Chicken Caesar Tetrazzini

My friend Courtney introduced me to this recipe....and then I realized that I have the same cookbook that she got it from. It's easy, cheap & yummy! My kind of meal.

Ingredients:

8 oz uncooked spaghetti, 2 cups cooked chicken (shredded or cubed), 1 cup chicken broth, 1 cup Caesar salad dressing, 1 cup shredded Italian blend cheese, 2 tbsp dry bread crumbs

WHY do I always forget one of the ingredients in my pics?

Because I have 2 toddlers and my brain is not-so-slowly vacating my dome.

Let me show you how I did the chicken first.  I had 3 chicken thighs...bone in, skin on.

I rinsed them off and put them in my PC Deep Covered Baker.

I sprinkled them with some PC Citrus Basil Rub

Then I popped it in the microwave with the lid on for 14 minutes.

Viola! Have I mentioned that I LOVE my baker? It makes me happy.

Then I just cut the meat off of the bone. Now, I can't do this with a knife. I consider myself blessed for the fact that I still have all 10 fingers. So I use Kitchen Shears (PC of course!) instead.  They make the job SO much easier!

OK...now I started the rest of the recipe.

Prepare the spaghetti as directed on the pkg. Boil for about 10 minutes, drain, done.

And just because I'm being a total saleswoman today...this is my colander.

OK, mix the spaghetti with the chicken.

Add the chicken broth.

Add the Caesar dressing.

Toss in a good handful (or two) of the cheese.

Pour the mixture into a baking dish or casserole. I used my baker again.

Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top. Add some more cheese. And if you want, some Italian Seasoning.

Bake it at 350 for 25 minutes.

All done!

And, yum.

:)

Week 4 Menu & Shopping Details

Fri- Chicken Caesar Tetrazinni (Carry over from last week....I always end up with 1 carryover)

Sat- Green Salad w/ chicken, blackberries & feta
Sun - Pork Roast w/ veggies – taters, carrots & green beans
Mon- Hot dogs & mac - Ghetto Night!!
Tue- BBQ cups w/ salad
Wed- Shredded pork sammies
Thur-  Beefy Nachos (I actually made these last week and had a request to make them again. SOON.)



SHOPPING LIST:
Milk 3 – 5.34 WM

Bananas 2 lbs – 2.00 WM
Apple Butter – 1.68 WM
Poptarts – 1.25 WM
Taco seasoning – 0.42 WM
Canned tomato – 0.63 WM
Italian Dressing – 1.33 WM
Hot Dogs - .88 WM
Ketchup – 1.50 WM
Rasp Vinaigrette – 1.50 WM
Yogurt – 1.56 WM
Drink mix – 1.98 WM
French Roll – 1.00 WM
Frozen Veggies - 1.00 WM
Dog Food – 4.99 KS
PT – 0.61 KS
TP - 0.88 KS
Creamer – 1.90 KS
Bread 2 – 1.76 KS
Lunch meat 4 – 2.00 KS
Tortilla Chips – 2.00 KS
Cheese -1.98 KS
Pork roast – 10.00 KS
Carrots 3lbs – 1.00 KS
Green Beans 1lb – 1.00 KS
HD Buns - .88 KS
Biscuits – 1.00 KS
Feta – 2.50 KS
Provolone – 2.49 KS
Sweet potato fries 1.99 Safeway
Gr beef 2lbs (BOGO free) – 2.25 Safeway
Blackberries 2 - 1.76 - Sunflower Farmers Market
Red leaf lettuce - .88 Sunflower Farmer's Market

$63.94

I did buy a few extras...frozen burritos for the kiddos & snacky things.
TOTAL SPENT:

Walmart - $32.78
King Soopers - $28.51
Sunflower Farmer's Market - $2.64
Safeway - $4.24
Total: $68.17

The only things not pictured are a bag of frozen sweet potato fries & two 1lb chubs of ground beef. I took the pic before running back out to Safeway.

Bacon Stuffed Pork Chops

Pork stuffed pork. That's my kind of meal.

This tasted like what I imagine the food on Diners, Drive Ins & Dives to taste like.

They were sooooooooo good, but probably shouldn't be attempted if you have high cholesterol or a heart condition. That being said...

Ingredients:

3 boneless pork chops (you can use more...there was plenty of stuffing), 1 pkg of bacon, 1 stick of butter, 1 box of cornbread stuffing, water (for the stuffing...however much it calls for), S&P, ground mustard

Cut the bacon up. It cooks faster this way.

Toss it in a pan.

If you don't have a splatter screen, get one.  My mom & dad introduced me to this little gem a couple years ago and I LOVE it.

Cook the bacon to your desired crispiness.  I like my bacon darn near burnt. You know when you take a bite and it practically disintegrates? Yeah...that's good bacon in my opinion.

So cook it up, drain it and then chop it up.

Now make the stuffing.  This literally consists of boiling water and butter, adding the stuffing mix & letting it sit for 5 minutes. Then you'll have this:

Add the bacon.

Now for the chops.

I cut each of them in half because they were long and skinny.

Cut a pocket in each chop.

Then stuff as much stuffing as you possibly can into each chop.

Take the same skillet that you did the bacon in...I drained the grease but didn't clean it out.

Throw a half stick of butter in it.

S&P the chops and then sprinkle some ground mustard on them. Then place them in the skillet over medium high heat.

 

Because they have the pocket, they don't take long to cook.  I did about 4-5 minutes per side.

It was at this point that I remembered the can of cream of mushroom soup that I bought for this recipe.

I plopped a spoonful onto each chop.

Turn them over a couple times to coat them and you'll end up with something like this:

Well hello there 14,783 calories.

Remove the chops from the skillet. I decided to make a gravy of sorts. Pour some milk into the skillet and whisk it up.  I don't actually know how to officially make a gravy...but this worked.

Drizzle it over the chops and whatever else you're serving.  In my case it was leftover mashed potatoes.  I WAS going to steam up some vegetables, but I was in a pork coma and totally forgot until I was halfway through pork chop #2.

Look at this little number.

Oh, pork stuffed pork....where have you been all my life?

Deliciousness.