Tag: mushrooms

Chicken Skillet with Asparagus and Mushrooms

I do, truly, love a one pot (or skillet) meal! I love the easy cleanup and I love having one dish that covers all the bases – protein, veggies and starch (if starch is your thing – it’s, clearly, mine!). This recipe checks all the boxes. And, to top it off – it couldn’t be easier!

The prep started by cutting up my chicken to bite size pieces. I actually used chicken tenders, so cutting it to approximately 1 inch pieces was super easy. I seasoned the raw chicken with the umami seasoning and let it hang out, while I prepped the vegetables.

For vegetables, I used onion, asparagus and mushrooms – I chose those vegetables because that is what I had in the refrigerator. Certainly, you could use carrots and celery for a chicken version that would be similar to the pork chop skillet, as another option. The flavors would definitely work!

Once I had everything prepped – I started cooking. I started with browning the chicken in olive oil. I didn’t want to cook the chicken through, but I did want to get some color on the chicken. After browning the chicken, I removed it from the pan.

I had enough oil left in the pan, but if you don’t – just add a little more at this time. Then add in the onions and garlic. Saute for about 5 minutes. Then add in the other vegetables, along with your salt and pepper and saute for 8-10 minutes (or until the asparagus starts to get a little soft and you get some good color on your veggies).

Once the vegetables have sauteed for a bit, you’ll want to add in your rice. Add it into the pan, prior to putting in your liquids – allowing the rice to get coated with the oil that is in the pan (it makes for such a flavorful rice, if you let it soak up the oil and the seasonings, prior to bringing it to a boil!) and stir through.

Once your rice is fully mixed in, you’re ready to add in your liquids – chicken stock, milk and cream of mushroom soup. Once added, mix well.

Then add the chicken back into the skillet – and bring it up to a boil.

Once a boil is achieved, you want to reduce the heat, cover the pan – and let it cook for about 20 minutes (or until the rice is done – for the jasmine rice I use, that is about 20 minutes).

Top with some shaved or grated romano cheese, if you like!

Chicken Skillet with Asparagus and Mushrooms

1 1/2 – 2 pounds chicken breased, cubed to about 1 inch pieces
6-8 baby bella mushrooms, sliced
15-20 spears of asparagus, cut to bit size pieces
1 onion, diced
2 cups of rice (I use Jasmine)
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1 can cream of mushroom soup
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp Umami seasoning
1/2 tbsp olive oil
Romano cheese (optional)

  • In large skillet, add 1/2 tbsp olive oil
  • Add chicken, which has been seasoned with Umami seasoning, to hot oil and brown
  • Remove chicken from skillet
  • Add onions and garlic, saute for 5 minutes
  • Add in the asparagus and mushrooms (as well as salt and pepper) and saute vegetables for 8-10 minutes
  • Add rice in and stir – allow the rice to soak up some of the oil from the sauteed vegetables
  • Add in the chicken stock, cream of mushroom soup and milk and bring to a boil
  • Return chicken to skillet
  • Reduce heat, cover and cook for 20 minutes (or until rice is done)
by Michelle

Mushroom and Asparagus Spaghetti

I think I’ve mentioned before – we can always eat pasta. It tends to be a go to. What’s not to love – easy and delicious and so many possibilities.

Today’s pasta started with me looking to see what veggies we had in the veggie drawer (seems like we’ve been eating a lot of meat lately, so a meatless meal seemed appropriate). Asparagus and mushrooms – two of my faves! With that, I decided to use spaghetti pasta and make a cream sauce.

I started by chopping and slicing the veggies.

In a skillet, I added some butter and garlic and allowed it to cook for a bit.

Then I added in the asparagus, first, as it takes longer to soften – followed by the mushrooms.

I had some chicken stock opened in the refrigerator, so I used that as the base for the sauce. If you wanted to go vegetarian, you could certainly use a vegetable stock (or even just some of the water from the pasta). For me, I could never do this dish vegan, though – I need the cheese!

I allowed the stock to come to a boil, then reduced the heat and added in the cream. I also added some romano cheese, which helps the sauce to thicken, as well.

Once the sauce had thickened a bit, I tossed in the pasta and stirred it well. Finally, I topped it with more Romano cheese.

This pasta was served hot (and, with a little more cheese – yes, I love Romano cheese!)

Mushroom and Asparagus Spaghetti

8-10 baby bella mushrooms, sliced
12-15 spears of asparagus, chopped
Spaghetti noodles, cooked
3/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1/2 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tbsp Umami seasoning
Romano cheese (grated finely)

  • Cook pasta (I used enough for 4 -5 servings), set aside
  • In skillet, melt butter and add garlic – cook for a few minutes
  • Add in the asparagus (and seasonings) and let it cook for about 4 minutes, then add in the mushrooms and cook for another 8 minutes
  • Add in chicken stock and bring to a boil
  • Once boil is achieved, reduce heat and add in cream
  • Grate some romano on top of sauce (maybe 3 tbsp) and mix through
  • Allow sauce to simmer until it thickens some
  • Toss in pasta, then add more Romano cheese, as desired
by Michelle

Stuffed Bell Peppers

The other day, I bought some bell peppers – these were admittedly ‘value’ peppers, all in one bag, that were a LOT less expensive than the $2.99 (green) – 3.99 (yellow and red) PER BELL PEPPER that they wanted, otherwise (** side note, not sure what was going on there, I don’t recall ever seeing peppers that expensive before). The ‘value’ bag had one yellow bell pepper that was used for another recipe, the remainder were green. I mention the ‘value bag’ status of these peppers because, they are the funkiest shaped peppers I’ve ever seen in my life. That said, probably not the prettiest to use for stuffed peppers – but, you work with what you have!

One thing that I really don’t like, with regard to stuffed bell peppers, is when the pepper doesn’t seem to be cooked through fully – that said, I decided to ‘precook’ my peppers in the oven. I simply halved the peppers, tossed them with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper – and cooked them in the oven for 20 minutes, sliced side down. At that length of time, they maintain their integrity, but cook long enough that they will be perfect after baking them stuffed!

While the peppers were cooking, I got started on the filling. This consisted of ground beef, onion, mushrooms, a can of Rotel tomatoes (I missed it in the picture below, but I’ve included a picture separately in case anyone doesn’t know what I’m talking about), cooked rice (I had some frozen, I used that), garlic, salt and pepper.

The filling started with a little bit of oil in a large skillet – once the oil was hot, I added in the onions, garlic and mushrooms. I cooked this mixture for about 10 minutes.

Once the vegetables were on their way, I added in the ground beef and cooked it through.

The next step was to add in the rice. As I was using frozen rice, there were some clumps – I just allowed the warm ground beef to break it apart and stirred until the rice was separated and warmed through.

Finally, I added in the can of Rotel tomatoes and mixed everything through. I reduced the heat to simmer, covered and allowed it to cook for about 10 minutes. This should be about the same time that the peppers are ready to come out of the oven.

***Note, for the next time I make this, I’m thinking I will add some cheese to the mixture, itself, as well.

While you’re letting the filling simmer, you can take that time to grate some cheese (use whatever cheese you like, I used monterey jack), if you’re not using pre-grated cheese.

Once the filling is completed and the peppers are out of the oven – it’s time to put things together! It couldn’t be easier – just flip the peppers over in the baking dish, fill with as much filling as you’d like – top with cheese and you’re ready to put it back in the oven!

Cover the baking dish, loosely, with foil (you want to try to avoid the foil touching the cheese, so you don’t ‘loose’ your cheese when you remove the foil) and cook for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, you’ll want to remove the foil, return to the oven and cook for a final 10-15 minutes (until the cheese starts to brown).

Stuffed Bell Peppers
Total cooking time approx. 1 hour 15 minutes

4 Bell Peppers, halved
1 lb ground beef
1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
2 cups cooked rice (I used frozen rice that I’d made earlier)
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1/2 onion, diced
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
olive oil

  • In large baking dish/pan – add halved bell peppers, spread a little bit of olive oil on both sides, salt and pepper. Bake peppers @ 375 degrees for 20 minutes (sliced side down)
  • Add small amount of oil to skillet – then add in onion, garlic and mushrooms to pan. Cook for approx 10 minutes, stirring occasionally
  • Add ground beef, salt and pepper to pan and cook the beef thoroughly
  • Add rice – stirring, allow rice to warm through (will take longer if you use frozen rice like I did)
  • Add in can of Rotel tomatoes, stir – cover and simmer for 10 minutes
  • Once mixture is done simmering (10 minute) and timer goes off for the peppers – remove peppers from oven
  • Flip pepper halves over in pan (peppers should be somewhat cooked, but not mushy)
  • Add filling to each pepper
  • Top with shredded cheese, add pepper if you like
  • Loosely cover pan with foil (try to ‘tent’ the foil so that your cheese doesn’t melt to it in the oven) and return to oven for 20 minutes
  • Remove foil and cook for another 10-15 (or until cheese starts to brown)
by Michelle

Skillet Sausage and Rice

Yesterday, I was looking for something quick, easy and with little clean up for lunch. As I always do, I took a look at the items I had on hand and I ended up with this one skillet dish that turned out delicious.

It all started with a chub of Jimmy Dean sausage, asparagus, mushrooms, garlic, beef stock onion and cilantro.

As I worked through chopping vegetables, I thought of seasoning – and I decided to add a packet of ranch dressing seasoning mix.

I started by browning the sausage (medium high heat), along with the onion and garlic.

Once that was done, I added the other vegetables and cooked until semi-tender.

After the vegetables were somewhat tender, I added in the rice and cooked until the rice was somewhat translucent.

Beef broth (that was just what I had on hand, I’m sure that chicken broth or vegetable broth would work just as nicely) was added next. I added half of the cilantro to the skillet and stirred everything up. I brought the skillet up to a boil. Once it was at a boil, I covered the skillet and reduced the heat to simmer – allowing it to cook for 20 minutes (cook until rice is done).

Add the remaining cilantro and serve! Super easy, delicious, easy clean up and reheats nicely!

Skillet Sausage and Rice

1 chub of Jimmy Dean (or similar) regular sausage
2 cups of long grain rice
3 cups of beef stock
1-1/2 cups of mushrooms
1/2 bunch of asparagus (1-1/2 cups, chopped)
1/2 white onion (diced)
1-2 tbsp of garlic (depending on how much you like garlic, I used 2)
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 packet of dry ranch dressing mix
salt and pepper to taste

Crumble sausage in skillet, with diced onions and garlic on medium high heat. Cook until sausge is browned and onions are translucent.

Add asparagus and mushrooms, cook for another 5 min (until vegetables are semi-tender).

Add rice and ranch dressing and stir to mix, cook until rice is translucent.

Add beef stock and 1/2 of the cilantro. Stir and bring to boil.

Reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes (until rice is done).

Add remaining cilantro and serve.

by Michelle