Skillet Chicken and Veggies

So the other day we were hungry (that's not new, we're always hungry) and we didn't have much in the way of food because someone's mom hasn't been to the grocery store (also not new). So I whipped this little diddy together and it was yum.

2 chicken breasts, thawed and chopped into bite size pieces
1 small bag frozen mixed veggies
garlic powder
seasoned salt
rice, cooked


I placed the chicken in my large skillet with a tbsp of butter and started it cooking. About half way through cooking, I added the bag of frozen mixed veggies and another tbsp of butter. While it cooked, I sprinkled on some garlic powder and a generous sprinkling (like every piece got its fair share) of seasoned salt. I let it cook and mix together and served it over the cooked rice. The butter acted as a kind of seasoned gravy. We liked it.

If you make this and add some variation to it - and it turns out yummy - I'd like to know! Don't tell me if it's yucky - leave me in my ignorant bliss.

One More Week of Crockpot Meals

I hope you're not tired of these kind because they have been life savers for me. Once again, when I made dinner for my family, I simply put one part in the crock pot and the other part of the meal in a freezer bag and plopped it (laying flat, of course) in the freezer and we enjoyed it later - voila! Two dinners at once! 

Taco Soup (page of A Food-filled Ark by Jodie Orton)

Sunday Chicken and Stuffing (page 6 of A Food-filled Ark by Jodie Orton)

Cheesy Garlic Chicken

Crockpot Beef Stroganoff

Teriyaki Chicken

Creamy Italian Chicken

*If you don’t have a copy of A Food-filled Ark, let me know, we’ll get you one.

Creamy Italian Chicken

1 1/2 lbs. chicken breasts, cut up in one inch pieces
1 bar cream cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 packet zesty italian salad dressing mix
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 c. green veggie (recipe suggested green beans, but I did broccoli)

I double this and put one in the pot and one in the freezer bag. Thaw (or don't because I always forget) and place all contents in slow cooker on low for 7-8 hours or high for 4 hours. Serve over noodles and garnish with Parmesan cheese.

Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken

1 1/2 lbs chicken breast, sliced
1/4 c. soy sauce
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. Teriyaki sauce
1 Tbsp sesame oil
3 carrots, sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
1 tsp ginger paste (I did a little more than 1 tsp ground ginger and it tasted great)
1 c chicken broth
3 cloves garlic, minced

Place everything in slow cooker and cook on low for 7-8 hrs or high for 4 hours. I doubled it again and put one in the pot and one in the gallon freezer bag.

Optional: To thicken sauce at the end, whisk together 1/2 c. of the cooked sauce with 2 Tbsp cornstarch and pour pack into the slow cooker. Turn cooker on high for an extra 10-15 min so sauce can thicken. Serve on top of rice and garnish with sesame seeds if desired.

Crock-Pot Beef Stroganoff

2 lbs cubed beef stew meat or 4 c. cooked ground beef
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 c. chopped onion (or dehydrated diced onion works too)
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 c. water
1 c. sour cream
2 Tbsp minced garlic
1 packet onion soup mix
chopped mushrooms (optional)
egg noodles (to serve over the day you cook it)

Cook and cool meat. Place all ingredients in gallon freezer bag (I doubled the recipe and cooked on and froze the other). To cook, thaw enough to get it out of the bag, and place in crock pot. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Serve over egg noodles.

Cheesy Garlic Chicken

4 large chicken breasts
4 cans cream of chicken soup
2 can cheddar cheese soup
2-4 tsp garlic powder
4 Tbsp butter
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

This feeds us once. Double it, put one in your crock pot and place the other in a freezer bag. To cook, place all contents in crock pot and cook on high 3-4 hours or low 6-8 hours. Serve over pasta, rice, or mashed potatoes (pretty much any starch works here).

Freezer Scalloped Potatoes and Ham

1 large bag of frozen potatoes (I like the cubed hash brown kind)

2 can cream of potato soup (you can use any kind you want)

2 can water

2 ham steaks, cubed (I bought the ham that comes shrink wrapped and looks like it's half of an oval - one of those did this whole meal just great)

8 oz cheddar cheese

4 c. broccoli (I used frozen)

salt and pepper

The recipe says to divide everything into two containers, and I don't remember for sure but I think that the halved recipe fed us just fine each time. Cook on low for 8 hours (I did less -like only 6 hours - and it was great. Pretty much you are just warming it all up and letting the broccoli and potatoes cook.)

Freezer Meal Chicken Fajitas

4 large chicken breasts
4 green peppers
2 c. chicken broth
4 taco seasoning packets
4 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp salt

This makes one meal for our family of four. I double it and whala two meals!
Lay flat to freeze.
On cooking day, pour all contents into crockpot and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 hours. We serve it with tortillas, shredded cheese, sour cream and beans (black or refried are yummy).

Note: This makes PLENTY and so one time I tried it on pizza and BAM! delish! So I made the dough....you know the one we love, and then I put diced tomatoes from a can, this leftover chicken, and topped it with mozzarella - that was it, and we loved it.

A week's worth of Crockpot meals

So this week I was trying to get some simple meals put together so I can begin planning for our little #3. This is what we are having and so far, they've been pretty yummy. It also helps that when I make things in the crockpot they usually include a can of Cream of Something which I pretty much have on hand. Gotta love that! So here they are:

Quilters Chicken

Chicken Delicious

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Whole-Dinner Roast Beef

Freezer Meal Chicken Fajitas

Freezer Scalloped Potatoes and Ham

(I don't have the recipes for these last two on me, but I'll link them when I do.)

Whole-Dinner Roast Beef

This gets dry quickly, so I like to only cook it for 6 hours and then pull it out. It will continue to cook if you leave it in the pot. Also, the more expensive the beef, the better it tastes...I know it's a bummer but that's life. If you want yours to be tender and yummy like GG's you have to pay for it. It still turns out with a less expensive cut of beef - that's what we always use.

3-5 lb. beef roast
10 3/4 oz. can cream of mushroom soup
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
4 c. baby carrots
4-5 potatoes, quartered
(sometimes I add half a diced onion or half a diced cabbage just for variety flavor and veggies. Also, if you want more gravy, add 1-2 cans of water over top too)

Place veggies in slow cooker first then place the roast on top. Pour soup over top and then sprinkle the soup mix over top of that. Cover and cook on Low 6-8 hours.

Quilters' Chicken

This was good but a little dry, next time I'll make sure to check it before the time is up. We had ours over rice with steamed broccoli on the side.

6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
10 3/4 oz. can cream of mushroom soup
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1/4- 1/2 cup sour cream
4 oz. can mushrooms, drained optional

Place chicken in slow cooker. Blend mushroom soup and onion soup mix together in a small bowl then pour over chicken. Cover and cook on Low 4-8 hours, or until chicken is tender but not dry. Fifteen minutes before serving, stir in sour cream and mushrooms. Cover and let it heat together.

Chicken Delicious

We haven't had this one yet, but I plan to as soon as I get back to the store for lemon juice - we're all out.

10 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 tsp. lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
2 10 3/4 cans cream of celery soup
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese

Rinse chicken breasts and pat dry. Place chicken in slow cooker in layers. Season each layer iwth a sprinkling of lemon juice, salt and pepper. Pour soup over top and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Cover and cook on Low 8-10 hours or High for 4-5 hours, or until chicken is tender, but not dry or mushy.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

If you say it with a Julie Childs accent, it sounds fancier! I may or may not have seen Julie and Julia recently :)

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (I did 3 regular breasts for our family)
1/2 lb. deli-sliced cooked ham (I bought the 2 lb ham from the meat dept. and cubed half of it - a later recipe calls for ham so it works out)
1/2 lb. baby swiss cheese, sliced
10 3/4 oz. can cream of chicken soup
1 box dry stuffing mix, prepared according to box directions (which I forgot to do but it still turned out - luckily)

Layer all ingredients in the order they are listed into your slow cooker. Cover and cook on Low 6-8 hours, or until chicken is tender but not dry. My chicken was mostly thawed when I started so ours was done after 5 hours.

Served with a steamed veggie!

Spanish Style Stuffed Peppers

I got this recipe from Marci @marcicooks on Instagram so you know it's a good'n. We tried it yesterday, and we all loved it. The kids even had some of their pepper! It's clean and healthy too which is an added plus besides the fact that it includes things from the pantry!

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 can RoTel (or I used a can of diced tomatoes and diced green chilies)

salt & pepper

olive oil

2 red peppers (can do up to 4)

1/4 onion, chopped

1-2 c. cooked rice (seasoned if desired, but not necessary - the Costco packets of quinoa and brown rice are really good in this she says)

1/2 can black beans

juice of a lime (I forgot this, but next time I won't)

garlic powder

chili powder

paprika

cumin

grated cheese to top each pepper

Cook 4 chicken breasts with a can of mild RoTel, salt, pepper and a little bit of olive oil in the crock pot on high for 3-4 hours - until chicken pulls apart easily. Shred chicken and keep it in the crock pot on warm.

Cut the red peppers in half. Hallow them out and remove the seeds and veins. Set the halves in a greased baking dish. Preheat the oven to 350. In a frying pan, warm a little bit of olive oil and add the chopped onion. Sautee until they are translucent/ barely starting to brown. Add the rice and warm it all together. Add about 1/2 the chicken, including tomatoes and the black beans. Sqeeze the lime juice and add garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, and cumin about 2-3 shakes of each. Mix it all together until warm. 

Scoop the mixture into the peppers - stuff them really full. Put grated cheese on the top of each. 

Bake in the over for about 30 min. Can be topped with diced avocado, hot sauce, more lime juice, and fresh cilantro - we had ours plain because I was gone when everyone ate dinner, but they still loved it so imagine how yummier (yeah, it can be a word) it could be! 

Creamed Tuna on Toast

This one always reminds me of my dad. Growing up, when he was in charge of dinner we had breakfast or Creamed Tuna on Toast.

It's quick and simple and we love it.

1 can tuna, drained
1 can cream of chicken soup
milk
sandwich bread
(frozen bag of veggies, cooked - we like peas or carrots)

Cook veggies in the microwave (this takes about 5 min). While they cook: In a small sauce pan over medium heat, combine tuna, cream of chicken soup, and enough milk to make a gravy. When it's all mixed and warming, add the cooked veggies. toast your bread (I like to do it as we go so that the toast doesn't get too cold).
Serve by putting toast on the plate and spoon a generous amount of gravy over the toast. That's it!

Note: you can also just have the veggies as a side, but I've found they get eaten better if they're part of the dinner.

Ground Beef Tin Foil Dinners

We're going good ole fashioned camping style. I'm sure there is a recipe out there for these, but we just put it all in a foil pouch and go to town. This is what we use for our family of 4.

1 lb ground beef
1 can corn
1 can beans (whatever we have - like black, or kidney)
1 can cream of chicken soup
salt and pepper
4 carrots, diced
1/4 onion, diced
4 russet or red potatoes, diced

I put two pieces of foil (about 18" long) on the counter together for each person. Divide all the ingredients between the four foil pouches (Daddy gets more, the kids get smaller ones). Put the meat on the bottom and everything on top of that. It helps if your meat isn't in a solid patty - it'll cook better and faster. Then you fold it all up - I like to fold two sides in and roll them down like a chip bag and then fold the ends up like a chip bag too that way they stay sealed better and you know how to open them because you don't want your foil to tear if you have to put them back in again.

You can grill them on medium-high or bake them in the oven (I usually do 375 for about 45 min) but make sure you check them to be certain the meat is cooked through. If you use the oven, make sure you have a cookie sheet under the foil packets to catch the juices that will most likely fall - please don't cause yourself the unfortunate experience of cleaning your oven in the summer!

That's a lot of words! You'll figure it out. I believe in you!

Hot Dog Boats

Yep folks, I said it. Hot. Dog. Boats. When you eat them, your arteries might sieze up for a second, but then you're mind will take over and remind your body how DE-LISH they are and how eating them brings back memories of being a kid and wanting to eat the cooked cheese right off the pan.

Go ahead. Make them. It's summer after all, and summer is a time for happiness and laughter (and very little time in the kitchen with the oven on fighting with your AC)! Besides your family will love them and they're easy peasy.

In case you forgot, you need:
1 pkg hot dogs
mashed potatoes
grated cheese

Cut the hot dogs hot dog way (I'm sorry! I couldn't resist! It was just too punny to pass up! I mean long way). Lay them cut side up on a cookie sheet (I like to line mine with foil for faster clean up). Spoon on a big scoop of mashed potatoes on each hot dog. Sprinkle grated cheese over each "boat". Bake in the oven at 350 until the cheese is melty and everything is good and warm - we're talking like 10 min-ish. Serve with a veggie so your mom will be proud!

Pesto Chicken Sandwiches

This is another new recipe that we haven't tried, but I thought it might be fun and we LOVE pesto. Also, the french bread that they bake every day is only $1.69 so it's not super expensive.

Pesto Chicken Sandwiches
3 chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1 (8 oz.) pkg white mushrooms, sliced (I'll be leaving these out)
1 onion, sliced thin
1 1/2 - 2 c. mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 c. peso
1/4 - 1/2 c. ranch dressing (optional)
Montreal Steak Seasoning (about 1 tsp.)
1 loaf french bread

Saute the sliced onion and chicken pieces in a little butter or olive oil until the onions are soft and the chicken is cooked through. Season with Montreal Steak seasoning (or salt and pepper). Once onions are soft, add mushrooms to the pan with the chicken and onions, and cook until those are tender. Set meat mixture aside. Cut the french bread loaf in half long way and open up onto a large cookie sheet. Spread a generous amount of pesto on both sides of the bread. Spread ranch dressing (optional) on top of the pesto. Put half of the meat mixture on the top of each half of bread. Top both sides with mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 for 10-15 min, or until the cheese is golden brown.
Serve folded back together and cut up as sandwiches or open faced.

Baked Potatoes

We haven't had these in a LONG time so I thought I'd bust them out and see how the kids fare.

I like to follow these instructions from howtobakeapotato.com (and yes it's really a real site!).

We'll have ours with steamed broccoli, grated cheese, sour cream, maybe leftover bacon (if there is still bacon in our house by then), salt, pepper, butter and anything else I can find.

Cowboy Spaghetti

My apologies for being MIA lately. Here is a simple menu to get you through the next little bit.

We haven't had this Cowboy Spaghetti, but it sounds delish and the 95% lean ground beef is on sale this week at Fresh Market.

1 lb. spaghetti noodles, cooked & drained
1 Tbsp. olive oil (EVOO)
3 slices bacon, chopped
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp hot sauce
1/2 c. beef stock
1 (14 oz.) can diced or crushed tomatoes (or 2 c. pasta sauce)
2 (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce
8 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded
4 sprigs green onions, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the pasta according to package but only until al dente.
Heat a deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add EVOO and bacon. Brown and crisp bacon, 5 min, remove with a slotted spoon. Drain off a little excess fat if necessary. Leave just enough to coat the bottom of the skillet. Add beef and crumble it as it browns, 3-4 min. Add onion, garlic and stir into meat. Season the meat with salt and pepper, hot sauces and Worcestershire if desired. Add beef stock and deglaze the pan. Cook 5 -6 min more then stir in the tomatoes and tomato sauce.

Add hot spaghetti to mat and sauce and combine. Adjust seasonings if desired. Serve with grated cheese, green onions and crisp bacon.