Chicken Cordon Blue Casserole

Chicken Cordon Blue with Stuffing

Great Make Ahead Meal



This past weekend we had the start of the COLD weather move into Omaha, and since we are still in our temporary housing and I am with out the majority of my pots and pans, I needed to make something that would be warm and delicious for my family but could be done using the basic pots and pans I have kept with me for our move.  My husband is a big fan of casseroles.  He grew up eating them and enjoys them, they are a comfort food for him, so I thought why not try a new one?  I make a chicken and broccoli casserole he enjoys so I decided why not add ham, some Swiss cheese and change my vegetable?  I gave it a try and we will definitely be eating this again this winter.  It was delicious and warm, the ham gave it that special flavor and the use of cream of chicken soup made it taste rich and smooth, the perfect comfort food meal for my family.  On the plus side, it warmed up great the next day - which is essential in my house because I pack a lunch Monday - Friday for my husband!  A true crowd pleaser.  I did make this ahead (I put it together during nap time then let it sit on the oven until dinner rolled around).  It was all done in one pot and was very easy on clean up.  Give it a try!

Here's what you'll need...

Ingredients:

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breast cooked and cubed (I boiled mine)

2 large smoked pork chops cooked and cubes (I bought mine cooked from the grocery store)

2 cans of cream of chicken soup

2  1/2 cans of no fat half and half (you can substitute with milk)

1 bag of frozen peas

1 bag of Herbed Stuffing Mix

Salt and Pepper to taste

Sliced Swiss Cheese - about 6 slices

1 cup of cheddar cheese

1 tablespoon of spicy mustard

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 tablespoon of fresh chopped garlic - about 2 cloves

Directions:

Using your dutch oven, I like my Calphalon because of the even heat and easy to clean finish,  warm your olive oil and garlic cloves.  Then add the cooked diced chicken and cooked ham/smoked pork chop.  Brown these over medium heat.  Add your cream of chicken soup, half and half, cheddar cheese mustard, and salt and pepper.  I tasted my base once it was warm and bubbly to make sure I had just enough seasoning.  Stir in the frozen peas then gently fold in your stuffing mix - uncooked.  Make sure the breading is completely coated with the cream base.  Flatten out your mixture and top with sliced Swiss cheese.  Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until top golden brown.

Granny's Ginger Snap Cookies

Warm and Soft Ginger Snap Cookies

A Family Recipe

Ginger bread is a flavor that just says warmth and love.  It is delicious to eat and makes the house smell like the holidays.  I personally like ginger snaps better than ginger people, basically because I think they are a little softer and I love them in the morning with a cup of tea or coffee.  My daughter, tried Little Debbie ginger cookies last week and loved them, so I decided I needed to make my grandmother's ginger bread for her.  So with some digging I was able to find the recipe and make ginger snaps this morning for her.  This recipe is simple, tastes great, and can be rolled out if you like ginger people (keep in mind cooking time will be on the lower side if they are rolled out based on thickness).  My grandmother used to also dust the top of the cookie pile with confectioner's sugar if you like that, however I think they are plenty sweet with out the extra sugar so I didn't add it.  Hope you give this a try and share it with your loved ones this holiday season.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

¾ cup of margarine

1 cup of white sugar

1 egg

¼ cup of molasses

2 cups of all purpose flour

1 tablespoon of ground ginger

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

2 teaspoons of baking soda

½ teaspoon of salt

½ cup of white sugar – to be used for topping/cookie pressing

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).  In a medium bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and molasses until well blended. Combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and salt, slowly stir into the molasses mixture making a dough. Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Place cookies 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets (again I swear by my Calphalon baking sheets) that have been sprayed with cooking spray.  Using a cup and the remaining sugar, press the dough balls.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.  Makes 4-5 dozen cookies.



Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Comfort Food... Simple and Tasty

Cool weather is coming, and with that comes soup and comfort foods.  When I was a kid, my grandmother used to take me out to this restaurant every now and again and we would get soup and salad.  I always would get potato soup.  I loved it... and I still do, but I have never tried to make it myself - until yesterday.  My daughter, who just turned 21 months, also likes potato as well as all the fixings for baked potato so I thought why not try loaded baked potato soup.  We live in a one meal house, meaning I don't make anything for dinner that is not eaten by everyone in the house, so soup can be a challenge because we haven't mastered using our utensils just yet - but I gave it a shot. 

So I started the soup around 9am on the stove top and it was done by noon.  Then I let it sit until my husband came home from work.  At dinner time, I just had to warm it up and make the garlic toast and potato fixings.  My husband had two bowl fulls and took another into work today for lunch!  He definitely enjoyed it, and as for my daughter she liked it too - but I can't put as much stock in that since she loves anything with bacon in it!  This was very easy and I believe something that could be done in your crock pot if you have a busy day ahead and want to come home to dinner waiting for you.  Also, often when I make soup for dinner we get hungry around 9:30 - but this stuck to our ribs so to speak so neither of us were looking for snacks post dinner.  Give it a try, I think you'll enjoy it!

Ingredients:

8 large potatoes

1 medium onion

1 tablespoon of chopped fresh garlic (about 2 cloves)

1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 1/2 tsp of salt

1 tsp pepper

1/2 tablespoon of parsley

1 bay leaf

1 1/2 boxes (32 oz each) of chicken stock - this is approx - you will be covering the potatoes with chicken stock.

1 1/2 cups of no fat half and half

1 1/2 cups of skim shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup of light sour cream

Toppings:

sour cream

cooked and chopped bacon

shredded cheddar cheese

scallions chopped

To start, in a large stock pot, I used my large calphalon pot because I like the way it keeps the heat even and the holds heat, warm your olive oil and add the chopped garlic and chopped onion.  Cook your onion until it is translucent in color.  While your onion and garlic are cooking wash, peel, and chop your potatoes into about 1/4 inch pieces.  Then add them.  Cover the potato with your chicken stock - it takes about a box and a half.  I used Progresso chicken stock because I like the richness in flavour and I also use the low sodium.  Add your salt, pepper, bay leaf and parsley. Cook this on low for about two hours, until your potatoes are soft and ready to be mashed.  Then using a potato masher, mash the potatoes, this makes your soup thick.  I would not recommend using an immersion blender because you still want some chunks of potato in your soup.  Now add your shredded cheese, half and half, and sour cream.  Stir this allowing everything to mix.  Taste for seasoning and it's done.  I let mine sit on the stove top and reheated it at dinner time, but you could serve it right away.

NOTE - if you choose to do this in your crock pot I would say the cook time on the potatoes would be double on low- so four hours.

For toppings, I put out sour cream and more of the shredded cheddar cheese.  Then I chopped five scallions and fried up bacon and chopped that.  We sprinkled it on top of our soup and then stirred it all together for a delicious and comforting meal.

Although this was filling and had all the makings of a fatty meal - the choices I made did keep it lower in fat than it could have been - rather than using butter I used olive oil, I used no fat half and half rather than cream or regular half and half, a light sour cream, and a skim cheese.  You can't always make things fat free but the low fat options in this soup were not detected and dinner was delicious and full of flavor.

Hope you try this out and let me know what you think!



Fleece, No Sew, Car Seat Poncho

Are your kids crammed into their car seats wearing winter coats?

Do blankets fall off when you are carrying the carrier in and out of the car?

Try this simple solution...

My youngest daughter just turned six months old the other day, and she is wearing 9 month clothes for the most part, but some things she is in twelve months - so she is getting to that point where she is starting to grow out of the infant carrier car seat.  Now that fall/winter is here its even more noticeable because of the bulky clothes needed to keep warm.  I have the car seat bunting for her infant car seat carrier, but she gets so hot when I put that on it that she is soaking wet with sweat when I pull her out of it.  So I pulled out a winter coat the other day, thinking maybe it wouldn't be so bad in the car seat.  Wrong.  The poor thing was in the car seat like a stuffed sausage.  I am not ready to move her to a convertible car seat yet, because I really like having the carrier for her when we go places, and she is still a supported sitter so I feel like she needs it.  I can handle the carrier easily with her and my 21 month old, which is also essential at this point.  A blanket doesn't really work either, lets face it one gust of fall winds and the blanket is on the ground in the parking lot.  Since I needed something to keep her warm I decided that I would try making a fleece no sew cape/poncho that she could wear in the car seat.  I thought it wouldn't be too bulky and would keep her warm while not constricting her movements.  I made it yesterday, and she wore it to the commissary for our weekly shopping trip.  It worked perfectly.  Kept her warm, stayed on, and she wasn't stuffed into the carrier and uncomfortable.

What I did was basically make a no sew fleece blanket - on a much smaller scale and cut a neck hole into it.  Here is how you do it.

I bought 3/4 of a yard of two fleece fabrics, the princess one you see as well as a hot pink.
Trim the edges of your fabric- sometimes the brand of fleece will run down the side or there will be a line of fabric with out the fleece softness at the edge.
On a table lay your fabric out, I folded mine corner to corner - this would have made it square if I cut it then. 
Before cutting it, I pulled the fabric 4 inches past the edge, then I marked four inches longer than the fold line on the other end. - This allowed me space for the findge.  Keeping it a square.
Then I cut the fabric on the line four inches past the fold fold mark.
Next I layed out the fabric and placed the other on top of it - cutting them both to the same size. 
I measured four inches on the corners and cut squares out of each corner.
Now, in one inch increments cut fringe pieces all around, four inches long.
Tie your fabric fringe in knots holding the two pieces of fabric together and making a two sided blanket.

Once you are all done with your "blanket" take your fabric and fold it corner to corner - making a triangle.  Trim the tip off the triangle - this is the center of your blanket and will leave a small hole in your blanket.
Now cut one inch finge pieces all around this small hole - this is the neck.
Tie your fringe pieces in knots just as you did with the outside of the blanket.
I did four inch cuts just as I had for the edges of my blanket and this worked perfectly.  My daughter's head fit in easily and it wasn't tight at all. 

That's it you're done and with plenty of fabric to make a no sew fleece hat to match! (I haven't done this yet, but it's on my list during today's nap time.)

Good luck!



Giving Thanks Centerpiece - A Way to Share Your Family's Blessings

Giving Thanks Family Centerpiece

A Count Down to Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I wanted to do something interactive with my kids that could become an annual tradition.  I also wanted to stress the importance of thinking about the many blessings we have in our lives, so I decided to make something I could add to everyday that would display what we are thankful for.  So I thought why no make a turkey centerpiece, we could talk about what we are thankful for at dinner and add it to the feathers for everyone to see on our table.  This was an easy "craft" to make and only cost me $2.29 - the cost of the close pins, everything else I already had!

Here's what you need:

1  bare paper towel roll (just save one after you finish using the paper towels)

1 paper towel counter stand

construction paper - I used 6 colors - yellow, blue, green, pink, purple, and red 

1 - empty cereal box - I used this to cut out the body of my turkey, its stronger than construction paper and can hold up all the close pins.

1 package of 25 clothes pins

elmer's school glue

Here's how I made it:

Using an empty cereal box I traced a large circle on the bottom and a smaller one right on top of it.  I then cut it out so it looked like a snowman with only two snow balls.  The brown color of the card board worked perfectly for my turkey body.  I then took the construction paper and folded it into four and free hand cut out feathers.  Lastly, I used some left over blue and cut circles for the eyes, some left over yellow paper made a triangle for the beak, and a bit of wavy red for the neck.  Then, I simply glued the feathers to the clothes pins, glued the face on the turkey, and then glued it all to the bare paper towel roll.  Finally, I placed it on a counter top paper towel holder to dry, this will also be what allows it to stand as our centerpiece on the table.

Starting tonight my family and I will talk about what we are thankful for each day leading to Thanksgiving and write one thing on a feather for the day.  By Thanksgiving day the feathers will we filled with blessings!

Mini Meatballs and Arugala Pasta

Mini Meatballs and Arugula Pasta

Trying to keep dinner fresh and delicious can be difficult for any mom, but trying to do it with toddlers is a definite challenge.  I'm lucky in the fact that my daughter is a decent eater when it comes to what she will eat - quantity is what can be challenge in our house.  This weekend we finally really settled into the temporary housing facility that we are staying at while we await our new home being completed so we now have access to a kitchen again, which means our family can get back on track as far as eating healthy goes.  I was a little challenged because the pots and pans that the facility has are not what I am used to, but this meal still came out wonderful.  We all enjoyed it, and my husband never knew that the meatballs were made from turkey meat!  It was quick to make, which I appreciate because it never fails as soon as I get in the kitchen my oldest wants to be right under my feet and the baby needs to be fed.  However, it tasted like I had let it simmer for quite some time - melting all the flavors together.  This one isn't so much a recipe as a quick throw together so I am going to share how I did it below.

Here's what I did:

To start, I decided to make turkey meatballs that were bite size.  I am trying to be a bit more conscious of what we eat when it comes to fat intake so turkey meat was an easy choice to lower the fat in this meal.  To do that I used a pound of ground turkey, one egg, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, 1 tablespoon of Italian Seasoning, 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh garlic, and 1/2 cup of Italian bread crumbs.  Using my hands I mixed everything well.  Then in a deep saute pan I put 1 tablespoon of olive oil and allowed it to warm.  Once the olive oil was warm, I rolled my mini meatballs - mine were about cocktail size.  I let them cook browning them all around.

While my meatballs were cooking I chopped an onion, one 8 oz package of button mushrooms, and a medium tomato.  Then, I added them to the same pot that the meatballs were cooking in.  I cooked these with the meatballs until the onions began to become translucent.  Then I added 1/2 box of Progresso Beef Stock.  I used a rubber spatula to make sure all the drippings from the meatballs and the veggies were picked up from the bottom of the pan and combined nicely with the beef stock to add flavor.  You can use any brand of beef stock, but I find that Progresso is rich and has a nice flavor so it's always my recommendation.  I then added 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese to the sauce in the pan.  I also added 1 tablespoon of Italian Seasoning, 1 bay leaf, and 1/2 tablespoon of Badia Garlic and Parsley seasoning - again I am sure any brand garlic and seasoning will work, but Badia has wonderful flavor and I personally like it, plus it has no MSG.  I did add a few shakes of course black pepper to taste, but did not add salt since the beef stock had plenty of salt for me.

Finally, I boiled a pound of Barilla white fiber pasta.  While this was boiling, I added 4 cups of fresh arugula to my pasta sauce, allowing it to wilt.  Once I drained the pasta I mixed it with the sauce in the original pan that I cooked everything in.  Then I moved it to a serving dish and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese to make it look nice. 

My daughter, who just turned 21 months and it not a big eater when it comes to quantity ate 4 meatballs and a good helping of pasta and my husband loved it.  In fact he is the one who told me to share this one on the blog!

Hope you and your family give it a try and like it as much as we did.