With basketball season in full bloom, dinner starts to become much later in the evening, and that means finding easy meal solutions to get the family fed before it’s already time to hit the hay.  We often look for recipes via the Internet, cookbooks, and our friends but don’t forget about the back of products too!

Have you seen the new French’s French Cheddar Fried Onions?  On the back of the container it has a recipe for Crunchy Onion Chicken and the entire dish was gone in minutes, eaten by 3 teenagers tonight after a basketball game.  They said it was awesome. I didn’t get a bite so I wouldn’t know but it smelled delicious and it cooked in 20 minutes!  That’s my kind of meal you know?!

I love finding new ways to use chicken and I think I’ll add this to our regular menu.  What’s the last recipe you made from the back of a food product?

Thanks Ollie for sharing your food with us!!

Another round of Meal Solutions! This week’s ingredient list was very budget friendly and tasted delicious!  I have to admit, I have rarely used Fettuccine so I was excited to for this week.  If you are needing a fast meal, holy cow is this fast y’all!!!  All it takes is boiling the pasta and the meal is pretty much done.  I used everything below except the garlic bread because I couldn’t find it.  I also didn’t use the cookie mix as we already had some dessert from a birthday.

This week’s meal solutions food products are:

• GV Alfredo Pasta Sauce 16oz
• GV Fettuccine 160z
• GV Chunky Breast of Chicken 12.5oz
• GV Grated Parmesan 80z
• Sara Lee SD Garlic Bread 10oz
• GV Diced Tomatoes 14.5oz
• BC Chocolate chip Cookie 17.5oz

Doesn’t this look yummy?  My boys loved it and it’s a great filler with those noodles!  Enjoy!

Disclosure: Compensation has been provided by Walmart for my time and efforts to create this post. All opinions are my own, always have been, always will be. Check out more meal solutions from my fellow Walmart Moms and from the Walmart website.

The Meal Solution is very budget friendly this week!  With grocery prices on the rise, we are definitely cutting back on elaborate meals.  Please share your ideas as well. I know that we all could use them!

INGREDIENTS are:

• GV Instant Brown Rice 14oz
• GV Chicken Broth 14.5oz
• GV Diced Tomatoes 14.5oz
• GV Whole Kernel Corn 15.25oz
• GV Sliced Carrots 14.5oz
• Pillsbury Fudgy Brownie Mix 19.5oz

I basically decided to go with our ‘Mexican Rice with Chicken’ standby meal.  Instead of frying white rice, I used this brown rice.  All I did was mix the brown rice, tomatoes, can of chicken breast, and the chicken broth into a skillet and cooked together until done.  I omitted the carrots but used the corn as a side and served all with a tortilla.  It was EXTREMELY fast using the instant brown rice and the can of chicken. (I normally use chicken legs).

What would you make with this week’s ingredients?

Disclosure: Compensation has been provided by Walmart for my time and efforts to create this post. All opinions are my own, always have been, always will be. Check out more meal solutions from my fellow Walmart Moms and from the Walmart website.

Oh man you guys, this Santa Fe Soup is the easiest thing to make EVER!   Such simple ingredients that are yummy to the tummy.   I’d love to hear what you guys would do with the following ingredients from this week’s meal solution:

• Great Value Chicken Breast 12.5oz $1.96
• Great Value Chunky Mild Salsa 24oz $1.99
• Great Value Aseptic Chicken Broth 32oz $1.27
• Del Monte Whole Kernel Corn 15.25oz $.82
• Santitas White Corn 13.0oz $1.98
• BC Chocolate Chip Cookie 17.5oz $1.72

I used the chicken breast, salsa, chicken broth, and corn to make Santa Fe Soup.

Santa Fe Soup

Ingredients

• Great Value Chicken Breast 12.5oz  (I used two cans because I have big teenagers who could eat the whole house)
• Great Value Chunky Mild Salsa 24oz
• Great Value Aseptic Chicken Broth 32oz
• Del Monte Whole Kernel Corn 15.25oz

Instructions

Put all the ingredients in a pot and boil for about 10 minutes.  That’s it!  If you want to call it tortillas soup, take the Santitas chips, break them up and add them to the soup.

That’s my meal solution. What would YOURS be?

Disclosure: Compensation has been provided by Walmart for my time and efforts to create this post. All opinions are my own, always have been, always will be. Check out more meal solutions from my fellow Walmart Moms and from the Walmart website.

Cooking wines are something that I don’t use too often because I’ve often assumed that they were more on the expensive side but recently, I was introduced to Holland House cooking wines.  Have you guys used them before?  Some of the most obvious cooking wine include sherry but the one that stood out to me the most out of the Holland House collection of cooking wines was the White Wine with Lemon Flavor.  <–LEMON!  We are big lemon users around here from lemon pepper to fresh lemons so when I saw that, I knew I had to incorporate into something and that something was a sauce for chicken!

I’ve made a couple of sauces using heavy cream before so I figured I’d try it with this cooking wine.  WOW oh WOW oh WOW!  Right off, I could smell the lemon in the wine while it was boiling.  That told me that I’d easily be able to taste the flavor in my sauce so it just boosted my confidence even more!  The sauce was AMAZING.  The flavor just blew me away and I have to say, while we enjoyed it in a casual setting, I am totally gonna make this when entertaining for guests.  Holy cow it was good and SOOOO easy to make!

Now I tried to measure accurately. If you don’t already know, I am terrible at measuring because I just pour or use my hands but I knew I had to get close so that you guys could make it.

INGREDIENTS

(for sauce)

• 1/2 cup or so of the Holland House White Wine with Lemon
• 5/8 cup of Heavy Cream (about 10 tablespoons)
• 1/2 cup of butter
• Salt and pepper (easy on the salt)

You’ll also need 4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts and some parsley for garnish.

DIRECTIONS

Cook your chicken breasts with a dab of olive oil, in a skillet, with salt and pepper until done.  While that is cooking, start your sauce. It doesn’t take long to make at all so wait as long as you can before making it.  In a small saucepan, boil your white wine with lemon until it’s reduced just a bit.  Pour in your heavy cream and stir until mixed well and thick.  Slowly add butter in, about a tablespoon at a time, until melted.  Season with Salt and Pepper your done!!

You can either place chicken into a nice casserole pan and pour sauce all over it, or serve chicken as individual pieces and let them pour the sauce on their own.  Either way works just fine.

This is by far one of the most flavorful sauces I’ve made and the whole recipe is one of the easiest ones around ever!  I served with green beans and we had a fantastic lunch!

So have you seen this particular wine before, with the Lemon flavor? I have several other Holland House cooking wines so I’ll have to get creative and see what I can come up with!! Because I’m new to cooking wines, I decided to sign up for the Holland House newsletter.  If the other wines provide this much flavor when cooking, I NEED MORE RECIPES!!

Disclosure: Holland House sent me the cooking wines to try in some of my recipes and supplies compensation for my time and efforts to create this recipe and post.  Opinions are my own, always have been, always will be and this opinion says ” finger lickin’ good “!

The kids are back to school and while you may or may not have to worry about lunch for them, you do have to figure out what to make for supper. My boys are older and don’t exactly love school like the little ones do and during football season they don’t even get home until 6:30 because of practice. This means two things; they’ll be hungry and they’ll want and need to have personal space and do their homework. Having our evening meal together at the table is very important to me but with teens, you sometimes have to compromise.

When thinking about this supper solution, Velveeta recipe, I kept a few things in mind.

• Gotta have a filler or the boys will never get full.
• Creative meal ideas. Turning something old into something new.
• Using leftovers.
• Something little man can help with so that he be involved.

I came up with Cheesy Chicken Cups. Imagine a cheesy pot pie in a muffin shape. What I love about my recipe is that I was able to incorporate vegetables, use biscuits as the filler, use our leftover chicken breasts & bacon, and little man felt like such a big boy helping me pat out the biscuit dough and sprinkle sesame seeds.

The Cheesy Chicken Cups were easy to make and when done, I stacked them up so that when the boys got home from school, they could just grab one to eat all while putting their stuff away, telling us about their day, getting ready to do homework, and check their computer stuff.

Truett was hesitant on eating them but once he saw his brothers grab one, he just had to have one to hold and eat while on the sofa. He was mocking them and I just love little moments like that!

I hope you enjoy the video and the Cheesy Chicken Cups Recipe!

Cheesy Chicken Cups

Ingredients:

• 10 slices of chopped, cooked bacon
• 4 cups cooked, shredded chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)
• 1 10oz pkg frozen mixed vegetables
• 8oz of Velveeta, cubed
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 can of big flaky layer biscuits
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp water
• 2 tablespoons sesame seed

Directions:

Heat oven to 350′. In a large pan, combine bacon, chicken, vegetables, velveeta, cream of chicken soup, and pepper. Simmer until cheese is completely melted, stirring all regularly.

Separate dough into 8 biscuits. Using a knife, split each biscuit in half, horizontally. Press 1 biscuit half into a 4-inch round. In ungreased non-stick jumbo muffin pan, press round in bottom and 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up the side of the muffin cup. Repeat with remaining biscuit halves.

Divide chicken mixture evenly into biscuit cups. top with remaining biscuit halves, stretching slightly to cover chicken mixture and slightly pressing edges to bottom biscuits to seal.

In a small bowl, beat egg and water until well blended; brush on top of biscuits. Sprinkle with sesame seed

Bake 15-20 minutes or until tops are golden brown. cool in pan 5 minutes before serving.

Disclosure: I am a Velveeta Kitchenista Ambassador and Spokeblogger.  I was compensated for my time and efforts to create the recipe and video.  My opinions are my own, always have been, always will be. It’s just how I roll.

Kareen’s bio:  When not enjoying the occasional guest post on her favorite blogs, Kareen blogs as the HiveMama at HiveMoms.com, the #1 website for finding play dates and babysitting co-ops.

Do you stay away from curries for fear of a heartburn attack, or like me, to avoid the post-lunch sleepies?  

This recipe is my way of scoring the taste without the hangups.  It’s a milder curry that’s light yet tasty on the palate, without the heaviness of coconut milk or cream.  

I have a feeling that those who are lactose-intolerant will like this too.

Ingredients (Serves 4-6)

• 1 1/2 lbs of boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch bite-size pieces.
• 1 small/medium red onion, roughly chopped.
• 2 medium potatoes, diced into small cubes, seasoned with ground black pepper and coarse sea salt.
• 3 tomatoes, each cut into 8 pieces.
2/3 cup chicken stock.
3-4 tbsp ghee or butter or peanut oil for sauteing (an oil that doesn’t burn easily)

Seasoning For Chicken

• 2 tsp cumin powder
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 2 tsp onion powder/granulates
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt/kosher salt
• 1 tbsp peanut oil

(BTW, if you’re feeling lazy, go ahead and substitute the first 5 powders with your favorite curry powder.  No sacred cows here – you’ll just end up with a slightly different curry flavor.)

Cooking Steps

1.  Season the chicken at least 1 hour in advance.  Let it go overnight if you wish.

2.  Set a deep saute pan on medium heat and heat up the ghee/butter.

3.  Brown the chicken pieces – about 6 minutes.  Remove cooked chicken from heat, and reserve.

4.  In the same pan with the juicy browned goodness, add the diced potatoes and brown those as well – another 5 minutes.  If necessary, add more ghee/butter to avoid burning.

5.  Add the onions and tomatoes into the pan.  Saute for about 5 minutes.  Add chicken stock during these 5 minutes, and bring to simmer.

6.  When most of the liquid has evaporated, add the browned chicken back to the pan and mix well for about a minute.

The dish is then ready to be served.

While cooking for the cowboys today, I had tons of interruptions that wasted so much time, leaving me in a cooking bind.  I had to think quick in order to get something served up for these hard working cowboys to eat.  Thankfully, I always keep convenience items on hand as I’ve said before so within 10 minutes, I had the main dish prepared and ready to eat.

Tyson Chicken Breast Strips saved my day!  I planned on making fajitas but realized that I still wouldn’t have time to do that so while hunting around in my freezer, I found some Deluxe Vegetable Stir-Fry (Great Value brand) and threw that together with the chicken….VIOLA, your meal is served.  I did make some flavored dirty rice to serve with it but the entire meal was fast, budget-friendly, and tasted VERY good!

What items do you keep on hand for emergency situations?

I don’t know about you but Spring and warm weather cannot get here fast enough.  It means cooking out, brunches, and kids playing outside!  I had a glorious Spring brun

ch house party planned a couple of weeks ago and due to an unexpected snow storm, it did not happen but I did still make a video of me making a Velveeta recipe and will be sharing the dessert with you in a day or two.  I had a cute little helper too so be sure to check that out.

For my planned Spring brunch (somewhat lighter brunch), I made Velveeta Cheesy Chicken Rotini, Sour Cream Apple Pie with Streusel Crumble Topping, Ranch Red Potatoes, and served Iced Tea and Maxwell House coffee.  My family loved every bit of it.  While I’m sad that my guests could not come, I was excited about having a family moment with good food and all four of my most favorite fellas.

My most favorite thing about all the Velveeta recipes I’ve made here on My Wooden Spoon, is that they are all super easy to cook up and this recipe is not exception.  Here’s the VELVEETA Cheesy Chicken Rotini, followed by the recipe.  Be sure to be on the lookout for the Sour Cream Apple Pie, coming soon.  It’s absolutely delicious and I expect to quickly become a family favorite!

Some things I had for the guests coming, were these cute Velveeta spatulas with coupons for free Maxwell House Coffee and Velveeta. Since the storm prevented folks from coming, I gave them their goodies as I saw them, which is pretty much the only thing you can do when you live out here on the ranch!  They loved the items, especially because the Spring ranch works are starting around here and those coupons will come in handy to serve coffee to the cowboys and use Velveeta in the meals they have planned.  Saved them a little money and that makes all of us happy!

Tips for hosting a Spring Brunch Party

• Always plan ahead (even check the weather!)
• Fill the air and environment with cooking fragrances, a pretty tablecloth, and plenty of cups and plates
• Always serve coffee, no matter what.
• Buffet style works best.
• Try to use in-season foods if possible.

Don’t forget to jot down the tips from the video too!  Enjoy and here’s to a delightful, delicious Spring Brunch! *cheers*

Disclosure: This post is part of the Velveeta Kitchenista campaign which is compensated for my time and efforts. As always, opinions are my own, always have been and always will be.  See my full disclosure for my blogging ethics.

I’ve made Chicken and Dumplings from scratch before but to be honest, it’s not worth the extra time in my opinion. In fact, check out this post on an attempt to make them from scratch and you’ll see exactly why go the quick route!  I learned how to take a shortcut a long time ago and it’s the only way I make them now. This is one of those perfect meals for Winter time and a great filler–perfect for when you are on rations. I’ve noticed a trend in my recipes. They are fit for anyone struggling to get through to the next payday. I guess that’s because we had more struggling years than I’d like to remember. While I tend to make this meal very basic, I know several folks who add a can of cream of chicken to the boiling water, after you take the chicken out. I don’t do it but it’s good either way.

INGREDIENTS

• 10-12 chicken thighs
• 4-8 cans of cheap biscuits (depending on how many dumplings you prefer)
• Salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS

Rinse your chicken thighs and boil in water for 1 hour or until done.  Remove from water and place on cookie sheet.  While chicken is cooling, tear the canned biscuits into small pieces-about the size of a nickel and toss into water making sure to stir occasionally. While your dumplings are cooking, shred the chicken off the bone and place into dumpling soup.  Your dumplings are done when they no longer float–about 15 or 20 minutes. Add your salt and pepper and your done.

Alternatives: If you want to add flavor, try using chicken broth or cream of chicken after you take your chicken out.

Boil the heck out of the chicken!

Let it cool off!

Toss in your biscuit pieces…see how they’re floating?  NOT done.

While dumplings are cooking, tear that chicken up!

The shredded chicken….

Throwing the chicken in the dumpling soup. See how there are no dumplings floating?? That’s because they are done.