Lazy Girl Mac & Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast!

This dish is pretty simple, a little time consuming and sooooo messy! I wanted to create something fun for my oldest daughter, who's favorite food is Mac and Cheese. This is homemade and a little lazy all in the same. I can make Mac and Cheese from scratch, however I have quite a weakness for Stouffer's Mac and Cheese and with one add in, it becomes the creamiest, most addictive, irresistible thing and I've been guilty many times over of finishing the leftovers in the middle of the night. 

Please click image for full ingredient list:

This mac and cheese is my weakness. To make it you just need 40 oz of Stouffer's and 12 oz (or 1 1/2 cups) of sour cream.

Preheat your oven and follow directions for your mac and cheese. You don't want to fully cook it, you want it to where everything is warm and you can stir it all without having frozen pieces in it. The recipe calls for it to cook for an hour and 15-20 mins but I let it cook 40 and once I could stir it I added in my sour cream.   I used the large 40oz size and that is what this recipe calls for. I usually try to thaw my mac and cheese in the fridge over night so it doesn't take as much time to cook. While your Mac and Cheese is in the oven you can finish prepping your chicken. Im going to put all the Mac and Cheese steps here though.

Add your sour cream once you it becomes heated without frozen pieces. Make sure that you stir the sour cream in well until there's no white streaks.  Uncover it and put it back in the oven for about 15 mins until everything is heated thoroughly and the top starts to lightly brown.

This is what it should look like after you add the sour cream:

This is what your finished mac and cheese should look like. I didnt let it brown much because im adding it into the chicken and I didnt want it to get over cooked.

While your mac and cheese is first in the oven prep your chicken. there are two ways you can stuff chicken. I used the pocket/butterfly method. You cut a hole/pocket into the thickest part of the chicken and stuff it wrapping it in cooking twine. This was my first time doing it and it was kinda messy. You can also stuff it with the jellyroll method by pounding the chicken out with a meat mallet until its 1/4th inch thick, putting your stuffing on one side and rolling it up (like a jellyroll) and securing it with toothpicks or cooking twine. Working with chicken proves to be hard for me to take a lot of pictures because i do not want to cross contaminate anything with chicken slime and get sick from Salmonella.

For the cooking twine you can either measure it to be about 28 inches or just measure it the length of your arm and double that. 

Here is a helpful video to understand how to make a piece of stuffed chicken:

When you cut your chicken, make sure that you do not cut all the way though and that you start cutting on the thickest part.

 

Chicken pockets!

While your mac and cheese is finishing heat your soup. I used 2 cans of cream of broccoli and 1 can of cream of chicken. Put them all into a pot on a low simmer and add the other 12 oz  (cup and a half) of sour cream. Let it simmer until warmed and make sure to stir it so that the bottom doesn't scorch. (Sorry I forgot to get a picture of it finished)

Stuff your chicken pockets! I added some bacon moleassas seasoning ontop of the mac and cheese and also on the outside of the chicken before I poured the soup over it 

Pour your soup over the top and cover tightly with foil.

Put it into the oven at 300 degrees for 1 hour. About half way through cooking I spooned some of the soup back over the tops to make sure they didn't dry out.

Be sure to cover your Mac and Cheese so that it doesn't dry out and in the last 15 mins of cooking the chicken put it in the oven and let it heat back up.

And that's it! Let them cool for about 10 minutes before handling them. Make sure to cut all of the twine off or take all of the toothpicks out.The soup makes a very delicious gravy also! We used it to dip the chicken into and over mashed potatoes.

 

Spaghetti Tacos!!!

This is a fun favorite of my oldest daughter Miss Tinka. If I cant think of what to make for dinner I always seem to end up making this. They sound a little strange but boy are they sooo sooo good! I have 2 ways that I make these, with the meat inside the sauce (which is this recipe that you're reading) and sometime I'll just make the sauce and Miss Tinka and I will make mini meatballs to line the bottom of the shells with. Either way these are made they are so delicious and quite addictive!


For full ingredients please click image:

Turn stove on medium and pour olive oil into the frying pan coating the bottom Break up the ground beef, add about 2 tbsps of garlic powder, 2 tbsp of onion powder and 2 tbsp of Italian seasoning and stir everything together well mixing it with the olive oil. Make sure to stir the meat as it's cooking so that it doesn't clump together.

Fill your large pot with water, a dash of salt and a dash of olive oil. Bring it to a full boil and then add your noodles. Stir them into the water really well to make sure that they get coated with the olive oil so that they do not stick together. Cook them until they start to look a little translucent. Drain them well, put into a large mixing bowl and sit to the side for a later step. (To keep them from drying out you can cover the bowl with plastic wrap or place a large plate over the top of them.)

Open both of your cans of sauce and put them into a pot on low-medium. Add both of your spaghetti seasoning packets, 1/4th cup of sugar (it cuts down the acidity of the sauce and helps curb heartburn), 2 tbsp of parsley, 2 tbsp of Ms. Dash, 2 tbsp of Italian seasoning and stir together well. Put the cover on the pot and let it simmer until its thoroughly heated and begins to look smooth.

Drain your ground beef well and put it into your sauce, let the sauce continue to simmer for about 10-15 mins, so that the meat can absorb all of the flavors.

Mix your sauce and noodles together in a large mixing bowl and set aside while you heat your taco shells.

I always use stand and stuff hard taco shells for Spaghetti Tacos, makes filling them much easier. I allow them to heat in the oven at 325 degrees until i just start to smell them. 

I cut up the spaghetti to make it easier to spoon into the shells. Fill up your taco shell and add some Italian blend or Mozzarella cheese on top and enjoy!

Yummy Spaghetti Tacos!