One thing Manda asks for the most…

The first time I made this from scratch was for Mom on her birthday few years back. Ever since then I have been making it and Manda loves it. It’s pretty easy to make. It’s something that isn’t complicated and most of the ingredients you probably have already in your refrigerator or cabinet. So here is the recipe:

Chicken – Broccoli Casserole

– 2 cups cooked rice

– 3 cups chopped cooked broccoli

-6 cups shredded, cooked, skinless, boneless chicken breasts

– 1 can of cream of chicken soup

– 3 cups of shredded cheese

– 1 cup sour cream

– 1/2 cup mayonnaise

– 1 tablespoon lemon juice

– 1/2 teaspoon of sale

– 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Spray a 13 by 9 pan with cooking spray and spread out the cooked rice and cooked broccoli in the bottom of the pan and set aside. What I usually do is cook the rice and broccoli in one pot. Makes it a whole lot easier on me by having one pot. In a large bowl, combine chicken, soup, 1 1/2 cup cheese, sour cream, mayo, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Well, when it comes to this part, I really just guess. Sometimes you may have to add more mayo or more sour cream to make it taste how you want it. The chicken, I usually cook it in a skillet after I cut it up in some butter, salt, and pepper. Again, it’s however you want to cook it and how much you want to add. Most of the time, our chicken isn’t shredded, it’s cubed. Once all of that is mixed together, you pour over the broccoli and rice. Spread it out evenly and top with remaining cheese. Bake until golden and bubbly which is about 40 minutes.

This recipe does make quite a bit. A lot of the time we’ll have the leftovers one night for supper and we’ll just mix a little bit more of the sour cream/mayo mixture before we warm it up. You can freeze it, too, if you don’t plan on eating it later on in the week. I enjoy it, Manda enjoys it, and I hope you will, too! 🙂

-Morgan

Chicken broccoli casserole

Chicken broccoli casserole

Bad day pasta

Since I had a bad day today, Manda came up with this excellent idea for pasta tonight. It’s somewhat liked a baked ziti I guess you would say. Either way, it was really good, but her pasta always is. This is something fast and something we prepare often. This is something I ask for often and we often add in other veggies like mushrooms and peppers. We also use the sauce on our homemade pizza that I’m sure you’ll see eventually. This is more so like an Italian restaurant version than say mom’s comfort spaghetti. Hope everyone enjoys and let us all know! Thanks everyone for reading! 🙂

Homemade Marinara Sauce

-1/2 cup of onion chopped

-1 can of petite diced tomatoes

-3 teaspoons of olive oil (pure olive oil)

-1 tablespoon of minced garlic (If you don’t like garlic you may want to add less, it’s pretty much to preference)

-1 tablespoon of Italian Seasoning

-2  teaspoons of sugar

-1/4 a cup of water

-In a large skillet pour the olive oil and onions on medium heat. Let them get translucent, then add in the garlic and sugar. Let this mixture cook around 5 minutes letting the flavors combine (make sure to not let your garlic burn! this is very important, if it burns it will ruin your whole sauce!!). After letting it cook add in the tomato paste with the water, stirring to combine it with the garlic, onions, and sugar. After combining them, add in the can of tomatoes. This mixture should be fairly runny at first, if it’s too thick just add a little water. Add in salt, pepper, and italian seasoning. You should taste the sauce at this point, if it taste like it needs more of any of the seasonings, including the sugar don’t be afraid to add some and fix it to your preference. Let this sauce cook for another ten minutes or until you can run your finger down the back of the spoon and it leaves a clean line (like the photo) . Toss with cooked pasta and enjoy! 🙂  For me I find it helpful to let the sauce get a little too thick, then when I toss in my pasta I add a little pasta water and it loosens it up. 🙂

Baked Penne with Homemade Sauce and Cheese

-1 sixteen oz. box of penne pasta, cooked until about done

-homemade marinara sauce or your fave store bought brand (our fave is Great Value’s Onion and Garlic Sauce)

-1 lb. of steak, chicken, or sausage or your favorite meat, sauteed and cooked til done

-a cup of frozen spinach

-4 oz. of mozzarella cheese

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a baking dish pour a little bit of olive oil and make sure it coats the bottom. After preparing sauce add in the cooked pasta, spinach, and meat and a 1/4 of a cup of the pasta water. Once you mix this together making sure it’s all combined, pour it into the baking dish in one even layer. Slice the cheese and place it on top. Bake for 10 minutes, until cheese is melted, and pasta is hot. Now enjoy! 🙂

sauce

the perfect thickness for the sauce

after its done

Yummy

So for my daddy’s birthday every year he asked for the same thing, this yummy and easy chicken dish that my mom makes. It’s something that as a young adult I can prepare and it feeds a lot of people or tons of leftovers. 🙂  So the other night, after a long discussion of what we wanted, Morgan and I decided that would be great!! It is very much like a “comfort” food. It’s hot, creamy, and oh so good. 🙂 Another thing that is good about this recipe is that you can work with ingredients to what you like. For example, when my mom makes this, she cuts back on the onions and carrots because she doesn’t like them, however when I make it I add more because I like them. Also, with the potatoes you can really use your potatoes of choice, for Morgan and I, we like to use red potatoes that are not peeled. So you can really adjust this to your own taste, if you don’t like carrots leave them out and maybe add another potato.

This is my mom, Donna Newgent’s recipe, I’m not really sure where she got it from, but it’s became a favorite at my childhood home and now my college home. 🙂

You will need:

-5 to 7 pieces of chicken, that have been boiled

-5 to 7 medium sized potatoes (Peeled)

-Raw carrots (this is according to preference, for me I use one large raw carrot  sliced, my mom usually tosses in some baby carrots)

-One  Onion (this can be omitted or again to preference)

-1 can tomatoes (I like to use petite diced tomatoes)

-1 can cream of chicken soup

– Preheat over to 400 degrees. In a deep glass or  oven safe dish, using a paper towel, butter the bottom thoroughly. Slice your potatoes medium thickness, then arrange them in the bottom of the baking dish first. Now on top of the potatoes, layer the carrots randomly, then the chicken, then the onions and finally with a spoon, dip out the tomatoes and put them on top of the chicken ( it shouldn’t cover the whole dish, just in spots). Place spoonfuls of the cream of chicken soup over the chicken, once the can is mostly empty, add a little bit of water to the can, (about 1/4th of the can) mix up then poor over. Put a lid on the dish or cover with tin foil. Bake on 400 degrees for an hour to an hour an a half, or until your potatoes are tender.

*for me I find it better to let it bake the last ten minutes without being covered. 🙂

Hope everyone enjoys!! Let me know if you try it!!! Pics of when we made it the other night should be with this post!! 🙂

so good, it’s almost gone! 🙂

-Manda

P.S. Sometimes we don’t use all of a whole onion in a recipe, we find that it really saves money to just dice it up and put it in a zip lock bag and toss it in the freezer. You really can’t tell the difference when cooking with them. 🙂