Adam was being inventive awhile back and created this really good recipe. We liked it so much that he hurried to write it all down before he forgot what he did ... which is a good thing, because when I made it tonight for dinner, he'd completely forgotten that he made it at all!
Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, diced
1 onion, chopped
spinach - choose your own quantity
sundried tomatoes - choose your own quantity
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp grains of paradise
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1/2 tsp orange extract
1/2 tsp almond extract (you could just leave this out if necessary due to nut allergies)
1 tsp oregano
In skillet with olive oil, saute the chicken, onion, spices and extracts. When the chicken is cooked through, add the sundried tomatoes. Cook until soft. Then add the spinach and stir it around until it's wilted.
You can eat at this stage. OR you can make it into a sauce to put over pasta. We poured straight cream over the whole thing, and added a splash of apple juice. Yum.
After completing my 100 Recipe Challenge last year, I wasn't sure that I would be eager to do another one right away. But I got my slow cooker for Christmas, and with our current church schedule, we have started having Slow Cooker Sundays. So I'm at it again. Instead of doing a separate list for this year, I'll be adding my favorite recipes to our master recipe list, and calling it good. But so you have an idea of what's going on the list, here's what I made this month.
Our first Sunday meal was Sweet and Sour Sauce on Slow Cooker Ribs. A fabulous meal to break in the new slow cooker. The meat was amazing and the sauce worked great. We bought a huge can of crushed pineapple (hence all the other pineapple recipes), and made a large batch of sauce, so we froze a lot of it.
Apple Chips - I had apples and was about to return a borrowed dehydrator. I really need to make these more often, because we were given a dehydrator, and I ate them up fast. Great snack.
Had to use up the pineapple so I made Pineapple Pudding Whip, Pineapple Chicken Salad, Layered Lime Tiramisu (from Company's Coming: Mexican Made Easy), Sweet Carrot Salad, and Pineapple Meatballs (Company's Coming: Slow Cooker Meals). Pudding was yummy, with a different texture. We made the tiramisu for a friend's birthday and would happily make it again (if you are interested in the recipe please ask). The salads were alright, but didn't hit the spot for me - maybe in the summer. The meatballs were okay, but not a favorite.
Greek Yogurt Pizza Crust - we make pizza often at our house, and since our breadmaker died, this is definitely going to be our go-to crust recipe. Two ingredients (or technically four) is perfect. And it is delicious. We made some slow cooker pulled pork and it was AMAZING on a pizza.
Almond Milk Pancakes - We found almond milk for cheap and bought a lot, so we were finding ways to use it. I usually prefer French toast to pancakes, but these were delicious. We made them three times in one weekend. The small batch is perfect for the three of us.
Avocado Lime Ice Cream - We just happened to have all the ingredients for this (we don't usually have fresh limes), so I was happy to try it out. MUCH yummier than the plain avocado ice cream recipe from last year. I would happily make this again. Aaron also made a huge batch of Raspberry Frozen Yogurt, but didn't follow a recipe or write any measurements down, but it included almond milk, greek yogurt, raspberries, and a little sugar. It goes great with the lime.
Oatmeal Cookie Dough Frozen Yogurt - the first time in forever that I didn't have a banana in the freezer (or anywhere!) so I used an avocado instead and added extra honey. Didn't turn out horrible, but not amazing either. I'll eat what I made (with the addition of chocolate chips and coconut) but won't be making it again.
"Tasty" shares a bunch of quick videos with fun recipes on Facebook, and we've tried Apple Fritter Rings and Honey Garlic Chicken. The apples were deliciously crunchy. Such a fun little dessert. We enjoyed the chicken too, but I prefer potatoes and carrots with red meat.
It's the beginning of fall - time to break out the crockpot! And we're super busy this season with the kids' school activities (like everyone else, I'm sure) so dinner prep is the earlier the better.
My little girls love "bone chicken" so that's what we had for dinner tonight. I did some searching for recipes specific for drumsticks in the crockpot. I found this recipe online somewhere (I don't even remember, and varied it up a bit - this is what I did:
- a dozen chicken drumsticks
- an entire head of garlic broken apart and dropped in the bottom of the crockpot. I didn't peel the cloves
- in a small bowl:
about 6 tbl of olive oil
rosemary
red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
With a basting brush, brush each drumstick with the oil/spices and then put it in the crockpot on top of the garlic cloves. The dozen filled up my crockpot.
Pour 1 cup of chicken broth over everything. I cooked it on high for about 4 1/2 hours, and they were fall-apart goodness! The kids ate them right up. I was a bit heavy on the pepper flakes so that added a lot more heat than I was anticipating. But they were still good.
Served with rice (and spooned the leftover broth in the crockpot over the rice), and steamed green beans.
And for another tasty cold-weather dinner, this corn chowder. I make it with fresh corn rather than canned and once, Adam added chicken to it. You can substitute cream for the cream cheese, but it doesn't turn out as thick. Other than that, just follow the directions. Good stuff!
This was a joint effort between me and Aaron, but it was something I could have done by myself so I'm totally going to count it for my recipe list. We had leftover wonton wrappers from making jalapeno poppers (similar to this) so we had to come up with something to use up the rest. I was saying that the poppers were somewhat labor intensive, like the chipotle popcorn chicken I made (recipe 15) and we were inspired - chipotle chicken wonton bites. We referenced this recipe, but kept it pretty simple - shredded chicken, shredded cheese, and chipotle sauce (loosely based on this recipe). It was fun to try different ways of folding the wrappers. We learned that a tight roll is perfect for frying, but when baked (which is what we did for this recipe), exposed edges get wonderfully crunchy. I look forward to trying out other wonton recipes - I found one for lasagna cups that looks delicious!
I found the recipe here, but I don't trust the site to always be there, and I thought this was worth writing down. Not so much a recipe as a list of ingredients to dump together, but that's my kind of recipe anyway. Fast, easy, and yummy. Next time I want to add spinach. Ingredients
chicken breasts (however many you need)
olive oil (just one dollop)
minced garlic (a smattering)
red pepper flakes (leave these out if you don’t like any heat)
marinara sauce
Parmesan cheese
mozzarella cheese (twice as much as the Parmesan)
croutons (we used Italian-seasoned)
Cut up chicken breasts (or leave them whole, but add more cooking time) and put in the bottom of the pan with the oil, garlic and pepper. Pour sauce on top. Sprinkle with cheese. Add croutons (we crushed ours a little). Add more cheese on top, if you want. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.
Mexican night with some friends: fajitas, fish tacos, pico da gillo, guacamole, and the new recipe for me, Creamy Chicken Taquitos. They weren't bad, just not our favorite flavor combination. They reheated well in the toaster oven and have a nice crunch. I'd make them again, but change up the spices and replace the cream cheese with something (it doesn't agree with Aaron).
1 lb. cooked, shredded chicken (I usually use can of Costco chicken) 1 lb. cooked rotini noodles (or bow tie) 2 heads broccoli, finely chopped 1 red pepper, chopped 1 green pepper, chopped 1/3 onion, chopped 1 can sliced olives 1 cup shredded cheese (optional) 1/3 - 1/2 cup ranch dressing (don't skip this--it's what holds it all together)
Dressing: 2 envelopes dry Italian dressing mix 6 Tbs. apple cider vinegar 4-1/2 Tbs. water 3/4 cup oil (you can reduce this some)
Combine cooled chicken, chopped vegetables, and olives. Whisk together dressing ingredients and pour over vegetables and chicken. Mix together. Add ranch dressing and cheese. Refrigerate 1 hour before serving (I usually am not organized enough to do this and it still gets devoured). Serves 8 - 10.
Recipe Shoebox is a great site for easy and tasty meals already tried out by a picky family. Love it! This site has really helped get me motivated to reach my recipe goal. I got kinda burned out after a batch of failures- recipes that sounded better on paper than in reality.
This one is delicious-we love pasta w/garlic anything!
The ingredients:
6 Tbs. olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed Salt and pepper, to taste
1 box (1-lb) penne pasta
5-oz. fresh spinach, chopped
1 Tbs. dried basil (or 1/2 cup fresh)
6 Tbs. lemon juice
1 cup Parmesan cheese
Directions:
Heat olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes in a small glass bowl in the microwave for about 1 minute to blend flavors. Pour about 1 tablespoon of the flavored oil in a skillet. Salt and pepper chicken and cook in the oil over medium high heat until chicken is browned and juices run clear. Add the chopped and spinach and saute with the cooked chicken for 1 minute (or until just barely wilted) and remove from heat. Meanwhile, cook pasta as directed on package; drain well. Add cooked chicken/spinach to pasta, along with basil, lemon juice, and Parmesan cheese. Then stir in the remainder of the flavored olive oil. Toss lightly until all ingredients are well-combined. Serve immediately. Makes about 6 servings. Enjoy!
Adam decided we were going to be a bit more adventurous for Easter dinner this year, and found this article the other day on NPR with a number of recipes in it. Adam followed the recipes exactly, since these were all new cooking concepts.
chicken and rice soup- we had this with homemade sour-dough bread. It was the perfect complement to it! The lemon flavor was quite prominent in the soup, but it wasn't overpowering. If you try this, be careful with the eggs so they don't cook up wrong. This was our "first course" which we had for lunch between General Conference sessions, and we had the rest of the dinner after Conference ended.
roasted leg of lamb - this was expensive! 30 bucks for a not-very-large piece of meat! We wondered at first if we'd like it - if not, that was a pretty big waste ... but hey, at least then we'd know to not spend that kind of money again. But it was good! Lots of rosemary and garlic and other herbs in it. Adam is sold - we'll have this maybe once a year just because of the cost.
asparagus with dill and garlic - asparagus was something I never had as a kid, but have liked quite a bit as an adult. It also had melted parmesan cheese over it.
There is also a recipe for an Easter bread (the red eggs on it look kinda yucky, if you ask me). Adam planned to make it but we ran out of time and didn't really need it anyway because we had the sour-dough to go with the soup.
This is #36 - I have no idea where it came from. I just had this list of ingredients stashed in a note on my other blog.
bowtie pasta cooked like usual
chicken breast cut into bite-size pieces and cooked in a skillet, then set aside while the vegetables are being cooked
2 tbl. olive oil to cook the following: 1/2 cup sun-dried tomato 1 zucchini, diced 1 summer squash, diced (not sliced) 1-2 garlic cloves minced or crushed 1-2 tsp rosemary 1-2 tsp basil
Toss all together with pasta and chicken. Add a little more olive oil if it's too dry for you until it's how you like it. There's not a sauce with this.
Number 34 - grilled chicken with rosemary and lemon from AllRecipes.
Marinate 6 chicken breasts in the following: 1/2 cup olive oil 1/2 cup fresh rosemary (or 2 Tbl. dried) 3 cloves garlic zest from an entire lemon 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Mix the marinade. Sprinkle salt and pepper on chicken breasts, and brush half of the marinade over them. Refrigerate for 3 hours. Grill the chicken while brushing with the rest of the marinade.
We cut chicken into strips and put it on sandwiches.
The original recipe called for butter instead of olive oil in the marinade. I don't know what idiot decided that BUTTER is a good ingredient for marinade. I melted it so it would be a liquid, but it congealed right back up as soon as the lemon hit it not to mention when I tried to brush it on the cold chicken. It all tasted fine, which is why I'm posting the recipe in the count, but making it was a mess. I also couldn't separate out part of it for the original marinade and part for basting later on the grill. Dumb.
I had a package of chicken leg quarters that I had to use, so I dug this recipe out of my tried-and-true wedding gift "Better Homes and Gardens" cookbook. It was simple and delicious...Jeffery said I had hit the jackpot and to definitely make it again.
3. In a shallow dish, combine crushed crackers, thyme, paprika, salt, and pepper; stir in melted butter.
4. Dip chicken pieces, one at a time, in egg mixture, then coat with crumb mixture.
5. In a greased 15x10x1-inch baking pan, arrange chicken, bone side down, so the pieces aren't touching. Sprinkle chicken pieces with any remaining crumb mixture.
6. Bake, uncovered, for 45 to 55 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.
P.S. I served this with sweet corn on the cob, and it felt like an at-home cook-out!
Number 28! We had this for dinner with homemade Greek vinaigrette dressing (which is number 29 and will be posted in a sec), and YUM! I'm not a huge fan of cucumbers, and Greek recipes tend to have a lot of cucumber. I'm okay with them if they're chopped small ... but wow, they just fit right in with all of this! The original recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens. I just did a Google search for a Greek dressing, since this called for a store-bought dressing. I didn't think we'd eat enough to justify having a whole bottle of it around.
flour tortillas (or you could use pita bread for this salad mix as well
grilled chicken - I did 2 chicken breasts on our little Foreman grill, and then shredded it
feta cheese
red onion - thin slices
cucumber - chopped fairly small
tomato - either cherry tomatoes cut in half or small dice of a larger tomato
Greek olives - the recipe called for kalamata olives which were pretty expensive at the store, so I just got black Greek olives. I had to pit them, but it was fine.
parsley and oregano - I used regular dried stuff, and just sprinkled it on.
Greek vinaigrette dressing
Spray one side of a tortilla with cooking spray, and then flip it so it's spray-side down. Put all the ingredients on one half of the tortilla, then fold it over. Cook it in a skillet until it's a little browned and the edges turn crispy. Then cut it into 3 pieces and eat.
Yum yum yum! This is definitely on the repeat list!
#25 of 50 - the halfway point! I got this out of a book called "Quick and Easy" - it was easy, but not very quick. The cooking time took half an hour instead of 15 minutes. Adam really liked it and said it's a repeat, which kind of surprised me. He's usually much more indifferent when he says something is fine.
chicken thighs with bone and skin olive oil 1 can diced tomatoes, strained (I put it in the pasta strainer and let a bunch of the juice drain off) green pesto sauce (you can buy this in little jars in the Italian section at the grocery store) French bread parmesan cheese pine nuts or almonds
1. Put the chicken thighs in a dish that can go in the broiler, and brush the skin with a thin layer of olive oil. Cook them for 15-20 minutes, turning over occasionally, until the skin starts to turn golden. Make sure the chicken is cooked all the way, especially around the bone. I had to cook our's for 30 or 40 minutes before the red was all the way out of the meat from the bone.
Note: You could remove the skin from the chicken if you want, but it did keep the whole thing very moist. I cooked it with the skin on the chicken, but we didn't eat it. If you get chicken thighs with no bone, your cooking time will go down, so adjust accordingly.
2. Towards the end of the chicken cooking, heat in a saucepan the strained tomatoes mixed with some of the pesto. Use a balance that you like for that - I didn't measure it.
3. When the chicken is cooked through, remove from the oven and drain the excess fat out of the dish. Then put the tomato/pesto mix over the chicken, and put back in the broiler for a few more minutes until it's all heated through.
4. While the chicken is cooking, cut the French bread into slices, and spread the pesto on the slices. Sprinkle with parm cheese and the pine nuts (we skipped the nuts because we had neither) and toast in the broiler at the same time as the chicken until it's golden and crispy.
5. Serve the chicken and bread with salad greens. Adam made little sandwiches with his bread and chicken, but I ate it with a fork. It was good - I liked the pesto on the bread.
I got this recipe off the back of the box of Stovetop Stuffing. Even if you don't like things out of a box, I checked the nutrition listing for the stuffing and it's one of the more reasonable things out there. The only thing there's a question on as far as I'm concerned is the amount of sodium, and even then, it's not as high as most boxed things. This was also pretty quick to make. It was pretty mild, so you could probably tweak with the herbs in step 3 but I did it with just the basil.
1. Preheat oven to 400 and defrost 1 1/2 pounds of chicken breast. (I used 4 chicken breasts.)
2. Mix the following: one 14-oz. can of diced tomatoes, 1 package of dry stuffing mix, 1/2 cup hot water, and 2 minced cloves of garlic. Set aside.
3. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces, put it RAW into a 13x9 baking dish, sprinkle with basil and shredded mozzarella cheese. The original recipe gave measurements for the basil and cheese - I just put on as much as I like, which is fairly heavy on the basil, and I covered the chicken with cheese.
4. Put the stuffing mixture over the top. Bake for 30 min.
#15 of 50 - I'm moving forward with this goal again! Yay! I got this from a Good Housekeeping magazine that randomly showed up at my house (apparently the person who used to live here subscribed and it didn't get forwarded).
12 ounces pasta - use a small, thin pasta like penne or the macaroni spirals. The sauce is really thin and mostly water, so it doesn't hold up to a heavier, thick pasta 2 scallions cut into small pieces 4 tsp olive oil - used 2 tsp at a time 1 lb chicken breast cut into bite-size chunks salt and pepper 1 clove garlic, crushed 1/2 lb asparagus cut into 1-inch pieces 1 medium sized red bell pepper cut into thin strips 1/2 cup heavy cream 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper Parmesan cheese fresh basil leaves chopped
1. Cook and drain the pasta as usual. When draining the pasta, reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Put the pasta in a large serving dish with the water.
2. Heat 2 tsp of olive oil in skillet, cook the chicken and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. When done, put it in a bowl and set it aside.
3. Clean out the skillet, and heat the other 2 tsp of olive oil. First add the green onions and garlic for about a minute. Then add the asparagus and red bell pepper, and cook until tender crisp. Add the cream, crushed red pepper, and a little salt. Bring it to a boil, then add the chicken and remove from the heat.
4. Combine the chicken/veg mixture into the serving dish with the pasta, then add Parm and basil, and eat!
1 tbl olive oil 1 tbl butter 2 chicken breasts 1 medium onion, cut in half lengthwise, cut lengthwise again into thin slices 1 medium Granny Smith apple, peeled and cored, cut into thin slices (We didn't peel it and it wasn't a big deal) 1 cup baby carrots 1/2 pound white mushrooms, sliced 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped 1/2 inch length of ginger root, finely chopped 2 tbl curry powder 1/2 cup sour cream 1/2 cup chicken broth
(Stewie - for non-dairy, perhaps you could double the amount of chicken broth and cut the sour cream. Just add some kind of thickening agent to the broth so it's not quite so runny. Just a thought. I don't think it would change the taste substantially if the sour cream is left out.)
1. In a large frying pan on high heat, put in the olive oil with the butter in the center of it. Spread so it covers the bottom of the pan.
2. Cook the chicken breasts until they're just browned on each side - 3 to 4 minutes per side. Remove onto a plate. Pour off the excess fat and oil, and put the pan back on the stove.
3. Put the heat at medium and do NOT put any more oil in the pan. Cook the onion, apple, carrots, and mushrooms for a couple of minutes until they begin to soften.
4. Add the garlic, ginger, and curry powder and cook for 2 minutes, stirring continually.
5. Add the sour cream and chicken broth, and stir to mix thoroughly. Then put the chicken breasts back in the pan and spoon the vegetables over them. Cover the pan and reduce the heat to a simmer.
6. Simmer for 30 minutes or so until the chicken is cooked through. Serve with rice.
This was a new way of doing chicken for me - 12 of 50. It was good the next day cut into thin slices and put on a sandwich.
4 chicken breasts
3 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon chopped onion 1 clove garlic 1/2 tsp rosemary 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper 1/4 tsp sage 1/4 tsp marjoram a few drops of hot sauce (I used a little bit of red chili flakes for the hotness since I didn't have any hot sauce)
Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Stab the chicken breasts with a fork so the marinade can get into the meat a bit deeper. Coat the chicken with the olive oil marinade - you can let it sit for an hour or 2 (or the whole day while you're at work - it doesn't much matter), or you can cook it right away. It's up to you and your time frame.
Bake at 425 for 35-45 minutes.
The chicken I used was very thick so I doubled the marinade and had to bake them a little longer to get them cooked all the way through.
When done, sprinkle with parsley. We served it with plain pasta (with olive oil, parmesan cheese, and parsley on it) and steamed broccoli.
3/4 cup sugar 4 Tbsp ketchup ½ cup vinegar 1 Tbsp Worcestershire or soy sauce 1 garlic clove, minced
You may want to double this portion...I do when the chicken breasts are large. Mix together and set aside.
5-6 chicken breasts 1 egg Cornstarch
Cut up chicken into cubes, coat with egg and then coat with cornstarch. You will use a lot of cornstarch. Add oil to frying pan ½” deep, heat and cook chicken until cornstarch is light brown. Transfer to baking dish, then add sauce. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Serve with rice or mashed potatoes.
