Chicken Lasagna

While ground beef is a common ingredient used to stuff lasagna, there are plenty of other fillings a cook may choose, including vegetables and the ever-popular chicken breast.

Ingredients

3 pounds of chicken breasts
4 cups of water
3 celery stalks
1 onion (cut in quarters)
1 can of Cream of Chicken soup
1 cup of sour cream
1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
½ teaspoon of garlic salt
Green onions (chopped)
8 ounces of lasagna noodles
2 cups of grated Colby cheese
2 cups of grated mozzarella cheese
Salt (to taste)

Directions

1. Place the chicken breasts in a large saucepan with the water, salt, celery, and onion.
2. Cook the chicken for 45 minutes or until done.
3. Cool the chicken and cut into bite-size pieces. At this point, save the broth and set aside.
4. Combine the chicken soup with the sour cream, grated Parmesan cheese, green onions, and garlic salt.
5. Add the cut-up chicken.
6. Cook the lasagna noodle in the reserve chicken broth until tender.
7. Prepare the lasagna in a buttered 9×13 baking pan by layering noodles, chicken sauce, and grated cheese.

Cover with aluminum foil and freeze.  Defrost for at least 24 hours before cooking.8.  Bake the lasagna covered for 30 minutes at 350.  Uncover and bake another 10 minutes until bubbly and cheese is melted and browning at edges.

Homemade Dinner Rolls

Bread is my downfall. Especially homemade bread! The great thing about this recipe is it freezes well and you can take out only the needed portions to add with your meal. Something I prefer to do as I have no self-control with warm, buttered rolls.

How To Make Homemade Dinner Rolls From Scratch

By: Shelly Hill

A few years ago, my mother in law was gracious enough to share with me her recipe to make these easy and delicious homemade dinner rolls. You can make them any time of the year or just for special family dinners. You can freeze them (once baked) for up to 3 months in your freezer and then reheat in the oven (for 3-4 minutes) or the microwave for 1-2 minutes once thawed.

Homemade Tasty Dinner Rolls Recipe

2 packages (envelopes) dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water (not hot water)
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup melted butter
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
vegetable grease

In a measuring cup, dissolve the dry yeast in warm water. Pour yeast mixture into a mixing bowl and add in the granulated sugar, salt, egg, butter and 1 cup of your all-purpose flour. Mix the dough well. If needed, stir in a little more of the all-purpose flour to make a soft dough.

Shape the dough into a large ball. Lightly grease all sides of the ball and then return your dough ball back to your mixing bowl. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let it rise until it has doubled in size. Punch down the dough and shape into smaller balls and let rise for 20-30 additional minutes.

Place balls onto a baking sheet and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 9 to 13 minutes or until golden brown and done.

Serving Suggestions: Serve rolls slightly warm with a pat of butter, honey butter, jam or fruit preserves.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Shelly Hill is a mother and grandmother living in Pennsylvania who enjoys cooking and baking a variety of homemade foods. You can visit Shelly’s online cooking site at wahmshelly.blogspot.com for free cooking tips and recipes.

Homemade Pickles

We love to make homemade pickles. Once you’ve tasted homemade it is very difficult to go back to store bought. They are the most amazing to have on your burgers and in your salads. Plus they are easy to make and inexpensive. Follow Shelly’s instructions below for some great pickles to load up in your pantry.

How To Make And Can Your Own Homemade Pickles

By: Shelly Hill

During the summer gardening season, we always end up with an abundance of cucumbers, so we like to make our own fresh pickles and can them for future use.

Both of the following recipes use fresh cucumbers along with various other ingredients.

Classic Pickles

25 cucumbers, sliced
4 large onions, sliced
2 large peppers, sliced
1/2 cup canning salt
5 cups white vinegar
2 tablespoons mustard seed
1 teaspoon Tumeric

In a large kettle or large bowl, combine the sliced cucumbers, onions and peppers with the canning salt. Cover and let mixture sit for 4 hours, stirring once every hour. After 4 hours, drain the liquid from the bowl.

In a large kettle, combine the vinegar, mustard seed and Tumeric. Bring mixture to a boil and boil for 4 minutes. Reduce heat and stir in the cucumber, onions and peppers mixture. Simmer for 5 minutes on low. Ladle cucumbers into hot sterilized canning jars, wipe the rim clean and seal. Process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes.

Dill Pickles

8 cups tap water
4 cups white vinegar
2/3 cup canning salt
granulated sugar
garlic and dill to taste
10 cucumbers
alum lumps

In a large kettle, combine the water, white vinegar and canning salt. Bring this liquid to a rapid boil and boil for 10 minutes. Place cucumber spears, dill and garlic into your clean and hot canning jars. Add 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar to each jar. Using a ladle, spoon the hot liquid into your canning jars, leaving a 1/2″ head space. Add 1 pea sized lump of alum to each jar. Seal jars and process in your water bath canner for 15 minutes.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Shelly Hill has been working from home in Direct Sales since 1989 and is a Manager with Tupperware. Shelly enjoys cooking, canning and baking foods for her family and friends. You can visit Shelly online at my.tupperware.com/Ravish30 or her Recipe blog at wahmshelly.blogspot.com

Some Healthy and Delicious Options

I especially love the idea of making up snack mix.  With bulk food sections more common it has gotten much cheaper to custom make a mix the family will all love and to have each family member customize their own.  Buy some small snack size ziplock bags or small reusable containers and combine a lot at once.

The Taste of Healthy and Delicious

By Ann Martin

With summer just around the corner, we all know that there will be lots of picnics, barbeques and delicious summer treats. If you are anything like me, when that warmer weather sets in, I find myself just “picking” throughout the day and through my meals. Sometimes when the weather is just plain hot and humid, my appetite goes out the window. Regardless, if your appetite dwindles during the summer months or if you see that scale increasing in that “other” direction, we have to remember to keep our bodies fueled with healthy food choices. Below you will find some healthy and delicious snack and meal ideas to keep you running through and enjoying those hot summer days.

• Fruit and Yogurt Smoothies – These are good anytime of year, but especially when summer produce is in season. Customize your own smoothie, but adding your favorite fruits, some ice and some non-fat yogurt into a blender and whip it up. Try blueberries for that extra special summer taste! Don’t be surprised if your family asks you for a refill.
• Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar – Even though it may sound like a strange combination, you must try it! You’ll be making this treat at least once a week once you have just one bit. Combine about 1 pound of sliced strawberries, with a ź cup of sugar and couple tablespoons of balsamic vinegar together in a bowl and have it marinade for about an hour. I like to serve my balsamic vinegar strawberries with low-fat whipped topping ! This makes for an excellent and refreshing summer dessert. Find your dessert plates, flatware and get your taste buds ready!
• Trail Mix – This makes for a convenient and portable snack, which can easily be made a home. Combine 1 cup of oat cereal, ˝ ounce of chopped nuts, and cup of dried fruit together and enjoy! Sometimes, I even like to add some seeds, such a sunflower and or pumpkin seeds for a variation.
• Homemade Salsa or Guacamole Served with Whole Grain Pita Chips – This is wonderful to have on hand, especially when a few guests decide to swing by. Making your own salsa is easy and once you make your own, you will never buy jarred salsa again. For a fun alternative to salsa, try making homemade guacamole. There are so many variations for guacamole that it will be easy to find a recipe that will please the entire family.
• Refreshing Pasta Salad – A flavorful and healthy way to change up pasta salad is simply by adding a homemade vinaigrette and some edamame to your choice of pasta. Even if you have some grape tomatoes or some grilled zucchini in the kitchen, those would make for delicious additions to this easy, yet healthy summer pasta salad. This could make for a wonderful summer side dish along side a grilled turkey burger to make for a delicious summer meal.

Get your picnic table ready, your Oneida flatware, and don’t forget the lemonade, and enjoy the freshness and deliciousness of summer!

photo credit: Rex Roof

Pickling at Home

I grew up with a great-grandma, grandma and Mom that canned.  Pickles was just one of the many things that were put in a jar to save from our gardens or the local produce stand.  I lucked out and my mother-in-law also liked to make pickles.  We’ve spent many a summer coming up with new twists on what we will pickle.

Pickles are very easy to make and with so much more variety than our grocery shelves can show.  There was a time in history when pickling was one of the best ways to preserve food, but with better shipping available, it fell out of favor.  Today, you will find most pickles in the form of cucumbers that have been made into bread and butter slices or mixed with dill.

There are many different kinds of pickles out there.  Fresh-pack pickles only need to be cured for a few hours in a vinegar solution before they are ready to eat, and as you can see, they are quite simple to make.  Fermented pickles are soaked in brine for a month and are quite a bit stronger.  Fruit pickles use whole or sliced fruit that have been simmered in a syrup of some sort, while relishes are made from chopped vegetables that have been cooked in a vinegar solution.

To get started making pickles, take a look at a simple recipe.  Wash some cucumbers and slice them down to about three to four inch chunks before soaking them in a brine solution that is roughly1 cup of salt to 2 gallons of water for about 12 hours.  Then drain them and put the pickles into a  jar, adding spices like mustard seed or dill before covering them with a boiling solution of one and a half quarts vinegar, half a cup of salt, one-fourth a cup of sugar, two quarts of water and two teaspoons of pickling spice.

With this basic recipe, you can get to pickling quick.  But you’ll find it can get even simpler.  In many Asian countries, the large white radish known as the daikon is often pickled.  Unlike the European radish, the daikon is quite mild and even a little sweet.  To pickle a daikon, simply sprinkle cut slices of daikon with salt for an hour before gently rinsing them clean.  Then cover them with white vinegar or rice vinegar for a few hours and you’ll find that they are quite ready to eat.  Depending on your taste, you can add a little bit of sugar or pepper to the mixture.

Pickling in general is a largely intuitive process, and you’ll find that with just a little bit of practice, you can make some excellent pickles that all of your friends and family can enjoy.  Experiment to find out what crazy twists your family can come up with.

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