Hearty Winter Chicken Noodle Soup

Appropriate name, huh? Nathan loves soup. He says, "I like the broth." He really likes chicken noodle because chicken is his favorite meat. Soup usually makes a lot, and Monday is our rent-a-family night. A lot of times I will make soup, we will eat a bunch of it, and I will freeze the rest. So I thought soup would be a good meal for a lot of eaters. Plus we haven't had soup with them in a while, and it's good to give your guinea pigs a varied diet hahahaha. I don't like peas, and neither do Nathan and Emma, but Steve does, so once in a while I'll throw them in something that I can easily pick around in. When you're eating soup, they can just flow right off your spoon if you don't want them. This is from the Everything Soup Cookbook.

Hearty Winter Chicken Noodle Soup
3 chicken quarters (about 2 lbs total)(I tried to find split breasts but couldn't...I ended up with 4 chicken thighs and I threw a boneless breast in there to have some white meat too)
4 cups water
1/2 cup chopped celery, plus 2 stalks celery thinly sliced
2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley (I just used a sprinkle of dried)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried thyme, crushed
1/4 tsp pepper
1 bay leaf
4 carrots, sliced
3 onions, chopped
3 cups packaged dried egg noodles
2 cups milk, divided
1 cup frozen peas
2 tbsp flour

Skin the chicken (gross but necessary or the soup would be SO fatty). Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels. In a large Dutch oven, place the chicken, water, chopped celery, parsley, salt, thyme, pepper, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.

Add the sliced celery, carrots, and onions; simmer, covered, another 30 minutes, or until chicken is tender and no longer pink. Remove from heat. Discard bay leaf. Remove chicken with slotted spoon; let cool slightly. Debone the chicken (I HATE doing that); discard bones. Chop chicken and set aside.

Bring the soup back to a boil. Add the noodles; cook for 5 minutes. Stir in 1 1/2 cups milk and the peas. Combine the remaining flour and milk in a screw-top jar (I had a Tupperware thing I used for that). Cover and shake until smooth; stir into soup. Cook, stirring, until thickened and bubbly. Stir in chicken. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes more, or until heated through.

This soup had very little broth (sorry Nathan). It might be my own fault because I didn't measure the noodles, I just eyeballed it. It was good, everybody ate it, but it wasn't great. Maybe more herbs or something would have helped. So a good meal but not going to keep this one.

Kielbasa and Bean Soup

I have a sore throat, so it's a good day for soup. But it just happened to work out that way because I planned this week's menu last week and I didn't know I would have a sore throat today. This is from the Everything Soup cookbook I've been working through in between Simple & Delicious recipes. We love smoked sausage. Even though it's bad for you. But once in a while, and mixed with things that are good for you, is okay.

Kielbasa and Bean Soup
1 lb kielbasa sausage (do you know it comes in 14.5 oz pkg now instead of 16 oz? Conspiracy)
1 onion
1 stalk celery
2 (14.5 oz) cans whole tomatoes
2 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
5 cloves garlic
1/2 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (omitted)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp thyme
5 cups chicken broth
4 (15.5 oz) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
Salt & pepper

Thinly slice the sausage. Chop the onion and celery. Dice the canned tomatoes (this just seems silly because you can buy them already diced. So that's what I did) and mix with the basil and oregano. Mince the garlic. Drain and mince the chipotle pepper.

In a soup pot, heat the oil on medium. Add the onion, celery, and thyme, sauteing for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 additional minute. Pour in the broth, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen any browned bits of veggies. Add the beans, tomatoes, sausage, and chipotle. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook for 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

We had this with frozen dinner rolls. It was so so yummy. Everybody liked it. It was a bit heavy on the tomato, I thought. Next time I'm going to double the meat =o) The broth was so delicious I almost wanted to strain it and sip it instead of saving it for leftovers. But I did not do that, and on some zombie night I'll be glad I didn't. Another good one! This has been a good month...

Chocolate French Toast

Yummy. So you might remember that I'm trying to incorporate more meatless meals into our diet, because of the cheapness. Well this counts, I say, even though it's not your traditional meatless meal. Like, when I think "vegetarian dish" my brain does not just jump to french toast. But it is totally meatless. This is the last recipe I have marked from the Dec/Jan 2012 Simple & Delicious. The recipe says to use "egg" or "challah" bread. I don't know what those kinds of bread are. I did look (in vain) at Walmart and Hannaford, in their bakeries, but had no luck. I don't know if it's known by another name in our gourmet state or not. I used homemade oatmeal bread, which I made a few days ago so it was a bit dry. That's what they say you're supposed to use for french toast. Old(er) bread.

Chocolate French Toast
4 slices egg or challah bread (3/4" thick)(I used 12 slices of oatmeal bread and still did not have to double the following ingredients...)
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp butter
Optional toppings: confectioners' sugar, fresh raspberries, strawberries, bananas, and maple syrup (we had ours with syrup, and then fruit on the side: bananas, strawberries, and mandarin oranges)

Arrange bread slices in 9x13 baking dish (I had to use 2). Combine the sugar, cocoa, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and vanilla. Gradually whisk into dry ingredients until smooth. Pour over bread. Let stand 10 minutes, turning slices once (carefully).

Melt butter over medium heat in large skillet (I used 1 tbsp of butter for each batch). Cook bread (in batches if you double or triple it) for 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Serve with toppings.

I put a plate in the oven at 200 and put the "done" slices in there so they would stay warm while I made the other ones.

Everybody but Nathan liked this. The kids actually really liked it. What's not to like? The bread didn't get too soggy, which is a common problem I have with other french toast recipes I have tried. It tasted great. Definitely keeping this one.

Philly Cheesesteak Pizza

I'm pretty sure I've made something like this before. But it's in this issue of Simple & Delicious and it looked yummy so I decided to make it. It's supposed to start with Pillsbury crescent rolls for the crust, but I don't really like those, and I had frozen pizza shells in the freezer (the Boboli ones) so I used that for the crust instead. My guinea pig family was here tonight to try this with us (actually the kids had chicken nuggets and french fries. Even if I thought they would like this pizza, it wouldn't make enough to feed all of us. Just grown ups + Sam had this one) and Melissa actually has lived in Pennsylvania so this could have been a tricky one.

Philly Cheesesteak Pizza
1 tube (8 oz) refrigerated crescent rolls
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp beef bouillon granules
1/2 lb thinly sliced deli roast beef
1 tbsp prepared italian salad dressing
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Unroll crescent roll dough into one long rectangle; seal perforations. Press onto bottom and up sides of ungreased 13x9 baking pan. Bake at 375 for 7-10 minutes or until lightly browned (obviously if you're using a prebaked shell you would skip this step).

Saute green pepper and onion in oil and bouillon in a large skillet until vegetables are tender; set aside. Arrange beef over crust. Brush with salad dressing; sprinkle with cheese. Bake 4-5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Top with green pepper mixture. Cut into 12 pieces (or 8, if it's a circular shell).

We had this with a bagged Caeser salad. Pretty much the only kind of salad I like.

This was good. Melissa was here when I put it together and I think we used probably double the amount of cheese it called for. But it has calcium so it's fine. I liked this fine, but didn't think it was fabulous or anything. I think it was a bit too greasy, and I don't know if that's from the meat as it's cooking, or if it was from too much oil with the veggies. I really used hardly any salad dressing so I don't think it was that. So I think if I made this again I would only use 1 tbsp of oil for the onions and peppers. Overall a good easy supper.

Toll House Crumb Cake

This is what I made for home fellowship last week. This is the recipe I was making when I dropped an egg in the batter and had to start over. It was a zombie day. In spite of me being mad at myself, the cake turned out really great. It's from Tiffany Stewart's adoption fundraiser cookbook. Seriously you should get this cookbook if you don't have it. Message me for details.

Toll House Crumb Cake
Topping:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp flour
2 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I left these out. We are nutty enough)
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (from 12 oz bag)
Cake:
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter softened
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream
remaining choc chips from the 12 oz bag

In a small bowl combine topping ingredients until crumbly; set aside. For cake, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. In a large bowl beat sugar, butter, and vanilla until creamy. Add eggs (don't drop one here like I did!) one at a time, beating well after each one. Gradually add flour mixture alternately with sour cream (if you have a Kitchen Aid, and manage to not mix egg shells in, you can just dump all this stuff in at once--all the dry ingredients plus the sour cream, and it still turns out fine). Fold in the chocolate chips. Spread into greased 9x13 baking pan. Sprinkle with topping. Bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes or until toothpick comes back clean.

This was so easy and came out so fabulous. I loved that you don't have to wait for it to cool before you can frost it, like with a lot of other cakes. It was moist and yummy, but didn't fall apart while you were eating it, which is important when there will be little ones eating it. You eat it like brownies (at least we did) and didn't use forks. Yum yum yum. Definitely keeping this one. Next time I will endeavor not to mix in egg shells. You would be surprised how many people told me I should have kept going and left the egg shells in. Some people suggested adding nuts to try to mask the crunch. I was surprised at this. I should tell you who they were so if they invite you over you can be on "egg shell watch." But I'm not going to, to make it more exciting.

Cranberry Sweet and Sour Pork

This one looked so yummy. I love sweet and sour type stuff. And pork tenderloin is always so yummy. So we had this one for supper one night last week. It's from Dec/Jan 2012 Simple & Delicious.

Cranberry Sweet and Sour Pork
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup unsweetened pineapple juice (I just used the juice from when I drained the can of pineapple)
1 cup whole-berry cranberry sauce
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1 1/2 lb pork tenderloin, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 tbsp canola oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 green pepper, cut into strips
3/4 cup pineapple tidbits (I had a can of pineapple chunks so I just used that)
Hot cooked rice or chow mein noodles (we had rice)

Combine cornstarch and pineapple juice in a small bowl until smooth. Stir in cranberry and barbecue sauces; set aside.

Stir fry pork in oil in a large skillet for 3 minutes or until meat is no longer pink. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Remove from pan and keep warm.

Add green pepper and pineapple to pan; stir fry for 2 minutes. Stir cornstarch mixture and add to skillet. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Add pork back to skillet; heat through. Serve over rice or noodles.

This was really good. Everybody liked the meat, at least. The kids picked around the green pepper especially. But it was very good, and fairly easy. The hardest part was cutting up the pork. This would be good with chicken, too, I bet.

Herbed Chicken and Rice

We had this last night. It was fast, it all just came together in the skillet. It was a little Chinese-y, but also a little not. It's from the latest Simple & Delicious.

Herbed Chicken and Rice
1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch strips
1 tbsp butter
2 large carrots, shredded (I bought matchstick carrots so I didn't have to shred mine)
1 small onion, chopped
2 cups hot water
1/4 tsp marjoram
1/4 tsp thyme
1/8 tsp rosemary, crushed
1/8 tsp rubbed sage
2 cups uncooked instant rice (I used instant brown rice)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Saute chicken in butter in a large skillet for 3-4 minutes. Add the carrots and onion; saute until tender. Stir in water and seasonings; bring to a boil. Stir in the rice; cover and remove from heat (if you use instant brown rice, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes before proceeding). Let stand for 5 minutes. Garnish with walnuts.

I left the walnuts off Nathan's portion. The others all really liked this and didn't even seem to notice the nuts. I chopped them very fine with my Tupperware choppy thing. This was really good and we all liked it. The only thing I would say is that it needs more chicken. The recipe said this would be 5 servings. Well, 5 of us ate it, but the kids didn't really have full-sized portions. So I am going to keep this recipe, but double the chicken next time. Also if you saute the chicken and veggies in olive oil instead of butter, this would be a dairy-free one.

Cuban Black Bean Soup

As I have mentioned before, I am trying to add more vegetarian dishes into our diet, not because I hate meat, but because it's so cheap to buy beans. So this is the recipe I made for supper. It's from the Everything Soup cookbook. There is a lot of black bean consumption in Haiti too. So we need to get used to that.

Cuban Black Bean Soup
1 lb dried black beans
4 cups cooked white rice
1 onion
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 tbsp butter
4 cups beef broth (of course if you use beef broth this won't be strictly vegetarian...just use vegetable)
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 cup rum (optional)(ha ha)

Soak the beans overnight in cold water, then drain. Cook the rice if you don't have leftovers. Chop the onion and dice the red and green peppers (separately). In a soup pot, heat the butter. Add onion and saute for 3 minutes. Add the beans, broth, bay leaves, thyme, oregano, and red pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook for 1 1/2 hours.

Remove about 1 cup of the beans with a slotted spoon and place them in a bowl. Mash them. Add them back into the soup pot, stirring a bit until the mixture thickens. Discard the bay leaves. Add the rum and green pepper. Cover and simmer for an additional 10 minutes.

Divide the rice among the serving bowls and pour the soup over the top. 6 servings.

(If you saute the veggies in olive oil instead of butter, this will be dairy free, too.)

I only made half the amount of rice, because the kids will all eat it now, but don't love it. Also I made it with brown rice instead of white. Once the soup was on the rice, this looked very like food we have eaten in Haiti before. I wish it tasted better. It didn't taste bad, just kind of bland, I thought. I tried adding salt, but then it just tasty kind of bland and salty. All the kids ate it though. Sam gave it a 3 out of 5 stars. Steve said 3 or 4. I said a solid 3. So Sam calculated that the average rating for this recipe is 3.1. Not sure that's exactly right mathematically speaking, but I think fairly accurate for how we liked it. Maybe the rum would have helped...?

Marinara Sauce

I like to make things ahead and freeze them. Something about a full freezer makes me happy. I like to make my own spaghetti sauce, because a lot of the ones you can buy in stores have a lot of additives. Of course I start with canned tomatoes...maybe this summer when someone with a garden has real tomatoes I will buy them and start from scratch. But I made this whole batch, which yielded 14 cups of sauce, for about $4. That's pretty good. And 14 cups of sauce equals about 4.3 jars of store bought spaghetti sauce, which depending on which sauce you buy, is probably going to cost more than $4. If you buy Hunt's in a can that will not be the case. But if you buy almost any sauce in a jar, it will be the case. I got this recipe from Tiffany Stewart's adoption fundraiser cookbook. If you haven't bought one of these yet, you totally should. I already said here, but will say again, this cookbook has a very good mix of all different types of recipes, and proceeds go to rescue a little boy from Ethiopia. Okay. This recipe has no meat in it. The sauce I usually make has meat in it, but then when I wanted to use it for certain other recipes, the fact that it had meat in it was a hindrance, and I ended up buying a jar of meatless. Like if you want chicken parm or something like that.

Marinara Sauce
3 tbsp olive oil
3 cups chopped yellow onion (about 3 medium)
1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp minced garlic (about 6 cloves)
2 tsp salt
2 tsp dried basil
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 cups chicken broth
3 (28 oz) cans crushed tomatoes
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion to pan; cook 4 minutes, stirring frequently. Add sugar and next 6 ingredients. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in vinegar; cook 30 seconds. Add broth and tomatoes; bring to a simmer. Add tomato paste. Cook over low heat for an hour or until sauce thickens, stirring occasionally.

The kids thought this smelled great, until I got to the vinegar step. Then they plugged their noses for approximately 30 minutes. It did smell very strongly for a few minutes there, but they were totally exaggerating. Once it was all together and simmering it smelled great. I asked Steve to smell it, because the nose-holding children were starting to give me a complex. He smelled it and said he would stick his face right in it and drink it up, it smelled so good. My friend Melissa, whose children were warned at the door and also commenced to hold their noses, also said it smelled great. Then she wondered if I was making this to go on the Indian Baked Chicken (previous post) that I had already told her I was making. I assured her I was not, although she is a sport and I bet she would have eaten it anyway.

We had this for the first time tonight, over noodles with garlic bread. It was pretty good, although we are not used to having sauce like that with noodles and no meat. But it was one of those in-a-hurry meals. So while I'm not sure this will be a great sauce to use by itself, carnivores that we are, I think it's going to be great in things like lasagna, or with ravioli. Or chicken. You see what I mean. It was very smooth and very flavorful. I'm glad I made it. Also I'm glad I liked it because I have 6 more containers of it in the freezer ha ha.

Indian Baked Chicken

This is my first try at Indian food. The caption of this recipe says "Cumin and turmeric give this hearty entree just the right amount of Indian flavor while maintaining mass appeal for picky eaters in the bunch." Sounds like our bunch, all right. So we gave this a whirl. I don't know much about Indian food, but I am pretty sure that it is not traditionally served with potatoes. But this one is. Maybe that's where the "mass appeal" comes from? Especially if you are from Maine...from Simple & Delicious Dec/Jan 2012.

Indian Baked Chicken
1 lb small red potatoes, quartered
4 medium carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large onion, cut into 1-inch pieces
6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 can (14 1/2 oz) chicken broth (I used homemade stock)
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp ground turmeric (I had to buy this. It's very yellow. It stained my measuring spoon.)
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp pepper

Place potatoes, carrots, and onions in a greased 13x9 baking dish; add chicken. Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl and pour over the top. Cover and bake at 400 for 1 to 1 1/4 hours or until meat thermometer reads 180 and vegetables are tender.

This one definitely got mixed reviews. Nathan and Lilly loved the chicken. Lincoln and Emma hated it. Sam ate it. The grown-ups all liked it. The potatoes were the most flavored part of it, I think. I don't think this was authentic Indian food, but it's probably as Indian as most of my "Mexican" cooking is Mexican. Anyway, good but not great. Not keeping.

Double Chocolate Holiday Pie

I have been meaning to make this for the last month. I had planned on making it for home fellowship a couple of different times, but was too tired. It seems weird that I always work the Thursday night before home fellowship, so I am always a zombie at home fellowship. I was supposed to work last night, too, but I got downstaffed. Woot! So today was the day for the pie. This is the last one I have marked from the Oct/Nov 2011 Simple & Delicious.

Double Chocolate Holiday Pie
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (I didn't want to buy a whole bag for the sake of 1/2 cup, so I used the regular semi-sweet chips that I had already)
1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 extra-servings graham cracker crust (9 oz)(they have this at Hannaford but not at Walmart)
2 tbsp plus 1/3 cup slivered almonds, divided
1 cup cold milk
1 pkg (3.3 oz) instant white chocolate pudding mix (I could only find sugar-free, and this was checking both WM & H)
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
2 cups heavy whipping cream, divided
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 can (14 oz) whole berry cranberry sauce
1/4 tsp grated orange peel

Place chocolate chips and condensed milk in small microwave safe bowl; microwave 30-60 seconds or until chocolate is melted; stir until smooth. Spread into crust (this firmed up quickly so hurry); sprinkle with 2 tbsp almonds.

Whisk milk and pudding mix in a large bowl for 2 minutes; set aside. Sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cream in a small saucepan; let stand for 1 minute. Heat over low heat, stirring until gelatin is completely dissolved (this took a while and looked weird for a bit, almost like tapioca, but then it dissolved). Remove from heat.

Beat remaining cream until it begins to thicken in a large bowl. Add sugar and extract; beat until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in gelatin mixture. Fold into pudding. Pour into crust. Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm.

Place cranberry sauce in food processor (I used my Tupperware choppy thing); cover and process until blended. Stir in orange peel. Spoon over top; sprinkle with remaining almonds. Refrigerate leftovers.

So if you don't buy the bigger graham cracker crust, it will definitely be too much filling. Even using the bigger one, it was almost too much. This took a little bit of time to do, but I think it was worth it. Everyone that ate it seemed to like it. Steve didn't want me to leave the last piece there, he wanted me to bring it home, which is always a good indicator. I didn't notice if the kids ate theirs or not. Typically children do not like the desserts I make, but I don't care really because there's plenty of other stuff they can eat. So, Steve said it's a keeper.

Bacon Cheeseburger Rice

Yum doesn't that sound good? If you love bacon like I do you will think so. It's from the Dec/Jan 2012 Simple & Delicious.

Bacon Cheeseburger Rice
1 lb ground beef
1 3/4 cups water
2/3 cup barbecue sauce
1 tbsp prepared mustard
2 tsp dried minced onion
1/2 tsp pepper
2 cups uncooked instant rice (I used instant brown rice)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/3 cup chopped dill pickles
5 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

Cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink in a large skillet; drain. Add the water, barbecue sauce, mustard, onion, and pepper. Bring to a boil; stir in the rice. Sprinkle with cheese. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 5 minutes (since I used brown rice I simmered for 10 minutes before adding the cheese, then simmered for 5 more minutes). Sprinkle with pickles and bacon.

This tasted so good! It smelled great too. I did not sprinkle it with pickles, that just didn't sound good. We had pickles on the side. Everybody liked this. I didn't pick the bacon out of the kids' portions, and Emma ate it all and loved it, and Nathan cried at one point "something hard and crunchy!" He was in distress, so I picked out the remaining bacon pieces from his. But otherwise this was a meal everyone liked, and very easy to make. Definitely keeping it.

Stacked Chicken Cordon Bleu

I made this one in December, so it should have been posted there. I didn't even realize I hadn't posted this one until I was going through the magazine for this week's menu planning. So, we had this last week. It's from the Dec/Jan 2012 Simple & Delicious. I guess in regular cordon bleu the cheese and the ham are rolled up and/or stuffed inside the chicken breast. This one they are just piled on in layers.

Stacked Chicken Cordon Bleu
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 egg
1 tbsp water
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup ground almonds (I bought slivered almonds and ground them with my Tupperware choppy thing)
1/4 cup olive oil
4 thin slices deli ham
2 slices swiss cheese, halved (I had shredded swiss left from another recipe so I used that)
Sauce:
2/3 cup condensed cream of chicken & mushroom soup, undiluted (I hate cream of mushroom, so I used cream of chicken)
2 tbsp sour cream
2 tbsp milk
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp salt
minced fresh parsley

Flatten chicken to 1/2-inch thickness; set aside. Combine the flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow bowl. Whisk egg and water in another shallow bowl. Combine bread crumbs and almonds in a third shallow bowl. Coat chicken with flour mixture, then dip in egg mixture and coat with bread crumb mixture.

Add oil to a large skillet. Cook chicken over medium heat for 5-6 minutes on each side or until 170. Top with ham and cheese; cover and cook 1-2 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Meanwhile, combine the soup, sour cream, milk, salt, and pepper in a small saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until heated through. Serve with chicken; sprinkle with parsley.

The chicken part of this was really good. The ground almonds gave it a really good flavor. Of course the little people did not agree. Also I didn't really care for the ham, cheese, and sauce. It was okay, we ate it, but it wasn't fabulous. So not keeping this one. I guess when I wait a week to type up a recipe I can't remember anything funny about it, either. Boring post.

Chicken Chimichangas

This is the recipe made with the leftover chicken from last night. Because I am so Mexican, I knew we would love it. You deep fry these. I don't have a fry daddy, and also I don't want one. But I did fry them in oil in the skillet, which was fairly stressful for me. But they came out pretty good. Here's the recipe.

Chicken Chimichangas
3 Honey & Spice chicken breast halves, cubed (from last recipe posted)
1 cup refried beans
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp hot pepper sauce (I used 2 drops)
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (I used a very small sprinkle)
6 flour tortillas, warmed
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I used shredded Mexican blend. I think it's what all the Mexicans use too.)
Oil for deep-fat frying
Optional toppings: sour cream (no), salsa, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, and chopped jalapeno pepper (no)

Combine first seven ingredients in small microwaveable bowl. Cover and microwave on high for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes or until heated through. Spoon 1/3 cup filling off-center on each tortilla; sprinkle with cheese. Fold up edge nearest filling; fold in both sides and roll up. Secure with a toothpick. Heat oil to 375 in an electric skillet or deep fat fryer (I just used my large skillet and set it over medium-high heat). Cook chimichangas until golden brown, turning to cook all sides. Drain on paper towels. Serve with toppings of your choice.

Even though I cut the spice way back, these still made my lips tingle. But they were pretty tasty. Also I found that the toothpicks got in the way of cooking them evenly on all sides. So I took them out, but then some of the filling started coming out too. Very stressful. I had to focus, and turn off the radio even so I could give my full attention to these. They browned much quicker than I expected. I should have made all 6 first, and then fried them in batches, instead of making one or two and putting them in the oil as I made them. But overall, first chimichangas were a success. Except Nathan had chicken nuggets and applesauce.

Honey-Spice Chicken

This is what we had for supper tonight. It's from the latest Simple & Delicious magazine. I liked this one, because of course I thought it sounded yummy, or else why would I have made it? But also it gives you a different recipe to use with the leftover chicken. So we're having that one tomorrow. But tonight we had this. My guinea pig Melissa was here because it's Monday. She actually changed her employer on her facebook profile to say "Guinea Pig for the Page Kitchen." Totally awesome, I loved it.

Honey-Spice Chicken
3 tsp garlic powder
3 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp paprika
3/4 tsp cayenne pepper (only use that much if you are crazy, and don't want your kids to eat it...I used a "dash")
8 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
6 tbsp honey
2 tsp cider vinegar

Combine first 6 ingredients and rub over chicken. Transfer to greased 15x10x1 inch baking pan. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes or until juices run clear. Combine honey and vinegar, baste over chicken during the last 10 minutes of baking. Save three chicken breasts for the chimichangas (yep, that's what we're having tomorrow and I can't wait!).

The honey totally scorched onto the pan. Luckily I used my Pampered Chef baking dish. If I had used a metal one I would still be scrubbing it right now. Or else I would have just thrown it away, which I have been known to do on occasion. So I think you should put foil down on the pan, then when the chicken is done you can just throw the foil away. If you are careful you won't even have to wash the pan, you'll just be able to put it away. We had this with sugar snap peas (which we just call "sugar snaps" so nobody knows they're eating peas) and...this is bad...fake potatoes in a box. I bought them at Marden's today, very cheap. Butter & Herb. They are just so tasty and light and fluffy and flavored. Usually I only make these to go on shepherd's pie, but they were so cheap. I bought it when I saw it. And everybody loved them.

Okay so how did everybody like the chicken? Emma cried that it was too spicy (which it really wasn't or I wouldn't have liked it), while her little brother happily ate it. Lily cleaned her plate even before the grown ups were done. Lincoln didn't like it. So you can see we got mixed reviews from the children, but all the adults liked it. I'll probably keep the recipe, especially if the chimichangas for tomorrow are as yummy as I hope they'll be.