Chicken Broccoli Casserole

4 cups cooked chopped chicken
5 cups frozen broccoli florets
2 cups frozen peas
2 14.5 oz. cans cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup Best Foods mayo
3 T. lime/lemon juice

1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
additional seasoning- salt, pepper, etc.

Mix above ingredients together in a large bowl. Stuff mixture into a gallon sized freezer ziploc bag and flatten/remove excess air to freeze. At serving time, thaw, then reheat in an oven proof 9 x 13 serving dish. Remove to add additional seasoning and 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese, then return to oven for additional 10-15 minutes, long enough to melt the cheese. Enjoy over rice:)

Additional notes:
If mixing in bulk to trade meals, I would let the broccoli thaw for maybe 10 min. before starting to put everything together. If it's a little softer, it's easier to measure and mix. I also chopped my chicken relatively small for easier mixing. This kind of casserole is also easy to substitute ingredients. I usually blend up half a can or so of white or great northern beans to substitute for one of the cans of soup. This increases the protein, iron, and fiber in the dish- and no one knows! You can also substitute sour cream, more mayo, or a different creamy soup. The taste will vary a little according to your liking.

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Chicken Broccoli Casserole is on it's way!

I'm in for Saturday!

HI Beauties,

Sorry for the late response. I am coming on Saturday- and, of course have NOT yet decided what I am bringing. That Mexican Filling looks awesome:) What are you going to pair it with for serving? Or, are we still doing that "entire meal" concept? Oh, I better go re-read old posts.

I'll be back with a post so you know what I am bringing!

Mexican Chicken & Black Bean Filling

Okay ladies! This is what I'm making for this Sat. It think it looks good and there are some options on how to serve it. I hope it's good! There's a link at the bottom for the site I got it from...

Chicken & Black Bean Taco Filling

· 2 T. Extra-virgin olive oil

· 1 1/2 lb. chicken (boneless or not, whatever you have on hand)

· 1 t. cumin

· 1/2 t. salt

· 1/4 t. pepper

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

· 1/2 lb. fully cooked black beans (1 can or less)

· 1 bag frozen corn (1 can)

· 1 large jars salsa (or 2 regular sized jars)

· 1/2 c. water

· 2 t. cumin

· 1 t. chili powder

· 1 t. salt

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Season chicken with 1 t. cumin, 1/2 t. salt & 1/4 t. pepper. Add chicken to skillet. Cook for 5-8 minutes, flip, cover skillet and continue cooking until chicken is fully cooked.
2. Remove chicken from skillet. Shred meat and return to pan. Add all remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

*This should make enough for 3 meals, depending on how much you use. It freezes perfectly in a freezer bag and thaws overnight in the refrigerator.

This is great as a taco filling, but there are so many other ways to use it too.

Here are a few of our favorites:
Chicken & Black Bean Nachos

Quesadillas

Mexican Lasagna

And…

· Served over rice with shredded cheese on top

· Mexican pizza topping

· Mexican French bread pizzas (So good!!)

· With scrambled eggs for breakfast burritos

· Taco salad

· Thinned with 1 can tomato sauce and 1 1/2 c. chicken stock, plus some extra spices and tortilla strips for a chicken tortilla soup

http://stolenmomentscooking.com/mexican-chicken-black-bean-filling/

Hello!

Check out our older posts for 'Rules of the Game", and if you think you'd like to join us in the future, be sure to leave a comment and we'll keep you posted!  Though it doesn't look like it here, I believe we have 5 or 6 ready to swap on Sat, but if you're interested, let us know and we'll see what we can do. Thanks for stopping by!
-The Swapping Beauties :)

French Toast Casserole! My secrets exposed :)

This one's so good I almost don't want to share!  I found it at Freezer Chicks - thanks Amanda!

French Toast Casserole

1 loaf Italian bread
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 C sugar, divided
1/2 t vanilla (or almond) extract
1/2 C pecans, optional (I opted out)
4 eggs (I used 5 for extra protein)
2 C milk
1 t cinnamon (or more!)
2 T melted butter

Cut bread into 1 inch cubes. Place half of the bread cubes in a greased 9 x 13 baking pan. Melt cream cheese (carefully!) in the microwave. Stir several times. This takes about 2 minutes. Stir half the sugar and all of the extract into the cream cheese. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the bread cubes. It will not completely cover them. Sprinkle nuts over the cream cheese layer. (I will be giving the nuts on the side for you to sprinkle on top). Top with remaining bread cubes. Beat together the remaining sugar, eggs, milk, cinnamon, and melted butter. Pour the egg and milk mixture over the bread cubes. Refrigerate overnight to bake the next morning OR slide the pan into a two-gallon freezer bag and freeze.(I froze it in a disposable 13x9 pan that I then baked it in) Thaw completely to cook. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until browned. Let sit at room temp for 5 minutes before cutting. Top with syrup or fruit toppings.

 You can find it here @ http://freezerchicks.blogspot.com/2009/04/french-toast-casserole.html

For the topping I loosly followed this recipe I found on allrecipes.com. You can link to it directly here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Supreme-Strawberry-Topping/Detail.aspx. I just substituted the other fruit mixture for strawberries on some of the topping and did everything to taste.  And now you know all of my secrets!

Supreme Strawberry Topping

Ingredients

• 1 pint strawberries, cleaned and stemmed
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Cut about 1/3 of the strawberries in half. In a saucepan over medium high heat, combine strawberries, sugar and vanilla. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. In a blender, puree about 1/3 of sauce, then mix back into remainder. Store in refrigerator.