Chicken Pillows and Red Velvet Brownies

My oldest daughter is turning 12 and when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday dinner and dessert she said, "CHICKEN PILLOWS and RED VELVET BROWNIES." Okay, the chicken pillows I could do, no problem, but red velvet brownies? Did such a thing exist? Turned out they do, but I needed a simple version. I had a box of red velvet cake mix in the pantry. Could I do something with that? Turned out I could. Online I found several sites telling me how to make cake mix into brownies. NICE! Here are the recipes for chicken pillows and cake mix brownies. Buon appetito amici!

Chicken pillow image from:
http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2011/04/chicken-pillows.html

Chicken Pillows

5-6 (5 oz each) cans chicken, or 5-6 cooked breasts of chicken, diced or shredded
16 oz cream cheese, softened (can use low fat)
Salt and pepper to taste
6 stalks celery, diced
1/4 - 1/2 cup onions, diced
5 tubes (8 rolls in each tube) refrigerator crescent rolls
1 stick melted butter
1-2 cups bread crumbs (plain or seasoned) or crushed dry stuffing mix
Cream of chicken or mushroom soup mixed with 1/2 cup milk or use chicken gravy

Combine chicken, cream cheese, salt, pepper, celery and onion. Add a large spoonful (a little larger than golf ball size) of mixture to each crescent roll triangle. Wrap dough around filling and pinch edges to seal completely. Roll between hands to form into a nice ball. Dip each chicken-dough ball in melted butter (or milk), then roll in bread crumbs. Place rolls on ungreased baking pan (1/2” to 1” apart). Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350°F until they are golden. Remove to plates and pour hot cream of chicken soup or gravy over the chicken pillows.

Cake Mix Brownies

1 (15-18 oz) box chocolate cake mix (or other flavor if desired)
1 egg
1/3 cup water (or milk)
1/4 cup cooking oil (or softened, not melted, butter)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease, or spray with cooking spray, a 9x13-inch pan. Mix dry cake mix, egg, water, and oil until completely combined. The batter will be very thick and very sticky. Spread batter into prepared pan (the thickness of the batter makes spreading in the pan more time consuming than with normal brownie mix). Batter will be spread very thin in the 9x13 pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.