Chicken Spaghetti

Pioneer Woman will never lead you astray.  I live by this motto.  Every single recipe of hers that I've ever tried has been delicious!  Seriously.

A couple friends of ours lost their grandfather/father recently and since I'm from the Midwest, when I don't know what to do for someone, I bring food. Specifically comfort food. So I made this recipe and brought it to them.  Apparently it was comforting, because they all loved it.  And so did we.

The great part about this recipe is you can  use leftover chicken, a rotisserie chicken, or boil your own chicken.  Whatever works!

Chicken Spaghetti
2 c. cooked chicken (shredded or chopped)
1 lb spaghetti, broken into two-inch pieces
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 c. grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 c. finely diced onion
1/4 c. finely diced green pepper
1 4 oz jar diced pimentos, drained
2 c. chicken stock or broth
3/4 tsp seasoned salt (or more, taste it after you add the soup and stock and see if it needs more)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or more if you like it spicy--we do!)
pepper to taste
1 c. additional grated cheddar cheese

Boil the spaghetti as directed making sure not to overcook because you will bake it.  Drain.  Combine the cooked spaghetti with the other ingredients except the additional 1 c. sharp cheddar cheese.  Place the chicken spaghetti mixture in a 9x13'' pan and cover with cheddar.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, until bubbly. This makes a lot, perfect for company!

Carnitas

We love Mexican food. Of all kinds. Texmex, ground beef and crunchy shells, authentic carne asada from a stand in Mexico...anything. I have several mexican recipes listed here , here , and here as well as the Carnitas listed today which is one of our favorites. My husband is a big pork fan. (In fact when Pei Wei took their pork option away he tried to boycott.) The leftovers are delicious and are great made into enchiladas or taco pie. The leftovers also freeze well which is what I did this time. I pared down the recipe for 2 lbs, but I actually used a huge 4-5 lb pork loin from Sam's Club--whatever you have is great.

Carnitas2 lb pork loin

2 tsp chili powder

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 1/2 tsp oregano

1 1/2 tsp granulated garlic

3/4 tsp salt

Rinse the pork loin and dry with paper towels. Mix all seasonings together in a small bowl and rub generously all over the pork loin. Toss the whole thing in your crockpot and cook on low 6-8 hours, until the pork falls apart with a fork. You could cook it on high, but because the pork loin is so lean it can dry out easily so it seems to do better cooked more slowly.

Serve the shredded meat on corn tortillas with fresh tomatoes and cilantro and homemade salsa. Yum. Or fry your own tostadas and make tostadas. Yum Yum.

Bacon Cheddar Dip

So this is a strange story, but my in-laws made LOADS of bacon for Christmas morning and my father in-law was going to throw the pan of leftover bacon away....well, of course being the frugal person I am that would actually cause me physical pain so I took home the two full gallon-sized ziploc bags of cooked bacon and froze them in smaller baggies. All that to say, I had some bacon in the freezer I needed to use up so I invented this dip for Super Bowl using ingredients I already had on hand. Turned out really yummy and I think it would be DElish stirred into some mashed potatoes!

Bacon Cheddar Dip

1 8 oz block cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese (or more if you're feeling daring)
1/2 cup mayo
6 slices bacon crisply cooked and crumbled
3 green onions, chopped

Mix everything together and either bake at 400 until hot and bubbly OR toss everything into a little dipper crockpot and turn to high until all melted and hot and then turn to keep warm for up to three hours. Serve with bread (or on top of a baked potato). Yum.

Ham & Broccoli Mac-n-Cheese

My husband is not hard to please. He will eat anything. (Well, almost anything. He does NOT eat couscous and he prefers to pick off olives, but that's it.) But he LOOOVES cheesey mac-n-cheese and requests it all the time so I try to revamp my mac to make it interesting. This one is by far is favorite and he insisted I take his picture eating it so everyone would know how much he loved it. (My son did too).

I'm still using up the rest of that ham from Christmas so I pulled out a ziploc bag of sliced ham from the deep freeze and whipped this up.

Ham & Broccoli Mac-n-Cheese

1 large bunch broccoli (about 2 c. florettes)

2 c. diced ham

3/4 lb macaroni or other short-cut pasta
3 T butter

1/2 an onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 c. flour
2 1/2 c. milk (I used 1%)

1/2 tsp dried mustard

1/4 c. parmesan

8 oz cream cheese

1 c. swiss cheese

2 c. colby jack cheese

1/3 c. extra sharp cheddar cheese

1 1'' slice velveeta cheese, cubed
salt & pepper

drizzle of truffle oil

1/2 c. panko

1/2 c. parmesan

Boil your pasta, when the pasta is a couple minutes from being al dente (don't overdo the pasta!) drop in your broccoli. Drain the pasta and broccoli all together and dump it, along with the ham into a 9x13'' pan. In the meantime, melt the butter in a large skillet. Saute the onion and garlic until soft, sprinkle in the flour and cook a few minutes, stirring constantly. Add in the milk and combine well cooking until bubbly and getting thick. Add in the dried mustard, 1 1/4 c. parmesan, and other cheeses. Melt and stir constantly adn season with salt & pepper to taste. Drizzle in the truffle oil (optional, I guess.) Pour the cheese sauce over the macaroni, ham and broccoli and mix well. The mixture will be thick. Sprinkle the panko and parmesan over the top of the casserole. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Game Day Queso & a Velveeta Cheese Tribute

Sooo...have I ever mentioned I'm from the midwest? Yah, I am from the midwest. I grew up on my mom's homemade food with ingredients picked from her garden (truly) and velveeta cheese. Yep. I love Velveeta cheese. Now, if you're following this blog because you want a culinary genious who is using expensive gourmet ingredients...keep looking. That is not what this blog is or what this blog is for. I just make food that taste good and may or may not have quality ingredients...but usually never expensive ingredients because if I break my budget my husband may ground me and take my van keys away. (YES that's right I eat Velveeta cheese AND drive a van...yikes. What have I come to?)

SO today as I was running down the aisles of Super WalMart to try to get just what I needed to make lasagna for tomorrow night, a sign caught my eye. This sign would change my mood. A sign that changed my day. It was a little white rollback sign....on the Velveeta Cheese. Rolledback to....$1.50 per 2 lb block!! Seriously I looked twice, rubbed my eyes and read it again and quickly grabbed two blocks of 2% milk Velveeta and ran off before someone tried to fight me for it. As I was dashing off I heard a woman say, "Whoah! Velveeta is only $1.50!" That's right lady, and don't even try to touch mine!!

All that to explain...yes, here's another queso recipe. But, why is that bad? I had some leftover chili just on the verge of seeing the inside of the garbage disposal. It turned out great. This entire crockpot full of queso cost $2.50 or less. So add this recipe to your "Leftover List" and make it for the next football/baseball/basketball game. Or really any weekend that you think your jeans are just fitting too well.

I don't have a photo up yet, but use your imagination. Or look here. It looks like that. Only different.

Game Day Queso AKA Chili Cheese Dip
3 cups leftover chili (any chili will do)

1 4 oz can chopped jalapenos, drained well

1 14.5 oz can pintos, drained well

1 32 oz block velveeta, diced

Put the first three ingredients into the crockpot on high until hot. Toss in the velveeta, give it a stir and wait for the melting to begin. Keep on warm up to 3 hours for a party.

Baked Potato Scramble

We've been gone for a week and came home yesterday. This morning I opened up the fridge to make breakfast and it was pretty much empty. I had a ziploc bag of leftover cooked bacon from Christmas morning, a few eggs and a couple wrinkly potatoes. So I decided to get creative and it turned out really well. This is the cheapest way to use up leftovers for a meal. My family scarfed this down like homeless people and I think it would make a great dinner too. Overall it probably cost less than $2 and most of the ingredients would've gone bad if I hadn't used them this morning. (Forgive the pics, my camera battery is dead so the blackberry had to do.)

Loaded Baked Potato Scramble

6-8 eggs

2 T. sour cream

2 green onions sliced thinly

4 strips bacon crisply cooked & crumbled

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 large baked potato, peeled & cubed

Salt, pepper, garlic powder

Cooking spray

While the potato is baking in the microwave crack the eggs into a bowl, add the sour cream and scramble. Cut the green onions and separate the greens and whites. Peel the potato and dice it. Heat a large frying pan over medium-high and spray generously with cooking spray. Toss in the green onion whites, crumbled bacon and the potato and heat through. Pour in the eggs and season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Cook the eggs, stirring constantly until dry to your liking. Turn off heat, sprinkle on cheese and green onions.

Steak & Feta Scramble

Somehow we had some leftover steak. I realize this is pretty much an oxymoron but it happened. In which case I was NOT going to throw the leftovers away! So I made this scramble the other morning before we took Rob to the airport for another two weeks in China (sniff). It turned out great. My kids love eggs so I scramble up pretty much anything to get rid of leftovers.

Steak & Feta Scramble

8 eggs

3 Tb. milk or cream

2 Tb. diced red onion

1/3 cup diced steak (cooked)

2 Tb. feta cheese crumbled

salt, pepper, garlic

Crack the eggs into a bowl and add the milk or cream. Scramble them up. Over medium heat saute the onion for a couple minutes in a large skillet. I used cooking spray but butter would be delicous. Add in the steak and just heat through. Pour the eggs in, add the cheese and season with salt, pepper, and garlic to taste. (I added a little drizzle of truffle oil....yum.) Scramble until the eggs are done.

BBQ Chicken Pizza Quesadilla

My husband travels often and I try to find things that are really easy to make for myself and the kids...besides a bowl of cereal. This is my favorite. It's inexpensive, lean and it tastes good. I first made one of these pizzas with a leftover piece of grilled chicken. You can use leftover chicken, rotisserie, whatever. This is a great lunch too.

I also make these with marinara and turkey pepperoni.

Barbecue Chicken Pizza Quesadilla

1 whole wheat burrito size tortilla (I use a Flat Out wrap)

2 Tb barbecue sauce

2 oz diced or shredded chicken

2 tsp diced red onion

2 tsp chopped cilatro

1/4 cup shredded colby jack cheese

Preheat oven to 425. Place the tortilla on foil, spread with barbecue sauce and sprinkle toppings and cheese on top. Bake for 5 minutes. Turn oven to broil and bake 2-3 more minutes. Fold the tortilla in half and cut...enjoy!

Val's Chicken Pot Pie

I'm all about using a rotisserie chicken which saves time and money. BUT buying a whole chicken, cooking it and making several recipes with the chicken saves a lot more money. And I seem to have a little more time than money so that's what I did!

The other day I got a huge chicken at Fry's for $.50/lb. I cooked it up making a batch of homemade chicken stock, a pot of chicken soup that was enough to send dinner over to the neighbor, chicken tacos, and a chicken pot pie. I definitely got my $3 out of that chicken!

For the chicken pot pie I used boxed stuffing but you could very easily make your own stuffing. However, I find that the boxed stuffing is super cheap and saves time. You could definitely use canned chicken or cook a chicken breast or two to get the chicken for this recipe. (Homemade stuffing recipe coming towards the end of the month.)

This recipe makes an 8'' square pan, but if you want a bigger batch just double.

Val's Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken Filling:

1 stalk celery, chopped

1/4 onion, chopped

3 large carrots, diced

2-3 garlic cloves, chopped or pressed

3/4 cup frozen peas

2 1/2 cups cooked chicken, cubed or shredded

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 c. sour cream

salt, pepper to taste

Stuffing Topping:

3/4 onion, chopped (the rest of the onion that you used for the chicken filling)

2 celery stalks, diced

1 apple, peeled and diced

4 Tb. butter or spread

2 boxes chicken or turkey stuffing

water called for in stuffing directions

1/2 cup apple juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. In a large skillet saute carrots, celery, onions in cooking spray until they start to soften. Add in garlic & peas and cook another 2 minutes. Dump in chicken, soup and sour cream and season with salt and pepper. Put all the chicken mixture into an 8x8 inch casserole dish. Wipe out the skillet and melt the butter in the same skillet. Saute the apples, onions, and celery until soft. Add in the stuffing and the water & apple juice. Season with salt & pepper. Top the chicken filling with the stuffing and bake for 30 minutes.