Tag Archives: noodles

Chicken dishes, Hearty casseroles, pasta dishes, quick and easy, Weeknight Meals, Weeknight wonder

French Onion Chicken Noodle casserole and faith, love and good food

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A few things here. It’s been a few months since I have posted a new recipe and for that I am apologetic. I find it hard to believe that anyone cares that much about my blathering and rambling and yet, I feel tremendous guilt when I have been away too long. I call it good ole Catholic guilt but it’s for sure a catch 22.  I admit I feel a certain level of responsibility to you all. Though I am well aware no one is basing their entire life or menu on me posting a recipe or not, I consider my readers to be my friends and I do feel responsible for my friends. So since we are friends I will apologize for being so absent lately but I will hope you allow me some grace because you know how deep we can sink into life without even knowing it. And I have been thigh deep in LIFE. Here’s a little glimpse into what we’ve been doing and that’s not the half of it…

4 kiddos means lots going on sometimes

This is just the stuff going on that you can see. That I can even verbalize. There have been other things that just come with life. I lost my aunt in April (my cousin Robin’s mom, my mom’s sister) and that was hard.

from left to right…my mom, momee, and aunt rebecca (circa 2003)

 When I sit down and consider all the things that have happened, it is a little hard to believe some of it actually is real. And I forgive myself for not sitting down to write about a recipe because I have been doing good to get supper on the table.

 But here I am, and I am going to give you a recipe that fits the bill for the ultimate comfort dish. No matter the season, no matter the day…this dish aims to please. My friend Amy from my hometown (there are lots of Aimee/Amys  from Alex…and I proudly call a bunch of them my friends.) One day she shared this recipe via Facebook and it looked so good I just had to try it. Now I could just share that recipe but I like to write about the recipes that I love on my blog and that in no way makes them my recipes. This recipe can be found here…http://www.plainchicken.com/2014/09/french-onion-chicken-noodle-casserole.html#CEeoggWZZxhI7sqZ.99

It’s a real winner my friends. I think the actual phrase is winner, winner chicken dinner! It is so good. Now I kind of tweaked it a little to make it suit our tastes but it is just the bomb. The stuff as my good friend Lisa is fond of saying. This is the stuff! You make some field peas with it and some warm buttered King’s Hawaiian rolls and you have yourself one heck of a supper. Big Daddy went bananas. He loved it and I did too. It’s one of those dishes you think about and have to make it. It’s that good. 

French Onion Chicken Noodle Casserole 

Stuff you need~

4 cups cooked chopped chicken

2 cans cream of chicken soup

12 ounces container French Onion Dip

4 ounces sour cream 

1 cup cheddar cheese (I used the Kraft triple cheddar with a touch of cream cheese) 

12 ounces egg noodles

1 cup crushed French fried onions

What to do with the stuff~

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Cook your noodles until they are cooked al dente. So they are cooked but not mushy. No one wants that. 

Now stir the soup, the dip, the sour cream, your chicken (insert rotisserie chicken here), and cheese. 


Now combine this mixture with the cooked noodles. Add all of this to your 9’x 13 dish that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Top with French fried onions. Bake 25-30 minutes. 

creamy, filling, savory…this dish has it all!!

Most of all, I hope you all enjoy this as much as we did. I want you to know how much I appreciate you continuing to read my posts, for sharing my posts, for commenting and interacting, for waiting for me to come back around. Life is so full of lessons and I am on a journey to learn them. Difficult or not. And man some of them have been difficult here larely. I am grateful to be able to share my journey of faith, hope and good food with all of you. Much love and many good meals to you all.~AMB 

life is a journey and that is fine as long as some of it can be on a boat on the Sabine River

And because I just love our dogs…let me share what they have been up to…our pups, Roy and Idaho are a big part of our fam!! 


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quick and easy, Weeknight wonder

Weeknight wonder #1! Southern Living creamy chicken and noodles

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First of all, dispel any notion of any previous recipes for chicken and noodles. Even if you love chicken and noodles, this is a different recipe. It’s like sassy, saucy chicken and noodles. They are like traditional chicken and noodle’s sassy older sister with a mysterious air. Yes. The familiarity of chicken noodles yet with an added something. My mother in law, Deb, makes what my father in law calls dead man noodles. They call them this because she makes them when someone passes away and brings them to the grieving family. They are very delicious and a recipe she has made often. They are comforting and make a ton. I enjoy them. So when I came across this recipe several years ago in Southern Living magazine, I would have passed it by except, this recipe was in a section about meals with rotisserie chicken. I stopped short (that’s a nod to Seinfeld, yes. I love rerun comedies. So said like Frank Cosfanza…”I stopped short!” Lol!) and did a double take. What? No boiling a chicken all day? Well sign me up! At that time I distinctly remember having 3 little bitty kiddos under foot all day long and getting any meal on the table was a struggle most evenings. So when I found this and BD really loved it and the kiddos kind of ate it, I thought score!
This week, I decided to post recipes I consider weeknight wonders. Meals you can either prep ahead of time or throw together quickly using shortcuts. Who does not love that? I like to cook, but I love a good shortcut! AND the list of ingredients is so small, I can recall it easily. After 4 kids and lots of sleep deprivation, that is saying so much. This meal definitely comes together quickly and you can change it up a bit to suit your families tastes.~AMB

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not so long ago, there were 3 instead of 4. Home all day and I cherish every crazy moment. They were 3, 2, and about 7 months…2007

Southern Living Creamy chicken and noodles

Stuff you need~

8 ounces of wide egg noodles
3 cups cooked chicken, cut into small pieces (insert ROTISSERIE chicken here…just pick it up at the store and debone it! Done and done!)
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning packet mix (yes the Good Seasons stuff…or store brand)
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup heavy whipping cream
Fresh parsley (the dried stuff will do in a pinch. Promise)

What to do with the stuff~

Boil your noodles and drain them. Put the noodles back in the pot. Add the butter and toss noodles to coat. It gets hard now so pay attention.
I am totally kidding it’s so easy that it should be wrong. Ok sorry for my little foray into pranking y’all.
Anyway, noodles are coated in butter. It’s all good. Throw in that cut up chicken. Stir. So now, you toss in your 1 tablespoon of Italian dressing mix. NOT THE WHOLE PACKAGE OF IT!!! Next, throw in the grated Parm. And then the parsley. You are gently tossing to coat this whole time. Now, pour in that good ole heavy whipping cream. Stir it in. Oh yeah. It looks good right? Yes so now, over a medium to low heat, heat this up until it thickens a bit. It is so fabulous. Feels like you really did it up, and yet that wasn’t bad at all. Your family gets fed and you are all awesome mom. Or dad. Check you being all awesome!

*If you want to get real fancy like, you can toss in a cup of frozen peas and pieces of ham instead of the cut up chicken.

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these ain’t your grandmother’s chicken and noodles!

pasta dishes, quick and easy, vegetarian

Thai noodle salad

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I am not sure if I have shared with my blog readers the depth of my obsession with Thai food. I love it. Like obsessed with it. If I could marry Thai food I would. But then I would eat it and be sad and alone again. So I will stick with Big Daddy. My love of Thai started with the Thai chicken pizza at Schlotzsky’s. Oh so delicious. When I was pregnant with Ben, I craved those. And then many years later, one of my dear friends, Betsy (yes we have discussed her before) introduced me to a local place called Dahn’s noodle house. It is one of those hole in the wall places that might be easy to overlook. I had seen it and wondered about, but one day Betsy’s husband went to eat there and brought her back some. And later that week we had this conversation when she told me about it…”yes that kind of shady looking place past the liquor store. Yes the one we always wonder about. Yes it is awesome. Matt said it was packed for lunch on Saturday.” So she and I hit up Dahn’s noodle house the next and it was as they say…on. Oh so on. Pad Thai. Peanut chicken. Spicy lemongrass chicken. Yes, yes, and yesss. “I need a t-25 sir, and make it snappy!!!” Mommy likes. Mommy loves. It was love at first bite. We went again and again. We brought friends. “Yes come with us. Yes that kind of shady looking place past the liquor store. Yes the food is awesome.” It is like a little secret in Shreveport that is not so secret anymore. It is usually packed and I went in there the other day to pick up some pad Thai because I had to have some and the waiters were wearing fancy vests. They used to just wear jeans or what have you. That is a true indication that the secret is out. It is a great restaurant in Shreveport. When Betsy and I used to go on a weekly, I mean monthly, basis there was a hammock off to the side where their baby would nap. It was the cutest thing and just so quaint. Certainly a conversation starter. Lol.

So back to the business hand, Thai noodle salad. The original recipe is called Thai chicken pasta salad but y’all. I just could not put the chicken in it. I wanted straight noodles. Just cool, creamy noodle perfection with a hint of crunch coming from the veggies. And some siracha sauce to give it a kick. Mmmm. Oh yeah, Cajun mama likey her Thai noodles, however odd that may sound. I should be an ambassador. I promote all cultures on my blog. I love foods from all ethnicities and if I can cook it, I will. The ambassador thing was a joke ok. Just in case anyone thinks I am going all Gwyneth Paltrow over here, making stupid statements that have no basis in reality. Anyway, apparently I pinned this recipe a while back and I was scrolling the other day and thought “oh my yes. I need to make that stuff.”
The link to that is here…http://www.bhg.com/blogs/delish-dish/2014/03/26/thai-chicken-pasta-salad-recipe/. And so make it I did. And it was good. Cold, creamy, peanutty, with just enough crunch. Yes. I did not add the chicken. Check out the original post if you want to do that. I am telling you how I did it. It was Dahn’s noodle garden perfect. If you are Thai loving fool like me, it would be a safe bet to say you will enjoy this recipe. ~AMB

Thai noodle salad

Stuff you need~

2-3 ounces packages Ramen noodles
3/4 peanut butter
3/4 cup lite coconut milk
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (the fresher the better)
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper OR red pepper flakes (this is another obsession Betsy started for me)
2 carrots, peeled and finely diced
1 small seedless cucumber, peeled and finely diced*
6 green onions, finely sliced

*if you cannot find seedless, just seed it. Slice horizontally once you have peeled it. Take a spoon and scape all the seeds out. It’s pretty easy.

What to do with the stuff~

Bring 4 cups or so of water to a boil in a medium size pot. Break the dry ramen noodles up and toss them into the boiling water. Discard the seasoning packets or save for another use. After you add the broken up noodles, remove the pot from the heat. Just let the noodles sit there.
Now, in a large bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, coconut milk, lime juice, sugar and the seasonings. Now add the carrot , green onion and cucumber to the peanut butter sauce. Stir to coat.
Drain your noodles, rinse well with cold water. Add the drained noodles to the sauce and stir gently. Spoon into some bowls. Sprinkle with some extra crushed red pepper flakes if you want. Take liberty with the Siracha sauce. I love that stuff. Almost as much as I love this noodle salad.

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even the bottle just makes me glad to be alive

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oh for the love of Thai!