By Request...

Chili Cheese Dip

1 package cream cheese, softened
1 can chili (I prefer the type without beans for this recipe)
1 bag mexican blend cheese

In a casserole dish, spread the cream cheese into an even layer. Pour the chili over the cream cheese. Top with mexican cheese. Bake in 350 oven for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Serve with tortilla chips.


Spinach Artichoke Dip

1 10 oz package frozen spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed out
1 14.5 oz can artichoke hearts, drained and quartered (or 10 oz frozen/thawed & drained)
1 8 oz block cream cheese, softened
1 Cup Mayonnaise
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 scallions, sliced thin
1/2 Cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
3/4 Cup parmesan cheese, freshly shredded


Mix spinach, artichokes, cream cheese, may, garlic, scallions, and 1/2 of the cheeses in a large mixing bowl.

Pour mixture into a baking dish. Top with remaining cheese. Bake in a 350 oven for 30 minutes. Serve with tortilla chips or vegetables.

I'm back!

So, no posts because for the first 5 months of my pregnancy, I have been just too exhausted to cook. Although I am still tired on school nights, I am finally at the point that I can muster up the energy to cook a real dinner on the weekend. Tonight I made my husband incredibly happy by making his favorite: Chicken Parmesan.

Chicken Parmesan

Flour
2 eggs
Breadcrumbs
Parmesan Cheese
2 T olive oil
2 T margarine or butter
1 lb thin-sliced chicken breast (or you can save money by buying regular chicken
breasts and pounding them yourself. You want them to be about 1/4" thick.)
1 jar of your favorite sauce (I used Classico Roasted Garlic)
8 oz bag of Italian blend cheese (I usually use Sargento, but this time had to use
Kraft)
Pasta of your choice

1. In 3 different plates or shallow bowls place one of the following: flour, 2 eggs (beaten), and breadcrumbs mixed with parmesan cheese.
2. Heat a large skillet with about 2 T olive oil and 2 T margarine.
3. For each piece of chicken: dredge in flour, then eggs, then breadcrumbs and place in skillet. Turn after about 1 minute. After another minute, remove from the pan. (We are not trying to cook them all the way through, just brown up the outside).
4. Spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of a 13 X 9 baking dish. Place chicken in dish. Top with remaining sauce (I usually put just a little bit aside for Jim's pasta, then put the rest of the sauce on the chicken). Top with cheese. Cover with aluminum foil (make sure the aluminum foil is not touching the cheese).
5. Bake in 350 oven for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for 10 more minutes.

You can make your pasta while the chicken is baking. I used the Ronzoni Garden Pasta, which has a full serving of veggies in each serving of pasta.

Enjoy!

Peanut Chicken Lo Mein

I've been sick for over two weeks, so I haven't posted in a long time. The other night I made this recipe (I adapted it from another one) and thought I would finally share it.

Peanut Chicken Lo Mein (2 servings)

4 oz. rice noodles

4 t. corn starch

½ c. peanut butter

6 T soy sauce

Vegetables (I use a red pepper and a yellow onion) sliced thin

2 chicken breasts (about 4 oz each) cut into small pieces

Cover rice noodles in water and soak according to package directions.

While noodles are soaking, mix together corn starch, peanut butter, and soy sauce in a small bowl. Set aside.

In a large skillet, heat 1 T of vegetable oil to medium high heat. Add sliced vegetables and stir-fry until just translucent. Add chicken pieces to the pan and cook until chicken is heated through. Add sauce and cook until sauce thickens and begins to simmer.

Drain noodles and add to pan. Mix all together and cook until noodles are softened to desired consistency.

Soy Garlic Chicken with Snow Peas

Soy Garlic Chicken:

8 oz can of tomato sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 t. minced garlic*
6 chicken legs**

Place chicken in slow cooker. Mix together tomato sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar and garlic. Pour over chicken. Cook on low for 4 to 5 hours.

*I used the minced garlic that you buy in the spice aisle. It looks like sesame seeds when the recipe is done but doesn't add any extra texture.

** The recipe called for 6 legs, I used 5 chicken thighs. You might be able to use breasts, but I worry they would dry out.

Snow Peas:

I heated 1 T of roasted garlic oil on medium high in a skillet. Once the oil was shimmering I added one shallot sliced thin. Once the shallot had caramelized, I added 1/2 pound of snow peas. I tossed continuously until they were soft; about five minutes. I then added a generous sprinkle of kosher salt and a less generous sprinkle of red pepper flakes. My husband said they were delicious. This was a huge compliment because apparently he does not like snow peas.

Fresh Strawberry Pie



I replaced the cup of sugar with 1/2 c. of splenda sugar blend. It was soooo good! I also topped it with some cool whip.

Cola Chicken

Cola Chicken
1 lb chicken breast tenders
1 c. ketchup
1 can diet coke

Place all ingredients in a deep skillet. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Boil until sauce thickens and resembles barbecue sauce.

That is the original recipe. What I did tonight was I doubled the ketchup and diet coke. I also removed the chicken when it was done and let the sauce thicken all by itself in the pan. My husband said tonight's was the best ever.

Frozen French Fries - I got the thin fries 'cause those are my favorites

Caramelized Baby Onions - these were NOT good! Basically, it just tasted like onion. No yummy caramelized flavor, no sweet and savory thing, just boring, old onions.

Part 1

So, I've literally been baking all day. It was 90 degrees and I was baking. This is because I volunteered to make dessert for tomorrow's cookout (which its funny I offered anyway, because I never cook dessert) so I had to bake it all today. However, its worth it because I have two very tasty desserts for everyone tomorrow.First I made a brand new recipe, S'more Thumbprint Cookies.
You can find the recipe here: http://recipecircus.com/recipes/fiveluckystarz/COOKIES/S39more_thumbprint_cookies.htmlNext I made a patriotic cake.
Its an angel food cake baked in a 13 X 9 pan. I frosted it with a combo of vanilla pudding and cool whip, then used blueberries and strawberries to make the stars and stripes. And yes, there are 50 stars and 7 red stripes. I am such a dork!

Something New

Okay, so up until today I had never cooked fish. Well, actually, that is not entirely true, I made fish and chips once from scratch, but that doesn't count because its fried and everything tastes good fried. A few days ago I turned over a new leaf in regards to food and I am trying to eat healthier now. So tonight's menu was teriyaki salmon with roasted asparagus and spiced chickpeas.

I marinated the salmon for a few hours in a homemade asian marinade. This consisted of soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, rice vinegar, and brown sugar.

When ready to cook:

Coat a skillet with cooking spray and heat to medium high.
Place salmon skin-side down for about a minute.
Take salmon out of pan and pull the skin off.
Turn the heat down to medium. Place salmon back in pan and cook five minutes on each side.

Roasted Asparagus:

Coat asparagus in 1 T of garlic flavored olive oil (I used 2 t. and thought it could use just a bit more)
Sprinkle generously with salt
Lay in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes for crisp-tender asparagus.

Spiced Chickpeas:

Find this recipe here: http://greenlitebites.com/2010/02/22/simply-spiced-chickpeas/

Noodle Soup...er...Chicken-y Noodles?

So, I spent the day at home today recovering from a stomach bug that woke me up at 2 am this morning. Up until about twenty minutes ago, all that I had eaten today was 2 pieces of toast. But...I started to get hungry, and I wanted food. So, I tried to make some noodle soup using rice noodles ('cause rice is supposed to be good for your stomach after you've been sick). It turned out really really good. Yum! The only problem was that I added too many noodles, and ended up with chicken-y noodles instead of noodle soup.

First, I chopped up half an onion and sauteed it in a small saucepan with a tablespoon of margarine and some rotisserie seasonings. When it was translucent, I added one can of chicken broth, a packet of chicken bouillon, and a handful of frozen peas. Once that started to boil, I added the rice noodles and cooked them for 10 minutes in the boiling broth. I will totally make this again next time I need an easy tasty meal!

Lost Picture

A picture of the hot dog chili sauce I mentioned ages ago!

Empanadas

Okay, so they weren't really empanadas, but I thought that title sounded better than empanada-ish things.

First, I browned one pound ground turkey in a skillet with one chopped onion. Then I added a small can of tomato paste, 4 t. chili powder, and 1 t. salt. I continued to cook it for another couple of minutes. Then I covered the meat mixture and put it in the fridge to cool.

Once it was cool, I laid out several won ton wrappers and brushed the edges with egg white. I put one tablespoon of the meat mixture in the middle of each wrapper, then folded them in half. I baked them in a 400 degree oven for 8 minutes. The recipe would have made 60 empanadas, but I got tired of the wrapping way before I made that many.

I also made dessert empanadas. I filled some with nutella, some with peanut butter and jelly, and some with mini peanut butter cups. The nutella ones were amazing! The chocolate-peanut butter ones were okay, although my lip got hit with some lava (aka molten hot peanut butter). The peanut butter and jelly ones were a wash, the jelly became a liquid and just leaked out all over the place.

Cola Chicken

This is an easy,easy recipe that is low in calories.

You need:

1 c. ketchup
1 can of diet coke (or if measuring out of a larger bottle, measure 12 oz)
1 lb chicken

Place chicken in a large skillet. Mix together the ketchup and diet coke and pour over the chicken. Cook over medium low heat, occasionally turning the chicken, until the sauce thickens to the consistency of barbecue sauce.

The finished dish is chicken with a sauce that is slightly sweeter than regular barbecue sauce. I served it with corn (courtesy of green giant as it is a little too early in the year for corn on the cob yet) and my husband had steak fries with it as well.

Teriyaki Tortillas

Easy meal tonight. This was the first meal I made on my brand new stove!

Teriyaki Tortillas

1 red pepper
1 medium onion
1 T. vegetable oil
your favorite teriyaki sauce (the thick kind)
tortillas
cheese
two boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Lipton Teriyaki Noodles

Heat vegetable oil to Med-High in medium sized skillet.
Slice up red pepper and onion. Add to hot oil.
While vegetables begin cooking, slice up chicken breasts into small strips.
Add chicken to vegetables. Generously drizzle with teriyaki sauce.
Once chicken has browned, reduce heat to Simmer and cover.
Follow the directions on the package to prepare the Teriyaki Noodles.
Assemble tortillas as follows: On 1 tortilla put a little bed of noodles, then add desired amount of chicken w/ vegetables. Drizzle with a little more teriyaki sauce, and add cheese. Roll up and eat.

First Dinner in a New Home

This weekend I moved into a new house (yay!) so I haven't made dinner in a few nights (and if fact the last dinner I made, I burned - whoops!). So tonight was the first dinner I made in my new kitchen. Step one: dig out the kitchen, which was buried in boxes of stuff. Then I made a simple but yummy meal. I made some gemelli pasta and put some frozen meatballs in a jar sauce to heat. As a housewarming gift, my in-laws had given me bread and wine. I wanted to use the bread tonight, but when I cut it I noticed it had started to get hard, so I sliced it, put slices of garlic and herb cheese on some, margarine on some, and garlic oil on some, then put them all under the broiler for about 7 minutes. This was a delicious and easy Italian meal (I'm sure true Italians wouldn't appreciate my describing it that way, but oh well).

Special Sunday Dinner

Berry Pretty Pork Roast. Something I usually only make on Christmas, however we had something else this year, so I made it as a special dinner tonight. I used a 2 1/2 lb pork loin, and the berries were a frozen bag of mixed berries by stop & shop (it had strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries). Also, I did not use both cloves of garlic, it does not need it!

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Berry-Pretty-Pork-Roast

Fried Egg Reuben Benedict

For my birthday in November my husband bought me two of the Top Chef cookbooks. So, over winter break (back in December, I'm a little behind the times right now) I tried one of the recipes that we had seen on the show that looked soooo tasty. The Fried Egg Reuben Benedict with Thousand Island Hollandaise. I was nervous to try this recipe because of the hollandaise sauce, which I'd heard was really hard to make. Its not. It is a bit of a pain because you have to whisk until you feel like your arm is going to fall off, then continue whisking for about 10 more minutes, but its not too hard. It was worth the work for me because I was so proud of myself for having made it from scratch. If you don't want to do that much work, you could just buy a hollandaise mix, make it according to the directions, then add the ketchup and sweet relish. This recipe was delicious, especially for my husband and I who prefer savory breakfasts.

Here it is:
http://www.bravotv.com/foodies/recipes/fried-egg-reuben-benedict-with-thousand-island-hollandaise-sauce