That’s a Fancy Looking Chicken…

I have to admit I am late to the party on frozen chicken. Weird. I know. My husband recently introduced me to these giant bags of frozen boneless breasts and I have to say, they are really a lifesaver! They’re cheap and provide a large quantity of individual breasts and they can stay in your freezer pretty much forever. I’ve also learned that you can get thighs, drumsticks, and other bone in cuts too!

Okay, that’s enough of my frozen chicken epiphany. Because they are so convenient, these bags have now made chicken breasts a staple of my weekly dinner menu. After having fried them, steamed them, wrapped them in bacon, made stir fry and lettuce wraps, I was running out of ideas. I was also too lazy to go to the store one day, so I came up with the following super easy, super versatile, and dare I say, pretty fancy looking recipe.

So I had the chicken breasts, red onions, and Israeli couscous. I also had (and still have) more zucchini than I know what to do with, so those are the basic ingredients I used for this version. You can substitute with chicken thighs, sweet onions, butternut squash, pumpkin, mushrooms, or even asparagus, broccoli or cauliflower. Really, whatever you have on hand should work!

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced into 1-inch chunks
1 red onion, coarsely chopped
1 large zucchini, diced into 1-inch pieces
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 sachet Lipton Onion Soup
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
Juice of 2 limes or lemons
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup white wine
Salt and Black Pepper to taste

1 cup cooked Israeli couscous, prepared according to package directions.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine all ingredients except the couscous in a 9×13 glass baking pan. Make sure chicken and vegetables are well coated with seasonings and olive oil.
Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Remove from oven and combine with the cooked couscous in a large bowl. Check for seasoning and adjust if necessary and serve.

Serves 4.

 

Salads: Not just lettuce and tomatoes anymore!

The idea of living in a home without air conditioning is a completely alien concept to those of us from South Florida. When I first got to Washington, I thought “wow, these people are savages!” But, as it turns out, all summers are not Miami summers. That being said, I’ve definitely been trying to use my oven and stove for the least amount of time possible. Salads have become a mainstay in my dinner menus since they require little to no stove time. Here’s a new one I’ve been working on the past few weeks. It looks fancy, tastes delicious, and you can pretty much use any grain to veggie combination you like.

Couscous Salad:

1 cup cooked couscous, cold
1 cucumber, diced
1 2 large tomatoes, chopped
1/2 red onion, minced
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 small can sliced black olives
1 tablespoon white or apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice
5 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and stir.

You can do this with any grain you like. I like to use farro, barley, and quinoa as well. You can also add feta cheese to add some richness.

Enjoy!

What to do with that leftover sauce…

In my previous post, I showed you how to make my all purpose pomodoro sauce. Since more often than not, you will have leftovers, here is an easy and relatively healthy chicken parmesan recipe that I made with it last night. Bon appetit!

Oven Chicken Parmesan:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup flour
1 cup plain breadcrumbs (you can also use panko)
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
2 tsp. dried parsley
2 tsp. garlic salt
Salt and pepper to taste.

4 slices provolone cheese
1-1 1/2 cups tomato sauce

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Oil a large baking sheet with cooking spray or olive oil.

While the oven warms up, bread your chicken breasts.

Season the flour with one teaspoon each of the Italian seasoning, garlic salt, and parsley. Stir to combine. Repeat with the breadcrumbs.

Dredge the chicken in the flour, followed by the egg, then the breadcrumbs. Shake very gently to remove any excess breadcrumbs and place on the baking sheet.

You can spray them lightly with cooking spray to keep the crust from drying out too much. This is optional.

Bake for about 30-45 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Adjust your timing depending on the thickness of the breasts you are using.

Once the chicken breasts are cooked, remove them from the oven and top each with heaping tablespoon (or more if you like) of the sauce. Place the slice of cheese on top. Return to the oven for about 5 minutes or until the cheese melts.

This can also be prepared vegetarian, by using thick slices of eggplant instead of the chicken.

 

 

 

Fun with a spiralizer and an all-purpose tomato sauce

 

So my aunt recently gifted me a spiralizer. This thing is awesome. It slices your vegetables into a noodle shape, making for a wonderful guilt-free version of “pasta” out of zucchini, carrots, squash, and potatoes. You can also use it on cucumbers and other fruit and vegetables for a mighty fancy looking salad.

I recently made a zucchini “pasta” with my version of a pomodoro sauce that both husband and I agreed that we did not miss the real thing. For my vegan/vegeterian friends, the recipe can be easily adapted and you won’t miss out on flavor. Well, I might. I like bacon. And cheese. The sauce yields enough that you can freeze the leftovers or repurpose the next day. Here’s part 1 of how I made two meals out of sauce, zucchini, and some frozen chicken breasts.

Pomodoro Sauce:

1 large carrot
5 cloves garlic
1 large stalk celery
1 medium onion
1 tsp chopped fresh basil, plus more for serving
1 28oz can diced tomatoes (I prefer San Marzano)
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
Pinch of red pepper flakes
2 strips bacon
1 1-inch piece parmesan cheese rind
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated parmesan for serving

Using a food processor, finely mince the carrot, onion and celery. Then mince the garlic separately. I like to do each one separately as the carrots require a lot more processing.

Render the 2 strips of bacon in a medium, heavy pot over medium-high heat. Once the bacon is rendered, remove the strips from the pot and set aside. You can have them as a snack while you’re cooking.

Add the garlic to the hot, rendered bacon fat and saute for about 1 minute. Add the onion, celery, carrot,  and Italian seasoning. Stir to combine, reduce the heat to medium and allow to cook until the vegetables soften.

Add the tomato paste, canned tomatoes, cheese rind, red pepper flakes and 1 tsp of the fresh basil. Stir. Add salt and black pepper to taste.

Simmer for 45min to 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Add a drizzle of olive oil before serving.

To make this a vegan recipe, just omit the cheese rind and bacon. Use olive oil instead of the bacon fat.

I had some fresh tomatoes on hand as well, so I chopped them and added to the sauce for texture.

Some Whole Foods will sell you a package of Parmesan cheese rinds. They are an amazing addition to soups and sauces. I just keep the rinds of the wedges of Parmesan in a Ziploc as I finish each wedge, so I always have them on hand. 

If you find that the sauce is too acidic, you can stir in a tiny bit of sugar to tone it down. 

Zucchini Pasta:

4 large zucchini, peeled
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Spiralize the peeled zucchini

Heat the olive oil in a large pan.

Add the zucchini and saute until soft, about 5 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper.

See my next post for what I did with the leftovers!

 

 

 

 

 

Things I have strong feelings about: Salad Dressing Edition

You bought the most beautiful, expensive organic produce. You lovingly chopped up your kale into perfect, bite-sized pieces and arranged your sliced heirloom tomatoes to showcase their jewel-like colors. Maybe you even ever-so-meticulously shaved a nice Grana Padano over it to create that lovely magazine-spread look. And then you slathered the whole thing in a bottle of “Tuscano-inspiration-balsamic-honey-mustard-sriracha” dressing.
No. Stop it. Bottle dressing is the worst. I’m serious.

Now, that’s not to say that there are some appropriate applications for it, just not actually on your salad. More on that later.

It is my personal belief that you can make an excellent salad dressing, without all the sugar and god knows what, at home. Here is my basic recipe. Once you’ve mastered that, and believe me, it will take you three seconds, you can apply the same idea across a wide array of items already found in your fridge and pantry.

Feel free to lower or raise the quantities depending on how big your salad is.

1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Salt and Pepper to taste

Pour all ingredients into a small bowl. Beat with fork or small whisk until emulsified (thickened) and drizzle over salad.

Now that you have that mastered, here are some variations:

Add 1 tsp. honey and 1 tsp. mayonnaise for a honey mustard dressing.

Add 1 tbsp. grated parmesan or other hard cheese to add another level of flavor. I find that Romano and Manchego also work nicely.

Add 1 tsp. dried or fresh basil, oregano, tarragon or sage.

You can also substitute the balsamic vinegar for apple cider, red wine, white wine, sherry, or plain white vinegar. Each one brings its own flavor so you can get creative. You can also leave the mustard out as well.

Now go, make salad! I promise you’ll never buy bottled dressing again because yours will be just that good!