Nobody understands the need for convenience and ease more
than I do. My schedule is so hectic
these days I don’t know whether I’m coming or going sometimes. Between work, school, daycare, entertaining
Caden, my photography, my nieces and their activities, etc there is little time
for me to be in the kitchen whipping up a culinary masterpiece. That said, I have found a few “go to” meals
that I use when I’m dog tired and feel like I’m going to punch somebody if I have
to stand there in that kitchen for more than 15-20 minutes. Since I’m nice, I decided that I would share
them with you. If you have any quick and
easy recipes that you would like to share, that would be fabulous!
The first meal that I like to make is homemade stromboli. We just had these last night and they are definitely
one of Mr H’s favorite meals. It literally
took me 10 minutes to throw them together and pop them in the oven.
Homemade Stromboli
What You Need:
can of Pillsbury pizza dough (thin crust is best IMO)
pizza sauce
mozzarella cheese
pepperoni (or any other meats you like….Mr H likes ham and
bacon)
mushrooms (or any veggie you like….I like onions and green
peppers)
Preheat oven per instructions on the pizza dough can. This is usually 400 degrees. Unroll your pizza dough and cut into two
rectangles (or squares, whatever).
Spread your sauce on half the rectangle and then top with your toppings
of choice. Fold the other half of the
dough over your toppings and pinch the edges together. Spray a little cooking oil on a baking pan
and put your Stromboli on the pan. Spray
a little cooking oil on top of the Stromboli to help it get that lovely golden
look. Pop that bad boy in the oven for
about 15 minutes and dinner is served!
The next meal involves my favorite kitchen appliance EVER….the
crockpot! Whoever invented the crockpot
is my hero and I would like to give them a high five for making my life so much
easier. This is a chicken recipe that
you can use for Mexican dishes. I mainly
use it for tacos/taco salads, but it could be used for enchiladas, quesadillas,
Mexican casseroles, etc.
Taco Chicken
What You Need:
6 chicken breasts
2 cans Rotel tomatoes (or 1 jar salsa)
Packet of taco seasoning
Mix the Rotel and the taco seasoning together in the crockpot
and then throw in the chicken. Cook on
low for 8 hours. Then enjoy! Doesn’t get much easier than that and it is SO
yummy!! We are having this tonight btw,
and I’m super excited!!
Next on the menu is my version of chicken pie. This one takes a little bit more work, but it’s
still nice and easy and your prep work is under 30 minutes. This is a one pot meal because it includes
your veggies, your protein, your dairy, and your fiber all in one!
Nicole’s Chicken n Biscuits
What You Need:
3 chicken breasts (or you can use leftover roasted chicken
if you have it)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
Chicken stock
Carrots
Peas
Potatos
Corn
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Parsley (fresh or dried is fine)
Salt and pepper
For the biscuit topping:
(You can cheat and use can
biscuits if you want to cut more time out, it is still good….just not as good
as if you use the biscuit recipe that follows!)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup milk
First of all, because I prefer to use fresh or frozen
veggies, they need to be chopped and boiled.
So chop your potatoes and carrots into small pieces and throw in a pot
along with your corn and peas. Add your
chicken breasts as well. Cover with
water and add salt, pepper, garlic, onion powder, and parsley to the
water. Let it boil for about 10 -15
minutes and check the chicken to see if it is done yet. The great thing about this is that when you
are done and you take out your chicken and veggies, you now have homemade
chicken broth that you can freeze to use later!
Once the chicken is done and the veggies are soft, remove
them from the broth. Allow broth to cool
off and store in freezer for next use.
Shred your chicken and pour into a casserole dish along with
your veggies. Add the sour cream and
cream of chicken soup and mix well. This
will be VERY thick. Begin adding in your
chicken stock until the mixture is thinned out to a creamier consistency of
your liking. If you thin it out too much
it’s ok, just add more sour cream or open another can of soup and add it back
in little by little. Then add a little
salt and pepper and mix well. Bake in
oven at 350 for about 20 minutes while you are preparing the biscuits.
If you’re using can biscuits here, make sure you have at
least two big cans so you have plenty. You
want to cover the entire top of the casserole.
If you have the flaky layers biscuits you can split them in half to
cover more ground.
If you’re going to make the biscuits from scratch, see
instructions below.
Combine all dry ingredient and blend well with whisk. Cut in
butter until it becomes crumbly. Stir in milk until a dough ball forms. Place
dough ball onto a heavily floured surface (I use wax paper). Let it set for a
couple of minutes and then knead for about a minute and then re-flour surface
and pat out to about 1/2″ thick. Cut biscuits with floured biscuit cutter and
place on top of the casserole. Form remaining dough into ball and repeat until
all dough made into biscuits. This recipe will make approximately 12 biscuits.
Once the casserole is covered with biscuits, spray a little olive
or canola oil on top of the biscuits so that they turn nice and golden brown in
the oven. Then bake in 425 degree oven for 12-15 minutes.
Now I know this sounds kind of labor intensive and the title
of this blog says “QUICK AND EASY,” but I promise you…this is quicker and
easier than it looks on paper….or on screen I guess. Prep time is about 30-35 minutes give or
take.
Next, have Baked Ziti.
I love some baked ziti! I prefer
this without meat, but Mr H is a meataholic so I have to add hamburger to it. I also leave out the ricotta cheese because I
hate it. One of my friends gave me the
idea of using provolone and sour cream instead, which I now use in most of my
recipes that call for ricotta.
Baked Ziti
What You Need:
Box of ziti (or penne)
Pasta sauce of choice
Package or provolone cheese slices
8oz container of sour cream
Mozzarella cheese
Hamburger or sausage (optional)
Cook your pasta as directed on the box and then drain. If you’re using meat, brown your meat and
drain grease away. Then mix with the pasta
prior to adding it to the casserole dish.
This provides a more evenly distributed mixture.
Pour a small amount of pasta sauce in the bottom of a
casserole dish. Just enough to line the
bottom of the dish. Then pour half of
your pasta on top of the sauce.
Pour half of the remaining sauce over the pasta. Then cover with the provolone cheese slices. Once the cheese slices are down, spread a
layer of sour cream on top of the provolone cheese.
Cover with remaining pasta.
Pour on the remaining sauce and top with mozzarella cheese.
Cover and bake in
oven for about 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and cheese is melted. Top with grated parmesan and serve with
garlic bread. Yumm!
And last but certainly not least, chicken kabobs. I make these a lot and they are super
healthy. There are various different
seasonings and marinades that you can put on them from Italian dressing to
honey mustard to lemon pepper, etc. I
prefer the following recipe though.
Chicken Kabobs
What You Need:
2-3 chicken breasts cubed
Squash, cubed
Zucchini, cubed
1 cup Heinz 57
½ cup honey
Salt and pepper
(You can also use onions and green peppers if you’d like,
but Mr H doesn’t eat either of those, so we frequently use squash and zucchini.)
First assemble your chicken and veggies on the skewers. Then in a small mixing bowl, combine the
Heinz 57 and honey and brush over the kabobs.
Then sprinkle a little salt and pepper on top of them and pop in the
oven at 350 for about 20 minutes.
Voila. Done!
Dinner is served!
