Kitchen Adventures 12.4

As I sit here getting ready to make dinner tonight, I am realizing that I need to start chipping away at this recipe backlog. So, here is my first attempt at getting this backlog down. (This sounds like work situations, too. Goodness.)

I am a big fan of quick dinners, and dinners that don't make a huge mess. One dish dinners are my favorite for both of these reasons.Many times you can find these recipes as advertisements for products in food magazines, and that is exactly how I found this one. There are always lots of ads in my Everyday with Rachael Ray magazines. Sometimes they look quick and easy (ok, most times) and most of them look pretty delicious.

This recipe was pretty good. If you are not a brown rice fan, though, you may want to substitute white rice instead as the brown rice is a key ingredient and component of this recipe.

Quick & Easy Chicken, Broccoli and Brown Rice

Ingredients:

1 T. vegetable oil
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 1/2 c. water
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 1/2 c. uncooked instant brown rice
2 c. fresh or frozen broccoli flowerets

Directions:
1. Heat the oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with pepper and paprika, and some salt if you want, to taste, then place in the skillet and cook until well browned on both sides. Remove the chicken from the skillet.
2. Stir the soup, water, paprika and black pepper in the skillet and heat to a boil.
3. Stir the rice and broccoli in the skillet and reduce the heat to low. Return the chicken to the skillet and sprinkle additional paprika and black pepper over the chicken. Cover the skillet and cook five minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the rice is tender.

Kitchen Adventures 12.3

Sometimes the name of a recipe can really turn you on or off of a recipe. Names can have connotations that give you a a preconceived idea of how a recipe will taste. To me, the word "haystacks" does not sound appealing. I am not a cow or horse, after all. But, just like many other things, once you look beyond the name your ideas about that thing may change. That is exactly what happened to me with this recipe. I had looked at it for several years, trying to decide if I would ever make it. Finally, I decided to look at the ingredients and discovered that it really just looked like a Frito chili pie recipe. Since I love that, I figured this would be good, too. And I was right!

This recipe came from my ever-dependable Triple T youth group cookbook. This recipe was actually submitted by my old high school trig teacher's wife. They are such good people that I figured it must be worth trying.

Mexican Haystacks

Ingredients:

2 lb. hamburger, browned
1 (16 oz.) can pinto beans, drained
3/4 (6 oz.) c. tomato paste
1 tsp. salt
1 (32 oz.) can tomatoes (I substitutes 1 can tomato sauce and 2 cans of water since I'm not a big tomato fan)
2 T. chili powder
1 package corn chips
1/2 head lettuce, shredded
6 oz. grated cheese (or as much as you like!)

Directions:

Season your hamburger with a little taco seasoning and chili powder while browning, then drain. Add the beans, tomato paste, tomatoes (or tomato sauce), chili powder, and salt to browned and drained hamburger. Cook over low heat for 10-15 minutes. When serving, place a handful of corn chips in a bowl, then pour the meat mixture over the chips. Top with lettuce and cheese.
*You might substitute crisped tortilla strips instead of chips.

Kitchen Adventures 12.2

Gracious, that was a long posting break! I guess I was just busy. That, and I need to be better about balancing my time. So many recipes to share now! Slowly but surely I will get caught up.

Here is the first step in getting caught up. Back in June (it seems so long ago!) I found a recipe I had printed off several weeks earlier from the Food Network. I'll admit, it was a little different and not for everyone, but it was good. You definitely needed a drink of water after having one of these spicy sweets, though!

Mexican Brownies

Directions:

Prepare your favorite brownies, from a mix or homemade. Add in 3/4 teaspoon ground chipotle chile pepper and one teaspoon ground cinnamon to the batter. This is for a batch that fits in a 9 x 13 pan. Bake the brownies according to the box directions or the recipe directions. If desired, top with a scoop of ice cream and sprinkle with cinnamon when serving.

Kitchen Adventures 12.1

It's been about a year now since I first started sharing my recipes and cooking creations with others through this blog. Admittedly I am not the most faithful of bloggers, but it is something I enjoy and if people keep telling me they read my posts and want to try my recipes then it's worth it.

As usual, I am behind. I need to catch up with my May dishes before adding in my June endeavors. Life has been so busy and will only get busier, even though it's summertime. I always thought things were supposed to slow down when school got out, but it never happens that way. We, or at least I, save projects until it's summer because we somehow think we'll have more time to do things. Yet, inevitably, we have LESS time because we have so many things we put off and have to try to catch up before the summer months slip away. It's the never-ending circle of life I'm discovering as I settle more into my adult life.

Through all the craziness that life sometimes brings, I still find time to cook and bake. I have to eat, of course, and if you know me well you understand how important eating is to me. :) I get quite grumpy without sustenance, as my friends and co-workers can attest.

Something I had been wanting to try for some time is baked spaghetti. I'm a big pasta lover, but this was something I had yet to try. While flipping through my many cookbooks I found a baked spaghetti recipe and decided it was finally time to try it. This one comes from my Wheat State Manor cookbook my mom got for me a couple years ago and it was submitted by a lady from my church. I will have to tell her I tried it out the next time I go home!

One note about the recipe: I made the mistake of not browning my meat with the veggies or seasoning my meat while browning it, so the meat did not absorb as much of the flavor it could have. Just make sure you do this to get the best out of the dish.

Baked Spaghetti

Ingredients:

2 lb. hamburger
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 green pepper, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can tomatoes, mashed
1/2 lb. cheddar cheese, grated
spaghetti

Directions:

Brown the hamburger and fresh veggies, seasoning with dashes of the spices; drain. Cook the spaghetti as directed and drain. Add the spaghetti to the meat, and add the cream of mushroom soup, tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce and spices. Make sure to not add in water to the soup. Mix all this together, then spoon into a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, then top with cheese and return to oven until the cheese melts.

Kitchen Adventures 11.4

Easter is a little different now than it used to be, at least for me. When at home, it was always a big family time when we went to church, then ate lunch with the extended family and hunting eggs. Now, with being three hours away from home and no long weekend, it makes it hard to go home, so now I celebrate with my "family" here. We have had big dinners, gone out to dinner, and everything in between. This year, I got to celebrate with my boyfriend, his roommate, and some friends. It was a nice, though rainy, day, and a wonderful time celebrating Resurrection Sunday.
Mr. boyfriend had the main dish with some delicious ham. He also provided the macaroni and cheese. Our friend Shaye came with roils and fruit salad. I provided scalloped potatoes, a lemon (aka Easter) cake and sauteed asparagus and peas. Overall, way too much food for us, but it was delicious!

I looked around the Web for a couple different recipes to fit these needs. I found several through Foodgawker and other websites. I also turned to my hand Triple T cookbook and combined a few recipes to make the potatoes. It all turned out pretty well, all things considered. Lots of cooking in a short amount of time, but lots of fun in the end.

Sauteed Asparagus and Peas

Ingredients

2 T. unsalted butter
1/4 c. minced shallots
1 bunch thin asparagus spears, ends trimmed and cut into 1-1/2 inch pieces on a diagonal*
1 c. thawed frozen peas
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. honey

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add in the shallots and cook, stirring frequently, until soft and translucent, about 4-5 minutes.

2. Add the asparagus, 1/4 teaspoon salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Continue cooking over medium-low heat, stirring frequently so the shallots don't burn, for about 5 minutes or until al dente. Add the peas and honey and cook about one minute more or until the peas are warmed through. Add in more salt and pepper to taste and serve.

*To trim asparagus, bend one spear near its base to see where it naturally snaps off. Use a knife to trim remaining spears to the same length.



The scalloped potatoes were the best of the three, I think. It took a little ingenuity, but they turned out very well. I was a little nervous at first, but it turned out well in the end. It was a combination of two separate recipes that overall became a good new one.

Scalloped Potatoes

Ingredients:

2 lbs. potatoes, or 6 medium ones
3 T. margarine
3 T. flour
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 1/2 c. milk
1 sm. onion, chopped
2 c. cheddar cheese

Directions:

Peel and cube the potatoes. Melt the margarine in a saucepan over low heat. Blend in the flour, salt and pepper. Cook and stir constantly until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Stir in the milk and heat to boiling. Boil for one minute, still stirring. Arrange the potatoes in the bottom of a 2-quart casserole dish with a layer of white sauce on top and then another layer of potatoes and sauce. Top with the cheddar cheese. Cover and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Uncover and bake for 60-70 minutes. Let stand before serving.



The final recipe is the lemon cake. I think it would have been better if it wasn't so dry, but I think that was because I made it the day before and it just got a little dry. It still had good flavor, though.

Lemon Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

1 c. butter, room temperature
1 1/4 c. sugar ( 1.25 c.)
zest of 1 large lemon
4 eggs, room temperature
2 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/4 cup buttermilk
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a bundt pan. Mix the sugar and lemon zest together in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients. In a third bowl, mix the lemon juice and vanilla extract into the milk.
Using the paddle attachment of your stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until very white and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition and scraping the bowl as needed. Turn the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients mixture, alternating with milk in 3 separate additions. Pour the batter into the bundt pan and bake on the middle rack for approximately 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar and serve. *I only baked it for 35 minutes before a toothpick came out clean. I also made a lemon glaze instead of dusting with powdered sugar.

Here is a link to the original posting for this recipe.

Kitchen Adventures 11.3

Do you ever really think about why you don't like a certain dish? Sometimes a scarring experience from childhood turns you off a dish for the rest of your life. Other times, you just THINK you don't like something without ever trying it. That was how I felt about chicken pot pie. I just had it in my head that I didn't like it for the longest time. People would rave about how delicious it was, which restaurant had the best one (Cheddar's is pretty great) or whose grandma had the best recipe. When I finally tried it, I realized just how good it is. And when I found a recipe for it that looked pretty easy, I couldn't resist trying it.

This is another dish from the PHILADELPHIA cooking creme cookbook. Those smart people really put together a good marketing plan with their new product and accompanying cookbooklet (it's a tiny recipe book and that sounds like a good name for it!). Again, something nice and easy that doesn't take too much time or effort to make and is absolutely delicious. My boyfriend was a little wary and swore I was making it wrong when I didn't use a bottom crust, but it turned out fine. That must be the hot pot pie debate question: to use or not to use a bottom crust? I'm sure the bottom crust is just as good, but this top crust-only version was pretty yummy. Though it is more of a fall/winter comfort food item, it's just light enough to work for the summertime, too. Give it a try!

Creamy Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients:

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
2 c. frozen mixed vegetables, thawed and drained
1 tub PHILADELPHIA Savory Garlic Cooking Creme
1 ready-to-use refrigerated pie crust (1/2 of a two crust package)

Directions:

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Cook and stir chicken in nonstick skillet on medium heat for five or six minutes, or until the chicken is lightly browned (Tremayne would say season your chicken while cooking, so sprinkle some salt, pepper, and garlic powder on there if you feel like it.) Add the vegetables to the chicken in the skillet and cook for one or two minutes, or until the veggies are heated through. Stir in the cooking creme, and then spoon this mixture into a greased 9-inch pie plate. Cover this with the crust, then seal and flute the edges. Cut several slits into the crust as steam vents and then place the pie on a baking sheet. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Kitchen Adventures 11.2

Life has been busy this past month! Still, that is no reason for me to have a month-long break in posting. I have no excuses, that's just how it happened. So, here's a posting to start back up again and do some catching up. Thank goodness there's no work Monday; it should give me plenty of time to get all caught up.

At many grocery stores, samples are provided while you are shopping. This especially is true when you are shopping during the lunch hour. It's good advertising, really, because they get you when you're hungry and such you in to try something new. If you like it, you are much more likely to buy that unplanned product than you would be with just seeing the new product. I will admit, every now and then I get sucked in. With this particular instance that led to this recipe, I tried the product one week but did not buy it until several weeks later. I must say, it was well worth the wait.

The PHILADELPHIA cream cheese people have introduced a new cooking creme product. So, instead of mixing in spices and herbs with your cream cheese, it comes mixed in for you. Plus, it is not as thick as a regular block of cheese. I have tried two of the four cooking creme flavors and liked them both. PHILADELPHIA also made the smart move of putting out a recipe book using these products. This is one of those recipes.

I liked this because it was quick and easy to make, yet filling and delicious. It was also pretty light, which was nice with warmer weather approaching. I would definitely recommend checking out these products!

Creamy Italian Chicken & Orzo Skillet

Ingredients:

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
1 small zucchini, chopped (I omitted this as zucchini were just too expensive when I made this)
1 tub PHILADELPHIA Italian Cheese & Herb Cooking Creme
1/2 c. chopped tomatoes ( I also omitted this as I'm not a big tomato fan)
2 c. hot cooked orzo pasta

Directions:

Cook the chicken and zucchini in a large skillet over medium heat for 6 to 7 minutes or until the chicken is done. Add the cooking creme and tomatoes to the skillet and cook and stir for 2 minutes. Serve the chicken mixture over the cooked orzo.
* substitute 2 cups frozen cut green beans for the zucchini (this is what I did).