Chicken Broccoli Divan

February 29, 2012

Okay, here's one of those recipes that shows my obvious lack of kitchen experience. I've never eaten this dish, much less made it before.  I learned lots from my mistakes! 

Mistake number 1:  When I pull up the recipe last night on Eat at Home Cooks , I had my first...ohhhh nooo moment.  The chicken should already be cooked when it all gets mixed up!  This was supposed to be a crockpot dish that cooks while I am at work.  Okay...think (or go pin other yummy stuff instead - I chose the latter).  I have a bag of frozen chicken breasts...what do I do?  Improvise.  It'll be a sorta crockpot meal.  I decided to go ahead and put the chicken in the crockpot to cook overnight (after many minutes of not knowing how on earth I could save this), so it'll be ready to go into the (now oven baked) casserole when I get home.  Whew.  Crisis averted.  I will also add, probably a much better idea than running out to get canned chicken, which was my first thought..  That would have just been embarrassing.

So step one that you will omit because you are a smart cookie and read the recipe like a good little kitchen wizard before its time to throw it together.

Place bag of (now semi) frozen chicken breasts in crockpot on LOW to cook while you sleep.  When you wake up, cube and portion out 3 cups worth for this recipe.  Freeze the rest for future "oh no" moments.

Mistake number 2:  I start gathering my ingredients for the very important pic of stuff you need only to discover one of "those people" at the grocery store must changed their mind and put a can of Cream of Celery back in the wrong spot.  So, I have one Cream of Celery and one Cream of Chicken.  I don't even like celery, but I used it!  And yes, I will read the cans before I toss them in the buggy from now on.

Here's what I used.

Mistake number 3...oh, how they keep coming.  The broccoli should be thawed.  I had to let it sit and drain in a colander in the sink for a while before I could make this.  I wasn't sure what the microwave would do to it since it still has to go in the oven.

So finally...here's the recipe..and I did base it on the recipe from Eat at Home Cooks, but I changed so much of it through mistakes or my own experimenting that it is no longer exact.

1 bag frozen broccoli florets (thawed and drained)
3 cups chicken, cooked and cubed
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of celery soup
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp. lemon juice
about 1/2 cup of grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 Tbsp. melted butter


Put the chicken in the bottom of a casserole dish..  All my dishes were busy with leftovers (and a couple seem to have grown legs and walked off), so I used a disposable 9x13 tin pan.

   Layer the broccoli on top of the chicken.

  Stir together the soup, mayo and lemon juice. Spread this mixture over the broccoli. Top with the cheese.

Mix the bread crumbs and melted butter together and sprinkle on top.

  Bake in an oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. 

You can also make this in the crock pot.  Just do the same things, but cook on low for 4 to 5 hours.

I served this with Jiffy corn muffins and grapes.

Christi

Crockpot Italian Beef Sandwiches and Pudding Cake

My first post!!  So excited to start blogging my kitchen adventures.  I hope you enjoy my craziness or at least try to make your dinner better than mine! 

******edited to fix sideways pictures**********


Tonight is another Eat at Home recipe, since I've begun Tiffany's meal planner to get me started in the kitchen.  I'm on week 2, but I don't necessarily cook the meals in order.


I thought of making the blog AFTER I already had everything in the crock pot of course, so no how-to pictures for this one. I'll do better tomorrow.


Crockpot meals are really easy and perfect for people like me that are still quite scared of the kitchen.  This one is no different.  Chop a couple of things up, add some liquid, throw it all in and turn it on. Some hours later...voila..dinner is served!


Here's the recipe via Eat at Home Cooks


1 large roast (fat trimmed if needed)
1 package Good Seasons Italian dressing
1/4 cup vinegar
1 Tbs. sugar
1-2 cans chicken broth (I used 1)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 package brown gravy mix (mixed with 1 cup water)
1 green pepper, sliced
1 small jar pepperoccinis with juice, sliced (I used half of a 16oz jar)


Poke the meat with a fork or knife and put it in the crockpot (I didn't do this because I put my roast in frozen). Mix all the ingredients and pour over the meat. Let it marinade overnight or cook it right away on low for 8-10 hours.  I didn't start mine until noon, so I cranked it up on high for 5 hours.
Shred the meat and serve on hoagie buns with the peppers and use the sauce for dipping.

Here's the plate of shredded meat.

I decided to add some Mozzarella cheese, so I put them under the broiler for a couple minutes to melt it.

And now its dinner time!!

Pudding Cake
via Eat at Home Cooks


For dessert...ta da!  Pudding cake..also from Eat at Home meal planner week 1. 


So so good.  I won't even mess around with this one.


1 Devil’s Food cake mix + the ingredients needed to make the batter
12 marshmallows, snipped in quarters or about a cup or so of mini marshmallows
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
2 cups water


In a 13×9 pan, mix the brown sugar and cocoa together. Stir in 2 cups of water. Scatter the marshmallows over the top.  Mix up the cake batter and spoon it over the top of the mixture in the pan.  Be careful transferring the pan to the oven. It is very sloshy with all that water in the bottom. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 min.  Serve it warm with whipped cream or ice cream if you like. The pudding is on the bottom and I just drizzled it over the top of the pieces as I spooned them out of the pan.

Fresh out of the oven!

Yeah, I snuck a piece before dinner.  What? I made it.

About 30 seconds later.  I'm not even kidding.

Bowtie Pasta with Feta and Grilled Chicken

This recipe is AMAZING!  I found the original recipe HERE on Eat At Home Cooks.  All my dinners this week will come from there, by the way...but must give credit where credit is due!

I've been playing around with the photgraphy a bit.  Hope these do the food justice.

The last thing I want to do as soon as I walk in the door is stand in the kitchen forever while children are "Mommy, Mommy"-ing me at the top of their lungs and the dogs are trying to get their "hi" in too.  This one took less than an hour of my time and while the chicken and pasta were cooking, I even got to leave the kitchen for a few minutes.  Bonus.

The original recipe calls for lemon pepper grilled chicken.  I am not a fan of lemon pepper anything, so instead I bought some frozen fajita seasoned strips.  I'm also not a fan of cauliflower, so I left that out as well.  ANY seasoning would work well with this dish.  Its just yummy!

So, here's the recipe as I made it.

1 bag of frozen fajita seasoned grilled chicken strips
box of bowtie pasta
bag of fresh broccoli and carrots (from the produce section by the bagged salads)
feta cheese 6oz, crumbled
3-4 Tbs butter
1 1/2 – 2 cups half and half, warmed for a minute or two in the microwave

Warm the chicken in a non stick skillet.

While the chicken is heating start the pasta cooking. I actually started the water before the chicken so it would be boiling at this point. 

Steam the vegetables in the microwave for 3-4 minutes.

Warm the half & half for about 1 minute or so in the microwave.

Drain the pasta and put it back in the pot. Add the butter and warmed half & half. Stir in the feta cheese, veggies and chicken.

And there you have it!  Its really really good!  I served it with a bagged salad, croutons, and salad topping.

Here's a bonus picture of Itty Bitty shoveling yesterday's leftover pudding cake in her mouth as fast as she can. 

Christi