Main Dishes

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

Six Sisters Stuff is one of my favorite blogs for recipes. The link to this recipe is http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/07/chicken-cordon-bleu-casserole-recipe.html

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 (6 oz) pkg. chicken flavored stuffing mix
1 (10 3/4 oz) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 tablespoon prepared, Dijon mustard
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cut into bite-size pieces (I boiled mine)

3 cups fresh broccoli florets
2 cups cooked, chopped ham
6 slices of extra thin Swiss cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375ºF.  Prepare stuffing as directed on package.  Mix soup and mustard in medium bowl; stir in chicken, broccoli and ham. Spoon into 2-qt. casserole dish sprayed with cooking spray; top with cheese slices and stuffing.  Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until heated through.

Our Version of Doritos Taco Salad
Spencer requests this one quite often and it's very easy.

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef
1/2 onion
1 can black beans
1/4 c. taco seasoning -or- 1 package
Family size bag of Doritos
Avacado
Plenty of shredded cheese and lettuce
Plus whatever else you want to put on a taco salad 

Cook ground beef in large pan. When meat is almost done, drain as much grease as you can and add chopped onion to cook with it. Drain again if necessary. Add black beans and taco seasoning. (Usually you also add water with the taco seasoning but I don't if I'm adding a can of beans because they have plenty of liquid.) 

Now it's just like putting together a normal taco salad however you want. We just found that the onion and beans were fantastic with our taco meat. Enjoy!

Low Carb Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole

This is a new recipe to us since we have had to work a little harder at watching my blood sugar with gestational diabetes. It takes a little bit of time, but Spencer and I both liked how it turned out. I found this recipe on Pinterest of course. It comes from a blog called Low Carb Yum. http://lowcarbyum.com/bacon-cheeseburger-casserole/  

Ingredients

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 2 large garlic cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 pound bacon, cooked and chopped
• 8 eggs
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
• 12 ounces grated cheddar cheese, divided

Instructions

1. Brown ground beef with garlic and onion powder.
2. Drain excess grease, then spread beef on bottom of 9x13-inch casserole pan.
3. Stir bacon pieces into cooked beef.
4. In medium bowl, whisk together eggs, tomato paste, heavy cream, salt, and pepper until well combined.
5. Stir 8 ounces grated cheese into egg mixture.
6. Pour egg mixture over beef and bacon.
7. Top with remaining 4 ounces of grated cheese.
8. Bake at 350°F for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown on top. (I cooked it a little longer to make sure the eggs in the middle were cooked all the way.)

 Crab Rangoon Crescent Rolls
 I made this for my birthday and it was pretty great. I got the recipe from https://www.spendwithpennies.com/crab-rangoon-crescent-cups/ but I changed a bit.

INGREDIENTS:
1 package Pillsbury Crescent rolls (regular size)
4 oz cream cheese , softened
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 green onion , finely sliced
1 can (6oz) crab meat, drained
1 clove garlic (I just used garlic powder, approximately 1/2 tsp. Maybe more. I dunno.)

1/2 cup & 1/3 cup mozzarella cheese (divided) (I didn't divide it and I didn't measure.)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a small bowl combine cream cheese, mayonnaise, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, green onion, garlic and 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese. Gently fold in crab meat and set aside.
3. Open crescent rolls, pinch seams together and cut into 18 even squares.(Actually, I just stretched each one out a bit and cut them in half so I had 2 smaller triangles.)
4. Place crescent squares in a mini muffin pan and gently press into the cups. Divide filling between wells. Top with remaining 1/3 cup cheese. (I did not do this at all. I just filled my mini crescent rolls, folded them up and baked them on a cookie sheet.)

5. Bake 12 minutes. Allow to cool 5 minutes before removing from pan.

Manicotti
I sort of made up this recipe after we went to a restaurant and after reading a few recipes online. Some people add an egg to the filling, I didn't. Personally, I think mine is better. It turned out great!

Ingredients:
1 box (8oz) manicotti shells
marinara sause
Filling:
1/2 lb ground sausage
1 cup spinach (I tore mine into smaller pieces)
15 oz ricotta cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
First, get your water boiling so it will be ready for the manicotti shells.
While you're waiting for your water, start cooking the sausage. I just bough 1 lb of sausage but I only ended up using half. So do what you want.
Then cook the manicotti shells according to the box directions.
Combine all cheeses and add whatever salt and pepper you want. Then mix in the spinach and sausage.
Spread some of the marinara sauce around the bottom of your pan. (I used a 9x11)
I read that some people like to use a pastry bag to fill the manicotti, I actually just used a plastic baggy and cut the end off a good amount. Worked like a charm!
Once you've got all the manicotti filled and set in the pan, use a spoon to put more marinara on top of each manicotti. Some people like to douse theirs, but I tried to use just enough so that the sauce would cover most of the top but not be overwhelming.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
I took mine out after 25 minutes to spread a bunch of mozzarella on top of it all, then put it back in the oven for 5 more minutes. (I just turned the oven off for those last five minutes and let it melt the cheese that way.)

Parmesan Breaded Baked Talapia
This recipe I modified from just being baked Talapia. I made some serious improvements to it. I think it turned out amazing. Really. It was so good. And Hubby agrees! But I don't really measure anything so a lot is up to your own discretion.

Ingredients:

• fresh fish fillets (I used 2 and they were Talapia)
• Parmesan cheese, grated
• Garlic butter croutons, finely crushed
• oil

Here's what you do.

1. Put your croutons in a baggy and crush them up. I just tried to guess how much I would need to cover both sides of my 2 fish fillets. I got pretty close and that was good enough.

2. Add grated Parmesan to your bag of crouton crumbs. I didn't add a ton. It was probably a third of what I had in croutons. 

3. Spray a baking pan with cooking spray. Put the fish in with bottom side up.

4. Brush fish with oil, sprinkle breading mixture on top, and pat it down.

5. Flip fish over and repeat.

6. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

Note, that mine was baked closer to sea level so use some discretion.

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

I kind of combined a few different recipes and this is what I got. It was SUPER good!

2 cans white chicken (way easier)

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup finely chopped celery (let's be honest, I don't measure anything)

1 green onion, chopped

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup of plain yogurt (I use Greek! And probably closer to 1 cup)

Sliced red grapes (Like 15 or so.. I don't know)

1/2 cup shredded carrots 

Salt and pepper to taste

So you mix everything together. Eat as a sandwich with croissants. Ta-da! 

Chicken Bacon Pesto Pizza

This is a recipe of my own invention but it is a big hit at our house!

**makes 2 cookie sheet sized pizzas

Pizza Dough Toppings

3 cups warm water 8 oz cream cheese

4 tsps yeast 2 Tbsp pesto sauce

1 Tbsp olive oil 1-2 cups spinach

1 Tbsp honey 4-5 cooked chicken breasts, cubed

2 Tbsp salt 1 lb cooked bacon, cut into bite sizes

3 ½ cups flour Lots of shredded mozzarella

+4 cups flour

Mix water, yeast, olive oil and honey. Add 3 ½ cups flour and salt. Mix well. Add up to 4 cups of flour. Mix for 5 minutes. Divide dough in half. Spread out each half into a cookie sheet. Bake at 400° for 10 minutes. (This is only half baked which allows you to spread the cream cheese on top.)

After pizza dough is half way cooked, mix cream cheese and pesto together and spread half of the mixture over the hot crust. Sprinkle mozzarella over the cream cheese sauce add half of your spinach, bacon and chicken. The other half goes on the second pizza. Place back in oven for 10 more minutes. Add more mozzarella to the finished pizza and place it back in the oven for 1 minute.

I cook the chicken the day before to make things easier. But I like to cook the bacon just before so I can use the bacon grease to grease the bottom of both of my cookie pans. Actually, I only have to grease one because I used the other one to cook the bacon in so it's all ready to go for me. I just wipe some of the grease up with a paper towel and grease the other pan with it.