Sunday, December 7, 2008

Apple Stuffed Chicken Breasts


On Saturdays I am going to start trying to make things that might be a little bit more time consuming. I think this will get me motivated to cook instead of going out to eat. This one was interesting, I wouldn't call it a total success but it tasted good. I have never stuffed and rolled a chicken breast before so that was fun.

Oh and I actually saved my receipt this time so I can total up the cost of each meal this week.

Apple Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Ingredients:

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts ~$2.31 (Chicken breasts were on sale for $1.99/lb)
1/2 C. chopped apple $0.66
2 T. shredded cheddar cheese ~$0.10
1 T. Italian-style dried bread crumbs $0.00 (I had some in the freezer)
1 T. butter $0.00
1/4 C. dry white wine $0.00 (I used chicken broth I had in the pantry)
1/4 C. water
1 T. water & 1 1/2 t. cornstarch $0.00
1 T. chopped fresh parsley, for garnish $0.00 (Steve doesn't need any garnish)

I served it with Near East Couscous from the box. ($2.29)

Total for dinner: $5.36 or $2.68 per person. I actually have a little chicken and couscous left over in the fridge.

Combine apple, cheese, and bread crumbs. Set aside.


Flatten chicken breasts between 2 sheets of waxed paper to 1/4 in. thickness. Divide apple mixture between chicken breasts, and roll up each breast. Secure with toothpicks.



I had a lot of stuffing left over or that I couldn't fit in the chicken.
Melt butter or margarine in a skillet over medium heat. Brown stuffed chicken breasts on all sides. Add wine or broth and 1/4 C. water. Cover. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes until chicken is no longer pink.

Transfer chicken to a serving platter. Combine 1 T. water and cornstarch; stir into juices in pan. Cook and stir until thickened. Pour gravy over chicken, and garnish with parsley. Serve.


I transferred the chicken to a cutting board and sliced it before I poured the gravy over it. I need to work a little more on the gravy as it wasn't really a gravy since it was too thick.




Steve gives it the thumbs up. I don't think I will make it a regular thing since it was a bit more labor intensive, but I will keep the recipe around. It would be good to entertain with.

Friday, December 5, 2008

This weeks meal plan

Since Thanksgiving I have not been very good about cooking. I guess I was kind of burned out. So this week I am making a plan and sticking to it. I am going to try a few new dishes this week so you should see a few new blog posts. Yay!

I now only work Monday through Thursday so my plan is to go to the grocery store every Friday when it isn't so busy.


Here's the plan:

Saturday: Apple Stuffed Chicken Breastwith white rice and veg

Sunday: Slow Cooker Round Steak

Monday: Sausage with Potatoes and Green Beans

Tuesday: Chicken Salsa Bake

Wednesday: Angel Chicken Pasta

Thursday: Easy Roasted Pork

I am still working on the vegetables. Any suggestions?

Thanksgiving

Steve and I hosted our first Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year. All went very smoothely and everyone fit! We hosted the dinner on the Saturday after Thanksgiving so I was able to do a bunch of preparation on Friday. The cooking was a breeze on Saturday, except for maybe breakfast but that's a whole different story. Once the food was ready I got a little frantic to get it all out hot so I didn't end up taking too many pictures but I am going to share what I have and then all the recipes.



Sonu was the life of the party. This was his first Thanksgiving. His bib says, "Happy Thanksgiving." Steve and I got that for him, we just couldn't resist.


You can kind of see my spread in this picture. For appetizers, we had shrimp cocktail, cheeseball, and fruit.


The table being set. I don't know what we would have done without Jaci's decorations. It was gorgeous. I had nothing to do with the decorating. My job is in the kitchen. Steve and his mom did it all and his sister, Kristin, set the table.

He was sleepy. : )

As people were sitting down.

This is the only picture of the food, and it is not that good of a picture. Boo. Oh well, next year I will put someone else in charge of the camera.


Now for the recipes:


Appetizers:


Cheeseball w/ crackers (prepared Friday)
Cheeseball:
8 oz. softened cream cheese
1 lb bacon, cooked crispy, crumbled
2 T sweet relish, drained
2 T Worcestershire sauce
2 T finely chopped onion or dried minced onion
Garlic salt to taste
Combine all ingredients. Form into a ball and roll in cheddar cheese.

Shrimp Cocktail
Summer Sausage, Cheese, and Crackers


Dinner:


Good Eats Roast Turkey
1 Turkey

For the brine (Friday):
1 C kosher salt
½ C light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock (I used chicken broth)
1 T black peppercorns
½ T allspice berries
½ T candied ginger (I used crystallized ginger)
1 gallon iced water

For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
½ onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 C water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

(Friday Morning) Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

6-8 hours before roasting: Combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket or cooler. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.

(Saturday) A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.
Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.
Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird with canola oil. We just rinsed the turkey inside and out, rubbed it with butter, stuffed it with the aromatics, and then we used a turkey bag for cooking. It was a lot easier and cooked a lot faster.

Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double later of foil and return to oven, reducing temp to 350 degrees. Cook until done. Let rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving. We followed the directions for how long to cook it in the bag.


Delicious, Creamy Mashed Potatoes (Friday)

This is from one of my favorite blogs http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/

5 lbs Russet Potatoes
1 ½ sticks butter
1 8 oz. pkg (softened) cream cheese
½ to ¾ C Half & Half
Salt & Pepper

Peel and cut the potatoes into pieces that are generally the same size. Boil the potatoes for 30-35 minutes until tender.

Mash the potatoes over low heat, allowing the steam to escape. I used my potato ricer I got as a wedding present. I "riced" the potatoes into a large bowl.

Turn off the stove and add 1 ½ sticks of butter, 1 8 oz package cream cheese and about ½ C Half & Half. Mash together. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Stir well and place in a medium sized baking dish and top it off with a few pats of butter. Cover with foil and refrigerate.

Remove from refrigerator several hours before heating in order for it to take off some of the chill. Heat in a 350 degree oven until butter is melted and potatoes are warmed through.

Gravy – Grandma Barb (Saturday)
Dressing – Jaci (Saturday)

“Spanish” Green Beans (Saturday) Also from The Pioneer Woman

4 cans whole green beans
2 cans whole tomatoes
1 medium onion
1/3 package (5 slices) bacon
Cayenne Pepper

Slice the bacon up into 1 inch pieces and start cooking them in a large skillet or Dutch oven on medium low heat. Keep cooking until bacon turns brown. Meanwhile, dice 1 medium onion. When the bacon is beginning to turn brown, drain some of the fat and then add the onion. Cook, stirring now and then, until bacon and onion are both turning a nice golden.

Drain the green beans and add them right into the pan with the bacon and onion. Next, throw in the 2 cans of whole tomatoes with their juices. Stir around gently and then cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for about 45 minutes.

When they are finished cooking, add Cayenne pepper to taste, up to about ¼ of a teaspoon for a hotter dish. Stir gently and serve.

Fresh Corn and Wild Rice – Adrienne - Again, from The Pioneer Woman
2 C cooked wild rice (Friday)
3-4 C fresh corn kernels (scraped off the cob) (Friday)
2 eggs, beaten
1 C heavy cream
1-2 t. kosher salt
Cayenne pepper to taste (~ ¼ t.)
6 T. butter
½ to 1 C milk, for thinning

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook wild rice in chicken broth until almost done. Rice should still have a firm (but not crunchy) bite. Drain rice and allow to cool. I did this on Friday and stored it in the fridge over night.
Scrape corn kernels into a large mixing bowl (I also did this on Friday). Add in cream, butter, beaten eggs, salt, and cayenne pepper. Stir together.

Add in cooled wild rice, stirring gently. Splash in milk so that mixture is stirrable, but not overly juicy.
Taste for seasonings, adding more salt or cayenne pepper if needed.

Bake for 30-45 minutes, or until just turning golden brown on top and mixture is somewhat set. I didn't cover it with foil and I regret that since the top layer of rice got pretty crunchy, so next time I will cover it.

Glazed Mini Carrots – Adrienne (Saturday) I doubled this recipe.
1 lbs. mini carrots
1/3 C. water
1 T honey
2 t. butter
Salt
1 T lemon juice
2 T chopped fresh parsley

Combine carrots, water, honey, butter, and salt in a large skillet. Bring to a simmer over med-high heat. Cover and cook until tender, 5-7 minutes. Uncover and cook, stirring often, until the liquid is a syrupy glaze, 1-2 minutes. Stir in lemon juice and pepper. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.


Deviled Eggs - Jane

12 oz. cranberries
1 C white sugar (I used ½ white sugar and ½ brown sugar)
¾ C-1C Orange Juice

In a medium sized sauce pan over medium heat, dissolve the sugar in the orange juice. Stir in the cranberries and cook until the cranberries start to pop (10-20 minutes). For the last couple of minutes I stirred in a little cornstarch mixed with a little orange juice to insure that it would thicken up. Remove from heat and mash it a little. Place sauce in bowl. Cranberry sauce will thicken as it cools.

7 Layer Salad - Jane
Sweet Potatoes - Jane
Rolls - Jaci

Dessert:

Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Sour Cream Raisin Bars (I think is what they are called)


My other Mother in Law, Teresa, brought dessert which made my life so much easier since I am not yet a baker.


Thanks everyone for helping out!! I really appreciated it!!





Baked Ziti

I have been making this recipe for a while now because it is so easy and it feeds us for about a week with all the leftovers.

Inspiration: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Ziti-I/Detail.aspx

What you need:

1 lb dried ziti pasta (or any small tubular pasta like penne)
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 lb lean ground beef
2 (26 oz.) jars spaghetti sauce
6 oz. provolone cheese (I use the whole package which I think is like 8 oz.)
1 1/2 C sour cream
6 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 T grated parmesan cheese

Sometimes I just buy the Italian cheese blend and use that instead of the mozzarella and parmesan. I love the provolone though so you can't leave that out. I also buy the cheapest jars of spaghetti sauce and then add in whatever spices I feel like.


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large skillet (I mean large large because it will have to hold all the sauce), brown onion, garlic, and ground beef over medium heat. I usually add salt and pepper and maybe some italian seasoning too. Drain the fat if needed. Add spaghetti sauce and simmer 15 minutes. I also usually throw in a little brown sugar if I remember because it is supposed to help the heart burn from the tomato sauce.

3. Meanwhile, cook pasta until al dente. Drain.

4. Grease a 9x13 in. baking dish. Or 2 smaller baking dishes if you want to freeze a portion of it. Layer as follows: 1/2 of the ziti, provolone cheese, sour cream, 1/2 sauce mixture, remaining ziti, mozzarella cheese and remaining sauce mixture. Top with parmesan cheese.

5. Bake for 30 minutes covered in the preheated oven, or until cheeses are melted.

I have played around a little with the layering because some of the reviews on allrecipes.com said the noodles would be dry on the bottom if they weren't mixed with a little sauce first. This is how I did it the first couple of times but now I follow the recipe. I saw Tyler Florence on Foodnetwork make his Ultimate Lasagna and he put plain noodles on the bottom so it would actually slice and hold it's shape in the end. So this is how I do it now.

I was going to take a picture of a peice of it so I could show the layer but I actually forgot the sour cream this time. Oops. The sour cream is a very important peice so we just mixed it in when we ate it but it didn't make for a good picture.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Chicken Salsa Bake

I got this recipe from my Rachael Ray magazine (Nov 2008). The actual recipe is called Chicken Salsa Verde Bake but I didn't use salsa verde so I don't think I can call it that. I have made this twice now and the 2nd time it was Steve's idea. Steve's dad, sister, and brother-in-law were stopping by on their way to Minneapolis. I like it when I can tell Steve really likes something. Oh and Shikhar loved it too, I think he had 4 helpings?

If you can't tell, I love casseroles. I like that I can clean up after myself while it is cooking in the oven and I like that it is easy to pack up for lunch the next day.

Chicken Salsa Bake

2 T vegetable oil
2 1/4 lbs skinless, boneless chicken breasts (I think I have used 3 good sized breasts each time)
2 16 oz. jars salsa (I actually used only 1 jar but I guess this is up to you as to how much you want)
1 15 oz. kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 onion, finely chopped
1 C sour cream
3 C crushed tortilla chips
1 8 oz. bag shredded Mexican-style cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large skillet, heat the oil over med heat. Add the chicken and cook, turning once, until cooked through, 10-12 minutes. I actually put the lid on the skillet so it would cook faster, it doesn't get nice and brown this way but it doesn't really matter since you are going to shred it up anyway. Let stand until cool, then shred the meat into a large bowl. I shred the chicken by dropping the cooked breasts in one at a time and then using 2 forks I pull at the meat until it is in small pieces.

2. This isn't called for in the recipe, but I found that if you don't cook the onion a little bit before adding it to the mixture it doesn't get quite cooked enough in the baking process. So I add a little bit more oil to the skillet if needed and then sweat out the onions a little bit on med-low heat. Stir in the salsa, kidney beans, onion, and sour cream with the chicken.

3. Grease a 9x13 in. baking dish, scatter 1 C tortilla chips on he bottom and top with half of the chicken mixture and half of the cheese. Repeat the layers and cover with the remaining 1 C tortilla chips. Bake until the cheese is bubbly, about 30 minutes.

This is a relatively easy dish. The hardest part is shredding the chicken. In the future, I plan on trying to plan ahead and if I am cooking chicken earlier in the week I am going to try to cook up some extra and store in the fridge specifically for this meal. That way all I would have to do to prepare this is shred up the chicken and cook up the onion. Easy as that.

I think next time I will try to add some fresh cilantro if I have some. I think that would make it even better.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Sloppy Joe's

This is another super easy meal that can be made with stuff out of the pantry. One day when I was at work I didn't feel like going to the grocery store but I knew I didn't have anything planned for dinner. So I started searching around for recipes that use ground beef since that was the only protein I had at the time. I found this recipe and now it is what I make when I don't really feel like cooking like on a Friday.

Inspiration: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sloppy-Joes-II/Detail.aspx
I pretty much follow this one exactly except that I leave out the green pepper b/c I don't usually have them on hand.
Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground beef
1/4 C chopped onion (I use the stuff from the spice aisle)
1/2 t. garlic powder
1 t. yellow mustard
3/4 C ketchup
3 t. brown sugar
S & P
In a medium skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef; drain.
Stir in onions, garlic powder, mustard, ketchup, and brown sugar; mix thoroughly. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Season with S & P.
I usually use whatever bread we have on hand and serve it with french fries that we always have in the freezer.
I am going to try to be better about posting from now on as well as include costs. Now that I have every Friday off, expect updates then.

Easy Chinese Stir Fry

This is a recipe from another one of my favorite sites, www.kraftfoods.com. This one is so easy I follow the recipe completely. This recipe calls for Hoisin sauce which you would find in the international aisle near the soy sauce and teriyaki sauce. It is not the cheapest ingredient but it really makes this meal. One little jar I think is $3.50ish but it lasts for 2 or 3 times making this dish. Worth it for me. Oh and it is not spicy. I think I have heard it refered to as the Asian BBQ sauce.


You can't really tell but this is how I served the meal, not an individual portion. : )

Inspiration: http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/easy-chinese-stir-fry-74437.aspx

Ingredients:

1 t. oil
I usually use 2 pork chops, sliced
3 carrots, peeled and sliced (in this picture I actually had bagged carrots and they worked great too, just use whatever you have)
1/3 C Balsamic vinaigrette
2 T hoisin sauce
2 green onions, thinly sliced

Heat oil in large skillet on med-high heat. Season pork with salt and pepper. Add pork to skillet and saute until browned. Add carrots. Cook and stir 5 minutes.

Stir in dressing and hoisin sauce; stir-fry 7 minutes or until carrots are crisp tender, stirring frequently.

Add onions; cook 1 minute.

Serve over hot cooked rice or pasta.