BEST Italian Chicken and Rice

BEST chicken rice I have ever had! I've made this for dinner parties and there have never been leftovers, even picky children request it! Very creamy!

4 chicken breasts
1 block of cream cheese
1 dry packet of Good Seasons Italian dressing
1 can chicken broth (or 1 3/4 c. water + 2 chicken bouillon cubes)

In a crock pot place the chicken broth, whole thawed chicken breasts, and Italian dressing mix. Cook on low for 4 hours. Remove the chicken and shred. Place the chicken back in the crock pot, and mix the room temperature cream cheese into the crock pot. Stir until thoroughly mixed in with the chicken broth and chicken.

Serve over top of rice, noodles, or potatoes--all are incredibly delicious!

Garlic Ranch Chicken

4 chicken breast halves
garlic
1 1/2 T. butter
Ranch salad dressing mix (the powder)
1 T. olive oil

Thaw the chicken breasts. Spray the bottom of an 8 x 8 glass baking dish. Place the chicken in the pan. Drizzle the chicken with the olive oil, and then evenly spread the ranch dressing mix and garlic (both to taste- I loaded both on mine and it was great). Take the butter and cut it into several pieces and then layer evenly across the top of the chicken. Cover with tin foil. Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes until finished. Can serve it on top of vegetables, salad or pasta..... but I just generously dipped those babies into REAL ranch salad dressing :)

Cheesy Bread Sticks

1 1/2 c. warm water
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. yeast
1/2 tsp. salt
3-4 1/2 c. flour

Parmesan Cheese

Cheddar Cheese

Garlic Salt

Italian Seasoning

In a large bowl  combine water, sugar, and yeast. Let stand for 10 minutes until the yeast is bubbly.Add salt and stir. Add 1 1/2 c. flour and mix well. Gradually add more flour (usually between 3-4 cups) until dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl and it barely sticks to your finger Spray a glass or metal bowl (retains heat better) with cooking spray and place dough in the bowl. Cover and allow to rise for 1 hour or until doubled in bulk. Remove from bowl and place on a lightly-floured surface. (if using this for pizza popper dough.... stop here.) Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Roll into a rectangle and cut into 12 strips with a pizza cutter. Sprinkle cheddar on top of each strip and press lightly to stick. Roll out each piece of dough into a snake and then drape over your forefinger and twist the dough. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining 11 pieces of dough. Cover pan and allow dough to rise for another 30 minutes. Before placing in the oven, drizzle melted butter across the top, and then sprinkle garlic salt, grated parmesan cheese, and italian seasoning across the tops of the breadsticks. Preheat your oven to 425. When done rising, bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

These can also be sprinkled with just butter and cinnamon/sugar :) 

Pizza Poppers

 (picture courtesy of ourbestbites.com)

1 Recipe for Pizza Dough/Breadsticks (found here)
Marinara Sauce
grated parmesan cheese
1 T olive oil
garlic powder
italian seasoning
mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out your pizza dough onto a floured surface, roughly 12 x 6 inches. Using a pizza cutter (roller) slice the pizza dough into about 20 squares. Put your pizza toppings on each square, NOT WITH THE MARINARA. Take for example if I was making normal pepperoni poppers. I would put JUST the pepperoni and monterey jack cheese into the dough. Capeesh? Capeesh. When all of your dough squares have the toppings you want on them, take each corner and pinch together, you want to wrap the dough around the toppings without any holes, so the toppings are encased in its own little pizza dough ball. Spray a pie pan with non stick cooking spray. Then place each of the dough balls with the seam side down into the pie pan. Brush the tops of the balls with melted butter, and then sprinkle parmesan cheese,garlic powder, and italian seasoning on the top. Cook at 400 for 15-20 minutes, or until the top is light brown. I think I only cooked mine for 10 because our oven is hotter than normal. Then when they are done and hot you DIP them into warm marinara sauce :)

Crock Pot Lasagna

1 Jar of spaghetti sauce
1 lb ground beef
1 jar small curd cottage cheese
6-7 uncooked lasagna noodles
4 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
1 can stewed tomatoes

First, pour the spaghetti sauce into a bowl and add 1/3 cup of water to it. Grease the inside of your crock pot with cooking spray. Brown ground beef in a skillet, and then add the entire bowl of cottage cheese & stewed tomatoes to it. Stir. Start layering in the crock pot in order- sauce, beef/cheese/tomato mixture, noodles (uncooked- you will want to break them up into pieces and spread evenly across), sauce, and then cheese. Keep layering until you have used all of your beef mixture. Top with cheese last. Sprinkle italian seasoning on top. Turn the crock pot on low for 4.5 hours.

Creamy Alfredo Sauce

1/2 c. butter
1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese
1 c. half and half (I just use milk)
1/3 c. parmesan cheese
1 t. garlic powder
pepper to taste

In a medium sauce pan melt the butter. Once the butter is almost melted, cut the cream cheese into 4 pieces, and put them into the sauce pan (melts quicker in smaller pieces.) Once the butter and cream cheese are mixed well together add the half and half (or milk,) parmesan cheese, garlic powder, and then shake pepper on top to taste. Stir all together until well mixed. Once all the ingredients are mixed together and heated turn off the burner and set aside so the sauce can thicken up. Stir every few moments. Pour over your favorite pasta, and warm breadsticks are amazing to dip in the extra sauce! (You can also use this as the sauce on an alfredo pizza)

Garlic Chicken Pizza

1 Pizza Dough Recipe (here)

1/2 of a red onion, sliced and caramelized (put in a small fry pan and sprinkle with a little sugar, cook until transparent and slightly brown)
1 tomato chopped
2 cups Monterey Jack cheese
5 strips of bacon cooked and crumbled
1 cup chicken, grilled/cooked and cubed (or 1 can cooked chicken) + garlic to taste
1/2 cup ranch dressing


Flatten the dough, then pick it up and gently stretch it out, trying to keep it as circular as possible. Curl your fingers and let the dough hang on your knuckles, moving and rotating the dough so it stretches evenly. If it tears, just piece it together. If the dough stretches too much, put it down and gently tug on the thick spots.
Spray a pizza pan with cooking spray, and sprinkle cornmeal over the top. Transfer the pizza dough to the pizza pan. With a fork poke holes over the entire dough (to keep air pockets from forming). Spread the ranch dressing over the pizza dough (your sauce.) Put cheese over top of the ranch and spread evenly. top with chicken/garlic + bacon + onion + tomato. Sprinkle with some Italian seasoning and bake at 400 until cheese is bubbly.

Chicken Parmesan

4 boneless/skinless chicken breast halves
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 c. seasoned bread crumbs
2 T butter
1 3/4 c. spaghetti sauce
1/2 c. mozzarella
1 T grated parmesan
1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley
flour

Using the palm of hand or a meat pounder, flatten the chicken to an even thickness. Roll chicken in flour on both sides and then dip the chicken into the egg, and then the crumbs to coat it. In a skillet over medium heat, let the butter melt. When melted and hot, brown the chicken on both sides. Add the spaghetti sauce. Reduce heat. Cover. Simmer for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with cheeses and parsley. Cover, simmer 5 more minutes, or until the cheese melts. Can serve over pasta. Serves 4.

Zuppa Toscana Soup (Olive Garden Copycat)

1 lb spicy Italian sausage, crumbled
1/2 lb smoked bacon, chopped
1 qt. water
1 (14 oz) chicken broth cans
1 large russet potatoes cubed
2 garlic cloves, peeled & crushed
1 medium onion peeled & chopped
2 c. Swiss chard or Kale chopped
1 c. heavy whipping cream
salt & pepper to taste

In a skillet, over medium high heat, brown the sausage and break into small pieces. Rinse and set aside. (no rinse = soup red tinted.) In a medium-high skillet brown the bacon. Drain and set aside. Place water,  broth, potatoes, garlic and onion in a soup pot. Simmer over medium heat until the potatoes are tender. Add sausage and bacon. Simmer 10 minutes. Add the Kale or Swiss chard and cream. Season with salt and pepper. Heat through.

Authentic Italian Creamy Tomato Sauce

2 T olive oil
3 (29oz) cans of tomato sauce
1 clove garlic
1 t basil
1 pint heavy cream
1 T butter
7 oz gouda cheese
3 medium onions chopped
dash of chili pepper
dash of salt
pasta for 10 servings
grated Parmesan cheese

In olive oil and butter, saute' the basil, chili pepper, onion, garlic and salt until the onion is tender. Add tomato sauce and cook until the flavors combine (at least 20 minutes; longer = better.) Add Gouda cheese and stir until it is melted. Add the cream and remove from heat. Serve over the pasta and top it with Parmesan