Chicken Enchilada Casserole

 

The second day of my chicken challenge made me think about a recipe I found several years ago on Allrecipes.  Of course, as usual, I didn't want to use the oven, I wanted to convert it to a crock pot recipe.  And I didn't want to stand and roll the enchiladas, so I decided to make a layered casserole.  

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 (4 oz) can chopped green chilies

1 (10 oz) can cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cup chopped cooked chicken

1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

4 - 12 inch flour torillas

1/4 cup of milk

1.  Lightly grease your crock with nonstick cooking spray.

2.  In a mixing bowl, mix together the garlic powder, chopped green chilies, cream of chicken soup and sour cream.  Set aside 3/4 of the sauce.  Combine the chicken and 1/2 the cheese with the rest of the sauce.

3.  Place one torilla on the bottom of your crock.  Layer on the chicken/sauce combo.  Continue layering until you use all of your torillas and sauces.  

4.  Mix the milk with the reserved sauce then pour over the layered torillas.  

5.  Cook on high for 2 to 3 hours with the lid of the crock open to allow the steam to escape.

6.  During the last 30 minutes of cooking, use the remaining cheese to cover the casserole.

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Stuffing Casserole

This week, I decide to challenge myself by making at least three meals with one chicken.  It's not that we are low on chickens, in fact, while I was on vacation, darling husband butchered 23 chickens and we put them in the freezer for this winter.  It is just fun to see how many different meals can be made with one chicken.  I have done this in the past, but one of the meals I made from the chicken was soup.  Since it is getting really hot in this part of the country, soup really isn't something we are interested in right now.  However, crock pot meals are something that does sound appealing.  So yesterday morning, I put a whole chicken in my large crock pot to bake for the day.  There are many different recipes online describing how to bake a chicken in the crock pot, so I'm not going to go into details about that.

The meal that I made for today's lunch was a recipe that was passed on to me by my mother-in-law.  Darling husband loves this meal, I think of it as more of a wintertime type meal, but he requested it for lunch, so stuffing casserole was what we had.  It is usually prepared in the oven, but I don't think I could have stood baking with the humidity as high as it was today.  Please forgive the photo, for as good as it tastes, casseroles are hard make look good in a photo.

Stuffing Casserole

2 boxes Stove Top or store brand stuffing mix
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/4 lb Velveeta cheese
2 cups of chicken
1 to 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth

Mix all of the ingredients together until well moistened.  Spray crock with non-stick cooking spray, I would not recommend a crock pot liner for this.  Pour the stuffing mixture into the crock and spread evenly.  Put on medium or high heat.  Prop the lid of the crock pot open to allow steam to escape.  Cook for 4 to 6 hours (depending on your crock pot temperature).

Easy Pizza Bake

We love pizza at our house.  Homemade pizza is the bomb, but there are times when I can seem to find time to make homemade pizza.  Then we order pizza from a local gas station, yeah, from a gas station.  Their pizza is very tasty, but as you know takeout, even from a gas station is expensive.  Several friends on Facebook have started posting links to recipes, and this pizza bake was one of them.  I thought, heck that recipe is a great starting point, but I can take it and make it even better.

This was easy to throw together using jumbo biscuits and sauce from a jar.  I think my husband had two servings, then went back and got a little for a snack.  Using what we had on hand, I made this pizza bake with bulk ground sausage and ground beef, you can chose what topping your family prefers.

Easy Pizza Bake

1 can jumbo biscuits
1 jar (14 oz) pizza sauce
2 cups mozzarella cheese
1/4 to 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 lb ground sausage
1/2 lb ground beef
4 oz can chopped mushrooms and pieces
4 oz can chopped black olives

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2.  Brown ground sausage and ground beef together.
3.  While meat is cooking, cut each biscuit into 8 pieces.
4.  Toss the biscuits, meat, mushrooms, olives, 1 cup of mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese together with the jar of pizza sause.
5.  Spray 9 x 13 inch baking dish with non stick spray and spread the mixture into the pan.
6.  Bake at 375 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.
7.  Remove from oven and top with remaining cheeses and place back in the over for an additional 3 to 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Adapted from Pillsbury

Oven Cooked Bacon

Weekends are a little slower around the farm especially on the Saturdays that I don't have to work and this Saturday was no exception.  Once we got the animals all fed, it was time to feed the family.  This morning we had homemade waffles and bacon.  This time, I prepared the bacon differently, I baked it.  DH looked at me as I was putting it in the oven and I said, "Well it is called "bakin".  It was pretty nice to not be popped while cooking bacon.

Oven Cooked Bacon

1 lb bacon

black pepper optional

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.  Place bacon on cookie sheet.  Sprinkle bacon with pepper.

3.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, turning half way through cooking.

I retained the bacon grease for flavoring beans or cabbage.

Adapted from  Food Network

Cake Mix Banana Bread

Yesterday was a nasty, cold, rainy day, a day made for our ducks and geese, so we spent the day indoors watching our new Netflix.  We finally decided to cut the cable with our satellite provider when they raised their price AGAIN.  But there was a bunch of bananas that were starting to turn brown and a DH saying that he wanted banana bread.  Instead of pulling out the Betty Crocker cookbook and what feels like a 1,000 ingredients, I went online and did a search for cake mix banana bread.  With 4 simple ingredients that most people would have in their kitchen, I made a very yummy banana bread.

Cake Mix Banana Bread

1 yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1/3 cup oil
3 - 5 mashed bananas

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Grease 2 loaf pans or one bundt pan -- I used an angel food cake pan.
3.  Mix all ingredients together until well mixed.
4.  Bake 30 - 35 minutes for loaf pans or 45 minutes bundt pan.
5.  Cool.

There are no pictures today because DH could not wait until it was cooled to have a slice.  It tasted just like I had slaved in the kitchen instead of just tossing a few ingredients in a bowl and mixed.

Recipe adapted from Duncan Hines

Silk Tie Easter Eggs

So what do silk ties and eggs have in common?  Silk Tie Dyed Easter Eggs.  After searching the internet and coming up with several different recipes for these eggs, I settled on a recipe that I found at Taste of Home.  With a few minor alterations, my son and I made Silk Tie Easter Eggs this morning.

What you will need:

Raw Eggs
Silk Ties
Yarn
Scissors
An old pillowcase

Directions:

1.  Cut up the silk ties and remove the labels.  Make sure that you get 100% silk ties to do this.  I found mine at thrift stores.

2.  Cut a piece silk large enough to cover the egg.

3.  Wet the silk and drape over the egg.  Twist tightly to make sure that the silk is touching the entire egg.  Wrap the yarn around the end and tie securely.

4.  Cut up the pillowcase and wrap around the egg.  Tie yarn around the case to make sure it doesn't slip off.  Do this with all the eggs you have. 

5.  Place eggs in pan, cover with water, and bring to a rolling boil.  Boil eggs for 15 minutes.

6.  Cool and carefully unwrap.  Wipe eggs with oil for a shinier surface.

Adapted from Taste of Home

Homemade Bread

Two weeks ago while my brother was visiting, he took my son to the grocery store with him.  When they came back, my brother told me that he had a hard time finding several things in the store, but that my son was able to help him find them, everything but the bread.  My brother said that when he asked where the bread was, my son told him "Mama makes our bread."  Homemade bread is easy, how easy, well as easy as sliced bread!

 

First of all, I don't spend all day in the kitchen making bread.  I use a bread maker to do all  the mixing and kneading.  After adding my ingredients, the bread maker takes about 1 1/2 hours to do its thing.  I don't bake my bread in the maker, I take it out and divide the dough into two loaves then allow it to rise, depending on the heat and humidity in the house anywhere from 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  Then I bake up a couple of golden loaves that my family uses for everything from toast to sandwiches.

 

A bread machine is an easy find at most thrift stores; however many do not come with manuals.  But using the internet a person should be able to find the basic bread recipe for the machine they find.  I use my basic bread recipe and add what I want.  For the bread pictured, I used 3 cups of white flour and 1 cup of whole wheat flour.  Sometimes I add oatmeal, flax or even cornmeal to the mixture to have a whole grain bread that the whole family will love.

 

Don't spend the whole day mixing and kneading to give your family a loaf of homemade bread.