Chicken Artichoke Gratin

I saw a recipe for something like this on foodgawker and decided it looked pretty easy and tasty. I had planned to make it last Wednesday for Blake, but he ended up having plans so I didn't cook it until Friday. Since I waited a few days, the chicken marinated a long time.

Ingredients:
Thinly sliced chicken breasts, 4
1 can of quartered artichoke hearts
about 1 cup of grated cheddar cheese
about 1/4 cup mayonnaise
about 1/4 cup cream cheese
2 tbsp parmesan
dijon mustard
olive oil
italian dressing
salt, pepper

Directions:
Marinate the chicken in some mustard, olive oil and italian dressing with salt and pepper. After marinating for an hour up to a day, place on a foiled baking sheet. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, mix together remaining ingredients, using only about 1/4 of the cheddar cheese. Take the chicken out of the oven and top with this mixture. Then sprinkle remaining 3/4 of cheddar cheese on top. Broil for about 5-10 minutes until golden and bubbly. Serve.

Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

I saw some pictures on food gawker of sandwiches that made me want to make a fancy grilled cheese for dinner one night. I decided to do that last night and make a tomato soup to go with it. I looked at some recipes but didn't follow any one in particular so I was really proud of how well it came out. I thought everything was delicious and definitely want to make this again.

Tomato soup Ingredients:
1 sweet onion
2 cloves garlic
olive oil
2tbsp butter
about 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 box pomi tomatoes
dried basil
splash of balsamic vinegar
1 can vegetable broth
small splash of worcestershire sauce
salt, pepper

Directions:
Chop the onion and garlic. Heat olive oil and butter over medium heat and then sautee onion and garlic for a while until softened and just starting to brown. Deglaze with the red wine vinegar. Add tomatoes. Bring to a boil and add vegetable broth. Return to a boil and season with dried basil, salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar and worcestershire sauce. Simmer on low. Puree soup in a food processor or blender and then warm until ready to serve.

Grilled Cheese Ingredients:
1 italian round loaf, sliced
grated gruyere cheese
butter, room temperature
truffle oil

Directions:
Slice the bread. Butter one side of a slice of bread and then brush truffle oil on the other. Layer the grated cheese on top of the oiled side. Place in nonstick pan over medium low heat to brown. Butter another piece of bread and oil the other side. Place oiled side down on cheese in pan. When bread has gotten toasted and brown, flip over to toast the other side. Toast for a few minutes, remove, slice and serve.

Orzo Salad with Shrimp

I saw a minted orzo salad on foodgawker that looked good but I changed it because I didn't feel like looking at a recipe. This made a ton of food and Blake won't eat shrimp so I'll be eating it for lunch all week.

Ingredients:
1 box orzo pasta
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bundle asparagus, cut
1 cup frozen peas
1 lb shrimp
6 oz crumbled feta
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
white wine
mint and basil, chiffonade
dried herbs de provence
salt, pepper
olive oil
toasted pine nuts

Directions:
Cook the orzo according to package directions. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium heat and sautee the onion and garlic until soft. Add the asparagus and sautee a few more minutes. Add some wine to deglaze the pan and some red wine vinegar. Add frozen peas. Drain orzo and add to pan with vegetables. Boil shrimp and for a few minutes. Peel and set aside. Season with salt, pepper, and herbs de provence. Let cool before stirring in half of the feta cheese and adding mint and basil. Before serving, top with shrimp, more crumbled feta, and toasted pine nuts. Can be served immediately or be refrigerated for later. Made about 5 servings.

Baked Ziti

I think this was from a food network recipe, but I might have changed the cheeses. I remember making a meat sauce from scratch and I know we really liked that part, but this dish came out kind of dry.

Blue Cheese Burgers

This is another one from before the blog. think I bought a small container of beef so that I could do something with the leftover buns I had from making sloppy joes before. I remember I made it when Blake was out of town and had one for dinner and one for lunch the next day. I carmelized some onion and mixed the cheese in with the burger. It was tasty, but too thick. Next time I would flatten the patty more, especially in the middle because it swells up.

Fried Rice

I decided to post some of the things I made and took pictures of before I started keeping track on this blog. I don't have the recipe for this fried rice, but I think I made it because I had leftover cooked rice and chicken breast from something else I made. I always keep frozen vegetables on hand as well. I think I made some sort of sauce with soy and fish sauce etc that I had in the pantry. It's too bad I haven't been keeping up with this because the sauce was good and I would like to be able to recreate it. Oh well.

Roasted Chickpeas

Yesterday I was browsing on foodgawker and found this recipe for roasted chickpeas. It's supposed to be a very healthy snack so I thought I'd try it out. Unfortunately, mine did not come out all crispy so Blake did not like them. Some were crunchy, but most were a little soft inside. I might have needed to cook them a little longer longer.

Ingredients:
1 can of chickpeas, rinsed
a little olive oil
pinch of curry powder
pinch of coriander powder
pinch of cayenne pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400. Drain chickpeas and dump onto a baking sheet lined with foil. Add a little olive oil and seasonings to taste. Roast in oven for about 40 minutes, mixing the chickpeas around about every 10 minutes. Let cool to crisp before eating.

Turkey Stuffed Peppers

For dinner last night I tried to make something healthy I found on a weight watchers blog. I changed the recipe a little and served it with some salad and some whole clove garlic bread. I have lots of leftovers to eat for lunch this week.

Ingredients:
1.25 pounds of ground turkey (italian seasoned lean)
1/4 onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup tomato sauce (I used whatever I had left in a jar of arrabiata)
1/2 can of chicken stock
salt
olive oil
4 small red bell peppers
1 bag of uncle bens microwave brown rice
2% shredded cheddar and jack blend

Directions:
Chop the onion and the garlic. Heat olive oil in a large sautee pan and cook garlic and onion until soft. Add in ground turkey and brown until cooked all the way through. Add tomato sauce and chicken stock and simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated. Meanwhile, cook the rice in the microwave and cut the bell peppers in half lengthwise, removing all the seeds and white parts. Mix rice into turkey mixture and season with salt to taste. Stuff mixture into bell pepper halves as much as possible. Lay in a pyrex casserole dish. Add a little bit more chicken stock just to cover the bottom of dish. Cover tightly with foil and bake at 400 for about 35 minutes. Remove foil and top with shredded cheese before serving.

Prosciutto, Asparagus, Goat Cheese Strata

I went home this weekend for mother's day and helped my mom make a brunch for us and my grandparents. She had a weight watcher's recipe for some sort of frittata but it said to soak bread in the eggs before baking the dish. We were already making french toast also so we decided just to bake the eggs in a pyrex casserole dish. I didn't take a picture because I didn't have a camera nearby.

Ingredients:
1 bundle of asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tbsp garlic (mom only had the pre-chopped in a jar kind)
olive oil
white wine (for deglazing)
1 package prosciutto slices
1 package goat cheese crumbles
5 egg whites
4 whole eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 tbsp dijon mustard
salt, pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 and grease a pyrex casserole dish. Chop the onion, cut the asparagus, and slice the prosciutto into small pieces. Heat some oil in a large pan and cook the prosciutto until crispy. Remove to a plate to cool. Add garlic and onion into the pan and sautee a few minutes. Add asparagus and sautee another few minutes until soft. Deglaze with white wine to get bits off the bottom of the pan. After liquid has absorbed, remove this to another plate to cool.
Whisk egg whites, eggs, milk, mustard, salt and pepper together in a bowl. Add prosciutto and vegetable mixture and fold in. Add 3/4 container of goat cheese in and mix as well. Pour into greased casserole dish and bake for about 35 minutes. Add the rest of the goat cheese on top and broil for the last 5 minutes. Cut into squares to serve.

Spring Rolls with chicken and vegetables

I ate way too much junk food and cake this weekend so I wanted to make something really light for dinner last night. I decided to make spring rolls which I made with Sudy once a while back. It took a while to do but made a ton and I really like them. I bought a jar of Thai peanut dipping sauce and marinade and made a mango salad to go with it, which was really spicy but good.

Ingredients:
Rice paper wrappers
4 carrots
green leaf lettuce
1 red bell pepper
mint, basil, cilantro
bean sprouts
1 roast chicken, shredded

For Salad:
3 mangos, cut into chunks
1/4 red onion thinly sliced
1 green thai chili, chopped
juice of 1 lime
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar

Directions,
Slice the carrots and bell pepper very thin. Lay all ingredients out on a plate. Fill a large bowl with hot water. One at a time, soak a rice paper sheet in the water for a few seconds until it is soft, but still holds together. Lay it out on a cutting board and layer with lettuce, carrot, red pepper, bean sprouts, herbs, and pieces of chicken. Roll like a burrito as tight as possible and set aside on wax paper or a plate to refrigerate until ready to serve. Meanwhile, mix all ingredients for mango salad together and refrigerate before serving.