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.

Creamy Chicken with Sweet Potatoes & Apples

Ah Sweet September, back to school, cool mornings and warm afternoons.  We have easily slipped back into the every day routime of school, although the after school chores still need a little work.  I think by the end of the day someone is fairly twitching from being off line for several hours.  Poor thing.
Emily was eager to get back to cooking, and when this recipe landed in my inbox this week I thought it looked quite tasty.  Emily agreed and dinner was planned.  While most of the ingredients are usually in our pantry I did need to stop at the store for cashews and sweet potatoes.  They are generally as much a staple as regular potatoes, but we were out.
Emily peeled and cubed one sweet potato, with a little help, they are rather tough to cut, and set it in a pot to boil..
While the potatoes were cooking Emily then chopped an onion, wearing her swimming goggles, since she had heard that would keep the onion from making her cry.  It works she says.  Not very effective though if you need to wear glasses to make sure you chop the onion and not your fingers.
The onion was then set aside while she cut boneless chicken thighs into bite sized pieces.  At one point I looked over and she had abandoned the knife and was tearing it apart with her hands.  Most unpleasant.  I dug out the curry powder and a portion of the grated ginger I had frozen a while ago, and then, despite protests she wanted to do this by herself, I started the rice.
Emily heated a little Zesty Lime Italian dressing in a pan and browned the chicken pieces.  Once they were browned she put them in a small bowl and added a little more dressing to the pan along with the onions, ginger, curry powder and the sweet potatoes, which we had drained and set aside once they were tender.  She cooked these ingredients together until all the vegetables were tender.
Meanwhile I played sous chef and whisked some flour into the remaining dressing.  This was then added to the potato mixture along with coconut milk, a chopped apple and the chicken.  It simmered until the rice was done.
All in all it was a very nice dish, although I thought it needed a little salt.  It was fairly quick and easy and made for a lovely plate of leftovers for lunch today.

Creamy Chicken with Sweet Potatoes & Apples

1 sweet potato (1/2 lb / 225g) peeled & cut into cubes           2 teaspoons curry powder

1/3 cup Italian Zesty Lime dressing *                                     1 tablespoon flour

1 pound (450g) boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut            1 cup coconut milk

into bite sized pieces                                                                1 apple, chopped

1 small onion, finely chopped                                                  1/4 cup cashews, chopped

1 tablespoon grated ginger

Cook potatoes in boiling water 5 minutes, drain & set aside.  (I think you could cook the sweet potato in the micowave & then dice it once it cooled enough to handle too)

Heat 1 tablespoon of dressing in a large skillet on medium high heat.  Add the chicken and cook until browned.  Remove from skillet, cover to keep warm.

Add 2 tablespoons of the remaining dressing, onions, ginger, curry powder and potatoes to skillet.  Cook & stir 5 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

Whisk the flour into the remaining dressing (3 tablespoons) in a bowl until blended. Gradually whisk in the coconut milk.  Add to the portato mixture, along with the apples & chicken.  Stir.  Simmer over medium heat 3-5 minutes; until chicken is done & sauce is thickened.  Sprinkle with chopped cashews.  Serve over rice.

*This is Kraft salad dressing.  You could add a splash of lime juice to any Italian dressing, or use olive oil & lime juice instead.

Crispy Shrimp Pasta

It looks like we are making the transition back to normalcy fairly smoothly.  Of course now that I've said that something will go sideways.  Two weeks and a half to back to school, to routine and everything that goes with it.  I'm sorry to see summer go, but I am looking forward to the return of school days.  Even though Grade six is now considered "middle school" my brain still considers Grade seven as the milestone start to Junior High.  And I am amazed at how quickly we got here, for all that that sounds like a cliche.  It wasn't so long ago I had a very little girl all excited for Kindergarten.  Now she's spending her days babysitting a little girl starting Kindergarten and excited about junior high.
Last weekend Emily wanted to have a couple of her little friends for a sleepover.  I reluctantly agreed, (it had been a long week, I just wanted to drink wine and watch Mad Men) after making sure both girls would eat shrimp, since that was what I had taken out of the freezer before work.  They all said they did, so they followed me home.  I had to feed them. While the girls played Uno I made supper- it was a hit, not a scrap left.  Emily wanted more, so I assured her she could give the recipe a try the next time she cooked.  So what if we had the same dinner twice in three days?  We do leftovers all the time after all.
This is a fast and easy dish, although Emily didn't realize the shrimp had shells on, not just the tails, so the shrimp she peeled only had the tails removed.  Not the worst thing, and a good lesson.
Once the shrimp were peeled (or de-tailed) she tossed them in a bowl with a little flour, salt & pepper, while she cooked the fettuccine.
She fried the shrimp in a little butter and olive oil, then (after arguing with me about this step) removed them to another small bowl.  To the pan she added chicken stock and cream, stirring until it thickened.  Once it had thickened she tossed the pasta with the sauce and added the shrimp.
She's getting better in the kitchen all the time, although she doesn't always read all the instructions with due care.  She wanted to add the broth to the pan without removing the shrimp first, which would have made deglazing the pan difficult, but would have resulted in overcooked seafood.
This was a fast, easy and relatively inexpensive meal and will certainly remain in our rotation.

Crispy Shrimp Pasta

4ounce fettuccine                                                       1 tablespoon olive oil

3/4 pound raw shrimp, peeled & deveined                1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon salt                                                            1 1/4 cups chicken broth

1 teaspoon pepper                                                      1/2 cup whipping cream*

2 tablespoons flour                                                     1/2 teaspoon cajun seasoning**

Cook pasta according to the package directions.  Sprinkle shrimp with 1 tablespoon flour, salt & pepper, toss to combine.  Sprinkle with the second tablespoon of flour, toss to evenly coat the shrimp.

Melt the butter & olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.  Add the shrimp in a single layer & cook on each side until golden brown, flipping once, about 2-3 minutes per side.  Remove to a plate.

Pour the chicken stock into the skillet & cook for about 5 minutes, whisking the bottom of the pan to deglaze.  Reduce the heat to medium & pour in the cream, whisking constantly.  Cook sauce over medium heat until bubbly & the cream starts to thicken the mixture, about 5 minutes. Stir in the Cajun seasoning, adjust the salt & pepper if necessary.  Add the drained pasta & shrimp, stir to combine.

*The first two times I prepared this dish I used milk instead of cream, A little flour may be needed to help thicken the sauce

**I have also made this using Tex-Mex seasoning.

Creamy Sweet Potato Soup

It has been a month since my last post, and here we are in mid-August.  Emily was awy for the last two weeks of July (a mini vacation for me, I admit unabashedly) It took us another week to settle back into our routine.  She's been getting lots of babysitting jobs which keeps her busy, and is adding nicely to her small pile of savings.
I had stumbled across this recipe one afternoon and thought it looked really good.  We both like sweet potatoes and I like having a solid list of fast and easy meals tucked away, recipes with ingredients we usually have in the house.  This fit the bill.  Not really a summer dish, but last Monday the forecast was for cool, rainy weather - which we have had far too much of this summer!  Still, it seemed a good opportunity to take this recipe out for a test drive.
While Emily peeled and chopped the sweet potatoes I peeled and grated some ginger.  My sister said someone at work had told her to grate any excess ginger root and freeze in tablespoon sized portions, as ginger root, while relatively inexpensive, does dry up pretty quickly for those of us who don't use it daily.  I'll let you know how this experiment turns out.  I suppose you could use dried ginger in the soup, but you'd have to play with the amount a little.  I'd suggest starting with a teaspoon or so, as the ginger was not a hugely present in the flavour profile of the soup, but it did add something.
Sweet potatoes, onion, garlic and ginger were simmered in vegetable broth (I'm sure chicken stock would work just as well) until the potatoes were tender.  When the broth first came to a boil, at which point the recipe directs you to reduce the heat and simmer until the vegetables are tender, Emily pulled out the immersion blender.  Thankfully I was in the kitchen.  You cannot puree something that is as firm as a raw potato.  At least not without making a colossal mess.  She waited, impatiently until the potatoes were finally sufficiently soft, and then put the immersion blender to use.
The soup was rich and creamy; topped with crispy bits of bacon and a dollop of sour cream.  Definitely a keeper, although I would be inclined to double it.  I had a bowlful for lunch the next day, Emily ate the rest for her own lunch.  More leftovers are never a bad thing.

Creamy Sweet Potato Soup

3 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled & chopped       1" piece of ginger root, peeled & grated

         (about 4)                                                            1 quart vegetable broth

1 medium onion, chopped                                           salt & pepper

3 cloves garlic   

Combine all ingredients in a large pot, bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.  Cool slightly and puree in a food processer, blender or with an immersion blender.

Serve topped with bacon, Greek yogurt, sour cream, croutons, or fresh herbs, as desired.                             

Ratatouille Stuffing Bake & Potato Leek Soup

It's hard to believe July is half over, and so, by default summer is flying by.  Weather wise it's been an odd year - a few days of marvelous sunshine and heat, and the days of grey skies, thunder storms and rain.  Maybe August will feel like summer should.
We've been busy, or it feels like it, but when I try to catalog what we've been doing I am at a loss.  This past weekend Emily dressed up like Pippi Longstocking to hand out candy with the library float in the parade.  It was a fun costume to do; the kids were supposed to choose literary characters to dress up as.  Pippi seemed easy enough to me, second choice would have been Heidi (OK, they're favourites of mine, but I had to put the costume together!)
In any case the weekend slipped away, and I never made time to write and document Emily's cooking.  It was more important to spend a few hours visiting with my son, and to spend Sunday at my mom's.  So you, lucky reader, get two recipes today.

One afternoon last week Emily texted me a picture at work with the caption "Supper tonight?"  I couldn't make out the recipe at all, and had chicken thawed out, so I told her I'd look at it when I got home and consider it for the following day.
The recipe was for ratatouille, but not with eggplant.  I have to admit I've never tried eggplant, much less cooked it, so I would have tried to dissuade her - it is hard to teach what you do not know.  As it turned out the recipe called for yellow zucchini, and sounded very nice.
We eliminated the green pepper, replacing it with roasted red peppers in the can of diced tomatoes.  I also had her halve the recipe.  Not only did we not need a 9x13, 16 serving pan of ratatouille, but it was good math practice.
Emily sliced the zucchini and chopped the onion, putting the dish together with no help from me, although I should have helped her make sure all the mixture found its way into the baking dish.
She grilled a couple of steaks and made a simple salad to round out the meal.  The canned tomatoes we chose had spicy red peppers, so the ratatouille had a nice bite to it.  There are so many varieties of seasoned tomatoes this dish could easily be customized.

Ratatouille Stuffing Bake

1 tablespoon olive oil                                   1 can (28 oz/796 ml) diced tomatoes, undrained

2 yellow zucchini, sliced                              1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil

2 green peppers, chopped                             2 packages stuffing mix

1 small onion, chopped                                1 cup shredded cheese (Italian blend)

3 cloves garlic, minced

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Heat the oil in a large skillet.  Add the zucchini, onions & peppers, cook 6 minutes, until tender crisp.  Stir in garlic, cook 1 minute.  Add tomatoes & basil, heat through, stirring occasionally.

Stir in stuffing mix, spoon into a greased 9x13" baking dish, top with cheese & cover.  Bake 3 minutes, until heated through, uncovering for last 5 minutes.  

*Substitute yellow peppers for the green & green zucchini for yellow.

On Sunday, when we got back from my mom's Emily brought me a recipe for hotdogs topped with beans & barbecue sauce.  They looked like a fun summer treat, but  I had to ask her if she would actually eat them, given that she doesn't like beans.  She perused the recipe again and started looking for something else.  This morning, with the weather report promising another cool day with rain I suggested potato leek soup.  I've made this recipe often, it's fast and easy, and really good.  I dug it out and the choice was made.  

I stopped for leeks on the way home, and once the rest of the groceries were stored away showed her how to trim leeks and cut them most of the way to the root & clean out all the sand.  She sliced them and an onion, setting them over low heat to sweat while she peeled and diced potatoes.  She added the potatoes to the onions and leeks along with chicken stock and thyme (I never have chervil or bay leaves) and brought the mixture to a boil.  Once the potatoes were done Emily got to use my hand blender, a toy she loves to play with.  The soup was rich and creamy, and a sprinkling of grated cheese just made it better.

Potage Parmentier (Potato Leek Soup)

2 tablespoons butter                                       6 cups warm chicken stock

2 sliced leeks, white part only                        1/2 teaspoon each thyme & chervil

1 Spanish onion, sliced                                  2 bay leaves

1 1/2 pounds  (4 large) potatoes,                    2 teaspoons fresh chopped parsley

peeled & diced                                               salt & pepper to taste

Melt butter in a large saucepan.  Add the leeks & onion & cover.  Cook for 15 minutes over low heat; stir occasionally.

Add the potatoes, stock & herbs,  Season with salt & pepper.  Bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce heat to medium & simmer the soup for 40 minutes, uncovered, stir occasionally.

Correct the seasonings and puree the soup.  If it is too thick stir in a little more chicken stock.

Before serving stir in 2 tablespoons cream & fresh parsley.