Kitchen Chicken Casserole

A quote from my three year old “mommy can we eat this every night cause I LOVE IT” and she normally doesn’t LOVE anything that isn’t yoghurt!

This is not the prettiest dish but oh my sweet heavens it is so yummy.

I call this kitchen chicken casserole because it’s an easy throw together recipe that can use pretty much whatever you have in your kitchen. Use fresh chicken or leftover chicken. I am even willing to bet that if you used leftover chicken and skipped cooking up the veggies, just threw it in the pan with all of the other ingredients and popped it in the oven you’d end up with a masterpiece. I have never done it that way (I will next time) but if you do…let me know how it goes!

The Grocery List (it seems like a lot of ingredients but you can add or omit based on what you have in your house, I am positive there is no way to mess this up)

Chicken (I used leftover chicken that I cut in chunks but you could use 2 chicken breasts)
1 medium carrot
1 medium onion
Half a green bell pepper
Half a red bell pepper
Garlic
1 large leek
Some Spice: 1 1/2 tbsp curry powder, 2 tsp paprika powder, few shakes of Salt and Pepper

1 cup uncooked rice (I use brown rice)
2 cans of cream soup – I’m confident any cream soup will work but if you want to be just like me you’d use 1 can cream of mushroom soup and 1 can golden mushroom soup
2 1/3 cups chicken broth
2 tsp Lawry’s seasoned salt
1/8 tsp hot chili pepper
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
Olive oil
Pinch of fresh or dried parsley.
Aluminum foil

Cooking It All Up:

Preheat your oven to F350 (175C)

Chop all your veggies making sure they are all about the same size.

*if you are using leftover already cooked chicken, cut it into chunks and throw it into a big bowl and tell it to hang out until you are ready to add the other goods. (note: there is nothing wrong with talking to your food)*

If you are using chicken breasts cut them up and season with salt, pepper, curry powder and paprika powder. Sautée them until they’re just about done, make sure not to overcook them. Remove them from the skillet and transfer to a big bowl.

Add a little more oil to your pan and sautée the veggies, start with the hard veggies like the carrots and move your way to the softer ones. *if you are using the leftover chicken just add the spices to the veggies while they sautée…trust me it’ll all work out in the end* Once the veggies are softened a bit (not too much because they will cook in the oven and you don’t want them mushy, yuck) add them to the bowl with the chicken.

Now the party starts. To the chicken/veggie bowl add all of the other ingredients. Mix Mix, Mix.

Dump it all to an oven dish and cover tightly with aluminum foil.

Put it in a preheated oven for an hour. Pull it out, remove the foil, stir it up, and put it back in the oven uncovered for about 20 minutes (use your judgment, you just want to make sure the rice is sufficiently cooked, no one likes crunchy rice). Turn the oven to broil for the last 5 minutes to make it brown and pretty on top.

Serve it up, sprinkle with parsley if you are fancy, and enjoy!

Roast Chicken and BBQ Veggies

As a busy working mom, I can’t think of anything better than a meal that is fuss free. This meal is easy prep, oven roasting, healthy, and delicious for the whole family. I know roast chicken and veggies doesn't sound like something that actually requires a recipe but trust me.....if you do it this way you'll be very very happy. The chicken will be juicy and fresh and the veggies are sweet and spicy. YUMMY!

The Grocery List

Roast Chicken

• Whole Chicken (I used two small roasting chickens so we’d have leftovers)
• Spice (I used Thyme, Rosemary, Paprika, Oregano and Garlic Powder)
• 1 lemon

BBQ Veggies

• Any combination of veggies will work: I used 1 large Sweet Potato, 1 large Carrot, 1 lb of Baby Potatoes, and 1 Onion (chopped into large chunks that are roughly the same size)
• ¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 2 teaspoons garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I only used ¼ because my kids are sensitive when it comes to spice!)

Cooking it Up:

Preheat Oven to 400°F.

The Chicken: Remove chicken from packaging and rinse thoroughly in cold water. Put chicken in a roasting pan. I like to use a rack in my roasting pan so that the chicken isn’t sitting in the drippings (i.e.: fat). Squeeze the lemon juice from one fresh lemon over the chicken. Sprinkle the chicken with the spices. Add a few slices of lemon. Bake for 2 hours or until cooked.

After the chicken cooks for an hour you can throw in the veggies!

The Veggies: Mix all of the ingredients, except the veggie, in large bowl. Add veggies; toss to coat. Transfer mixture to a large baking dish or rimmed cookie sheet, spreading it all out evenly. Bake until tender, stirring occasionally, about 55 minutes.

Chicks Chili - So easy a dude could do it!**

There is nothing better on a cold winter afternoon than a hearty bowl of chili. Chili is so versatile, you can add as many or as few ingredients as you wish, as much spice or as little spice as you like. I make my chili with a lot of veggies and a variety of beans. I don't make it too spicy because the kiddos eat it. I always serve it with nachos, cheese, sour cream, and hot sauce (for the more adventurous adults!).

The Grocery List

• Family Pack of Extra Lean Ground Beef
• 2 540ml (19 oz) cans of mixed beans, well rinsed in cold water
• 3 796ml (28 oz) cans of reduced sodium diced tomatoes
• 1 700ml bottle of roasted tomato sauce (or your favorite variety of tomato sauce)
• 1 cup of mushroom, chopped
• 1 cup of green pepper, chopped
• 1 cup of red pepper, chopped
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp cumin
• few dashes of hot sauce, optional

Chick Note: My slow cooker is HUGE so if you have a smaller slow cooker, reduce the ingredients accordingly or you'll end up with way too much stuff and a big old mess.

Some ingredients were too shy to pose for this picture!

Cooking it Up:

Start by browning the ground beef. While that's happening, get our your slow cooker and give it a good spray with your cooking spray, this will make cleaning up so so so much easier!

Chop up all of the veggies, drain and rinse the beans. Add them to the slow cooker.

Once the ground beef has sufficiently browned, add it to the slow cooker. Add the diced tomatoes including juice, add the bottle of tomato sauce, mix it all around. Add the chili powder, cumin, and if you are wild add the hot sauce.

Stir and let it all do it's thing on low for 8 hours. If you are less patient (or less of a think ahead kinda person) you can set it to high for a 2 hours and then reduce it to low for 2 hours.

**If you are a dude, please do not take offense to the title....just jokes. The chicks LOVE dudes!