Get Inspired: Chicken Provencal

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You won’t need to be looking for the best diet supplement if you eat a dish like this one. Prepared as instructed in the recipe, one serving is just 410 calories!

The calorie count may go a little higher if you do what I did and use chicken thighs instead of breasts.  Sometimes, boneless skinless breasts are just too expensive.  If I had made this when it was the recipe of the week at Shaw’s, they would have been on sale.  Also, we like the thighs better, they have more flavor.

I used boneless skinless thighs that were very well trimmed of fat.  But, if you have time and want to save even more money, just buy regular chicken thighs and bone them out yourself.  This is much easier than boning out breasts, as there is only the one thigh bone to cut out.  Be sure to save the bones, put them in a freezer bag and save to make stock.

You probably could just use bone-in thighs as they are, but keep in mind that they will take a bit longer to cook.

The easiest way to get grated orange (or any other citrus) zest is to use a Microplane grater.  I just lay the thing across a bowl and grate the zest into the bowl.  If you do not have a Microplane grater, just peel off the zest with a regular vegetable peeler.  Then you need to mince it up with a knife.  In any case, only peel off the orange part, not the white pith.  The orange part has all the essential oils that have the flavor, the pith is just nasty and bitter and should never be eaten.

If you want to serve a green vegetable with this, peas or green beans would be nice, just plain with butter.

Enjoy!

Get Inspired: Pork Chops with Roasted Red Pepper Cream

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This was another tasty dish from the Shaw’s Get Inspired series.  It’s one of those recipes that the cook time goes so quickly, that it makes sense to have everything prepped before starting to actually cook.  Start the water boiling for the noodles, and everything will be done at the same time.  I served noodles and spinach with this, as suggested.  But I used frozen spinach, I put it into a microwave-safe bowl and zapped it shortly before the rest of the meal was done.  I just melted some butter on the spinach as it cooked.  You can also season the spinach with salt, pepper, and maybe a little bit of nutmeg.

Use fresh basil for this, please.  If you don’t see it with the other fresh herbs at the supermarket, here’s a hint…look near the tomatoes. Basil and tomatoes are often used together, so stores put them near each other a lot in the produce area.  In fact, a very classic Italian summer salad consists of  nothing more than basil, slices of fresh tomato, slices of fresh mozzarella, drizzled with some good extra-virgin olive oil.  Sorry, Rachael Ray, I love you, but I still refuse to call it “EVOO”.

Although this recipe card came from Shaw’s, I actually shopped for the ingredients at Stop & Shop.  I was impressed to see that they got with the program and started offering thicker pork chops.  It used to be all most stores had were thin ones, which suck because they can get too dry after cooking.  Thicker ones retain their moisture better.  And go for bone-in if you can find them, as the bone also helps contain the moisture.  There is nothikng nastier than a dried up pork chop! (except for maybe an over-cooked piece of fish!)

Thankfully, roasted red peppers are widely available in jars.  This is good, because they are kind of a pain to roast yourself.  I’ve done it, but I prefer to just use the jarred variety, they are just as good.  Find them in the Italian section of the supermarket.  And be sure to drain off the liquid well before using, or else your sauce will get too watery.

Enjoy!

Get Inspired: Skillet Lasagna

Love lasagna, but find it too time-consuming to make?  Try this wicked easy recipe!  It takes all of the ingredients of traditional lasagna, but it can be ready in half an hour or so.  Best of all, you only dirty up one pan to make it, not all sorts of bowls and stuff for regular lasagna.

This recipe was originally seen on the America’s Test Kitchen TV show a few years ago.  It fits in well with their “Get Inspired” collection with Shaw’s, because of how quick and easy it is to make.  Have you ever had Hamburger Helper lasagna?  Well, this is just as easy, but much, much better.

When they made this on the TV show, they used bulk Italian sausage instead of ground beef.  You could make it lighter by using ground chicken or turkey if you want to.

The broken-up lasgana noodles go in uncooked, and yes, they are cooked through when the 20 minutes are up.  As long as the skillet you are using has a tight-fitting lid, they will steam and cook in the tomatoes.

Enjoy!

Get Inspired: Baked Fish Fillets with Crunchy Lemon-Herb Topping

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As you know if you read my main blog, Mike was in the hospital for almost a week.  When he was up to eating regular food, he ordered a baked fish fillet with a crumb topping, only to find that it was awful.  It was horrifically overcooked, which is a very common mistake people make when attempting to cook fish.

Anyway, he complained so much about that fish, that I promised that when he came home, I would make him a much better piece of fish.  I turned to my ever-growing Shaw’s “Get Inspired” recipe book (Shaws actually sells cute little binders in which to store all of the recipe cards, it’s only 99 cents), and decided that this recipe was exactly what I was looking for.

I used haddock fillets for this, they were on sale at Shaw’s this week for $6.99/pound.  I bought two nearly complete sides of haddock, and the ends where they cut the tail off were kind of thin.  You want to pieces to be at least an inch thick, too thin and they will overcook and be gross like the fish from the hospital.  The recipe even says that if the pieces are thin, fold them in half to make them thicker.  Some of the parts were thin enough that I had to roll them up.  Just do whatever works best.

Fifteen minutes in a 450º F oven was perfect for this recipe, the fish came out mice, moist, and flaky, not dry at all.  White fish like haddock and cod are kind of lean, and I think that the mayonnaise mixture that you brush on to adhere the crumb topping helped keep the fish from drying out.  I don’t think the hospital used anything like that, it looked like they just stuck breadcrumbs on the fish and that was it.  I know…they are trying to make things healthy and low-calorie, but come on, we’re talking only 3 tablespoons of mayo for the whole recipe.  And light or low-fat mayo is perfectly fine here; we use it, and can barely tell the difference between Hellmann’s regular and the light variety.

If you don’t want to use butter to greas the baking sheet, that’s okay.  Use Pam or brush it with some olive or canola oil.  Just use something, even if the baking sheet is nonstick, fish does have a nasty way of sticking.  I did use the butter, it’s not much and it adds flavor.

Whatever herb you choose here MUST be fresh, not dried.  Parsley is usually the easiest to find; use the flat-leaf variety rather than the curly, flat-leaf has more flavor.  I actually used basil because that was something I had in my fridge, and it was excellent that way.  The recipe also suggests dill, which is excellent with fish in general.  I think tarragon would be good, too.  I just wouldn’t use anything really strong, such as rosemary, sage, oregano, those would overpower the delicate white fish.

I served it with steamed asparagus and rice…very tasty!  Enjoy!

Get Inspired: Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli

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This is yet another easy and tasty winner from the Shaw’s/America’s Test Kitchen “Get Inspired” recipe card series.  I made this for Sunday night’s dinner.

A few notes – the sherry does add excellent flavor to the sauce.  It happens that Mike likes to drink sherry sometimes, so we had some on hand.  I’d keep some on hand anyway, even if we weren’t into drinking it, it is very good for cooking.  It’s called for in many Chinese recipes to make stir-fry sauces.

But whatever you do, avoid something called “cooking sherry”, in fact, avoid any sort of “cooking wine” crap.  Seriously.  These are usually found in the supermarket near the vinegar.  The reason they are not in the booze department is that they are non-drinkable, they are LOADED down with salt.  The rule about cooking with wine or any kind of booze is:  if you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it.  Go for the real thing or leave it out.  It doesn’t have to be expensive, top-shelf stuff, but it has to be something that is drinkable.

If you do not wish to consume alcohol at all, I suggest just upping the amount of chicken broth by 1/2 cup.

As for the Parmesan cheese, no, I won’t go all food snobby on you and tell you that only the most expensive, imported brands will do.  Nope, I’m a realist here.  But I think that you should avoid those jars and cardboard cans of grated cheese that are found in the pasta aisle.  They have NO flavor.  Once you try buying a wedge of even the store brand Parmesan and grating/shredding it yourself, you will never look back, I promise.  A wedge of cheese will go a LONG way, way longer than those cardboard cans that are almost the same price.

If you must buy pre-grated Parmesan, at least get it from the refrigerated cheese section, it’ll be much better quality.

In Step 3, I recommend adding the 1 cup cheese to the sauce first, stirring and letting it melt into the hot sauce, and then tossing in the broccoli.  And yes, I did microwave the broccoli as instructed.  It was much quicker than boiling water and cooking it that way, and it turned out fine.

I served this with my rice pilaf, and it was awesome!  I wonder why cooking rice on the stovetop is such a challenge for some people, I think it’s one of the easiest things to cook.  I can’t believe that I had to drag my ass out of bed at 5AM one day, to go to a class at culinary school at 7AM, only to be taught by the chef-instructor how to properly cook rice!  It’s NOT that flippin’ hard!

Christine’s Favorite Rice Pilaf

4 tablespoons unsalted butter -OR- 2 tablespoons each butter and olive oil
2-3 large shallots -OR- 1 small onion, finely diced
2 cups uncooked long grain white rice (PLEASE, no Minute or Success rice or any of that crap)
Salt & pepper to taste
4 cups water

Melt butter in a 3 quart saucepan over medium heat, add oil if using. Add the shallots or onion and saute for a few minutes. Add the rice, stirring to coat well with the butter/oil. Saute for a few more minutes, stirring so as not to burn it. Throw in salt and pepper to taste if you want to.

Add the water, give it a good stir, and let it come to the boil. Cover the pot, lower the heat to LOW, and simmer for 10-15 minutes or so. You know it’s done when you see little holes on the surface of the rice. Fluff with a fork and serve. Makes about 6 cups.

Oh, and if my very own *food police* comment spammer comes back and says anything negative about all of the butter and cream (which is really not all that much)…PUT A SOCK IN IT!  No one is putting a gun to your head forcing you to make and eat any of this stuff, anyway.

I think my readers are intelligent enough to decide for themselves whether or not they want to cook any of the stuff that I post here.  So bugger off, already!