Tag: One Pot Dinners

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1800’s Chicken

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And no, I wasn’t around then to make this recipe up….it appeared in my email this morning as a recipe someone found in Taste of Home. I have not tried it yet, but it does sound really good and so easy to have on hand during the holidays when you have cooked so much that you feel like you are old enough to have been born in the 1800’s. Just get your slow cooker out and add ingredients and sit back and make your Christmas list to give to everyone.

1 large onion, chopped

1 medium sweet red bell pepper

2 teas minced garlic

3 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 tables curry powder

1 teas ground cinnamon

1 teas ground ginger

1 teas dried thyme

1 tables light brown sugar

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup golden raisins

1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained

Hot cooked rice or noodles

Place onion, pepper and garlic in 6 qt slow cooker. Arrange chicken pieces over this.

Whisk the next 5 ingredients with the chicken broth. Pour over the chicken. Cover and cook on high for 1 hour. Add the raisins and tomatoes. Reduce heat to low and cook until chicken reaches 165 (about 2 1/2 hours).

Serve hot over rice or noodles. Sprinkle with parsley if desired or tops of green onions.

Daily Thoughts · Starches · Uncategorized · Vegetables

Lemon-Green Bean Pasta

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This week I saw this recipe on FB and decided that I had to try it. We cooked it Friday evening and it was delicious. No meet, yet, it was so good that we didn’t even miss the meatballs! Quick and easy, you might even have everything in the house that is needed to make it. We have decided next time to add some fresh spinach along with the green beans but you will love this wonderful meatless Italian dish.

1 box angel hair or spaghetti
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 tables olive oil
1/3 cup finely chopped purple onion
5 tables unsalted butter
4 teas lemon zest
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 teas Italian Seasoning
1/2 teas crushed red pepper
2 cups fresh green beans (I bought the bag of fresh green beans that you can cook in microwave in the bag and cooked them for 3 min in microwave before adding to the skillet.
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
2 teas lemon juice

Cook pasta according to directions on box, set aside saving about 1/2 cup pasta water.
Add olive oil and butter to skillet and stir until butter is melted. Saute onion, garlic and green beans in the oil/butter mixture until onion is clear. Add salt and pepper to your liking. Add the crushed red pepper and Italian seasoning and cook until green beans are tender (remember I cooked them first in the microwave to save on time). When these vegetables are done, add the pasta to the green bean mixture along with the pasta water, lemon juice and zest to mixture. Add the Parmesan cheese to the mixture before serving. Serve with garlic bread and Tomato-Mozzarella salad!

Chicken · Daily Thoughts · Soups · Uncategorized

Chicken Wild Rice Soup

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Last week a dear sweet new friend of mine, Marilyn, from church knew that I was struggling with bronchitis and brought this great soup over for our dinner. To say it was great is really an understatement. It was so good, I kept standing at the counter eating it out of the container it was in even before dinnertime. She said I could post it after telling me that she combined about 3 recipes to get this result. Of course with whipping cream in it, what did I expect except a most wonderful soup.

1 box (6 oz) long-grain and wild rice mix, prepared according to directions on box.

2 cups diced cooked chicken

1 table oil

2 cups sliced mushrooms

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup sliced celery

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

3 3/4 cup chicken broth

1/2 teas dried tarragon

1/4 teas dried thyme

1/4 teas pepper

1/2 teas salt

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tables cornstarch

2 tables white wine

Saute mushrooms, onion, celery and garlic in oil until tender. Add rice, broth, chicken, tarragon, thyme, pepper and salt; bring to a boil over medium heat. Combine cornstarch and small amount of heavy cream tomato a smooth paste. Stir into vegetable mixture along with rest of heavy cream and wine.Cook 3 to 5 min until soup is thickened.

Serves 4 to 6 depending on size of bowls you use

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Sausage,Spinach & Sweet Potato Soup

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IT is a beautiful day here in Arizona and we are preparing to leave for a party where there will be a tremendous amount of food to consume during Super Bowl. To allow our clothes to be a little loose so we won’t have to unzip our pants during the party, we ate soup for several dinners this week, hoping to loose a pound of two. This was one of the soups which I had found in a Taste of Home magazine and decided to try. I can testify that this recipe will stay in my stack of “favs” for a long time. Not only was it simple, but it was delicious.

Because we live in an area which does not have an immediately supply of black eye peas, I substituted Am’s Organic Lentil Vegetable soup. Before you get excited and think, “oh my gosh, she has finally done it, she has realized that if she wants to live past 70, she had better get with the program and go organic and quit having chocolate cream pie for dessert every night.” No, it was just the only bean soup I could find on the shelf that wasn’t black beans, pork and bean or pinto bean soup. So don’t get excited and start sending me packets of organic veggies to plant. Just not going to happen besides, I already have my chocolate cream pie piled high with whipped cream ready for dessert tonight.

Ingredients:

2 links of sweet Italian sausage, taken out of casing

1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cubed

1 medium sweet onion, diced

1/2 medium green or red bell pepper, seeded

1 small can of tomato sauce or the regular size can of diced tomatoes

1 can (15 1/2 oz) black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained (( substitute Amy’s and did not drain them, but used the whole can, juice and all)

2 cans reduced sodium beef broth (here once again, I used 2 beef bouillon cubes and 2 cups water because I didn’t have any beef broth in the house)

2 cups chopped fresh spinach

1/2 package cheese tortellini

Garlic cloves, salt, pepper, and a about 1 teas Italian Seasoning to taste.

Add the Italian sausage to a big Dutch oven which has been sprayed with Pam and crumble and cook until no longer pink. Add the rest of the ingredients except the spinach. I added more water while soup was cooking to give it more broth. Cook for about 2-3 hours over low heat until sweet potato and other vegetables are tender. The last 30 minutes of cooking, add the chopped spinach and the cheese tortellini . Cover and cook until spinach is wilted and tender and tortellini is done ( it floats when it is done)

Serve with hot crust Italian garlic bread.

Soups · Uncategorized

Mexican Wedding Soup

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Randy and I love Italian Wedding soup, so when I saw this in the new Taste of Home Magazine, I got excited to see that I could have a recipe that would make it with a whole new taste. Am looking forward to having this soup over the weekend. Thanks Taste of Home!

1 tables veggie oil or canola

2 medium carrots, chopped

2 medium celery ribs, chopped

1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed

1/2 cup chopped onion*

1/2 teas garlic powder

2 qts chicken stock

1 cup soft bread crumbs

1 envelope reduced sodium taco seasoning

1 large egg

1 lb ground chicken

1  cup acini di pepe pasta

2 tables minced fresh cilantro

1/4 teas salt

Cubed avocado and sour cream

In a Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat. Add carrots, celery, onion and corn; cook until tender. Stir in stock. Add garlic powder, if desired. Increase heat to high; bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, combine breadcrumbs, taco seasoning, egg and chicken; mix lightly. With wet hands, shape into 1 1/2″ balls. Reduce heat to simmer. Gently drop meatballs into stock. Cook, covered, until meatballs are no longer pink, about 8-10 minutes. Stir in pasta. Simmer, covered until pasta is tender, 6-8 minutes. Sprinkle with cilantro and salt. Serve with avocado and sour cream.

*I added about 1/2 teas garlic powder and the onion to the soup.

Soups · Uncategorized

Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight

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Even though this is the title to an old song it describes our weather here in Phoenix today and all this week. Since today is father’s Day and we are having a pretty heavy meal of chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy and hot rolls for dinner,I wanted it to and on the cool note so I made the frozen strawberry pie with whipped cream for our dessert. After the dinner fiasco last Wednesday night I have actually made myself get back in the kitchen, get my recipes out and began to cook again. Friday night I made an Italian spaghetti soup that ended up delicious with olive bread toasted and then last night we had pineapple cheeseburgers for dinner. Since the heat is forcing us to stay inside more I figured that The best thing I could do was cook and bake. The strawberry pie recipe is under Valentines Strawberry Pie recipe from February, 2015 posts. Here is the recipe for the soup:
Italian Spaghetti Soup
3 links of mild sweet Italian Sausage (take out of the casing)
1 small onion, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
3 ribs of celery, chopped
1 16 oz can of chopped tomatoes
2 cups of chicken broth
1 zucchini cut into 4 vertical pieces then cut into small bite size pieces
2 carrots
1/3 cup of chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup of butternut squash,cubed very small or can of white navy beans, drained
1 teas Italian Seasoning
3 garlic cloves, chopped

Spray a Dutch oven with Pam. Sauté and crumble the sausage as it cooks until no longer pink. Add the onion and rest of ingredients to pan. Stir until well combined. Add lid and bake in 300 degree oven for 4 to 5 hours or until veggies are tender. When soup is done, remove from oven and cook, according to directions, about4 oz of thin spaghetti, breaking noodles as you add to the boiling water. When spaghetti is done, drain almost all of water, leaving a little to add with the spaghetti to the soup mixture. Salt and pepper soup as desired. Serve with toasted garlic kalamata olive bread and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top of soup.

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Adjusting to Arizona

Chocolate Castles3 Comments

We have been here since April 19th and in our new house since May 11th. Maybe it’s because we are old and not as easy to adjust to new surroundings, but my goodness, how young would we need to be to adjust to the heat, and yards adorned with nothing but rocks and cacti? Also, we have never seen so many electric scooters, tattoos and folks wearing black socks with white tennis shoes. Apparently they have never been visited by the fashion police.
In spite of the afore mentioned observations, we have to say that we really do feel at home here and are enjoying the casualness and friendliness of our community. This past Wednesday evening we invited a new friend to dinner. She was the lady who we met through Airbnb when we leased her casita behind her house until we could get moved in to our house. We owe so much to Diana. She is the lady who owned her own construction company and sent out her employees to our new place to do most of the work on our house. So I wanted to show her how much we both appreciated her kindness to us. Because I have not really cooked or baked but about 3 times since the first of March when we moved out of our house in Dallas, I guess that my cooking skills took a nosedive (to say the least, more like hit rock bottom). Because I had not cooked in a while or had company over for dinner, I decided to make an old standby, the one pot spaghetti with garlic bread, capresse and baked Parmesan zucchini sticks.
How hard can that be? Diana arrived at 6 and I put out olive tapenade with homemade garlic toast. Since we stil have boxes which we had taken to storage on Saturday, just to get them out of ou sight for a couple of months, things are still missing from my kitchen, like bowls to eat spaghetti from. So Wednesday afternoon, after deciding to make something “safe”, I headed out the door to stores around our neighborhood to see if I could find some bowls. I could not find any of the large flat bowls, other than just round soup bowls. But At Walmart I found a beautiful little turquoise cut glass bowl and matching plate, made by Pioneer women. So deciding to just use my China bowls that evening, I headed home. I washed my new purchases and went on with my cooking. Following the recipe exactly, I began to cook, feeling very prideful that Diana was in for a great evening of Italian food and would probably walk away thinking, “wow, boy can that Texas girl cook!” Well, the spaghetti was in the pot, waiting to be turned on, the bread was buttered with garlic and herbs just waiting to be put in the oven and the capresse was in the fridge. Diana arrives and we visit and show her around the house that her employees had helped us transform. All of us had stood around snacking on the olive tapenade and garlic toasts and visited. It old Diana and Randy to go ahead and sit and I would serve the meal. When I lifted the lid to the spaghetti, it was a pot of mush. I panicked and tried to pick out the noodles which had not turned to mush, but just could not find enough for her, much less all 3 of us. Quickly I apologized and told her that I don’t know what I did, but we just could not eat the pot of mush. Well, at least we had good garlic bread in the oven, but when I went to take it out, it was hard as a rock. What is happening? I grabbed the plate of tapenade and put it on the table and said that we would just have a dinner of capresse and tapenade. The zucchini sticks were also mush and I instantly just threw them out. I have never, in 40 years cooked a meal like that. And for guest, I just was such an embarrassment. Lucky for me, she loves strawberries and I had made fresh strawberry pie with whipped cream. Trying to be fancy, I had saved some of the larger strawberries and dipped them n chocolate to top off each piece of pie. Pulse the strawberries were really tart. She was kind enough to say that she thought it was the end of strawberry season and that was probably why they did not taste very good. I didn’t see the chocolate covered strawberries in the fridge until I was cleaning up after she went home. At least had they been on top, the dessert would have looked pretty. The grandkids ended up eating them the next day. Then tonight, two days later, I got out my new acquired Pioneer woman plate which I had used Wednesday night. I carried it to the table where I had made more garlice bread for our dinner tonight. During the meal, I saw Rany peeling something off that plate. When I looked over, he was removing the Pioneer sticker off of the front of it. WHAT????Had I washed that and used it Wednesday evening with the sticker still on the front of it? I have not been in this town for 2 months and I have already done enough to earn a reputation as being the worst cook from Texas to settle here. It scares me to think what she was really thinking on her way home, “please Lord, don’t even make me go back and eat at their house again.” We may have to move again. I just don’t think I can take the stares of folks that might have talked to Diana that next day. If she ever does come back, I think we will just take her out to eat. It will be much safer for my reputation as a cooking blog contributor.

Meats · Uncategorized · Vegetables

Pork Roast

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

A couple of days ago, taking a break from packing boxes, I got hungry for a pork roast!  We  texted (only old people call their kids) our kids and ask them if they wanted to come over for dinner.  I think we all know the answer to that question anytime free food is involved! So I got busy and began to look for the necessary food items that I normally use for pork roast.  They weren’t there, such as brown gravy mix, cream of mushroom soup and That brown stuff you sprinkle on meat that starts with Worches, but I can never remember the spelling and since I don’t have any in the fridge, I can’t run to check the spelling, so you will just have to guess what I’m talking about! Anyhoo since we are trying to use up all the items in our pantry and not keep buying I went with what I had in hand!  It turned out so good!  Will make this again as all four of us loved it!   I used cream of celery soup, a packet of dry French onion soup and about 4-5 shakes of Kikoman sauce!

1 (2-3 lb) pork roast

2 tables olive oil

1 onion, sliced

1 reg size can cream of celery soup

1 envelope of Liptons dry French onion soup kix

4-5 shakes of Kikoman sauce

garlicpowder to taste

pepper

in large Dutch oven heat with olive oil. Sprinkle roast with pepper and garlic powder to your liking! Because of the onion soup mix and Jimoman you  don’t need to add any salt!

brown roast and sliced onion in hot oil on both sides about 3-4 min on each side. When roast is brown sprinkle it with the dry soup mix, then cover with cream of celery soup and splash in the Kikoman sauce! add about a can or more water to roast and bake st 350 for 2-3 hours!  The last hour of baking I add cut up potatoes and carrots.  Bake until roast is tender and veggies are done!  The gravy this makes is so good!

Soups · Uncategorized

Happy New Year Stew

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

Happiest of New Year’s to all! We are in anti-shopping mode for a few days after the last 2 weeks of shopping for gifts, then taking back a few items and then spending some of the gift cards we received. So the thought of going even grocery shopping just has me wanting to do cook anything that is left in the frigid to avoid going grocery shopping. This morning I thought about how long had it been since we really had just plain ole (when you live in the south, you can use that term, “plain ole”) veggie soup. So after going through every drawer in the (oh my gosh, I almost said, “ice box) fridge, I found enough veggies to actually make vegetable soup. No meat, just veggies. To add some extra flavor I added a can of mild green chile sauce and chicken base granules. Lots of garlic to ward off any winter colds and WA-la, you have a great soup. Since I had some fresh black eyed peas which I was going to cook today for good luck, I threw those in also.

Ingredients

1 cup of frozen chopped onion, celery & green bell pepper (I buy those little bags of the creole frozen combination at Kroger for about $1.27)

1 tables olive oil

1 zucchini, diced

1 cup chopped carrots

2 peeled and diced potatoes

2 cups chopped cabbage

1/2 cup fresh black eyed peas

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can of mild green chile sauce

2 tables chicken granules

12 cup frozen Lima beans (I know, I know, you can omit these if you don’t like them, like so many don’)

Sauté the onion, celery-pepper mix in the heated olive oil. Add garlic to your liking and stir until onion is tender. Add all the rest of the ingredients and bake in a 300 preheated oven for about 2-3 hours, or until vegetables are tender.

Serve with corn bread muffins. Ours is in the oven while we are off to the movies. Have a glorious and blessed New Years! image