Biscuits and Vegetarian Sausage Gravy

I just realized I never posted last night's dinner. I'll have to come back and do that later because it was really yummy, and I'd hate for you to miss out on it. But of course I forgot to take a picture of it...this picture thing is harder than I thought. Plus I'm lazy about uploading pictures and it forces me to be on the ball. I guess that's not a bad thing.

Anyway, I've made this before, and I bought more veggie sausage last week at Costco, so I figured we'd have it again. Plus the biscuits were free after a coupon, so this dinner was super cheap...and lately with the insane price of groceries, I'm all about cheap dinners. I'll save my rant about grocery prices for another post.

Biscuits and Vegetarian Sausage Gravy
1 (16.3-ounce) can reduced-fat refrigerated biscuit dough
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 (14-ounce) package meatless fat-free sausage (such as Lightlife Gimme Lean)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups 1% low-fat milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Prepare biscuits according to package directions.
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add sausage; cook 3 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Remove from heat; cool slightly. Crumble sausage into 1/2-inch pieces; return to pan.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and 1% low-fat milk, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Add milk mixture, salt, and freshly ground black pepper to pan; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 3 minutes or until thick. Split the biscuits in half. Top each serving with about 1/3 cup gravy. Serve immediately.

*****

I use Morningstar sausage patties instead of what's called for in the recipe, then I just cut them up. Super easy. This dinner was really tasty. I had meant to buy hashbrowns to have with it and forgot, then I meant to scramble some eggs to go with it but forgot. So this was all we had. I did take a picture though!

Jen B's Top Secret Cheesy Potatoes

I think it's clear by now that we have a love for cheese at our house. It runs pretty deep. One of the first times I cooked for the husband I was making something with cheese in it and asked him if I should add more. He retorted that, "There's no such thing as too much cheese." Obviously our relationship was meant to be. If nothing else, we'll always have cheese.

So, a few months ago Jen B. and I along with our friend Laura went on a crazy road trip to San Diego. Why crazy you ask? Because it was us and our three two-year-old boys and Laura's baby girl who was only two or three months old. All of us in a one bedroom condo. For four days I think it was. We were all pretty ready to come home by the end of the trip. We had a good time, but we were ready for the boys to have some daddy time.

Anyway, we each took a turn making dinner while we were there, and these potatoes were part of Jen's dinner. They were AWESOME. I was so excited when she posted them on her blog. Not that she wouldn't have given me the recipe if I asked (well, I assume she would have but who knows...), but this way I don't have to remember where it is, I can just find it on her blog. God Bless cooking blogs, huh. ;)

Jen's Top Secret Cheesy Potatoes
2 cans of Campbell’s cheddar cheese soup, undiluted
5-7 medium Russet or Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced into thin disks
1 cup Shredded cheese (Colby, Mild Cheddar, or Monterrey jack), divided
1 Tablespoon Paprika
1 Tablespoon Onion Powder
1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder
Salt and Pepper to taste (don’t be shy)
Cooking spray

Preheat over to 400 degrees.

Coat glass 9x13 casserole dish with cooking spray and set aside.

Peel and slice potatoes into thin disks and place in mixing bowl. Season the potato disks with ½ cup of shredded cheese, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper. Mix to combine so each piece of potato is coated with spice/cheese mixture.

Combine seasoned potato mixture with both cans of undiluted Cheddar Cheese soup. Mix until potato mixture is well coated with spices and soup.

Dump cheesy potato mixture into greased casserole dish, spread in an even layer. Sprinkle top with remaining ½ cup of shredded cheese.

Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes has elapsed, remove foil and bake and additional 20-30 minutes uncovered (top should be golden brown in spots, cheese should be melty, and potatoes should be fork tender). Total cook time should be approx. 1 hour, but can be a little longer depending on if the potatoes are done.

Let sit for approx. 5-10 minutes until potatoes are set and they are cool enough to serve.

*****

Mmmmm...don't they sound so good? Are you jealous? Don't you wish you were here with us for dinner tonight? Mmmm...I can't wait. They were ridiculously easy to put together, too, which I love. I of course added more cheese, but only becauase the bag of cheddar I had on hand didn't have quite a full cup, so I put that in with the potatoes and then topped the potatoes with a Colby Jack blend. Mmmmm. Lots of cheese!!

*****

The potatoes were yummy, but they weren't as good as when Jen made them. She and I discussed it today, and I maybe should have put in more seasonings or more cheese. I don't measure out spices, so I just eyeballed what I thought was right for the garlic and onion powder. I also maybe should have left them in a few minutes longer, just so the cheese on top could brown up a bit. The potatoes were cooked enough, the cheese on top could have just been a little more brown. This was a really easy way to do potatoes, so I'll definitely make it again but just add more seasoning and/or more cheese next time.

Jen A/B's Sloppy Joes

Yeah, yeah...I still haven't updated the last few posts with pictures and reviews like I keep saying I'm going to. Cut my some slack...I'm eight months pregnant and needed a nap today. As soon as the husband gets home, I'm hightailing it upstairs to upload pictures and get that done!

So tonight is Jen B Night at our house. She's been copying me so much, I figured I should copy her. I figured I'd try something new in the Sloppy Joe realm and give her "from scratch" recipe a try instead of my usual Sloppy Joe recipe. While I was making a Jen B. main dish (she got the recipe from our friend Jen A., by the way, hence the name of the recipe), I figured I should make a Jen B. side dish as well, so after I post this it's going to be Jen's Cheesy Potatoes. She made them when we went to San Diego together a few months ago, and they were AWESOME.

Jen A/B's Sloppy Joes
1 lb ground beef
1 T onion, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 T vinegar or Worcestershire
2 T prepared mustard
2 T sugar or brown sugar
1 C ketchup
Onion powder to taste
Garlic powder to taste
1 Green peppers, diced (optional)
2 T water (if needed)
1/4 cup Beef or chicken broth (for extra liquid)
1-2 T Heinz 57
1-2 T Dijon Mustard to taste
6-8 hamburger buns

Brown ground beef and onions; drain. Add remaining ingredients and simmer. Serve on buns.

*****

I hope I have beef broth, but if not I'll throw in some chicken broth and hope for the best. I also don't have Heinz 57 sauce, so I'll have to come up with something creative for that substitute. Honestly I have no idea what Heinz 57 tastes like, so not sure what I'll do there.

Now, for cheesy potatoes...

*****

The sloppy joes were really yummy. The husband and I agreed we like these better than the version I usually make. I didn't end up needing to add in any extra liquid, so my lack of beef broth wasn't a big deal. I was down to the end of a bottle of ketchup, so I did add some water into that after I squeezed out all I could to get some of the ketchup off the sides of the bottle, then poured that in, but that was it for extra liquid. I put in some BBQ sauce instead of the Heinz 57, and it was yummy. Thanks Jen A/B for a great recipe!

(Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures...sorry!)

Vegetable Calzones

Have you guys missed me? Wondered what happened to me? Did I drop off the face of the earth? Go into labor early? Nope...just haven't had to cook dinner for the past four nights. I have to say it's been awesome. I don't remember what happened Wednesday night that I didn't cook. The husband brought home some frozen pizzas from Whole Foods that were quite tasty. Thursday he had a big celebration at work and ate a bunch of food around 2:00 and wasn't hungry, so the boy and I had mac and cheese and hot dogs. Friday night we went to an Oktoberfest. One of our friends' companies was the main sponsor, so he hooked us up with wristbands for free food and drinks, so the boy and I took the husband and stayed to have free dinner, then we came home while the husband imbibed on free beer. Last night we went to my aunt and uncles, and my uncle grilled up some amazing steaks. Oh man, were they good.

So, now that you're all caught up on our goings-on for the past few nights, on to tonight's dinner. This was originally slated for Friday night. Since I had all the veggies for it, I figured I should make it tonight while they were still in good condition. This was from one of my many Weight Watchers cookbooks. Not that I'm doing WW right now, but it has good recipes in it, and I hadn't used it in awhile. There's no notes on it, so I don't think this is something I've ever made before.

Vegetable Calzones
3/4 cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 packet active dry yeast
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 cup shredded mozzarella
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
2 plum tomatoes, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
3 scallions, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
1/4 tsp black pepper

Combine the water and sugar in a small bowl. Sprinkle in the yeast and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.

Combine the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, and salt in a food processor. With the machine running, scrape the yeast mixture and the egg through the feed tube; pulse until the dough forms a smooth ball, about 1 minute.

Spray a large bowl with nonstick spray; put the dough in the bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free place until it doubles in size, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, combine the mozzarella, ricotta, tomatoes, bell pepper, scallions, basil, and pepper in a medium bowl.

Preheat the oven to 400. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray; set aside.

Punch down the dough. Sprinkle a work surface lightly with flour. Turn the dough onto the surface and cut into 6 pieces. Knead each piece lightly, then with a lightly floured rolling pin, roll each into a 6-inch circle. Mound one-sixth of the cheese mixture on half of each circle, then brush the edges lightly with water. Fold the dough over the filling; crimp the edges to seal. Transfer the calzones to the baking sheet; make three 1-inch slashes on top of each with a sharp knife. Bake until golden 20-23 minutes.

*****

They're in the oven now and almost done. I'm excited to try them. I'll tell you everything I did when I write the review (I know, I know...I still haven't done those for the last two dinenrs I made).

*****

The calzones were good, but they could have used some more fillings. Maybe less ricotta and more mozzarella? I think next time I'd add more veggies, too. Mushrooms, black olives. Also the dough needed a little something, but I don't know what. I'm not much of a yeast user, so I really don't know how much tampering you can do with a yeast dough. I think maybe a little more salt or some Italian seasoning would have helped. Also, I only had enough filling for five calzones, not the six called for in the recipe. I don't know if I overstuffed or what, but it worked out. I had some of the leftovers for lunch today, and it reheated decently. Definitely better the first time, but not bad. I'd make these again, just tweak them a little so there was more flavor.

Stuffed Shells

I need to go back and edit last night's post about the Shepherd's Pie so you can all stop waiting in suspense as to how it worked out and all that. I even took pictures!! I'm going to start being like Jen B. and combining the review post with the recipe post so it's all in one place. Then you don't have to scour everywhere to find out whether or not something was good. And when I remember (or more likely, when my camera is downstairs) I'll take a pic of the finished product. Don't worry, I already cleared it with her that I can copy her new format.

So tonight we're having Stuffed Shells. I heart them. Who doesn't heart a cheesy, saucy, pasta dish? According to the ol' blog here, the last time I made this was last October. Yikes. We used to have this pretty often, I'm surprised it had been that long. I got a hankering for it a few days ago and threw it on the menu plan for the week because when a pregnant lady gets a hankering, she goes with it. I was too lazy to find the actual recipe, so I looked it up on here and remembered I did some serious tweaking with it last time due to lack of an ingredient. My review said that I liked it better, so as to not be made a liar on my own blog, I went with the changes I made last time. If you want to see the original recipe, follow this link to see what it was.

Stuffed Shells
20 jumbo pasta shells, cooked and cooled
1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
2/3 cup reduced fat sour cream
4-5 ounces reduced fat cream cheese
1 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 375. Mix together ricotta, sour cream, cream cheese, salt, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. Spread a few spoonfuls of tomato sauce on bottom of a 8x8 pan. Fill each shell with cheese mixture and place in baking dish. When all shells are in dish, pour remaining tomato sauce over shells. Top with mozzarella. Bake for approximately 20 minutes.

*****

Now, on both the original recipe and my last post about it, I noted that the cooking time wasn't long enough. It calls for the pan to be covered, but I left it uncovered this time to see if that helped. It's coming up on 20 minutes, so we'll see how it's doing. Oh, and the original recipe didn't call for mozzarella, but I just think a pasta dish like this NEEDS cheese on top!!

Oh, and stuffing shells is a messy business (or at least it is for me), so I keep a paper towel nearby to wipe off my hands as I'm going. Otherwise cheese mixture gets everywhere.

*****

Mmmm...stuffed shells. I honestly have no idea why we haven't had this in so long because we all love it. I think there were only three or four shells left when all was said and done. This is definitely something I'm going to bring back into rotation more often. It's fairly easy (although a bit messy) to put together, but it's so easy. Leaving the pan uncovered totally worked. I don't think I had to add on any extra time.

I forgot to take a picture before we dished up, but this just goes to show how much we liked it.

Shepherd's Pie

Finally...we have food in our house again!! I was waiting for the husband's pay day to get here to go grocery shopping (I'm sure you other SAHMs know how that goes...), so finally we can eat decently again. Last night the husband ended up bringing home two frozen pizzas because I'd had a horrible, horrible day dealing with an unruly toddler and didn't dare take him out in public to go buy cheddar cheese to make Shepherd's Pie last night. Did that sentence make any sense? I'm not sure. He said I could run out and get some once he got home, but I thought I might not ever return if I did that. Seriously...that was the day I'd had.

On a somewhat random side note, I was pretty pleased with my grocery shopping today. I spent $65 and saved $63--and that included buying two whole chickens and two packages of chicken drumsticks. My friend Jen A. has a great blog on saving money at the grocery store with coupons, niftythriftythriving.blogspot.com. She gets amazing savings grocery shopping and doing the whole CVS Extra Care Bucks deal. I'm in awe of how much she saves.

Back to my dinner...kind of. I'll be posting the recipe later because I'm kind of making it up as I go. I'm loosely basing this on a Paula Deen recipe for Shepherd's Pie I saw on her show one time. Loosely in the sense that I'm using leftover pot roast for the meat, and I think the similarities end there. Other than that I'm doing it pretty much how I normally do my Shepherd's Pie...meat, gravy, and vegetables mixed together, topped with mashed potatoes and then some cheese on top. Normally I do everything on the stove top and then put it together in some kind of casserole and stick that under the broiler to melt the cheese. There's still some gravy/sauce left from the pot roast, so I'll see how much of that there is and if necessary make some brown gravy to supplement if I need to.

*****

Okay, at long last, here's the recipe I ended up using for Shepherd's Pie.

Shepherd's Pie v2.0
1 to 1.5 lbs leftover cooked pot roast
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
1 package brown gravy, prepared
Mashed potatoes (probably 3-4 russet potatoes, cooked and mashed)
1 cup cheddar cheese

Cut leftover pot roast into chunks. Place in skillet to heat up. Once meat is heated, add bag of vegetables to pan. Once vegetables are cooked, stir in prepared gravy mix. When this is all heated through, transfer to an 8x8 baking dish. Spread mashed potatoes on top of meat/veggie/gravy mixture. Top with cheddar cheese. Place under broiler until cheese is melted.

*****

Totally easy, huh. I made the equivalent of two packages of gravy when I made this, but one would have been plenty. I have to say, I like this version a lot better than when I make it with hamburger. They're both good, but this will definitely become my leftover pot roast go-to meal. I used instant potatoes (because I got them on sale for ridiculously cheap and needed to save the real potatoes I had for something else later in the week), and I remembered why I don't like instant potatoes. They just taste funny to me, and they're way too salty. Real mashed potatoes are so easy to make, I don't know why they even sell instant potatoes. This is definitely something I will make again!!

Wanna see what it looked like? I really need better lighting in my kitchen.

Dinner Struggles

I have no idea what to make for dinner tonight or over the course of the coming week for that matter. I was going to make shepherd's pie tonight with my leftover pot roast, but I don't have any cheese, and I'm the kind of girl that likes cheese on her shepherd's pie. I had sloppy joe's on my menu for one night or figured I could just make burgers, but both of those require hamburger buns, and I have none. Darn. I'm ridiculously low on groceries, but I'm trying to hold off going to the store until Tuesday (i.e. pay day).

So, if you have any ideas or something you'd like to see me make over the coming week, leave me a comment. I'm open to suggestions. If it sounds good and isn't ridiculously expensive to make, I just might give it a shot. I'm still a bit under the weather, too, which makes it difficult to come up with dinner ideas since few things sound all that good to me.

It's almost 4:00 so I'd better come up with something for tonight soon.

Three Cheese Pasta Skillet

My goal this week had been to use up stuff we had on hand. I found a container of french fried onions in my pantry and remembered this recipe. I used to make it all the time, but I think it's been years since we've had it. I used to get recipes emailed to me from the Campbell's Soup website, and this was one of them. It sounds really yummy to me which is good since not much does. And it's easy to throw together.

Three-Cheese Pasta Skillet
3 cups uncooked corkscrew pasta
1 can Campbell's® Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 cup water
1/8 tsp. black pepper
1 cup shredded two-cheese blend
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 can (2.8 oz.) French's® French Fried Onions

Directions:
COOK pasta according to pkg. directions. Drain.
MIX soup, water, pepper, cheeses and 2/3 cup onions in skillet. Heat to a boil.
ADD pasta and top with remaining onions. Cover and cook over low heat 2 min. or until hot.

*****

I like to add some cooked, diced chicken to it as well. I usually cook the chicken first, then do the sauce once the chicken is done. I don't think I have quite enough corkscrew pasta, but I have some partial bags of other pastas I'm going to use. Mix things up a bit and all.

Pot Roast

I've been MIA for a few days but with good reason--I've been laid up in bed with a nasty cold. I don't know if it's the same one the husband had last week, but it's no fun. I started feeling sick on Wednesday afternoon, yesterday my saint of a mom came and took the boy for the day and kept him overnight. It was so nice to spend the whole day and most of today just laying in bed. I heart my bed so much.

Anyway, before I started feeling under the weather I had put a pot roast in the crockpot on Wednesday morning, which worked out great since the cold had totally hit me by dinner time. I found a roast in the freezer that needed to be used, and I love a good pot roast.

Claire's Crockpot Pot Roast
2-3 lb. chuck roast (I think that's the cut I was using)
3-4 potatoes, peeled and in chunks
4-5 carrots, peeled and in chunks
1 envelope onion soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup

Place peeled and chunked potatoes and carrots in the bottom of crockpot. Place roast on top. Sprinkle onion soup over roast and vegetables. Pour can of soup over roast and vegetables. Cook on low 7-8 hours.

*****

My roast was still a little frozen when I put it in the crockpot, and I think I had it in there for 8-9 hours. I have to say I think it was one of the best pot roasts I've made. Not sure if it's because the meat was still a little frozen or what, but it was really tasty. To check doneness, I usually stick a meat thermometer in the roast to make sure it's done and check to make sure the potatoes are cooked all the way too. There are few things grosser than half-cooked potatoes. Okay, there are probably a lot of things grosser, but they're definitely not good.

Pork Chops with Country Gravy and Mashed Potatoes

Don't you love when you come across or remember a cookbook or cooking magazine that you used to turn to all the time but it got lost in the shuffle of all your cookbooks and you haven't seen it in months, if not years? Holy run on sentence there Claire! Anyway, I have this Cooking Light "Simple Suppers" magazine that I used to use all the time and had kind of forgotten about it. It was my first foray (sp?) into Cooking Light. The date on it says "Display until December 31, 2003." Yup, 2003. I think I probably got it in October or November of that year. I flipped through it looking for a pork recipe to make tonight. I forgot how many awesome sounding recipes were in it--some of which I've made and totally forgotten about. I'm so excited to have come across this again!!

But, the dinner I'm making tonight isn't from said magazine. Sorry. It's my blog, I can tangent when I want. I don't know how it popped in my head this afternoon, but I wasn't overly excited about what I had planned for dinner and thought I'd look through that to find something. I didn't find anything that I already had everything for, so I'm sticking with my plan. But, I think next week there will be a few dinners from this magazine gracing our table!!

I went back through my blog entries to find the below recipe, and I haven't made it since January. JANUARY!!! I was shocked it had been that long. It's possible I've made it since then but not likely since I'm usually good about updating my blog, even when I miss a day or two or five. It's a super yummy and easy way to make pork chops. And I heart gravy so anything with some kind of "country gravy" is okay in my book. I accidentally typed grave instead of gravy...I hope that doesn't mean anything.

Man, I'm rambling a lot today. I even had a lot of adult interaction this morning! You'd think I'd be this verbose (Ha! Take that pregnancy brain...a big word!) on a day I'd been cooped up alone with my two year old son, even though he is an excellent conversationalist. Okay, on to the recipe. I'm feeling loopy.

Pork Chops with Country Gravy and Mashed Potatoes
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
4 (4-ounce) boneless center-cut loin pork chops (about 1 inch thick)
1 teaspoon butter
1 1/3 cups 1% low-fat milk
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 (20-ounce) package refrigerated mashed potatoes (such as Simply Potatoes)

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon salt evenly over both sides of pork. Add 1 teaspoon butter to pan, stirring until butter is melted. Add the pork to pan, and cook pork for 3 minutes on each side. Remove pork from pan, and keep warm.

Combine low-fat milk and flour, stirring with a whisk. Add the milk mixture to pan, stirring with a whisk. Stir in remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, poultry seasoning, and black pepper. Return pork to pan. Cover; reduce heat, and simmer for 7 minutes or until gravy is thick and pork is done.

While pork cooks, prepare potatoes according to package directions. Serve with pork.

*****

So I make real mashed potatoes instead of the refrigerated ones. I'm cheap, what can I say. A bag of potatoes is cheaper--or maybe the same price but it's five pounds of potatoes vs. slightly more than one pound. I don't know, I've never compared the prices, I just assume it's cheaper to make my own. Plus I like mashing potatoes. I heart them more than gravy, so this way I can make as many as I want.

Oh, and I'm usually bad when I make these. I trim all the fat off the pork chops, but then I throw the pieces of fat into the skillet to get all the yummy goodness from it for the gravy. But we don't eat it, so that makes it healthy, right? I think so.

Okay...I've got to wrap this up before I start typing out my life story or ramble on about some other nonsensical point.

Review

Well, once it was FINALLY done cooking, the french toast casserole was yummy. But it took FOR-EV-ER. I called my mom to see if she had ever made it, and she didn't think she had. She did, however, notice on the next page (who knew the recipe went over on to the next page?!) it said something about total time being 12 hours. So I wonder if I didn't let it sit long enough. I told the husband I'll make it again but have it sit overnight for longer and see if that helps. I put it in for 20 minutes. The edges looked done, I poked a fork in the middle, and a bunch of egg oozed out. Not cooked whatsoever. So I put it in for another 10 minutes. Still the same way. I bumped up the temperature to 375, set the timer for 10 minutes, still wet eggy in the middle. I may have let it go longer at 375, I don't remember now, but I finally turned the oven temp up to 400 and did it for 10 minutes and then it was FINALLY done. It maybe could have gone a little longer, but it was fine, and the eggs weren't oozing anymore at that point. I think sum total it took probably close to 50 minutes to cook. I'm wondering if it had sat longer, letting the bread soak up all the custardy goodness, if the baking time in the recipe would have been right. Still didn't seem like a lot of time to me. There was a similar recipe in the same cookbook that called for a baking time of 45-50 minutes. Needless to say, we were STARVING by the time it was ready. The boy ended up eating dinner way before us because I had no idea how long it was going to take to cook.

So, all in all, I'd be willing to make it again but I'd have it sit overnight so there was more time to soak up all the custard. Then I'd see what I thought.

French Toast Souffle

I figured I'd update my blog as I'm waiting for dinner to finish cooking. Sigh. More on that later. I spent pretty much all day cleaning my house because my awesome mom took the boy for the day. Of course, I didn't get nearly as much done as I had hoped since I kept getting out of breath. Darn pregnancy and being out of shape. Oh well, at least the upstairs of my house is something like 80% awesomely clean.

I've been wanting to have brinner (breakfast for dinner) for quite awhile now, and I found this recipe in a cookbook my mom gave me from a women's club she belonged to when they lived in El Paso. It sounded soooooo good. It's an overnight French toast recipe, but I figured making it in the morning and letting it sit all day would be comparable. I figured wrong. Again, more on that later.

French Toast Souffle
4 ounces butter (that's one stick)
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup maple syrup
12 eggs
3 cups half and half
2 tsp vanilla
1 (9x13) pan of bread/rolls/croissants/etc. torn into pieces
Cinnamon to taste

Melt butter, cream cheese, and syrup in microwave. Whip eggs, half and half, and vanilla together. Tear bread, rolls, croissants, etc. into a 9x13 buttered baking dish, fairly well packed. Pour egg mixture over bread. Pour butter/cream cheese/syrup mixture over. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Bake in 350-degree oven for 15-20 minutes uncovered. Makes 10 servings.

*****

Doesn't that sound yummy? I made a few modifications in an effort to make it more healthy. I did half eggs and half egg beaters. I also used two cups of half and half (fat free) and one cup of skim milk. Other than that, everything was as called for.

(Note: I'm no longer waiting for it to finish cooking...it's the next day and I was lazy last night and never finished posting this.)

Review

The crockpot ranch chicken was really good!! My chicken was fine after two hours on high instead of the four hours on low that was in the recipe. The sauce was REALLY tasty, too. My chicken breasts were, of course, on the dry side, but the sauce helped. Am I the only person that ALWAYS has chicken breasts come out dry when cooked in the crockpot? Please tell me I'm not...maybe there's a support group I could join.

I had wanted to have rice as a side dish, but I had three bags of different kinds of rice (white, brown, and brown basmati) which each had maybe 1/4 cup of rice in them, so I scrapped that idea since they'd all have different cooking times. Note to self, add rice to grocery list. I had half a box of bowtie pasta, so I made that instead. It worked, but I think the sauce would have been better on rice than the pasta.

This is definitely something I would--and will--make again. Thanks, Jen A., for a great recipe!!

I'll be back on Monday...I get the rest of the weekend off! Tonight we're heading to my aunt and uncle's for dinner, tomorrow night the husband and I have a wedding to attend.

Jen's Crockpot Creamy Ranch Chicken

Tonight's dinner is brought to you courtesy of my friend Jen A. I don't know if that's really the right way to word it...she sent me the recipe after they had it for dinner recently. I thought it sounded really good, and I didn't need to buy that many ingredients for it.

My dinner schedule got all wonky this week, and I almost missed out on making this because I got sucked in to Facebook this afternoon. I should back up. My friend Jen B. and I both got haircuts today. The boy and I went over to her house this morning, and I stayed with our crazy bobo boys while she went and got her hair cut, then she came and stayed with them while I went. Beautiful system really. By the time the boy and I got home it was after 1:00 (naptime), but he insisted he was still hungry, despite feasting on hot dog, mandarin oranges, and tortilla chips at Jen's. So I got him some more to eat, put him down for his nap, then played on Facebook. Really it wasn't that long--I swear!! I was also uploading pictures to the Walgreens website to get printed, so I needed something to do while I was waiting for that process. See? I can just about always justify my Facebook obsession. ;) Anyway, I remembered around 2:20 (done with Facebook at that point, getting ready to watch 90210 from this past Tuesday--while I worked on getting stuff ready to shred...see, I'm ALWAYS productive. Always.) that dinner was supposed to be via crockpot tonight and kind of panicked since I remembered reading it was an almost six hour recipe. Thankfully that was on low, so I just bumped the heat up to high. But now I'm getting ahead of myself.

Jen's Crockpot Creamy Ranch Chicken
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 Tbs butter, melted
1 can cream of chicken soup
8 oz cream cheese, cubed
1/2 c chicken broth
1 (1oz)packet ranch dressing mix
1/4 tsp minced garlic
1 dash paprika
1/8 tsp dry oregano
1/4 tsp dry parsley flakes

Wash and dry chicken breasts and place them evenly in crock pot. Sprinkle with paprika. Sprinkle ranch salad dressing mix over chicken. Drizzle chicken breasts with 1 tablespoons melted butter. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours.

Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter with minced garlic and saute slightly. Add cream of chicken soup,cream cheese cubes, 1/2 c chicken broth, dried oregano and dried Parsley flakes. Stir on med til smooth. Add mixture to crock pot, cover again and continue to cook on low for 1 1/2-2 hours.

*****

When I took the lid off to add in the sauce, the chicken smelled really yummy. I was wishing I had a whisk clean to mix up the sauce, but both of mine were in the dishwasher. I also eyeballed the chicken broth because both of my liquid measuring cups were in the dishwasher as well. Can you tell I need to run my dishwasher?

I hope it turns out. I have trouble with chicken in the crockpot...it always comes out dry. My fingers are crossed either it doesn't this time or the sauce helps it seem more moist. Jen said it was good with egg noodles, but I'm going to make rice instead. I also need to check what frozen veggies are in my freezer to have along with it.

Oh, and like I said, I did the first step for two hours on high instead of four on low. I bumped it down to low when I added the sauce, but I figured I'd check the chicken after an hour to see how cooked it was, in case I needed to move it back up to high.

Review

The mac and cheese was really yummy--definitely better than the last time I'd made it. I think next time I might use small curd cottage cheese (I think such a thing exists anyway), but that was the only change. I liked the breadcrumbs on top, too. I didn't have quite enough cheese to do a layer on top...oh well. I actually added in some shredded mozzarella because I thought it was a bit shy on cheese. Oh, and I'd recommend mixing up everything BUT the macaroni, and then adding in the cooked macaroni and combining it that way.

Macaroni and Cheese

I know we just had mac and cheese the other night, but that was from the box and this is the real deal. Plus my other dinner choices were limited, so it was this or...this. I haven't made this recipe in a long time, so I'm excited to have it again. This is one of the cookbooks displayed in my kitchen that I rarely use. The husband actually pulled it down the other day, held it up to me, and said, "When are we having THIS?" (the recipe is on the cover.) Actually that was my main reason for buying the cookbook in the first place. Wanna see it?



Pretty enticing, huh? I'm super excited for it. I could eat mac and cheese every night of the week and twice on Sunday. I've never understood the "twice on Sunday" saying, but it fit. When I was little I HATED homemade mac and cheese, I only liked the stuff from the box. I don't know when it was that changed, but my age was definitely double digits, and I may have been a proud college graduate. Now I'll eat any kind. My mother-in-law makes fantastic mac and cheese, so that's the one I usually make, but since the husband specifically asked for this one, that's what we're having.

Macaroni and Cheese
4 cups hot cooked elbow macaroni (about 8 ounces uncooked), cooked without salt or fat
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup low fat cottage cheese
3/4 cup fat free sour cream
1/2 cup fat free milk
2 Tbsp grated onion
1-1/2 tsp reduced fat stick margarine, melted
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Cooking spray
1/4 cup fresh or dry breadcrumbs
1 Tbsp reduced calorie stick margarine, melted
1/4 tsp paprika

Preheat oven to 350. Combine first 10 ingredients (through egg); stir well. Spon into a shallow 2-quart casserole coated with cooking spray.

Combine breadcrumbs, 1 Tbsp margarine, and paprika; stir well. Sprinkle breadcrumb mixture over casserole. Cover and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Uncover casserole and bake an additional 5 minutes or until breadcrumbs are browned.

*****

Normally when I make it I put more cheese on top instead of the breadcrumbs, but I remember that the last time I made it, I didn't dig that. I may put some cheese on top and then the breadcrumbs on top of that.

I have Moms Night Out tonight with my MOMS Club, and we're having a potluck and game night, so I'm going to keep my mac and cheese indulging in check...or try to at least. I made Tres Leches Cake to take to it. Everytime there's been some kind of food event, whether it be Bunco or some MOMS Club function, my friend Kimberly pesters and pesters and pesters me about bringing this. Just kidding, Kimberly! :) But she does ask if this is what I'm taking every time. It's sounded really good to me for awhile, so I caved. Do you see how easily I give in to peer pressure? You can only imagine what my high school and college experience was like.

Review

Our dinner ended up being different than the paninis I planned. I mixed up the blue cheese mixture, and it was too much for my pregnant nose, which is weird because whenever I have a salad, I have blue cheese dressing on it. I think there may have been two problems. In an effort to be health conscious for the husband (because who really tries to be health conscious when they're pregnant? The jar of M&Ms on my kitchen counter will tell you that I don't.), I bought reduced fat blue cheese. Strike one? I also bought the store brand of crumbled blue cheese. Strike two? I assume so. Thankfully my fast thinking scored my sandwiches a ground rule double. Or maybe a triple. I wouldn't go so far as to say a home run, but they were good. Enough baseball analogies...sorry about that.

So, what did I end up doing? I had already fixed up the barbecued chicken, so I went with that, but I sliced up some of the red onion leftover from PW's sandwiches and put that on top of the chicken, then cheddar cheese (real cheddar cheese, not Kraft Singles or something like that), and threw them on the panini press. They turned out really yummy! If I'd had green onions or cilantro I would have used some of that in place of the red onion, but my green onions had seen better days. My last minute creation ended up being really tasty. Definitely a panini I'd make again.

Barbecued Chicken with Blue Cheese and Celery Paninis

My panini press has been neglected lately. I just felt like I was always making the same sandwiches with them, so I got the genius idea to look up panini cookbooks at the library instead of buying one. I heart the library...especially for cookbooks! Since I have an overwhelming cookbook collection already, it's a nice way to indulge in my guilty pleasure without dropping a small fortune.

So I flipped through the book and found several that sounded good. Unfortunately some have really obscure (or expensive...or both) ingredients, and some there is no way the husband would touch them with a ten foot pole. I'll still have to copy them down before the book is due back.

The husband is actually sick today, but when I asked if he'd want dinner he asked what the choices were and thought these sounded good. The other choice, by the way, was Shepherd's Pie, which we were supposed to have last night, but due to some issues at our vet's office (i.e. they're slow and incompetent and ALWAYS take forever to get simple things done), there wasn't going to be time to make it and pick up the dog before they closed. So it was a mac & cheese and hot dog night. Anyway...on to the recipe.

Barbecued Chicken with Blue Cheese and Celery Paninis
1-1/2 cups (about 8 ounces) shredded barbecue chicken
3 Tbsp barbecue sauce (optional)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp sour cream
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 scallion (white and light green parts), finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 ciabbata rolls or store-bought Italian rolls
1 celery stalk, trimmed, tough outer strings peeled away, and thinly sliced

Heat a panini or sandwich press. Combine the chicken and barbecue sauce, if using, in a small bowl and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Slice the rolls in half and spread some blue cheese dressing on the inside of each roll. Arrange the celery on the bottom halves of the rolls. Pile the chicken on top of the celery. Top each sandwich with the top half of the roll.

Put the sandwiches on the press, pull the top down, and cook until they are brown and crisp, 4-7 minutes, depending on the machine. Carefully remove from the press and serve immediately.

*****

I don't think I'm really changing things up except that I have some foccacia rolls I'm using instead of ciabatta. I just realized I need to go hustle so we can eat at 6:00. Not sure what we'll have with it, I may throw some tater tots into the oven because I have them and they're easy.

Oh, and I didn't have any barbecue chicken laying around so I just cooked up some chicken breasts and shred them, then I'm going to mix them with some BBQ sauce. This would be a great use for leftover chicken meat from cooking a whole chicken!

Review

Wow. WOW!! PW's sandwich was amazing...awesome...fantastic...mind-blowing. Definitely the best grilled cheese I've ever had. The husband tried to steal the second half of my sandwich, so he really liked it too. He should know better than to try and take a pregnant woman's food. Sheesh.

I ended up cooking them in an electric skillet. It took a long time, but that was my fault because I didn't know what temperature (200, 250, 350, etc.) equated to Medium Low on my stove top. I think I had it too low at first, so then I kept turning it up slightly. They were definitely hard to flip when it was finally time, but I think it might have been easier in the electric skillet than in a regular skillet on the stove because there was more space. Who knows. Next time I'm going to try doing them on my panini press instead, see how they turn out that way...and I'd avoid the flipping issue. :)

Definitely try these. Go out and buy the stuff. Now! Go...hurry to the store and hurry home so you can eat this amazing sandwich.

Pioneer Woman's Favorite Sandwich

Unless this is the first time you've read my blog, you know that I heart Pioneer Woman. Pretty much everything I've tried making from her website has been super tasty. Jen B. made this a couple weeks ago and loved it. Our friend Kimberly (Hi, Kimberly!!) made it recently and raved about it, too. Our friend Jen A. made a modified version and really liked it as well. So I'm jumping on the bandwagon. Doesn't hurt that Jen B. gave me some of her leftover whole chiles to use! I'm totally excited for this dinner.

Pioneer Woman's Favorite Sandwich
whatever type of sandwich bread you like...PW likes rye
mild cheddar cheese slices
provolone cheese slices
sliced tomato
thinly sliced red onion
canned Hatch whole green chiles
1 Tablespoon of mayo
1 Tablespoon of Dijon mustard
Lots of softened butter or margarine

1) For spreadable sauce: Thoroughly combine 1 Tablespoon of mayo and 1 Tablespoon of Dijon mustard in a small bowl.
2) Spread a very thin layer of sauce mixture on the inside of both pieces of the bread that you will be using to construct your sandwich.
3) Place two slices of tomato and some thin red onion slices on one side of the bread. Then, top that bread piece with 2 slices of provolone cheese and one or two slices of whole green chiles. Don't be shy with the green chiles.
4) On the other piece of bread, place 2 slices of cheddar cheese, and very carefully close your sandwich. Be gentle.
5) Now, spread a generous amount of butter on each side of the tops of the bread, not missing anything. Really butter 'em good! Seriously, use the butter...it is okay.
6) Heat a non stick skillet over LOW heat, and cook on each side (flipping once)...5 minutes per side. You can turn the heat up to Medium-Low (but do not heat past Medium) to get your desired brown/toastiness accomplished.

Also, these babies are tricky to flip. Be careful.

7) Remove ooey-gooey delectable sandwich from skillet and cut into halves. Serve immediately. Say a prayer and go to confession quickly after consuming this masterful sandwich. They are so good you will feel dirty.

*****

I'm using wheat bread because I don't like rye. Plus it's what I have. I'm also going to bust out either my griddle or my electric skillet because my regular skillets just aren't big enough to accommodate three sandwiches. Actually the boy is just going to have regular grilled cheese. I can't wait for this sandwich. Have I mentioned that?

Not sure what we're having with it. There's broccoli salad left from last night (shoot...forgot to do the review from last night's dinner...I'll do that later), so the boy and I will probably have that, the husband can have regular green salad, and maybe we'll have a fancy accompaniement like pretzels. We go all out here at my house.