but hey – no reason I can’t start making beef stew and pumpkin bread, right?

What I loved about this stew was that it was all mixed together and baked in the oven for 3 hours. You could make it in a slow cooker too, if you wanted a little longer cook time. The flavor was great and everything was perfectly cooked. I couldn’t have asked for an easier recipe to usher in the fall season!

The other plus to beef stew, and especially this one which uses a good amount of V-8 juice, is the amount of vegetables. I am NOT good at eating vegetables, so anything that gets them into me (preferably in a delicious way) gets extra points in my book.

We had this with some of the leftover focaccia bread from the other night, and it was scrumptious. Many thanks to Our Best Bites for another hit!

Oven (or Slow Cooker) Beef Stew (Recipe found here)

• 1 1/2-2 lb. lean stew beef, cut into even smaller bite-sized pieces (just pull out a pair of kitchen shears and cut anything that looks like you’d need to use a knife and fork on) – or cut up a chuck roast, which is what I did.
• 4-5 medium red potatoes, chopped
• 4-5 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
• 4 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 onions, chopped
• 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 12-oz. cans or 3 c. vegetable juice cocktail (V8)
• 1 10-oz. can condensed tomato soup
• 10 oz. water (just use the can from the tomato soup to measure)
• 1 tsp. basil
• 2 beef bouillon cubes (or 2 tsp. beef base)
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Combine ingredients in a large oven-safe pot that comes with an oven-safe lid. Cook in heated oven for 3 hours. Remove from oven and serve.

You can also cook this in your slow cooker on low for 9-10 hours (or until vegetables and meat are tender) or on high for 5-6.

Read Full Post »

Barbecue Chicken Drumsticks

I decided it’s about time I start cleaning out my freezer and seeing what I can use and what needs to be thrown away. This package of drumsticks was occupying the back of the second shelf. I don’t really know a whole lot of things to do with drumsticks, but the first thing I immediately think of is barbecue. I kind of needed something quick and easy too – I didn’t want to spend all day in the kitchen.

This recipe does take some think-ahead time because you start the day before, partially cook the chicken, and let it marinate in the sauce until you’re ready to use it, but actual preparation the day of is very simple. You can use whatever barbecue sauce you like, and using a bottled sauce would certainly make it an even easier recipe, but I wanted to try one from Cooks Illustrated (originally published for serving with pork), and I’ve included that recipe here for you as well.

The chicken turned out great, and the sauce was sweet and sticky and good. It made for a great summer meal! You can also use this recipe for thighs, and I’m sure other parts of chicken as well. This is a halved recipe, so if you have more than two people you may want to double it.

Barbecue Chicken Drumsticks (Recipe found here)

• 5-6 chicken drumsticks and/or thighs, with skin on
• 1 cup barbecue sauce (or one recipe Cooks Illustrated sauce below)

PREP DIRECTIONS:

In oblong storage container (I just used a large bowl), pour 1/4-1/2 cup barbecue sauce on bottom and tilt to evenly coat.

Put chicken into dutch oven or other large pot with a lid. Fill with water until water is about 2 inches higher than chicken. Bring to a boil and cook 15-20 minutes – no longer, or chicken will be tough. Pour into colander to drain water.

While chicken is in colander, turn on cool water, and while holding chicken leg under water, pull off skin and any fat (meat will be tender so be careful not to pull off any meat pieces).

Place each skinned piece into the prepared container. If using thighs, place the piece meat-side down, the side the bone isn’t sticking out of.

Pour the rest of the barbecue sauce evenly over the chicken, making sure to cover all the meat. Cover container (I covered the bowl with plastic wrap) and put into fridge either for the rest of the day or overnight. Because the chicken is hot, it absorbs more of the sauce flavoring.

COOKING DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place coated pieces of chicken in greased oblong or square pan. Bake for 40 minutes. Alternately, you can grill.

CI Barbecue Sauce (Slightly adapted from Cooks Illustrated July & Aug 2009)

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup molasses (calls for light or mild, all I had was dark and it was fine)
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 2 Tbsp cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar

Bring all ingredients to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat; cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce is reduced to about 1 cup, 5-7 minutes.

Read Full Post »

Mexican Rice Casserole with Smoked Sausage and Black Beans

This casserole came about as an “oh crap I forgot to plan dinner tonight let’s see what I have in the pantry” meal. I’ve made similar dishes before, but this turned out to be my favorite by far. It’s simple, cheap, delicious, and really not bad for you. You could make it even healthier by using turkey sausage and low-fat cheese… but I didn’t.

Mexican Rice Casserole with Smoked Sausage & Black Beans

• 1 cup white rice, uncooked
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 Tbsp chicken boullion granules
• 1 pkg smoked sausage, sliced (I also halve mine)
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can diced tomatoes, drained insomuch as possible
• 1-2 cups cheddar cheese (just eyeball it)

Preheat oven to 350 degree and lightly grease a 9×13 (or similar size) dish.

Prepare rice as you would normally cook rice, but add chili powder, cumin, and chicken boullion to the water.

Dump sausage, beans, and tomatoes in a large mixing bowl. Add cooked rice and mix well. Spread into casserole dish and top with cheese.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until cheese is melted, it smells delicious, and it looks like something you want to eat RIGHT NOW.

Read Full Post »

Guiltless Alfredo Sauce

I’ve tried several “light” alfredo sauce recipes in the past (including one that was primarily cottage cheese – THAT was gross), and this is the only one JW has given a thumbs-up. I attribute the difference to the cream cheese – which is never a bad addition to any recipe This one came from Our Best Bites – such a fun blog, I highly recommend visiting it if you haven’t before!

The original recipe uses a blender to mix the first ingredients together, but since I don’t have one I have sometimes used a food processor (only do this if it is water-tight unless you want milk everywhere – not that I would know from personal experience or anything), or an immersion blender. This last time, I just kind of whisked it all together. It was lumpy, but it all breaks down once it’s heated anyway. So do whatever floats your boat.

I added chicken this time, and chopped up some parsley for a little color. It was SO good.

Guiltless Alfredo Sauce (Recipe found here)

• 2 C low-fat milk
• 1/3 C (3 oz) low-fat cream cheese
• 2 T flour
• 1 t salt
• 1 T butter
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 C grated Parmesan cheese

Combine milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt in a blender (or food processor, or bowl… see note above). Process until smooth and set aside.

In a saucepan, melt butter on med-high heat and add garlic. Let the garlic saute for about 30 seconds, you don’t want to burn it. It should be nice and bubbly.

Add milk mixture to the pan. Stir constantly for about 3 or 4 minutes or until it just comes to a simmer. Keep stirring and let it cook for a few minutes more. It should be thicker now. When it’s nice and thickened remove the pan from the heat. Add the cheese, stir it up and then cover immediately. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before using. It will continue to thicken upon standing. Serve with pasta, pizza, breadsticks, anything you like!

If you have leftovers in the fridge, the sauce will thicken almost into a solid. Just re-heat and add a little milk and it will be back to normal again.

Read Full Post »