Friday, October 24, 2014

Chicken Roll Ups and Pigs in a Blanket.

Alright this meal was from our Roomie Dinner from Wednesday night. Taylor and I had been wanted to make Pigs in a Blanket for a few days so that was definitely on the menu. I had also remembered about some chicken pockets that my mom had made for myself and my brothers when we were younger. This recipe came from a Pillsbury recipe book (you know the little ones you get from the store?) Yea well my mom has about a million of them. We have a small cabinet above our stove and it is filled from end to end with these little cook books. Plus some stacked in front and on top! I bet you she has some since before I was born. Normally my brothers and I were very picky so finding stuff we liked to eat was a bit of a struggle, so when she found this recipe we used to ask for it often because it was delicious! And that's not even the best part! It only costs about $3.00 per person if that! Our modification was to make Chicken Roll Ups instead of pockets because we could use more chicken.


Okay so I'm guessing most of you have made Pigs in a Blanket before, but just in case I'll give you the run down. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
Open up a pack of crescent rolls and separate into triangles. 
Take the hot dogs of your choice and roll inside crescent rolls (starting at the wide end). 
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. 
Add ins: cheese-dogs, jalapeno dogs, a slice of cheese?

Now for the Chicken Roll Ups

You can use either a rotisserie chicken or bake a boneless, skinless chicken breast/cook it in a crockpot. 
Shred the chicken and put in a medium size mixing bowl. 
Add in a 4 ounce package of softened cream cheese. 
Add in seasoning to taste. We added some garlic and onion powder as well as fresh cracked black pepper.  
Mix all of the ingredients together. 
Open up a package of crescent rolls and separate into triangles. 
Put a small glob (like a 1/4 cup) onto each triangle and roll up (just like the Pigs in a Blanket). 
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. 
Add ins: Lemon Pepper seasoning, ranch seasoning, anything else you like with chicken haha!

We guarantee you won't be disappointed. This is a super easy and relatively quick meal that is sure to satisfy!

Grown-Up Grilled Cheese




It's so hard to eat well (delicious, reasonably healthy meals where you don't have to pay through the nose) in college. Especially when your cafeteria serves food that a dog would hesitate to eat. (Seriously, I swear my scrambled eggs bounced the other day.)

And Hayley has this wonderful board on Pinterest full of recipes that make your mouth water. Most of them have cheap ingredients, but they make so much food! Way too much for just one person! So we're banding together to try out her recipes. We're going to work our way through her boards, through our family recipes, through everything we can find. We're going to learn couponing (gulp) and pass on what we learn to you, our readers.

Tonight's recipe? Grilled mac-and-cheese sandwiches.



Yeah, you heard me. Ooey gooey mac-and-cheese between two pieces of bread. When we saw this recipe, oh my goodness there were some excited college girls in our apartment. If it had mashed potatoes in it too, it would be the ultimate comfort food.

(Maybe we can work on that one of these days. Baby steps, baby steps.)

So here's how it works:

Ingredients:
Mac-and-cheese (about 1/4 cup per sandwich)
Bread, any kind (2 pieces per sandwich, obviously)
Butter (not much, like 1tbsp or something)
Salt and pepper
Any add-ins? (I'm a huge fan of Polish sausage and some diced onion in my mac, but Hayley thinks I'm weird - you can make up your own mind)

Method:
Make your mac. We used Velveeta Shells, but you can use any kind you want, including homemade.

Butter your bread. One side only, y'all, or your mac will slip around.

Bread goes butter-side-down on the hot skillet. This is the grilled cheese part, so if you know how to make grilled cheese, you know what's coming next.

Spread your mac on the bread, add some salt and pepper, and top with the other piece of bread, butter-side-out. Once the bottom's nice and brown, flip it.

Feel free to shout "Noodle down!" if you drop some. God knows we did.

Once both sides are deliciously brown and buttery, get that baby on a plate.


Oh yeah. Look at that perfect sandwich. Look at how gorgeous it is. Almost too good to eat.

Except that not eating it would be a tragedy because this is the best grilled cheese sandwich I've ever had.

Serve with sparkling grape juice (as we did) or your favorite fizzy beverage, juice, etc. And seriously, enjoy. (It won't be a struggle, we promise.)