Leftovers Love them or leave Them

Leftovers, love them or hate them but they are a part of the holiday season.  My refrigerator looked like Leftover city.  I knew my family would not be happy with turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy again.  So I did reconnaissance in my fridge and found some, onion, celery and carrots and decided to make turkey croquettes .  If you want to get fancy, this combination of vegetables is known as mirepoix to the French.  They dice these three ingredients, sauté them in butter and use it as a base for soups and stews.  If you don't want to make mirepoix, Trader Joe's sells it as well as many of your local grocery stores.  Anyway I made mine with my handy dandy Kuhn Rikon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Technically the vegetables are diced but my family is kind of funny when it comes to veggies so I chopped them a little finer so they would blend in better. I also added some green onions because if I did not use them quickly they would go bad. I had a box of unmade stuffing that I combined with the mirepoix and the turkey (cubed) and then I added two eggs lightly beaten. I also put about 1/4th of a cup of flour.  Every year when I attempt to make these they fall apart when you go to cook them. They look like a mess and my family looks at me like why are you serving this to me?  I think it is because I usually only use bread crumbs.  That is why I used the stuffing and some flour to hold the croquette together better.  By George I think I got it. 

Aside from the seasonings in the stuffing, I added garlic powder, pepper, cumin and coriander to taste.  Flavoring with herbs is very personal.  Some like more herbs some less.  I will let you decide.  I did not add more salt because the stuffing had enough in it for my family.  I try to lightly with the salt shaker. I put the mix in the refrigerator until I was ready to make the croquettes.  I then put some canola oil in a skillet and cooked the croquettes and served them.  My family liked them.  Success! 

Appetizers From your Pantry

I have discussed preparing appetizers before.  For me they are a very important when I entertain friends because I always have a cocktail hour before I serve dinner.  Quite often I only serve appetizers.  This year for New Years I was searching for some good appetizers and I found this link that I am sharing with you Appetizers prepared from pantry items.  It fits in with my whole mission to use things in my pantry.  It just so happens that I have caramel sauce and nuts in my pantry, brie in my fridge.  White beans are also in my pantry and I always have rosemary as art of my spice rack. 

After New Year's I will let you know what I served.  I would also love to hear what you are planning to serve on New Year's. 

 

Bagels in A Casserole? Why not!

 

I grew up in New York where the bagel was a staple item in our house.  Instead of a teething ring, my Mom gave me a piece of bagel and I would gum it to death.  There are pictures proving this fact.  So of course my favorite breakfast is a toasted bagel although lately to eat healthier I have substituted an English Muffin that is high fiber.  But on the weekend it is still the bagel.  To keep things "fresh" I vary what I put on as a topping.  If I still lived in NY it would be lox, cream cheese and a slice of red onion all the time but I no longer live in NY and I like a little variety in my life after all I am a Gemini.  So peanut butter, melted cheeses or flavored cream cheese are a good change.  I think you all get it, bagels are really their own food group for me.  That is why the recipe I will share with you was so appealing to me.  It is a bagel casserole.

Many of you have tasted some of my breakfast casseroles.  They usually have eggs, milk some type of bread and either fresh veggies or perhaps bacon or sausage.  Sometimes I do a combination meat and veggie.  Sometimes I do a French Toast casserole. It all depends on my mood.  The wonderful thing about an breakfast casserole is that you don't need to follow a recipe to the letter, there is wiggle room.  Ever since I took my cooking without a recipe class I have been improvising a lot more.  The only thing I don't usually change is the ratio of eggs to milk because that is what gives the casserole its consistency.  Once I find the consistency that I like I use it in other things.

While I was browsing the online catalog for my county library I found The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman.  One of the first recipes I  came across was This Bagel Casserole I am going to share with you.  One of the Nice things about the recipes in this book is the ingredients are in both the American standard measures as well as those found Internationally.  So those of my friends that follow me outside of the United States, you can follow along as well with one assumption, you can find bagels.  But if you can't substitute your favorite bread.  Remember it is a casserole.

So here it is:

8 cups of bagels cut into 1 inch cubes (570 grams)
8 ounces (225gm) of cream cheese
1/4 medium onion sliced thinly
1 pint grape tomatoes cut in half or quartered
8 large eggs
2 1/3 cup milk (555 ml) or half and half
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
Capers for serving
Lox or bacon for serving

In a pan 9x 13 pan spread a third of the bagel cubes. Dot with a third of the cream cheese bits and mix in the red onion and tomatoes.  Repeat in two more alternating layers.

Whisk eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Pour over bagel mixture.  Refrigerate over night.

Preheat oven to 350.  Bake until it is puffed.

I am not inclined to follow the recipe to the letter of the law.  Like I said it is a casserole and casseroles are forgiving.  I made some changes.

 



I used three types of bagels: garlic, sesame and everything. I added the lox into the casserole rather than serving it on the side. 

I bumped up the veggie content and added a whole red onion, 3 mini red peppers and 3 cloves of fresh garlic.

This is what the first layer looked like:

The top layer looks pretty much like this one. One thing you do want to do is prepare overnight to allow the bagel to absorb some of the egg.  The outside of this casserole is like a warm roasted bagel and the inside is nice and soft.

Hope you enjoy it!

Got My Creative Juices Flowing, my Dish Chicken with apples and onions

I decided to bake holiday cookies this year.  I must admit, I am not the best baker so the cookies I baked are very very simple.  Chocolate chip, White chocolate chip, molasses and tonight I was going to try thumbprint cookies.  I think you get my drift.  I can cream together eggs, butter and the dry ingredients but that is the extent of it. 

The cookie baking got my “creative’ juices flowing and I thought I would try to put my cooking without a recipe skills toward preparing dinner.  I started by placing chicken thighs in a skillet with some olive oil so that they would brown.  I seasoned them with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.  To deglaze the pan, a term I learned in my cooking class I used apple cider.  Deglaze means adding a liquid to a pan to get the particles that have gotten stuck to the bottom of the pan through roasting, sautéing or sweating to release.  Deglazing  adds a great flavor to the dish.  I could have used wine or chicken broth but I chose apple cider because I was going for a sweet and savory combination.  After the thighs were browned I removed them from the pan.  I cut up  a medium onion and two small apples.  I sautéed them in the same pan I cooked the thighs in.  I didn't want to waste the natural juices and seasonings that were still in the pan.

 



I added about 1/4th of a cup of brown sugar, 1/4th of a cup of apple cider( to deglaze again) and a shake of dried basil and some salt and pepper to taste.  Then I poured the apple/onion mixture onto the chicken and baked the dish at 350 degrees for about a half hour to forty five minutes. I served the finished product over Quinoa, my new favorite grain.

Delish! I got good ratings from my resident food critics.  Best part was that is was easy to just throw together.  Hope you like it.

Just to sum things up you will need

4 chicken thighs
1 medium onion
2 small apples (I used gala)
1/2 cup of a full bodied apple cider
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 - 1 tsp. dried basil
Salt and pepper
Olive oil to coat the pan


 

Amazon has a good Deal on the Kuhn Rikon Swiss Pull

A couple of weeks ago I talked about this new toy that I found that made chopping things like onions and grating things like parmesan cheese easy.  FYI Amazon is offering 25% of this week.  Follow this link for more information Kuhn Rikon Swiss Pull. It makes a great holiday gift for a foodie on your list.

Sips and Apps not Boots and Pants

Tis the Season for entertaining.  Ho Ho Ho.  I love having friends and family over especially this time of year.  It is so festive. During this time I like to serve what I “heavy appetizers” and along with these you need to serve adult beverages a.k.a alcohol .  The problem is I do the same stuff over and over.  Blah, Blah, Blah, Boring, Boring.  That is why this book caught my attention.

She starts out with advice on how to stock your bar, which spirits and which liqueurs.  Then she turns it up a notch by suggesting different ways to incorporate fruits, veggies and herbs.  She then talks about garnishes, barware and equipment.  I made the ultimate mistake a few weeks ago when I had friends over and my martini maker refused to make apple martinis because I didn’t have martini glasses. She was right of course but I thought tumblers would do.  Am I clueless or what!

I also liked her chapter on Techniques and Tricks of the Trade.  And then comes the recipes for all these wonderful cocktails.  One that caught my eye was Hot Mango Love made with a fresh jalapeno pepper and Finlandia mango vodka.  Who would ever think to put a jalapeno in a drink?  Her Grapefruit Cosmo did not look to shabby either.  Oh and did I mention the Fresh Apple Mojito?  That’s just three there are more including the old standards. 

If all this wasn’t enough, there is the second half of the book that contain the recipes for the Apps. By Apps I do not mean software you load on a computer or tablet although this book is available in digital format.  A couple that looked good were: The Bollywood Chicken Skewers with Spiced Yogurt Dip and the Chipolte Deviled Eggs.  One other that caught my eye was the Mini Scallion Biscuits with Smoked Salmon Spread.  Yum! All the recipes seem manageable to make which is a must for me.  I need things that I can put together in a finite amount or time.

Once again this year I have added this book onto my Holiday gift list for some of my recipients who are hard to buy for.  I think this will do nicely. For more information check out this link Sips and Apps

Leftover Cranberry Sauce? Finally a Dessert Recipe

I love Cranberry Sauce.  Unfortunately, I am the only one who eats it.  So when Thanksgiving comes I buy one can of cranberry sauce eat one slice of the  jellied variety or a spoonful of the whole berry sauce and the rest is leftover. It made me kind of sad.  I even thought of giving up the sauce this year but held my ground.  It is so hard to break the habit. 

This year I bought the whole berry and was so happy when I found this recipe on allrecipes.com.  Because it is disguised as a dessert they actually ate it.  Lucky me I can have my cake and eat it too with cranberry sauce thank you very much!  Give it a try.  See what you think.

Cranberry Squares

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup white sugar
2 cups all-purpose sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter or margarine
1 egg
2 cups cranberry sauce

PREPARATION

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter or margarine until the lumps are no larger than peas. Stir in the egg just a little bit at a time but allow the mixture to stay crumbly.

Sprinkle half of the mixture in an even layer in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan. Pack down into a solid crust.  Spread the cranberry sauce over the crust. Crumble the remaining mixture over the cranberry sauce.

Bake for 40 minutes in a 350 degree preheated oven until the top is golden brown.  Cool before slicing bars.

Picking Wine. Always my Dilema

I found this article in The Washington Post. This is my kind of article and Thanksgiving is my holiday.  I love it.  Why?  It is all about being around people and by people I mean your family or your good friends that substitute as your family. No gifts involved.

For the most part, I've got the menu planned.  Of course it all starts with the turkey and then their are the sides. The sides are the most fun because their are so many possibilities.  If your family has been gathering for a very long time there are sides that always appear on the menu.  Two sides  show up on our table EVERY year. One is the good old green bean casserole. The green bean casserole has a history.  It has been around since the 1950's.  In case you don't know the history I am including the link. History of the Green Bean Casserole.

I imagine some of my Foodie friends have eliminated this dish from their side dish selection but I just can't. I usually kick it up a notch by using fresh green beans instead of canned or frozen but it is still green bean casserole.  Then there is the ever present mashed potatoes, so simple but so good!  When my Mom was making Thanksgiving a dish that would pop up was pineapple slices in red jello.  You drain the pineapple juice leaving the slices in the can. Make the red jello one cup hot water and the rest the pineapple juice from the can.  Add more water if needed to make another cup. Then pour jello into can with the pineapple slices.  Refrigerate until firm and then right before you are ready to sit down you turn the can upside down on a plate, cut between the slices and yum yum your side. How many of you remember this recipe?

I am still working on my list of sides for this year and as I decide I will share them with you.  Food aside, the wine is always a hard choice for me.  I am getting better at picking wines but I am not there yet. Some like white, some like red.  The author of the article says open them all.  Each of them are bound to go with something right.  It is such a simple concept.  He also has other good suggestions so you may want to take a look at the article.  Click on the link What Wine Should I pick ?

Cooking Without a Recipe, What a Gas!

I recently enrolled in a local cooking class which was a bold move for me. Cooking was never one of my favorite pastimes since food is not my friend.  But a lot of my friends are serious foodies and excellent cooks. While they simply whip something wonderful up, I angst every time I entertain.

The class was entitled Everyday Cooking Without a Recipe. The Chef, Jeff Olson.  It was exactly what I was looking for, a chance to escape the confines of a recipe a metaphor for the boring confines of everyday life. This appealed to me since I like to cook but I don't always want to cook with a recipe.  I want to explore what I hope is my more creative side.  When you work with computers you are always trying to logically work things out. For once I don't want to trouble shoot I just want to create.

One of the things he discussed in the beginning of the class was how to use a chef's knife.  I asked him to go over that because I wanted to learn how to cut up things like onion and garlic without taking my knife off the cutting board. If you have watched the cooking shows you know what I mean.  They just chop chop chop with the front of the knife on the cutting board, just lifting the handle up and down.  There is a certain fluidity when a cook knows how to properly use their knife. I can now say I have a better understanding of the chef's knife. 

He shared a couple of tips about a cutting knife.  He preferred a high carbon stainless steel knife with a full tang.  By tang I do not mean the drink the astronauts bring to the moon or your Mom use to make for you for breakfast.  Full tang means one continuous piece of steel or stainless steel.  Also a riveted handle is good.  But most important, the knife has to feel good in your hand.  The knife I used in the class was lovely.  When I came home I threw out my chef's knife and I am now searching for a new and improved one. 

Even though I learned good knife skills, cutting is still not my favorite part of cooking especially if we are talking onions. My love for kitchen gadgets led me to the Kuhn Rikon.  You can click on the picture in the upper left hand corner on the top to get more information on the device.  It is a Swiss pull cutting device meaning no electric just your arm to pull the cord attached to blades.  I have included some pictures for you to see what it can do.  But I must warn you.  The blades are incredibly sharp as I found out when I was cleaning them and sliced my finger.

These are the veggies I wanted to cut

In this picture I have quartered the onion so it would fit.

This is what the veggies look like after one pull.

This picture shows me starting to pull the cord.  You pull it like you would a lawn mower pull.  It adds a little exercise to my kitchen routine.

I highly recommend it.  It saves me so much time in the kitchen.  For more information click on this link Kuhn Rikon Swiss Pull Chop

Brownies for a Cold Wet Sunday

My daughter and I decided to make brownies this evening but I did not have all the ingredients to make them from scratch.  Luckily there was a brownie mix in our pantry.  But who said the brownies had to be boring.  My daughter decided to add additional ingredients once they were baked to make them more cheerful.  So five minutes before they were finished baking she took them out of the oven and sprinkled the top with miniature marshmallows.  Then she put them back into the oven until the marshmallows were soft and then took them out of the oven again.  She sprinkled the top with mini M & M's and added some Hershey's syrup.  I think they look fun to eat.

Everything Pumpkin including beer

For all of you who like pumpkin and like beer check out the link below for 11 pumpkin beers.

I am pumpkin obsessed but I hesitate at pumpkin flavored beer.  Tell me what you think


http://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/foodnews/the-ultimate-guide-to-pumpkin-beer-11-brews-ranked-from-worst-to-best/ss-BBaZFuY?ocid=ASUDHP#image=

Turning several pantry items into thousands of recipes.

 

I was doing some internet searching and found this article.  There are twelve pantry items that the author buys in bulk and turns into thousands of meals.  Allegedly I do not have proof.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/foodnews/12-pantry-staples-you-can-turn-into-thousands-of-meals/ar-BBapBdX

My Perfect Pantry. Is this wishful thinking?

I have discussed my pantry before.  In fact, lately I am obsessed with my pantry.  Previously I described my pantry as a disaster but I would live to revise that.  I think I was being too hard on myself so I will just say my pantry is a work in progress.  That sounds a lot better right?

Up until recently I have stocked my pantry using the following "rules":

Rule number one:  Buying items when on sale.

Rule Number two:  Buying items that look interesting that I might use.

Rule Number three: Buying items I use all the time. 

Rule Number one gets me in the most trouble.  Buying items on sale is definitely a good thing but I think I become a little too obsessive.  For example, I am at the grocery store and discover that Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce is on sale.  Well that's pretty great because it just so happens I use that exact brand of BBQ sauce.  But instead of buying a manageable amount like two, three tops I buy six.  Not only will I not use six, but it is taking precious space in my pantry.  Note to myself, DON'T DO THAT ANYMORE.  OK.

Rule Number two is just my creative twin screaming in my head buy me and take me home and make me. Did I mention I am a Gemini?  I am, in fact I am the classic Gemini.  There are definitely two of me living in my body.  One Twin is trying to be organized and the other keeps saying lighten up, be free.  So I lighten up and I buy it and don't make it. Note to myself, if I want to try something interesting than I must make it that week.  NO EXCEPTIONS!

Rule number three is buying what I use all the time.  This list is managed by my more organized, practical self. This rule works pretty well.  I seem to be able to keep items that I use all the time stocked in my pantry.  I guess it is because I add it to my list for when I go shopping.

Awhile back I asked for input from all of you about what you keep in your pantry and I noticed that there is definitely a pattern.  Most people have flour, sugar, pasta, rice, peanut butter, jam, some type of oil(evoo, canola, vegetable etc) and some type of vinegar.  Those were the staples.  The items that differed depended on the type of cooking being done in the household.  These items gave each pantry its own personality.  I am working on my pantry's personality.  I will get back to you as it develops.

My Perfect Pantry. I received this book from Blogging for Books.  When I chose this book I thought it would be more of a how to stock your pantry .  I was looking for inspiration and help. It is really  more of a cookbook that is divided into 50 categories representing the fifty items that the author feels are his essential ingredients. Even though it was not what I expected it really is a good cookbook.  The recipes are very manageable, meaning the ingredients are straight forward.  In other words most recipes in the book don't have a lot of specialty ingredients, ones you need to pick up and you probably would only use when you make that dish.  So if you are looking for something that has some good recipes centered around pantry items you most likely have on hand, this is your book. If you want more information on this book click on this link My Perfect Pantry

Not Your Egg McMuffin

 

Weekends are my days for running errands and one of them is food shopping. So this morning I got up early and did an inventory of my refrigerator.  I found a wealth of items that were begging me to use them before they went bad.  I felt my creative juices flowing and I was in the mood for a breakfast other than toast which is all I manage before I am speeding out the door to get to work.

I just bought a Texas Muffin tin.  This makes a double size muffin which was exactly what I was aiming for this morning.  I decided to make Egg Muffins.  Not Egg Mcmuffins just egg muffins.  They are basically a quiche without the crust so they are more portable.  You can eat them on the go and they aren't crumbly because there is no crust.

Here are my ingredients (keep in mind I am using what is left in my fridge)

1 medium onion finely chopped

6 Mini sweet peppers (it just so happens that I had three red, one orange, and two yellow. I think they add nice color as well as flavor) finely chopped

4 Baby bella mushrooms finely chopped

6 Eggs

1 cup half and half

2 hamburger rolls

6 ounces of grated Swiss cheese

Herbs de Provence about a tsp

2 Sprigs of fresh thyme

1 Sprig of fresh oregano

salt and pepper to taste ( I use that phrase with hesitation because it is an incredibly vague cooking term.  What that means to me is a very light sprinkling of salt.  We watch sodium in my house.  And a more generous helping of black pepper, two to three turns of the pepper mill.) 

 

I sautéed the onions first.  Once they started to turn translucent I added the peppers and mushrooms and sautéed them all for another two minutes or so. I added all the herbs to the onion mix as well as the salt and pepper.  Usually I would have put the herbs into the egg mixture but I changed my mind and added them to the onion mix. (Glad that I did I found that the herbs blended better and the final product tasted better.)

While they were sautéing I cut the hamburger rolls into small pieces.  You don't have to use hamburger rolls.  I used them because they were leftover and they looked so lonely.   In a bowl I mixed the egg and milk. 

To assemble the muffin I divided the hamburger rolls evenly between the 6 muffins.  I added cheese to each muffin and then divided the onion mixture between the six.  Lastly I ladled the egg mix evenly over the six and baked the muffins in a preheated 350 degree oven until they were cooked all the way through about thirty minutes.

My husband was my taster and his words were that the dish was well crafted and tasted delicious.  He can be my food critic anytime.  This morning there was only the two of us so I placed most of them in a container for another day and as a test I placed one in the freezer to see how well it would do.  If they freeze well I plan to make a batch on the weekend to grab on my way out the door. I won't give up my toast everyday cause I have come to love it but one or two says a week it is nice to have a change.  Hope you like the dish.



Onions, peppers, and mushrooms sautéed in extra virgin olive oil

Basic Ingredients

Herbs minus the fresh thyme and oregano

Football Means Soups In my House

Football season is my husband's favorite time of the year.  It has been that way our entire marriage and I don't resent it at all.  I guess you can refer to me as a football widow.  I have found plenty to do on my Sundays but the one thing that does bother just a little is Sunday night dinner.  Dinner in my house is a time for the family to gather around the table and eat together.  I use to make regular meals on Sunday but no more.  My solution is to make a big pot of soup and let everyone just take a bowl when they feel like eating. 

I have been experimenting with recipes for soups and as I find good ones I will share them with you.  This week I decided to be like Sandra Lee.  For those of you who don't know her she had a show on the cooking channel known as Sandra Lee; Semi Homemade. She developed many recipes that were a combination of pre-made foods and fresh ingredients.

 

Here is my recipe from this past Sunday

2 cans Campbell's Home style Creamy Chicken and Dumpling herb soup

1 can Swanson's chicken broth

1 medium potato

1 pound of broccoli

1 medium onion

1 rib of celery

I chopped all the vegetables and cooked them in the broth for about 15 minutes.  Then I added the Creamy Chicken soup and let the soup simmer for about a half hour.  It came out great and there were leftovers for lunch.

Vegan Cooking

I like eating less animal products but honestly I know myself I would not become a vegetarian.    However,  I am always looking for meatless recipes that I can serve my family at least once a week that they might actually like.  I won't lie, it has been a struggle. 

When I was in college my eating habits were much closer to a vegetarian than at any other time in my life.  And here is the thing, I felt great and I was at my ideal weight .

Now that I am trying to cook different things I am once again in search of good vegetarian recipes.  I had the opportunity to review this book and I was happy with some of the recipes in the book.   Two of the recipes I enjoyed was the Sweet Potato Pancake and the Roasted Brussels Sprout Salad with Apples and Cranberries. Brussels sprouts are one of those incredibly misunderstood vegetables.  I have found if cooked right they lose that strong and sometimes bitter taste.  Try them you will like  them.

There are several other recipes I am looking forward to making and that is the Scallion Pancakes and there is a good looking recipe for vegetarian chili.

I am sharing the Sweet Potato Pancakes.  These would be great for those of you looking for a different take on the regular potato latke served at Hanukkah or as a side for Thanksgiving.

Sweet Potato Pancakes

1 pound russet potatoes peeled and rinsed
1 pound sweet potatoes peeled and rinsed
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (evoo)
1 white onion finely chopped
3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1 c dried bread crumbs
1/4 c evoo or more as needed

Using a grater, grate potatoes into large bowl, Add salt and pepper and mix well.  With clean kitchen towel squeeze excess liquid from potatoes and return to bowl.  

Heat evoo in sauté pan over medium heat.  Add onions and sauté until softened.  Add  onions, 2 tablespoons of chives and the breadcrumbs to the potato mix with the onions.  Heat a skillet with evoo and cook pancakes until lightly brown.  Remove pancakes from pan and let drain on paper towel. If you prefer you can bake the pancakes at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Ten minutes per side.       

Garnish pancakes with remaining chives                                    

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review

What's in Your Pantry

I received a lot of emails from people sharing with me what was in their pantry.  I thought I would share some of them with you.  There seems to be a core group of items that many people have in their pantry such as flour, sugar, pasta, peanut butter, jelly and so on but each person also shared the pantry items that was unique to them.  Those were the items I found interesting because it gave insight in to the type of cooking they did.  I will be sharing some of the feedback with you starting with comments from Mrs. Bear.  See below

 As I try and learn to cook new dishes I find that the food items I stock in my pantry is gradually changing.  I also am trying to buy things I know I am going to need so that my pantry is more organized.  For me this is a very hard thing to do because I like to go to the grocery store and buy interesting things that I never seem to use.  I am a work in progress.

This is a response from Mrs. Bear

I always have oatmeal, bran flakes, corn meal and good old chicken noodle soup in my pantry.  (just in case I need a good dose of sodium and I’m too lazy to make it from scratch) pasta, tomato sauce, grits, vegetarian baked beans, tuna, creamy peanut butter, black beans, tea, flour, sugar, brown sugar, bread crumbs, saltines, wheat thins and lots of other stuff that I probably don’t need.

Thank you to everyone who shared your pantry with me.  I will include other pantries is future posts.

Warm and wonderful

The days are getting shorter and shorter.  This means one thing, winter is coming and that means that using the grill while still possible is not necessarily practical.  It also means more comfort foods and casseroles.  As the one doing the cooking I like making casseroles because it is one dish cooking and for the cooking challenged(ME) it is easier.  I am always in search of a good casserole dish. That is why I like this Chicken Stuffing bake.  It has all the elements of a meal rolled into one dish.  There is chicken, vegetables and bread.  The best part is it takes very little time to prepare which is great especially when I am running late after leaving work. Below is the recipe I found in a Taste of Home cookbook.  Click on the picture of the book if you want more info.

 

Chicken Stuffing Bake

1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed reduced fat, reduced sodium cream of mushroom soup diluted

1 cup fat free milk

1 package (6 ounce) stuffing mix

2 cups cubed cooked chicken breast

2 cups fresh broccoli florets, cooked

2 celery ribs finely chopped to

1 1/2 cups ( 6 ounces) shredded reduced fat Swiss Cheese

In a large bowl combine soup and milk until blended. Add stuffing with contents of seasoning packet, broccoli, celery and 1 cup of cheese.  Transfer to a 13 x 9 baking dish.

Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until heated thoroughly.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese  and bake 5 additional minutes.

Makes 8 servings.  1 cup = 247 calories and has 24 grams of carbs.  For the rest of the nutrition info refer to the cookbook.