Crockpot Lemon Chicken

This was seriously the easiest dinner ever!  And the chicken turned out very tender and moist with a perfect lemony flavor.  I will definitely be doing this one again!

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts (or chicken tenders)

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/2- 3/4 Tablespoon McCormick lemon and pepper seasoning

1/4 C butter

Melt butter and add to soup and seasoning mix.  Pour half into crock pot.  Add chicken and pour over remaining soup mixture.  Cook 5 hours on LOW in crock pot.  Serve over rice.

Parmesan Roasted Vegetables

 This is a very easy and a tasty way to eat your squash.  Even my pickiest eater begged for more.  And my husband, who seems to have squashaphobia, ate a big plate full and loved it.

• Zucchini and Summer Squash (I used 3 small squash of each variety to fill the whole jelly roll pan)
• Garlic powder
• Pepper
• Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Chop your squash into large, chunky slices about 1/2 inch thick.
3. Spray a cookie sheet with a light coat of olive oil.
4. Line up your squash slices. Don’t worry about leaving any space between them.
5. Spray a light coat of olive oil over the top of the squash.
6. Sprinkle garlic salt, pepper and then parmesan cheese on the squash slices.
7. Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes, or until they have a very light golden hue to them, and you can easily push a fork through them.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Pasta

I tried this recipe last night.  It was really fast to put together and we all really liked it.  The kids were begging me to send it in their lunchboxes the next day!

Ingredients

• 10-12 oz. penne or ziti pasta
• 2 cups heavy cream (I used milk and it still tasted great)
• 1 (8 oz) block cream cheese
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 1 tsp. garlic salt
• 1 1/2 cup grated swiss cheese, separated
• 3/4 cup bacon, cooked and chopped
• 1 cup diced ham
• 2 chicken breasts, cubed and cooked
• bread crumbs

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to its package's directions. Drain. Add a little olive oil so the noodles won't stick together.
2. Heat cream cheese on stove over medium low heat until melted. Stir in heavy cream (or milk if you prefer). Stir until completely combined. Add onion powder and garlic salt. Stir 1 cup of cheese until smooth consistency.
3. In a 9x13, layer noodles, bacon, chicken, and ham. Pour sauce over top. Sprinkle top with 1/2 cup cheese and bread crumbs.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 - 20 minutes or until heated through.

Broccoli Quinoa Casserole

One 10 oz can condensed Cream of Broccoli soup (or mushroom)

1/3 cup reduced fat mayonnaise 

2 tablespoons milk

1 1/4 cups reduced fat shredded cheese (cheddar, colby-jack, etc)

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Dash nutmeg

.
2 cups cooked broccoli

1 1/2 cups  COOKED quinoa (see note)

Parmesan cheese

.
To cook quinoa:

3/4 cup quinoa

1 1/2 cups water

1/4 teaspoon salt

.
Rinse quinoa in a fine sieve until water runs clear.  In a small saucepan combine the quinoa, water, and salt.  Bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce heat to low and cover.  Cook for 18-20 minutes, or until fluffy and the white ring/tail is visible.  Fluff with a fork.  I just put the quinoa in my rice cooker and cook it just like I would do rice. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat a shallow (8×8 in or 5-6 cups) casserole dish – or individual ramekins – with vegetable cooking spray. *

In a large bowl combine the soup, mayonnaise, milk, shredded cheese, pepper, and nutmeg until well mixed. Stir in the quinoa and broccoli.

Spoon mixture into prepared casserole.  Sprinkle on a couple tablespoons of Parmesan and bake for 35-40 minutes (20-25 minutes for ramekins) or until bubbly on the edges and golden.  Makes 8 generous 1/2-cup servings.

*I doubled the recipe for my family of 6 and baked it in a a 9 X 13 pan.  Everyone liked it so much that there wasn't very much left over!

Apple Pie

Sunday I made an apple pie.  Why, oh why, do I give in to the baking urge on Sundays?  I didn't want to worry about making my own crust though and I had recently purchased pre-made pastry crusts with a coupon I had, so I used those.  I think they taste great and they only cost about $2, so I have a hard time making myself want to make my own crust.  My time is worth more than that, right? I guess you now know I'm not a real cook and you should move on to a more worthy food blog! But first try this apple pie recipe.  It was great!

Apple Pie Filling:

1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling
1/2 tsp nutmeg
7 small/medium apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
Juice of one lemon

Mix together the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl. In another bowl, sprinkle apples with the juice of 1 lemon and toss. Stir in the sugar mixture to evenly coat the apples.Set aside.

Line a pie pan with one of the pie crusts. Mound the apple and sugar mixture into the pie pan lined with dough. Dot with pats of butter. Put second crust on top. Brush the top of the pie with beaten egg (1 egg is enough) and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Trim the overhanging dough and crimp edges.

Bake pie for 1 hour at 350 degrees.  I keep mine covered with foil for about the first 35 minutes so the crust doesn't brown too fast.  Check the pie at about 50 minutes. Let rest 20 minutes before slicing.

Honey Glazed Carrots

These were really good and my husband thought they were dripping in butter.....but they weren't!  They do have some oil but not a whole lot.

Mix Together:

2 Tbs. orange juice
2 Tbs. honey
1 Tbs. oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Cut 1 lb. of carrots into thin strips and then toss will the liquid mixture until coated.  Place as a single layer on a foil covered large jelly roll pan.  Bake at 375 for about 25 minutes or until they are tender.

Cinnamon Syrup

What's this?! A recipe that is not made in the juicer?  That's right folks, my 10 day juice fast is almost over and I am plum out of juicing recipes!  I got to the point where you could pretty much throw anything in together, add an apple, or orange and it would taste just great.  I made the kids waffles with cinnamon syrup for dinner tonight and I admit I did eat a little, but only because I needed to taste this new syrup recipe for myself.  I'm the kind of girl who grew up thinking the only kind of syrup was maple syrup, so discovering in my 30's that this isn't true is quite exciting (thank you Pinterest!)  So for your next breakfast try out this recipe.  It was very tasty and I think would be amazing on French Toast.

1 c. sugar
1/2 c. light corn syrup
1/4 c. water
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk

In a saucepan combine all ingredients except the evaporated milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat and stir for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat, let sit for 5 minutes, then stir in evaporated milk.  This made a little less than 2 cups of syrup.