Sweet potato shepherd's pie

This was adapted from my favorite recipe website www.skinnytaste.com which means it’s the perfect combination of warm comfort food and low calories. I actually don’t like sweet potatoes but the chicken broth, garlic and sour cream gave the potato topping a creamy savory flavor that was simply delicious.

Sweet potato topping
1-1/2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled, diced
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup fat free chicken broth
3 Tbsp reduced fat sour cream
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Boil sweet potatoes until soft. Drain then return to pan and mash with chicken broth, garlic, sour cream. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Meat filling
1 lb lean ground turkey
1 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 parsnip, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
10 oz frozen mixed vegetables
1 cup fat-free low-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper
paprika

Sauté ground turkey until brown seasoning with salt and pepper. Add onion, celery, and parsnip. Cook about 10 minutes, until onions are clear and celery is soft. Next add garlic and mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes. Finally add frozen vegetables, chicken broth and Worcestershire sauce. Simmer on low about 15 minutes.

In a 9x13 oven safe dish spread the meat filling evening across the bottom. Add a heaping spoonful of the potato topping over each section and spread smooth to cover the meat filling. Use a fork to scrape the top of the potatoes to make a grid pattern across the top (it just makes it feel fancy). Sprinkle the potatoes with paprika. Bake 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let it cool 10 minutes before serving.

Chicken Noodle Casserole

There were a couple dishes my mom started making when I was in high school. One of them was this chicken noodle casserole. It is very easy to make and so comforting and delicious. I really think what helps to make this dish is the fried onions that you place on the casserole during the baking process. I ended up making this because I got some nice casserole dishes for Christmas. The casserole looked beautiful in my new dishes (sorry no pictures). And, of course, it tasted delicious. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
8 oz medium egg noodles
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
1 c. thinly sliced celery
2 tbsp all purpose flour
2/3 c evaporated milk
1 c chicken gravy (I just use the entire bottle)
1/2 tsp parsely flakes
1/4 tsp thyme leaves
dash of pepper
2 c cooked chicken
1 1/2 c canned peas (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
small can of fried onions

Cook your noodles in salted water until tender. Drain and set aside.
Melt butter into a large saucepan. Add celery and cook until tender. Stir in flour. Then add in evaporated milk and gravy and 3/4 cup water. Stir until it boils. Add in the salt, parsely flakes, thyme, pepper, shredded chicken, and the noodles. Stir to combine. Pour into a lightly greased 2 quart casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. About 25 minutes in; remove casserole dish and sprinkle the fried onions over the noodles. Put back in the oven and cook for remaining 5 minutes. Remove from oven and serve.

(click here for printable recipe)

Sausage & Egg Breakfast Casserole

If you’ve ever looked for a go-to breakfast when you’re having family over for a long weekend, having friends over to brunch, or really just to have a great start to the day, this is absolutely it. I tried it out for the first time in May, and it has already made multiple appearances since then.

Something about melted cheese and the smell of sausage gets me every time. My trick was to use lean turkey sausage and use egg substitute for a portion of the recipe to save on the guilt/fat/cholesterol factor. No one was the wiser, and everyone asked for seconds. This is a recipe that has never had any left-overs and will now be a staple on our breakfast table. Pair it with mixed berries or fresh melon, and this is what I call a breakfast of champions. Sorry Wheaties.

Ingredients:
Cooking spray
1 package lean turkey breakfast sausage
2 cups 1% low-fat milk
2 cups egg substitute
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon dry mustard
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
16 (1-ounce) slices white bread
1 cup finely shredded reduced-fat extra sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 teaspoon paprika

How easy is this? Cook sausage in a frying pan for roughly 5 minutes or until browned. Remove from heat and set aside. Combine milk, egg substitute, eggs, mustard, salt, black pepper, and red pepper in a large bowl and mix thoroughly with a whisk. Cube bread into 1/2 inch squares, and then add bread cubes, sausage, and cheese into the large bowl with mixed ingredients. After spraying a 13 x 9 inch dish with non-stick cooking spray, pour bowl's contents into casserole dish.

On the original recipe on myrecipes.com, it is suggested to put this mixture in the refrigerator overnight or 8 hours. I did this once, and it was awesome. I skipped this step on the second go (pure forgetfulness on my part!) but it was still pretty darn good. Long story short: I wouldn't stress about this step.

Cook casserole 45 minutes at 350 degrees, and then let it stand to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Side perk of this recipe: your house will smell fabulous.

KSP

(Click here for printable recipe)

French Toast Casserole with Berries

I’ve been on a breakfast casserole kick lately. It’s probably because we’ve had a lot of family and friends staying over this summer, but I always love the excuse to try something new. The original recipe called for blueberries – and I’m sure that would have indeed been lovely – but what if the folks coming for breakfast don’t happen to like blueberries? What if they’re more strawberry people? Or what if they don’t like berries at all?

What I ended up with looked oh-so-American in its red, white and blue glory … or perhaps I should say French. This was a French Toast Casserole after all, and if I only designed my berries in a different order, I could have easily made the French flag.

Ingredients:
2 (8 oz.) packages of cream cheese
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
10 slices of French bread (store bought is fine as long as it's fresh) cut about 3/4-1 inch thick
Blueberries and strawberries (but any fruit topping will do!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon in a large bowl and mix until well blended (use a mixer! You want that cream cheese to be smooth!). Add in the eggs, again mixing well after each one, and then the milk. Cut the french bread, and arrange slices in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Spread fruit over bread. Making sure that the mixture is thoroughly blended, pour cream cheese mix over the bread and berries, and let stand for 15 minutes to soak in. Finally, bake for 40-45 minutes.

My original recipe called for maple syrup or confectioners' sugar for topping, but you definitely don't need it. Everyone at the table raved about this recipe, so the practice run was a success. I love easy but mouth-watering delicious recipes! Next time, I think the entire thing will be covered with a mixture of strawberries, blueberries and something else. Perhaps bananas. Mmm… I’m getting hungry again.

KSP

(Click here for printable recipe)

Semi-Healthy Baked Ziti

If you follow this blog at all (Do you? Does anyone? Are we just posting recipes to ourselves?) then you know that I don’t make particularly healthy food. I don’t know why recipes with cream in them just seem to call out to me. Probably because they taste so dang good. But occasionally, I do try to make something that’s at least slightly more healthy than what I usually make. I like to have my cake, and eat it, and fit in my jeans too.

I found this baked ziti recipe on Gina’s Skinny Recipes. Obviously not a site I visit very often, but she has a lot of great, healthy meal options, and even a section where she breaks down recipes by Weight Watcher points. So, I used this recipe as a jumping off point, but I did make some non-healthy choices so I don’t think I can say that it’s as healthy as it was to start. But any time I can get my husband to say, “This is a definite win,” to something that is even remotely healthy, I’m sold. So I’m going to post it the way I did it below, but if you want the even healthier version, check out the link above.

1 lb ziti

1 tsp olive oil

3-5 cloves garlic, minced

10 oz frozen spinach, thawed

28 oz whole or crushed tomatoes

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

1 tsp cayenne (optional)

salt and fresh pepper to taste

8 oz part skim ricotta

1/4 cup Parmesan

2 cups part skim mozzarella (divided)

Spray olive oil

Start by reading your box of ziti and following the directions to cook it al dente. You should also preheat your oven to 375 degrees and spray a large 9 by 13 casserole dish with non-stick spray. Meanwhile, heat your oil in a saucepan (large if you will be mixing the pasta in this pan, medium if you are going to mix in the pasta pot). Saute your garlic for about a minute and then add in your spinach, tomatoes, oregano, basil, cayenne, salt and pepper. You can always use fresh herbs if you prefer. Mix it up and break apart the large tomato chunks while it simmers. Gina’s recipe didn’t say for how long, so we just pretty much let it go until the ziti was done. But if you have time the flavors will just continue to develop.

Once the ziti is done, drain it and mix it with the sauce. Then add the ricotta, parmesan and one cup of the mozzarella. Mix that in well, making sure you don’t have any giant clumps of ricotta. Then pour the mixture into your casserole dish and top with the rest of the mozzarella. I confess, I probably used more than a cup here. Don’t be mad. Bake for 30 minutes and then let it rest for 5 if you can hold yourself back. Then serve! Enjoy! All without having to unbutton your pants!

(Click here for printable recipe)

Salsa Chicken Casserole

I’ve always had a go-to chicken burrito recipe that I serve on occasion, but when it comes to Mexican, my menu ended there. I have a bit of a weakness for good tortilla chips and salsa, an adoration for cheese, and find exquisite glory in a perfectly timed cold cervesa. More Mexican dishes in my repertoire seemed only logical, right?

Stick a slice of lime in your Corona and serve this casserole for dinner. You won’t be disappointed by its ease, simplicity, or flavor.

Ingredients: 
2 cups uncooked white rice
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese
Shredded Cheddar cheese
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
¼ onion
1 ½ cups salsa.

(I fully admit using a pre-made salsa is cheating – sweet, glorious, getting-dinner-on-the-table-with-ease cheating)

Cook the rice. Cube the chicken and sauté it until cooked through (I spiced mine with pepper). In a small bowl, combine salsa, cream of chicken soup, and chopped onion.

After everything above is finished, in a casserole dish layer cooked rice, chicken, salsa-soup mix, sprinkled layer of both cheeses, cooked rice, chicken, salsa-soup mix, sprinkled layer of both cheeses, etc…

Stick in the oven at 350 degrees for 25 minutes (or until the casserole is bubbly).

Happy cooking!

-KSP


(Click here for printable recipe)

Chicken & Rice Casserole

So chicken and rice casserole doesn’t exactly get the mouth watering. Chicken and rice casserole isn’t one of those recipes you’re just “dying” to try. It’s never something you’d order at a gourmet restaurant. Nobody gets excited about chicken and rice casserole. Why I even bothered to bookmark this recipe, I don’t know. Maybe because it was so easy. And because I already had all the ingredients. In fact, that’s the only reason I actually decided to make it. I was too lazy to stop at the store, and I knew I had everything at home already.

But you know what? This casserole is frickin’ good. Yeah, frickin’. It was such a pleasant surprise. I had steeled myself for something bland and boring, but this recipe is full of flavor. The chicken breast got a little dry, but that was the only complaint I had, and that was probably just a length of cooking thing. Actually the original recipe called for chicken thighs, which were probably more juicy. One thing that really sets this recipe apart from other casseroles is that it doesn’t call for a can of condensed soup. Something about that makes it seem so much more healthy, although I’m not sure that’s the case.

Chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 lb cremini or button mushrooms, sliced

1/4 cup dry sherry or white wine

1 1/3 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup cream

1 cup raw white rice

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon each of Italian seasoning and poultry seasoning

1/2 teaspoon paprika  

1/4 teaspoon cayenne
Lemon juice

We actually didn’t have mushrooms, so we made it without. I’m sure it would be very good with them, though, so I’m keeping them in here. You could also substitute other hardy veggies like broccoli if you were so inclined.

Heat olive oil in a pan to brown the chicken. Sprinkle a little salt on the bottom of the pan. Apparently, this keeps the chicken from sticking. Season the chicken all over with salt and pepper and then brown the chicken. It doesn’t need to be fully cooked, so you just want to get good color on it. About 2 minutes per side. Set aside the chicken and lower the heat to medium. Add more oil if necessary and add the onions, cooking about 3 minutes until they are clear. Then throw in the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. Put this onion/garlic mixture in a 9x13 casserole dish. Saute the mushrooms if you are adding them, just browning them lightly before putting them in the dish.

On medium heat, add the sherry or white wine to the pan and scrape off all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan to mix into the wine (apparently this is called “deglazing.”) I used white wine and enjoyed it. Not sure what sherry will taste like. Let this reduce down to about one tablespoon and then add the chicken stock. Remove from the heat and add the salt, cream, sour cream, stirring until it mixes. It wasn’t completely incorporated for us and it turned out fine. Put the raw rice in the casserole dish and then add the stock mixture. Mix in all the seasonings and stir everything so it’s evenly distributed.

Finally put the chicken on top of the rice in a single layer, cover it with aluminum foil and bake in a 375 degree oven for about 40 minutes. If it’s liquidy (ours wasn’t) take off the foil and let it cook a few more minutes until the liquid is all soaked in.

So upon eating this, Steve and I both thought, "This is good. But it's missing something." Based on all the Top Chef we watched we decided that it needed some "acid." (I swear, they say that all the time!) So we sprinkled some lemon juice on top of the casserole and it was fantastic! In the future, we might try slicing some lemons and cooking them in the casserole, but the sprinkle method was so successful, I'm not sure we need to change it.

I know this seems pretty complicated, but it’s really not as hard as it sounds, and the casserole is definitely worth it. I feel like this is one of those recipes you could play around with as well—particularly the herbs. You could add Cajun seasoning instead of poultry seasoning to give it a little Nawlin’s feel. And the best part—it’s still good the next day. It's the perfect lunch to take to work. And when someone asks you what smells so good you can shock them by saying, “Just a plain old boring chicken and rice casserole.”

(Click here for printable recipe)

Sausage Cheese Breakfast Casserole

My family is not a breakfast casserole family. I don’t know why. It’s not like we don’t enjoy them when someone else makes them. It just wasn’t something I ever had growing up. It might be because my mom makes a killer cinnamon bun. Or because we preferred those Entemann’s streudels. Whatever the reason, I decided it was time to put an end to our shunning of this great breakfast option. I found this recipe on my favorite site, epicurious, and made it for a recent party. It was very tasty warm, and good reheated the next day as well.

8 bread slices, cut into cubes

1 pound bulk pork sausage, crumbled and cooked

1/2 small white or yellow onion

1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar

12 large eggs

2 cups milk

2 teaspoons dry mustard

1 teaspoon salt

Pepper

What I really like about this recipe is that it’s a great base to build from. You can add and change the ingredients to make it your own. For example, the recipe calls for white bread, but you could use any bread you like to change the flavor. Just make sure you cut the crusts off. I used sourdough and recommend it. I also chose to use Jimmy Dean’s Hot Sausage to spice things up a little bit. You could throw in peppers, broccoli, spinach, or anything else you like with your egg.

You definitely want to make this the night before so the bread has all night to soak up the egg mix. Start by greasing a 9 by 13 inch glass baking dish and then spreading out the bread cubes. Sauté the onions with the sausage and add the mixture over the bread. Also, sprinkle some of your cheese over the sausage. In a bowl, beat together the eggs, milk, mustard, salt and pepper. Here you could add other spices if you wish to change the flavor (cayenne, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, etc.). Pour the egg mixture over the sausage and bread, and then top with the rest of the cheese. Cover it and stick it in the fridge overnight, and in the morning when you wake up, pop it in the oven at 350 degrees. It’ll take about 45-50 minutes to puff up, and then you can dig in! It’ll be a family favorite in no time. 


(Click here for printable recipe)

Mexican-style Chicken

Just in time for Cinco de Mayo! I’ve been eating low fat and healthy for almost three months now and the one thing I desperately miss is Mexican food. I think I’ve found the perfect solution. Or maybe I’ve been so deprived that I could eat a Chihuahua chimichanga and it’d still taste good. I made a “light” (sort of) version of this recipe, but you can use the real stuff and I’m sure it’d be even better. It makes a lot, so you may want to cut the ingredients in half if you don’t want a ton of leftovers.

2 10 ¾-oz cans condensed cream of chicken soup
1 10-oz can diced tomatoes with green chiles, undrained
¾ chopped green sweet pepper
½ cup chopped onion
1 ½ teaspoon chili powder
¼ teaspoon black pepper
12 6- or 7-inch corn tortillas, cut into thin, bite-size strips
3 cups cubed cooked chicken (about 1 lb. boneless chicken breasts )
1 8-oz pkag (2 cups) shredded cheddar cheese

Mix the soup, tomatoes with chiles, sweet pepper, onion, chili powder and black pepper. Now you have have to layer it all together. Sprinkle about 1/3 of the tortilla strips over the bottom of an ungreased 13x9x2-inch baking dish. Layer half of the cooked chicken over tortilla strips; thena about half of the soup mixture on top. Sprinkle half of the cheese (cheese makes everything better) and another 1/3 of the tortilla strips over the soup mixture. Layer with the rest of the chicken, soup mixture and tortilla strips.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until bubbly around the edges. Add the rest of the cheese once you take it out. The recipe says to let it stand for 10 minutes, but I can never wait.

The next day I heated up a portion and rolled it into an extra corn tortilla for a type of enchilada. Delicioso!

(Click here for printable recipe)

Chicken Divan Casserole

When you think of good old home cooked meals, what do you think of? Myself, I think of a gray-haired Betty Crocker type with a frilly, white apron pulling a steaming casserole out of the oven with red-checkered oven mitts. Yet, alas, here is the problem. I have a grand total of one casserole recipe on my regular dinner menu list. This was a flaw that had be fixed.

So today, I took on the casserole. I tried to find a recipe that had few ingredients, little prep time, was healthy, and, of course, sounded delicious. Here is what I came up with:

Ingredients:

Chicken, cubed and cooked (4 breasts)
Rice (2 cups uncooked)
Pepper
Four-cheese Alfredo Sauce (thank you Classico Signature Recipes)
Broccoli (12 oz. frozen package)

1. Start boiling water for your rice. While the water is boiling, cube your chicken breasts. I cooked them over medium heat in a few teaspoons of olive oil, with a few dashes of pepper. While this is going, simultaneously start cooking your rice, and pop the cook-in the bag broccoli into the microwave. (If you can time this correctly, I’m impressed.)
2. Pour rice into a casserole dish; pour cooked broccoli on top of rice; pour cooked chicken cubes on top of that. Lastly, pour alfredo sauce lightly over the top, creating a thin layer over it all.
3. Cook for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

I imagine this would serve four. We had a lot of left-overs.

Recipe source: http://busycooks.about.com/od/precookedpoultryrecipes/r/chickendivancas.htm (I tweaked it a bit)

Suggestion: We peppered the final result, and it was really tasty.

The great casserole discovery: Sticking something in the oven, with nothing else to do in the kitchen for twenty-five minutes, I actually had a clean kitchen by the time dinner was ready. How’s that for feeling accomplished?

Not to say that I have a frilly, white apron, red-checkered oven mitts, or that my hair has started to gray, but I think I would have made a modern Betty Crocker proud.


(Click here for printable recipe)