Chicken Parm Bake

This one is a short cut for chicken parm! To be honest,  I think I like it better than the original.  It has so much more flavor!

Ingredients:
Chicken breasts (I use 3 or 4 but you can use however many you need to feed your family and adjust the other ingredients as you go)

2 cups (approximately) of spaghetti or marina sauce

2 cups shredded mozzarella

1 package of caesar croutons

2 TBSP olive oil

2 cloves of garlic

Put your oil in the bottom of a baking dish that is large enough to hold your chicken tightly.  Mince garlic or put through garlic press. Spread that in the garlic.  Place chicken breasts on top.  Cover with sauce. Spread croutons on top and top with cheese.  Cover and bake for 30 minutes at 375. Uncover and check chicken. If not cooked,  continue cooking uncovered until done.  Total cook time will be 30-60 minutes (mine usually takes 45),  depends on your oven and thickness of chicken.

Enjoy! 

Texas Tijuana Taco Penne

This one is downright delicious! It's easy, quick, filling and presents well... It's excellent for serving for guests. You can garnish it how you see fit. This is a copycat recipe from pasta ya gotcha! We used to serve it at the pizza place in worked at when I was 18. I'm so happy to be able to recreate it at home! 

Ingredients:
1 lb. Ground chicken or turkey
1 jar alfredo sauce
3 TBSP taco seasoning (or one packet)
1 lb penne pasta
Shredded cheddar
Sliced black olives
Diced tomato
Sour cream
Hot sauce

Cook pasta according to package.  Brown meat, drain and return to pan.  Add alfredo sauce and taco seasoning.  Mix well and simmer for about 5 minutes.  Serve over hot pasta and top with cheese, olives, green onion, tomato and sour cream.

See, it's that easy! Let me know how it turns out for you :-)

Balsamic Chicken in the Crock Pot

This is by far one of my new favorite recipes! It has a tremendous amount of flavor and texture as well as a great color that makes it wonderful for dishing up for guests! On a side note, don't let the balsamic vinegar scare you off. It does have a slightly ominous name and the term "vinegar" doesn't sound appetizing to most but this is another "trust me" moment! The vinegar taste cooks off and leaves the hearty, sweet flavor that balsamic vinegar has over other varieties of vinegar! Did I mention it's also a light dish... ya buddy!

4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of fat
olive oil
2 cans of italian style diced tomatos undrained
1 onion sliced very thinly (not chopped!)
5-6 garlic cloves (If they're extra large, be sure to cut them in half)
1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar
a sprinkle of italian seasonings

Alright, drizzle your crock pot with olive oil. Place trimmed chicken inside. Top with onion and garlic. Sprinkle seasonings. Cover with vinegar and then pour your cans of tomatos on top! Cook on low for 5-6 hours but NO LONGER! THis has a very thin sauce so your chicken will dry up quickly if left to cook much longer!

*side note* I have started to lightly sauté the onions before putting them in the crock pot.  It adds more flavor and ensures they are soft at serving time

This meal is great served with some of the tomato and onion on top of the chicken as well as a heaping scoop of the sauce and veggies served over some angel hair pasta with a sprinkle of fresh grated parm! Any green veggies pairs well but I really recommend you try the roasted balsamic asparagus I have on here!

Creamy Italian Chicken

There is nothing better then a super easy and equally yummy crock pot recipe! This one is a new favorite. The sauce is a must-have served over rice!

1 can cream of chicken soup (I use the 98% fat free stuff)
1 pckg dry italian dressing mix
1 8 oz pckg of cream cheese (I like the 1/3 less fat kind)
4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Trim chicken, place in crock pot. In a seperate bowl mix soup and dressing mix and pour over chicken. Now, slice your cream cheese, place on top of soup and cook on low for 6 hours! About an hour before it's done, reach in there and stir that cream cheese into the sauce. Serve the chicken with a little sauce on top, use remaining sauce on top of some yummy brown rice and serve up with some green beans!

White Enchiladas

This recipe is my fabulous step mom's and was a favorite growing up! It's a twist on the traditional enchilada. While it can be time consuming, you can save time by simply layering the ingredients like a lasagna rather then rolling it all individually. I am not going to give an amount of ingredients because it can vary gretaly depending on the number and size of pans you want to make. I have not tried it but I imagine these would freeze pretty well.

corn tortillas
chicken
cream of celery soup
milk
shredded cheese (Iused cheddar here but any mix of cheddar, pepperjack, or monterey would go over well)
canned, diced chilis
chopped olives
sour cream to garnish


Start by "frying" your tortillas. You do NOT want them crispy, simply soft. Do one side, then the other with a max of 15 seconds cooking time.

Lay the tortillas out on papertowels to drain the excess oil and cool down, trut me, you don't want to handle hot tortillas!

Shred your chicken! Boiling and shredding is the method I normally use. This however, was half of a roasted chicken.

You will want to add milk to your cream of celery soup to make it the consistency of ranch dressing (or something similar).

Now, dip your tortillas (both sides) in the soup, fill with your toppings and roll and place ina greased pan. When you're finished, top with extra soup and cheese and any left over filling stuff and bake for about 45 minutes at 350.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

To be honest, I don't know why it took me so long to try this recipe but I'm sure glad I did! I made it for the first time last winter and it is very simple to make and the best part about it: you can pump up the spice level if your family prefers hot food! Here ya go!


1 lb bonless skinless chicken breasts (I use two large ones)
1 medium onion finely chopped (I only used half)
1 can diced tomatos with chilis, undrained
1 can (10 oz) mild enchilada sauce (or medium or hot, whichever you prefer)
1 can (4.5 oz) chopped green chilis, drained (I use mild but here's another chance to spice it up)
1 can chicken broth 1 can corn, drained (this time around I used half of a small bag of frozen corn)
chopped garlic (I used about a tablespoon full)
2 teaspoons of chili powder
1.5 teaspoons of cumin (I've made it before without and it tasted just fine)
5 soft corn tortillas cut into 1 inch pieces
1 can of beans drained (kidney, black beans, pinto, whichever you prefer or have on hand)

Spray your crockpot with non-stick spray and place your trimmed chicken breast in the bottom. Top with your "chunky" ingredients.

Top those with the can of tomatos, sprinkle with seasonings and layer with tortilla pieces. Pour the liquids on top.

Cook for 6-8 hours on low. Pull the chicken breasts out, shred with fork then return to pot.

You could top with sour cream and shredded cheese if you'd prefer. Enjoy!

This time around I got smart and rather then let the leftover tortillas from the package go bad, I divided them into groups of five and put them in a freezer bag and froze them for my next round of tortilla soup!

Russian Chicken

This was by far one of the best meals I've made. I think it was so tasty to me because it has a totally different taste then most meals I make. I am going to post two different ways to cook it. I originally found this as a crockpot meal but our crockpot is not very nice to chicken so I did it in the oven. I'll post both versions :) I guess I should laso mention that while looking up variations of this recipe I found it was made two different ways equally (one with cranberries and another with apricots)

1 8 oz bottle Russian dressing (the kind I used was by Wishbone)
1 can of whole cranberries in sauce (you can choose to replace the cranberries with a small jar of apricot preserves)
1 envelope onion soup mix (dry)
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

To cook this in the crockpot simply place your trimmed breasts at the bottom of the pot, mix the other ingredients seperately and pour them over the chicken. Cook on low 5-6 hours.




To bake it, tenderize your chicken breasts to equal thickness. Place them in a 9x13 dish coated with PAM. Mix all other ingredients and pour over the top.



Cover with foil and bake about 40 minutes, removing the foil for the last 10 or so (it might need a little longer to cook, just check it at 40. I did mine an hour like the original recipe and it was overcooked)
It is a MUST to serve this with rice or mashed potatos and use up all that extra sauce on top!

Parmesan Crusted Chicken

I made this recipe for the first time at my mom's a couple of weeks ago, and I'm pretty sure it is from Kraft. This meal was cheesy, moist and best of all: delicious! Super easy too!

4 boneless skinless chikcen breasts
2/3 cup mayo
1/3 cup parmesean cheese
italian bread crumbs (about 1/4-1/3 cup)

To start, you will want to trim your chicken and then beat it (tenderize) to even thickness. Preheat oven to 425 and spray a 9x13 pan with nonstick spray. Mix together the mayo and parm. Spread it evenly over the chicken breasts.


Next, sprinkle bread crumbs over chicken.



Bake the chicken for 20-25 minutes until cooked through. I served with some Garlic & Olive Oil Vermicelli and green beans. YUMMY!

Easy Peasy Chicken Parm

This is so yummy and SO easy! Even though it's called chicken parmigiana I prefer to use monterey jack on top :) So, here goes...

Boneless skinless chicken breasts (as many as you want/need)
Bread crumbs
melted butter
spaghetti sauce (or marinara, your choice)
cheese!!! (your choice, I like monterey or provolone)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Trim your breasts, place in bag (I prefer a grocery bag so I can easily toss the mess when done)) and BEAT YOUR MEAT! HAHAHA! I just had to say that. Alright, so you want to tenderize your chicken until it is uniform in thickness.



Dip in melted butter and then flip flop on a plate with bread crumbs until completely covered. Place on a foil lined cookie sheet.



Bake for 20 minutes. Spoon on sauce and cover with cheese. Bake about another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Presto, you have chicken parm!!!



I serve with some spaghetti noddles tossed with the left over sauce and a salad. Enjoy!