TIO Tuesday - Crock Pot Chicken Cordon Bleu

I've been looking for some more crock pot recipes since I am without a stove right now. I really wish I would have planned ahead more and made some freezer meals, but it's too late for that. So, I am bringing you another crock pot recipe and this one's a keeper! It got two thumbs up from everyone, even Brad. And Hailey has requested that I make this instead of my regular chicken casserole.

You start off with the chicken and the soup mixture on the bottom of the crock pot. I cut mine into chunks to make it easier for the five little munchkins.

I forgot to mention that I used a liberal amount of Morton's Nature Seasoning on top of the chicken and before I layered it with the ham. I cut the ham into pieces as well.

 Pour over the rest of the soup mixture over the chicken, ham and swiss cheese.

It looks a little lumpy.

 Yummy Butter - everything is better with butter!

Voila! Finished product, tastes wonderful, and it's definitely going into the regular rotation.

Crock Pot Chicken Cordon Bleu

• 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup milk
• 4 ounces sliced ham
• 4 ounces sliced Swiss cheese
• 1 (8 ounce) package herbed dry bread stuffing mix
• 1/4 cup butter, melted

Mix together the cream of chicken soup and milk in a small bowl. Pour enough of the soup into a slow cooker to cover the bottom.

Layer chicken breasts over the sauce.

Cover with slices of ham and then Swiss cheese.

Pour the remaining soup over the layers, stirring a little to distribute between layers.

Sprinkle the stuffing on top, and drizzle butter over stuffing.

Cover, and cook on Low for 4 to 6 hours, or 2 to 3 hours on High.

***

The only changes I made were noted above. But, I do recommend making note of how quickly your "slow" cooker cooks. I have realized that the newer ones cook much, much faster. I put this in the crock pot at 12:30 on warm. I moved it up to low at 3:30 and it was bubbling and ready by 5:30.

PS - I really like some of her recipes at Chef in Training, I'm looking forward to trying more soon. Crock Pot Chicken Parmesan maybe?

Enjoy!

~ Misty

TIO Tuesday - Reese's Peanut Butter Banana Bread

I found a super tasty way to enjoy one of my favorite treats. Peanut Butter, chocolate and bananas - oh so good! Here are the stars of the show:

The recipe calls for the mini reese's, but I only had the large ones, so we chopped them up and put them in. 

A little time in the oven and yummy goodness is here 

Doesn't that look delicious? See all the chocolate and peanut butter melted perfectly? It's just slightly sinful.

Reese's Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Ingredients

• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 8 oz bag of Reese’s Mini cups

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Grease your loaf pan (I used an 8 x 4 pan) with butter or shortening.
3. In a medium bowl whisk together your flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside.
4. In a large bowl stir together your bananas, peanut butter, oil, egg and sugars.
5. Pour your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Batter will be lumpy.
6. Fold in your Reese’s Mini cups and spread batter into prepared pan.
7. Bake for approx 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
8. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then loosen the edges of the pan with a knife and remove from loaf pan, transferring bread to a cooling rack.

*I bake my breads in a stone loaf pan, but certainly you don’t have to. BUT if you notice the bread browning too fast, lower the temperature down to 325°.

~ Misty

Finish Work

This week has been full of finish work and we're not even half way through yet.  I had some help today with the painting. The girls have really wanted to help with their room, so I gave in and let them have a roller. They did really well and we almost finished it. I ran out of paint, a familiar problem for me. Here's Hailey with her purple side of the room:

     

Annaliese had a good handle on the pink side of the room 

 Brad and I managed to get the rest of the flooring in, save for the carpet that will happen on Friday or Saturday? He is laying that himself. He says he doesn't want to pay someone else to do something so easy. But here, you can see the layout of the carpet. We wanted to be able to get from the front door to the kitchen and side door without having to step on the carpet.

We have been eating here more often. We brought down the table and the kids had fun eating there for the first time. Jackson is at grandma's so he missed out.  

Brad has been laying out the counter top base to get an idea of what size we want. The appliances are in and working. It's so nice to have the ovens, fridge and microwave here now.

 I painted all of the main areas in the hallway yesterday and then, ran out of paint. Argh! It's a hard place to get at for what I have left to paint. I think Brad is going to rig up some sort of contraption so I can get at the high spots.

I also had the "opportunity" to do my first tile work. Brad showed me how to do it and I put up all the tile. He even showed me how to use the tile saw, so I did the last few cuts myself. I grouted it the next day and I do have to say I think I did a good job. Don't you?

Move in day is on Saturday, still have lots to do. More trips to Menard's to get more paint...

~ Misty

TIO Tuesday - Buffalo Chicken Dip & Chili Chocolate Strawberries

We went to a friend's house for the Super Bowl in February and I was searching for something that I could bring in the crock pot, but different from what I always bring. I asked my friend Debbie for her Buffalo Chicken Dip recipe and I'm so glad I did! It was super simple and sooo good. We had it as a dip, shown here with celery (because if you eat it with celery it's way more healthy!) and also as a filling in soft tacos. Warning though, the stuff is addictive. If you're smart, you'll place yourself strategically close to the buffalo chicken dip and the strawberries!

I don't think this picture does the dip justice, you just have to try it - and then you'll know.
Buffalo Chicken Dip
2 cream cheese (8oz each)
3/4 c franks hot sauce
1c ranch
2 c chicken
1 c shredded cheese
Mix together and cook @ 350 for 30 mins
***I used shredded chicken that I already had in the freezer. I probably used a tad more cheese and I did mine in the crock pot, so it cooked longer than 30 minutes.  Thanks again to Debbie for this recipe!

I also made these strawberries. The name was too long to put in the title, but they actually have a cream cheese filling. I dipped the tops in crushed graham crackers and coated them with melted chili chocolate. They're just a little spicy and a lot of sweet, and oh so yummy!

~ Misty

TIO Tuesday - Crockpot Lasagna

I tried a crock pot lasagna for the first time. My overall impression was 50/50. Now normally I wouldn't share a recipe that had that kind of a rating, but I'm going to here, because I know my family is different from most. First of all, Brad likes things super seasoned, really, really seasoned. Second, my family in general is used to eating this way so it's hard to get them to like something out of the ordinary. (Just for that fact, it's a miracle I'm even attempting this 52 new recipes thing.)
I decided I would share because I know that most families have picky eaters and this was super simple to do. I think I would even do it again just for the simplicity of it. I mean, it doesn't really get any easier than uncooked pasta in a crock pot!

You can see from the picture that mine got overcooked. My crock pot uses steroids or something. As a result the noodles were a little mushy, obviously something to change next time. The kids ate most of it and Brad simply said, I like the original one better. Go figure, he doesn't have to worry about simplicity, he just gets to eat the finished project, but I digress...

Here is the recipe:

Crock Pot Lasagna

Ingredients

1 lb. ground beef

29 oz can tomato sauce

8 oz pkg. lasagna noodles, uncooked

4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 1/2 cups cottage cheese

Directions

1. Spray the inside of the crock-pot with cooking spray

2. Brown the ground beef

3. Stir the tomato sauce in with the ground beef

4. Spread 1/4 of the meat sauce on the bottom of the crock-pot

5. Arrange 1/3 of the uncooked noodles over the sauce (I usually break them up so they fit better)

6. Combine the cheeses in a bowl. Spoon 1/3 of the cheeses over the noodles.

7. Repeat these layers twice

8. Top with remaining sauce

9. Cover and cook on low for 4hrs (I've started the crock-pot on high in the morning before I leave for work and then put it on warm when I leave and it's perfect when I get home)

10. Let the lasagna stand in the crock-pot with the lid off for at least 10 minutes

*** I really would like to tweak this a little more to our liking and cook it for a shorter amount of time. I think I'd get better results then. I did use more sauce, cheese and some Italian seasoning. It has potential and "good bones" for a good recipe. Might have an update on this at a later time.

I would love to hear if you have tried a recipe like this and what did or didn't work for you. 

~ Misty

A little more progress...

Things are moving along at the Block House. We are still set on the March 17th move in date. It looks like at this point, the upstairs won't be ready, but that's okay. I guarantee it will happen quickly after we move in. Brad has been working hard on the kitchen getting it ready. This weekend should see even more progress in there. I hate to say anymore about it and jinx myself. Here's a few progress pics:

Half-Bath - Do you like the shower curtain "door"? At least it matches! Doors are all in for the house, will be delivered tomorrow. We can now wash our hands in an actual sink instead of a tub. Yay! 

Double ovens are in, will be working by tomorrow. Still need to add the trim. All the cabinets on this wall need to be installed before we can start the stone arch over the cook top and vent. I think that part of the stone will be started next week? 

Stone on the island is completed. The supports will go up and then the counter top will go on. We figured out a substitute for the counter tops until we can pour the concrete counter tops.

We finished the floors in Piper's room last weekend. This is the same floor we will have in the  rest of the house. We're very happy with how it turned out. It's encouraging for how well it went together, a promising sign that it won't be terribly difficult to do in the rest of the house.

I'm hoping to be able to post more progress next week. It's exciting to get to this point where it's all starting to come together. Only fifteen days left!!!

~ Misty