Italian Chicken and Brussels Sprouts in the NuWave Oven

I like kitchen gadgets. A lot. Maybe one of my favorite gadgets is my NuWave Oven. At first, I thought it was another one of those infomercial "as seen on TV" schemes. I mean really, cooking meat from frozen in 25 minutes using infrared technology that produces juicy meat with crispy skin that uses 85% less energy? What kind or sorcery is this? But seriously....it works. Ok, maybe their claims are slightly exaggerated. But not by near as much as you'd think. I find myself using the NuWave about once a week or so. And no, NuWave isn't paying me to write this...nor do they even know about it. This is all me here.

I was kind of surprised by the lack of NuWave tested recipes out there. Maybe it's not so popular with the food bloggers? Well, it should be. My 17 year old step son cooks dinner one night a week at our house and about 90% of the time he reaches for the NuWave. In fact, he got his very own for Christmas...and was super excited about it. He loves it because he can make a great dinner for all of us without standing over the food in the kitchen. To give him credit here, he was the one who discovered the deliciousness of cooking brussels sprouts in the NuWave.

Start out by placing halved brussels sprouts in the bottom tray, mixing in 1-2 tablespoons bacon grease

Add the rack and place chicken thighs on rack. Season with Italian Seasoning, garlic and salt

Put the dome on and set the cook time for 15 minutes. Flip chicken over, give the brussels sprouts a stir, and set the timer for 15 minutes again.

Finish everything off with some cracked pepper. It's really important you don't add pepper before cooking because it will burn and make your food taste funny.

Now I'm sure the NuWave folks weren't intending on cooking the veggies in bacon grease AND the drippings from the chicken above. That may even fly in the face of their nutritional claims, but I don't mind. I gave up all grains and refined sugar. I'm keeping my fats. All the fats.

Ingredients:

1 lb brussels sprouts
1-2 tablespoons bacon grease (optional, but who doesn't want bacon grease??)
chicken thighs (thawed)
Italian Seasoning
Salt and Pepper

Halve brussels sprouts and add to bottom tray of NuWave. Add the rack and place chicken thighs on rack. Season both side of chicken and turn the NuWave on for 15 minutes. Stir veggies and flip chicken over. Turn on for another 15 minutes (or until chicken is cooked through).

Cheesy Chicken and Kale

Sometimes Pinterest is my Google. Seriously, I often feel like my phone should come with an option to say "OK, Pinterest....show me recipes using chicken, kale, garlic and cheese." And yesterday was one of those times. I was trying to decide what to fix for dinner, so I just typed in the ingredients I wanted to use and behold...all of these great recipes came up!

One immediately caught my eye. It's probably because I could see all the cheesy goodness. I used her recipe as a starting point for dinner. It sounded so good and I figured I could make some changes to suit our tastes, and switch out the pasta for spaghetti squash, Ugh, giving up pasta is hard.

What you'll need:

2 lbs chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
1 large spaghetti squash
1 medium onion, diced
2 Tablespoons minced garlic
2 Tablespoons Italian seasoning
1 c chicken stock
1-2 Tablespoons butter
1-2 Tablespoons flour (equal amounts of butter and flour)
5 ounces baby kale, cut into manageable pieces
2 c Italian blend shredded cheese
Milk
Salt, pepper, red pepper flakes to taste

So I started by getting the spaghetti squash in the oven. I used a rather large one knowing I was feeding 2 teenage boys and my husband as well. I generally cook for 8 so we have plenty for dinner and for lunch the next day. After the spaghetti squash had been in the oven for about 30 minutes, I started in on the rest of the ingredients. First-saute onions in some olive oil.

After about 5 minutes, I added in some garlic and let that simmer for another few minutes. Then the chicken and herbs.

I let that go until the chicken was no longer pink on the outside. By this time, the spaghetti squash was done, so I pulled it out of the oven so it could cool enough for me to touch it.

Back to the chicken....
Push all the meat to one side of the pan and drop in a tablespoon or two of butter and let it melt, then whisk in an equal amount of flour and let that cook until it stiffens up. Add in about a cup of chicken stock and mix everything together in the pan. Keeping a simmer going, add in the kale and the cheese. After a couple of minutes, the sauce will start to thicken. Add milk until it's nice and creamy. Then add in the spaghetti squash and make a mess all over the stove top as you stir it all together. A final seasoning with salt, pepper and some red pepper flakes and it's ready to go.

I was going to add in some spinach too at this point, but I decided since we were having a salad with it and there was spinach in the salad, that was probably enough. Next time I make this, I'm going to toss in some capers though. The brininess would be perfect in here! But even without the capers, dinner was a hit with everyone. There was just enough left for the husband and I to have lunch today.

Chicken Parm with Zoodles

Anyone else have mountains of zucchini that seem to multiply daily? Even eating zucchini on a daily basis doesn't seem to make a dent in the amount we have! And really, after eating it daily for 5 or 6 weeks, you have to figure out some new ways to cook it. We've been using zucchini in place of pasta for spaghetti and lasagna, but last night we decided to try making Chicken Parmesan with the zoodles. One word.....yum! It was such a great combination! 

For the chicken.....

Chicken breast, cut into thin pieces (about a pound)
1 c bread crumbs
1 egg
1/4 c Parmesan cheese
2 T Italian seasoning
Salt
Flour

Preheat a large skillet on about medium heat and add just enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan.
In a large ziploc bag, mix bread crumbs, cheese, Italian seasoning and salt. Dust chicken with flour, dip in egg, then toss into bag until chicken is coated. Pan fry until chicken is cooked through, then place in an oven to keep warm. Just before serving, top with additional cheese and put back in the oven until it melts.

For the sauce....

2 c tomato sauce
1 onion, diced
4 teaspoons minced garlic
2 T Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste

Saute the garlic and onion until soft in a medium pan with some olive oil. Stir in tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Keep on low until ready to serve, stirring occasionally.

For the zoodles....

4 medium zucchini
2 T butter
1/4 c Parmesan cheese

Using a vegetable spiralizer, cut the zucchini into long strips.



Cook by either sauteing in a pan or by boiling for 2-3 minutes. Drain and stir in butter and cheese.

Now all that's left is to assemble your plate and enjoy! Now to figure out what to do with the  rest of the zucchini mountain.....

Zucchini Lasagna

In my many hours of skimming pinterest, I keep seeing pins for lasagna using zucchini instead of noodles. I'll be honest-I didn't stop and actually read any of the instructions. And we all know what happens when I do that. I'm happy to report that this time wasn't quite as disastrous and now I can share the lessons I learned! I love that this is a veggie packed meal with so much flavor (and CHEESE) but nearly guilt free.

What you'll need:

2 large zucchini
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cooked and diced
2 c fat free ricotta
6 oz baby bella mushrooms
1 medium bag of baby spinach
4 oz fresh mozzarella, sliced
2 c shredded Parmesan cheese (the good stuff, not the weird cheese like stuff in the can)
Italian seasoning to taste
Garlic powder to taste
2 Tablespoons bread crumbs (optional)

First, I cut the zucchini into long strips using a wire cheese slicer. I'm going to guess they were about 1/4" thick. They need to be study enough to hold up the filling of the lasagna, but thin enough to still cook through in the oven. Pictures would be helpful here, but hey-I'm working with afterthoughts here so we're using some Creative Commons photos.

photo by Gloria Cabada-Leman https://flic.kr/p/bpGyED 

Here's one of the things I learned after the fact....par cook the zucchini to reduce the moisture. The dish will work if you don't, but you'll have a lot of veggie water in the pan-not very appetizing. Next time I make it, I'm going to just toss these in a non stick pan for a few to draw some moisture out. I may do that with the spinach too.

Line the bottom of an 8x8 dish with strips of zucchini. Next add half of the spinach, half of the chicken, half of the mushrooms, half the ricotta, a good sprinkling of the Italian seasoning and some garlic, a third of the mozzarella and a third of the Parmesan cheese. Repeat. Top with remaining zucchini strips, cheese and bread crumbs. Bake at 375 until all the cheese is melted and center of lasagna is hot. That took about 45 minutes for me.

And the leftovers make a great lunch the next day! 

I wasn't very organized while I was making this and realized as soon as I put it in the oven that I forgot to put the mushrooms in. Oops! So I had to carefully pull back strips of zucchini to add it all in, which led to clumps of mushrooms and sections without any. Oh well...it still turned out tasty! With the healthy versions of the classic lasagna ingredients, I was able to cut the calories down to about 237 per serving! And that included the breadcrumbs. If you skip those, it would be even less. This lasagna is super cheesy and very filling.

Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings

If I knew just how good these were going to turn out, I would have taken pictures. Lots of pictures. Although, with just a couple of ingredients, I don't know what these pictures would have been of. But since I didn't, you'll have to be satisfied with this one picture. (which should be enough to make you drool)

Chicken Helper-Sweet & Spicy Teriyaki

As a part of General Mills Hamburger Helper Community, I occasionally receive product samples to try. We received a couple of samples a few months ago (yes, I know....I'm waaaaay behind in actually posting this). We got to try out a couple of new products, both of the Chicken Helper line-Sweet and Spicy Teriyaki and Orange Chicken.

I tossed the cut up chicken into the skillet, then started reading the directions. Oops. Note to anyone else who is going to try one of the new Ultimate Helpers-the meat gets coated with the seasoning BEFORE going into the hot pan. Tossing the seasoning in the pan with the chicken still got the flavor right, but I did learn my lesson!
The teriyaki sauce and some water finish off the mix.

The box also comes with white rice. We added the broccoli. 

What I liked: Excellent flavor! Wow....just as good as my mom's teriyaki recipe (but I'll never tell her that). It had a nice spice to it, but wasn't too much for the kids. 

What I didn't like: Not enough rice. And the husband doesn't like steamed rice, so I had to make him fried rice to go with it. Our free sample had a bit more spice than the ones they sell in the stores. Too bad-the freebie was better. 

Verdict: Since this post is a bit late, I can tell you we've bought four boxes since our freebie. It's super delicious, even the less spicy version. 

We also tried out the Orange Chicken Helper. I used pork shoulder steak instead of chicken and made a box of Chicken Rice-A-Roni instead of the white rice it comes with. There was literally not a drop left in the pan. 

As a member of the Hamburger Helper community, I occasionally receive products free of charge. The information and above product have been provided free of charge by Betty Crocker and General Mills through MyInsite. However, the opinions in this blog post are those of myself and my family.

Oven Fried Chicken

Is there really anything better than fried chicken? No, not really. Well, that is unless you have mashed potatoes with it. But that's another post. Unfortunately, fried foods usually don't sit too well with my stomach, so I tend to bake more than fry. My mom used to make oven fried chicken, but I didn't bother to call her and ask her recipe, so I figured I'd just wing it.

In a small bowl, mix together one egg and some milk. In a second bowl, mix together flour, salt, pepper, season  salt, oregano, and rosemary. Dredge chicken tenders in the wet mix, then the dry mix and lay on baking sheet.

I like to spray them down with a bit of ICBINB (I can't believe it's not butter) so they get a nice browning in the oven.  Bake at 375 until cooked through.

The kids loved these! Unfortunately, now they don't want to eat the frozen chicken tenders. I can't really say I blame them, but those were my go-to lunch staple when I was busy!

Chicken in Cream Sauce

We're back in the kitchen with mom!

 This time she fixed Chicken in Cream Sauce from Gooseberry Patch's What's for Dinner?
You'll love how easy this recipe is! Start by melting butter in a pan. Saute chicken, onions and your favorite seasonings until chicken is cooked through. Then stir in whipping cream and simmer for a few minutes. Remove chicken and put it on a warm serving dish.

 Next, beat an egg yolk and lemon juice into the warm sauce and let it thicken.

Pour over chicken and serve!

Want to win a copy of this cookbook for yourself? We're just a couple of recipes away from giveaway time! Make sure to check back for your chance to win!

Make sure to visit the fantastic blog parties on my sidebar, and of course, link up all your made from scratch recipes on my Tuesday linky-Made From Scratch Tuesday!

Jalapeno Chicken

Ott, A and I had so much fun during Canning Week, we decided to share some recipes using items we canned! Make sure to stop by her blog and check out what she's been cooking!

If you grow jalapenos, you know that you can quickly find yourself with an abundance. What did you do with all of those? I chose to pickle several jars. I use them throughout the year in various dishes such as chili and taco casserole. In each case, I find that I'm only using a small amount, so I canned most of my pickled jalapenos in small jelly jars. For this recipe, it's the perfect amount!

What you'll need:
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (for this recipe, I used 3)
small jar of pickled jalapenos

Place chicken breasts in dish, along with entire contents of jar.

Cover and marinate 4-6 hours. 

When you're ready to start cooking, preheat oven to 350. Take all of the jalapenos and juices and put those into a large skillet. 

Saute lightly. Sear each side of the chicken breasts in the same pan, then place chicken back in baking dish. 

Cover chicken with foil tightly and bake 35-45 minutes, depending on how many chicken breasts you are fixing.
To go with the chicken, I fixed Spanish Rice. I cheated...I used Zataran's box mix. But, I saved some of those jalapenos that I sauteed and mixed those in with the rice.

When the chicken is done, top with a thin slice of cheese and a spoonful of salsa....and don't forget one of the sauteed jalapenos!

What's for Dinner? #5

This post was linked to the parties listed here

Canning Week is coming! August 23-27 is canning week here and over at my blogger buddy's page here. We'll be having a linky party, recipes, tips, tricks, and GIVEAWAYS!!! See the button on the right? Go ahead and slap that on your blog and let me know so you can get your entries in early. We're also on Facebook! Join up to our group for an additional entry!


Teriyaki Chicken

Here's a yummy recipe for one of our household favorites! This one can be a bit time consuming, but totally worth it!

What you'll need:

For the chicken:

4 parts Soy Sauce
3 parts Worcestershire Sauce
1 part Lemon Juice
1/8 teaspoon Ground Ginger per chicken breast
1/4 teaspoon Garlic per chicken breast
1 dash salt per chicken breast

Combine all in glass baking dish and stir with fork. You'll want about 1/2" of sauce in the pan. Lay chicken breasts in pan. You can also make this up the night before and let it sit in the refrigerator, covered, to marinate. Cover with foil and bake at 375 until chicken is cooked throughout.

For the rice:

1/2 c cooked rice per person (works best with rice at least one day old)
Chopped onions, broccoli, zuchinni, and green peppers
Soy Sauce (or teriyaki sauce above)
2 eggs

In small pan, cook scrambled eggs and remove from pan when almost done. Put in bowl and set aside.

In pan, put a little bit of soy sauce (or teriyaki sauce) in the bottom and heat on medium until it starts to boil.
Add chopped veggies

Cook until tender. Turn heat up to medium high and bring to full boil.

For the rice, it's best to use rice that's at least one day old. To get the best fried rice, use rice that is 3-5 days old. If you're like me and don't plan that far in advance, cook rice before you start everything else and set out on a plate. Every few minutes, flip it around with a fork to let all the steam/moisture get out as possible. While cooking everything else, grab that plate of rice and microwave it about 15 seconds at a time every 10 minutes, stirring before nuking again.

Stir in rice, along with a little more more soy/teriyaki sauce. When sauce has been fully soaked up, reduce heat to low and stir in eggs.

Serve with chicken and enjoy!

For the Weekend Wind Down...

This week's question:
How old were you when you first learned to swim?

My answer:
I don't really remember how old I was when I learned to swim, but I do have a really strange fear of water that I cannot see the bottom of. Pools are fine, no matter how deep. But I won't go near a pond, lake, river, etc if I can't see the bottom, even if it's only 6 inches deep.

What's for Dinner #3

Easy, Cheesy Quesadillas




These are super easy, and sooo tasty!

You'll Need:

Flour tortillas
Fully cooked chicken, cut up in pieces
Salsa
Shredded Cheese

To begin, put one tortilla on a plate and sprinkle shredded cheese on. Don't get it too close to the edges, or you'll end up with a mess. I use 1-2 tablespoons of cheese. Then I add two heaping tablespoons of salsa. Next, evenly distribute pieces of chicken. Put second tortilla on top and move to Quesadilla cooker (Or, onto skillet).



Brown evenly on both sides if using skillet method, or cook until light turns green on quesadilla maker. Let cool a couple of minutes, then cut into wedges. Oh, and don't pay attention to the little pieces of my quesadilla maker on my counter...I keep telling myself I'm going to get a new one, yet I end up rigging it up each time!

I love to make this because you can please everyone with it. You can put just about anything inside them. This is one of our "go-to" dinners when we have leftover chicken, which was the case tonight. The kids in our house prefer just chicken and cheese, so this is a perfect way to make them a dinner they'll eat and a dinner we'll also love. Here are some other variations we've done:

Turkey, bacon, cheese
Chicken, bacon, cheese
Sauteed onions and peppers, chicken, cheese (aka fajita quesadillas)

We haven't really found a combination we haven't liked!



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What's for Dinner? #2

So I've spent the last hour reading the greatest blog EVER and it has inspired me to post my birthday dinner Shannon made for me. Yes my friends, you read that right. My husband actually cooked me dinner.



I have a confession on the above photo...I had actually taken a couple bites before I thought to document the one night he cooked!

Alfredo So Easy A Caveman (or Husband) Can Do It

Ingredients:
Fettuccine pasta
Pre-cooked, frozen chicken chunks
Frozen Broccoli
Alfredo Sauce (Ragu is my favorite)

Bring water to boil and cook pasta until tender (you'd think this would be a "duh" step, but I had to tell him how to do it)
In large skillet, put frozen chicken chunks and enough water to cover the bottom of the pan on medium heat until heated throughout
In microwave, heat up broccoli

Drain and combine all

Pour Alfredo sauce in bottom of pan and add pasta, chicken, and broccoli and warm over low heat, stirring often, until all ingredients are well coated with sauce and warm throughout.

So thank you, Shannon, for an awesome dinner! And all of you thought he was only good for changing your oil, spark plugs, transmission, etc.

Chicken 'n' Noodles

Sounds simple enough, but for some reason, my mom makes the best. It's to the point where I would almost swear she puts some sort of opiate in them. They tend to produce a euphoric state and are highly addictive! I won't even attempt to say mine are better, but they're good enough.

Ingredients:
Flour
Salt
Eggs
Chicken broth
Chicken pieces

In a large bowl, put a bunch of flour (3-4 cups) and a few teaspoons (2-3) salt. Mix together. Form a well in the center and add eggs. Start out with 2 or 3. Mix the eggs together in the well then slowly incorporate flour. This should form a very thick dough. If the eggs are all incorporated and it's still sticky, add more flour. If you have too much flour in the bowl that won't mix into the dough, add more eggs.
Grab a hunk of dough about the size of a softball. Roll this out until it's paper thin. That's the key to great noodles! Go back to my Kitchen Tips blog and see the section about the marble rolling pin. I couldn't even imagine making these without the marble rolling pin. When the dough is paper thin, use a very sharp knife and section the dough out to rows about 1 1/2" wide. Stack 4 or 5 of the rows up, then slice them into very narrow noodles. Repeat this process with remaining dough. Since my husband volunteered me to make these for his pitch in at work....with 50 guys....I roped him into doing all the rolling. Lay the noodles out on wax paper lined cookie sheets and let dry overnight. If you don't want to wait that long, stick them in the freezer for a few hours.














After they have dried, get out a large stockpot and put in about 4 small cans of chicken broth, chunks of chicken, and salt and pepper to taste. Set on medium to medium to high heat until broth is at a full rolling boil. When broth is boiling, slowly sprinkle in noodles. Keep sprinkling in noodles, constantly stirring. **Hint** If you don't continuously stir when adding noodles, you'll end up with one very large noodle ball. Once all noodles have been added, turn heat down to low and let simmer, covered. Stir noodles every few minutes.
At this point, it's the same as any other pasta. Just keep cooking until they are soft. My husband loves eating these over mashed potatoes. But he's one of those evil people that can eat all those carbs and still fit into his 29x32 jeans. I hate him. If you have more noodles than broth, put the extra dried noodles in freezer bags and they'll be ready to go next time. You can also use turkey in the noodles if you're making them at Thanksgiving. If you don't want the strong chicken flavor, use a couple cans broth, then add a few cans of water.

Chicken Lasagna

Two things to notice in this blog:
1) I make a TON of cookies, cakes, pies, etc. So it's not very often you'll see a main dish here. This is one of those rare occasions, so take note!
2) I don't measure...anything. I put the measurements in when I can take a guess that I'm 99% sure is about right. Blame my mother for this. She taught me the cooking basics, and rule #1 is NEVER trust the cookbooks. Trust your senses. Texture is almost as important as taste, so if something looks too runny or too thick, it probably is. Adjust accordingly.

For this recipe, if you make lasagna the normal way (tomato sauce and ground beef), think about how much sauce you generally use and make that amount of this white sauce.

Boil lasagna noodles as you normally would. Cook 4 large chicken breasts and cut into bite size pieces. Wash and chop fresh spinach. In large bowl, combine cut chicken and chopped spinach along with fresh cheeses such as parmesan, ricotta, and mozzarella. You don't have to use all three and can substitute your favorites. I like to add mizithra cheese, but it can be hard to find.

In a small bowl, mix together more chopped spinach and mozzarella cheese. Keep this separate until final step.

Sauce:

In 2 qt sauce pan, mix together flour, milk and butter. You'll only need about 2 T butter. As to the milk and flour, use 3 parts milk to 2 parts flour. Heat on medium heat until mixture becomes thick. STIR CONSTANTLY!!! You'll know it's right when you lift the spoon out of the mixture and it drops off slowly. While still stirring, add 1 small can of chicken broth and a handful of fresh parmesan cheese and a handful of shredded fresh romano cheese. Keep stirring until everything is melted together. Sauce will be slightly thick at this point.

Spoon just enough sauce in your baking dish to cover the bottom. Add one layer of noodles. Spoon another layer of sauce then a third of the chicken/spinach/cheese mixture. Repeat this process two more times, then add another layer of noodles. On top of the noodles, sprinkle the spinach/mozzarella cheese from your small bowl. Bake at 375 until cheese browns on top and sauce is bubbly throughout. (40ish minutes) Let stand and cool for about 5 minutes. Serve and enjoy! I recommend serving with garlic bread and a cesar salad.