One Pot Meal! (Hint: Chili!)

Who doesn't love chili when it's fall time?! I know that we do! So I found this amazing recipe that was quick, easy and only made one dirty dish! Here goes!

Ingredients:

1 pound of ground beef

2 teaspoons of chili powder

1 can of rinsed kidney beans

1 can of tomato sauce 

1 cup of salsa

3/4 cup of uncooked pasta 

1 cup of shredded cheese

(I added corn but it was not in the recipe but feel free! Just 1 can of corn drained.)

What to do:

Place the beef into a decent size pan to cook and mix with the chili powder

Then mix all of the other ingredients into the pan

Boil and then place on low/simmer for 15 minutes

Place in a bowl and add some cheese on top and you're chili is done! 

I made some rice to go with mine because the pasta was very tiny and there wasn't a whole lot of pasta so we added a little extra to spice things up a bit.

This whole dinner took me about 30 minutes or so to make and my husband loved it as well! Now it's not like real chili where it sits and there are a few different beans but in a bind or on game day, this is simple and yummy.

Broccoli Chicken Casserole

I loved this dinner!! It was really yummy, made a lot, and my husband enjoyed it which is always a plus! Although, when I found this recipe they did not say anything about certain order so I was very scrambled and rushed while making the sauce! And on top of that baby was moving a whole lot which made it hard to get anything done! Anyway, here is the lovely recipe in the correct order!

For the Casserole:

1 Pound of broccoli steamed 

3 Cups of Chicken cooked and cut into small pieces

1 1/2 Cups of grated cheese 

2 Tubes of Ritz crackers crushed

1 Stick of melted butter

For the Sauce:

1/3 Cup of melted butter

1/3 Cup of chicken broth

2 Cups of milk

1/4 Cup of cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 cup of COLD water

Salt & Pepper

1 1/2 Cups of grated cheese

Make sure all sauce ingredients are ready to go before you start making the sauce! This was my mistake when making this dinner dish. 

Now for the actual cooking part!

• Turn your oven on to 350 and take a 9x13 pan and grease it up so nothing sticks. 
• Once the chicken and broccoli are done put them into the bottom of the pan and then put it off to the side. We will get back to that later.

For making the sauce

Turn the stove onto medium heat, or a little lower and pour all ingredients (EXCEPT THE CHEESE) in, in that order! And make sure you do it slowly. Once everything is dissolved and turning into a thick sauce you can slowly add the cheese to the pan. Little at a time to make sure that it melts. If the sauce is a little clumpy it's ok :) Mine was and it still came out delicious! 

• After the sauce is done, pour it over the chicken and broccoli.
• Add 1 1/2 cups of grated cheese

• Take the crushed ritz crackers and add the 1 stick of melted butter and sprinkle the crackers on the top of the cheese.

• Place in the oven for 15-30 minutes. Everything is already cooked so its more to brown the top and melt the cheese.

Let it set for about 5 minutes or so and then your dinner will be complete!

A Late Night Snack... Yum!

One of my new favorite snacks is a semi healthy type of snack... I at least like to think it can be healthy that way when I eat a million of them, I don't feel guilty!

Ok so here it is:

Strawberries 

Icing

Crushed Graham Crackers

What to do:

Take the strawberry and cut the top off (the green part). But cut in a circle so that it creates a little hole. Then take the icing, just a little, and fill the hole with the icing and then sprinkle the crushed graham crackers on top! 

It tastes like a little cheesecake.. but with a real strawberry! It makes for a nice little late night snack when you don't want to feel really heavy right before bed with something sweet. Plus, you get the real fruit part of it as well! Which is always a nice little bonus. Hope you enjoy!!