Tuna Pie

I'll admit that when I first heard of this and saw it being made, I was not interested AT ALL.  I'm not a huge fan of tuna fish and I'm somewhat hesitant about some "pies," (though they are very common here in the UK) but once I tasted it, I was sold!  I saw it being made on Thursday of last week as part of a women's activity at my church.  I made it for dinner the following Saturday.  I'll definitely make this again.  It's easy and tastes BRILLIANT!  The woman who made it is actually from Brazil, so I'm not even sure if this can be considered British, but in any case, it is worth tryinig out!

Ingredients:

(Pastry)

• 4 eggs 
• 1 c olive oil
• 1 c milk
• 2 c flour
• 1 tsp salt OR 1 cube (U.S. size - I broke my UK size in half) chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 Tb baking powder

(Filling)

• 2 cans tuna, drained
• Mixed vegetables (I used drained, canned corn since that is what I had)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 chopped tomato
• 1 cup cheese
• 2 chives, chopped
• Salsa (she didn't make it with this and I didn't have any either, but it was listed as an option)
• Whatever you have on hand... (She even said you could use chicken,turkey, or minced (ground) meat instead of tuna)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 200 C (400 F).
2. In a blender (or in a bowl, with a hand mixer), blend the eggs, oil, milk, flour, and salt (or chicken stock cube) until the mixture is smooth.  Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine the ingredients for the filling.
4. Grease and flour a baking dish (I just used a rectangular, glass casserole dish).
5. Add the baking powder to the mixture in #2  and blend for a few minutes.
6. Pour half of the batter into the prepared baking dish.
7. Add the filling.
8. Spread the remaining batter over the filling (First pour some around the edges and then go back and forth over the middle until it is entirely covered).
9. Bake in preheated oven for about 30 minutes (I think it took me closer to 45) or until golden brown.

Enjoy!  Yum!

Creamy Italian Chicken

No picture, but this is one of my favorites that I have made many, many times. I loved it so much that I made sure to pack some dressing packets to bring across the pond to England when we moved here. This isn't as "made from scratch" as some of my recipes, but it is really easy and a family favorite! This recipe is supposed to be made in a crock pot, but since I don't have one over here, I made it on the stove top and it worked fine. I just boiled the chicken first and shredded it and then simmered it with a little bit of water and the mix, along with the other ingredients for an hour.

Ingredients:

• 6 to 8 boneless, skinless chicken breast (I usually do less, but then it probably doesn't serve as many people)
• 1 envelope Italian dressing mix
• 1/4 cup water
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup (cream of mushroom soup works too)
• 1 (4 oz) can mushrooms, sliced (I've never made it with mushrooms)
• pasta or rice to serve it over

Directions:

1. Put chicken in crock pot (even if frozen). Combine seasonings and water, pour over chicken.
2. Cover and cook on low heat for 3 hours.
3. Mix the soup, cream cheese, and mushrooms together and pour over the chicken.
4. Cook for one hour longer.
5. Boil the pasta or rice according to package instructions.
6. Serve chicken over pasta or rice.

Serves: 8

Chicken & Leek Mash Topped Pie

Not the best picture in the world, but YUM-MY! Trust me! This is my first attempt at making something "British" since we moved here. I found it on a can of condensed cream of chicken soup over here and improvised it based on what I had on hand. In fact, there were no leeks in my version, just a few leftover spring onions and cooking onions. Also, I added carrots to the mashed potato (or mash as they call it here) topping since I didn't have enough potatoes left and had some carrots on hand. I probably didn't make enough of the topping (but, like I said, I was just doing what was on hand), so it didn't brown up as much as it could have. Jeff really liked it and told me to keep the improvised recipe for sure!

Ingredients: (Note: the original recipe has some of the ingredients in weights, since that is how they measure here. I've tried to adjust it to be easier)

• 3 cups potatoes, peeled & cubed
• 1 - 2 carrots, peeled & chopped
• 3 large chicken breasts, cubed
• 2 leeks, sliced (I didn't have leeks, so I used some spring onions and chopped cooking onions)
• 1 can condensed Cream of Chicken soup
• 4 Tbsp milk
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 - 2 cups shredded cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Boil the potatoes and carrots in water until soft.
3. Stir fry the chicken in oil until almost cooked. Add leeks (or onions) and continue cooking until the leeks are just soft.
4. Stir in the soup & milk, mix well and pour into ovenproof baking dish.
5. Mash the potatoes and carrots with the butter and cheese.
6. Roughly spread over the chicken and cook for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Serves: 4

Grandmother's (not mine) Buttermilk Cornbread

I found this recipe about a year and a half ago and use it every time I want to make cornbread. It's super easy and tastes DELICIOUS! It's got to be cheaper than buying a mix, plus I can make it with ingredients I typically have on hand. Perfect!

Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 40 min
Ready in: 55 min

Original recipe, here.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c butter
• 2/3 c white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 c buttermilk (I use 1 cup milk + 1 Tb lemon juice to make my own "buttermilk")
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 c cornmeal
• 1 c all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease an 8 inch square pan.
2. Melt butter. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Quickly add eggs and beat until well blended. Combine buttermilk with baking soda and stir into mixture in pan. Stir in cornmeal, flour, and salt until well blended and few lumps remain. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Serves: 9

Baked Garlic Parmesan Chicken

I have actually made this recipe quite a few times, but I've never gotten around to posting it on here. It's one of my favorite ways to serve chicken as a main course. It's quite easy and VERY tasty! Unfortunately I don't have a picture, but next time I cook it, I'll make sure to take one.

Original recipe, here.

Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 30 min
Ready in: 45 min

Ingredients:

• 2 Tb olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup dry bread crumbs (I use crushed Ritz crackers)
• 2/3 c grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. In a bowl, blend the olive oil and garlic. In a separate bowl, mix the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, basil, and pepper. Dip each chicken breast in the oil mixture, then in the bread crumb mixture. Arrange the coated chicken breasts in the prepared baking dish, and top with any remaining bread crumb mixture.
   
3. Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.

Serves: 6

Cream-less Alfredo

I wanted to make an alfredo dish for dinner tonight using our leftover broccoli and asparagus that was on its last leg. Unfortunately it is a Sunday (we don't shop on the Sabbath) and I didn't have whipping cream, cream cheese, or half-in-half in the house, so I knew it would be a BIT tricky. Luckily, thanks to my good friend the Internet, I was able to find this recipe and it actually turned out really well. Plus, it's got to be a lot healthier than regular alfredo sauce, so that is a plus! Oh, and sorry, no picture of this one!

Original recipe, here (randomly). It sounds like it is from The Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step Cookbook.

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 cups skim milk (I used whole because we had some and I figured it would be closer to cream)
  
• 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet on med-high heat, add onion and garlic and cook until golden.
   
2. In medium bowl, whisk together the milk, broth, flour, salt, and pepper until well-blended. Stir the mixture into the skillet, turn heat to high, and cook until the mixture boils and thickens.
   
3. Stir in the Parmesan cheese.
   
   This is enough sauce to coat a one lb. box of fettuccine when it has been cooked.

Crazy Bread Sticks

I got this recipe from my friend, Anah, and I hope she doesn't mind that I am posting it here. I have made these a few times and like them because, not only do they taste good, they are fairly quick and easy. Plus, every time I have made them (whether a 1/2 batch for just Jeff and I) or a full batch when I've had a handful of people over, they are ALWAYS gone that night. No leftovers! [And, unfortunately, I can't keep the picture from being sideways!]

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c warm water
• 2 Tb sugar
• 2 Tb yeast
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 c flour (*every time I have made these, they have been pretty sticky, so I might try more flour next time)
  
• 1/4 c butter
• garlic salt or parmesan cheese, optional
  

Directions:

1. Dissolve water, sugar, yeast, and salt together. Mix in flour and let sit for 10-20 minutes.
2. Dump onto a floured cutting board and flatten with hand. Cut into strips with a pizza cutter. (Because of the stickiness, I don't use a rolling pin and I often end up forming the bread sticks with my hand. They don't look the greatest, but they taste good!)
3. Melt butter and pour onto large cookie sheet, reserving about 2 Tb.
4. Place strips on cookie sheet. Brush tops with a basting brush dipped in the remaining melting butter. Sprinkle with garlic salt or parmesan cheese, if desired. (You can also add the garlic salt to the mixed butter and spread it on that way.)
   
5. Let raise an additional 15 minutes.
6. Bake at 375 for for 20 minutes.

Cheesy Vegetable Lasagna

Lest you think I dropped off of the face of the Earth or stopped cooking, don't worry, I didn't! Earlier this month, I was trying to decide what to do with all of my veggies and stumbled across this recipe and made a few modifications. Since I'm borderline vegetarian at times, I loved it. My husband thought it was ok until he had some leftovers the next day and then he thought it was really good! It reheated REALLY well. Next time I think I'll add more tomatoes because they really added a nice flavor. Yum!

Original recipe, here.

Prep Time: 35 min
Cook Time: 45 min
Ready In: 1 hour, 20 min

Ingredients:

• 12 lasagna noodles
• 2 Tb olive oil
• 2 heads fresh broccoli, chopped (I think I only used one since it was big - I also used a food processor)
• 2 carrots, thinly sliced (I used a food processor for this too)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 green bell peppers, chopped
• 2 small zucchini, sliced
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 cups milk
• 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, divided
• salt, to taste
  
• pepper, to taste
• garlic powder, to taste
  
• basil, to taste
• oregano, to taste
• crushed red pepper, to taste
  
• 2-3 cups of fresh spinach (the recipe called for frozen, but I used fresh and just guessed how much to use.)
• 1 (8oz) container small curd cottage cheese
• 24 oz ricotta cheese (I used less ricotta and more cottage cheese, since it is cheaper. Even then, I think I used less cheese overall and it was still plenty.)
• 2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided (I don't think I used this much. I just kind of guessed and used what I had on hand. I did use some mozzarella and some Italian blend, including Parmesan, but it was all kind of guesstimated).
• 1 tomato, sliced (I added this per one of the suggestions and in the future would probably add more tomatoes and include them between the layers.)
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish. (I used a foil-lined stoneware casserole dish that I had. This makes a really big lasagna, so I'm not sure a regular 9x13 would be large enough.)
   
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add lasagna noodles and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
3. Heat 1/2 of the oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot add broccoli, carrots, onions, bell peppers, and 3 cloves of garlic. Heavily season veggies with basil, oregano, salt (several large pinches), pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. Saute for 7 minutes; set aside.
4. Heat remaining 1/2 of the oil and add zucchini with remaining 2 cloves of garlic. Season the same way as the other veggies, saute, and then set aside.
   
5. Place flour in a medium saucepan and gradually whisk in milk until well blended. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook 5 minutes, or until thick, stirring constantly. Stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, and garlic powder (to taste) [can also add a little butter]; cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in spinach. Reserve 1/2 cup spinach mixture. In a small bowl combine cottage and ricotta cheeses; stir well.
6. Spread about 1/2 cup of spinach mixture in the bottom of the prepared pan. Layer noodles, ricotta mixture, vegetables, spinach mixture and 2 cups mozzarella cheese, ending with noodles. Top with reserved spinach mixture, tomatoes, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese.
   
7. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until lightly browned on top. Cool for approximately 10 minutes before serving.

Serves: 12