What's For Dinner Tuesday

What's For Dinner Tonight 8-23-11

Tonight was spent with my sisters and mom at a local restaurant so I posting last nights dinner.

I was on my way home from a friends Saturday at 9:30 and still hadn't eaten dinner, I wasn't in the mood for my typical fast food so I decided to run into Kroger to pick some stuff up. L had gotten some veggies a couple days before and I wanted to make something with them but I needed to get some protein. I was originally going to get some tofu and make stir fry but then I saw buffalo chicken bites in the deli and thought that sounded better. The recipe I ended up with was delicious and I just had to make it for L last night.

Buffalo Chicken Stir Fry

1 Zucchini

1 Yellow squash

4oz Mushrooms

1/2 lbs Chicken

1 tbsp Goat cheese

1 tbsp Olive oil

1 tbsp of Buffalo sauce

Cayenne pepper

Paprika

Garlic powder

Salt

Pepper

Like I stated above I bought the buffalo chicken but you could just as easily buy chicken and saute with buffalo sauce. Heat oil in 9 inch saute pan. Saute mushroom, squash and zucchini until tender. Season to your desire spiciness. Add chicken and goat cheese, also at this time you can add more buffalo sauce if you wish (I've found that the sauce on the chicken will cook off a little) . Allow cheese to melt and serve. I like to sprinkle with parmesan.

What's For Dinner Tuesday

What's For Dinner Tonight 7-26-11

Well technically I picked up Sonic after my meeting but I made this last night and was going to eat leftovers tonight but didn't feel like it.

This is a recipe I make often because hubby loves it and it's full of veggies! I'm still trying to perfect this recipe and add a little more flavor (last night I realized I forgot to season the eggplant and add salt and pepper to the ricotta mixture). But that's why I love to cook is to try new techniques and figure out the secrets behind what makes a recipe work! My little secret to this recipe is using tomato paste instead of sauce.

Eggplant Parmesan

2 medium eggplants

3 oz tomato paste

2 large eggs

1 cup parmesan cheese

4oz Ricotta cheese

2 cups mozzarella cheese

Salt and pepper

Italian seasoning

Pre-heat oven  to 350. Slice eggplant 1/4 of an inch thick, I use a mandolin. Mix ricotta, eggs, half of parmesan, Italian seasoning and salt and pepper in a separate bowl. I do not pre-cook my eggplant, that;s the reason I use tomato paste because of the water in the eggplant would make it too watery. the next steps are just layering each ingredient one after another in any order you choose, I usually go sauce, eggplant, ricotta, eggplant, sauce, mozzarella, eggplant, ricotta, etc... the last layer i usually do eggplant ricotta, sauce, and then the rest of the parmesan. Cover with lid or foil and bake for 1hr. This time I used my round corning ware opposed to my usual rectangular Pyrex so I should have cooked it longer, but it turned out well.

 Like I said before I'm always changing up recipes til I perfect it so feel free to add or change to your desires. I've added mushrooms and leftover rotisserie chicken before. Next time I will be peeling the eggplant and see if I like that better. I also just found this recipe and think I might try this sauce cause I always like a little spice!

Sorry forgot to take a picture before we dug in :-)



What's For Dinner Tuesday

What's For Dinner Tonight 7-19-11

I realized that I have yet to put a pasta dish on here, which is surprising cause I eat pasta all the time. But come to think of it I can't remember the last time I had pasta. It's usually a go to meal for me, I always have a box in my pantry and I throw what every I have on hand in it. Tonight I actually planned this out cause I had to run to the store cause we were running low on veggies and cheese, and what's pasta with out any of those!

Pasta Primavera is any pasta dish with pasta and fresh veg.

Pasta Primavera



These are the freshest mushrooms I've ever found at a store, it was like they were straight from the farm.
Those sun-dried tomatoes I got from the Asian food market are amazing!

1 Chicken Breast

1 Medium Zucchini

4 Sun Dried Tomatoes

1 4oz container of Mushrooms

1 tbsp of Oil

6oz of Pasta

1tsp of Flour

Roasted Garlic

Seasons of choice

Parmesan cheese

Mozzarella cheese

1 tbsp of Cream cheese

I put the chicken on the stove top to help it defrost.

 Put water on to boil and cook pasta according to directions on box. I used whole wheat egg noddles. Add oil to a pan add mushrooms and zucchini and allow to cook down. At the half way point add tomatoes, flour and seasoning and allow to cook the rest of the way. Cook the chicken anyway you would like, I used left over buffalo chicken that I had in the freezer.

While everything is cooking in a separate bowl add garlic, cheeses and Italian seasonings. whisk together with about 1/2 cup of the pasta water, keep stirring til cheese is melted and garlic is dissolved.

Once the pasta/chicken/veggies are done stir everything together in the bowl with sauce and sprinkle with parmesan. Serve with toasted garlic bread.



What's For Dinner Tuesday

What's For Dinner Tonight 7-12-11

Chorizo Hot Pockets

6 Pilsbury Grand Biscuits, uncooked

3 slices of Pepper Jack cheese

6 oz of Ground Chorizi , uncooked

Egg wash

Flour for dusting

I've worked with alot of chorizo and this is probably the best one. I found it at Kroger.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out biscuits til they are about 6inches wide/ or the size of your hand, use flour to prevent sticking to board or pin. Cut the cheese in fours. In the middle of one half of the biscuit place 2 pieces of cheese and about 1oz of chorizo. Brush edges with egg wash and fold over and seal edges together. I like to fold mine over, roll it up and bring the two edges together and seal. (hope that makes sense, you can tell in the picture) Brush the sides and top with egg wash. Bake for 18-20mins. (I've found out it need longer than the biscuit directions)

These are probably one of the best things I've made in a while. Again this recipe came about by Hubby not being home Friday night  and trying to find something in the fridge just for myself. It turned out better than expected! And it's super easy and quick, makes a great Tuesday night dinner!

What's For Dinner Tuesday

What's For Dinner Tonight 6-28-11



Once again Hubby got to it before I could take a picture.

If you like me you've always wanted to try this but you thought it was too complicated and cost too much. Well earlier today I decided I was finally going to go for it, I had a coupon for beef tenderloin when I went shopping last week so I picked one up so it was perfect timing. I knew I wasn't going to be able to afford the pate that most recipes call for (and I've never had it so I wasn't sure if I would like it). So I searched for a recipe on Foodnetwork that didn't call for the pate. And I found this one, I decided to make a few changes to it like add cream cheese to kind of give it that creaminess that the pate would have. My tenderloin was a prepackaged one that was already had a peppercorn marinade on it. And I added roasted garlic to the onion/mushroom mix.

Beef Wellington

Ingredients

• 1 beef tenderloin (2 to 2 1/2 pounds)
• Ground black pepper (optional)
• 1/2 of a 17.3-ounce package Pepperidge Farm® Puff Pastry Sheets (1 sheet), thawed
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cups finely chopped mushrooms
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
• 1 clove roasted garlic
• 1 tbsp of cream cheese

Directions

Heat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Heat the butter and 1/2 of oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms, garlic and onion and cook until the mushrooms are tender and all the liquid is evaporated, stirring often. Set aside in separate bowl and allow to cool.

Season the tenderloin with pepper. In the same skillet pan, heat remaining olive oil. When the oil is hot, sear the tenderloin for 2 to 3 minutes on all sides. Remove from the pan and cool.

Heat the oven to 425 degrees F. Beat the egg and water in a small bowl with a fork or whisk.

Heat the butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and onion and cook until the mushrooms are tender and all the liquid is evaporated, stirring often.
Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Roll the pastry sheet into a rectangle 4 inches longer and 6 inches wider than the beef. Brush the pastry sheet with the egg mixture. Spoon the mushroom mixture onto the pastry sheet to within 1-inch of the edges. Thinly slice the cream cheese and lay out on mixture. Place the beef in the center of the mushroom mixture. Fold the pastry over the beef and press to seal. Place seam-side down onto a baking sheet. Tuck the ends under to seal. Brush the pastry with the egg mixture.
Bake for 25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and a meat thermometer reads 140 degrees F.

I served it with mash potatoes and green beans; and used the liquid from the beef left in the pan as a sauce. It was really good, I was very proud of myself. I will definitely be trying this again, I think it would make a great entertaining center piece! :-)



What I Learned:
For next time I think I will bring stainless steel pan out to get a better sear on the beef  and that might help the beef be less cooked through (I was hoping for med-rare and it was more med-well) and add more cream cheese or maybe even get up the nerve and extra money to try the pate.