Ma What's For Dinner?

Yes yes yes, I know that most people call this one chicken divan but this casserole is just so darn good that you just have to call it divine.  I love casseroles.  I love the fact that you can make them in advance, I love that you can throw anything leftover in the fridge into them, I love that dinner is ready by the time you get home from soccer practice!

I love that the weather has been cooler the last few days here in the northeast.  It’s going to be our first fall here and that is my favorite time of year.  It’s almost here and the kids are starting school next week.  This is great recipe for your arsenal when you need to get dinner on the table fast and homework done.

Serves: 8  Prep time: 30 minutes  Cook time: 40 minutes

10 ounces steamed broccoli

3 large boneless chicken breasts

1 T olive oil

1 10 ounce can cream of mushroom soup

8 ounces buttom mushrooms, halved

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup light mayonnaise

1/2 cup light sour cream

2 t. fresh lemon juice

1/2 t. curry powder

1 can sliced water chestnuts

S&P

1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 cup french fried onions

4 strips bacon chopped

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Season your chicken breasts with olive oil and salt and pepper.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Meanwhile heat a small skillet over medium heat.  Add your chopped bacon and saute until crisp.  Remove and allow to drain on a paper towel.

While your chicken cooks, assemble your casserole.  In a 13×9 pan arrange your broccoli on the bottom.  In a large bowl combine soup, milk, mayo, sour cream, mushrooms, lemon juice, curry powder, water chestnuts.  Stir to mix well and season with salt and pepper.  

Once your chicken has finished cooking remove it from the oven and slice it into thin strips.  Arrange the chicken over the broccoli. Pour the soup mixture over the top of the chicken and broccoli.  Top with cheddar cheese and fried onions.  Cover with foil and bake on 375 degrees for 30 minutes.  Remove foil and sprinkle with bacon and cook uncovered for an additional 10 minutes.  Serve with brown or white rice and enjoy!

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Back in the olden days when I was just a young pup of about 19, I landed my first waitressing gig.

It was at a great little place in Boston called the Sunset Grill & Tap.

They were famous for their hamburgers…

their beer (this was back before the whole microbrew craze and we were famous for having over 100 beers on tap and over 400 more in bottles – oh and being only 19 I didn’t know what any of them tasted like, of course, no really…)

and their NACHOS!

The nachos…oh the nachos…the nachos were amazing…

First off, the nachos are enormous! I mean huge. 4 college football players would have issues finishing the plate.

And they were topped with yummy goodness…

Cheddar Cheese, Salsa, Ground Beef, Tomatoes, Sour Cream, Lettuce, Olives, all on top of tri color corn chip delight.

Here, I’ll show you…

That’s Brady, a few years back, sitting behind a plate of Sunset’s nachos. Doesn’t he look like Cooper now? Creepy huh?

That’s me and Keegan on that same visit to Sunset, and yes, I’m enjoying one of those beers I never got to try…just go with me on this one.

So I was in Boston last weekend and didn’t make it to the Sunset for my favorite nachos so I decided to whip up a plate of these at home. I made mine out of ground chicken to lighten things up a bit, well as much as you can lighten up nachos that is…Let me first apologize for these pics. I broke my camera so I had to take these with my iPhone…The pics may be slightly sad but the nachos were awesome.  I though the hubs was going to cry…he may have shed a tear he liked them so much.

Serves 6 Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes

1 lb ground chicken

1 packet taco mix

3/4 cup water

large bag of tortilla chips

2 cups of cheddar cheese

1 tomato chopped

1 small red onion chopped

1 avacado chopped

4 T chopped cilantro

1 head of iceberg lettuce, sliced

chopped olives

sour cream

sliced jalapenos

Preheat your oven’s broiler.  In a large skillet brown your chicken over medium high heat.  When it’s cooked through season with taco mix and 3/4 cup water.  Cook for an additional 5 minutes.  Place a single layer of tortilla chips on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle with half of your cheese.  Place under the broiler for 3 minutes.  Remove from oven and top with more chips, chicken mixture and remaining cheese.  Place back under the broiler for another 5 minutes.

Remove from oven and transfer to a serving dish.  Top with lettuce, tomato, olives, avacado, cilantro, onions, jalapeno, and sour cream.  Serve ‘em up hot and gooey!  I like to add tobasco to mine too.

Do you have a favorite restaurant dish that you’d like to recreate?

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As many of you know, the hubs favorite food on the planet is Hamburger Helper.  Seriously, he loves it.  His favorite of all time is the Cheeseburger Macaroni.  And when I cook up a meal for him and he really loves it he always asks me with love sparkling in those beautiful green eyes of his, if this is in fact, Hamburger Helper.   It’s his equivalent of a 5 star rating.  Isn’t he cute?  Anyway, since all my boys love that creepy oversized white glove so much I thought I’d toss together an italian version of their favorite meal.  Give it a go, it’ll be your favorite too!

Best thing about this dish is you can make it in advance and leave it in the fridge to take out and make when you get home after a long day at the playground and everyone is hungry and tired and you don’t feel like cooking because the dog pulled out the trash can and now you have to clean the kitchen and still give everyone a bath and dinner and all you want to do is pour a big glass of wine and watch who Ali chooses on The Bachelorette and dinner is the last thing on your mind…not that I would know anything about that.  This is totally hypothetical, I’m just saying.

Italian Cheeseburger Macaroni

Serves: 6         Prep Time: 20 minutes  Cook time: 30 minutes

2 T  olive oil

1 lb  ground beef

½ large  onion, chopped

1 can diced tomato

1  clove garlic, chopped

8 oz  mushrooms sliced thin

½ T dried oregano

1 t  dried red pepper flakes

1 lb whole wheat penne pasta

3 T butter unsalted

3 T all purpose flour

3 cups                              whole milk

1/2  t  fresh grated nutmeg

2 cups  shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup shredded swiss cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Set a large pot of water over high heat to boil for your pasta.  In  large skillet heat olive oil over medium high heat.  When oil is hot add in onions and mushroom and sautee until soft.  About 6 minutes or so.  When they are soft add in garlic, season with salt and pepper and cook for anadditional minutes.  Add in your ground beef and cook until brown, about 5 minutes.  Once meat has browned toss in the tomato, oregano, and red pepper flakes.  Season again with S&P and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan melt butter over medium high heat.  Whisk in flour and cook for 1 minute.   Slowly whisk in milk, and bring to a gentle boil, stirring constantly.  Once the milk has thickened add in nutmeg and season with S&P.  Reduce to medium low heat and melt in cheddar and swiss cheeses.  Allow to cook on low for a few minutes.

When water is boiling season water with salt and add pasta.  Note package cooking time and reduce by 2 minutes, the macaroni will continue cooking in the oven later.  Once pasta is cooked, drain and return to pot.  Toss the penne with cheese mixture.

Spray a baking dish with cooking spray and pour half of the pasta mixture into the bottom of the dish.  Spoon the Italian burger mixture over the top in an even layer.  Then cover with remaining pasta.  Top with additional cheddar cheese if desired.  Bake at 375 for 30 minutes and enjoy!

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Ok seriously…what is up with all the gloomy weather here in the Northeast?  I feel like I haven’t seen the sun for more than a 5 minutes stint in almost 2 weeks.  Where the heck did we move?  Seattle?  So what do I do when I get depressed and need a little summer lovin’?  Crack open the coronas and fire up the grill.  You all know how I love to get my burger on so I whipped up some Cowboy Burgers, or Cowboy Up Burgers as we in Red Sox Nation like to refer to them…

There are opposite sides taken in the battle of the burger wars.  It’s sort of like Color War Week at camp.  There are those who believe you should only gussy up what goes on top of the burger, and those who believe you should work on the actual burger itself.  I’m sort of split.  So for this one, I did both.  I dress up the burger’s interior and toss some good stuff on top.  I like it when the burger is flavored through and through, but then I felt like it looked a little naked there on the bun so I felt bad for him and slapped on some grilled onions and mushrooms….the choice is yours, but what makes this a cowboy burger is what is on the inside.  Take a looksie…

2 lbs ground beef, 85/15

4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

1 jalapeno, seeded and diced

1/4 large red onion diced

2 T worcestshire sauce

1 clove garlic finely chopped

1 big T montreal steak seasoning

1/4 cup beer

3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Combine all your ingredients into a large bowl.  Toss to combine with your hands just enough to incorporate all the burgers.  Form patties, I usually get about 6 big burgers.  Sprinkle with some olive oil and grill to desired doneness.  We like ‘em medium-rare to medium.  The nice thing about these burgers is that the all the ingredients help to keep them nice and moist so even if you leave them on the grill a little longer they are still nice and juicy!  We just had friends over to BBQ, uh in the rain mind you, and they said these were the best grilled burgers they’d ever had.  Yes they are!  Giddy up, Cowboys!

Welcome to all the Tuesday Tag Alongs. I can’t wait to come back and visit your sites. I love making new bloggie pals.

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Inside Out Bacon Cheeseburgers

Serves: 4     Prep time:  10 minutes  Cook time: 20 minutes

1 pound ground beef (I like 85/15)

1/4 large onion diced

2 T Montreal steak seasoning

3 T  water

1 T Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

4 slices cooked bacon

1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced (optional)

4 onion rolls

1/2 T unsalted butter

1/2 T extra virgin olive oil

1/4 large onion sliced thin

1/2 cup mushrooms sliced

S&P

Turn on your outdoor grill or you can make these on an indoor grill pan to medium high, either way turn them on so they’ll be good and hot when your burgers are ready to throw on.

Combine the first 8 ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Gently work to incorporate together using your hands.  Try not to overwork the mixture, just until combined.  Score the meat into fourths so everyone gets the same size burger. (Or if your kids are still young like mine you can make theirs smaller…and yours bigger, score!)  Form each fourth into a hamburger patty and set aside.

In a small saucepan melt 1/2 T butter and 1/2 T olive oil over medium heat.  Add your sliced onions and mushrooms, season with S&P and saute until soft, about 7-8 minutes, stirring frequently.

Toast your buns lightly in the toaster oven.  When I took the pictures for this recipe only had one onion roll left because apparently my babysitter had made sandwiches the night before using my other rolls.  Kind of a bummer but whole wheat english muffins work just as well in a pinch, and they are better for you.  I was a really good wife and sacrificed my onion roll and gave it to the hubby…

Place your burgers on the grill and cook to your desired doneness.  My hubby and I are medium rare folk but I let the kids go further to medium well. I make their burgers thinner so everything ends up being done around the same time anyway.  I served theirs up tonight with baked beans and corn.  Cooper is a big fan.  This evening the grown ups ate it with just a salad (the boys had 2 helpings of baked beans each) and mommy even snuck in a glass of pinot grigio.  Place your burgers on your buns (or muffins) and top with the grilled onions and mushrooms mixture.  I like to add mayo and bbq sauce to my burger but the kids are ketchup addicts.  You can slice up some tomato and lettuce if you like to serve on top of your burgers as well.  Then belly up and enjoy this deliciously moist burger.  You’ll never put the cheese and bacon on top of your burger again!

Meaty Morsel:  You can certainly substitute lean ground turkey, turkey bacon, and reduced fat cheddar cheese to this recipe to “lighten it up” but I was in the mood for a good ol’ fashioned burger tonight.

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