Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli Pot Pie

After a successful shopping trip the other day, I scored some great deals on items that I probably wouldn’t have purchased otherwise. I picked up a few bags of Bird’s Eye Steamfresh Vegetables and some Pillsbury crescent rolls for almost free. I wanted to come up with a recipe that used these items, so I put my brain to work! I thought about doing a Chicken Pot Pie, but I wanted something different. So, I took the base that I use for my Chicken Pot Pie and simply added cheddar cheese to it. Then I decided to add bacon to kick the flavor up a little bit. And of course, the broccoli! I tasted the stuff before I had even baked it and couldn’t stop tasting it! It was SO GOOD! I couldn’t wait to share the recipe with you! By the way, my husband said it was BETTER than the original Chicken Pot Pie! Let me know what you think!!

Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli Pot Pie

3 boneless chicken breasts
6 slices bacon, cut into small pieces
1 (12 ounce) bag Bird’s Eye Steamfresh Broccoli Florets
½ cup butter
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
3 cups chicken broth (or 3 cups water and 3 chicken bouillon cubes)
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
2 teaspoons Creole seasoning
1 package frozen puff pastry sheets (includes 2 sheets), thawed (If you do not do a lattice design, you can use only 1 sheet by just laying it on top) (See below for other options)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In large skillet, cook bacon over medium-high heat until almost done (just before becoming crisp). Remove from skillet and place in small bowl. (It’s up to you whether you discard the bacon grease or not. I saved some of it because it gave the chicken a nice flavor).
3. In same skillet, cook chicken over medium-high heat until almost done (slightly pink in center). Remove from skillet and cut into small pieces.
4. Place chicken back into skillet. Add bacon and Creole seasoning and continue cooking until chicken is completely done. Set aside.
5. Meanwhile, cook broccoli florets according to package directions. Leave in microwave until ready to use.
6. In large saucepan, heat butter over medium heat until melted. Stir in chicken broth and gradually whisk in the flour until thickened. Then add cheddar cheese and mix until cheese is completely melted.
7. Remove from heat. Stir in broccoli florets and chicken/bacon mixture. Pour mixture into a 9X9 casserole dish.
8. Place pastry sheet on top of the mixture. Bake for 30 minutes, or until pastry is done.

*If you don’t have puff pastry sheets on hand, or you are looking for a cheaper option, there are many out there! I recently purchased refrigerated crescent rolls that were on sale very cheap (with coupons) and used those as a topping. Pie crusts, biscuits, and of course homemade crusts can also be used. I can’t say that I have a personal favorite…they are all great! It’s the inside that counts :)

My Favorite Baked Ziti

I’ve decided to start working out at least 5 days a week so I can squeeze into my clothes from last spring. I tried to start a month ago, but I was only managing to work out 2 days a week. I’ve also decided to work myself back up to a 5k and eventually a 10k to give me something to really work toward. So, I’m doing a “Couch-to-5k” program to get me ready! My husband asked me the question, “When are you going to have time for this?” He’s right. I’m already limited on time. But, it doesn’t hurt to set a goal and at least TRY, right. So far, I've already worked out 3 days this week!

Eating healthier has also been something I've been trying to do. It works for a while and then I start craving something like this delicious Baked Ziti. But, it’s ok as long as I don’t eat 3 platefuls, right? I did substitute ground turkey in this recipe last week, which cuts down on some of the fat, and it was still delicious!

This is my absolute favorite Baked Ziti recipe, and I sometimes use various cheeses, depending on what I have on hand! This recipe has been adapted from Allrecipes.com.

My Favorite Baked Ziti

1 pound dry ziti pasta

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, sliced

4 cloves garlic, chopped OR 1 ½ teaspoon garlic powder

2 pounds ground beef or ground turkey

1 (45 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce

2 teaspoons salt

1 (6 ounce) package provolone cheese, sliced

1 cup sour cream

1 cup cottage cheese

1 (6 ounce) package mozzarella cheese, shredded (I usually buy a larger bag and use more than it actually calls for, but if you don’t want any leftover mozzarella cheese, the 6 ounce bag will be fine)

1. Bring large pot of salted water to boil. Cook pasta in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente; drain.

2. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Cook onion until tender. Add garlic or garlic powder. Transfer to a small bowl. (In order to shorten this recipe up a bit, I sometimes skip this step and put garlic powder directly into the meat mixture. It’s great with onions and fresh garlic, but our family really doesn’t miss them).

3. In skillet, cook ground beef (or ground turkey) on medium-high heat until evenly brown. Stir in the onion mixture and spaghetti sauce. Add salt, if desired.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. In prepared dish, layer ½ of the cooked pasta, provolone cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese, and ½ of the meat mixture. Then add the rest of the pasta, mozzarella cheese (reserving ½ cup for top), and remaining meat mixture. Top with remaining mozzarella cheese.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until cheese are melted.

Important: I have tried layering this various ways, and it just wasn’t as good! This way, the cheeses melt onto the bottom layer of pasta nicely, while the meat, mozzarella, and pasta blend on top.

Also, you may not think everything is going to fit into the dish, and it definitely is a tight fit, but it will fit! You may want to put a pan on the bottom oven rack to catch spillovers, just in case!

Barbecue Country Style Pork Ribs and Rice

Is anyone else enjoying warmer weather? I love it! I’m already dreaming of relaxing in the pool or going to the beach and feeling the sand between my toes! Then, when school gets out, I can stay home with the kids every day and feel like I’m a stay-at-home-mom for a little while! I can’t wait!

This recipe is great for a lazy day when you want a good meal, but don’t feel like slaving in the kitchen. It’s a crock pot recipe, but requires some boiling first, so it’s not really something you can prepare on a workday.

Boiling these country style ribs first makes them so tender! Plus, you are left with a wonderfully seasoned broth for rice. Add some veggies, and you’re done!

Barbecue Country Style Ribs

6-8 Country Style Ribs

8 cups water (approximately – I usually just make sure the ribs are covered)

1 bottle of barbecue sauce

½ cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons Creole seasoning

1. In large pot, bring water to boil. Add ribs, reduce heat to medium, and boil for about one hour.

2. Remove ribs from water. Place ribs in crock pot.

3. Add barbecue sauce, brown sugar, and Creole seasoning.

4. Cook for 3 hours on high setting or 6 hours on low setting.

Pork Seasoned Rice

4 cups broth left over from above recipe

2 cups white rice

1 chicken bouillon cube

2 teaspoons Creole seasoning

1. Bring broth to a boil. Add bouillon cube.

2. Once bouillon cube is dissolved, add rice and reduce heat to medium-low.

3. Boil for 20-30 minutes or until rice is done and all juice is absorbed.

Crock Pot Roast

This is my favorite way to cook a roast, and it’s in the crock pot, so that’s even better! You can prepare it in about 5 minutes and then leave it to cook all day. It’s so tender and perfect served over rice or mashed potatoes! Sometimes I throw in some potatoes (chopped) a couple of hours before serving. Good stuff!

I apologize for not getting any plated photos of this dish...everyone was so eager to eat, and we didn't have any leftovers!

Crock Pot Roast

2-3 pound roast (I used round roast this time but my favorite roast to use is chuck)
1 onion
1 package onion mushroom soup mix (I used Lipton brand)
1 (10.5 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
1 ½ cup water

1. Place roast in crock pot.
2. Chop onion and place in crop pot on top of and around roast.
3. In a separate bowl, mix onion mushroom soup mix and water. Then add cream of mushroom soup and mix well. Pour over roast.
4. Cook on low for 8 hours.

Sour Cream Pork Chops

I love sour cream!  I mean I REALLY LOVE sour cream!!  It's what makes some of my cakes moist, my cornbread soft, my tacos tasty, and now my pork chops delicious!  I found this recipe and just had to try it!  Along with some biscuits that I'll post about later (a disappointing experience).  But, anyway, here's the recipe and it was especially great because it involved the crock pot!  There is nothing better than coming home from a tiring day of work to the smell of dinner cooking.  Whoever invented the crock pot was a genius! 

Sour Cream Pork Chops

6-8 boneless pork chops (best if they are at least one inch thick)

2 chicken bouillon cubes

2 cups water

1 tablespoon Creole seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pepper
1/2 cup sour cream
1/8 cup all-purpose flour, sifted

1. Place pork chops in crock pot on lowest setting (mine was set on Low – 10 hours).
2. Bring 2 cups water to boil. Add chicken bouillon cubes and stir until melted. Remove from heat and pour over pork chops.
3. Add Creole seasoning, salt, and pepper and stir until pork chops are mostly covered by liquid.
4. After about 7-8 hours, turn oven on to about 150 degrees. Remove pork chops from crock pot, put in a baking dish, and place in oven. (This is just to keep pork chops warm. They should be pretty tender at this point. Most of mine fell apart when attempting to move them to the baking dish, so be careful).
5. Turn crock pot onto highest setting (I set mine on High – 4 hours). Add sour cream and flour to the liquid remaining in the crock pot. Stir well (I used whisk) and let simmer for about 30 minutes. (This is when I prepared my side dishes – rice and corn).
6. When serving, just spoon sour cream “gravy” onto pork chops. If your pork is falling apart too much, you can just put pork back into the crock pot with the gravy. It’s not as pretty, but it’s perfect over rice or potatoes.

Tips:

1. You may need to add more salt and pepper if you omit the Creole seasoning. You may have noticed that I use this seasoning in a LOT of dishes, and the Creole seasoning I use also contains salt and pepper.  (It also contains red pepper, garlic, and probably a few other spices).
2. After I made the gravy, I was afraid I didn’t have enough, so I added 2 cups of chicken broth, ½ cup sour cream, and ¼ cup flour and mixed well. Perfect!

Quick and Easy Chili

Happy New Year!!!  I hope 2010 is a great fantastic year for everyone!!  It seems like everyone is making their new year's resolutions.  I've never been that crazy about making resolutions. I think it's because I feel guilty when I make a resolution and don't follow through with it!  I've had "work out and get in shape" on my list for years, and it works for a while, but then I gradually quit!  It's not because I don't like to work out, I just get tired of trying to fit one more thing into my already busy schedule!  I'll keep it on my list this year, but I can't make any promises! 

There is one resolution that I'd like to make this year that I really think I can follow through with!  Since I haven't been blogging long and I have tons of recipes that I want to post, my resolution is to post 150 recipes this year.  That's about 3 a week, so I think it's manageable! 

The first recipe I'll post for the new year is one I tried on New Year's Eve.  It's also the first time I've ever made chili!  It was really good.  My husband said he liked more "stuff" in his chili, but he said it was still good.  This chili was quick and easy, so I'll definitely be making it again!

Quick and Easy Chili

2 pounds ground beef

1 onion, chopped

2 teaspoons black pepper

2 teaspoons garlic powder

24 ounces tomato sauce

8 ounces salsa

2 packets of chili seasoning mix (I used original, but will probably use 1 hot and 1 original next time for more heat)

1 (16 ounce) can light red kidney beans

1 (16 ounce) can dark red kidney beans

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes (I used Zesty Chili Style)

1 cup water

1.  In large skillet, combine ground beef, chopped onion, black pepper, and garlic powder.  Cook on medium-high heat until ground beef is brown.

2.  In large pot, combine beef mixture and all other ingredients.  Bring to a boil.

3.  Reduce heat and simmer for about one hour.

Zesty Italian Pork Chops and Beefy Rice

Jason and I actually got to eat out tonight with ADULTS! Every Christmas, a group of our friends gets together to exchange gifts and to eat. This year, everyone seemed to be too busy so we weren’t able to get together before Christmas. We decided to meet at a local Mexican restaurant tonight and it was so nice to get everyone together, even if it was only for an hour! I actually missed cooking tonight, but I didn’t miss cleaning up the mess! It was nice to be able to just come home and relax. I’ve been cleaning the house like crazy this week, so I’m pretty tired of cleaning!

Since I haven’t posted last night’s meal yet, I’ll go ahead and post it now! I am still trying to use what we have in the house, so I took some pork chops out of the freezer. This is what I ended up making and it turned out pretty good. Our son, Chase, wasn’t too crazy about the rice, but everyone else liked it. I used to make it years ago by adding mushrooms and onions, but I didn’t have those two things on hand.  By the way, I know beef and pork normally don't go together too well, but this was very good together in my opinion!

Zesty Italian Pork Chops

6-8 Pork Chops
1 bottle Zesty Italian Salad Dressing
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons Creole seasoning

1. In a large bowl or large Ziploc bag, pour bottle of salad dressing over pork chops. Add Worcestershire sauce and Creole seasoning and mix well. Marinate for at least one hour.

2. Preheat oven and bake at 350 degrees. (I used a convection oven on the broil setting, which I recommend because you can put the pork chops on racks instead of in a pan. I guess you could use a broiler pan if using your regular oven. Actually, they are best on the outdoor grill, but I don’t like grilling when it’s cold outside…I will leave that to my husband when he is home ;)

Tips: About half way through baking, I sprinkled a little more Creole seasoning on them. My husband said they had a little kick to them, so if you don’t like your foods too spicy, I’d leave that out, but if you want a little kick, I say go ahead and sprinkle away!


Beefy Rice

1 can beef broth
1 can beef consommé
1 cup rice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine all ingredients in casserole dish.
3. Bake for about one hour, or until rice is done.

Tips: If adding onion and mushrooms, chop onion and mushrooms first and cook over medium heat before adding to casserole dish with other ingredients. Also, canned mushrooms work just fine!

Meatloaf

My challenge this week is to use only foods that I have in the house without having to go to the grocery store. Today, I took 2 pounds of ground beef out of the freezer and decided to make some meatloaf. I have never been a very big meatloaf eater, because it has always been rather plain to me. So, I decided to sweeten this meatloaf up a bit and it turned out great! Once again, the family was pleased! I’ll definitely be making this recipe again and again!

Meatloaf


2 pounds ground beef or ground turkey
1 cup dry bread crumbs
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 tablespoon Creole seasoning
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons onion powder
½ cup ketchup

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, bread crumbs, salt, black pepper, Creole seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, onion powder and ketchup. Mix together and place into a loaf pan or casserole dish.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes.

Now for the sweet part (the sauce):

½ cup ketchup
½ cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

4. In a small saucepan, combine ketchup, brown sugar, white sugar and vinegar. Cook over medium heat until it begins to boil. Remove from heat.
5. Remove meatloaf from oven after it has cooked for 40 minutes and drain grease. Then pour sauce over meatloaf.
6. Return to oven and bake for 20 more minutes or until completely done.

Don't forget the mashed potatoes and corn!  I think it's a requirement to serve meatloaf with those two sides!  At least I think it is here in North Carolina!!

Hope you Enjoy!!

Make Sausage at Home!

My mother asked me recently if I still had the grinder attachment that she gave me to use with my KitchenAid Mixer. I looked, and found it in the bottom of my pantry - the same place I put it when she gave it to me! So, I decided that I needed to use it, but wasn't sure what for. So, my search began and I finally decided that I wanted to make sausage! I found a recipe online that had rave reviews and decided to try it. I purchased an 8 pound pork shoulder on sale for 78 cents a pound. I had read that they are the best cut to use for sausage because it has a good amount of fat content. You can also use turkey or venison, which I'd like to try next! I had to purchase a couple of the spices as well because I didn't have them.

I woke up Sunday morning in the mood to make the sausage! I hooked the grinder attachment up to the KitchenAid, which was very easy even though there were several different parts. Then I called my dear husband into the kitchen to cut the pork into pieces. We ground the pieces coarsely, and in a matter of minutes, we had about 8 pounds of ground pork. I mixed the spices in a bowl while the sausage was grinding. I then spread all the ground pork out onto a cookie sheet and sprinkled the spice mixture on the pork and mixed very well.


Since we were planning to freeze this sausage, we decided to roll the sausage into "logs" so that we can just easily cut slices when we are ready to cook it. I rolled it in wax paper and then placed it in a freezer bag. Each log was about 1 1/3 pounds. It would take a little more time, but you could go ahead and make patties and freeze those. I cooked some of the sausage yesterday morning, and it was delicious! The kids loved it, too! The flavor is perfect...not too bland, not too spicy. If you like spicier sausage, which I sometimes do, you can add a little more red pepper. So, here's the recipe for this fabulous sausage...

2 lbs ground pork, venison, or turkey
2 tsp dried sage
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp dried marjoram
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 pinch ground cloves