Cheesy Chicken & Noodle Casserole

Recipe adapted from this!

INGREDIENTS:
4-5c chopped cooked chicken breast (2-3 breasts)
16oz egg noodles
1 can low-sodium cream of chicken soup
1 container lite sour cream
2 packages Neufchatel (or cream cheese)
8oz shredded cheddar
8oz shredded mozzarella
topping:
1/4 c butter. melted
2-3c crushed cheezits
poppy seeds

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350F.
Boil noodles, drain.
Chop up/tear/shred the chicken. (I added in some other leftover stuff I had, some mushrooms and cooked sausage).
Combine the noodles, meat, soup, cheeses together. Spread in greased 9x13" baking dish.
Mix butter and crushed cheezits, spread over the mixture.
Bake ~30min. till the top looks crispy and everythings melted.

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Chef Salad

INGREDIENTS:
romaine lettuce
green leaf lettuce
mushrooms
tomato
carrots
salami
crumbled bacon
ham
rotisserie chicken breast
hard boiled eggs
shredded provel
dressing

DIRECTIONS:
Wash and tear up lettuce, top with the various chopped ingredients. Place in huge bowl.

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Mini Deep Dish Pizzas

recipe adapted from this "A nice change of pace" said Pantz

INGREDIENTS: (makes 2)

2  ramekins/pie dishes(5"x2" )

1 jar pasta sauce

toppings (I used canned mushrooms/pre-cooked crumbled sausage/mini pepperoni)

mozzarella cheese, chunk cheese sliced into 6 pieces (can use shreded or deli mozz also)

1 tube (12-13oz)  refrigerated pizza dough

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 425F.

Spray inside & outside of ramekins with cooking spray.

Place 3 slices of cheese in each ramekin. Then layer the toppings.

Pour in pasta sauce to fill ramekin.

Roll out the pizza dough and divide in half (roll into a ball if necessary) and. Stretch/roll out each dough piece and place over each ramekin, letting it hang over the edge.

Bake for 15-18 min (till dough looks crispy enough).

Using potholder/oven mitt carefully invert each ramekin onto a plate and pry off the ramekin with a fork.

Serve om nom nom nom

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Cheddary Ckn Mushroom Pasta Bake

recipe adapted from this we enjoyed it!!

INGREDIENTS:

16oz bowtie/farfalle pasta

2 or 3lb chicken breast, chopped into pieces

8oz (drained weight) canned sliced mushrooms

8oz shredded mozzarella (or provel)

1 jar pasta sauce

1jar alfredo sauce (Newmanns is good)

(optional) 6oz real bacon bits

sauce:

6T butter

4T flour

salt/pepper, to taste

4c milk

8oz shredded charp cheddar

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350F.
Boil pasta in a big pot till al dente.
Meanwhile, cut up the chicken breasts and cook in a skillet over med-high heat till cooked. After chicken is almost fully cooked add in the mushrooms with it along with some minced garlic.
Make sauce: in medium saucepan melt butter. Stir in flour, salt, pepper. Then add in milk. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and stir in the shredded cheddar.
Drain pasta, stir the chicken/mushroom mixture and cheese sauce mixture (and bacon bits) into the pasta.
Spread in greased 11x17"pan (anything bigger than 9x13 will work).
Top with mixture of pasta sauce and alfredo sauce, then the shredded mozzarella.
Bake 30-40min, till bubbly and tasty looking.

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Slow Cooker Corned Beef / Reuben Sandwiches

I'm not a big fan of cabbage so I used sauerkraut instead and made tastyass Reuben sandwiches!

INGREDIENTS:

4 lb corned beef round (comes with spice packet)

10 small red potatoes, chopped (I left skin on)

1 white onion, chopped

1/2 bottle/can of beer

3 c water

(optional) cabbage, chopped

(optional) carrots

if making reubens: 

sliced rye bread

sauerkraut

thousand island dressing

swiss cheese, sliced

DIRECTIONS: (7qt slow cooker)

Place potatoes and onion in bottom of slow cooker, add in the water, then place in the corned beef and pour the beer over. Sprinkle the spice packet over everything.

Cook 8hrs on low or 4hrs on high.

*Slice meat against the grain or it wont be chewable*

for reubens:

Preheat oven broiler.

Spread thousand island dressing and sauerkraut on each piece of bread, top with swiss cheese and sliced corned beef.

Place under broiler for 2-3 minutes. Combine bread pieces into epic sandwiches.

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St. Louis Style Pizza (Multiple Variations) *BEST PIZZA*

Recipe borrowed from this
This is the closest recipe to Imo's that I've had so far! See multiple variations below.
Update: I dont make my own crust much anymore, for time saving reasons mainly. Also I have found that the tube dough tastes pretty much the same (oddly enough Walmart's refrigerated pizza dough in the tube is better than Pillsbury I think). I roll the dough thin as possible (often stuff the crust) and bake on a baking sheet and more recently a pizza stone (it gets the bottom of the pizza crispier if you freeze the pizza then bake from frozen on a pizza stone).

INGREDIENTS:

Dough:
1 1/4 c flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking powder
2 t olive oil
1 t light corn syrup
1/2 c water
Italian seasonings
Note* I have since increased the dough ingreds by 50% in order to fully cover my baking sheets.
50% larger dough recipe:
1.875c flour (aka 7.5  1/4cups)
3/4t salt
3/4t baking powder
3t olive oil
1.5t corn syrup
3/4c water
Italian seasonings

Toppings:
Pasta sauce
Alfredo sauce
shredded provel cheese
turkey bacon, cooked/chopped
mushrooms, cooked w/garlic
crumbled sausage
Italian seasoning
(or any other desired toppings)

Chili dog pizza toppings (see photos):
Andouille sausage, sliced
1 can chili (no beans)
shredded cheddar

Sausagefest pizza
Layer of alfredo/pasta sauce mixture
Shredded Provel (Schnucks/Dierbergs sells it)
Crumbled turkey sausage
1 pkg real bacon pieces
Canadian bacon
(sometimes pepperoni)
(optional: I have cut chunks of cheddar cheese and rolled the edge of the dough over it to make stuffed-crust pizza. Came out noiceee).

BLT Pizza (inspired by Lehmann's):
Layer of alfredo/pasta sauce (or just alfredo)
Layer of provel/Italian cheeses
5-6oz real bacon bits
(after baking and slicing) top with:
3 diced roma tomatoes
shredded lettuce
drizzle with mayo
(I have done a version using spinach in which I baked the pizza with the tomatoes/spinach on top. Def like adding the lettuce/tomato after baking better. After cutting the pizza is easiest).

Alfredo Sausage Bacon Pizza:
Layer of alfredo sauce (I used Prego bacon alfredo)
Layer of Imos shredded provel
Pre-cooked, crumbled turkey sausage
3oz real bacon bits
~6oz sliced fresh mushrooms
Little extra shredded cheese on top, and Italian seasoning

note: To make stuffed crust, place sliced brick mozzarella around the edge and roll dough over it (see photos below)
second note: finally got the pizza stone to work (after previous attempt pizza stuck to it).  Made pizza the night before on a baking sheet & placed in freezer. The next day heated the pizza stone in the oven, sprinkled cornmeal on it, then cooked the frozen pizza on it.  The bottom of the pizza turned out crispy FINALLY

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 450F.
Mix all dough ingredients, and roll out dough as thin as possible.
Put dough on a cornmeal-coated baking sheet, and top with the toppings.
Bake 12-15 min, till desired crispyness.

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Filet Mignon

recipe modified from this recipe

INGREDIENTS:

sauce:

1 T butter

1/2 c minced white onion

3 t minced garlic

1 T fresh chopped thyme leaves

3/4 c low sodium beef broth

1/2 c burgundy wine (or whatever red wine you want)

marinade: (this wasn't exact, I just threw the ingreds together in a gallon ziplock bag)

1 or 2 c red wine

1-2 T Worcestershire sauce

1-2 T honey

garlic&herb seasoning

other ingreds:

2 filet mignons

4 pieces raw thick-cut bacon (or 6 pieces regular bacon)

1/2 c crumbled gorgonzola (or feta)

2-3 T bread crumbs

DIRECTIONS:

1. make the sauce (I made the night before and reheated it to serve over the filets):

Melt butter in skillet over med heat. Add onion, garlic, thyme and stir. Add in beef broth, stir, then add the wine. Bring to a boil, then cook until the mixture is reduced to around 1 c.

Set aside or put in fridge for later.

2. Marinade the meat: (I marinated for 6 hrs)

Wrap each filet with bacon, secure with toothpicks. Place in the marinade mixture listed above^ and put in the fridge till you're gonna cook them.

3. Preheat oven to 350F. Heat a skillet over med-high heat.

Remove steaks from marinade and brown in the skillet (just brown it, like 30 sec each side). Place steaks in baking dish (or keep in the skillet if it's oven safe) and bake for 15min for med-rare (internal temperature 145F). 

*We wanted them slightly more done so they weren't bloody in the middle, so after the 15min I raised the oven temp a little and checked on them every so often till internal temp was about 155F.

4.  Remove steaks/skillet from oven. Preheat oven broiler. Mix bread crumbs and gorgonzola, and top each steak with a layer of it.  Broil steaks for 2-4 min. Serve with the warmed wine sauce.

note* made these again recently using feta (see bottom photos). After 15 min @ 350F they were only like 90F inside. I upped the temp to 400 and kept checking on them every 10 min till they got close to 150F and they had a very slight pink part inside. Took about 30 extra min at least. Next time prob will cook to 145F, cuz the meat keeps cooking as it rests. and I feel like 150F is slightly too done for filets.

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