Country Chicken Casserole

A couple of weeks ago I had Cody over for dinner and decided to cook for him and my parents. I wanted something with a lot of veggies, but that would still taste really good, so I scoured the internet and checked out Pinterest as usual. I’m a huge fan of comfort food, and let me tell you, this is definitely that kind of meal. The creamy soups and milk make it a little rich, but the vegetables help you get in all those good nutrients. I served it with fresh cooked green beans and extra broccoli on the side. The best part about this dish is that you can choose what veggies you want inside or if you’re tired after a long day you can easily just use a frozen mixed veggie pack! Try out this recipe and let me know what you think!

Ingredients:

• 1 can of cream of celery soup
• 1 can cream of potato soup
• 1 cup of milk
• Dried thyme (amount depends on your preference)
• Black pepper (amount depends on your preference)
• 2 cups of cooked chicken cut up into cubes
• 1/2 -1 small onion
• 4 cups of assorted vegetables of your choice (I used carrots, peas, broccoli, and celery)
• 1 box of stuffing mix (flavor of your choice, but chicken or mixed herb will probably work best)

Instructions:

1. Grease a baking pan (using Pam spray, butter, oil, or whatever you normally use to prevent sticking).
2. Chop up the vegetables and the onion.
3. Cook the chicken and cut it up into bite sized pieces.
4. Prepare stuffing by following the directions on the box.
5. Mix the chicken, soups, milk, onion and veggies, pepper, and thyme all together in the baking pan.
6. Cover the top of your mixture with the cooked stuffing.
7. Bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes.

Cody and both of my parents loved this dish! It’s such a yummy, cozy recipe. I will definitely keep this meal in my back pocket for those chilly fall and winter nights! (Those nights that I hope start coming reallyyy soon because I live in California and this drought and heat are not my cup of tea!)

Fresh out of the oven!

Plated with veggies on the side!

Strawberry Kale Salad with Vinaigrette Dressing

So here’s the thing: kale is supposedly amazingly good for you. So naturally, I wanted to find a way to fit it into our diet. We tried kale chips…but that was not a success in the taste department in our opinion…I’ll let you know if that ever changes. A kale salad was next on the list to try. The only problem is that kale itself has a pretty bitter taste…there is however, a way to remedy that! Thank goodness!

Most of what I know about kale, I learned from Haylie Duff and The Real Girl’s Kitchen. I’m in love with her book and her little cooking show and her website. I just love her take on life and she’s got some pretty great recipes. Anyway, back to kale. By reading about kale in her cookbook, I learned that you can make the leaves less bitter by showing them some love and massaging them with olive oil for about a minute. I wasn’t too sure of how well this was going to work, but it did work and it cut that bitter taste right out! I also made a version of Haylie Duff’s classic vinaigrette dressing and added a few things to my salad to give it a splash of flavor and get even more nutrients in.

Here’s the recipe:

Salad Ingredients:

• 1 or 2 bunches of kale. (1 bunch will probably feed about 2 people)
• Fresh strawberries (however many you want)
• Almond slivers
• A few drizzles of olive oil
• Homemade vinaigrette dressing (click to get the recipe)

Salad Instructions: 

1. Rinse the kale leaves and dry them off. (You can either break them up right then and put them in a salad spinner, or pat the leaves dry with a paper towel.)
2. Pull the leaves away from the rib of the kale and tear them into smaller pieces
3. Put the leaves into a big bowl and drizzle a little bit of olive oil on top. Massage the oil into the leaves for about a minute.
4. Chop up strawberries and add them into the salad.
5. Sprinkle the almond slivers on top.
6. Make the homemade vinaigrette dressing and use that to put the final touch on your salad.

Make this salad at home, take a taste, and let me know what you think! I’d love to hear from you!

Homemade Vinaigrette Dressing

Cody and I are really into health lately. Not in that overly enthusiastic, in-your-face, health nut kind of way, but we just really want to get in better shape, get more energy, and just feel better all together. So I’ve been reading a lot about eating cleaner, and I read recently that the reason store bought dressings last so much longer is because they have all kinds or preservatives in them. Sure, it’s more convenient, but if you have the time, why not cut out the preservatives that you don’t need to be putting into your body and make some homemade dressing?! Homemade dressings usually last about five days in the fridge and are so much healthier than anything you can buy at the store.

I looked up a couple recipes for a homemade vinaigrette dressing because we wanted something light. I came across Haylie Duff’s Real Girl’s Kitchen Classic Vinaigrette recipe and decided to make a version of that one. I tweaked it just a little bit, and it came out great. It was so delicious and I felt like I was doing something good for my body by eating something more natural.

Ingredients:

• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 1 tbsp of finely chopped shallot or onion
• (I completely forgot to add this to mine, and it turned out great anyway, but you can always add that in as well.)
• 1/3 cup of champagne vinegar
• 1 tsp of dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp of honey
• 1 tsp of sea salt
• 1 tsp of black pepper
• 1/4 cup of vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup of good quality olive oil
• The juice of half a lemon

Instructions:

1. Mince the garlic.
2. Chop up the shallot or onion if you’re adding that in.
3. Mix all of the ingredients together and refrigerate until you’re ready to dress your salad

Tip: Give the dressing a quick stir or shake right before you pour it over your salad.

I completely forgot to take a picture of MY dressing, but it looked similar to this.
Next time I make some i will replace this picture with mine.

Check out our Strawberry Kale Salad recipe! This dressing goes with it perfectly!

Recipes Coming Soon!

Lately, Cody and I have been cooking a lot. We have been trying to eat healthier and save money by not eating out so much. Plus, we just enjoy cooking together and for one another. Since we are trying all sorts of new recipes and tweaking them to our liking, I thought that I would start sharing some of our favorites with our readers. So be on the lookout for some recipe posts very soon!