Baked Chicken with Artichokes, Lemon, and Thyme; Mashed Cauliflower, Roasted Asparagus

Stacey and Jenny came over for dinner again tonight. I am so lucky to have friends who are willing to be my guinea pigs for new recipes, even when they are eating things they have never had before.

Tonight I made a chicken dish baked with artichokes and thyme in white wine-lemon sauce. I also made mashed cauliflower (great substitute for mashed potatoes) and roasted asparagus.

Here is the recipe for the chicken. I read a few recipes for inspiration and ideas and then made up my own.

Ingredients

• 3-4 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
• 10 oz chicken broth
• 1 14 oz can artichokes, quartered
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• Juice from 1/3 lemon
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tbsp cornstarch for thickening
• 1/2 cup cornstarch for coating the chicken
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp butter

Directions

• Heat olive oil and butter in a large saute pan
• Dredge chicken in cornstarch, shake off the excess, and add to hot pan
• Brown chicken; approximately 3 minutes on each side; transfer to a baking dish
• De-glaze pan with white wine; scrape up all the brown bits
• Add 8 oz of the chicken broth, lemon juice, and thyme; bring to a simmer
• Mix the remaining chicken broth with 1 tbsp cornstarch; whisk into the pan to thicken the sauce
• Add parsley to the sauce
• Top the chicken with artichokes and then pour the sauce over the chicken
• Bake the chicken on 400 for 20-30 minutes, or until completely cooked

This chicken was great - very fresh and light tasting. I'll definitely make it again.

I served it with mashed cauliflower and roasted asparagus. Looking forward to leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Ma Po Tofu

When I was a vegetarian I lived on tofu, but back then I wasn't into cooking a whole lot so I always just had different tofu and veggie stir fry dishes. I tried Ma Po Tofu at PF Changs several years ago but never thought about recreating it myself. Well now that I absolutely love to cook and experiment I decided to try it.

I looked at a few recipes online, including this one, and also got a recipe from Joelen on thenest.com (she has recipes for everything - she's amazing so check out her blog). Below is what I did:

Ingredients

• 1 block of extra firm tofu, pressed and cut into cubes (pressing tofu between towels for 30 minutes releases all of the extra water and allows it to soak up more flavors when cooking)
• 10 oz low sodium chicken broth
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
• 2 tsp chili sauce/chili paste (I used Hunan Chili Sauce)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• Rice

Directions

• Heat olive oil in a pan; add onions and garlic, saute for a few minutes
• Add tofu and half of the chili sauce; cook for 4-5 minutes
• Add 2/3 of the chicken broth, the rest of the chili sauce, and the soy sauce; let simmer for 5 minutes
• Mix the remaining chicken broth with the cornstarch; add slowly to the pan to thicken your sauce
• Serve over rice

WOW - this was good! So simple, too. It had a good amount of heat and a ton of flavor. I will definitely make this one again. I also think I'll be able to make it with shrimp for Jon.

I'd recommend this to anyone who has never had tofu but would love to try it, or to anyone looking for something new and easy to do with tofu! Enjoy.

Vegetable Soup

Another Sunday, another soup.

Today I made a vegetable soup which I'll have for lunch most of the week. It was so easy, didn't take long to make, and tasted great.

Ingredients

• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 14.5 oz can tomatoes, chopped
• 1 potato, diced
• 1 cup mixed frozen vegetables - peas, corn, carrots, lima beans, green beans
• 1/8 tsp thyme
• 60 oz of broth; I used 32 oz of chicken broth and 28 oz of vegetable broth (use all vegetable broth for a vegetarian version; use some beef broth for a richer soup)
• Salt, pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Directions

• Heat olive oil in over medium heat a large soup pot; add carrots, onion, and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.
• Add potatoes, thyme, a pinch of salt and pepper, and the broth. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer for 15 minutes.
• Add tomatoes and frozen veggies; cook for 5-10 minutes
• Adjust seasonings if needed.

I'm used to vegetable soups being cooked with beef and I was a little concerned that this soup wouldn't have enough flavor due to the lack of meat. I was not disappointed at all - it still had great flavor.

Broccoli Rabe and Garlic Soup

I love soup, and I love being able to make a big pot of it to get me through the week. A recipe on the Epicurious web site for broccoli rabe soup in a garlic broth most recently caught my attention so I decided to give it a try.

I started out by following the original recipes, but the one for garlic broth just wasn't working so I made it my own. Here are the links to the original recipes: Garlic Broth, Broccoli Rabe Soup.
Below are directions for what I did.

Note - you'll need 3 heads of garlic. Yes, heads, not just cloves. Peeling and slicing the garlic is time consuming, but so worth it. Look at all this garlic!




My Ingredients

• 3 heads of garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 8 cups of water
• 2 14.5 oz cans of vegetable broth (I used one garden vegetable and one regular)
• Juice from 1 32 oz can of whole tomatoes (you could also add the tomatoes to the soup, but I didn't; I think it would need more broth if you did)
• 1 bunch broccoli rabe, washed, stems removed, cut into 1-2 inch pieces
• 1/2 cup small pasta (I used ditalini but will probably omit it next time or cook it separately; it soaked up too much of the broth)
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Grated Parmesan cheese for serving

My Directions

• Peel all of the garlic, remove the green germ in the middle, and chop into quarters
• Heat olive oil in a large pot over low heat; add garlic
• Simmer the garlic for 20 minutes stirring often, and being careful not to let it brown
• Add the water; simmer on medium-low heat for 30 minutes
• Add the red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, broth and tomato juice, bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer and allow it to reduce a bit
• At this point you can either put the broth away to make the soup later, or you can continue (I made this recipe over 2 nights). This is what it looked like:

To finish the soup:

• Bring the broth to a boil; add pasta; cook for 6 minutes
• Add broccoli rabe, return to a boil and cook for 4 minutes
• Serve hot; you can sprinkle some Parmesan cheese into each bowl if you wish

The Final Product...

I LOVED this soup. It was extremely flavorful and soothing - great if you have a cold or are just trying to keep warm in the cold weather. I was surprised that the garlic wasn't too strong. Instead it was soft and sweet and just delicious.

I cannot imagine how bland this soup would have been if I followed the original recipe. The changes I made were perfect. I will definitely make this again! Next time I either won't use pasta or I'll cook it separately. When I got the soup out for lunch today, the pasta had soaked up a lot of the broth. I'd rather add the pasta to each bowl to avoid this.

Quinoa Stuffed Tomatoes

So I'm on this little health kick and am really trying to focus on changing the way I eat. When I wrote out my menus for the week, I chose to make stuffed tomatoes tonight. But I wanted an alternative to the white rice, and I don't really like brown rice.

I had heard of quinoa before so did a little research on it since I thought the quinoa would be the perfect substitute for white rice. Then I asked around in a cooking chat room I frequent, and got a lot of positive responses, including a response from this cook who used quinoa in her stuffed peppers. So I gave it a shot tonight and am glad I did - quinoa is really good!




When making stuffed tomatoes or peppers I just throw ingredients together instead of following a recipe. Here are some tomatoes I made a few months ago. Of course these could be made with real ground meat which is why I also gave this post a beef tag.

This is what I did tonight -

• Hollow out tomatoes and set in a baking dish
• Cook quinoa: rinse quinoa a few times then put 1/2 cup of it into a pot with 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil then lower to a simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the water is absorbed.
• In the meantime, heat about 1 tbsp olive oil in a large pan. Add some chopped onion, chopped green pepper, and chopped garlic; saute. Add ground meat (I used MorningStar Farms Recipe Crumbles, fake ground meat). Add spices; I used red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, a pinch of oregano and some parsley flakes. Add about 1/4 cup of tomato sauce.
• Once the meat mixture is cooked, combine it with the quinoa.
• Fill each tomato with the mixture. Cook on 350 for 15-20 minutes.
• Top each tomato with some Parmesan cheese and put them under the broiler for a few minutes.

Here is a closeup of the meat-quinoa mixture.

They were very, very good and I think I might even be able to get Jon to try the quinoa! I imagine it would be good cooked in broth and with some spices or even some tiny chopped up veggies. I'm going to have fun trying new things with quinoa.

Meat Sauce - Two Ways

When Jon and I were first married, I was still a vegetarian. Cooking something we both could eat was a major challenge. I wasn't happy just eating sides, he wasn't happy eating vegetarian meals all the time, and we both hated eating completely different meals, so I started to experiment with ways to make vegetarian versions of meat-meals. One of my favorite products for imitating non-vegetarian meals is MorningStar Farms Recipe Crumbles. In other words, fake ground meat. I used it as a ground meat substitute in everything - tacos, stuffed peppers and tomatoes, stroganoff, chili, and this dish, meat sauce over pasta. Even though I now eat meat, every now and then I like making the vegetarian versions of our meals.

My "meat" sauce:


Jon's meat sauce:



To make the vegetarian version:

• Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a saute pan or pot
• Add chopped onion, pepper, and garlic; saute
• Add the fake ground meat and cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes; I also add some spices like oregano and red pepper flakes. Sometimes I add a touch of fresh Parmesan cheese.
• Once the meat is cooked (defrosted and warm), add sauce. You can use homemade tomato sauce or jarred. Since I haven't perfected homemade sauce yet, we used jarred.
• Adjust the seasonings and let simmer for 15-20 minutes
• Serve over pasta with Parmesan cheese.

Jon's version is pretty much the same, but he cooks the meat almost all the way through before adding the onions, peppers, and garlic. He also lets his pot simmer just a bit longer.

I love using the fake ground meat because has much less fat, takes in the flavors around it, and cooks so quickly. Give it a try, you might be pleasantly surprised!

Pasta with Asparagus, Tomatoes, and Thyme

I love asparagus and tomatoes together, and lately I've been liking the flavor of thyme. I put all of those things together tonight in this pasta dish.




Ingredients

• 1/4 of a small onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 pound of asparagus, ends trimmed, cut into 2 inch slices on an angle
• 1 tomato cut into chunks, seeds removed
• 3/4 cup cream; half and half works fine
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• A pinch of thyme (probably about 1/4 tsp)
• Salt & pepper
• 1/2 pound linguine or another pasta

Directions

• Bring a pot of water to a boil; add asparagus, remove from water after 90 seconds or so. Cook pasta in this water.
• While pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in a large pan.
• Add onions and garlic, saute
• Add asparagus, tomatoes, salt, pepper, and thyme. Saute for a few minutes until tomatoes are slightly tender.
• Add cream, bring to a simmer.
• Add cheese, stir.
• Once the pasta has finished cooking, add it to the sauce and toss.

This pasta was very flavorful and extremely easy. The total cooking time, including prep, was about 25 minutes.

Baked Chicken with Peppers, Onions, and Tomatoes

It is the beginning of a new year so in kitchens everywhere people like me are trying to cook just a bit healthier! I love cream sauces and cheese, but would like to try to cut back on those things a little. Last night I made a baked chicken dish that used up a lot of leftover veggies from our NYEve dinner.

• Trim chicken and arrange in a baking dish. Season with a little bit of salt and freshly ground black pepper.
• Top with chopped veggies - I used red pepper, green pepper, tomatoes, white onions, green onions, and sliced jalapenos so my chicken was completely covered.
• Bake on 400 for approximately 15 minutes
• In the meantime I whipped together a low fat sauce - the chicken needed something so it wouldn't be dry. I heated 1 tsp of olive oil, added some jalapenos; added 1 tsp flour to make a roux, then added about 1/4 cup skim milk and 2 pinches of shredded cheese.
• Pour the sauce into the dish and continue to cook for 15 minutes or until the chicken is done.
• As you can see from the picture, the sauce wasn't all over the chicken. It just gave it some moisture for cooking and added a bit of flavor. Jon put the sauce on his rice.

I served this chicken over rice and with steamed broccoli. It was tasty which is what I was going for. If I'm not going to be making a lot of rich sauces and using a ton of cheese, I need to make sure my dishes are full of veggies and seasonings that bring good flavor so I won't miss the fat!!

A New Year's Eve Mexican Feast

Every NYEve we usually end up staying home, eating junk food, and playing games. This year we made plans with friends - dinner at our house followed by a show at the local comedy club. I decided on a Mexican feast.

The Menu...
Chicken Enchiladas with Homemade Enchilada Sauce
Beef Tacos
Mexican Rice (thank you, Goya)
Corn with Red Peppers and Zucchini
Margaritas and Sol Beer

Jenny's Cake: Cream Cheese Lime Pound Cake

Chicken Enchiladas...
Here is the recipe for my enchiladas as well as for the homemade enchilada sauce that I like to use.

Tacos...
I don't like to use those packages of seasoning for the meat. Instead, I use a mix of spices to give the meat some flavor.

When the meat is browning, and after I have drained any excess fat, I add chili powder, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, a touch of cayenne, and just a bit of salt. If you know me, you know that I don't measure any of them! I use the most chili powder and cumin, and the least cayenne and salt. I keep adding and adjusting until I have the right flavor. Once I do, I add about a 1/4 cup of water and let it simmer for 15 minutes or so to thicken up.

Taco toppings...
I put out a variety of toppings for the tacos, including white onion, red pepper, green pepper, tomatoes, green onion, jalapenos, sour cream, a mix of shredded cheddar and Monterrey jack cheeses, and queso blanco fresh from the nearby Mexican market.

The veggies...
I wanted something light and colorful for a veggie. I chopped 1 red pepper and 1 zucchini into chunks. In a large pan I heated olive oil then added the pepper, zucchini, and 1/2 of a bag of yellow corn. I seasoned it with some dried cilantro (fresh would have been great) and a touch of salt. The veggies only needed to cook for 6-8 minutes. I really liked this combination and will definitely make it again.



The margaritas...

I had my first margarita EVER at the Hilton Los Cabos when we were there last February. It was sooo good! I wish I knew exactly how they made it so I could duplicate it. Ours were simply a margarita mix, Patron Tequila, and a lime on the glass, salt optional.

Dessert...
Jenny loves to bake so she brought a cake - Cream Cheese Lime Pound Cake. YUM! The flavor was perfect with all of the Mexican food and I loved the lime crunch on the outside of the cake. Thanks, Jenny!

Happy 2008!!!

Jon's Night to Cook - Roast Beef with Homemade Gravy

Finally, after all of these months of being in a cast and being in pain, Jon was finally able to cook last weekend! He was so excited to make one of his specialties, roast beef (eye round) with homemade gravy and rice.




The last time Jon made this meal I tried to work out downstairs while he was cooking - big mistake! The aroma that comes out of that pot while he is cooking is incredible. All I can do is sit and take in the heavenly smells as I wait for dinner!

Jon uses a pressure cooker to cook the roast.

Jon's Roast Beef

• Trim excess fat from the roast
• Rub these spices into the roast - salt, freshly ground black pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Sometimes he adds a touch of cayenne.

This is what it looked like when he first put it into the pot:

• Get your pressure cooker good and hot then sear the beef. Once seared, add a cup of water and close it up.
• It takes about 45-55 minutes to cook 1-1.5 lb roast.
• Once done, remove the roast from the pot and let it rest, keeping the drippings in the pot.

Gravy

• Mix one cup of water with about 1 tbsp of flour. Whisk the water-flour mixture into the drippings.

I contributed Brussels sprouts to the meal. Here is a recipe I like to use.

This meal is the definition of traditional home cooking and I can't wait until he makes it again!