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.

03/13/12 - Chicken & Beef Fajitas

I wanted to use up a bunch of produce I've had hanging around in the fridge for a week or two. So we had chicken and beef fajitas.  I just grilled up some chicken breasts and the beef was leftover sirloin steak from our Sunday dinner that I sliced and warmed up with our peppers and onions.

For our extras, we had diced tomatoes, lettuce and slices of avocado and a dollop of sour cream.

Because I am trying to eat a little more healthy these days I had my fajita on a Flatout Multi-Grain Flat Bread that I picked up at Costco a few weeks ago.  They aren't flour tortillas by any means, but they aren't too bad either.

Sausage and Rice Skillet w/a recipe

So a while back I posted about my friend, Jess' Sausage and Rice Skillet, but apparently I never posted the recipe for it.  Thanks for pointing that out Malia.

So here is the recipe straight from Jess - well,  I corrected her spelling... love you girl!

s & r skillet‏

one package sausage
rice to your serving size (now that wyatt [her son]eats more i make two cups of rice)
water to your rice serving
one can cream of chicken (i have started using cream of chicken with herbs much better)
one TBSP butter
one pinch of salt
cheese to your preference

cut up sausage
mix rice, water, butter, salt, cream of chicken in skillet, add in sausage- bring to a boil then simmer for 20 minutes, add cheese on top and simmer for 5 more minutes and then serve.

easiest dinner ever

peace out

Fruit Salad - yummy yummy

Because the weather has been so nice the past couple of days, and with my trip coming up, I was feeling very tropical yesterday.  So I pulled out the remainder of the fruit I had left from my Bountiful Basket and whipped up this light and tasty fruit salad to go with dinner.  It was a HUGE success with the kids!

The best part - all but the mandarin oranges were fresh.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pineapple, diced
• 1 mango, diced
• 2 kiwis, diced
• i can mandarin oranges, drained