Just in time for the Holidays Easy Bread Recipes using Pillsbury Dough These recipes prove that you don't knead to be a pro to bake quality bread in a flash.
I used the dough to make a naan type bread to pair with a hearty bowl of homemade vegetable soup. The bread stays soft by steaming it in a covered container. I steamed them in an empty salad container lined with paper bags. If you want to use this chewy ciabatta bread variation for loaves, just break off pieces of the wet dough into loaf pans coated with cooking spray.
Very wet Carolina Brown Rice Bread dough
Brown rice 'mashed' with extra water
Dough cooked in ungreased pan
Used tip from Show Me the Curry to keep bread soft
Quick and Easy Soup Recipe Get Well Soon Soup
Skilled with a can opener?
If you like the soup pictured in the header of the website, it's 99% purchased product from the grocery store. This simple method of soup/stew preparation never occurred to me until I started feeding large numbers of children in a Kids Cafe Program. This recipe fed my daughter and the entire family. My daughter woke up sick about a month ago and not having the ingredients to make soup from scratch, I went to the store and threw this soup together in 30 minutes. Not the cheapest way to make soup (without coupons, of course), but if you're only comfortable using a can opener, this healthy recipe is for you! (8-10 servings)
Cooking spray
1 small onion, diced
2 stalks celery, cleaned and chopped
2 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp each ground ginger and turmeric (optional)
1 tsp celery seed
3 cans soup (tomato or broth based with fewer than 2 grams of fat per serving like a minestrone or chicken veggie)
Assorted vegetables of your choosing - (I used frozen spinach and broccoli, canned carrots and stewed tomatoes)
2 cans cold water
Coat pot with cooking spray. Heat pot to medium. Add chopped onion and celery and stir often for 5 minutes. Add seasonings and cook for another 5 minutes. Add cans of soup and cook until hot, then add remaining frozen and canned veggies.
Easy veggie soup
Quick and Easy Pasta Salad Recipe Tortellini and Chicken Pasta Salad
Pasta salad will be a blur too!
Choose 2 pounds of your favorite tortellini, cook pasta al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside in large bowl. Two boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into 1" pieces. Rinse and dry on paper towels. Season with garlic and onion powders, and oregano. Saute single layer of chicken pieces in olive oil until cooked through. Cook in batches if needed. Once all pieces are cooked, allow them to cool. Add chicken and chopped, cukes, tomatoes, olives, feta cheese to the tortellini. Chill in frig for at least 3 hours. Pastas salads are notorious for absorbing dressing, so I like to wait until I get to the party to dress the salad with a good balsamic vinaigrette and add about a half cup of toasted walnuts or slivered almonds. Try some yourself and stand back!
There's nothing better on a cold day than a plate of salmon stew rice served with my husband's cooked cabbage!
Whole wheat penne pasta, squash, chicken and tomato sauce. Does that seem hard to make?
G, fried squash can't be healthy, can it? This batch was sauteed in canola oil, no onions this time. Other fats used to cook fried squash include butter and or that bacon fat. Whether its firm or mushy this dish is delish!
This sauce came together after we boiled two pieces of chicken seasoned them and then added the squash and sauce. G, is the sauce homemade?
Would you believe this sauce came from a plain old can of campbell's finest? Just doctor it right and it'll taste like the more expensive sauce brands.
Quick and Easy Southern Recipe Hoppin' John
This is a popular Southern New Year's Day dish. At home I make it with dried beans. Another one of those can opening recipes, I pulled out at the Kids Cafe.
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large bell pepper, seeded chopped
2 Tbsp poultry seasoning
2 Tbsp garlic and onion powders
1 can stewed tomatoes, undrained
3 cans black eyed peas, rinsed and drained (removes salt)
Heat oil in a pot. Add onion, peppers and spices and cook until vegetables are soft. Stir in stewed tomatoes and green chiles and cook until heated. Add water ONLY if using smoked turkey. Add turkey pieces to pot and cover. Simmer for an hour or until meat falls off bone, adding more water as needed. Stir in black eyed peas and cook until hot. Serve over brown rice.
Variation: Hoppin' Juan Replace blackeyed peas with drained black beans. Use Rotel tomatoes and add 1 Tbsp cider vinegar, with cumin and chili powder to taste.
Quick and Healthy Pasta Recipe Lean Mean Mac & Cheese
Healthier Mac Attack
Yet another childcare creation. This recipe was a solution to a teacher's milk allergy. I replaced a lot of the fat with flavor and a cafeteria classic was born. One anxious mom stopped in the kitchen to ask me for the recipe after her daughter dragged her to every grocery store in town.
This recipe mixes up in a pot almost as easily as the stuff in the blue box, without milk or eggs. When we make it at our house we add broccoli. You can omit the butter in this recipe if you use Alton Brown's steamed broccoli method, but steam it for a total of 4 minutes instead of 6 before adding the butter. At home, we finish it in the oven to give it crispy baked macaroni treatment. (10 servings)
1 pound whole wheat macaroni or penne pasta, cooked al dente and drained
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp unsalted butter (skip this step if using steamed broccoli recipe)
Immediately after draining, return hot pasta to pot and stir in oil, butter and seasonings. Mix in shredded cheese and broccoli, and it's done! For baked macaroni effect, transfer mixture to baking pan lightly coated with cooking spray and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.
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Last Updated November 26, 2010
Original Web Site Content by Mrs. Germaine Jenkins
(gwhiz@germainesolutions.com)
Easy Recipes for Living Well on a Budget
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