Chicken Cordon Bleu Lasagna

Chicken Cordon Bleu Lasagna

Have you ever gone on a diet where for like 3 days you're supposed to eat whatever you want to kind of prepare yourself for your new way of eating? I love those plans. They are the best. I am so good at those.

Until day 4; then it kind of all falls apart. But this dish? It would be perfect for days 1, 2 and 3 of such a diet. And then for day 4 around lunch time when you give up on such a ridiculous thing as losing weight.

Pair this with a spinach salad. While it doesn't cancel out the sins of the lasagna, you won't feel quite as guilty!

Chicken Cordon Bleu Lasagna
Recipe by Michelle's Dinner Bell


3-4 chicken breasts - boneless and skinless, seasoned with salt and pepper
2 tbs butter
2 tbs olive oil
3/4 cup white wine
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbs corn starch
1/2 pound ham, diced
3/4 baby swiss cheese, thinly sliced
No bake lasagna noodles - I like Barilla brand
Grated cheese for topping - I used a blend of sharp cheddar and mozzarella

1. In a large skillet with a lid, heat butter and olive oil over medium heat. Brown chicken on both sides.
2. Add wine and broth and bring to a simmer.
3. Cover and let simmer about 20 minutes.
4. Remove chicken and chop into bite-sized pieces.
5. In a small dish, dissolve corn starch in small amount of liquid - you can use a bit of the cream or chicken broth. This is called a corn starch slurry for future reference. There may or may not be a quiz.
6. Now add the cream and slurry to your broth and wine mixture. Mix well and cook until thickened. Do not boil it - just simmer it gently.
7. To assemble your lasagna, put spoonful of sauce in your baking dish, lay out your pasta, top with chicken, then ham, swiss cheese and another spoonful of sauce. Repeat layers ending with sauce.
8. Cover tightly with foil - this is important when using the no-bake pastas.
9. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove foil and top with grated cheese and bake ten minutes more.
10. Let lasagna rest covered for at least 15 minutes before cutting into it.

Enjoy!

Blackberry Peach Tart

You know how some recipes are super simple and they taste good but they are kind of ugly? I hate things like that. I mean, obviously I'm not all "Cupcake Wars" over here - I don't even have the attention span to pluck my eyebrows. But I don't really want to present anything that has the word "dump" in it. I also don't like to eat anywhere that has the word "chuck" in its title. I have a lot of rules.

Anyway, back to the dump cake. I had a revelation. Turn it upside down and suddenly it's all fancy tart like rather than rustic cobbler ish.

Now I'm not going to google this because I'm sure that there are others who have had this revelation long before me, but I like to pretend that I am, in fact, solving the world's problems one by one with each passing day. Humor me, would you?

Blackberry Peach Tart
Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com


1 can (about 20 ounces) peach pie filling
1 cup fresh blackberries
1 yellow cake mix
1 stick unsalted butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Pour peach pie filling into round cake pan (or silicone mold - see how cute mine is?). Scatter berries over that.
3. Pour cake mix over fruit and pat lightly.
4. Slice cold butter into slivers and top the cake mix with that.
5. Bake 30-40 minutes.

Now one thing I love about my particular mold is that look what happens when you slice it.

How cute is that? And imagine the possibilities - French toast casseroles, quiches, heck, heart-shaped shepard's pie.... The choice is yours! For more information on these all-natural molds (which come in about a gazillion shapes) email me here.

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Photo courtesy of Campbell's

It may come as no surprise that I love to read recipes. When I was growing up before I could even cook, I loved looking at my mom's huge recipe collection. The internet has made this addiction so so easy to feed, I tell you. 

I love to go on the big recipe sites and browse recipes but I find myself wanting to fight with people. And really I'm not a mean person, but when a recipe has been rated as a 4-5 star recipe by eight gazillion people and then you (general you here) go on and write that it didn't work for you and was horrid, I'm pretty sure it was YOU and not the recipe. 

Another thing I love is when people change 8 of the 10 ingredients posted and add 3 more and then rate the recipe. Um, newsflash, it's no longer the same recipe. So sometimes, I find myself wanting to hunt these people down and find out WHY they do what they do. And then I realize that in another way, I am that person. Many things that many people love? I shun. 

There is a recipe that pops up everywhere that people rave about and I ignore. I typically avoid the recipes that call for cream of anything soups or I substitute ingredients to make a more natural substitute. Well this particular pot roast recipe seemed to be stalking me and so I thought what the heck and made it - cream of mushroom soup and all. Guess what? My family loved it! Okay, my husband loved it and my kids ate it, kind of- which is a win here!

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Recipe adapted from Campbell's

3 lb boneless roast

1 can cream of mushroom soup

3/4 cup water

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

1. Place roast in slow cooker.
2. Combine soup, water and soup mix and pour over roast.
3. Cook on low 8-9 hours.

Note: Add carrots and potatoes if you'd like - I prefer to roast mine separately in the oven but realize to many people this kind of defeats the purpose of the slow cooker!

Enjoy!

Cucumber & Curry Chicken Salad

Well here we are, three weeks into our new adventure on the east coast and I continue to find things to be neurotic about. Will wonders never cease?

I have realized that I have a deep fear of basements. I don't understand everyone thinking they are normal. They are underground and dark. Weird because I always kind of wanted a basement that I could fix up as a karaoke lounge and have a margarita machine (or ten). Yet my real life basement experience has not been very karaoke/margarita lounge ish at all.

First of all, it took me about ten days to find the light switch down there. I probably could have asked Mr. Bell to help me find it but that would have possibly entailed an extra trip down there and he wouldn't instinctively know that you can only be in the basement for as long as you can hold your breath. Not because it is particularly smelly down there but because everyone knows that serial killers and rabid ground hogs alike respect the you can't kill your prey while they are holding there breath law.

As the days went by, however, just walking by the basement door started to freak me out. I realized it was time to discuss it with the mister and add all basement business to his list of trash and bug abatement. I made him a drink and began to explain how scary it is down there. I told him he doesn't realize it because he is from "back here" where things like underground serial killer slash rabid ground hog pits under your house are normal. I was sure that he would realize that of course a California person couldn't be expected to just flounce down the stairs all carefree into a BASEMENT.

Has he not seen Silence off the Lambs? Wasn't that pit the weirdo with Precious the dog put his chubby girls in actually a basement type of cave thing? That could be me. You know what he said? "You have to go in the basement. The washer and dryer are in there." It was a chillier night than usual in Massachusetts that night.

And speaking of chilly, I feel so out of synch with the blog world. When I lived in southern California, it seemed everyone was talking soup when it was 90 degrees at my house. Now it seems everyone is talking salads and cool fruity drinks and frolicking in their pools while it is peaking in the 40s and 50s around here. Sigh. So I'll embrace my out-of-synch-ness and pretend that it is quirky and fun.

This Cucumber & Curry Chicken Salad is perfect for those of you in warm climates and it is perfect for me when I crank up my heater to 82 degrees, lose my coat and pull out my flip flops and wear them with love.

Cucumber & Chicken Salad
Recipe by Michelle's Dinner Bell

For the dressing
1 pkg ranch dressing mix
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cucumber, peeled, chunked and patted dry

For the salad
2 cups cooked chicken
1/2 cured onion, thinly sliced
2 stalks celery, sliced
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup pistachios
1/2 tsp curry - more or less depending on how you like it
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Combine dressing ingredients in your blended and blend well. Refrigerate about an hour.
2. Combine salad ingredients. Toss with dressing to desired consistency - but about 1 cup of dressing is what I use. Serve salad on rolls or wrap in lettuce leaves.

Refrigerate remaining dressing. It is great on a green salad or as a dip.

Enjoy!

Thank you all for the sweet emails..... I am out from under the boxes and have located my kitchen, however, I am still disconnected from the modern era except via my magical red phone.

Like me on facebook at Michelle's Dinner Bell for a much more condensed version of me. You might like it better!  Plus I like being liked.

Irish Meatball Sliders

For all you Saint Patrick's Day purists, this is not in any way shape or form an authentic Irish recipe. Go ahead and boil up a fatty hunk of corned beef and some slimy cabbage if it makes you happy, but I hear that's not exactly authentic either. Regardless, I prefer little meatballs covered with melted cheese on Hawaiian rolls. Call me crazy.

This recipe is adapted from a Rachael Ray recipe for Reuben Sliders. Last summer I had a torrid affair with these little beauties and then I recently came up with these Philly Cheesesteak Meatballs. Put them all together and what do you get? Pure Saint Paddy's Day Love, that's what.

Irish Meatball Sliders

For Meatballs
1 lb ground sirloin
1/2 pound sliced corned beef, chopped fine
1 pkg dry onion soup mix
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs

For Filling
1 tbs olive oil
2 red potatoes, diced
16 oz sauerkraut
1 onion, diced
6 ozs beer
1/2 cup brown sugar

For Sandwiches
12 Hawaiian sweet rolls
1 cup sharp cheddar, shredded
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In mixing bowl, combine meatball ingredients and mix well. Form meat into a brick-sized rectangle and cut into 16 equal squares. Roll each square into a ball and bake for 15 minutes.
3. While meatballs are baking, heat 1 tbs olive oil in large skillet and add potatoes. Cook until lightly browned. Add rinsed sauerkraut and onion.  Cook fifteen minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
4. In small saucepan, combine beer and brown sugar and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until it starts to thicken slightly and then pour over potato mixture. Add meatballs. Cover and cook ten minutes.
5. In the meantime, combine melted butter, mustard and Worcestershire sauce in small mixing bowl. Slice rolls lenghtwise without separating them. Spread bottom half of rolls with potato mixture. Top with meatballs and then sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Replace top half of rolls and brush with butter mixture.
6. Cover with foil and bake 20 minutes.

Totally not Irish, but color your cocktail green and call it a day. You'll love it!

Magic Chubby Hubby Bars

Magic Chubby Hubby Bars

Have I ever told you that Mr. Bell has a really disgusting habit? Since he's still out of town and not feeling obligated to hang on every word I utter or write, I'll tell you that he does. He eats ice cream. Every night. Not just ice cream but the super good Ben & Jerry's or Haagen Dazs super premium extra fat added ice cream.

That is not the disgusting part per se. The truly disgusting part is that he never gains weight. Not an ounce. And it's not like he works out, either. He'll do like ten push ups every few weeks and be like, "Oh, it's a good thing I'm working out, I almost gained a bit of weight last week." And it awakens a brand of violence within me that I can't even write about on the internet as it may incriminate me at some future date should something mysterious happen to my never-gain-an-ounce husband whom I love with all my heart.

Why then, you ask, are these called Magic Chubby Hubby Bars as opposed to Morbidly Obese Wife Bars? Clearly if you must ask, you are missing out on the very best ice cream known to mankind and that is Chubby Hubby by Ben & Jerry's. And you should be glad - very very glad. Because it is the ice cream that will haunt you for the rest of your life and cause you to do things like lie to your husband that a freakish freezer mishap in every grocery store in the state destroyed every last pint of ice cream except for the very easy for me to resist Rum Raisin.

Now these Chubby Hubby bars were kind of a last minute thing. I mentioned that my son was home last week from Japan and I wanted to make something I'd seen on the site of all evil things (Pinterest) which was basically a brownie topped with a peanut butter and chocolate rice krispie treat. Then I realized I didn't have time to make that and I panicked until I realized I had the ingredients on hand to make Magic 7 Layer Bars - which really is a problem in and of itself. Who in their right mind has all that stuff on hand at all times? Um, right. Me. Anyway, then I realized the Magic 7 Layer Bars were hated by my non coconut eating son.

As the panic began to bubble back up I remembered these little beauties and began to improvise and well, the Magic Chubby Hubby Bar was born. And promptly removed from my custody.

Magic Chubby Hubby Bars
Recipe by Michelle's Dinner Bell

1 box (18-20 oz) brownie mix - my favorite it Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Chip
1 stick butter
2 cups of peanut butter filled pretzels
1 cup of Rolo candies, cut in half
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dry roasted peanuts
1 cup sweetened condensed milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine melted butter and brownie mix and press into bottom of 9x13 baking pan - I use glass lined with parchment paper for easy clean up and cutting.
3. Top with pretzels and Rolo candies.
4. Top that with chips and peanuts.
5. Sprinkle with the peanuts.
6. Drizzle condensed milk over the top of that.
7. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool completely before cutting.

Enjoy!

P.S. - I need to stop panicking over baked goods. It is not attractive. My son implored me to stop fussing over him and I think I saw a flicker of "I can't wait to get the heck away from this crazy bat I call mom" on Day 9 of his visit.