Chicken Pasta Dish

As you've noticed, I've slowed the frequency of my blog posts, for multiple reasons. First is that I've gotten good at making my meals for two people, which means I have enough leftovers for the next night...and that means less cooking. Also, I'e started repeating recipes and those don't need to be posted again. The reasons continues, but by now you want to see some food!

Last week before I left for work, I had moved some chicken from the freezer and into the fridge to thaw out so that by the time I returned home that evening, my chicken would be ready to go...and that almost worked! The chicken was close to being thawed throughout, so I just soaked it (in the package) in cold water and finished 'er off.

Oh yeah, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. First thing I did after thawed the chicken was to boil the water for my pasta...always takes the longer than you think so I try to do it first.

While the water boiled, I started cutting up the chicken into smaller, bite-size pieces. I've cooked chicken both on the stove and in the oven, and for whatever receive, I decided the stove top was the answer for tonight.

I coated the pan in pam (hah!) and tossed the chicken in. I added some black pepper, red pepper flakes, and garlic salt to season the chicken just a bit. This will only take about 6-8 minutes to cook, but the time here is just an estimate. Flip the chicken constantly, making sure it is cooking throughout. You need to make sure to check the toughness of the chicken and make sure it's moist. If you only were to listen to my time guidelines, there's a decent chance you'll end up with dry chicken...and you probably don't want that.

I poured in the pasta (about half a box's worth) at just about the same time as I started the chicken. When the pasta was cooked, I strained it and left it in the strainer while I added the pesto. Here's the recipe I followed:
-1/4 cup of butter
-3 tablespoons minced garlic
-1/4 cup pesto

After following this recipe, I'd recommend using less butter and more pesto. I found the flavor to not be as pesto-y as I wanted, so added more pesto would be my suggestion...

By now, you've noticed that there's a salad in this meal too...but I didn't make it! Luckily, I had some assistance from my friend Andrea to whip up the salad. She enjoyed my cooking and lives to see another day! (Ok, my cooking is not nearly close to being that bad, promise!)

Bon Appetit!

Chicken Sammie

Tonight I pulled some chicken out of the freeze and thawed it out by placing it in cool water for an hour. While I let the chicken thaw, I went to the internet for some inspiration - to find a way to combine the ingredients I had to make something delicious. 

It started when I realized I had two left over hamburger buns...chicken sandwich it would be! I had two chicken breasts to cook and decided I would bake them in the oven. I set the oven to 450 F and to season the chicken, I sprinkled on some 21 Seasoning Salute, a Trader Joe's brand. I put in the oven and baked for 15 minutes. 

While I was scanning the web, I came across a Chicken Cheesesteak sandwich...and that's when I remembered I had bell peppers! So while the chicken was cooking, I cut up some red bell pepper and sauteed them in a pan on the stove with some olive oil. 

As soon as I pulled out the chicken from the oven, I laid a piece of cheese on top of it to melt a little. Then a little plating, added some BBQ sauce, and I had myself a tasty chicken sammie!

Pretty simple stuff here. Warmed up some left over quinoa from a previous meal and I had a nice dinner. I was thinking about adding a salad to start, but that just didn't end up happening. 

Bacon, Egg, and Cheese...Hamburgers!

Yesterday, I had a few friends over to watch the Stanley Cup Final and figured hamburgers would be an easy meal to make...And then we decided to fix it up a little bit and as the title suggest, we made ourselves some delicious Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Hamburgers (Insert cool name for burger here!).

I started with 1.5 lbs. of ground chuck and formed 6 1/4 lb. burgers. I seasoned with garlic powder, salt and pepper and cooked them in the oven using the broiler. I used my same trick, where I cover the pan in foil for easy cleanup. I flipped the burgers ever 5 minutes and cooked for about 15 minutes, give or take a few for how well done each of us wanted our burgers.

While I prepped and cooked the burgers, my friend Clay worked on cooking the bacon. Bacon is pretty darn easy, just throw it in a saute pan on the stove and cook on low heat to prevent grease from splattering everywhere. He used tongs to flip the bacon and cooked until the bacon was nice and crispy. Just a friendly reminder, bacon grease does not go down the disposal! We poured in a cup and then to dispose of, either throw outside in the grass or dump in the trash. Oh yeah, and you probably also want to pat the bacon after it cooks to remove some of the grease.

Now the interesting part. Well it shouldn't have been so interesting except for my shortcomings. I had never fried an egg before, much less done over-easy or over medium. Needless to say, it was a learning experience. They came out as more over-easy/medium, but on the third egg, I was a little impatient, tried to flip too early, and spilled the egg everywhere -  on the burner, on the side of the pan, it was a mess. I definitely should have stopped and cleaned the pan, but of course, as an amateur and not thinking, I kept on cooking. I'm certainly not perfect and some picture evidence is a great reminder.

But it the end, the burgers turned out really well and it was not that hard to make! We served with chips to keep it easy, but of course a nice side dish would be great here.

Delicious!

Let me know what you think!

I also need to throw some credit to my friend Daniel for fanning the smoke out of the air and preventing the smoke detector from going off again!

Sriracha Salmon

On Thursday night I decided I was going to have salmon, but I wasn't sure how I wanted to prepare it. Luckily, with a little help from Cate, we found a great recipe that was easy to follow and delicious to make!

Here it is:

One of my friends asked me if I thought of that sauce on my own...I did not, but that's the hope that one day I'll understand flavors enough that I'll be able to get crafty and throw something nifty together. Anyways, I followed the recipe except I used 1 lb. of salmon and did not use the chopped cliantro.

Before entering the oven

To complete my meal, I made quinoa and broccoli. Quinoa is really easy to make, I followed the instructions on the box. Only thing to note here is that it takes about 15 minutes to cook, so make sure you start it right around the time you throw the fish in. Also, quinoa lasts for days and is a great leftover to heat up quickly to supplement another meal (like lunch leftovers!).

Now I couldn't quite figure out the way I wanted to prepare the broccoli. I ended up throwing the broccoli in boiling water for about 4 minutes and then strained it after. The broccoli was alright, definitely not the best, so I'm looking for suggestions on broccoli prep. It'd be great if I had a steamer and just could throw it in the microwave, but I don't...so other ideas are welcomed! Click here to share some advice

After cooking...yum!

Finished product!

Need a Quick Meal? Try this!

On Monday, I made the following: Chicken pesto, salad, and fruit.

For the chicken, I had removed from the fridge the day before and had thawed it out in the fridge. I cooked the chicken on the stove top, so first, I cut up the chicken into small bite size pieces. Then, I sprayed the pan with olive oil (you can use pam/canola oil, etc.). Dump the chicken in and a minute or two later, spoon in as much pesto as desired. I had bought store bought pesto and had it in my fridge, so it was easy to add in.

Cook the for about 8 minutes or as long as it takes to cook through. You'll want to check the chicken, make sure it's still moist inside but cooking well on the outside before eating.

For the salad, cut up whatever vegetables/toppings you'd like and you've got yourself a salad!

Tried to keep this post short, so ask questions if you need help/clarification!

Mint Brownies!

This recipe goes out to the Rembold Family, for sharing this yummy recipe with me! 

Couple notes about these brownies:

-You'll be making a three layer brownie: Brownie, Mint, and Chocolate

-This recipe takes time! You want to make sure each layer sets completely before you try spreading a new layer on top, or else all will mush together...

-My suggestion: Make the brownies when you know you'll have an extended amount of time to let them cool after. When I recently made these, I made the brownies at night and then got to adding the second layer in the morning...worked really well!

Great for sharing with friends or to bring with for a dinner party!

Steak and Shrimp

After a week hiatus on the blog life...I'm back with some meals to post!

Last Saturday, Cate and I whipped up my first dinner in my apartment for the summer. And what a better way to bring in a new place like a nice steak dinner. 

This meal consisted of the following: Steak,Shrimp, Salad, Potato, and Pineapple:

First things first, you got to turn on the oven. For this meal, I used the broiler and cooked my steak in the oven. I set the broil setting to high. Then, I started adding spices. I coated all sides of the steak with garlic powder and then coated only the top and bottom with salt and pepper. SPECIAL TIP: I covered the broiler with foil and cooked on top of the foil, so that after the steak was cooked, the cleanup would be super easy!

I then placed the steaks on the covered broiler and placed in the oven for 15 minutes. After the first 5 minutes, I flipped the steak a quarter turn. And five minutes later, I did another quarter turn and rotated the steak around, because the further in the oven, the faster it cooks, so I wanted to make sure the steak cooked evenly throughout. Then around the 13-15 minute mark, you need to start checking the steak and cooking to desired level.

NOTE: If you’re reading this, I’ve probably never used your oven and have no idea how quick/slow your oven cooks. So take the times I give with a grain of salt and know that you’re going to need to monitor how well the steak cooks.

That’s all I did for the steak!

For the shrimp, I bought uncooked, pre-cut shrimp (I think about ½ lb. if I remember correctly). First, I rinsed the shrimp and then used a paper towel to pat the shrimp and get some of the water out. Next, I made a small aluminum foil dish, by folding in the ends of the piece I ripped off. The dish was big enough to hold all the shrimp and it’s important to keep the ends up to serve as a mini handle when you pull them out of the oven…so yes, that means I cooked them in the oven.

But before I put them in the oven, in a mixing bowl, I poured in BBQ sauce and honey and stirred around to make sure all shrimp was covered. Then I sprinkled on some red pepper flake to give the shrimp a little kick (This is optional if you don’t want the spice). After, I dumped the coated shrimp into the aluminum dish I made.

When the steak had about 3-4 minutes left, I put the aluminum dish right in the oven on the rack. Try to flip the shrimp if possible and after about 4 minutes, you should be good to go!

The tricky part now is pulling the aluminum out of the oven. It will be hot, but aluminum doesn’t retain heat for very long. If you’re not comfortable pulling out the aluminum, then I’d suggest cooking the shrimp in something else. I use the aluminum, because, of course, there’s no additional cleanup!

Potato this time was simple. I bought a pre-wrapped potato from the grocery and cooked in the microwave per the instructions on the wrapping.

Salad was simple too. I cut up some bell peppers, green onions, carrots, and gouda cheese and toss them all in.

Pineapple: Cutting a pineapple wasn’t as difficult as I had anticipated. Cut off the top and bottom and then make sure you skin the sides. Here’s the catch with pineapple., you can cut it as closely as you want, meaning the pineapple can be smooth and juicy, or, if you leave the inside core, tough and chewy. If you want to remove the core, cut the pineapple in half and then each half into strips. Once in strips, it's easy to find the tough core...cut it out, cut the remain pineapple into the desired size, and enjoy.

Bon Appetit!