Chef Lisa

After some experimentation, I’ve come up with a recipe that I like. I started with the Best Ever Muffins recipe, and added diced cooked chicken, cheese crumbles, and bacon. The basic batter is sweet, rather than savory, so I added some garlic powder. They turned out pretty good, and Matt takes one with him to work.

This recipe makes 6 jumbo sized muffins.

Chicken & Cheese Breakfast Muffins

 
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup diced cooked chicken
1 cup cheese crumbles
1/2 cup bacon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) and spray the jumbo muffin tin with no-stick cooking spray.

Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, garlic powder and sugar in a large bowl. Make a well in the center. In a small bowl or 2 cup measuring cup, beat egg with a fork. Stir in milk and oil. Pour all at once into the well in the flour mixture. Mix quickly and lightly with a fork until about half mixed.

Add in chicken, bacon and cheese and stir until all the dry ingredients are moistened. The batter should be lumpy.

Divide the batter equally between the six jumbo muffin cups and abke for about 25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

Tonight’s another No Recipe Day. Smoked Bratwurst with Peppers and Pasta is really just a fancy way to say sausage and noodles.

1 package smoked bratwurst
1 package frozen three bell pepper and onion mixture
red wine
1 – 28 oz can Italian tomato sauce (Meijer had it on sale)
8 oz. pasta (I’ve got penne and rotini in the cupboard, I’ll just grab whichever one I find first)

First thing, I get a large pot of water boiling to cook the pasta. I don’t add the salt until the water is boiling, then I cook the pasta until al dente. Typically, if a time range is listed for the pasta on the box – say, 8-10 minutes – I pick a time in the middle and it usually comes out perfect for my family’s tastes.

As soon as I turn on the water to cook the pasta, I start assembling the sauce.

The smoked brats are already cooked, so all you really need to do is heat them through. I slice them up, either into rounds or on the bias (depending on how fancy I’m feeling at the time), and fry them up (with a little bit of olive oil) in a pot large enough to hold everything when I’m finished cooking. When the sausage is nicely browned on either side, I take it out of the pot and set it aside. I throw the frozen peppers and onions into the pot, sprinkle them with a little bit of salt, then put the lid on the pot. Turn the heat down to medium, and let cook for about 10 minutes. Take the lid off the pot and, stirring occasionally, cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, until the onions get a bit of color.

At that point I throw the sausage back into the pot, stir it all up again, and let it cook for another minute or two. I now put in a couple of glugs (yes, a very scientific measurement – usually comes out to about 1/4 cup) of red wine in, and let it cook for a minute or so. Then I pour in the tomato sauce, give it all a really good stir, then set the stove to medium low and let it simmer until the pasta is done.

When the pasta is done, I drain it, put it into the pot with the sauce, mix it all up and then serve.

Pretty simple, really, and one of my kids’ favorite meals.

I’ve turned off the ability to register here at Chef Lisa because of spam issues. I’ll be turning it back on at some future date.

Finally, another edition of Menu Monday. Here’s what I have planned for this week. Many of the meals I’m preparing simply don’t have recipes – I just throw the stuff together.

Sunday: Lisa’s Continental Beef, served with egg noodles and salad

Monday: bratwurst, served with pierogies and salad

Tuesday: Donovan’s Birthday Supper: spaghetti, served with salad, and cheesecake shooters for dessert.

Wednesday: baked chicken, spiffy rice, and either salad or veggies (mix of corn, peas and carrots)

Thursday: pizza

Friday: smoked bratwurst, fried up with bell peppers and onions, tossed with tomato sauce and pasta

As happens once in a while, I get the crazy urge to bake, just for the sake of baking. Today is one of those days. The idea of corndog muffins has been rattling around in my brain for quite a while, as well as stuffed corn muffins. I suppose what finally got me to make them was my needing to move the bag of self-rising cornmeal mix out of the way when I needed to get something else from the baking section of the pantry.

I followed the directions on the back of the cornmeal bag to make the muffin batter, and then added in the hot dogs and cheese for the corndog muffins, and some chicken, peas and carrots for the stuffed muffins. I baked the corndog muffins in a regular muffin tin (better portion control for the kids, as they’ll be the ones eating them for the most part), and I’ll make the stuffed corn muffins as jumbo muffins (as it’ll be Matt and me eating them for breakfasts).

Update: After making the corndog muffins, I decided not to use that cornbread recipe again. I didn’t really like the aftertaste. I still want to make chicken muffins, so I did some surfing and found the Best Ever Muffins recipe. It touts itself as a good basic muffin recipe that you can use as the foundation of different variations. I did it as is, adding in chicken, bacon and a handful of shredded sharp cheddar. It’s going to end up being rather sweet, but we’ll see how the combination tastes. If it’s generally good, I’ll modify the base recipe to suit our tastes. Once I do that, I’ll post the results here on Chef Lisa.