Spicy Chicken Mac & Cheese

I tried a new recipe this week for a mac & cheese that sounded like it might be similar to Hard Rock’s Twisted Mac, Chicken & Cheese – which I LOVE! Turns out, with a few alterations this was almost identical as I remember it tasting except for the tortilla chip topping.

Spicy Chicken Mac & Cheese

1-2 chicken breasts
2 cups dry pasta (macaroni or similar)
1 cup shredded mild cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 cups Pepper Jack cheese, divided
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 cup broken tortilla chips
1/4- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease 2 1/2 quart casserole dish.

Coat chicken breasts in Teriyaki sauce and grill until cooked through. Let chicken rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

Cook pasta according to box directions. Drain pasta and return to saucepan.

Add cheddar cheeses and 1 1/2 cup Pepper Jack cheese, evaporated milk, chicken and pepper to pasta. Stir until combined. Pour into prepared casserole dish. Combine remaining Pepper Jack Cheese, tortilla chips & red pepper in a bowl. Sprinkle over the top of dish. Cover tightly with foil. Bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Adapted from Carnation recipe for Pepper Jack Cheesy Mac

Recipe Time: Chicken Tacos

I thought I would share a recipe I tried out this week - it's a chicken taco recipe that I found in October's issue of FamilyFun. It turned out pretty good. I think next time, I will make a little more and use the left-over chicken for enchilada soup.

Ingredients:
1 T oil (I used olive oil, the recipe calls for vegetable oil)
1/2 cup minced onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Serrano chili, minced (I used jalapenos and a chili)
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 t cumin
1/2 t salt
3 1/2 cups shredded, cooked chicken
12 flour tortillas

Heat the oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and chili and saute until the onion has softened, about 6 minutes. Add the tomato sauce, cumin, and salt and continue to cook for one more minute. Add the chicken and cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. Taste, and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve in warm tortillas with toppings of your choice.

Aunt Tammy's Homemade Mac & Cheese

I thought I would share our favorite macaroni and cheese recipe. This is my Aunt Tammy's recipe that she is always expected to bring to any family gathering.

I make this nearly once a week - especially for Cayson. It's great because I can serve him the leftovers for several meals. I sometimes add ham or veggies to it for a little variation. You can add chopped carrots while you're boiling the pasta and get the added nutrition. My favorite addition is chopped bell peppers. I add them during the final stage of melting the cheese, etc.

Homemade Mac & Cheese

1 cup macaroni (salt for water)
4-5 slices American cheese
1/2 stick butter
1/4 cup or more of milk
garlic salt
pepper

Cook macaroni according to package. Drain. Add remaining ingredients and pasta to pan. Mix until melted on medium heat.

Optional additions: Ham, carrots, peas, bell pepper, asparagus

Recipe- Pepperoni & Cheese Stuffed Chicken

I haven't been posting any recipes lately - 1) because I'm lazy and haven't felt like typing them up and 2) we've been doing a lot of old stand-bys and grilling lately. The grilling keeps me from heating up the house with the stove/oven.

I tried this recipe Friday night and it turned out great. I found it here.

Pepperoni & Cheese Stuffed Chicken

Ingredients:
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
Sliced Pepperoni
Cheese
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Italian Seasoning (I didn't have Italian seasoning so I used rosemary, oregano, & thyme)
Salt & Pepper
Toothpicks

Directions:
Between wax paper pound out the chicken breasts until thin. Layer the sliced pepperoni- however much you would like. Layer the cheese (I used provolone because that's what we had) - however much you would like. Roll the chicken up and secure it with toothpicks, seam-side down.
Place in oven safe dish- drizzle with EVOO and sprinkle with S&P and Italian Season to your liking.
Bake on 325 for about 30 minutes or until done

I think a pesto-marinara dipping sauce would go great with this. Rachael Ray made one that I've been meaning to try. You can find it here.

New Chicken Recipe!!!

I tried a new chicken recipe that I found in Kraft Food & Family Magazine... thanks, Teresa, for sharing the info for this with me... if you want to subscribe to this recipe filled magazine, click here.

Chicken Nacho Bake

4 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves

1/2 cup salsa

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 cup crushed tortilla chips

1/2 cup shredded cheese (Mexican style, cheddar, whatever you like)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. The breasts should be split in half so they are flatter and thinner... this makes them cook quickly and keeps that toppings on. Slice 3 cuts on top of each chicken breast half with a sharp knife and place on a foil lined baking sheet.

Here's what the breast halves look like with the slices.

Top each chicken breast evenly with salsa, sour cream, and tortilla chips. (One breast doesn't have the full toppings because it was Cayson's) Bake 20 minutes. Remove from oven; sprinkle with cheese. Bank an additional 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Note: I didn't mess with measuring out the ingredients. I just spooned the ingredients on until it looked good to me. We loved this recipe! It is kind of like reverse nachos... with the chicken on the bottom and the chips on top! I served it with some Mexican rice and it was yum-o!

I thought I'd post a picture of what I deal with when trying to make dinner... a clingy boy and toys spread across the floor... it makes things a little more difficult. :)

Ham & Cheese Ziti for dinner tonight!

Tonight's dinner was a baked ham & cheese ziti recipe that I found years ago on the Betty Crocker website. It's a spin on macaroni and cheese and uses tube-shaped pasta - ziti. You can use another type of pasta such as penne or something similar.

Ham & Cheese Ziti

2 1/2 cups uncooked ziti pasta (9 oz)

1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 garlic clove, finely chopped (I used garlic powder because I didn't have any garlic)
1/4 cup flour
1/2 t salt
2 cups milk
1/2 t Dijon mustard
2 cups shredded Colby cheese (or whatever you have on hand)
4 ounces sliced cooked deli ham, cut into thin strips
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Heat oven to 350. Cook and drain pasta as directed on package

2. While pasta is cooking, melt butter in 3 qt. saucepan over low heat. Cook garlic in butter 30 seconds, stirring frequently. Stir in flour and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Gradually stir in milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in mustard and Colby cheese. Cook, stirring occassionally, until cheese is melted.

3. Stir pasta and ham into cheese sauce. Pour into ungreased 2 quart casserole dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake uncovered 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly.

Pizza Casserole

By now, you have probably realized I like simple easy recipes and use a lot of beef! I love chicken but since it hasn't been on sale lately, I've been cooking with a lot of beef. This is a recipe I found in a magazine a few years ago.

Pizza Casserole

Ingredients:

2 cups egg noodles
2 tsp vegetable oil

1 pound ground beef

1/3 cup finely chopped onion

1 clove garlic, finely chopped ( I substitute garlic powder when I don't have garlic)

1 ts oregano (I use about 2 ts)

(I also add about 1/2 ts Italian seasoning)

1/2 ts salt

1 can condensed tomato soup

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Heat oven to 350. Cook noodles following package directions. Drain and reserve. (I like the steam in this picture!)

Meanwhile, heat oil on medium-high heat in a nonstick skillet. Add ground beef, onion, and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat for 6 minutes until beef is no longer pink. Drain off excess liquid. Stir in oregano, salt, soup, 1/3 cup water, and noddles. (Isn't this can of soup cute? Pink!!!!)


Take off the heat and add half of the cheese. Spoon into a 11x7 inch baking dish (or whatever size you have!) and sprinkle remaining cheese on the top. Bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes until bubbly. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Bacon Cheeseburger Roll-Up... or Stromboli in my case

I tried a new recipe that I found on the Kraft Foods website tonight. Dusty gave it two thumbs up. I thought it could use some type of dipping sauce - like salsa or a pesto marinara. It was super easy - not exactly healthy. But you could make a big salad to go with it!

Bacon Cheeseburger Roll-Up

1 lb hamburger meat
4 slices bacon, chopped
1/2 cup, small onion, chopped
1/2 lb Velveeta cheese (or 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese)
1 pkg. refrigerated pizza crust

Preheat oven to 400. Cook ground beef, bacon, and onion in large skillet. You might put the bacon in first to get it cooked a little more before adding the beef. Cook on med-high heat until browned. Drain fat and return to heat. Add Velveeta; cook until completely melted, stirring frequently. Cool 10 minutes. (I didn't put the Velveeta in. Instead, I spread the shredded cheese on the rolled out pizza dough before layering the beef mixture on it. )

Unroll pizza dough onto greased baking sheet. My dough came out of the container with some major issues - here is the mutilated dough that I had to attempt to fix. Press into 15 x 8 inch rectangular. I didn't have my measuring tape handy so I just winged the measurements. Top evenly with meat mixture. (I put the shredded cheese on first) Roll up dough, starting on one of the long sides. Since I had a lot of problems with my mutilated dough, I just pulled up the sides and sealed it so it was more like a Stromboli instead of a roll.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown (not dark brown like mine - don't follow my example!). Cut and serve.

Inside Out Pizza-dilla

Last night I tried a new recipe from my new Rachael Ray cookbook. I couldn't follow it exactly because our grocery store didn't have the right ingredients, but I'll post the original recipe along with my "modifications." Dusty & I aren't tomato people so I think next time, I will puree the tomatoes first so they aren't chunky.

Rachael Ray's Inside Out Pizza-dilla Margerita

1 T EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil), once around the pan plus more for drizzling
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 pinches red pepper flakes
1 15 oz. can diced fire-roasted tomatoes, drained (I used stewed diced tomatoes due to grocer store - ugg!)
1/4 t dried oregano (I used more like 1/2 t, I like oregano!)
(I also used about 1/4 t of Italian seasoning)
(I also added pepperoni)
salt & black pepper
8 8" flour tortillas
1 pound ball smoked mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced (I used shredded mozzarella cheese)
1 cup fresh basil, about 20 leaves, torn or shredded (didn't use since our grocery stores didn't have this)

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add the T of EVOO to the skillet, once around the pan. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook the garlic for a minute then add the tomatoes and season with oregano, salt, pepper, & (Italian seasoning). Simmer the tomatoes for 2 minutes,(I mashed the tomatoes up with my spatula so they weren't so chunky) then remove from heat.

Heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Add a drizzle of EVOO and a flour tortilla. Cover the tortilla with an even layer of cheese. Top it with one quarter of the tomatoes. I also put a layer of pepperonis. Scatter one quarter of the basil over that. Set a second tortilla, drizzle with a touch of EVOO, and flip the pizza-dilla. Cook for 2 minutes more, or until golden brown and crisp on the flip side. Remove, cut into 4 pieces and serve. Repeat this for 3 more pizza-dillas.

Chili's for dinner!

Thought I'd post what we had for dinner last night - a Spicy Chili! Yum! Dusty couldn't wait for it to cold enough this year so I'd make this. It's super easy - when I worked at SF, I'd brown the meat and put everything in the Crock pot on my lunch break. It was nice to come home to the savory aroma of dinner. If you want it extra hot, use the hot Rotel. I've done that before and it was great!

Spicy Chili
1 lb hamburger meat
1/2 onion
1 can Rotel
2 cans ranch style beans
2 small cans tomato sauce
1/2 package of chili seasoning
1/2 T chili powder

I know the instructions aren't really needed, but here they are.
Brown hamburger meat with chopped onion. Drain fat. Add remaining ingredients. Let heat through or simmer. Can simmer for several hours for great flavor!

What's for dinner?

I have a friend who has a food blog and posts all the recipes that she tries or likes. I thought that might be kind of fun to do here. Since staying at home, I've become a recipe researcher. I'm always looking for something new to keep me out of the dinner rut. The recipes that we love, I usually share with my mom, sister, & Michelle. So, I thought I'd start posting them here too.

Last night I made one of our new favorites - Easy Mozzarella Honey Mustard Chicken

4 chicken breast halves
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup Dijon mustard
1 T lemon juice
lemon pepper to taste
4 slice of bacon, cut in half
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 375. Mix the honey, mustard, & lemon juice in a bowl. Place breasts in a cooking dish and cover with the sauce. Sprinkle with lemon pepper. Bake chicken for 25 minutes in the preheated oven. Top each breast half with 2 bacon half slices and sprinkle evenly with the cheese. Continue baking 5 minutes, then turn the oven to broil for another 5 minutes or until juices run clear, bacon is crisp, and cheese is bubbly.
I serve this over a bed of rice and it is delish!

I'd love feedback from anyone on the recipe thing. If you like this idea to include, let me know and I'll continue to post some recipes every week.