Chicken Rotini

I've cooked more new stuff these past two weeks that I feel like I'm spoiling anyone following this blog!  It makes me happy though.  Not just to be able to make new meals, but to have the time to actually make a meal.

Tonight was a "must use the chicken in the fridge before it goes bad" night.  And it was delicious!

What you need:
3-4 skinless, boneless chicken breast - cut into bite size chunks
24 oz (3 cups) pasta sauce of your choice ( I used tomato & basil)
2 1/2 C. rotini pasta, cooked al dente
4 oz  mozzarella cheese, shredded.  ( half a small bag of pre-shredded cheese)

(c)Keytee 2013

Pre-heat oven 450 degrees F.
Start a pot of water to boil.  (I used the pan in the picture, from stove top to oven)
Cut up chicken and carefully place in water.
Once boiling, use a large slotted spoon remove chicken  to a bowl, set aside.
Add rotini pasta and continue boil for approx 7 minutes. Drain and put back in pan.
Dump chicken in with pasta, add sauce and stir until all coated.
Top with cheese and bake 8 minutes or until cheese is lightly toasty looking.

Serve with garlic bread and dig in!

Tender Italian Tenders

Or T.I.Ts for short, (Well, We thought it was hysterical) are an easy-quick dinner for those busy evenings.

What you need:
8-10  trimmed, raw chicken tender cuts
3/4 C. real mayonnaise
1/2 C. grated parmesan cheese
1/2 T. garlic powder
3/4 C. bread crumbs  (or use italian seasoned bread crumbs and skip the next ingredient)
3 T. italian seasoning   (I keep a premixed bottle of italian seasoning.)

(c) Keytee 2013

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees.
In one bowl, mix mayo, parmesan and garlic powder.
Put bread crumbs and seasoning in a second bowl.
Dip chicken in mayo mixture, then coat with bread crumbs.
Arrange chicken in baking sheet or pan (I use a 9 x 13 cake pan)
Bake 20 minutes.

I love these because the chicken is NOT dried out at all, so there's no reason to cover the wonderful taste with dipping sauce of any kind.

Tater tot casserole

Yeah, I know there are a ton of places you can find the tater tot casserole recipe.  But this is MY version and it was delicious!

What you need:
1 pound ground beef
1 T dried, chopped onion
1 (10 oz) can cream of chicken soup, undiluted.  (I would have used cream of celery but our grocery store is ALWAYS out of it!)
1 (16 oz) bag tater tots (I used the crowns)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I used sharp)
1 (10 oz) can Veg-all  (mixed veggies)
Salt & pepper to taste

(c) Keytee 2013

What to do:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Brown ground beef with onion, salt & pepper. Drain.
Mix in cream soup and veggies.
Cover bottom of casserole dish.
Top with 1 cup cheese.
Cover with tater tots and top that with remaining cup of cheese.
Bake uncovered 30-40 minutes until bubbly and golden brown.

This was a freezer meal and it took 40 minutes to reheat it perfectly!  The pan I used was a rectangle, deep casserole foil pan and was a bit big for this recipe. A square or 2 quart round dish might have been better.

A method of madness.

Earlier this week, during a conversation about grocery shopping, the question was raised how I put together my list.  I do my shopping every other weekend after my paycheck is deposited and bills are paid.  But before that I plan for my shopping trip.  You would think I would be smart and makes notes through out the week when the thought of "Hey, that sounds good, I should make that next time around!".  But alas I do not.

10/28/13 - I am now filling in my menu plan through out the two weeks prior to shopping!

What I end up doing, every single time is staying up late the night before I shop.

I start out in the kitchen making two messy lists. One of what I have in my kitchen to cook with, and one of things we regularly need.  Then I shuffle back to my desk to put together a menu.  I thumb through my recipe binder, the recipe box, and pinterest for anything that just screams "MAKE ME!".

(c)Keytee2 2013

We don't necessarily follow it by the days, sometimes we really don't follow it much at all.  It all depends on how busy we are. But it's there, on the fridge so we don't have to think about what to make if we don't want to.  There are days where I throw a bag of burger in the fridge in the morning to defrost, and by the time I get home I'm all "fook it, it's pizza night".

As I put a recipe on the menu I cross reference the 'have' list and make a note next to an item that's to be used.  (example, list has 3 pounds of hamburger, I'm using 1 pound for tater tot casserole so I'd write "tt cass" next to it and change the amount to 2).  Anything in the recipe not on my 'have' list gets written in the 'need' list.

Once I've got my 'need' list scratched out I turn to my organize shopping list.  I visualize my grocery store and transfer items from the messy list in the order that I would find them in the store.  I used to just use my scribbled list, but would always miss and forget things.  With my list organized I rarely do that anymore.

For me, it's worth the time to do all this.  Essentially it's a huge time saver when I don't have to back track in the store to find something or return to the store because I forgot something.   Of course it would take half the time to complete my task if I didn't get easily distracted by pinterest and watching television.

Keytee's Menu Planner (pdf)
Keytee's shopping list (pdf)