Meal Planning with Connie

Swiss Chicken and Noodle Casserole We all really like the Swiss Chicken and Noodles Casserole. I know we've eaten out way too much from L.'s comment: "This is restaurant caliber!" I know my kids are getting older from M.C.'s comment: "I really like the mushrooms in this!" Ways I saved money: Free "Aunt Jean" homemade sourdough bread!!! I used store brand cheese and broccoli. I bought the noodles on sale. They were fusilli (corkscrews), not egg noodles. Most pastas are versatile and substitute well for another. We had Club crackers in the pantry that needed using. I substituted these for the Ritz. You could top this dish with cheese, too, if you prefer. On days when I make a recipe that calls for chicken and chicken broth, I try to cook chicken that day and save the expense of buying canned broth. It doesn't always workout for me to cook chicken on the days I need broth, so I stock up on canned broth when it's on sale. I also fre...

Tonya's Chocolate Cobbler One of my birthday gifts was that Larry refurbished our porch swing. For those of you who are familiar with the length of time many of Larry’s projects can take, be very proud of him! It was a great gift - and a true labor of love on his part! He had the swing fully sanded, repainted and hanging back in its place by my birthday!! We bought this swing at True Value the year we built our house, and it has hung on our porch since. It was hand-crafted, signed and dated by Mr. Loran Naugher. It is special to us. Occasionally, Mr. Naugher used to ask me if my swing was “still holding up”. The swing is so well built, it will be "still holding up" long after I am! It very much deserved the refurbishing it received. Larry had a great time reminiscing about the swing and Mr. Naugher with the guys out at True Value, as he went for refurbishing supplies. Besides Preston, several of them worked there back when we bought the swing. Not a lot cha...

I have had a nice vacation from cooking for the past few days! As much as I enjoy cooking, it’s nice to have a break once in a while. Judy and I had a great time eating at Shogun! We ordered some sushi rolls that we hadn’t tried before. We got an avocado and cucumber, a carrot stick, and a salmon. They were all very good. We also ordered our all-time favorite - crawfish roll! Good food with a great friend! What a treat! Big Bad Breakfast was delicious! If you’re in Oxford and looking for a good breakfast or brunch, give it a try. For you Southern literature fans, the restaurant gets its name from the late Oxford author Larry Brown's book, Big Bad Love . The restaurant uses mostly organic, locally grown produce and dairy products. One concession is the use of MSU cheese. According to restaurant owner, John Currence: "We use Mississippi State cheese wherever we can… only because there is no Rebel Cheese, which would surely be more tasteful and refined..." All k...

I am the bread of life. John 6:35 Shopping List Monday - Swiss Chicken and Noodles and garlic bread Swiss Chicken and Noodles (Double ingredients if you want a 9x13-sized dish of this.) Ingredients: 8 ounces egg noodles 2 tablespoons butter 1/2 cup chopped onion 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 2 1/2 cups chicken broth 1 cups shredded Swiss cheese 2 cups cubed cooked chicken (or turkey) 1 cup cooked chopped broccoli 1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed ½ stick melted butter Preparation: Cook noodles according to package directions. In a medium skillet, melt butter over medium low heat; cook onion and mushrooms until tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper. Stir in broth. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, stirring constantly, until sauce is thickened. Stir in cheese until melted. Add chicken and broccoli and heat through. Toss with hot noodles; top with buttered bread crumbs. Place under broiler to toast bread crumbs. Tuesday - Ba...

I like to meal plan and have found numerous benefits to doing so. I do try to keep the meals simple. If cooking gets to be a lot of work, it isn’t fun, and we’re less likely to stick with our plan. Another reason I like to keep my recipes simple, and rarely use a recipe that calls for a lot of specialty items, is that things come up - sicknesses, events, guests, etc. The list is endless. There are weeks that are just plain busy. Although we have our meal plan, we need to be flexible with it. When opportunities or needs arise, we need to be ready to accommodate them. Our frozen meat will keep, and the canned goods will be there next week. Keep cooking fun! The rest of this week is a filled with fun eating for us - particularly for me! Tonight, my dear friend, Judy and I are going for our annual sushi meal! The food is always delicious and fun. The fellowship is always sweet! Our lives are so busy, and this is one of the few times during the year that we just get to visit a...

Register for our cookbook giveaway below!! Bubble Up Pizza We had another of our favorites tonight, Bubble Up Pizza! Larry likes this better with the biscuits baked a bit before adding them to the sauce. I baked the biscuit quarters for about 10 minutes, added them to the sauce and stirred one cup of the cheese into the sauce to "hold things together", since our biscuits won't do this as well since I've baked them a bit. This is a very versatile little dish. You can use sausage, just beef or just pepperonis, or even no meat. You could also throw in some peppers, onions and mushrooms with the meat. This dish can be in the oven in under 10 minutes, if you have pre-cooked your meat. It takes less than 2 minutes to cut the biscuits into quarters using my kitchen shears, another one of my favorite Pampered Chef products! I threw the frozen meat in the microwave for 2 minutes while I cut the biscuits directly into my sprayed baking dish. I opened the sauce, mixed it wi...

Chicken Lasagna, Caesar Salad, Garlic bread Tonight’s entrée is one of our favorites. If your filling is a bit thick, thin with a little chicken broth or milk to make it more spreadable. For a variation, you can add a 10 oz. box of thawed, chopped broccoli to the filling. Ways I saved money: I bought the chicken on sale. I used store brand ricotta, mozzarella, and cream cheeses. I used broth from when I cooked chicken. I bought the garlic bread and salad dressing on sale and used coupons on both. I made homemade croutons from some bread that needed using. Ways I saved calories: I used light versions of the cream cheese, ricotta cheese and soup. I used light salad dressing.