Spinach Torellini Bake

So I read about this yummy Tortellini Bake on Our Best Bites.  I do enjoy their blogs.  I'm not sure if its because the food is normal, its simple, or because its Kate and Sara blogging.  Either way, cheese, pasta, bacon, spinach:  sold.  I had been planning to make this since reading the recipe.  My original intent was to veggie it up with some asparagus I had in the fridge, but it was used in another manner.  I wound up pretty much following the recipe as it published, although i didn't really measure much - just the roux ingredients.  I still like the idea of throwing more veggies in there.  Serious win.  Definitely a re-do.  I could see prepping this the night before and just popping it in the oven when getting home from work for a quick and easy weeknight meal.  Looking forward to leftovers for lunch.

Ingredients
4-6 pieces of bacon,
1 bag spinach and cheese tortellini (12 oz)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbl flour
1 tbl olive oil
2 cups fat free milk
roughly chopped spinach -- about two handfuls
about 1.5 cups cheese -- mozzarella and parmesan mixed.
1 lemon
basil, pepper, salt to taste

Methods
1. I started off frying the bacon at a nice heat to make some tasty crumblies.  Meanwhile the pasta was cooking and the oven preheating.

 

2. After removing the bacon from the pan i wiped up most of the bacon grease and cooked the garlic for a minute or two in the leftover drippings in the bacon pan.  I used the leftover bacon grease and flour to make a roux.  (I actually took out too much grease, hence the added olive oil).  After adding milk, lemon juice, basil, salt, and pepper the sauce simmered until thickened slightly.

3. Meanwhile, with the oven preheating to 350F, I mixed the cooked pasta, chopped spinach, crumbly bacon, and cheese up in my pasta stockpot.  Finish by tossing and coating with the sauce and transferring to a baking dish.  I reserved a little cheese and bacon and threw them on the top before baking for about 25 minutes.  it was awesome, as shown below.

 T

Chicken Rollatini with Proscuitto and Provolone

I know.. it has been a while.  The whole moving thing throws off the whole cooking thing.

however...

i'm back.  and i made some kicking chicken the other night!  and I have some good stuff on the menu this weekend already :)

I saw this recipe on Gina's Skinny Eats several weeks ago and have been planning to make it since!  Seriously.  I pretty much followed her recipe, although it has given me a bunch of ideas on spins.  Here is my slightly modified version.

Ingredients
6 chicken tenders
italian breadcrumbs
3 cheese grated blend
lemon juice
olive oil
6 slices proscuitto
3 slices provolone

Methods
I took the chicken tenders and gave them a few wacks with the meat mallet, mostly just because i could :)  Meanwhile I mixed up a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice with a tablespoon or so of olive oil in one bowl and a 2:1 mixture of breadcrumbs and grated cheese in another bowl.  I took each chicken tender and washed it and patted it dry.  The tender was dipped into the lemon-oil mixtue followed by the breadcrumb mixture.  I placed a slice of proscuitto and half a slice of provolone in  middle and rolled the chicken up around it. 

The chicken baked in a lightly greased (Olive oil) pan for 30 minutes at 450.  since I was using tenders it probably could have cooked for 25 min. 

Note:  this looks a little more crunchy and whatnot because its from reheating the leftovers today... I forgot the camera in my other bag on Thursday when i made these.  oops.  but look at that crispy cheesy hammy goodness.mmm

Verdict - Win
It really was good!  I like this idea of the double breaded rollatini rather than trying to wrap a chicken breast around a bunch of filling and securing with toothpicks.  it was soo much easier.  We each ate to tenders and were full, leaving me 2 for lunch today :)

I had actually intended to take a couple of them and wrap a couple of asparagus spears in the middle of the proscuitto-cheese center rather than the onion that Gina used.  I still plan to do that... I think it would be awesome.  Other people suggested a basil leaf, but i like the asparagus idea, I just didn't follow through.  I also meant to spray the tops with olive oil so the breading would be crunchier during baking.  Either way it was a win.  the proscuitto was nice and salty and crispy from baking and it made my tummy happy :)

Plus, this was surprisingly easy -- far easier than David thought it was.  The hardest part is the tiny kitchen at the new house.

Amazing Roast Chicken

Adapted from Jamie Oliver (Naked Chef), as seen on Ezra Pound Cake.

Materials
4-5 lb roasting chicken
salt and pepper
4-5 lbs potatoes
1 lemon
1 head garlic
olive oil
rosemary and thyme
2-4 slices of bacon

Methods
Start out by cleaning the chicken, rinsing, patting dry and liberally applying salt and pepper to the inside and outside of your chicken.  Preheat the oven to 375 and allow your chicken to sit while you work on the potatoes.

Bring a pot of water to boil while you peel and cube the potatoes (golf ball size?).  Meanwhile, remove the garlic from its papery wrapper.  Boil the potatoes with the garlic cloves and lemon for about 12 minutes.  Drain the potatoes and remove the lemon and garlic.  Take a spoon and stir the potatoes around in the hot pot.  This makes them 'chuffy' as Jamie calls them.  I say it smooshes up the outsides and makes them roast even better!

Poke a handful of holes into the warm lemon.  Take the lemon, thyme (or rosemary), and garlic and place in the chicken cavity. Rub the outside of the bird with oil and apply extra salt and pepper if necessary.  Roast that bird for 45 minutes.

At the 45 minute mark take the bird out your pan.  Add the potatoes and some rosemary and stir them up in the pan, using your chicken drippings to coat the potatoes for roasting.  Place the chicken back in the center of the pan, surrounded by the taters.  Finally, the coup d'etat, put some bacon across the chicken breast.  Roast for another 45 minutes.  Crumble the bacon into the potatoes and serve.

Verdict.
Amazingly good.  Ok, maybe just good, I'm not sure.  This was the first chicken I've ever roasted.  I think that they can turn out badly, really dried out and bland.  Rumor has it that usually happens to your first roast chicken.That didn't seem to be the case -- this chicken was extremely moist, it had a good flavor, and was exceedingly appetizing.  The potatoes were good, the chuffy  thing appears to work.  In fact, i would say the parboil pre-roasting and chuffing thing is awesome.  I would recommend going in and tossing the potatoes mid cooking to get them good and roasty on all sides though.  Definitely a keeper -- I think David even enjoyed it. 

I even did things up fancy.  We had dinner at David's on Christmas Eve and at his Aunt's on Christmas night. This wasn't anything fancy (I had meant to steam some asparagus but lost track of time) but we did eat it off of my Christmas setting :)

024 -- Spanakopizza

The weekends are pizza time at my house. It harks back to childhood and growing up in Chicago. I had some feta cheese left over from last week's lentils, so I decided I wanted to do something with them. I had been reading some recipes on the web and decided to make a Greek spanakopita inspired pizza. MMMM pizza and spanakopita -- a combination that can't go wrong, right? I feel so Rachel Ray in naming my dish :)

Materials
Olive oil spray
1 Can refrigerator pizza dough
3 Cloves garlic, minced
1 Green pepper, chopped
1/4-1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
Spinach
Feta cheese
Oregano
Dill
Salt
Pepper
1 Lemon


Methods
First, spray the surface of a baking sheet with olive oil. Roll out the pizza dough to the desired thickness and spray the surface with olive oil again. Bake at 400 (or temperature on can) for about 7 minutes.


Pull the pizza out of the oven and start topping. I put the minced garlic down first, followed by peppers and onions. The spinach took the place as the top veggie. Spread the feta over the spinach. Top with dill, oregano, salt, and pepper to taste. Finally, sprinkle with lemon juice.

Bake for about 8 minutes longer and enjoy!

Verdict

Winner! This was excellent, definitely one to enjoy again. I adore dill and feta, making this a yummy combo! Plus it was pretty darn healthy. I thought that the lemon brought out the dill and oregano and made it pretty darn tasty!! Warning, since there isn't a lot of cheese (its really more of a flatbread...) the toppings like to slide here there and everywhere.

Recipe 2: Zesty Lemon Tuna En Papillote

For recipe No. 2, I present you with a recipe I saw on 5 Ingredient Fix on the Food Network the other day. This recipe uses the traditional french method of cooking known as en papillote. It essentially translates as cooking 'in parchment'. In this method the moisture of the food in the paper is used to self-steam.

Ingredients:
~ 1-2 Tuna Steaks
~ 2 Lemons
~ Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Zest the lemons and then slice them thinly. Place a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Place the lemons on the paper to form a bed of lemons. Place the tuna steaks atop the lemons. Top tuna with zest and salt and pepper to taste. Wrap up the paper into a tight envelope. Bake until fully cooked and tuna flakes with a fork. The recipe I followed said 18-20 minutes, but it was more like 30 for me.

Verdict:
Awesome! Absolutely Awesome! The tuna was infused with an intense lemony flavor. It was incredibly easy and incredibly good. The kitchen was filled with a wonderful lemony smell. Definitely a keeper!

On the food network they were using this tuna for a tuna salad - I plan to use the remainder of my supper for tuna salad later this week!

When I checked the recipe again I noticed that they suggested seasoning both sides of the tuna with salt and pepper. I would recommend doing that next time. I would also consider adding some other aromatic herbs.

Upon further research I found where they suggest that cooking in this method not be used for steaky seafood -- it takes longer to cook -- as I learned today. I still recommend it if you've got the time.

Last year one of my culinary goals was to cook more seafood for myself. I'm glad to say that i did cook fish a few times last year. I'm hoping to continue exploring seafood again this year. This tuna got the ball rolling!