Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Sour Cream and Mustard Chicken

Soooooo easy.

I used drumsticks tonight, but you could do this with breasts or thighs or even whole cut up chicken. Cook time will vary between bone-in and boneless pieces, so keep that in mind.

Chicken pieces
Sour Cream
Mustard (I used stone-ground spicy brown mustard, but any kind will work -- yellow, spicy, horseradish mustard -- your pick!)

Heat oven to 350.

Mix sour cream and mustard (you decide how much of each depending on how much you like each flavor). Coat chicken. Bake. If you are using bone-in pieces such as drumsticks, bake for about 45 minutes. If you are using boneless pieces like boneless breasts or thighs, scale it back to about 30 minutes.

Serve with previously mentioned garlic bread and a veggie.

I wish I'd gotten a picture of this one, cause it was kind of pretty. :)

4 stars

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Home-made Crock-Pot Spaghetti Sauce

Ok, I know you can just buy a jar of spaghetti sauce, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's what I grew up with, and I loved it. But honestly, I think this is better, and probably better for you, and it's not hard. It hardly takes any time at all in prep-time, but try to start it a couple hours before you want to eat, because the longer it has to cook, the better it will be.

1 pound ground beef
1 16 oz can of tomato sauce
1 6 oz can of tomato paste
1 10-16 oz can of diced tomatoes (my regular tomatoes come in 16 oz cans, but the Rotel tomatoes I used tonight are 10 oz)
1 2 oz can of sliced olives (this is how much I love you people -- I had used my last can of olives, so I wasn't sure what size can it was...so I dug through the trash to find it for you. Then I washed my hands.)
1 handful chopped or sliced mushrooms
1/2 onion, diced
garlic powder
onion powder
Nature's Seasons
pasta

Brown ground beef. While it's browning, chop your onions and mushrooms. Pour the tomato sauce, paste, olives and diced tomatoes into the crock pot and add your veggies. Add liberal amounts of garlic powder, onion powder, and Nature's Seasons. Stir.

When your meat is browned, mix it into the tomato mixture in the crock pot. You can drain the meat if you like, but personally, I think the little bit of grease (especially if you use lean ground beef) adds flavor. Cover and cook on low for however long you like. By now, you know what I did while it was cooking -- went and took a nap with the baby. :) I think our sauce simmered for about 4 hours altogether.

(Side note -- I promised "healthy" recipes. I hope you don't disagree with me when I say that I would rather have some grease in my food than eat food with unpronounceable ingredients. So...it follows that if I'm making my food mostly from scratch, I can have a little grease for flavor...which, let's face it, is tasty. And the sauce doesn't turn out greasy feeling if you cook it long enough. BUT if you don't like grease, then by all means, drain the meat. The sauce will still be tasty -- I've done it that way too, and it was still very good!)

When you're ready, boil and drain your pasta, then just toss it in the crock pot and stir it in. Then I leave the crock pot on "warm" so that if anyone wants seconds, it isn't cold.

My husband has always loved my homemade spaghetti sauce -- tonight was the first time I tried it in the crock pot. He says it's better than ever.

4.5 stars

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Mmmm Zucchini!

When I posted the chicken dinner with asparagus and garlic bread, some told me that they didn't do asparagus. I can understand that, so here is an alternative veggie for that dinner.

2 zucchini
2 Tbsp butter
garlic powder
bread crumbs

Heat oven to 350 and spray a casserole dish with cooking spray.

Place 2 Tbsp butter in a little bowl and sprinkle garlic powder on it. Melt in the microwave, a little at a time, swishing to make sure the garlic is well mixed in. In between swishings, slice zucchini into wedges. You should end up with 8 approximately 2-inch wedges per zucchini. Once the butter is well melted, pour it into a Ziploc baggie and add the zucchini wedges. Shake well.

Using a fork or tongs, move the zucchini from the bag to the dish. Sprinkle lightly with bread crumbs.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on how well done you like your 'zukes.' These have a nice buttery flavor that my toddler quite enjoyed. :)

Thanks, Mom, for helping remember how to do this. :)

4 stars

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Excellent Applesauce

Lest you all think I am a rice-freak, I decided to post something a little different. This is actually something I don't eat much myself, but my son loves it, and my husband and my mom both agree that it is much better than what you can buy at the store.

I try not to be a fanatic about anything, but I am pretty concerned with what my son eats, and I try to make sure that I *know* what is going into his little tummy. I don't like buying a lot of processed foods, or things with too many unpronounceable items in the ingredients list, so I've made most of his baby food myself. It's really pretty easy, and this is something that babies and adults both love.

apparently 5 stars!

8 medium Granny Smith apples
1 cup water
cinnamon
brown sugar to taste

Heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Peel your apples. This is the most time consuming part of the whole process (in terms of time you have to actually spend working on the dish), especially because with Granny Smiths, you're going to want to make sure that you have gotten ALL the peel off your apples. Peel left on will ruin your sauce. Once they're peeled, chop them up, throwing away the cores and seeds and so forth, of course.

Drop all your apples into a casserole dish and add the cup of water. Sprinkle cinnamon very liberally over your apples. Then stir everything up so that the cinnamon gets in the water as well.

Cover and bake. I put this in the oven, and then my son and I went and took a nap, so it was baking for just under two hours. When you remove it from the oven, it's going to look like a mess. Just stir it up really well, and then add brown sugar until it's sweet enough for you. We don't really eat a lot of sweets, so around 1/8 cup was enough for us.

I suppose that if you like your applesauce chunky, rather than smooth, you could just not bake it as long, but my husband likes his smooth, so this works for us. I get to put it in before a nap, and he gets smooth applesauce.

Now, like I said, I don't eat applesauce. I don't know if I'd ever had it before I made this, but I had to taste it in order to make sure it wasn't too tart for the one-year-old, and it was pretty good. My husband and mother, who both like applesauce, both declared it excellent, and MUCH better than commercial applesauce. And it has the added bonus that you know exactly what is in it. Not to mention being almost ridiculously easy to make.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Yummy Ham Casserole

Ok, this one is kind of fantastic, and a bit decadent, in terms of calories, but trust me, it's worth it! And hey, we're using turkey ham instead of pork, so that helps, right?

5 stars

3 1/4 inch slices turkey ham
2 stalks celery (or 1 stalk broccoli)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can of mayo
1/4 can of sour cream
1 cup uncooked rice
2 cups water
Dill
1/2 cup shredded cheese (I recommend a white cheese)

Cook your rice according to package directions. With typical white rice, it's 1 cup rice, 2 cups water, bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, cook 20-25 minutes. But check your package, because instructions vary for long-grain, short-grain, brown, white, basmati, etc.

Heat oven to 350. Spray an oven-safe casserole dish with cooking spray.

While the rice is cooking, slice 3 slices off your ham, 1/4 inch each, and cube those slices. Then take your stalks of celery and slice them down the middle and chop them. If you choose to use broccoli instead, chop the florets into little bits.

When the rice is done, pour it into the aforementioned oven-safe casserole dish and add the ham and celery (or broccoli). Add one can cream of mushroom soup, and then fill the can with mayo and add that. Fill the can to about 1/4 with sour cream and add that.

Add dill -- I use a lot, but I love dill. This recipe is good without it, but for me, the dill gives it the extra ZING it needs.

Mix everything together. Pour in cheese and stir again.

Mix and smooth top of casserole. You can sprinkle with breadcrumbs if you like.

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

Thanks, Mom, for the basis of this recipe!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Veggie Rice

A couple nights ago I had a problem. I had forgotten to take any meat out of the freezer for dinner, and my son and I got up from our nap only thirty minutes before my husband got home from work! Not that my husband is the "You'd better have dinner on the table when I get home" type, but I knew he'd be hungry. What to do....

Fortunately, my friend had just given me some produce from her garden a few days before. Ok, improvise! Meatless Monday!

3 stars

1 cup uncooked rice
1.5 cups water
.5 cup chicken broth (from a can, or powder, or you can just use 2 cups water if you don't have any chicken broth or stock)
2 Roma tomatoes
1 jalapeno
1 cup mushrooms
1 diced onion
salt and pepper
butter

I do this like the dirty rice recipe I posted before, so that it's a one-dish recipe. Melt some butter in a pot, and toss in your veggies, all chopped up, and saute for just a couple minutes. Don't cook them too long, cause they will break down in the cooking process anyway.

Pour in your liquids -- the water and broth. Add salt and pepper. Then add your cup of uncooked rice. Bring to a lively simmer/slight boil, reduce heat, cover and cook for 20-25 minutes.

Once it's done, I drop a couple dabs of butter on it and put the lid back on for a minute to let it melt, and then stir. I would add a little Nature's Seasonings or more salt and pepper. Husband added hot sauce, but it was hot enough from the jalapeno for me and our 1-year-old. And yes, the 1-year-old loved this, especially the mushrooms!

Thanks to Jen for the tomatoes and jalapenos! Can't wait to stir fry with those squash!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Chicken, Asparagus, and Garlic Bread


This one is pretty easy and quick.

4 stars

Boneless skinless chicken breasts
Lemon juice
Seasonings
Butter
Cheese (preferably something like Monterrey Jack)




Asparagus
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Cheese (preferably something like grated Parmesan or finely grated Italian cheese)

Italian Bread
Garlic spread

Marinate your chicken breasts in lemon juice and seasonings -- I used garlic and herb seasonings -- Mrs. Dash -- for however long you want. I think I let mine marinate for about 2 hours, but I had to go take a nap with Elliott. ;)

Melt a couple tablespoons of butter in a pan (hey, it's better for you than margarine!) and brown your chicken breasts at high heat for just a couple minutes. Then turn the heat way down and cover them and let them steam/simmer while you do everything else. All told, they should probably cook for at least 15-20 minutes this way, but cut into the thickest part of one of them to make sure it's not still pink before you serve.

Heat the oven to Broil.

While your chicken breasts are steam/simmering, get out your asparagus. This is really easy. Simply snap the asparagus where it wants to snap, and you won't end up with those tough stringy ends. Then put all your asparagus in a Ziploc bag and put in some olive oil. Shake to coat all the stalks with oil. Then I arrange them on a rack on top of a roasting pan.

Before cooking the asparagus, I prepare my bread. Just slice off the amount of bread you want, and then cut it lengthwise. Spread your butter/garlic spread on it (I cheat and buy the one from Wal-mart or Kroger). Because I only have one set of racks, and I'm using those for the asparagus, I just put the bread on a sheet of aluminum foil.

Put the asparagus and the bread under the broiler for just a couple minutes -- it really does not take long, and you don't want to overdo it, because overdone asparagus is a bit gross, and you don't want charcoal bread. For me, tonight, I checked the bread after 4 minutes or so, and it was perfect, so I pulled it out and then checked the asparagus. It was done too.

When you put the asparagus and bread in, cover the chicken breasts with their cheese and put the lid back on.

When you pull the asparagus out, spray it with lemon juice and sprinkle it with cheese while it's still warm. Serve right away, because cold asparagus just isn't as good.

Easy easy dinner, and very tasty. Even Elliott, the one year old, loved the asparagus!

Thanks go to my mom for the asparagus recipe, and for teaching me that garlic bread does not live in the freezer!