New Recipes - "Country French Chicken", "Romaine, mandarin orange salad" and Poppy Seed Dressing"

Evening Sweet Friends,

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How are you today??  Well and happy I hope!!

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I spent time twice outside working in our front flower

bed.  The bushes needed trimming and the Lantana

needed trimming back as well.  We finally finished

it up when hubby came home,  so it looks very nice now.

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Yesterday I was looking for a recipe for something

called "Country French Chicken".

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 Years ago about 12-14 yrs. to be exact,  they used to have

a jarred sauce you could buy called Chicken Tonight.  There

was a"Chicken Cacciatore I think, and then one called

Country French Chicken.  My family loved the latter

one,  and so did I.  It was so easy to just plop some

chicken breasts in a pan pour that sauce over it and

let it cook away for about an hour,  make some rice

and a veggie to go with it,  and I was good to go!!

And it was a great and tasty meal to boot,  doesn't

get much better than that,  but for some strange reason

they took it off the market,  don't know what they

were thinking!!  Someone seriously needs to talk to

their marketing team,  whoever they were!!

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Anyway,  I was looking online to see if I could find

a recipe for it and I did find one,  but it didn't sound

like the kind of sauce it was even tho it did have some

of the ingredients that the other one had,  so I decided

to do a lil experimenting and came up with my own.

It turned out great and everyone loved it!!  So thought

I would share it with you,  so you can enjoy it too!

Country French Chicken

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4 Boneless Chicken Breasts

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1 can of cream of chicken soup

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1 soup can full of milk

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1 cup of applesauce (I used natural applesauce-
with no added sugar, in the separate lil cups.

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1 cup of White cooking wine or reg. white Wine
I use white cooking wine

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1 small onion chopped up in small pieces

(I use the food processor for the onion, carrots and celery,  much easier)

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1 large carrots or about 8-10 baby carrots,

cut the same as onion

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2 ribs of celery, cut the same as onions & carrots

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1 tsp. parsley flakes

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1/2 tsp. garlic powder or to taste

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pinch of dried thyme

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pepper to taste,  I didn't add

any salt but you might want to if

you are used to your food being a

bit more salty.

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Mix all the ingredients together in a large

bowl,  then put your chicken breasts in

a large frying pan or dutch oven,
  Mine is silverstone so I don't need to add any

oil or pam type spray.  Just put the chicken

breasts in the pan,  pour the mixture in the

bowl over it,  cover with the lid, and turn
 the burner to medium and wait for it to start
 bubbling a little, then turn it to your lowest
 setting and let it simmer for an hour or so. 
You should sort of stir it every 15 mins.
 cause it will stick to the pan if you don't.
 The chicken breasts were large so I cut
them in two pcs.  Take one out at an hour

and see how tender it is just in case.

One hour should be sufficient tho.

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Meanwhile you can be making yellow,

white or brown rice,  whatever

your preference,  I use yellow,  I think

it tastes good and makes a pretty

presentation as well.  Jasmine rice

might be good too,  if you have never

had Jasmine rice - you have to try it

sometime.  I can eat it all by itself,

it is delicious.

I also cook my rice in the microwave,  I find

that much easier,  cause you don't have

to worry about it burning,  but you do

have to stir it ocassionally.

Note: I made it with the Jasmine rice
on 10-15-2013 and it was delicious,
think this is my favorite way now.

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Once everything is ready just put rice on your

plate,  some sauce over the rice and add

your chicken breast.  The sauce is not a

thick sauce,  it is kind of like a thin gravy.

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Wish I had remembered to take a picture,

Sorry I never think about it till it too late!

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Also decided to try making a different type of salad

for a change.  I found a

Romaine and Mandarin Orange Salad

with Poppy Seed Dressing recipe.

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2  heads of romaine lettuce

torn or sliced into small pcs.

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1 10 oz. can of mandarin orange segments

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1/4 cup of chopped pecans

(the recipe called for toasted slivered almonds but I didn't have

any and I like pecans better anyway)

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McCormick bac'n pieces

(the recipe called for 6 pcs. of real bacon fried crispy and

 then crumbled - Somehow the oranges and the bacon didn't sound

good to me,  but then I decided to try the bac'n pcs. and it was

actually quite good.)

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Toss the Romaine in a large bowl with the mandarin

 oranges and the if you use the real bacon,  add it now! 

 Place lettuce mixture onto salad plates,  sprinkle with

 pecans or almonds,  and if you use the bac'n pcs.

you can sprinkle those on now.

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Poppy Seed Dressing

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1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar

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1/2 cup of sugar,

 (recipe calls for 3/4 cup but I only used the

 1/2 cup  and it was fine)

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2 tsp. dried minced onions

(recipe called for 1/2 red onion coarsely chopped

since I didn't have red onion I improvised)

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1 tablespoon of prepared mustard

(recipe called for 1/2 tsp. of dried mustard powder)

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1/4 tsp. of salt

(Which I somehow overlooked and didn't use,

and mine was just fine without it.)

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1/2 cup of vegetable oil

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1 tsp. of poppy seeds

(make sure you don't eat these in anything

if you have to take a drug test for a job,

or you will fail it.

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Place vinegar, sugar, onion, mustard and salt into

a blender,  I used my handy dandy Magic Bullet.

Cover and puree until smooth.  Add in the vegetable

oil and blend till it is creamy, then stir in the poppy seeds.

Drizzle on your lovely salad,

Eat and Enjoy!

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We all really enjoyed the PoppySeed dressing,

it was a very nice change of pace.

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Well, hope you have a very nice evening.

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Thanks for coming by and see ya tomorrow.

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Hugs and Blessings,

Nellie