Chicken,Rice and Artichoke Salad

My mom gave me this recipe. Things always taste better when she makes them but this still came out good!   I was missing one ingredient so did a substitution but I don’t think that was the critical piece. Not sure what she did different but I will try to figure it out!  For the record, I was missing barbecue sauce so used some Catalina dressing instead. Perhaps ketchup would have been a better choice. And it was still good–just not quite like it tasted when my mom made it!

The Dressing:

• 2 Tbs red wine vinegar
• 2 scallions, minced
• 1 Tbs grated fresh ginger
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/3 cup olive oil or canola oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Mix together and set aside.

The Salad

• 1 15 oz can artichoke bottoms, drained and chopped
• 2 cups cooked rice, cooled or cold
• 3/4 pound chicken breast, cooked and shredded
• 2 Tbs barbecue sauce
• 1 small red pepper, diced
• 1 scallion, minced
• salt and pepper to taste
• chopped fresh parsley to garnish

Mix everything but the parsley together. Pour the salad dressing over it and toss, then garish with the parsley.

This is great for a hot summer night, especially if you plan ahead and don’t have to cook the rice or chicken! It also works well for entertaining, which is how I used it. I cooked the rice and chicken the night before, then let them heat up to room temperature while I chopped the vegetables and mixed up the dressing. I was serving with a cream of broccoli soup and some fresh sliced tomatoes.

I got the soup ready to the point of adding the cream, then turned it down to way low and covered. I had the salad all mixed up ready to dress and let it sit while my friend and I visited. When it was time to eat, I tossed the salad with the dressing, stirred the cream into the soup, and sliced the tomatoes with some fresh basil, olive oil, and salt.   Very good and very easy!  And moderately healthy.  A winning combination.

French Dip Sandwiches

Here’s my normal French Dip Sandwich recipe, but it requires hours of time, a crock pot and perhaps more beef than you might like (although it does freeze well, especially if you freeze it in the jus/juice).   Driving home from school today, youngest and I talked about dinner and settled on French dip sandwiches.  We swung by the grocery store and picked up some sliced roast beef from the deli and I made a good dipping sauce using some Minors Beef Base, which I buy at Costco. Much cheaper than those little packets of  Au Jus sauce that sell for at least $1 each.  And tastier if I remember correctly.  You could of course just use some warm beef broth to dip the sandwiches in if you’d like, but I think this tastes better.

• 2 Tbs butter
• 1 Tbs flour
• 1 splash of dry sherry (optional, but good!)
• 2 cups beef broth (yours, or Minors or canned)
• 1 French roll per person, split and buttered
• about 2 ounces of sliced roast beef per serving

Melt the butter in a saucepan, then stir in the flour and cook a minute or two.  Add the sherry and cook another minute, then stir in the beef broth. Simmer at least a few minutes , then turn to low while you prepare everything else. At some point, add the slices of roast beef to warm.

Spread the rolls with some butter, then broil a few minutes until lightly toasted.

Lay the slices of roast beef on them and slice each roll in half.  Pour the beef broth mixture into small bowls or ramekins so you can dip your sandwich in them.

I served these with a simple green salad.  It was an easy and delicious meal.

I’ve seen recipes on line that call for cheese and/or grilled onions, but to me a French Dip is nothing but bread and beef and broth. Very simple. The other stuff sounds good but it’s not what I think of when I hear French Dip!

NOTE: For packed lunches, pack the juice and the slices of beef in a thermos. Pack a bun separately.  Lay the slices of roast beef on the bread, then pour the juices into the cup of the thermos and dip!

If  you end up with lots of broth leftover, freeze it to use in soups or for making gravy or pot pies or hash.

Chicken cutlets are a favorite around here. I vary them now and then but our absolute favorite is how I prepared them tonight.   The variations I’ve done over the years include pounding rather than slicing thinly, eggs and water for the binding rather than eggs and soy sauce and lemon juice, not marinading at all, skipping the flour and marinade and going straight for an egg and water dip then the breadcrumbs, using storebought Progresso breadcrumbs instead of the Panko breadcrumbs (which make for a crispier coating, especially combined with the marinade, then flour, then egg, then breadcrumb dip I did tonight. So if you don’t have everything, improvise. It’s always good!  This version is a bit more crispy with the double coating and Panko crumbs.

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced thinly or pounded into thin pieces
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
• 1 egg beaten with a splash of soy, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a spoonful of water
• 3/4 cup bread crumbs or so, seasoned with 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese and some herbs (I used an Italian blend tonight that was meant to go in some olive oil for a dipping sauce. I succumbed at a Foodie store then wondered what to do with them when I got home. This is a great use!  As are homemade croutons.)
• oil for frying

I usually make these with the frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts so just slice them thinly when they’re partially defrosted. If you start with fresh chicken, pound until the pieces are thin and probably cut into smaller pieces. I don’t know, we find them more appetizing when they’re cut into smaller pieces rather than one big huge piece.

Marinade in some buttermilk and refrigerate. If you don’t have buttermilk you can use plain yogurt. If you don’t have either you can skip this step but I do like the flavor it seems to add.

When you’re ready to cook, pull the chicken out of the refrigerator while you prepare a few pie pans or other small flat dishes with:

• flour and salt and pepper in one
• egg, soy sauce, lemon juice and water (or just egg and water) in another
• breadcrumbs seasoned as desired in the third (the Parmesan cheese is really good!)

Heat enough oil to cover 1/2″ inch or so in a large frying pan.  Test by throwing a pinch of flour in. When it sizzles, the oil is ready.

Use two forks to move the chicken pieces from buttermilk to flour, flipping to coat both sides, then to egg, flipping again to coat both sides, then to breadcrumbs, flipping again to coat both sides. From there, set into the hot oil and cook, turning once, a few minutes per side depending on how thick your pieces are. (Pull one out and cut it in half to test for doneness.

Later you’ll gain a feel for how “done” chicken cutlets feel when you poke a fork through them.) Lift up and let as much oil drain as possible.   Then drain on paper towels and keep warm while you finish whatever else you’re serving.

Tonight I made a boxed pasta mix actually, request of my youngest who came grocery shopping with me.

I also served this with a very simple cucumber and tomato salad. I’m growing both cucumbers and tomatoes in the garden so something similar to this is showing up a lot these days on our dinner table.   Chopped cucumbers and tomatoes and in this case green onions with a simple dressing of about:

• 1 Tbs honey
• 1 Tbs rice vinegar
• a pinch of salt
• pepper to taste

This dressed about half a long cucumber, peeled and sliced, and 1 roma tomato.

We’re figuring on using the leftover chicken cutlets in some chicken salad of some type for lunches.

Vegetarian night here tonight, in honor of my nephew. I love an excuse to experiment with a new dish!

Pasta with Lentils and Tomatoes

Cheese Soufle

Cucumbers with Sour Cream and Dill

Chermoulah

Caprese Salad (Tomatoes with Fresh Basil and Mozarella)

I had some friends over for dinner tonight. With my kids’ help, I planned what turned out to be a great kid-friendly and adult-delicious dinner. My kids are 15 and almost 18. Theirs are 5 year old twins.

For appetizers, I put out some chips and salsa, always easy. I also made up some bruschetta on toasted baguette slices and some crackers with a bit of cream cheese topped with a chipotle raspberry sauce from Costco. Hmmm, I see I don’t have the bruschetta recipe posted so will have to fix that! You toast slices of baguette, spread with a cream cheese and chopped basil mix, broil another minute, then top with a mix of diced tomatoes, capers (or black olives) and green onions. To die for!

The main course for dinner was this recipe for chicken cutlets. These always take a bit longer than I think, but they are easy to do if your company is sitting in the kitchen with you nibbling and sipping on wine while the kids, young and old, are playing Guitar Hero. Slice the chicken up earlier and let it marinate in the buttermilk for the afternoon. If you want to be super organized, mix up the bread crumbs and cheese and seasonings ahead too.

I also cooked up some fettucini with alfredo sauce. It came out a bit dry because I cooked up a whole pound of fettucini, not being used to cooking for 7. I’ll add more sauce tomorrow.  We have at least a 1/2 pound less so I could easily have gotten by with much less.

I made a simple salad of romaine lettuce with some chopped cucumber and tomatoes from the garden, and served a few dressings on the side.

For dessert, we drove over to Yolatea in downtown Pleasanton. Great place to for kids and adults, as everyone can take just as much as they can eat/want.

Not a fancy dinner but one that seemed pleasing to all palettes and let me enjoy the company. I meant to send my friends home with some cucumbers and tomatoes but we got distracted by a dance-off and then going to dessert.

I had some rib eye steaks in the freezer, a shame to freeze them I know but they were vacuum packed. I’d bought a Max Pack when they were on sale. After defrosting them, I marinated them in a  mix of steak sauce, balsamic vinegraitte and minced garlic.

• 1/2 cup steak sauce (I used Country Bob’s but I think A1 would be similar)
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinaigrette (make your own or I used Paul Newman’s)
• 2 cloves minced garlic

I marinated them for just an hour or two, then grilled about 4-5 minutes per side (about 1″ thick). Yum!

Served them up with:

• marinated cucumber salad
• sliced tomatoes with olive oil and some herb mix sprinkled on top
• microwaved corn on the cob (leave it in the husk, microwave a few minutes, then husk it. The strings will come right off!)
• baked potatoes

A fantastic summer dinner. I forgot to take pictures though…

Interesting article here in the San Francisco Chronicle about how to eat healthy on a budget.  More information about using nutrient-rich foods can be found here: Nutrient Rich Foods Coalition. There are some good sounding recipes here.

The US Dept of Agriculture also has a site with a menu planner. Plus you can enter in your age and a few details about your lifestyle and weight and get a recommended number of servings for various aspects of the food pyramid.

What’s your favorite cheap but healthy menu?

I had bought some beef smoked sausage a while back when it was on sale and threw it in the freezer so I pulled it out for dinner tonight as time was lacking and children were hungry!  I usually serve sausage like this or kielbasa with fried potatoes and sauteed apples. I had some older apples that needed using up so this was perfect!  I also sauteed some onions to make “fried apples and onions” for me, although the girls prefer their apples without the onions.

Fried Potatoes

For the potatoes, I scrubbed them and diced them and then parboiled them until just barely tender.  While they were draining, I heated up some bacon grease in a frying pan, then added the potato cubes, sprinkling with salt and pepper at some point.  When I first add them  to the pan, I stir them around so all sides get coated with a bit of the fat. You can use butter here instead of bacon grease of course.  Or oil.  Then let them sit without stirring so they get browned a bit, then stir, let sit, etc. If they all get browned before everything else is done, just turn the heat down and let them sit.

Fried Apples (and Onions)

I peeled and sliced some onions  while the water for the potatoes was coming to a boil. Put some butter in a frying pan (could use oil or bacon grease of course), then added the onions and cooked over medium low a good long while, stirring now and then. When they were all softened, I put them in a bowl, added a bit more butter, and added some sliced apples. (I leave the skins on but you can peel them first if you prefer.)  I let the apples cook over medium low until softened and eventually sprinkled a few spoonfuls of brown sguar over them (for 3 apples, so maybe 1 spoonful per apple).  Once they were all softened, I took some of the apples out into a bowl and added the onions back in to mix together for me.

Fried Sausage

In the meantime, I sliced up the sausage and browned in yet another skillet. The sausage is usually fat enough that I don’t add any fat to the pan. It makes its own.  Stir now and then and adjust the heat to match what’s going on with our apples and potatoes so it all is good to go at the same time.

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving feast

I never got a chance to post my Thanksgiving menu prior to the holiday but will post it here today so I can refer to it next year.

Appetizers

Green olive dip
Humus
Salmon spread from my sister
Spinach dip from my niece
Various vegetables cut up for dipping
French bread cut up for dipping and spreading
Deviled eggs

Dinner

22 pound turkey – roasted this way
Mashed potatoes
Dressing, with pears, contributed by my Mom
Creamed onions, a family tradition
Sweet potato streusel, a new family tradition and much beloved by a few nephews
No-Knead Dinner Rolls, a recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Green salad with blue cheese
Cranberry sauce
Green bean casserole from my sister
Red hot gelatin salad

The desserts

Desserts

Cherry pie
Pumpkin pie
Lemon meringue pie, baked by my daughter
Hazelnut pear torte from my niece
Cranberry cheesecake from my niece

What a feast!

Here’s another weeks’ worth of menus in case anyone needs some ideas (as I might next month!).

Sunday:

• Sloppy Joes
• Ratatouille (an odd combo, I know but I had eggplant from the farmer’s market)

Monday:

• Broiled salmon
• Steamed broccoli
• JoJo Potatoes from fingerling potatoes from the farmers’ market and JoJo seasoning sent as a sample from The Spice Depot and quite good!)

Tuesday

• leftover pork turned into Pork with Mexican Flavorings

Wednesday

• Tomato Soup (from a can)
• Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Thursday

• Chicken with Drop Dumplings

Friday

• Pizza

Saturday:

• leftovers