Baked Herbed Chicken & Brown Rice

Y'all know how I love baked dishes...those fix-it-and-forget-it meals. Well, this is certainly one of them. However, I found that with this recipe, either there are some ingredient tweaks I need to make next time, or I need to "forget it" while it's in the oven a whole lot longer than what the recipe calls for.

You can find this one at campbellskitchen.com (Herbed Chicken & Brown Rice), but since I had some issues with it, I will post my version of the recipe here:

You'll need...

• 1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup
• 1 & 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 cup uncooked quick-cooking brown rice
• 1 & 1/4 lbs skinless chicken breast tenderloins
• paprika

Preheat oven to  400 degrees F.

Stir soup, water, thyme, pepper and rice in 2-qt baking dish. Place chicken on rice mixture and sprinkle with paprika.

Bake for 50-60 minutes (until chicken is cooked through and rice is tender).

The original recipe states to bake for 30 minutes. However, my rice was still runny at this point, and the chicken was not quite cooked through. Two suggestions...choose one: Either use less water (3/4 to 1 cup, but no more than 1 cup) or simply bake longer, as I did. Altogether, I baked this dish for 55 minutes.


And since Mark likes his veggies--particularly onions--I made him a little something extra: Dutch glazed onions (cooks.com; my modified recipe below).

• 1/2 medium onion, cut into wedges
• 3 Tbsp water
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 2 tsp sugar

Melt butter in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in sugar and water until well blended. Add onions, cooking until mixture browns (10-12 minutes), stirring frequently.


A quick, delicious meal...and if there's just two of you, enough for tomorrow's lunch! ;-)

Quick Pepper Steak

Mark walked in the house from work, exclaiming, "Oooo! It smells good in here!" I felt like saying, "Welcome to No. 1 Chinese Restaurant," because our home smelled just like the Chinese buffet down the street. (You know, one of those places you go and your clothes, skin, and hair continue to smell that way for days...weeks, even...)

Fortunately, the smell didn't stick around past dinner, and the meal was super-delicious and super-easy, as well...as indicated in the title!

This recipe is from Campbell's Kitchen (campbellskitchen.com). My goal this week was to use the same ingredients in as many dishes as possible. When you have a lot of ginger, garlic, bell peppers, onions, and water chestnuts, the only thing that makes sense is a menu similar to the No. 1 Chinese Restaurant.

Monday was an Asian-inspired chicken bake and stir-fry, tonight is a pepper steak, and there's a beef and broccoli stir-fry in the works for Friday night.

I followed this recipe pretty much as it is, but I did stir in water chestnuts with the green and red bell peppers and onions. I didn't worry too much about measuring out the other ingredients; it's one of those "season to taste" kind of scenarios, in my opinion. I probably added a little less Worcestershire sauce and more garlic powder. I thought about grating some fresh ginger over the beef, but decided to let the veggies do the work of flavoring this dish.

Flavorful, filling, and definitely a restaurant-quality meal that is very quick and almost effortless. Why don't you prepare a quick pepper steak tonight?

Easy Asian Baked Chicken

This recipe is from AllRecipes.com (search for same name as title of this post). One really neat feature about this site is the way you can change the number of servings and they will calculate the ingredients based on that. Most of the meals I cook are usually for two, but sometimes I'll bump that up to four or six...especially if we want any leftovers!

I prepared this following the recipe as it is, although I did add red bell peppers as well as green.

For a side dish, I prepared noodles with broccoli and garlic. Here's what you'll need (for two servings) and how you can make it, too:

• spaghetti (2 servings, as per pkg)
• 1 cup broccoli florets
• 1 clove garlic (or 1 tsp garlic powder)
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce

Cook spaghetti and broccoli separately. Remove both spaghetti and broccoli from heat 1-2 minutes before it is ready. Drain and add spaghetti back to pot and place back on the stove, reducing heat to medium. Drain broccoli and add to spaghetti. Stir in soy sauce and garlic. Continue to stir for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and serve.

You can pour some of the soy sauce mixture from the baked chicken over the noodles for more flavor. A very easy and yummy meal. Enjoy!

Rosemary Chicken & Mushroom Pasta

This recipe is straight from CampbellsKitchen.com. A very quick and easy meal to prepare, this one should be on your menu for dinner this week. With the weather getting cooler, a warm pasta dinner is not only filling, but comforting, as well.

The recipe online serves six. You can definitely scale it down to accommodate two to four. I followed the recipe exactly as is, using the ingredients called for (no substituting, adding, or eliminating this time). I did use linguine (as opposed to spaghetti), and decided not to use a whole-grain pasta for this dish. But you certainly can choose to do either or both of those options.

Rosemary is the ingredient that makes this dish pop. I've always liked rosemary with chicken. It adds not only a comforting flavor, but a comforting aroma.

Easy because the short list of ingredients are most likely already in your kitchen; quick because it's ready in half an hour, from start to finish. This dish is one you'll definitely make several times. Not only does it look good, it tastes deeee-lish.

My First Risotto

The title of this post is misleading; although this was indeed my first attempt at risotto, it certainly was not the highlight of the dish. This one was all about BACON. I pulled this one from Food Network's website, but made several changes to accommodate what I had in the kitchen. Basically, I made it fit my taste.

The original recipe is "Crispy Bacon-Wrapped Chicken with Three Cheese Creamy Risotto and Arugula Fennel Salad." Well, I nixed the salad altogether. And instead of goat cheese, mascarpone, and Parmesan cheeses for the risotto, I used a shredded blend of Italian cheeses. (It fits my tastes better--not a big fan of tangy goat cheese--plus this way saved some dollars!) There were also several ingredients I did not add (both to the chicken as well as the risotto), so I'll publish my recipe here. Of course, if you want the original, you can find it (as listed above) at foodnetwork.com.

There was also a sauce for this dish, which I may not make in the future, as I cannot tell that it significantly added to the dish.

Also, these ingredients have been scaled down for two servings.

Sauce

• 1/2 bottle red wine
• 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 1 tsp basil (or you can use a small bunch of fresh basil)
• 1 dry bay leaf
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 2 Tbsp butter
• salt & pepper

In a medium saucepot, bring wine and garlic to a simmer over medium heat. Add basil and bay leaf. Continue to simmer until liquid is reduced to about 1/2 cup. Add chicken stock and continue to simmer until reduced by half. Strain into another saucepot and stir in butter. Season with salt and pepper. Keep warm.

Chicken

• 2 boneless chicken breasts
• 8 slices of bacon
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Lay 4 slices of bacon on a cutting board, slightly overlapping. Place chicken breast on top of bacon and bring slices up around the chicken in order to cover entire breast. (I had one larger breast, so I actually used an extra strip of bacon in order to cover it. Hey, it's bacon...the more, the merrier!) Repeat with other chicken breast and bacon strips.

In a large oven-proof skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Once skillet is hot, carefully add bacon-wrapped chicken and cook until bacon is crispy on both sides (about 7 minutes per side). Transfer pan to oven and bake until chicken is cooked through (about 15-18 minutes).

Creamy Cheese Risotto

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 clove garlic
• 2/3 cup Arborio rice (the best kind of rice to use when making risotto--it says so on the package!)
• 1/4 cup white wine
• chicken stock (at least 2 cups, but you may not use it all)
• 1 cup shredded Italian blend cheese
• 2 tsp basil
• 1/2 Tbsp butter
• salt & pepper

Heat olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat. Add garlic until it browns. Add rice and stir well; cook for 1 minute. Add wine and stir well. (And stirring is the key...) Stir until wine is almost completely absorbed then add in some chicken stock until rice is just covered and stir again. You will continue this: add chicken stock, stir, add chicken stock, stir...until the rice is cooked through (it took about 12 minutes).

When rice is cooked, add cheese and basil and stir. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Season with salt and pepper. You should have a creamy, cheesy rice mixture. (As you'll see from the picture, mine was not so very creamy, but it was certainly delicious for my first attempt at risotto!)

Bacon & Garlic Sauteed Spinach
This is not included in the original recipe, but I wanted to top my risotto and chicken with something other than the arugula fennel salad.

• 1 Tbsp butter
• 2 slices bacon
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 large handfuls of fresh, washed spinach (or one bag/package of fresh spinach)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• salt & pepper

Chop bacon into small pieces. Melt butter in a pan over medium heat. Stir in bacon and garlic. Add spinach and stir. (It may look like too much for the pan, but it will wilt quickly.) Add olive oil and continue to stir frequently, for about 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper.

Now, finally, you can plate everything! Risotto on the bottom, followed by bacon-wrapped chicken, topped with the spinach. Remember that sauce you made? Spoon it over the spinach and let it fall onto everything beneath it. Who's hungry? ;-)

This is definitely a restaurant-quality meal. Which reminds me...you'll also be left with a restaurant-quality mess in the kitchen waiting for you to clean! But this one's worth it. Trust me.

"Cheap Week" Part 2

Actually, this is more like "Cheap Night" as opposed to the entire week. Even though I did the entire week on a budget, tonight's meal is the most economical.

A quick beef stir-fry; here's what you'll need:

• 2 cups of cooked brown rice
• 1-lb sirloin, cut into small pieces or strips
• mixed veggies for stir-fry (I used Walmart's Great Value brand)
• soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp ginger
• toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Heat olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. When hot, add beef. Stir in ginger (use fresh, grated ginger root or powder), and brown beef. Add veggies--at least a cup, but more or less as you choose. Add soy sauce, about 2-3 tablespoons, but again, this is a preference thing; if you like that salty, soy sauce flavor, add a little more...if not, add less. Stir to mix well, then cover for about 3-5 minutes to lock in some flavor. Add toasted sesame seeds when done. Serve with rice. Serves two.