Dilly Bread

When I saw this bread recipe on The Pioneer Woman, I was too intrigued to not try it. It is totally different than any bread I have ever made before, but we enjoyed it, and it complimented the Crock Pot Potato Soup nicely.

printable recipe

 Dilly Bread

serves 8

2 1/4 tsp yeast

1/4 cups warm water

1 cup cottage cheese

2 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp minced dried onion

1 Tbsp butter, softened

2 tsp dill seed 

2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 egg

2 1/4 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in the warm water. 

Warm cottage cheese in a small saucepan over low heat until lukewarm.

Combine warm cottage cheese, sugar, minced onion, butter, dill seed, salt, soda, and egg. Stir together. This actually looked really cool, but I forgot to take a picture. I was distracted by this little chica asking for a snack. This is her "cheese" face that she makes whenever she realizes her picture is being taken now. Sure beats crying.

Stir in yeast mixture gently then add flour gradually, stirring gently.

Cover dough with plastic wrap and allow it to rise until doubled in size. I like to do this in a warm oven. I preheat the oven to 170F then turn it off and place dough inside. It will take about 30 minutes this way.

Carefully turn dough into a greased round baking dish.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise again in warm oven another 30 minutes.

Pull dough out of oven and preheat to 350F. Bake bread on lower middle rack for 30-35 until brown on top. Brush top with melted butter after removing from oven.

Cut into slices and serve warm with butter. 

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 9.

Crock Pot Potato Soup

This is an awesome, easy potato soup, perfect for topping with cheddar cheese, crumbled bacon, sour cream and chives. Just throw it into the crock pot and forget about it until half an hour before dinner time!

We served it with Dilly Bread.

printable recipe 

Crock Pot Potato Soup

serves 4

2.5 lb potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-2" chunks

1/2 onion, diced

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp seasoned salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1 quart (4 cups) chicken broth

1 (8oz) package cream cheese

crumbled bacon, cheddar cheese, chives, sour cream for garnish (optional)

Place peeled and chunked potatoes and place them in a crock pot. Add onion and garlic.

Sprinkle in the seasonings and pour in the broth.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours (or high for 4 hours).

Cut the cream cheese into pieces and add to crock pot. 

Replace lid and cook on high for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until the cream cheese is completely dissolved. Season with more salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle into bowls.

Serve hot with toppings, if desired.

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 9.

Braciole

I have been wanting to make Braciole (pronounced bra'zhul) ever since I watched the Everybody Loves Raymond episode where Deborah makes it. Up until this particular episode, the only thing she cooks well is Lemon Chicken, coincidentally also on this week's menu plan. So when Deb makes a delicious Braciole, Ray and Frank can't get enough of it and Marie gets quite jealous. Hilarity (including Deb dumping tomato sauce all over Ray's pants, on purpose of course) ensues...

So back to Braciole. There are all kinds of fancy ways to prepare this dish including expensive cheeses, prosciutto, currants, etc but I decided to start with a very basic recipe. I already had all of these ingredients on hand, just had to pick up the meat. I thought the result was simple and delicious, although I had company over when I served it so I neglected to take pictures of the finished product.

The above picture as well as the recipe is courtesy of Momma Hen's Kitchen. The pictures of the cooking process are all me, for better or worse.

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Braciole

serves 4

1 1/2 lb flank steak (also called round steak or London Broil), cut into 4 pieces

4 Tbsp minced fresh garlic

4 Tbsp freshly grated parmesan

4 Tbsp breadcrumbs (I used Italian seasoned, since that's what I had on hand)

salt and pepper to taste

3 Tbsp olive oil

32 oz spaghetti sauce

cooked spaghetti noodles (enough for 4 people, about 1/2 of a 16 oz box)

kitchen string

Pound out the steak until thin enough to roll (somewhere between 1/4" and 1/2" thick). Sprinkle each piece with 1 Tbsp each of garlic, parmesan, and breadcrumbs. Season with salt and pepper. 

Roll up each piece of steak and secure with kitchen string.

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and brown each roll of meat.

Once browned, place in saucepan with spaghetti sauce over medium heat. Heat until bubbling then turn down to low and simmer 2 hours, stirring occasionally. If the sauce starts to cook down too much, you can cover the pot with a lid.

Remove from pot, cut each roll into 4 slices and serve with sauce over spaghetti noodles.

 

Chicken Strips

I like to serve these with Potato Wedges and corn.

printable recipe

Chicken Strips

serves 4

2 large chicken breasts (1 to 1 1/2 lb chicken, you know best how much your family will eat)

2 cups flour

seasoned salt

black pepper

paprika

1 egg

Canola oil (enough to fill skillet about 1 to 1 1/2 inches full)

Line up three bowls on your counter. Put a cup of flour each in both the first and third bowls. Season the flour generously with seasoned salt (I probably put a rounded 1/2 tsp in each bowl). Add about 1/4 tsp black pepper and a dash of paprika to each and stir to combine. Beat the egg with a fork in the second bowl.

Cut the chicken breast into strips and dip them one by one into the flour, 

then egg, 

then flour again, coating well each time. 

Heat oil in large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Once hot, add chicken strips a couple at a time and cook for 2-3 minutes each side, until golden brown. The two strips on the left side of the picture are ready to be flipped.

You will probably need to start at medium-high heat, but turn it down to medium if the breading is browning before the chicken is cooked through in the middle. You don't want the heat to be too low though, or else the breading will absorb too much grease and become soggy. Everyone's stove is different so do what works for you!

Once the chicken strips are done, place on paper towels to cool and add another batch to the oil to cook.

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 9.

 

Lemon Chicken

Can you believe I had never made Lemon Chicken before I tried this recipe recently? I think it's a pretty popular dish (with lots of different versions, I imagine) and now I see why.

We really enjoyed this recipe from my friend Nikki at The Saucy Spatula. It was flavorful enough for grown-ups without being too tart for the kids.

printable recipe

Lemon Chicken

serves 4

1 1/2 lb chicken breast, cut into chunks
1/4 cup flour
coarse salt
2 Tbsp canola oil, divided
1 Tbsp (a splash) white or rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup chicken broth or stock
10 oz prepared lemon curd (usually found in jam/jelly section of grocery store)
1/4 hot water
1 lemon, zested
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 onion, slivered

Heat 1/2 Tbsp of oil in a wok or skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pepper, celery stalk, carrot, and onion and cook until they just start to brown.

Set aside. What's that, you say? You don't see any onion in there? Hmmm, there's a teeny tiny possibility that I forgot it. Whoops.

Combine the flour and a little salt and coat the chicken in the mixture.

Heat up remaining oil in skillet and add chicken and leftover flour/salt mixture. Saute until golden. Remove chicken from pan and set aside. Leave any drippings, browned flour etc in pan and return to heat.



Reduce heat to medium and pour in a splash of the vinegar. Allow to evaporate. No picture of this because it's really hard to see what's going on when you take a picture of a black pan with a splash of vinegar evaporating in it.

Add stock or broth to the pan and scrape up the drippings with a whisk. Sorry about the terrible picture.

Thin curd by stirring in the 1/4 cup of hot water. Mine still had chunks of curd at this point, don't worry if yours does too. Just add the curd to the broth and whisk to combine. I turned the heat back up to medium-high to melt the curd.

 

When curd is completely dissolved, return chicken to pan and simmer for a couple of minutes to thicken sauce and ensure the chicken is cooked through.

Remove pan from heat, add the zest of the lemon and toss chicken pieces to combine zest. Add the veggies and stir to combine.

Serve over rice.

The recipe is featured in Menu Plan 8.

Blog Hops

I will be posting a recipe soon, never fear, but first, here are a couple of blog hops I am participating in today:

Menu: Week of January 24-30

For Menu Plan Explanation, click here. As always, I will be adding the recipes throughout the week and linking to them here. Feel free to check out my already completed menu plans as well for some delicious ideas!

• Monday: Potato Soup and Dilly Bread - crock pot potato soup and a quick bread side dish
• Tuesday: Grilled Pork Chops with Shallot Butter - sounds fancy, but very simple ingredients
• Wednesday: Chicken Strips and Potato Wedges - get your "fast food" fix at home!
• Thursday: Leftover/Takeout Night - relax!!!!
• Friday: Pioneer Woman's Favorite Burger - she promises that even blue cheese haters will love this one
• Saturday: Taco Soup - another great crock pot soup, I'm all for easy this week
• Sunday: Ranch Style Chicken (side suggestion: mashed potatoes) - no ranch dressing involved
• Dessert: Cavity Maker Chocolate Cake (need a bundt cake pan for this one) - chocoholics unite!

Is your mouth watering yet? Let's get shopping!

I'm linking up with I'm an Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

*The amounts listed here are for a 3-4 person family such as mine. If you have a larger family, double the ingredient amounts that are starred, for example 10 lb potatoes instead of 5.

printable shopping list

Pantry:
flour
white sugar
brown sugar
yeast
baking soda
salt
seasoned salt
black pepper
red pepper
chives
thyme
rosemary
dill seed
minced dried onion
taco seasoning
paprika
honey
dijon mustard
tabasco sauce
mayonnaise
olive oil
canola oil
*chicken bouillon cubes or granules (enough for 4 cups)
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can corn
1 can black beans
1 package devils food cake mix
1 (3.9 oz) package chocolate pudding mix
1 (16 oz) container sour cream
1/2 cup sprite or sierra mist
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Fresh:
*potatoes (5 lb bag)
2 yellow onions
1 red onion
1 head garlic
1 shallot
2 lemons
lettuce (to top burgers, your choice of kind)
*8 oz cream cheese
4 eggs
cheddar cheese
*1 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 stick butter
cottage cheese (1 cup)
bone-in pork chops (1 per person you are serving)
*3 lb ground beef (5 lb if doubling)
*1/2 lb bacon
*5 chicken breasts (my best guess, only you know how much your family will eat so keep that in mind)
whatever you like to garnish potato soup with: bacon bits, cheddar cheese, chives, etc...
whatever you like to garnish taco soup with: tortilla chips, cheddar cheese, sour cream, etc...
4 Kaiser rolls (to be used Friday, you will probably want to buy fresh that day)

Check out all my menu plans!