Tag Archives: freezer meals

Oct27

Chicken Noodle Soup

Posted on by
Standard
Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken Noodle Soup

There’s nothing better than homemade chicken noodle soup on a cool weather day, or when you’re recovering from an illness. Mmmm 🙂 This is only about a million times better than the canned version! I think the trick to making the chicken extra tasty is letting it marinade overnight in your favorite all purpose seasoning (something salt-free like a garlic herb seasoning) in the fridge (or at least for four hours if you can’t do it overnight). Let’s get started…

Ingredients:
1 package chicken thighs with bone and skin on
4 carrots
4 celery sticks (with leafy tops)
2 onions (I love sweet onions)
Chicken bouillon cube (as always, I use the Knorr brand)
6 oz egg noodles
1 stick butter
1/4 c flour
2-3 small garlic cloves chopped
Your favorite all purpose seasoning, salt, and pepper

1. Chop 1 onion, 3 carrots, garlic, and celery and place in saute pan. You’re going to reserve the celery leafy tops and bottoms, 1 carrot, and 1 onion sliced in half and place all of that in a pot to make your broth.
-6
-7

2. Add your marinated chicken to the pot with the veggies and add your chicken bouillon cube and enough water to completely cover the veggies and chicken. Set to a boil and let this go for about an hour.
-8

3. Meanwhile, add your butter, salt, and pepper to your veggies in your saute skillet and set that on about medium heat. You don’t want to brown these – you want to sweat them out and cook until they’re soft and the onions are transparent. This should take about 20-25 minutes. You’ll notice in this picture there is only 1/2 stick of butter present. I decided halfway through cooking these they needed more butter. I think the lesson here is clear: When it doubt, add more butter! Amen.
-6

4. After your veggies are done cooking, add your flour and stir the veggies around for 3-4 minutes while the flour cooks through and it will thicken up the veggies. Then turn the heat off and set aside.
-9-10-11

5. At this point your kitchen smells delicious! Don’t worry, you’re almost done… Now you’ll get out a strainer and dump your broth and chicken pot into it, allowing the broth to go into a bowl under the strainer and then pick out the chicken to cut into bite sized pieces on your cutting board (discard skin and bones).
-12-13-14

6. Discard the stuff in the strainer and pour the veggies, chicken, and broth mix all back into the pot and bring to a boil. Also, I added about 2 cups of water after dumping the broth in to thin it out a bit, but you can use your own judgement here. Then add 6 oz or so of your favorite noodles (I love egg noodles here) and allow to boil until the noodles are cooked. That’s it! Now the most delicious homemade chicken noodle soup is ready to eat 🙂
-15

Advertisement
Jul18

Chicken Spaghetti

Posted on by
Standard
Chicken Spaghetti

Chicken Spaghetti

Who loves cheese? Well then this chicken spaghetti recipe is for you! It has an ooey gooey cheesy sauce that is absolutely delicious! Also, this is a great recipe to chop up veggies into tiny pieces and hide them in the sauce so your kids eat them. I’ve got lots of squash and parsley in my garden right now and my son had no idea either were in this dish. I think you could easily substitute zucchini, peas, chopped asparagus, finely chopped broccoli, finely chopped spinach, or any combination of those veggies into this dish easily!

Ingredients:

1 sweet onion finely chopped

1/4 c roasted red peppers chopped (or two jars pimentos)

Additional chopped veggies of your choice (I used one yellow squash and a few sprigs of chopped parsley)

1/2 lb linguine pasta (I used whole wheat)

4 oz Velveeta

1 can cream of mushroom

2 T cream cheese

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1 package boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 2 lbs)

Chicken bouillon cube

Salt and pepper

2 chopped garlic cloves

3 T butter

1 T garlic and herb seasoning

Additional mozzarella or other Italian cheese for topping

Italian breadcrumbs

1. First we’re going to season the water you’ll be using to cook the chicken (and later the noodles). Bring a pot of water with chicken bouillon and garlic herb seasoning to a boil and add chicken to pot. This will need to boil about 20-25 minutes.

image

2. Add chopped onion, chopped veggies of your choice, butter, salt, and pepper to a sauté pan. Cook until veggies become tender and add chopped garlic and roasted red peppers and cook a few more minutes on medium high heat.

image

3. Turn heat down to medium low and add cream of mushroom, cream cheese, mozzarella, and Velveeta. Stir and allow mixture to melt and come together.

image

image

4. Pull your chicken out of the boiling seasoned water and cut into bite size pieces.

image

5. Add chicken to sauce mixture.

image

6. Add linguini to the boiling seasoned water and cook using directions on the box. Once it’s done, add the drained pasta to the chicken and cheese mix.

image

7. Pour this into a buttered 9×11 baking dish and top with more cheese and sprinkle top with Italian breadcrumbs.

image

8. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes or until top is golden brown.

image

Mmmmmm would you look at that beautiful masterpiece?! It’s delicious with a hunk of crusty garlic bread and large glass of red wine 🙂

Feb15

Chicken Casserole

Posted on by
Standard
Chicken Casserole

Chicken Casserole

Y’all know by now I love to use leftovers and turn them into another yummy meal. This saves time and money, which adds money to your wine budget. Genius, I know 🙂 This is a simple make ahead meal that freezes great too! For this I used leftover grilled chicken, but you could use a store bought rotisserie chicken if you wanted to.

Ingredients:
1 sweet onion chopped
1 garlic clove chopped
1 can cream of chicken
1 can cream of mushroom
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, plus extra to sprinkle on top (I love Kraft Mozzerella with a touch of Philadelphia)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, plus extra to sprinkle on top
2 cans diced green chiles
1 can Rotel
4 cups diced chicken
Salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and your favorite season-all
1/2 stick of butter
Olive oil
6 corn tortillas

1. Sauté onion with butter, olive oil drizzle, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper pinch on medium to high heat. After about 15 minutes add your chopped garlic and sauté another five minutes.
image

2. Meanwhile, tear up your corn tortillas and line the bottom of a baking dish with them.
image

3. Add your cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, chiles, Rotel, chicken, and cheese. Stir on medium to high heat until cheeses are melted and everything is thoroughly combined. It’s at this point I like to taste it and sprinkle a little season-all type seasoning on there like Tony’s or Jane’s Krazy Mixed Up Salt.
image

4. Pour mixture over tortillas.
image

5. Sprinkle as much cheese as you want over the top. Note: if you’re planning on freezing this, allow it to cool after this step and cover with plastic wrap, then a layer of foil.
image

6. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. I like to serve mine with crushed tortilla chips, green onion, and a dollop of sour cream. Yummy!
image