Chicken and Wild Rice (Chicken Casserole)

10 oz uncooked wild rice (we use white rice) - I used brown: tip below.

4-8 chicken breast, boneless & skinless
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup - I strongly dislike mushrooms, but didn't realize I didn't have a third cream soup until I was cooking it. I substituted Campbell's "chicken and rice" soup and it worked great.
1/2 cube butter - I didn't even use 1/8 and it still tasted great. The butter seems unnecessary if you are looking to cut calories.
2/3 cup white/sherry or port wine (non-alcoholic cooking sherries)
1 small pkg slivered almonds (optional)
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
paprika

Soak brown rice in warm water while defrosting your chicken. (I also made the casserole the night before cooking it and allowed the rice to sit in the mixture all night. The rice turned out great - which is a first for me with brown rice!) Put rice in bottom of buttered 9x13 glass pan. 

Mix soups & wine in separate bowl.

Melt butter. Put 1/2 soup and 1/2 butter on rice. Lay chicken breasts on top, as flat as possible. 

Put the rest of the soup and butter on top. 

Cover with Parmesan cheese. Add almonds (optional). Shake paprika over top. 

Cover with foil and bake at 275 degrees for 2 1/2 hours. Serves 4-8 (or makes great leftovers).

Guest Post: Tater Tot Casserole

I've (Robyn) decided it would be fun to have Guests send us some of their recipes so that we can share and post them here on the blog. This here is out FIRST Guest Post by Katie M. from Chico, CA. Enjoy!!

Boil 1 pound of chicken thighs for 30 min (You can add a few bay leaves for extra flavor)

Boil one bag of frozen broccoli bits till tender
Mix together 1 can cream of chicken soup, 1 cup milk, 8 oz of sour cream, and 1 cup of cheese

In a 9x13 in casserole dish layer chicken then broccoli. Smooth the mix over the top. Sprinkle a handful of cheese on top of that. Cover with tater tots and bake for 25 min at 425 degrees.

Serves 6
(In Weight Watchers this is only 10 points)

Thank you Katie! I'm sure we all can't wait to try out your recipe!

Hashbrown Egg Bake

Note: You can make this ahead of time, but don't add the eggs till your ready to cook. Also, if you put the dish with the Hash Brown mixture in the fridge overnight pull it out approximatly 30mins to an hour before you cook.

1 (32 ounce) bag of frozen cubed hash brown potatoes, thawed (Potatoes O'Brien optional)
1 pound sliced bacon, cooked and crumbled (Fresh tastes better than Bacon Bits)
1 pound pork sausage (optional)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided (Experiment with different cheeses)
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 eggs
2 cups milk
1 dash paprika

Preheat oven 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine hash browns, bacon, 1/2 cup cheese and salt. Spoon into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish.

In a bowl, beat eggs and milk until smooth; pour over hash brown mixture.

Sprinkle with paprika.

Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 45-50 minutes until golden.

Top with the remaining cheese.
Note: I recommend putting the cheese topping on when you have approximately 5 minutes left of baking so it melts nicely. You can even put it on Broil for a minute or so and let the cheese brown and become crispy.

Creamy Chicken Spaghetti Bake

I made up this recipe about two weeks ago, unfortunately didn't think to take picture until after we'd already eaten about 1/3 oof the pan. Oh well! The recipe is pretty self -explanatory, but if you have any questions feel free to let me know!

Ingredients:
8-10 Chicken Tenderloins (or 4-5 breasts, well-pounded)
1 Package of your favorite noodles - I used bowties and penne.
1 Jar of Creamy Alfredo Sauce - my favorite is Classico Three Cheese Alfredo
1 Jar of Spaghetti Sauce - again my favorite is Classico Tomato and Basil
1 Cup of grated Mozzarella Cheese
1 Cup of grated Cheddar

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix Alfredo and Spaghetti sauce first in a separate bowl while cooking the noodles. Remove the noodles right before they are fully softened as they will finish cooking in the oven.

Put layer of sauce (about 1/3 of mix) pon bottom of 13x9, then a genourous amount of noodles (about half of what was made).

Lay chicken evenly across noodles, then pour another 1/3 of sauce mix on top and spread evenly.

Pour the rest of the noodles, then sauce on top of chicken.

Finally, sprinkle cheese on top, and cover with foil.
(From bottom up, the layering should be sauce, noodles, chicken, sauce, noodles, sauce, cheese).

Then, bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. This is approximate because I just checked the chicken to make sure it was done - make sure there is no pink left in your chicken!

You really can't go wrong with this combo - it was delicious! Sorry for any ambiguity, however. As I said, I didn't even think about writing it down or keeping track until after we'd already eaten some of it! Again, if you have any questions, feel free to ask! Enjoy!