No Frying Chicken Parmesan

This was so easy, and my family ate it well.  I got it off the Ragu jar.  Nice for a teaching night when I don't have a lot of prep time or energy.

No Frying Chicken Parmesan
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used two large Costco ones and cut them in half)
Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs
1 egg, beaten
1 jar spaghetti sauce (my kids like Ragu)
shredded Italian cheese

Preheat oven to 400.  Dip chicken in egg, then coat in crumbs.  Place in greased baking pan.  Bake 20 minutes.  Pour sauce in pan around chicken.  Sprinkle cheese over chicken.  Bake 10 more minutes.  Serve over cooked spaghetti noodles.

Served with: french bread and green salad.

Italian Ravioli and Meatball Soup, Breadsticks

Italian Ravioli and Meatball Soup
serves 8

1 lb frozen meatballs (about 20)
    (I usually make my own)

1 T + 1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
pepper to taste

1 T parsley
3 cans beef broth; or 4 1/2 cups water plus 5 beef bullion cubes, dissolved in 1/2 cup boiling water (microwave the 1/2 cup water with cubes to dissolve)
2 cans Italian Style Stewed tomatoes (15 oz)
1 can diced tomatoes (15 oz)
2 zucchini, chopped small (I used the food chopper for this and the onion)

1 can small white beans (15 oz)
10 oz frozen small cheese ravioli or tortellini

Brown frozen meatballs in 1 T oil.  Remove from pan.  Add 1 tsp more oil and cook onion, garlic, and pepper until tender.  Add parsley, broth, tomatoes and zucchini and return meatballs to pan.  Simmer 10 minutes.  Turn to high, and add frozen ravioli and white beans.  Do not boil.  Simmer as soon as soup begins to boil.  Simmer 15 minutes.  Enjoy.

This freezes well.

Best Breadsticks

1 1/4 cup plus 2 T warm water

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 Tablespoons olive oil

4 cups flour

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 Tablespoon yeast (I use instant yeast)

 

To start with bread machine:

Put ingredients in machine in order listed.  Start Dough Cycle.

 

To start by hand:

Combine water, salt and oil in large bowl.  Beat in 1 1/2 cups flour.  Combine remaining flour, sugar and yeast.  Add to water mixture.  Stir until dough comes together.  Knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.  Pour a little oil onto the sides of the bowl, and spread oil to cover all sides and bottom.  Form dough into ball and place in greased bowl.  Turn to coat ball in oil.  Cover and rise about an hour in a warm place, or until doubled in size.  

 

To continue (from any method):

Punch dough down and shape into bread sticks.  (Roll into snakes and twirl two together, or roll dough to 1/2 inch thickness and slice into strips.)  Place on greased cookie sheets or parchment paper.  Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with garlic salt.  Rise 15-20 minutes.  (Preheat oven to 425.)

 

Bake at 425 10-12 minutes, and if desired, broil a minute or two to achieve desired brownness.  Remove from oven and brush again with butter.   Serve hot.

 

Note:  This also makes good French Bread.  Form dough into two small round loaves.  Rise 30-45 minutes.  Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. 

 

Also makes great cinnamon sticks—bake as directed.  When done, brush with butter, and sprinkle sugar over sticks.  Then sprinkle with cinnamon.  YUM!

Easy Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Seasoned Green Beans

Easy Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
We often serve this on my teaching night since it's fast, easy, and everyone likes it.

Heat skillet to medium high.  Add 1 lb ground beef.  Do not stir, allowing beef to brown on one side.  After a bit crispy on that side, turn the beef over to brown the other side.  After crisply browned on both sides, break mead up into small pieces and cook over medium heat until fully browned and cooked through.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Pour one jar of spaghetti sauce (Family Favorite: Ragu Traditional) over the beef.  Rinse jar with about 1/4 cup water and pour rinsing water and remaining sauce into skillet.  Simmer 10 minutes, or until ready to eat.

Meanwhile, cook 1 lb spaghetti noodles according to package directions.

Serve meat sauce over noodles alongside a vegetable or green salad and french bread (see French Loaves in previous post.)

Seasoned Green Beans

Place desired amount of fresh, trimmed, green beans in sauce pan.  Fill with one inch of water.  Heat over medium high heat until boiling.  Cover and reduce heat to simmer about 5 minutes, or until beans are crisp-tender.  Remove from heat and carefully drain.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Sprinkle with salt and lemon pepper to taste, and a dash of garlic powder.

Chicken Asparagus Soup and French Loaves

Chicken Asparagus Soup

This is delicious!

2 pounds thin fresh asparagus

2 large potatoes, peeled and diced

1 large onion, chopped

2 celery ribs, chopped

1 medium carrot, chopped

2 T fresh minced parsley (or 2 tsp dried)

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 T olive oil

2 cans (14.5 oz each) chicken broth

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper, divided

1 bay leaf

2 cups cubed cooked chicken

2 cups half-and-half cream

shredded parmesan (optional)

Cut upper half from asparagus spears; chop into bite-sized pieces and set aside. Place remaining stalks in large pot; cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 40 minutes. Strain, reserving 4 cups liquid. Discard stalks.

In Dutch oven, sauté potatoes, onion, celery, carrot, and garlic (and parsley, if using dried flakes) in oil until vegetables are tender. Stir in broth, salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, bay leaf and reserved cooking liquid. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered, for 30 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Cool slightly.

Blend soup in covered batches until smooth. Return to pan. Add chicken, half-and-half, remaining pepper, and asparagus tips. Boil; reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes, or until asparagus is tender. Stir in fresh parsley. Garnish with parmesan cheese. 

French Loaves

4 cups warm water
4 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
4 Tbsp instant yeast
9-10 cups bread flour

cornmeal

In stand mixer (I use a Bosch), combine water, salt, sugar, and 5 cups flour.  Mix.  Add 3 cups flour and yeast.  Mix, and continue adding flour until soft dough forms and cleans sides of bowl. Knead in mixer 5 minutes.
Remove dough and cut in half.  Place each ball of dough in one of two large greased bowls and cover.  Rise in warm place until triple (at least an hour.)  Prepare two long cookie sheets with parchment paper sprinkled with a little cornmeal.  Divide each ball of dough into two pieces and shape each piece into long french loaf (about 12 inches).  Place two loaves on each cookie sheet.  Rise until double (30-60 minutes.)  Preheat oven to 450.  Sprinkle loaves with a little cornmeal and make four slits in the top of each loaf with a sharp knife.  Bake loaves for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.  This bread freezes well--I bake it a bit less (just barely browning) if I am going to freeze it.  Thaw on the counter and crisp the room temperature loaf in a 400 degree oven for 5-10 minutes before eating, depending on how crispy you like your crust.

Serve with salad or fruit.

Roast Beef Sandwiches and Broiled Asparagus

Roast Beef Sandwiches
These are a favorite leftover after Crock Pot Roast Beef.  There are several variations:

1-Layer heated left over roast beef on sandwich buns.  That's all the kids want!  Andy and I like ours au jus--dipped in the drippings or in a concentrated beef broth--dissolve one beef bullion cube in 1/2 cup water.

2-Layer heated left over roast beef on bottom of sandwich buns. Top with hot mashed potatoes and gravy and then the top of the bun.  Andy likes mayonnaise with his.

3-Broil open buns--mayo on one side, a slice of muenster cheese on the other--until cheese is bubbly and buns are browned to your liking.  Heat meat separately and place in between bun halves.  Yum!


Broiled Asparagus
This is my favorite way to eat asparagus, and all my kids love it!

Trim*, wash, and dry asparagus.  Pour a little olive oil in a large rimmed cookie sheet.  Place asparagus spears on cookie sheet and roll them around until coated in oil.  Sprinkle generously with salt and fresh ground pepper.  Broil about 5 minutes, shaking pan once for even cooking.  When asparagus is tender, it's ready.

*To trim asparagus, bend a single stem.  It will naturally break where the stem starts to get woody--discard the bottom (or reserve for later use--see soup in following post) and cut all your spears to that length.

Crock Pot Beef Roast, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Seven Grain Bread

Crock Pot Beef Roast with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
3-5 pounds Beef Roast (chuck is the most fall-aparty, but we have used others as well)
1 package Onion Soup Mix
1/2 cup water

Combine in Crockpot.  Cook on low 8 hours.  Remove meat and reserve.  (I usually go through it at this point to remove bones, large chunks of fat, etc.)

Pour the drippings through a strainer.  I have one of those gravy measuring cups that pours from the bottom, so you can pour off all the juice into another pot without pouring all the fat that settles on top.  Love it!

Pour the juices into a saucepan and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, chop 3 large, peeled, potatoes into cubes.  Cover with salted water.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until soft enough to mash.  When ready, pour off water into the saucepan with the meat juices.

Melt 1/2 cup butter (or 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup cream) and pour into potatoes.  Using blender, combine potatoes and butter.  Add milk to desired consistency.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Back to the gravy--combine about 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch with enough cold water to dissolve it.  Add gradually to the boiling meat juice/potato water combination, whisking to combine.  Add enough to thicken it to your liking.  Add salt and pepper to taste.


Seven Grain Bread

1 1/3 c warm water

1 T instant yeast

3 T dry milk powder

2 T vegetable oil

2 T honey

2 t salt

1 egg

1 c whole wheat flour

2 1/2  c bread flour

3/4 c 7grain cereal

Bread Machine:  Combine ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer in bread machine.  Select dough cycle.  When complete, shape dough into 2 round loaves.  Rise.  Bake at 375 25-30 minutes.   (Note:  I like to use hot water and let cereal soak in it first to soften.)

Bosch:  Double recipe.  Use HOT water.  Combine hot water with cereal in bosch for 10 minutes (to soften cereal).  Add milk powder, oil, honey, salt, eggs, and wheat flour.  Mix.  Add 2 c bread flour and yeast.  Mix continuously adding more flour as needed until dough pulls from edges of bowl and is not too sticky (total of about 5 cups bread flour.)  Knead 8 minutes.  Rise covered, in bowl.  Mix down and shape into round loaves (4 large).  Rise.  Bake at 375 25-30 minutes or until browned and crisp. 

Alternatively, bake about 20 minutes until lightly golden.  Cool.  Freeze for later use.  Thaw on countertop and bake at 375 an additional 15-20 minutes until browned and crisp.  Serve warm. 

Served with : green beans.

Southwestern Crockpot Chicken and Fruit Smoothies

Southwestern Crockpot Chicken

2 large frozen chicken breasts
1 small bag frozen corn
1 can black beans, drained
16 oz medium salsa

Place in crockpot.  Cook on low about 5 hours, until chicken is cooked and tender.  Break chicken into pieces.  Serve with tortilla chips and garnishes or on tortillas.

Garnishes:
Shredded Cheese
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Avocado or guacamole
Sour Cream
Cilantro
Lime wedges

Fruit smoothies

My kids love these. . . they're a little different every time, but here's a start:

1  6-oz can pine-orange-banana juice--Dole (or whatever juice you have on hand)
1  6 to 8 oz yogurt, any flavor
1 to 2 cups frozen fruit
1 tray of ice cubes
cold water as needed

Blend until desired consistency, tasting as you go, adding water as needed.