Memorial Day Dinner

I hadn't planned a dinner tonight so before I went on my run late this afternoon I tossed a few individually wrapped chicken breasts into some water to thaw out and I would figure out the rest when it was time to cook.  To be honest, 9 out of 10 dinners here are made this way. I am horrible at planning ahead.

So 6pm I had chicken breasts. I looked around the kitchen and found: a head of garlic, a lemon, fresh thyme and bottle of white wine that I had opened up the night before.

I heated up the oil, sauteed the minced garlic until right before it started to brown and then I poured in about 3/4 cup of the white wine.  While that was simmering away I minced up the thyme, and seasoned the chicken with it as well as salt and pepper.  I then added the juice of the lemon to the pan and put the chicken it it.  Cooked it on medium high for about four minutes on each side. Perfect.  I was actually to busy barking orders at the kids to wash up and set the table that I forgot to snap a photo of the finished product.  It tasted great but it wasn't the prettiest of chicken breasts.

So then. Sides.  Peas. As I was steaming them I thought to add some of our fresh mint from the backyard. Mint and peas. SO AMAZING!  Cook the peas so barely soft, butter, fresh ground pepper, and a bunch of chopped fresh mint.  You must try this.

Finally, I didn't have lettuce so I just diced some avocado and cherry tomatoes..splash of balsamic salad dressing..summer yummy!

So nothing special about any of it but combined it was a great, pretty healthy, summer dinner.

very simple, very good

I normally would put about 2 tablespoons of chopped minced but I wasn't sure how it would go over with the kids so I only used a tablespoon..still good.

ignore the little brown spot, it was from the pit

French Potato Salad

I haven't done too many Martha Stewart recipes, but I think after this hit I just might to try some more.  I found this mayonnaise-less potato salad the other day and I decided to give this a try for a BBQ I was attending this weekend.  I had to add bacon to it because, really is it a potato salad without bacon? And yes, bacon did make it better.

I found these "sunrise medley bite size potatoes" at the store and they worked perfectly

I finely chopped 5 slices of extra thick bacon...I should have used more bacon.

the dressing tasted so good I could have eaten it with a spoon. soo tangy. love it!

they were so pretty!

mmm. crispy bacon!

Now Martha Stewart says this serves just 6 but mine definitely served more...10-12. If you are serving it as the only side then yes, 6 because people would eat more, but for a party where there a bunch of sides and everyone is taking a little of everything...10-12.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 pounds of potatoes: sunrise medley,fingerling or small new potatoes, halved (quartered if large)
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 1 small shallot, minced (2 tablespoons)
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1/4 small red onion, sliced
• 6-8 slices of thick bacon rendered down

Directions

1. Place potatoes in a large pot; cover with cold water by 1 inch and season generously with salt. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer and cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Run under cold water to cool slightly, then drain.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together oil, mustard, vinegar, shallot, parsley, and thyme; season with salt and pepper. Add potatoes, bacon and onion and toss to combine. Serve at room temperature.

Roasted Tomatoes on Balsamic Chicken

A few weeks ago I found The Pioneer Woman's recipe for "Bruschetta Chicken" and I wanted to try it but take it a bit farther.  My new favorite thing is to roast...everything!  It brings out so much flavor.  So after searching the web I came across Rachael Ray's "Roasted Tomato Bruschetta" recipe which is good but not exactly what I wanted.  I  wanted this to taste like the bruschetta I had recently enjoyed over at my friend Ann's house,  now as I type that it dawns on me that I could have just called her and asked for the recipe. But I digress. So taking inspiration from a few places I came up with dinner tonight and it was AWESOME! You must try this soon as possible.

Ingredients:

4 boneless chicken breasts
1 pint of grape tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic (Tim says it's not garlicky enough until there's too much garlic..??)
8 fresh basil leaves chopped
olive oil
salt and pepper
balsamic vinegar
1 avocado (optional)

Instructions:

Place thawed chicken breasts in a ziplock bag and pour in about 1 Tablespoon of olive oil, 3 Tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and pepper.  It's a marinade so it doesn't have to be precise.  Let the chicken sit in the fridge for an hour or two.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mince the garlic. Halve the grape tomatoes, toss them with the garlic in some olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and lay it out on a cookie sheet.  Roast in the oven for 15 minutes if you like your tomatoes mushy (easier to bite into) or 10 minutes if you want the tomatoes more intact. When done let the tomatoes cool.  After cooling chop up fresh basil and mix into the tomatoes as well as a few splashes of balsamic vinegar.

Grill the chicken. Plate it and spread the tomatoes on top.  Enjoy it this way or go a little crazy and add diced avocado on top.  That tastes especially delicious!

I love getting the different colored tomatoes..adds a bit of drama to the plate

Don't you just love those colors..screams SUMMER!

Next time I will roast the tomatoes less but more for presentation sake because the taste was perfect

sadly the balsamic takes away some of the color but it adds so much to the taste!

my last minute decision to throw on the avocado was the right choice, it tasted amazing with the meal

Spring Beef Stew

I had a big package of "beef for stewing" in my freezer that I had gotten right before the baby was born when I was convinced it was going to be a long winter, ha!, so I needed to use because it wasn't going to stay good until next winter.  So what to do in the Spring? I only had made beef stew in the Winter.  I find few Spring beef stew recipes and so I pieced a few of them together.  No potatoes because that's decidedly Winter and doesn't fit into my effort to eat healthy.  I'm trying to go heavy on the proteins, veggies and fruits and seriously limit my carbs, starches and sugars.

It turned out quite well, and  I thought very Springy.

I think when it comes to beef that will be browned and stewed you should go a little crazy with the salt and pepper.

I'm every professional cooks worse nightmare. I had like 4 lbs of beef and didn't have the patience to brown them in batches to give each one the proper crust. Oh well.

I'm definitely in the camp of belief that the more color you can add in terms of herbs and veggies to a dish the better it will taste. I also decided that I prefer chopped onions to whole pearl onions.

I didn't have fresh tarragon, man that would have been awesome, but the dried worked very well, and I think going heavy handed with the tarragon is good in a heavy beef stew...it won't over power but you won't to taste it.

I cooked in for 4 hours with the lid on and then for the last hour I took the lid off to allow the juices to reduce and the stew to thicken up.

At the last minute throw in the frozen peas in and stir..they will be thawed and ready in a minute...you don't want mushy peas.

ta-da! It really was light and perfect for Spring.

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs of beef cubed

1 can (14.5 oz) of petite cut tomatoes

1 onion chopped or half a bag of frozen pearl onions

2 carrots chopped or a couple handfuls of baby carrots (my preferences)

1 cup of frozen peas

1 cup of beef stock/broth

1/2 cup of red wine

3 Tablespoons of fresh tarragon chopped or 1 heaping teaspoon of dried tarragon (taste the stew after a few hours and decide if you want more tarragon)

salt and pepper (after liberally seasoning the meat before browning, I used about almost a teaspoon of both to season the stew)

Instructions:

Pat dry the beef and then sprinkle salt and pepper all over the beef.  Heat two tablespoons of vegetables oil in a skillet or dutch oven on high. In batches brown the beef on all sides.  When browned put all the beef in a crock pot or dutch oven...and if you don't want to and you don't want to use more than one dish, you can skip the browning part but it does make a difference but I skip it sometimes.

Ok, now add all the ingredients except for the peas.  Give it a good stir. Put the lid on.  Walk away. Cook on high for 4-5 hours (that includes cooking on low in a dutch oven) or low for 7-8 hours.  A few minutes before serving toss in the peas.  

Stews should be tasted a couple times in the last two hours of cooks, in my humble opinion, so you can adjust the seasoning and still give it time to soak in.

Soo good.

Tuscan Chicken & Sausage Stew

This is a variation of a recipe I got out of the my Weight Watchers cook book.  For you who are dubious of Weight Watchers...IT'S NOT A DIET! I am not eating diet food. It's a lifestyle of better food choices.

This is sooo good. It called for chicken thighs, artichokes, and red pepper flakes.  I had chicken breasts, no artichokes, and my kids wouldn't eat anything spicy so I left out the flakes. So here is my version:

NOTE: USE CHICKEN THIGHS.  I've now done it twice with breast meat and twice with thigh meat...THIGH MEAT IS WAAAAYYY BETTER...but breast meat is good too if you don't know what your are missing.

6  chicken thighs
1 lbs (6 large links) of sweet or hot italian sausage (remove casings and break it up  a bit as it cooks with a wooden spoon)
2 cups of cremini mushrooms chopped
1 red onion chopped
1 bell pepper diced
3 garlic cloves minced
1 can of artichoke hearts
1 pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
1 tsp of dried oregano
1 cup of chick broth/stock
pinch of salt & pepper


Because I didn't want to use more than one pot I cooked mine on low in a dutch oven for 4 hours. You could also cook it on high in a crock pot for 4-5 hrs or on low for 8-10.  You basically want the chicken falling apart with a fork easily and the veggies completely soft.

Brown chicken in a saute pan in a little olive oil and then transfer to crock pot.  Do the same with the sausage.  Add veggies, garlic, oregano, chicken broth, salt & pepper to the crock pot. Put on the lid and walk away.

three things my mom never was able to get me to eat growing up. 

I went the lazy route and browned everything at the same time because my dutch oven is big enough

so pretty

I will never be a hand model. Speaking of sausages and hands, my brother-in-law once described my hands to a jeweler as  "sausage fingers". I will never let him live that down...and he will probably never stop thinking that.

give it a nice big stir and walk away

Ta-da! This was so good and it smelled amazing.

Quinoa Creation!

I came across this blog, "Iowa Girl Eats", and she has some great recipes. One recently was for "Sweet Corn &Quinoa with Honey Lemon Vinaigrette" and it sounded good but not quite hardy enough for dinner. Plus, I only had red quinoa. So I added in some grilled chicken and avocados...SO GOOD! It was delish!

Here is my combination recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup dry quinoa

2 cups water

2 Tablespoons butter

2 green onions, sliced

2 ears sweet corn (or one can of sweet corn drained)

1 avocado diced

3 chicken breasts grilled and cubed

salt & pepper

Cook the one cup of quinoa in the two cups of water until the water evaporates. I toasts my red quinoa in a little olive oil before adding the water. Saute corn in the butter for a couple of minutes. Add the cooked quinoa, green onions and cooked/cubed chicken breasts. Pour the vinaigrette over the meal in the pan...toss.  After transferring the meal into a dish add the diced avocados...you don't want the warm.  

Vinaigrette:

1 Tablespoon lemon zest

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1 garlic clove, microplaned or finely minced

1 Tablespoon honey

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper