If we’re being completely honest, I would hazard to guess that I’m not the only housewife out here who cringes when she hears the words “What’s For Dinner.” Or as our youngest used to say, “What’s for Food?” which would usually be followed by a chorus of "Feed Me!" over and again until she'd gotten the "right" answer for what she could have for an afterschool snack. Much like the enunciated “MoOom, I’m BoOOored” that parents everywhere are subject to all summer long; after that initial honeymoon is over, it gets to grating on ones nerves like nails on a chalk board. I set a goal of trying something new at least once a week. Sometimes that’s a completely new dish that I’ve stumbled across and other times it’s changing up the condiments and flavors for that dish just to see how it turns out.
On several of the chat groups I have been in over the years we’ve had conversations running where someone would post the query “What’s for Dinner?” and everyone would respond by posting what their chosen meal that way was, and often how to prepare it.
Sometimes a topic would be chosen, someone would post a particular ingredient, or perhaps something like egg free or vegetarian and others would share their recipes that fit into that particular category. Sometimes a posted recipe would call for an ingredient or method that you’d never heard of and you’d be able to query others about that.
Earlier this week a few friends and I were online chatting and a couple of the girls were discussing their diet and counting up points and we got on the topic of cooking and recipes. At the time I’d mentioned I had two boneless, skinless chicken breasts thawing in the fridge and I was looking for inspiration. Before too long there were a flurry of e-mails and my good friend Susan had sent a few of her favorites my way. I immediately picked one out that seemed to jump off the page and began calculating what I might need to prepare it.
I have nicknamed this recipe “Susan Surprise” and to be fair even after having made and enjoyed it I cannot decide if the surprise is how easy it was to make, or just how awesome it turned out. It’s definitely a keeper in our kitchen!
Susan Surprise (Makes 4 Servings)
Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts 4 pieces of Swiss cheese
1/2 stick of butter (1/4 of a LB) 1 can of Cream of Chicken Soup
1 Package Pre-packaged stuffing mix cooking cherry (optional)
Pre-heat Oven to 325 degrees.
In a glass casserole dish (Susan suggests putting foil in first to save time later on clean up) put the chicken breasts in, and place one slice of Swiss cheese on each breast. Pour soup mixture (from the can – don’t mix it into soup!). Sprinkle with 1 C of stuffing mix, melt butter and drizzle over top of the entire casserole.
Bake at 325 for an hour.
The Change-Up:
Being in different parts of the country we often have certain ingredients available at different times of the year but you can usually find a suitable substitution. For this recipe I substituted a different brand of stuffing mix than had been suggested since it is not available in Canada. I put a little more than a cup of mix in also because I didn’t want to waste the very little bit that would have been left over.
I also substituted grated cheddar cheese for the slices of Swiss cheese because it was what I had on hand.
If you wanted to change this up further you could substitute another cream based soup (perhaps mushroom, or celery) and change the cheese to make it a completely different dish. Don't forget to try your favourite spice blend or san-sel to make this dish your own!
I would suggest that you choose chicken pieces that are all about the same size so that your cooking times aren’t thrown off.
I think when I do this recipe again next time I’ll also add some canned peas, or a mixed vegetable blend in when I add the soup. It was a truly yummy dish – I just couldn’t help but think that there should have been some kind of veg in there somewhere.
Thanks to some wonderfully creative chat buddies and friends who love to brainstorm, “What’s for dinner?” has gone from being a mournful cry and is now a challenge to be conquered. I am finding new ways to change things up, and menu planning has become fun again instead of dreading the dinner hour.
Do YOU have an ingredient or WFD challenge that you’d like to address? Would you like to submit a tip, recipe, suggestion or other comment? I’d love to hear from you! Did you try this week’s recipe? Let me know how it turned out. How would you change it up?
