Chicken & Black Bean Quesadillas

Quesadillas,, I love them. So one afternoon I decided that since I had several multi-grain tortillas on hand and some Mexican cheese I would make some for my lunches at work for a few days.

You can use plain flour tortillas or multi-grain ones like I did
1 can chicken breast meat packed in water, drained and flaked
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 medium onion chopped finely
Ground Cumin to taste
Ground Coriander to taste
Cayenne powder to taste
2 cups Shredded Mexican Cheese

Saute the onion and chicken in a little olive oil. Cook until the onion is translucent and the chicken is heated through, stirring occasionally. Add the black beans; sprinkle with the seasonings. Spoon onto the tortillas and sprinkle with cheese. I got 4 quesadillas out of this.



Above, the cooked filling.



I made half Quesadilla since they were going to be for my lunch.



Once completed I wrapped them in foil. When I was ready for lunch at work all I had to do was unwrap them and heat them up. I had them with a side of sour cream.

Tuna Casserole

As a child I remember my mother making tuna casseroles for dinner. I remember them as being very dry and not very tasty. This recipe came out tasty and almost too moist. I think I'll add a little more pasta, or maybe a different type, next time. We thought it tasted better as leftovers than it did the first day.




cooked pasta or egg noodles- I used about 2 1/2 cups of macaroni
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 can of milk
1/2 cup of mayonnaise
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1 can peas-drained
1 can sliced mushrooms-drained
2 tuna-drained and flaked
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Mix everything together, except the cheese. Spoon into an 8x8 inch pan sprayed with Pam. Smooth out and top evenly with cheese. Bake at 350 until the cheese is melted and the edges are bubbling.



I used:
2 cans of tuna
1 can of soup
1 can of peas
1 can of mushrooms

Chicken Florentine Casserole

I wanted chicken for dinner one night so I searched the internet for a Chicken Florentine recipe. I found one at All Recipes.com and made a few minor changes to it.




4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup butter
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 can (10.75 oz) cream of mushroom soup
1 1/2 tsp dried Basil
1 1/2 tsp dried Oregano
1/2 cup half & half (I mixed heavy cream w/ 2% milk)
1/2 grated Parmesan cheese
2 cans (13.5 oz ea) spinach, drained and water squeezed out
1 can sliced mushrooms, drained
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Place the chicken on a baking sheet and bake for 20-30 minutes or until no longer pink and the juices run clear. Set aside.

Raise the oven temperature to 400.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan, over medium heat. While stirring constantly add the garlic, lemon juice, soup, basil, oregano, half & half and Parmesan cheese.

Evenly spread the spinach over the bottom of a greased 9x9 pan, top with the mushrooms. Pour HALF the sauce over the spinach & mushrooms; place the chicken in the pan and add the remaining sauce, Sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned.



What I did not mention above is that we love garlic in this house. Richard refers to it as a 4th food group. He is my sous chef and instead of 2 tablespoons of minced garlic he prepared an entire bulb. It was just a little too much. Otherwise the was very good. We each only ate 1/2 of a chicken breast with the spinach and sauce.

I Used:
1 can of soup
1 can of sliced mushrooms
2 cans of spinach

Chicken Pot Pie

As I mulled over what to do with so very many cans of veggies, soups, spaghetti sauce and beverage mixers (more on that later) I remembered that I had some leftover roast chicken in the freezer. It was a cold, dampy and rainy day so I decided to make a Chicken Pot Pie. My one comment is that I thought it was a bit dry but Richard thought it was perfect. For the crust you can use a refrigerated crust or make your favorite recipe. The dish I used was a 10" pie pan.

3 Cups Chicken, cut into bite size pieces
1 can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 can sliced carrots, drained
1 can peas, drained (I actually only used 1/2 of the can)

Place the chicken in a medium sized bowl. In a skillet add the mushrooms and carrots, stir occasionally until most of the liquid has been cooked out. Mix into the chicken. Add peas, mix again and place in greased 10" pie pan.

In a saucepan melt 1/4 cup butter;mix in 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 tsp dried thyme. Mix until smooth; pour in 1 can (14.5 oz) chicken broth and 2 chicken boullion cubes. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, then simmer for 2 minutes or until thickened. Pour over chicken and vegetables in pie pan.

Place crust on top; seal and cut slits in crust for steam to escape. Bake at 450 degrees until golden.



In then end I used:
1 can of carrots
1 can of sliced mushrooms
1 can of pease and
1 can of chicken broth.

Let's Get an Idea of What We Are Dealing With

Each of these three totes are at least half full of canned food. I mean asperagus, corn, creamed corn, spaghetti sauce, mushrooms and the list goes on.



Below is a shot looking into my hall pantry, or the blizzard pantry. The kitchen pantry (not pictured) is mostly everyday stuff.


Below is a shot of the hall pantry door. All those cans are soup, with maybe some chicken or beef broth mixed in.

Here We Go, Let The Adventure begin

A few months ago my other half, Richard and I took off for 8 months of sailing on our boat. Due to some well meant, but rather erroneous advice we arrived home with about 75% of our canned provisions still unused.

In addition to what we have left over from our sailing trip, we have a lot of food that we normally stock up on in case of a blizzard during the winter months. Yes, they can and do happen in our part of North Carolina. We actually had two this past winter.

So, in this blog I will post recipes and pictures of all the ways I am finding to use the food up. This does not include opening a can of vegetables and heating them up. That is just too mundane.

This picture above is only a portion of what I need to work my way through. Each of those crates holds about 32 cans, so roughly 96 cans above plus what I have in totes in another part of the house and what we have stored in our pantry.