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I’m not sure if Shaw’s has discontinued their Get Inspired recipe card program or not.  We haven’t seen any new cards in the two Shaw’s locations we normally go to in a long time…in fact, it seems that both stores have removed the display racks for the cards. Unless they just moved them to another part of the store…they’ve been know to do that, and sometimes they are harder to find than a good selection of natural prenatal vitamins. Not that I’ve ever gone looking for those, it’s just that they might be hard to find. Whatever.

However, their website does have a “recipe of the week” for Balsamic Glazed Chicken, which is not a card that I have in my collection.  Maybe it’s gone internet-only?

If so, you will need to sign up on this page in order to see the weekly recipe and print out the internet-only coupons.  The coupons are only good at Shaw’s stores, if you don’t have one in your area, you can still make the recipes, but the coupons won’t do you any good.  They only ask for an email address, and they don’t spam you at all.

As for my feature here about these recipes, it’s been on hiatus, but it will resume shortly.  I have tons of recipe cards that I’ve picked up in the past and have not tried yet…as always, when I do, I will scan, post, and review the recipes right here.  If I ever do find any more cards, I will pick them up, but don’t count on that.  As it is, I have plenty that I haven’t posted yet, so this will go on for a while.

So look for the next ones to be posted soonly!

click on image for larger, printable recipe

Welcome to another installment of the ongoing Shaw’s “Get Inspired” recipe series.  It’s been a while, hasn’t it?  But no, I didn’t die from malignant Mesothelioma or anything.  I’ve just been busy!

This is an excellent recipe to make in the summer, as that’s when tomatoes are at their best.  My one piece of advice here is to taste one of your cherry tomatoes first, before preparing the sauce.  If they are more on the tart side, you may want to add more sugar.  The tomatoes I had weren’t very sweet, and the resulting sauce came out a little too tart, especially since it also contains lemon juice and zest.  I think it would have been more balanced if I’d used twice the amount of sugar called for.

So, the next time I make this, I’ll taste first! Enjoy!

click image for much larger version, opens in new tab/window

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!

click image for much larger recipe

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 nothing 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!

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!