Baked Chicken with Garlic and Shallots and Random Chili

I appologize for my absence, I was kinda... GETTING MARRIED! 

See:

Ok, so now that I'm married and back from an amazing 2 week honeymoon, I am dying to cook. Last night I made "Hey look, kidney beans" Chili. No pics unfortunately, the camera was still packed (and tired). But here's the basic idea:

Random Chili

Ingredients: 

• 1lb ground beef
• 1 16oz can petite diced tomato
• 1 8oz can tomato sauce
• Appx. 6oz beer
• 2 cans kidney beans
• 1 tbsp dried minced onion
• Chili powder to taste - I used about 3 tbsp
• Red pepper to taste - I used about 2 tsp
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• Black pepper to taste
• Cooking spray

Directions:

1. Spray dutch oven with cooking spray, brown ground beef with 1/3 of each of the spices (peppers) and all of the garlic and onion. 
2. Once browned, add the diced tomatos and tomato paste, along with the beer.  Drain and add kidney beans.
3. Add the rest of the spices. Heat mixture until heated through, then drop heat to low and simmer for at least 1 hour.
4. Serve over rice with sour cream and cheese (if desired)

Ok, and now for tonights dish. We got shallots today at the grocery store, they looked so good and they inspired my chicken dish. I also wanted some Thanksgiving-y food since I missed the holiday due to my honeymoon.

Baked Chicken with Garlic and Shallots

Ingredients: 

• 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 6 shallots, remove outer skins and cut in half
• 3 tbsp butter
• 2 tsp thyme
• 2 tsp rosemary
• Coarse salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp minced garlic (or 8 pealed garlic cloves, I was just kinda lazy)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425, and while oven is preheating, put the butter into the caserole dish you'll use to bake the chicken in the oven, remove when the butter is melted.
2. In the caserole dish with the melted butter, add the thyme, rosemary, garlic, shallots, salt and pepper, and make sure all onions are coated in the butter. 
3. Dredge the chicken through the buttery spice mixture then line the chicken breasts in the caserole dish. 
4. Bake for 50-60 min or until chicken is baked completely.  Serve and YUMM!

Side suggestions:

- Mashed potatos

- Stuffing 

- Scalloped corn caserole

Beef Tenderloin with Portobello Duxelle and Mac and Cheese

I haven't been posting a lot because the wedding is exactly 1 week from today! Oddly, I find myself having a bit more time this weekend than previous weekends, mostly because I have been working so hard I have done nearly everything I can ahead of time!  Its an awesome feeling to not be super busy this weekend. 

We haven't had a ton of interesting food in the house, and tonight was not real exception.  I knew I wanted to make homemade mac and cheese with velveta, a childhood favorite.  We also had some fresh portobellos and enough filet in the freezer to feed everyone actually coming to the wedding.  So, I found this recipe and it is seriously. awesome.  Easy? No. Good, oh yeah.

Beef Tenderloin with Portobello Duxelle

1. Filet mignon, 4 steaks about 7 oz (we used smaller steaks because that's what we had) each
2. Olive oil
3. Salt, pepper to taste
4. About 2-3 large portobello mushroom tops cut into small pieces
5. 1/3 cup onion, very finely chopped (food processor if you have one)
6. 4 cloves galric, finely chopped
7. 1 cup white wine
8. 2 tbsp butter

Directions

• Rub salt and pepper into the filet, cut a slit into one top to stuff later w/ the portobello duxelle
• Melt butter in heavy-bottom fry pan (I use cast iron), saute portobello, onion, and garlic for about 5 minutes or until softened and browned
• Add white wine and allow to cook until ALMOST dry - about 5 minutes
• Remove mixture from pan and allow to cool slightly
• In the same pan, heat olive oil until smoking, sear the filet for 1-2 min on each side
• Place steaks on a cookie sheet, stuff with the protobello duxelle
• Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, serve immediately

Homemade mac and cheese - the easy way

1. 1 box cavatappi noodles
2. 1 lb of velveta cheese, cut into marble sized chunks
3. 1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese
4. Milk
5. Salt, pepper to taste
6. 3 slices bread, cubed

Directions:

• Cook noodles, drain except for about 1/2 cup of water
• Over a low heat, melt the velveta and water into the noodles, add shredded cheddar cheese, salt and pepper
• Put in caserole dish, place bread on top
• Bake at 350 for 30 minutes

I love Trader Joes!

Donald and I went to Trader Joes and picked up some awesome things this week.  Tonight I used some chicken sausage and pasta sauce to create dinner!

Spicey Chicken Sausage Pasta

1 pack of chicken sausage from Trader Joes, in spicy Italian, sliced into medallions

1 jar Trader Joe's Tomato Basil marinara sauce

Italian seasoning

Sweet basil

Garlic

Red pepper 

(all spices to taste, but I recommend making this one spicey)

Pasta noodles of your choice

1. Slice chicken sausage, brown in a pan in a little olive oil until slightly browned
2. Add pasta sauce and spices to taste
3. Simmer for 1h stirring occasionally (or, if you're like me, cook it in cast iron and go running, when you come back, its delicious)
4. Make pasta and serve!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Pecan Muffins

Yeah yeah, long time no update.  Cooking has become a rarity in my house.  I always find that in the fall my life picks up.  Its like people get concerned that soon, it will be winter, so we better get the fun stuff out of the way.  Plus we have 48 days until the wedding, so things are nuts.

I made these muffins last weekend, and froze 1/2 of the batter so I could make the second half this weekend.  I used my KitchenAid Stand mixer, new calphalon measuring cups and spoons, and some silicon muffin baking pans (including one I got from a kno

ttie from a Something Blue Secret Santa exchange).  I love to bake.  

Ok, without further ado, nomily goodness:

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip and Pencan Muffins 

Ingredients:

• 1c sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 c oil
• 1c milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1c chocolate chips
• 1/2c chopped pecans
• 1c white flour
• 1/3c EACH of wheat, gluten, and millet flours

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt in a bowl, set aside.
3. In a mixing bowl, mix together oil, milk, egg, and sugar until smooth.
4. Add dry mixture to wet mixture, stir until moist.
5. Add chocolate chips and pecans.
6. Fill baking cups 2/3 full with batter (I don't use muffin cups, instead I just grease the cups of the muffin pan and it works fine)
7. OPTIONAL: Combine 1/2c chopped pecans with 2tbsp brown sugar and sprikle on top of each batter cup for a topping
8. Bake 20-25 min or unti golden brown and firm

Serve warm or heated up in the microwave!

Enjoy!

Herb Baked Chicken

Its been a while, and I've only cooked very little since my last real post. You know how life gets, with the end of the summer rush and wedding planning I can't keep up. My sisters bought me my spice rack for my bridal shower last weekend, and I was dying to make use out of it. I got this spice rack:

So for dinner tonight, I made:

Herb Baked Chicken

2 chicken breasts, defrosted and with the skin dried
Salt
Pepper
1/3 cup olive or canola oil
Lemon Juice (2 fresh lemons or about 1/2 cup juice)
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp parsley
1 tbsp fresh minced garlic

1. Sprinkle each chicken breast with salt and pepper to taste.
2. Combine oil through garlic and marinate chicken in mix for 30 minutes (or more).
   
3. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.
   
4. Serve with a side, I used Kashi Rice Pilaf, but I recommend the potatoes from lovestonom.blogspot.com.
   

And for desert: Chocolate Chip Cookies and Milk!

Makeup!

OK, so besides cooking, I also love makeup. This is my new favorite product! If you're a little daring with eyemakeup, I highly recommend it. You'll need a few good brushes to use it well.

http://www.toofaced.com/product_template.asp?dept_sub_id=28&dept_id=10&cat_id=60

Shells Florentine

So yeah, I have been super busy. I haven't made many 'new' things over the last few weeks. I made some killer tacos, but you've seen those already.

Tonight I made one of my favorites.


Shells Florentine!
1 15 oz package of ricotta cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup romano cheese
Appx. 6oz fresh spinach, remove stem and wash well
Italian Seasoning
Salt, Pepper
1 egg

1/2 box jumbo shells

1 jar pasta sauce, or homemade pasta sauce
Cooking spray

1. Mix the top set of ingredients together (all the cheese) and set aside.
2. Boil the shells according to the directions on the box, they should be cooked but very al dente to work well.
3. In an 11x17" baking dish coated with cooking spray, put 1c pasta sauce in the bottom of the dish.
4. Fill each shell with the cheese mix, line up in the baking dish.
5. Pour remaining pasta sauce over shells. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until warmed all the way though.
6. Serve with a little extra sauce on top, with a veggie and bread of your choice! ENJOY!
   

30 minute dinner: Grilled Chicken and Kashi Pilaf

Another 30 minute dinner night. I was lazy!

Grilled Garlic Chicken and Kashi Rice Pilaf

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
3/4c Salad dressing, oil based, garlic flavored (add cloves of garlic to make it even better)
1 packet kashi rice pilaf

1. Make the rice pilaf according to box directions
2. Heat grill, grill chicken until cooked.
3. Serve.
4. I feel like there should be a 4th direction....
   

Scalloped Potatos and Sloppy Joes

Sloppy Joes are really good, and I discovered a good mix for them a few months ago. Its called Not So Sloppy, you'll find it in a small jar near the canned chili in the grocery store. Use the best ground beef you can to keep the fat content down, serve on a bun.

The scalloped potato recipe is from Cooking Light Magazine, I highly recommend it.

Scalloped Potatos
2 medium or 3 small potatos cut into 1/8" slices
2 tbsp butter
Salt, pepper to taste
1/2c cheese (I used cheddar, but asiago and Greuyer are great too)
1c skim milk
1 clove garlic, halved

1. Preheat oven to 425.
   
2. Rub the clove of garlic onto the bottom and sides of your baking dish, then coat with cooking spray.
3. Lay 1/2 of the potato slices on the bottom of the pan. Drizzle 1/2 of the butter, salt, pepper, and 1/4 of the cheese onto the potatos. Repeat.
4. Warm the 1c of milk on the stove, then pour over the potatos.
5. Bake for 40 minutes or until the potatos are tender.
   

And trust me, these are REALLY good.

Spicy Hot Sausage Pasta

Tonight I made the spicy 30 minute sauce a few posts back, but this time I added 3 links of hot italian sausage and served it over whole wheat pasta with whole wheat bread toasted with garlic. No new recipes, but doesn't it look good? It was ungodly spicy. So good.