Green Bean Casserole

This was a new recipe for me. Normally my mom and I make green bean casserole a little differently, but I wanted to give something different a try! I made this for my office Christmas party last night, and I think everyone seemed to approve of this dish.

Vegetable cooking spray
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup skim milk
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded reduced-fat Swiss cheese
1/2 cup low-fat sour cream
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 (9-ounce) packages frozen French-style green beans, thawed and drained
1 1/2 cups herb-seasoned stuffing mix
2 teaspoons margarine, melted
1 egg white, lightly beaten

Coat a medium saucepan with cooking spray, and place over medium heat until hot. Add onion; saute 5 minutes or until tender. Add flour, and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Gradually add the milk, stirring until blended. Stir in cheese, sour cream, sugar, and salt; cook 5 minutes or until thickened and bubbly, stirring constantly.

Place green beans in an 8-inch square baking dish; pour the sauce over beans. Combine stuffing mix, margarine, and egg white in a bowl; stir well, and sprinkle over green bean mixture. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Weeknight Lasagna Toss

This meal was VERY good, and it was easy too!

1 lb. lean ground beef
2 cups chopped green peppers (about 2 peppers)
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 jar (26 oz.) spaghetti sauce
1-2/3 cups water
1/4 cup KRAFT Zesty Italian Dressing
12 oven-ready lasagna noodles, broken into quarters
1 cup KRAFT Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese

BROWN meat in large (4-qt.) saucepan on medium heat; drain.

ADD peppers, garlic, spaghetti sauce, water and dressing; bring to boil. Stir in noodles; reduce heat to medium-low. Cover.

COOK, stirring occasionally, 10 to 15 min. or until noodles are tender. Remove from heat. Sprinkle with cheese. Cover; let stand 5 min. or until cheese is melted.

Three Cheese Chicken Penne

This meal was great! I got the recipe off the Kraft foods website, and they even include a video tutorial on how to make it! I made a few tweaks to the recipe by not including chicken and using different cheeses, and it turned out great! I think the recipe is great the way it is... I just didn't happen to have everything it called for. :) I had fun experimenting, and I think this is an easy recipe to make some changes if you're feeling adventurous!

1-1/2 cups multigrain penne pasta, uncooked
1 pkg. (9 oz.) fresh spinach leaves
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1 tsp. dried basil leaves
1 jar (14-1/2 oz.) spaghetti sauce
1 can (14-1/2 oz.) diced tomatoes, drained
2 oz. (1/4 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese, cubed
1 cup KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, divided
2 Tbsp. KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese

HEAT oven to 375ºF. Cook pasta as directed on package, adding spinach to the boiling water for the last 1 min.
COOK and stir chicken and basil in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat 3 min. Add spaghetti sauce and tomatoes; bring to boil. Simmer 3 min. or until chicken is done. Stir in Neufchatel cheese.
DRAIN pasta mixture; return to pan. Stir in chicken mixture and 1/2 cup mozzarella. Spoon into 2-qt. or 8-inch square baking dish.
BAKE 20 min. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses. Bake 3 min.

Special Helper

One night I found Carter with this oven mitt. He absolutely loved it, and I couldn't resist letting him have it. I think he was trying to let me know that he really loves my new quest for cooking and he'd help me if he could.



Melts your heart... :)

Hubby's Favorite Chicken

I made this chicken meal on Wednesday night, and it was delicious. I got the recipe off a friend's blog, and she claimed it was her husband's favorite chicken. Mathis ended up loving this recipe too, so I guess it's a winner with most newlywed husbands! :)

Jen gives a great detailed recipe on her blog. You can read it by clicking here. Definitely a great, easy meal to try sometime. Thanks for the recipe, McCradys! :)

Strawberry Salad

Don't worry! I haven't forgotten about my quest to cook new meals!! :) Thanksgiving kept us busy, but we're back to Abilene this week and that means back to cooking. Last night I didn't have much time (or energy) so I threw together a quick salad. It looked something like this:





I have to admit I definitely improvised on this one, but the result came out good! I used a pre-made Baby Romaine salad mix from Dole and added in some fresh strawberries and mandarin oranges. I topped the salad with some honey roasted sliced almonds and used a classic balsamic vinaigrette dressing from Kraft. This was easy and also healthy (I think we'll be eating a few more salads in the coming weeks to combat all the holiday eating!).


I'm off to the grocery store right now... I have some fun new recipes to try this week!