Pesto Chicken with Tomatoes and Asparagus

I was looking for healthier, high protein recipes and came across this gem on Pinterest: One Pan Pesto Chicken and Veggies. I added the garlic to the original recipe, and I also recommend using the sundries tomato oil to cook the chicken for added flavor. In checking the recipe ingredients, 6 oz of chicken and veggies has 329 calories, 31.6 g protein, 17.1 g fat, and 15 g carbs. If you are sparing with the pesto, you should be able to lower the fat and carbs. No matter what, everyone who has tried this dish has loved it. It also reheats pretty well when I take it to work for lunch, which I count as a win! There is so much flavor in the dinner, and it is pretty easy to make, two more wins in my book. You're going to want to try this recipe.

2 Tbsp olive oil
1-1.25 pound chicken thigh or breast meat, boneless and skinless, sliced into strips
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes drained of oil, chopped
1 pound asparagus ends trimmed, cut in half, if large
1/4 cup basil pesto
1 cup cherry tomatoes yellow and red, halved

4-6 cloves of garlic, minced (or use jarred minced garlic)

Salt and pepper to taste

Slice tomatoes in half; cut ends off of asparagus; and chop sun dried tomatoes.

Slice chicken into large pieces.

Salt and pepper generously to taste.

Heat large skillet on medium-high heat, add 2 tablespoons olive oil (you can use some of the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes for additional flavor). Add chicken and add half of chopped sun-dried tomatoes.

Cook everything 5-10 minutes, flipping chicken a couple of times, until the chicken is completely cooked through.

Remove the chicken and sun-dried from the skillet, leaving oil in.

Add asparagus, seasoned generously with salt and remaining half of sun-dried tomatoes.  

Reduce heat to medium and cook about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook several more minutes until the asparagus is cooked through. I cook just until the asparagus is fork tender.

Remove asparagus to serving plate. Add chicken back to the skillet, add pesto, stir to coat on low-medium heat until chicken is reheated, 1 or 2 minutes, and pesto is dispersed. 

Add tomatoes and cook for a couple of minutes; remove skillet from heat.

Serve chicken, tomatoes, and asparagus, and watch your family gobble it up!

Bulgogi

Being an Army brat, I had the pleasure of many new experiences and becoming friends with a diverse group of people while growing up. My first best friend ever I met in Germany in the 1980s while in elementary school. Gina and I did everything together and stayed at each other's houses often. I made my nachos for her, and her mother, a Korean native, introduced me to many foods I'd never tried before. Gina and I reconnected in adulthood and remain friends to this day. For Thanksgiving 2016, Gina and her daughter came to visit me and my family. We had so much fun reminiscing and allowing our daughters the chance to get to know one another. One of my favorite activities was the cooking we did together... just like old times. I made Gina several dishes she had not tried before, and Gina made me bulgogi. Have you ever had bulgogi? It's a Korean dish made of thin, marinated slices of beef or pork grilled on a barbecue or on a stove-top griddle. It is also often stir-fried in a pan in home cooking. Sirloin, rib eye or brisket are frequently used cuts of beef for the dish. This dish was so delicious, and both my daughter and I loved it. This is Gina's recipe that she shared with me. You have to try this!

4 lbs rump roast (ask the store to shave it as thinly as possible)
1 entire bulb of garlic finely chopped
2 bunches of green onions sliced thin
2 large yellow onions chopped
3 green (red, yellow or orange) bell peppers chopped
4 large carrots finely peeled and sliced or a bag of julienne pre-cut matchstix size
1/2 cup of white sugar
1 entire bottle of low sodium soy sauce
1/2 bottle of sesame seed oil

2 Tbsp of fresh diced ginger or use the purée in a tube

1 Tbsp of black pepper

Start by chopping and prepping the bell pepper, onion, green onion, and carrots and garlic, if you're chopping those. I chose to use jarred garlic and the matchstix carrots.

Add the soy sauce and sesame oil to the meat.

Add the garlic, ginger, and sugar and mix into the meat.

Add the carrots, bell peppers, onion, and green onion and mix all of it together by hand (put on latex gloves) and be sure to separate the slices of meat to get all the flavors mixed in it.

Let it marinate for 30 minutes to overnight. The 4 lbs of meat will make enough to feed 6 people two times. I chose to bag and freeze mine. I got four quart-size freezer bags full of bulgogi, which feed my daughter and me twice. Be sure to freeze them flat. It's easier to store, and they thaws quicker. 

If you are pulling it out of the freezer, be sure to pull it the night before and thaw in fridge. When ready to cook, fry in a frying pan or wok on high heat. No extra oil is needed. At first it will be very liquidy... just continue to cook until some of the moisture cooks down.

Serve over jasmine rice and enjoy the aromatic, delicious yumminess!

Rosemary Garlic Butter Steak

While I really love a tender juicy well seasoned steak, it's just not something I eat often. When I saw this recipe on Pinterest for Rosemary Garlic Butter Steak, I knew it was worth a shot. I like rosemary; I like garlic; and I like butter. How can it get any better? And the gamble paid off! This steak is very tasty and most definitely worth a shot!

4 rump steaks (or one or two larger cuts) (1 to 1.5-inches thick), room temperature
2 or 3 garlic cloves
2 Tbsps fresh rosemary leaves
3 Tbsps butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
A splash of white or red wine

Dice the rosemary and garlic and mash together with the salt in a mortar and pestle.

Rub mixture on both sides of the steak. Allow to rest for 15-20 minutes.

Heat a skillet over medium/high heat and melt butter. Add oil to prevent it from burning too much. Add steaks, season them with pepper and cook 1 or 2 minutes on each side.

Turn it over. Cook it 2 or 3 more minutes and add the wine (you can add extra garlic and rosemary now too to the skillet). It will steam furiously. Cook the steak 2 or 3 additional minutes for medium rare, remove steaks and let rest for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the wine until reduced and a kind of sauce is formed. Slice the steaks and pour the sauce over it.

Herb Roasted Potatoes

Potatoes are another item that is very versatile and a common staple in my kitchen. This recipe, specifically, I found on Pinterest at Lemon Herb Roasted Potatoes. I have made this recipe several times, and they are delicious every single time. I've used fresh herbs and dried herbs; I've used russet and fingerlings and small golden butter potatoes and more. This recipe is delicious no matter how you decide to try it. I often fix these with my Chicken Piccata, and they accompany it well. The recipe is rather simple, but it does take a bit of time to roast the potatoes correctly, so plan accordingly.

6- 8 large sized russet potatoes, peeled (if desired) and cut into 1½ to 2 inch chunks
juice of one lemon
¼ to ⅓ cup olive oil (butter or other oil will work as well; a butter/olive oil combination is very good too)
½ tsp kosher salt
½ tsp cracked black pepper

1/2-1 tsp garlic powder
1½ Tbsp dried herbs, oregano, thyme and rosemary are good choices

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, and while it is heating up, place the roasting pan in the oven to heat up. Allowing the pan to get hot will help keep the potatoes from sticking when you put them in the oven. 

Peel (if desired) and cut potatoes. Boil them for only four minutes.

Drain the potatoes.

Add lemon juice and toss potatoes until they absorb it all.

Add oil and herbs and toss potatoes.

Once pan is hot, pull it from the oven and pour the potatoes in the pan.

Roast potatoes for 60-75 minutes, stirring and turning potatoes every 15 minutes or so, until potatoes are tender with crispy edges. Pair with your favorite meal and enjoy!

Baked Beans

I like beans... black eyed peas, pintos, limas, kidney beans, and much more. Baked beans, however, have never really been at the top of my like list. To be more accurate, I've never really cared for baked beans. I never even bothered to make them for other people because I disliked them so much. Then I saw this recipe on Pinterest for Smoky Bourbon “Baked” Beans, and it looked so good that I decided to give it a try. The first attempt was pretty much a disaster. I used dry beans, but I failed to soak them overnight. The flavor was present in the final product, but the beans were still quite tough. So I rallied and came at it a second time... Success!!! Oh my goodness, they were so tender and so flavorful. I made these again for our Holiday Party at work, and the crockpot came back to me dry as a bone. The real beauty of this recipe is how very easy it is to prepare. Whether you like baked beans or not, you should give these a try. They really are that good. I'm going to give you the ingredients that I used, but feel free to check the original recipe. 

4 cans great northern beans or navy beans
3-4 cups chicken stock
1 small onion, finely diced
2-4 cloves garlic, pressed through garlic press
Salt and black pepper to taste
¾ cup ketchup
¾ cup BBQ sauce
1 ½ Tbsps tomato paste
Pinch or two ground cumin
Pinch or two smoked paprika
¼ cup plus 2 Tbsps brown sugar
1 Tbsp molasses
Olive oil
9 oz Oscar Meyer real bacon bits
2-3 tablespoons maple syrup

Drain and rinse the beans, and place in a a large pot or a crock pot.

Next, add the diced onion; garlic; a few generous pinches of salt, cracked black pepper, cumin and paparika; ketchup, BBQ sauce, tomato paste, brown sugar, molasses and a generous drizzle of olive oil. Pour chicken stock until all the ingredients are covered.

Stir the ingredients together. Simmer on auto heat in the crockpot or bring to a boil and then lower heat and simmer until the beans are tender and the sauce is thickened. In the crockpot it takes six to eight hours and on the stove it takes about four hours. Right before serving add 2-3 Tbsps of maple syrup and the bacon bits and mix well.

Enjoy the amazing flavors that these beans offer with your favorite barbecue!

Salsa Verde

I love Mexican food, and I love spicy food. Eating out or purchasing large quantities of food just isn't a very viable option, so I figured out how to make salsa verde at home... and it is gooooooood. Nice touch of heat, but it won't make you cry. At least, it doesn't make me cry. Please use the ingredients as more of a guideline. I've made this three times now, with different amounts of ingredients each time. My latest batch made about three pint-size jars of salsa verde.

1-2.5 lbs tomatillos
1/2 to 2 large onion
3-8 peppers (I used 3 or 4 jalapeños and 1 serrano, just use what you have or like for the heat you want)
4-10 cloves of garlic, depending on how big they are and how much garlic you like
olive oil
bunch of cilantro
Splash of vinegar (I use white wine vinegar for a milder flavor)
salt
water

To roast in a pot:

Prep your items: remove the husks of the tomatillos, wash, and cut in half or quarters. Roughly dice the onion. Open, peel, and crush the garlic. Cut the tops off the peppers; remove the seeds of some of them to reduce the heat while maintaining the pepper flavors. Be careful not to touch the seeds too much and wash your hands promptly. Get all ingredients in a bowl.

In a large soup pot (if you are making a smaller amount then you can use a small pot or a large skillet), heat up a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Add tomatillos, onions, peppers, and garlic and roast until everything is softened and just beginning to fall apart. Stir often so that nothing sticks, but you do want some heat scoring. This will provide tons of flavor. This picture below is partially cooked. It went a bit longer after this.

To roast in the oven:

Peel, wash and dry the tomatillos. Halve or quarter the onions. In a large bowl, put the tomatillos, peppers, garlic and onion pieces (I halve mine). Sprinkle some olive oil over the ingredients and toss to ensure even coverage. Line everything out on a foil-covered baking sheet. Lightly sprinkle with ingredients with kosher salt. Roast in a 400 degree oven until tomatillos and peppers begin to brown and break down. Tomatillos will look soupy, and peppers should be blistered and mostly blackened. Peel the skin off the peppers. This is easier to do if you put the peppers in a plastic bag as soon as you pull them from the oven for about 10 minutes. That steams them and allows the skin to loosen.

Once everything is softened, remove from heat. Allow to cool just a bit so that you don't burn yourself. Add most of the ingredients to blender, leaving enough space for rising during blending. I like to hold back on the peppers and garlic, and add more to taste. Tear off several handfuls of cilantro, to taste, and place in blender along with a heavy sprinkle of salt, also to taste, and a splash of vinegar (I probably don't use more than a 1/2 tsp or so for about 1.5 lbs of tomatillos). Remember, you can always add more, but you can't take salt or vinegar out. Pulse until desired consistency is achieved - I prefer mine smooth. Add water to thin salsa. I use about 1 cup for 1.5 lbs of tomatillos. Salsa will thicken in the fridge. Add additional salt, cilantro, peppers or garlic to taste and blend until you reach the consistency and flavor you prefer.

Pour in a jar(s) or plastic container. Allow to cool, and then store in the refrigerator. Use as a salsa or as a sauce over your favorite dishes.

Chicken Chili

I grew up notorious for being a very plain, habitual, consistent eater. The past year or two, I have taken an active role in trying to push the boundaries of my self-imposed limitations. There are still plenty of areas that I'm not ready to push past, but this recipe for Buffalo Chicken Chili that I found on Pinterest was one of the ones out of my norm that I decided to give a try. It actually was a nice alternative to my regular chili, and worth a look at if you like chicken and chili. I messed with the recipe a little. The original is cooked in a crock pot, which I passed on. And I left out a few ingredients that I wasn't interested in. I don't think the recipe suffered any, because it was still rather delicious.

2 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 large red (or orange or yellow) pepper

Assortment of hot peppers - jalapeño, cayenne, Anaheim, cowherd
1 large onion
5 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup chili powder
2 Tbsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp paprika

1 Tbsp Ancho chili powder
Other possible chili powders are cayenne, chipotle, hot Mexican chili powder (I added an addition 2 Tbsps or so)

Dash of Adobo
3 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (15 oz) can kidney chili beans
1 (15 oz) can black chili beans
1 (15 oz) can pinto chili beans

1 (15 oz) can corn, drained
Salt and pepper to taste

Boil chicken in large pot until cooked and easy to shred.

Shred chicken. Heat about 2 Tbsps oil in the pot. Add onions and bell pepper and sauté for 2 minutes. Add chicken and garlic to pot and sauté for 5 minutes.

Add corn, beans, tomato sauce, hot peppers and spices, and mix well.

 Cook on low for several hours until hot and flavors come together.