Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Chicken Biscuit Bake

Simple. Easy. Filling.

You will need:
1# boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 soup can of milk
Cheese & Garlic Biscuits (a previous post)

Slice chicken breasts most of the way through & place in greased baking pan.
Like this:

In a bowl, whisk together the soups and milk.
Pour over chicken breasts and top with biscuit dough.
It should look something like this:

Bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes or until chicken is cooked completely
(white, no pink, 165-170 degrees)

Ta-da!

Enjoy!

Cheese & Garlic Biscuits (RL Cheddar Bay Biscuit copycat)

We were eating these biscuits long before we ever had a Red Lobster in town. I'm not a fan of seafood, so we never ate there.
And that's alright.
I still prefer this recipe. Not sure where my Mom found this at, but I got it from her... and boy are these delicious!

Cheese and Garlic Biscuits
2 cups buttermilk baking mix (Bisquick, Baker's Corner, whatever you like)
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (Let's face it, I put in almost a full cup. You can never have too much cheese!...)

Combine until soft dough forms. Drop dough by heaping teaspoons on an ungreased cookie sheet (I like to do mine on my pizza stone.)  Bake 8-10 minutes at 450 degrees, until golden brown.

Meanwhile, while those are baking....

Combine:
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/2 tsp garlic salt/powder

Brush above over warm biscuits before removing from cookie sheet. 
Serve warm.
Makes 10-12 biscuits

(I will update with a picture next time I make these... I just wanted to post the recipe so it's available for my Chicken Biscuit Bake post.)

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Baked Vodka Chicken Penne

Tonight we wanted a nice meal that would still be easy, so I looked in the pantry & decided a casserole was in order. 

Pictured is everything you'll need:
A box of penne pasta
A can of chunk chicken
A jar of vodka sauce
and mozzarella cheese
Yep, that's it! 

Cook up your pasta, stir in the chicken then the sauce. Top with mozzarella (amount is your choice.)
Bake 20 minutes at 350.
Top with parmesan or parm/romano mix.
Done! 

Enjoy!

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Cupcakes Galore! | Salted Caramel & Cookie Dough Frosted Devil's Food

 This will not be a long post, because everything is credited except for the few modifications listed.

A couple of days ago the hubby tells me he has a pot-luck Friday and he signed up for a dessert. 
Yes, he is just now remembering to tell me; 
and no, I do not have the supplies for my Fudge Striped Cookie Salad that he wants to take.
"How about I make cupcakes, because I have everything I need for them?" 
(*Note: I'm currently laughing at how ridiculous that is! 
Find out why in today's post at The "My Life" Project.") 

I started with my Decadent Devil's Food Cupcake recipe and topped them with cookie dough frosting (recipe found at Busy Moms Helper blog) making 1 1/2 proportions on the frosting recipe, which I really didn't need to do, the single recipe would have been more than enough frosting for 24 portions.

Next I doubled my go-to Salted Caramel Buttercream Cupcake recipe from My Frugal Adventures blog with the following modifications: 
I use Hershey's caramel sauce (huge time saver! I really do want to find time to make Chris's sauce.)
I use salted butter instead of unsalted.
I omit the tablespoons of buttermilk (just a straight 1 cup for a double recipe).
I add caramel sauce to the cupcake batter and frosting.
I rolled the frosting into balls & pressed them onto the cupcakes. (Long story short, no piping/pastry bags in the house... sigh. It actually worked out really well!)

Ta-da! The office will have some deliciously rich dessert tomorrow!

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Decadent Devil's Food Cupcakes


Since we're all snowed in, I decided to do a little baking today. 
Here's the recipe I use for devil's food cupcakes and frosting.
Enjoy!

What you will need: 
 Cupcakes
8 tbsp (1 stick) softened butter (or margarine)
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup brown sugar (generously packed!)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Frosting
9 oz semisweet chocolate chips
6 tbsp sugar
1 1/3 cup sour cream

Yep, that's it!

 Combine softened butter, eggs & sour cream; then add the dry ingredients.
Makes 24 cupcakes 2/3-3/4 full OR 36 cupcakes 1/2 full.

 They should come out looking beautiful, like this... ;-)

While the cupcakes bake, make your frosting.
Remove cupcakes from pan & cool on rack until room temperature.
Frost by dropping a dollop onto each cupcake. 
You can garnish/top with shaved chocolate before serving if you like.
Store in refrigerator.
Bon appetit!

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Zuppa Toscana


I found this posted on Facebook and knew immediately I had to try it!
 I've listed my adjustments below & you can find the Facebook recipe info and another blog recipe image and link at the bottom of this post.
Making my adjustments I found it tasted EXACTLY like Olive Garden!


1 lb. spicy/hot Italian sausages (I use turkey, but have used pork in the past)
3-4 large russet potatoes, chopped with skin left on
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 c. REAL bacon pieces (optional)
4 cloves garlic, minced
32 oz. chicken broth
1 c. kale or Swiss chard, chopped (I use kale because it's a LOT less expensive)
1 c. heavy whipping cream
2 Tbsp flour

Directions
1. Brown sausage links in a sauté pan.
2. Cut links in half lengthwise, then cut slices.
3. Place sausage, chicken broth, garlic, potatoes and onion in slow cooker. Add just enough water to cover the vegetables and meat.
4. Cook on high 4 or 6 hours (until potatoes are soft, I like mine "mushy" soft so I do 6.)

*30 minutes before serving:
5. Mix flour into cream, whisking to removing lumps.
6. Add cream and kale to the crock pot, stir.
7. Cook on high 30 minutes or until broth thickens slightly.

The Facebook recipe has the following differences from mine:

4-6 russet potatoes, chopped
1 full onion, chopped
2 Tbsp minced garlic (about 3-4 cloves)
Cook on high 3-4 hours (low 5-6 hours) until potatoes are soft.

Add salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste.


I apologize that my pictures are a little out of focus- I like my food HOT and it kept steaming up my camera... lol!  Here's a much nicer picture!
You can find the blog post this image came from with recipe variation at this blog link.
Enjoy!!


Saturday, January 12, 2013

No Egg Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Growing up, our favorite part of making cookies was eating the dough. Dad would eat It by mounding tablespoonfuls! My husband has a fit when he catches me sneaking dough when I'm baking. It doesn't bother me, I haven't been sick from dough yet. But in an attempt to get him on my dough bandwagon, I found this "no egg" recipe on Pinterest. (Yes, I find a lot of wonderful recipes on Pinterest!)

Needless to say, I no longer need to make a batch of cookies just to eat dough- this is amazing!


No Egg CCC Dough:

1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
Pinch salt (I used salted butter & omitted the pinch of salt)
1/2 cup chocolate chips

You can find the original post at Baskers Fun Foods.

To all of the "dough-nuts" out there- enjoy!