Balsamic Chicken with White Beans and Wilted Spinach

One of the biggest issues I run into when cooking dinners is usually a lack of time.  Most recipes say that they take a certain amount of prep time, and somehow I end up taking about 5 times as long to get the meal done.  9:00 is the usual dinner time in my home, even when I make super fast meals.  So I've been trying to choose meals that say that they take 30 min or less, knowing that if it takes me an hour, so be it.  This one from Rachael Ray's Express Lane Meals ended up in that category.  I'm sure I could have used pre-chopped garlic or other shortcuts, but I'd rather take the few minutes and chop the clove myself.  One time-saver was that I used my mandolin slicer for the onions.

It felt like a complete meal in one dish and even let me be a little fancy with the presentation; though I will admit I added a little more chicken to the plate after taking the picture.  I wanted to serve a complete chicken breast, not just the half that looked pretty :o)

In all, it took almost an hour, but I was also puttering around at the beginning since I had forgotten to buy chicken stock and had to send my husband to the store while I got started.  I waited til he returned to actually start cooking, so this probably would have taken less than 45 min in total otherwise.

Balsamic Chicken with White Beans and Wilted Spinach (from Rachael Ray's Express Lane Meals)

4 servings

Ingredients

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp grill seasoning (I used McCormick's Montreal Chicken seasoning)
4 boneless chicken breasts
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and black pepper
1 bay leaf
3/4 cup white wine
2 cups chicken stock
14 oz can cannellini beans
12 oz sack baby spinach
1 cup flat-leaf parsley
juice of 1 lemon


Directions

- In a shallow dish, combine the balsamic vinegar, about 2 tbsp of the extra virgin olive oil, and the grill seasoning.  Coat the chicken breasts in the mixture and set aside to marinate while you start the white beans and wilted spinach.

- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat with the remaining 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, twice around the pan.  Add the onions, garlic, thyme, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, and bay leaf.  Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are a little brown, 3 to 4 minutes.  Add the white wine and chicken stock, bring up to a bubble, and cook for 5 minutes.

- Heat another large skillet over medium-high heat.  When it is hot, add the chicken breasts and cook for 5 to 6 minutes on each side.  Remove the chicken to a plate, cover loosely with foil, and let rest a few minutes.

- Add the cannellini beans to the skillet with the onions and stir to combine.  Cook for about 2 minutes or until the beans are heated through.  Turn off the heat and discard bay leaf.  Stir in the spinach, parsley, and lemon juice.  Toss and stir until the spinach wilts.

- To serve, place a portion of the white beans and wilted spinach on each serving plate.  Thickly slice each chicken breast on an angle and arrange over the bean and spinach.

Banana-Fig Bread

For this month's What's Baking challenge we were charged with baking with summer fruits.  July kind of got away from me, and as I've been running around enjoying my summer I didn't realize that I was nearing our deadline.  A few weeks ago I was on a business trip and picked up People magazine (my usual guilty pleasure for travel).  On the last page they had a recipe from Ted Allen for banana-fig bread.  I ripped it out, figuring it was something to add to my pile of recipes I'd get around to making one day, although my husband saw it and started asking me almost daily when I was going to make it.  Then as I started doing research earlier this week into what fruits are in season I noticed that figs were on the list.  Much to my husband's delight, I realized that this recipe fit the bill perfectly!

This ended up being a way to spend today's rainy afternoon.  It takes almost an hour of baking time, so it's great for a day when you have to hang around the house anyway.  And, ironically, we ate it while watching tonight's Chopped.

I'm excited for next month's What's Baking when I get to play host!!

Ted Allen's Banana-Fig Bread (originally published in People magazine, July 23, 2012)

Ingredients

1 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup whole-what pastry flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 large ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups dried figs, stemmed and diced
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla


Directions

- Preheat the oven to 350

- Bake walnuts 5 to 10 minutes or until golden, stirring after 4 minutes; set aside

- Whisk flours and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl; set aside.  Combine bananas and next 5 ingredients in a medium bowl; stir in walnuts.

- Fold banana mixture into flour mixture.  Spoon batter into a buttered and floured 9x5 in loaf pan.  Bake 55 minutes or until a wooden pick comes out clean, shielding with foil if necessary.  Cool bread in pan on a wire rack 30 minutes.  Remove from pan, cool completely.

Rosemary Focaccia

This month's What's Baking theme was "Baking with Fresh Herbs".  I considered making a dessert, something with mint, perhaps?  But then I went out to dinner with my husband a few weeks back and in the bread basket was delicious focaccia.  Immediately the wheels started turning in my head and I realized I had found my June dish.  I looked through my many cookbooks and found a recipe for Rosemary Focaccia in How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman.  Sounded perfect to me!

I made this on a Sunday evening.  I came home from a day out and about, made the dough, then let it rest while I went grocery shopping.  Came back, continued to make it.  When stretching to dough it does have to rest several times for a couple minutes at a time, so I would have to go back into the kitchen every few minutes, so you can't get too caught up in doing something else during that time (I was catching up on So You think You Can Dance, so I just paused the DVR, therefore going back and forth was fine by me).  In all, I think it ended up taking about 4 1/2 hour from start to finish.

What's great about focaccia is that you can really top it with anything you want.  Because this was my first time making it, I was unsure of what we'd like on it.  I put a little bit of onion on, then I wanted to do thin slices of tomato, but the only one we had in our fridge had just gone bad, so I used some slices of grape tomato instead.  I also threw on a few sliced kalamata olives.  I definitely held back in my toppings, so next time I'll be a little more generous.  I also had bought some fresh oregano to put on it, but forgot to include it before I started baking, so I threw a little on when it first came out of the oven.  It didn't bake into the dough, obviously, but still gave off a nice flavor.

Dough (excerpt from Pizza Dough recipe by Mark Bittman)

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, plus more as needed
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 teaspoons kosher salt or sea salt, plus extra for sprinkling
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 - Combine the flour, yeast, and salt in a food processor.  Turn the machine on and add 1 cup water and the oil through the feed tube.

2- Process for about 30 seconds, adding more water, a little at a time, until the mixture forms a ball and is slightly sticky to the touch.  If it is still dry, add another tablespoon or two of water and process for another 10 seconds (in the unlikely event that the mixture is too sticky, add flour a tablespoon at a time)

3- Turn the dough onto a floured work surface and knead by hand for a few seconds to form a smooth, round dough ball.  Put the dough in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap; let rise until the dough doubles in size, 1 to 2 hours.


Rosemary Focaccia (by Mark Bittman)

Ingredients:
1 recipe Pizza Dough, mixed and risen (steps 1-3, listed above)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves, plus more to taste
Coarse kosher or sea salt
Other toppings of your liking

1 - Lightly knead the dough, form it into a ball, and put it on a lightly floured surface.  Sprinkle with a little more flour, cover with plastic wrap or a towel and let it rest for 20 minutes.

2 - Use 1 tablespoon of the oil to grease an 11x17in jelly roll pan.  Press the dough into a small rectangle and put it in the pan; let it relax there for a few minutes.  Press and stretch the dough to the edges of the pan.  If it resists, let it rest for a few minutes, then stretch it some more.  Sometimes this takes a while, because the dough is so elastic.  Don't fight it; just stretch, rest, then stretch again.  Try not to tear the dough.  Cover the dough and let it rise for at least 30 min or until somewhat puffy.

3 - Heat the oven to 425.  Uncover the dough and dimple the surface all over with your fingertips.  Drizzle with the remaining olive oil and sprinkle with the rosemary and plenty of salt (and other toppings, if so desired)

4 - Put the focaccia in the oven, lower the temperature to 375 and bake for about 30 min, or until the focaccia is golden.  Remove and cool on a rack before serving.  Cut the focaccia into squares and serve with meals or as a snack.  Or cut squares in half horizontally and use to make sandwiches.  Focaccia, well wrapped (first in plastic, then in foil) freezes fairly well for 2 weeks or so.  Reheat, straight from the freezer (unwrap, remove the plastic, and then rewrap in foil), in a 350f oven for 10 to 15 min.

Panera's Spinach Artichoke Souffle

During the week, breakfast at our home consists of a bowl of cereal or maybe a yogurt, so when the weekend rolls around we try to get a little fancier, making omelets, pancakes, etc.  A few weeks back, we were running errands and stopped in for brunch at Panera Bread.  Not wanting a breakfast sandwich or bagel, the spinach artichoke souffle caught my eye.  It was so delicious that I almost didn't want to give my husband a taste (but, alas, I did, as I could not deny him the yumminess of it).  Last week, on a whim I decided to turn to trusty old Google to see what I could find that was similar, and I came across this article where, back in 2008 Good Morning America did a segment on Top Secret Recipes Revealed!

Now, this isn't the usual fluffy OMG-is-it-going-to-collapse type of souffle, this is a totally cheating method using Pillsbury crescent roll dough to encase the whole thing.  I have to tell you, this was so simple to make and came out tasting absolutely delicious!  Although there's only two of us, I made the full recipe for 4, we stuck the other two in the fridge and ate them for breakfast two days later.  Still tasted just as good as right out of the oven!  The one thing I adjusted was that we had a bag of shredded Mexican blend cheese, so instead of 1/4 cup of cheddar and 1/4 cup Monterey Jack, I just did 1/2 cup of Mexican blend.

I would definitely make this again.  Especially if we were having overnight guests or just friends/family over for breakfast.  Serve with a side of fruit, and you got yourself a whole meal right there!

Panera Bread's Spinach Artichoke Baked Egg Souffle (as published by Good Morning America in 2008)

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons frozen spinach, thawed
3 tablespoons minced artichoke hearts
2 teaspoons minced onion
1 teaspoon minced red bell pepper
5 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons heavy cream
¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese
¼ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 tablespoon shredded Parmesan cheese
¼ teaspoon salt
1 8-ounce tube Pillsbury Crescent butter flake dough
melted butter
¼ cup shredded Asiago cheese

 
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Combine spinach, artichoke hearts, onion, and red bell pepper in a small bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of water, cover bowl with plastic wrap and poke a few holes in the plastic. Microwave on high for 3 minutes.
Beat 4 eggs. Mix in milk, cream, cheddar cheese, Jack cheese, Parmesan, and salt. Stir in spinach, artichoke, onion, and bell pepper.
Microwave egg mixture for 30 seconds on high, and then stir it. Do this 4 to 5 more times or until you have a very runny scrambled egg mixture. This process will tighten up the eggs enough so that the dough won't sink into the eggs when it's folded over.
Unroll and separate the crescent dough into four rectangles. In other words, don't tear the dough along the perforations that make triangles. Instead, pinch the dough together along those diagonal perforations so that you have four rectangles. Use some flour on the dough and roll across the width of the rectangle with a rolling pin so that each piece of dough stretches out into a square that is approximately 6 inches by 6 inches.
Brush melted butter inside four 4-inch baking dishes or ramekins. Line each ramekin with the dough, then spoon equal amounts of egg mixture into each ramekin. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of asiago cheese on top of the egg mixture in each ramekin, and then gently fold the dough over the mixture.
Beat the last egg in a small bowl, then brush beaten egg over the top of the dough in each ramekin.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until dough is brown. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes, then carefully remove the soufflés from each ramekin and serve hot.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Almond Streusel

I love participating in recipe swaps or themed cooking/baking groups.  They make you think outside your norm and try out recipes you wouldn't have though to try.  This was my first time participating in the What's Baking group, which gives a theme and sends you off on your way to create whatever you want from there.  This month's theme was Spring Produce.  One thing that jumped out at me from the list I found online was rhubarb.  It was something that I had always heard about, but never tried.  Going with my trend of trying out new foods, I set out to find something appealing using rhubarb.  I turned to my fancy shmancy Craft of Baking and found a recipe for Pear & Concord Grape crisp with Marcona Almond Streusel, which had ways to vary it for each season.  The spring ingredients were strawberry and rhubarb.  Sounded good to me!

I had seen rhubarb at my local market, so I knew I could get that.  What I didn't realize until I was at ShopRite was that marcona almonds are different than regular almonds (apparently they're sweeter).  I couldn't find them, so I just bought the store-brand chopped almonds from the baking aisle.  Still tasted good to me!

Now, I usually am convinced at some point in my cooking/baking that I've screwed something up and it will all turn out terrible.  Well, I start getting everything ready, I wash and slice the strawberries, wash and dice the rhubarb, toss them in a bowl, grab my 1/3 cup measuring scoop, stick it in the flour and dump the flour on the fruit.  Then I stood there frozen as I realize the 1/3 cup measurement was for sugar, not the flour.  I was only supposed to use 1 tablespoon of flour!  So I quickly rinse off all the flour from the fruit (trying to not make paper mache in the meantime), wash the bowl and then slowly and carefully add  the sugar and the small amount of flour I was supposed to use in the first place.  This may have affected how much juice ran out of the fruit in the end, but thankfully I hadn't made this before, so I couldn't tell the difference.  I also didn't use the exact measurements of the fruit.  I had purchased 2 rhubarb stalks (is that what they're called??) which came out to about 3 1/2 cups diced, and the package of strawberries came to just over 2 cups, so the total amount was the same, but it was a slightly different proportion.

The crisp came out delicious, and turns out, I actually really like rhubarb!  I think this may go under my "quick and easy (as long as I don't mess it up again) desserts".  I'm planning on trying other seasonal variations as well!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp with Almond Streusel (slightly adapted from The Craft of Baking)

Ingredients

FRUIT
4 cups diced rhubarb
2 cups hulled and halved fresh strawberries
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon unbleached all purpose flour 

STREUSEL
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup (4oz) chopped almonds
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted


Directions

FOR THE FRUIT:
In a large bowl, mix together the strawberries, rhubarb, sugar and flour.  Let the mixture stand at room temperature until juices begin to draw out from the fruit, about 30 minutes.

FOR THE STREUSEL:
Combine flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, almonds, cinnamon and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
Mix just to combine.
Add the butter and mix just until the streusel comes together.
Spread onto a baking sheet and chill in the refrigerator until firm, about 15 minutes.

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Pour the fruit and juices into an 8-inch square baking dish.
Crumble the streusel with your fingers to top the fruit.
Place the baking dish on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, and bake, rotating the sheet half-way through, until fruit is tender, the juices are bubbling and thickened, and the topping is browned, about 40 minutes.
Transfer the baking dish to a wire rack and let the crisp cook for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Serve warm or at room temperature.

Penne alla Vodka

Each day, when I look at the Blog Update thread on the What's Cooking board, I basically drool over each picture and recipe, bookmarking many to be tried in my kitchen.  When this one popped up from Laura, I knew it was one that would have to be tried in our home.  While my husband and I have varying opinions on what goes on top of our pasta (he's a tomato sauce guy and I'd rather have a little oil, garlic and dash of salt), we both agree that vodka sauce is delicious.  I had made some homemade pasta (light wheat pasta, using my KitchenAid pasta press - a wedding gift my husband didn't think I'd ever use, but I've definitely proved him wrong!), and I had leftovers which I had frozen a few nights earlier.  So this seemed like the right time to try this recipe out.

The recipe was pretty simple to make, though I was a little pressed for time due to a little mix up with another recipe I was trying out just before (post to come later this week on that), so I started making this sauce forgetting to prep everything (rookie mistake, I know!) so as I realized I needed to cut up some garlic, the onions ended up getting a tiny bit burned.  But, in the end, I don't think it mattered much.  The end result was delicious and I would definitely make this again.  It doesn't take too long, even with a little prep time (which I'll remember to use wisely next time!), so it's something that I can whip up after work and still eat at a relatively normal hour.  And honestly, aside from the 1/2 cup of heavy cream, the sauce doesn't really have anything unhealthy in it!

Penne alla Vodka (from Tide and Thyme)

Ingredients
 
1 (28-oz) can whole tomatoes, drained, liquid reserved
2 Tbs olive oil
1/2 small onion minced (about 1/4 c)
1 Tbs tomato paste
2 medium garlic cloves minced
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/3 C vodka
1/2 C heavy cream
1 lb penne pasta
2 Tbs finely chopped fresh basil
Grated Parmesan for serving


Directions

Puree half of the tomatoes in food processor until smooth. 

Dice remaining tomatoes into 1/2 inch pieces, discarding cores.

Combine pureed tomatoes and diced tomatoes in liquid measuring cup add reserved liquid to equal 2 cups.

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat until simmering.

Add onion and tomato paste and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are light golden around the edges, about three minutes.

Add garlic and pepper flakes; cook, stirring constantly until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Stir in tomatoes and 1/2 tsp salt.

Remove pan from heat and add vodka.

Return pan to medium-high heat and simmer briskly until alcohol flavor is cooked off, 8 to 10 minutes; stir frequently and lower heat to medium if simmering becomes too vigorous.

Stir in cream and cook until hot, about 1 minute.

Add pasta sauce to penne pasta that has been cooked to al dente.

Stir in basil and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, top with parmesan.

Baked Zucchini Chips

A few weeks ago, we were making sweet potato burgers and I wanted a side dish for it that was quick, easy and healthy.  As I wandered through my local market I came across the zucchini and thought 'what about making some sort of chip?!'.  As per my usual, I pulled out my phone, googled "zucchini chips" and this page popped up.  Sounded like exactly what I was looking for!  Since it said "seasoned breadcrumbs" I decided on some with garlic & herbs seasoning.  The chips were pretty easy to make, though mine didn't turn out ultra-crispy.  But they were pretty delicious.  The recipe says it yields 4 servings, using 2 medium zucchinis.  My husband and I cleaned the plate between the two of us.  But, they're pretty healthy, so we didn't feel too bad about it afterwards!

Baked Zucchini Chips (from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients 

2 medium zucchini, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 egg whites

Directions

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C). 

In one small bowl, stir together the bread crumbs, pepper and Parmesan cheese.

Place the egg whites in a separate bowl.

Dip zucchini slices into the egg whites, then coat the breadcrumb mixture.

Place on a greased baking sheet. 

Bake for 5 minutes in the preheated oven, then turn over and bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, until browned and crispy.