Baked Mac, Chicken, Broccoli & Cheese

3 cooked chicken breast cut in bite sizes (I cooked mine in the crock pot with garlic salt/pepper on low 6 hours)
1 cube of butter
1/2 cup flour
4 cups of milk
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
2 cups shredded Sharp Cheddar cheese (leave a little out of the sauce to sprinkle on finished dish)
6 slices of American cheese
1 box elbow noodles
1 bag frozen broccoli
1 cup plain bread crumbs
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
butter

Preheat oven to 350. In a sauce pan melt butter.  Add flour to make a roux.  Cook 1-2 minutes over medium heat.  Add milk and spices. Cook over medium heat continually stirring.  You don't want it to boil or scald.  It will slowly thicken.  In another pot cook your noodles al dente.  When there is 10 minutes remaining while cooking noodles, add into the same pot the broccoli.  Drain, and set aside.  Back to the sauce, once thickened add the cheese.  Stir until completely melted and mixed. In a big pot mix the noodles with broccoli with the sauce and chicken.  Pour mixture into a 13 X 9 Pyrex dish. Top with shredded sharp cheddar cheese  In a little bowl mix the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle breading on top of dish.  Dot with butter. Cook uncovered for 30 minutes.  Finish off by 2 minutes under the broiler to make the breading toasted.

Chicken Dijon & Lemon Rice

Tonight's recipes will be brought to you by....BUTTER and I'll be doing Paula Dean proud.  Ignore the caloric intake and just go with it.  You only live once, right?!  For tonight's dinner I made Chicken Dijon, lemon rice, and green beans. The thing I adore about these recipes is that they stretch with ease.  My mom and I served this at my SIL's baby shower and it was a big hit.  Great go-to for large crowds when you need to stretch a dollar! I doubled the recipe's below because I wanted not only dinner and leftovers for us, but am planning on sharing the other half with another fam.  I will list the single serving recipe, but the pictures below are of me doubling.

Here we go!

Chicken Dijon

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts (Will make 6 pieces. I told you!  Stretches!)

1 cube of butter

1 clove of garlic

5 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs

2 tbsp parsley flakes

5 tbsp Parmesan cheese

First we need to make the "sauce".

Melt butter in a pan, and add the peeled clove of garlic.  Simmer for 5 minutes, then remove and toss garlic clove.  We essentially just made garlic butter.

Add Dijon to a bowl.

Add garlic butter into bowl.  Will be extremely "soupy" looking. 

Stir well, and then put in fridge.  We want these two ingredients to become friends!  They need some time to cool off to do such.

 

Next, get out your chicken.

If you have some aggression to get out, this is the step to do it!  You'll need a Ziploc bag, a kitchen mallet, and one of your chicken breasts.  Be sure to SEAL the bag once the chicken breast is inside.  You don't want to be splattering chicken schmeg all over the place!  Your mallet might have two sides, a flat side and a pointy side.  Use the flat side.  Pointy side up!

Pound, pound, POUND until this baby is flattened!  About 1/4 of an inch thick.

Keep going...

Whoa Mama!  Look at the difference! 

I think a dinner plate size of chicken is a little much for one person, don't you??

Cut it in two.  Now that's more like it!  Repeat with the remainder of your chicken, and set aside.

Next up is these 3 guys.

Measure them out, and place them in a shallow dish.  Mix!

Time to take our garlic butter/Dijon mixture out of the fridge.  Stir.  Looks much better! Nice and thick!

Time to make an assembly line.  Dip the chicken into the garlic Dijon butter first.

Then into the bread crumbs.

Make sure to cover both sides completely.

Place onto an ungreased cookie sheet. 

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 35 minutes, until browned.  If the top isn't browned/crunchy enough to your liking, finish off under the broiler for a minute or two.

On to our next recipe, LEMON RICE! A friend of mine gave me this recipe a few years ago, and it's delish!  One of our faves.

Lemon Rice

2 cups of longrain white rice

4 cups of chicken broth

juice of 1 lemon

1/2 cube of butter

2 chicken bouillon cubes (mash in fingers)

fresh ground pepper (to taste)

I didn't get as in depth pics of these, because it is super simple. Melt butter in a pot. Add rice and lemon juice. Toast for approx. 2 minutes. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil.

Lower temp and add mushed up bouillon cubes.  Mush with your hands!  Go on, get dirty!

(excuse the very weird shot of my hand!)

 

Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until liquid is completely evaporated.  Add fresh ground pepper to taste.  I add A LOT!  Compliments the lemon perfectly!

And for our veggies, I went super simple.  Can't beat fresh green beans in a bag that you can steam right in your microwave!  Added some butter and kosher salt and veggie was ready to be served in 5 minutes flat.

The final product....

Bon Appetit!

Taco Soup

Aren't much of a cook?  Consider yourself lost in the kitchen?  Then this is the recipe for you!  Completely fail proof as long as you know how to open a can and brown ground beef!  This is another meal you can feed a crowd with on the cheap.  I constantly keep my eyes peeled for when canned beans and tomatoes go on sale and stock up.  I always have ingredients for this easy go-to on hand. The lovely thing about this recipe is that you can mix it up depending on what types of beans you have on hand. If you have a really large crowd, just throw in a few more cans of beans/tomatoes. This recipe is versatile! Have fun with it!  The recipe below is the mix I like best. Here's what you'll need:

•  1-2 lbs ground beef
• 2 cups of diced yellow onion
• 2 cans pinto beans
• 2 cans kidney beans
• 1 can black beans
•  2 cans white beans
•  2 cans diced tomatoes
• 1 can stewed Mexican tomatoes
• 1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies
•  2 cans diced green chilies
• 1 large can sliced olives(drained)
• 1 can corn (drained)
• 1 packet of taco seasoning (I add 2 if I'm adding more cans of beans to make it more spicy)
• 1 packet of ranch dressing packet (buttermilk version)

**Brown beef (until completely cooked) in a saute pan with onions.  In a large stockpot, add all of the canned ingredients. Add cooked beef/onions.  Simmer for 1-2 hour or in a crock pot on low.  Serve with shredded cheddar cheese and corn chips. 

Chicken Tacos

In need for something that takes very little prep, cheap, and stretches?  If so, Chicken Tacos is for you!  All that is required is a crockpot! A friend of mine passed on this recipe, and I've since passed it on numerous times.  It is perfect for any busy day, or for a game night.

Here is what is needed:

• 6 boneless skinless chicken breast
• 3 cans of El Pato Hot Tomato Sauce (The yellow can, you can find this in your local grocer on the "international" aisle) 
•  garlic salt/pepper

That's it!  Throw the chicken in the slow cooker, garlic salt/ pepper, add sauce and viola! Cook on low for 6-8 hours (8 if you start off with frozen chicken breasts).  Remove chicken when cooking time is complete.  Shred by using 2 forks.  Chicken will literally be falling apart.  Add back to crockpot and stir in sauce. Serve with flour tortillas, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, shredded cheese, sour cream, etc.  Basically any taco fixins you'd like to add in!  Enjoy!