Crunchy Chicken Drumsticks

My kids just adore shake'n bake chicken (who doesn't?). So, I often make it for them when a quick and easy dinner is in order. One night last week, I just had no idea what else to make, and so I decided shake'n bake for the whole family this time. Of course, when I got home and checked the cupboard, I was all out.

No problem, I'm a resourceful Mom.... I just whipped up some homemade shake'n bake. Now I wasn't trying to replicate the flavour exactly. I mostly just wanted to get a nice crunchy coating on the chicken.

Of course, I went to all this trouble and Claire and Marco didn't like the crust. They made me peel all the skin off and they just ate the chicken. People must read my blog, and think to themselves, "that POOR POOR woman, why does she even bother?" I know it sounds like my kids never like ANYTHING, but overall I'd say they are less picky than I was at the same age. And in their defense, they have a crazy food obsessed Mom, who is always trying weird new recipes. They barely ever get to eat plain old spaghetti or meatloaf...

Crunchy Chicken Drumsticks

1 1/2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
1 cup peanuts, finely chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
8 chicken drumsticks
1 egg, beaten

1. Mix together the breadcrumbs, nuts, pepper and cilantro (I did this in a food processor to get a fine chop).

2. Dip the chicken drumsticks in the egg, then in the breadcrumb mixture.

3. Spray a cookie sheet lightly with cooking spray and bake in a preheated oven at 375°F for about 30 minutes.

Tuscany Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Everytime I decide to try stuffing chicken breasts I end up cursing myself, "WHY WHY WHY did I feel the need to torture myself with this recipe??" Stuffed chicken breasts are finicky and annoying. But sometimes, the end result turns out to be well worth the effort.

In the recipe book I found this in, the picture was amazing. The cheese was oozing out from the center of the nicely browned and perfectly rolled chicken breast. The recipe didn't even call for string or skewers or duct tape to hold it together while cooking, just "roll and pinch the edges to seal" (YEAH RIGHT!!). I had to tie each of my chicken breasts up with about 18 feet of string, they looked like little chicken breast mummies, and STILL most of my cheese leeked out into the wine I was trying to poach them in (made the sauce taste real good though).

I think part of my problem may be in the hammering/pounding of the chicken breasts, maybe I go a little overboard with the meat mallet. All I know is when I'm done I do not end up with a nice thin INTACT piece of chicken breast to neatly roll around a filling of my choice, but rather a pulverized, holey mess of chicken that I have to patchwork together around my filling and plug holes and try to tie up with my greasy chickeny gross slippery hands.... grrrr. At one point, when Mario heard me huffing and puffing he came over to ask if I needed some help and he came REALLY close to getting a pulverized chicken breast right between the eyes!

Then, I purposely left the sage out of one of the chicken breasts from hell for the kids, but got them mixed them up and gave the sageless one to Mario by mistake. To top it all off, my kids declared them "yucky" and, I officially lost my mind.... "yeah? yeah? well if you don't eat that, I'm not gonna be your friend anymore!!"

Did I mention this recipe tasted really good?

Tuscany Stuffed Chicken Breasts
from the New Dieters Cookbook from Better Homes and Gardens

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts
2 oz fontina cheese (in four slices)
1/2 cup roasted red peppers cut into strips
12 fresh sage leaves
1/4 cup flour
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups dry white wine

1. Place each chicken breast between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound to 1/4" thickness.

2. Remove plastic wrap add a slice of cheese, red pepper, sage. Fold in sides (if can find sides) and roll up (good luck with that). Don't feel bad if you have to resort to string to keep this sorry mess intact.

3. Repeat with remaining breasts (tee hee, I said "breasts").

4. Roll in flour, and cook in olive oil over medium heat until brown on all sides (about 5 minutes). Remove from pan.

5. Add wine and bring to a boil, let reduce slightly. Add chicken back to pan, cover and poach until chicken is cooked through (about 8-10 more minutes).

6. Remove chicken again, and turn heat up. Reduce sauce until about 1/2 cup remains.

7. Serve chicken with a little sauce drizled over top (don't forget to remove the string!)

Garlic Bread

I'm not sure that anyone actually needs a "recipe" for garlic bread. Actually now that I think about it, if you DO need a recipe for garlic bread, this site probably won't help you much. Get an easy-bake oven!

I have to be really careful serving bread with meals. The main reason is my daughter, Claire, who is 8. Unfortunately (for her bum when she hits puberty) she is exactly like me! She loves things that aren't good for her, and since she is so young, she hasn't yet developped that well honed self-discipline that I have (yeah right!). So if I put bread on the table with dinner, she will fill herself up on that and forsake her meat and vegetables.

Because of this, I will often use dinner rolls instead of a loaf of bread. I'll put out five small dinner rolls, one each for everyone and two for Mario. On occassion, Claire has tried to fight Mario for that fifth roll. She argues the unfairness of Daddy getting the extra roll. I try to explain to her that a little girl weighing 60 pounds couldn't possibly need to eat as much as big man weighing [marriage-saving-self-censorship kicked in].

Yet sometimes you are eating one of those meals, like lasagna or pasta where it just wouldn't be the same without a nice warm crusty loaf of garlic bread, and this is how I usually make it.

Garlic Bread

1 loaf dense crusty French bread
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp Mrs. Dash seasoning
zest of one lemon

1. Cut loaf in half lengthwise.

2. In a microwave dish melt butter, stir in crushed garlic and lemon zest.

3. With a pastry brush, spread garlic butter all over bread. Let it soak in a bit.

4. Sprinkle with seasoning. (At this point, you can freeze half of the loaf for later).

5. Place loaf on a cookie sheet and bake at 350F for about 15 minutes. Turn on broiler and continue baking another 2-3 minutes, until sliced top is nicely browned.

Chili

I made chili for dinner one night this summer when were out camping. When the kids asked me what was for dinner, I braced myself for the whining and complaining... and sure enough, "awwwwww.... not Chili, that's yucky!". But what I did was serve theirs over a toasted bun with a little sprinkle of cheese on top. Well, they LOVED it, they gobbled it all up. It's a wonder what a little sprinkle of cheese can do (and no, no amount of sprinkled cheese will ever persuade me to ingest a green pea - ICK).

We've had chili a few times since then, Mario and I love it, so we want to take advantage of this chili-love-fest the kids are having. Their preferences change like the wind, and any day now they might pronounce they hate it again.

Last night, my Mom and Dad were babysitting the kids while Mario and I went to a wedding. For dinner they all ate leftover Chili from a batch I made earlier this week. I made sure to tell my Mom about the cheese sprinkling tip. This morning, Claire says to me, "Grandma wants to get the recipe for your Chili, she says she liked it better than hers".

Now that was interesting, because this is already her recipe, and I never changed a thing! Just goes to show, everything tastes better when you didn't have to make it yourself.


Chili

2 tsp oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 lbs ground beef
1 28oz diced tomatoes
1 can tomato soup
2 19 oz cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 tsp chili powder
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp salt
1 bay leaf
1 green pepper, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
few drops worcestershire sauce
few drops hot sauce (or more to taste)

1. Brown beef in oil with onions and garlic. Drain fat.

2. Add all other ingredients and simmer for at least an hour, preferably two.

3. Remove bay leave and serve.

Bacon Sausage and Goat Cheese Frittata

Have I ever written about how much I love to have breakfast for dinner? Probably, but let me go on about it again for a bit...

Breakfast foods are among my favorite things on the planet... Eggs Benedict, Stuffed Crepes, Sausage and Egg Biscuits... I would eat those types of meals every morning for breakfast, if I could. But sadly, my metabolism runs at the same speed as cold molasses, and so I really do have to stick with bran flakes most mornings. One way I get around this, and manage to get my fix of breakfasty goodness, is to have my breakfast foods at dinner time, right before I go to the gym.

Frittatas are a perfect dinner food, served with some potatoes and a nice side salad. My kids love eggs, so it is also something that they will eat well (as long as I don't go all crazy and start putting vegetables in the frittata).


Bacon Sausage and Goat Cheese Frittata
adapted from Rachel Ray

4 strips bacon, cooked and chopped
4 breakfast sausages, cooked and chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
8 large eggs
1/2 cup grated Fontina cheese
2/3 cup crumbled goat cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

1. Saute the onion in 1 tbsp olive oil over medium low heat until softened. Let cool.

2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Stir in the onion, the bacon and sausage, the cheeses and the salt and pepper.

3. Coat a 10" inch ovenproof skillet with the remaining oil. Add the egg mixture and cook over medium-low heat until the sides start to set, about 3 minutes.

4. Bake at 325F until the frittata is firm, 20 to 25 minutes.

5. Gently run a rubber spatula around the sides of the skillet to loosen and carefully flip the frittata out onto a serving plate. Cut into wedges to serve.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

It seems like everytime I buy a bunch of bananas, one or two end up too ripe and get thrown in the freezer. I always try to mash the bananas first, and freeze them in baggies, because there is nothing worse than opening the freezer door and getting bombarded by an avalanche of disgusting black frozen bananas.

So, what do I normally do with all those frozen bananas? Well, of course I make banana muffins or banana muffins or banana bread. Thing is, then I get a glut of banana muffins in my freezer instead. There are just no huge muffin eaters in my family.... there are however, huge cookie eaters. So when I discovered this recipe for Banana Oatmeal Cookies, I new I was on to something BIG.

I made these for the first time on the weekend, and they were a major hit. Moist and chewy and the banana flavour wasn't over-powering. I will be making these again (I have enough bananas in the freezer for about 23 more batches!)

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup mashed banana (about 2 large)
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 cups quick oats
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Beat shortening, sugar, egg and bananas well.

2. Stir in flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

3. Stir in oats and chocolate chips.

4. Drop by large spoonfuls onto a baking sheet.

5. Bake 10 minutes at 400F. Cool on wire rack.

Creamy Gorgonzola Spaghetti with Toasted Walnuts

I have always had a small weakness for anything in a cream sauce. I know it's bad of me, and I have always been a little jealous of Mario who actually PREFERS tomato based sauces. We will be out for dinner in a fancy restaurant, and I will scour the menu trying to guess which meals might be lower in calories. Finally, I resign myself (with difficulty) to ordering some sort of pasta in tomato sauce or grilled chicken. Then the waiter stops at our table, and out of my mouth, totally involuntarily, comes.... "I'll have the tortellini with bacon and sausage in the brie cream sauce, please... oh and could I have side order of lard with that?".

The waiter leaves, and Mario is just looking at me with one eyebrow raised (he knows WAY better than to speak at this point)... "WHAT???".... then the guilt starts to set in, "Oh, I should have ordered the grilled chicken".... Mario offers to call the waiter back.... "no no, that's OK".

Here is one of my favorite at home versions.


Creamy Gorgonzola Spaghetti with Toasted Walnuts
serves 4

12 oz spaghetti
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese (about 4 ounces)
1/2 cup chives
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
Parmesan cheese

1. Cook spaghetti in boiling salted water.

2. Meanwhile, melt butter in non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add flour and whisk for one minute.

3. Gradually whisk in whipping cream, white wine and chicken broth. Boil and stir until mixture is thick.

4. Add crumbled Gorgonzola and whisk until cheese is melted and smooth.

5. Drain spaghetti and mix into sauce. Stir in walnuts and chives (reserve a little of each to sprinkle on top).

6. Place in a large serving bowl and top with Parmesan cheese.