Tomato Chicken Casserole

TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010

4 stars (out of 5 - simple, stress-free, and pretty darn good!)

I hadn't cooked a new meal in a while (and had been, quite frankly, a bit lazy), and SB asked me what was going on.... I didn't know! I guess I have been a bit busy and stressed, but I decided to make sure that I made time to cook some new meals, as I know how much satisfaction I get out of it. This was my first attempt in a while, but an easy one. It's one of those "canned soup" recipes... but I refuse to feel bad about them - they always turn out well. This was no exception - the meat was moist and well-cooked, and (most importantly) it was stress-free.

Ingredients:

Meat:

Bone-in chicken (skinned)*
Garlic powder
Salt Pepper

Mix:

1 can (284mL) tomato soup
1 can (284mL) cream of mushroom soup
1 medium tomato, coarsely chopped
1 bunch green onion (or chives), chopped finely
1 v. small onion, chopped finely

{*Note. I used about 1 lb. or less of chicken... basically, do whatever you want up to 3 lbs (original recipe) because I had a lot of extra sauce. I think my basic guideline would be to have as much chicken as I could line my casserole dish with.}

1. {Preheat oven to 350F}. First, I placed the chicken in a 3qt (3L) casserole dish.

2. Next, I sprinkled with salt, pepper, and a good coating of garlic powder.

3. I then mixed the tomato soup and mushroom soup in a medium bowl...

4. ... and added the tomato and 2 types of onions...

5. ... and stirred well.

6. I poured the mixture over the chicken, and placed it in the oven, covered, at 350F for about 2 hours (flexible - no stress!).

New oven!

Look at how my casserole dish now fits in!

7. I served it with rice, but mashed potatoes also worked well. After the photo, I added a side of green beans (and a salad in a separate plate).

Overall, this was a super good, super easy recipe, and I was glad I tried it (despite my reservations about using the soup mixtures). SB really liked it, and the meat was super tender. I guess it can't really be considered anything close to a gourmet dish, but I would serve it to some of my good friends I was trying to make a good meal for (and at the same time being able to socialize!) ;)

Spinach-Ricotta Stuffed Pasta Shells

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22ND, 2009

4 stars (out of 5 - amazing sauce, okay filling)

During our week off before Christmas, SB and I decided to try out a few new recipes. This one looked different, and we liked the idea of the tapenade-tomato sauce. In the end it really was quite good, but a bit complex to make (not difficult, just many different things to prepare).

Ingredients:

350g large conchiglie (large pasta shells)
1 pack frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1-2 cloves garlic
4 tbsp olive oil
1 large can crushed tomatoes
50g crustless white bread, crumbled
1/2 cup milk
2 1/4 cups ricotta cheese
Pinch of ground nutmeg
1/3 cup tapenade*
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

{*Note. We make our own tapenade, but you can just use store-bought. If you don't have any on hand, you can skip it, but I really recommend trying it. I will try to post our (super simple) recipe for home-made tapenade soon, and will post the link here when I do.}

1. We first boiled the water for the pasta (as per the instructions on the box). Once it was cooked, we drained it, ran it under cold water (to prevent further cooking), and set it aside.

2. In a small food processor/chopper, we then added the bread...

3. ...milk...

4. ...and 3 tbsp of the olive oil...

5. ...and blended until smooth.

6. We then added the ricotta cheese, and seasoned with the salt, pepper, and nutmeg, again blending the mixture well.

7. Next, we added the chopped spinach. Because our food processor is so small, we had to gradually add the spinach, which made for a funny green colour halfway through (second pic).

8. The final mixture, which we set aside until the tomato sauce was prepared:

9. We then turned our attention to the tomato sauce, mixing together the crushed tomatoes...

10. ...tapenade...

11. ...remaining oil...

12. ...and the minced garlic...

13. ...and stirred the mixture well.


14. We then spread the tomato sauce on the bottom of a medium-sized casserole dish. You should use a large one if it fits in your oven - ours doesn't and we had a bunch of leftovers that needed to be cooked later :(

15. After spreading out the tomato sauce, we then (gently) opened the shells and stuffed them with the spinach mixture (not too much)...

16. ... and placed them in the casserole dish on top of the tomato sauce.

In the end, we tried to squish in as many as we could!

15. We then sprinkled with the Parmesan cheese and cooked at 350F for 15 minutes (until heated through). You may also want to add toasted pine nuts.

Overall, this was quite a good dish, although it was really the tomato-tapenade mixture that made it delicious. I really loved the tomato sauce and will probably do it again for other pasta dishes. The spinach filling was okay, but could use some more salt and flavour... somehow. Any ideas?! We will definitely be trying this one again!