Comfort Food Recipe #4 - Creamy Chicken and Dumplings

I love winter and comfort food. The cold weather is the time I enjoy making stews, roasts and chicken & dumplings; needless to say, my crock pot gets a workout! Chicken and dumplings are a hands down family favorite. Here is my recipe and I hope you all enjoy it!

Creamy Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings

4-6 chicken breasts
1 T garlic powder
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 can diced white potatoes, drained
2 cans condensed cream of chicken soup
2 cups chicken broth*
2 cups frozen peas & carrots
1 package refrigerated biscuit dough, each biscuit cut into quarters


Rinse chicken breasts and place at the bottom of the crockpot and season breasts with garlic powder and pepper. Add onions and potatoes, both cans of chicken soup and chicken broth. Cook on Low for 8 hours. Once cooking is completed, shred chicken with two forks in the crockpot, then stir in the frozen peas and carrots.
*If you like your chicken mixture more like a soup, you can add more chicken broth at this time, to taste. Top with biscuits and cook approximately ½ hour or until biscuits are no longer doughy.

Enchilada Casserole

One night when I didn't feel like cooking, I went to one of my favorite grocery stores, Lunardi's, for inspiration (AKA a ready-made meal). Of course, I scored! In the deli, they had enchilada casserole - I bought a pound for a ridiculously high price, but it was worth it! It was like a deconstructed enchilada, with fresh onions, yummy red sauce and oh so creamy cheese...My name is Bridgit and I'm addicted to Lunardi's Enchilada Casserole. Unfortunately, the staff broke it to me gently that they do not make it very often. As they saw the tears well up in my eyes, they offered to share the recipe with me. Come to find out, there was no miracle to the ingredients, but they did use the roasted chicken sold in the deli. So, using a little of their recipe with my twist on the ingredients, I made a quick enchilada casserole. Of course, the true taste test results would come from my 3 very picky judges - luckily, it was a big hit! I have the pictures to prove it...


Quick Enchilada Casserole
(serves 4)

4 cups cooked chicken, diced (I use roasted chicken)
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 can Campbell's nacho cheese soup
1 can diced green chilies
1 tsp chili powder
1 small can red enchilada sauce
8 small corn tortillas
1 cup each cheddar & monterey jack cheese
1 cup green onions, chopped
1 small can sliced olives, drained
1 cup seeded & diced tomato
1 avocado, pitted & sliced
sour cream

Preheat oven to 350º. In mixing bowl, combine chicken, soup, chilies, chili powder and 1/4 cup enchilada sauce and mix thoroughly. Coat the bottom of an 8x8 pan with enchilada sauce, then lay down 4 corn tortillas. Spoon additional sauce over the tortillas. Spread the chicken mixture evenly over the tortillas. Layer the remaining tortillas over the chicken mixture and pour remaining enchilada sauce on top. Cover the sauce with the cheese. Loosely cover the casserole with foil and put in oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil and cook for additional 10 minutes, or until cheese is slightly golden. After removing from oven, top with green onions and olives. When serving, garnish with tomato, avocado and a dollop of sour cream.

Seafood Salad

So we're about a month away from our pool club opening for the summer season. During the summer, we're at the pool almost every day, all day and we take easy meals to snack on that everyone can enjoy. One of my favorite items to make is seafood salad. I used to buy it at the grocery store, but a price of $5/lb. was ridiculous! So, I figured out a recipe on my own and my family likes it just as much as the store bought version. I serve it with crackers, on green salad or as a sandwich - it makes a great alternative to tuna. Enjoy!


Seafood Salad

1 12 oz package imitation crab, flake style
3 stalks celery, finely chopped
3 bunches green onion, finely chopped
1 tsp lemon juice
½ c mayonnaise
Pepper

Shred the imitation crab with two forks or your hands, so that the crab is no longer in big chunks. Add celery, onion, lemon juice and mayonnaise; mix thoroughly with a fork*. season with pepper to taste and serve immediately.

*If you would like the salad creamier, add mayonnaise in teaspoon increments until desired consistency reached.

Mikey's Fish Tacos

What do you get with Mike's trip to Costco and a love of Mexican food? Mikey's Fresh Fish Tacos! These are the best, because the fish is baked not fried. My close friends and family know that I detest cooking fried foods - I hate the grease and smell! The key to the crispiness of the meat is the panko bread crumbs, which are in your neighborhood grocery store...

Mikey's Fish Tacos (feeds 4)

2 cups panko bread crumbs
1/4 tsp Old Bay Seasoning
1/2 tsp each fresh ground pepper, dried parsley flakes, chili powder and garlic powder
2 lbs. fresh rock cod, sliced into 1" wide strips
1 egg
1/4 c milk
flour or corn tortillas, soft taco size

Preheat oven to 350º; line a jelly roll or roasting pan with foil and lightly spray with Pam. In a flat dish, Mix bread crumbs with seasonings and set aside. Beat egg and milk; dip each strip into the mixture and then coat the fish in the bread crumbs. Lie strip flat on pan; repeat process until all strips are coated. Bake until fish is golden brown, approximately 20 minutes. Wrap tortillas in foil and during last 5 minutes, place tortillas in oven to warm. Serve fish and tortillas immediately with favorite taco ingredients, such as:

lettuce
cilantro
chopped fresh onions
chopped fresh jalapeños, seeded
cheese
sour cream
avocados/guacamole
tomatoes
salsa or hot sauce

Sunday Family Dinner

My husband and I don't cook family dinner together often; with our crazy schedules, it's usually one of us throwing together a meal, which is preplanned over the weekend. So tonight was pretty special and enjoyable as Mike & I made slow baked pork ribs, caesar salad, quinoa and my mom's baked beans.

Mike's ribs were fall off the bone, juicy, fabulous! I wish I could share the recipe with you, but my fireman is famous for opening my spice drawer and just creating. He couldn't remember what he made for the life of him. Same with the quinoa; he goes in the refrigerator and cupboards to see what I have on hand and then throws it together to create some amazing dish. Needless to say, I am totally jealous of him! I will tell you that he bakes his ribs for 2 hours, at 300º in a roasting pan covered with foil. Once done, he brushes them with barbeque sauce and throws them on the grill for 5-10 minutes each side to caramelize the sauce.

My contribution that I am sharing with you is my homemade caesar salad recipe and my Mom's barbeque beans recipe. I first learned how to make caesar salad in a cooking class, then found an awesome recipe in Williams-Sonoma; the problem is that I loved it, but my family thought it was too spicy. So using that recipe as a base, I make my own, which my family loves! The bean recipe is one that my Mom gave me and Mike loves - I never wrote the recipe down and used to call my mom when I needed to make it. Now that she is gone, I'm posting it not only to share with all of you (because it is that easy and good), but so I can come here to pull it up...I hope you all enjoy the recipes!

Caesar Salad

1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper (or more to taste)
2 tsp red wine vinegar
2 dashes Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
1 head romaine lettuce - rinsed and chopped
1/4 shredded Parmesan cheese
Croutons (optional)

In the bottom of a large salad bowl, add garlic, salt pepper, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. Whisk ingredients together so fully blended. While still whisking, slowly drizzle olive oil into bowl. Dressing should thicken while whisking. Whisk until olive oil has been completely added and dressing is thick. Add salad, cheese and croutons; toss salad until dressing has thoroughly covered the salad.


Mom's Barbeque Beans

1 28 oz can baked beans
1 16oz can kidney beans, drained
1 bottle barbeque sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbs honey
1 red or orange bell, seeded and chopped
1/2 white onion, chopped
2 hot links (I use Evergood), diced

Combine all ingredients in a 3 quart pot and simmer until thoroughly heated.

A Little Spice Tonight...

Hi Friends,

Yes, it's been a while since I posted. Life has been a bit crazy and I haven't been inspired to try too many new things. I don't know if it's the change of season or change of attitude, but my creative juices are flowing again! The first recipe I found on Real Simple and we really enjoyed it, but it just seemed a bit dry and not as flavorful as we normally like. So, I modified it and my husband tried it out at the firehouse - it was a big hit! The second is a really easy and yummy dessert to top off a Mexican meal.

Slow Cooker Pork Tacos (feeds 4-6)

28 oz store bought salsa (I use the fresh salsa)
2 T chili powder
1 T chipotle, pureed
2 T dried oregano
2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
3 lbs boneless pork shoulder, excess fat trimmed

In crock pot, add salsa, chili powder, chipotle, oregano and cocoa powder. Mix ingredients together. Add pork, turning all sides to coat. Cook covered until meat is tender & pulls apart easily, on high for 4-5 hours or low for 8-10 hours.

Serve with your favorite tortillas and sides, such as:

salsa
chopped onion
avocado/guacamole
chopped jalapenos
chopped cilantro
shredded lettuce
sour cream

Mexican Brownies

1 box fudge brownie mix
3/4 t chipotle powder*
1 1/2 t canela (ground cinnamon)
1 wedge Ibarra, coarsely chopped (optional)
Dulce de leche or vanilla ice cream
whipped cream
cinnamon (for decoration)

Prepare brownie mix per directions on box; add chipotle, canela and Ibarra. Bake according to directions. Serve with a scoop of ice cream and whipped cream; sprinkle with cinnamon.

*if you're concerned about spiciness, cut measurement to 1/2 t