Monday, October 29, 2012

Frito Pie

One of our new favorites.  Frito pie!

Oven-Baked Frito Pie
source:  What's For Dinner?


1 lb. lean ground beef
1 can (16 oz) chili beans
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes
1 envelope low sodium taco seasoning
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (2% fat kind)
3 1/2 cups corn chips (Frito's)
1 1/4 cup fat free sour cream

Directions:
Cook ground beef until meat is browned; drain. Stir in beans, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, taco seasoning mix and 1/4 c. of cheese. Sprinkle 1 cup corn chips in bottom of 8x8 baking dish or 9x13 dish. Cover with chili. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Spread sour cream over chili. Top with remaining corn chips and cheese. Bake 4-5 minutes longer.

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Overall rating:  4.0 stars.  Callen would probably give it a higher rating, but I don't love chili.  I just love fritos.  :)

Cajun Chicken Pasta

I bought Cajun spice the other day and am trying to use up what I have so I found this recipe.  Sorry, the site doesn't have "just the recipe", so I'm having to steal the whole site's explanation of how to make it instead of just the steps.

Cajun Chicken Pasta on the Lighter Side
Skinnytaste.com
Servings: 5 • Serving Size: 1 1/2 cups • Old Points: 6 pts • Points+: 8 pts
Calories: 323.8 • Fat: 6.2 g • Protein: 25.9 g • Carb: 44.1 g • Fiber: 6.3 g • Sugar:3.2 g
Sodium: 126.5 mg (without salt)  


Ingredients:

  • 8 ounces uncooked linguine (I used Dreamfields)
  • 1 pound chicken breast strips
  • 1-2 tsp Cajun seasoning (or to taste)
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced
  • 1 medium yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
  • 8 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/2 red onion, sliced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 medium tomatoes, diced
  • 1 cup fat free low sodium chicken broth
  • 1/3 cup skim milk
  • 1 tbsp flour
  • 3 tbsp light cream cheese
  • fresh cracked pepper
  • 2 scallions, chopped
  • salt to taste
  • Smart Balance cooking spray

Directions:

Prep all your vegetables. In a small blender make a slurry by combining milk, flour and cream cheese. Set aside. Season chicken generously with Cajun seasoning, garlic powder and salt.


Prepare pasta in salted water according to package directions.


Heat a large heavy nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; spray with cooking spray and add half of the chicken. Sauté 5 to 6 minutes or until done, set aside on a plate and repeat with the remaining chicken. Set aside.


Add olive oil to the skillet and reduce to medium; add bell peppers, onions, and garlic to skillet, sauté 3-4 minutes


Add mushrooms and tomatoes and sauté 3-4 more minutes or until vegetables are tender. Season with 1/4 tsp salt, garlic powder and fresh cracked pepper to taste.



Reduce heat to medium-low; add chicken broth and pour in slurry stirring about 2 minutes.


Return chicken to skillet; adjust salt and Cajun seasoning to taste, cook another minute or two until hot, then add linguine; toss well to coat. Top with chopped scallions and enjoy!


Makes 7 1/2 cups.

We had company over to enjoy it with us.  And it enjoy it we did!  It was excellent!  Overall rating: 4.5 stars.

Avocado Chicken Parmigiana

Keeping in the tradition of my love for avocado, found this one.  Loved it.  (If you can't tell, I'm not in the mood for a lot of words today.  It's been a long, frustrating day in the life of a stay at home mom and frankly, I just want to get the recipes on here and be done with it.  Plus I should've started feeding Syd about 15 mins ago, so I need to get done asap.)

(serves: 4 | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 15 minutes)

Ingredients:
2 Chicken Breast Fillets, halved lengthways
1/2 Cup Plain Flour
2 Tablespoons Fresh Milk
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2 Eggs
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1 1/2 Cups Dried Breadcrumbs
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil/Cooking Spray
1/2 Cup Tomato Pasta Sauce
2 Avocado, Sliced
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1/2 Cup Grated Mozzarella Cheese 
Salad Green, to serve
 
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Method:-
1. Place chicken breast in a clear plastic bag(alternatively between 2 sheets plastic wrap), using a rolling pin or meat mallet pound until 0.5cm thick.

2. Place flour and breadcrumbs on two separate plate and lightly whisk milk and egg together in a shallow bowl. 

3. Coat 1 piece of chicken breast in flour(shaking off excess), dip in egg mixture then coat in breadcrumbs using your fingertips pressing on to secure.

4. Place on prepared baking tray lay with foil or baking paper, repeat the same process with the remaining chicken breast with flour, egg and etc.

5. Lightly spray or brush the prepared chicken with oil, bake for 8 minutes(turning after 4 minutes to have evenly colours on the breadcrumbs) in preheated 200 degree Celsius(392°Fahrenheit) fan-forced oven. 

6. Remove from oven and spread each chicken breast with 1 heaped tablespoon of pasta sauce. Arrange avocado slices over sauce and sprinkle with decent amount of mozzarella cheese.

7. Return to oven and bake for another 5 - 7 minutes or until golden and chicken is cooked through.

8. Serve with either garden salad or use it as a main topping on cooked pasta.

Overall rating:  4.3 stars.

Avocado Lime Chicken

This was a weight watchers recipe.  It was pretty good.  Ok.  Not excellent.  But I still love avocado and I love lime.  Not sure what I didn't love about it, but it was just kinda... eh.


Seared Chicken with Avocado
(Weight Watchers Five Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook)
Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons blackened seasoning
  • 4 (6 ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil
  • 1 diced peeled avocado
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (about 1 lime)
  • 1 lime, cut into fourths
Directions
  1. Sprinkle seasoning on both sides of chicken.  Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat.  Add chicken; cook 1 minute or until seared.  Reduce heat to medium; cook 3 minutes on each side or until done.
  2. Combine avocado and next four ingredients.  Squeeze lime over chicken before serving.  Top with avocado mixture. 
Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 chicken breast half and 1/4 cup avocado mixture). 
Weight Watchers POINTS per serving: 6
Sorry, I'm too lazy to put a picture on.  Go to the original website to find the recipe.
Overall rating, 2.5 stars.  Just ok.

Eggplant Rollatini

I am still obsessed with vegetables.  This week I decided to try an eggplant.  It was delicious!  Although the sun-dried tomatoes were a bit much for me, the rest was perfect.

I found the recipe on Pinterest.  Anyone surprised?

Overall I'd give it a 3.5 stars.  Maybe if I had used smaller tomatoes, it would have been better.

Pesto Eggplant Rollatine

Total Time: about 1 hour

ingredients:

3 T olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 medium-sized eggplants (about 3 pounds), peeled, and sliced lengthwise into 3/8-inch thick strips
salt and black pepper
2 cups marinara sauce
2/3 cup prepared basil pesto
4 ounces mozzarella cheese, grated (about 1 cup)
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach
2/3 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes (optional)

directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease two rimmed baking sheets.
Combine the oil and garlic in a small bowl. Brush the oil on both sides of the eggplant slices and arrange them in a single layer on the baking sheets. Season with a pinch or two of salt and pepper.
Place the baking sheets side by side in the oven (if possible). Roast for 20-25 minutes, until well browned and very tender, turning once halfway through cooking. Remove from the oven and reduce temperature to 350 degrees F.
(If your baking sheets don't fit side by side, place one on the middle rack and one on the bottom rack and rotate them a couple of times during roasting.)
Spread about 1 cup of the marinara sauce in the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish. Spread each eggplant slice with a spoonful of pesto and top with a pinch of each kind of cheese, a few spinach leaves and a couple of sun-dried tomatoes. Roll up and place seam side down in the baking dish. Spoon remaining sauce over the rolls and sprinkle with remaining cheese.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted and the rolls are heated through. Serve hot.
Makes about 4-5 servings.
Nat's Notes:
1. My eggplants were on the small side, so I got all my rolls into a 2 quart (7x11) baking dish.
adapted from The Roasted Vegetable by Andrea Chesman


Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Beef and Broccoli

When I've had too much Mongolian Beef, we try this recipe of beef and broccoli.  This one I got from my mom...

Make the following marinade:
2 T soy sauce
1 clove minced garlic
1 T orange or pineapple juice
1 t sugar

Marinate 1 lb chopped flank steak for at least 30 minutes.

Heat up some vegetable oil for frying.  Dump in the meat (with the marinade) and cook the meat through.  When fully cooked, add some cooked broccoli (a whole package of frozen broccoli or an entire clump of fresh broccoli).  Heat.

Mix together a sauce thickener:
1/4 c. water
1T cornstarch
1 beef bouillon cube

Add to pan, stir and heat until sauce thickens.

Serve over rice.

4.9 stars (delicious, but not quite as good as the Mongolian Beef recipe.)

Mongolian Beef

Once again, forgot to take a picture.  But here's a recipe so I don't forget it.  I got this out of a book, entitled something like Famous Restaurant Copycat Recipes.  The blue one. (There are 2 that I know of).

Mongolian Beef (like P.F. Chang's Recipes)

2 t vegetable oil
1/2 t. ginger, minced
1 T garlic, minced
1/2 c. soy sauce
1/2 c. water
3/4 c. brown sugar
vegetable oil, for frying

1 lb flank steak
1/4 c. cornstarch
2 large green onions, sliced on the diagonal into one inch lengths

1.  Make the sauce by heating 2 t of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over med/low heat.  Don't get the oil too hot.  Add the ginger and the garlic to the pan, don't let the garlic burn. (I normally use powdered ginger for this, this last time I didn't have any kind of ginger.)

2.  Add the soy sauce and water before the garlic burns.  Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce, then raise to medium heat and boil the sauce for 2-3 mins or until the sauce thickens. (I've never gotten the sauce to thicken at this point).  Remove from heat.

3.  Dip the steak pieces into the cornstarch to coat.  Let the beef sit for about 10 mins to soak in the starch.

4.  Heat up the oil to fry the beef.  Add the beef and saute for about 2 mins, until cooked through.  Remove from oil, throw away oil.

5.  Put the pan back over the heat, dump the meat back in and add the sauce.  Simmer for 1 min (this is where my sauce starts to thicken a little.)

I like to serve this with broccoli or rice, or both!   One of Callen's most requested meals.  5 stars!

Zucchini Bread

This recipe was given to me by Katie Lundquist.  And I seriously can't get enough of it.  She made it for me right after I had Sydney.  And I've been craving it ever since.  I finally decided to make it with the zucchini I got from the farmer's market last week.  And since I don't have MY kitchen, I had to improvise.  I don't have a bread pan, so I used a baking dish.  I don't have an oven, so I used a toaster oven.  I don't have cooking spray, so I spread oil with a paper towel.  I don't have cinnamon, so I just didn't use it.  And it turned out AMAZING.  I cut it into squares instead of slices and it pretty much is just like zucchini cake!  It is that good!

Zucchini Bread

3 cups flour
1 Tb. cinnamon
1 ts. salt
1 ts. baking soda
1/4 ts. baking powder
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 Tb. vanilla
2 cups peeled and grated zucchini
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Mix flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and baking powder together.  Set aside.  Beat eggs, sugar, brown sugar, vegetable oil and vanilla.  Slowly mix in dry ingredients.  Blend in grated zucchini and nuts.  Pour into 2 greased and lightly floured 8 x 4 loaf tins.  Bake at 325 degrees for 60 to 70 minutes.

And as you can tell from the picture, they are going fast!  Definitely 5.0 stars!  In fact, 5.5 stars (out of 5!)

Pancake Squares

Totally forgot to take a picture, so this picture will be stolen from the website where I found the recipe.  In fact, I'll just steal everything straight from the site.


Pancake Squares 
3/4 cup milk
2 T. melted butter
1 large egg
1 T. sugar
1 cup flour
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly grease an 8×8 baking dish. In a large mixing bowl, beat together milk, butter and egg. Add sugar, then gradually beat the flour in. Carefully stir in the baking powder and salt. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Serves 4-6.
I made it and didn't have any delicious fruit add ins, like blueberries or strawberries (which would be awesome!) or syrup, so I just ate mine plain.  Awesome!
4.5 stars.  Probably would be 5.0 if I had some toppings or fruit...