Category Archives: Dinner

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Posted on April 3, 2011 by Hang Onto Your Fork

I adapted a recipe a little from one I found on http://www.allrecipes.com and it turned out to be very yummy!

1/2 cup butter

1 small or 1/2 large onion, chopped

about 1 pound fresh broccoli florets, chopped

1 1/2 big containers of chicken broth

1 pound cheese (I used1/2 mild Wisconsin cheddar and 1/2 sharp Wisconsin cheddar)

1 cup 2% milk

1 cup whole milk

Garlic Powder to taste

2/3 cup corn starch

1 cup water

In a stockpot, melt butter over medium heat. Cook onion in butter until softened. Stir in broccoli, and cover with chicken broth. Simmer until broccoli is tender, about 20 minutes. (You could use frozen broccoli, if you do that, it won’t need to cook for quite as long)
Reduce heat, and stir in cheese cubes until melted. Mix in milk and garlic powder.
In a small bowl, stir cornstarch into water until dissolved. Stir into soup; cook, stirring frequently, until thick.

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Posted in Dinner and tagged broccoli, cheddar cheese, soup. Bookmark the permalink.

Stuffed Chicken Breast

Posted on March 20, 2011 by Hang Onto Your Fork

This is a combination of a couple of recipes I came across recently.

1 chicken breast per serving

1 small log herb goat cheese (I think it was 2.5 or 3 oz)

2 TBS sun dried tomatoes

2 TBS fresh basil, chopped

Butterfly the chicken breast (slice horizontally through the middle of the breast being careful not to slice the whole way through). Place the breast flat between 2 pieces of parchment paper or plastic wrap and pound the chicken very thin. In a bowl mix the goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes and basil. Spread about 1/2 -3/4 TBS on each chicken breast and wrap . Secure with tooth picks to hold together, if needed. Heat extra virgin olive oil with a bit of oil from the sun dried tomato oil from jar in a large skillet. Brown the chicken, about 3 minutes per side. Once it has good color to it, cover the skillet and let the chicken finish cooking for about 10 minutes over medium heat. Remove from the skillet and take out the tooth picks. and serve!

This recipe was quite tasty, but the goat cheese has a strong flavor. In the future I will probably use cream cheese or another soft more mild cheese. This also works great if you are entertaining and have guests who are vegetarian. A friend texted me the night before I was serving this to let me know that she was not eating meat for 21 days, so not to be offended if she didn’t eat much but also not to go to any trouble. I’m not one to invite someone over and not let them sit at my table and not eat a good meal! So, I picked up large portabello mushroom caps and used the same stuffing on top of the mushroom and backed it at 350 for about 12-15 minutes.

I forgot to take pictures of the chicken actually in the pan, but I’m sure you can figure that part out!

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Posted in Dinner and tagged basil, chicken, herbed goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes. Bookmark the permalink.

Curry Chicken Tenders

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Hang Onto Your Fork

These curry chicken tenders have a great flavor and are a quick, simple dinner to throw into the regular line up when things get boring!

Chicken tenders (depends on how many you’re serving, I would suggest maybe 3-4 tenders per person depending how big the one you buy)

1 egg per 3-4 tenders

Approximately 1/2 cup on flour

Curry powder to taste (about 1 TBS)

1/2 – 3/4 cup Panko bread crumbs

Pinch of salt and pepper

Set up 3 bowls to drudge the chicken. In the first bowl put about 1/2 cup of flour, and add a pinch of salt and pepper and about 1/2 tsp of the curry powder. Stir to combine. In the second bowl lightly scramble the egg(s). In the third bowl combine the panko bread crumbs and about 1/2 TBS of curry powder.

First dredge chicken in the flour, then dip in egg and then in the bread crumbs. To get a nice crunch, dip it back in the egg and once again in the bread crumbs.

For cooking there are a few methods that would work. I cooked them in a little Ready Set Express grill (a Christmas must have on my list to Santa this year!) which is basically a George Foreman grill without the ridges. I cooked them for about 8 or 10 minutes total. You could also bake them at around 350 for probably 25 minutes or until they look nice and crisp and the juice runs clear when you cut into a piece. You could also cook them in a skillet in a little bit of oil, for about 5-7 minutes, turning to get every side nice and brown.

I had it with some Trader Joe’s garlic parmesan fries and salad.

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Posted in Dinner, Main Course and tagged chicken, curry. Bookmark the permalink.

Baked Penne

Posted on December 22, 2010 by Hang Onto Your Fork

This is a very simple meal to throw together quickly! And more than likely, it’s stuff you will normally have on hand! You will just need to vary the ingredients for how many you are serving. Add a salad and some garlic bread and you’re all set 🙂

Pasta (I used penne, but lots of shapes will work just as well)

Tomato Sauce (I used Market District’s Tomato Basil)

Fresh Basil (if you have it, if not you can substitute dried)

Ricotta Cheese (Spend the time making it home made, you will notice a huge difference!)

Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Cook the pasta according to the package directions in salted water. While the pasta is draining, I heated up the sauce just a little bit with a handful of basil to give it great fresh flavor. Layer the pasta into a large pan or individual dishes and add dollops of the ricotta cheese. Layer that to the top of your cheese. Sprinkle the top with shredded or grated mozzarella cheese and bake at 350 until the cheese is nice and bubbly. The length of time will vary on how big your dish is.