Chicken and Dumplings

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken

3/4 large carrots, peeled and sliced

3/4 cups Bisquick

1/2 box(es) Vegetable broth

approx 1 C Milk

 

Cover chicken with water, bring to a boil, and then lower the heat so it can cook for about 2 hours, I usually add at least some of the broth as the water evaporates.  Remove chicken from pot, let cool, and then remove the meat.  While the chicken cools (so you can handle it)add in the carrots and let them begin to cook.  Also make your dumpling dough.  I make it a wet gooey dough-so just add milk to your bisquick until it has the proper consistency-it can even be as dry as biscuit dough, but I tend to keep mine wetter-if you use a mixer, it is easier and will make the dough well blended, but i often just mix it by hand.  Add in about 2-3 cups of the chicken-sized however you prefer-put the remaining chicken in 2’sh cup portions in bags and throw in the freezer for pot pie or caccitini days!  Once all ingredients are in, add additional broth(leave room for the dumplings), and bring to a boil.  Once you have reached a full boil, lower the heat a bit and start adding your dumplings-i usually do a spoon/fork full but there is no specific size-add as many as you can-lower heat to avoid boil overs. Cover, and let cook for about 10 minutes, then uncover and cook another 10 or so.  For best results, a pan that is wider than deep is best, so you can get a lot of dumplings-I don’t have any pans like that (your big fryer might work well!) so I use stock pots, and usually get a lot of boil over-lol which is what makes this such a messy dish to make for me. Plus I always try to make lots of dumplings because everyone loves them.  You can season your own way-I usually just pepper it while it cooks (before the dough goes in), but you may like some salt too!

 

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken (approx 5-6 lbs)

1 carton or 3 cans of vegetable broth

5/6 cloves of fresh garlic diced

1 onion largely diced

sliced celery-about 3/4 stalks

sliced carrots-about 4/5

nature’s seasons

1 bag of medium egg noodles

water

 

Rinse chicken and remove giblet bag and neck

Place chicken in a large stock pot and cover the chicken with as much water as you can but no so much that it will continually boil over

boil chicken for about 45-60 minutes

remove chicken from water/broth and set aside

add vegetable broth, and some water to fill it to a desired level, remember to leave room for the ingredients you need to add

add celery, onion, carrots garlic and seasons

allow that to cook while you bone the chicken;

I usually use about 2 1/2-3c of meat for a hearty soup, less if you don’t have a lot of broth

save the remaining chicken for pot pie or caccitini if you have enough (2C)

cut the large pieces of chicken and add it all back into the pot with your soup, cook until vegetables are tender, keeping at a boil

once vegetables are ready, add your noodles, and cut the heat to low

when the noodles are cooked, remove from heat and enjoy!

 

Meatloaf

Ingredients:

1’sh lbs of Ground Sirloin

approx 1C Italian Breadcrumbs

approx 1/2-1/3C* of Sweet and Sour sauce

1 egg

approx 1/2c diced onion

 

Mix all ingredients well  in a bowl, then transfer to a loaf pan (spray with Pam first)

Bake at 375 for about an hour, topping with ( more)* Sweet and Sour sauce about halfway through the baking process.

 

Risotto

1 1/2c of uncooked Arborio Rice

2/3TBS Olive (or vegetable)oil

2/3TBS butter

2 carrots very thinly sliced-I often use the peeler so the slices are good and thin-I have also bought Julienne carrots in a bag in the produce section-they work great but are pretty expensive (like $3.29 for about 3 carrots worth)

3 or 4 C vegetable broth (a can is almost 2c, a box is almost 4)

 

Saute onion in the oil and butter for a few minutes until onions are kind of clear.

Add the uncooked rice.  keep stirring, and cook for a few minutes.

Add 1C of the broth. Cook it in, stirring it a lot.  Add the carrots.  Once the liquid is absorbed, add more-generally 1C at a time.  Risotto is labor intensive, so be sure you have the time to devote to stirring it.  If the heat is high, you may need more liquid, and you can always add water once your broth is used-having it cooked and creamy is the desired finished product, so slow and steady.  I usually pepper mine at some point throughout the cooking process-maybe 1/4-1/2tsp-it is to your taste.

Chicken Pot Pie

You will need:

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of celery soup

2c cooked chicken

2/3 carrots peeled and diced

1 potato peeled and diced

about 1/2-3/4c frozen peas

 

Combine soups, chicken, carrots, potatoes and peas in a microwaveable dish.

Microwave for about 20 minutes on high, stirring a couple times throughout.

Place pie shell in a pie pan.

Fill pie shell with cooked ingredients.

Place top crust on pie, tucking in all around.

Cut a few vent holes in the top of the crust

Bake pie on 375 for about 45-60 minutes.  Place a pan, (with foil) on a rack below or under the pie to catch any overflow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beef Stew

You will need:

approx 1 lb of beef for stewing (cubed)

3 carrots peeled and sliced

3/4 potatoes (depending on size) largely cubed

1 15oz can tomato sauce

1 15 oz can vegetable broth

seasonings

medium egg noodles (cooked)

oil

 

cook noodles while making the stew

  1. Sauté the beef in the oil-I generally make the cubes a bit smaller than how they come, but it is your choice
  2. once cooked, add carrots and potatoes
  3. sauté for a minute or two
  4. add broth, tomato sauce and seasonings
  5. stir well, bring to a boil for about 5-7 minutes
  6. reduce heat and let simmer maybe 10 more minutes or so
  7. Serve with cooked noodles

Glazed Carrots

You will need:

Carrots-either baby, or peeled and sliced regular carrots

Approx 1/8-1/4C of white or brown sugar

1/4-1/2 stick of butter

 

Peel and slice carrots (if not baby), put in pan, and cover with water.

Add sugar and butter.

Bring to a boil, then finish cooking at medium heat until desired tenderness is reached.

 

Manicotti

You will need:

1 box of Manicotti noodles

1 Jar Spaghetti Sauce

1 Bag shredded Mozzarella

1 Container Ricotta Cheese (Lg 24 oz? for a full batch)

1 Egg

Dried Parsley Flakes

 

Boil noodles-being careful to not over cook; rinse to cool after

While the noodles are cooking, make the filling;

Combine Ricotta, 3/4 of the Mozzarella, egg and about 2 or 3 TB parsley flakes

Stuff shells with ricotta mixture (if you don’t have a dec bag, fill a ziplock and snip the corner off)

Spread a little sauce in the bottom of a baking pan(9×13 for a large batch, 9×9 for small)

Place stuffed noodles in pan

Cover with remaining sauce

Cover pan with lid or foil

Bake in oven at 375 for about 35-45 mins, sprinkling remaining cheese on top the last 15 mins or so (you don’t need to recover the pan)

 

 

 

Macaroni & Cheese

You will need:

One box of pasta-cavatappi, shells, rotini, etc whatever you like.

about 1/4 of a block of Velveeta Cheese

one stick of butter

milk-maybe 1/2 cup? (sorry-i just pour)

 

Cook the pasta, when it is near finished, I like to cube the velvet and butter, and microwave to melt-saves ALOT on your arm!

drain pasta, add cheese/butter mixture and mix well-add milk after initial mixing begins

 

Caccitini

You will need:

Chicken-either frozen grilled, or cook some up-3’sh breasts

onion-1/2 med onion chopped

1 can of either cream of celery OR cream of chicken soup

1 block of cream cheese

milk-about 1/2-3/4 of soup can

one package of angel hair pasta

 

Sautee the onions in oil, with a little sugar.  Once they are cooked, add cream cheese, soup and milk

stir on med heat until well blended-this takes a while

once your sauce is made, you can add your cooked chicken (if you are cooking it, do that ahead of time)

once it is heated through, add your cooked pasta.