Creamy Chicken Noodle Tomato Bisque Casserole

Please pardon my well used casserole dish.

I love playing around with food and trying out new combinations of some of my favorites. This recipe was born out of one of those experiments.  It's really simple and in my opinion very tasty.  It also received the seal of approval from my son, who is a very picky critic.

I'm following Weight Watchers and this dish has a little bit higher point count than I normally eat. But, I'm willing to use a few extra points now and then to have a creamy, cheesy, comfort food.

Ingredients:

• 1 - 12.5 oz. can of chicken breast meat, drained
• 1 - can of condensed Campbell's Tomato Bisque Soup
• 1/4 cup water
• 4 oz. of cream cheese
• 3 cups of egg noodles, cooked and drained
• 1/2 cup colby jack cheese, shredded 
• cyan pepper, to taste
• Morton's Nature's Season Seasoning Blend, to taste

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Cook and drain egg noodles.
• Drain chicken and place in a bowl, breaking it up with a fork.
• Season the chicken with cyan pepper and season salt to taste.
• Add the soup mix, water, chicken, and cream cheese to the noodles.
• Cook over medium high heat, stirring constantly, until cream cheese is completely melted and everything is blended.
• Pour mixture into a medium casserole dish and cover with shredded cheese.
• Place in preheated oven and cook about 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and starting to brown.

This will yield 4 generous size servings, 12 points per serving.  Pair this with some fresh steamed vegetables and this makes a great meal.  (If you steam those vegetables with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray and some season salt or Cajun seasoning, they will be 0 points.)  YUMMY! 

Three Bean Chili

We love chili at our house.  So, needless to say, we have tried many recipes throughout the years.  I recently happened upon a new recipe on Pinterest for Three Bean Chili.  I did tweak it a bit, but it was so good it has earned a place on our recurring meals list.

So without further ado, here is the recipe, with my tweaks.

Three Bean Chili

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1 small sweet onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 (15 ounce) can light red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (15 ounce) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 cup vegetable juice
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon cyan pepper
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• sea salt to taste
• 2 cups water

Directions:  In a large sauce pan, add ground beef and cook over medium heat, breaking up meat with a spoon.  Just when it starts to lose its pink color, add onion and garlic and cook until onions are tender.  Drain fat.

Add additional ingredients and bring to a boil.  Turn down to simmer and let cook for 1 hour.  

This recipe can also be done in the crock pot.  After browning meat, onions and garlic in a sauce pan place all ingredients in your crock pot and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

Enjoy! :)