Chicken Cordon Bleu

Chicken Cordon Bleu

4 chicken breast halves, pounded thin

4-8 slices of ham
4-8 slices of swiss cheese

can of your favorite cream-of-something soup
2 T low fat milk
        or
1 T butter
3 T flour
1/2 cup low-fat milk
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 t salt
1/4 t black pepper

Spray crockpot with cooking spray.  Pound chicken breasts flat.  Put a slice of the ham and a slice of the swiss cheese on the chicken breast and roll it up. Put it into the crockpot, seam side down.  Open can of cream-of soup. Pour into crockpot. Put the 2T of low fat milk into your empty can and swirl it around and pour it in.  If you are not using a can of cream-of-soup, make a roux on the stovetop with the butter and flour, and whisk in the broth, milk, and spices. Pour on top of the chicken.  Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or high for 4-5.

I was not a big fan Chicken Cordon Bleu, although I'm not even sure if I ever tried it! I usually don't like cheese with my meat.  (I'm a hamburger kind of gal no cheese.)  My husband Justin loves chicken cordon bleu and his mather used to make every Christmas.  I decided to make it for him especially since I found a recipe for it using a crock pot.  I love using my crock pot and found this recipe from my new favorite source http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/.  It was very easy to make and we loved it!  I was surprised that I liked it so much.  I used only 3 chicken breasts and choose to make my own sauce with the roux.   I don't particularly like those cream of whatever soups.  I also used turkey instead of ham and american insead of swiss cheese.  I only had to cook it for 1 1/2 hour on high and it was perfectly done!  We will definitely be cooking this again!

Peking Pork Chops

Peking Pork Chops

6 pork chops
1/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon 5 Spice Powder

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup ketchup

4 cloves garlic, chopped

Put pork chops in crock pot.  Mix rest of ingredients and pour on top of pork chops.  Cover and cook low for 6-8 hours, or on high for about 4.

Above is original recipe from http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/02/peking-pork-chops.html.  I love this blog because it is all about cooking in a crock pot.  I love to cook in my crock pot because you can get it together in the morning and it will be ready in the evening.  I made some changes to the recipe.  First, I only cooked two pork chops since it's only my husband and I since our son is usually anti-meat.  I also didn't put in any ginger because I don't like it and I didn't put in the 5 Spice powder because I don't know what that is.  Even though, I cooked only two pork chops, I didn't cut the recipe any because my husband likes sauce to go over his rice.  I cooked the pork chops for about 4 hours on low.  They might have been done sooner but I didn't check.  My husband and I liked the pork chops and served them with rice and corn.  There was plenty of flavor and sauce for Justin.  It was very easy to make so I would make it again.  I forgot to take a picture of the finished product.  I remembered when Justin was picking at the bones!

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Banana Cake


½ cup Crisco
1 ½ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas
¼ cup sour cream
2 cups flour
¾ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla

Cream Crisco and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, sour cream and bananas. Mix dry ingredients together, and then add to batter. Bake in greased tube pan at 350° for 35-45 minutes.


Cream Cheese Frosting

¾ cup Confection Sugar sifted
1 block of cream cheese
1 ½  Tbsp milk or cream
1 tsp vanilla

Cream cream cheese and milk. Beat in sugar. Add vanilla.

This recipe is from my grandmother, Granny.  I actually don't like banana cake but Justin and my whole family love it!  I made it yesterday for Justin and Jack.  It is very easy to make and I'm sure tastes great because Justin ate two big pieces after dinner!  I copied the recipe from my mom who got it from Granny but my family thinks it tastes different from when Granny makes it so we think she's holding out on us! :)  I prefer Coffee Cake or Zucchini bread.  I'll post those recipes in the future.

Baked Pasta with Summer Veggies

Baked Pasta with Summer Veggies
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 60 minutes
Serves: 8

Ingredients:
Cooking spray
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 zucchini, sliced 
1 yellow squash, sliced
2 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 lb ziti or penne pasta
1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, plus 1/2 cup
3 tomatoes, chopped
1 Tbsp fresh oregano, chopped
1/2 lb fresh mozzarella, cubed
1/2 cup bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Lightly coat a large, shallow baking dish with cooking spray. Place a large pot of salted water over medium-high heat.

2. Toss onion, garlic, ywllow squash, and zucchini in a large bowl with olive oil; season with salt and pepper to taste. Place vegetables on a baking sheet, and bake for 10 minutes.


3. While vegetables are roasting, add pasta to the water and boil about 2 minutes short of package directions (it should still be slightly firm). Drain.

4. In a large bowl, mix the ricotta and 1/4 cup parmesan.  Season with salt and pepper. Gently toss pasta with the ricotta mixture, vegetables, tomatoes, oregano, and mozzarella. Pour mixture into the baking dish.


5. Sprinkle top with the remaining parmesan and bread crumbs. Bake, uncovered, until lightly browned and bubbling, about 20 minutes. Serve immediately.

This dish was fairly easy to make and was pretty good..  Justin and I both thought that it needed more cheese and we actually added more cheese than it called for but was still unsatisfied with the result. The dish still tasted good but I just like a lot of cheese!  We also would have added chicken if we thought about it befreo.  Justin doesn't think a meal is a meal without meat!  We will probably make this meal again.

Catalina Chicken Stir-Fry

Catalina Chicken Stir-Fry


3/4 cup Catalina dressing (Kraft)

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 clove fresh garlic, minced

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed

1 (16 oz.) pkg. frozen mixed Oriental Vegetables

Cooked rice

In a wok or fry pan, sauté garlic in a little of the dressing. Add rest of dressing, soy sauce, and chicken. Cook 5 minutes. Add vegetables. Cover. Simmer 5-7 minutes until vegetables are crisp tender. Serve hot over cooked rice.

This recipe was very easy to make. The rice took the longest to cook so we started that first while I cubed the chicken. I put in more garlic than the recipe called for because we really like garlic. I also just used a mixed vegetables consisting of peas, corn, carrots and green beans because that was what we had in the freezer. There was a lot of sauce which was a big plus for my husband because he loves to have some sort of sauce over his rice. We enjoyed this meal. I wouldn't call it one of my favorites but since it was easy to make and tasted good, I would make it again.

Hamburgers and Hot Dogs

Tonight for dinner we had hamburgers, hot dogs and grilled zucchini and yellow squash. For the hamburgers, we buy ground beef and make our own patties. It's a lot cheaper and they taste better too! For the zucchini and squash, we just sprinkled them with olive oil, salt and pepper. It was a simple and delicious dinner!

Grilled Vegetable Pasta

Grilled Vegetable Pasta

Ingredients
4 tomatoes, cut into 1-inch slices
1 onion, cut into slices
1 zucchini, cut in half lengthwise
1 yellow squash, cut in half lengthwise
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
8 ounces penne, cooked
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Preparation
Toss together first 8 ingredients in a large bowl.
Grill vegetables, covered with grill lid, over medium-high heat (350° to 400°), turning occasionally, 6 minutes or until they are tender.
Cut zucchini and squash halves into thin slices, and place in a large bowl. Add remaining grilled vegetables, pasta, and basil, tossing gently; sprinkle with cheese.

We really enjoyed this pasta dish. I chose not to grill the tomatoes. I like them better not cooked. We also didn't have basil so we left that out. The zucchini, yellow squash and onions were delicious. We liked all the different flavors of the vegetables with the pasta and will definitely make this again. We served the pasta salad with a grilled steak.

Grilled Steak

Grilled Steak

1 top round london broil

olive oil

adobo

pepper

salt

First, sprinkle olive oil onto steak. Then, sprinkle adobo, salt and pepper to taste. Cook to your liking.

We love a grilled steak! A steak doesn't need more than the above ingredients to have a nice flavor.

Grilled Pork Chops Marinade

Grilled Pork Chops Marinade
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon oregano

1/2 cup olive oil
3/8 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

pepper
3 pork chops

Combine all ingredients and pour over pork chops. Marinate overnight. Grill!

We have been using our grill every night this week for dinner. We decided to grill pork chops and marinate them. My husband really likes a teryaki flavor so he enjoyed this marinade. I thought it was a little too salty (and I really like salt). We're going to experiment with other spices for pork chops. We served the pork chops with rice and corn. (We love rice and could eat it everyday!)

Meatloaf

Meatloaf
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
2 eggs
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion

1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce

Combine beef, bread crumbs, eggs, salt, pepper, and 1/3 cup tomato sauce. In shallow baking pan shape into loaf. Bake at 375* for 1 hr. Pour off excess fat. Pour remaining sauce over loaf. Bake 15 minutes more.

The meatloaf was really tasty. I'm not a big fan of meatloaf but I wanted something different from what we usually make with ground beef. It was really easy to make and only took about 5 minutes prep time. We had the meatloaf with baked potatoes and corn.


I found this recipe on http://www.supercook.com/. It's a really neat website that allows you to put in all the ingredients you have and it finds recipes that incorporate those ingredients.

Crispy Parmesan-Ranch Chicken Breasts

Crispy Parmesan-Ranch Chicken Breasts

1 cup bread crumbs
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 (1 ounce) package hidden valley ranch dry ranch dressing mix
8 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup melted butter

Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Set oven to 350 degrees F. In a shallow dish mix together the bread crumbs with Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, black pepper and dry ranch dressing mix. Place the melted butter in a shallow dish. Coat the chicken breasts in the melted butter, then roll into the bread crumb mixture. Place in prepared baking dish. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Broil for a few minutes to get them a little crispier.

We really enjoyed the Crispy Parmesan-Ranch Chicken Breasts. I did cut the recipe in half since we weren't going to eat 8 chicken breast between two adults and one 20 month old. The only thing I didn't cut in half was the packet of ranch dry dressing mix. The chicken took longer than 30 minutes to cook, although the pieces were kinda thick. We liked the flavor of it better than if you just bread the chicken with the bread crumbs and bake it. We ate the chicken with white rice, peas and the No-Knead Rolls.

I found the recipe on the Babycenter boards, in the group Cooking for Your Family. There are a lot of good recipes floating around that board that I'm going to try!

No-Knead Dinner Rolls

No-Knead Dinner Rolls

9 Cups flour
1 Cup sugar
4 cups milk
1 heaping tsp. baking powder
1 scant tsp. baking soda
1 Cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp. salt
2 pkgs (4 ½ tsp.) Active Dry Yeast

Pour 4 cups of milk into a stock pot or Dutch oven. Add one cup of sugar and 1 cup of vegetable oil. Stir to combine. Now, turn the burner on medium to medium-low and “scald” the mixture. Before the mixture boils, turn off the heat. Allow the mixture to cool to warm/lukewarm (between 90 and 110°).

When the mixture is the right temperature add in 4 cups of flour and 2 packages of active dry yeast. Stir together until incorporated. Add another 4 cups of flour. Stir together and all to sit, covered for an hour. After about an hour is should have almost doubled in size. When is has risen sufficiently add 1 more cup of flour, 1 heaping teaspoon of baking powder, 1 scant teaspoon of baking soda and about 2 tablespoons of salt. Stir until combined.

Butter 1 or 2 muffin pans. Form the rolls by pinching off a walnut sized piece of dough and rolling it into a little ball. Repeat and tuck three balls of dough into each buttered muffin cup. Continue until pan is full. Cover and all to rise for about 1 to 2 hours.

Bake in a 400° oven until golden brown, about 17-20 minutes.

The rolls were yummy although not as good as my mother's recipe that I need to get from her. I cut the recipe in half and it made about 2-3 dozen (I forgot to count). I did have to add more flour because the dough was really sticky and I couldn't roll it into balls. I also didn't have muffin pans so I just used a 9X13 metal pan. They also took about 10 minutes longer to cook. I think they had a little too much salt and they were kinda crumbly. All in all we were happy with the result especially when we put on lots of butter because that's how we like it!

I found the recipe at http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/ She has some great recipes covering appetizers, main dishes to desserts.