Mummy Pizza Bites

Ingredients
1 plain bagel, divided in half
2 Tbsp. pizza sauce
2 sticks string cheese
4 slices black olives

Preparation

Heat oven to 400ºF.

Spread bagel halves with sauce. Pull cheese into thin strips; place in random criss-cross fashion on tops of bagels to resemble mummy bandages. Trim ends with kitchen shears and fill in holes with trimmings. Add olives for the eyes.

Place on baking sheet.

Bake 10 min. or until bagels are crisp and cheese is melted.

Hotdog & Hamburger Buns

I prefer homemade bread of every kind to store bought. So, I often make our own hamburger and hotdog buns when there is extra time. Having a Bosch mixer with a dough hook or a bread maker with a dough cycle makes bread making SO much easier. If using a Bosch mixer for kneading, the dough is ready when it pulls from the sides of the bowl and the bowl looks clean.

1 ¼ cups skim milk, warm
1/3 cup vegetable/canola oil
¼ - 1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 ¾ cups bread flour
2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
butter

Dissolve yeast in warm milk. Add oil, sugar, salt and flour. Knead well until smooth and elastic to touch.
Let rest in warm, draft-free area for 15 minutes. Punch down and knead gently.
Roll in a long log. Cut into 12 pieces for hot dog buns or 9 pieces for hamburger buns.
Hot Dog Buns: Roll into a long skinny hotdog shape.
Hamburger buns: Flatten with palm of hand till thickness of a pancake.
Put on parchment lined baking sheet.
Brush with melted butter.
Cover with cloth or pam sprayed plastic. Put in warm oven for 45-60 minutes to rise.
When doubled, remove from oven.
Bake on top shelf of oven.
Preheat oven to 400°F. Place buns in oven and turn temperature down to 375°F immediately. Bake hot dog buns abt. 15 minutes and hamburger buns abt. 17 minutes.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

So, my husband, daughter and I LOVE cordon bleu. But buying the premade frozen ones is expensive. And making them from scratch is a pain. Also, I've had a hard time find a recipe that tastes like the store bought ones. Most recipes make heavy use of Swiss cheese, the store bought ones are mozzarella. We have found that we don't like the Swiss cheese because it is so strong tasting, but straight mozzarella is too runny. I found this recipe a while back, and after some tweaking, I think I've found a winner. As the casserole is a bit runny, we serve this in a bowl over mashed potatoes. Yummy and easy!

RECIPE
2 lbs skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size chunks
dry breadcrumbs
1 1/2 cup milk, divided
1 egg
1 cup Swiss cheese, cubed
2 cups mozzarella, cubed
1 cup ham, cubed
1 (10 3/4 ounces) can cream of chicken soup

Mix 1/2 cup of milk with egg. Dredge chicken pieces in egg and milk mixture, then toss with bread crumbs, coating well. Fry chicken lightly (light golden brown). Place chicken in a 9x13 baking dish. Spread ham and cheese over top. Mix soup with remaining milk and pour over casserole. Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes, until tender and bubbly.

INVOLVING KIDS IN THE COOKING
This is a fairly easy recipe to let the kids help on. My ten year old cubed the cheeses and ham while I prepared the chicken, cutting the prep time in half.