Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Broccoli Cheese Stuffed Chicken

So I made this tonight and though it needs a little tweaking it was SUPER good!

Ingredients:
4 - boneless skinless chicken breast pounded to about 1/4in thick
1 can - Campbell's Cheddar Cheese Soup or Broccoli Cheese Soup
1.5-2 cups - frozen broccoli florets
1-1.5 cups - Italian Style Bread Crumbs (enough to dredge the stuffed chicken in)
Salt and Pepper to taste
toothpick to keep chicken together

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 Degrees
Put frozen broccoli in microwaveable bowl with a little water and steam in microwave for 1-1.5 mins. Once broccoli is finished drain and give it a rough chop.
Add cheddar cheese soup to chopped broccoli and salt and pepper to taste.
Take chicken and salt and pepper both sides (completely optional, I do this all the time though)
Put 1-2 spoonfuls, just enough to not make pouch over flow too much, of cheese and broccoli mixture into center of chicken breast and then close and hold chicken with toothpicks.
Dredge each breast through the breadcrumbs and place on baking sheet, I would line it just incase the cheese boils over.
Bake for 20-30 mins, or until chicken is cooked all the way through.

Serve over brown or white rice and enjoy! Please feel free to comment with tweaking suggestions! Picture to come soon I promise!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Zucchini Moussaka

Ingredients:
  • 11/2 pounds zucchini, scrubbed and cut lengthwise in 1/3-inch-thick slices

  • FILLING
  • 1/2 pound ground lean lamb or beef
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 2 teaspoons minced garlic
  • 1/2 teaspoon each ground cinnamon, dried oregano leaves and salt
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 2/3 cup uncooked converted white rice
  • box frozen chopped spinach (cut frozen block in half)
  • 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce

  • TOPPING
  • 2 tablespoons stick butter or margarine
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 11/2 cups milk
  • 2 large eggs, beaten
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • pinch of ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

  • Directions

    Lightly grease a shallow 2-quart baking dish.

    Bring 3 cups water to boil in a large nonstick skillet. Add zucchini, cover, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes or until crisp-tender. Remove to paper towels to drain.

    Filling: Wipe skillet. Add lamb, onion and garlic. Cook, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink. Stir in cinnamon, oregano and salt, then remaining filling ingredients. Cover and simmer 10 minutes, stirring 2 or 3 times as spinach thaws. Stir in tomato sauce. Remove from heat.

    Topping: Melt butter in a 2-quart saucepan. Whisk in flour and cook, stirring 1 to 2 minutes without letting mixture brown. Gradually whisk in milk. Cook, whisking constantly, 4 to 5 minutes until thickened and smooth. Whisk about 1/3 the hot mixture into beaten eggs, then whisk egg mixture into remaining sauce. Remove from heat; stir in nutmeg.

    Heat oven to 350°F.

    To assemble: Cover bottom of prepared baking dish with half the zucchini slices. Spoon on all the Filling, then cover with remaining zucchini. Pour on Topping and sprinkle with cheese.

    Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until hot and bubbly and top is lightly golden.


    Thursday, June 3, 2010

    Honey Wheat Bread

    Ok so this recipe yields a 1-lbs loaf for a bread machine. I'm sure there's a way to do it by hand, but I LOVE my bread machine, it takes 3 hours instead of a whole day ^_^

    When I made this I set my crust on light because my breadmaker tends to burn the crust when it's on medium.

    Ingredients:
    1-1/8 cup luke warm water (between 80 & 90 degrees)
    1/4 cup of honey(I'm not exactly sure how much I squeeze the honey for 5-10sec right into the water)
    1/2 tsp salt
    2 cups whole wheat flour
    1 cup bread flour
    2 tbsp vegetable oil
    1.5 tsp dry active yeast

    Directions:
    Add all ingredients, in order, into bread machine. Select settings and let it bake away!

    Chicken Divan

    Made this last night, it was very tasty and super filling! It makes at least 2 servings.

    Ingredients:
    2- Skinless Chicken Breast, pounded to about an inch thick
    1-can Campbell's Broccoli Cheese Soup
    1/2- can water or fat free milk
    1.5 cups - Broccoli and Cauliflower mix(or just Broccoli)
    1/2 cup - bread crumbs, I did a mixture of plain and Italian
    1 cup - mixed shredded cheese, I used a mexican blend
    salt and pepper to taste

    Directions:
    Preheat oven to 400 degrees
    Salt and peper both sides of chicken breast. Place chicken in a glass baking dish.
    Pour/spread broccoli cheese soup over chicken and then pour the water over.
    Sprinkle half the bread crumbs over chicken.
    Bake chicken for 15 mins. Remove chicken from oven.
    Pour broccoli and cauliflower over top. Sprinkle with rest of bread crumbs and cover with shredded cheese. Return to oven for an additional 10 mins or until chicken is cooke all the way through.
    Served over white rice and enjoy!

    Tuesday, June 1, 2010

    Okra Fries

    This is one of my own little concoctions, I got the idea from Iron Chef, they did wedges and deep fried them. I've been trying to go a little more healthy so here are some healthy fries ^_^

    Ingredients:
    1-bag of frozen/fresh okra or however much you want (I've done with both, fresh is a little more slimy but still very tasty)
    1/2 cup egg whites or 2+ eggs + milk
    1 cup(enough for dredging) whole wheat flour
    salt and pepper to taste
    pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
    Cooking spray


    Directions:
    Preheat oven to 400 degrees
    Cut okra into 4's length wise. Combine flour, salt and pepper, and cayenne in bowl.
    Dredge fries through egg whites and then flour mixture. (You can double dredge them if you like, but they come out good if dredged once)
    Place fries on a foil lined cookie sheet.
    Once all fries are dredged and on cookie sheet spray a lightly with cooking spray.
    Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes or until fries have reached desired crispness

    I baked these once at 350 and once at 400, I liked how crispy they came out at 400. I baked them at the same time I was baking something else. At 350 I used frozen okra (that had been thawed slightly) and they took about 20 - 30 minutes to cook.

    Wednesday, May 12, 2010

    Sopapilla Cheesecake ~ My Version

    So this is my variation on the recipe of the Sopapilla Cheesecake

    Ingredients:

    2 - cans (8 count) reduced fat Crescent Rolls
    2 - (8oz) reduced fat cream cheese
    1-2tbsp honey
    1-2tbsp butter(enough to cover the entire top)
    1-2tbsp cinnamon sugar (enough to cover the entire top of the cake)

    Directions:
    Preheat oven to 350 F
    Spray 9x9in pan with cooking spray. Use one can of Crescent Rolls to cover bottom of pan, make sure to push all the perforations together(so the filling won't seep through). Have the rolls go up the sides of the dish, they'll go up about half way or so.
    In a bowl mix together both packages or cream cheese and honey. Spread mixture over crescent roll bottom.
    Cover with remaining crescent rolls, doing it the same exact way you did the bottom. With a brush or knife spread butter over the entire top of the cake. Then sprinkle top with cinnamon sugar.
    Bake for 30-35 mins, all depending on how well done you like our crescent rolls.
    Drizzle with honey and powdered sugar, serve warm and enjoy!

    **other options, add frozen fruit on top of the cream cheese mixture(strawberries, blueberries, etc) Maybe even use flavored creamcheese**
    Next time I make this I'm going to try it with Strawberries!






    **Made this with strawberries, Walmart didn't have a regular bag of sliced strawberries so I got a container. The juices over flowed a little while baking, which I figured they would, so if you plan on doing it like that make sure not to use all the juice or put the strawberries under the cream cheese mixture! Other than that it looks pretty good and I'm sure it will taste even better!!**

    Saturday, May 8, 2010

    Sopapia Cheesecake

    I'm so going to try these for sure. I have a graduation party to go to soon, might have to try this for that ^_^

    3 cans Crescent rolls
    3 8 oz packages cream cheese
    2 1/2 cups sugar
    1 tsp. vanilla
    1 tbsp. cinnamon
    1 stick butter
    2 packages frozen strawberries or other fruit (optional)

    Mix cream cheese, 1 tsp. vanilla, and 2 cups sugar. Spray 9x13 pan with cooking spray.

    Line bottom of pan with 1-1/2 cans of Crescent rolls. Smooth cream cheese mixture over rolls. Add your choice of fruit (optional). Cover with 1-1/2 cans remaining Crescent rolls.

    Melt 1 stick of butter and pour over last layer of rolls. Mix 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon then sprinkle on top.

    Bake at 350°F for approximately 30-35 minutes.