Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Lasagna Soup How To

Super-duper easy, super-duper yummy!

The best type of lasagna recipe to use for this soup is one with ricotta/cottage cheese and spinach, though if that’s not what you have, you can always add some frozen or fresh spinach to it.

Refrigerate the lasagna until it is firm, then cut into ½ inch squares. Plop it in a slowcooker and add enough broth to cover by about 4 to 5 inches. You can use either chicken or beef broth.

This soup only needs 5 hours at low in the slowcooker, but you can let it simmer away all day if you wish.

Lasagna Soup is super-duper yummy, especially when served with homemade bread straight from the bread-maker.

Until next time ... eat your leftovers!

For more tips and tricks, please visit: http://www.moms-stay-at-home.com/

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Lasagna Soup

I don't make big 9x13" lasagnes unless we're having company, but we do like lasagne. So I assemble and freeze several 5x9" loaf lasagnes, then it is just a matter of thawing and baking!

We had one of these loaf lasagnes yesterday and there was some leftovers with which I'm going to prepare Slowcooker Lasagne Soup.

Prepare to be amazed!

Until next time ... eat your leftovers!

For more tips and tricks, please visit: http://www.moms-stay-at-home.com/

Monday, March 28, 2011

Mozza Chicken Casserole

What was leftover?  2 cups of pasta sauce, 3 cups of tri-coloured rotini, 1 cup boiled peas and carrots, and 1 ½ cups bite sized/diced chicken breast.

I sliced and sautéed another small amount of onions and mushrooms. In a buttered casserole dish I mixed together the pasta, the sauce, the onions and mushrooms, and the peas and carrots. I diced the remaining* chicken breast into bite-sized pieces and mixed that in too. Then I topped the dish with mozzarella cheese and baked it in the oven at 350⁰F for 35 minutes, until it was heated through and the cheese was bubbly and golden.

Everyone loved it!

Until next time ... eat your leftovers!

*There was still some more chicken left over after removing the breast, so I froze it for another day to make chicken soup or the like.

For more tips and tricks, please visit: http://www.moms-stay-at-home.com/

Thursday, March 24, 2011

A Safeway Rotisserie Chicken and Store-Bought Pasta Sauce - how can they be recreated?

I didn’t feel like cooking last night, so we had a rotisserie chicken from Safeway. GASP! I know... How horrible of me, not cooking. There you have it, it happens.

We had the chicken and I also made tri-coloured rotini and heated some bottled pasta sauce (again, GASP!) to which I added sautéed onions and mushrooms, with garlic cheese buns on the side.

There were leftovers: pasta, pasta sauce, chicken; there were also some peas and carrots from the previous night’s supper.

How will the leftovers be twisted and turned?  Stay tuned...

For more tips and tricks, please visit: http://www.moms-stay-at-home.com/

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Dumplings

I have never tried to make dumplings before, because my memory of dumplings are of my mother's pasty bits of glue. 

The Simplest Dumpling
My husband, though always asks for dumplings.  So, I decided to try my hand at them.  You know what?  They're yummy!

I went with the simplest recipe I could find:

Dumplings
1 Cup      50/50 flour*
1 T          baking powder
1 t           white sugar
1/2 t        salt
1 T          margarine
1/2 C       milk

In a bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.  Cut margarine into this mixture until it is crumbly, then stir in milk to make a soft dough.

Drop by the teaspoonful into the simmering chowder (or stew, or soup, etc.) until the dumplings are barely touching (or you've run out of dough). 

Cover the pot and simmer for 15 minutes without lifting the lid of the pot.

Since my experiment into dumplings went well this first time, I'm going to now experiment with other delectable varieties!

* I mix our flour using equal parts whole wheat and non-bleached white to make what I call 50/50 flour.

Until next time ... eat your leftovers!

For more tips and tricks, please visit: http://www.moms-stay-at-home.com/

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Creamy Chicken Chowder

With two chicken thighs, about two cups of mashed potatoes, the same amount of boiled carrots and peas, and mushroom sauce, and four cups of cooking water from the potatoes, carrots and peas - I created a Creamy Chicken Chowder to die for!

And not only that, but it had dumplings in it too!

I chopped the chicken thighs into small bite-sized pieces, and cut the slices of carrots into quarters, just to make them easier to scoop up into our spoons.

In a large pot I placed the potatoes and the cooking water, and turned it on medium heat. While it heated, I re-mashed the potatoes - again, just to make it easier to scoop up with our spoons.


The rest of the ingredients, along with a tablespoon of dried parsley, then went in the pot as well to heat through and simmer until dumpling*-dropping time.

I didn't feel the need to add any other flavourings than the ones that were already in the mushroom sauce, which were - onion, sage, garlic, salt, and pepper.  I did add an extra pinch of salt while it was simmering

Until next time ... eat your leftovers!

*I'll post the recipe for dumplings in a separate post.  Watch for it!

For more tips and tricks, please visit: http://www.moms-stay-at-home.com/

Sunday, March 13, 2011

What Will This Become?

Tonight for supper we had chicken thighs in a mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes, and boiled peas and carrots.

We have some leftovers...what will they become?

For more tips and tricks, please visit: http://www.moms-stay-at-home.com/