Roast Chicken with Summer Pasta

Last year for our wedding anniversary my husband decided that he wanted to buy me something really nice, either diamond earrings or new appliances. Baby did right and chose the appliances. I'm that kind of girl. I chose a convection/microwave oven. I love this and would recommend one to anyone who cooks on a regular basis. I've done everything from grill pork chops, bake bread and cookies, nuke leftovers and popcorn, to well, roast a chicken! Mine has a little touchscreen where you just tell it what your want to make and it will take over from there. Very Jetson's. Plus, since it goes over my range, I have a double oven. This really comes in handy around the holidays.

Today was my first attempt at roasting a chicken in it. I had a 4 lb bird, summer squash, zucchini, green peppers, onion, tomatoes and fresh pasta from our local farmer's co-op. Along with a little olive oil and some spices, this made for dinner fixings. And plenty of leftovers!

Summer Pasta

1 yellow squash, chopped into bite size pieces

1/2 zucchini, chopped into bite size pieces

1 small onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

2 tsp chopped garlic

1 tsp olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

1 cup favorite tomato sauce

1 lb pasta

In a large, deep skillet heat olive oil and garlic. Add the zucchini and squash. When they start to soften, add the onion and green pepper. Finally after a few minutes, add the tomatoes and sauce along with salt & pepper to taste. Mix in the cooked pasta of your choice.

If you are to freeze this make sure to under cook the pasta! Place in a zip-top bag with name & date. To reheat defrost overnight in the fridge and microwave until hot. You may need to add a little water since the pasta will absorb any sauce.

Oh and yes, I know my plating skills suck.

Stuffed Zucchini that stuffed me

My husband has deemed this one "Company Worthy". That is high success, right there. I must say it was pretty tasty and easy.

Rundown:

1 lb ground lamb

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, diced

1 T olive oil

2 small eggplant, diced

2 eggs

1 cup of your favorite tomato sauce, I used a roasted red pepper one

1 large yellow squash

1 large zucchini

Parmesan cheese

bread crumbs

salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 350.

Brown the lamb and saute the onion and garlic along with.

Remove from pan and add to a large bowl.

Slice the zucchini and squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the middle. Be sure to leave flesh at the ends to hold in the goodies! Chop the flesh and add to pan with olive oil and eggplant.

Saute this until slightly softened.

Add this to the bowl along with salt and pepper to taste. Dump in the spaghetti sauce and the two eggs. Mix until well combined.

Put the zucchini and squash halves into a deep casserole dish that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Load the lamb mixture into the zucchini & squash. Really fill them to almost overflowing. Sprinkle on a nice layer of Parmesan followed by a layer of bread crumbs.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until they are browned and fork tender.

I served them up along side of some rice and it was a fine meal.

The next time I make this I will most likely use ground pork just because I usually have that in the freezer.

Note: if you are going to freeze this, do not freeze the zucchini and squash boats. Just freeze the filling before baking. Thaw overnight in fridge and them fill the zucchini and squash. Or even use this as a filling for peppers or a sauce to go over pasta.

Parmesean zucchini

Today on Healthy Appetite with Elle Kreiger I witnessed her baking up some Parmesan dredged zucchini slices. Mike turned to me and said, "Take notes". I did.
Tonight for dinner we had them and even our three year old ate a couple. Mike had seconds! That's big because I think we are all sick of zucchini.

Parmesan Zucchini

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 large zucchini, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1-2 T olive oil

Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray. Slice the zucchini and coat with olive oil. Combine the cheese and breadcrumbs. Dredge the zucchini slices in the bread crumb mixture and place on the baking sheet in a single layer. Put under the broiler until they are GBD (golden, brown, delicious). It only takes a few minutes so keep an eye on them.

Fast Break Breakfast

So you think you don't have time to make a hot, home cooked breakfast? Think again. Baked bacon and pancakes are the answer. My husband loves pancakes. Me, never been a big fan. They always seemed too heavy, until I came up with these. I believe the recipe originally came from the Food Network but I revised it several times to get them the way I wanted them. This meant cutting out the fat and salt and making them come out light and fluffy.
First off, the baked bacon. Thank you Alton Brown for this one! There's really no recipe to it. All you do is lay the bacon flat on a cooling rack inserted into a baking sheet. Now, take this opportunity to put as much bacon as you can squeeze onto the rack. I try to do a pound at a time, this way I have bacon for sandwiches, salad and casseroles for the whole week. Place in a cold oven, set temperature to 400. Depending on how you like your bacon this could take anywhere from 20-30 minutes. We like ours crispy, so it's about 30-35. Just think how yummy this would be if sprinkled with either brown sugar or freshly cracked black pepper? While the bacon is cooking the pancakes can be made.
Pancakes
1 c flour
1 T sugar
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 egg
1 1/2 T melted butter
1 c buttermilk
Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Whisk together all remaining and add to the dry. Whisk all ingredients until just combined. There will be lumps! These will dissapate during cooking. If you mix the batter too much the pancakes will be more dense. Let the batter rest for a few minutes until you see little bubbles start to appear.
On a preheated griddle, ladle a 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake. When bubbles appear and no longer burst, flip. Remove when they are golden brown.
This recipe makes 12 pancakes. It can be doubled, tripled, whatever because they freeze wonderfully. Just separate each pancake with a piece of wax paper, wrap the whole thing in foil and put into a zip-top bag. Don't forget to mark it with the content and date! These keep in the freezer (if well wrapped) for about 3 months. To reheat, grab as many as you want and pop into the microwave until hot. There's no need to defrost them.
Another great thing about this recipe is that you can add fresh blueberries or chocolate chips, mashed banana and walnuts or just about anything! Keep them plain for freezing because the fruit gets mushy and other things like chocolate and nuts could turn bitter though.
If you try this recipe, be sure to let me know what you think!

Pickles & Ice Cream

We are ice cream prudes. A couple years ago a quaint little ice cream shop opened up just around the corner from us. They had all fresh, home made ice cream and got as many of the ingredients as possible locally. This year when they opened up for the season it was under new ownership. Now they sell, gasp, Edy's.

If I wanted that crap I would walk across the street to the market. Its cheaper there too! But I cannot stomach the stuff. It tastes like chemicals rather than cream, sugar and milk.

Home ice cream makers have come a long way, baby. I found this little jewel at Sam's (aka- Satan's) Yes, I know. They are a horrid, terrible, evil axis of bulk but they sell appliances, underwear AND meat! Sometimes in the same isle. The box said it could make ice cream in 20-30 minutes. Sure. It did. Granted it wasn't hard ice cream like we like it but soft serve.
An afternoon in the deep freeze fixed that and last night we enjoyed bowls of fresh, home made, I know everything that's in it, ice cream. It was so good my eyes rolled back in my head and I heard angels singing. I would love to share pictures of the finished product with you but I couldn't put my spoon down long enough to snap the picture.
I also made pickles yesterday. Bread and Butter refrigerator pickles even. I used my Dad's recipe and it couldn't be easier. In fact, the hardest part of the recipe is finding pickling cucumbers. These babies are sweet and tart and crunchy. I've been known to sit down with a bowl of them and a fork and call it dinner. I ended up with six jars of them, five of which made the neighborhood rounds. The last one I'm cherishing like Grandma's china. The best part about this recipe is that you can just keep adding veggies to the brine so you never run out.

Here's the recipe:

Bread & Butter Fridge Pickles

About 1 gallon of pickling cucumbers

3-4 onions

1-2 green peppers (optional)

1/4 cup salt

4 cups sugar

4 cups apple cider vinegar

1 1/3 t turmeric

1 1/3 t celery seed

1 1/3 t mustard seed

Slice cucumbers, onions and peppers thick, but small enough to get out of the jar. Mix all other ingredients until dissolved. I did this in an old juice bottle and shook it until my left arm fell off. Put your veggies in a large airtight container, or in my case, several small ones. Pour the liquid over. Keep them in the fridge- always.

And no, there wasn't any specific reason I made pickles and ice cream.

The Tim Gunn Special

I love to watch Project Runway. The host, Tim Gunn, walks around to these frenzied designers telling them that even though their dress is hideous they have to, "Make it work". I felt like one of those designers today when I opened the fridge to see what I could Frankenstein into dinner.

In the shows challenges they are given all these crazy things to make into a garment. My challenge consisted of: tomato pasta, zucchini, yellow squash, grape tomatoes and Red Lobster leftovers of shrimp scampi, baked scallops and halibut.

I must say that I won this challenge and should get immunity in the next one. It was sooo good it might make it onto the regular schedule subbing crab for the restaurant leftovers.

Here's the play by play:

1 1/2 T butter

1 1/2 T olive oil

1 zucchini, sliced

1 yellow squash, sliced

1 pkg. grape tomatoes, halved

2 tsp. chopped garlic

1 lb tomato pasta

1 1/2 cups Fat Free 1/2 & 1/2

1 T cornstarch

1 T dried onion flakes

1 T dried basil

1 T dried oregano

salt & pepper to taste

Oh, and few red pepper flakes!

First set the pot to boil for pasta. In a large, deep skillet melt the butter in the olive oil. Add the zucchini, squash and garlic, saute for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes and saute another minute. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon. Add the 1/2 & 1/2, reserving about a 1/4 cup. Use this to dissolve the cornstarch and set aside. Now add the herbs and the cornstarch mixture. Let thicken on medium low heat.

Drain the pasta and add it and the seafood to sauce when it's thick. I also added some chopped, fresh parsley at the very end.

Jambalaya

We love Jambalaya. Looooove. We used to use the Zataran's mix, then they changed it and all I could taste was salt. Even their low sodium (which is a joke) tasted like a rice covered salt lick. I looked everywhere for an easy and quick Jambalaya recipe that I didn't have to drive to Louisiana for the ingredients to. Paula Deen saved me.
I love that Southern Belle. I haven't had a recipe of hers yet that wasn't the bees knees. They aren't exactly figure friendly but, dang if they ain't good. Besides, going to college in Tennessee gave me a love of Southern food that I still can't shake after over 15 years.
This recipe is a two part-er. First, there is the mix of dry ingredients that you can keep in an air tight container for just about ever. I believe one year for Christmas I actually packaged it up to give as gifts. Second, is the wet and meaty.
Jambalaya Mix
1 cup long grain rice
3 T dried minced onion
1 T dried parsley flakes
4 T beef bouillon cubes ( I omit this altogether and add a can of chicken stock and reduce the water to 1/2 cup)
1/2 t dried thyme
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t ground black pepper ( I omit this too )
1/4 t cayenne pepper ( I only use 1/8th because I have to feed it to my toddler son too)
1/4 t salt ( yup, I leave this out as well )
Combine it all together and store in an air tight container.
Jambalaya
2 1/2 cups water (unless you aren't using the bouillon cube in the mix, then it's just 1/2 cup and a can of chicken broth)
1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes & chilies
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 lb meat of your choice ( I generally use more though. My usual is 1 lb sausage and a 1/2 lb shrimp. I've used it with chicken, kiel basa and ground beef too)
In a Dutch oven or large pot cook any kind of meat you might be using, except seafood. Add everything else and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover and reduce heat to simmer and do not touch for 20 minutes. Add the shrimp at the end and cook until just pink. Let this sit for a few minutes until most, if not all the liquid is absorbed.
I serve this with, of course, cornbread!
Now, if you are looking to make dinner even easier... got a rice cooker? Throw the mix and liquids in the bottom and the cooked meats in the steamer basket. I tried this the other night and this is what I got: picture above.
It was awesome!
Want a faster version: use minute rice. Brown the meats, add the liquid and bring to a boil. Add the mix, cover and let sit for 5 minutes. That is all there is to it!
Want a vegetarian version: omit the bouillon and use the 2 1/2 cups water. Instead of meat, add black beans, pinto beans and corn.
Now how is that for versatile!