Week 92: BBQ Chicken and Pineapple Quesadilla

I love cooking things on the grill.  It just gives everything better flavor, right?  Pioneer woman got it right when she paired barbequed chicken with sweet grilled pineapple.

Year of Yum Rating: 4 1/2 STARS

INGREDIENTS
■8 whole Flour Tortillas
■Butter Or Margarine
■2 cups Grilled Pineapple, Sliced
■3 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
■Salt And Pepper, to taste
■3 cups Monterey Jack Cheese, Grated
■1 whole Jalapeno, Sliced
■Cilantro
■3 Tablespoons Barbecue Sauce

DIRECTIONS
(To grill pineapple: cut wedges, stick on skewers, and grill over low heat. Cut into slices.)


(To pound chicken, place inside a Ziploc bag and pound with a mallet or large can to flatten to uniform thickness.)

Sprinkle with salt and pepper and Cajun spice (or cumin/cayenne, etc.) Drizzle olive oil on a grill pan and grill on both sides until done, brushing with barbecue sauce. Set aside and slice into very thin slices.

Warm griddle over medium heat and put sizzling butter or margarine in the pan. Slightly warm and toast tortillas on both sides, then remove from griddle and set aside.

To assemble, sprinkle four browned tortillas with grated Monterey Jack. Arrange chicken slices evenly over the surface. Add pineapple slices and jalapeno slices. Sprinkle on cilantro. If desired, drizzle extra barbecue sauce over the top. Add second browned tortilla on top of each one. (You'll have four complete quesadillas at this point.)
Add to oven to warm, or back to skillet to warm, until cheese is melted. Cut each quesadilla into six wedges. Serve with sour cream, pico de gallo, and lime wedges.

Recipe courtesy of Pioneer Woman

Week 84: Buffalo Chicken Risotto

You know what one of the classiest foods you can make is? Risotto. It just SOUNDS fancy, doesn’t it? Especially if you kind of trill the “r” at the beginning. I also think it’s fancy because it takes so much work (in the form of constant stirring for about 45 minutes) to make. It’s a food that’s only for those who have the luxury of standing at the stove for ridiculous amounts of time. That being said, it wasn’t difficult work, just time-consuming.

The beauty of this dish lies in its irony. Risotto is fancy, and buffalo chicken is the quintessential “bar” food. Combine the two, and you have a elegantly hip, delicious lunch.

Year of Yum Rating: 4 ½ STARS

INGREDIENTS
4 ½ cups low-sodium chicken broth
¾ cup hot sauce (such as Frank’s)
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
½ cup minced celery
½ cup minced onion
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup dry Arborio rice
½ cup lager beer, hot
2 cups chopped cooked chicken (we used a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken)
Chopped celery for garnish
Blue cheese crumbles for garnish (I used feta because I’m not a big blue cheese fan)

DIRECTIONS
For the brodo, simmer broth, hot sauce, honey, and Worcestershire in a saucepan over medium heat.

For the risotto, sweat minced celery and onion in butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat until slightly softened, 3-5 minutes. Stir in rice and sauté until each grain is coated in butter.

Deglaze the pan with beer and stir until completely absorbed, 1-2 minutes. Add brodo to the pan in ½ cup increments; simmer and stir frequently until each addition is almost completely absorbed before adding the next, about 45 minutes total. Stir in chicken and heat through.

Garnish each serving of risotto with chopped celery and blue cheese crumbles.

Week 78: Chicken Fried Quinoa

This week Abby read my mind. Just days before we got together to cook, I had expressed my desire to try to make chicken fried rice. When Abby showed up at my house telling me that we were making that, ONLY BETTER because we would be using quinoa instead of rice, I was so excited. I do love my quinoa.

This recipe was easy, and was yummy both right away and for lunch for the next couple of days. Especially drenched in soy sauce. Mmmm...salt...

I think next time I'd like to add more vegetables. Maybe some broccoli and sugar snap peas would be good.

Year of Yum Rating: 4 STARS

INGREDIENTS

2 cups cooked quinoa
½ lb chicken cut into cubes
1/3 cup pre-cooked fresh corn cut from the cob
1/3 cup pre-cooked fresh peas
1/3 cup cut diced carrots
2 eggs
2-3 tbsp green onions diced (use as much as you prefer)
1 tbsp soy sauce (plus more to taste after cooking)
1 can sliced water chestnuts (we used about 3/4 of the can)
Olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

• Cook the quinoa first and let it stand and cool down. It’s important to let the quinoa sit in its water for at least ½ an hour before you start cooking it so you get no bitter taste.

• In a saucepan big enough to hold all the Quinoa Fried Rice, heat some oil and then stir fry the chicken until it’s mostly cooked. Add salt & pepper to taste.

• Add in the carrots, and sautee about a minute with the chicken to start softening the carrots up a bit.

• Add in the peas and corn and sautee with the chicken and carrots for about a minute.

• Scramble the eggs in a cup and then pour in with the chicken, carrots, peas, and corn. It is important to cook the scramble eggs before adding in the quinoa. If you pour the raw egg onto the quinoa, the quinoa will get soggy.

• When the eggs are scrambled, pour in the quinoa, water chestnuts, and the green onions along with the soy sauce. Mix all ingredients together well. Let cook in pan, stirring continually for about 1-2 minutes.

I enjoy a Saturday morning where I can wake up naturally, without an alarm, lay in bed, leisurely drink my cup of coffee, watching the news. It quickly occurred to me this morning, however, that I didn't have much else planned for my day. While I consider myself to be especially talented at wasting time, I'm not very good at being intentionally lazy. It's even hard for me to sit and watch TV without doing something else at the same time. Maybe that just speaks to my attention span...

Anyway, in order to give myself a task and some focus for the day, I asked Lisa if I could make dinner for her, Lucas, and Joel. I so enjoy cooking, but it's infinitely more fun if you have PEOPLE to cook for.

I don't have any pictures from tonight's meal (that's what happens when you leave your camera's memory card in your computer...), but here's what was on the menu:

Sloppy Buffalo Joes

These have been on my list of recipes to try for a little while now. I am always drawn to food with buffalo sauce. They were pretty delicious, but I did wish the ground chicken would break up into smaller pieces. Also the sauce seemed a little thin. I ended up simmering it longer than the recipe says to in an effort to cook it down a little, and that helped.

Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower with Lemon and Garlic

Wow. Let me tell you. This is THE way to eat vegetables. Roasting veggies turns them into something I WANT to eat, rather than just something I feel obligated to put on my plate. And the addition of thinly sliced garlic and lemons = GENIUS.

Chocolate Ricotta Mousse

I absolutely loved how easy this dessert was to prepare. The hardest part was cleaning the food processor after it was done. (Do you like how I said that as though it wasn't still sitting dirty in my kitchen sink...?) The flavor of the mousse was good, but the texture was a little dry. This might have been because I used part-skim rather than full-fat ricotta. Also, the ricotta was cold when I put it in the food processor, and I think I would bring it to room temperature if I tried it again. The melted chocolate seemed to harden some when it met with the cool cheese.
I topped the mousse with fresh raspberries and mini semisweet chocolate chips...which was a pretty good choice.

Week 74: Lemon, Chicken, and Rice Soup

First of all, let me officially acknowledge the fact that I'm a slacker. I realize that. I sometimes have little lapses in keeping up with blogging the recipes that I've been trying. I could make excuses. I could. OR I could just make it up to you with an explosion of recipes RIGHT NOW. No guarantees that they will be in order.

First off, I'm-Sick-For-the-Beginning-of-Winter-Break soup. That's not actually what it's called, but it might as well be. Why does this nasty cold wait until I have a BREAK to make its appearance? Oh well, this soup is helping me make my recovery. This soup AND expensive decongestants, AND a whole lot of Kleenex.

Year of Yum Rating: 4 STARS

I really liked this soup, and loved what the lemon had to add to the flavor. I did think that it was a little thinner than I had hoped for, and if I made it again (WHEN I make it again) I will add more "stuff" such as additional veggies and more rice, or maybe even noodles.

INGREDIENTS
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt & pepper to taste
1 tablespoon oilve oil
1 onion, minced
6 cups chicken stock
1 medium carrot, diced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
3/4 cup long grain brown rice, cooked
4 large egg yolks
juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

DIRECTIONS
Prep the chicken by patting dry and dicing into bite sized pieces. Season as desired and set aside.

In a large pot over medium high heat add oil. Add the onions and cook until the onions are translucent. Then add the chicken to the pot and cook until lightly browned. Add the stock to the pan and bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits.

Add the carrots, thyme, and rice. Cover and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk the lemon juice and yolks together in a bowl. Whisking constantly, gradually ladle 1 cup of the hot soup into the egg mixture, then stir the egg mixture back into the soup. Reheat over low heat for 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve with a garnish of fresh parsley.

Week 70: Yummy Chicken Tenders

I was proud of Abby for looking one of her fears in the face this week: RAW CHICKEN! She really showed it who was boss. One of my favorite things about this recipe was the fact that it was dipped in mustard before it was "breaded." That really gave it some great flavor! This was a great alternative to the stuff you can buy at restaurants or even the grocery store, when you don't quite know the quality of the chicken you are eating. We knew exactly what we were eating!

You will notice that the original recipe calls for you to bake the chicken, but we didn't want to wait that long, so we pan-fried it for a couple minutes on each side before baking to reduce cook time. This added some extra oil to the chicken, plus it was a difficult to keep the "breading" on, but was still yummy!

Year of Yum Rating: 4 STARS

INGREDIENTS (Exactly how we made it...thanks, Abby. You're funny.)
1.37 lbs of chicken, cut into strips
a little jar of brown mustard
4 c crushed corn flakes...this is dangerous if done by hand!:)
2 TBSP olive oil
salt & pepper
400 degree oven

DIRECTIONS
1. Toss chicken with mustard to coat.

2. In another bowl, mix cereal, oil, and salt & pepper.

3. Coat mustard chicken with cereal mixture.

4. Put in oven in a casserole dish. Bake for 45-50 minutes.

5. Time saver: fry 1 min. each side, then but in baking dish for 20 minutes



It was a cold evening, so Abs and I got cozy with some hot green tea.

Week 60: Curried Chicken Breasts with Quinoa

A few notes:

-Abby and I don't have experience with curry, so we didn't really know what it was SUPPOSED to taste like. Since we didn't have strong expectations, we thought it was pretty good. To the curry connoisseur, this dish would probably result in extreme disappointment. We blame the quality of the curry and/or we might have burnt the curry. This is reflected in the rating.

This is what it was supposed to look like (notice the beautiful yellow color):

This is what it DID look like:

-The recipe mentioned that curry doesn't have have a long shelf life, so it's important to buy it someplace where there is a decent turnover. We got ours at a regular grocery store, and decided that if we bought it again it would probably be at a specialty spice store or at the Indian grocer down the street from where I live.

-The original recipe called for Basmati rice, but we chose to use quinoa instead. We cooked the quinoa according to the passage, using half chicken broth and half water for the liquid, and then we mixed the parsley in after it was cooked.

-The recipe asks for a cup of coconut milk, and we ended up using the whole can, which was closer to two cups.

-We served this dish with naan, which is a leavened, oven-baked flatbread. Naan is commonly found served with South Asian cuisine.

Year of Yum Rating: 3 STARS

INGREDIENTS
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus salt to taste
2 cups quinoa
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
freshly ground pepper
1 yellow onion, diced
3 tablespoons curry powder
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 cup coconut milk (we used almost two)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (I'm pretty sure we used a lot more than that)

DIRECTIONS
Remove any excess fat from the chicken breasts. Rinse and pat dry with paper towels. Slice crosswise into strips 1 inch wide. Place in a bowl, add 2 tablespoons lime juice, and toss to coat. Set aside for about 15 minutes.

While the chicken is chilling, go ahead and start the quinoa.

In a large saute pan or frying pan (we used an iron skillet), warm the butter and olive oil. When hot, add the chicken, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and saute until golden, 2-3 minutes on each side. Transfer to a plate.

Pour off most of the fat and place the pan over low heat. Add the onion and saute for 1 minutes. Stir in the curry powder and saute for 2 minutes longer. Stir in the chicken stock, scraping up any browned bits stuck to the bottom. Cover and simmer over low heat for 5-6 minutes. Stir in the coconut milk and continue to cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, 1-2 minutes.

Stir in the remaining 1 teaspoon lime juice and salt and pepper to taste. Return the chicken to the pan, stir to coat well, and heat through. Adjust the seasoning with more lime juice or salt and pepper.

Toss the rice with the parsley. Arrange the quinoa in a ring around the edge of a warmed platter. Spoon the chicken and sauce into the center and serve.