Buffalo Chicken

Another yummy chicken crock-pot recipe from my friend Collette.  This one is for Buffalo Chicken.

Buffalo Chicken

Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 bottle Frank's Redhot Buffalo Wing Sauce (*see note below)
1 package dry Ranch Dressing

Directions:
Put chicken in crockpot.  Pour 3/4 to whole bottle of Frank's sauce over chicken.  Pour entire pouch of ranch dressing over chicken.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours.  Shred chicken.

*The wings sauce was a little too spicy for my kids.  We've had better luck with using the Frank's Redhot Thick Sauce. I have been wanting to try a batch using their Kickin' BBQ Sauce, which is really good.

Meal Ideas:
My friend Collette likes to serve this on King's Hawaiian rolls for sandwiches.  We have use the meat in quesadillas, tacos and burritos and on chips for nachos.

Protein Energy Balls

So not a meal, but a good healthy snack alternative.  I got this recipe from my friend Collette, who is one of the healthiest eaters I know.  Plus she really is an awesome cook!

The top recipe is as I received it, the recipe at the bottom is with my notes.

Protein Energy Balls

1 C Oats

2/3 C Peanut Butter

1/3 C Honey

1 Scoop Vanilla Protein Powder

½ C Coconut

½ C Mini Semi Sweet Choc Chips

½ C Flax Seed

½ C Sunflower Seeds

Vanilla

Mix all of the ingredients together with an electric mixer, adding vanilla last.  You want them to be sticky, but not too sticky that you can't roll them into a ball.  If needed, add more vanilla or sprinkle water with your fingers for the desired consistency.

Store in air tight container in the fridge.

Makes about 20 1-inch balls.

Protein Energy Balls

1 C Oats (I've used quick oats and regular.  Not much of a difference.)

2/3 C Peanut Butter (To keep these healthy, make sure to use the healthy natural kind, like Adams)

1/3 C Honey

1 Scoop Vanilla Protein Powder (you could use another flavor, but it will change the over-all flavor)

½ C Coconut

½ C Mini Semi Sweet Choc Chips (they need to be semi-sweet, not milk chocolate to keep them healthy)

½ C Flax Seed (I bought mine at Maceys on the baking good aisle)

½ C Sunflower Seeds (get the unsalted, unroasted kind)

Vanilla

Quick Beef Stroganoff

Last night I made some yummy Beef Stroganoff.  I loosely followed this recipe from Kraft Foods.  Their recipe is for a crockpot meal and uses stew meat.  I wanted it quick and easy and I wanted to use ground beef.  Basically, I used what I had on hand.

Here's what I did -

Quick Beef Stroganoff
Ingredients

• 1.5 lb.  ground beef
• 10 oz.  canned mushrooms
• 1/2  onion, chopped 
• 1 clove  garlic, minced 
• 1 beef bouillon cube
• 2 tsp.  paprika 
• 1 tsp.  salt 
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream (I like things saucy, so the 1 cup they suggested wouldn't cut it!)
• 1 Tbsp. dijon mustard 
• 4 cups egg noodles, uncooked 
• 2 tsp. dried parsley 

Directions:

In large pot, cook pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, lightly oil, large skillet.  Saute onion, garlic and mushrooms, until tender.  Add ground beef and cook until brown.  Drain grease.  Return meat mixture to medium heat and add beef bouillon (and a 1/2 cup water), paprika, and salt.

In a separate bowl, mix sour cream and dijon mustard.

When pasta is al dente, drain and add to skillet with meat mixture.  Mix to combine.  Then add the sour cream mixture and mix more.  Add parsley to top.  Serve in skillet.

Serve with green beans or the vegetable of your choice!  Enjoy!

Potato and Bratwurst Skillet Dinner

A few weeks ago I tried a new recipe, Potato and Bratwurst Skillet Dinner.

Ingredients

• 4 (tablespoon) vegetable oil
• 4 (whole) red potatoes, sliced 1/4-inch thick
• 2 (bratwurst) bratwurst, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 (small) onion, chopped
• 1/2 (cup) chopped green bell pepper
• 4 (tablespoon) soy sauce
• 2 (tablespoon) orange juice
• 1/4 (teaspoon) salt
• (to taste) Pepper

Directions

1. In a heavy skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add the potatoes; cover and cook for 6 minutes or until browned and crisp-tender, stirring occasionally.
2. Add bratwurst, onion and green pepper. Cook and stir for 5 minutes or until meat is heated through and vegetables are crisp-tender.
3. Combine the soy sauce, orange juice, salt and pepper; add to the skillet. Cook and stir 1-2 minutes longer or until meat and vegetables are evenly coated.

My review:

It was good but too salty.  Next time I will not add any additional salt and I will cut back on the soy sauce.  I used Red Wine sausage that I purchased at Costco that I have been loving.  I also used russet potatoes because that is what I had on hand.  The recipe was good, but again way too salty. I will likely make it again and try to cut back on the salt.

Pasta Stuffing Sausage Casserole

This was one of those meals that you just kind of throw a bunch of stuff together and hope for the best.  It was awesome, the kids loved it and I will definitely be making it again!

Ingredients:

• 1 box Chicken flavor Stove Top, prepared according to package directions
• 2 cups penne pasta (cooked al dente) 
• 1 bag frozen mixed vegetables, heated
• 3 sausage links, I used these, yummy!
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup sour cream 
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup Swiss cheese, grated
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Cook Stove Top, pasta an frozen vegetables according to package directions.  Grill sausage and cut into slices.  Lightly spray a casserole dish and preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spread Stove Top on bottom of casserole dish.  Next add pasta to create a layer, then vegetables and finally the sausage.  In a separate bowl, mix soup, sour cream, milk, and salt and pepper.  Pour over the other ingredients.  Top with Swiss cheese.  Put in oven until heated through about 20-30 minutes.

Crock-Pot Chicken Alfredo

My friend, Malia, is an awesome cook.  She recently gave me a couple of quick and easy crock-pot recipes.  One of them was for Crock-Pot Chicken Alfredo.

Here's the recipe:

1 cube (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 packet Italian dressing mix

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Put the chicken in the crock-pot.  In a bowl, soften the cream cheese in the microwave until you can mix it smooth.  Add the cream of chicken soup and the dressing mix.   Pour over the chicken. Cook on low until you can shred the chicken.  Shred chicken and leave in crock-pot for another hour.  Serve over noodles.

OK, so I have made this a couple of times now.  I didn't have any Italian dressing mix, so I just used regular Italian dressing and it was delicious!

I've also used the chicken to make a variety of things, not just Chicken Alfredo.  I've paired it with mashed potatoes, put it in quesadillas, and my husband used it on some bread for a sandwich.  This past Sunday, I made a large batch and split it out into containers so that I could use it for several meals.  So quick, easy and delicious!

Kraft Fresh Take Southwest Three-Cheese Chicken

Nathan made this yummy dinner last night using the new Kraft Fresh Take we purchased last week with an awesome coupon from Kraft First Taste. (I'm telling you, sign up for this)  We used the Kraft Southwest Three-Cheese Chicken variety.  The chicken was delicious and moist.  Love it!

It was super easy.

1. Heat oven to 375ºF. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray. Open FRESH TAKE bag; pull apart center seal. Mix contents together.
2. Moisten chicken with water; place in bag, 1 piece at a time. Lightly press cheese mixture onto both sides of chicken. (Chicken will not be completely coated.) Place on prepared baking sheet; top with remaining cheese mixture.
3. Bake 28 to 30 min. or until chicken is done (165ºF).

You can pick up a $.50 off coupon for a Kraft Fresh Take here.

Easy Chicken Enchiladas - with Philadephia Cooking Creme

Photo stolen from Kraft's website

Made this recipe with the other Kraft Philadelphia Cooking Creme that I purchased last week with a coupon I got from Kraft First Taste (you should definitely sign up on this site if you aren't already a member).  This was super simple and tasted completely awesome!  We definitely will be making it again - so YUMMY!

So here's the recipe - my adjustment are in orange.

Ingredients

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 2 tsp oil
• 3 cups shredded cooked chicken breasts, mine was diced and not pre-cooked
• 1 can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, drained - I used fresh diced tomatoes
• 1 tub Philadelphia Santa Fe Blend Cooking Creme, divided
• 1/2 cup Mexican Style Finely Shredded Four Cheese
• 8 flour tortillas

Directions:

• Heat oven to 350 degrees.
• Cook and stir onions in hot oil in large skillet on medium hat 4 to 5 minutes or until crisp-tender.  Stir in chicken, tomatoes, 3/4 cup cooking creme and shredded cheese. Cover.
• Spoon about 1/3 cup chicken mixture down center of each tortilla; roll up.  Place in 13x9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray; top with remaining cooking creme.  Cover.
• Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until heated through.

So here's my adjustments to this recipe.  We didn't cook the chicken before hand.  We cut the chicken into cubes and cooked it with the onions and I also added a diced red pepper at this stage.  I didn't use canned tomatoes, instead I used fresh diced tomatoes.  I served with sour cream and guacamole.

Fresh Asparagus, Tomato & Chicken Pasta

Because of a great coupon I had, I purchased a container of Philadelphia Cooking Creme - Italian Cheese & Herb.  On the back of the carton was a recipe for Fresh Asparagus, Tomato & Chicken Pasta that sounded pretty good and because I had most of the ingredients already on hand, we gave it a try last night.  It was delicious!

Fresh Asparagus, Tomato & Chicken Pasta

Ingredients:

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1/2 lb thin fresh asparagus spears, trimmed, cut into 1-inch lengths
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 1 tub (10 oz) Philadelphia Reduced Fat Italian Cheese & Herb Cooking Creme
•  2 cups hot cooked whole wheat penne pasta
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2 Tbsp shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions

• Cook and stir chicken, asparagus and onions in large nonstick skillet on medium heat 7 to 8 minutes or until chicken is done and asparagus is crisp-tender.
• Add cooking creme and pasta; cook and stir 3 minutes.
• Stir in tomatoes.  Top with Parmesan.

Super simple recipe.  I did make a couple of alterations because of what I had on hand. I didn't have cherry tomatoes, so I just diced some roma tomatoes.  I also used garden penne instead of whole wheat because that package was already opened.  I didn't have shredded Parmesan cheese, so I just used grated Parmesan cheese from the bottle.  

It was delicious and the kids liked it too.  So creamy and yummy!!

Broccoli Chicken

I previously posted a broccoli beef recipe that I really liked.  I decided to try it with chicken as an alternative.  It turned out super yummy!  Typically you would serve this over rice, but Nathan doesn't care for rice too often so I served over some whole wheat pasta.

Broccoli Chicken

1 lb chicken, cut into thin slices
6 cups cut broccoli

Gravy:
2 ½ c. water
3 TBSP cornstarch
1/3 cup soy sauce


Marinade:
2 TBSP cornstarch
2 TBSP soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp ginger
2 cloves garlic

Mix marinade. Pour into a bowl with chicken and let sit while preparing the other ingredients. Try to let it marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Heat about a TBSP of oil in pan. Stir fry chicken about 6 minutes. Add broccoli and cook 4 minutes. Add gravy mixture and slowly bring to a boil. Mixture will thicken as you cook it for another 4-5 minutes. Serve over hot rice.