Provençal Roast Chicken

I feel like lately I've been obsessed with Rosemary!  I know, I know, Herbes De Provence has Rosemary in it, but it's a wonderful blend of other spices as well!  Come fall, I will make a Rosemary Roast Chicken, when Butternut Squash is in season!  I decided on a Provençal Roast Chicken from Betty Crocker's:  The Big Book of Slow Cooker, Casseroles & More this time around because I had left over Red Potatoes and we all know how I LOVE zucchini!  I was a little skeptical about having the vegetables roast in the same pan due to the chicken grease, but they came out magnificent!  The aroma of the Herbes De Provence is glorious!  And I love the touch of the lemon, it really makes the dish all that more refreshing!  This time, I didn't save the carcass to make chicken stock out of, because as of right now, I have plenty of chicken stock.  But again, come fall, I will be making my own chicken stock, and will have a stockpile of that in my freezer for soups and stews.  You can increase the ingredients if you are having a dinner party.  The way the chicken and vegetables are arranged in the roasting pan is truly picture perfect!  The perfect way to impress your guests!  :)

Isn't it beautiful?

Yields 6 Servings

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken (3 to 3 1/2 lb)
• 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon dried herbes de Provence
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 8 small red potatoes, cut into fourths
• 2 medium zucchini, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes with basil. garlic and oregano, drained (I only had a 28 oz can, so I used that)
• 1/2 cup chopped putted kalamata olives

Directions:

• Heat oven to 400.  In ungreased shallow roasting pan, place chicken, breast side up.
• Grate peel from lemon; squeeze juice.  In small bowl, mix lemon peel, lemon juice and oil.  Drizzle half of lemon mixture over chicken; pat herbes de Provence and pepper on skin of chicken.  Place squeezed lemon halves inside chicken cavity.

• In large bowl, toss potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, olives and remaining lemon mixture.  Arrange vegetables around chicken in roasting pan.  Insert ovenproof meat thermometer into chicken so tip is in thickest part of inside thigh and does not touch bone.

• Bake 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours or until thermometer reads 180 degrees, legs move easily when lifted or twisted, and vegetables are tender.

***Please remember to keep voting for my son, Eoin, for the Gerber Generation Photo Search.  You can vote for him via FACEBOOK my clicking here!  Thank you very much, I appreciate any and all votes!

Black Bean Enchiladas

I know it's either feast of famine with this blog!  This will be my 4th post within 2 days!  After this I will be all caught up, and will be posting current recipe adventures!  Actually, as I type this, I have a chicken roasting in the oven, and will hopefully be posting about that recipe later tonight (after Eoin is asleep) or at some point tomorrow.  I love 3 hour nap times!  Gives me a chance to watch a DVRed show (Hawthorne, one of my guilty summer pleasures), do dishes and prep dinner for tonight! 

This week has been a total catch up on chores and when I get a second to sit down, usually while I eat lunch, I bang out a blog posting (or two).  I had my Gram in the hospital for a little over a week, so I was running back and forth to the hospital to visit her on a daily basis.  Thankfully, all is well now (she is actually being discharged today!) 

Luckily, this will be my last night of cooking for the next two days!  :)  Tomorrow we have a barbecue with some relatives from out of town, and then Thursday Bill won't be here for dinner, and I'll just have some left overs from tonight!   

One last thing before I continue this post.  Please, if you have FACEBOOK, become a fan of A Mommy's "Food" - scapades, but also, PLEASE vote for my son for the Gerber Generation Photo Search.  You can vote once a day, every day, until the end of the month.  I really appreciate each and every vote!  The link is:  Vote for Eoin!  It seriously only takes a matter of seconds!  Thank you!

Last week, we were either always eating on the go, or I needed something that I could assemble in the morning and then heat up later on, taking minimal time.  I figured there are only so many casseroles that you can do in the summer, that you actually want to eat.  Then I remembered how well my enchiladas stay when I make them ahead of time.  I didn't have time to slow cook chicken breasts, and I have a huge amount of canned beans sitting in my Lazy Susan, so Black Bean Enchiladas it was!  Healthy AND filling!  I decided to take it one step healthier and use whole wheat tortillas.  Sometimes, like with whole wheat pasta, you can taste the difference, but in this case you couldn't!  These came out so good that Eoin absolutely LOVED them!  I was a little shocked because I thought he wouldn't care for them much because of the jalapenos.  Here's a picture of him enjoying his Black Bean Enchiladas:

This is very similar to a recipe I posted back in May,Chicken Taco-Burrito-Fajitas, with a few varied ingredients, so you could always use that recipe and then follow the rest of the directions on here.  This recipe, however, was adapted from Betty Crocker's:  The Big Book of Slow Cooker, Casseroles & More.

Ingredients:

• 1 TBS vegetable oil
• 1 medium red onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 can (15.25 oz) whole kernel sweet corn, drained
• 3/4 cup of chunky-style salsa
• 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 1/2 cups of shredded Monterey Jack cheese with jalapenos
• 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
• 10 whole wheat tortillas
• 1 can (10 oz) enchilada sauce
• sour cream (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350.  Spray 2 baking dishes with nonstick cooking spray.  In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat.  Add onion and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onion is just tender.  Stir in the corn, salsa, beans and 1 cup of the Monterey Jack cheese.  Remove from heat.
• Wrap the 10 tortillas in a paper towel and place on a microwave safe plate.  Microwave for 1 minutes, just until the tortillas soften.  Spread about 1/4 cup of the bean mixture in the middle of each tortilla and roll up tightly.  Place seam side down in baking dish.
• After all tortillas are used up, spoon the rest of the bean mixture over the top of the enchiladas.  Spread enchilada sauce over the enchiladas, making sure you coat all tortillas.  Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of Monterey Jack cheese and 1/2 cup of cheddar.
• Bake for 30 minutes.  Serve with sour cream, or any other Tex-Mex condiment, if desired.

Mustard Chicken

I've made this dish a few times, to give a little variety to our chicken fingers, and I have varied the ways I make it.  When I list the ingredients, I will give you the variations I made.  This is QUICK, SIMPLE and DELICIOUS!  The 3 key things I look for in a weeknight dinner!  Eoin liked this, it was a pleasant change from the same old chicken fingers I always make!  If you are preparing this for a child, please be careful on what mustard you choose to use!  You can use split breast, chicken thighs, or even cut up whole chicken, whatever your preference, just adjust cooking times accordingly.  I make this in chicken finger fashion, it's easier to serve to Eoin that way.  This was served with a side of Rosemary and Lime Red Potatoes and I'm happy to say that the flavors blended very well! 

Yields 6 Servings

Ingredients:

• 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips (you can also use chicken thighs, split chicken breast, whole cut up chicken, as mentioned above)
• 1 cup of mustard (this last time I used a Honey Dijon, but you can use Spicy Brown, Dijon, whatever your preference, just be careful on how spicy you go if you are cooking for children), more as needed
• 2 cups of crushed corn flakes, more as needed
• 1 TBSP onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

*Instead of the last 3 ingredients, you can also use a can of french fried onion, crushed. 

Directions:

Combine the crushed corn flakes and onion and garlic powders in a bowl.  Dredge each chicken strip in the mustard and then the corn flake mixture.  Place in a baking dish coated with cooking spray.  Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes.  Turning halfway through. 

**Depending on how thin you cut the strips, cooking time may be less.  Thicker, longer...ALWAYS use a meat thermometer to be certain!

Rosemary and Lime Red Potatoes

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I am ALWAYS looking for fresh ways to serve up a side of potatoes.  When I went to my friend Diana's bridal shower back in April at Avli The Little Greek Tavern in Bayside, I had these delicious lemon potatoes.  It was love at first taste!  I never thought that potatoes and citrus could mix so well on the palate.  They were so fresh and so light!  I made up this recipe as a nice little twist on those delicious potatoes.  It does take a little time to bake, so you can adjust the temperature, I was just baking something else on the same temperature, so I made do.  Just cook until you can pierce easily with a fork.

Yields 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 6 red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into wedges
• 1-2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil, just enough to coat potatoes
• 2-3 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• salt and pepper to taste



Seriously, these look gorgeous!



Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375. 
2. In a bowl, combine potatoes, oil, lime juice, rosemary, salt and pepper.  Put into baking dish and cover with aluminum foil, or bake in a casserole dish with a glass lid.
3. Bake for 30-45 minutes.  Stir potatoes once, halfway through.  Potatoes are done when pierced easily with a fork. 

Enjoy!

Stromboli

The past week has been extremely hectic and I have A LOT of catching up to do.  I have 2 recipes to share from the beginning of the month, and then this and another one from last week.  Last week was a week of take-along-dinners for my boyfriend, since more often than not, we had to run out as soon as he got home from work.  I made grilled cheese two nights, and I made this Stromboli.  It was my first time making it, and I did make a few mistakes.  I used a prepared Boboli pizza crust, which wasn't the worst idea in the world, but it did make the Stromboli hard to keep together and a bit of a mess to eat.  Next time, I am going to buy whole wheat pizza dough (usually kept in balls in the dairy aisle of your local supermarket, it is also sold frozen in the frozen aisle or in the bakery).  I used ground beef, but you could also use crumbled sausage, and I may actually try ground chicken, and of course you can substitute the spinach with broccoli rabe.  You can serve this with marinara sauce on the side, but in all honesty, it really doesn't need it!  It gave us dinner one night and lunch the day after.  I think the next time I will be doubling this recipe, because it was absolutely AMAZING! 

Also, I need to ask everyone again to please vote for my little guy for the Gerber Generation Photo Search.  I really appreciate every one's help with this!  The link is:  Vote for Eoin!  Thank you very much!

Yields 4-6 Servings

Adapted from the Comfort Food Diet Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb lean ground beef, chicken, turkey or crumbled Italian sausage
• Prepared pizza crust or pizza dough (about 14 ounces)
• 1 jar (8 ounces) of deli-sliced roasted sweet bell pepper strips
• 1 cup of shredded, part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 1 package (10 ounces) of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder or garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon basil leaves
• warmed marinara sauce (optional)

Directions:

1. Brown ground meat in a skillet until no longer pink, drain.
2. Spread meat, peppers, cheese, spinach, onion in a single layer over the pizza crust/dough.  Sprinkle the top with onion or garlic powder, pepper and basil.
3. Roll the dough up like a jelly roll, tucking edges under and pinching the seam to seal.  (If using the Boboli crust, roll up the best that you can without breaking the crust.  Take a big piece of aluminum foil and spray it well with cooking spray.  Wrap the Stromboli up tightly in the foil and then continue with rest of baking instructions.)
4. Bake on a well sprayed cookie sheet at 375 for 30 minutes.  Let stand 5 minutes, and then slice into 1 inch slices.  Serve with marinara sauce if desired.

Tuna Casserole and Blog Happenings

If you are a fan on facebook, you may have noticed that I've been posting a few links that aren't to my blog.  Whenever I come across a link that may be useful, I try and share it with everyone.  I am not going to post it to the blog, because they links generally have nothing to do with what I have been blogging about.  If you have facebook, check out A Mommy's "Food" - scapades, like us to get updates directly in your newsfeed!  Also, as I have mentioned, I entered my 18 month old son into the 2011 Gerber Generation Photo Search.  The grand prize is a much needed scholarship!  Education is of the utmost importance in this household!  Again, if you have facebook, please vote for my son, Eoin!  You can vote once a day, EVERY DAY, until the end of July: Vote for Eoin!  Thank you for all of your continued support!

I haven't made a casserole in a while.  I want to try to get back into that habit.  It's just as easy as doing a slow-cooker recipe.  Which is great for when I have work, or if I'm babysitting at home.  That way you're still getting good, wholesome food, and not slaving away for it!  A popular misconception when you're a stay at home Mom is that you're lounging around watching TV all day!  That cooking shouldn't be a problem!  I have to laugh at that, especially considering most of my days are spent cleaning, while my little guy follows me, destroying everything I have just done!  Occassionally we will order a pizza, or get take out burgers from the diner, but I refuse to make a lot of the ready-made meals, or frozen dinners, or just making something that's processed and fried!  I am not overly strict with what my child eats, but I can tell you it's not going to be that because I am too lazy, or too tired, or what have you to cook!  I've been looking for a good tuna casserole recipe for some time now.  I honestly used to love when my Mom made it when I was a kid.  Eoin seems to like fish, so I thought I would give this a try!  Unfortunately for me, since it was pasta and didn't have red sauce, Eoin didn't want to take the chance and eat it!  He was a terrific eater as a baby!  He's now gaining the palate of a toddler, aka he refuses to eat most food!  If it's not hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken fingers, grilled cheese, or pasta and marinara, we have a problem.  It's usually when I figure he won't eat something, that he surprises me and scarfs it down!  Anyway, this recipe is from the book Betty Crocker's:  The Big Book of Slow Cooker, Casseroles & More.  It looked good and it looked light, which is what you want from a casserole in the summer!

Yields 6 Servings

Ingredients:

• 2 cups uncooked fusilli pasta (6 oz)
• 1 jar (1 lb) Alfredo pasta sauce
• 1/3 cup dry white wine or chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 2 cans (5 oz each) solid white albacore tuna in water, drained
• 1 box (9 oz) frozen sugar snap peas, thawed, drained
• 1 jar (4.5 oz) whole mushrooms, drained
• 1/2 cup unseasoned dry bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375.  Spray 11x7-inch (2 quart) glass baking dish or 2-quart casserole with cooking spray.  Cook and drain pasta as directed on package, using minimum cook time.
2. In large bowl, stir together Alfredo sauce, wine, Italian seasoning, lemon peel, tuna, peas, mushrooms and pasta.  Spoon into baking dish.
3. In small bowl, stir together bread crumbs and butter; sprinkle over mixture in baking dish.
4. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown.

*Easy variation---> you can substitute 2 cups of cut-up cooked chicken for the tuna

2011 Gerber Generation Photo Search

I entered my 18 month old son, Eoin, into the 2011 Gerber Generation Photo Search.  I've been approached many times to put my child into modeling, and while I am truly flattered that others think I have an adorable child, I do not think that that is any sort of fulfilling life for a child.  If in 10 or so years Eoin comes to me and asks to be put into modeling or acting, we'll cross that bridge at that time.  That being said, I will put him into contests that will display his picture for an ad once, like this one is claiming to do.  Plus, the grand prize is a $50,000 scholarship, and education is extremely important to me.  I am not one of those mothers, who will put their kids face out there, to reap the profits themselves.  A scholarship is a great way to prevent this, and in this day in age, it is probably the most useful prize for my son's, or any child's, future.  I strongly urge all of you to vote for my son.  You can vote once a day, every day, until July 31st!  We greatly apreciate any and all support!  Unfortunately, you need a facebook account to vote, but please show your support for my son!  The link is Vote for Eoin!  Thank you again!