Saturday, November 13, 2010

Balsamic Chicken with Mushrooms

Last month at church we had a kind of recipe swap night where we all brought our five best "go to" recipes.  Since I hadn't gone into labor yet (despite it being the night before my due date!) I went to the activity and came home with dozens of new recipes to try.  Exciting, isn't it??

Now, here we are 4 weeks after I've had the baby and I've finally had the chance to try out some of these new recipes!  One of the first I had to try was this scrumptious looking recipe for Basalmic Chicken. I got it from my friend Maria, along with the note that it's her and husband's favorite Weight Watchers Recipe.  I'm not sure who gets the credit, but KUDOS to them!  It was fantastic!  My favorite part is actually the mushrooms because they absorb so much flavor.  I could have skipped the chicken and eaten piles of the mushrooms.

Balsamic Chicken with Mushrooms

3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, divided
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 large garlic, minced or crushed
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
8 oz. button mushrooms, halved or quartered
1/3 c. chicken broth
1/2 tsp dried thyme, crumbled

Cut your chicken breasts into 4-oz portions (about the size of your palm).  I had one really large breast and one average-sized, so I ended up with 5 pieces instead of 4.

Preheat a medium-sized pan on the stove.  Coat with non-stick cooking spray.  Mix together 2 Tbsp of the balsamic vinegar, the garlic, and the mustard.  This is your marinade.  Coat the chicken in the marinade and place in the pan.  Pour any remaining marinade into the pan as well.

Cook until chicken is done.  If all of the liquid cooks out of the pan, you may need to add a couple of tablespoons of water to keep the sauce from burning.

While chicken is cooking, prepare the mushrooms.  In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the remaining tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, chicken broth, and thyme
After chicken is done cooking, remove from pan and place in a covered container to keep warm.  Do not clean out the pan.  It will add more flavor to your mushrooms!  This is what mine looked like.

Into this pan, I poured the broth mixture and the mushrooms.

Then I cooked the mushrooms until they were done.  You can tell mushrooms are done by their darker color and the fact that they have shrunk down in size.  If you aren't sure, eat one.  This is my favorite method in testing for "done-ness"!

Serve the chicken with the mushrooms on top, or (in my house) without the mushrooms for the kiddos.

Either way, it is a flavorful, low-calorie dish!


Friday, October 8, 2010

Creamy Spinach & Chicken Pasta

I can't believe how long it has been since I posted!  Contrary to how it may appear, I have been doing some cooking lately.  But I will confess, it was so stinking HOT here this summer that I didn't cook nearly as much as I normally do.  We had about 6 weeks in a row where it was over 100 degrees almost every day.  In case you were wondering, this really doesn't mix well with being pregnant.

However, this tasty little concoction came from one of those nights in early summer where I didn't mind a little extra heat from my stove.  I had spinach and mushrooms that needed to be eaten along with some leftover grilled chicken, and I knew I could come up with something.  So I got to work.  The original recipe only made 2 one-cup servings, so I doubled it for your benefit.  Just remember that what you see pictured cooking is only half the recipe!


Creamy Spinach & Chicken Pasta


2 Tbsp olive oil
8 oz. button mushrooms, sliced
3-4 cloves minced garlic 

3 c. fresh spinach
2 heaping Tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 c. low-fat cottage cheese, pureed in blender
1 c. low-fat milk
3 tsp. dried basil or 3 Tbsp fresh basil  
salt/pepper to taste
1/2 c. shredded parmesan (not grated!!)
2-3 large chicken breasts, grilled and diced
4 c. cooked pasta

Heat olive oil in a large pan.  Add mushrooms and garlic.  Saute for about 5-10 minutes or until mushrooms are done.

While mushrooms are cooking, you want to prep two other things.  First, you want to roughly chop the fresh spinach.

The second thing you need to do is pull out your blender or food processor and puree that cottage cheese with the milk.  You don't want lumpy sauce.  Trust me.
Eventually your mushrooms will be done and look something like this:

Add spinach and cook another minute or two until spinach is wilted.  (Tip: If you're using fresh basil in this recipe, this may be a good time to add that, too.)

It should look something like this when you're ready to move on:

 Sprinkle corn starch over pan and toss to let the moisture in the pan absorb it.

Pour in your milk and cottage cheese mixture and simmer until thickened.

Add Parmesan cheese, salt/pepper to taste, and dried basil.  This is when you want to make sure you're tasting this dish and have the seasonings the way you like it.

 Add diced chicken and mix well.

 Doesn't this look divine??
 
Serve 1 cup of sauce over 1 cup of pasta for a very filling meal!


Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Lasagna Pizza Rolls

I'm sure that someone, somewhere has tried something like this before.  But since I haven't ever seen it before, I feel like a culinary genius.  And my kids think so, too, which is even better.

It seems to me there's a quote somewhere about desperation leading to innovation leading to inspiration.  This was something like that.  It was a Thursday, and I wasn't planning on going to the grocery store till that night or the next day.  My kids were complaining about sandwiches for lunch (again!) and my 6-year old started begging for me to take everyone out to eat.  Since this is something she actually does on a regular basis, I left the room for a few minutes to think.  I realized that when I have cheese in the house (and I did), then I can almost always come up with something the kids will eat and enjoy.  So I came back and started scrounging through my pantry and cabinets to see what I could throw together. 

That's when it caught my eye.  A half-used box of lasagna noodles?  Surely there's something I could do with that.  And there was...

It was so surprisingly good, that the kids begged for me to make it again and soon.  So I made it the next night for The Honey to serve the kids (I had a meeting) and got more rave reviews.  It's quickly become a fast favorite around here!


Lasagna Pizza Rolls

Lasagna noodles (any kind)
Shredded mozzarella cheese, or blend of cheeses
Pepperoni, or other favorite pizza toppings (optional)
Italian-style diced tomatoes (pureed in blender)
     OR pizza sauce

Take your lasagna noodles and break them in half.  You can use oven-ready or regular noodles, it doesn't matter.

As you can see from the first time I did it, it's hard to break them in a straight line just using your hands.  However, I discovered the second time around that if you use the straight edge of the counter top and break the noodles over that, you get a nice, clean break every time.  You'll see evidence of this in later pictures.

Place halved noodles in a medium to large pot of boiling water and boil for 10 minutes.  (Hint: Do not stir the noodles too much while cooking.  They will start to fall apart.  Just stir them enough to keep them from sticking to the pan.)

Drain and rinse with cold water.

Spread a sheet of aluminum foil out on the counter, and line up as many lasagna noodles as you can in straight rows.

Next, sprinkle on desired amount of cheese and add any pizza toppings you like, such as pepperoni, sausage, or sauteed veggies.

Starting at one end, roll each noodle up individually and place in a greased rectangular casserole dish.

Continue until all the noodles have been rolled up.

Top with pizza sauce or pureed Italian-style diced tomatoes.  Don't drown them with sauce, just spread a nice layer over the top.

Then sprinkle with additional cheese.  As you can see, for this batch we used mozzarella in the middle and mixed cheese for the top.  Fabulous.

Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Remove the foil half-way through the baking time to get your cheese nicely browned like you see here.

CAUTION: You're kids may want to eat more of this than you think they will, so be sure to supplement this tasty dish with a nice, green salad!  Then your husband won't scold you for not making enough...


Friday, May 14, 2010

Pancake Syrup

Do you ever have one of those nights where you get ready to start fixing dinner and realize that you probably shouldn't have put off going to the grocery store that day after all?  Today was that day for me. 

Here it is, Friday night.  I don't feel like thawing some chicken to cook, so what are my options?  I don't have enough cheese left for quesidillas, and the only thawed meat in I have in the house is some bacon.  However, it just so happens that this is some very excellent bacon given to me by a friend whose husband works for Hormel... okay, it's breakfast for dinner!

But wait!  I have exactly 4 eggs left in the house, so no scrambled eggs - what now?  I guess we're having pancakes.  So I put the bacon in the oven to bake and start the pancakes.  Just then I glance over at my kitchen sink area, which happens to be slightly cluttered.  Okay, okay - I confess!  It's a Disaster Area.  But my recycling is over there, rinsed and waiting to go out to the recycle bin.  And what do I see?  The syrup bottle that we finished earlier in the week.  Oh, great.  What now?  Do I send The Honey to the corner store to buy a bottle of syrup for $4?

Actually, there IS another option.  One nice thing about growing up poor with a mother that was born in the depression is that she made a lot of things that other people's parents bought.  Thousand Island salad dressing (nasty), mayonnaise (only once or twice), and yes!  Pancake Syrup.

My mother always made it with equal parts brown sugar, white sugar, and water.  She didn't use maple flavoring or any of those "fancy" things.  But I decided to experiment a little tonight.  Not with maple flavoring, however.  I already know the Peanut Gallery will not be impressed with that.  But how about a little butter and vanilla?

It's a gamble that paid off, let me tell you...


Pancake Syrup
(Yields 1 c. of syrup, enough for a small family.  If you plan on storing the extra or have a large family, you may want to double this!)

1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. water
1 Tbsp. butter
Splash of vanilla (1/2-1 tsp?)

In a medium or small saucepan, combine sugars.

Add water and stir.  Your mixture will look opaque because the sugar isn't dissolved yet.

Now you need to bring the mixture to a boil.  Turn the heat up on the stove to about medium-high, and be sure to stir constantly so it won't burn.  When you start seeing bubbles around the edge like the picture, you'll know you're starting to get close to the boil - but you are not there yet!

When you start to see it boiling more like this picture (note the bubbles in the middle of the pan), you can go ahead and set your timer for 7 minutes.  Whatever you do, do NOT stop stirring at this point.  This stirring can be a great job for your 9-year old if you're busy doing something else from time to time.

When the syrup starts getting foamy, turn the heat down to medium.  It'll keep boiling, trust me.

Finally, after about 7 minutes, remove the syrup from the heat.  It should look something like this.

Next add your square of butter and splash of vanilla.  Mix until melted and set aside to cool.  As the syrup cools it will thicken slightly.

Serve warm over pancakes or waffles.  Any leftovers can be stored in a sealed container (or old syrup bottle) either in the cabinet or the fridge.


Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Avocado-Lime Pico De Gallo

It's almost embarrassing that it has been a month since my last post.  I don't know how the time gets away from me!  Actually, I do.  I used to blog at night after my kids went to bed.  Lately I've been walking with my neighbor and my dog most nights around 8:30, and since I'm pregnant and tired, I'm in bed by 10:00.  It's a severe strain on my blogging time, let me tell you!

I know I promised you a bread recipe next (for those of you who DID save your potato water from those garlic mashed potatoes), but I'm going to break that promise for two good reasons.  First, it's been hot around here lately, and I don't know about you but when it's hot outside the last thing I feel like doing is turning on my oven for any reason.  But second, and even more important is that this stuff tastes so freakin' good that I couldn't wait another minute to blog about it.  I ate the first batch I made for lunch today with some tortilla chips - the whole batch!  I didn't even wait for the flavors to blend in the fridge first.  To hide my crime I had to make an additional batch to have with our tacos tomorrow night.  Shame on me, but it tasted oh so good!


Avocado Lime Pico De Gallo

1 can diced tomatoes
3 green onions
40-50 leaves of cilantro (about 6 or 7 sprigs)
1 1/2 jalapeno peppers
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 avocado

Who would have thought that these simple ingredients could bring such pleasure?

Open the tomatoes and dump them into a strainer in the sink.  DO NOT RINSE WITH WATER.  However, you do want to get the extra juiciness out as much as possible, so shake your strainer just a bit.  As you can see, you'll have some tomato-juice-splatters to clean up later.

Next, let's pour those tomatoes gently onto a cutting board.

I like my tomatoes chopped a little smaller than the can of regular diced tomatoes has them.  One solution for this is to use petite diced tomatoes, but I didn't have any on hand today.  So I opted to just chop them a little more once they had drained.

Next, scrape them into a small bowl.  See how they are still juicy around the edges?  This is good!

 Next we'll do the green onions.  Take three and wash them.  Cut off the very end where the roots come out and about 3 inches or so above that.  Discard both ends and keep the middle.

 We want the green onions finely chopped, and since I don't have a food processor that will do it for me, I start by slicing each green onion down the middle.

 Next I take my knife and cut off slices about 1-2 mm thick.  Voila - we have finely chopped green onion to add to the bowl!

 Now let's move on to the cilantro.  Pick off about 40-50 leaves and chop roughly on the cutting board.  You're done!  Add it to the bowl.

 For the jalapeno peppers, you will start by slicing them down the middle and "seeding" them, which is an easy way of saying cut out the middle parts and keep the outside.  If you're a sissy about spicy stuff like I am, you want to make sure you keep the seeds out of the bowl, so once I have seeded them I rinse them with water to get all the random seeds off of the outer part.

 Next, cut each half into skinny slices.  As you can see, my half was cut into about 8 pieces, which is pretty slim!

 And then we're going to chop each bunch of slices into small pieces, just like the onion only slightly bigger.  And we have... finely chopped jalapenos.  Fancy, eh?

 Once you've added the green onion, cilantro, and jalapeno to the bowl you can also toss in your garlic powder, salt, and lime juice.

 Mix well.
Looks pretty, right?
Well, we're not done yet!

 The reason I have added the avocado last is because you don't want to add it right away unless you're serving this the same day.  A plain avocado will turn brown once it's exposed to the air - kind of like a banana - so unless I'm eating this the day I make it, I won't add it in just yet.  However, when you get ready, here's how you chop that avocado without making a mess.

First, cut the avocado in half lengthwise and remove the pit.  Then, using a small knife, cut the avocado flesh into small cubes, being careful not to cut all the way through the skin of the avocado.  What you see should look something like this:

 Next you're going to take a large soup spoon and scrape it along the inside of the avocado peel.  This will scoop that diced avocado right out of the peel and into the bowl...

 ... leaving you with an empty skin.

 Mix in the avocado and you're done! 

Now.  Here's where it get's tricky.  You're supposed to let things like this sit for about 30 minutes or so before you eat them so the flavors will "marry" properly.  If you think you can wait, you go right ahead.  But me?  I usually go ahead and start eating this stuff right away with my tortilla chips.  It's also a great topping to put on your tacos, nachos, or any other Mexican dish.



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