Muffins and Noodles

Muffins and Noodles

I was cooking up a storm yesterday and made a couple of really great recipes. One was for fresh cranberry muffins and the other was for chicken and noodles. Both recipes turned out great and the food tasted awesome. 

The cranberry muffin recipe I used came from pinterest. They turned out light and fluffy and not too sweet. The recipe originally made 24 but I halved it thinking that there would be no way that I would eat 24 before they went bad. Now after tasting them though I'm a little sad that I didn't make the whole batch, but I guess I can always make more and have them be nice and fresh when I want them. I was very curious about cooking with fresh cranberries because I had never used them before, I'd only ever used dried. The fresh worked so well in the muffins though, I'm so glad that I was able to find fresh berries at the store. They add little pops of tartness all throughout the muffin which compliments the sweet dough so well. The recipe said to halve the cranberries and lightly coat them in powdered sugar before adding them into the batter. The smaller size helps to have smaller bites of berries and the sugar helps to lessen the tartness a bit as well as helping them not sink to the bottom of the muffins. Cutting them in half took some work, most of the berries were fairly small and there were so many to halve.The sugar worked really well, the cranberries stayed dispersed nicely throughout the muffins. I will definitely be making this recipe again.

The chicken and noodles recipe is one that I came up with myself a while back so I can share that recipe with you. Sadly they are not homemade noodles though, they are store bought, I wold like to try it with homemade noodles sometime though. Here's what you need:

A big bag of dried noodles (no yolk brand, or Amish)

1 can of cream of chicken soup (and a can of water)

4 cups of chicken broth (Swanson low sodium if you can find it)

Parsley

Garlic powder

Oregano

Black pepper

Basil

Onion powder 

2 TBS butter

1/2 cup milk

2 large chicken breasts

First you want to get the chicken breasts cooked so season them with some of the seasonings and bake them in a 350 degree oven for an hour. Once they are cooked let them cool and then chop them up into small, bite sized pieces. While the chicken is cooling you can start the noodles. 

Put the chicken stock, chicken soup, and can of water into a large pot and set the burner on high to boil. Once the mixture has come to a boil add anywhere from 3/4 to the entire bag of noodles, depending on the size of the bag and how thick you want your noodles to be.Turn down the heat and let the noodles cook for a few minutes under what the bag recommends. Make sure to stir the noodles every couple minutes so they don't start sticking together. When they're done boiling turn the heat down to low and add in the seasonings. How much you add is really all to your taste preferences, I don't measure these out. I go heavier on the parsley and the pepper, you want to stay lighter on the basil, onion powder and oregano. For the garlic put in a good bit if you really like garlic, or completely omit it if you don't. You can always taste it along the way and add more seasonings accordingly. If you used low sodium stock you may want to add a bit of salt in to help liven up the flavors.

Now you want to add in the chicken pieces. Place them in the pot gently so that they don't splash and then mix them in well. Keep the mixture on a low heat, it will bring the chicken back up to temperature just fine on a low heat. Now add the milk and butter and let them slowly melt in, this will help give a bit of creaminess. You want to let it all cook for at least 10 minutes so that everything blends together nicely, the longer it sets the better the flavors get, but be cautious about overcooking the noodles and making them mushy. The low heat will help this from happening. Also keep stirring every so often while it sits to keep everything mixed and moist. 

When it all seems well heated and well mixed serve it up and a bowl and enjoy. This recipe does make a lot so either have a lot of people to eat it or eat some big portions. It will keep for a few days in the fridge. Freezing it isn't the best thing because the noodles get very mushy when reheated. I've tried to find a way to make a smaller portion of this, but haven't got there yet. That may be because I really like it though so I like to have left overs.

Thanks for reading.