Baked Cream of Mushroom Chicken

This recipe is pretty much my favorite thus far in my cooking career. It's easy and so. dang. on. delicious. 

I liked this recipe a lot when I lived by myself because it's one that can be cooked for one person or just as easily for an entire family get-together. I also like it because it's similar to a crock-pot recipe in that you just throw all the ingredients into a dish, forget about it while it's cooking, and then it comes out full of warm deliciousness. Here we go!

Need:

2-4 Skinless, boneless chicken breasts*

1-2 Cans of Cream of Mushroom Soup**

1 Yellow onion

1/2 stick of butter

Salt, pepper, and garlic powder

Recipe:

Season both sides of chicken breast using salt, pepper, and garlic pepper.

Place seasoned chicken breast into deep baking dish. 

Slice onion and spread over the breasts.

Put two pats of butter on each breast

(at this point you could also add in some diced carrots, actual mushrooms, diced celery, etc. for additional flavors)

Top breasts with Cream of Mushroom Soup.

Bake in 375 degree oven for 45 minutes. 

Serve with rice and green beans.

Enjoy!

The Cream of Mushroom becomes very soupy when it comes out of the oven and it's perfect for going over the rice.

*I try to prepare an extra breast or two just so that Chris will have something to carry for lunch the next day at work. The last time I cooked this I diced up the leftover breast, mixed it in with the rice, and added some of the cream of mushroom soup from the pan and made chicken and rice with it - that was easier to throw in a container and heat up anyway.

**For every two to three breasts I would use one can. Just to make sure enough flavor is going around and that you have some soup left in the pan for the rice and for leftovers. Also, if you want you can change the soup to Cream of Chicken or Cream of Broccoli - depending on the flavor you want.

Homemade Pizza (and what to do for the next night's dinner)

I'm a fan of delicious food that requires little effort. As I begin to post more recipes (because I generally photograph all the meals I cook, I just forget to post) you will see a pattern: easy.

Last week I threw together a homemade pizza. And here's how it went:

Need:

Can of pizza dough

Can of garlic and basil tomato sauce 

Green bell pepper

Red bell pepper

Red onion

Crumbled garlic feta cheese

Shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Rotisserie chicken, pulled off and shredded

Recipe:

Roll pizza dough onto baking sheet

Spread tomato sauce evenly onto dough leaving a half an inch boarder

Add feta, diced veggies*, shredded chicken, and shredded cheddar cheese

Bake according to directions on pizza dough can

Enjoy!

*(Obviously) You can add any combination of vegetable to your pizza - these are just the ones I chose for this particular night. I think adding banana peppers, mushrooms, yellow onion, or olives would be just as delicious. 

I hate to go all "Food Network" on y'all, but this pizza had so much flavor! I couldn't get over it - especially to be so easy to put together and cook. This is such a great recipe that could be used for dinner, lunch, adults, children, movie night, and game day. 

So after you finish putting your pizza together, you are going to realize you have a lot of diced veggies and shredded rotisserie chicken left over. What to do with that?

Nachos

Need:

Chips

Leftover cheese, diced veggies, and shredded chicken 

Queso

Salsa

Directions:

Spread chips onto plate

Cover chips with leftovers

Heat up queso according to the directions on the container

Put nachos in microwave for one minute - until cheddar cheese has melted

Pour queso and salsa on top of nachos

Enjoy!

(sorry, didn't snap a photo of these)

We Didn't Start the Fire

(you'll be happy to know that this weekend, during our grilling-capades, we did not start any fires, it's just an awesomely catchy Billy Joel song)

Anyway, moving on, this weekend - on Saturday - we grilled out for dinner. It was nice out, there were never-ending football games playing, and it just seemed like the right thing to do. Plus, back home in the Johnson house it's typical to grill at least one to two times a week, and here at this Jackson house we had yet to do so, until this weekend - so it was about time. We had a blast! We grilled pork chops and veggie kabobs, and made some mashed potatoes. Chris handled the meat and I handled the veggies and our grilling-capades went a little like this:

 

Vegetable Kabobs are pretty easy if you've never done them:

- Choose a variety of vegetables

- Dice them up into large pieces (mushrooms and cherry tomatoes do not need dicing)

- Run them through kabobs/skewers

- Season with salt and pepper (I also like to add a garlic based seasoning)

- Place over coals to char the kabobs

- Move to side for veggies to cook

 "Chris, give a thumbs up." I think I snapped the picture too soon? Ooops.

Maeby taking in the smells, watching from the patio, and hoping that we will have leftovers for her

Mashed Potatoes (everyone does these differently, here's how I do it):

- Boil whole potatoes. Boiling them whole generally takes a little bit longer than dicing them up, but when you leave them whole to boil it helps to retain the nutrients you want in the potatoes. The more you cut them, the more of the good  stuff they lose. So if you have time, I suggest boiling them whole.

- Drain the potatoes.

- Give them a rough mash

- Add butter, sour cream, and S&P to taste

- Continue mashing until you're satisfied

*I like to leave the skin on the potatoes and mashes them only as much as I have to - I prefer actual pieces of the potatoes rather than "creamed potatoes."

Pork Chops (this will be a rough instruction, Chris cooked these so I don't know much about this):

- Season pork chops with S&P and any other desired seasoning.

- Let them sit in the refrigerator for a couple hours.

- (Here, I would tell you how to get the grill right, but I don't know. I'll learn and get back to you)

- Place the chops over the coals.

- Cook on first side for 4-6 minutes depending on size and thickness (you can see the sides of the pork chop turning white, then it's about time to flip)

- Once flipped, paint on some bbq sauce of your choosing (I use my dad's homemade because it is the best)

- Once the other side is done, put them on a plate and paint remaining side with bbq sauce.

- Cover chops with foil, then place a towel over the foil to help keep them warm and juicy until you are ready to eat (it's science). 

Enjoy your meal!