Cooking With Shaz
Are you staying in for Valentine’s Day and are looking for something special to cook for your sweetheart? Here are some ideas for making a memorable Valentine’s Day dinner at home.
Have plenty of candles lit and wine chilled. Use your Valentine’s Bouquet for the table centerpiece. Have a wonderful, romantic Valentine’s Day!
Sharon
Here is a great recipe for an easy weeknight dinner – Creamy Chicken Cavatelli. This is what I like to call a One Pot Wonder. This recipe is great to use up leftover cooked chicken. I used a leftover rotisserie chicken and items found in my pantry. This goes together quick so you can have dinner ready in 20 minutes.
Ingredients:
1 box cavatelli pasta, cooked & drained
2 cups diced cooked chicken
1 can fire roasted tomatoes, drained
1 jar garlic alfredo sauce
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can mushrooms, drained
1/4 cup chicken broth
Stir together the ingredients listed above in a big pot on the stovetop. Heat on medium until sauce is hot.
This is good comfort food made from leftover roasted chicken and stuff from the pantry. If it’s easy, it’s for me! Hope you like it. 🙂
Sharon Springfield
Tonight I made this delicious Creamy Chicken Enchiladas recipe and I had to blog this to share it with everyone. This is SOOOOO good!
The chicken cooked in the crockpot while I was at work. When I got home, I just popped the cooked chicken breasts into the bowl of my stand mixer, along with the strained broth remaining in the crock. After just a minute on low speed, with the paddle attachment, the chicken was all shredded up and ready to use in this chicken enchilada recipe. I will share the recipe for shredded crockpot chicken on another post.
While the shredded chicken is cooking, get the rest of the ingredients ready to go for quick and easy assembly. Shred 2 cups of cheddar cheese. I used Tasty Cheddar (from Tasmania). It’s appropriately named, because it’s very tasty cheese! You can use your favorite cheddar, Monterrey or Colby cheese instead.
Place 2 cups of shredded chicken, one cup of shredded cheese and 2 tablespoons taco seasoning into a bowl and combine. Assemble the enchiladas by placing 2-3 heaping spoonfuls of chicken mixture onto each wrap, leaving space to fold down the top and bottom, then roll them tightly. Place in a casserole dish with the seam down.
For the sauce, you will need flour, butter, chicken broth, diced green chiles and sour cream. Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in flour. Cook the roux for a couple minutes then add your chicken broth. Simmer while stirring for 5 minutes.
Turn off the heat and stir in the green chiles and sour cream. Stir to combine.
Pour the sour cream chile sauce over the chicken enchiladas.
Top the chicken enchiladas with shredded cheese.
Place the creamy chicken enchiladas casserole into a preheated 350 degree F oven and bake uncovered for 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling.
Lets just enjoy this from yet another angle.
Pictures don’t do it justice.
Serve with Mexican Rice, guacamole, salsa and sour cream. Delicious!
This could be assembled ahead of time, refrigerated or frozen, then baked when you need a great Mexican dinner.
Ingredients:
This was a recipe I found on Pinterest, but, of course, I modified it. It’s impossible for me to stick to a recipe exactly. Give this Creamy Chicken Enchilada recipe a try and let me know how you liked it!
Sharon Springfield
My Favorite Mexican Chicken Casserole Recipe.
18 corn tortillillas
3 cooled chicken breasts
15 oz can black beans, drained & rinsed
10 oz can cream of chicken soup
10 oz can green enchilada sauce
4 oz can diced green chilis
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
10 oz water
1 tablespoon chicken base
In a 9×13″ glass baking dish, layer 6 corn tortillas. Stir together everything else besides cheese. Spread half of chicken mixture over corn tortillas and sprinkle 1/3 of the cheddar over it all. Repeat layers. Top with the last 6 tortillas and sprinkle cheese over top. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
*Photo by Oliveland
INGREDIENTS:
2 teaspoons butter, or as needed
1 3/4 cups sliced crimini mushrooms
5 English muffins, split and toasted
1 cup shredded Colby-Monterrey Jack
cheese
1 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed and
cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 onion, finely chopped
8 eggs
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup shredded Colby-Monterrey Jack
cheese
DIRECTIONS:
Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat, and cook and stir the mushrooms until their liquid has mostly evaporated and the mushrooms are beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Set the mushrooms aside.
Grease a 9×13 inch baking dish, and arrange 8 muffin halves, cut sides up, in the bottom of the dish. Stuff pieces of remaining muffins into the spaces between the halves. Spread 1 cup of Colby-Monterrey Jack cheese over the muffins in a layer, and distribute the asparagus pieces, mushrooms, red pepper, and onion over the cheese.
Whisk together eggs, milk, salt, dry mustard, and black pepper in a bowl, and pour the egg mixture over the muffins and vegetables. Cover the dish, and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Remove the casserole from the refrigerator and let stand for 30 minutes. Spread 1 cup of Colby-Monterrey Jack cheese in a layer over the casserole.
Bake in the preheated oven until a knife inserted near the edge comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes before cutting into squares.
Original recipe at:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Overnight-Asparagus-Mushroom-Strata/Detail.aspx
If you like my recipes, be a sweetie pie and share on Facebook,
Like my page “I Love To Cook” and Pin these yummy recipes on Pinterest. 🙂
Here’s the Pinterest link for this recipe: Asparagus Mushroom Strata
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Squash Casserole
6-8 small yellow squash
1/4 cup diced onion
2 Tbs butter
1 egg
1/4 cup fat free half & half
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs or crunched up Ritz crackers
salt & pepper
Wash squash and cut up.
Melt butter in deep sided frying pan. Saute squash and onions for a few minutes on med-high heat. Add 2 Tbs water to the pan and cover with the lid.. Steam for 2 minutes then remove from heat.
Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, whisk the egg, half & half and seasonings. Add squash and stir. Add cheese & bread or cracker crumbs and stir until combined. Pour mixture into 1 1/2 quart casserole dish. Top with additional cheddar cheese and crumbs.
Bake at 350º F for 20 minutes or until crumbs are crispy and cheese is all melted.
Squash casserole is a great side dish to most anything and is a great way to use up the plentiful supply of yellow summer squash.
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Mexican Chicken Casserole with Green Enchilada Sauce
This year for Cinco de Mayo, I made this yummy Mexican Chicken Casserole. It’s a casserole made with layers of Mexican flavored shredded chicken, corn tortillas, a creamy chicken green enchilada sauce layer, corn, black beans and loads of cheese. It’s really delicious so give it a try!
3 cups cooked chicken, shredded
1-12 oz. can chicken broth
1-10 3/4 oz can cream of chicken soup
1-12 oz. can corn (Mexicorn)
1-12 oz. can black beans, drained
1-8 oz. bottle green taco sauce or 1 can green enchilada sauce
1/2 cup fresh salsa
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
15 corn tortillas
3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
In a large bowl, whisk together the soup and half the broth. Stir in the shredded chicken, green taco / enchilada sauce, corn, salsa, black beans, cilantro and 1 cup of cheese.
Layer 6 of the corn tortillas in the bottom of a 9’x13′ glass baking dish. Top with half of the chicken mixture. Repeat layers. Take the remaining tortillas and slice into rectangles. (I use a pizza cutter for this.) Sprinkle them on the top of the casserole. Top with the remaining cheese. Pour remaining chicken broth over the casserole.
Bake at 350º F for 20 – 30 minutes.
Serve with Salsa, Sour Cream, Guacamole, Jalapenos.
Pin It! Here’s the link: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/280278776784142403/
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This was originally going to be a seafood lasagna but I had worked all day and was ready to be off my feet, so I just quickly threw this together as a casserole. It was amazing! Loved it so much that Seafood Baked Ziti is going to be a frequent flier in my dinner recipe rotation.
Seafood Baked Ziti
8 oz. ziti, cooked al dente’
15 oz. jar Alfredo Sauce
8 oz. pkg imitation crab (surimi), chopped – or real crab meat
1/2 pound peeled, deveined cooked shrimp, chopped
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 cup fat free half & half
1/4 Parmesan cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons Kraft Italian cheese blend
2 slices Swiss cheese, diced
2 Tbs siced red bell pepper & sliced scallions with additional for garnish
In a large bowl, stir together all the ingredients except for the garnish. Pour into a 2 quart casserole and bake in preheated 350º F oven for 15 – 20 minutes. (Just until heated through and cheeses melt)
Pin it! Here’s the link: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/280278776784119409/
Vegetable Tian
2 tbsp olive oil (divided)
1 large sweet yellow onion cut in half and sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1-2 russet potatoes, unpeeled
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash
3 large Roma tomatoes
Sea salt, freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Dried thyme, to taste
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat a baking dish with olive oil cooking spray. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the onions and saute until translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another 60 seconds. Spread the onion mixture on the bottom of the greased baking dish.
Slice the potatoes, zucchini, squash and tomatoes in 1/4 inch thick slices. Layer them alternately in the dish on top of the onions, fitting them tightly into a spiral, making only one layer. Season with sea salt, black pepper and dried thyme, to taste. Drizzle the last tablespoon of olive oil over the top.
Cover the dish with tin foil and bake for 35 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Uncover and sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top and bake for another 25-30 minutes or until browned.
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Spinach Artichoke Chicken
olive oil spray
8 chicken breasts
13.75 oz artichoke hearts packed in water, drained
10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed
2 shallots, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
½ cup Greek yogurt
½ cup mayonnaise
½ cup Parmesan cheese
½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Preheat oven to 375º F. Spray baking dish with olive oil nonstick baking spray. Place chicken into baking dish. Salt and pepper chicken and then bake 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine remaining ingredients and then pour on top of chicken. Bake 20-25 minutes.
Let stand about 5 minutes before serving.
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