Vegetarian Burrito Casserole

John was not too thrilled when I said dinner was meatless but he ended up eating way too much. Michael on the other hand ate all the beans and left soggy tortillas on his tray.

 I used two 8inch tortillas and one cut in half to cover the bottom of a 13x9inch baking dish. Spread refried beans on top of the tortillas...

 

add shredded cheese and salsa...

 

 add another layer of tortillas, beans, cheese, and salsa. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes...

And you get a gooey plate of deliciousness.

Cheesy Italian Chicken Pasta

Sorry no pictures...this gets eaten too fast.

 If you are rushed for time this is a great, quick and easy recipe. All you need is:


3 or 4 chicken breasts, cut up
 half an onion, diced
 1 can diced tomatoes
 1 jar Ragu Double Cheddar sauce
 spices like salt, pepper, garlic, oregano
1/2 lb rotini noodles

 Season the chicken and saute it with the onions until thoroughly cooked. Add in the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes until some of the liquid cooks off. Stir in the cheddar sauce and the cooked rotini. Throw some garlic bread in the oven and dinner is ready in about 20 minutes.

Slow Cooker Potato Corn Chowder

Dice 1 small onion, 3 medium carrots, 2 stalks of celery, and 6 medium potatoes.

Stir in 2 cups of frozen corn

 and 4 cups of chicken broth. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic.

Cook on low for 6-7 hours.

To thicken it add 1 cup of milk and 3 tablespoons of flour during the last hour of cooking. Put the flour and milk in a container with a tight lid and shake to mix it. This is how I thicken most things, like stew or gravy. Just remember not to use hot liquid because it will make steam which will cause the lid to burst when you shake it.

The finished product. About 130 calories in 1/2 cup.

Chicken Spaghetti Bake

1/2 lb. spaghetti
1 can fat free cream of chicken soup
1/4 cup cheez whiz type cheese
2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
 1/2 onion, diced
 1/2 cup frozen corn
 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

 Cook your spaghetti. Saute the chicken and onions until cooked through. Put the corn into the boiling pasta water for the last 2 or 3 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350.
 Mix the soup and cheez whiz into the chicken. Add your drained spaghetti and corn. Mix thoroughly and put into an 8x8 inch glass baking dish. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese on top. Bake for 20 minutes.

This is one of my favorite go to dishes. We always have pasta and chicken and some kind of cream soup. You can change the type of pasta and use cream of mushroom soup too. Any frozen vegetable that you like works in this dish. It takes about 15 minutes of work.

Not Your Grandma's Tuna Noodle Casserole

My Grandma never actually made tuna noodle casserole but the original recipe calls for canned cream of celery soup, egg noodles, and peas...three things we rarely have in the house. So, I decided to update it a bit.

 First put a pot of water on to boil. You'll be cooking a 1/2 lb of rotini pasta.

 While you are waiting for the water to boil, thaw 1 cup of frozen chopped broccoli, chop up half a medium onion, and drain 2 cans of tuna. Put the tuna and broccoli in a 13 inch glass baking dish. You can put the onions in with the pasta to make them tender. Once the pasta goes into the water, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

 Next make the sauce for the casserole:

1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup skim milk
4oz. cream cheese
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
 1/2 tbsp. fresh garlic
1 tbsp. dill

 Heat the milk and cream cheese in the microwave for about 2 minutes so the cream cheese is melted. Stir in the remaining ingredients.


*The sauce may taste a bit salty but it will be fine once you mix it with everything.




Once the pasta is al dente, drain it and pour it in the baking dish also. Pour the sauce over the top and mix everything thoroughly. Sprinkle on top a mixture of 1/2 cup bread crumbs and 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese. Put a little olive oil or butter on the top to help the bread crumbs brown.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until the bread crumbs are golden brown. Now serve yourself a big bowl and enjoy!

Whole Chicken in the crock pot

Tonight I am making one of my family's favorite meals for dinner. Chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy. I will admit that I am using a box of stuffing mix and gravy mix. I always use instant mashed potatoes because really, who has time for real ones. Once a month we buy food from Angel Food Ministries so this is why I have the packaged stuff. Usually I will make crock pot stuffing. Since this is an easy dinner I just wanted to let you in on one of my favorite meal planning tricks.

A 7-8lb chicken is only around $8 and will feed my family for 4 meals. Tonight we will slice the breast for dinner and then i will shred the rest and put in ziplock bags to freeze. In the next couple weeks I plan to use it for chicken alfredo, chicken noodle soup, chicken pot pie, and chicken salad. This is also great in the summer time so you don't heat up the house with your oven

This is all you need to do:
Thaw the chicken if frozen. Rinse and dry it well.
Season it how you like. I just use salt and pepper.
Put the chicken in the crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours. I usually flip it halfway through but its not necessary.


And Ta-da! You have a fully cooked chicken without a lot of work.

My chicken after 5 hours of cooking.