Southwestern Sausage Quiche

I. Love. Quiche.

I always have a box of the mini variety in my freezer, and if it's on a restaurant's lunch menu, I'm almost always going to order it. I can't put my finger on why...it's not like I'm a huge egg fan. There's just something about creamy, (usually) cheesy goodness supported by a flaky crust.

I hope Stephanie at Plain Chicken isn't going to roll her eyes that I'm posting another one of her recipes...but I have so many from her blog bookmarked (now "Pinned").

I think the key to this recipe being so good is the Ranch dressing...which pretty much makes everything better. I also used hot sausage and hot Rotel, which gave it the perfect amount of heat.

It was eaten at my house for dinner...and then for breakfast...and then for lunch by a co-worker...and, finally, as a snack by my mother. This is truly soul-satisfying food.

Printable recipe

1/2 pound ground breakfast sausage
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 can Rotel tomatoes, drained 
2 eggs
1/4 cup Ranch dressing
1/4 cup sour cream
1/3 cup milk
1 9-inch unbaked deep dish pie shell

Preheat oven to 350. In a large skillet, cook sausage until well browned, stirring frequently. Drain off grease and set aside. Whisk together eggs, Ranch dressing, sour cream and milk. Add sausage, cheese and Rotel. Stir to combine. Pour egg mixture into prepared pie crust. Bake 1 hour. Allow quiche to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving. 

Mexican Stuffed Shells

Dinner at my house often boils down to one question: Italian or Mexican? So, when I saw this recipe, I knew I'd love it...even though it seems like a strange mix of flavors on paper. If you're a pasta fan looking for a twist, this is for you.

I know stuffed shells can seem like a process, but this recipe is so worth it. One of the best cooking tips I've ever received was to fill a Ziploc bag with whatever you're stuffing shells with, snip a corner, and pipe away. So easy.

I have to confess...we had quite a few spoonfuls of the meat mixture (I mean, cream cheese and taco seasoning?) and both agreed that we could have had that for dinner alone. Seriously delicious.

Printable recipe

1 pound ground beef
1 package taco seasoning 
3 ounces cream cheese
16 jumbo pasta shells, cooked
1-1/2 cups salsa
1 cup taco sauce
2 cups cheddar cheese 


Brown beef and add taco seasoning. Add cream cheese and stir until melted. Pour salsa on bottom of 9×13 baking dish. Stuff each cooked pasta shell with the meat mixture. Place shells in pan open side up. Cover shells with taco sauce.  Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Add shredded cheese and bake for 10-15 more minutes with the foil removed.

Creamy Meatball Stew

I found this recipe over at Cassie Craves awhile ago when I was looking for recipes using frozen meatballs. She calls it a minestrone and uses some fresh vegetables, but I cut out a few steps to streamline the process.

I let the sauce simmer for a couple of hours to develop the flavor, and it also really thickened up. In fact, once the cream cheese is added, it was less stew and more casserole in consistency. I was a little unsure about the beans, but they were a nice addition; they're a good source of protein if you wanted to make this without the meatballs.

Ultimately, this was just a bowlful of comfort. I took a serving next door to my med school neighbor, who I imagine lives on frozen pizza and fast food, and he knocked back on my door within 10 minutes with a scraped-clean bowl.

Printable recipe

1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 pound frozen or fresh Italian meatballs 
1 26-ounce jar spaghetti sauce
32 ounces beef broth
8 ounces small uncooked pasta
8 ounces cream cheese, softened

Combine first six ingredients in large stockpot. Simmer until meatballs are warm/cooked through. Add pasta and simmer until cooked. Remove from heat and stir in cream cheese until melted. 

Crockpot BBQ Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

 

I love, love, love buffalo wings (hot, please!), but since I try to keep fried food to a minimum, I'm always looking for other ways to replicate the flavor. This recipe comes from the blog Forever Now and Then, and it completely hit the mark.

My chicken breasts were on the small side, so it looked pretty soupy during the cooking process. I was beginning to re-think the addition of chicken stock and wondering if I should drain the chicken before serving. But, after I shredded the chicken and kept it warm in the sauce for a little while longer, to make sure every bite of chicken was coated, it really came together.

I used a bottled sauce from a local BBQ joint, which happened to be a thin, heavy-on-the-vinegar variety. You could certainly use a sweeter, thicker sauce, which would cut the heat. However, I absolutely loved the spice and tang of this chicken. I'm not a huge fan of blue cheese, but I think a few crumbles in this sandwich would have put it over the edge.

Printable recipe

4 frozen chicken breasts
1 cup BBQ sauce
1/2 cup hot sauce
1/4 cup ranch dressing

1 cup chicken broth

Place frozen chicken breasts in crock-pot. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over the top. Cook on high for 4-5 hours. Shred chicken with two forks and stir. Cook on low until sauce thickens.

Baked Club Sandwich

This is another recipe courtesy of Plain Chicken, which was adapted from Pillsbury, and I knew the minute I saw it that it would make perfect football food. It is truly a man-friendly dish, packed with deli meat, cheese, and bacon. It was very hearty.

I don't like to cook bacon, and I'm not a fan of the microwave slices, so I used a few tablespoons of the bagged real bacon pieces.

This recipe is so versatile because you can use any combination of meats and cheese to suit your taste. The original recipe called for ham, turkey, and roast beef, but I found a combo package with ham, turkey, and Canadian bacon (with exactly as many slices as I needed), so I went with that.

These can be a little dry on their own, so I served with ranch dressing for dipping...perfect complement!

Printable recipe


6 slices bacon, cooked and chopped (or bagged real bacon pieces)
1 11-ounce can refrigerated French loaf bread
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
15 slices deli meat (variety of turkey, ham, roast beef, Canadian bacon, or chicken)

Spray cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Unroll dough. Sprinkle cheese over dough. Top with bacon and deli meat. Starting with long side, roll up dough; press edges to seal. Make 3 to 4 slits in top of loaf. Place on sprayed cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes. Cut into 1-inch diagonal slices.

Lazy Man's Chicken Parmesan

This recipe was floating all over Pinterest a couple of weeks ago. Even though I love the recipe I have for chicken parmesan, I couldn't help but try one that eliminated the coating/breading stage. It was originally called Easy Chicken Parmesan Bake, but when I showed it to a friend, he renamed it Lazy Man's Chicken Parmesan. Indeed...even a child could have put this together.

This is a fantastic way to get dinner on the table with little effort. Some of the croutons kept their shape, adding a nice chewy element, like a bite of garlic bread. Most of the croutons "melted" while cooking, giving the illusion of breading. In fact, if you closed your eyes, the taste is exactly the same. That, to me, is a fake-out success.

Printable recipe

4 chicken breasts
2 cups spaghetti sauce
2 cups mozzarella cheese
1 5-ounce package of garlic croutons


Drizzle olive oil in bottom of 9x13 pan and sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper. Place chicken breasts in pan and coat with spaghetti sauce. Sprinkle 1 cup of cheese over chicken. Top with croutons and remaining cup of cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.

Deviled Egg Dip?

I found this recipe over on the Tasty Kitchen site, and I was immediately intrigued. I wanted to take it to a gathering this past Saturday night, but I knew I needed to crowd-test it first. I took it over to my parents' house that morning, and we tried it with a) Ritz crackers, b) Wheat Thins, and c) Frito Scoops.

We really struggled because all of the chips/crackers overwhelmed the dip and, in my dad's opinion, made it too salty. The flavor itself was fantastic...a deviled egg fancied up with bacon and cheese. How could it not be good?

I went with the Fritos, but it still wasn't a huge success that night. But, one of the guests, before sampling, said, "Oh, I love egg salad." So....

On Sunday, I scooped some onto a hamburger bun and ate it like "deviled" egg salad sandwich. And it was perfect. The bread was the ideal vehicle, as it let the flavor shine.

Printable recipe

5 large eggs 
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons French's Mustard
1 tablespoon Frank's Red Hot Original Hot Sauce
1 tablespoon vinegar 
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
4 slices bacon

Put eggs in a sauce pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium heat. When the water starts to boil, turn off the heat and cover for 20 minutes. Allow eggs to cool enough to peel.

While the eggs are cooking, fry four slices of bacon until crisp. Drain and crumble bacon into small pieces.

In a large bowl, mix together mayo, mustard, hot sauce, vinegar, cheese, and crumbled bacon.

In a small bowl, use a fork to mash the eggs into small chunks. Add the eggs to the mayo and mustard mixture and stir together.