RECIPES – Page 305 – Chasing MY Life WHEREVER it Leads ME

Scrumptious Sunday ~ National Rice Month ~ Cranberry Rice Pilaf & Chicken Alfredo Rice Casserole

Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks

CHICKEN ALFREDO RICE CASSEROLE

1 cup alfredo sauce
scant 1/2 cup milk
1 can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon minced garlic, jar
2 tablespoons Classico sun-dried tomato pesto
2 1/2 cups cooked rice* (white, brown or wild – your choice)
2 cups chicken, cooked (I like to grill it) and cubed
1/3 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried basil, revived
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon butter, melted
3/4 cup italian bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl combine milk and alfredo sauce. Blend until smooth.
Add rice, chicken, basil, cheese and tomatoes and stir well.
Transfer to a PURE sprayed baking dish.
Bake covered for 30 minutes.
Mix melted butter and bread crumbs. Sprinkle on top.
Bake another 20 minutes uncovered until crumbs are golden.
Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

*1 cup uncooked rice equals approximately 3 cups cooked rice

TRIVIA TIP: According to Better Homes & Gardens May 2008, the first recipe for chicken and rice casserole appeared in the 1896 Fannie Farmer’s The Boston Cooking School Cookbook.

CRANBERRY RICE PILAF
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 small bunch green onions, thinly sliced
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 cup sliced and chopped mushrooms
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup craisins
1/2 cup brown rice
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon
1 cup water

Melt butter in a 3 quart saucepan
Saute’ onions and celery until tender.
Add mushrooms, thyme, salt and pepper and cook 2 minutes more.
Add bouillon, water and mix well.
Add rice and heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until rice is tender.
Add crasins and cook 5 minutes more.

Favorite Ingredient Friday ~ Green Bean Salad

GREEN BEAN SALAD

3/4 pound fresh green beans, trimmed
1 bunch green onions, sliced thin
2 stalks celery, sliced thin
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lime juice
salt and pepper to taste

Cook green beans in boiling water until tender crisp.
Drain, rinse with cold water and drain again.
Whisk together the olive oil, lime juice, salt and pepper.
Toss vegetables together. Pour oil mixture over and toss again.
Chill
Season with fresh squeezed lemon, salt and pepper just before serving.

♥

Need to Knead is drawing closer

Have you heard about the Need to Knead Bread Roundup? I wanted to do a bread round up and Joy at Joy of Desserts, another Scrumptious Sunday player offered to make this great button and co-host this bread Roundup on October 15th along with the help of Barbara at Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers who has so generously offered to be our Mr. Linky person. We will roundup all types of bread recipes. We already have a number of people signed up and it promises to be great. You are all invited to participate. We would love it if you would join us, and we would love it if you would help us spread the word by putting this button in your sidebars or even writing a short post about the roundup.

Three Cheese Baked Rigatoni

16 ounce rigatoni
1/2 pound ground beef, browned
1 bunch green onions, sliced
1 cup tomato sauce
2 tablespoons Classico Sun dried Tomato pesto
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
4 tablespoons Ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Brown ground beef and onion, drain.
Cook the pasta and drain.
Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
Spray 9×13 baking pan with PURE.
Whisk together the tomato sauce, cream, pesto and ricotta cheese.
Layer pasta, beef and onion mixture and 3/4 of cheese (Mozzarella & Parmesan) mixture in baking dish.
Pour sauce mixture evenly over top.
Top with remaining cheese (Mozzarella & Parmesan).
Bake 7-10 minutes until golden and bubbly on top.

♥

Tasty Thursday ~ Frosted Pineapple Cheescake

Frosted Pineapple Cheesecake

1 box yellow cake mix*

1 (3-ounce) box Jell-O cheesecake pudding**

4 eggs

1/2 cup safflower oil

1 cup whole milk

1 large can crushed pineapple, undrained

1 cup sugar

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the cake mix and pudding mix. Add the oil and milk, beat well. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Beat until smooth. Pour into a well greased 9×13 baker. Bake 45-60 minutes (or until center springs back). While cake is baking mix together the pineapple and sugar on top of stove until sugar has dissolved. Bring to a boil and let cool slightly. While cake is still hot, punch holes in cake with a large round chopstick and pour hot pineapple mixture over cake. Let cool.

FROSTING:

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 1/2 – 3 cups powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add lemon juice. Add powdered sugar gradually and beat until creamy. Spread over cooled cake. Refrigerate to set frosting.

*Also good with white or butter cake
**DO NOT USE sugar free!

I do the memes: Menu Plan Monday hosted by Laura at I’m an Organizing Junkie, Favorite Ingredient Friday hosted by Kathryn at Overwhelmed with Joy, Freezer Food Friday hosted by MJ at mjpuzzlemom, Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks, Tasty Thursday hosted by Pumpkin Patch, Watchin’ What We Eat hosted by Lorie at Honey I Shrank Myself and Slow Cooking Thursday hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. Doing them all make great additions to help keeping me on track and finding so new recipes!

Tasty Thursday ~ Chicken Pie

CHICKEN PIE
3 cups cubed or shredded chicken
2 cups hot water
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon
1 can cream of mushroom, celery or chicken soup
2 teaspoons minced garlic, Jar
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup self rising flour
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup butter, melted (1 stick)
3/4 cup chopped carrots
1 can Leseur Peas, drained
1 medium onion, chopped

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Spray a 2 quart casserole with PURE.
In a medium saucepan whisk together the broth, salt and soup. Bring to a boil.
Arrange chicken, carrots, peas and onions in the bottom of the casserole.
Pour soup mixture over it.
In a medium bowl combine the flour, pepper, butter and buttermilk until well blended.
Pour over top of chicken mixture. Smooth it out, but DO NOT mix with the chicken mixture.
Bake 45 minutes uncovered until browned and bubbly.

Slow Cooking Thrusday ~ Everything But the kitchen sink…

I’m going to have a houseful for Christmas and here in the North Woods there is always the possibility of enough snow to keep us all indoors so I’m starting to think menu for a crowd and how I can make it ahead to avoid my spending the entire time in the kitchen. While cleaning out the freezer and fridge today I had an idea and came up with the yummiest soup I can remember in a long time. So we’re calling it Everything but the Kitchen Sink Soup. I plan on making this (and many others) ahead of time and freezing them. I can then just put them in the crock pot and have a delicious meal without all the prep and mess.

4 cups frozen chicken broth (leftover from the last several chicken carcasses)
4 cups water
1 can Campbell’s tomato soup
1 tablespoon Classico tomato pesto
2 tablespoons beef flavor Better Than Bouillon
1 tablespoon minced garlic, Jar
1 bunch green onion, sliced
1 small onion chopped
1 large red pepper, seeded and cut into small slivers
1/2 bag baby carrots, halved
1 1/2 boxes mushrooms, sliced
1 bag frozen white shoepeg corn
2 tenderloin steaks, cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 cup long grain rice
1/4 cup barley
1/4 cup wild rice
1/3 cup split peas

Mix together the chicken broth, tomato soup, pesto, better than bouillon, salt, pepper and garlic into the slow cooker.
Add veggies and meat as you prep them, stirring well in between.
Cook on low 6 hours.
Add the rices, barley and split peas.
Cook on low 2 more hours or so.
Serve with warm beer bread.

The Recipe Box Swap – Cherry Conserves

While answering comments this morning I ran across a monthly meme called The Recipe Box Swap over at I have to say… that is right up my alley. Most of you know by now I cook primarily from scratch avoiding as many boxed and canned items or processed items as possible. So what better way to share a recipe than a recipe swap that revolves around fresh ingredients? I was able to score some beautiful cherries at the farmer’s market recently and they were wonderful ingredients for this recipe. I also like to make large batches if I’m going to make that big a mess, so this recipe is for a double batch. This recipe was also a 1st place winner at the LA County Fair.

CHERRY CONSERVES
7 cups cherries ~ washed, pitted and halved
1 cup cranberries ~ washed and halved
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup orange juice
10 cups sugar
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
2 packages pectin

In a small bowl soak the raisins in the orange juice for at least an hour before beginning.
In a large stock pot combine the cherries, cranberries, cinnamon and lemon juice. Mix well.
Simmer over medium heat for 15 minutes or so until the fruit is soft enough to create a mashed mush as it thickens. Add the sugar and walnuts and mix well.
Bring to a rolling boil.
When the rolling boil cannot be stirred away add the pectin and boil for 2 minutes more, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat, skim foam and immediately pour into sterilized jars.
Water bath 15 minutes.
Enjoy.

Scrumptious Sunday Bonus Peach Recipe – Peachy Oatmeal Crisp

PEACHY OATMEAL CRISP
4-6 cups peeled and sliced peaches*
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 + 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup uncooked oats
1 cup flour
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
In a large bowl toss the peaches with the lemon juice and set aside.
Combine sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and cornstarch. Sprinkle over peaches and toss again.
Transfer the peaches to a shallow baking dish, mine is a 1 1/2 quart about 8×12.
In a medium bowl sift the flour. Add the brown sugar, oats, remaining cinnamon and mix well.
With a pastry blender cut in the butter until you have a bowl full of coarse crumbs.
Sprinkle evenly over peaches.
Bake 40 minutes.
Serve warm – great with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream.

*I will also use a combination of whatever fruit I have I have in the fruit drawer that needs to be used before it goes bad!

Favorite Ingredient Friday ~ Salad Edition ~ Hot Wilted Greens

HOT WILTED GREENS
1 head green leaf lettuce, washed and shredded
1 large bunch green onion, sliced thin, tops too
1/2 pound bacon, browned and crumbled (save 1/2 cup bacon grease)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
6 tablespoons sugar
2 Worcestershire sauce

Toss together the shredded lettuce, green onion slices and crumbled bacon in a large salad bowl and set aside.
In a saucepan bring the remaining ingredients to a boil.
Just before serving pour the dressing over the salad and toss.
Serve immediately.

Recipe of the week ~ an all time favorite ~ Quiche Lorraine

1/2 pound bacon, crisply fried and crumbled
1 cup finely grated swiss cheese
1 large bunch green onions finely sliced
4 eggs
2 cups whipping cream
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
1 deep pie crust

Preheat oven to 425°.

Prebake the pie crust and cool before filling.

Sprinkle the crumbled bacon, finely sliced onion and grated swiss cheese evenly into crust.

Beat the eggs, whipping cream and seasonings until well blended. Pour over mixture in pie crust.

Bake 15 minutes and then reduce heat to 300° and bake an additional 35 minutes or until just golden and knife comes out clean.

Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.

Scrumptious Sunday ~ Fish ~ Garlic Lime Sauce

Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks

GARLIC LIME SAUCE for FISH
8 ounces sour cream
2 small limes
2 teaspoons minced garlic, Jar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper

In a small food processor blend together all ingredients until smooth.

Warm in small sauce pan heat until just warm. DO NOT BOIL – it will curdle!

Category: RECIPES