Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

This was a pretty simple casserole and a good way to use up leftover ham and/or chicken breast.

Cook and drain 1-12oz bag of egg noodles.

Saute some cut up ham, onion, fresh mushrooms and chicken in butter. Do not cook them too much. Mostly just to sear them a bit and get rid of some of the extra moisture.

Mix 1 can cream of chicken soup and some milk.

Add meat and veggies into the pan of noodles. Pour soup mixture over it and stir well to coat. Stir in pepper and marjoram to taste.

Place in greased casserole dish.

Bake for 10 minutes in a 350 oven.

Remove and top with thin-sliced Swiss cheese. Place back in oven.

Mix about 1 cup bread crumbs with 2 Tablespoons melted butter. Sprinkle on top of casserole.

Continue to bake until crumbs are browned and the casserole is heated through.

Chicken A La King

I made this for my WW2 Christmas class today and it was fantastic! It is an authentic 1940s, ration-friendly recipe. Best served over bread, rice or noodles with a side of vegetables.

I made it the night before, chilled it and reheated it the next day in the crock pot. I may do it that way every time... :)

3 pounds of chicken breast, cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces

1 cup diced celery
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 pound sliced fresh mushrooms
3 Tablespoons butter

Saute vegetables in butter until tender and there is no longer any liquid in the pan.
Add to cooked chicken in large bowl or casserole dish.

Melt 4 Tablespoons butter or margarine (no rations on margarine) in large saucepan.
Quickly whisk in:
4 Tablespoons flour
1 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 Tablespoons dried parsley

Then pour in 4 cups chicken broth all at once and whisk until smooth.

Cook over med-high heat, whisking constantly, until thick and bubbly.

Remove from heat and pour over chicken mixture. Stir well to mix.

Serve on top of toast, bread, noodles or rice. Top with sliced hard-boiled eggs and a bit of jarred pimentos.

Pressure Cooker Sichuan Style Pork

After spending 16 days teaching English in China this July, I was craving some of the foods I ate there. And I ate a lot of delicious food while I was there. Delicious and spicy! I was in Sichuan, after all.

This recipe has quite a few steps to it and takes much longer than most of my pressure cooker meals, but I just love the way it turned out both times I made it in the pc.

This will probably also require you to make a stop at your local Asian market to pick up some of the more authentic ingredients. Some you may not be able to find at all.

Marinade:

Cut up 1-2 pounds boneless pork into large chunks (use dark pork meat, not a white loin meat)

Whisk together:
2 Tablespoons sherry and soy sauce
1 Tablespoon cornstarch

Pour over pork and let marinade in fridge for 30 minutes to 2 hours.

Oil:

Heat 1/8 cup oil in a small saute pan.

Add:
 1/2 Tablespoon of Sichuan peppercorns (just leave them out if you can't find them, these are what makes Sichuan food special and will not be like anything else you've ever tried)
10 dried red chilies
Saute in oil for about 15-30 seconds.
Remove from heat and let sit while you prepare the other ingredients.

Veggies: 

Mix in small bowl:
1 Tablespoon each of minced garlic & ginger (I use jarred)
1 handful of sliced green onion

Cut up into large pieces:
1 large potato (scrub, but do not peel)
3 narrow carrots (scrub, but do not peel)
1/2 white onion
10 mushrooms

Sauce:

Mix in small bowl:
2 Tablespoons sushi vinegar & chili bean paste (again this will be at the Asian market)
1 1/2 Tablespoons soy sauce & sherry
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
4 teaspoons sugar

Cook: 

Preheat your pressure cooker on the meat setting with the lid off.
Strain your oil from the saute pan into your pressure cooker.

Add the meat and stir and cook until it is browned.

Add the garlic/ginger/green onion mixture and continue to cook a couple of minutes.

Stir in remaining veggies, 5-7 of the chilies and 12 Sichuan peppers from your oil pan, and 1/3 cup raw Spanish peanuts

Pour in sauce and 1/2 cup water. Stir well.

Put on lid and cook for 6 minutes on rice setting.

Quick release and serve with cooked white rice.

To counterbalance the heat, I served it with cucumbers marinaded in sushi vinegar and sesame seeds and lychee fruit.

Oh and a fun chunky drink like I had in China...

Mexican Grilled Steaks

This makes a FANTASTIC steak! Tender, spicy and absolutely delicious!

Mix these ingredients in a small bowl:

1 Tablespoon salt, chili powder, garlic powder and oregano

1 teaspoon cumin and cracked black pepper

Rub into steaks and place in zipper bag.

Pour 1/3 cup vinegar into bag.

Lay flat in fridge and let marinade at least 4 hours before grilling.

Grill over hot coals.

Brush with a little bit of olive oil garlic mixture from grilled red peppers.

This is good just on a plate or as fajitas with a grilled onion.

Pressure Cooker Saudi-Style Chicken & Rice

I taught a class on the history and culture of Saudi Arabia and adjusted a recipe I found for a chicken and rice for the pressure cooker. I liked it so much, I've had it three times now. It's sweet aromatic spices are delicious and different.

I served it with pita, hummus and dates as sides.

Saute 2-3 boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into small pieces on the meat setting. Add 1/3 cup of chopped fresh onion. After a few minutes add 1 heaping Tablespoon of minced garlic.

Add 3/4 cup basmati rice, 3/4 cup chicken broth, 1 teaspoon lemon zest, 7 cardamom pods, 1 cinnamon stick, 1/4 cup raisins, 1/2 can diced tomatoes.

Stir well and cook on rice setting for 6 minutes. Let natural release for 10 minutes.

Stir again and pick out the cinnamon stick and cardamom. You don't want to eat those. LOL

Pressure Cooker Jambalaya

Every year for Fat Tuesday we have jambalaya for dinner. I've made it from scratch but to be honest I really like this stuff in the box...

I only  used half a box since it was just for my hubby and I.

But first I sauteed some ingredients for several minutes on the meat setting with 1-2 tablespoons olive oil:
 1 chicken breast, cut up
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
6 oz andouille sausage
10-12 shrimp, peeled

Turn off pressure cooker. Stir in 1/2 can of diced tomatoes

Stir in 2/3 cup of the rice mixture into the cooker. Add 2/3 cup water and shrimp. Stir lightly.

Put lid on cooker. Cook on rice setting for 6 minutes. Let natural release for 10 minutes.

Stir and let sit for a few minutes.

We had our Mardi Gras dinner with okra and wine.

Pressure Cooker Mexican-Style Stuffed Peppers

Someone in the PC group on Facebook posted about making stuffed peppers. It didn't work out how she'd hoped, but it inspired me to try. Mine turned out much better than hers did, but I learned from her (and my) mistakes.

4 medium to large green peppers, cut off the tops and take out seeds and other stuff

2/3 cup rice
2/3 cup water
2 Tablespoons taco seasoning.

Pour into pressure cooker or into a smaller pot to place inside. If you cook it in a smaller pot, place 1 cup of water in bottom and put pot on top of rack.

Cook on rice setting for 6 minutes, Let natural release while preparing the rest of the filling.

Saute 1/4 cup onion in a bit of oil in a pan on the stove. When it begins to brown, add 1/3 cup frozen corn. Saute until moisture is gone.

Stir in 1 small can of salsa and the onion/corn into the rice.

Drain and rinse 1/3 cup black beans. Add to rice mixture.

If you wanted, you could also add some browned ground meat.

Stuff rice mixture into peppers (I made 2 and froze the remaining filling for another time)

Place rack into pressure cooker and add 1 cup water. Place peppers on top of rack.

Cook on vegetable setting for 5 minutes. Release steam and carefully remove peppers. They were perfectly done. Tender but still firm.

Sprinkle with grated cheese and let melt before serving.

Pressure Cooker Coconut Chicken Curry

This is my recipe adapted for the Ninja Foodi Deluxe...

Cut up 2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts into chunks

Brown the chicken on sauté setting with a bit of oil.

Cut up 3 peeled potatoes into small bite-sized pieces

Cut up 3-4 peeled carrots into 1/4” slices

Chop up 1/2 of an onion

Add potatoes, carrots and onion to chicken in pot with 1 cup water. 

Mix in 1/4 cup (more or less to taste) of curry paste and mix well. It's pretty spicy stuff!

Put the tall rack in the pot. Just move stuff around to make it sit on the bottom. 

Put equal parts of white rice and water in a small pot that fit on top of the rack with the lid on. (this picture is from my old IP)

Pressure cook on HI for 2 minutes. 

Let it natural release for 10 minutes. Release any remaining steam.

Pour one can of coconut milk and mix well.

Serve the curry over white rice.

Easy Camping Food

We just got back from a month-long road trip to Alaska. Because we were using our mini-van as our very own RV, I was determined to keep costs and supplies low.  My hubby built a raised bed for the back of the van and we stored everything we needed in bins underneath or in storage bins on a hitch rack. It was awesome!

Because we were on vacation, I also wanted to keep cooking/clean-up to a minimum. The only cooking supplies we brought was our backpacking stove, backpacking mess kit and a coffee pot for boiling water. That was it.

Did I also mention that I HATE doing dishes? So, not washing out nasty pots and pans was not an option.

I adore my boil in bag cooking method for camping but we didn't have cooler space for that much food. (It works better for shorter trips)

What to do???

Backpacking food...

Thankfully, Pinterest had lots of ideas for homemade backpacking meals that were easy to make and only needed boiling water.

I tried 9 different recipes (from various blogs or made up myself). It took a while to put them all together but it was totally worth it!

All we needed to do was boil some water, pour it in the bag, seal it up and wait 10 minutes. That was it!

Most of them were rice and chicken variations. It did get a little old after a while. We also found that the recipes were way too much for just one person. So we added some side dishes (like fruit cups and/or bread and dessert) and just shared.

I'm posting links to the recipes we liked at the bottom of this post.

The ones that used pasta just didn't work. I used some rice noodles and some more expensive fancy pasta that cooked quickly, but neither really worked. The pasta never got done. In order to make them work, I had to add water and then boil the bag in water. It took a lot more time (and water) and never was really that great. The Korean beef noodles using ramen, were our exception. They were pretty tasty and worth the extra effort on the road.

For breakfast, I made up individual servings of my homemade instant oatmeal in pint-sized freezer zipper bags. Just pour in boiling water, stir and eat. So easy and so much better than the store bought stuff!

I had also brought some canned veggies, instant potatoes and heat and serve meats. All I did was use freezer zipper bags to heat things in a pot of boiling water. Worked GREAT! No clean up!

I know I said I hate doing dishes but we didn't want to use disposable tableware that took up space and makes for tons of garbage. So, I did have to wash our plates, bowls and silverware after every meal. But that was it.

Easy peasy!

Recipe Links:

Fried Rice

Fiesta Rice

Curry Rice

Apricot Cous Cous

Cranberry Chicken Stuffing

Korean Beef & Noodles

Crock Pot Beef Burgundy

This is a super easy meal to cook in the crock pot when you are short of time or forgot to start it earlier in the day. It was super tasty and tender! And it’s French… ooo la la! ;)

1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

2 pounds beef stew meat

2 Tbsp oil

1 onion, sliced

8 mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

3 cloves minced garlic

2-3 bay leaves

1 cup burgundy wine

1/2 cup beef broth

Dredge the stew meat in the flour, salt & pepper mixture. Heat oil in large skillet and brown meat on medium heat. Place beef in crock pot. Pour wine and broth over meat. Top with remaining ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours or high for 3 hours. Serve with mashed potatoes.