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Entrees

 

I LOVE food!  And I love to feed my family.  But sometimes it's tough to make meals that EVERYONE in the family will love. Check out these kid-tested, mom approved delicious dinners.  They are quick, healthy and -bonus- very easy on your wallet! 

CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS
 
 
 
 
 
 

Check out episode #103

 

Ingredients

Broth

  • 1 Medium onion

  • 4 carrots

  • 2 celery stalks

  • One cup of frozen peas

  • 4-5 mushrooms

  • 1 teaspoon of ground time

  • Two frozen chicken breasts

  • 5 cups of water

  • 5 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules

 

 

Dumplings

  • 1 teaspoon salt

  • ½ tsp thyme

  • 3 tablespoons butter

  • 1/2 cup flour

  • 1/2 cup stock (taken from the soup you are making)

  • 2 eggs.

 

 

Directions

Clean and chop the onion, carrots, celery and mushrooms.

 

In a large pot, over medium high heat, add olive oil.  When the oil is hot, add the prepared vegetables and cook until they are slightly soft.

 

Add water, bouillon granules and the ground thyme to the veggies, then add the frozen chicken breasts. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Add the frozen peas.

 

While you are waiting for it to boil make the dumplings:

 

Melt the butter in a pan, when it is melted add the flour and the thyme. Turn heat to low and whisk until it becomes a thick paste.

 

Add the chicken broth and continue to whisk over low heat until it becomes a stiff batter. Remove from heat and add beaten eggs to the mixture and whisk your heart out (LOL, it is not that bad) until it becomes an even, soft batter.

 

At this point, the broth should be boiling. Reduce heat, pull out chicken- which should be thoroughly cooked. Chop it into bite-size pieces and put back into the broth.

 

You can then either pipe the dough directly into the broth using a pastry bag (or a plastic baggie with the corner cut off), or you can pipe it into cute little circles on a cookie sheet, then drop those into the better.  

 

Bring back to a boil with the dumplings and cook for 5-7 minutes. The dumplings should float to the top. Enjoy!

QUICHE
 
 
 
 

 

 

Check out episode #102

 

Ingredients

  • 1 premade or home made pie crust

  • 1-2 Tbs olive oil

  • ½ large red pepper diced

  • 1 cup steamed broccoli

  • 4 eggs

  • 1 cup sour cream

  • 1 cup shredded cheese -plus 2 tbs for sprinkling on top

  • 3-4 slices of sliced ham (deli style) cut into a small dice

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

Place thawed pie crust in 9 inch pie plate and flute edges.

 

Add olive oil to a small pan sautee  pepper over medium high heat until it just begins to cook through. While the peppers are cooking, place broccoli into a food processor and just zap for a couple of seconds until it is finely chopped.

 

In a large bowl (or the bowl of a standing mixer) add the eggs and sour cream and mix on medium high for about 1 minute until well mixed. Stir in the ham, peppers and broccoli and cheese.

 

Pour mixture into pie crust and sprinkle remainder of cheese on top. Bake for approximately 40 minutes, or until quiche is set (you can stick a knife into it –if it comes out clean, the quiche is ready). Serve with a veggie salad or a fruit salad for a light delicious meal. Enjoy!

 

**Make this your own, change up the veggies or meats or cheese for your favorite –or whatever you’ve got on hand in the fridge!

ZESTY STEWED BEEF
 
 
 
 
 
 

Check out episode #104

 

Ingredients

  • 1 lb beef – bottom roast

  • 2-3 tbs olive oil

  • 1 – 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

  • 1 -15 oz can tomato sauce

  • 1 tbs parsley

  • 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano

  • 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

  • 1 tbs sugar (optional)

  • Pasta of your choice

 

 

Directions

In a large pot or dutch oven, over medium high heat, add olive oil.

 

Pat roast dry with paper towel and season well with salt and pepper.

 

When oil is hot, place roast in pot and sear all sides (approx. 2-4 min per side). Once beef is seared well on all sides, add crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, parsley, oregano and garlic powder.

 

Once tomato mixture comes to a boil (which will be rather quickly), reduce heat to low. Cook for four hours over low heat turning every 30-45 mins. Tomato sauces can vary in acidity levels, so, after about 3 hours if necessary, you can add the sugar to calm the acidity.

 

Prepare the pasta according to the directions on the box. Drain and serve the beef over the pasta –make sure to pour some of the delicious sauce over the beef!

 

*If necessary, you do not need to have the beef on the stove for the full four hours, however, if you can control yourself (because boy does this smell good!), and wait out the four hours, you will be rewarded with beef that falls apart on your fork!

DECONSTRUCTED CHICKEN LOAF
 
 
 
 
 
 

Check out episode #105

 

Ingredients

  • 1/2 lb cooked chicken

  • 3/4 teaspoon cumin

  • 1 teaspoon coriander,

  • 1 teaspoon garlic salt,

  • 1 1/2 cups broccoli

  • 2 carrots

  • 2-3 mini bell peppers (or ½ red, yellow or orange bell pepper)

  • 1 cup of shredded cheese (whatever you have on hand, although I prefer cheddar for this)

  • 4 tablespoons mayonnaise or miracle whip,

  • 2 packages crescent roll dough

  • 1 egg

  • 1-2 tbs cream

I call this my deconstructed chicken loaf because where in a meat loaf the bread crumbs are in the inside, here we have the bread on the outside.  Also, you can use leftover chicken in this recipe to make your leftovers seem like the first run!

 

This recipe is incredibly easy! Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it becomes a fine even mixture. Set aside. Remove crescent dough from packages and place side by side, with one edge overlapping. You should have a long rectangle. Using a rolling pin (you can use a glass or bottle if you don’t have a rolling pin), roll out dough and seal perforations. Place filling in the middle of the rectangle, and raise sides of dough up to the top of the filling so that it looks like the filling is in a dough baking pan without a top. Trim off any excess dough and set aside. Using your hands, shape the dough box into a perfect rectangle or whatever shape you like. Using the excess dough, make 6-8 strips and lay them, spaced evenly, across the top of the box. You can give them a little twist to jazz them up. Beat the egg and cream together and brush over the dough- this will add a nice shine. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes. Yum!

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