High-Brow Chicken Casserole

As we may or may not know, I do enjoy a casserole. It's funny, I used to turn my nose up to them growing up but now I recognize them for the cost-saving treasures they are. Also, they freeze and re-heat beautifully. This particular casserole is another wonderful creation from the Picky-Palate blog. It is what I like to call a classy casserole. You won't find any cream of mushroom soup here. It uses fresh ingredients and wild rice. It may be a little more involved than your average casserole but it's not too bad and it is delicious. In fact, I daresay I may consider serving this to company. Enjoy:

CHEESY CHICKEN CASSEROLE
3 tbsp. olive oil

1 Med. Onion finely diced

3 Carrots chopped

3 stalks of celery chopped

2 tbsp. minced garlic

2 cups shredded cooked chicken (I get the Costco Rotisserie chicken)

2 cups steamed white rice (*see author's note at the bottom about cooking rice)

2 cups wild rice (Costco has a great blend)

1 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 tsp. garlic salt (I like Lowrey's Garlic Salt with Parsley)

***cheese sauce***

4 tbsp. butter

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 black pepper

2 cups chicken broth

2 cups shredded cheese

Top with 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil into a medium-large sized sauce pan (you are going to be putting A LOT of stuff in this so go big). Saute vegetables until tender, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, let cook 1 more minute. Add chicken and rices, salt, pepper, and garlic salt, mix well, turn heat to low.

2. In a small sauce pan, melt the butter and then whisk in the flour. Add chicken broth, stirring constantly. Continue to stir until the sauce thickens and is about to boil. Add the cheese, salt and pepper, and stir until smooth. (I could eat this plain. It was that good). Pour the cheese sauce over the chicken and rice and stir to combine. Pour this into a 9X13 pan (use the biggest, deepest one you have, because this is A LOT of food). Cover with 1 1/2 cup shredded cheese and bake for 25-35 minutes, until hot all the way through.

Serves a small army. (8-10 hungry people)

* A note about rice. Maybe I'm just an idiot...but I could never figure out why my rice turned out gloppy and mushy. I did substantial research and field tests and I finally figured it out. Rice does best when left alone. Here is my process for perfect rice:

The general rule is 2 cups of water (or broth) to 1 cup dry rice and 1 tbsp of olive oil or butter.

Boil the water and butter/oil FIRST before adding the rice (many directions will tell you to add it all together and then bring to a boil. No good. Once the water is boiling, pour in the rice and RESIST THE URGE TO STIR. The stirring is generally what is responsible for making gross rice-porridge. I'm not a scientist but I'm reasonably confident it releases more starch when stirred making it mushy. Just pour it in, stir once if you must, put the lid on, reduce the heat to a simmer and set the timer for 30 minutes and leave it alone. Do not open the lid, do not stir it, just let it be. After 30 minutes, lift off the lid and check it. Sometimes the water is not totally absorbed and if this is the case, put the lid back on and let it sit in 5 minute increments until the water is absorbed. If the rice is tender but there is still water, you can drain the remaining water. Then lightly and gently fluff it with a fork. No mush guaranteed!

Freaking amazing chocolate Kahlua cake

Oh my word I could eat this entire cake myself.  Even my husband who doesn't like chocolate ate 3 huge pieces last time I made it.  Soooooooo good.  And easy peasy!!! 

Chocolate Kahlua Cake

1 pkg. devils food cake mix
4 eggs
1 c. sour cream
1 c. Kahlua ( i usually add extra :) )
3/4 c. oil
1 c. (ish) chocolate chips

Mix cake mix, eggs, sour cream, Kahlua and oil.  Stir in chocolate chips and spread into greased bundt pan and bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes.  *side note, I use the Pam Baking crap when I make this, and the cake comes out perfect.  If you are just using regular Pam, you might want to dust in a little flour with it as well, or else the cake might not come out very cleanly.*  Let cool in pan, then turn out onto wire thing (I can't think of what it is called right now!!!)

Icing

2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp coco
2 Tbsp Kahlua
2 tsp. milk

melt everything above in a sauce pan.  I use a little less Kahlua here, since I don't want to really ingest raw alcohol, but I do put just a little and let it boil away for a minute. 

Then add 1 c. powdered sugar and 1/4 tsp. vanilla
Spread on cooled cake.  And try to restrain from shoving it all in your face.

Yummy Asparagus

I love asparagus.  And this is a really easy, quick way to prepare it.  This is how my mom does it and it goes great with just about any meal!  I even did it for a side to some pasta we ate last week.

I don't even know how to put this is recipe format, so I'll just tell you what I do. 

Take some asparagus and break off the ends, just where ever they want to break naturally, and discard.  Then chop the remaining stalk into about 1 inch pieces.  Heat a skillet with olive oil, and saute the asparagus pieces with some accent and pepper, just for a couple minutes, and Voila! 

I like this a lot because the asparagus stays crunchy, I hate mooshy vegetables!

Rice Pilaf

I made this to go along with the honey glazed chicken.  Its one of my go-to recipes, its simple and delicious!

Rice Pilaf

1/2 stick butter
1 c. white rice
1 onion
1 c. celery
1 pkg. Lipton noodle soup mix
2 1/2 c. water
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp.thyme
1/4 tsp. sage
craisins
slivered almonds

Melt butter and add rice, onion, and celery and saute a bit.  Add everything else except craisins and almonds.  Bring to boil, cover, and cook 25 minutes on low.  Stir in craisins and almonds, as much as desired.

I'm back!

I think we all knew this would happen.  I would start a blog and then neglect it.  Sigh.  Well I'm going to try and be better!  So here we are with probably one of the easiest dinners you can possibly through together. I bring you Honey Glazed Chicken

Honey Glazed Chicken

2-3 chicken breasts
1/4 c. melted butter
1/4 c. honey
1/4 c. orange juice
1 tsp. salt

Rub chicken breasts with salt and pepper and place in casserole dish. Combine butter, honey, OJ, and salt.  It will be liquid-y.  Pour over chicken and bake, uncovered, at 350 for 1 hour.  You can reserve some of the honey, juice mixture and baste the chicken as it bakes, if you want.  I just sort of stirred it all up in the oven a couple times.

It comes out of the oven with a lot of juice stuff, so I just took the chicken out and put it on a plate and it was really really good.  Just slightly sweet, with just a hint of orange.  Yum yum!!

Vegetable Barley Soup

Well…my doctor tells me I have a sodium deficiency so I have been trying to find salty food that isn’t too fattening…I just know it’s possible. Soup seems to be a great way to get a lot of sodium in a healthy way. The recipe for this soup calls for low sodium broth but I’ve slightly modified it for more salt but I’ll note my changes for you hypertensive folks J This soup is so easy and quick but is also sooo delicious. The barley fills you up and keeps you full for a while. Mike refuses to try it because it doesn’t have meat in it but that’s okay because I have no problem eating this all week!

1 cup barley (I used instant, so much easier than boiling it for 40 minutes)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 carrots peeled and diced

2 celery stalks, diced

1 package of button mushrooms, sliced

3 cans low sodium vegetable broth (I used regular)

1 cup water (I added a chicken bullion cube to this)

2 bay leaves

(I added some Lawry’s salt with parsley for good measure)

Dry spices like oregano, basil whatever you had, I just dumped a bunch in.

In a medium pan add 1 cup barley to two cups boiling water. Cook according to package directions, set aside

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic. Cook until soft. Add the carrots and celery and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the sliced mushrooms and cook until they are soft. Add the vegetable broth, water (and boulion cube J), bay leaves, and lawry’s salt and any other herbs and spices you want. Simmer about 10 minutes. Add barley and cook another 15 minutes or so.

Remove the bay leaves and serve. Add salt and pepper to taste. YUM!

Baked Oatmeal

Hello all! We eat A LOT of cereal at our house. We regard it as its own food group most of the time. For Michael, I usually end up buying several boxes a week. I also like oatmeal and this morning, I decided to try some baked oatmeal because this recipe calls for applesauce and I just made a DELICIOUS variety and this was a fantastic opportunity to use some. This was an absolute treat. It was so easy to make and the only problem is that even though I was full…I could have eaten the whole pan. Michael ate about half the pan and he doesn’t even like oatmeal that much. Yes, it’s that good.

Baked Oatmeal

2 cups uncooked old fashioned oats

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1-2 teaspoons cinnamon (I like a lot!)

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup each of raisins and dried cranberries (I left these out)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 ½ cups milk

½ cup applesauce

1 ½ tablespoons butter, melted

1 large egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preaheat oven to 350 degrees

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl an combine the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir well.

Pour the whole thing into an 8 inch square baking dish and bake 20-25 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

I poured some extra applesauce over the top and it was literally the most wonderful start to the day that I could have ever asked for.