SO it took a team of horses to drag me into a tuna casserole recipe (this was a few years ago). I skipped the peas and the pasty sauce. Instead, I used cream of celery soup and cheese and lots of tuna… and YUMMMMM it was good.

Since that first brave casserole exploit 20 years ago, I’ve tried to improve the recipe somewhat with quirky additions here and there. I’ve added broccoli, used mozzarella or monterey jack cheese, dill, s video cables, Creole seasoning (OK, just kidding on the cables– who noticed that?)….

But today, my daughter made the most luscious tuna casserole I’ve ever had. HOW did she do it?? She’s so young!

Well, here’s her recipe. This was goooood stuff. It was so good that I never got the chance to snap a photo. And it was such a pretty casserole, too.

Yummy Don’t-Worry-There-Are-No-Peas Tuna Casserole
serves 6-8

4 cans of tuna, with juice
1 box medium shells pasta, cooked and drained
1/2 red pepper, diced
1 cup fresh kale, shredded into small pieces
2 Cream of Celery canned soup
1 1/2 shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 teaspoon Creole seasoning
minced white onions (optional)

Throw all the ingredients into a dish and bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

It is SO GOOD. I think the kale is what does it for me. YUM.

Now if I can just get the daughter to improve my pot roast recipe….

Well, all this quesadilla eating started to make me want to try cooking some. So I gave it a shot. My concoction turned out pretty good– very basic but nutritious. I decided to add more veggies and less meat in mine, to pack a vitamin punch; not as potent as, say, prenatal vitamins, but pretty good. Of course, there’s alwats room for improvement. Here’s my basic recipe.

Easy Quesadillas

Chicken breasts- boned, skinned and thinly sliced
White onion
Water
Chili powder
Cumin
Fresh or frozen corn kernels
Red pepper, diced
Kale, destemmed and chopped
Shredded cheese
Tortilla wraps (smaller ones work best)
Butter

Cook the chicken, onion, and spices together in a frying pan. Add a little water if necessary. Add the vegetables and cook until just tender.

Butter one side of each tortilla. Place it on a griddle and sprinkle the cheese. Add a scoop of the chicken and veggies. Fry another tortilla and add a little cheese to that. Once the tortillas turn a golden brown, slap the two together to make the quesadilla. Repeat with additional quesadillas.

I served mine with salsa, but there’s also the traditional sour cream, too. These are even good as leftovers- I had one the next day for lunch, and while the tortilla was a little rubbery, it was still very good.

Manhattan Clam & Fish Chowder
Serves 8– leftover soup tastes even better
2 cans petite diced tomatoes
1 8 ounce can tomato paste
3 cans (undrained) minced clams
1 pound ground sausage, cooked and drained of fat
1 white onion
1/2 red pepper, diced
3 potatoes, diced
1/2 cup carrots, cut into very small circle or matchsticks
4-5 fillets of fish (cooked) (Optional)
1 Tablespoon dried basil
1/2 Tablespoon dried oregano

Add all the ingredients into a very large crockpot or Dutch oven. Stir well.

If using the crockpot, set on LOW for 8-10 hours, or on HIGH for 4-5 hours.
If using the Dutch oven, turn on medium. Get the chowder simmering, then, cover the pot and turn down to medium-low. Stir frequently and adjust burner as needed so that the chowder does not burn.

Like many chowders and stews, this one gets better the longer it is allowed to sit. You can always make this ahead of time, store it in the refrigerator for a day or two while you go about your merry way buying cheap eyeglasses or whatever…. then reheat and serve. It’s very good. I suppose you could add kielbasa or shrimp to make it into a “gumbo” type of stew, too.

Enjoi!
Allow to cool SLIGHTLY, then serve with hot bread.

We wanted to use up a lot of the leftovers in the fridge, and make something hearty, to boot. Here’s our potpourri of ingredients (sorry about the small photo, you practically need a barska to see everything):

The Everything Casserole

Made TWO casseroles, one for tonight, another for Sunday afternoon

Leftover vegetables (about 2 cups)
Leftover rice (1 cup)
Cooked pasta
Leftover or canned spaghetti sauce (about 30 oz or so)
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
2 boxes cooked and drained penne rigata pasta
1 pound cooked sausage
Some basil, oregano, garlic powder, salt, pepper to taste
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2-3 handfuls of fresh chopped kale

Stir the sauce and seasonings into the pasta. Add the sausage, rice, veggies, and 2 cups of the cheese. Stir and set in two casserole dishes. Top with the rest of the cheese.

It came out so delicious!

It’s also a great way to get more kale into the diet. Kale is so good for you. I eat some raw every day, and we add it to everything– rice, fish dishes, sandwiches.

Chicken Barley Soup
serves 6

5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into cubes
Olive oil
1 can or 2 cups chicken broth
3 cups fresh water
2 white onions, diced
2 carrots, sliced and chopped
2 celery sticks, sliced
1/2 cup uncooked barley
Salamida Pinch seasoning (optional)
salt

Prepare the chicken. In a skillet, heat up some olive oil. Toss the chicken into the skillet, and saute until the chicken is done and begins to turn a little brown.

Place the contents of the skillet (oil, chicken, and any brown drippings from the pan) into a large stockpot. Add the broth, water, onions, carrots, celery, and seasoning into the pot. Cook on medium-high until the soup begins to boil; then, turn down the heat to allow the soup to simmer.

When the carrots and onions are soft, add the barley. Allow to cook for another 20 minutes or so, until the barley is soft and enlarged. Add salt, and stir.

Serve with fresh garlic bread. Yum! My kids ate this right up. My daughter had also made fresh peach pie, a perfect accompaniment to the soup. It was good to be in the kitchen again.

1 pound ground sausage, cooked and drained of fat
2 small zucchini, sliced
2 small yellow squash, sliced
1 medium white onion, diced
1-2 cans spaghetti sauce (depending on taste)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Saute the sausage, zucchini, yellow squash, and onion until the vegetables are tender. Add the sauce; warm up. Throw some cheese on the top until melted. Serve as it is, or with some pasta.

It’s so good! The flavors really blend well. The veggies are slightly crunchy, too, so it’s just terrific stuff.

What can you make with meat or poultry, rice, cheese and a vegetable?

Hmmmm. I’m not very fond of rice or chicken. And while I like cheese, I am fussy about my cheese (only Mozzarella, Swiss, and American). So this one has me as stumped as if making photo birth announcements or something. Uhhhh….

Well, I guess I like Turkey Divan. Boring, I know. Turkey is poultry! It’s a pretty bland dish, though (which is why I dislike casseroles and why I dislike rice and chicken). Last time i made Turkey Divan, I made it this way:

Turkey Divan

4 cups diced leftover turkey
6 slices Swiss cheese
1 bag frozen broccoli florets
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup canned roasted red peppers, drained and diced
4 leaves kale, washed and sliced into strips
4 cups rice, cooked

Throw broccoli in the microwave to thaw.

In a large casserole dish, place the turkey on the bottom. Add the kale and peppers, then the broccoli. Add the broth. Layer with the cheese.

Pop in the oven until heated through (about 30-35 minutes).

Serve with rice.

The kale and peppers spruce up the blandness of the turkey and rice, and help to sneak in a few added vegetables.

Buuuut…. I couldn’t let my kids grow up without once trying Chicken Dumplings, now could I? What kind of mother would I be?! So I found a recipe that made it easy. I can’t say it’s very tasty… they liked it OK, but I didn’t care for it. It is certainly palatable, but I don’t like cream sauces… and this had more sauce then chicken. The original recipe is at Disney Family Food (a new recipe website I’ve discovered). I altered it a little. Here’s what I did.

Like Grandma’s Chicken and Dumplings

Ingredients
2 cups cooked chicken
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
2 soup cans water
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 can refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (8 biscuits)

Directions
1. Mix all ingredients, except biscuits, in 4 1/2-quart CROCK-POT® slow cooker.
2. Cut biscuits into quarters and gently stir into mixture. Cover; cook on LOW 4 to 6 hours.

Tip
Don’t add water to the CROCK-POT® slow cooker, unless the recipe specifically says to do so. Foods don’t lose as much moisture during slow cooking as they can during conventional cooking, so follow the recipe guidelines for best results.

OK, I doubled the recipe. The “2 cans” soup water made for a LOT of water. I did it anyway….

Looks… interesting….

It was just too watery. So I added potatoes. And carrots. All the Chicken and Dumpling recipes I ever saw had potatoes and carrots. This was turning more into a Chicken Stew…. but I wasn’t going to eat canned cream of chicken soup and chicken cubes! It just didn’t seem enough. Adding the potatoes probably diluted a little of the saltiness from the “bouillon” granules (I used Ramen packets). So more salt is necessary.

End result?

Not TOO bad. I skipped the refrigerated biscuits and served fresh rolls instead. The kids liked dipping the rolls into the soup. And the chicken was marvelously tender and moist. But the overall taste….. eh. OK. It’s always the creamy sauce stuff that I don’t care for.

So this was an OK recipe. I don’t intend to make it again, unless the kids beg me. And they probably won’t. The WILL beg me for Tortellini with Edamame and Kielbasa, which I am going to make again.

My recipe makes use of budget meat, packaged dried beans (although you could use canned), and bulk rice. It’s a very budget-friendly meal. I nabbed up a large package of Southern Style pork ribs at my local supermarket– they have them on sale for $1 a pound! The dried beans cost me $1.20, and the rice (5 cups) probably cost me around .50 because I buy my rice in bulk. So for feeding six adult-sized portions, this meal cost me about $5.70 to put on the table. And we still had leftovers, after that. I did add a salad, which raised the price of my meal, but you could add something like apples and oatmeal mixed together, or sliced fresh peaches, and that would drive the cost down. This is also a recipe that keeps well, so you could make two casseroles and serve one of them later in the week.

Here’s a quick and easy (what else?) recipe that’s perfect for a chilly winter’s day. This would probably be a great meal in the summer, too!

Wow Chow Pork and Beans Bake
serves 6-8

2 Tablespoons olive oil
3-4 pounds Southern Style pork ribs (bones removed and fat trimmed, cut up into large cubes)
1 bag dried black beans boiled/prepared to package instructions (or 3 12oz cans, drained)
1 small can tomato soup (save the can, you’ll need it to measure water)
1 tablespoon Adobo seasoning
Minced garlic (according to your liking)

In a large skillet, heat up the oil and sear the meat. Add the Adobo seasoning and cook a little longer. Once the meat is almost completely cooked, place the pieces into a large casserole dish. Pour in any remaining juices from the skillet.

Open the tomato soup can and pour all over the meat. Fill up the can twice with water, and pour it in the casserole.
Take your boiled beans and pour them on top. Add the minced garlic. Chop in the beans just a little, to mix with the liquid.
Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour; then, turn your oven down to 325 and bake for 3 more hours.
The house will smell GREAT.

Serve with rice and green salad or a fruit salad.

Anyway, a chilly, damp day like this is a perfect day for baking chicken. Chicken permeates the damp air and gives us something to look forward to. Plus, the day just FEELS warmer with the smell of baking poultry in the air. When I don’t feel like cooking, but I want some winter’s day comfort food, here’s what I do: Line a heavy duty pan with aluminum foil (to help cut some of the greasy cleanup– remember, it’s a lazy day today). Place chicken pieces in the pan, skin side up. Yes, this is a fatty recipe! I did say it was comfort food. You won’t be needing any hgh supplement to grow here, not with this eating.

So place your chicken skin side up. I usually buy VERY cheap chicken on sale, and freeze it for days like these. I don’t thaw it out very much before cooking, either– I simply allo the chicken to cook all day long.

Slice one large onion and place the slices on top of the chicken. Grab some basil, oregano, parsley, and paprika, and sprinkle generously over everything.

Now, wrap up the pan with more aluminum foil. Place in an oven set at 400 degree F for about 2 hours. After that, remove the foil, turn down the heat to 350, and bake for another 2 hours. At the cooking halfway time when I remove the foil, I usually throw in a dozen potatoes for baking.

The house smells so good. Yummmmm. I usually serve this dish with some green veggies. And that’s it! It’s a marvelous meal, and the kids seem to love it.