Easy Lasagna

This is the easiest recipe for lasagna I've ever seen. Don't worry about pre-cooking the noodles; they soften up in the oven.

Ingredients:

• uncooked lasagna noodles
• 24 oz. cottage cheese
• 1 pound hamburger (or wild game burger ... I just made this with ground venison), cooked and drained
  
• 26 oz. spaghetti sauce
• grated cheese (I prefer mozzarella and a little bit of parmesan)

Directions:
Layer the noodles, cottage cheese, burger, sauce and cheese in a 9x13 pan. Repeat until the pan is full. Cover pan tightly with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 1 hour. Remove foil and continue to bake for 15 minutes. Remove and enjoy!

Recipes to try.....Asparagus Bowtie Pasta with Paprika Chicken

I tried this the other day and loved it.  I added some red pepper with the garlic in the sauce for extra flavor.  You can serve it with paprika chicken listed below

1 pkg. bow tie pasta
1/2 c. (1 cube) butter (the real stuff)
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1-2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 pint heavy cream
salt & pepper to taste
10-15 spears asparagus, blanched
1/2 c. bacon, crumbled
1/2 c. toasted pinenuts (or to taste)
Parsley, to taste
Parmesan cheese, to taste

Boil bow tie pasta in salted water until al dente. In wok or heavy skillet melt butter. Add minced garlic and saute a minute or so. Add Parmesan Cheese and bouillon cube(s). When the bouillon cube is dissolved, slowly stir in heavy cream and salt & pepper. Add cooked pasta to cream sauce and toss until pasta is well covered. Add blanched asparagus. Sprinkle with crumbled bacon, toasted pinenuts, parsley & Parmesan cheese and toss together. Serve immediately.


Paprika Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 c. Italian bread crumbs (you can also use Panko bread crumbs and add Italian seasoning)
1 1/2 cubes (3/4 cup) melted butter
Paprika

Combine Parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs and paprika. Dip chicken breast in melted butter. Roll in crumb mixture until completely coated.  Bake uncovered for 35-40 minutes @ 350

Crockput bbq chicken pull apart sandwiches

Bonesless skinless chicken breast frozen
BBQ Sauce
Onion
Seasonings

Chop an onion in the crock pot and add about 1/2 cup soda (anything cola, diet, sprite, rootbeer, dr pepper whatever you have) and then put in frozen boneless skinless chicken breast (I use about 6-8 for a good sized pot or 12-14 for a full pot) this is a lot of food though! Set on high heat and leave it to cook about 6 hours. If you are going to be gone 8 hours I'd set it on low maybe? When you get home, drain off the juices, mash up the chicken, add seasons as you like and add a large bottle of bbq sause (any flavor you like) if you are doing a huge batch I use 2 bottles of sauce. Cook on low a bit longer continuing to stir and mash into the sauce. Serve on buns with a bit of cheese or however you like! Make sure you don't put in too much sauce or it will get runny and fall off the bun! Even better the next day as a leftover! GREAT for a big bunch of people at a bbq with little to no work!

Oriental Chicken and Rice

This was delicious.  I keep thinking I need to take some pictures so you get the full blown idea of how good things are.  Maybe I will be better about that this week!

Ingredients
-1 6.9 oz package of chicken flavor rice a roni
- 2 Tablespoons margarine or butter
- 1 pound chicken breast, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (we had this the same week we have the Garden Chicken Stir Fry, so used the ginger root)
- 1 16 oz package of frozen oriental style mixed vegetable (we used fresh carrots, water chestnuts, broccoli, and snap peas)


Directions
- In a large skillet saute the rice with the margarine until the rice is brown.
- Stir in 2 cups water, chicken, teriyaki sauce, ginger, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low cover and simmer 10 minutes.
- Stir in vegetables. Cover and simmer 5-10 minutes or until rice is tender and chicken is no longer pink inside.  Let stand 3 minutes. 

You can also substitute 1/4 cup of orange juice for 1/4 cup of water. 

Chicken Alfredo in the Crock Pot

I love Pasta, and this is definitely a must have!

Ingredients
- 5-6 chicken breasts
-1 10 3/4 oz can cream of chicken soup
- 1 10/3/4 oz can cream of celery soup
- 1 8 oz. package of cream cheese, cubed
- 1 envelope of Italian Seasoning
- Noodles cooked


Directions
- Place Chicken, soups, cheese, and seasoning in slow cooker.  (I like to cut my chicken into one inch pieces)
- Cover and cook on low for 4 hours
- Serve over buttered noodles.

Honey Mustard Pork Chops

Okay so what if we do have an obsession with Honey Mustard recently, what can I say, its fabulous!  This is really fast and really good!


Ingredients
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 1 Tablespoon Orange Juice
- 1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon leaves (or 1 teaspoon fresh)
- 1 teaspoon balsamic or cider vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- Dash of onion powder
- 4 boneless loin chops (about one pound)


Directions
- Mix all but the loin chops together.
- Brush the grill rack with vegetable oil, and heat grill. (make sure you watch this one close cause the sweet glaze browns easy)
- Cover and grill pork for 14-16 minutes, brushing occasionally, and turning once, until the centers aren't pink.

Garden Chicken Stir Fry

Looking for something low in fat and super good this is it, 165 calories per serving = delicious!


Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken cut into 1 inch pieces
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons finely chopped ginger root
- 1 medium onion, cut into thin wedges
- 1 cup baby carrots, cut lengthwise in half
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons of soy sauce
- 2 to 3 teaspoons of sugar
- 2 cups broccoli flowerettes
- 1 cup sliced mushrooms
- 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
- 2 teaspoons of cornstarch
- Hot cooked rice (if deseried)


Directions
- In a greased non stick skillet combine chicken, garlic, and ginger root on medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until chicken is brown.
- Add onion, carrots, 3/4 cup broth, soy sauce, and sugar.  Cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add broccoli, mushrooms, and bell pepper, Cover and cook 5 more minutes until chicken is no longer pink in the middle, and vegetables are crisp tender. 
- Mix cornstarch and remaining 1/4 cup broth.  Stir into the chicken mixture.
- Cook until sauce is thickened.
- Serve over warm rice

Stuffed Peppers

These seriously were delicious and only 290 calories. 


Ingredients
- 6 large bell peppers (any color)
- 1 pound ground beef (we substitute ground turkey, cause I am a freak like that, makes it less fatty)
- 2 tablespoon chopped onion
- 1 cup cooked rice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
- 1  15 oz can of tomato sauce (I think next time we will use a little more than this)
- 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (we may have used more than this but if so it wasn't much)


Directions
- Cut the stem out of the peppers and clean membrane and seeds out.  Rinse. 
- Cook peppers in enough boiling water to cover them for 5 minutes and then drain
- Cook the beef and the onion in a skillet over medium heat for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally until beef is brown, drain.
- Stir in the rice, salt, garlic, and 1 cup of the tomato sauce, and cook until it is hot.
- Stuff peppers in the beef mixture, and place in a casserole dish.
-Pour the remaining tomato sauce over the stuffed peppers
- Cover and bake for 45 minutes, and then uncover and bake for 15 more minutes, or until peppers are tender. 
-Sprinkle with cheese.


Seriously these are delicious, and super filling!  If you use extra tomato sauce I would recommend adding it to the beef and rice mixture just to give it more  of a sauce taste, but still good without it too.

Personal Pizza's

We enjoy pizza at our house, but not everyone enjoys the same delicious toppings. We would normally just use a loaf of french bread as our crust, but Ryker can't seem to get his mouth open that wide.

Rhoades Rolls -Texas size ones (the frozen dough balls)

pizza sauce (you can buy some tomato sauce and season it or already seasoned stuff)

mozzarella cheese, shredded

toppings

-sausage - cook it on the stove in a skillet to put on your pizza. We use Sage Jimmy Dean I think.

-pepperoni

-ham - sometimes we use lunch meat cut into pieces

-pineapple

-green peppers

-mushrooms

-anything that tickles your fancy! Be creative!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Thaw the dough balls and work them out into circles for the crust. Place them on a greased cookie sheet. After you have as many as will fit, usually 6, put them in the oven for about 7-10 minutes until the crusts start to get golden spots on them. Pull them out and put on the toppings! Sauce, then meats, then cheese last (sometimes we will put a little bit of cheese on the sauce and melt it in the oven before we put the rest of the toppings on. We like cheese at our house!) After applying the toppings, put the pizza back into the oven for another 7-10 minutes until the cheese is bubbly and getting golden spots on the top.

Super Easy Oriental Salad

You ladies better forgive me. I'm not much of a chef! This is a salad that I make almost every weekend in the summer because it is easy (NO heating up the house!) and very inexpensive and the kids gobble it up.

Use 3-4 packages of ramen noodles or about one package for every 2 people eating the salad. That always seems to make enough.
Use one can of Geisha or LaChoy oriental veggies in a can (the kind that has sprouts, celery, water chestnuts, baby corn, mushrooms and etc.) add your own veggies if you like. . . peas, basically anything goes!
You will need about a cup of Mayo.

FIRST smash the packages of noodles without opening them. This is especially fun if you put them on the counter and start punching them. Vent your frustration! Yeah!
Put all of the noodles into a large salad bowl and make sure they are smashed up into small pieces.
Add enough cold water to cover the noodles, you can add all the water you want, you will drain it later.
Set the bowl aside and let the noodles soak. You don't have to cook them! In a little while, the noodles will be soft. Drain out the water, add the can of veggies. Add all of the flavor packets, the mayo and a splash of soy sauce. Stir it up and you're done. :)

For variations of this salad, you can add pieces of leftover grilled chicken, or make the shrimp flavored noodles and add shrimp. I haven't tried this with the beef noodles yet because that doesn't sound very good. :) 

Creamy Macaroni and Cheese With Chicken

We love macaroni and cheese at our house. We were excited to find another homemade recipe that makes me feel like my family is getting a little more nutrition than Kraft provides. I halfed the recipe and cooked it in an 8"x8" baking pan and it was perfect for the 3 of us.

1 lb cooked and seasoned chicken (how I did mine below)

2 10 3/4 oz cans Cheddar Cheese Soup

1 c. sour cream

16 oz pkg. elbow macaroni (this is about 2 cups of uncooked pasta. I always do overflowing cups)

2 c. shredded Cheddar cheese

12 round buttery crackers, crushed (we used Club crackers. . .worked awesome!)

2 T. butter, melted

Mix soup and sour cream together until well blended. Toss cooked macaroni and chicken in soup mixture then spread in a buttered 13"x9" baking pan. Cover with cheese. Mix crushed crackers with melted butter and sprinkle on top. Bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, until bubbly and golden. Serves 8.

Chicken - cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and cook in a skillet. Season to taste with seasoning salt, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper.

Cake Cookies

I can still remember the first time I ever had these and makes me smile :)


Ingredients
1 box of cake (I use confetti cake, never had it with any other flavor)
1/3 cup of oil
2 eggs
1 container of frosting (your choice, I have confetti to go with my cake mix)


Directions
- Preheat oven to 350
- Combine cake, oil, and eggs
- Spoon onto baking sheet (I am not going to tell you how big you want your cookies, make them as big as you like)
- Bake 6-10 minutes
- Let cool, Frost bottom side and fit together like an oreo

These seriously are delicious and kids will LOVE them!

Japanese Grilled Chicken

This was really good.  I kept forgetting to marinate it the night before though so it took us forever just to get to indulge in the goodness!

Ingredients
1/2 cup Italian Dressing
1/2 cup Teriyaki Sauce
4 to 6 chicken breasts

Directions
- Combine Dressing and Sauce
- Marinate Chicken in mixture over night
- Grill over hot coals for 20 minutes turning chicken 1/2 way through
- Cook until no longer pink and juices run clear

This was super good.  Although make sure that your grill has propane otherwise you may be having to George Foreman it up like we did!  Next time we will definitely grill up apple slices to go with it! 

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

This takes like 5 minutes to prepare and is super tasty!


Ingredients
2 cups cut up chicken
1 - 10 oz frozen mixed vegetables package (thaw)
1 1/4 cup milk
1 envelop of Lipton Golden Onion Soup Mix
1 Pie crust (Since they are in the freezer section sold in packs of two I used two)

Directions
- Preheat oven to 400
- In a 9 inch pie plate combine chicken and veggies and set aside (If you are using 2 pie crusts put the pie crust down in the pie plate and then combine chicken and veggies in crust)
- In Saucepan bring milk and soup mix to boil, cook 1 minute
- Stir into chicken mixture
-Top with the pie crust
- Press Pastry around edges to seal
- With a knife make small slits on top of crust
- Back uncovered 35 minutes or until golden (I put my pie pan on a cookie sheet just in case it spilled over while cooked I wouldn't have a mess in my oven)

Savory Chicken with Biscuits

If you like chicken and biscuits this is the recipe for you!  Heavenly!

Ingredients
2 T. Olive oil
1 lb. Chicken Breast cut into 1 inch pieces
1 medium onion chopped (we used a white onion)
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
1 cup thinly sliced celery
1 envelope Lipton Golden Onion Soup Mix
1 cup of milk
1 pkg. buttermilk biscuits


Directions
- Preheat the oven to 400
- In 12 inch skillet heat the olive oil and cook the chicken
- Stir in onion, carrots, and celery
- Stir in Soup Mix, blended with milk
- Bring to a boil, and cook 1 minute
- Put in 2 qt casserole dish
- Arrange the biscuits on top
- Bake 10 minutes or until the biscuits are golden

This was really good, and I will definitely be making it and freezing it once we get closer to school starting!

Easy Chicken Bake

As you already know I love Easy, so when the title of this was Easy I was all over it!

Ingredients
1 - 6 oz pkg. chicken stuffing mix (we use stove top)
1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast cut into 1 inch pieces
1 - 10 3/4 oz can of cream of chicken soup
1/3 cup Sour Cream
1 - 16 oz pkg. frozen mixed vegetables, thawed and drained (or if they are in season fresh veggies work well)


Directions
-Preheat oven to 400
- Prepare stuffing as directed on the pkg. and set aside
- In 9x13 baking dish mix chicken, soup, sour cream, and vegetables
- Top with stuffing
- Bake 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked

This turned out freaking delicious!  Next time I will add some 1 inch cubes of mozzarella cheese in there as well to give it a little cheese taste. 

Teriyaki Chicken

I know I know, we use our crock pot A LOT!  But hey it's summer time don't wanna heat the house up right!


Ingredients
3 large chicken breasts
1- 16 oz can pineapple chucks, partially drained
4-6 oz. teriyaki sauce (we used 6+ only becuase we love our stuff saucy)
Assorted vegetables (we used fresh broccoli cut up, & carrots, & then canned baby corn & water chestnuts)
Rice

Directions
- Place chicken in slow cooker
- Add Pineapple, Teriyaki, and vegetables
- Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hour (This will be less if the chicken was thaw)
- Serve over cooked rice

BBQ Chicken Wraps

We love simple in this house, and that is exactly what this was!

Ingredients
1 cup of shredded chicken (this will make 4 servings, but extremely simple to double)
1 cup of BBQ sauce
4 slices precooked bacon, cut into pieces (I just cooked my bacon while boiling my chicken)
4 Flour tortillas
1 cup shredded cheese (we used cheddar but mozzarella would probably be delicious as well)
1 cup creamy coleslaw (I forgot to get the coleslaw, but I am sure it's just as tasty with it)

Directions
- In one quart sauce pan cook chicken, BBQ sauce and bacon over low heat, stirring occasionally 5-10 minutes
- Meanwhile heat tortillas as directed on package
- Spoon 1/2 cup chicken in center warm tortilla
- Spoon Coleslaw down sides
- Fold into Burritos

Taco Soup

I know I know you are gonna kill me for saying this but, I can't wait for the cooler weather so we can eat more soups. 

Ingredients
1 lb. of ground beef (I use ground turkey and turns out just as good if not better, cause it's healthier)
1- 15 oz can kidney beans
1 - 15 oz can whole kernel corn (drained)
1- 10 oz can Rotel Tomatoes
1 - Envelope dry Ranch dressing mix
1 - Envelope Taco seasoning
1 - 28 oz. can tomatoes
1 - 4 oz. can chile pepper, chopped (we like our food a little hotter so we added 2 of these)
1 - 15 oz can pinto beans

Directions
- Brown the ground beef and drain well
- Add remaining ingredients and stir
- Place in Slow cooker
- Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours
- Serve with Tortilla chips or cornbread

This recipe smells absolutely delicious after a long day at work.  We made the mistake of eating it right when we got home and didn't let is cool at all.  Once our tongues were sufficiently burned and we were full we realized wow this tastes even better when it's not burning hot!  Words of wisdom let cool before eating. 

Pork Chops in Gravy

I definitely am not a mushroom person (not a fan of that fungus stuff), but this actually was really good!  

Ingredients
2 lbs. boneless pork chops
1 - 10 3/4 oz. can cream of mushroom soup
1 envelope of instant onion soup mix (we use the Lipton ones that come in packs of two)
1 small can mushrooms, drained

Directions
-Combine all ingredients in slow cooker
-Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours.

This is super simple and extremely delicious!  Love it when that happens. 

Honey Mustard Chicken

Ingredients
1 - 3-4lb. chicken
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup sweet and tangy mustard
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. curry powder

Directions
- Rinse and pat dry chicken
- Place in slow cooker
- Mix remaining ingredients & pour over chicken
- Cover and cook on low for 10 hours

Stuffing and Chops Skillet

Ingredients
6 - 1/2 inch boneless pork chops
1 - medium onion sliced (we used a white onion)
1 - T. oil
2 - medium apples thinly sliced (we used Granny Smith)
1 - 1/2 cup water
1 - 6 oz stuffing mix for Pork (we used stove top)


Directions
- In large skillet, cook the chops &  onions in hot oil for 4 minutes on each side or until chops are cooked
- Transfer to plate, cover to keep warm
- Add apples & water to skillet bring to a boil
- Stir in the stuffing mix
- Top with chops and onions
- Cover and remove from heat
- Let stand 5 minutes