Creamy Ranch Chicken

We seem to be back on track, cooking wise, anyway!   I am always on the lookout for new dishes to try, and I think Emily is picking up the same habit. I was scrolling through Facebook the other day and came across this recipe.  Of course there seeems to be a lot of recipes appearing on those newsfeeds, but some of them are interesting looking.  This one looked simple enough and appetizing.  I don't use my crock pot as much as I could, but it does require more forethought than I usually give dinner.  Still I forwarded the recipe to Emily and asked her if she wanted to give it a go.  She asked if I had a crock pot (and she has seen me use it!) but thought she could manage.
After supper Sunday night I helped her assemble everything and stowed the casserole insert in the refrigerator until morning.
She scrubbed and diced 6 potatoes, the recipe didn't mention peeling them, so I told her to save the effort.  These went into the pot, followed by baby carrorts.  She laid chicken breasts on top and stirred together a can of cream of chicken soup, a packet of Ranch dressing mix and some milk then poured this over the top,  I thought it looked a little scant, so I added a second can of soup.  As it turned out we had too much sauce; I always forget things get more liquid, not less, in a slow cooker.  Oh well.  The orginal recipe cited 1 - 23oz can of soup, which seemed an awful lot to me.  Must have been a misprint.
When I got home from work on Monday I attempted to thicken the sauce a little by stirring a little flour & water into some sauce I spooned out, then stirring everything back in & turning the heat up to high while Emily made a salad.
Dinner was delicious, and made a nice lunch the following day.  The chicken breasts could even have been diced to make this into a nice chicken stew, especially with the addition of some peas, and even an onion.  I thought it needed a little seasoning too, but maybe that second can of soup detracted from the ranch dressing mix.

Creamy Ranch Chicken

6 meduim potatoes, diced                                         1 can condensed cream of chicken soup

2 cups baby carrots                                                   1 packet dry ranch dressing mix

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (1 pound)         1/2 cup milk

Place the potatoes and carrots into a greased crock pot, top with chicken breasts.  Mix together soup, dressing mix and milk, pour over chicken.  Cover and cook on high 4-6 hours, or low for 8-10 hours.

Top with fresh parsley, chopped, if desired.

Beefy Pasta Casserole

January is already more than half gone!  How time flies - and I know I am quite sure I say something to that effect every week, but it is true.  Emily didn't cook last week, I worked late the night she was supposed to cook, and every day after that seemed to just be busy.  The recipe she chose initially had 2 kinds of dried beans to be soaked and cooked, which I thought would take too long for a weeknight, and I also had a sneaking suspicion she wouldn't like them much, as good as it sounded.  I flipped the page in her new cookbook and suggested this; simple and easy,  It actually tasted very much like an old favourite of mine, Prairie Casserole (emilycooks1015.blogspot.ca/2016/03/prairie-casserole)
She called just before I left the office to see if she could make a cake for dessert too.  There was a mix in the cupboard so I agreed, since I would be home soon enough.
Once I got home I found the oregano in the cupboard (as much to make sure I had some!) and let her begin browning the ground bison with said oregano.  Meanwhile she stirred together 2 cans of tomato soup and a can of water, after arguing with me about whether they needed to be cooked or not.  She was stirring dried fusili into this while I grated cheese for her.  She started stirring the grated cheese into the mixture while talking on the phone before I stopped her & showed her the mozzarella went on top, reminding her to read her recipes several times before starting.  Then I handed her a tub of ricotta to stir in instead.  After  briefly being consoled after she hung up from talking to her dad, who hurt her feelings telling her they couldn't have a daddy/daughter date because he had no money, she added the browned meat.  The whole thing went into the oven for half an hour.

Paranthetical note here.....Non custodial parents, your kids don't need you to spend money on them, they want your time, your attention.  A walk in the park, a game of cards, an ice cream, just you & your kid(s) one on one, no interruptions, no distractions.  Time is so very fleeting.

OK, back to dinner....While the casserole baked Emily set the table, made a salad & frosted her cake with chocolate pudding.  She made the pudding while the cake was baking, a misunderstanding of my pouring pudding over a cooled cake before it sets, after using the handle of a wooden spoon to make several holes in the cake, so the pudding fills the cake.  When the 30 minutes were up Emily topped the casserole with the shredded mozzarella.
Dinner was very good.  I would have cooked the noodles first, or baked the casserole longer, the noodles were not quite cooked enough.  The next day, reheated, though, the pasta was tender.

Beefy Pasta Casserole

1 pound ground beef                             4 cups uncooked rotini or fusili

1 Tablespoon dried oregano                  1 container (15 oz) ricotta cheese*

2 cans condensed tomato soup              1 cup shredded mozzarella

1 soup can of water

Cook the beef & oregano over medium high heat until beef is well browned, stirring to separate meat.  Pour off any fat

Stir the soup, water & pasta into a 9x13  shallow baking dish.  Add the beef and ricotta cheese, stir. Cover.

Bake at 375F for 30 minutes.  Sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese.  Let stand 5 minutes, until the cheese melts.

* Ricotta is not inexpensive.  Cottage cheese could be substituted, I like ricotta better, personally.

Mango Salsa Chicken

Goodness Gracious!  I can't believe it has been so long since I posted anything.  No excuses.  Life got lazy and busy by halves and Emily hasn't been doing much meal preparation.  She has done some baking, but not even much of that.  All our household routines somehow fell by the wayside.  It happens to the best of us I suppose.  In any case we are going to try to get back on track.  With the holidays now, sadly, behind us and a new year underway we can press forward.
Peter commented to Emily over dinner the other night (while she was protesting about the peppercorns coating the pepper steak I had made ) that she hadn't been cooking much.  I agreed, and said we were going to get back to it soon.  A day later she had the magazines out and had chosen this recipe.
I was surprised by her selection, since I didn't think she liked mango or avocado, but who was I to argue?  It looked good, and like it might taste just a little bit like summer in the middle of a frigid January.
When I arrived home the next evening, groceries in hand she had pre-measured the seasonings and was boiling water for the rice.  I explained rice usually went into cold water & then brought to a boil and advised her how much rice to add to the water she had measured.  While she rubbed the spices into the chicken I diced both a mango and an avocado for her.  Incidentally, finding a ripe mango or avocado on the grocery shelf is a challenge....but we managed.  Emily chopped some red onion, but knowing was not going to be cooked I took the onion she had prepared and minced it into finer pieces, stirring the ingredients for the salsa together.
Emily measured some oil into a frying pan to cook her chicken and then came in to visit with her aunt and me.  Before long I could smell very hot oil and reminded her to never walk away from a hot pan, explaining hot oil can just ignite on its own.  We cooled the pan off a little and she started to brown the chicken, crisis averted.  When the meat was mostly cooked she came in and asked where the salsa was.  I pointed out the bowl of mango & avocado on the counter....to which she expressed with shock that that was NOT salsa.  She was expecting the usual tomato based salsa we always have jarred.  I laughed and wondered where she had read that tidbit in her recipe.
Regardless of having the "wrong" kind of salsa dinner was delicious.  The sweet mango & creamy avocado were a nice balance to the mildly spicy chicken.  The next day the onions were almost overpowering in the salsa though.  Later in the week I had the last of the dish for lunch again.  Emily had packed it all together in one container, so the salsa got heated with the chicken & rice.  It was still tasty, but would have been better chilled on the hot chicken.  Oh well.

Mango Salsa Chicken

2 large boneless chicken breasts (1 pound/450g)       1 large mango, cut into 3/4" cubes

1 Tablespoon brown sugar                                          1 avocado, cut into 3/4" cubes

2 teaspoons chili powder                                            1/4 cup Mango Chipotle dressing (Kraft)*

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder                                         1/4 cup minced red onion

Cut each chicken breast into half horizontally, to make 2 thin pieces.  Mix the sugar, chili & garlic powders until blended; rub onto both sides of chicken pieces.  Refrigerate 10 minutes.

Meanwhile combine remaining ingredients.

Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large skillet over meduim high heat.  Add chicken and cook about 4 minutes per side, until done.

Serve topped with Mango Salsa

*I couldn't find Mango Chipotle salad dressing the day we made this,so I substitued Madarin Orange with Sesame.  The recipe also called for 2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro in the salsa, but since we don't particularly like it I left it out.  Fresh parsley could be substituted.