Quesadilla & Vegetarian Chili
I LOVE chili! From the time I was little, I would always get excited when mom made chili, as I got older I began to help, or doctor mine up to be more spicy. A few years ago I cut out a recipe for White …
teacher by day - chef by night
I LOVE chili! From the time I was little, I would always get excited when mom made chili, as I got older I began to help, or doctor mine up to be more spicy. A few years ago I cut out a recipe for White …
These individual “egg cups” just look SO cool – check it out on AllRecipes.com! Little individual “fried eggs” wrapped in bacon! I am going to have to plan ahead to actually have some bacon in the house next time there will be a crowd for …
There are some days that I just don’t feel like being super inventive and kind of just want some “comfort food”. I usually try to make something that I can at least pretend to be healthy (ok – so I guess my last recipe: ricotta meatballs, wasn’t really pretending at all, but you get my point!) Friday night was one of those “I’m just in the mood for junk and took chicken out of the freezer already” nights! I also had been in the mood for chicken fingers for a few days (after watching Giada DeLaurentiis the other night on the Food Network – but not finding her recipe when I looked for it, fyi it was when she had her friends over & her artist friend helped them create art) & really wanted some fries – but to do all in a healthier way!
So the search for dinner (using my all time favorite site, foodgawker) was on! For my Chicken Fingers, I found this dish on Food Network. Then it was off to create the best oven-baked fries ever and could not resist trying this recipe & would highly recommend you trying it & checking out her photos of the fries which look a lot nicer than mine!
I started as soon as I got home by cutting the breasts into strips about an inch wide & then mixed up the marinade (mayo, milk, curry powder). Then I started on my potatoes (see the whole recipe below – sounds odd, but totally worth it!) Once potatoes were in the oven I hung out & got to talk to Rich a little now that he was home, in between turning off the smoke detectors that is. So a little side note: I have dark pans & there is a lot of oil on these potatoes & they are on a low rack – SO, I should have lowered the temp by about 25 degrees to avoid scaring the dogs & interrupting our conversation with smoke detectors!! Finally, bread the chicken – pop it in the oven & get ready to enjoy!!!
Oven Baked Potatoes
Put the oven rack to the lowest position and heat the oven to 475 (or lower if using a dark pan – see note above about smoke!) Combine the garlic and oil in a large bowl and microwave until the garlic smells awesome – about 1 minute. Transfer 5 tablespoons of the oil (leaving the garlic in the bowl) to a rimmed baking sheet & coat the pan.
Put the potatoes in the bowl with rest of the oil & garlic and toss to coat. Wrap with plastic wrap and microwave on high power for 2 minutes, shake to mix & the microwave for another 2 minutes (at least those are the times that worked in my microwave). Then combine the cornstarch, salt, pepper, and garlic powder and sprinkle over the hot potatoes – toss well to coat. Place the potatoes in a single layer on the baking sheet and bake, turn once, until deep golden brown and crisp, 30-40 minutes.
Baked Chicken Fingers
Cut your chicken into strips, and place into a bowl to soak up the flavors with the mayo, milk, & curry powder. Place that in the fridge for at least 15 minutes to let the flavors meld. Toss your breading ingredients together in a plastic bag & a few pieces at a time toss the chicken to coat.
Line a baking sheet with foil (easier clean up here people!) and place coated chick in a preheated 350 oven.
Bake for about 15 minutes & then flip chicken and bake for another 10 minutes more. (I did this in the 400 degree oven with the fries for about the same time & they turned out fine).
I served this with a dip made of: mayo, honey mustard, spicy mustard, & dijon mustard – it was a great quick thrown together dip. Overall a “simple” Friday night dinner which was kinda healthy but full of flavor…. happy cooking!
I was trying to plan dinner for the other night & wanted to do something with the ricotta I had in the fridge (it was on great sale a week or so ago & with coupon had to buy two containers)! I also knew that …
This week was the start of fall – but I think that someone forgot to tell the temperatures & atmosphere and all of those things that! Since fall is here, winter squash is starting to go on sale & I just couldn’t resist. I have …
Tonight was a mexican night! I have been craving enchiladas for the past few days since I saw this post from Simply Recipes and realized I haven’t had them in a while and I had a can of green enchilada sauce in the cabinet (I know, I’ll try to make one of my own these days!) Enchiladas were also the very first meal that I cooked for Rich & I have not made them for him since then. I had also kept seeing ads and recipes for stuffed hot peppers (baked – not fried) and Rich had also been bugging me for some of those too – so the menu was set!
When I went to the market yesterday, there were only 5 good looking jalapeno peppers left (and something got to the ones in our garden and none of them grew nicely). I picked them up anyway and was set to go!
All that I needed to do to make these was slice peppers in half, place in greased dish, fill with cheese mixture & bake for about 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven until browned. These were delicious & will be made again (be careful when seeding the peppers goes without saying – but I wasn’t super careful and now my fingers I used to do that are burning!)
After a quick little snack – it was time to get down to making dinner (chicken was boiling from the time I got home and was ready to shred: to boil it just put in some salt, garlic, & a few seeds from those hot peppers). Here is my version of Enchiladas (at least the version that I made today)….
Then you want to mix the beans with the shredded chicken & seasonings that would be something you would be happy to eat on its own! Pour some sauce in the bottom of your dish, then place shell (warmed up so they are easy to roll) with a nice sized scoop of protein, put some cheese & cilantro and roll it up. When you place it in the dish, put it in seam side down. Repeat…. pour the rest of sauce over rolled shells – top with the rest of the cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes in 350 and then 3 minutes on broil & top with some more fresh cilantro!
This is not the quickest meal (but doesn’t take that long either) but it is well worth it! Its pretty healthy and inexpensive as well. Just as a side note: I was having my students write goals today & I wrote one of my goals that I was going to blog at least twice a week…. just an FYI! Happy Eating