Hang Onto your fork

Chicken Parmesan

Posted on April 30, 2011 by Hang Onto Your Fork

This dish is based on a few recipes I’ve seen, and couldn’t be easier.

Skinless Chicken Breast (1 per person)

About 3/4 cup flour

Salt

Pepper

2 eggs

1/2 TBS minced garlic

3/4 cup breadcrumbs (I use Italian seasoned)

1/2 TBS Italian Seasoning

About 1 cup tomato sauce

Mozzarella (sliced or shredded)

Set up 3 bowls. In one bowl combine the flour, salt and pepper. In the second bowl lightly scramble the egg and mix with the minced garlic. In the third bowl combine the bread crumbs with the Italian seasoning.

Heat extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet to about medium to medium high heat.

Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour, then dip in the egg and then in the bread crumbs. Be sure to get an even coating of each step on the chicken. For a nice thick breading, re dip in egg and re coat in bread crumbs.

Place each piece of chicken in the skillet and cook until browned, about 4-5 minutes. Turn and cook for about the same time on the other side. Once both sides have a nice brown, place the cheese on each piece and cover with tomato sauce.

Cover the pan and turn the heat down. Let the chicken simmer for about 5-7 minutes. This will allow the chicken to cook the whole way through and let the cheese melt.

Serve with pasta and a salad and enjoy!!

1 Comment

Posted in Dinner and tagged chicken parmesan, mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce. Bookmark the permalink.

Brown Rice with Lime and Cilantro

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Hang Onto Your Fork

Cook brown rice according to the box (which I did not do this time, I opted to cover the rice and leave the burner on medium instead of lowering it to a simmer, whoops!). Once it’s cooked, squeeze lime juice over the rice and stir in fresh cilantro.

Yumm!

Leave a comment

Posted in Side Dish and tagged brown rice, cilantro, lime. Bookmark the permalink.

Baked Honey-Lime Chicken

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Hang Onto Your Fork

This recipe is from Good Housekeeping’s “Best Chicken Recipes” cook book. The recipe says to use drum sticks, but I adjusted in and used chicken tenders. The glaze got very dark and crunchy on the pan, but the chicken did glaze nicely and stayed moist. Sadly, I was out of aluminum foil so my pan was a mess. If you are making this with chicken tenders, I would maybe suggest cooking it at a slightly lower temp than it calls for. It may also work a little better if you do actually use the drum sticks.

3 limes, plus wedges for garnish

1/4 cup honey

3 small garlic cloves, minced or crushed

1 tsp gound coriander

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

24 medium chicken drumsticks, skin removed or I used about 1 1/2 chicken tenders

1/2 cup loosely packed cilantro, chopped

Prepare over to 450. From limes grate 2 tsp peel and squeeze 1/4 cup juice.

In small bowl, with fork mix honey, garlic, coriander, salt, pepper, lime juice and 1 tsp lime peel.

Arrange chicken on jelly roll pan. Drizzle lime mixture over chicken, toss to coat evenly. Bake for 30-35 minutes (I did about 15-20 minutes with the tenders), turning and brushing with glaze occasionally.

Transfer chicken to serving dish. Drizzle with pan juices. Sprinkler with cilantro and remaining lime peel.

Leave a comment

Posted in Dinner and tagged chicken, cilantro, honey, lime. Bookmark the permalink.

Off my Game Dinner

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Hang Onto Your Fork

I am very behind on my blogging, so I will be playing catch up in the next few days. The next couple of posts are from a dinner a few weeks ago that ended up ok, but was nearly a disaster! The menu was honey lime glazed chicken, lime cilantro rice and a tomato and avocado salad. Dessert was pound cake with strawberries and blueberries with fresh whipped cream.

Leave a comment

Posted in Dinner. Bookmark the permalink.

Herbed Turkey Bagel Sandwich

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Hang Onto Your Fork

This sandwich is based off of a delicious sandwich I had recently at Bruegger’s. It was super easy to put together, and you could easily put these together for a crowd for brunch or lunch.

Wheat bagel thins (1 per person)

Garden veggie cream cheese (about 1/2 -1 TBS)

Sun dried tomatoes (about 1/2 TBS)

2 slices turkey breast (I used Trader Joe’s herbed turkey)

1 slice smoked gouda

Arugula (a small handful)

Smear the bottom half of each bagel thin with the garden veggie cream cheese. Top with turkey, cheese, and arugula. Spread the sun dried tomatoes on the top of the bun or place on the arugula. Viola! You have a delicious gourmet looking and tasting sandwich!

Leave a comment

Posted in Lunch and tagged arugula, garden vegetable cream cheese, herbed turkey breast, smoked gouda cheese, sun dried tomatoes, whole wheat bagel thin. Bookmark the permalink.

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.

Leave a comment

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

Let’s Do Lunch

Posted on April 3, 2011 by Hang Onto Your Fork

The air is still hanging on to a chill here in Pittsburgh, which made yesterday a perfect afternoon for soup making. A couple of friends came over for lunch yesterday and I made broccoli cheddar soup, sandwiches and yogurt parfaits. I intended it to be a fairly “light” lunch, but we all ended up being pretty stuffed!

All 3 of the following recipes could easily be made for a larger group for a brunch of lunch. If you are making the granola parfaits for a crowd, you could use either the plastic champagne flutes or wine glasses or even the short plastic cocktail cups and still have a nice effect.

1 Comment

Posted in Lunch and tagged bagel turkey sandwich, cheddar broccoli soup, yogurt parfait. Bookmark the permalink.

Labor Inducing Mac and Cheese

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Hang Onto Your Fork

I spent several nights a week and a half ago at my sister and brother-in-laws to help them out. They needed the extra help because Megan was pregnant and due any time, and I was staying in case she went into labor in the middle of the night so I could stay with my niece. On Wednesday night I made home made mac and cheese and she went into labor a few hours later around 2 am! My niece was in a VERY big hurry, and they actually didn’t even have time to make it to the hospital and my niece was born in the garage!

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11078/1133160-54.stm

http://www.wtae.com/news/27239646/detail.html

1 pound pasta noodles (I used whole wheat penne)

1 pound cheese (I used about 1.1 pounds, 6. of sharp Wisconsin cheddar and .5 English cheddar with caramelized onions)

4 TBS flour

1/2 – 3/4 stick of butter

1 1/2 -2 cups milk

1/2 TBS ground mustard

salt and pepper to taste

1 onion (I used red)

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

Boil the penne noodles in salted water. Melt the butter in a heavy bottom pan and make a rue by adding the flour. Add the flour 1 TBS at a time, until a paste like consistency forms. Cook it over medium heat until it becomes a golden color. Whisk constantly and slowing add in the milk a little bit at a time, making sure not to add too much. The sauce should be a fairly thick. Add in the cheese, stirring to melt and incorporate. The sauce should be drizzle off of the whisk. Add the sauce to the cook noodles.

In a skillet caramelize the slices of onions.

Pout the cheesy noodles in a greased pan, sprinkle with the caramelized onions and spread with panko crumbs. Bake in the oven at 350 for about 20-40 minutes, until the cheese is nice and bubbly and the top is golden brown.

My sister and I both agreed that if you are using the onions, you need to really go for it and also add bacon. Next time I will definitely be doing that!

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged carmelized onions, cheddar cheese, panko crumbs, whole wheat penne. 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!

Leave a comment

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.