Say Cheese....

I've decided that any pasta can be greatly improved by the addition of "Baked" at the beginning... which means "smothered with cheese and heat applied until melty".  The other day was "Baked Mostaccioli". Today is "Chicken Tuna Casserole" - err, "BAKED Chicken Tuna Casserole". It's made with chicken... no tuna... but the premise is the same: Cheap. Filling. Miscreants will eat.

Cheese makes everything better. Cheese enhances... many songs were actually written about cheese... producers had them change them because love songs sell better than dairy based. Hmph. I'm sure these are valid examples before the re-writes:

Hit Me With Your Best Cheese
The Woman in Me (Needs the Cheese in You)
Sweet Dreams (are made of cheese)
Pride (in the name of cheese)

The other day, I cooked up extra ingredients to make a few dinners faster/easier. Including pre-cooking some pasta.

I started by pulling the pre-cooked pasta and some chicken quarters from the freezer. Left the pasta to thaw on the counter.

Next, I put 3 chicken quarters (on sale for $1.73) into my pressure cooker. Could do this in crockpot for 3 hours on low, letting it simmer on warm til closer to dinner time. Added 2 C of water and then I set the pressure cooker for 15 minutes, walked away to continue my work from home activities. (Could use crockpot for 3-4 hours, or on the stovetop, 2-3 c of water added for an hour or so).

I left the chicken in the cooker, on warm for a few hours. I gently removed meat from bones with a couple of forks.

Added back into cooker.

Added 1/2 c sour cream, 1 can cream of celery, and partial bag of frozen peas and carrots. 

 Once mixed, I stirred in the now thawed pasta.

 Poured into a baking dish.... wait for it....say it...

CHEESE!!!

That's right... smother that casserole with cheese. Bake at 350 for about 30 mins- til melty and browned. I'm also baking a loaf of "cheesecake factory-esque brown bread" at the same time. I also cut up a couple bunches of broccoli, microwaved for 6 mins, then added CHEESE.

 Baked Tuna Chicken Casserole... Baked=Cheese