Chicken Casserole with Rice…

It seems some people think you have time to do more when you work from home and the opposite is true. There perception is you can keep the house clean, cook more, and all those other homely tasks. NOT…I haven’t been cooking at all!

Inspiration

Part of my motivation for cooking is my family.  Regardless of how much work I may have, I enjoy pleasing them through cooking.  Since I have not been living with them for almost a year, that motivation had disappeared.

My granddaughter is now with me in my environment for the first time in three years, vs. my visiting her in her environment.  I find all the little things I like to buy for her and cook for her are back, and I am loving it.

Today, I wanted to cook something that was different.  It needed to be easy, inexpensive and quick.  There were chicken legs in the freezer, which I normally don’t cook, but since it was a family pack, I figured it would be worth fixing and we would have leftovers. I thought I could put them on the grill or bake them.

Marinade Overnight

I thawed them, seasoned them and thought...this needs to be easy.  )If you have time, season your chicken the night before and let it marinade overnight in the refrigerator)

I decided I wanted to use them in a casserole with soup.  It has been a long time since I cooked a casserole, and  I needed to research and see what kinds of recipes were out there.  I looked at several…all of them called for chicken breast.  They either used cream of chicken, mushroom, or celery soup.

Most recipes suggested, mixing the soup with the rice and pour over the chicken, bake.  I decided to do a few things differently.

Ingredients:

Family pack of chicken legs (about 12)

2 cups of rice

1 can each of cream of chicken, celery, and mushroom

2 1/2 cups of milk

1 package of onion soup mix (the kind you get to mix with sour cream for dip)

4 cloves of crushed fresh garlic

1/4 c of bell pepper

2T of red onion

2T butter

1 cup of monterey jack cheese

About 1 T of creole seasoning

About 1 T of Sylvia’s Secret Seasoning

About 2 T of freshly ground pepper.

Process

In a bowl, mix all the soup, seasoning, cheese,  bell pepper, onion, garlic, and rice.  Pour the milk in the empty soup cans and stir to get the rest of the soup out of the cans and pour into the bowl.  In a deep dish (I used tin) place the chicken.  Pour the soup mixture over the chicken. Sprinkle the onion soup mix over the top. Cut the butter up and place on top as well.

Bake at 350 for about 2 hours.  Cover for the first hour and 1/2.  Uncover an cook for 30 more minutes.  If the rice is not soft, cover and cook for about 20 more minutes.

Very quick and easy, very tasty dish.  One addition I will make next time is add about 1/2 cup of sour cream. Yummy…

Garlic Shrimp Pasta

WOW…It’s been a while since I posted here…Have not been cooking as much or shall I say haven’t tried new things for a while .

This is quick and very easy, and would be a great dish to make for your honey!

I threw this  together so quickly and it was so good.  I had shrimp and did not know how I wanted ti fix it.  It was great!.

Total preparation time about 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

1 lb. medium shrimp

16 ounces Ragu Cheesey Roasted Garlic Sauce

3 cloves of fresh garlic (minced)

2 T butter

8 ozs. Whole Wheat Pasta

1 Fresh Tomato (diced)

Seasoning:  Tony’s Creole Seasoning, Sylvia’s Secret Seasoning, Fresh Ground Pepper

Process:

Clean the shrimp – devein and remove the shells.  Prepare the pasta while fixing the rest of the ingredients.

In a medium size pot of frying pan, melt the butter, add garlic, stir well and add the shrimp.  Season the shrimp to taste with the ingredients mentioned.

Cook about 5 minutes stirring a few times.

Pour the entire jar of Ragu sauce into the pan with the shrimp and cook another three minutes.  If the pasta is not done, turn the pan off.  We don’t want the shrimp to overcook.

Once the pasta is ready, drain, rinse, and add to the pan with the shrimp and sauce. Stir well. Cook about 3-5 minutes just to warm it up.

The dish is ready.  Serve with a fresh salad! Enjoy….If you try it, let me know what you thought!

Fried Corn……My Fav

If you like corn…you will LOVE this.  It’s quick, easy and tastes great.

I fix it the way I watched my Nana fix it growing up.

Preparation:  15-20 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

6-8 Ears of FRESH Corn (yellow or white)

1/4 cup of bell pepper

3 slices of bacon

Process:

Clean the cob and remove all of the  outside and twist your hands around the cob to remove the hair while under water.

Above a round bowl, cut kernels from the cob into the bowl.  Make sure you have a sharp knife and don’t go to deep.  Start from the pointy side, and cut towards you…if it’s hard to cut…you are probably too deep.  Once all the kernels are cut, take the knife and scrape the cob you just cut the kernels off of…take knife and scrape from the round side down into the bowl and do the same for the whole cob.  Repeat for each ear of corn.

Chop the bell pepper up and add to the bowl of corn.  Note:  You can use any kind of bell pepper.

In a medium fry or saute’ pan, fry the bacon until it is crisp and remove it from the pan, drain the bacon.  Add the corn from the bowl, into the same pan and stir.  Add about 1/4 c of water, season to taste.  I use garlic, creole seasoning, and a little pepper, crumble the bacon on top of the corn. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes.

If you like it sweet…and the corn is not naturally sweet, add a pinch of sugar.