Chicken with Mushrooms

This is so easy and so flavorful. You could make this, and freeze before the baking step. Then, thaw and bake for easy dinner night. So yummy.


Ingredients

• 3 cups sliced mushrooms
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
• salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to taste
• 2 tablespoons butter
• Garlic
• 6 ounces mozzarella cheese, sliced (I used pre-shredded pizza cheese)
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 1  can cream of mushroom soup

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Saute the mushrooms in a little oil and garlic to desired tenderness.
3. Place the mushrooms in a 9x13 inch pan.
4. In separate bowl, mix the chicken broth with cream of mushroom soup. Set aside.
5. Dip chicken into beaten eggs, then roll in bread crumbs, salt, pepper and seasoning.
6. In skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Brown both sides of chicken in skillet. Place chicken on top of mushrooms, then pour the soup/broth mixture over the chicken, and top with mozzarella cheese. 
7. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.
8. Serve over noodles or rice.

Twice Baked Potato's

Such an important detail here with regards to freezer cooking...don't forget the sides! I have lots of breadsticks and things frozen, some rice, and lots of veggies. But, why not potato's? Well, yes potato's!


I bought a bag of large potato's at 15lbs for $7.50. Not bad. I simply scrubbed the skins, and baked for an hour at 425. Once cool enough to handle, scoop out most of the insides, and make your favorite mashed potato's. I used butter, dash of milk, sour cream, garlic salt and pepper. Mixed it up with my hand mixer in a bowl, then scooped back into the potato skins. I didn't have any cheese, but if I did, I would have shredded it, and frozen it all together. Once completely cool, I laid wax paper over the top, then wrapped tightly with foil, and sealed in freezer bags, removing most of the air. Label, and store, and you've got side dishes! I still have the other half of the potato's to do tomorrow. I was thinking, why not just freeze mashed potato's? :)

Homemade Chicken Broth

Well, I figured since I needed to boil chicken for my freezer stockpile, may as well use the broth too! I'm going to freeze it in 1 cup portions in freezer baggies and use as needed. There is a ton left from boiling 8 chicken breasts today.

I diced 1 onion, 2 celery stalks, and 2 carrots and boiled in enough water to cover until soft. Then I added the chicken breasts and covered with water. Boiled the chicken for an hour, then shredded and removed the bones. Added the bones back to the liquid and continued to cook for a couple hours. Then, I strained all the broth in a colander and set out to cool.

And just for organization purposes, the extra shredded chicken from tonight.

King Ranch Chicken

This is a recipe from an old church recipe book I have. I was too obsessed with sweets as a child to really get into this kind of cooking, but I'm so glad I got that book! This is a great recipe, that I tend to have most ingredients for at any given time. You can always boil chicken in larger quantities, shred, and freeze in meal size servings for ease in the kitchen on other nights.
















This recipe can also be assembled and frozen before or after baking!

King Ranch Chicken
1 chicken or 2-3 chicken breasts
1 bay leaf
1C chopped onion
1C chopped green pepper
1 stick butter (1/2C)
2 cans cream of mushroom
2 cans cream of chicken
1 can diced tomato's
1 small can diced green chilli's
12 corn tortillas, torn into pieces
1 1/2 C shredded cheddar

Boil chicken with salt, pepper and bay leaf. After cooking, bone the chicken and cut into bite sized pieces (return the bones to the pot to continue making homemade broth!).

In a large saucepan, saute onions and green peppers in butter until tender. Stir in soups, tomato's and chilli's.

In a 9x13 pan, arrange alternate layers of tortillas, chicken, soup mixture, and cheese, using 1/3 of all ingredients. Repeat layers 2 more times.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes until hot and bubbly and cheese just starts to brown.

May be frozen before or after baking.

To continue making homemade broth, just boil the bones for several hours, then strain through cheesecloth or colander. Cool, and freeze in 1 Cup portions in freezer safe baggies.

Apple Cuties by Lauren P!!!

Pre-heat oven to 425'

To start-
3 TBS of butter in large pan
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

melt the butter and mix in the sugar and cinnamon

THEN you take 1 green granny smith apple and peel it, slice it and dice it into little bitty apple chunks and you add the apples to the cinnamon, butter, sugar mixture and cook on medium heat for a few minutes (like 4 minutes), stir frequently

In a sep. bowl- add
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbs of sugar
1/8 tsp of salt
and whisk together until well beaten

-Pour the batter over the top cinnamon apple mixture (leave it in the large skillet/pan) and put it in the oven for 15 minutes. This will not hurt your pan. Cut like a pizza when finished and you can add powdered sugar or syrup over the top. Its SUPER yummy and a good way to get some apples in your kiddo for breakfast!