Chicken Noodle Casserole

4 skinless, boneless chicken breats halves
6 ounces egg noodles
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup fat free sour cream
1/2 cup frozen peas
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup crumbled whole wheat ritz crackers
1/4 cup butter


Directions
Boil chicken in a pot of water. Cook until no longer pink in center, about 12 minutes or so. Remove from pot and set aside. Bring chicken cooking water to a boil and cook pasta in it. Drain and cut chicken into small pieces, and mix with noodles.

 In a separate bowl, mix together mushroom soup, chicken soup, and sour cream. Season with salt and pepper. Gently stir together cream soup mixture and peas with the chicken mixture. Place in a 9X9 baking dish.

Melt butter in a bowl in the mircowave. Stir in crumbled crackers. Top casserole with the buttery crackers.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 30 minutes, until heated through and browned on top.     

This meal makes for a great freezer meal!    

Adapted from allrecipes

This recipe can be altered to your liking or to fit what you have on hand. I used one chicken breast, 2 cans of cream of chicken soup because that's what I had, and homemade ranch dressing instead of sour cream because I had just run out. You could use milk instead of sour cream too. You could do different veggies as well like broccoli or corn, or combine several veggies. I also used bread crumbs instead of ritz crackers, again because that's what I had on hand. This was very yummy, the whole family loved it. 

Pasta Veggie Salad

• 1 lb Rotini Pasta noodles, cooked
• Small tomatoes cut ino chunks or grape or pearl tomatoes whole
• Chopped cucumber or broccoli
• Cheese cut into cubes
• Italian dressing

Toss together and serve cold. You can use whatever veggies you desire or have on hand. Same thing goes for the cheese. Great summer side.

Blueberry Pie

Ingredients

• 3 to 4 cups of Blueberries - fresh or frozen (without syrup) (3 cups if you like a thin pie, 4 cups if you like it a little higher!)
• 7 Tablespoons corn starch (for those of you in the British Isles, you know it as "corn flour").  You may also use an equivalent amount of flaked tapioca instead - the tapioca balls don't dissolve well.
• 3 Tablespoons water (or grape juice)
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• One 9 inch pie crust (see this page for the world's easiest flour pie crust recipe and directions!) OR.. if you are like me, you'll DEFINITELY prefer a graham cracker pie crust (again, in England, this would be made from "Digestive" biscuits!) - if you haven't tried the graham cracker crust - I highly recommend it. 
• Spices:
  1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
  1/4 teaspoon allspice
• One 9 inch deep-dish Pie Plate - (grocery stores sell both disposable pie pans and glass pans. Get the deep type!

• Sweetener:
  • 2/3 cup granulated (ordinary table) Sugar 
    OR
  • 1/3 cup sugar and 1/3 cup Stevia, my preference (or if you prefer, Splenda) (Stevia, my preference (or if you prefer, Splenda) works in pie recipes, but not by itself.  The pie turns out heavy and with much less flavor).

And now, choose the topping you prefer:

• Crumb topping (my preference, again):
  • 1/4 cup sugar (OR 1/8 cup sugar and 1/8 cup Stevia, my preference (or if you prefer, Splenda))
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup butter or margarine

• Dough topping:
  See the pie crust recipe and double it to make extra to roll out as a topping to cover the pie.

Step 1  - Make the pie crust

Never made a crust, either?  Fear  not, they are really simple.  Click here for instructions about making a flour pie crust. It will open in a new window, so just close the new window to return here. I prefer blueberry pie in a graham cracker crust; click on the link for directions. .Now is also a good time to get the oven preheating to 375 F.

Step 2- Wash the blueberries

Just rinse them in a colander or sieve in cold water, no soap.

Pick out and remove any bits of stems, leaves and soft or mushy berries. It is easiest to do this in a large bowl of water and gently run your hands through the berries as they float.  With your fingers slightly apart, you will easily feel any soft or mushy berries get caught in your fingers.

Step 3 - Mix the dry filling ingredients.

Combine the 2/3 cup sugar (or sugar/Stevia, my preference (or if you prefer, Splenda) blend), 7 Tablespoons of corn starch in a bowl  and mix well!  Some people like 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and/or 1/4 teaspoon of allspice, mixed in, also. That's optional, but it is nice!

Step 4  - Mix in the liquids

Add the 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice, and 3 Tablespoons of water (or grape juice) and stir it up. If you use Stevia, my preference (or if you prefer, Splenda), it will be pretty gloppy, rather than drier crumbs, but it still works the same!

Step 5 - Add the blueberries to the pie crust

Add the blueberries to the pie crust.  Just pour them in!  There's lots of air space and it will cook down, so don't worry if they mound up about an inch (2.5 cm) above the edge of the plate.

 

 

 

Step 6 - Pour the liquid mix into the pie

Just pour the mixture of sugar, juice, etc. into the pie all over the blueberries. If it is a gloppy liquid, don’t worry, just pour it somewhat evenly over the top. But it doesn’t take perfection; it will smooth itself out in the oven. 

Step 7 - Make and add your topping

If you want the crumb topping, just mix  - 1/4 cup sugar (OR 1/8 cup sugar and 1/8 cup Stevia, my preference (or if you prefer, Splenda))

- 1/2 cup flour

 - 1/4 cup butter or margarine

 together in a small bowl and sprinkle it over the pie.

If you want to the dough topping instead, roll out a circular section of dough that you made in step 1, to 1/8 inch thick, then place it over the pie.  Seal it against the edges with the pie crust, and make decorative slits with a knife.

Step 8 - Put the pie in the oven!

Cook the pie at 375 F (or 190 Celsius) for 1 hour.

Step 9 - Remove when the pie is golden and pie is bubbling

Check to see if it is bubbling and crust is golden brown. If if not, check every 3 or 4 minutes until it is.

Step 10 - Enjoy!

Set the pie on a rack to cool and enjoy! Here is a slice of the finished pie! Serve warm with ice cream.  Refrigerate after it is cooled. It easily lasts a week in the fridge (that is, if there is no one there to eat it. Most of the time, people eat it all within a day!)

Chocolate Syrup

• 1 cup sugar (we use organic cane sugar)
• 1/2 cup cocoa (packed)
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract (our homemade recipe)
• 1/8 tsp salt (we recommend good sea salt)

Don’t be afraid to adjust these amounts to your liking!

Update: We now only boil the mixture for about 4-5 minutes. This results in a more syrupy consistency…not so fudge-like. We also began mixing in about 1/4 tsp. of baking soda while the mixture is cooling. This prevents sugars from crystallizing if the syrup is going to be stored in the fridge for more than a few weeks. It will foam a bit at first, but returns to normal during refrigeration.

Pour water into a saucepan and stir in cocoa (until dissolved) over medium heat.  Add sugar and continue stirring. Be very careful to continually stir and watch the mixture as it heats because it can easily boil over if you turn away even for a few seconds (it happened to Betsy once!)  Once mixture is boiling reduce heat to medium-low, continue stirring, and set timer for 8-10 minutes (the longer you cook the thicker it gets.)  Once your timer goes off remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract and salt and let cool.  As the chocolate syrup cools it will thicken more, so if it is already thick enough then bottle it, seal it, and stick it in the fridge.  You can store the syrup in a pint mason jar, an old store bought chocolate syrup container, or any other creative container you can think of.

This recipe will yield approximately 10 ounces of syrup depending on how long you reduce the mixture over the heat.