BBQ Beef with Mixed Stir-Fry

This dinner is a hybrid of a similar meal I saw on the Food Network. I was watching one of those cooking competitions that they have sometimes...this one was for BBQ beef. This one mom/daughter team came up with BBQ beef skewers with pineapple, red pepper, and cucumber. Of course they made their own sauce, and we don't have anywhere to really grill skewers, so this is what I came up with instead:

INGREDIENTS:

-1 thin-cut London broil-type steak (I wish I had a better description than that. Basically just a very lean thin cut steak, whatever you prefer.)

-1 cucumber, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces

-About 1/2 a pineapple, cut into bite sized pieces

-1 red pepper, cut into bite sized pieces

-BBQ sauce of your choosing

DIRECTIONS:

-First, cut the beef into bite sized cubes. Fry it in the pan until brown...maybe 75% done.

-Add in the cucumber, red pepper, and pineapple. Cook until the beef is totally done.

-Add in enough BBQ sauce to cover everything. Take off the heat and serve.

COMMENTS:

-This was basically a simple stir fry, but I like the combo of veggies/fruits that were used. I was a little leery of the BBQ sauce with the pineapple especially, but it was really good.

-You may want to put the cucumber in a little later than everything else...it cooked faster and ended up a little softer than the pepper and pineapple.

-This is a great meal if you just want to do something quick, but don't want your average chicken stir fry meal. Enjoy! :)

Blackberry-Glazed Chicken

Happy anniversary to us! Yes, this is the K/CLamb 3 year dating anniversary. In celebration, I have a tasty lil' dish from a new cookbook that Cari gave me last weekend. It's Betty Crocker's Best Chicken cookbook. All chicken, all the time, and it has picture of every meal (which I love, I want to know if I totally screwed it up or not...). This one was a little unusual. Read on!

INGREDIENTS:

-1/2 cup blackberry jam

-1 tbsp Dijon mustard

-6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

1 1/2 cups fresh/frozen (thawed, drained) blackberries

DIRECTIONS:

-Brush grill rack with veggie oil. Heat coals or gas grill for direct heat. Mix jam and mustard.

-Cover and grill chicken 4 to 5 inches from medium heat 10 minutes. Turn chicken; brush with jam mixture. Cover and grill 10 to 15 minutes longer or until juice of chicken is no longer pink when centers of thickest pieces are cut. Serve chicken topped with blackberries.

COMMENTS:

-We didn't use a grill for ours, just a good ol' frying pan. We added the glaze when the chicken was cooked about 75% done.

-We served with a side of green beans, which was a good combo.

-The chicken was good, Craig and I both enjoyed it because it was a very different type of glaze. The jam and mustard was a little weird, but we both agreed the jam by itself would have been no good. Not sure if this will be on our list of "repeated" recipes. A good experiment, just not our favorite. I will say that the chicken and fresh blackberries tasted good together though!

Pork Chops in Spiced-Apple Pan Sauce with Roasted Broccoli Spears

Well I am certainly cookin' my little tush off this month, eh? Not bad. Tonight's recipe is in Rachael's Get Real Meals book, but I have to admit it's not one I would have normally chosen on my own. It was highly recommended by Ro, and since I have faith in the judgement of my fellow Lamb's, I went for it. With positive results!

INGREDIENTS:

-1 large head or 2 small heads broccoli

-3 garlic cloves, chopped

-Salt and pepper

-2 tbsp EVOO

-4 boneless pork loin or rib chops, 1 1/2 inches thick

-2 tbsp butter

-1 Spanish onion, thinly sliced

-2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped

-1 Granny Smith apple, cored and thinly sliced

-2 pinches ground nutmeg

-1 tsp ground cinnamon

-1 cup chicken stock/broth

-handful of fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

-the juice of 1 lemon

DIRECTIONS:

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

-Rachael has complicated instructions for cutting the broccoli. Basically, cut the big chunky stem off and then cut it into bite sized pieces. Easy enough. On a baking sheet, toss the broccoli spears with the garlic, salt, pepper, and a generous drizzle of EVOO. Place the broccoli in the oven and roast for 15 minutes.

-While the broccoli is roasting, preheat a large skillet over high heat with 2 tbsp of EVOO (twice around the pan). Liberally season the pork chops with salt and pepper and sear on both sides for 2 minutes, or until they are golden brown. Remove the chops from the skillet and reserve. Add the butter to the pork skillet, add the onion, thyme, sliced apple, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Cook, stirring frequently, for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the onion and apples are tender. Add the chicken stock and bring up to a simmer. Add the pork chops back to the pan and cook for 5 to 7 minutes longer, or until the chops are cooked through. Add the parsley and lemon juice to the chops and stir to distribute.

-Serve the chops topped with the spiced-apple pan sauce alongside the roasted broccoli spears.

COMMENTS:

-I'll start by saying...yummy! We love the spiced apple sauce, verrry good with the pork. As for the broccoli...well, as always, I didn't use actual cloves of garlic, but the prechopped garlic you get in a jar. And the garlic was all burned within 10 minutes of roasting. So I took it out a little early. The broccoli was still pretty good, though we probably could have done with less of that burned garlic taste. Maybe sticking to the fresh cloves is a better idea?

-As always, we skipped the onion.

-I forgot the parsley and lemon at the end. Let me tell you why. "Searing" pork chops creates quite a bit of smoke/steam from the pan. Even though we had our overhead fan on, apparently our apartment's smoke detector is very sensitive. VERY SENSITIVE. So as soon as we started cooking the pork chops, one of us constantly had to run over to the smoke detector in the hallway and fan a towel in front of it so that it would stop screeching. We also had to cook with the porch door open for ventilation (mind you, 30 degrees in Albany today). Not to mention my mom called in the middle of all this to tell me her and Bill have 2nd row seats to the Huskies game tonight (woooo UConn!). So maybe you see why by the end of the cooking, I really could not have cared less about parsley and lemon.

Anywho, it was still good without it. :)

Really Creamy Fettucine Alfredo with Veggies

Tonight's recipe is a hybrid. The homemade alfredo sauce was found on allrecipes.com. I got all the stuff to make it, and then I was watching some 30-Minute Meals, and my dear Rachael made a fantastic fettucine alfredo pasta mixed with zucchini, asparagus, and green beans. So that's how we got tonight's delectible feast!

INGREDIENTS:

-8 oz. fettucine pasta

-1 8oz. package of cream cheese

-3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

-1/2 cup margarine

-1/2 cup milk

-1 tsp garlic powder

-1/4 tsp dried basil

-1 pinch ground nutmeg

-half bundle of asparagus

-1 zucchini

-a handful-ish of fresh green beans

DIRECTIONS:

-Chop up the asparagus, green beans, and zucchini into bite sized pieces. Set those aside for now.

-Bring large pot of water to boil. Add pasta and cook for about 5 minutes. At this point, add the veggies to the pot. Cook the pasta the rest of the way through (another 5 mins or so) in the pot with the veggies. Drain.

-While the pasta is cooking...in a medium saucepan, combine cream cheese, Parmesan, margarine, milk, garlic powder, and basil, and stire over low heat until smooth and creamy (10-15 minutes).

-Toss the sauce in with the pasta/veggies until the sauce covers it all. Sprinkle with nutmeg and serve.

COMMENTS:

-Being an alfredo fan, I was overly impressed with myself for making this sauce. I will NEVER buy jarred sauce again. This stuff is so good. Though I will warn you that when you first see all that cream cheese/butter/Parmesan in a pot, all you can think is...clogged arteries, here I come!

-The veggies were really tasty with the pasta. Just a hint: you may want to throw the zucchini in to the pot about a minute after the green beans and asparagus. Those two veggies were cooked perfect, but the zucchini was just a tad overcooked.

-I forgot the nutmeg. Not sure quite how much that would have added to the dish but...what can I say, I live on the edge. :)

Sweet and Tangy Braised Chuck Roast

Kelly's first rule of living in your own place: buy a Crock Pot!! I did not understand the wonders of the Crock Pot until Mom bought us one not long after we moved in together. At first, my reaction was, What is this newfangled contraption? But now, it is my best friend. There is nothing better than throwing a bunch of crap in a Crock Pot, letting it cook all day, and having dinner ready when you get home. Now that's what I call service!

I found this recipe while flipping through a Good Housekeeping magazine at Craig's grandparent's house. I've made it before (pre-blogging days) so this is a repeat offender!

INGREDIENTS:

-6 2-inch gingersnaps (crumbled)

-2 cups baby carrots

-2 stalks celery, chopped

-1 cup dry red wine

-2 tbsp red wine vinegar

-1/4 cup raisins

-Salt and pepper

-1 boneless beef chuck roas (2 lbs)

DIRECTIONS:

-Combine gingersnaps, carrots, celery, wine, vinegar, raisins, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper in the slow cooker.

-Put roast on top of this veggie layer.

-Cook on low 8-10 hours, or high 6-6.5 hours.

COMMENTS:

-By the time you eat it, the liquid in this one is soooo good. It basically ends up like a stew, because the meat cooks so good that it falls apart. (I know it looks whole in the photo above, but as soon as we stuck a fork in it, it was in pieces.) We used a zinfandel wine that Craig made (yes, he has upgraded to wine making!), and you could taste the flavor in the liquid. Yummyyyy.

-I suggest cutting the fat off the roast before cooking. I forgot to do this and we ended up having to pick it out of the food as we ate. No big deal, just a convenience thing.

-I didn't add the raisins. Not a big raisin fan. But feel free to add them if you dare. :)

Chicken Lasagna

Tonight I delved into my lil box o' recipes that was compiled by all the guests at my bridal shower. It was fun looking through all the suggestions from everybody! I actually have no idea who submitted this one, because there was no name on it. So thank you, bridal shower guest, for this creation.

When I saw the title of the recipe, I thought this would be like traditional lasagna, but with chicken instead of beef. It wasn't until I was getting the ingredients at the store that I realized...it doesn't call for tomato sauce. Eh? I was skeptical after that, but it actually came out great. Read on!

INGREDIENTS:

-1/2 cup margarine

-1/2 cup flour

-1/2 tsp salt

-1/2 tsp basil

-3 cups chicken broth

-1 egg slightly beaten

-1/2 lb cooked and drained lasagna noodles (9 noodles=3 layers)

-1/2 lb sliced mozzarella

-1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

-2 1/2 cups diced cooked chicken

-2 cups cottage cheese

DIRECTIONS:

-First, obviously, make sure you've cooked your chicken and lasagna noodles.

-Preheat your oven to 375. In the meantime, melt margarine in a large saucepan. Blend in flour, salt, and basil. Stir in the chicken broth and cook until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil. Add the chicken.

-Separately mix the cottage cheese with the beaten egg.

-Place 1/3 of the chicken mixture in a 9x13 baking pan. Now a row of noodles. Next, top it with half of the cottage cheese and half of the mozzarella. Then add another layer of noodles. Top that with the rest of the cottage cheese and mozzarella cheese, as well as another 1/3 of the chicken mixture. Next another layer of noodles. Then top it with the rest of the chicken mixture and the parmesan cheese.

-Bake in the oven for 30 minutes covered, 15 minutes uncovered. Eat!

COMMENTS:

-This is really good "comfort food". The chicken mixture is really a gravy-like sauce, but paired with the mozzarella cheese in the noodles (I strongly suggest cutting slices off a hunk of mozzarella, don't use shredded stuff...it's much more gooey and yummy), delicious.

-I substituted ricotta cheese for the cottage cheese. Hey, I'm Italian, my momma done taught me good. Something about cottage cheese in a lasagna just doesn't sit right with me.

-This is my first ever lasagna! Way to go ME!! :)

Campbell's Creamy Dijon Chicken with Rice

This handy little recipe is from allrecipes.com, which I love. I love it mostly because they have an "ingredient search", where you can just plug in an ingredient you want to use, and they tell you all the different things you can make with it. This is ideal for me, because I consistently will come across things in our cabinets that I intended to use in a meal weeks ago, but forgot. Instead of trying to remember what I wanted to use it for, I just find new ideas on allrecipes. Tonight's recipe is courtesy of my need to get rid of a can of Cream of Celery soup.

INGREDIENTS:

-1 tbsp EVOO

-4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

-1 (10.75 oz) can of Cream of Celery soup (of course Campbell's recommends theirs)

-2/3 cup water

-1 tbsp Dijon-style mustard

-1/8 tsp ground black pepper

-4 cups hot cooked regular long-grain white rice

DIRECTIONS:

-Heat oil in skillet. Add chicken and cook until browned.

-Add soup, water, mustard, and pepper. Heat to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat 5 minutes or until done. Serve with rice.

COMMENTS:

-How's that for easy? 20 minutes or less, this one. Wanna make it easier? Use instant rice, like we did...ha.

-It tasted pretty good. Nothing exceptional, but a good quick meal for a night when you are maybe really tired from work, even more exhausted from the gym, and just want to sit around and watch CNN coverage of the primaries all night. Just as a for-instance. Go Obama!

Devilish Chicken

This is GOOD STUFF. Another from Rachael's 30 Minute Get Real Meals.

INGREDIENTS:

-2 tbsp EVOO

-2 tsp paprika

-1 tsp dry mustard or 1 tbsp spicy mustard

-Salt and pepper

-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

-1 medium onion, thinly sliced

-4 garlic cloves, chopped

-1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, quartered lengthwise and cut into strips

-1 tbsp tomato paste

-1 tsp crushed hot red pepper flakes

-1 1/2 cups chicken stock or broth

-a handful of fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

DIRECTIONS:
-In a large skillet, heat the EVOO (twice around the pan) over medium-high heat. Mix the paprika and mustard with some salt and pepper and season chicken breasts on both sides. Add the seasoned chicken to the skillet and brown on the first side for 3 minutes, flip, and then sear on the second side, 2 minutes.

-Remove the chicken and reserve on a plate under a foil tent. To the pan, add the onion, garlic, bell pepper, tomato paste, and red pepper flakes. Cook the veggies for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the chicken stock to the veggies and bring it to a simmer. Add the reserved chicken back to the pan and cook for 10 minutes more, turning the chicken over every now and then.

-Remove the chicken from heat, serve with the veggies, and sprinkle with the parsley.

COMMENTS:
-Tasty! There was just enough spice in this one without it being too much. And it was very good with the peppers. (We left out onions, as always.)

-Rachael suggests serving with green beans, but we went with regular ol' salad instead.

-Rather than the whole cook 3 minutes, sear 2 minutes, then cook 10 minutes again later, here's a simpler formula for the chicken: cook it halfway through. Set it aside. Cook the veggies for the proper amount of time. Then cook the chicken the rest of the way through in the pan with the veggies. Much easier than Rachael's complicated math! :)

Pork Loin Chops with Sweet and Hot Peppers

Apologies for the long absence! The holidays and all the craziness leading up to it led to a lack of cooking (and an abundance of trips to Subway). But, we're home again from our fun travels, so I'll lay a new recipe on ya. This one's from Rachael's Get Real Meals book, which Ro inspired me to look into.

INGREDIENTS:

-4 center cut pork loin chops, 1 inch thick

-Salt and pepper

-2 tbsp EVOO

-1 yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded, and sliced

-1 orange bell pepper, cored, seeded, and sliced

-4 jarred red hot Italian cherry peppers, sliced

1/2 cup white wine or chicken stock

-2 tbsp chopped fresh flat leaf parsley (a handful)

DIRECTIONS:

-Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chops with salt and pepper. Add 1 tbsp of the EVOO to the pan. Add the chops and cook for 5 minutes on each side.

-After the chops have been cooked through, transfer to a platter and cover with foil. Return the pan to heat and add the remaining tbsp of EVOO and the bell peppers. Saute the peppers, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes.

-Add the hot cherry peppers and a splash of their brine to the pan, and cook for 1 minute. Add the wine or stock and scrape up the pan drippings. Arrange the peppers over the chops and sprinkle with parsley.

COMMENTS:

-First, I think Rachael is a big liar about her cooking times. I definitely was cooking longer than 10 minutes. In fact, I had a whole phone conversation with Colleen in the time I cooked the pork and the peppers.

-I used raw red Italian peppers, not jarred ones. So instead of only cooking them for a minute, I sauteed them with the rest of the peppers. Still good!

-Silly me only made 2 pork chops, but didn't divide the rest of the recipe. So I had a plethora of peppers/parsley available. (To be specific, I only used 1 yellow pepper, 1 orange, 4 small Italian peppers, and way less than a handful of parsley.) Make sure you use fewer veggies if only making it for 2!

-Overall, reactions were favorable. The spice from the red peppers was really good, I loved it. And Craig mopped his plate clean (though that may have been because I asked him to do dishes after). :)