Week Three(ish) - Creamy Chicken Casserole, Baked chicken nuggets, Meatballs and Lasagna cups

Too much to even get into. January was a complete bust. We're all just lucky to have survived. Flu, Sinus Infection, Bronchitis, it just didn't stop. My poor parents are still sick from having to come take care of all us invalids and getting infected in the process.

Back to it!

My new favorite addiction is iamafoodblog.com. A week or so ago I started looking around online to find some new sources of dinners and this one is so great. Some recipes are super easy, some are a little harder but everything I've tried so far has been worth the effort, and in less than two weeks I've made three of her recipes. If you like bacon (and who doesn't?) you have to try the jalapeno bacon twists. Even if you're hesitant on the jalapeno part, trust me, after cooking for 30 minutes and baking with cheesy goodness, it's not all that hot.

Granted she's living that kid free life that I both envy and don't envy all at the same time and has time for things like cooking Sunday Brunch (!??!) so you have to cut her some slack for those posts.

This week's dinner is all pretty basic stuff, but tasty and a little fun (mini lasagna from iamafoodblog). I'm on a big salad kick right now so two of the dinners have a super fast salad option included. Super fast = bag of greens, cherry tomatoes, green onion (the only thing requiring slicing) and feta cheese.

Here's to the hope of a healthy rest of the winter!!

Shopping List

Creamy Chicken Casserole

Baked Chicken Nuggets

(with Potato Wedges and Green beans)

Meatballs (with rolls or pasta) and Salad

Mini Lasagna Cups

Now, first off, I know you just clicked the link to the mini lasagna cup recipe and probably saw that it is made using wonton wrappers. DO NOT FEAR THE WONTON! I promise your store has them. And yes, you will have to ask where they are. I know my grocery store pretty well and couldn't for anything figure out where they were hidden. Find the store employee who really knows the store, not the teenager stocking shelves who works there part time after school for a couple hours. My grocery store guru knew right where they were, in the produce section with the fancy mushrooms. Figures, the one refrigerated section I did not check. Never thought that wontons would be in produce.

Here's the dinner breakdown. Mini lasagna's are crazy good and best that night, so plan on those (with super quick salad) for dinner on night one and then the rest either prepped or fully cooked for eating during the week. Another quick note on the mini lasagna's, my version includes beef. My husband does not consider a meal without meat acceptable. Also, apparently it's a Parmesan week. I didn't notice it until I was cooking on Sunday and saw that almost every recipe includes Parmesan. Whoops. Hope you like cheese!

Step by Step
Defrost your spinach.

Cook one cup of rice in your rice cooker (or on the stove) and set aside.

Cook green beans (I dumped two cans worth, with juice, into a Pyrex bowl and microwaved it for 2 1/2 minutes, done).

Cut up one and a half chicken breasts (approx 12 oz) into small chunks, spray with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake at 350 for approx 18 min or until done.

Cut up the rest of the chicken breasts into nugget sized chunks and set aside.


Medium Bowl 1
2 cups sliced mushrooms
3/4 cup chopped red & yellow peppers
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cloves minced garlic

Small Bowl 2
1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp pepper

Medium Bowl 3
1 lb ground beef
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 small onion diced (recipe calls for the full onion, but I ended up with massive amounts of diced onion left in the bowl and didn't have enough beef to work in, so I suggest adjusting to half an onion)
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
3/4 tsp oregano
3/4 tsp crushed red pepper (if you have kids who are picky about spicy foods you may want to cut this back to 1/4 tsp, I used the full 3/4 and it's just a little spicy for my three year old. My husband and I think they're fantastic, but for a family friendly version, you might want to cut back).
1 dash hot sauce (see note above)
1 1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup skim milk
1/4 cup Parmesan
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs

Medium Bowl 4
3 eggs whisked with 2 tbs milk

Gallon Baggie 1
2 cups bread crumbs (I used panko)
1 cup Parmesan
1 tsp each of: Salt, Parsley, Pepper, Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp each of: Onion Powder, Oregano, Basil

Gallon Baggie 2
1/2 cup Parmesan
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp pepper & pepper

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Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet.
Add contents of Medium Bowl 1 (veggies) and sautee until onions and peppers are soft.
Add contents of small bowl 2 (flour), mix and then immediately:
Add 2 cups of milk, defrosted spinach, 1/4 cup of Parmesan, cooked rice and cooked chicken.
Mix.
Spray 9x13 casserole pan and dump contents of skillet into pan.
Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan. Cover with foil.
Either bake now or bake the night you plan on eating it.
350 Covered for 20 min.
Uncover, and bake for 10 more.

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Take Medium Bowl 3 (beef) and mush it all up together.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (or spray with oil) and make meatballs.
Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
Attempt to not eat them all immediately out of the oven (I came pretty close to failing on that one).
Serve later in the week, on rolls with pasta sauce and a super quick salad.

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Now for Gallon Baggie #1 (bread crumbs) and Medium Bowl 4 (eggs/milk)
The recipe on the blog I follow shows using wire cooling racks to cook the chicken. I do have one, and only one, but I'm fairly sure it's my sisters, and I'm not confident in it's ability to be cooked. So, I used baking sheets with aluminum foil and a little cooking spray for good measure. You may also notice that her recipe calls for 6 chicken breasts and at this point in the process you should have about 4.5 breasts to use. I did all 6, and then realized that she cooks for 6 kids plus two adults (ok the baby doesn't eat chicken yet) but proportionally she tends to make more. I currently have enough chicken nuggets to feed an army (of 6 children) instead of me, my husband and our 3 and 1 year old. Here I cut it down for you a bit for a family of 4 or 5.
Take the raw chicken that you previously chopped up and set aside. Using a slotted spoon, spoon about a quarter of the chicken into the eggs, and then using the same spoon, into the baggie.
Shake.
Spoon out and onto prepared baking sheets. Repeat with the remaining chicken.
Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes.
Again, attempt to not eat them all immediately out of the oven.
Store for dinner later in the week and serve with Green Beans and Potatoes (below).

Peel the two potatoes and cut into slices.
Place slices into Gallon Baggie #2 (Parmesan and spices).
Shake.
Place in a single layer on sheets lined with foil and/or sprayed with oil (I forgot to spray and had a terrible time getting them off the pan in one piece).
Bake at 425 for 25 minutes.

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And now, the mini lasagna's. These were so fun and so easy that my three year old put them together. Literally.

Spray muffin tin.
Layer wonton
approx 1 tsp of ricotta
approx 1 tbs beef
spoonful of sauce
sprinkle of mozzarella
basil leaf

And then repeat for a second layer, sprinkle a little more mozzarella on top (because there's always a reason for more cheese) and bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. Watch them if your oven runs hot because the wontons will get over crispy if unattended. Top with another basil leaf and serve with a super quick salad.

   

Enjoy!

Week 1 - Chicken Soup, Pork Chops, Chili Mac n Cheese, Pesto Pasta Salad

Here's the thing about my normal weekly cooking. Friday's is pizza night in my house and I definitely recommend giving yourself one night off if you can. Pizza, Chinese, Sushi take out (we do that a lot!) anything that doesn't involve kitchen time and is a little more fun. So the plan here is four meals, with two nights of leftovers and one night of Pizza or whatever.

It's an allrecipe kind of week so here are the links to the recipes for this post and the shopping list. I have a few things listed at the bottom under 'make sure you have'. These are things like olive oil and some spices that you would probably have on a regular basis, but it's always good to make sure you have it before you head to the store.

Shopping List

Pesto Pasta Caprese Salad

   

Pork chops with black beans and salsa

(over rice with green beans on the side)

Chili Mac N Cheese

Easy Chicken Soup

Step by Step (print version of everything below)

To put this all together quickly in one afternoon here's how I would approach it. The pork chops would be served that evening. The Chili Mac N Cheese, soup and pasta caprese prepped for later.

Slice the raw chicken into strips, add salt & pepper, spray with olive oil (keeps it from drying on top), and bake at 350 for approx 15-20 minutes or until done.

Cook 1 cup of rice in the cooker (or on the stove if that’s your preference).

Put two pots of pasta on to boil; The 8 oz of macaroni and the 1.5 cups of rotini.

While all of that is cooking:

In small bowl #1

Chop ½ cup onion

Chop ½ cup celery

In medium bowl #2

Slice 1 cup carrots

½ tsp dried basil

½ tsp dried oregano

In large bowl #3

½ cup halved grape tomatoes

½ cup (generous ½  cup) mozzarella balls

¼ tsp granulated garlic

1/8 tsp black pepper

2 basil leaves finely sliced.

4-5 Tbsp. pesto (the recipe calls for 3, I didn't think that was enough and added more, it’s up to you)

1 Tbsp olive oil

In large Bowl #4

1 Can Hormel Chili with beans

1.5 cups salsa

1 medium green pepper chopped

1 tbsp chili powder

1.5 cups Marble Jack cheese

Chili mac n cheese

When the macaroni is done, drain and add it to the chili and salsa (bowl #4). Pour mixture into a greased 9x13 casserole dish and top with remaining ½ cup of marble jack cheese. You can either cover and refrigerate it to cook it later, or bake at 350 for 20 minutes. If you refrigerate, it may take a little longer than 20 minutes but you don’t want to overcook (recipe online says 35 minutes, which is too long) or the pasta gets very dry. Serve with sour cream and optional cilantro.

Pasta Caprese

When the Rotini is done, drain and add it to the tomato and mozzarella (bowl #3). To this add approx. ½ lb of chopped cooked chicken.

Chicken Soup

Chop the remainder of the cooked chicken and add to bowl #2.

Here you can either put the soup together and then refrigerate to reheat later as needed, or cover and refrigerate bowls 1 & 2 and put the soup together another night.

In a large pot, melt 1 tbsp butter. Add the onions and celery from bowl #1 and sauté for approx. 5 minutes. Add 4 cans chicken broth and 1 can vegetable broth, bowl #2 (carrots and chicken), 1.5 cups of egg noodles and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until pasta is done. Don't overdo egg noodles, they turn to mush pretty quickly.

Pork with Black beans

Season chops with pepper.

In a large pan, heat 1 tbsp oil over medium high heat.

Cook chops until just brown, 3-4 min per side.

Add can of Black beans with liquid and 1 cup salsa.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 20-35 min until pork is done. (length of time depends on thickness of chops)

Add frozen green beans to pot of water and boil for approx. 10 minutes.

Serve chops & beans over rice with green beans on the side.

All of this done at once will take around an hour and a half.

Enjoy!