Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole

Posted by Crystal Kellner Thursday, September 10, 2020

Looking for a quick dinner idea? Cheesy chicken and rice is the perfect casserole for the busy family during the week. I love these simple ingredients! Comfort food at its finest for everyone in the family.

chasing saturdays, cheesy chicken and rice casserole, easy dinner, easy meal

How are you adjusting to the kids being back in school? Have you found your new normal?

Are you smarter than a fifth grader? How many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches have you made so far? My pantry seems to run of out snacks before mid-week.

Coming home from work, nothing is better than preparing an easy meal, from start to finish for the family. If you are lucky, you might have some leftovers.

I love this casserole, and it makes plenty of leftovers. Kids are taking more meals to school now, so I need all the help I can get!

How to make Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole

RECIPE
Print Recipe Here
3 cups cooked chicken breasts
3 cups cooked rice
1 tsp minced garlic
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 cup flour
2 cups chicken stock
4 cups grated cheese/divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Lightly grease 9 x 13 casserole dish with spray

In a large pan, melt butter and stir in minced garlic. Cook over medium heat for 30 seconds. Add flour, garlic salt, pepper, garlic powder, and whisk to combine. Add in chicken stock and whisk until sauce boils and thickens.

Add shredded cheese and stir until melted.

Add cooked rice and cooked shredded chicken breast.

Pour into 9x13 pan and top with additional cheese and bake for 20 minutes.

Have you Tried this Recipe? Tag me Today!

Mention @chasing.saturdays and tag #chasingsaturdays!

Tips on making Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole

I loved using Marble Jack shredded cheese, but use your favorite
Add your favorite vegetables, like peas or brocolli.
Use a rotisseri chicken and shred, this will cut down cooking and prepping time.

This post is sponsored by the Glass Barn, Indiana Soybean and Corn Farmers, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Crystal Kellner

13 Comments

Wednesday, September 09, 2020

casserole Casserole Recipes Corn crock pot Crok Pot recipes family food garden Green Beans Hamburger potato

Crock Pot Cowboy Hamburger Soup

Posted by Crystal Kellner Wednesday, September 09, 2020

Crock Pot Cowboy Hamburger Soup is a hearty dish. There will be plenty of leftovers for your family. I love that the ingredients in this soup came from our garden and the beef came from a local farmer.

We planted a big garden this spring. We have spent a lot of weekends canning green beans, tomato juice, stewed tomatoes, sweet corn. It was a lot of work, but worth it in the end. We have a lot of canned goods to enjoy this winter. I love adding tomato juice and stewed tomatoes.

Chasing Saturday Soups:

Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup

Nana's Potato Soup

Instant Pot Lasagna Soup

Crock Pot Hampburger Soup

Crock Pot Chicken Enchilada Soup

Instant Pot Beef Vegetable Stew

Instant Pot Sweet Potato Chipotle Chili

Instant Pot Chugwater Chili

Crock Pot Cowboy Hamburger Soup PRINT RECIPE

Ingredients For Crock Pot Cowboy Hamburger Soup

2 lbs ground beef

6 potatoes

2 cups frozen sweet corn

1 quart tomato juice

1 quart stewed tomatoes

1 quart green beans

2 cans chili beans

Salt and pepper

4 tablespoons sugar

How to Make Crock Pot Cowboy Hamburger Soup

Brown and drain the ground beef

Peel potatoes and cut into cubes

Spray crock pot with cooking spray

Add beef and potatoes in the crock pot

Add corn, green beans, tomato juice, stewed tomatoes, chili beans, salt and pepper.

Add 2- 4 tsp sugar for taste

This post is sponsored by the Glass Barn, Indiana Soybean and Corn Farmers, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Crystal Kellner

4 Comments

Thursday, April 09, 2020

4-H bacon dinner Easy Meal easy recipe family Farm farmers grandma Ham ham loaf oven pigs pork producers recipe sausage

Ham Loaf

Posted by Crystal Kellner Thursday, April 09, 2020

Family recipes are most treasured. They involve a tattered recipe card and many memories. My grandma would make Ham Loaf for many family gatherings. Celebrating Easter and Christmas as a family, sometimes there is leftover ham. This is a perfect pork recipe for leftover ham.

Ham Loaf, Pork, Easter, Christmas, Chasing Saturdays, Recipe

Farming is a very essential industry, especially this time of the year. I am sure you have seen farmers working in the field in the past week. They are anxiously preparing the soil, discing, applying anhydrous ammonia, getting ready to plant. This year will be business as usual for farmers, they will go to work every day and make sure this year's crop is planted on time. Farmers faced many hardships last year, with a very wet spring. They hope for drier conditions, and a larger window of opportunity to plant.

Since my kids are now home for the remaining of the school year, they are spending more time on the farm with their grandfather. Today they ran outside extra early to meet one of the guys my husband use to work with at the fertilizer plant. He was delivering tanks to a field right behind our house. It had been a few years since Charlie had seen my kids, and he said they had really grown! My daughter and son have spent time learning how to operate the tractor, and discing and helping when needed.

Not only are traditional farmers very busy, but so are pork producers. Pork production is Indiana's top third commodity. There are more than 3,000 pork farmers in Indiana, and produces over 4 million hogs a year. Pork producers are focused to raise safe and nutritious pork the grocery store shelves. I will confess my favorite cut of pork is bacon. Our family can consume a pound of bacon so fast on Saturday mornings! As a 4-H family that raises show hogs, we care for our pigs, spoil them, and even feed them special treats like marshmallows or jelly beans!

The sauce bakes into the ham loaf, and there was plenty of sauce left over in the pan. You can use a loaf pan, or a larger pan, and just form the pork into a loaf form.

I love seeing recipes with my grandmothers handwriting. I asked mom to send me a picture of the recipe. To me, it looks well used, old, and I am now curious who Martha McMahon is. I don't think grandma missed cooking many meals for her husband and son who worked on the farm every day for lunch. Grandma Patty only had her recipe box to turn to for recipe ideas, now we have so many more resources to discover new recipes.

If you have leftover ham, the best way to grind it, is to grind it up in a food processor. Our family is used to preparing large meatloaf's, so I made this ham loaf bigger for our family of five. You can adjust as needed for your family. We always make sure to have left overs.

www.chasing-saturdays.com

PRINTABLE RECIPE

HAM LOAF Ingredients For Ham Loaf

½ lb. ground pork

1 lb ground ham

½ cup milk

1 ½ cups Corn Flakes

SAUCE

¾ cup brown sugar

½ tsp dry mustard

½ cup Cider Vinegar

¼ cup Water

How to Make Ham Loaf

Mix ground pork, ground ham, milk and corn flakes and form into a loaf.
Place loaf in a casserole dish or loaf pan, leaving room for the sauce
Mix the ingredients for the sauce in a pan over medium heat.
Heat on stove until mixture thickens and sugar completely dissolves.
Pour mixture over ham loaf and bake at 350 for one hour.
Internal temperature should read 160 degrees.

Chasing Saturday Pork recipes we love:
Instant Pot Bacon Ranch Potatoes
Crock Pot Pork Carnitas
Crock Pot Pulled Pork
Crock Pot Cowboy Casserole
Grilled Pork Chops
Fried Pork Chops
Crock Pot Shoups Pork BBQ Sliders
Pressure Cooker BBQ Pork Ribs
Cheesy Ham Hashbrown Casserole

This post is sponsored by Indiana Pork but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Crystal Kellner

3 Comments

Thursday, December 20, 2018

4-H dinner family food frying pork pork chops recipe swine

Fried Pork Chops

Posted by Crystal Kellner Thursday, December 20, 2018

Fried Pork Chops takes pork chops to another level. The crispy breading adds more flavor and keeps the meat very tender. I love this recipe, a family recipe I hope yours will enjoy, too.

Special meals can be remembered forever. One special meal we have had for a family growing up is now one of my husband’s favorite meals. He was first introduced to Fried Pork Chops after our daughter was born. My mom spent some time with us at our house after Macie was born. I was spoiled with laundry services and meals prepared. Macie was born right before Christmas, so it definitely was a special time of the year.

Macie is celebrating her 14th birthday this month. She has enjoyed showing pigs before she was old enough to join 4-H. Each year she becomes more responsible in her swine project. She is very interested in learning the feeding plans and monitors their health daily. All three kids spend a lot of time in the barn and get to know their animals.

Mom made her fried pork chops and my husband was won over with this meal.

FRIED PORK CHOPS

PRINT RECIPE

Ingredients for Fried Pork Chops

6-8 Bone in Pork Chops
½ cup of vegetable oil
2 cups of all purpose flour
1 tsp steak seasoning
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Salt and Pepper to taste

How to make Fried Pork Chops

In a large skillet, heat the cooking oil over medium heat.
Rinse and pat pork chops with a paper towel.
Add flour, steak seasoning, salt and pepper to a gallon size bag. Seal and mix all ingredients.
Check the skillet, make sure the oil is hot enough to cook pork chops.
Add one pork chop at a time to the mixture and coat, set aside on a plate.
Cook chops 3-4 minutes on each side, checking temperature, 160 degrees.
Remove from skillet and place on a clean plate.

Notes on making Fried Pork Chops

Use an electric skillet if you have one on hand.

If you have an electric skillet, this is the best way to make the fried pork chops, it keeps the mess off the stove. If you don’t have one, then use a deep pan on the stove.

We normally make 6-8 fried pork chops, they also make great leftovers. You can dip them in BBQ or ketchup, kids do request strange things!

4-H Posts:
Top 10 Things 4-H has Taught our Family

What does 4-H Mean to You?

Pork Recipes:
Crock Pot Pulled Pork BBQ
Crock Pot Pork Carnitas
Crock Pot Shoups Pork BBQ Sliders
Pressure Cooker BBQ Pork Ribs

This post sponsored by the Indiana Pork Producers Association.

Crystal Kellner

10 Comments

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Canning family food garden Peaches salsa Summer tomatoes

Peach Salsa

Posted by Crystal Kellner Tuesday, June 26, 2018

My favorite part about having a garden in the summer, is growing different types of tomatoes, because we enjoy canning tomato juice, stewed tomatoes and salsa. When tomatoes become in abundance, I make salsa. We enjoy our homemade salsa all year long.

I have tried peach salsa before, and I wanted to try to make it in my kitchen. Peaches add a sweetness to the tomatoes, I love the combination!

We love peach season, because we love Fresh Glazed Peach Pie, try this recipe!

I know Mrs. Wages Salsa mix is a great base to work with. I like to add MORE fresh ingredients from my garden as well.

I like to add all ingredients to the blender and pulse until they are all chopped and in equal pieces. You can make it chunkier, to your preference.

PEACH SALSA PRINT RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

Mrs. Wages Salsa Mix 4 oz.

6 pounds fresh Tomatoes

2 cups peaches

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 green pepper

1-2 jalapenos

½ cup distilled white vinegar

DIRECTIONS

Wash tomatoes, cut out cores.
Scald tomatoes in boiling water for 1-2 minutes, or until skins on tomatoes are starting to peel.
Remove from boiling water and add to ice bath. Remove skins. Cut tomatoes into quarters.
Pulse tomatoes in blender (optional)
Add garlic, peppers, and onion in processor and pulse.
Add Peaches to blender and pulse.
Measure out 5 pints of tomatoes, and place in large saucepan.
Add 4 oz Mrs. Wages Salsa Mix.
Add vinegar
Heat to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Boil for 10 minutes. Salsa is ready to can or freeze, or serve and enjoy!

For more information on canning tomatoes, please read USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning.

I put salsa on grilled chicken breasts, and eggs for breakfast.

Crystal Kellner

5 Comments

Monday, June 11, 2018

agriculture family food grilling steaks

Grilling the Perfect T-Bone Steak

Posted by Crystal Kellner Monday, June 11, 2018

T-Bones is one of my favorite meals. Ever. All cuts of beef have always been my favorite, It is the perfect meal for me. It reminds me of growing up on a cattle farm, dad cooking on the grill, family dinners. T-Bone Steaks, when grilled correctly, are best off the grill at home. When you can enjoy T-Bone Steaks at home, it always feels like a special meal. This summer when the sweet corn is ready, that is a perfect combination with any cut of meat.

Ribeyes is one of my favorite meals. Ever. All cuts of beef have always been my favorite, It is the perfect meal for me. It reminds me of growing up on a cattle farm, dad cooking on the grill, family dinners. Ribeyes, when grilled correctly, are best off the grill at home. When you can enjoy Ribeyes at home, it always feels like a special meal. This summer when the sweet corn is ready, that is a perfect combination with any cut of meat. Chasing Saturdays

Kids won't normally order steaks when they are eating out, but mine will. When we eat steaks at home, table manners are thrown out the window, and you can find my teenage daughter eating steak with her hands. I know I need to work on her manners, or not worry about her going on any dates when she is age - appropriate (we have decided that is 30).

Grilling T-Bone steaks at home can save you money, because it is an expensive cut of meat to begin with. I have seen the prices of T-Bone steaks increase in the past years.

Why has the price of meat gone up?

There is a very strong demand for beef products. When demand goes up, so does the price. The consumer will see this all trickle down to an increased price at the grocery store. According to USDA, beef demand has gone up 12% from 2016-2017. Not only has the demand in the US gone up, Japan is demanding more of our meat, up 26%. In return, US cattlemen feel the pressure. Beef supplies are increasing, but at a slower pace than the demand.

How do I know when the grill is hot?

First important thing to do, is to clean your grates, and turn grill on to high heat. Heat the grill to 450-500F. Steaks cook best when you close the lid, and closely watch your steaks. How soon you turn the steaks depends on the thickness and how well you would like them done.

Should I Grill with the Lid Open or Closed?Check out My Fearless Kitchen blog, where she explains if you should grill with the lid open or closed. I prefer to keep the grill lid closed.

What is the perfect temperature for steaks on the grill?

Steak Doneness	Remove from Grill at this Temperature	Final Cooked Temperature
Rare	130 to 135°F	130 to 140°F
Medium Rare	140°F	145°F
Medium	155°F	160°F
Well Done	165°F	170°F

Source: Internet

GRILLING THE PERFECT T-BONE STEAK

PRINT RECIPE

Preheat Grill 450 - 500 degrees.
Place your T-Bone steaks on a cookie sheet, and add steak seasonings, salt and pepper to taste.
Clean grill grates.
Place T-Bone steak on grill and cook 4-5 minutes per side.
Use a digital thermometer to determine internal temperature.
Place cooked T-Bone steak on clean platter.