Chicken And Rice Casserole Recipe

March 5th, 2007
Dine Without Whine's Weekly Newsletter
An Extension of our Menu Planning Service
www.dinewithoutwhine.com
Publisher ~ Christine Steendahl
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This Issue:

A Personal Note
Chicken and Rice Casserole Recipe
When You Have To Get Creative - Recipe Substitutions

A Personal Note

We were busy this week with the boys. Ryan had his last basketball game and practice. Now we’re moving to soccer season – both Ryan and Christian will be playing on two different teams so that should be crazy. We got Christian registered for Kindergarten. So far there are seven kids registered for his class. Nothing like small country town private school. This year there are only 10 in the Kindergarten class. I think he is going to love it, but at the orientation he was pretty shy. They go all day every day so that will be a big change. Saturday night I helped at a fundraiser dinner at school.

This week is Lutheran School Week, so they have different ways to dress each day – tomorrow is clash day. On Thursday they have a big open house – all day you can drop in and observe the different classes. I get to work at the book fair. Oh boy! Both Dane and Christian have bad coughs, so hopefully they will get rid of those soon.

I was just reading that the average last frost here is between April 21st and 28th. That seems so far away! I am looking forward to some nice spring weather. At least Daylight Savings Time is early this year – Next week, so don’t forget! We’ll be all changed over next time I write.

I have been in the decorating mood lately. I got some little wall stickiies online from Pottery Barn Kids for the bathroom and they turned out really cute. Then we are transforming Dane’s room now that he has his big boy toddler bed. The bed is car shaped, so we are doing race car theme. I am going to work tomorrow at getting the pink birdhouse wallpaper down (wish me luck!) so we can boy it up a bit in there. It should be really cute when it’s done. The transition to toddler bed was a breeze! The first night he came out a couple times, but ever since then he has slept just great – even at nap time he has been doing good.

Well, I’m off to spend some time with my hubby. I hope you are well.

Christine

“The Menu Mom”

www.themenumom.com

Recipe of the Week

Exerted from this week's family friendly menu plan and convenient grocery shopping list.

Have you tried our sample menu?

Chicken and Rice Casserole Recipe
Makes 6 servings
Prep: Cook chicken - I generally just throw it in a pot of boiling water. You can also use canned or previously frozen. Cook rice - if you don't have a rice cooker - it is a good investment! Thaw peas.

     2 celery ribs chopped
     1 small onion chopped
     1 tablespoon butter
     1 1/2 cups mayonnaise (do not substitute light or fat free in this recipe)
     1 can cream of chicken soup undiluted
     1 cup frozen green peas thawed
     1 tablespoon lemon juice
     1 teaspoon salt
     3 cups cooked chicken
     2 cups cooked rice
     1 cup crushed potato chips

1. In a small skillet, sauté celery and onion in butter until crisp-tender. Place in a large bowl.

2. Add the mayonnaise, soup, peas, lemon juice and salt. Stir.

3. Stir in the chicken and rice.

4. Transfer to a greased 11 x 7 inch baking dish.

5. Sprinkle with potato chips.

6. Bake un-covered at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until heated through.

Serve with Applesauce

This Weeks Top Five Referring Sites
(These sites have a link to DWW somewhere on their site and have sent the most visitors to www.dinewithoutwhine.com this week)

http://www.catholicmom.com/main
http://girltalk.blogs.com
http://www.mealmadness.com
http://www.nossgalenbaby.com/twins_resources.html
http://www.practicalhomemaking.com

Kitchen and Cooking Tips, Articles, And Product Reviews

When You Have To Get Creative - Recipe Substitutions

For many cooks, there are times when we don’t have the right ingredients on hand to cook our desired dish. However, don’t despair, there are usually other ingredients that can easily be substituted, saving the cook a trip to the store. Here are some tips.

Milk

Many recipes call for milk, if you find yourself out of milk or don’t have enough to complete a specific recipe, make sure you stock evaporated milk. Evaporated milk or reconstituted milk can be stored for long periods of time and once mixed with water and sometimes a drop of butter can easily taste fresh and delicious.

Baking Powder

If you don’t have baking powder on hand, use baking soda and a drop of buttermilk. For a tablespoon of double acting baking powder, substitute ¼ teaspoon of baking soda and a ½ cup of buttermilk.

Self Rising Flour

Self rising flour is easy to create at home, just mix one cup of all purpose flour with ¼ teaspoon of baking soda, ¼ teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

Butter Milk

Ran out of butter milk, easily make your own. You can substitute 1 cup of butter milk with 1 cup whole milk and a tablespoon of vinegar. You can also substitute 1 cup of butter milk with 2/3 cup of plain yogurt and 1/3 whole milk.

Garlic

Ran out of garlic, use garlic powder instead. About 1 clove equals 1/8 of a teaspoon of garlic powder.

Honey

You can easily substitute honey with sugar and water. 1 cup of honey equals about 1 and ¼ quarter cup of sugar and a ¼ cup of water.

Substituting Sugar

If you don’t have sugar on hand or would like to replace it due to health reasons, here are some tips:

Sugar can be substituted with maple syrup, corn syrup, brown sugar, honey and molasses. However, some recipes will require sugar or a sweetener and not syrup due to baking and texture requirements.

If you are trying to reduce your intake of sugar due to health concerns, look to the many sweeteners, sometimes called sugar substitutes on the market. They include, Sweet and Low, Splenda and Equal.