Spanish rice and beans

I went for a long walk with a friend today and enjoyed the unseasonable weather in CT.

Dinner tonight was easy, I rummaged around my pantry for a can of black beans, a box of Spanish rice and I reheated the leftover chicken from last night.

The beans I doctored by sauteing 1/2 an onion in a little olive oil in a pan on medium high heat. Cook for 4 minutes, add in 2 cubes of frozen garlic and stir around until it melts. Add in the beans, and add a couple shakes of Adobo seasoning and a pinch of black pepper. Cook on medium low heat until ready to eat. Before serving, squeeze the juice from 1/2 lime and add a couple fresh cilantro leaves if you have them. The kids loved the beans- WITHOUT the cilantro and mixed them in with their rice. In fact, my little one even asked for beans and rice for lunch tomorrow.

We revisited adding more vegetables into our vocabulary and I will be making a pizza with shredded zucchini, garlic and olive oil with smoked gouda tomorrow. Exact recipe to follow after I come up with one!!!

Fuss-free roasted chicken

Wheeee, the kids are back at school today, it was over 50 degrees here and roasted chicken is on the menu.

The roasted chicken is a staple dinner in our house, the girls love it and we do too. I baked some potatoes and threw some carrots and celery into the roasting pan.

Here's how to roast a chicken:

Preheat oven to 425.

Squeeze the juice from 2 lemons into a bowl, add about 1/4 C. olive oil, and a couple pats of butter. Add either a) Lawry's season salt, b) adobo sazon or c) Old Bay seasoning to the bowl. Add a pinch of pepper and stir to combine. It's ok if the butter is clumpy.

Rinse the chicken and pull out the "bag of goodies" from the cavity. Rinse and place around the roasting pan. Place the chicken in the pan, and with your index and middle finger, separate the breast skin from the meat. If you are gentle, it won't break. Spoon 3/4 of the lemon, olive oil mixture in the pocket between the meat and skin. Put the chunks of butter there too. It keeps the breast meat very tender and flavorful and makes a great crispy skin.

Spoon the remaining mixture to the top of the chicken and add about 1/2 C. of water to the bottom of the roasting pan.

Roast for 50-55 minutes, or until the juices run clear when poked with a knife.

I sometimes turn the stove off when the chicken is cooked and leave the chicken to stay warm in the oven until we're ready to eat.

Everyone was happy tonight and we have 2 whole chicken breasts for lunch or dinner tomorrow.

Roasted curried cauliflower

Abby brought home a GIANT trophy from her chess tourney today, well- all of the kindergartners brought home giant trophies. She had fun and is quite proud of herself. Needless to say, we were all pretty tired from the excitement of the day.

We hung around the house and I made some curried roasted cauliflower and some "shake n bake" style thinly sliced pork chops.

I combined:
1/2 C. panko
1 C. Italian bread crumbs
1 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning
1 tsp. garlic salt
pinch of black pepper

I dipped the chops in milk, then rolled them in the breading. I baked them in the oven at 450 on a foil lined cookie sheet for about 18 minutes. They were tasty, but not as crunchy as the "shake". I think if I were to add some cornmeal that would have crisped them up a bit. Try it and let me know.

Here is a delicious recipe for roasted curried cauliflower. I tend to go pretty light on the curry so my kids will eat it.

Preheat oven to 450. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Cut cauliflower into quarters then quarter again. Arrange cauliflower on cookie sheet so they don't overlap.

Drizzle a little olive oil on the cauliflower, you can go light, it's just so the curry has something to adhere to.

Sprinkle about a teaspoon of curry over all of the cauliflower. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 18-20 minutes, The cauliflower browns beautifully and tastes great!

I have a chicken I am going to roast tomorrow night with carrots, shallots and celery.

Indian food!

It's Saturday night, and we've just returned from our friends house. Their parents were visiting, they are Indian and when we are invited for dinner, it is something we NEVER refuse.

Tonight's dinner was Basmati rice, a potato dish that is mashed cooked potato with an assortment of spices, a sauteed okra with mustard seed that is my favorite, Pouri- which are hand rolled flat breads that are fried until they puff up, and a sauce that is turmeric colored and had pearl onions and a bunch of amazing spices.

It was all so incredible, and I love to watch her cook, it's the way my grandmother taught me, use your senses, visual, smell, touch. She just knows how much of a certain spice to add.

We came home later than usual tonight, and we have to wake up early as Abby has her first chess tournament tomorrow morning, we are all so excited for her.

Sorry I can't give you any recipes from tonight's meal, I don't even know all of the spices she was using.

I bought cauliflower and thin pork chops for tomorrow night's dinner. Recipe to follow.

Shake 'n' Bake

While wandering the aisles of the supermarket the other day, I came across a box of shake 'n' bake. It looked promising, (like breadcrumbs and panko right?) so I bought it.

I baked 2 potatoes tonight, made a large salad and crispy chicken tenders. These were so easy, and suprisingly healthy too.

Here's the recipe:

8-10 chicken tenderloins- these are the boneless, skinless, little chicken breast pieces that are available in the meat/poultry section of the market

1 C. egg whites- we use the egg beaters type

2 packets of Shake 'n' Bake

Preheat oven to 400 and line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Rinse chicken and dip in egg whites. Add shake 'n' bake to a ziplock bag. Drop in egg dipped chicken tenders and shake. Lay chicken on cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.

You don't need to turn the chicken pieces and they come out really crispy. The cool thing is that you don't need to use any oil to cook the chicken.

I'm going to try to emulate the ingredients and see how it turns out: It's going to look something like this-
1 cup Panko
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon Adobo seasoning salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder

Everyone loved dinner tonight!

Lentil soup for cold days

The girls last day of Christmas vacation was yesterday and it was too cold to venture out, so we hung around the house, and did some cooking.

We made the turkey chili (see old blog entries for recipe) which they love and I made lentil soup which I did a shortcut version of in Abby's classroom last month.

Here is the real version.

2 tbs. olive oil
3 cubes frozen garlic
1 onion, diced
1 C. sliced carrot
2-3 stalks of sliced celery
1 1/2 C. canned diced tomatoes with Italian herbs
2 C. rinsed lentils
1 tsp. adobo seasoning (or any seasoned salt)
good pinch of black pepper
2 bay leaves
6 C. chicken stock

Heat olive oil in a large stock pot. Add garlic cubes and onion and saute for 3-4 minutes or until onion begins to brown. Add carrot and celery and stir to combine. Add diced tomatoes and lentils.

*Most dried beans, peas, etc... need to be rinsed before you use them, sometimes there are little "bits" that will float to the surface, simply remove them with a spoon, drain the water and add the lentils to the soup.

Add in adobo seasoning, pepper, bay leaves and chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and cook on low for 45 minutes until lentils are softened.

We leave this soup on very low and let it cook all day. It was delicious and I can't wait to have it for lunch.

Happy 2008

Well, we've made it to the beginning of yet another new year. I always feel like September is the beginning of the new year for me, new backpacks, lunchboxes, outfits, etc.. January feels like the end of a very long race, which begins with the start of the school year, rounds the corner with Halloween, followed by an all out sprint from Thanksgiving through Christmas.

I welcome the quiet of January and am hoping for a little snow. We had a great day today, went to 2 New Year's day open house parties. There was wonderful food at both of them. The first had a spread with lentil soup, turkey chili, veggies, fruit salad, and an enormous platter of cookies. Everyone always seems so much more relaxed at these parties because the stress of the holidays is over and people can just relax and enjoy themselves.

The other party had a warm fireplace and I was surrounded by dear friends as well. I need to go to the market tomorrow and am planning on making some panko crusted chicken tenderloins with a tangy lemon sauce, a baked potato and a veg, maybe green beans if they look good.

I also want to make a red snapper dish that I made a while ago with a coconut rice and kidney beans. The other thing I'd like to make this week is black beans and rice, or a black bean soup.

Tomorrow is the girls last day before they return to school-yippee!!

I wish everyone a calm and peaceful new year.