New Year, New Goals

Let me start this entry by saying I have been busy and I apologize for the disservice to all three people who actually read this blog! In July I took on this idea to start a food blog thinking it would be a fun way to spend time, and it has been. I love to cook but never had the wish to be a cook because I fear that I would grow to hate it. Cooking is my outlet. It’s a way to unwind. But lately I have been knitting afghans for Christmas as a way to relax.

During this time of zoning out on “knit one pearl one” I have found this very easy way to make a meal for one that uses minimal effort. You don’t have to stand over a stove or observe the heat to make sure nothing burns. Also it is a flexible meal that you can interchange with different vegetables or meats to make something different every day of the week.

All you need is a piece of your favorite protein like chicken breast, pork loin cutlet or turkey breast and whatever frozen vegetable you enjoy. The other great thing with this meal is you can make it in the morning while you are getting ready for work and have a freshly made healthy lunch for that day!

Easiest Dinner Ever!

6 ounce Cut of Protein (Chicken Breast, Pork Loin Cutlet or Turkey Breast), pounded slightly to be approximately a half inch thick.

1 Cup of Frozen Vegetables. You can use any kind you like or a half cup of two vegetables.

1 Tablespoon Butter or Margarine

1/2 Teaspoon Ms. Dash

2 Tablespoon of Your Favorite Condiment (BBQ Sauce, Whole Grain Mustard or Teriyaki Sauce. The possibilities are endless!)

Heat oven to 400°. Spray a 9” x 9” baking dish with non-stick spray and on one side place the protein and vegetables. Pour the condiment over the protein. Example: pour BBQ sauce over chicken breast evenly. Place vegetables on the other side and put tabs of butter over the vegetables evenly. Sprinkle vegetables with Ms. Dash. Place in oven for 20 to 30 minutes depending on what meat you use. Just check to make sure the meat is fully cooked and you are free to enjoy!

Buffalo Options

It has been a busy week for me. My parents came to Los Angeles to visit for the week. When my sister called asking for a special recipe request, I felt my parents were the perfect test subjects.

When I was younger, if I wasn’t baking with my Grandmother, then I was helping my Father make some French/American classics. In high school my parents allowed me to cook dinner on a regular basis. Sometimes it was good and sometimes it wasn’t, but they always smiled. They would help me figure out what I could have changed.

My sisters’ predicament is that she needs to make a dish to take to a picnic, but wants to make it with a Buffalo twist. It’s like for a wedding when they say “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” For this picnic, “something Buffalonian, something room temperature, something delicious”.

Buffalo Chicken Mini Wraps

This recipe can be used as an appetizer or add lettuce and would make a great lunch wrap!

1 Chicken Breast

1 Tablespoon Butter

1-2 Tablespoon Frank’s Red Hot Sauce

1/3 Cup Blue Cheese, crumbled small

1 Tablespoon Low Fat Mayo

1 Tablespoon Low Fat Sour Cream

Pepper

1 Carrot, shredded

1 Celery Stalk, cut thin

Whole Wheat Tortilla

Tooth Picks

Use half tablespoon of butter and melt in pan over medium low heat. Cook the chicken breast and begin to brown. Add the rest of the butter and hot sauce. I used 2 tablespoons, which gives you a pretty hot sauce (medium in Buffalo terms). Cover the chicken breast and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes. Take the chicken out, do not discard sauce in the pan but remove from heat, and let the chicken rest for about 5 minutes. Cut chicken up in to a small shred and toss with the sauce left in the pan.

Mix blue cheese, mayo, sour cream, and pepper together for blue cheese sauce. Set aside.

Take tortilla and begin to cut into small rounds with a cookie cutter. If your making a lunch wrap you can skip this step. Then begin to assemble the chicken, blue cheese, celery, and carrot. Place tooth pick through the wrap to hold it together. Enjoy!

The lunch wrap. Same ingredients just added some lettuce mix.

This is another option to take a celery stalk, fill it with blue cheese, top with shred carrots and Buffalo chicken.

Home Cooking

Having a home cooked meal with only one dirty dish seems like something from a TV show. They always mix the ingredients and then put the dirty bowl under their counters. My dirty dishes always seem to laugh at me from the sink reminding me that I hate them.

The easy way of not using a ton of dishes is grilling. Well, I don’t own a grill or even a yard. But it reminds me of my Mom’s garlic potatoes she would cook in foil on the grill. They’re easy enough to cook in an oven if you don’t have a grill like me.

Another good use for the oven is oven fried chicken. Chicken with all the taste and cooking in the same pan as the potatoes.

Oven Fried Chicken

1 Pounded Chicken Breast

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire

1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard

Salt and Pepper

1/2 Panko Bread Crumbs

Preheat oven to 400°

In a plastic bag mix Worcestershire, Dijon, salt and pepper. Add chicken breast to make sure it covered with the Dijon mixture. Place bread crumbs evenly on a small dish. Take the chicken bread out of the bag trying to keep as much Dijon mixture on it and coat it in the breadcrumbs. Place on a rack over a sheet pan and then prepare the potatoes.

Garlic Oven Roasted Potatoes

1 Cup Baby Yellow Potatoes, sliced (a russet potato would also work)

1 Tablespoon Butter

1 Teaspoon Garlic Salt

Pinch Pepper

In a piece of foil, place potatoes and break up the butter over top. Sprinkle garlic salt and pepper evenly over top. Wrap foil up tightly and place on the rack with the chicken breast. Place in oven and cook for 20-25 minutes.

Left Overs

There are a few reasons why I started this blog, but the major factor was my distaste for leftovers. There is nothing worse than day old food! It doesn’t always reheat right and the flavors are not as deep.

Protein is the only food item I will cook ahead and reheat. You can cook it part-way and then cook it fully on the day you want to eat it. Flank steak is great for this type of reheating if you pack it with all its juices.

A few posts ago I made BBQ Chicken Pizza and cooked the whole chicken breast. This saved good BBQ chicken for a salad later in the week. This is a simple recipe, but it’s made special by the homemade vinaigrette.

BBQ Chicken Salad

1/2 Chicken Breast

Mixed Greens

1 Small Green Apple, sliced

1/4 Cup Grapes, cut in half

1 Tablespoon Bacon, minced

2 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar

1 Tablespoon Honey

Pinch of Salt & Pepper

1 Teaspoon Thyme, Rosemary, Basil or any other herb (optional)

In a mason jar or with a wire whisk, mix together oil, vinegar, honey, salt, and pepper. In a mason jar its easy because you can just shake it. Put together the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and pour dressing over the top.

Pizza! Pizza!

I love pizza from growing up in the northeast. The way you bite into a double cheese pizza like a bite into warm string cheese. Weird analogy but it makes my mouth water.

When I moved to California the approach to pizza was a drastic change. Sure a double cheese is still good out west but cucumbers, feta and Tzatziki sauce? That sounds like a great salad to me, not a pizza. For me the one that shines amongst the eccentric and seen as the glory of California is the BBQ chicken pizza.

It was a pleasant surprise when I tried this unique concoction. The simplicity of the ingredients worked startlingly well. It's delicious though I don’t view it the same as a traditional double cheese. For one serving size the best way to make a pizza is to use pita bread as a crust.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

1/2 Chicken Breast

BBQ Seasoning (optional, personal recipe follows)

1 Whole Wheat Pita

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Onion, diced

2 Tablespoons BBQ Sauce

4 Slices Mozzarella

1/2 Piece of cooked Bacon, diced

Preheat oven to 425°

Season chicken liberally with BBQ seasoning or you can just grill as normally. Slice chicken into thin strips. Brush both sides of pita with olive oil and place on baking tray. This helps the pita crisp in the oven. Spread BBQ sauce over pita then evenly distribute chicken and onion. Place mozzarella equally over pizza to make sure all is covered. Place in oven for approximately 10 minutes until cheese just begins to bubble but not brown. Then sprinkle bacon over for the last 5 to 10 minutes until pizza is bubble and slightly browned.

Alyssa’s Rub ;)

1 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Tablespoon Smoked Paprika

2 Tablespoons Cumin

1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 Teaspoon Ginger

1 Tablespoon Chili Powder

1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder

1 Tablespoon Dried Thyme

1 Tablespoon Ground Mustard

1 Teaspoon Kosher Salt

Mix all ingredients together in mason jar. Can be stored with herbs for up to a year but it might not last that long!

The Recipe Heard Around Facebook

Chick-Fil-A is an amazing chicken fast food restaurant. My exposure to the fine chicken delicacies had been limited but their wonderfully simple sandwiches call to me. A lightly floured chicken breast on a honey wheat bun with sweet pickles: straightforward and scrumptious.

A friend had worked at one during high school and he divulged a bit of their secrets. The chicken comes prepackaged in a secret buttermilk mixture that the restaurant adds some pickle juice to. The breasts are then dredged in their secret flour mixture and fried.

One of the new additions is the Chick-Fil-A sauce. A brilliant combination of BBQ sauce and honey mustard that is fantastic on the sandwiches. My addiction to this sauce and sandwiches led me to creating the Chick-Fil-A Chicken Salad.

Chicken Salad (Chick-Fil-A style)

1 Cup Chicken Breast

1 Tablespoon Butter

1 Tablespoon Pickle Juice

1 Tablespoon Honey

1 Tablespoon Mustard

1 Tablespoon Mayonnaise

1 1/2 Tablespoons Barbeque Sauce

1 Teaspoon Thyme

Bacon (optional)

Cook the chicken breast in butter and pickle juice. The pickle juice adds a great flavor and adds moisture to the chicken. Mix rest of ingredients in bowl and add chicken while its still warm. This helps the flavors penetrate the chicken even more. Fridge for at least an hour before serving. I like to top my sandwich with some bacon, then again who wouldn’t?

Oh My Darlin'... Lemon Thyme

Cooking is an activity I enjoy and find challenging. A spatula has always been in my hand either stirring salads or scraping batter from the bowl. Something, I believe, that comes naturally, as if I was putting a puzzle together.

My boyfriend, on the other hand, has begun his culinary journey recently. Spices seem as if they have just been brought on the East India Trading Company. Complex flavors can be a bit confusing for him.

This recipe was enjoyable for him and very easy with his busy schedule. Whenever I have a busy day, I like to reach for an old friend: Lemon Thyme Chicken Breast. It can marinate all day or even over night. To pound or butterfly (cutting the breast in half parallel to the counter) the chicken is preferable because after a long day, it cooks faster.

Lemon Thyme Chicken Breast

1 Chicken Breast, preferable pounded or butterflyed

2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

1 Tablespoon Thyme (or Rosemary)

Salt and Pepper

Mix oil, thyme (or rosemary), salt, pepper, and lemon juice in a resalable plastic bag or plastic container. Shake vigorously. Place chicken in the bag. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight. No oil or butter is needed to cook the chicken in a fry pan for about 5 minutes over medium heat on each side or until done.

Lemon Artichoke Chicken

Yesterday I said, “English is not my first language” the reply was “After food” I thought it was completely appropriate. My grammar and spelling are horrible. The stories I tell are better in person (and after a few drinks) Hopefully, the recipes directions will be clear but be concise. The English… well I’ll work on that later.

One of my favorite go to meals involves artichokes and lemons. Two items I always have on hand. The artichokes are great because they are canned and keep for a long time. The sauce is easy to put with pasta or seafood as well.

Lemon Artichoke Chicken

1 Chicken Breast, pounded

1/4 Cup Flour

Salt and Pepper

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Unsalted Butter

2 Tablespoons Onion, diced

1 Teaspoon Flour

1 Small Garlic Clove, minced

1 Lemon Zest

1/2 Lemon Juice

2 Artichoke Hearts, quartered

1/4 Cup of Chicken Stock

1 Tablespoon Herbes de Provence

Parmesan

Once the chicken breast is pounded, sprinkle with salt and pepper on both sides. Then dust the chicken with 1/4 cup of flour so it’s coated.

Heat a small pan over medium heat with olive oil. Place chicken breast in oil and cook till brown on both sides. Take out of pan and place aside.

Time to make the sauce! Lower the pan to medium low heat. Melt the 1-tablespoon of butter in pan. Add the onions and cook for a minute or two just till they start to soften. Sprinkle in the flour and stir until the flour is absorbed. Cook for another minute to make sure the flour has lost the flavor. Add garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, and artichoke hearts stir for less than a minute. Pour chicken stock over the mixture and add Herbes de Provence. Stir again and add chicken breast back to the pan. Coat the chicken in the sauce and cook for an additional 3 minutes.

When you serve the chicken, take it out first and place on a plate. Pour sauce over chicken breast. Take a vegetable peeler and curl some Parmesan over the top. Serve a side salad with some oil and balsamic vinegar for a dressing or another vegetable of your choice! Yum!