Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti

It's official, I have had my first fiasco!

I was so excited when I saw this recipe for Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti on Pinterest. I couldn't wait to try it. The pictures looked yummy. The recipe sounded yummy. All roads looked like they headed to yummy. And then I tried it.

It was the most bland thing that I have ever made! And talk about cheese overload. Now I am one that loves cheese, and trust me when I say that this was way too much cheese.

The hubs was a darling and said it wasn't "that bad" and ate his entire plate. Talk about grin and bear it. He's the greatest :).

So, if you see the below picture for cheesy chicken spaghetti floating around Pinterest, don't say I didn't warn ya. Better luck next time.

Lasagna with Garlic Toast

The hubs has been petitioning me to make lasagna for supper for weeks now. I kept putting it off. For some reason when I think of cooking lasagna I have visions of laboriously slaving over the hot stove for eons of time. I have made it only a couple of times in the past 18 months we've been married.

But, when he called me from work this morning, asking yet once again for lasagna for supper I had to give in. After all, it is one of my 2 nights off from work, the least I can do is make him a nice hot meal.

So out came my cookbooks as I searched for the easiest and least time consuming lasagna recipe available. I really didn't have to search far because the first place I looked, Taste of Georgia (a Southern Living Hall of Fame-er), held my answer.

I used the Taste of Georgia recipe as a guide and here is what I came up with:

Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef (this was my first time making lasagna with ground beef - I've always used venison)

1 teaspoon garlic salt

1 can Italian diced tomatoes (if you like your sauce a little 'saucier' I would add another can of tomatoes)
1 can tomato paste

lasagna noodles (I used 8)

1 1/2 cartons 15oz ricotta cheese (I only had 1 on hand and it wasn't quite enough)

1 bag mozzarella cheese

parmesan cheese (you know, the kind in the green canister you sprinkle on top of your spaghetti)

Cooking Directions:

1. Brown ground beef with garlic salt and drain. Add in tomatoes and tomato paste.

2. Spray a casserole pan with cooking spray to prevent sticking. Layer meat, noodles, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese and parmesan until ingredients are gone.

3. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Three steps. That's all it took. It was so easy. And tasted pretty yummy too. I didn't have quite enough ricotta cheese so the top layer of noodles were a little crunchy. Besides that, I'd say this one was a hit.

In addition, I made some garlic toast. The hubs and I both love garlic Texas Toast, but we all know how horrible that stuff is for you.

Sooo. I had an idea one night to make my own Texas Toast. And it isn't half bad.

Take sliced sandwich bread (we eat whole wheat, but any kind will work) and cover one side in butter. Sprinkle garlic salt over the butter. Toast in the toaster oven at 375 degrees for 5 minutes and you have home made Texas Toast! with way fewer calories and at a much lower cost.


Got a tried and true lasagna recipe that you love? I would love for you to share it with me in the comments below!

Poppyseed Chicken + Broccoli Casserole

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. We traveled back home to Georgia for the long weekend and get to spend some much needed/wanted time with family and friends.


To start this shortened week off on the right foot I decided to try out a new recipe. Pinterest, yet again, provided some inspiration for tonight's supper: "French Chicken Broccoli Supreme" from Get Off Your Butt and Bake!

I tweaked the original a little bit, so bellow is my version and how it turned out.


A bit of warning before I begin. The prep time for this dish... for me, for the first time... was 1 hour. I'm hoping that it only took this long because I was constantly referencing back to the recipe to make sure I was doing it correctly. Or I could just be a very slow cook :)

Ingredients


1 lb chopped broccoli steamed 'til softened
10 chicken tenders boiled and shredded
2 cups shredded mild cheddar cheese
2 sleeves of Ritz crackers
1 and 1/3 sticks of butter
1 tablespoon poppyseeds
1/4 cup corn starch dissolved in 1/2 cup cold water
1/3 cup chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon of each salt and pepper
2 cups milk


Directions


1. Boil and shred chicken and place in a 9x13 inch baking pan
Chop and steam broccoli and place on top of chicken in pan


2. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine 1/3 stick of melted butter with dissolved cornstarch, chicken broth, milk, salt and pepper. Stir continuously as sauce thickens.


4. Once sauce thickens, stir in 1 cup of shredded cheese. Pour sauce over chicken and broccoli. Use 1 cup of cheese to cover the chicken and broccoli.


5. Melt 1 stick of butter and stir in poppyseeds. Crush Ritz crackers into crumbs and spread over the shredded cheese.


6. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until the crumbs turn golden brown and the sauce bubbles.




Yet another yummy chicken casserole dish going into the recipe folder! The hubs was less than thrilled with the broccoli (said it took away from the yummy chicken flavor - he really just doesn't like broccoli). However, I liked the idea of having a vegetable in the casserole rather than as a side. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

Hmm, two chicken recipes in a row... maybe next week I will get a little more adventurous. Maybe.