Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu

I really enjoy chicken cordon blue. But am rather intimidated with pounding chicken...just afraid that it wont work out...then I've just wasted chicken. not good in my book! But I found this recipe online and think I might check it out. With some slight tweeking, mostly I wont be making the sauce. I've had a bad experience with mustard when I was younger (evil older brother tricks!) and cannot stand it now. Instead I think what I will just make a quick cream of mushroom w/ milk type soup and call it good.

Any ideas as to this?

http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2011/06/chicken-cordon-bleu-the-easy-way.html

Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu
Printable Version with Picture
Printable Version
*Note: fresh bread crumbs here make all the difference. I save the heels of my bread stashed in the freezer for just a recipe like this when I need to grind up fresh bread crumbs quickly in my blender or food processor. Also, try to find really thick chicken breasts – it makes it easier to cut them in half lengthwise and still have a good-sized portion.
*Serves 6
For the Cordon Bleu:
3 large chicken boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in half length-wise (to form two thinner chicken breast cutlets)
12 slices deli ham
1 cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 to 1/2 pound thinly sliced swiss cheese
For the Parmesan-Dijon Cream Sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules (or 1 bouillon cube, crushed)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
Lightly grease a 9X13-inch baking dish with cooking spray and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine the bread crumbs and melted butter. Set aside.
Lay the cut chicken breasts in a single layer in the 9X13-inch dish. Layer each chicken breast with two slices of ham and top with 2 slices of swiss cheese, shingling across the chicken breast to make sure the entire chicken breast is covered with ham and cheese. Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the top of the chicken.
Bake the chicken for 30-35 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through completely, the cheese is bubbling and the bread crumbs are golden.
While the chicken bakes, in a medium saucepan, melt the 2 tablespoons butter. Stir in the flour, whisking constantly, while cooking the flour/butter mixture for 1-2 minutes. Slowly pour in the milk while whisking quickly. Stir in the chicken bouillon granules and salt. Whisk constantly over medium heat until the mixture begins to simmer and thicken, about 3-5 minutes. Once the sauce has bubbled and thickened, remove from heat and stir in the mustard, Worcestershire sauce and Parmesan cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted. Keep the sauce warm until the chicken is finished baking.
Serve each chicken cordon bleu portion with warm sauce.

YAY FOR MONEY!!!

Since I have started working again...I will have money again come Friday, and one of my first stops will be the grocery store (after paying off my cell phone and getting tabs for the car, you know...the fun stuff) and I don't think I have ever been sooo excited to by food, but after living for a month on basically mashed potatoes it will happen. So this is what I'm asking for and the main point to the blog. send me recipies!!!!! Links are good but this way I can have just one place I can look and make a grocery list and all that. I am very excited to start really cooking again, I haven't done much a couple meals in the crock pot (bbq and teryaki chicken both which turned out excellent!) I'm not going to be too picky although I still will be on a budget and prefer frozen to fresh fruits or veggies (that way they last longer and I don't feel like im wasting money if I have to throw it away. Still no oranges and hopefully nothing that will take more than an hour to make. But I will be checking back posts for recipies also. I'm hoping to try like a chicken and dumplings meal and maybe attempting to make fish (it would be better if I don't make the house smell like it afterwards though, I think my brother would KILL me!) so you if have any good recipies for that or tips send them my way! Thank you!!!!

Been AWOL lately...

So I haven't posted in awhile, multiple reasons....first I was petting sitting at another home, a couple weeks ago, so just spent the week living off of PB&Js and breakfast burritos.

Then, this week, we had an unexpected upset, and I havent been interested in eating let alone cooking. Yesterday was the first day I did any type of cooking, and that was just pasta-roni out of the box...

Also, I need to get to the store and pick up a few things. But hopefully next week I'll be able to use what I have in the house and finally test out my crock pot!

So...I've been working on it...

Mostly for the week its been a lot of burgers, I LOVE how quick they are to make! I just need to come up with some ideas for variety...or better yet actually follow some of those ideas.

Although, yesterday I made breakfast which included homemade hash browns, eggs and toast. I know the eggs and toast arent that big of a deal but I'm rather proud I can make hash browns, after just pulling a potato from the bag :)

Then, tonight, or I guess last night since its after midnight, I made dinner, which was bbq chicken that I made on the George Foreman (and didn't burn it like I did last time!), Homemade mashed potatoes, some broccoli and cheese (the Green Giant Just for One things) and two pieces of texas toast (That I happened to buy from Winco...) so half of it was homemade, which to me is FANTASTIC! considering at the start of 2011 I was afraid to cook chicken, had no idea how to do anything with a potato, aside from popping it in the microwave.

I do think for now I'm going to stick with the G.F. as much as possible, at least for chicken, I've tried broiling it a few times and it doesn't work...maybe theres something I'm not getting but for now, I'm happy with what I know. I'm slowly adding a new skill here or there, but, and I know most people 15+ years older than me had to do this, I can't imagine trying to cook without the internet! It gives me ideas, variations, alternative ways to doing something..."Oh, you dont have _______ just use ____" stuff like that. Now the question is...What will I cook for the weekend???

Recipies to try

So, thanks to the idea of my cousin of purchasing a mini slow cooker, I happened to find one today at Goodwill for $6. Gave it a little test with some water and it seems to heat it up well enough as far as I'm concerned. So, I now have more recipes I can try...if anyone is interested, I'm going to post the links to the recipes I want to try. I'm also asking for any ideas or links people have to post here :)


Slow-cooker

Slow Cooker Chicken Pineapple Teriyaki 
http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=900626

Crockpot Chicken Dinner
http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1026130


Marinara And Mozzarella Lasagna
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07095/775239-34.stm


I also found a book online, warning it is a PDF
http://www.yummycrockpotrecipes.com/support-files/2qt-crockpot-recipes.pdf


George Foreman

Grilled Hawaiian Panini
http://www.flickr.com/photos/parkerman/4766084559/


I will have more later. However, after donating platelets for the first time in over two years...I've forgotten how much energy it takes out of me.

Chicken w/ cream of mushroom soup and potatoes

I've decided it's so much nicer and easier to cook when I'm not just getting home from work and my only thought isn't "I must get food NOW or I will starve!"

I've still tried making my own food though. breakfast burritos (I adore them) and lots of burgers, just because they are so quick.

But, since I had time today, I decided I would try something different and all I knew was I wanted to use up some potatoes. So I took a look at supercook.com, which is a site where you put in the items in your pantry and it gives you recipes, while looking it up I found recipes for chicken w/cream of mushroom soup and potatoes. Which took some trial and error....it says broil for 40 minutes...but after 20 minutes the top was starting to brown a little to much and the bottom was still totally pink. so half on one side, half of the other, and since its still cooking we'll see how it turns out and hopefully it does. And I also plan on including some broccoli and cheese and texas toast to it too :)


So, the chicken cooked through fine :) the potatoes not so much, some were perfect, although most were still pretty tough, I'd say 25% were good...I'm not sure if it was the size of certain chunks, where they were in the baking dish, it was more of a bowl and I don't know if the ones that cooked on top or on the bottom turned out better....however lessons learned for next time. :)

I would like some more mini casseroles to try as well...a chicken dish with a side cooked underneath it...I guess I'll have to do some more research :)

http://www.food.com/recipe/chicken-w-cream-of-mushroom-potatoes-31807

Sunday the 12th and Monday the 13th...

So yesterday for lunch I made a couple more burgers, I love that I was able to make them in the time it would have normally taken me to go somewhere and get a burger (although I do need to get some more toppings...I would like to put something other than just pickle and ketchup on it...maybe some lettace and tomato....and possibly bacon) Although for dinner, I did cave (evil southpark making it look soo good) and had KFC.

Then today, when I got home from work, I made a couple hotdogs on the G.F., not that impressive but still another thing I made myself...although of course, my idiot self, bought the hotdogs but no buns, so it was a little bland, although depending on how I feel later...might make some nachos...we shall see!

Maybe tomorrow, I shall try something new with chicken breast, any ideas??