P is for Packet... Chicken Packets!

Since on maternity leave, I have felt that I need to accomplish one thing each day that is semi-creative in order to maintain my sanity.  Now, I have VERY little time and must be practical in my creative endeavor.  So, creative and practical (we have to eat) has focused on cooking.  I mean really easy cooking.  I have been digging deep in my search for recipes.  What types of things do I want to cook these days?  I want easy recipes that take like 15 minutes to put together that I can make with one hand if I need to! :)    

This recipe for "Chicken Packets" qualified.  I remembered seeing a recipe for Chicken Packets somewhere and googled around settling on this one from the blog Kevin and Amanda.  I know I know I do need to take better photos, but hey I am a busy mom! :)

 Ingredients:
2 cups cooked, chopped chicken (I bought a rotisserie chicken)
1 (3 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp milk
2 pkgs refrigerated crescent rolls
2 tbsp butter, melted (I just used Pam Spray for timesake)
1/3 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs

What to do:

Preheat oven to 350. Spray rectangular baking sheet with Pam. Mix chicken, cream cheese, and milk a large bowl. Unroll crescent rolls. Each tube will contain 4 rectangles of dough with a diagonal perforation. Press along diagonal perforation to seal together. Spoon chicken mixture into the center of 4 rectangles. Place the other 4 rectangles over the filling and pinch the edges together of seal tightly. Brush each packet with melted butter and coat with breadcrumbs. Bake at 350 for 20-25 mins or until golden brown. Makes 4 packets.

I served the "packet" with a salad.  I had planned to make some broccoli too, but ran out of time and energy!   The husband scored this meal "a solid 7".  It was super easy.  It is probably not great for you, but is a great meal in a pinch and I imagine would be a hit with kids.  You can make this your own adding other things to the "packet" if you chose too.  I can envision making it more elegant (feta, sun dried tomatoes, spinach) or adding some veggies to it (maybe broccoli inside).   The options are endless.

As I have said in the past, I am not really one who cooks or who has focused on food on this blog, but  that may change over the next few months.  I have a few other recipes up my sleeve.  Thanks to Kevin and Amanda for this one!  (You can print out a handy recipe card on Kevin and Amanda blog.)  Until next time...xoxo

R is for Recipe!

So, I try not to focus too much on recipes, but every once in a while I find one worth sharing.  Sine I am on maternity I find myself watching a lot of cooking shows on TV.  This often then leads to me perusing the Food Network site.  I came across a recipe that I tried last week.  It was fairly easy to make and the husband enjoyed it!  I then ate the leftovers for lunch several days in a row.  What was it?  Rachel Ray's Mexican Lasagna.  


My favorite thing about finding recipes online is reading the reviews.  When you read the reviews  you can often find improvements for the recipe.  So, based on the reviews I did make some adjustments!  Here is the recipe with my changes!

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 pounds ground hamburg (this was an adjustment from ground chicken)
• 1 packet taco seasoning
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained
• 1 cup medium heat taco sauce 
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• Salt
• 8 (8 inch) tortillas
• 2 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar or shredded pepper jack

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Preheat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil - twice around the pan. Add meat and season with taco seasoing and red onion. Brown the meat, 5 minutes. Add taco sauce. Add black beans and corn. Heat the mixture through, 2 to 3 minutes then season with salt, to your taste.

Coat a shallow baking dish with remaining extra-virgin olive oil, about 1 tablespoon oil. Cut the tortillas in half or quarters to make them easy to layer with. Build lasagna in layers of meat and beans, then tortillas, then cheese. Repeat: meat, tortilla, cheese again. Bake lasagna 12 to 15 minutes until cheese is brown and bubbly.

I served with sour cream... it was yummy!  We usually don't cook mexcian, but this was easy and delicious!  Until next time...xoxo 

C.C.= Cooking for Company...

I am always looking for "make ahead" meals for when we are having company over. If you have read my post before you will know that this often equals something in the crockpot for me. But, this time... I decided to try a baked ziti instead as it is easy to make for a large group! After perusing the Food Network website I decided on "The Neely's Baked Ziti". This dish got great reviews and was a baked ziti with some "extra" stuff in it. It caught my eye as it uses ziti, cheese (lots of it), sausage, spinach, tomatoes and pesto!

The recipe makes a lot!!! I mean a real lot! It will one full 9x12 dish and another smaller one that I popped in the freezer for another date. This meal was a hit. It is surely not "low cal" but it is yummy!

Want to make it for yourself? Go to the Food Network site for all the details.

The recipe is as follows:

Neelys Baked Ziti

Recipe courtesy The Neelys

Prep Time:

20 min

Inactive Prep Time:

--

Cook Time:

50 min

Level:

Easy

Serves:

6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

• Salt
• 1 pound ziti
• 1 pound hot Italian turkey sausage, casing removed
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 6 ounces pesto
• 15 ounces ricotta cheese
• 1 (9-ounce) package washed spinach
• Butter, for baking dish
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella, plus more for topping
• 1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan, plus more for topping

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add ziti and cook until al dente. Drain in a colander.

In a large skillet over medium heat, saute turkey sausage. Add onion and garlic and saute until the sausage is cooked through. Use your spoon to break up the sausage while it cooks. Add the can of diced tomatoes and pesto and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the ricotta cheese, spinach, Parmesan and mozzarella to a large bowl, and stir to combine.

Butter a 4-quart baking dish, add the cooked pasta, then sausage mixture and cheese mixture. Top with a sprinkling of mozzarella and Parmesan.

Bake until completely heated through and golden and crisp on top, about 20 minutes.

Bon Appetite! Until Next Time....xoxo

R is for Risotto!

One of my favorite meals to cook and eat with the husband is risotto! It is labor intensive in that you need to stand over it and constantly stir, but it is so worth it. It is a perfect weekend (or vacation) meal when you can take your time, drink some wine and stir that rice!

My friend "J" is in town from California and after a day of shopping we decided we wanted to stay in rather than go out. It became a perfect risotto night! Typically the husband and I cook sausage and mushroom risotto, but we decided to try something new (and "J" does not eat pork). We gave this Butternut Squash and Chicken Risotto a try! Recipe and photo is courtesy of picky-palate.com. Next time I cook this I would also add pinenuts! Pinenuts add that something special...and crunchy!

It is yuuuuuummmmmy! Give it a try yourself!

Roasted Butternut Squash, Chicken and Parmesan Risotto

• 2 Cups fresh butternut squash, diced into 1/2 inch cubes (I cheat and buy the already cubed squash)
• 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Lawry’s garlic salt with parsley
• 1 Tablespoon butter 12 oz bag Arborio rice
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
• 4 Cups chicken broth
• 1/2 Cup fresh grated Parmesan Cheese
• 2 Cups cooked chicken, cubed
• 1/4 Cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 2 thin slices prosciutto, julienned for garnish
• 2 handfuls of toasted pinenuts (this is my addition from standard recipe). (The salad had pinenuts in it and it made me realize how good they would be in the risotto! Even took some of them out of my salad and added to risotto!)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place squash, olive oil, salt and garlic salt into a large bowl; toss to combine and pour onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

2. In the meantime, melt butter in a large saucepan or skillet over medium heat. Stir in rice and onion; cook and stir for 5 minutes, until onions are softened. Stir in garlic for 1 minute. Stir in ½ Cup of chicken broth, stirring constantly. As the broth gets soaked up, stir in another ½ Cup until broth, continuing this process until broth is used up and rice is cooked. Then stir in Parmesan cheese, chicken and parsley.Stir in butternut squash right before serving.

3. Garnish each bowl with a pinch of prosciutto and a sprig of parsley if desired.

You will "heart" risotto too! Until Next Time.....xoxo

Great Gift Idea! Create your own Tastebook!

Okay, I cannot believe I am just writing about this. Seriously! So, this is one of my absolutely favorite gift ideas! I bought this for my sister last year- it is a create your own cookbook! It is super easy; terrific gift for a mom, sister, bride or what not. You can collect family recipes and important them into the site to create a personalized Tastebook!

In addition, you can import recipes from epicurious.com or copy recipes from other sites. For my sister's .... I did a combination. It included a ton of our typical family recipes that we all know and love and may or may not have recipes for. Additionally, I downloaded a bunch of recipes that I thought they would like ... healthy, easy, party pleasers, etc. You can add comments, stories and photos to each recipe page if you choose to.... which is a great way to share where a recipe came from or why you picked it for them!


In addition to chosing the recipes, you get to design the cover (picking from a variety of great photos). You chose the title, logo/color for spine of cookbook, and so on. You can make it be just what you want it to be! You can always order extra recipe page inserts later too... so you if you want to give them new recipes the next year- you can give them and they can insert into the spiral bound cookbook!

It was a big hit when I gave it to the sister and the brother-in-law. Check out the website at Tastebook.com. It walks you through the whole thing. It is fun to make.... kind of addictive actuallly! You can still create your own tastebook. Deadline is December 18th, so get cracking! I promise ... it will be a hit of your holiday!

Shop, Shop, Shop till you drop! Christmas is almost here! Until Next Time....xoxo