Cheesy Chicken Quesadillas, only 4 ingredients!
The title actually sorta gives away what most of the ingredients are! Cheese (actually a can of cheese soup), chicken, and if it’s quesadillas it’s gotta have tortillas, and water. I got this recipe off of the soup can. Southwest Style Pepper Jack soup.
It was kind of hard to find… have you ever stared and stared at shelves, just knowing it was there, but you couldn’t lay your eyes on it? I did that with this. I did it in the jello section looking for watermelon gelatin too just lately, but that’s for another time and another post. There is a difference though… with the watermelon gelatin, I was only hoping it was there, with the soup, I knew it was there.
The reason I knew it was there is because my sister-in-law Liz makes these quesadillas and she said Marketplace has the soup, but Walmart doesn’t. After I finally found the soup, I immediately looked on the label to see if the recipe was there and sure enough, it was. Then, I wondered HOW, out of all the soup can labels there, Liz found this soup and tried this recipe. And it was a hit with the family! Wonder how much more I’m missing out on by not trying other soup can label recipes.
There are 4 more recipes on the back (you have to cut the paper off of the can on the specified line and flip the paper over to see them, this is not something you should be doing in the store before purchasing). I think it’s the manufacturer’s trick to getting you to buy more… you can’t see the other recipes till you get home and cut the paper off of the empty can before throwing it away. Then some of the recipes grab you and ”Southwest Style Pepper Jack soup” goes right back on your shopping list. The other recipes are: Nachos Grande, Cheesy Pepper Jack Tacos, Mexican Meatloaf, and Cheesy Southwest Potatoes. I’ll bet some of those would be good too. Especially the nachos, meatloaf, and potatoes. They all have 5-7 ingredients. The reason you don’t need many ingredients is because this soup has got LOTS of flavor and kick.
Cheesy Chicken Quesadillas
1 lb. boneless chicken breast halves, cubed
1 can Campbell’s Southwest Style Pepper Jack soup
1/4 cup water
8 flour tortillas (8″), warmed (I used 9″ tortillas, and only 6 of them)
Preheat oven to 325. Cook chicken in nonstick skillet until done and juices evaporate, stirring often. Add soup and water and heat through. Shannon grilled the chicken on the grill while I mixed and heated the soup and water. When the chicken was done, I chunked it up and mixed it into the soup.
Spoon about 1/3 cup chicken mixture on half of each tortilla to within 1/2″ of the edge. Moisten edge with water.
Fold over and seal. Place on 2 baking sheets (or 1, in this case). Bake 5 min. or until hot. I baked them for 7-8 minutes, until I saw a bit of browning.
Cut into wedges and serve with salsa. And/or sour cream. I ate mine with sour cream. It was spicy enough without the salsa.
Just delicious for something so simple! If you have a full-time job and need to come home and make supper, this would be a good thing for the main dish! It takes about 20 minutes from start to finish. For a quick idea of something to serve with it, how about tortilla chips and applesauce. Or peanut butter pie (I’m so hungry for peanut butter pie!). Or ice cream. Or something else cold and creamy to cool the mouth. Tiffany’s take on the quesadillas after a couple bites was, “I don’t wike da spicy.”
Zesty Mozzarella Chicken
This recipe would be worth your time. Not that it takes a bunch of time. I just really REALLY like it. The last time I made it, I was going to feature it, but I burned the chicken.
Hey, here’s a question for you… How often do you make flops? …anything from desserts not setting up right to burning something to cooking veggies too long to forgetting to cut an ingredient amount in half when you’re making half of a recipe. Maybe those don’t all classify as flops, but I mean things like that where maybe only you as the cook know they even happened. For example, if I burn garlic toast under the broiler, if it’s not too bad, I take a knife and scrape off the burnt part. Nobody ever knows the diff. And the ingredient thing, I do that quite a bit because I cook small and am often halving recipes. Anyway, I mess something up at least once a week. What about you? 
This chicken recipe is taken from A Taste of the Country 8th Edition cookbook…
Zesty Mozzarella Chicken
1 egg white, lightly beaten
2 Tbsp. milk
1 cup dry bread crumbs (I use Club cracker crumbs)
2 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. each salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, and dried oregano
8 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce (instead of the tomato sauce mixed with basil, I just use Ragu pasta sauce)
1 tsp. dried basil
1 cup (4 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese (or Italian blend cheese)
In a shallow bowl, combine egg white and milk. In another bowl, combine the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and seasonings.
Dip each chicken breast in the egg white mixture, then in the crumb mixture. Melt butter in a skillet; brown chicken on both sides until pink and juices run clear.
To tell if the chicken is done, I either cut into a piece to see if it’s not pink anymore or poke a fork thermometer into it.
Meanwhile, heat tomato sauce and basil until warm. When chicken is done, sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
Remove from the heat and cover for 2-3 minutes or until cheese melts. Serve with tomato-basil sauce.
I don’t think the breading is enough for 8 pieces because I always make 4 pieces and use about 3/4 of the breading for a full recipe! So, if you do make the full 8-piece recipe, make more of the crumb mixture than it calls for. Or maybe I just like more breading than most people.
I usually serve this chicken with noodles, Pillsbury French bread, and salad.
Bacon-Wrapped Chicken
I’ve never made bacon-wrapped anything. I’ve had bacon-wrapped crackers and I’ve had bacon-wrapped filet mignon, but didn’t make either of them. So, here it is, the first time I’ve made a bacon-wrapped something…
Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Recipe taken from the 2001 Quick Cooking cookbook
6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1 carton (8 oz) whipped cream cheese with onion and chives
1 Tbsp. butter or margarine, cubed
Salt to taste
6 bacon strips
Flatten the chicken to 1/2″ thickness.
Spread 3 Tbsp cream cheese over each. Dot with the butter and sprinkle with salt. Have you ever tried spreading cream cheese on slippery raw chicken? It’s hard!!!
Roll up. Wrap each with a bacon strip. Place, seam side down, in a greased 9×13 pan.
Bake, uncovered, at 400 for 35-40 minutes or until juices run clear. Broil 6″ from the heat for 5 minutes or until bacon is crisp. Yield: 6 servings. Look at the difference in the pan of the picture above and the picture below! The bacon sizzled and splattered while baking. We could hear it.
We had creamed peas and Red Lobster biscuits with it.
This bacon-wrapped chicken actually looked REALLY good and sounded like it would be top notch, as in put it on the make-for-company list. The combo of chicken and bacon was really good, but the chicken was a bit dry and it wasn’t really all that extra flavorful.
Next time, I’m going to skip the cream cheese thing and sprinkle other seasonings inside instead. Then, I’ll bake it covered (so the splattering bacon doesn’t total my oven!) and uncover it for the broiling at the end. I think the chicken would stay more moist that way. And then we could eat it with barbeque sauce. Bbq sauce didn’t seem like it would go with that cream cheese mixture.
But it does look kinda neat, doesn’t it? One thing that surprised me was that the bacon stayed on, even when it ended at the top. I didn’t have to tack it down with toothpicks or anything!
One of these weeks, I’ll have to do a week of re-doing recipes that I’ve tried. I say ‘next time’ and then just keep making new recipes and ‘next time’ doesn’t really happen, although I did try something different with those carrot pancakes… I traded the cup of carrots for 1/3 cup of pumpkin and doubled the pecans. I kept everything else the same, but maybe should’ve added nutmeg. It was much better than the original recipe!
Butterball or Jennie-o?
…Which brand are you cooking on Thanksgiving Day?
I was just in line at the grocery store and overheard this conversation:
Cashier, as she was ringing up a Butterball turkey: “Butterball. Good choice.”
Customer, who was a man that looked to be in his late 50s: “It’s the best.”
Lady customer (not me 
), standing in line behind the man: “Butterball is better than Jennie-o?”
I forget from there, but the male customer and the cashier were all but talking over each other, telling the lady customer how much better flavor Butterball is and how dry Jennie-o is compared to Butterball.
I have no clue which is better, but was surprised how strong both of them felt about Butterball. What’s your opinion? Do you feel strong about a certain brand being the best?
Anybody on a diet? This meal is for you!
445 calories… including dessert! Not bad!
Garlic Chicken Kiev
Chewy Pizza Bread
Cauliflower and Broccoli
Strawberry Pie
These recipes (except the caul and broc, that’s just cooked frozen veggies) all come from Betty Crocker’s Eat and Lose Weight Cookbook . After each recipe is a chart with as much info on it as you’d find on a nutrition label. I’ll just list the calories, carbs, and protein. If you want more info than that, let me know.
Garlic Chicken Kiev
3 Tbsp reduced calorie spead, softened (I used low-fat butter, half the calories of reg butter)
1 Tbsp chopped fresh chives or parsley (I used 1/2 Tbsp of each)
1/8 tsp garlic powder
6 skinless boneless chicken breast halves (1 1/2 lbs)
2 cups cornflakes, crushed (about 1 cup)
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 cup low-fat buttermilk or skim milk
Mix spread, chives, and garlic powder, shape into rectangle, 3 x 2 inches. Cover and freeze about 30 min or until firm. Trim fat from chicken. Flatten each chicken breast half to 1/4-inch thickness between wax paper or plastic wrap. Heat oven to 425. Spray square pan, 9 x 9 x 2 inches, with non-stick cooking spray. Cut chives mixture crosswise into 6 pieces. Place one piece on center of each chicken breast half.
Fold long sides of chicken over chives mixture; fold up ends and secure with toothpick.
…yeah, as simple as that! Ha! It took me a long time to make these things and I used up to 4 toothpicks per piece! In a perfect world, chicken breast halves would all be shaped the same and be 4 ounces each! 
Mix cornflakes, parsley, and paprika. Dip chicken into milk, then lightly and evenly coat with cornflake mixture.
Place chicken, seam sides down, in pan. Bake uncovered about 35 min or until chicken is no longer pink in center.
6 servings. Per serving: 190 calories; Carbohydrates, 9g; Protein, 25g These tasted great! Nice and moist chicken! The fresh spices (or is it herbs?) give it lots of flavor! I’ll know more what I’m doing next time and hopefully the whole folding thing will go smoother and faster!!! Will definitely make again!
Chewy Pizza Bread
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup regular or non-alcoholic beer (Since I didn’t have beer on hand, I used Diet Coke )
1/2 cup speghetti sauce
1/3 cup shredded reduced-fat mozzarella cheese
Chopped fresh basil leaves, if desired (I didn’t do that)
Heat oven to 425. Spray round pan, 9 x 1 1/2 inches, with non-stick cooking spray. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Stir in beer just until flour is moistened. Spread dough in pan. Spread speghetti sauce over dough. Sprinkle with cheese.
Bake 15-20 min or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Sprinkle with basil. Serve warm.
6 servings. Per serving: 145 calories; Carbohydrates, 29g; Protein, 4g If you keep in mind that this is a diet dish, it’s actually very good! The problem was that there was too little cheese, but that’s diet for ya! I guess we’re just too used to stuff loaded with cheese… refer to previous post! 
I was surprised about this bread. I thought it would be biscuity, but it was actually more like regular raised bread, only more dense. It’s very filling, too. It was really good and I’ll be making it again sometime! By the way, the Diet Coke seemed to work great as a substitute!
Strawberry Pie with Meringue Crust
2 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 cup sugar
1 pkg (1.1 oz) vanilla fat-free sugar-free instant pudding and pie filling
1 cup skim milk
1 1/2 cups frozen (thawed) reduced-fat whipped topping
1 pint strawberries (2 cups), sliced
Heat oven to 275. Spray pie plate, 9 x 1 1/4 inches, with non-stick cooking spray. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in medium bowl with electric mixer on high speed until foamy. Beat in sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time; continue beating until stiff and glossy. Do not underbeat. Spread mixture evenly on bottom and halfway up side of pie plate. I put it to the top of the pie plate instead of halfway up.
Bake 40 min. Turn oven off; leave meringue in oven with door closed 1 hour. Finish cooling meringue at room temperature.
Beat pudding and pie filling with milk about 45 seconds, using wire whisk. Fold in one cup of the whipped topping. Layer half of the pudding mixture and half of the strawberries in crust; repeat. Cover loosely and refrigerate till firm, at least one hour, but no longer than 8 hours. Run knife around edge to loosen crust. Top each serving with some of the remaining1/2 cup whipped topping. I put the 1/2 cup Cool Whip on top right away and garnished it with a strawberry so that it would look more attractive sitting on the table during supper. Cover and refrigerate any remaining pie.
8 servings. Per serving: 85 calories; Carbohydrate, 16g; Protein, 2g This is just tops! You can’t even tell it’s low-cal! …except for the weird crust. The crust is great (meringue goes good with this pie), but it’s not too sturdy when you try to get pieces out of the pan. It kind of crumples up with the pie server sliding under it, so you don’t really end up with a picture-perfect piece. But the taste with fresh strawberries makes up for it! Yum!
By the way, one serving of the veggies was 25 calories . Not sure of the other specs on it.
About Me
Hi! Welcome to my kitchen! My name is Kay. I'm from northern WI. I love cooking and baking. Especially baking. It's thereapeudic for me. I'm not a professional or gourmet cook by any means. I'm a Mennonite homemaker who happens to take pictures of some of the food I make. I have 2 little 'helpers'... Lexi (5) and Tiffany (2), who are young cooks in training. I don't do anything on the grill... that's where my husband comes in! He grills quite a bit, especially in the summer. So, sit back and enjoy browsing thro' the recipes. If you try some of them, I'd love to hear feedback on how you liked them!
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