Impossibly Easy Breakfast Casserole

Happy Mother's Day weekend to all of my family and friends.  If you're looking for a recipe to make breakfast for your Mom tomorrow - this might just be the ticket.  You could add some fresh fruit to the side and it would be a perfect way to start the day.  

This is an "Impossibly Easy" recipe from Betty Crocker that uses Bisquick.  I really like these recipes because you can make them with whatever you have on hand.  Today we're using ham, orange pepper and green chiles.  This recipe stood out to me because it calls for cottage cheese in the cheese base and I hadn't done that before.

Let's Get Crafty!

Preheat the oven to 400

Spray pam in a 9x13 baking dish

Mix together and add to the bottom of the baking dish:

1 cup small curd cottage cheese

1 cup cheddar cheese

Layer in the fun stuff:
Fully cooked ham, diced
Orange pepper, chopped
Green chiles - squeeze out as much water as you can
This is the beauty of the breakfast casserole.  Do whatever veggies or meat you want or have on hand for this part.

Whisk the egg mixture together and evenly distribute:
2 cups milk
4 eggs
1 cup Bisquick

Bake for 35 minutes or until the knife comes out of the center clean.

Nice and hot- coming right out of the oven.
Let it cool for 5 minutes before slicing into it.

I made a french toast casserole before bed last night and I'm getting ready to pull it out of the fridge now.  That would be another great idea - if you like sweet treats and want to make it tonight to have ready to throw in the oven tomorrow morning.  Here's a link to a post on my blog with the recipe I like:  http://craftypapercrafters.blogspot.com/2017/11/french-toast-casserole.html

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have a great day!

Sweet Chicken Meatballs

Hello Everyone!  Thanks for stopping by.  The little lady and I tasted these meatballs for the first time when they were being offered at Costco.  They are called Teriyaki and Pineapple Chicken Meatballs from Chef Bruce Aidells.  They were so tasty they had to be added to our cart.

Let's Get Crafty!
23 oz frozen chicken meatballs (the package from Costco was 46oz with 2 packages inside.   Theirs are really good- I want to try it with other chicken meatballs too.)
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1 cup pineapple, diced (Whoohoo to King Soopers having pineapples on sale!)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 can low sodium chicken broth

Everything in the IP on manual for 15 minutes.

I wanted to thicken up the sauce, so I used a colander to drain the 

juice from the meatballs and pineapple. 

Pour the juice back into the Instant Pot and turn to saute.  

Mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with a small amount of cold water.  

Whisk into the juice stirring constantly for just one minute or so until thickened.

After the sauce is thickened - turn the Instant Pot off and add the meatballs and pineapple back to it.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day!

Close To My Heart **Clearance** Sale

Good morning crafting friends!  There's a clearance sale going on right now with some super fun items that I wanted to share with you all ASAP.  Just follow this link to go directly to the page:

https://melissabigler.closetomyheart.com/Retail/Products.aspx?CatalogID=159

What kind of stuff?  Instalife cards around $2, Stamp sets AND thin cuts under $10,  and lots of different embellishments are $2.

Happy Shopping!

Refried Beans from the Instant Pot

Our daughter loves beans.  She seriously loves them!  I've been wanting to try them in the Instant Pot ever since I made Ham and Beans that turned out so good.  Thanks for the recipe, Jacque!  These are awesome!

Let's Get Crafty!

Turn the IP to saute and throw in the pot for a couple minutes:

1 onion, diced

1 jalapeno, chopped with the veins removed

Add these to the onions and jalapeno:  

1 tablespoon garlic

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground oregano

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Saute for just one more minute and select "keep warm/cancel" to turn off the heat.

I've made this recipe twice now and I've done the saute step once and skipped it once.  Both were really good.  When I skipped it - I just tossed everything in, stirred and set the manual setting for 45 minutes.

Add to the pot:

1 lb rinsed pinto beans (about 2 1/2 cups)

3 1/2 - 4 cups broth of your choice

Using the manual setting - cook for 45 minutes

Release and stir

Back to the manual setting for 15 more minutes.

The cook time is being broken up so that the same beans aren't at the top the whole time.  Otherwise you might have a few beans that aren't cooked as much as you might like.

                       These pictures are after the first 45 minutes before and after being stirred

                                                      This is after the final 15 minutes

All mashed up! I added some water to get the consistency we wanted. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Chicken Cordon Blue Casserole

One of the first meals my husband made for me when we were dating was chicken cordon blue.  I remember being impressed with his cooking skills and over the years - I've appreciated how he always loved to go the extra mile to make things delicious.  I had him in mind while I was making this.  I knew I wanted to make chicken cordon blue but I wanted to mix it up.  Different recipes that I was finding were using canned soup for the sauce.  Which is fine... I use them too... but I wanted to make this special.  I'm making the classic white sauce with some dijon in it to add an extra level of flavor.

Let's Get Crafty!
Preheat the oven to 350

Let's get the sauce going:
3 tablespoons butter, melt in a large skillet on medium
3 tablespoons flour, whisk into the butter for 1 minute3 cups milk, add to the butter/flour mixture and whisk until thickened (usually just a couple minutes)add some salt and pepper to tasteadd 1 teaspoon dijon mustard, optional 
This sauce is very easy but it does need a little babysitting.  I generally stay close to it whisking it the whole time so the bottom doesn't burn.

Aww... simmering white sauce make my heart happy

The rest of the layering components:
3 cups chicken, cooked and diced
2 cups ham, cooked and diced  (I used one a ham steak and diced it up)

2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

It's time to layer up!

In a casserole dish sprayed with Pam - 

Layer 1/2 the chicken

then 1/2 the ham

then 1/2 the cheese

then 1/2 the white sauce

then - repeat each layer one more time

Bake covered for 35-40 minutes

(Take off the foil for the last 10 minutes)

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day!

Super Speedy Mexican Rice

I'm sure you've noticed over the last year reading my different posts that we eat a lot of Mexican food.  It's true.  We do.  It's our go-to flavor profile in our house.  I've been on the lookout for a recipe for Mexican rice because the kids love it and found one that was so stinking easy to make that I know this will be a regular in our house going forward.  This recipe come from This Mama Cooks and she calls it "Easy 10 Minute Mexican Rice."

Let's Get Crafty!

Here's the lineup:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon cumin (I used half this amount)
1 teaspoon salt
1 small call tomato sauce
1 can chicken broth
2 cups uncooked instant white rice

Start by warming up the oil, garlic powder, cumin and salt

Then add these to the pot, stir and bring to a boil

Once it reaches a boil - add the uncooked rice. Cover and remove from heat. Set aside for 5 minutes like you would have cooking the minute rice.  Fluff with a fork and you're in business.

This recipe is a winner.  I hope you try it and like it!  Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Hamburger Sammies

This recipe is a twist on one I posted not that long ago.  (For the ham version - take a look back at my January 10, 2018 post.)  This change-up was inspired by my son who really likes the ham ones but we didn't have any ham on hand.  Adding the green chiles to the hamburger filling for some gives it almost a philly cheese steak feel.

Let's Get Crafty!

Preheat the oven to 350 if you are going to bake them right away

Get the hamburger filling going:

Brown 1 1/2 pounds of hamburger

As it gets close to being done - add in 2 teaspoons minced garlic (I love the jarred kind) and a couple splashes of Worcestershire sauce

Get the sauce ready by whisking together:

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons mustard

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Get the rolls ready:

I had a package of slider sized rolls on hand and cut each one in half.  This helps to ensure the sauce gets in all the little crooks and crannies.

Layer up the sammies:

Spray the pan with pam

Put bottom halves on the bottom

Add the cooked hamburger evenly to each roll 

Add 1/2 slice of american cheese to each (use whatever cheese you want or have on hand)

Put the tops back on each roll

We've got 3 different varieties going on here.  My son and his friend have 

the ones with cheese, my daughter's is the one without cheese and 

ours are ones with cheese and green chile

I like to use a large spoon to put sauce on top of each of the rolls.  

 At this point you could cover it with foil and put it in the fridge to bake the next night.

                       Bake (uncovered) in a preheated oven at 350 for 12-15 minutes.

Have a great day!  Thank you for stopping by!