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Turkey Cranberry Wreath

4 Mar

 

I guess I should really call this just a Turkey Wreath since I don’t normally add in cranberry.  I saw this demonstrated at a Pampered Chef party, and I believe it is from one of their cookbooks.  This is perfect to make with leftover turkey from Thanksgiving, but I didn’t get to make it this year because I used my leftovers in other ways. This would also be good with chicken in place of the turkey.  The pictures I have are from when I first made it 3 years ago so that I would remember how to make it the next time.  Unfortunately, I thought to take the pictures a little too late, but it at least helps some visually.

 

Turkey Cranberry Wreath

What you need:

2 packages of refrigerated crescent rolls
2 cups cooked turkey, chopped
1/2 cup celery, sliced
1/2 cup dried cranberries (I usually leave these out)
1 cup Swiss cheese, shredded (I sometimes use shredded mozzarella)
1/4 C. walnuts, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons honey Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, snipped
1 egg, separated

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 375 F.

In a medium bowl, mix together turkey, celery, cranberries, cheese, walnuts, mayonnaise, mustard, black pepper and parsley.  Scoop filling over seams of dough, forming a circle.

Separate crescent roll dough into 16 triangles.  Arrange 8 triangles in a circle with wide ends of triangles toward the center on a large round baking stone. The corners of wide ends should overlap and points will extend 1 inch beyond baking stone.  Arrange the remaining 8 triangles in center, matching the wide ends together. Seal the wide end seams using a roller.  The points of these 8 triangles will overlap in the center, do not seal them together.

Lift the inner dough triangles across the filling and tuck under other side of filling.  They should go over on a diagonal, however, in my picture below, they look folded straight over.

 

Continue with the outer triangles, lifting them over the filling and at the opposite diagonal direction from the inner triangles.


Beat egg white of the separated egg lightly; brush over dough. Discard the yoke.

Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cut and serve.

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Chicken Marsala

24 Feb

This wasn’t in the original meal plan for this week, but since I wasn’t feeling well earlier this week, I fell behind in cooking and had some things I needed to get cooked before they went bad.  So, I decided to make Chicken Marsala, something we haven’t had in a while.  For the sides, I steamed my last bunch of asparagus and made mashed potatoes with a partial bag of potatoes I had left.  Since I have herbs from the Italian themed veggie pack, I added crushed fresh garlic and minced fresh rosemary to the mashed potatoes.  It was a nice addition.  I also got to use the fresh herbs in the Chicken Marsala.

Chicken Marsala
Based on recipes here and here 

What you need:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon minced fresh oregano
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
8 oz package mushrooms, sliced
3/4 cup marsala wine
2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary

Pound chicken to 1/4 inch thickness.  Mix together flour and oregano, and fully coat chicken with this mixture.  Heat the olive oil in a large skillet.  Add chicken and cook until no longer pink.

To the skillet, add and melt butter.  Add mushrooms, wine, parsley, and rosemary.   Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.  Cover, and cook for 5 minutes.  Flip chicken over, cover again, and cook for another 5 minutes.  Remove cover and simmer until sauce has reduced by half.

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Avgolemono Soup

18 Feb

It has been a LONG time since I have had this soup.  I hadn’t actually made this soup until now.  When I was making the chicken broth, my uncle commented on Facebook that when my grandmother was cooking chicken broth on the stove in the morning, he knew they were having Avgolemono Soup for dinner that night!  That was my motivation to finally make it.  The ingredient list is short, but it does require a little time and attention while making it.  The results are worth it, I promise!  If you want, you can add some cooked, shredded chicken to this to make it more of a meal.  I made it without.

Avgolemono Soup
Recipe from my Uncle Chris

What you need:

1 quart broth
1/4 cup long grain rice or orzo
1 egg
Juice of 1 lemon

How to make it:

Bring broth to boil. Add rice or orzo. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, squeeze lemon and mix with egg in a bowl.

When rice is done cooking, remove from stove. Using a ladle, add a small amount of hot broth very slowly to the egg-lemon mix while constantly stirring the egg-lemon mix with a wisk or mixer. Continue doing this with about half the broth and then reverse the process; use your ladle to slowly add this mix back into the remaining broth. When this process is complete your soup should look frothy.

Return it to the stove to heat back up to serving temp–But don’t let it boil! What you are making is called a suspension. The soup looks creamy, but it is actually comprised of tiny globs of egg suspended in the broth. The cooling process used to create the suspension is called tempering. If you just dumped the egg into the hot broth it would cook too fast to suspend (you end up with egg-drop soup). You don’t ever want to boil the soup because that will cook the egg too much and cause it to separate from the broth. This happens also when you reheat the soup. It never looks as good as it does on the first serving.

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Homemade Chicken Broth

18 Feb

Last night, I made Kotopoulo Lemonato, and when we had finished, I just couldn’t throw out the chicken bones.  I had started a scraps bag of carrots, celery, and onion in the freezer to make broth some day, plus I have plenty of celery, carrots, and onion on hand.  So, I decided it was time to try to make chicken broth.  I was going to do the stove top, but decided to try out the slow cooker instead.  I have a 5.5 quart slow cooker, so it was a nice big size to get everything in.

 

Homemade Chicken Broth

What you need:

Whole chicken carcass or bones
1 onion, quartered
3-4 celery ribs
1 carrot, cut in pieces
Spices (I used a bay leaf, 3 cloves of garlic, fresh ground black pepper, and the chicken had some spices still from cooking, which was rosemary and oregano.  I did not use any salt.)
Water

How to make it:

Place chicken bones, vegetables, and spices in slow cooker.

 

Pour in water to be just level with the top of the slow cooker.  Turn on low, and allow to simmer for at least 8 hours, I did mine for just over 14 hours.

Allow to cool slightly and pour through a mesh strainer to separate the liquid out.  Discard the vegetables and bones.  Pour liquid into containers to cool.

Once at room temperature, cover and put in the refrigerator to allow the fat to separate.  Remove fat from top and you have chicken broth ready to go!

This yielded 6 cups of broth for me.  I divided into 3 cups each.  Most soup recipes I have call for 1 quart of chicken broth, so I will just add a cup of water to this and use it as a base for those soups.  I made Avgolemono Soup (recipe coming!) with 3 cups of it tonight, and I will use the other 3 cups for Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup in a few days.

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Chicken Fried Rice

13 Feb

I’ve made plenty of stir fry, but never actually made fried rice.  I had veggies to make egg rolls, so I knew I wanted to make egg rolls, but I wanted something to go with it, so I decided to give Chicken Fried Rice a try.  I’m glad that I did, because I baked the egg rolls, and this time, they didn’t really turn out well.  I’m not sure what the problem was, but I was glad to have made the fried rice so we had something to eat still!  Fried rice is perfect for using up leftover rice and vegetables, or whatever vegetables you think you want.  Tonight, I used some diced onion and a small bag of frozen peas and carrots.

 

Chicken Fried Rice
Based on recipe here

What you need:

1.5 lbs chicken, cubed (can be cooked or uncooked)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups vegetables of your choice, I used onions, peas, and carrots
4 cups cooked, cold rice
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon pepper

How to make it:

Heat oil in a large wok.  Add chicken and cook until no longer pink.  Add in vegetables, and cook a few minutes until just tender.  Stir in rice, cook for a few minutes.

Move chicken, rice, and veggies out of the center and pour in eggs.  Cook until eggs set, stir to blend in.  Stir in soy sauce and pepper, cook for a few minutes until heated through.

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Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken

5 Feb

A while back, I saw a pin on Pinterest of a shredded buffalo chicken sandwich, and the chicken had been cooked in the slow cooker.  A friend had recently made it too, so I know it was something to try out.  It also reminded me of a Buffalo Chicken Pizza that I haven’t made in a while.  I also had a loaf of ciabatta bread in my freezer still, so it was a tough choice to make pizza or to make sandwiches.  So, I made both!

 

Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken
Based on recipe here

What you need:

4 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts (about 1 – 1.5 lbs)
1 small onion, diced
1/2 cup hot sauce (I used Frank’s Red Hot Sauce)
2 Tbsp butter

How to make it:

Place chicken and onions in slow cooker.  Pour in hot sauce.  Cook on low for 6-7 hours.

Remove chicken and shred.  Return shredded chicken to the slow cooker.  Stir in 2 Tbsp butter.  Cook on low for another 30 minutes to 1 hour.    Serve on pizza or sandwiches (see below).

 

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

What you need:

1 12-16″ pizza crust, either pre-made, a pouch mix, or your favorite recipe for pizza crust
1/2 cup ranch or blue cheese dressing
1 cup shredded buffalo chicken (either as made above or 1 cup cooked chicken mixed with 1/4 cup hot sauce)
1 Tbsp greens from top of green onion
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

How to make it:

Spread ranch dressing on pizza crust.  Next, spread chicken, then green onion tops, then cheese.  Bake according to the directions for your pizza crust, in general, 425 F for 10-15 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted.

Buffalo Chicken Sandwich

What you need:

Shredded buffalo chicken (from recipe at top)
Bread of your choice (I used ciabatta bread from Bountiful Baskets)
Cheese of your choice (I used swiss)
Ranch or blue cheese dressing
Other sandwich toppings, like lettuce, tomato, pickles, red onion, green peppers (I used just lettuce)

How to make it:

Lightly toast the bread.  On the bottom half, place the amount of chicken that you want.  Add ranch or blue cheese dressing, cheese, and sandwich toppings.

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Lemon Chicken and Vegetables over Rice

1 Feb

Looks a lot like the Orange Chicken from last week doesn’t it?  That’s because that sauce is the same, except for the Orange Chicken uses a can of frozen orange juice concentrate and this Lemon Chicken uses a can of frozen lemonade concentrate.   I did not use the slow cooker to cook the chicken this time, I just cooked it on the stove top in my wok.  This was fantastic, I think I might prefer it a little more than the Orange Chicken, but both are very good.  Tonight, the stir fry veggies were carrots, bok choy, green onion, asparagus, water chestnuts and snow peas, all from Bountiful Baskets from this past weekend.  And I really meant to add in some grated ginger, but I forgot, so maybe next time!

 

Lemon Chicken and Vegetables over Rice
Based on recipes here

What you need:

Lemon Sauce: (I made this twice, once for the chicken, once for the vegetables)
– 3/4 cup frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed (this is 1/2 can)
– 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
– 1 Tbsp soy sauce
– 1 Tbsp ketchup
– 2 Tbsp brown sugar (use 3 Tbsp sugar if you want it to be sweeter)
– 1/2 tsp sesame oil

1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2 inch pieces
1/4 cup flour
Vegetable oil
Vegetables to stir fry (I used carrots, water chestnuts, green onion, bok choy stems and leaves, snow peas, and asparagus)
1 Tbsp cornstarch
Cooked rice

How to make it:

Dredge chicken in flour.  Heat some vegetable oil in a wok, and cook chicken until no longer pink.

Meanwhile, combine all ingredients for the lemon sauce in a bowl.  Pour over chicken in the wok and stir.  Cook on medium heat for 15 – 20 minutes to allow sauce to thicken and chicken to absorb the sauce.

Once sauce has thickened, add veggies that take longer to cook (in my case, the carrots, asparagus, water chestnuts, and bok choy stems), let them cook for a few minutes, then add the veggies that take shorter to cook (in my case, green onions, snow peas and bok choy leaves).

Meanwhile, again, combine all ingredients for the lemon sauce and the 1 Tbsp cornstarch in a bowl.  Once veggies are all tender, pour in the second batch of lemon sauce and stir to coat evenly.  Cook for a few more minutes to allow sauce to thicken.  Serve over the cooked rice.

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Slow Cooker Chicken and Noodles

29 Jan

This is something I haven’t made in quite a while.  Since I got celery and carrots this week with Bountiful Baskets, I decided to make it.  I made it a little differently than I have in the past, and I was very pleased with the results.  I made it with boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but you could also use 2 pounds of chicken breasts with bones or 2 pounds of thigh and drumstick pieces with bones.  You just need to make sure that you get all the bones out since the chicken will be very tender after cooking in the slow cooker.   Also, I made this with egg noodles, but you could use homemade noodles, or some other kind of pasta, or even rice.

Slow Cooker Chicken and Noodles
Serves 6

What you need:

2 cups sliced carrots
1 1/2 cups diced onions
1 cup celery
1.5 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, or 2 lbs chicken with bones, skins removed
1 tsp poultry seasoning
5 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
2 cups cooked egg noodles, pasta, or rice

How to make it:

Place carrots, onions, and celery in the slow cooker.  Place chicken on top of vegetables, sprinkle with poultry seasoning.  Pour in chicken broth and water.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or high for 3-4 hours.

After finished cooking, remove chicken.  If using boneless chicken, cut or shred chicken into bite size pieces.  If using chicken with bones, remove chicken from bones and cut or shred into bite size pieces.  Discard bones.  Return chicken pieces to slow cooker.  Stir in cooked noodles, pasta, or rice.  Serve.

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Orange Chicken

26 Jan

 

While I was working on my meal plan for this week, I posted on Facebook that I was having trouble deciding what to make.  A friend of mine, CrunchyMetroMom, said she was working on a dish with chicken and orange juice.  Since I am getting a little burned out on making Sesame Chicken, Orange Chicken popped into my mind, like the Orange Chicken at Panda Express.  So, I went in search of recipes online and then ended up doing something in between 2 recipes.  Then, since I got part of my friend’s Asian themed veggie pack, I had vegetables to stir fry to go along with the chicken.  The chicken I did in the slow cooker, but I think next time, I might do it like I do Sesame Chicken, cook the chicken, mix the sauce, then add the chicken and vegetables.  One advantage to using the slow cooker is that the chicken really absorbs the sauce well, but with my slow cooker, it didn’t leave a lot leftover for the vegetables.  I could have added the vegetables to the slow cooker, but I was worried about them being too mushy, but would have saved me some time.  Anyway, I’ll walk you through how I did it, and you can decide if you want to the same, do all in the slow cooker, or all in a wok.  Also, if you would like to add some heat to this, add some crushed red pepper flakes.

 

Orange Chicken and Vegetables over Rice
Based on recipes here and here

What you need:

Orange Sauce: (I made this twice, once for the chicken, once for the vegetables)
– 3/4 cup pulp free frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed (this is 1/2 can)
– 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
– 1 Tbsp soy sauce
– 1 Tbsp ketchup
– 3 Tbsp brown sugar
– 1/2 tsp sesame oil

1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2 inch pieces
1/4 cup flour
Vegetable oil
Vegetables to stir fry (I used carrots, water chestnuts, green onion, bok choy stems and leaves, and broccoli)
Cooked rice

How to make it:

Dredge chicken in flour.  Heat some vegetable oil in a skillet, and brown chicken just enough to get the flour to stay on the chicken.  Place chicken in slow cooker.

Meanwhile, combine all ingredients for the orange sauce in a bowl.  Pour over chicken in the slow cooker to evenly coat.  Cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3-4 hours.

Once you are ready to serve, heat some vegetable oil in a wok.  Start with veggies that take longer to cook (in my case, the carrots, broccoli, water chestnuts, and bok choy stems), then add the veggies that take shorter to cook (in my case, green onions and bok choy leaves).

Meanwhile, again, combine all ingredients for the orange sauce in a bowl.  Once veggies are all tender, pour in orange sauce and stir to coat evenly.  Add in the chicken from the slow cooker.  Cook until all heated through.  Serve over the cooked rice.

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Balsamic Bruschetta and Garlic Herb Chicken with Broccoli and Cauliflower

23 Jan

We are big fans of Olive Garden restaurant, and we don’t get to go too often.  So, I decided I would try to make a couple of my favorites at home.  It worked out perfectly with some of the things I had gotten from Bountiful Baskets recently.  For the bruschetta, I used the Italian olive oil bread that my friend gave me this week, plus tomatoes from this week, then fresh garlic, fresh basil, and fresh parsley from the Italian themed veggie pack the week before.  For the chicken, I used part broccoli, part cauliflower from this week’s basket.  I wasn’t able to find the exact kind of pasta they use at Olive Garden, so I used medium shells.  I think that next time I will only use half a box of pasta instead of a whole box or double the sauce, because I felt like there wasn’t enough of the sauce to really get the full taste.  However, it still was very good.

Balsamic Bruschetta
Based on recipes here and here

 What you need:

4 tomatoes, seeds removed and diced
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 loaf Bountiful Baskets Italian olive oil bread, or french baguette, sliced
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon dries parsley

How to make it:

Toss together the tomatoes, basil, mozzarella cheese, garlic, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Cover and chill in refrigerator for at least an hour.

When ready to serve, preheat oven to 450 F.  Combine Parmesan cheese and parsley.  Place bread slices on a baking sheet and pinch some of the Parmesan cheese mixture over each slice. Toast in oven for 5 minutes or until bread starts to crisp.

Spoon some of the tomato mixture over each slice to serve.

Garlic Herb Chicken with Broccoli and Cauliflower
Based on recipe here.

What you need:

Spice Mixture for chicken
2 teaspoons dried basil
2 teaspoons dried parsley
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
2 teaspoons Mrs. Dash Garlic Herb seasoning
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts (pounded to 1/2 inch thickness)
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 box medium shell pasta
1 pint half and half
4 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons minced garlic
4 teaspoons cornstarch
3 cups broccoli and cauliflower florets
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese

How to make it:

Combine ingredients from spice mixture. Rub onto the chicken breasts. Cook chicken in the olive oil until browned, set aside and keep warm.

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Add broccoli and cauliflower for the last 2 minutes of cooking.  Drain, return to pot.

Melt butter in a sauté pan and add garlic. Cook until garlic starts to brown, then stir in the half and half and cornstarch.   Simmer for 3-4 minutes over medium heat, until it thickens to a sauce.  Add additional salt, if necessary.  Pour over pasta and vegetable mix in pot, coat evenly.  Remove from heat.

To serve, place pasta and vegetable mixture on a plate, then place a chicken breast on top.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste.

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