Category: Food

Categories
Babies Food

{Make Ahead Meals} Chicken, Mushroom & Wild Rice Casserole

We’ve received a bunch of chicken casseroles as chicken is my go to meat. This was one of our favorites {& I have this recipe written down}. SIL Beth made this one after finding it on eatingwell.com

Chicken, Mushroom & Wild Rice casserole
Ingredients
2 c water
1/2 c wild rice
2 lb boneless chicken breasts
2 tbsp EVOO
2 leeks, rinsed & chopped
1 & 1/2 lbs mushrooms, sliced
1 c dry sherry
1/4 c flour
2 c milk
1/2 c parmesan cheese
1/2 c sour cream
1/3 c chopped flat leaf parsley
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 c frozen French cut green beans
1/2 c sliced almonds

Combine water & rice in small saucepan. Bring to boil, then cover & reduce heat to maintain simmer. Cook until tender for 35-40 minutes then drain.

Meanwhile, place chicken in large skillet, add lightly salted water to cover & bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat & simmer until chicken is cooked through {10-15 mins}. Transfer to plate or cutting board to let cool.

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add leaks & cook until lightly brown {4-5 minutes}, stirring occasionally. Add mushrooms, continue stirring while cooking until their liquid is out & evaporated {12-14 minutes}. Add sherry & bump the heat up to high. Cook until most of the liquid is gone {5-7 minutes}. Sprinkle the vegetables with flour then add them to the skillet. Add the milk then bring to simmer for 1 minute. Stir in the cheese, sour cream, parsley, salt & pepper. Remove from heat.

Spray a 9×13 dish with cooking spray. Place the rice in the 9×13 dish. Cut the chicken in bite sized pieces then add them on top of the rice. Add the green beans then pour the sauce over & spread evenly. Sprinkle on the almonds.

At this point, you can either cover & freeze. Or bake on 350 until almonds are golden brown {about 30 minutes}. Enjoy ~ we sure did!

Categories
Food

{Make Ahead Meals} Veggie Stuffed Shells

We’ve received a couple different types of stuffed shells: Mexican style, cheese, spinach & these veggie stuffed ones. All were excellent, but since I have this recipe, on hand, I’ll share this one first. Beth found the recipe from makeaheadmeals.

Veggie Stuffed Pasta Shells
Ingredients
24 uncooked pasta shells
1 10 oz can vegetable broth
1 carrot, minced
1 potato, peeled & diced
1 onion, finely chopped
2 c part-skim ricotta cheese
1 c shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg
1/2 graded parmesan cheese
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1/4 c parmesan cheese
1 c shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook pasta according to directions. Rinse, drain & set aside to let cool.

In a big saucepan, boil broth. Add in carrots, potatoes, & onions. Cook for 3-4 mins or until veggies are tender. Drain veggies well. Combine with egg, ricotta, mozzarella, & parmesan cheese, & seasoning in a large bowl.

Fill each shell with cheese & veggie mixture.

Beth then put shells in a freezer safe bag, four at a time. She refrigerated until they were cold, then froze & brought them to us. To cook them, we placed the shells in a microwave safe bowl, topped with spaghetti sauce & parmesan cheese. We microwaved at 40% until thawed, topped with mozzarella then microwaved for an additional 1-3 minutes until it was hot.

If you wanted to cook the shells immediately {or want to bake thawed shells vs microwave the frozen shells}, add half the sauce to a baking dish. Place the shells in the dish in a single layer. Top with the cheeses. Bake on 350 for 20 mins covered then 15-20 mins uncovered. We did this Tuesday night & they were awesome. Enjoy!

Categories
Food Pregnancy

{Make Ahead Meals} Bean Burritos

Another great meal thanks to my sister in law. She found the recipe on allrecipes. These have been fabulous as a quickly microwaved lunch or dinner.

Ingredients
2 c uncooked brown rice
4 c water
4 cans black beans
2 cans pinto beans
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can diced tomatoes & green chiles
16 flour tortillas
1 lb shredded pepperjack cheese

Combine rice & water in saucepan & bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover & allow to simmer for 35-40 mins. When tender, remove from heat & allow rice to cool.

Strain & rinse the beans in colander; add the corn & diced tomatoes with green chiles. Toss to mix. Pour into bowl & mix with rice & cheese.

Divide mixture evenly among the tortillas & toll up. Wrap individually in plastic wrap & place in freezers safe bag. Freeze & reheat in microwave.

I topped with salsa & found pineapple salsa was my favorite.

Categories
Food

{Make Ahead Meals} Spanish Chicken

We’ve been very lucky & blessed that friends & family have dropped off plenty of meals for us over the last 11 weeks. And lucky that everything has been super delicious ~ although at 3a or after going almost all day without having the chance to eat, just about anything tastes wonderful! I haven’t gotten recipes for everything, but I did want to post recipes that I have gotten.

I’m going to post a bunch of recipes coming up that were all made by my sister in law & brought down frozen when she came to help for a long weekend. It’s been awesome having the freezer stocked. She found this recipe on makeaheadmeals.blogspot.com.

Easy Spanish Chicken & Rice
Ingredients
1 lb boneless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
1/2 lb Italian sausage or chorizo {she used turkey sausage}, cut into slices
8 oz package of Goya yellow rice mix
3 tbsp olive oil
Medium yellow onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 c hot water
1 c frozen peas
1/2 c Spanish or manzanilla olives, chopped {if I remake this, I’d either omit or just add 1/4 c}
Salt & pepper, to taste

In large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high. Season chicken cubes generously with salt & pepper & add them & the sausage to the skillet. Cook a few minutes, until chicken browned but not cooked through.

Lower heat to medium. Add onion & garlic & saute for about 5 minutes. Be careful not to Brown the garlic or it will get bitter.

Add water, rice mix & seasonings. Add hot sauce to taste if you’d like. Stir well to combine ingredients. When it starts bubbling, cover, lower heat to low & let simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove pan to heat & add in peas & olives. Pour into 2 & 1/2 quart baking dish. Once cool, cover tightly & freeze.

Defrost in frig for no less than 24 hrs & no more than 2 days. Bake on 350 for 45-60 minutes.

Categories
Everything Else Food

Everyday Desserts


By this point, y’all are familiar with how much I’m continuing to eat in order to grow & sustain these babies. A lot. Still something every two-three hours.

The weather here has been in the 80s for the last couple of weeks. So now not only am I looking hugely pregnant, I’m also looking sweaty. But the one one of the great things about warm weather & spring/summer is that fruit will soon be in season locally! Bring on the NC strawberries, blueberries, & peaches!

And while bananas aren’t grown local, I didn’t get the childhood nickname of Suzanna Banana by coincidence!

Fruit is by far my favorite go to when I’m hungry. Add COOL WHIP whipped topping, and even the most basic fruit becomes a special, exciting, delicious snack or dessert.

Top plain white cake with strawberries & COOL WHIP, BOOM, you’ve got Strawberry Shortcake. Perfect for Easter weekend when our fresh strawberries should be coming out.

But my all time favorite dessert is banana pudding. {if any of y’all try to call me Suzanna Banana though, it’s on.} Since I eat dessert every night now, & since Target had both bananas & COOL WHIP on sale this past week, I took advantage and whipped up this banana pudding for the weekend. This recipe makes a lot. Like feed-a-family-reunion, take-to-church-pot-luck, perfect-for-girls-beach-weekend lot. Or, you know, feed-Suz-&-her-growing-babies lot. 🙂

I’ve shared this recipe before but it’s been a while, and it’s my favorite & also one of the easiest Banana Pudding recipes I’ve ever made. I swear the reason for it’s awesomeness~ COOL WHIP. I used two small containers of COOL WHIP this time & it made the pudding part so moist & light. The recipe is from my friend Kim’s Mississippi Momma. You can’t beat a southern lady’s recipes y’all!

Homemade Banana Pudding
Ingredients
1 large pkg instant vanilla pudding
2 c cold milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 container COOL WHIP, slightly thawed
4-5 bananas. sliced thin
1 box Nilla Wafers

Directions
Make pudding as directed on package: Using wire wisk, mix pudding into cold milk for 2 minutes in large bowl.
Continuing whisking while pouring in condensed milk then COOL WHIP.

{ingredients; adding the good stuff}

In 2+ qt container, place layer of wafers, then thinly sliced bananas. Top that with pudding mixture. Continue to layer until all gone. Enjoy!

{1.5 qt full; COOL WHIP containers make great banana pudding holders}

And for some reason you have COOL WHIP & bananas left over, throw them in a dish with strawberries & blueberries & call that breakfast! Happy spring & summer eating!

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