Thursday, March 5, 2009

Breaded Ranch Chicken

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 C ranch dressing
1 C Italian style bread crumbs
3 TBSP minced onions
1 lb cooked and crumbled bacon or 1 C bacon bits

Mix bread crumbs, onions, and bacon together. Dip Chicken in ranch and then cover with bread crumb mixture. If freezing, put in disposable aluminum pan: cover with foil and freeze. Otherwise, place in 9x13 pan and bake at 375* for an hour.

Sun Dried Tomato Salmon

I LOVED this recipe so fast, easy and healthy!

4 salmon fillets ( I just used about a pound of salmon)
2 cups chopped fresh spinach
1 cup sliced mushrooms (I left these out because I didn't have them and it still turned out great)
1 medium tomato, chopped
1/3 cup - Sun-Dried Tomato Vinaigrette Dressing ( I used the Kraft brand)

Preparation
Place salmon fillet, skin side down, 13x9-inch baking dish, sprayed with cooking spray.Mix remaining ingredients until well blended, and spoon over salmon.Bake at 375 F for 20 to 25 minutes or until salmon flakes easily when tested with fork.

Family Favorite Taco Casserole

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 2 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce
  • 1/2 -1 envelope taco seasoning
  • 10 medium flour tortillas
  • 1 (10.5 oz) can cream chicken soup
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 2 cups grated cheddar or Mexican blend cheese

Preheat over to 350. In a large frying pan brown beef and onion. Drain excess liquid. Stir tomato sauce and taco seasoning into meat mixture.

Line bottom and sides of lightly greased 9x14 pan with 6ish torn tortillas. Spread beef mixture over tortilla crust. Place remaining tortillas over top cutting to fit if necessary and covering to fit completely. Mix together soup and milk and pour over top. Sprinkle cheese over casserole. Cover with foil and bake 20-30 min. Uncover and bake and additional 5 minutes or until cheese is completely melted.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Chipotle Chicken Fajitas

Not a casserole but if I don't write it down I won't remember it for later! These are yummy but a bit spicy. For less spice add less chipotle peppers.

1 bottle (12 oz.) chili sauce
1/4 c. lime juice
4 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
1/2 c. cider vinegar
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
1/3 c. molasses
4 medium green peppers, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large onion, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 TBS olive oil
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
10 flour tortillas
1 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
1 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend

Place the chili sauce, lime juice and chipotle peppers in food processor; cover and process until blended. Transfer 1/2 c. to a large resealable plastic bag; add chicken. Seal bag and turn to coat; refrigerate 1-4 hours.
Pour remaining marinade into a small bowl; add the vinegar, brown sugar and molasses. Cover and refrigerate.
Drain and discard marinade from chicken. On six metal or soaked wooden skewers, thread chicken, green peppers and onion. Brush with oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill, covered, or medium heat for 10-16 minutes or until chicken juices run clear, turning occasionally.
Unskewer chicken and vegetable into a large bowl; and 1/2 cup chipotle-molasses mixture and toss to coat. Keep warm.
Grill tortillas, uncovered, over medium heat for 45-55 seconds on each side or until warmed. Top with chicken mixture, tomatoes, cheese and remaining chipotle-molasses mixture. Yield: 5 servings Note: I also added shredded lettuce.

Fruit Pizza

This isn't a casserole either but such a great and easy treat.

1 tube (16 1/2 oz.) refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1 cup sugar,divided
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 c. orange juice
1/4 c. lemon juice
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon milk
1 tsp. grated orange peel
2/3 c. heavy cream
1 1/2 c. strawberries, sliced
1 med. peach (I used kiwi's)
1 small banana, sliced
1 small apple, thinly sliced
1/2 c. fresh blueberries

Let dough stand at room temperature for 5-10 min. to soften. Press onto an ungreased 14-in. pizza pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 13-16 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. (I used a disposable pizza pan).
In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup sugar, cornstarch and juices. bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat; set aside to cool.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, milk, orange peel and remaining sugar until blended. In a small mixing bowl, beat cream until soft peaks form; fold into cream cheese mixutre. Spread over crust.
It says in the directions to arrange fruit over filling; and then spread with reserved glaze. Refrigerate until chilled. But... since my filling was already chilled. I took and mixed the apples and bananas in the glaze and placed them on the filling - that seemed to help with browning and the fruit still looked perfect the next day. You can also use whatever fruit you have on hand.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Great-Tasting Granola

I know this is not a casserole, but I enjoyed it so much I wanted to share! This is a recipe I found in a book called "Tip-a-day-guide for Healthy Living" by Melanie Douglass. It is yummy as either a snack or as a cereal!
Homemade Granola
8 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup brown sugar
1 wheat germ
1/2 cup canola or olive oil
1 cup cold water
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
Cinnamon for sprinkling
Preheat the oven to 250*. Mix the oil, water, vanilla, and salt together in a large bowl. Then add the oats, brown sugar, and wheat germ and mix thoroughly. Cover a large baking sheet with aluminum foil. Pour the mixture onto the baking sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake for 60 minutes (50 for softer granola) stirring halfway through cooking time. 1/2 cup servings = 270 calories, 11 grams of fat (1.5 saturated), 8 grams of protein, and 5 grams of fiber.

{Tuna Cassarole }

This is one of my kids all time FAVORITES!
Tuna Casserole with Cheesy Biscuits
(this recipe feeds my family (7) and then some)

Sauce:
2 cup milk
1 cup water
1 can cream of mushroom
3 TBSP. butter
more or less of the following ingredients
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp onion
1/2 tsp pepper (we like more)
4 TBSP cornstarch or flour (for thickening)

Cook in a sauce pan till thick then add
3 cans of tuna (you can get away with 2 cans if your family doesn't like tuna as well)
pour into a 9x13 baking dish.

Cheesy Biscuits:
2 1/4 cup flour
4 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4-1 tsp salt
1/2-1 tsp garlic (optional)
2 TBSP chopped chives (optional)
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
shredded cheese as desired (about a cup or so)

add all the dry ingredients then make a well in the dry ingredients and add the eggs and milk stir just until the flour is moist.

drop by large spoon fulls (the size of an ice cream scoop) into the sauce. HINT: they raise A LOT, you will want to resist the urge to put them to close to each other, you will think they look to small if you are not careful they will absorb all the liquid and be dry.

Bake 425* 12-17 min. serve with some veggies!

NOTE: You can put these biscuits on lots of different casseroles like cream of chicken with chopped chicken breasts and broccoli, carrots and cauliflower! Yummy and Easy!

Pork Chop Casserole

This is so dang easy and pretty darn good. I didn't have any pork chops when I made this so I used spare ribs and just cut them up in about 1 inch chunks. It worked just fine. You could probably use any type of meat~

6-7 thin pork chops
Layer sliced pototoes and onions into a 9x13 pan until almost full. Put chops on top. Mix 2 cans cream of mushroom soup with about 1/2 cup water and pour over top of chops.
Bake 350* for about 1 1/4 hrs (until pototoes are done)

Broccoli & Chicken Casserole

3/4 Cup Mayo
2 Cans of Cream of chicken Soup
1/2 teas. Curry Powder
1 1/2 teas Lemon Juice
1 1/2-2 Cups shredded cheese
Seasoned bread crumbs
1- 1 1/2 bags of frozen broccoli-- (I like to use fresh instead) --Cook and drain it
3-6 cooked and cubed chicken, boneless, cook chicken 1 hr. 350

In a 9x13 cake pan, spread cooked/drained broccoli. Mix soup, mayo curry powder and lemon juice. (set a side) Place shredded chicken on broccoli, pour mixer on chicken & broccoli, spreed cheese. Melt some butter in frying pan, sata' bread crumbs until lightly brown. spread on top of cheese.
Cover, cook 350 30-45 min.

makes for 5 adults