Cheesy Chicken Rollups

I don't know why I don't follow my gut more. Like when I start making a recipe and think of a way that might be better, but then choose not to make it that way. This recipe is perfectly delicious as is, but I found that working with the chopped chicken was tougher. Next time I make this, I will cook chicken tenderloins and cut them to fit the crescent rolls. That way there's more substance than the chopped chicken that fell out everywhere. Other than that, I would keep this recipe the same. I doubled this so we could have leftovers, below is the recipe for 1 batch.

Cheesy Chicken Rollups
From Plain Chicken

1 can crescent rolls
1 large chicken breast, cooked and chopped
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 baking dish.
2. Combine the cream of chicken soup, milk and cheese. Pour 1/3 of the mixture into the bottom of the dish.
3. Place some chopped chicken on an unrolled crescent roll and top with 1 teaspoon of soup mixture. Roll up and put into the dish.
4. Repeat with remaining rolls and cover with remaining soup mixture.
5. Sprinkle some extra cheese on top is desired (I did!).
6. Bake for 30 minutes.

Meatball Stew

On cold winter days you need warm, hearty meals. This past weekend it was around -16 degrees here, and yesterday it rained and was 50 degrees. Get your act together New England! Anyways, we didn't have the ingredients for pot roast this weekend, but I did have ingredients for something pretty similar. I just replaced the roast with meatballs, and it also takes less time to cook. I omitted the onions and celery, but if no one in your family opposes them I would keep them in.

The one thing I would change is cooking the veggies for the full 4-5 hours alone, then adding the cooked meatballs in and cooking another couple of hours. After 5 hours, My potatoes and carrots were not cooked through and I ended up removing them and heating them in the microwave and putting them back into the crockpot. Way more work for a meal that I wanted to set and forget. Other than that, I knew it may not be filling enough for Dan as is, so I made mashed potatoes to serve it over. I don't recommend doubling up on the starches here. You can eat it as is, like a stew, or leave out the potatoes, and keep the carrots, onions and celery and serve over egg noodles. You can use this recipe a few different ways.

Also, don't mind my picture. I forgot to take one at my first serving, so I took one of my messy plate during my second serving. The below recipe is how I made it, not including my suggestion of cooking the veggies first.

Meatball Stew
From Pocket Change Gourmet

1 pkg. frozen meatballs or homemade, cooked (about 20 meatballs)
4 large carrots, peeled and chopped
3 potatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, sliced
1 can tomato soup
1 can beef gravy
1 envelope onion soup mix
2 tsp. or 2 cubes of beef bouillon
1 cup water

1. Place chopped veggies in a crockpot.
2. Pour remaining ingredients (other than meatballs) in and combine.
3. Add meatballs, mix, and cook on low 4-5 hours until veggies are tender.

** To prepare on stove top, combine all ingredients in a stockpot. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low and simmer for an hour or until veggies are tender.

Garlic Bread Pizzas

Ever need a recipe that will come together in minutes? And not those, "dinner in under 30 minutes" recipes, I mean minutes, like, 8-10 minutes. Here's one.

Okay, so these alone aren't really a meal unless you eat all of them, but pair them with a salad and you can have any easy meal in no time at all.

I have to give credit to my cousin's girlfriend for this recipe. She brought it to one of our family potlucks and everyone loved it. When we were invited to watch the Superbowl at my in-law's (yes, and I'm just now getting around to posting it), we had little time to prepare anything. We grabbed the ingredients for these and made them at their house right before the game started. They really do take a matter of minutes if you want cheese or pepperoni pizzas. If you want sausage (which we used some) then you need to brown the sausage first. If you want veggies, you'll want to sauté them a bit first. But, if everything is prepared in advance, then you still have dinner in a matter of minutes.

Garlic Bread Pizzas
from Jen

1 package frozen garlic bread slices
Pizza sauce
Shredded cheese
prepared desired toppings

1. Cook garlic bread according to package directions. Leave oven on.
2. Top slices with pizza sauce, cheese, and toppings. Bake for a few minutes until cheese is melted and all is heated through.