Lasagna Soup

soup, supper 8 Comments

I have discovered a new-to-me blog and I’m in love. Have y’all seen The Country Cook? You should! I found this lasagna soup recipe there and I can’t stop eating it. The truth is, I’m not normally a big fan of soup. I like chili (does that count?) and I like my sister’s homemade chicken noodle soup, but I don’t have a long list of ones that I love. This one, however, I love.

The Yankee is not a fan of onions or green peppers, and I wanted to freeze a good bit of this so I altered her recipe a bit; be sure to check out her original as well!

Lasagna Soup

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. ground beef, browned and crumbled, grease drained
  • 2 tsp. onion powder
  • 2 tsp. garlic powder
  • 2 tsp. Italian seasoning or oregano
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tbsp. packed brown sugar
  • 1 (32 oz.) box chicken broth
  • 2 (14.5 oz) cans petite diced tomatoes
  • 1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce
  • 2 cups bow tie pasta
  • 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
  • 2 cups Mozzarella cheese, shredded

Instructions

  1. Combine ground beef through tomato sauce in a slow cooker or pot; simmer for at least an hour or so to let the flavors mingle, then stir in the Parmesan cheese
  2. If you’re serving it all at once, add in pasta and simmer till noodles are cooked, about 10 minutes; serve with Mozzarella cheese sprinkled over top; otherwise see notes below

Notes

I made mine in the slow cooker, and converted it to be an easy freezer meal. Since pasta can be tricky to freeze and reheat without them getting mushy, I didn’t add the noodles into the big pot. I froze two cup portions of the soup in Mason jars, then when I’m ready to eat I can put the contents of the jar and a handful of uncooked pasta in a small pot and cook till the noodles are done and the soup is hot. Practically instant soup!

 

Crockpot Italian Chicken

slow cooker, supper 8 Comments

I have been wracking my brain (and my computer) trying to figure out the source for this recipe! I saw this Pin on Pinterest and thought it sounded great… but when I clicked through it went to a white cheddar chicken pasta recipe. While that also sounds fabulous, it’s not what I was looking for this time. I finally found the recipe, though, on The Girl Who Ate Everything. Yay!

I scaled down the recipe a bit because I had only two chicken breasts plus a couple tenderloins (what came in our CSA box), and tweaked the timing so the cream cheese wouldn’t cook to long and curdle. So I pulled together this:

Crockpot Italian Chicken

Ingredients

  • Two chicken breasts + 2 tenderloins
  • 1 packet Zesty Italian dressing seasoning
  • 1 can cream of chicken soup
  • 1 8-ounce block of cream cheese
  • Cooked pasta or rice

Instructions

  1. Put soup, chicken, and Italian seasoning in slow cooker and turn on low — you’ll want 4-6 hours of cooking time at least, but more is fine; I’ve never had anything overcook in the slow cooker
  2. About an hour before you’re ready to eat, take the chicken out and cut it into chunks, then return it to the slow cooker; add in the cream cheese and cook everything together for another hour, then stir so it’s all incorporated into thick sauce
  3. Serve over cooked pasta or rice

This was so, so good, and is definitely going in our supper rotation!

Do y’all have any suggestions for more slow cooker meals for fall?

Traci’s tropical chicken

supper Leave a comment

I’m kind of a crazy woman right now with a teething baby and homeschooling Kiddo, so I’m going on the assumption that a yummy recipe with no picture is better than no recipe at all. Right?? 🙂

My sweet friend Traci sent me this recipe — her favorite standby meal. She makes it straight-up BBQ served over mashed potatoes instead of rice, and it’s her favorite comfort food. Heaven forbid I leave a recipe alone, of course, so I tweaked it a bit and came up with this. It is SO FREAKING GOOD. You must make it.

Traci’s tropical chicken

Ingredients

  • 4-6 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 stick of butter
  • 1 bottle BBQ sauce of your choice
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 Tbsp. chili powder
  • Salt and pepper
  • pineapple rings
  • 1 cup uncooked rice
  • 1 Tbsp. butter
  • 2 cups pineapple juice

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F
  2. Melt 1 stick of butter in a 9X13 glass baking dish and place chicken breasts in the dish
  3. Whisk together BBQ sauce, sugar, chili powder and a pinch each of salt and pepper; pour over the chicken, then top with pineapple rings
  4. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until chicken registers at least 165 degrees. BE CAREFUL pulling the pan out of the oven because, as Traci says, there will be lots of sweet, delicious, sploshy sauce. I love that!
  5. When the chicken has about 20 minutes left to cook, stir together rice and pineapple juice and add in the 1 Tbsp. of butter; cook either in a rice cooker or in a pot on the stove. We’re using pineapple juice INSTEAD of water here — do not also add water to it
  6. When everything is done, serve chicken over rice, then spoon some of the sauce over the whole thing

It is heavenly.

Rotel burritos and a question

uncategorized 3 Comments

I don’t know about y’all, but I’m always looking for more ways to sneak Ro-tel into my life. This is my latest method! It’s insanely quick and easy and quite tasty, if I do say so myself.

Rotel burritos

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. Velveeta
  • 1 can Ro-tel
  • 1 lb. sausage, browned and crumbled
  • 8 flour tortillas
  • Shredded cheese
  • Cooking spray (like Pam)
  • 1 can Ro-tel sauce (optional, but highly recommended)

Instructions

  1. Essentially, make Ro-tel dip: heat the Velveeta and Ro-tel in a microwave or carefully-watched saucepan, then stir in browned sausage. That’s your filling! If you let it cool a bit it will thicken up and be easier to handle for filling the tortillas
  2. Briefly heat the flour tortillas in the microwave — about 10 seconds — wrapped in a wet paper towel so you can bend them without breaking them. Put about 1/4 cup of filling in each tortilla, roll, and put seam-side down in a sprayed baking dish
  3. Spray tops of burritos with cooking spray (this helps them crisp up in the oven), then top with shredded cheese and Ro-tel sauce
  4. Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes or until top is lightly browned and cheese on top is melted

And now for the question:

If you read OPK without the use of a reader, you may have noticed that I removed the advertisements from the blog. While there was nothing particularly terrible on the ads, they just weren’t always for food that I would use and I felt weird about that — implied endorsement and all.

I do get offers from time to time for companies wanting me to do a review/giveaway. A lot of these I skip over outright; if it’s not something I’m already using or would use anyway, it’s not going to show up here.

For those that I do or would use, though (like this recipe — I use and love Ro-tel, but this post is not sponsored by them in any way): how do you feel about reviews and giveaways? Fun to try to win something? Icky and you’d rather not see it?

The point of this blog, aside from having a place where my addled-brain self can find my recipes, is for y’all to enjoy and find something to cook, so I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Thank you!

Bacon fried rice

lunch, supper 1 Comment

You know what bacon fried rice needs? More bacon.

I know, I’m a visionary.

I kept hearing talk of bacon fried rice on Twitter so I decided to concoct my own version: veggies, leftover rice, and bacon fried in bacon grease.

Bacon fried rice

Ingredients

  • Bacon grease (which I always have in the fridge)
  • Broccoli, chopped
  • Cooked bacon, chopped
  • Carrots (I shredded them because I like them tiny)
  • 1 egg
  • Leftover rice
  • Sweet chile sauce

Instructions

  1. Heat a couple tablespoons of bacon grease over medium heat in a skillet
  2. Add in chopped up veggies and cook for a few minutes until they’re as tender as you like; I’m Southern so this was more like 10 minutes for me (you can also add a little water and put the lid on to steam them very tender)
  3. Break egg into the pan and stir while it cooks up
  4. Add in bacon and leftover rice, stirring and breaking up clumps. Stir and cook until rice is heated through and egg is cooked
  5. Add in a bit of sweet chile sauce (or soy sauce) and eat hot!

 

Go make some! What veggies sound good to you to use?