Week Nine: Chicken with Israeli Couscous

Last week, I bought chicken breasts in a bulk package so I decided to try and find another easy chicken dish. Months ago, Will picked up a box of Israeli couscous and put it in the cart. (It wasn't on the list, but that's a different story.) It sat on the shelf until the other day until the other day we found a recipe on The Bitten Word (http://www.thebittenword.com/). They had modified it from a Martha Stewart magazine and I modified it a little bit further. It's pretty easy to make and the couscous turned almost risotto like. Not bad for a midweek, one pan meal.

Chicken with Israeli Couscous

Fresh Ingredients

3 medium to large boneless skinless chicken breasts pounded to even thickness

3 large plum tomatoes cut into large chunks

1 small onion, thinly sliced

3 garlic cloves, minced

The zest of one lemon

Parsley (for garnish, optional)

Pantry Ingredients

1 cup Israeli couscous

1/2 cup white wine

1.5 cups chicken stock

1 chicken bouillon cube (I like the Sazon brand.)

Pinch of saffron (optional)

1 cup of frozen peas

Extra virgin olive oil

Morton's Nature's Seasoning

1.) In a heavy bottomed skillet, heat a thin coat of olive oil over medium heat. Add the couscous and toast until most pearls are light brown color. Remove from oil and set aside. Lightly season both sides of chicken breasts with the Morton's seasoning and add to the pan. (You may need to add a touch more oil.) Lightly brown both sides of the chicken breasts and remove from the pan.

2.) As the couscous is toasting and the chicken is cooking, heat the chicken stock to just under a boil in the microwave. Once it's hot, add the bouillon cube and saffron (if using) and let them disolve.

3.) Once chicken is removed from the pan, add the onion and cook for a few minutes until they have begun to soften. Then add the tomatoes, garlic, and lemon zest. Stir and cook for a few minutes until the tomatoes start to break down and the garlic is cooked through. Add the wine and bring to a boil. Cook for three to four minutes and then add the chicken stock mixture.

4.) Once the liquid is hot, add the couscous and chicken back to the pan and cook until the chicken is done (about 15 to 20 minutes). When chicken is cooked through, remove from the pan and add the peas. Continue to stir until the couscous has absorbed the liquid and the peas have heated through. While the couscous is still cooking, thinly slice the chicken breasts. At the last moment, add the chicken back to mixture to gently reheat.

5.) Serve with a squeeze of fresh lemon and some chopped parsley.

Eat Up!

Week Eight: Chicken with Lemon Rice and Artichokes

I am neck deep in preparing for my high school's spring musical. Rehearsals are fun, but they keep me at work at least two hours after the last bell, which cuts into my dinner-making time. I've been looking for recipes that are easy to make, but still relatively healthy and delicious. I kept coming across these chicken and rice skillet recipes. After reading through a few, I was inspired to try coming up with my own. The end result? Easy and tasty!

Chicken with Lemon Rice and Artichokes

Fresh Ingredients:

2 medium to large boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut up into one inch pieces

1 lemon, juiced

A handful of fresh parsley, chopped

A dash of Half and Half

Pantry Items:

1 cup rice

2 cups good chicken broth/stock

1 tablespoon Morton's Nature's Seasoning*

12 oz. jar of marinated artichoke hearts (quartered)

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt

1.) Add a thin layer of extra virgin olive oil to the bottom of a heavy bottomed skillet. Season the chicken cubes with salt and brown on each side. You do not need to cook the chicken all the way through. Remove the chicken from the pan.

2.) Add the rice to the leftover olive oil and toast. While the rice is toasting, add the Morton's season blend to the chicken stock and mix. Once the rice has toasted, add the stock. Be sure to scrape the brown bits off the bottom and bring the mixture to a boil. Lower to a simmer and add the chicken (and any escaped juices) back to the rice. Cover and simmer until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender. (This took a little more than 15 minutes for me.)

3.) Once the rice is cooked through, add the artichokes and lemon juice. Simmer for a few more minutes until some of the acid has cooked out of the lemon and the artichokes have heated through. Turn off the heat and add a dash of half and half and a small handful of parsley. (Note: you can skip the cream at the end, but I like the little extra bit of richness it adds.) Garnish with just a little more parsley on top.

Eat Up!

* Morton's Nature's Seasoning is a blend I accidentally bought, but I have come to really like. It's a blend of salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and celery seed. If you don't have it, just add a little bit of each of these, or just the ones you like!

Week Seven: I suck.

I failed and cooked nothing new last week.

Week Six- Part Two: Easy Lentil Salad

I like lentils, but until recently, I have never made them at home. Last week, I planned to share a lentil soup that I crockpotted, but mostly it just tasted like chili and wasn't worth post. This week I made a super simple lentil salad-- no real measurements, just a basic salad framework.

Cold Lentil Salad with Cucumber

Fresh Ingredients:

1/2 an English cucumber

1/2 a lemon

A bunch of dill

A bunch of flat leaf parsley

Pantry Ingredients:

1 cup lentils

3 cups stock (I used chicken, but veggie would make it vegan.)

Extra-virgin Olive Oil

Red Wine Vinegar

Salt

Pepper

1.) Rinse and pick over the lentils. Combine lentils and stock in a pot and bring to a boil for five minutes. Reduce and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes until tender. Drain.

2.) While lentils are cooking, chop cucumber, a handful of dill, and a handful of parsley. Combine, salt generously and squeeze lemon juice over the mixture.

3.) When lentils are drained and slightly cooled, combine with cucumber and herb mixture. Drizzle with a healthy dose of olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Adjust all seasoning to taste. Eat immediately or (even better) chill and then serve.

Eat up!

Week Six: Chicken Saltimbocca (Sorta)

Here is the first of the two recipes I promised for this week!

Anyone who has ever eaten with me, knows I LOVE pork products. Prosciutto is one my favorites. This preparation is an economical choice because you don't need a lot of this pricey product to make an expensive seeming dinner. (It also seems kinda fancy, but it's really easy to make.) I took inspiration from the version of this classic that I found on Food Republic. Of course, I tweaked it using tenders rather than whole chicken breasts and using a little more prosciutto than the original recipe. I also finish the cooking in the oven because I prefer to keep the chicken breasts a little thicker than is usually recommended.

Chicken Sorta Saltimbocca

Fresh Ingredients

One pound chicken tenders (about six)

Fresh sage

1/4 pound very thinly sliced prosciutto

Pantry Ingredients

1/4 cup white wine

1/2 cup chicken broth or stock

Canola oil

Flour

Salt

Pepper

1.) Pound your chicken tenders out so they are about 1/4" thick. Lightly salt the tenders and lay them flat. Lay one to two large sage leaves directly on the tender. Wrap tenders in one thin slice of prosciutto. (This is a divergence from a classical prep in which you only put the pig on top. I like the wrap so you get more of that salty, fatty deliciousness.) Repeat with all tenders and put in the fridge for ten minutes or more so they can set up.

2.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and start heating a thin layer of canola oil in a saute pan. Lightly dredge the wrapped tenders in a mixture of flour and pepper. Working in two batches, brown the tenders and crisp the prosciutto on both sides. (This takes just a few minutes per side.) Place browned tenders on a baking sheet and bake until chicken is cooked through. (This takes about ten minutes or so.)

3.) While the chicken is finishing in the oven, pour off the extra oil from the saute pan and deglaze with the wine. Let the boozy smell cook off for a minute or so and then add the chicken stock. Boil over high heat to reduce for a sauce. When the chicken is cooked through, top with the sauce and enjoy.

Eat Up!

Tomorrow is crock pot lentil soup...

Week Five: Tech (Read: No Cooking)

Last week I was in tech for my underclassmen theatre festival. I would like to pretend I am the kind of person who can be really stressed at work and then come home and let it go, but I'm not. Instead, I mostly didn't eat (this always happens when I'm nervous) and what I did eat was complete and total crap.

This week, I will make two recipes to make up for it! Hmm... let the recipe perusing begin...

Week Four: Bolognese Fail

So this week, there is no recipe because the dish I made is not something I would want anyone to ever repeat.

I attempted to use Mark Bittman's recipe for bolognese sauce and I made one seemingly small, but fatal mistake. The recipe called for 1/4 cup chopped pancetta or bacon.

Ok, strike what I said about one mistake. Really, there were two errors. When bacon and pancetta are the choices, one should ALWAYS choose pancetta. At least when you're making a sauce of Italian origin. But, being lazy and cheap, I went with bacon-- high quality, organic, slab bacon, but bacon none the less. So ingredient choice fail.

Second misstep: I did some pretty stupid math. In my mind, a quarter cup is four ounces, which is equivalent to a quarter pound, which is exactly how much I got from the butcher. Um, no. A quarter cut actually converts to two ounces. So I used the double bacon. (That's right. I used twice as much as I should have of an already sub-par ingredient.)

To be fair, we ate the sauce and it was edible. But it wasn't good. Not even close to good. How not good was reinforced when, last night, I tried a friend's bolognese dish at Mercato, a legit and delicious BYO Italian restaurant. Their sauce was meaty, savory, soft and delicious. Mine kind of tasted like armpits.

Lesson(s) learned. Next time a mere two ounces of pancetta might make all the difference.

Week Three: Tiny Crispy Potatoes

I love potatoes. Really, really love them. This recipe is modified from one I found on the Food Republic website. The ingredients might be minimal, but the dual cooking process makes a for a pretty tasty side-dish.

This recipe completely benefitted from the addition of truffle infused olive oil (an awesome Christmas gift I received as part of a basket of fabulous gourmet products from my oldest friend in the world and fellow food enthusiast, Melissa!). I think any fancy infused olive oil would work equally as well, but if you only have the pure stuff, these potatoes will still be delicious.

Tiny Crispy Potatoes

Fresh Ingredients:

1 lb. Tiny Potatoes or Fingerlings

Pantry Ingredients:

Olive Oil (of any variety, infused oils encouraged)

Salt

Pepper

*You will also need a clean large dishtowel and paper towels.

1.) Put the potatoes in a pot with enough salted water to cover them. Bring to a boil and lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through. While you wait, coat the bottom of a small baking sheet with the olive oil and preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

2.) Once they're cooked, drain the potatoes and let them dry. Lay the clean dishtowels on the counter. Line half the dishtowel with paper towel. Transfer half the boiled potatoes to the paper towel, cover with an additional paper towel and fold the dish towel over. Gently "squish" each of the potatoes until they're mostly flat. (Be careful not to over squish or the potatoes will fall apart.) Transfer the flattened potatoes to the baking dish and repeat with the second half of the potatoes. Once all potatoes are on the baking dish, brush each disc with a light coating of olive oil and season.

3.) Bake the potatoes until crispy, about 20 minutes, flipping half way through. If they need a little help crisping, throw them under the broiler for a few minutes. Taste for seasoning and eat up.

Week Two: Roasted Beet Salad

Yesterday, my sister posted on my Facebook wall:

Jenna Wojcik

Sally, what's up with the latest blog entry? I don't have much to do here except read food blogs.

She caught me. Week Two and I was already behind schedule. Insert excuse about failed New Year's Resolution here. So I'm back dating. Pretend I posted this four days ago. Pretend I tackled the irreverent beet last week while I was anxiously waiting for the return of my personal hero, Leslie Knope to Thursday night television. (I knew she was going to ask Ben to be campaign manager! I just knew it!)

For anyone who watches Top Chef, you will know I am playing right into last week's episode when one chef mocked the other for wanting to include beets on a menu. "Beets?! Really? Everyone has beets on their menu." So I'm behind the food ball. Whatever. This recipe isn't particularly innovative, but it was new to me. I just came around to beets in the last year or two and I have been trying to incorporate more of them into my diet.

This recipe is borrowed and then modified from the Stonewall Kitchen Harvest Cookbook (which I highly recommend). This salad is easy to make once you get the beets roasted and peeled. And don't worry about finding gloves to keep your hands from getting the bright red beet coloring. It wears off pretty quickly.

Roasted Beet Salad with a Bright Vinaigrette

Fresh Ingredients:

8-9 smallish beets, a mix of red and golden (small means 1.5 and 2 inches in diameter)

Ginger (about a tablespoon grated)

3 scallions

Crumbled feta

Pantry Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar

4 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

(Tin Foil- not a food item, but you need it for this recipe.)

1.) Preheat the over to 375 degrees. Trim the ugly ends off the beets. Putting two or three beets together in the center of some tin foil and wrap them up to make a tight packet. Do this for all the beets. Put the packets in a baking pan and put them in the oven. Check them in an hour for doneness by putting a knife through the center of one. If you can cut through, they're done. (If your beets are really small, you should check in on them at about 45 minutes.)

2.) Take the beets out of the oven and let them cool. When you can easily handle them, peel off the skins. (This was the hardest and most time consuming part. I used a really sharp knife and took my time.) Slice the beets into discs and lay them out on plates or your serving dish.

3.) Grate your two tablespoons of ginger. (I used a microplane.) Finely chop just the pale green parts of three scallions. (Use more or less of the scallion to taste. I'm not super into raw onion flavor so the light green parts worked best for me.) Combine the ginger, scallions, red wine, and salt and pepper (to taste) in a small bowl. Whisk in the olive oil.

4.) Dress your beets with the vinaigrette and top with just a little bit of crumbled feta. Taste for seasoning and eat up.

Week One: Three Bean Vegetarian Chili

My sister, Jenna, finished college last summer and in late September had a graduation party with a pretty impressive food spread. Many of the offerings were class Wojcik family party standbys, but there were a few surprise entries. The stand out was the veggie chili. Perhaps most surprising was Will's praise. My meat-loving husband isn't usually won over by vegetarian (and in this case vegan!) dishes.

After the party, on the long car ride from MA to PA, both Will and I mentioned the chili. More than once.

I asked Jenna for the recipe. She pointed me towards the Rachel Ray base recipe that she had modified. I modified some of her modifications. The recipe below is the result. It uses dried beans which take a lot longer to cook, but you don't need to babysit it so it's worth it for the better flavor and texture.

Three Bean Vegetarian Chili

Fresh Ingredients

One medium onion-diced

One red pepper- diced

One green pepper- diced

One jalepeno seeded (fresh or pickled)- diced

Four cloves of garlic- chopped

Green onions (for garnish, optional)

Sour cream (for garnish, optional)

Grated cheddar cheese (for garnish, optional)

Pantry Ingredients

3/4 cup dried kidney beans

3/4 cup dried black beans

3/4 cup dried chick peas

1 cup veggie stock

32 ounce can of crushed tomatoes

2 tablespoons chili powder

2 tablespoons cumin

1 tablespoon paprika

2 teaspoons kosher salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

Tortilla chips (for garnish, optional)

1. Give your dried beans the once over to be sure you don't have any rocks or soil or any other surprises lurking. Soak your beans overnight in 8 cups of water.

2. In the morning drain and rinse the beans. If you're cooking them right away, put them in a large pot with plenty of water. Bring them to a boil and then lower to simmer. Simmer for 90 minutes to two hours. (They're done when they are the texture you're going for.) Drain and rinse. If you're not cooking them right away, just put them in a sealed container until you're ready to cook them.

3. In a deep pot over medium heat, add the olive oil, onions, peppers, and garlic. Sweat until softened. Once softened, add the stock, the tomatoes, the beans, spices, and salt. Stir well to combine. Bring the whole mixture to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Cook for as little as 30 minutes or for as long as you like. (I opted for about four hours because I had the time. And I think chili is one of those things that taste better, the longer it cooks.) Garnish however you like and eat up.