Oven Baked Stew

Another good find via Pinterest from The Girl Who Everything.  An easy, throw together meal that you can do in the crock pot too.  Hubs and I enjoyed it.  The 5 year old did not approve of this one. Of course, she's also the one who told her friends mom that she was allergic to normal size carrots but not the baby ones.

What I used:

1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 lbs beef stew meat (cut into bite size pieces.)
6-8 baby red potatoes, peeled and cut into fourths
1 small, sweet white onion.  Cut into 2" chunks
half of a small bag of baby carrots, cut in half
1 (14.5 oz) can cream of celery soup
1/2 C. ketchup

(c) Keytee 2013

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. In a large zip lock bag combine onion soup mix, paprika, salt and stew meat.  Shake until well coated. Place seasoned meat in baking dish.
3.  Arrange potatoes, onions and carrots on top of meat.
4.  In small bowl, combine cream of celery soup and ketchup.  Pour mixture over meat and vegetables.
5.  Cover and bake for 2 hours.

Crock pot option:  Prepare as above, cook on low for 4-6 hours or until potatoes are tender.

Creamy Sausage and Tomato Pasta

So, the last couple of night I'd been trying to come up with a dish that I could use some italian sausage that my mom's boyfriend, Papa Joe, gave us.  I sifted through multiple site and recipes until I came upon The Girl Who Ate Everything and had a total "YES!" moment.  Go to the site to see the original recipe.  As I often do, I've tweaked it to suit our tastes and my cooking style.

What I used:
5  Italian sausage - casing removed.
3 shakes of minced, dried onion
2 shakes mince, dried garlic
2 C.  (16 oz) Italian style diced/chopped tomatoes
1 C. (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 C.  heavy cream
2/3 of 16 oz box Penne pasta

(c) Keytee2 2013

1. Cook pasta in salted water al dente, according to package.
2. While pasta is cooking, brown sausage (I used my deep sided 12" fry pan).
3.  Add onion and garlic, saute for a couple minutes.
4.  Pour in tomatoes & tomato sauce, heat through.
5.  Pour in cream and heat through. (Supposedly it'll thicken the longer it simmers, mine did not get very thick in the 3 minutes I let it simmer).
6.  Mix in pasta and serve.

This dish is Picky Five Year Old Approved.

Baked Pork Chops

I had some pork chops defrosted. The really thick, boneless kind. I didn't want to fry them or use my electric grill. I was busy sewing and wanted something I could whip up and walk away from.  This is what I ended up doing and boy was it scrumpious!

What you need:
4-6 boneless pork loin chops
1 can mushroom soup
3/4 soup can of water
thyme
basil
salt
pepper
crushed, dried garlic
dried, minced onion
bread crumbs

(c) Keytee 2013

Pre-heat oven to 350*
1. Mix in a bowl all except pork chops & bread crumbs.  I didn't bother measuring the spices, sorry. I used just a pinch of basil, thyme and garlic. Three shakes of the onion and a shake or two of salt & pepper.
2.  Pour half  mixture in bottom of 9X13 baking dish.
3.  Dampen pork chops and coat with bread crumbs, set on top of soup mixture.
4.  Pour remaining soup mixture on top of chops
Cover with foil and bake 50-60 minutes

I had a can of sliced, new potatoes in the cabinet.  Dumped them in a pan with a glob of butter and a couple shakes of onion, salt & pepper and fried them bad boys up.

Cinnamon Crescent Rolls

I had a hankering for something sweet tonight.  I've had a craving for cinnamon rolls for days now, but I didn't want to go through all the mess of making the dough.  Then I remembered seeing  them made with crescent rolls on Pinterest so I went searching and found a quick and easy version by The Hungry Housewife. Oh My Heaven! They melt in your mouth!

What you need:

1 tube (8 count) crescent rolls, unrolled & separated.

Filling
5 T. butter, softened.
1/4 C. granulate sugar
2 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Glaze
2 T butter, melted
1/4 C. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

(c)Keytee 2013
A little filling will ooze out, that's okay!

• Preheat oven to 375*  F.
• Place the unrolled and separated crescent rolls on an un-greased rimmed cookie sheet with sides.

• In a small bowl, mix together the filling ingredients.

• Evenly spread the cinnamon butter over crescent rolls and roll up tightly. 
• Place tip side down on cookie sheet
• Bake 10-12 minutes

• In a small bowl, mix together glaze ingredients until smooth.
• Place in small ziplock/sandwich bag and snip a tiny corner off.
• Drizzle glaze over warm cinnamon rolls.

I let my 4 1/2 year old help with the rolling and mixing the glaze.  Then she washed all the dishes we used!  She excited to try one at breakfast tomorrow.

Creamy Italian Chicken (crock pot)

4 year old didn't eat much of it. Can't blame her though, it's beautiful outside and she'd rather be outside playing.  Hubby and I really liked it though!

What you need:

2-4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
8 oz soft cream cheese (1 cup)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 packet Italian dressing seasoning.

©Keytee 2013

-Place chicken in crock pot.
- Mix cream cheese, soup and seasoning together. Pour over chicken.

Cook on high 4-6 hours.
Serve over rice or noodles.  (We like this one over egg noodles.)


This is a great freezer meal.  I dump everything into a gallon size freezer bag and toss it in the freezer.  Just pull it out the night before to thaw in the fridge.  Hubby can handle emptying the bag into the crock pot and turning on when he gets home from work, so all I have to do is boil noodles when I get home and voila! A really tasty and filling dinner!

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.