Two Novice Chefs, One Tiny Kitchen

I’m posting this recipe again but with no changes, except to add the approximate WW points and a much better picture than last time :)  This is one of my tried and true recipes, from Betty Crocker’s Cooking Basics, the cookbook I learned to cook with and still hold dear to my heart!  This chicken takes just a few minutes to prep before you bake it, giving you plenty of time to whip up some quick sides, like couscous and roasted asparagus, my recent go-to side dishes!  With this easy meal I had time to bake some lemon poppy seed muffins (stop in for those tomorrow!), watch American Idol, get in a 3 mile workout, and read a few chapters of a book.  Thanks again Betty!

Parmesan Dijon Chicken

Ingredients:
2 large chicken breasts, cut in half.
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
3 T melted butter
2 T dijon mustard

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix melted butter and dijon mustard in a large bowl or flat dish. Mix bread crumbs and parmesan cheese in a large ziploc bag.
3. Dip the chicken into the butter/mustard mix making sure to thorougly coat it. Then toss into the bag and coat with crumb mixture. Place chicken in single layer in an ungreased rectangular pan.
4. Bake uncovered 30 minutes, making sure to flip the chicken over halfway through baking. Chicken is done when juice is no longer pink when you cut into the center of the thickest piece.

6 servings (1/2 breast per serving)

Approx. WW points per serving = 5

My first issue of Cooking Light finally came this week! I was so excited to see my very own copy in the mailbox last weekend and quickly thumbed through it, then later sat down and bookmarked all the recipes I wanted to try. It is a fantastic issue, with a section about growing your own tomatoes and basil (two things I want to do this summer!) and a section about making your own pasta with K.C.’s own Lydia! I am trying to do a better job about bringing my lunch to work this week. I had been taking Lean Cuisines for the last couple of weeks, and although they are easy, pretty tasty, and easy to track w/WW, they aren’t that healthy with all that sodium and preservatives. So I chose this recipe so that I would have plenty of leftovers for lunches. Each serving is over a cup of salad which is more than enough! I really loved this recipe. It is easy on the dressing, and Tyler would prefer more so next time I might divide it and do double the dressing for him. I found the flavors that stood out the most were the red pepper, the goat cheese, and the arugula. This would be a great recipe to take to a summer picnic.

Chicken Orzo Salad with Goat Cheese (adapted from Cooking Light)

Ingredients:

2 cans fat free chicken broth
1 1/4 cups uncooked orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
3 cups chopped grilled chicken breast strips (such as Tyson)
1 1/2 cups trimmed arugula
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/4 cup prechopped red onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano (I used dried)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon extravirgin olive oil
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
6 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) crumbled goat cheese

Finally got around to making this recipe this week with Tyler’s help!  We both really liked it, but it may have had a stronger flavor if we had marinated the chicken longer than an hour.  Definitely a keeper and much healthier than going out for Thai food!

Thai Chicken Satay (from Weight Watchers)

Ingredients:
2 1/2 T asian fish sauce
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
1 T minced peeled fresh ginger
2 t grated lime zest
2 t + 1 T fresh lime juice
1 1/2 lbs skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 2 inch long thin strips (about 40)
6 T light coconut milk
3 T reduced fat creamy peanut butter
4 t honey
1/8 t crushed red pepper

Directions:
Combine 1 1/2 T of the fish sauce, the onion, ginger, 1 t of the lime zest, and 2 t of the lime juice in a large zip-close plastic bag; add the chicken.  Squeeze out the air and seal the bag, turn to coat the chicken.  Refrigerate, turning the bag occasionally, at least 1 hour or up to 6 hours.

Meanwhile, soak 40 (6-8 inch) wooden skewers in water for at least 30 minutes (I used metal skewers so I skipped this step.)

To make  the peanut sauce, whisk together the coconut milk, peanut butter, honey, the remaining 1 T of fish sauce, 1 T of lime juice, 1 t of lime zest, and the crushed red pepper in a serving bowl until smooth.

Spray the broiler rack with nonstick spray and preheat the broiler (we don’t have a broiler rack so we just put it on a cookie sheet lined with foil)

Thread the chicken strips onto the skewers.  Wrap the ends of the skewers in foil to prevent charring (only if you use wood skewers).  Place the skewers on the broiler rack; broil 4 inches from the heat, turning once, until cooked through, 6-8 minutes.  Serve with the peanut sauce.

Source: Adapted from Weight Watchers All-Time Favorites: Over 200 Best-Ever Recipes from the Weight Watchers Test Kitchens, Wiley Publishing, 2008.

serving = 5 pieces of chicken and about 2 T of sauce (recipe makes 8 servings)

WW points per serving=4

Chicken is a staple in our kitchen, but I get bored with it sometimes and honestly we haven’t had much chicken this month. We’ve had a lot of dishes with hot sausage or a nice plateful of salmon but I had so much frozen chicken in the freezer I knew it was time to thaw some out and try something new. Cooking Light again gave us a great recipe to work with. Tyler again lent his helping hand in the kitchen tonight. He prepped and stuffed the chicken while I put together the sides of asparagus with balsamic browned butter and whole wheat couscous. It was a very yummy dinner, I had to resist licking my plate! It’s also a budget conscious meal, Athenos feta cheese goes on sale very frequently at HyVee (and Super Target), so it’s a pretty inexpensive meal if you stock up on chicken when it’s under $2 a lb like we do. Sorry for the blurry photo tonight, I was shaky with hunger

Feta-Stuffed Chicken (original recipe from Cooking Light)

Ingredients:

4 (4-ounce) skinned, boned chicken breast halves
1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/4 cup (1 ounce) crumbled feta cheese with basil and tomato
Vegetable cooking spray
1 1/2 teaspoons butter, melted

Well my first attempt to cook with puff pastry didn’t turn out quite as I had planned.  I forgot that you have to, you know, thaw the frozen puff pastry.  So making this meal took much longer than it should have!  My puff pastry also didn’t really cook in the center :(  I don’t know if it was due to the temp of the puff pastry (didn’t get it totally thawed) or the liquid in the dish, but it was very doughy in the center.  I’ll have to play around with it some more and see if I can get it right next time.  The pot pies were still good though, it’s a great base recipe!  I ate the flaky top and picked out the turkey bits (leftover from our Christmas turkey) and mushrooms…I really hate frozen mixed veggies and wish I had used fresh veggies instead.  I hate peas, am allergic to carrots, and I’m not a big fan of corn or lima beans either…Tyler ate it and loved it and ate all the leftovers.  Yay, that’s what husbands are for :)  Next time I’ll make it with turkey (or chicken), potatoes, mushrooms, and….yeah that’s about it :)  I just don’t really like little bits of random veggies baked into stuff.  But give me roasted asparagus or sauted green beans any day!  (both are on the menu for this week!)

Turkey Pot Pie (original recipe from Tyler Florence, as seen on Julie’s blog)

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped cooked turkey (or chicken)
mixed veggies, fresh or frozen
Sliced mushrooms if desired
3 cups of chicken broth
1/4 cup of butter
2/3 cup of flour
salt and pepper
Other seasonings to taste: Thyme & Rosemary, fresh or dried
1 sheet Puff Pastry
1 egg white
grated cheese of your choice

With an ice storm brewing I figured it was a good weekend for some classic comfort food. I had two ingredients in my kitchen I was anxious to use. 1: the chicken legs I bought a couple of months ago that were still sitting in the freezer and 2: the gorgonzola cheese I got for super cheap at the store the other day. After several hours browsing the Cooking Light website I decided on oven fried chicken and mac n cheese. Yum! We really liked the mac n cheese, the gorgonzola gives it a real kick (if you haven’t tried it before, it tastes a lot like blue cheese.) Tyler said the oven fried chicken was “nothing special.” It was good though, just kinda plain.

Oven Fried Chicken (original recipe from cookinglight.com)

Ingredients:

1 cup low-fat buttermilk (didn’t have so I subbed 1 cup milk w/1 T lemon juice in it)
2 large egg whites, beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 ounces)
1/3 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt, divided
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
6 chicken drumsticks, skin on.
2 tablespoons canola oil
Cooking spray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°.Cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine buttermilk and egg whites in a shallow dish; stir well with a whisk. Combine flour, cornmeal, 1/2 teaspoon salt, black pepper, and red pepper in a separate shallow dish; stir well. Sprinkle chicken evenly with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Dip chicken in buttermilk mixture; dredge in flour mixture.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until lightly browned. Place chicken on prepared baking sheet; lightly coat chicken with cooking spray. Bake at 425° for 30 minutes or until chicken is done.

Macaroni and 4 cheeses (original recipe from cookinglight.com)

Ingredients:

1 pound uncooked medium elbow macaroni
1 (1-ounce) slice white bread (I used bread crumbs I already had on hand)
2 1/2 cups 1% low-fat milk (I used 2%)
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded reduced-fat extra-sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Emmenthaler or Swiss cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Cooking spray
2 teaspoons minced fresh or 1/2 teaspoon dried rubbed sage
2 teaspoons butter or stick margarine, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°.Cook pasta in boiling water 5 minutes or until almost tender. Drain and rinse with cold water. Place pasta in a large bowl.

Place bread in a food processor; pulse 10 times or until coarse crumbs form. Set aside.

Bring milk and bay leaves to a simmer in a small saucepan. Remove from heat; cover and let stand 5 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Place flour in a small bowl; gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until well-blended. Return milk mixture to pan. Cook over medium heat until thick, stirring constantly with a whisk. Remove from heat. Add cheeses, salt, and pepper; stirring until cheeses melt. Pour cheese sauce over pasta; stir well. Spoon mixture into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Combine breadcrumbs, sage, and butter in a bowl; toss with a fork. Sprinkle breadcrumb mixture over pasta mixture.

Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

We had goat cheese for the first time about a month ago on a pizza at Spin! We were instantly addicted! So I bought some at the store this week and we used it on our pizza (see below) and had some leftover so I wanted to try a new recipe with it. I’d heard from several people that Cooking Light has a great goat cheese stuffed chicken recipe so I went in search of it and I *think* I found the one they were talking about! Either way, it’s delicious and definitely a keeper! Tyler made the chicken and I made the sides: asparagus and potato pancakes. What a great dinner! I love it when we cook together!

Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Garlic and Herbed Goat Cheese (from cookinglight.com)

Ingredients:

1 whole garlic head
1/3 cup (3 ounces) goat cheese with herbs, softened
6 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons olive oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Remove white papery skin from garlic head (do not peel or separate the cloves). Wrap head in foil. Bake at 350° for 1 hour; cool 10 minutes. Separate cloves; squeeze to extract garlic pulp. Discard skins. Combine garlic pulp and cheese, stirring well; set aside.

Cut a horizontal slit through thickest portion of each chicken breast half to form a pocket. Stuff about 4 teaspoons cheese mixture into each pocket. Sprinkle chicken evenly on both sides with salt and pepper.

Heat oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan; cook 3 minutes or until lightly browned. Turn chicken over. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until a thermometer registers 165°; let stand 5 minutes.

Welcome to the new home of our food blog! We hope you find it easier to navigate and pleasing to the eye (and palate!)
It’s rare that I cook with cream of _(fill in the blank)__ soups, but I remembered making this recipe sometime last winter and was suddenly craving it. My favorite part are the biscuit “dumplings.” Mmm it is such an easy recipe and makes the whole house smell wonderful. Perfect on a cooler night when the seasons are beginning to change. It’s going to get down to 25 degrees tonight, unbelievable! We finally caved and turned on our heat so that we don’t wake up as little icicles in the morning. So if you are in the mood for a creamy and comforting chicken dish you might want to give this a try. Crock pots are a great tool for making easy and tasty meals.

Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings (original recipe from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

• 3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 can condensed cream of celery soup
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1 (10 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuit dough, torn into pieces
• Veggies of your choice (a bag of frozen mixed veggies would work well)
• Enough chicken broth to cover the chicken.

Directions

1. Place the chicken, soup, and onion (and veggies if you so choose) in a slow cooker, and fill with enough chicken broth to cover.
2. Cover, and cook for 8-9 hours on low. About 1 hour before serving, place the torn biscuit dough in the slow cooker. Cook until the dough is no longer raw in the center.

My husband is too good to me. I’ve been stressed and worn out the last few weeks working all day and then training at my second job at night. Plus I’m trying to change the way I eat and it’s just so…tiring. Tyler volunteered to make dinner tonight plus he’s been cooking for himself when I’m not here in the evenings. It’s a fantastic arrangement

Tonight’s dinner was pretty easy. We tried another recipe from Heather’s Core blog and were very happy with it. I love me some mushrooms! And of course mashed potatoes, I can never have enough mashed potatoes. I could make them (and eat them) in my sleep at this point So glad they are a Core food!

Balsamic Chicken with Mushrooms

2 tsp canola oil
3 TBS balsamic vinegar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 lb uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast (four 4-oz pieces)
2 c mushrooms, small, halved
1/3 c chicken broth
1/4 tsp dried thyme, crumbled

Heat 1 tsp oil in a nonstick skillet. In a medium bowl, mix 2 TBS vinegar, the mustard, and the garlic. Add chicken and turn to coat.

Transfer chicken and marinade to skillet. Saute chicken until cooked through, about 3 minutes on each side. Transfer chicken to a platter and keep warm (We seem to be incapable of getting chicken to cook all the way through in a skillet, so we stuck it in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees after cooking it for 3 minutes on each side on the stove top).

Heat remaining tsp of oil in skillet. Saute mushrooms for 1 minute. Add broth, thyme and remaining TBS of vinegar. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are deep brown, about 2 minutes longer.

Serve chicken topped with mushrooms.

Serves 4 (each serving contains 1/2 tsp healthy oil)

Tyler was nice enough to whip up this batch of white chicken chili while I made the beef and bean chili tonight. Honestly I’m not sure where I got the original recipe and it’s driving me nuts. If you know please jog my memory! I just have a copy of it that I printed out ages ago, probably off an old email account so I can’t really trace the origins! Actually it looks like a photocopy…omg I’m going to drive myself crazy. Here’s the recipe!

White Bean Chicken Chili

Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
1 T olive oil
2 tsp chopped garlic
1-2 cups chopped chicken breasts
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes (do not drain)
1 cube chicken bouillon
15 oz can white beans
1 pkg taco seasoning (we were out so we used this recipe instead)

Saute onion in olive oil. Add garlic, chicken, and 1/2 tsp taco seasoning. Cook until chicken is no longer pink. Add canned tomatoes (can be run through the food processor to chop into smaller pieces if desired), chicken bouillon cube, rest of taco seasoning and if necessary some water if too thick. Simmer and then eat! Serve with tortilla chips or tortillas, cheese, sour cream, whatever you like! Tyler adds Tabasco sauce because he loves more heat.

I believe this recipe is WW core friendly.