Chicken Parmesan

Excuse my laziness today, but what a long week/weekend! Last night I made chicken parmesan, one of my favorites! Homemade sauce and everything.

So to start this recipe I first put some oil and butter (yes both) in a dutch oven and heated it up so that I could "fry" the chicken.  I dredged the chicken in some seasoned flour (salt/pepper/red pepper flakes). Then in egg, then in a mix of Italian style bred crumbs, panko, salt and pepper.  Then it was frying time!

After frying, in the same pot, I put some mushrooms (about half of a pint), three chopped roma tomatoes, a whole onion, and about 4 cloves of garlic.  (In that order). 

Then I add a can of crushed tomatoes and a can of tomato paste.  I let that bubble up and I check for consistency.  If it is too thick and I haven't made that pasta yet, then I add some chicken stock.  If I have the pasta water, I add that (about half a cup to a cup) I then add about half a cup of red wine and allow it to simmer for about 30 minutes.

I add the chicken back to the pot and let it simmer another 5 minutes then top it with mozarella cheese and cover so the cheese can melt (about two minutes) Then it's time to eat! It was delicious!  I love love love homemade marinara!

Easy Peasy Chicken

I made the most simple meal yesterday.  I even had time to do a little work out while it was cooking! Once it was finished, man was it oh so yummy! 

I don't think a dish could get any easier! It was called Pan-Roasted Chicken with Lemon-Garlic Green Beans and Red Potatoes. 

For this recipe it is SUPER SUPER SUPER important that you brine it.  Again, all you do for a brine (I did this on my lunch break)- put it in a tuperware container and throw on about 2-4 tablespoons of salt, 2 teaspoons of pepper and a bay leaf.  Top it off with enough water to cover and let it sit in the refrigerator for 6-8 hours.  Now, just increase the amount of salt for shorter brines and decrease it if you are brining all day (expample- if you are putting it in the morning, I'd put a 2 tablespoons of salt).

To start I first cut up a lemon, but it was rotten, so I had to cut up another and place the slices on top of 1 tablespoon of EVOO in this baking dish.  (Another tip, by the bags of lemons, they last forever - I bought that bag two weeks ago and only one was rotten!)  I go through about 1 bag every three weeks, so it works out perfectly. 

Then I put about 4 tablespoons (I poured for four seconds) of EVOO and added some garlic.  It calls for only 4 cloves, but in my minsed bottle I had a little more than that left over and I'm going home soon so Mom can fill it up, so I just threw it all in there! Then I added the juice of one lemon. 

Next you season with salt and pepper (I had fresh thyme so I added that with some dried rosemary).  Then I added the green beans and mixed them around.  Using a slotted spoon I put them on top of the lemons in the baking dish. 

You do the same thing with the potatoes (after halving them).  Then do the same with the chicken.  Now since I used more garlic than it called I strained the leftover oil-lemon mixture and poured it on top of the chicken less the garlic. 

Then throw it in the oven for 50 minutes (preheated at 450).  The recipe called for you to take out the chicken and cook the veggies another 10 minutes, but when Caleb pulled it out, everything looked great!

It was so delicious and easy that I will definitely be making this more often! It's also very inexpensive.  Caleb and I shared this one bone-in/skin-on chicken breast and it was MORE than enough food!

Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo

After a long hour of apartment searching (trust me an hour was 59 minutes too long), Caleb and I settle for an easy, Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo.  Alfredo out of the jar, but I still used fresh broccoli and roasted up a chicken breast.

I started with some oil and butter in a cast iron (and preheated the oven to 400). 

Dredge the chicken in flour and throw it in skin side down for a nice hot sear. 

Flip it over after about 4 minutes and sear for another 4 minutes.  Then I threw in about a cup of white wine and about 6 sprigs of thyme (because I had it) and threw it in the oven for another 30 minutes.

Then I started the whole grain linguine.  Don't for get to generously salt your pasta water!

Then it was time to make the biscuit mix: Garlic Cheesey Biscuits, premixed package

But they come out oh so good.  I wonder which sneaky boy took a bite out of these... Hercules? or Caleb?

So then it was time to vamp up the Alfredo out of the jar.  First saute some onions in some EVOO and butter.

Throw on the broccoli and of course garlic.  (The broccoli was steamed for about 8 minutes)
Don't forget to season with salt and pepper! I also like to add a few turns of my Italian seasoning grinder.

Then wait for the chicken to get done and voila!

Just shred it up with a fork and add it to the mix, then add in your canned alfredo and add some salty pasta water to loosen everything up.

I let it simmer and reduce for about 10 minutes and then added the pasta. I like to add some parmesan cheese too before mixing it all up.

Once everything is mixed up, voila! Yummy alfredo!  Now there are some great recipes out there for home-made heavy cream-based alfredo, but I just didn't have the time.  But you should definitely try! Also, try making squash pasta! Or even adding ribbons of zucchini, which is very yummy!

Even Hercules agrees with me thru the table!

A Big Ole Steak

So before I get to our delicious meal, I thought I'd share our afternoon snack, fresh grape/apple juice with protein!  The grapes made such a pretty color of juice!

But, while we were juicing we dropped a few grapes and Hercules of course chased after them... only he had a little trouble trying to eat them up! He was so confused as to why he couldn't chew up the grapes!

Anyways, then we make our drinks, the pink shaker is obviously mine, thanks Caleb to ordering it for me last week! Only $6.90 at Amazon. 

But, back to the food.  After such an amazing week and finding such great deals on Mahi Mahi and Chicken ($0.99/lb), Caleb and I decided to go after something a little more fancy and spoil our selves with a rib-eye.  Now for $9.50 for the rib-eye, $1.25 for the potatoes, and $0.75 for the broccoli, I'd say we did pretty good price wise.   

Now for this recipe, Caleb was the man of the hour.  As you can see in the picture, there are only two things required to make a great steak: Dale's and Montreal Seasoning.  (Look at that big honker! Rib-eyes were only $7.99/pound, so it was a steal!). 

So to marinate, Caleb just put about 1/2 cup of dale's and about  a pinch of the seasoning on top of the steak and left it out on the counter for thirty minutes.  Then he flipped it over and marinated it for another thirty minutes, again on the counter.  According to Caleb, meat cooks more evenly in the middle when it's allowed to sit out and brought to an even room temperature. Boy oh boy am I glad I have Caleb.

So after marinating, Caleb makes his way outside to the grill.  He sears on each side (check out his perfect grill marks).

He seared it at a high heat one way, then flipped it around to get the checkerboard look, then flipped it over and did the same on the other side. 

So while Caleb was busy grilling I was inside making some whipped potatoes and steamed broccoli.  I simply cut up the broccoli into smaller pieces and steam it up in this steam basket my mom got me.

So you just put the lid on it for about 20 minutes and then voila! You've got some delicious and healthy broccoli! I season it with a pinch of salt, pepper, and italian seasoning.  Also, to make it extra good, I top it with some parmesan cheese!

Now for the potatoes you want to make sure and salt the water very generously.  I simply scrubbed up some yukon gold potatoes and diced them up into the water.

20 minutes later, they are ready for first a mashing.  Before mashing, I add about 3 tablespoons of butter and half a cup of heavy cream, and of course, salt and pepper.  After mashing, I take out my hand blender and whip them up all creamy and smooth!

And, as if on cue, Caleb walks in with this beautiful, and perfectly cooked medium rare rib-eye. 

So we plate up our feast and this is what we get.  Notice, the steaks are topped with herb butter: basically churned together fresh unsalted butter, salt, pepper, fresh parsley, fresh thyme (because we had it), and some italian seasoning, but mostly just parsley.

And of course, no post would be complete with out leftovers!  We had this hunk of meat left over, and our favorite thing to do with left over steak is to sear them in a small pan with some balsalmic vinegar.  Sear on high heat for less than 1 minute on each side.  Allow the vinegar to glaze a little and pour it over the seared steak.  YUMMY! Enjoy over crackers.

Mango Mahi Mahi

 So yesterday, I had planned to make this tilapia recipe that I have made before because tilapia is usually pretty cheap, but when Caleb and I got to the grocery store we found that wild caught Mahi Mahi was on sale for $5.99/pound! Which, if you don't know, is awesome! Typically for two, 0.6-0.75 pound is enough for us.  So that's how much I got! So when I got home, I wanted to try a new recipe and that's when I found Robert Irvine's Seared Mahi Mahi with Mango Sauce and Fragrant Rice. Now, lucky for me, Caleb grabbed a couple of mangos for juicing/smoothies this week! YAY!  Also, if you don't know, fragrant rice is basically just some white rice flavored with green onions, salt, pepper, etc... the recipe called for cilantro, which I didn't buy so I used fresh parsley. Not really the same, but it worked. I served it with a salad which was also on sale.  And for the rice, we always have rice on hand, not because I'm asian, but because Mom gives me 10 pound bags at a time! (Lucky me!)

So to start, I mixed up the lime, rice wine vinegar, and EVOO (I didn't have grape-seed oil, whatever that is).  Also, I seasoned it with salt and pepper.

So then I cut up the mango, and I know they have mango slicers out there, but the way my mom taught me... SO MUCH EASIER! I basically cut the mango so that I have two half and the core in the middle.  I then score the Mango in a checker board like form and then simply take a spoon and it comes out in beautiful squares.  You can see how I have cut it so that the squares are fairly even sizes.

The next step was to mix the two together with some fresh parsley (again, I didn't have cilantro), grated fresh ginger, and some garlic (a recipe after my own heart, raw garlic!). 

So next I started the Fragrant rice (using a rice cooker). Just put the rice and water in and when it is done cooking I added a couple of green onions, some fresh parsley, grated fresh ginger, some seasame seeds, salt and pepper.  Then mix it up and cover till ready to use!

Next, I made our salads, and of course Caleb's had to be washed.

So, last but not least, for the fish, I really like salting, peppering, and oiling before putting it in the pan! You just pour some EVOO all over and massage it in.  It really ensures that you are not pan frying the fish so that there's not too much oil! 

Then it was time to sear, and for this I like to use a cast iron so that the heat distributes more evenly than a non-stick.  I started skin side down for about 4 minutes, and when I flipped it over I found that it had not cooked as much as I liked (heat was medium-high). So I cooked it for about 6 more minutes on the skin side.

Now while I was cooking, Caleb and Hercules thought it would be funny to kick pot holders at me.  Such the jokesters.

So once everything was ready it was time to plate up! I started with a heaping mound of rice .  The green really makes it look pretty!

Then I topped it with half of the filet of Mahi Mahi. 

Then to finish it off, the mango sauce! Doesn't that look just delicious? The vinegar in the mango sauce makes it soury, acidic, sweet, and salty all at one time!

And this was our delicious meal, and of course Caleb used Italian dressing while I used the yummy ginger miso dressing which really went nicely with the ginger in the mango sauce.  A great Saturday night, and after we saw 21 Jumpstreet, one of the funniest movies we've seen in a long time!

Happy Palm Sunday, Everyone! Here's what I made with my palm at church today!  Now, my Mom makes these beautiful woven looking things, but I have no clue how she does it, so this is the best I got.  One for the apartment and one for the office! Can't wait to show you the special dinner we've got planned for tonight!