White Beans And Penne Pasta

Yesterday I was going to make this for dinner as it was on my calendar,  but plans got changed and my husband ended up taking our two oldest to a youth group function.  I stayed home with our two youngest and made them chocolate chip pancakes instead!  So today, after ballet rehearsal, we were home the rest of the day as a family, which doesn’t happen very often on Saturdays!  I decided to go ahead and break my rule of no cooking on weekends and make Penne Pasta and home-made blueberry muffins.  The whole house smells wonderful!  I’m not sure what smells the best, the pasta or the muffins.  Maybe it’s a mixture of the two!

Here is the recipe for the pasta:

Ingredients

1Tsp olive oil
1 large onion, cut into wedges
1 tsp garlic, minced
2 cans canned tomatoes, diced
2 cans (14 1/2 oz) chicken broth
2 cans Great Northern Beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 tsp salt
6 oz penne pasta, dry
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp rosemary, dried or 1 tbsp fresh

Notes / Directions

Sauté olive oil, onion and garlic for 3-4 minutes in a large non-stick pan over medium/high heat. I used my electric skillet.  It was the perfect size.
Add tomatoes, broth, beans and salt and simmer 10 minutes.

Stir in the pasta and set timer for 10 minutes. I put a lid on the skillet to cook the noodles.

Mix together the olive oil( 2tbsp) and rosemary in a small microwave safe bowl.

Warm on high for 30 seconds.Put on plates and drizzle the warm olive oil/ rosemary over each serving. Use Parmesan cheese on top.

Here’s the end result of dinner. It was really good!  Enjoy!! (You’ll have to click on the picture to see it.  I’m still learning how to use Instagram!)l

http://instagram.com/p/ZMKi8AsOU7/

Creamy Chicken Rice Soup

This is sooooo good!

Since I am not back on track with meals from this past week,  I was trying to figure out what to make today that was easy and took very little ingredients that I actually had in my cupboard.  Then I had a great idea!  Over the past week we had lots of food brought in for us as we were rehearsing, getting ready for the play and while it was running.  One day we had various soups and salads.   There I discovered one of the best soups!  I went back for seconds and it was gone, so others must have thought it was good too!  I asked and found out who made it and she gave me the simple recipe.  I looked and also found one on Pinterest that was similar, so looked through my cupboards and found I had all the ingredients!

This soup is very easy and very, very good!  Everyone in the household liked it!  Here’s the recipe:

3 cups cooked Uncle Ben’s Wild Rice (there are several different varieties – use whichever kind you want!)
2 carrots (diced small)
1 cup diced chicken
1 cup flour
salt and pepper (to taste)
1 large onion, diced
2 celery stalks (diced small)
1/2 cup butter
8 cups chicken broth
1 cup half and half

Start cooking the rice before you begin working on the rest of the soup.  I usually get the “quick cook” kind, but if you get regular wild rice, it will take a while before it is ready!

Chop up carrots, onions and celery.

Saute carrots, celery and onion in butter until tender.  Add flour.  Add broth, salt and pepper (I just put a pinch of each in – you probably don’t even really need salt).  Bring to a boil.  Add chicken and half and half and reheat, but don’t boil again.  Add rice right before serving (if you put it in a long time before serving, the rice will keep cooking and get mushy).

***I used my own half and half.  It was 1 tbsp of butter melted and enough milk to fill one cup with the butter in it.***

 

I hope you try it out!  You’ll find out how delicious it is!!

 

Have a great evening!

 

Chicken Empanadas

I just realized that I use chicken a lot in my recipes! We all like chicken so it’s not a problem. I like to take my leftover roasted chicken and make something yummy with it the next day. I have also used this recipe with leftover roast beef and used my leftover broth from it and it’s also delicious! Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 yellow onion, diced
1 tbsp flour
3/4 cup chicken broth
10 oz peas and carrots, frozen
1 cup chicken pieces, leftover shredded-can use more
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
2 refrigerated pie crust, 9 inch (I haven’t used my crust for this yet)

Directions

Heat oven to 400° F. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 3 minutes.

Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.

Slowly stir in the broth. Cook until thickened, about 3 minutes. Add the peas and carrots, chicken, and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Remove from heat.

Cut each pie-crust in half. Spoon the chicken mixture over one side of each half-circle, leaving a ½-inch border. Using your fingers, wet the border with water. Fold the crust over the chicken. Press to seal. Make three 1-inch slits in the top of each.

Transfer the empanadas to a baking sheet. I have found it easier to make it on the baking sheet. I make mine too big to transfer!!

Bake until golden, 15 to 18 minutes.

Take out and enjoy!  Have a great day!

Chicken and Noodles in Slow Cooker

Last night for dinner I found a recipe in a slow cooker cook book that I thought I would try. I threw it together in less than 10 minutes and have to say it was pretty tasty! I made a chicken and noodles recipe, but used mashed potatoes instead of noodles. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:
3-4 lbs of boneless and skinless chicken
1 can of condensed cream of chicken soup ( I used cream of celery soup)
4 cups of chicken broth
1 package of wide egg noodles ( I skipped this part and made mashed potatoes)

Directions:
Combine the soup and chicken broth in the slow cooker
Cut chicken into cubes (I cooked mine uncut) and add to slow cooker
I also added a bag of frozen peas to the slow cooker
Cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 3-4 hours until is done
Add the noodles and cook for 30-45 minutes until noodles are tender (I didn’t add noodles, but I did add flour to thicken the broth up to make it thick like gravy for the mashed potatoes
Season with salt and pepper

That’s it! Easy isn’t it? This isn’t my picture because, again, I forgot to take one!

Beef Potpie

Good evening,
This day has flown by!  It has been very busy with schooling, a meeting, voting, ballet class, cooking and cleaning!  With the time change it feels much later too!  It’s dark at 5:30!

Today I took my leftover roast beef, broth  and carrots, cut up and boiled red potatoes and grabbed a bag of frozen mixed vegetables to make a delicious potpie.My kids gobble this up! Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

3/4 cup flour
4-5 cups beef broth, leftover juice from roast
1 cup potatoes, cooked and diced
1 cup carrots, cooked and sliced
2 cups roast, cooked leftover, chopped
1/4 cup green beans, canned, drained ( I use a bag of frozen mixed vegetables)
1/4 cup corn, frozen
2 cups flour, crust ingredient
1 tsp salt, crust ingredient
6 tbsp ice-cold water
2/3 cup butter, cold, sliced into pieces-crust ingredient
1 egg, crust ingredient
1 tbsp white or cider vinegar, crust recipe

Notes / Directions

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add flour and cook, stirring frequently, for several minutes until flour just starts to brown.Add beef broth, stirring constantly. While continuing to stir, bring to a boil and cook for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. (I find it helpful to remove pan from heat to do the stirring, then return it to the heat to cook and thicken it.)Stir in cooked meat and vegetables. The filling might look a little pale at this point. Stir in browning sauce to achieve a more appetizing color. Set filling aside until crust is made.Line a 9×13 glass baking dish with crust. Add filling, then top with crust. Seal edges and cut vents. Bake at 350°F for about 40 minutes or until crust has browned as desired. Remove from oven and let sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting.

Crust:

2 cups flour (I used 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1-1/2 cups all-purpose)
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup cold butter, sliced into pieces
6 tablespoons ice cold water
1 egg
1 tablespoon white or cider vinegar

Combine flour and salt, then cut butter into flour until mixture resembles small crumbs (I use a food processor for this).

In a small bowl, beat egg with water and vinegar.

Add egg mixture to flour mixture, stirring until a soft dough forms. Roll dough on well-floured surface.

Enjoy!

Ps.  Sorry about the picture.  It’s not good quality!