Poppy Seed Chicken

Another simple, no-brainer recipe for my busy mom friends!!! Thank you to The Girl Who Ate Everything blog for letting me swipe this recipe! Serve over brown rice with a side of roasted broccoli! Enjoy!

5 cups chicken breasts, cooked and cubed (you can cook your own or use the white meat from TWO rotisserie chickens)

1 cup sour cream

2 cans condensed cream of chicken soup

2 cups crushed Ritz crackers (about 1 1/2 rolls of crackers)

1/2 cup melted butter (I only used 1/4 cup of butter)

1 T poppy seeds

1 tsp Worchestershire sauce

1 tsp celery salt

1 tsp minced garlic

1 T lemon juice

1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 350F

 

Place cooked cubed chicken in a 9X13 casserole dish.

Stir together the condensed soup and sour cream. Stir in the Worchestershire sauce, celery salt, garlic, lemon juice, and pepper to the soup and sour cream mixture. Carefully pour over chicken being careful not to upset the chicken at the bottom.

In a separate bowl, stir together the crushed crackers, poppy seeds and melted butter. Evenly sprinkle over the chicken and sauce. 

 

Bake for 30 minutes, until the top of the casserole is browned and the sauce is bubbly. Serve over brown rice with a side of broccoli.

Mummy Pizza

A simple, yummy pizza the kids loved eating! And it's just in time for Halloween! You can use whatever you have on hand for the base of the pizza- English muffins, I used crumpets, or you could even use a pack of Pillsbury biscuits! Just keep it simple and fun!

4 English muffin halves
Pizza sauce
4 pieces of string cheese for the "wrap"
4 black olives, cut into 8 slices for the "eyes"

Preheat oven to 400F

Lay English muffins on a foil lined baking sheet lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Evenly add pizza sauce. Strip the string cheese into lots of "strings" and arrange them any which way on top of the pizza sauce. I like to have the olive "eyes" peeking out under the "wrap"....you really can't go wrong here....just be creative! Cook for 15 minutes or until cheese has melted a bit.

Bacon Wrapped Green Bean Bundles

I don't even find it necessary to write an intro to this insanely yummy way to eat your green beans! I already know you are going to make them...I had you at bacon....I had you at bacon....

1 pound fresh green beans (I really prefer haricot verts- this is the French word for green beans- they are really thin. Use what you can find, though).
Package of bacon
2 Tbl butter
1 Tbl brown sugar
1 - 2 cloves of minced garlic
5 dashes of Worchestershire sauce
Dash of salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 

Fit a foil lined roasting pan with a wire rack.  Spray the rack with cooking spray. This step is really important. Cooking the bundles on a wire rack allows for the bacon grease to drip into the foiled lined pan (easy clean up, crispier bacon and less grease, ie. calories/fat consumption- a three part win).

Wash and thoroughly dry green beans. Season with salt and pepper. Bundle together about 6-8 green beans. Using a slice of bacon, wrap it around the center of the beans to hold it together. Lay the bundle bacon seam side down in the baking dish to hold it together. Repeat with remaining beans.


Heat a small saucepan over low heat. Add butter, brown sugar, garlic and Worchestershire sauce with a whisk until melted and combined. Use a pastry brush to brush mixture over the top of each green bean bundle. Cover the bundles with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 15-20 minutes more,  until the bacon gets crispy.


Try not to burn yourself while sneaking a bundle before it has cooled off! Enjoy!

Lasagna Soup

If I could only use one word to describe this magnificent soup, I would say DELICIOUS. But, then, I kinda cheated because I started off by saying "magnificent." So, I guess I would call it magnificently delicious. But really, that doesn't do it justice - I need more adjectives!!! How 'bout this: this incredible soup is amazingly, magnificently delicious AND what's more, if you do not make this, you will be seriously missing out on some major yummy-ness and some mega praise from any and all who eat it!! I think you get the point....

Recipe from Kowalski's Market website.

Soup:

2 tsp. olive oil
1 1/2 lbs. Italian sausage, removed from casings and crumbled
2 onions, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1 (28 oz.) can fire roasted tomatoes
2 bay leaves
6 cups chicken stock
8 oz. fusilli or baby shell pasta, COOKED
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh basil leaves

Salt & freshly ground black pepper
8 oz. ricotta
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
pinch of freshly ground black pepper
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Heat olive oil in large pot over medium heat. Add sausage and cook, breaking up with the back of a spoon until browned, about 5 min. Add onions and cook until softened, about 6 min. Add garlic, oregano and red pepper flakes and cook 1 min. more. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring another 3–4 min. or until the tomato paste turns a rusty brown color.

Add diced tomatoes, bay leaves and chicken stock and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer about 30 min. Add cooked pasta. Cook for another 15 minutes.  Stir in basil and season to taste with salt and black pepper.

In small bowl, combine ricotta, Parmesan cheese and pepper.

To serve, place a dollop of ricotta cheese mixture in each soup bowl; sprinkle some of the mozzarella on top and ladle the hot soup over the cheese. Serve hot. Don't forget the crusty bread to serve alongside the soup! Enjoy!

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

After I made this cake a few days ago I got SO many requests for the recipe!!! So, here it is, folks! A fabulous fall spice cake! I can see this being a huge hit at Thanksgiving time (no need to tell a soul how very very easy it is to make)! Thank you to The Picky Apple blog for the recipe!

• 1 box spice cake mix (original recipe calls for yellow cake- but trust me, use the spice!)
• 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree
• 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
• 1 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350F

Grease bottom of 9 x 13″ pan.  Mix pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and salt.  Pour mixture into greased pan. EVENLY sprinkle dry cake mix over pumpkin mixture and EVENLY top with pecans.  EVENLY drizzle melted butter over pecans.

Bake 50-55 minutes. Let cool completely. I even recommending putting this in the refrigerator after an hour of cooling on the counter to help the pumpkin on the bottom firm up even more. It will be much easier to get it out of the pan when cutting and serving. Did someone say a la mode?!

Bite Size Apple Pies

Well, it's that time of year again......apple picking time!! Today my family and I picked so many apples it's ridiculous! I'm dehydrating some now, I plan on making applesauce this week and of course, a crumble tomorrow...but, today I really wanted to try these Bite Size Apple Pies. I found the recipe on the Six Sisters' Stuff blog (I have changed the recipe a tad). My, oh my, they were delicious (I say "were" because they are all gone - don't worry, we didn't eat them all......that's what neighbors are for). And the best part is they are beyond simple to make!! You have got to try them!!!

1/3 c. sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 "round" of refrigerated pie crust

2 Tbl melted butter, divided
2 medium tart apples, peeled and each apple cut into 8 wedges

In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Set aside 1 Tbl of the sugar mixture. Unroll the pastry. Brush with 1 Tbl melted butter and sprinkle with sugar mixture.

                               Cut pie crust into 16 strips.
 
 Wrap one strip around each apple wedge, placing sugared side of pastry against apple.

Place on lightly greased or parchment lined baking sheet. Brush tops with 1 Tbl. melted butter and sprinkle with 1 Tbl sugar mixture. Bake at 425 for 14 - 16 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.

Allow apples to cool for 10 minutes before devouring....er, um, I mean eating. Enjoy!

Croissant Pizza Roll-Ups

This is a quick, fun recipe to make for the kids! My children LOVED these! They loved dipping them into the pizza sauce, too! I think these would also be a great appetizer to serve at a football party! Also, if you want to make these low-fat, use reduced fat crescent rolls and reduced fat cheese. Enjoy!

1 can Pillsbury refrigerated crescent rolls
Turkey pepperoni
4 pieces of string cheese, cut in half
1/4 tsp garlic OR onion powder
pizza sauce

Preheat oven to375F

Unroll crescent rolls and separate into 8 triangles. Place 5 slices of turkey pepperoni on each crescent roll. Top pepperoni with string cheese half and roll up. Sprinkle crescent rolls evenly with garlic OR onion powder.

            

Place rolls on baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve with a side of warm pizza sauce.