Chicken Noodle Gravy

Chicken Noodle Gravy

Boil 2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts in just enough water to cover the chicken, until tender and cooked through. Remove chicken and strain broth to remove all those floaties. Return broth to the pan and bring back to a boil. You may want to add more water and some chicken bouillon (1 t. per cup of water) for more flavor. Cook some homemade egg noodles in the broth until tender (8-10 minutes). To thicken the broth, stir about 2 tablespoons of cornstarch diluted with a little bit of cold water into the boiling broth and noodles. Stir until thickened. Shred the cooked chicken and add to broth. Serve over mashed potatoes.

Mmm!! This was a favorite of mine that my mom used to make. When I asked her for the recipe she said there was no written down recipe so she just said "some" for the amount of ingredients. I did the best I could at getting the portions right. This recipe does require time and effort but it's totally worth it!

When I told Sean about this amazing meal that I grew up on I never realized how strange it may have seemed to eat noodles and mashed potatoes together until I saw the look on his face. It does seem a little strange but while we were eating Sean said, "This is such a weird combination but it works!" He seemed to like it and I was, of course, in heaven reminiscing about my childhood and my mom :)

Oh, also, for the cornstarch mixture I ended up adding it like 3 times which made it a total of 6 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with enough water to make it the consistency of milk.

Homemade Egg Noodles

Homemade Egg Noodles
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter, softened

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the flour and salt. Add the beaten egg, milk, and butter. Remove the paddle attachment and replace with the dough hook. Knead dough until smooth, about 5 minutes. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Let rest 10 minutes.
2. Divide dough into 4 equal pieces and roll each piece out to 1/8 or 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired lengths and shapes. (a pizza cutter works really well to cut them into strips)
3. Place on a wire rack and allow to  air dry, at least 2 hours. When the noodle are dry you can break the dry noodle into smaller pieces if desired.
4. To cook fresh pasta, in a large pot with boiling salted water cook until al dente, about 8-10 minutes. 

Yields: 6-8 servings

I couldn't believe how easy these were!! And they tasted SO yummy!! If you don't have a mixer you could easily just use your hands to knead the dough.  These would be so delicious in homemade chicken noodle soup. Try it!!!

Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Stuffed with Herb Ricotta

Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Stuffed with Herb Ricotta

1/2 cup ricotta cheese
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp basil
1 tsp thyme
4 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts, butterflied
4-6 slices of bacon


Pre-heat the oven to 400ºF.

In a bowl, season the ricotta with salt and pepper. Stir in the Parmesan cheese, garlic salt, basil and thyme. Place some of the ricotta mixture on each butterflied piece of chicken and fold the breast over and wrap with 1-2 slices of bacon.

Heat an ovenproof skillet and add the chicken bundles and brown over medium-high heat, turning once, for 4-6 minutes. Transfer to the oven to cook through, 12-15 minutes. Serves 4

This was such a great change up from plain old chicken breasts. And not very difficult either. I would recommend getting everything laid out and prepared before you butterfly the chicken so that you don't have to touch everything with yucky chicken hands and wash your hands 10 times.

This is a Rachael Ray recipe and I did have to make a few changes. You can get the original recipe here. Enjoy!

Also, if you don't have an ovenproof skillet I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem to transfer the chicken to a foil-lined baking dish/sheet.

Red Velvet-Cherry Cake Roll

Red Velvet-Cherry Cake Roll

For the Cake:
1 1/2 cups flour, plus more for dusting
2 cups cherry-flavored cola
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup buttermilk
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon red food coloring
2 teaspoons almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Confectioner's sugar, for dusting

For the filling:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups cold heavy cream
2 teaspoons almond extract
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350*F. Butter an 11x17" baking sheet and line with parchment paper; butter the parchment and dust with flour.
2. Bring the cola to a simmer in a medium skillet over medium-high heat and cook until reduced to 1/2 cup, 10-12 minutes. Let cool.
3. Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. In a separate large bowl, whisk the sugar, vegetable oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, almond and vanilla extracts, and the cola syrup. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. Spread the batter on the prepared baking sheet; bake until the cake pulls away from the pan, about 15 minutes. Let cool on the pan on a rack, 5 minutes.
4. Dust a kitchen towel (not terry cloth) with confectioners sugar. Invert the cake onto the towel and peel off the parchment. Trim the cake edges. Starting with the short end, roll up the cake around the towel; let cool completely on a rack.
5. Make the filling: Whisk the cream cheese, 1/2 cup cream and the almond extract in a large bowl. Beat the remaining 1 cup cream and the confectioners sugar with a mixer until soft peaks form; gradually fold into the cream cheese mixture. Chill until ready to use.
6. Unroll the cooled cake. Spread with the filling, then gently re-roll the cake and transfer to a platter. Dust with confectioners sugar.

So, I didn't let the cake cool enough before I rolled it and it kinda fell apart on me...so I smashed it into 2 round cake pans and made a layer cake out of it. It worked out pretty well. However, I didn't like the flavor of this cake very much. But if you're a big cherry-flavor fan then this will be perfect for you.

Heart-shaped meals

Happy Valentine's Day! There's nothing special about these meals or anything. I just used a heart cookie cutter to make French Toast hearts and Grilled cheese hearts. Brandon had fun helping me. This may be our V-day tradition!

Best-ever Chocolate chip cookies

Best-ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened 

3/4 c. brown sugar 

1/4 c. granulated sugar 

1 egg 

2 tsp. vanilla extract 

2 c. all purpose flour 

2 tsp. cornstarch 

1 tsp. baking soda 

1/2 tsp. salt 

1 c. bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color. Add egg and vanilla and blend in.

3.  Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chunks.

4.  Using a standard-sized cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop dough onto a prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges.  (The tops will not brown, but do NOT cook longer than ten minutes.)

5.  Let cool, on the sheet, on a wire rack for five minutes.  Remove from baking sheet and let cool completely.  Makes approximately 3 dozen.  Try not to eat them all!

 

 

These are seriously the most delicious cookies in the world. They are moist, and chewy, and soft. Just how chocolate chip cookies should be! They will go fast!

Meatloaf

Meatloaf
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound ground beef
2/3 cup ketchup
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons prepared mustard

1. Preheat over to 350F.
2. In a large bowl, combine egg, milk, cheese, oats and salt. Add the ground beef, mixing well, and form into a loaf. Place in a lightly greased 9x13 baking dish.
3. In a separate bowl, combine ketchup, brown sugar and mustard. Stir thoroughly and spread over meatloaf.
4. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.

Oh. My. Gosh. I loved this so much!! The original recipe (from allrecipes.com) says to make this into 8 mini meatloaves but I just made on big loaf in a loaf pan. It came out a little soggy so because it basically just sat and cooked in its own fat. Yuck. So, how ever you decide to make this, I would suggest doing what the recipe says and put it on a 9x13 baking dish. And maybe line it with foil to make clean up easier or something. But that sauce is SO delicious. And I didn't bake it with the meatloaf either. I just had it on the side so we could add however much we wanted. It's up to you, I guess. Sean isn't a big fan of meatloaf so we probably won't have this very often unless I feel like eating an entire loaf by myself... So whenever we have it, it will be a big treat for me! I really really enjoyed this one!