Baked Oatmeal

Here is a great breakfast recipe for a delicious Baked Oatmeal. Oatmeal is a good-for-you heart-healthy food and it is delicious served this way, you can eat it warm or cold. My kids really like it a lot. It makes a big serving so it is great for if you are having people over for a brunch, or take it to a pot luck. It has a good amount of brown sugar and cinnamon in it, so no need to add more on it for serving. Even if you want to drizzle some maple syrup on top this oatmeal bake is way healthier than those add-water packets of Oatmeal that have artificial ingredients and artificial flavorings in them. And it's homemade by you! Total comfort food.

2 eggs, beaten
1 c milk
1/2 c oil
1 c brown sugar, packed
2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
3 c. quick-cooking oats, uncooked

Mix all ingredients together with mixer. Pour into a lightly greased 13 x 9 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Do not let brown. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Recipe Creations?? Where did you go?

I cannot say enough what a fan I am of refrigerated dough, short of renaming this blog the Crescent Roll Recipe Blog. I *heart* refrigerated dough and I use it all the time, namely Pillsbury Crescents. In fact I have often thought that double ovens must exist for the sole purpose of having a separate oven for the Crescents to cook in.

Last year I noticed Pillsbury introduced a new item called Pillsbury Recipe Creations Seamless Dough Sheet. What this is is a seamless flat of dough, the same dough from the Crescent Rolls. It comes in the same tube and looks nearly identical to Crescents. A lot of times recipes will tell you to use the Crescent dough to wrap around something like chicken or meat, and you have to pinch all of the perforations closed by hand to make it one sheet of dough, and then reshape it to your liking. The Recipe Creations sheet eliminated this step by giving you the dough already in a flat rectangle, no pinching. I love this idea! So useful! I used this a ton for chicken dishes, for appetizers, for fruit turnovers.

Now my dilemma is I can no longer find the Recipe Creations at my local grocery store and I am so upset over it! Now I have to go back to pinching the Crescents closed (Horrors!). This item was and IS a great idea. I went on the Pillsbury website and they still exist, at least there. I guess my local grocery stores decided to stop carrying it? I did mention it to my store manager, so hopefully they will pick this item back up. I cannot imagine that there is not a huge demand for it!

Has anyone else seen these and used them? Post your comments and tell me about your favorite way to use Crescent Dough. In the meantime, I will be on the lookout for my Recipe Creations!

Chicken Cordon Bleu in Pastry

This is sort of a Faux Chicken Cordon Bleu, using Pillsbury Crescents. I love refrigerated dough! What is it about it that makes it sooo good? A recipe that includes Pillsbury dough simply can do no wrong in my opinion.

Worth noting: This recipe uses chive & onion cream cheese. In the Tortellini soup I posted previous to this recipe, you use 1/2 a tub of the chive & onion cream cheese. Make this chicken recipe in the same week as the soup, and you can use the same tub. Economies of scale! Love it.

1 tube (8 ounces) refrigerated crescent rolls
1/4 cup spreadable chive & onion cream cheese
4 thin slices deli ham
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (about 4 ounces each)
4 slices Swiss cheese

1) On an ungreased baking sheet, separate dough into four rectangles; seal perforations.




2) Spread 1 tablespoon cream cheese lengthwise down the center of each rectangle.



3) Place ham width wise over dough. Arrange chicken in center of each rectangle. Wrap ham around chicken.




4) At each long end, pinch dough around chicken, forming points (the pastry will look like little boats).


4) Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Top with slice of Swiss cheese; bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted and pastry is golden brown. Careful not to let the bottoms burn!

Tomato Tortellini Soup

Here is another delicious soup recipe to try. I love this one - I make it fairly often. This one comes to me from my sister. Thanks Sissy!!

2 14 ounce cans reduced sodium chicken broth
9 oz cooked tortellini
1/2 of an 8 oz tub chive & onion cream cheese (room temperature)
1 10.75 oz can tomato bisque soup
snipped fresh chives for garnish - optional.

1) In a medium saucepan, bring broth to boiling. Add tortellini; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.

2) In a bowl whisk 1/3 cup hot broth into the cream cheese until smooth. Works best if the cream cheese is room temperature.

3) Return all to saucepan along with tomato bisque soup. Heat through, sprinkle with chives if desired.