Chicken Tamale Casserole

I really like making this dish a couple times during the winter months. It’s so yummy and filling. I’ve never had real tamales so I can’t really compare these to the real thing but we are big fans of this dish at our house.

I really like how this recipe gives you the opportunity to play with the flavors. The enchilada sauce can be red or green depending on your tastes. We like red in our house. I usually have extra cooked chicken in the freezer because I like to buy rotisserie chickens when I can get them for a great price. A classic rotisserie chicken is wonderful but when I can find a southwest seasoned chicken I’m all for throwing it into a dish like this.

Since this a Cooking Light recipe the original recipe called for fat-free and low-fat options for just about everything. I just use what we have. I hate buying a whole container of something for just one recipe. A side salad and some fruit make this into a perfect dinner.

Enjoy!

1 cup Mexican blend cheese, divided

1/3 cup milk

1 egg

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

14 oz. cream-style corn

8.5 oz. box corn muffin mix

4 oz. can chopped green chiles, undrained

10 oz. enchilada sauce

2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast

½ cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 400°.

Combine ¼ cup cheese, milk, egg, cumin, cayenne, corn, corn muffin mix and green chiles in a large bowl, stirring just until moist. Pour mixture into a 13 x 9 inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.

Bake for 15 minutes or until set. Pierce entire surface liberally with a fork then pour enchilada sauce over top. Top with chicken and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake for 15 minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven and let stand for five minutes. Cut into eight pieces and top each serving with one tablespoon sour cream.

Adapted from www.myrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-tamale-casserole-10000001854020/ratings/

Buffalo Style Meatballs

It’s amazing how after a few months of not eating out very often my desire to eat out has dwindled. Husband and I had a conversation a few weeks ago about how so many chain restaurants just don’t sound appetizing. Yes, it would be great to have a meal prepared by someone else every once in a while but just going out to eat so I don’t have to cook isn’t an option anymore. Fast food restaurants and chain restaurants just leave me unsatisfied.

This doesn’t mean that husband and I don’t crave some bar food from time to time. Since we don’t have a fryer (nor do we want one) bar food is not easy to recreate at home. This, thankfully, leads to some healthier alternatives. I found a recipe for Buffalo style meatballs on Pinterest but after I bought all of the ingredients I found that the web site the recipe was on had been taken down. I was frustrated but I found a similar recipe and adapted it for our family.

The original recipe used ground chicken but I used ground turkey. The taste isn’t very different and ground turkey is a little bit cheaper. Instead of incorporating the hot sauce and butter into the meatballs I used the sauce after the meatballs had already been cooked. Little one isn’t ready for hot sauce so this is the best option for our family. I put aside a few meatballs for little one and tossed the remaining meatballs in the sauce for husband and me. This also made the meatballs more like bar food. Other changes I made include reducing the amount of butter from four tablespoons to one, increasing the amount of celery from half a stalk to a whole stock, reducing the bread crumbs from ¾ cup to 1/3 cup and adding ¼ cup of feta to the meatball mixture.  I was able to make twenty meatballs with this recipe.

Serve these meatballs with sweet potato fries for a yummy side dish and a salad to make a full meal. With the Super Bowl right around the corner these would make a wonderful game time snack.

Enjoy!

1 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/3 cup Frank’s RedHot Sauce

1 pound ground turkey

1 large egg

1 celery stalk, minced

1/3 cup bread crumbs

¼ cup feta

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Drizzle the vegetable oil into a 9×13-inch baking dish and use your hand to evenly coat the entire surface. Set aside.

Combine the turkey, egg, celery, bread crumbs, feta and salt in a large mixing bowl and mix by hand until thoroughly incorporated.

Roll the mixture into round, ¾ inch balls, making sure to pack the meat firmly. Place the balls in the prepared baking dish, being careful to line them up snugly to form a grid. The meatballs should be touching one another.

Bake 20 minutes, or until the meatballs are firm and cooked through. While the meatballs are cooking combine the butter and hot sauce in a small saucepan, and cook over low heat, whisking until the butter is melted and fully incorporated. Allow the meatballs to cool for five minutes then toss with the hot sauce mixture. Serve.

Adapted from www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mini-Buffalo-Chicken-Balls-369170

Rosemary Olive Oil Bread

I am very excited to share this recipe with you! I am a huge fan of homemade bread and this is one of the faster bread recipes that I have found. Not the fastest, oh no. That honor goes to many of the breads in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. That, my friends, is a cookbook you should have in your collection if you are a lover of homemade bread.

This little recipe caught my attention on Pinterest because the description said it could be cooked in a slow cooker. Whoever wrote that is a lying liar (I’ve been using that phase LONG before Al Frankin came out with his book but I am happy to share it with him). I was over the moon excited to find a bread recipe that would cook in the slow cooker because that meant homemade bread in the summer. Oh well, the search continues.

I made this bread twice in a week. One loaf to share with my grandparents when they came over for lunch and another for Christmas dinner. Both times the bread was a hit. I used Herbs de Provence since I had a made a batch of it a while ago that needed to be used. I’m out of Italian Seasoning so I will need to make some soon. The original recipe calls for bread flour but I used all-purpose flour and the bread turned out just right. Next time I make a loaf I’ll try adding in a few tablespoons of wheat germ or ground flax seed for a little extra umph. I don’t have a pizza peal so I used the parchment paper method and it worked beautifully! I omitted the egg wash and sprinkling of rosemary (honestly, I forgot) and it was still scrumptious. A few slashes cut into the top before baking would give the bread a lovely rustic look.

Enjoy!

1 cup warm water
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped (or 2 tsp. dried)
¼ teaspoon Italian seasoning or Herbs de Provence
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 ½  cups white whole wheat flour
½ cup bread flour + extra for kneading

Cornmeal
1 egg

1 Tablespoon water
dried rosemary, for sprinkling

In a large bowl, combine the water, sugar, and yeast. Let sit 10 minutes to proof.

Stir in the salt, rosemary, seasonings, olive oil, and whole wheat flour. Add the bread flour and stir until the dough forms a ball. Knead on a lightly floured surface for about five minutes, adding more flour as necessary to prevent sticking, until smooth.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled in size, about one hour.

Punch down the dough and form it into a round loaf. Place it on a cornmeal dusted pizza peel or parchment paper. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven and pizza stone to 400 F. Wisk together the egg and water to form the egg wash. Once the dough has risen, gently brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle with dried rosemary.

Bake on preheated stone for 20-25 minutes until the top is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.

Adapted from www.ahintofhoney.com/2011/04/rosemary-olive-oil-bread.html

Golden Chicken Soup

The Friday before Christmas my grandparents came over for lunch. It was the first time they had been to see our new home in Minnesota. Little one spent most of the visit playing with his great-grandpa in his room. It was so much fun to hear them playing with his cars and books. Honestly, it’s hard to tell that there is an 80 year age difference between the two!

My grandma is a huge fan of soup just like me. She gave me a wonderful soup cookbook years ago (this recipe is not from that cookbook) that has furthered my love of soup. I knew that the perfect lunch to serve my grandparents would be a nice pot of soup and a loaf of homemade bread. I had picked up a new cookbook while at the craft store when I was buying yarn for ANOTHER project I’m working on. Fine Cooking put out a one pot meal cookbook so I was very excited to test the recipes out.

Sadly, there was a little excitement in the kitchen while I was prepping the soup for my grandparent’s visit. The burner under my favorite soup pot caught on fire. I was able to get the fire out safely but little one has been talking about the fire since then.  The soup survived and lunch went well. The repair man showed up a few days later and unfortunately after his visit my pot was ruined. I have a new soup pot (thankfully Macy’s was having a sale) so my soup days are not over.

Husband was thrilled that there were leftovers after our lunch. The soup is low in calories but is packed with flavor. Most of the ingredients are ones that I typically have on hand. Saffron can be a little expensive if purchased at the grocery store so I highly recommend picking up saffron at World Market if you have one close. The recipe recommends cooking the orzo separately. While it may seem like a better idea to just throw the orzo in the soup I highly recommend following the recipe and cooking the orzo separately.

Enjoy!

2 Tablespoons olive oil      
2 large ribs celery, finely diced
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 pinch saffron threads
½ teaspoon dried thyme
2 quarts chicken broth
2 cups finely diced cooked chicken
½ cup orzo
1 cup frozen corn
¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring a medium saucepan of well-salted water to a boil over high heat. Cook the orzo until tender, eight to ten minutes. Drain.

Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the celery, onion, saffron, and thyme. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables start to soften, five to six minutes. Add the broth and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer, add the chicken and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.

Add the drained orzo, corn, and parsley to the soup and cook just until the corn is heated through, about two minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Adapted from Fine Cooking One Pot Meals or http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/golden-chicken-corn-orzo-soup.aspx