Hamburger and Mushroom Stroganoff

I love Beef Stroganoff. Sad to say, I haven't found the perfect recipe for real from scratch Beef Stroganoff. My meat is usually dry and my sauce isn't very flavorful. So far, I've tried about 3 or 4 different recipes and cooking methods. However, this stroganoff is pretty darn tasty. This isn't usual Beef Stroganoff, because it uses hamburger and canned Cream of Mushroom Soup. This is also much quicker than traditional stroganoff. There isn't any cutting up of the meat and browning it in batches.

This recipe is actually from the back of a bag of Creamette Egg Noodles. I did modify it slightly. The original recipe calls for canned mushrooms. I love mushroom and much much much prefer freshly sliced baby bella mushrooms. I also added way more than the original recipe calls for. This way I'm am making it slightly more figure-friendly and upping the fiber content. Plus, it really stretches this recipe. Sometimes I just use 1 package of baby bellas and sometimes I use up to 2 if I happen to have that many on hand. The recipe calls to be served over egg noodles, but it would also be great over rice as well.

This comes together in a cinch and I always know that it will be a warm and comforting meal. My quest continues for the perfect traditional beef stroganoff with pieces of tender flavorful meat and a perfect homemade cream sauce, but for a weeknight meal this one is a definite keeper for a quick and easy stroganoff. (Also, I know the pictures don't look that appetizing, but trust me, this tastes way better than these pictures look).

Hamburger and Mushroom Stroganoff
Serves 6-8 
8 servings = 10 PTS+ per servings
6 servings = 13 PTS+ per serving
Adapted from Creamette

1 pkg (1 lb.) Creamette Extra Wide Egg Noodles**
1 lb. lean ground beef, 93/7
1/2 c. chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp. flour
2 tsp. beef flavor granules (or 2 cubes instant beef bouillon)
1/4 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
10 3/4 oz can Cream of Mushroom Soup, 98% Fat Free
1 c. water
1 - 1 1/2 pkgs Baby Bella Mushrooms, sliced and sauteed (try to saute in cooking spray and chicken or beef broth for a low cal saute, or add appropriate points to saute in your healthy oil)
8 oz sour cream, reduced fat
2 Tbsp chopped parsley

Cook noodles according to package directions.

In large skillet, over medium heat, brown beef. Add onion and garlic, cooking and stirring until onion is tender. Add mushrooms. Stir in 1 Tbsp flour and bouillon and pepper. Cook 1 minute. Add water and soup. Bring to boil and simmer 15 minutes. Combine sour cream with remaining 1 Tbsp flour and parsley. Stir into beef mixture. Heat through, but do not boil. Serve over hot noodles.

**To lessen the pts, reduce the amount of pasta in your serving.  If you omit the pasta from your PTS+ totals this recipe equals:
8 servings = 4 PTS+ per servings (add PTS+ for pasta)
6 servings = 5 PTS+ per servings (add PTS+ for pasta)

Chicken Spaghetti

Chicken Spaghetti, how do I love thee. Let me count the ways. 1) Your creamy warm comforting goodness. 2) Your little bit of chicken married perfectly with gooey cheese. 3) You reheat and make amazing leftovers. 4)..... Well, we better stop there because I could go on and on about this amazing recipe!

Whether you call them casseroles or hotdishes, you have to admit these are usually great go to meals. They bring you warm creamy comfort and always hit the spot. For us, these are great because they are something I can prep ahead of time and are a quick and easy meal that reheats great for the 2 of us. I'm always on the look out for great new casseroles. I usually use the same 2 over and over, but now this one is being added to the rotation as #3.

This casserole is from Pioneer Woman's Blog. I love her blog. If you haven't check it out, it is a must! Here is the direct link to the recipe. I followed her direction for poaching chicken, which is a poaching a full cut up chicken with the skin on, then you cook the spaghetti in the chicken water. The result is perfectly moist and flavorful chicken and noodles for the casserole.

Chicken Spaghetti
From Pioneer Woman
Serves 12 (1 serving = 7 POINTS+)

1 whole chicken, cut up
3 cups dry thin spaghetti, broken into 2 inch pieces
2 cans Cream of Mushroom Soup, 98% fat free
2 cups Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese, reduced fat
1/4 cup green pepper, finely diced
1/4 cup onion, finely diced
1 jar (4 oz) diced pimentos, drained
2 cups Reserved Chicken Water from pot
1 tsp. Lawry's Seasoning Salt
1/8 tsp Cayenne Pepper
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 cup Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese, reduced fat

In large pot, boil water and add chicken. Poach until cooked. After poaching chicken, add spaghetti to the same water you poached the chicken in. Cook spaghetti until al dente. Be careful to not overcook because the noodles will finish cooking with casserole. Reserve 2 cups of cooking liquid.

Shred chicken (discarding the skin...or you can add a little skin in with the casserole if you are feeling daring) and combine 2 cups worth of chicken with cooked spaghetti, cream of mushroom soup, onion, green pepper, 2 cups shredded cheddar, pimentos, seasoning salt, cooking liquid, cayenne pepper and salt and pepper. Pour into casserole pan and top with 1 cup shredded cheddar. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes and bubbly. (If the cheese gets too brown, cover with foil). This can be stored uncooked in freezer for up to 6 months or in the fridge for 2 days.

BBQ Chicken Bread Braid

It has been quite a while since I posted. I'm going to get better at it, I promise. I've had a couple of recipe flops and my computer died and I lost all my pictures. But with a new computer in hand and a few successful recipes to share, I'm back.

My husband loves BBQ chicken pizza. Whenever we make pizza or order pizza, that is always what he wants. As an alternative to BBQ chicken pizza, I found this recipe over at Mel's Kitchen Cafe for a BBQ Chicken Bread Braid. It looks impressive when it is all done and tastes fantastic. The crust is this perfectly tender, fluffy caspsule to store tender chicken, tangy BBQ, spicy red onion and gooey cheese. I'm salivating just reliving the experience. I slightly adapted the recipe by adding celery, because I love celery on my BBQ Chicken Pizza, otherwise everything else is the same.

This is a pretty versatile recipe too. If you don't want BBQ chicken fillings, go ahead and sub pizza fillings. Or maybe you want some breakfast and you can make some scrambled eggs, bacon, milk gravy and cheese in the middle. So many possibilities to add to my list.

BBQ Chicken Bread Braid
(yields 2 bread braids)
Slightly adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

1 recipe French Bread Rolls (recipe follows)
2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
1 red onion, thinly slice into half moons
1/2 c. chopped celery
1 1/2 c. BBQ sauce
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
1 cup shredded mozzarella

Preheat oven to 4oo degrees.

After french bread roll recipe has gone through the first rise, divide dough into 2 equal parts. Roll the first portion out into an 11x17 rectangle directly on parchment paper or baking sheet liner. Using a knife, cut 1-inch wide strips down the long side of the rectangle on both sides (looking like a fringe on the long side of the dough), leaving about a 2-3 inch strip down the middle for fillings. About 16-18 strips on each side. Spread half BBQ sauce down the middle and top with half of the chicken, celery, onion, and both cheese. Fold the strips diagonally over the toppings in a criss-cross fashion to the opposite side, alternating sides to create a braid effect. Pinch the ends to seal. Repeat with second half of dough.

Move braid to baking sheet on the parchment paper. Rest for 15 minutes. Bake each braid separately for 15-20 minutes until the top is golden brown and dough is baked through. Rest for 5 minutes, before cutting with a serrated knife or pizza cutter. Serve warm.

French Bread Rolls
From Mel's Kitchen Cafe

1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, stir together warm water, yeast, and sugar. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

To the yeast mixture, add the oil, salt, and 2 cups flour. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough has pulled away from the sides of the bowl. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat. Cover with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Deflate the dough, and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 12-14 equal pieces, and form into round balls. Place on lightly greased baking sheets at least 2 inches apart. Cover the rolls with a damp cloth (or greased saran wrap), and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Bake for 12-13 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

Chicken Tamale Casserole

Casseroles (or as we Minnesotans call them, "hotdish") are such a super easy, comforting, filling and delish supper. They are also perfect for my husband and I because it's just the two of us and casseroles usually reheat pretty well. This Chicken Tamale Casserole I found on the Cooking Light Website. This is filling, and you can't tell that it has been lightened up. By all means, feel free to substitute back in the full fat ingredients. For this chicken, I like to take some help from the store and buy a rotessierie chicken. It already got great flavor and seasonings, plus it is super moist and I don't have to worry about it drying out in the oven. This is definitely a regular meal for us since we love Mexican food and are always looking for other ways to eat Mexican besides tacos. You can make this spicy by purchasing spicy enchilada sauce; we prefer to use the mild variety.

Chicken Tamale Casserole
From Cooking Light
Yield: 8 servings

*9 POINTS+ per serving
 

4 ouces pre-shredded Mexican Cheese Blend
1/3 c. fat-free milk
1 egg
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/8 tsp. ground red pepper
1 (14 3/4 oz) can Cream Style Corn
1 (8.5 oz) box Corn Bread mix (Like Jiffy Brand)
1 (4 oz) can green chiles, drained
1 (10 oz) can red enchilada sauce
2 c. shredded chicken breast
1/2 c sour cream, reduced fat

Preheat oven to 400°. Combine 1/4 cup cheese and next 7 ingredients (through chiles) in a large bowl, stirring just until moist. Pour mixture into a 13 x 9–inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until set. Pierce entire surface liberally with a fork; pour enchilada sauce over top. Top with chicken; sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup cheese. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes. Cut into 8 pieces; top each serving with 1 tablespoon sour cream.

My First Ever Cake Roll & Some Tasty Lasagna

On Friday my husband, Mike, and I had some friends over for dinner. I decided to go with a no fail entree, lasagna. Who doesn't love lasagna? All those layers of cheesy, saucy, pasta-packed goodness. Oh, I'm drooling just thinking about it. For the sake of being healthy since Mike and I will be eating these leftovers for a few days, I opted to try to healthify this lasagna a bit. My general rule of thumb is that I make the recipe exactly as written the first time and from there I modify where I see fit. Since I've made this lasagna before, I knew I'd be safe lightening it up a bit. I used part-skim ricotta cheese and italian turkey sausage to trim down this pan of Italian deliciousness. I find in this recipe the egg in the ricotta helps hide that it is lighter. I wouldn't use anything lighter than part-skim ricotta as it could get slightly too watery and you'd lose out on the richness. As far as using turkey sausage, I've found a brand that I love. It is the only brand I've found thus far that can compete with the full fat pork sausage. I find it at Hy-Vee and it's Honeysuckle brand. They also make great Turkey Brats and Turkey Breakfast Sausage. This recipe if from the back of the Creamette No Bake Lasagna noodles. Well, it use to be. The recipe on the back of my last few packages has changed. As far as the amounts of ingredients, I sometimes need more of the cheese, ricotta, and sauce depending on the size of my pan and how many layers I get. This batch ended up being 4 layers. This is also best made the night before. As it sits in the fridge, the flavors meld together and the noodles will soften up a bit too.

Lasagna:

1 container ricotta cheese (15-16oz)
1/2 c grated parmesan cheese
2 eggs
2 jars of pasta sauce + 1/2 c water
1 lb. No Cook Lasagna Noodles
1 lb. Italian Sausage, cooked and drained
4 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the ricotta, parmesan, and eggs well. Combine the 2 jars of pasta sauce with the 1/2 c water. In the bottom of a greased lasagna pan, spread 1 cup of sauce. Top with 1 layer of noodles, then spread with some of the ricotta mixture, sprinkle with sausage. Spread more sauce and sprinkle with mozzarella. Repeat these layers until you have no more noodles left. On top of the last layer of noodles, pour remaining sauce and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella. (I often need to use about another 1/2 jar of sauce and 1 c. mozzarella, sometimes I even need a little more ricotta too.) Cover with foil. Bake for 50 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes until cheese is brown and bubbly. Let stand 15 minutes before servings, cover with foil while it sits to hold the heat in.

This made 12 huge servings.

Feast your eyes of those lovely layers!

For dessert, I attempted something I've never made before, a cake roll. Mike got me a jelly roll pan for my birthday and I've been dying to try to make one, but I've always been so scared to try. Well, I sucked it up and just told myself that if I fail at least it will taste good. Much to my suprise, making cake rolls are so much easier that I thought. Next time I'll take pictures of the process to show you how to make assemble one (because there is a pumpkin one I plan to make this fall). The only thing I would do differently the next time I make this would be to whip my whipping cream stiffer. When I rolled it up in the cake roll it was a little loose and started to come out the edges and the bottom. This recipe is from a friend who hosted the monthly Bunco game. Her's looked so good and tasted so great, it inspired me attempt making a cake roll myself. I'm so proud of it and Mike was completely impressed. He even felt the need to show it off to our guests before I cut it up to serve. So here is the cake roll recipe from Miranda:

Strawberries & Cream Cake Roll

Cake:

4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 sifted cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Powdered sugar

Filling:
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cup strawberries, cut up
powdered sugar
more strawberries (optional)
whipped cream (optional)

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and vanilla on high for 5 min. gradually add sugar, beat until dissolved. Combine flour, baking powder and salt fold gently into egg mixture just until combined. Pour into a greased and waxed paper-lined jelly roll pan. Spread batter evenly over pan. Bake at 375 for 10-12 min. or until light brown. Turn out onto a cloth that has been sprinkled with powdered sugar. Peel off paper from cake; roll up cloth and cake. Cool. For filling, whip: cream, sugar, and vanilla. Unroll cake and spread filling over it, sprinkle with strawberries. Roll up cake again and chil 2 hours before serving. sprinkle with powdered sugar, garnish with strawberries and whipped cream.