Honey-Mustard Baked Chicken

Honey-mustard baked chicken is an easy way to bake chicken breasts. While it does require an hour of cooking in the oven, the marinade preparation will only take 10 minutes. This goes great with creamy Italian noodles: http://homecookedgourmet.blogspot.com/2012/10/creamy-italian-noodles.html

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1. Place chicken in a large shallow baking pan.
2. In a saucepan, melt the butter; stir in remaining ingredients and heat through
3. Brush glaze over chicken.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or 1 1/4 hours or until the chicken is golden brown.

5. Baste chicken frequently with sauce while baking. There may be some burnt sauce around the edges of the pan.

Sweet Potato Casserole

Sweet potato casserole is a nice vegetable side dish alternative to corn, green beans, broccoli and mashed potatoes. It goes well with most types of meat and kids will be more apt to like it with the bit of sweeter flavor.

Sweet Potato Casserole
10-12 servings

Ingredients;
4 cups of mashed sweet potatoes ( I usually buy canned yams and drain and mash them)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
Dash of salt
1/3 stick of butter (melted)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Topping:
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup butter (melted)

Directions:
1. Mix filling ingredients and pour into a greased casserole dish.
2. Combine the topping ingredients and crumble over the potato mixture.
3. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.     

Slow Cooked Lasagna

I love using my crockpot and finding simple yet delicious recipes to use in the slow cooker. This lasagna recipe is easy to prepare, let cook all day and have a delicious dinner.

Slow Cooker Lasagna
8 servings

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup diced onion
1 can (15 ozs.) tomato sauce
1 can (14 1/2 ozs.) Italian diced tomatoes
1 can (15 ozs.) spaghetti sauce
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 container (15 ozs.) ricotta cheese
12 uncooked lasagna noodles

Directions:
1. Cook beef and onion until meat is no longer pink.
2. Mix together tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, basil, garlic powder and salt.
3. Add meat/onion to sauce mixture.
4. Add together 1 cup of mozzarella cheese and ricotta cheese.
5. Spoon 1/4 of the beef/sauce mix into a 5-6 qt. slow cooker; top with 4 noodles broken into pieces to fit.
6. Spread with half of the cheese mixture and another 1/4 of the beef/sauce mix.
7. Top with 4 more noodles, the remaining cheese mixture and then 1/4 more of the beef/sauce.
8. Top with the remaining 4 noodles and the remaining sauce mixture.
9. Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours or until the noodles are tender.
10. Sprinkle the top of lasagna with the remaining 1 cup of mozzarella cheese. Cover again and let stand for about 15 additional minutes or until the cheese is melted.