Garlic Parmesan Crusted Chicken

Almost every time I'm watching a show on HuluPlus (greatest thing ever invented by the internet) I seem to see the same commercial over and over again, and it was making me hungry.  The commercial is for Hellmann's mayonnaise, but the commercial shows some really juicy looking breaded chicken.  So, I looked up the recipe on the Hellmann's website, made some tiny adjustments, and ended up with the most delicious chicken I have ever had from home.  True to the commercial, the chicken stayed very moist, and the flavor was strong, yet not overpowering, as some garlic chicken can be.  To go with the Italian flavor of the chicken, I served it with my number one side dish, slices of garlic texas toast.

I followed the recipe almost exactly.  The only adjustment I made was to substitute the bread crumbs that the recipe calls for.  Instead, I got some garlic butter flavored croutons and crushed them in a bag and used that as the breading.  The little kick of garlic gave it the Italian flavor that it needed without being too much.  This recipe is going to be one I will use a lot, and the bread crumbs can be substituted with many other things to make it a very versatile dish.  Try it with a different flavor of croutons (ranch maybe), crushed french fried onions, or even mix in some bacon bits with the crumbs!  The possibilities with this are endless, and you can change it to match exactly what taste you are going for!

Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas

     This afternoon I really wanted cream cheese enchiladas from Taco Inn.  I thought about it, and decided that I'd try my hand at making them instead.  So, i googled "cream cheese chicken enchiladas recipe" and found one that sounded simple enough (where some recipes had me making sauce from scratch, and I didn't think I was ready for that yet).  I tweaked it very very slightly, and tried it out. This is the link to the original recipe.  I will post my recipe below.  It took me about 45 minutes all together to prepare, and is also the first recipe I've tried where I haven't used some sort of "convenience food" (like the frozen meals or the homestyle mac & cheese).  Where the recipe calls for shredded cheese, I used a 4-cheese mexican blend from Kraft that I think tasted really good with it, and I subbed 1/3 fat cream cheese.

    

      I was a little anxious to see how they turned out, being the first time I'd made something like this.  We literally just finished dinner as I am typing this, and I have been getting compliments on how good they are from everyone around.  I personally loved them as well.  Not exactly the same as Taco Inn's, but to tell you the truth, I may like mine better.  They're the perfect amount of creamy and spicy.  And they weren't all that hard to make after all.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas

• 2 10oz cans of chicken breast, drained
• 1 tbsp fresh minced garlic
• 1/2 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 8-oz. packages cream cheese
• Tortilla shells (taco size)
• 1 1/2 cans enchilada sauce
• Shredded cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the chicken, garlic, onion, and cream cheese.  Fill the tortilla shells with the cream cheese mixture and place in a baking dish.  Top with enchilada sauce and shredded cheese.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Cheesy Chicken & Potatoes

Yet another frozen entree (can you tell I love these?).  So easy and quick to make, nice for the evenings when I've had a long day and I don't want to have to fuss over dinner much.  This one is Bird's Eye brand, and I got it at Hy-Vee for about $4.  The entrees are called Voila! and there are several varieties, the one I prepared being Cheddar Chicken Potato.  It honestly only took 10 minutes from start to finish, and includes all you'll need for an entree for two people.  Also needed are a cup of water and a 10" skillet.  So easy, anyone could make this.

Since the entree was SO easy and quick to make, I whipped up some homemade garlic bread to go along with it.  Baked it while the chicken and potatoes were cooking, and so the whole meal really only took me about 15 minutes from start to finish.  Amazing!

*~*~*~*~*

SIMPLE EASY GARLIC BREAD

Hamburger buns

Butter

Cilantro

Garlic salt

Butter the bread sides of the hamburger buns and place on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle on garlic salt and cilantro to taste.  Bake at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Chicken Alfredo

This is really really basic, and I did almost no cooking for this meal.  1 pound of ground chicken, 1 jar of Cheesy Ragu Roasted Garlic Parmesan sauce, and a package of fettuccine noodles.  Just prepare the chicken the same way you would ground hamburger for spaghetti sauce, but add some olive oil to the pan, as chicken doesn't have its own grease the way hamburger does.

After cooking the noodles, I mixed the sauce in with the chicken, and poured both the noodles and the chicken sauce into a casserole dish and topped with shredded cheese.  It would probably taste best with Mozzarella cheese, but I only had cheddar in my fridge, so that's what I used.  Bake at 425 degrees for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cheese on top is melted.