Daddy's Chicken

Tonight my husband cooked dinner with just a hodgepodge of things we already had on hand.  Grocery day is tomorrow, so he looked around and the dish just sort of presented itself!  Our daughter called it "Daddy's Chicken" while we were eating.  :)

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces

broccoli

green beans

onion

soy sauce

garlic (powder, fresh - whatever is on hand)

oil

pepper

rice

Season chicken with pepper and bake at 375 degrees until fully cooked.  While chicken is cooking, saute broccoli, green beans, garlic, and onion in a bit of oil.  Season with some soy sauce.  When chicken is done baking, mix with the vegetables.  Cook rice according to package directions, and mix with chicken and veggies.

*any of the ingredients could be substituted for whatever you have on hand.  It's a good dish to make when you're running low on supplies before grocery shopping!*

Garlic Chicken

Here is a homemade Chinese recipe that will knock your socks off. I never would of thought I could make good Chinese food. Now obviously this is an Americanized recipe, but it fits the bill when it came to me craving take-out. I used a wok, but if you don't have one, no worries; just use the biggest skillet you have.

I got this recipe from "Fast Fix Family Food" by BHG.


Ingredients
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 cup water
3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons chicken broth
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons cooking oil (vegetable)
10 green onions, bias sliced
1 cup thinly sliced fresh mushrooms
12 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup sliced water chestnuts (I didn't put these in)
Hot cooked rice

Directions

1. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces and place in a resealable plastic bag. For marinade, mix water, soy sauce, and broth. Pour marinade over chicken in bag and seal. Marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Remove chicken;reserve marinade. Stir cornstarch into marinade; set aside.
2. Heat oil over medium-high heat in a wok. Add green onions, mushrooms, and garlic; cook and stir 1 to 2 minutes or until tender. Remove vegetables from wok.
   
3. Add chicken to wok; cook and stir 2 to 3 minutes or until no longer pink. Push chicken to the center of the wok.
4. Stir marinade mixture; add to the center of the wok. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. (this took about 8-10 minutes for me)
   
5. Return cooked vegetables to wok. Add water chestnuts. Cook and stir until combined. Serve with hot cooked rice.

Servings: 4

Guilt Free Guacamole

You guys are going to think I am losing my mind with the kind of food stuff I have been experimenting with lately, but with no job, what's a girl to do? cook! This is from the Weight Watchers cookbook, though we do not use weight watchers. Anyways, it's kind of a crazy idea, but it actually tasted good and would also be good for baby food?? Maybe? I don't have babies, so i'm not sure what kind of restrictions there are for making baby food.

Guilt Free Guacamole
Serves about 6, makes one large bowl full

12 spears of asparagus, steamed or boiled or otherwise cooked to tender
1 garlic clove
1/4 cup salsa
pinch of salt/pepper

Pulverize all of those in a blender till chunky and walla! you have a guacamole looking food. Honestly, it's pretty tasty, though I do have some suggested changes that I will implement next time. Careful not to overblend it because there is a lot of water in asparagus and I blended mine beyond recognition and there was some water in it, but no matter.

It could DEFINITELY use more garlic. The original recipe makes a LOT so i posted the half size portion which is what I made. The original recipe also called for 2 cloves garlic.

I would also add probably a tablespoon of lime juice, some minced jalapenos and maybe some diced tomatoes depending on how you like your traditional guac.

My dad also suggested substituting half of the asparagus for actual guacacmole. I'm not sure how that would turn out, but might be worth exploring.

Garlic Soup Recipe

Baked Garlic and Onion Cream Soup

(I made a half recipe and it made MORE than enough for 4)

6 large onions, cut into 1/2 inch slices
2 HEADS garlic, cloves separated and peeled
5 cups Chicken Stock
1.5 tsp dried thyme leaves
salt and pepper to taste
4 tbsp (1/2 stick) butter
2 cups heavy cream
2 tbsp chopped Italian parsley for garnish (didn't bother with this)

Preheat oven to 350.

Place onions and garlic in shallow roasting pan and add 3 cups chicken stock. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and thyme.

Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake for 1.5 hrs. Stir once or twice while baking.

Remove pan and puree the onions and garlic WITH the liquid in batches in a food procesor or blender till smooth. Gradually add the remaining 2 cups stock and the cream. Pour soup into a large saucepan.

Adjust the seasonings nad slowly heat through. DO NOT ALLOW SOUP TO BOIL. Sprinkle with parlsey and serve.

6 - 8 portions

Salmon Burgers...just keep swimming, just keep swimming..

So, Andrew was in a for a brief weekend visit, and when I say brief, I picked him up at midway at 730pm friday and he had to fly out at 330 on sunday, so itwas like a day and a half. Not much time after being apart for 4.5 weeks, but much appreciated nonetheless. We'll see each other for five days in 3 weeks, so we can't be too sad. However, me trying to look on the bright side doesn't seem to keep me from getting mildly depressed anyways. So upon returning from the airport and moping around the house for a few hours, I decided to get my cooking on. It seems to cheer me up and certainly puts my mind on something else. Or at least it satisfies one craving...

I usually put music on when I cook, but this tiime, I needed more visual distration, so I put on Barefoot Contessa. Watching TV and cooking is a tad tricky...but salmon burgers are easy.

Salmon Burgers - makes four patties
1 can (15 oz) salmon
3/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Fresh parsley chopped (or shredded, whatever your method)
2 egg whites

Mix all ingredients in a bowl with hands. Make patties. Put in a frying pan with a little olive oil and cook till browned.
that's all folks. easy as pie. i really hope I am not forgetting an ingredient...i'm doing this from memory at work.

Side notes: We happend to have fresh grilled salmon that needed to get uesd up so I used that instead of canned, which is perfectly acceptable. The egg whites are what keep the patties held together, make sure you get as much egg white as your can without getting the yolk. Yes, it's a lot of garlic, but man does it taste good...

In case you're wondering, in the Barefoot Contessa I was watching while cooking, she made bleu cheese burgers on the grill, east hampton clam chowder (which I am going to attempt to make as well...) guacamole salad, and ice cream shakes.