Cabbie’s Cooking

What could be easier for your holiday dinner than Crock Pot Chicken and Dressing. Thanks to Ruthlace for sending me this recipe.

Crock Pot Chicken and Dressing

5 skiness and boneless chicken breast halves
1 9×9 pan of cornbread, baked, cooked and crumbled
9 slices of day old bread, torn into small pieces
4 eggs, beaten,
1 onion, chopped finely
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 14.5 oz. cans chicken broth
1 10.75 oz. can cream of chicken soup
2 Tablespoons margarine

Boil chicken, cook and chop into small pieces. In a crock pot, stir together the chicken, cornbread, bread, eggs, onion, salt, pepper, chicken broth and chicken soup. Stir until well blended. Dot with margarine.

Cover and cook on low for 3 to 4 hours. Remove lid and fluff with fork. Let rest 15 minutes before serving.

Here’s a great recipe for delicious meatloaf - and it’s enough to make three meals. One to enjoy now, and two to freeze for later.

Cabbie’s Meat Loaf

Cabbie’s Meatloaf
3 1/2 lbs lean ground beef (I use no more than 4% fat)
1 large onion, finely diced
1/2 cup finely diced peppers (any combination of red, yellow and green peppers)
3 tablespoons finely diced parsley
2 stalks celery, finely diced
4 eggs
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
bread crumbs (approximately 3 cups - I save hamburger buns, rolls and the heels from loaves of bread in the freezer - and then take them out to use when I make meatloaf. If you use commercially prepared bread crumbs, use less since commercial crumbs are so fine. I prefer larger pieces of bread crumbs in my meatloaf.)

Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Diced vegetables ready to be mixed with the other ingredients

Mix well - using your hands. (I always put gloves on for this step).

Put those hands to work! Using a spoon just doesn’t work as well!

Form the mixture into three meatloaves. To bake, cook for each loaf for approximately 1 hour in a 350 degree oven.

This recipe makes three meatloaves. Each loaf will provide 4 generous servings.

If you’re freezing the loaves, wrap them in aluminum foil and mark with the date. I keep a Sharpie in a kitchen drawer for this purpose.

This is a great meal to free for make ahead meals. Take one out of the freezer in the morning, place in the refrigerator to defrost while you’re at work. Then when you get home, just pop it in the oven at 350 degrees for approximately an hour.

I usually make a tomato sauce to serve over the meatloaf. Here’s the recipe for my tomoto sauce:

Tomato Sauce for Meatloaf

1 large can petite diced tomotoes
1 Tablespoon dried onion flakes
1 Tablespoon dried parsley flakes
salt/pepper to taste
1 small can tomato sauce

Mix all ingredients well. Bring to a boil in a small saucepans. Simmer for 15 minutes. Spoon over meatloaf before serving.

It cold and rainy here in middle Tennessee. I’m recovering from some type of respiratory ailment, and RT is only a couple weeks away from his battle with a more aggressive respiratory bug. Last weekend I made chili. This weekend is made for a big pot of chicken soup. Following my new resolution, I will photograph as I go. However, as I was chopping the onions, peppers and celery, I figured I might as well make meatloaf at the same time - since I’d bought several packages of lean ground beef yesterday for that specific purpose. Chopping the vegetables is the most labor-intensive part of cooking these dishes. By the time I’m finished, I’ll have at least five meals in the freezer for later on, in addition to tonight’s soup and tomorrow’s mealoaf. The recipe for the meatloaf will follow this post.

Homemade Chicken Soup

Cabbie’s Homemade Chicken Soup

1 pkg chicken breasts (boneless, skinless, approx. 1 lb.)
1 pkg. chicken thighs (boneless, skinless, approx. 1 lb.)
salt, pepper, poultlry seasoning - to taste
1 large onion, finely diced
1/2 cup finely diced bell peppers (any comibination of red, yellow, green)
2 stalks celery, finely diced
3 carrots, grated or diced
3 tablespoons diced parsley
3 tablespoons corn starch
a few drops of yellow food coloring

Put two quarts of water in a large stock pot and set on high heat. Add the diced onion, bell peppers, celery, carrots and parsley. Add salt, pepper and poultry seasoning, to taste (approx. 1 Tablespoon each).

Add the chicken. Bring to a boil and simmer until chicken is cooked through.

Add chicken to the pot of boiling veggies

Remove the chicken with tongs and place on a plate to cool. Once the chicken is cool, chop it finely and add it back into the pot.

In a small bowl mix the corn starch with 1/2 cup water. Stir until dissolved and add to the soup mixture. Add the yellow food coloring and stir well. Simmer for about 30 minutes.

Simmer for 30 minutes and ENJOY!

If the soup is too thick, you can add chicken stock. You can include other vegetables, as desired - corn, beans, peas, tomatoes. You can also add some noodles or rice.

I made this Sunday evening, and we’re still eating leftovers. It’s great! This is my own recipe, but it’s pretty standard. It takes only about 15 minutes to get the dish going with the majority of those fifteen minutes being spent on dicing the onion and pappers. Otherwise, there’s very little work involved, and RT swears it’s the best chili he’s ever tasted. He’s pre-diabetic, too, and his blood sugar doesn’t elevate at all after eating this. It’s a great Weight Watchers meal, too.

Carol’s Easy Homemade Chili
1 pound lean ground beef
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1/2 cup diced bell pepper (any combination of green, yellow, red)
4 can diced tomatoes
3 cans navy beans (or kidney beans - I just prefer the milder navy beans)
salt and pepper to taste
2 T chili powder (more or less, to taste)

Place the olive oil into a large saucepan, add the ground beef and brown it. Add the diced onions and peppers. Cook until onions and peppers are cooked through. Drain the beans and rinse. (You don’t HAVE to drain the beans but I think the chili is better if you do.) Dump the diced tomatoes and beans into the pot and bring to a boil. Add salt, pepper and chili powder. You can add a little water at a time to get the right consistency. Simmer for about and hour, and it’s ready to eat. Leftovers can be refrigerated or frozen for later. I generally put some in small containers to take to work for easy lunches.

By the way, these measurements are not written in stone. I’ve used more or less of each ingredient, and it still works out well. So don’t worry about getting exact amounts. If you really like tomato-y chily, add an extra can of tomatoes. If you don’t like tomatoes, then add tomatoe sauce instead of diced tomatoes. You can use chopped chicken instead of ground beef. You can use black beans, kidney beans - any beans that you particularly enjoy.

I have just found a new favorite recipe. I found it at The Anchoress, and she found it at Cast Sugar. I made it for breakfast this morning. I cut the recipe in half since it’s just RT and me. It was wonderful! And we still half the pan to re-heat for tomorrow morning’s breakfast.

Until I read about it at The Anchoress, I’d never even heard of baked oatmeal. However, the idea immediately intrigued me because RT makes oatmeal almost every morning. We have both been very diligent about our “lifestyle change” of healthy eating and exercise.

When I made baked oatmeal this morning, I grated half an apple, and put in a handful of dried cranberries and a handful of chopped walnuts. The resulting dish was warm, healthful - a wonderful breakfast for a chilly morning. Here’s the recipe:

BAKED OATMEAL

2 1/4 c. quick cooking oats (or 2 3/4 c. old-fashioned oats)
2/3 c. firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 c. raisins or other dried fruit (I also grated a fresh apple into the mixture)
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3 1/3 c. skim milk
4 egg whites, lightly beaten
1 tsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Milk, yogurt, sugar, and/or fruit (optional; for topping)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray an 8-inch glass baking dish with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine oats, sugar, raisins, walnuts, cinnamon and salt. Mix well. In a medium bowl, combine milk, egg whites, oil and vanilla and mix well. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until well blended.

Pour into the baking dish. Bake at 350 F for 55-60 minutes or until center is set and firm to the touch. Cool slightly.

Serve topped with milk or sugar or yogurt and fruit, if desired. Store leftover oatmeal tightly covered in the refrigerator.

It only took a few minutes to mix this up and get it in the oven. I’m already planning the next time the grandgirls spend the night. I’ll get up early and get this in the oven. I’ll probably leave out the walnuts and cranberries for them - and just concentrate on the apples and cinnamon. They’ll love it!

I baked an absolutely scrumptious cake last weekend for our church’s Fall Festival.  There was an auction, and the women in the chuch baked items as part of the auction.  I entered my Snickers Cake, and it brought a good amount because my husband kept the bidding going and bought it!  So this year I was able to taste it myself.  Oh. My Goodness!  It was wonderful.  I had a slice on Sunday after church.  Then another slice Sunday evening.  The temptation of having that cake in the house was too much.  So Monday morning I took the rest of the cake to school and placed it in the teachers’ lounge when no one was looking.  Then at lunch I listened to the talk without letting on that I was the one who had baked the cake.  Everyone was raving - and the cake was entirely gone before lunch was over.  One teacher came in and said, “I’ve got to get a piece of this before it’s gone.  I’ve heard it to die for!”

Snickerlicious Cake

1 German chocolate cake mix

1 8 ounce hot fuge ice cream topping

1 8 ounce caramel ice cream topping

16-ounce package of Snickers candy bars (at least!  I use more than that)

Follow the directions on the cake mix box to make the cake.  Pour into two or three round cake pans and bake until done.  Be careful not to overcook.  Cool layers and remove from pans.

Chop the Snickers into small pices.  The more the merrier.

Place the first layer on a cake plate.  Use the hot fudge like frosting and frost the top of the layer.  Cover the frosting with a thin layer of Snickers pieces.  Place the next layer on top and repeat the hot fudge and Snickers.  If you made three layers, repeat the process again.  Trickle the remaining hot fudge and the caramel over the top and let it drip down the sides.

You can decorate with bite-size Snickers around the base of the cake.  This is a delicious and decidedly rich recipe that will fully satisfy your inner chocoholic.

I didn’t realize until I was talking to a friend earlier today that the Kentucky Derby will be here soon. It’s the first Saturday in May. That means the Bluegrass Stakes was today, and that means that the season of big hats and mint juleps is here.

If you’re interested in the results of today’s Bluegrass Stakes, here they are:

At the top of the stretch the two stablemates, Cowboy Cal and Monba, hooked up in a battle to the wire. Monba, ridden by Edgar Prado, got the better of Cowboy Cal and won by a neck.

Kentucky Bear rallied late to finish third with Stevil holding onto fourth. Pyro, showing a complete dislike for the all-weather surface at Keeneland, struggled to finish 10th.

Rounding out the order of finish for the 84th Blue Grass Stakes was Visionaire, Miner’s Claim, Halo Najib, Medjool, Cool Coal Man, Pyro, Big Truck and Stone Bird.

And about those mint juleps? Here’s a recipe:

Mint Juleps

2 cups SUGAR
2 cups water
Fresh Mint
Crushed Ice
Kentucky Bourbon (2 ounces per serving)

Make a mint syrup by boiling the sugar and water together for 5 minutes. Cool and place in a covered container with 6 or 8 bruised mint sprigs. Refrigerate overnight.

Make a julep by filling a julep glass with crushed ice, then adding 1 tablespoon of mint syrup and 2 ounces of bourbon. Stir rapidly with a spoon. Garnish with a fresh mint sprig.