Author Archive
Chicken Nugget Spaghetti Bake
This is an excellent way to serve chicken nuggets. I made this on 21 Nov 2022, and adjusted the ingredients based on the family comments, and the updated ingredients are are updated.
Equipment
- Baking Pan (9x13 inch)
- Oven
Ingredients
- 500 grams dry spaghetti, (1 lb)
- 4-5 cups pasta sauce, Shortcut
- 500 grams frozen chicken nuggets, thawed, (1 lb)
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- 2 cups Mozzarella cheese, or as desired
Instructions
- Heat a pot of salted water to boiling. Add the spaghetti and cook until just tender, drain well.
- Just before the spaghetti is done, preheat your oven to 180° (350° F), get out a 9x13 baking pan.
- After the spaghetti is drained, add to the baking dish.
- Add 2-3 cups of pasta sauce and mix together. Spread out evenly.
- Top the spaghetti with the chicken nuggets in an even layer.
- Drizzle another 1-2 cups of sauce over the nuggets, then sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.
- Top with Mozzarella cheese, be generous.
- Bake for 20-30 minutes or until bubbly and the cheese is starting to brown.
- Serve and enjoy.
Notes
Ham & Cheese Macaroni Salad
A basic macaroni salad that can be a light lunch or dinner, or a nice side dish. On my to make and taste list. This is a versatile macaroni salad that can be tailored to your taste or made a different way each time it is prepared.
Ingredients
- 340 grams dry macaroni, (12 oz)
- ½ cup creamy Caesar salad dressing, and as needed
- 750 grams cooked ham, cubed, (1-1½ lb)
- 250 grams Cheddar cheese, cubed, (8 oz)
- 1 onion, diced, red or yellow
- ½ cup gherkins, chopped
- salt and pepper, as desired
Instructions
- Heat a pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta. Cook, stirring occasionally until tender.
- Drain well and place in a mixing bowl to cool.
- Cube the ham and cheese, dice the onion, chop the gherkins, and prep any additional items you want to add. (I added some chopped spring onion.)
- When the macaroni has cooled, add that to a larger mixing bowl or large pot, then add the dressing and mix together.
- Now add cubed and the diced/chopped items, fold into the pasta to coat everything with dressing, adding more dressing as needed for your desired consistency.
- Transfer to a more manageable container, cover and place in the fridge to chill and blend the flavors for 2-3 hours.
- Serve as a lunch, light dinner, or a nice side dish with any main dish. Enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Variants: 1. Use Ranch or Bleu Cheese dressings. 2. Add veggies you like, such as sliced spring onion, green olives, or diced bell pepper. 3. Add some chopped hard boiled eggs or whole hard boiled quail eggs.
Chicken Nugget Casserole I
As a way to use chicken nuggets in a creative way, I thought why not a casserole. I made this on 8 Jul 2022, and it is delicious! This was loved by the whole family! I state using pasta sauce for this, but I am also going to experiment with adding diced tomatoes when I prepare this again. Links to the Shortcuts are listed in the Notes section.
Equipment
- Baking Pan (9x13 inch)
- Oven
Ingredients
- 750 grams frozen chicken nuggets, (1½ lb)
- 500 grams bowtie pasta, (1 lb)
- 2 cups pasta sauce, Shortcut
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning, Shortcut
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 3 cups Mozzarella cheese, shredded, divided
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated, divided
Instructions
- Heat a large pot of salted water to boiling. Add pasta and cook until almost tender, as it will get cooked more while baking. Drain well. Return drained pasta to the pot.
- While the pasta is cooking, preheat your oven to 180° (350° F). Get out a 9x13 baking pan and grease with butter.
- To a mixing bowl, add the tomato sauce, garlic, Italian seasoning, and black pepper. Whisk together. Add the sauce to the drained pasta and mix with a large spoon.
- Add 1½ cups Mozzarella cheese, and ½ cup Parmesan cheese. Mix together.
- Add the frozen chicken nuggets and mix together.
- Dump the mixture into the prepared baking pan and spread out evenly.
- Sprinkle with the remaining cheeses.
- Bake for 45 minutes or until the sauce is bubbly and cheese is browned.
- I simply used a spatula and cut the casserole into 6 portions. Serve and enjoy.
Notes
Fair cost per serving based on the cheeses used, the nuggets are actually low cost.
Shortcuts: Pasta Sauce, Italian Seasoning.
Wacky Cake
This is a mix right in the pan recipe, and uses no eggs, butter, or milk. I made this on 25 Jun 2022 and it is absolutely excellent chocolate cake, no frosting or whipped cream needed!
Equipment
- Pyrex Baking Pan (8x8 inch)
- Oven
Ingredients
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 cup water
- frosting, of your choice, if desired
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180° C (350° F), get out an 8x8 inch Pyrex or ceramic baking pan, do not use a metal pan for this.
- To the baking pan, add the first 5 ingredients.
- Mix together with a fork. The reason of using a fork is it acts like a whisk.
- Make 3 indentions in the flour mixture. To each one, add the vinegar, vanilla, and oil.
- Pour the 1 cup of water over that.
- Then mix everything together with fork until mixed and no dry ingredients are visible.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool completely.
- Once cooled, frost if desired with your choice of frosting, or enjoy without.
- Cut into 9 squares, serve and enjoy. Excellent cake even without the frosting.
Super Easy Orange Chicken
This recipe comes from a good friend on the Just a Pinch Recipe Club website. I made this on 23 June 20222, and it is excellent chicken, great flavor. My family really enjoyed this dish.
Equipment
- 1 Gallon Zip Lock Bag
Ingredients
For the Orange Sauce
- ¾ cup orange marmalade
- 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
For the Chicken
- 750-1000 grams chicken breasts, boneless, skinless, (1½-2 lb), I used 4 breasts
- ¼ cup corn starch
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- cooking oil, for frying
Instructions
- Add all the Orange Sauce ingredients to medium bowl and mix together. You can prepare this two different ways. Prepare the sauce right before cooking the chicken, or make the sauce a few hours before, or even in the morning before cooking the chicken, to let the flavors blend together.
- Prep the chicken by cutting into large bite size pieces.
- When ready to cook the chicken, add the corn starch, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to the gallon size zip lock bag. Seal the bag and shake to mix together. Add the chicken to the bag.
- Seal, and shake and mix the the chicken with the corn starch mixture to coat the chicken.
- To a large skillet, heat 3-4 tablespoons of cooking, when hot, remove chicken from the zip lock bag and add to the pan. (I use a wok pan which is a flat bottomed wok - works perfect for this.)
- Cook until golden brown, turning the chicken often, about 10-15 minutes. Do not overcook or you will have tough chicken.
- While the chicken is cooking, if you made the sauce earlier and let the flavors blend in the fridge, take that out and microwave to just warm it up.
- With the chicken still in the pan, pour in the sauce, stir with the chicken pieces and cook until hot and slightly thickened, it thickens more as it cools, about 3-5 minutes.
- When the sauce is hot and thickened, remove from heat, sprinkle with white poppy seeds if desired.
- Serve with rice of your choice and a vegetable for a delicious meal. Enjoy.
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins
This recipe comes from a friend, and these are excellent muffins! I made these on 16 Jun 2022 exactly as written, and these were very well liked my the family and I. Highly recommended.
Equipment
- Muffin Pan (12 cell)
- Paper Cupcake Liners
- Oven
Ingredients
- ¾ cup milk
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar, or lemon juice
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- ¼ cup butter, melted
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips, rounded, plus additional for topping if desired
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 220° C (425° F), line a 12 cup muffin pan with 12 paper liners.
- In a mixing bowl, add the milk and vinegar, stir together. (You are making buttermilk.)
- In another mixing bowl, add the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and the salt. Whisk together.
- To the milk mixture, add the melted butter, eggs, and oil. Whisk together.
- Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix until almost combined.
- Add the chocolate chips and mix in. Now the batter is very much like a cake batter.
- Spoon the batter into the 12 cup cake liners equally. Sprinkle a few chocolate chips on top of each cup.
- Bake for 5 minutes then reduce heat in the oven to 180° C (350° F) and continue baking for another 13 to 16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. (Mine were perfect at 13 minutes.)
- Remove muffins to a rack to cool completely.
- Serve and enjoy.
Creamy Ham & Potato Soup
This recipe was inspired from a recipe on the Just a Pinch Recipe Club that was a ham and bean soup. My wife suggested potatoes instead of the beans, and it worked perfectly! I made this on 27 Jun 2022 and it was devoured by the 5 of us.
Ingredients
- 800 grams potatoes, peeled and cubed, (1¾ lb)
- water, as needed
- 1 onion, diced
- 500 grams sliced sandwich ham, cubed, (1 lb)
- 2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup, (10½ oz / 298 g each)
- 500 grams Cheddar cheese, shredded, (1 lb)
- salt and pepper, as desired
Instructions
- Add the potatoes and onion to a large pot.
- Add water to cover the potatoes by 1 inch. Set on medium high heat. Cook until the potatoes are fork tender, stirring occasionally.
- While the potatoes are cooking, take the sliced ham and set the entire stack on a cutting board, then cut into ½ strips. Once you have the stack cut into strips, just turn the cutting board 90 degrees then then cut the strips crosswise into ½ inch cubes, there, the stack of ham is now diced. Using sliced ham allows more ham to be distributed throughout the soup.
- When the potatoes are tender, reduce heat to low. Scoop out some of the water so the water is just at the top of the potatoes, reserve the water to add if needed if you want a thinner consistency. Now add the soup, ham, and cheese, stir together.
- Simmer until the cheese is melted and the soup and cheese is mixed in well. Season with salt and pepper as desired. Stir in some of the reserved potato water if you want thinner soup.
- Ladle into bowls, serve, and enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Creamy Ham & Beans
This recipe comes from the Just a Pinch Recipe Club and sounds delicious! Original recipe was for stove top cooked beans, and I will also include instructions to make using stove top pressure cooker.
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker , if preparing the beans with that.
- Stock Pot , if preparing the beans with that.
Ingredients
- 2 quarts water
- 500 grams dry Great Northern beans, (1 lb)
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil, required only if using a pressure cooker
- 1 onion, diced
- 500 grams ham, cubed, (1 lb)
- 2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup, (10½ oz / 298 g each)
- 500 grams Cheddar cheese, shredded, (1 lb)
Instructions
- Rinse the dry beans, removing any bad beans or debris, place in a large bowl and cover with water and set aside to soak for at least 6 hours or even overnight. This step applies to Stock Pot or Pressure Cooker methods.
To use a Stock Pot
- Add the 2 quarts of water to a large stock pot and place on high heat. Drain and rinse the soaked beans and add to the water. Stir occasionally. Cook the beans until softened to where you can mash with a fork. Adding additional water as needed.
- Add the ham and onion, reduce heat to a low boil, and continue cooking, stirring occasionally until the ham and onion are cooked.
- Reduce the heat to medium or medium low, add the soup and cheese, and stir together. Stir often until the cheese is melted and mixed into the beans.
- Ladle into bowls, serve and enjoy.
To use a Pressure Cooker
- I use my 9 liter (9½ quart) stove top pressure cooker with a pressure of 80 kPa (12 psi), so this will work equally well with electric pressure cookers. Follow all safety precautions for your model of pressure cooker.
- Drain and rinse the beans, add to you pressure cooker. Add the 2 quarts of water AND the 2 tablespoons cooking oil. The oil prevents the beans from foaming, DO NOT skip the oil.
- Place the lid on the cooker and lock in place, add the weight, place on high heat. When the weight (jiggler) starts to move and vent pressure, reduce heat to low to just keep the jiggler moving. Start your timer for 8 minutes.
- When 8 minutes have passed, turn off the heat and carefully move the pressure cooker to an unused burner. Allow the cooker to do a natural pressure release, meaning just let it set there until you have indications of zero pressure inside, normally a lid lock will drop to indicate this, can take 15-20 minutes.
- When you have indications of zero pressure, remove the weight from the lid and carefully open the cooker. Now you have cooked beans and bean broth.
- Drain the beans, and keep the broth. Return just the beans back to the pressure cooker pot (now we are going to use the cooker as just a pot, no lid needed now). Add the bean broth to just cover the beans by ½ to 1 inch. Place on medium heat.
- Add the ham and onion, simmer until the onion is good and tender, stirring occasionally. Add more broth as needed for the consistency you desire.
- Add the soup and cheese and stir together. Stir often until the cheese and soup are fully mixed into the beans.
- Ladle into bowls, serve and enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Imitation Crab Dip
This is from the Just a Pinch Recipe Club website, it is easy to make and tastes delicious. To be honest, I do not know what a good crab dip is supposed to taste like, but I will say, this is an excellent tasting dip! This is a cold dip, not a hot dip.
Equipment
- Electric Mixer
Ingredients
- 250 grams cream cheese, room temperature, (8 oz)
- 150 grams sour cream, this is the small container, (about ⅔ cup)
- 1 packet dry ranch dressing, Shortcut
- 500 grams imitation crab sticks, (1 lb)
- 2 tablespoons spring onion tops, sliced
- butter crackers, for serving
Instructions
- Add the cream cheese, sour cream, and dry ranch dressing to a mixing bowl.
- Use an electric mixer to thoroughly mix together.
- Cut the crab sticks into ¼ inch slices and place in another mixing bowl. Then use your hands to break the pieces up a little.
- Add the crab sticks to the cheese mixture and use a spoon to mix together. Sprinkle in the spring onion tops and mix in. Cover and place in the fridge to chill for a 2-3 hours.
- Serve with butter crackers, enjoy.
Char Siu Noodles
This recipe is for the noodles, not the Char Siu (Roast Red Pork), feel free to use your preferred recipe to prepare the Char Siu, or you can use mine that is listed in the Notes section. This recipe assumes you already have Char Siu prepared.
Ingredients
For the Noodles
- 1 tablespoon Char Siu sauce , take this from the marinade sauce you made for your Char Siu
- ½ tablespoon light soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons water
- ¼ teaspoon Chinese 5 Spice powder
- 2 servings dry Chinese egg noodles, or dry ramen
- 2 servings green vegetable of choice, such as baby bok choi, choi sum, broccoli, etc.
Additional Item
- 2 servings Char Siu, your preferred recipe or use mine in the Notes section
Instructions
- To a small saucepan, add the Char Siu sauce, soy sauce, water, and 5 spice powder, mix together, place medium heat and bring to a boil, then remove from heat and set aside.
- Cook the noodles per package instruction, and undercook by about 1 minute.
- Add the green vegetable and cook until tender, about 1-2 minutes to wilt.
- Drain the noodles then mix in the sauce you set aside.
- Portion into serving bowls and top with your sliced Char Siu. Enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Additional Recipe: Roast Red Pork (Char Siu).
