Chicken Broccoli Quinoa Casserole

Posted on February 13, 2015 by Georgina

Chicken Broccoli Quinoa Casserole

HEYOOOO!

It’s Friday again! I love posting on Friday. They are such a happy day and everyone is in a great mood!

Sooooo this recipe is a total copy cat of my major girl crush, Lindsay over at Pinch of Yum. If you are on Pinterest at all, I 100% guarantee you have one of her posts pinned to your recipe board. She is a source of never ending amazing, well, everything! Food, Recipes, pictures, helpful blogging tips and tricks, laughs, inspiration….ok, like I said, girl crush.

I get so many recipe inspirations from her! Her and her hubby, Bjork, started Pinch of Yum a few years ago as a side fun thing and it morphed into their full time job and all their dreams come true! They are like a blogging, social media, power couple- and I want them to adopt me. ~~kidding.~~

So I saw this recipe in my inbox one day and it struck a chord. Jake is always saying how now that I focus on healthier food for us, he misses the cheesy casseroles and pasta and this and that. Well this looked like the perfect solution, keeps me happy with veggies and quinoa and only a little cheese and keeps him happy because it tastes amazeballs and he’ll think it’s loaded with cheese.

WIN.WIN.

It was really good! I had a little trouble getting all the water to absorb into the quinoa, but I just left it in the oven for a little longer until it looked the consistency I wanted. Of course I can never follow a recipe word for word so I made this my “own” in a few ways…. made this gluten free and used almond milk since my stomach can’t really do dairy milk. Also spiced it up a little by using red pepper flakes. I loved the way mine tasted but here’s the original Lindsay version.

But here is my version. Deeeelicious. You have to try it for yourself.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
1 cup milk (I used unsweetened almond)
1 teaspoon chicken or vegetable bouillon powder
½ cup flour (I used GF all purpose)
2 cups water, divided
1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
¼ cup already cooked and then crumbled bacon (optional but not really 🙂 )
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 teaspoons seasoning (I love Penzeys Mural of Flavor but any basic blend you like will work)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
¼ cup shredded Gruyere cheese (although you can use whatever you would like)
3 cups fresh broccoli florets

INSTRUCTIONS
Sauce: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and generously grease a 9×13 baking dish (not kiddint- be generous, it really sticks to the sides). Bring the chicken broth and ½ cup milk to a low boil in a saucepan. Whisk the other ½ cup milk with the bouillon seasoning and flour; add the mixture to the boiling liquid and whisk until a smooth creamy sauce forms.
Put it all together: In a large bowl, mix the sauce from step one, one cup of water, the quinoa, and bacon and stir to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Slice the chicken breasts into thin strips and lay the chicken breasts strips over the top of the quinoa mixture. Sprinkle with your seasoning of choice. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.
Broccoli: While the casserole is in the oven, place the broccoli in boiling water for 1 minute until it turns bright green and then run under cold water. Set aside.
Bake: Remove the casserole from the oven, check the mixture by stirring it around in the pan, and if needed, bake for an additional 10-15 minutes to get the right consistency. When the quinoa and chicken are cooked and the sauce is thickened, add the broccoli and a little bit of water (like 1/2 cup) until the consistency is creamy and smooth and you can stir it up easily in the pan. Top with the cheese and bake for 5 minutes, or just long enough to melt the cheese. You can hit it with the broiler to get a pretty golden color if you want too. TADA

And then eat it up! Sooooo tasty. And pretty relatively guilt free!

So you have two take aways from today:

1) Make this recipe and come back and tell me how you liked it.

2) Go check out Lindsay and Bjorks site Pinch of Yum, if you haven’t already that is 🙂

OH and one last thing:

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! ❤ ❤ ❤ I hope you all have a fabulous weekend. As always thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

*This post contains no sponsored or affiliate links.

Breakfast Pizza

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Georgina

Breakfast Pizza

Woot Woooooot it’s friday! Let me tell you- the first full week back at work after all the holiday shenanigans is H.A.R.D.

fo realz- I barely made it through. Especially since my teacher hubby-to-be had a snow/cold day off of school on Wednesday and it was sooo hard to wake up and go out in the -30 degree temperatures and drag my butt to work that day.

Jake and I have been KICKING BUTT on the wedding checklist this week! For those of you who may not know, I’m getting married this up coming June and I’m reaching the point I can no longer push things off until later and need to get them done now! Tuesday we shopped around for the guys suits and think we found what we are going to do, just need to try on a size (which they had to send to a location near us) on Monday and then most likely order those. Wednesday we shopped around for wedding bands and 90% sure we found what we like and will buy. We also created and added (some not all) items to our gift registry and I almost, almost booked a hair/makeup person for myself and my ladies for the big day of the wedding but even though I’d reached out to the person over a month ago (and she only got back to me a week ago) and we’d been talking all week, she wrote to me (5 hours after I told her I wanted to book her) that she’d just booked someone else for that day. Talk about frustrating!!! Seriously?!? how about a courtesy call or text saying “hey someone else is interested in your day and I just want to know your answer before I talk to this person. You know, since we’ve been talking for over a week”…….

I’m frustrated about it, mainly because a) that’s rude b) I’m super picky about make-up and hair and I’d FINALLLLLLY found someone willing to travel to my wedding place and who I thought was talented. So the search begins again. Buttttt- enough complaining! We got so much done this week and things are really coming together and I’m getting VERY excited for June to be here! Not mention my Italian adventure afterwards 🙂 I plan on sharing more wedding related ideas and details in the coming months buttt….before I do, I have to share this amazingly delicious and fast breakfast (or anytime of the day:) ) pizza with you!

Breakfast Pizza
Ingredients:
– Pizza Crust (Homemade or store bought)
– 1 cup jarred Alfredo Pasta Sauce (I like this one)
– 1 package breakfast sausage
– 6-10 eggs
– 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese
– desired pizza toppings (I like mushrooms, peppers, onions, tomatoes….really anything!)

Instructions:
– Preheat oven to 400 degrees (or whatever your pizza crust directions say)
– Cook breakfast sausage according to package directions until browned and broken into small-ish pieces. Drain fat and set aside.
– Crack eggs into a bowl and whisk to combine. Pour into a nonstick (or greased) frying pan and scramble. Don’t break into tooo small of pieces. Set pan aside.
– Spread the Alfredo sauce over the pizza crust and top with your eggs, sausage and whatever toppings your heart desires and finally sprinkle some cheese on top.
– Bake for about 10-15 minutes (depending on your pizza crust) until golden brown and crispy. Remove and let cool for about 5 minutes before digging in!

Isn’t that so easy? It’s the perfect quick thing to make for guests on the weekend too! Serve with some fruit and you’re like a rock star. My mom usually makes this a couple of times throughout the year on a Sunday morning when all the kids are home and there’s no way waffles or pancakes is happenin’

Also loving how these pictures turned out! Nothing beats bright natural light! Hope you have a fabulous weekend! Stay warm if you’re in the Midwest (brrrrrr so cold right now). Thanks for checking out the blog!

xoxo

Turkey, Leek, and Wild Rice Casserole

Posted on November 21, 2014 by Georgina

Turkey, Leek, and Wild Rice Casserole

Hello fraaaaands!

Last year around this time, I posted this enchilada recipe to give you a new way to use your leftover turkey!It was different flavors than most of us probably had on Thanksgiving and we all know I like to spice it up 🙂 butttt we also know I’m a creature of habit and love the holidays. I love the food of the holidays and usually have too many recipes on my wishlist and end up cutting some out because making ungodly amounts of food is wasteful…… That’s why this year, I’m again going to give you an EXCELLENT recipe to use up some of your left over Turkey meat from next week, but it’s a fall inspired comfort food meal!

Yes Thanksgiving is next week and this recipe is a “week early” but if you’re like me, you like to plan and that includes meal planning. This post is extra special because it contacts some sponsored products!

A while back, I was contacted by popchips to see if I would be interested in trying some of their products and sharing them on the blog. Um yes.

Upon further research- popchips are all natural, gluten free, low fat, not fried, no soy(as far as I can tell- though I haven’t tried every kind) and non to mention- delicious!

Originally I was asked if I could try some of the Cheddar Cheese products because they were interested in teaming up with bloggers in Wisconsin because Wisconsin is apparently one of the only places where Cheddar cheese is a snack consumed at higher rates then anywhere else . I said yes, even if I try to limit my cheese intake we all know- I love cheese. Too much.

They sent me a big box of samples of tons of flavors and even some veggie pop chips.

So I won’t lie- they were so good just as is (especially with Hummus) that that’s pretty much how we enjoyed them. However I did get the idea (rather genius if you ask me 🙂 ) so use them as a crunchy layer on a casserole. It was the PERFECT way to get a healthy crunch!

I was inspired by a fellow Wisconsin food blogger, Sarah from Wisconsin from Scratch. I get her blog posts directly to my email and love every single thing she posts! This dish she made particularly caught my eye. So I did my own rendition. Hope you enjoy as much as we did!

Turkey, Leek, and Wild Rice Casserole
Ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large leek, thoroughly rinsed, chopped
8 oz mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme (or ½ tsp dried thyme)
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
3 Tbsp gluten free flour
1 cup almond milk
1 cup chicken or veggie broth
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
½ cup plain greek yogurt
1 ½ cups cooked wild rice*
2 cups cooked turkey shredded or chopped (or chicken too!)
1 ½ Tbsp butter, melted
1 cup cheddar cheese popchips, crushed

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Once hot, add the leeks, mushrooms, thyme, salt, and pepper. Cook until vegetables are soft, around 5 minutes or so.

3. Sprinkle flour over the vegetables, then stir so that the flour coats all the vegetables. Once coated, cook for about 1 minute more and add the milk and broth. Bring it all to a boil, and reduce the heat to low and simmer until it thickens a little, about 3-5 minutes.

4. Stir in the cheese and yogurt until well combined. Once cheese is melted in, stir in the already cooked wild rice and turkey.

5. Pour wild rice mixture into a medium sized (1.5 quart) baking dish or casserole dish.

6. Pour 1 ½ Tbsp melted butter into a small bowl. Add the crushed popchips and mix together.

7. Top the turkey/wild rice mixture with the crushed popchips. Place in the oven and bake at 350 until topping is golden brown and filling is hot and bubbling, about 20-25 minutes.

7. Let sit and cool for about 5 minutes and then ENJOY!!!

*To cook wild rice, combine ½ cup dried rice with 2 cups of water(or broth) in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until rice is tender, about 45 minutes. Then drain off any excess liquid.

Hmmm baked cheesy, crunchy goodness. Soo good and comfort foody. So there you have it- the perfect thing to do with your leftover bird.

Hope you enjoy and happy holidays to you and your families! Take time to tell them you love them and unplug from social media/technology and have a drink, laugh and love with them!

xoxo

White Chocolate Fall Bark

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Georgina

White Chocolate Fall Bark

Hellllloooo!

I’ve had major writers block lately and little inspiration for new blog post ideas. Sometimes I am just IN. THE.ZONE. and I’ll write up like 5 blog posts in a day. My little dirty secret is that I’ll store them as drafts to be used later on. It’s hard work to write posts every week! Don’t get me wrong I love every minute of working on my blog and creating things to share with you all but I might not have made every recipe that you see in the week it was posted. Take for instance this post you’re reading right now and the recipe below, this was something that I made 2 YEARS AGO! Yes. Two+ years. Hence the crappy iPhone photo making a return. But this was just something that I had drafted a while ago and never got around to posting it. Most drafts I only hold onto before posting for a week or so, sometimes a month. This is definitely the longest standing item in the draft box of Eat Laugh Craft and it feel so good to finally share it 🙂 haha.

This is a really fun recipe too. Perfect to have kids help you make as it’s pretty much a free for all. It’s a perfect fall snack or treat that looks great to bring to a party. You could add or take out anything that you wanted (like if you cant have nuts at your kids school or something like that). Hope you enjoy and HAPPY FALL!!!!!

White Chocolate Fall Bark

Ingredients

1/2 pound white chocolate (chips,coating,big ole’ block of it etc…)
1 cup pretzels(I broke mine into pieces but you don’t have to)
1/2 cup candy corn
1/2 cup of walnuts broken into small pieces
1/3 cup dried cranberries

Directions

Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment, leaving an overhang on 2 of the sides.
Heat the chocolate in a double boiler (or in the microwave at 50% power for 1 minute increments until desired consistency) until melted and smooth.
Spread the chocolate in the prepared pan and sprinkle with the pretzels, candy corn, and dried cranberries.( I sort of carefully pressed all of the ingredients into the chocolate so they were ‘stuck’. Chill in fridge or freezer until firm, about 1 hour.
Remove the bark from the pan and break into pieces & EAT!

How cute and fun is this, right?! Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

Veggie Quinoa “Fried Rice”

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Georgina

Veggie Quinoa “Fried Rice”

Happy Friday!

Fall is really setting in here. It’s beautiful although I’m hoping that the leaves cling on a little bit longer. We have engagement pictures in two weekends and I’m hoping there will be a little bit of color left!!! I’m super excited for those- our photographer site is here. Every single picture she ever takes is stunning and I can’t wait to share ours! ❤

So I’m sure you’re all dying to know who won the giveaway from last week……….I have picked a winner and stay tuned, I will announce the winner on Sunday! yay! I’m so excited and thank everyone who entered from the bottom of my heart!

Now- onto this healthy beautiful food! I love quinoa. It’s nutty and sort of crunchy and delicious, not to mention full of protein and extremely filling! As avid readers of my blog I’m sure you know I’m obsessed with Sriracha- like looking at the picture above, you’re probably thinking- um what, that’s not a lot. But what you don’t know is that after I was done taking these “pretty” pictures, I added an embarrassingly large amount to this 🙂

Anyway- this is super healthy and fresh and delicious. Again this is a super versatile recipe, you can add or remove anything! (ps- I fee like I say that all the time. And truth be told, I think of every recipe as versatile, rarely do I follow word for word. Cooking is about having fun! People need to remember that 🙂 )

Hope you enjoy, HAVE FUN!!!!
____________________________________________________________________

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons coconut oil, divided (or oil of your choice)
2 large eggs, beaten
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, diced
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 head broccoli, cut into florets
1 zucchini, chopped
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup frozen peas
2 carrots, peeled and grated
3 cups cooked quinoa
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
3 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
2 green onions, sliced
Sriracha, for serving

Instructions:

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a medium skillet over low heat. Add eggs and fry until cooked, about 2-3 minutes per side. Let cool before dicing into small pieces.
Heat remaining oil in a large skillet or wok over medium high heat. Add garlic and onion, until onions have become translucent, about 4-5 minutes.
Add mushrooms, broccoli and zucchini. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 3-4 minutes.
Add corn, peas, carrots and quinoa. Cook until heated through, about 1-2 minutes.
Add ginger and soy sauce, and gently toss to combine.
Stir in green onions and eggs

TA DA! That’s it! Now serve and top with Siracha! 🙂