Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Ham and Swiss Breakfast Casserole


I really like Panera Bread's Ham and Swiss Souffle. I checked online for the recipe and found a copy cat take on it using crescent rolls. Genious! I decided to make it casserole style since I'm too lazy to make individual souffles.

Ingredients:
2 packages of regular crescent rolls
10 eggs beaten with a splash of milk
2 ham steaks
10 oz Swiss cheese, grated
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Spray your favorite casserole dish with Pam. Open the crescent roll packages but do not separate. Pinch the seams together and lay in your dish, with extra dough laying over the sides of your dish.

Cube ham and cook with a little butter in skillet. When just starting to slightly brown add in eggs (reserving a small amount for an egg wash for the crust) and half the cheese. Let the eggs firm slightly. You don't want to fully cook the eggs, as they will continue to cook in the oven. Gently stir the eggs from the bottom for a few minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. The goal is to about half cook them so they don't get soaked up in the crust.

While the egg mixture gently cooks, sprinkle a little cheese on top of the dough in the pan. Add the egg mixture, followed by the rest of the cheese. Fold the edges over the mixture and brush with the reserved egg mixture.

Bake in preheated oven and check after about 15 minutes. The dish is done when the crust is golden brown.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

These brownies are one of my favorite treats.  By using a box mix you save a lot of time.

Ingredients:
Family size dark chocolate brownie mix
ingredients on box to make brownies
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 heaping teaspoons of powdered sugar

Preheat oven and make the brownies as directed; pour in prepared 9x13 pan. In the measuring cup you used to measure the oil, spoon in 1/4 peanut butter and heat in microwave for about 15 seconds, just to melt it a little. (The left over oil in the glass measuring cup helps to prevent the peanut butter from sticking.)

Use a teaspoon (not the measuring kind, the coffee stirring kind) and add two spoonfuls of powdered sugar to peanut butter. Mix well.

Drop the mixture by spoonfuls evenly on top of brownie batter.

Use a knife and gently swirl/drag through the batter.


Bake as directed on box.


Monday, January 21, 2013

Weeknight Creamy Mushroom Chicken

Ingredients:
Olive Oil
2 large chicken breast halves
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup Marsala cooking wine
2 tsp dried shallots
2 tsp dried parsley
Salt and Pepper

I really like quick dinners during the week. This chicken dish comes together in 30 minutes and is great served over steamed rice to soak up the sauce. Add a side of your favorite steamed veggies and dinner is done. Set a sautee pan on medium high heat and heat a little olive oil. You just need enough to brown your chicken in. Sprinkle salt and pepper on chicken breasts and brown each side. Add Marsala cooking wine and stir, scraping up brown bits from pan. Add dried shallots and parsley. Cook for a minute and stir well. Add one can of cream of mushroom soup and 1/4 cup milk. Stir well until combined. Cover with a lid and cook about 20 minutes more on medium heat, until chicken is cooked through. This makes a lot of sauce, so you could easily cook four small chicken breasts instead of two large.

Note:
For the dried shallots, I used Victoria Gourmet brand. I usually find these at T.J. Maxx in the gourmet food section. If you find ANY Victoria Gourmet spices there, buy them. They are all fantastic. Here is a link to their website: http://www.vgourmet.com/Shallots/p/VIC-00134&c=VictoriaGourmet@GourmetIngredients

For the Marsala cooking wine, I used Holland House Brand. You can easily find this in your grocery store. Here is a link to Walmart's website so you can see what it looks like. http://www.walmart.com/ip/17803834?adid=22222222227015528047&wmlspartner=wlpa&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=&wl3=21486607510&wl4=&wl5=pla&veh=sem