Sloppy Joe and Macaroni Casserole

I saw this recipe on one of Rachel Ray's shows, I think it was two weekends ago.  Perfect timing because this past weekend my niece and nephew were over so I wanted to make something easy that I knew they would like.   What's better than Sloppy Joe and Macaroni together?!! It was pretty good.

My only complaint was that the sauce didn't get as thick as I hoped. BUT, the next day, the sauce was thickened up, so the leftovers were even better.  I could not find ridged macaroni in my local store so I had to use regular. I do feel that the ridged would have worked better with the sauce.

My husband and the kids frowned up at the thought of adding pickles, but I did eat mines with pickles and it was pretty tasty! 

Rating: 4 forks

Source: Sloppy Joe and Macaroni Casserole

Easter Sunday Menu

On Easter Sunday we ate very well… everything was amazing!

Brunch: Baked French Toast Casserole, Turkey Bacon, Fresh Fruit Salad & Mimosas
Afternoon Snack: Deviled Eggs
Dinner: Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast, Garlic Parm Oven Fries
Dessert: Birthday Cake for my nephew

I could eat this French Toast every day! After reading the reviews I changed a few things. I cut up the bread into 1 inch cubes; I used 1 French baguette and ½ a loaf of Challah bread. I also used 6 eggs instead of 8. I also used fat free half and half and skim milk. Lastly, on the topping, I cut the amount of butter down to 1 ½ sticks. Also, this recipe very sweet, so sweet that nobody even used the maple syrup. It would have been too sweet with it.

The Spinach stuffed chicken breast was delish, but very messy to assemble. I also used light sour cream here instead of regular.  I'll have to find a way to make this a little easier to put together.



Sources & Ratings:      Baked French Toast Casserole ~ 5 forks
                                           Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast ~ 5 forks
                                           Garlic Parmesan Oven Fries ~ 5 forks

Slow Cooker Smothered Pork Chops, Rice Cooker Macaroni and Cheese & Sautéed Collard Greens

Sunday – Slow Cooker Smothered Pork Chops, Rice Cooker Macaroni and Cheese & Sautéed Collard Greens

Very yummy meal. This was a true “Sunday dinner”. The pork chops were awesome. When I plated the meat, they didn’t really look like pork chops anymore since the meat fell off the bone! I didn’t have any bay leaves, so I omitted it and it was still very good. This did have a lot of prep work and even additional work prior to serving it, which was a bit more work than I usually like to do for a crockpot meal, but well worth it in this case.

The macaroni and cheese was a perfect match up with the greens and pork. I usually make the macaroni and cheese this was when I want to do a 20 minute version, and trust me, the tastes is identical to the oven baked kind. The only difference is that you won’t have a crispy top.

I love making my greens in this manor because I don’t like greens sopping in juice. So this cooks them, adds nice flavor and it’s the texture I like.

Source w/ Ratings: Slow Cooker Smothered Pork Chops ~ 4 forks

                              Rice Cooker Mac and Cheese ~4 forks
                              Sautéed Collard Greens ~ 5 forks (Me!, original recipe)

Sautéed Collard Greens

Ingredients:
1/2 medium yellow onion, finely diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
8 oz of 99% fat free, low sodium chicken broth
1 tsp red pepper flakes
5 dashes of seasoned rice vinegar
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 pound of collard greens
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
Saute onion in a deep skillet with olive oil.  Once onion becomes translucent, add garlic and saute for a few minutes longer.

Reduce to medium heat.  Add chicken broth, red pepper flakes, salt & pepper.  Add greens and stir.  Add seasoned rice vinegar.  Stir.

Cover and steam for 20 minutes until it reaches the texture you like.  Stir every 5 minutes or so.

Serve warm.

**If you use my recipe in your blog, please cite appropriately.

Spaghetti Pie

Sunday: Spaghetti Pie, Garlic Bread and Salad

Decent. Dear husband requested this meal. I think he was feeling nostalgic and wanted something that his mom used to cook. Personally have never eaten spaghetti pie. I found the recipe and showed him the pictures from others who’d cooked the dish. He saw it in a pie dish and requested that I make it in a 9x13 dish like his mom did. No problem. I pretty much followed the recipe with a few changes. I don’t care for cottage cheese so I used low fat Ricotta instead. I also used Italian seasonings instead of just oregano. I ended up using much more spaghetti than it called for, but I offset it with more butter and parmesan cheese. If I make this again, I’ll use the correct amount of spaghetti. Anyways, it taste pretty good and it was pretty easy to make. So…when the hubby feels like going down memory lane, I don’t have a problem cooking this type of stuff once in a while.

Source: Spaghetti Pie
Rating: 3 forks

White Cheese Chicken Lasagna

Tuesday: White Cheese Chicken Lasagna

Pretty good! I was pleased with how this turned out. I made a few adjustments to attempt to lighten up the dish. Just a little something was missing, but I can't pin point what it is.  The Mister even picked up on it.  To the dish's credit, at least he ate half of it before he brought out the hot sauce.   The next time I make this I'll probably add something more...not sure what yet.  I'll have to think on that some more.  Here’s the recipe with my changes shown below in parenthesis.

Adapted from White Cheese Chicken Lasagna

Ingredients:

9 lasagna noodles (Barilla no boil lasagna noodles)
1/2 cup butter (¼ cup)
1 onion, chopped (med yellow onion)
1 clove garlic, minced (pre-minced)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups chicken broth (16 oz container of low sodium chicken broth)
1 1/2 cups milk (skim milk)
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided (½ c: ¼ c in cheese sauce, ¼ c in ricotta/spinach cheese mixture)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups ricotta cheese (15 oz container of low fat ricotta)
2 cups cubed, cooked chicken meat (rotisserie chicken, 2 breast and 1 thigh, skinned and cubed)
2 (10 ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained (1 pack of spinach)
1 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (I used an extra 1 Tbsp in my ricotta mixture)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese for topping (1 cup of Italian blend shredded cheese, reserved for the top)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, and rinse with cold water.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook the onion and garlic in the butter until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in the flour and salt, and simmer until bubbly. Mix in the broth and milk, and boil, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Stir in 2 cups mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Season with the basil, oregano, and ground black pepper. Remove from heat, and set aside.

**(I mixed the spinach, ricotta, ¼ c Parmesan and 1 Tbsp fresh parsley together to make a cheese mixture before layering.)

Spread 1/3 of the sauce mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer with 1/3 of the noodles, the ricotta, and the chicken. Arrange 1/3 of the noodles over the chicken, and layer with 1/3 of the sauce mixture, spinach, and the remaining 2 cups mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese. Arrange remaining noodles over cheese, and spread remaining sauce evenly over noodles. Sprinkle with parsley and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.

**(I layered in the following way: 1/4 sauce, 3 noodles, 1/2 ricotta/spinach cheese mixture, 1/2 chicken, 1/4 of sauce, 1/3 of remaining mozzarella cheese, 3 noodles, ricotta/spinach cheese mixture, rest of chicken, 1/4 of sauce, 1/3 of remaining mozzarella cheese, 3 noodles, rest of sauce, rest of mozzarella cheese and extra Italian blend shredded cheese, sprinkled with fresh parsley.)

Bake 35 to 40 minutes in the 350 degree preheated oven.

**(I baked covered w/ foil for 50 minutes because of the no boil noodles)

Source: White Cheese Chicken Lasagna
Rating: 3 forks

Cheesy Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

Sunday – Chicken and Cheesy Rice Casserole w/ Salad

We really enjoyed this meal.  Very easy to make and is good when you don’t feel like cooking a complex meal.  The longest part is the prep time spent chopping veggies and chicken.  It took me 45 minutes from prep to serve. 

Ultimately, I ended up making several changes to the recipe.  The changes began because I had a very hard time finding the wild rice without a ton of seasonings in it.  Then as I started making the dish I changed things as I went along.

Next time if I can find the wild rice, I’ll follow the recipe exactly and see how it comes out. 

My changes:

~         I used all brown rice instead.

~         2 cups of breast meat wasn’t enough meat for us so I ended up using all of meat from the rotisserie chicken (except the wing meat, it was too tough). 

~         Used garlic powder instead of garlic salt.

~         I used freshly cracked ground black pepper.

~         I also used shredded Three Cheddar Mix in the cheese sauce.

~         Less butter in cheese sauce. I used 3 Tbsp.

~         I wanted to make a little more cheese sauce so I used ½ cup more chicken broth in the sauce.

~         Topped it with a ½ cup more cheese. We like things cheesy!

Chicken and Cheesy Rice Casserole (Adapted from Picky Palate):

Prep time:  10 mins       Cook Time:  35-40 mins

3 Tablespoons EVOO

1 medium red onion, finely diced

3 stalks celery, finely diced

½ cup of shredded carrots, diced smaller

1 Tablespoons pre-minced garlic

Meat from 1 whole rotisserie chicken (no skin and no wing meat), chopped

4 cups steamed brown rice (made in rice cooker w/ low sodium chicken broth)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Cheese Sauce:

3 Tablespoons butter

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh cracked ground black pepper

2 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth

2 cups shredded Three Cheddar Mix

Top with 2 Cups shredded Medium Cheddar Cheese

1.     Prep all vegetables and put into bowl.  Prep chicken and place into a bowl.

2.     Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Heat oil in a oven proof deep skillet over medium heat.  Sauté onion, celery and carrots until softened, about 10 minutes.  Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute.  Stir in chicken, rice, salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Reduce heat to low.

3.     To prepare cheese sauce melt butter into a medium saucepan over medium high heat.  Whisk in flour, salt and pepper then slowly pour in chicken broth whisking continuously.  Whisk until thick and nearly boiling then stir in cheese until melted.  Pour cheese sauce into rice mixture in the same pot. Top with additional cheddar cheese and bake for 25-30 minutes or until cheese is melted through.  Serve.

6-8 servings

Source: Cheesy Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

Recipe Rating: 5 Forks