BBQ Chicken and Cheddar Foil Packet Dinner (3/31/2017)

BBQ Chicken and Cheddar Foil Packet Dinner
Iowa Food and Family (HyVee)
🐔🐔🐔
10 wwp+

Its the last day of March and my last meal for Cluck Cluck March before moving into Pinspiration April on Monday.

I got tonight's recipe from the Iowa Food and Family cookbook distributed by HyVee. We got lucky with temps in the upper 50s today so B agreed to cook these on the grill. I was out of potatoes so I used sweet potato instead and I think it turned out pretty decent. The chicken had good flavor to it and the potatoes were just the right amount of tender.  I added some Lowry's seasoning salt as well as some garlic and I used dried chopped onion.

Overall, B and I agreed this was a good dinner, but not great and I'm not sure we'd eat it again. It also took around 40 minutes on the grill with one of the breasts needing another 10 minutes in the oven, so that didn't help.

C said it was yummy (dipped in ranch), except the potatoes which she did not enjoy. E didn't try any of it.

See you at dinner!
Moose

Grams' Baked Chicken (3/23/2017)

Baked Chicken

Grandma Georgie 

🐔🐔🐔🐔

I came across this recipe in the cookbook I have from my Grandma's church, and noticed this was one of her contributions.  I couldn't pass up making it.

I used 2 chicken breasts instead of 4 since there are only 3 adults today.  I also tenderized them and added some salt free chicken seasoning from my parents' pantry. Last week my mom made corned beef and we had some left over potatoes and carrots that were waiting to be eaten.  I put the chicken in my baking dish, put the slice of cheese on top of each breast as directed. I then piled on the potatoes and carrots before adding the soup and toppings.  I am one of the few who does not like stove top stuffing so I skipped it and used crushed ritz crackers instead.   The flavors were wonderful and we had leftovers which my mom is going to turn into dinner.  

Both of my parents liked theirs as and C ate a yummy sandwich and her required bites. E was not interested.  I will definitely be making this

I'd definitely recommend this one again.

See you at dinner!
Moose

Ham and Cheese Sliders (3/21/2017)

Hello! Sorry I've been quiet, but I'm off enjoying some time at my parents' house and therefore I haven't had to cook. 😁😉

I did however cook Tuesday night when my brother (T) and his family came for dinner.  I decided to make one of the favorites in our home, Ham and Cheese Sliders, affectionately known as Yummy Sandwiches.  You can find the review below.

Ham and Cheese sliders aka: yummy sandwiches
http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/04/ham-and-cheese-sliders.html
☆☆☆☆☆

I know these aren't a chicken dish, which is the theme for March, but they are so easy and so yummy they were perfect for family dinner with 5 adults, a 4 year old, 1 year old, and 10 month old. I actually have my friend D to thank for introducing me to these last summer at a birthday party.

I do skip the miracle whip and just use mayonnaise.  I'm not a miracle whip fan, so a jar of it would go unused in our house. Plus,  mayonnaise is better. 😉😉 This time I used store brand dinner rolls, they were butter flavored instead of sweet Hawaiian and they were just as good.

I have made these for big gatherings and often I prep the sandwiches early in the day so that all I have to do is poor the butter and poppyseed mixture on them and bake them.

The first time I made these I think B was skeptical about how good they were going to be, but was pleasantly surprised by the outcome.  C exclaimed "these are yummy" and requested a second sandwich. E has tried them since and mostly likes the bread. This week T and family also enjoyed them.

I hope you enjoy these as much as we do.  

See you at Dinner!
Moose

Chicken casserole (3/10/17)

Chicken Casserole
Family Recipe
🐔🐔🐔🐔

I LOVE this meal. It's a family recipe for Turkey casserole, most often used for thanksgiving leftovers, but today I used chicken. I've used chicken before and knew it would taste good.

B isn't a huge fan of turkey casserole, but he said he really liked this particular version and would definitely eat it again. C did not love it, but ate the rice and eggs. E loved it and could not get enough of it.

You'll see I've made changes in the recipe. The original uses crushed potato chips instead of Ritz crackers but I've found the buttery flavor of the crackers adds to the casserole. I also used celery salt instead of celery because we didn't have any.  To be honest, I didn't actually measure any of the ingredients this time, I just approximated. It turned out great.

I think my favorite part is the rice as opposed to noodles, it makes a much lighter casserole.

See you at dinner!
Moose

Mexican Chicken (3/9/17)

Mexican Chicken
Spirit of the Redeemer Catholic Church
🐔🐔🐔
18 wwp+

Overall we enjoyed this recipe. I got it from the cookbook my grandmother's church published a few years ago.  I wasn't really sure how it would turn out but I thought it was worth the risk.

The Doritos held up pretty well. I didn't crush them, I just layered them. I used a single chicken breast, about a pound total. I also used corn instead of jalapenos, I'm feeding children after all. B said he'd eat it again.

C liked the chips and cheese but didn't love the chicken.  E ate some of the chicken, but preferred the mangoes I gave her.

This also wasn't very hard to make. Cooking the chicken was the most tedious part.

See you at dinner!
Moose

Easy Italian Chicken (3/8/17)

Easy Italian Chicken 

Big Book of Italian Recipes 

🐔🐔.5

7 wwp+

Hello crock pot! Turns out this meal is a crock pot meal. I haven't used my crock pot since I made chicken tacos last week.  I really do enjoy how easy it is to make a crock pot meal. I also enjoy that dinner is ready by 5 and I'm not having to cook it at 4 😉😉. I did sautee some carrots and French cut green beans to go with this meal, but it was easy. 

This was a chicken dish my mom would be proud of. It had cabbage, which is basically a staple in my parents' home.  I only used two chicken thighs, but other than that I followed the recipe exactly (except I used onion powder). I only cut my cabbage into two wedges since I used my small crock pot. 

I thought it was delicious and I'd definitely eat it again. I enjoyed the flavors from the way it all blended together and the cabbage was yummy. B isn't a fan of mushrooms (despite telling C they're yummy tonight) and he's not huge on cabbage. Plus I think he prefers chicken breast. C ate her chicken, she liked it with the sauce from the crock pot, but still requested ranch. But, hey, she's eating! E ate her chicken with a side of pears. Neither of them liked the green beans I made on the side. 

I would eat this again, but I'd probably have to feed B something else 😉

See you at dinner! 

Moose 

Orange Chinese Chicken WW (3/7/17)

Orange Chinese Chicken
http://pin.it/MhJbEwn
🐔🐔
WW Smart Food

So, this wasn't the dish originally scheduled for tonight. We were supposed to have Italian chicken, but, it cooks all day and I hadn't been grocery shopping yet this week and didn't have everything I needed. So, I was going to do crunchy chicken nuggets from a recipe I've tried before (http://m.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/crunchy-homemade-chicken-nuggets). But, I haven't made them in a while, and in reviewing the recipe realized I didn't have the time to marinate them. Instead, I yanked this recipe out of the Pinned on Pinterest hat, as a last ditch effort.

This recipe was not a popular one in this house. To quote B "I'd give it 2 🐔, but I'm going to finish it." I wanted to dip it in ranch like C. E ate a little bit of it, but it took warming up to.  I'm not really sure what went wrong either. It had a super weird flavor that I couldn't pin point.

If you're brave and you try it yourself, let me know how it turns out for you.

See you at dinner!
Moose

Parmesan crusted chicken cutlets (3/6/17)

Parmesan crusted chicken cutlets
Big Book of Italian Recipes
🐔🐔🐔
Aprox. 6 wwp+

This was super simple to bake and I used one chicken breast cut in half long way and then split between us.  It didn't take very much time and I sauteed some red bell pepper and cut green beans with garlic for the side. I think next time I'd add a like Moore parmesean cheese to enhance the flavor.  I did add garlic to the crumb mixture of ritz crackers and parmesean.  I'd probably use a little less rosemary also.

Overall it wasn't bad and B said he'd eat it again. E didn't like the chicken, but C ate hers with ranch.

See you at dinner!
Moose

Chicken and penne with roasted red peppers (3/3/17)

Chicken and penne with roasted red peppers
Big Book of Italian Recipes

This dish was a huge success. We really enjoyed it and the chicken had a lot of flavor.  I used ritz crackers because I didn't have any bread crumbs and I skipped the egg wash.  I used minced garlic instead of cloves of garlic and red bell pepper instead of roasted peppers. I also used diced tomatoes from a can.  Next time I would probably cook my noodles almost last because the noodles got cold waiting for everything else to be finished.  I'd also bake my chicken for a little bit after searing it in the skillet.

B said he'd definitely eat this again, plus the house smelled good. C ate her chicken with ranch dressing and ate her noodles without protest. E enjoyed some of the noodles, but not the chicken. 

Gotta love how it plated up too!

See you see dinner!
Moose

Tuscan Chicken (3/2/17)

Tuscan Chicken
Big Book of Italian Recipes
🐔🐔.5
6 wwp+

Well, today I tested my limits with a pretty straight forward chicken dish. I ate it, but I didn't love it. I did like the pesto flavor and I used chicken broth instead of white wine. I skipped the olives since B isn't a fan. B liked the entire thing. I just thought it had a little too much chicken flavor to it... I prefer chicken that tastes less like chicken.  B said he would eat it again but not all the time.

C tried it and did not like it and E refused to eat hers.

I served this with a side of steamfresh green beans and rice.  It wasn't too complicated to make either.

I only have one picture of the food as we decided to go to Disney on Ice at the last minute and plowed through dinner.

See you at dinner!
Moose

Hello March--- Cluck Cluck / Ridiculously Easy Chicken Tacos (3/1/17)

Hello friends!

I can't believe it's already March! For the month of March I'll be cooking dishes with chicken as the main ingredient.  Not all of these dishes will be in the crock pot, in fact I think only one or two will. This month will really be a challenge for me, as chicken is not my favorite food. In fact, I tend to avoid eating chicken if possible. 😉 We decided to rate our meals in clucks this month, which will be connotated by the chicken emoji. 🐔 I won't be doing much cooking in the middle of the month as I have some family time planned.

Now, onto the review.

Ridiculously Easy Chicken Tacos
http://www.familyfriendlyfrugality.com/ridiculously-easy-chicken-taco-crockpot-recipe/
🐔🐔🐔
10 wwp+

This meal is so easy, I don't even look at the recipe any more. It's basically the dump cake of crock pot meals, you just dump in all your ingredients, give it a stir, and let it cook. I also add in a can of corn and a can of black beans (today we used kidney beans). I only used 1 chicken breast today, but it was still more than enough food. I shred the chicken with a fork with 1.5-2 hours left in cook time so that the chicken soaks up all the yummy flavor.

B and I eat this pretty often and the flavors are fabulous. C typically eats some of it in quesadilla set up and E likes it too. The leftovers can be frozen for the next time you want chicken tacos.

The recipe is in the description today.

 

This is what happens when the can of peanuts sits on your taco shells... taco salad. 

See you at dinner!
Moose