Chicken Parmesan with Zucchini Noodles

Yum!!! This was one of the best meals I've made in a while and it was delicious!! My boys cleaned their plates so I know it was good!! Hope you like it as much as we did. I used a couple different recipes and just combined them to make it my own. You can find them here and here. For this recipe, you will need a spiraler. Mine is from William Sonoma and you can find it here. You can find one at Bed, Bath, and Beyond for a bit cheaper. 

Ingredients:

3-4 medium zucchini, spiraled 

1/4 onion, diced

1 garlic clove, diced 
4 (about 8 oz each) chicken breast, fat trimmed, sliced in half to make 8
3/4 cup seasoned breadcrumbs (I used Italian)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp butter, melted (or olive oil)
3/4 cup mozzarella cheese 
1 cup marinara or your favorite spaghetti sauce
cooking spray

Directions:

• Place zucchini noodles in a colander and sprinkle with salt.
• Allow the zucchini noodles to drain. Toss and squeeze out any extra moisture. Set aside.
• Preheat oven to 450°. Spray a large baking sheet lightly with spray.
• Combine breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese in a bowl. Melt the butter in another bowl. Lightly brush the butter onto the chicken, then dip into breadcrumb mixture. 
• Place on baking sheet and repeat with the remaining chicken. Lightly spray a little more oil on top and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. 
• Turn chicken over, bake another 5 minutes.  
• Remove from oven, spoon 1 tbsp sauce over each piece of chicken and top each with 1 1/2 tbsp of shredded mozzarella cheese.
• Bake 5 more minutes or until cheese is melted.
• Add oil to a large saucepan.
• Add the onion and cook for 2-3 minutes until tender.
• Add in garlic and cook for an additional minute.
• Add zucchini noodles to the sauce and cook for 2-3 minutes or until tender.
• Add enough spaghetti sauce to lightly coat noodles and toss. 

Serve noodles with chicken on top..... It was perfect with a salad and garlic bread. Enjoy!!

Easy BBQ Crockpot Chicken Sandwich

Oh. My. Gosh. This was so good. Seriously... I don't like a lot of BBQ flavored food but I ate this 4 days in a row! My husband even declared it some of the "best chicken". The best part is that it's soooooo easy!!!!! And of course, crockpot! Enjoy!

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup  BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Rays)

1/4 cup Zesty Italian dressing
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Garlic salt to taste

Tony's to taste 

 

Directions

 

1. Season chicken breast lightly with salt and pepper; place in your crockpot. (I marinaded my chicken breast over night in Italian dressing but this is optional.)

2. In a mixing bowl combine BBQ sauce, Italian dressing, brown sugar, garlic salt, Tony's, and Worcestershire sauce. Stir until well combined.

3. Pour over chicken, cover and cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours or LOW for 4-6 hours. 

4. Once time is up, shred with 2 forks. Recover and let cook in sauce for about 10-15 more minutes to soak up all that delish flavor.

I served mine on toasted buns topped with coleslaw and dill pickles. Yummy!!!!

Buffalo chicken sandwich

Here is a super easy recipe for a buffalo chicken sandwich. I wanted something spicy and Franks sauce did it for me. The recipe came from realsimple.com

2 

tablespoons 

unsalted butter 

1/2 

cup

Buffalo wing sauce (Franks)

3

cups

shredded rotisserie chicken 

4

hearty white rolls, split and toasted 

4

ounces

blue cheese, crumbled (1 cup) OR ranch dressing 

Lettuce 

celery stalks and carrots, for serving

1. Melt the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the wing sauce and chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through, 2 to 4 minutes.
2. Dividing evenly, form sandwiches with the rolls, chicken mixture, blue cheese or ranch, and lettuce. Serve with the celery and carrots. 

Happy New Year!!

Hello!! And happy new year!! It's been few and far between since I've blogged so I'm happy to say that my New Years resolution is to blog more. I find myself falling back into my same routine of cooking the same dishes so I plan to start expanding again and sharing my favorites with you. And it helps that I'm pregnant again because all I want to do is eat so that's a plus for you! :)

My first blog of the new year will be my beloved cabbage. It's one of my favorite things that I make and it's always a hit. It's just good home cooked cabbage. For our dinner we had the traditional cabbage, black eyed peas, baked potato, and steak. 

 

It was delish!! I probably never make my cabbage exactly the same but it's close enough.

Ingredients 

Head of cabbage

A slice of bacon, cut into 5 chunks (I use bacon fat if I don't have bacon)

2 T butter

Tony's

Salt/pepper

Pepper sauce

In a stock pot, fill with about 1/2 inch of water. Add bacon, butter, and seasonings except the pepper sauce. Boil for about 5 mins. Meanwhile, cut cabbage into chunks (remove core) and wash throughly. Add cabbage to water; cover and cook on low to medium heat until soft. I add some extra pepper and a few dashes of pepper sauce before serving. Sometimes I don't add butter when using bacon and use butter when I don't have bacon. So just depends on my mood. But it's good both ways!! If you use butter only, use around 4 T of butter. 

I'm glad to be back!! I hope you all have a Happy New Year!!

Amazing Egg Salad

Hello!!! It's been a while since I have written ANY blog post. It feels good to be back!! Some friends have requested that I get back to it since it has been over a year or more but who's counting!? So quickly I will share my egg salad recipe. I love any chicken, shrimp, tuna, egg salad. I like to make a batch on Sunday's because it's quick go to snack, lunch, or dinner during our busy schedules. I'm not a huge mayo fan so I prefer more mustard so adjust to your liking.

8 eggs, boiled and peeled
1 rib of celery, diced
1 T fresh parsley, chopped
2 T yellow onion, diced
2 1/2 T yellow mustard
2 T fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup of mayo
1 T sweet jalapeno relish (can use pickle relish)
splash of Tabasco
pepper, Tony's

I used a unique way to dice my eggs and I loved it. The idea came from Pioneer Woman. She recommended using a drying rack, placing over a bowl, and pushing egg through. Automatically diced. Amazing. Made it so much easier!!! 

Mix all ingredients and chill. I ate with pita chips and taking some over a salad for lunch tomorrow and I can't wait. My 2 year old was chowing down so you know it's good if it's toddler approved!! 

Enjoy!!!

BLT: the right way

I don't know about y'all but I LOVE bacon. I could eat it everyday at every meal. I do not know who came up with this but they are brilliant!!! Have you ever heard of basket weave bacon?? I will never look at a BLT the same. Plus, baking bacon is something new that I have been doing. Less clean up and it does not make my house smell like grease. 

Basket weave bacon BLT

bacon
lettuce
tomato, sliced
bread, toasted
mustard/mayo/avocado (whatever you like on your sandwiches) 

Take your whole pack of bacon and slice it down the middle. You’ll be making more than one sandwich, I hope. Arrange six half-slices of bacon in a basket weave pattern on a foil lined baking sheet as pictured. 

Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 20 minutes. I flipped the bacon about 15 minutes in to make sure it was good and crispy. Make your sandwich however you like. I made mine with guacamole! It was delicious!

The best thing about basket weaving your bacon.... it doesn't fall out of the sandwich! Seriously, the smartest idea ever. 

Enjoy!

Beef Tips with Rice

OK I'm going to make this quick!! To sum this dish up in one word... Delicious!! My husband had a few more elk roast left in the freezer so I decided to do something besides your typical roast meal. I cut the roast in half and made beef tips and homemade vegetable soup another night. I made a quick search online and found The Country Cook blog. She has a lot of good looking recipes!! This one is easy and you throw in the crock pot and let it do what it does best. Hope you enjoy as much as we did!!

Beef Tips

1 1/2 lb. beef tips (or cubed beef stew meat)*

1 package of dry Onion Soup Mix

1 can of Cream of Mushroom soup

1 can of Beef Broth 

1/4 onion, chopped*

Brown meat in a skillet, with a touch of olive oil, over medium heat.  Add beef to slow cooker. 

In a bowl, combine dry Onion soup mix, cream of mushroom soup and beef broth.  Stir to combine and pour over beef in slow cooker. Stir all ingredients together. Cook on low for at least 6-8 hours.  

Give everything a good stir before serving. Serve on top of mashed potatoes, egg noodles, or rice.  Enjoy with your favorite veggies and salad.

*Cook’s note: You can use a whole beef roast instead of cubed stew meat. If you don’t have cream of mushroom soup, you can substitute cream of chicken. If you are not big on onions, omit the chopped onion. 

Easy Crockpot Fajitas

I don't know about you but I LOVE Mexican food. I could eat it everyday!!!  All I know... this is easy which is a must in my household these days!

1 lb chicken breast, sliced (I used a couple of large ones)
1 packet fajita seasoning mix
1/4 c water
1 bell pepper, sliced
1 onion, sliced

Place chicken, water, and seasoning packet in the greased crock pot. Cook on low for 5-6 hours or until chicken is cooked. Add peppers and onions a hour or two before serving. (You can add with chicken but I was afraid the peppers/onions would be too soggy for my tasting.) Serve with desired toppings.

Note: I cut up all the ingredients the night before so it was easy to throw together in the morning.

Easy Blueberry Cobbler

This blueberry cobbler is SO easy anyone can do it!! I promise. It is homemade in my book! You will be sure to please any crowd with this easy southern dessert! And these ingredients are always on hand. This recipe came from Southern Plate.

2 cups berries, frozen or fresh
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup self rising flour
1 cup sugar
1 stick of butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt stick of butter in oven proof casserole dish in oven while mixing other ingredients. Place 1 T of margarine on top of berries in a small bowl. Pour 1/2 cup sugar over berries. Stir. Heat in microwave for 1 minute so that sugar begins to melt.

Mix together 1 cup of flour and 1 cup sugar until blended. Pour in 1 cup milk and mix until blended.

After butter is melted, take casserole out of oven and pour batter on top of melted butter. Pour berries on top of batter. DO NOT STIR!!! Sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar over cobbler. Place in oven and cook for 55 minutes or until golden.

Enjoy!!

**Sorry for bad pictures, they were taken on my phone!!

Chicken n Rice

Hey y'all!! It has been quite a while since I've posted anything. My 4 month baby boy has been keeping me very busy! Now that I'm getting used to working and juggling being a mother, my recipes are going to keep getting easier and quicker!! I miss my time in the kitchen but I love spending time with Wilson. So where to turn... PINTEREST!! Everyones go to cook book these days. There are so many different recipes to try on there. So this one is for "Forgotten Chicken" from Darling Doodles. She said you can cook it on a low temp (250-275) and cook for a few hours. I put it in for 375 for about a hour. Depends on how big your chicken breast are. I took two big chicken breast and sliced them into tenderloins. It was a hit in the Rainwater household!

What you need:
Boneless skinless chicken breast
Minute rice (I used two bags)
1 pkg Lipton Onion Soup mix (shake bag well before pouring)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can water

What you do:
Mix together soups, water, and 2 cups of rice (uncooked). Pour into greased casserole dish. Lay chicken breast on top of rice mixture and sprinkle onion soup mix on top. COVER with foil. Bake at 375 for approximately an hour. Or like I said above, you can cook for longer on a lower temp. It's a good one to put in before church and it will be ready when you get home. It should be slightly brown around the edges and bubbly. Yum!!