Catch-up

Good Afternoon and Happy First Day of Spring!

Well, I wanted to our meals from last Sunday, as they were "divine"!

Saturday night I prepped an overnight french toast recipe. You can use any kind of french or sourdough bread, or try like we did, a delicious wheat raisin walnut bread from our local grocery store.

I cut into 6 thick slices (recipe calls for 6 slices, each 3/4 inch thick) and since it was a larger loaf, needed 2 baking dishes for the bread instead of one. I also needed to mix up a little extra batter, but this is the basic recipe:

3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

Whisk all the ingredients together and pour over bread.

Soak overnight. In the morning, cook with real butter and serve with pure maple syrup.

I used our grill pan which we LOVE. Turned out great!

We topped our french toast with sliced bananas, but any berries would also make this breakfast extra delicious (and more healthy!). A very easy recipe, start to finish!

Dinner last Sunday was a chicken dish we'd been wanting to try. I'm not much of a meat-eater, but try to be a little more open to it, as J is willing to eat anything non-meat I might make. My stipulation is that it has to be organic, so usually once a month we take a trip to Whole Foods, pick out a few different meats to freeze and have throughout the month.  On the menu was stuffed chicken breasts, turnips & mushrooms, and Tomatoes Provencal.

I started out with cutting the turnips into 1-inch pieces and quartering from there. Tossed them in a bowl with some baby button mushrooms, olive oil, some herbs, and a bit of fresh ground sea salt & black pepper.

Spread those out on a pan and let them start roasting in the oven at 425 for about 25-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, I started on my chicken dish. I got the chicken ready, simply by slicing a pocket in each breast.  In our cast-iron skillet, I sauteed sliced mushrooms in a little cooking spray with some dried thyme.

I let the mix cool in a bowl for about 10 minutes, then added some shredded part-skim mozzarella and fresh ground black pepper, then stuffed the chicken breasts with the mix.

                                               

 

The next step was the tricky part: to dredge the stuffed chicken in flour, then into beaten egg, and coat with panko bread crumbs. A little tricky with stuffed chicken! But I got it done and cooked in a little olive oil in the cast iron skillet, for about 2 minutes on each side.

Then the chicken was baked in the oven (in the cast iron skillet) for about 15 or 20 minutes at 350.

I quickly prepped the tomatoes by cutting in half, a little brush of olive oil, and topped them with a bread crumb and grated Parmesan cheese mix.

The final dish photo below is sans tomatoes, as the breadcrumbs got a *little* burnt when I broiled the tomatoes, so not really visually stunning. But they were still delicious!

Finally, my catch-up ends with our second Lenten Friday meal. I opted for a slight easy-out by purchasing crab meat-stuffed banana pepper halves from Giant Eagle. They have a lot of great items like these that are premade, freeze nicely, and bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes. J &I had had rough weeks at work, so I was looking to keep things simple but still delicious. I made a quick rice & bean dish that I popped in the oven 10 minutes into the peppers baking. I drained and rinsed a can of black beans while I cooked a Steamfresh bag of brown rice in the microwave. When the rice was finished, I emptied the bag of rice into a bowl, added about 2/3 of the black beans, a couple spoonfuls of whipped cream cheese, and a couple spoonfuls of salsa, and mixed well. I added the whipped cream cheese in an effort to maintain some moisture in the rice dish since I was baking it. (It worked!) I topped with a little shredded Mexican cheese blend and baked it for the remaining 10 minutes with the peppers.

I also made some homemade corn tortilla chips by slicing 4 small corn tortillas with my pizza cutter, spraying with a little vegetable oil, and topping with some fresh ground sea salt and black pepper. I baked those for the last 10 minutes as well, though next time I will bake a little longer or at a higher temp, as they were crispy on the outer sides, but still a little soft in the middle. But not bad for a first run!

Hope you've enjoyed the latest update. It's time for me to hit the kitchen to try a macaroni & cheese soup! I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out!!

Ciao!