Made up Leftovers Casserole

Today I work late so I wanted to make something for supper this morning so that Joe won’t have to cook later after he is done with work and training… thankfully today at least he shouldn’t have to plow too!

We had 3 leftover chicken thighs from last night, partial bags/containers of broccoli, peas and grape tomatoes, and about three-quarters of a package of velveeta cheese.  Plus we had homemade broth in the freezer and tons of rice and milk so that is what turned into our supper!

Not the peanut butter though!  That is just on the counter because I eat it everyday and don’t usually put it away.

I ended up measuring what I had just to see what was in it so here were my ingredients:

• 2 cups uncooked white rice
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 10oz frozen broccoli
• 2oz frozen peas
• 2.5oz fresh grape tomatoes
• 12oz Velveeta
• 8oz cooked chicken
• 1 cup whole milk

I cooked the rice in the broth and while that was going I shredded the chicken.  I was originally going to use brown rice but when I looked at the 45 minute cook time I decided maybe I would just use white rice with a 20 minute cook time instead!  Using real rice and not Minute rice is a lot different and I never think to cook a bunch of rice ahead of time to have ready so lately we haven’t eaten much rice.  The chicken had seasoned breading on it from last night and I shredded most of that as well and tossed it in the bowl with the chicken so I didn’t add much else for seasoning since I figured that would do it just fine.  Once the rice was done I dumped the chicken into that pot and in a separate pot I mixed the milk, Velveeta, frozen vegetables and tomatoes and I cooked it until the cheese was melted and the veggies were thawed and then I dumped that into the bigger rice/chicken pot and mixed it altogether.  Then it went into a casserole dish (which I sprayed with cooking spray just incase!) and I sprinkled a bit of season salt and paprika on top to make it pretty and it went into the fridge for later.

I figured it wouldn’t be all that healthy with all the cheese in it, even with the few vegetables but when I entered it into the recipe analyzer that I like it turned out reasonable.  For daily requirements it has about 30% calcium, 56% vitamin C, 16% iron, and 16% vitamin A.  Plus a good amount of protein and carbohydrates.  It has probably a bit too much fat for one recipe and it doesn’t have much fiber (2g/serving) but using brown rice and a bit less Velveeta would probably fix that and if I had had a whole bag of frozen broccoli I would have used the entire thing too for more vegetables.  At least we should have plenty for supper and lunches tomorrow which is nice, and maybe I’ll bring home some lettuce for salad to go with it or something.  I think I could handle that!

I keep meaning to take some pictures of our newest snow, some of our snow banks are a least as tall as Buddy and Cora now but I never remember to take my camera outside with me… maybe tomorrow!

Oven Chicken and more Snow

We woke up this morning to tons more snow on the ground! Yesterday was wet,heavy snow and today was the light, fluffy kind.  There was so much snow that Joe had to come home and plow again, it was going over the tops of my boots when I took the dogs out in the morning.  Both dogs just loved it!  After work and plowing, Joe had to workout yet still so I made supper for late and we ate at almost 9pm.  A couple of weeks ago when Joe was out of town I had supper at a friends house with her family and she made oven chicken that turned out very good, so I asked how she made it and decided to try it for myself.

Here is the link to the chicken recipe and here is the huge disaster of a mess I made in our kitchen trying to make it!

Mine didn’t turn out as good as hers… probably because I only glanced at the directions before I started, and did a couple things a bit wrong, and then realized it when I went back to check more directions.  I’m not necessarily good at reading and following directions! But I saved it, it turned out fine.. not as good, but still just fine! Plus we had enough leftover for lunch and some for supper tomorrow night too.

We had it with buttermilk biscuits, steamed broccoli with a bit of cheese on top, and sweet potato slices.  I didn’t love the sweet potatoes but I ate them mixed with chicken or broccoli to hide them and there are, unfortunately, enough for leftovers tomorrow so I will eat them then too.  Probably hidden, but I’ll eat them!

 

A Blizzard, Spaghetti and Matching Outfits

This morning brought us a big blizzard.  I think the best snowstorm of the season so far at least.  It was kind of a wet snow this that melted and wrecked my dry hair when I went outside (which resulted in a less than thrilling ponytail for the day!) but it was still cold enough to pile up and the weather station at Joe’s work is reporting about 6.5 inches although that can vary a lot depending on location up here.  It felt like more snow to me when I was brushing off my car today after work and tromping through drifts in the parking lot.  Joe had to plow when he got home from work today and it has  continued to snow in the past couple of hours so you can’t even see the plow lines any longer.

Since we both worked today and then Joe had to plow and do his training after work we just had a simple spaghetti supper with enough leftovers to feed us for lunch tomorrow and give the dogs a little bit of a snack.

I didn’t feel like hauling out all the vegetables to make a big salad so I grabbed tomatoes and lettuce and that was it.  Too bad I didn’t realize that tomato was basically the only vegetable we were already eating because then I could have picked a pepper or carrot instead! Oh well.  We got a large, large dose of tomato tonight.. especially since I made the spaghetti with extra sauce! Mmm.

Cora and Buddy got a little bit of spaghetti leftovers along with a meatball for a snack.  Mostly for Buddy because he doesn’t eat much anymore and has lost a lot of weight and we want to spoil him because he is old and won’t last too much longer but Cora did get some too because we never want her to feel all left out either! Both dogs really love spaghetti and meatballs!

And finally, I mentioned matching outfits.  While Joe was plowing and after I finished most of my own chores I went upstairs and changed into my blue comfy pants and my Canal run shirt from the run Joe and I did together last summer.  When Joe came in from plowing he went right up to workout and didn’t notice my outfit so when he came downstairs after his shower he accidentally picked the same outfit that I had on and we matched! It was pretty cute.  I couldn’t have picked better myself

We are so cool.