Chick 'n Pea Noodle Casserole

If you already have some cooked chicken on hand, this is a quickie!*

This makes for a great 'blocker' meal. By that, I'm referring to freezing 'blocks' of this for a future meal. You can see how I do this with the FoodSaver vacuum sealer-- I posted about it in the category of "Gadgets I Like".

INGREDIENTS:

• 2-3 cups cooked/cubed chicken meat
• 8-12 oz. medium width egg noodles, cook according to directions on the package.
• 1 of 10.75 oz. can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 of 10.75 oz. can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup thick sour cream
• 1-2 cups frozen peas
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup crumbled Ritz crackers (saltines may also work)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cut and cube chicken meat (I like to use what's left of a rotisserie chicken.)
2. Boil egg noodles, according to directions. Drain.
3. While egg noodles are cooking, combine the two soups and sour cream-- stir in the chunks of chicken.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.
4. When noodles are cooked and drained, add the frozen peas, the blended soup/chicken mixture and stir gently.
5. Put into sprayed 9x13-inch baking dish.
6. Pour melted butter over crumbled crackers and stir to coat.
7. Sprinkle the cracker mixture on top of the casserole and bake at 350-degrees for about 45 minutes or until hot/bubbly and golden brown on top.
8. Serve as is OR with grated cheese, or sour cream. I have one who likes a dab of ketchup on this.

* You could easily 'do your own thing' with this casserole by adding celery, onion, mushrooms, water chestnuts for extra 'crunchiness', different vegetables, etc.