Just Plain Mount: February 2011

Monday, February 28, 2011

Creamy Chicken Lasagna

Now, being the Plain Nicole that I am, I do not usually like lasagna.

**GASP!**

I know.

There are just too many chunks...it freaks me out.

But THIS lasagna....this creamy, chicken lasagna.....this I can do!

It helps that Eric is watching the Godfather II, really puts ya in tha mooood.

And here we go:

Ingredients:

3 chicken breast halves

8 oz. cream cheese

2 cups mozzarella cheese

1 cube chicken bullion

1/4 cup hot water

Prego Fresh Mushroom Sauce

Lasagna noodles (I like the 'oven ready' variety)

First up, getcha some watur boilin.

Unwrap your chicken. I like this kind (that I find at Kroger) because it is natural. No hormones or antibiotics. It makes me feel good inside. I can just imagine all those happy little Amish chickens running around....no, wait....then they die. Nevermind.

Boil up your little chicken breasts. I put the chicken in the water cold and then turn the heat on. Not sure why....its just what I do.

While your chicken is boiling, go ahead an put your cream cheese and mozzarella in a bowl so the cream cheese can be softening.

You can also get your 9x13 ready. Put a layer of sauce in the bottom so there will be no noodle stickage.

Once your chicken has boiled, go ahead and scoop out a 1/4 cup of the boiling water and add your bullion cube. This is for FLAVA FLAAAAAVE!

Chop your chicken. You could also shred it. Or put it in the food chopper.

Whatever tickles your fancy.

Add your chicken to your cheesey goodness.

Then you want to add in your bullion/water mixture, and mix it up good!

Here is where the benefit of the oven ready noodles comes in: you want to scoop some of the chicken/cheese mixture onto a lasagna noodle and begin your layers.

I just did 3 horizontally, but if you want to get really fancy you could cut the noodles and lay them out vertically.

I think this is also where normal (non-plain) people may add in a layer of sauce on top of the cheese/noodle combo....but I just did noodle/cheese/noodle/cheese/noodle - you follow?

Make yourself a little noodle lid,

And then smother with the rest of the sauce. If you are using oven ready noodles it is really important to cover all the edges with sauce, otherwise you will get some unwelcome crispy bites.

Sprinkle a little mozzarella on the toppa,

And either cover to refrigerate, or put in the oven. I refrigerated. Because I'm cool. Get it?

When you are ready to bake (or have your husband put the lasagna in the oven when you leave the gym...) put it in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.

And THEN!

Nummanummanumnum!

Ok, so that isn't the most appetizing picture ever....but I was hungry and ready to eat...so you get the quick snapshot.

Enjoy!

-Plain Nicole

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Mashed Goodness

Today is tater day!

I made these little beauties along with the beef tenderloin as a surprise dinner for Eric, and man were they good! I used Pioneer Woman's recipe and was not disappointed.

The original recipe calls for 5lbs of potatoes, but I ended up halving it since there were only 2 of us eating. The original recipe can be found here.

Let us begin!

The equipment. You will notice that I have included a hefty, 3lb weight. This is because I do not own a scale (personal reasons) and I needed to guesstimate how many potatoes would equal 2.5lbs. Somehow...my crazy logic seems to have worked.

I also included a potato masher. I think you could just use a fork, but it would take a lot longer. This is really a great little gadget.

(AND 10% off at KROGER!)

Also very important....the instructions.

And the ingredients.

Again, I halved the recipe...so I used the following:

Approx 2.5 pounds of Yukon Gold potatoes (3 med/large taters)

3/4 stick of butter

3 oz. cream cheese

1/4 cup half and half

1/4 tsp Lawry's season salt

salt and pepper to taste

** not a heart-friendly recipe**

Begin by peeling your potatoes. I like to put my peelings in a bag instead of down the disposal. Some day I might think of composting - can you compost potato peels?

Ah lovely!

Next you slice your taters up into uniform size pieces. This allows them to cook evenly.

You want to have some water boiling.

And dump those taters right into the boiling pot!

So nice!

I let my pot boil for approx 25 minutes.

You should keep a close eye on this step....boiling potato water does not smell good when it runs over.

You want to check a potato with a fork to make sure it is soft all the way through.

Then you drain all the water off the potatoes.

And put them back in the pot on the warm burner. This is where you will be using your potato masher!! Now, PW says that you should mash the potatoes over a warm burner so that the steam from the potatoes can escape. I am not sure of the science behind this step...but I did it and my end product was delicious - so you should do it too.

Peer pressure.

Next you add your butter,

Cream cheese,

Half and Half,

Season Salt,

Salt and Pepper.

Then you mash to your heart's content!

And put into a baking dish. This is my cutest little Le Creuset dish that I got for Christmas from Liz! THANKS LIZ!!

So cute! At this point, you can cover the potatoes and refrigerate for up to 2 days! I put them in the fridge overnight so that my beef tenderloin wouldn't get lonely.