Blisstree » quick meals

Crockpot Cooking: Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli

Michelle Smith — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:58:21 +0000

Well, we made it through the second day back to school. Phew! I’m still not in the groove, still working out the kinks, but dinner was a no-brainer with this simple Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli dishthat I threw together in the crockpot.

I served it with brown rice, but it would taste equally good over white rice, noodles, or even a baked potato.

This recipe features canned condensed soup which contains a lot of sodium. Slow cooking makes food taste saltier.

I suggest waiting until the dish is done before adding additional salt.

Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli

1 can Cheddar & Broccoli condensed soup
1 cup water
4 chicken breasts (or boneless thighs)
2 cups fresh or frozen broccoli
1 cup milk (use less if you’ve got a lot of cooking liquid left. You want to make a creamy, but not soupy sauce).
Place chicken in the bottom of your crockpot, followed by the broccoli, then pour the soup mixed with the water over the top. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-8. Stir in 1 cup milk during last hour of cooking. Serve over rice. Use salt and pepper to taste.

Image credit: Sxc.hu

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Crockpot Cooking: Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli

Product Review: Hormel Compleats

Sandy Mitchell — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:51:39 +0000

Hormel’s latest convenience food advertises that it’s healthy and ready in 90 seconds. Hormel Compleats are desk or pantry to microwave meals that come in 25 varieties including chicken and dumplings, sesame chicken, homestyle beef with potatoes and gravy, and tuna casserole. The choices tend to be comfort-style foods.

These meals are portioned for one (not-so-hungry) person. They say they are “created for a healthy lifestyle” and frankly, some are much more healthy than others. Calories range from 210 to 360 per package. Complete nutritional information is available on the Hormel Web site.

I tried the Sesame Chicken and found it okay, if a little bland. I added chopped peanuts and a little hot sauce and it perked it up a little. I give Hormel points for the convenience of the meals plus for this style of product, they use a minimum of packing–a good thing for the environment.

(photo courtesy of Hormel)

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Product Review: Hormel Compleats

Is Fast Food Really That Bad?

Cherie Burbach — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:52:18 +0000

Let’s face it, we live in a fast food world. I really try to make dinner every night for my family on weeknights, but weekends are something different. Most of the time we try and cook at home, but every once in a while we just need to swing past a fast food joint and pick up something quick.

That’s why this article was of interest to me. In it, they give a grade to popular “sit down” fast food restaurants. (Places like Unos, Chilis, Outback, etc.) Not surprisingly, those places got very poor grades. (Most of them in the “D” range.)

The silver lining of this article came with this fact that places like McDonald’s actually scored fairly well (in the “B” range.) They’ve been trying to create more and more offerings that are actually good for people. It’s funny, those are truly the “fast food” type of places and they are doing a better job than the sit-down restaurants at providing healthy alternatives.

Image: sxc.hu.

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Is Fast Food Really That Bad?