Two for the Price of One!

This week will be the week of the chicken!  Since payday is this coming week and we just got home from our road trip, there isn't much in the house to eat.  I looked up a few recipes and decided to use up the bone in skin on chicken breast that is in my deep freezer.  The hubs has to work this week so I had to make sure that I had meals for him to take to work (we all know that a man won't cook for himself, unless you count ramen or soup).  


So for the hubs I made Mustard Chicken.


I took spicy brown mustard and coated the chicken in this (I de-boned and removed the skin first).  I then took fried onions (like the kind you put on green bean casserole during Turkey Day) and covered the chicken with them.  *Note:  next time I will crush the fried onion up more so it sticks better.  I put it in the oven at 375 for 50 minutes.  Since we were not eating them tonight, they cooled then were put into Tupperware for use during the week.  Not sure how they came out yet since I didn't taste any but I will let you all know what the hubs has to say about them tomorrow.


Onto tonight's dinner!  


I made a recipe that I found forever and a day ago that is always a good quickie type of meal. Its called Noodle Soup Casserole, at least that's what I call it.  


Ingredients:

• 1 packet Lipton Noodle Soup mix
• 2 cans of canned chicken (you can also use canned tuna if you like)
• 2 or so cups of frozen green peas
• 2 TBS flour
• 4 cups of water
• 1 stick of butter cut in half
• white bread cut into cubes

Directions

1. Add soup mix to 4 cups of water and bring to boil.
2. Add peas to the soup mix and lower heat.
3. Melt half stick of butter and combine with flour. Cook for 5 min stirring constantly.
4. Slowly add soup and pea mixture to flour and butter, whisk to combine.
5. Drain chicken and add to soup mixture.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Melt the other half stick of butter in a separate pot and add bread to this, saute until all of butter is absorbed and bread starts to crisp up.  
8. Pour soup mixture into a 2 qt casserole dish and top with bread cubes.
9. Bake for 20 minutes and serve.  Grandma's fine china always works best for serving (Chinet)

Now this is a very um, "classy" dish, but if your taste buds are classier you can always use fresh baked chicken cut into cubes or shredded and maybe even a nice fresh Italian bread for the topping.  This is definitely a no frills kinda meal, but is great for a busy weeknight.  Its fast and simple and most of the time all the ingredients are on hand. (Kitchen staples in my house at least!)  

Tomato Basil Quiche

Well, here goes nothing!  


I have been toying with the idea of writing a food blog for a while now.  Wasn't really sure if I would follow through or not, but I figure there is only one way to find out.  Hopefully this will be a really great way for me to reflect back on what I have made and what variations I used or should try next time.


I guess I will start with what I made tonight for dinner.  It was called 'Mama Sue's Tomato Basil Quiche'.  I found the recipe on my 'Whats for Dinner' app on my Galaxy Tab (which btw I LOVE!)


Ok so Ingredients call for:

• 5 Eggs
• 3/4 cup heavy cream ....I actually used 1 cup nonfat milk, which was actually 1/3 cup of carnation powdered milk and 2/3 cup of water.  Don't judge, my kid goes through milk so fast that I don't always have the real thing and I have found that this works in a pinch for cooking and baking.
• 2 cloves of garlic pressed...I used 3.  Hey, I like some garlic and I am hoping to steer clear of all those sparkley vampires out there!
• 1 frozen pie crust...I used Mrs Smiths only because it was on sale at the commissary and it was a 2 pie crust package.  Means I can make this again!
• 2 cups of shredded mozzarella/provolone cheese blend ..I used the Sargento cause thats all I could find.
• 3-4 plum tomatoes...I only used one because I thought after placing all the tomato slices that 3 or 4 would be kinda extravagant.  I still think that that may be too may, but I would definitely put 2 on there.  On second thought, maybe 3 would work.  I guess it all depends on how much you like tomatoes.  The kiddo loves them, the hubs likes them, and I am starting to come around more.  I am not a raw tomato eater, but if they are cooked right then its a go.
• 1/8-1/4 tsp crushed red pepper...I eyeballed this and put probably the 1/4 tsp amount in, not spicy at all.  
• 1/4-1/2 cup finely chopped fresh basil...I didn't have fresh so I used the dried stuff, and again eyeballed it but since dried takes up considerably less room than the fresh stuff, I obviously used less.

Ok now here are the directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. In a bowl beat together the eggs, cream (milk in my case), and garlic.  After having made this once I would also blend in the basil at this point if using the dried stuff.  If using fresh you can add it later on.
3. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place frozen pie crust on it.  Layer in the cheese, tomatoes, crushed red pepper, and fresh basil (if you used fresh, if dried remember you added it to the eggs)
4. Pour egg mixture over the top of the layers as evenly as you can.
5. Bake for 1 hour or until the eggs are almost set.  Eggs keep cooking after you take them out of the heat so don't worry if they look a bit jiggly.  (Thank you Alton Brown for teaching me this important bit of cooking knowledge)
6. Set quiche on a wire rack and let cool for about 15 or so minutes.  

So thats pretty much that!  It was a very yummy dinner and would make an awesome brunch too!  The hubs liked it so much that he ate 1/2 of it!!!  

Now you see why I think more tomatoes and mixing in the basil to the eggs.  All in all, it was extremely tasty and I would not hesitate to make this again!