My Girl Paula: Baked Ham and Cheese Chicken

I've seen this made by a couple different people and I had to try it. I love Chicken Cordon Bleus and this is just a different variation of this.

It was delicious. Seems like a lot of steps, but it was really easy. I also made Italian Herb and cheese frocaccia bread. It was from a mix. I've made it before and it's so yummy. I made caesar salad. I had no croutons, so I made some with left over french bread. Yum meal!

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp Paula Deen House Seasoning
2 eggs, beaten
hot sauce, to taste
1 cup bread crumbs
2 tsp Greek Seasoning, recipe follows
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
olive oil
4 slices ham
4 tsp chopped fresh parsley leaves
4 slices mozzerella cheese

Directions:

Dredge the chicken in flour seasoned with House Seasoning. Dip in egg mixed with hot sauce. Then, dredge in a mixture of bread crumbs, Greek Seasoning, and Parmesan.

Brown chicken on each side in a skillet with olive oil on medium high heat.

After frying, transfer chicken to a sheet pan. Top with one piece of ham, 1 tsp of parsely and 1 slice of mozzarella cheese. Place in oven for 8 minutes just unitl cheese melts and starts to get bubbly.


Greek Seasoning:
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp garlic powder

Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

The bread mix

the finished bread

caesar salad with homemade croutons

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pecan Bread

I found this recipe on Mommy's Kitchen. Tina always has a ton of yummy stuff.

In Boy Scouts, the District Dinner was coming up for the adults. Our troop was in charge of cooking the dinner. Friday night, we got together at Christine and Dennis' home; they planned the meal. Lucky for me, they are also my neighbors and landlords! We prepared chicken parm, meatballs, sausage. The dinner was a lot of fun and of course the food was awesome. Anyway....each troop going to the dinner was to make a gift basket to raffle. We are called the Pumpkin Patch because our troop shirts are (duh!) orange. Our basket was based on pumpkin items...candle, etc. I had a couple cans of pumpkin left over from Thanksgiving, so I made pumpkin bread.

This recipe was delicious and easy. I wanted to make mini loaves for the basket. I ended up having enough for 4 mini loaves and 24 mini muffins. I don't recommend the mini muffins. Even tho I sprayed the tins, I could not get most of the muffins out without breaking. They were good, but messy!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 - 2 tsp Nutmeg

1 tsp Cinnamon

3 Cups Sugar

1 Cup Vegetable Oil

4 Eggs

2/3 Cup water
3 Cups Self Rising Flour, Sifted(do not substitute with all purpose flour the result is not the same)

1 Cup Regular Canned Pumpkin (Not Pumpkin Pie Mix)

3/4 Cup mini or regular semi sweet chocolate chips

3/4 Cup Pecan Pieces

Directions:

Blend first 6 ingredients together. Add the rest of the ingredients adding the chocolate chips and pecans last.

Pour into Two Small Loaf Pans. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Bread is done when a knife inserted comes out clean and golden on top. Cool in pan for about 10-15 minutes then remove from pan and cool completely.

The sad, broken muffins

Paula Deen: Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf

I made this Thursday to take to my mom's for dinner. I forgot to take a picture of this, so I'm using the one of the Paula Deen site.

My daughter, Kelly, made this recipe while we were visiting here in Kansas for the holidays. It was so delicious that I wanted to make it for my parents.

The recipe can be found here.

My Girl, Paula: Italian Chicken and Vegetable Soup

This week's theme for My Girl Paula is a soup recipe. I looked on line until I found one more on the healthier side. I started back on Weight Watchers today and did not want a fattening soup. In fact, my daughter and I started blogging about our weight loss. My blog can be found here.

This soup was really yummy. I did have to add spices to it to suit my taste. I omitted the oil. I'm not big on zucchini so I substituted frozen green beans and some celery.

The grated parmesan cheese on top was the clincher. It was low in calories. I divided it into 5 servings and it was only 4 WW points (without the cheese).

Ingredients:

2 T olive oil (I omitted)

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces (1 3/4 lb) I used 3 breasts - 1.5 lbs

1 small onion, chopped

1 cup sliced carrots (about 3 small)

2 1/2 cups sliced zucchini (about 2 medium) I omitted - added celery and frozen green beans

2 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano

2 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth

Grated Parmesan cheese, optional (I used low fat Kraft parmesan cheese)

Directions:

In a large Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add onion and carrot, and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in zucchini, diced tomatoes and chicken broth. I added the celery and green beans with the onion and carrot. I did not use the oil.

Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered for 30 minutes.

Top each serving with grated Parmesan, if desired.

Serves: 6-8

I divided into 5 servings of almost 2 cups each.

WW Points - with the 1.5 lbs chicken and no oil - 4 points per serving

4 tsp. of low fat Parmesan - 1 point.

Mandarin Fluff

I found this recipe in the July/August 2003 "Country Woman" magazine (by the Taste of Home people). It's the only Country Woman magazine I had. I thought this looked good - I love mandarin oranges, Cool Whip and pecans. I liked it but it wasn't my favorite. Maybe it would've been better if I didn't use store brand oranges.

Ingredients:

2 cans (15 oz each) mandarin oranges, well drained

1 carton (8 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed (I used sugar free Cool Whip)

1/2 cup chopped pecans.

Directions:

Place oranges in a bowl. Fold in the whipped topping. Just before serving, fold in pecans.

Yield: 5-6 servings.

My Girl Paula: Italian Chicken Sticks

I know appetizers were last week's theme, but I never got around to making this recipe. I found this under appetizers in the Lady & Sons, II cookbook. I made 1/4th of the recipe since it was just two of us eating. It was soooo good. My son dubbed it AWESOME! I made it with a side of alfredo sauce with bowtie noodles.

Ingredients:

1 cup seasoned bread crumbs (I used Panko crumbs)

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan (I used Kraft)

1 1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 1/2 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp garlic powder

Pinch of ground red pepper (used more than a pinch)

8 boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1/2 inch strips

1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter

marinara sauce or honey mustard for dipping

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a pie plate or platter, combine the bread crumbs, Parmesan, thyme, basil, oregano, salt, garlic powder, and red pepper. Dip the chicken strips in the melted butter, then dredge in bread crumbs mixture.

Place chicken strips in a single layer on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve hot with marinara sauce, or serve hot or cold with honey mustard.

Yields: 3-3 1/2 dozen

Iron Skillet Pizza and Our New Addition

The day after we returned from Kansas, we went to my sister's and picked up our new puppy. One of her dogs had puppies again, so I asked to have first dibs. Two puppies were born. We liked the white one. Say hello to Shiloh! He's a 7 week old Chihuahua. Shiloh is sooo cute! What a joy. We lost our dog, Max, several years ago at a young age. It was so hard that I fought getting another dog. Jimmy wore me down. I'm glad we did. Jimmy has done great with taking care of Shiloh!

I originally saw this recipe on Mommy's Kitchen. I have since bought the cookbook where the recipe is from - MeMa's Manna Recipes for the Busy Person. I have made a couple recipes from this book and all have come out good. The crust was one of the best I have ever made. I will definitely make this one again.

This was the first time I used my new iron skillet. The recipe made a lot of dough. It doesn't state in the book, but it makes enough dough for 2 pizzas. I used part for the iron skillet and the rest I put in my tortilla skillet. It was so yummy! My son went gaga for it!

The recipe had a sauce recipe, but I just used a jar of Ragu Pizza Quick. I made my pizza with just pepperoni and mozzerella cheese.

Dough:

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 pkg dry yeast

1 tsp salt

3 cups flour

3 T melted shortening

1 tsp sugar

Dissolve yeast in warm water, salt and sugar. Add 2 cups of flour; beat well. Add melted shortening. Mix well. Add another cup of flour and knead on well floured surface. Put in oiled bowl and let rest for 30 minutes.

Divide into two and put into 2 well greased skillets. Add sauce, any toppings desired and cheese.

Put in hot oven (450 degrees) and bake until bown.