Chicken with Creamy Chive Sauce

This recipe has been floating around in the food blog world for quite some time and I keep seeing it appear on different blogs, so I decided I would try to make this since everyone seems to rave about it! It was a great dish, full of creamy yummy sauce on top of your chicken. It’s a dish you’d expect to be crazy in calories, but it actually isn’t, if you make it the right way!

Ingredients:

2 boneless chicken breast

1/2  teaspoon of salt

1/8 cup of flour, plus 1 tablespoon divided

1/2 teaspoons of EVOO

1 onion, diced

1/4 cup dry white wine

7 ounces of chicken broth

1/3 cup reduced sour cream

1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard

1/4 cup of chopped chives

Directions:

1. Season both sides of the chicken with salt. Place 1/8 cup of flour in a shallow baking dish and dredge the chicken it. Throw out remaining flour.
2. Heat the 1/4 of the EVOO in a skillet.  Add the chicken and cook until it’s cooked through. About 10 minutes. Transfer to a plate and keep warm.
3. Heat reaming EVOO in the skillet, add onions and cook until golden, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add remaining flour, stir to coat. Add wine, broth and the remaining salt, bring to boil, stir often.
4. Return chicken to the pan, reduce heat to a simmer and cooked till heated through. Stir in sour cream and Dijon mustard until smooth. Turn the chicken to coat it with sauce, stir in chives and serve!

Enjoy!

 

Adapted from Gourmet: Day to Day

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Wine Glazed Ham

We love spiral hams in our house. We don’t have them very often though. But my in-laws gave us two small hams and we froze them. I decided it was time to take one out and make it! I decided that I would make a recipe that from the recipe book the folks at Holland House had sent me. Spiral hams have a great taste to them to begin with but adding a glaze them makes them so much more delicious. Not to mention the leftovers are awesome!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of apricot preserves

1/4 cup of white cooking wine

2-3 pound spiral ham, fully cooked

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, combine glaze ingredients, set aside.
3. Score top of ham in a criss cross pattern. Place ham in shallow roasting pan. Bake at 325 for about 30 minutes or until fully heated, brushing with glaze throughout baking.

Enjoy!

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Baked Penne with Meatballs

We love pasta in our house.  We could eat pasta with every meal if we tried.  But we can’t.  So once a week, we try to at least have one pasta meal. This weeks meal was Baked Penne with Meatballs.  This dish reminded me of Baked Ziti, but just a different noodle and a bit healthier with less cheese!   Even Puggie liked the few pieces of penne she had. This particular recipe made 3 servings.

Ingredients:

1/2 package of ground beef

1 cup of Italian Breadcrumbs

1 egg, lightly beaten

A dash of Italian seasoning

A dash of salt

A dash of pepper

A dash of oregano

A dash of garlic

1/2 box whole wheat or whole grain penne

2-8 ounce jars of tomato sauce

1 cup shredded fresh mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, combine meat with spices and bread crumbs. Shape into 12 meatballs.
3. Transfer meatballs to a foil lined baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees, turning once. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to box directions.
4. Coat three ramekins or a baking pan with non stick spray. Add pasta, toss with meatballs, tomato sauce and 1/2 cup of the cheese, divided evenly among ramekins or put in baking dish. Bake for 25 minutes at 400 degrees.
5. Top with reaming cheese and serve.

Enjoy!

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Foodbuzz Tastemaker: Linguine a la Picante

Kiley and I were out shopping most of the day and I didn’t plan on anything in particular for dinner that night, so I wanted something that was fairly quick and easy to put together. I remembered that I had some Pace Picante sauce that the awesome people at Foodbuzz had sent me awhile ago, with having Kiley I put up on the shelf and totally forgot about it until I cleaned out our pantry this week! I’m so glad I remembered it, because this dish was awesome. I wasn’t quite sure how it would taste. When I told Chris what I was doing, his response was, are you sure? Well, yes dear I am sure and guess what he was even surer!

Ingredients:

Linguine enough for four people

1 pound of ground turkey

2 jars of Pace Picante

A handful of cheddar cheese(shredded to throw on top)

Directions:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil, add pasta and cook to al dente.
2. In a large saucepan, cook the turkey meat, make sure it’s in crumbles.
3. Add the picante sauce and simmer for about ten minutes.
4. Drain pasta, place on plate and then top with meat mixture. Sprinkle some cheddar cheese on top.

Enjoy!

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Sweet & Spicy Chicken Thighs

I’m always look for a new way to make chicken thighs since we eat a lot of them in our household.  I saw this recipe in Parent’s magazine and decided to give it a whirl, with of course a few changes.  The original recipe wanted me to use spicy brown mustard, but I used a honey Dijon mustard instead.  Since my husband is the king of flavor, I sometimes worry if what I use will have enough flavor for him, fortunately he loved this simple sauce! This recipe is just so easy because it uses 4 ingredients and takes only about 25 minutes!

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 tablespoon of honey

1 tablespoon of honey Dijon mustard

2  skin less/ boneless chicken thighs

Directions:

1. Coat a baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, honey and mustard. Place the chicken thighs in the baking dish. Brush half of the sauce on the thighs, bake for 15 minutes. Brush the thighs with the remaining sauce and bake for additional 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

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Sausage Manicotti

This version of baked pasta classic is rich and satisfying yet, easy to prepare. It also it’s a lightened up version, instead of using ricotta cheese, I used cottage cheese. It turned out just as yummy. The only difference is, is that the cottage cheese cooks it’s self away, so the shell it’s self isn’t as stuffed with cheese. I will definitely  make this recipe again.  This makes  4 manicotti and each manicotti has 204 calories.

Ingredients:

1 pound turkey sausage

2 cups (16 ounces) of cottage cheese

1 package (8 ounces) manicotti shells

1 jar (26 ounces) spaghetti sauce

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part skim mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. First, bring a pot of water to a boil and boil manicotti till all dente. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine sausage and cottage cheese. Stuff into manicotti shells. Place in greased 13 by 9 inch baking dish. Top with spaghetti sauce.
2. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes or until meat thermometer inside into center of a shell reads 165 degrees.
3. Uncover, sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Bake 8 to 10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

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Buffalo Chicken Wings

My husband being from Buffalo, constantly gets cravings for his chicken wings. This makes 24 wings.  This recipe requires a deep fryer.

Ingredients:

12 chicken legs

1/2 stick of butter

1 small bottle of Frank’s Original Red Hot Sauce

Directions:

1. Cut the chicken leg into 2 pieces. Discard the tip of the wing. This way you have a “drumette” piece and a wing piece.
2. Set deep fryer to 350 degrees, and place chicken wings in fryer for 13 minutes.
3. Melt butter and combine with sauce. Once chicken wings are cooked, place is sauce mixture, toss and serve!

Enjoy!

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Chinese Barbecued Chicken Thighs

I’m always looking for new ways to cook chicken thighs, since we have them often in our house hold.  I found this recipe in my Cooking Club’s April 2009 Edition.  This recipe is so simple to throw together after a full day at work! I served mine with some white rice, because it is very saucy and you have extra sauce left over! This makes 2 servings, with about 435 calories per serving.

Ingredients:

4 bone-less chicken thighs, skin removed

1/4 cup hosin sauce

2 teaspoons of dark sesame seed oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon of sesame seeds, toasted

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place chicken on a foil lined baking sheet. Combine hosin sauce, oil and garlic. Spoon over chicken.
2. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in the center. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
3. To toast the sesame seeds, put them in a dry skillet over medium heat for about 1 to 2 minutes, or until lightly browned. Stir frequently.

Enjoy!

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Pork Chops with Grilled Nectarines

My husband was basically begging me to make something with pork chops for dinner since it’s been some time since we had pork for dinner. He wanted just a plain pork chop grilled. But we have had nothing but rain here, so I had to use the grill pan on the stove. Nectarines were on sale this week at the grocery store so I picked a few up. The only way I can eat nectarines is if they are baked or cooked because of my fruit allergy. This recipe is pretty basic and only takes a few minutes to make, so it makes for a great week night dinner.  It has about 300 calories and serves two.

Ingredients:

2 ripe but firm nectarines cut into wedges

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Salt and Pepper

2 pork chops

1 tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar

Directions:

1. Heat a large grill pan to medium heat. Brush nectarine wedges with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon of sat and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Place nectarine wedges in grill pan and cook about 10 minutes or until charred and tender, turning the wedges over at least once. Transfer nectarines to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.
2. Cut pork chops and use a meat pounder to flatten a bit. Sprinkle with the pork chops with the rest of the salt and pepper. Add pork to grill pan and cook about 10 to 12 mi until browned on the outside and still slightly pink in the center, turn over once.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar and rest of olive oil and drizzle over nectarines and pork.

Enjoy!

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Turkey & Pepper Baked Ziti

Mmm, ziti is probably one of my favorite Italian dishes to make and to eat. I was in the mood for ziti but not just the ziti I usually make, which is just ground meat, ziti and some spices, this time I thought about just adding red peppers and ground turkey meat to it. It came out great! I also used whole wheat ziti for the first time(in the ziti dish itself, I typically use whole wheat/whole grain pasta) and it was just as tasty. This dish makes about 6 servings with about 505 calories per serving.

Ingredients:

8 ounces of whole wheat pasta

2 teaspoons of olive oil

1 medium red bell pepper, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 of pound of ground turkey meat/or turkey sausage

1 cup part skim ricotta cheese

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

2 cup marinara sauce

Parsley, Crushed Red Pepper, Italian Seasoning and Basil to taste

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cook pasta in  large pot of boiling water that is lightly salted. Cook pasta till al dente or the texture you like.
2. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add peppers, onion and ground turkey. Cook for about 10 minutes or until ground turkey is browned. Remove from heat.
3. Mix ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella, 3 tablespoons of Parmesan and parsley in large bowl. At  this time, also add in Italian seasoning, crushed red pepper and basil Drain pasta; toss with cheese mixture, turkey mixture  and  1 cup marinara sauce.
4. Pour pasta mixture into a 2 quart shallow baking dish. Spoon remaining sauce on top sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan. Bake uncovered, 20 minutes or until bubbly.

Enjoy!

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