Ranch Chicken

We eat alot of chicken in our house so it's nice to change it up every once in a while.  This is super easy and tastes great if you like ranch dressing.  (It's a staple in our house).

4-6 chicken breasts

1 Hidden Valley Ranch packet

3-4 tbps olive oil

Mix the ranch packet together with the olive oil in a medium sized bowl.  Dip each chicken breast in the mixture to coat, the place in the oven at 400 for about 20-25 minutes. 

Chicken Salad

6 cups chopped cooked chicken 

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard  

1/2 cup light sour cream  

1/2 cup light mayonnaise 

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice  

2 cups chopped celery  

2 tablespoons poppy seeds  

2 cups red seedless grapes, sliced lengthwise  

Salt and pepper, to taste  

1/2 cup pecans  

Whole-grain crackers, optional  

In a large bowl, combine chicken, Dijon mustard, sour cream, mayonnaise, fresh lemon juice, celery, poppy seeds and grapes. Stir well and season with salt and pepper. Cover and chill until ready to serve. Just before serving, fold in pecans. Enjoy with whole-grain crackers, if desired. 

I didn't add poppy seeds because I have not found them here.  I also left off the pecans. I made this a day ahead for a pot luck so I didn't want to worry about any allergies. I am planning to make this again and will have it with croissants! YUM, I love this type of salad in the summer!

I found this recipe on www.myrecipes.com

Nutella Cookies

These may not be the healthiest thing I could make but they are not completely terrible and soooo easy to make!! I found this recipe on Pinterest.
1 cup Nutella
1 cup All Purpose Flour
1 whole egg
1/2 cup of sugar.

Mix all ingredients together, roll into 1 inch place, flatten with a glass cup, and bake at 350 for 7-8 minutes. Let cool.

The Pinterest post said DON'T add the sugar, they are still great! I followed their advice and it's true, no sugar is needed.  If you really like sweet things they go ahead with the sugar but you really wouldn't need it!

A ghoulash of sorts

Well I was stuck with no ideas for dinner, not much in the house and a sleeping baby.  So I decided to just throw something together quick with what I had available.

1 1/2 cups pasta
1 lb ground beef
1/2 onion, diced
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups of shredded Parmesan
1-2 tbsp milk
salt and pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to directions. Meanwhile, cook ground beef with garlic and onion until fully cooked. Add the tomatoes and Parmesan cheese to the ground beef. If the cheese makes it too thick add a little bit of milk.  Once the pasta is finished cooking, drain and add to your sauce mixture. I added salt and pepper to give it a little more flavor.

Taaadaaaa, dinner is served and I didn't even have to leave the house!!! And I have to say it turned out pretty good!!!  Everyone liked it! :)

Make-shift Enchiladas

Back home if I ever ask Josh what he wants for dinner he always says enchiladas, it sort of even because a not so funny little joke.  Since we have been here we have not made them at all because I don't have the seasoning I normally used but I sort of stumbled across a recipe that reminded me of enchiladas so we molded it into something that we can get us through until we get back home!

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 jars salsa
1 (16 ounce) package Monterey Jack Cheese
 or 1 small block of cheddar and 1/2 cup of jong belegen (shredded)
6-8 tortillas

Preheat oven to 350. Cook chicken in a skillet with a little bit of olive oil.  While chicken is cooking, heat together salsa and cheese in a small saucepan until cheese is melted. 

Fill tortilla with a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of chicken then put a small amount sauce on top.  Roll up tortilla and place in a 9 X 13 pan.  Repeat until all of the mixture is gone. Pour any remaining sauce on top of the tortillas then sprinkle with cheddar cheese. 

Place the pan in oven for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Sorry there is no picture, it's been so long  that I forgot to take one!

Chicken Stroganoff

EASY CHICKEN STROGANOFF
ITALIAN BREAD
TOSSED SALAD
Easy Chicken Stroganoff Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons butter
1 lb. chicken breast, cut in strips
2 cups mushrooms
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream
4 cups egg noodles

Directions:
1. Cook chicken in 1 Tablespoon butter. Remove.
2. Cook mushrooms and onions in remaining butter.
3. Stir in soup and sour cream. Heat until boiling.
4. Return chicken to the pan. Heat thoroughly.
5. Serve over noodles, with a tossed salad and buttered Italian bread.

I used olive oil instead of butter, but otherwise followed the recipe.  I haven't seen cream of chicken soup here so I used cream of mushroom instead!  Very good, very easy and leftovers are for dinner tomorrow!!!! This recipe comes from www.momswhothink.com

Pizza Casserole

This recipe comes from: http://www.momendeavors.com/2012/01/pizza-casserole.html

Ingre­di­ents:
1 — 2 jars red pasta sauce (just depend­ing on how “saucy” you like it)
1 box penne pasta (cooked & drained)
2 — 3 Cups moz­zarella cheese
1/2 C shred­ded Parme­san cheese
Pizza Top­pings of your choice (we used pep­per­o­nis & black olives–about 30 pep­per­o­nis and 1 can of olives)
Direc­tions:
1. Spread a thin layer of sauce along the bot­tom of a pan (might be ben­e­fi­cial to spray with cook­ing spray first)
2. Place 1/2 the pasta noo­dles on top of the sauce.
3. Arrange half of your pizza top­pings on top of the noo­dles (for us, that was olives & pepperonis).
4. Top that layer with moz­zarella. I used a lit­tle less than half so that the top would be a lit­tle more cheesy!
5. Con­tinue lay­er­ing with the other half of the ingre­di­ents. Top the whole thing with the remain­ing moz­zarella & sprin­kle with shred­ded Parme­san cheese.

6. Bake at 350 for 30–45 min­utes (until the cheese is bub­bly & the top layer starts brown­ing just a bit). You can cover with foil for the first part & then uncover. Though the last time I made this, I skipped the foil and it came out just fine.

I used sausage and mushroom as my toppings for this pizza!  It was really good, I decided though next time I will try to use pizza sauce instead of pasta sauce or 1/2 and 1/2 to make it taste a little more pizza like!! Other wise this was super easy and gets a thumbs up from everyone in our house!!