2 Great Meals, 3 Recipes to Share

Thanks to my Stuck in a Rut post, I got great ideas (see next post), so I put one into action last night. Then tonight, I made another dish that turned out great, so I wanted to share them with you. I wish I had a picture of all 3 recipes (2 meals, 3 recipes), but I only have a picture of one. Sorry!

The first is Indian/Thai curry. Braden LOVES curry, well yellow curry, and always wants to eat at Thai restaurants. Needless to say, we haven't been to a Thai restaurant in over 3 years when we went to the one next door to our little Provo house and there was a huge centipede crawling across the table. Anyway, when my friend suggested curry, I begged for the recipe and she said I could share it. Thanks Nicole!

As with everything we do, I am modifying this recipe a little bit because it made a TON of sauce, way more than we can ever use. The original recipe also called for 1 can each of cream of chicken and mushroom, but I hate cream of mushroom soup, so I did 2 cans of cr. of chicken. Also, it called for mushrooms as an option, which I omitted too. It also called for butter, but I used oil so Taryn could have it and I put in 3 tsp. curry paste instead of 1 tsp curry powder. And I put in carrots and potatoes. So, here's my final recipe.

YELLOW CURRY with CHICKEN, CARROTS, and POTATOES

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup onion, chopped

2 chicken breasts, sliced or cubed

1 cup carrots, chopped

1 cup potatoes, cubed

3/4-1 cup milk (depending on your preference)
1 cans cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream

3 teaspoon curry paste
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:
Heat oil in large skillet and sauté onions until tender. Add chicken and cook thru. Add carrots and potatoes and cook until tender. Combine all other ingredients in a saucepan and heat thru. Serve over rice.

Second, tonight I made another attempt at Pasta Carbonara/Primavera. I make this a lot and each time, there's some complaint about it. Not enough flavor, not enough sauce, not enough pasta. Whatever. But tonight, it turned out great! So I thought I'd jot it down, even if its just for me to reference later.

PASTA CARBONARA/PRIMAVERA

1 pkg pasta of your choice (but I wouldn't recommend spaghetti, linguine, or fettacine. Stick with radiatore, penne, rigatoni, etc.)

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced (or 1 tsp pre-minced garlic)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp basil

1/2 tsp oregano

1 pkg grape tomatoes (or cherry, or roma chopped if you prefer), sliced in half

1/2 cup ham cubes (I used our frozen ham from a ham we bought at Christmas time but you can use thick lunch meat or ham steak or anything else. Sometimes we use bacon, but the ham provides more flavor and less fat)

3/4 cup fresh or frozen green beans, cut into 1 inch strips

1/2 cup peas (optional)

Boil water in saucepan and prepare pasta according to directions.Meanwhile, heat oil in large skillet. Add onion and saute until tender. Add garlic, salt, basil and oregano. Saute and stir well. Add tomatoes, cover, and let simmer until tomatoes are tender and have released their juices (there won't be an overwhelming amount of juice...). Add more oil if necessary or desired. Add ham, beans, and peas and let simmer for 10 minutes. Drain pasta and add to skillet. Toss with sauce until well coated.

It was so yummy! And no complaints this time! (Except maybe there's not enough leftovers!)

And third, with our pasta carbonara, I made a smoothie to help get more vitamins in. One of the best things that came from my trip to Chicago last fall was learning to make smoothies without milk! Duh, I know, but we'd always made smoothies with milk so I just didn't think about the alternative, except water, which I had done and didn't like. So, with Taryn's allergy, I was delighted to learn my mom's way. Her basic recipe is this: 1 cup juice, frozen bananas, frozen orange juice concentrate, frozen fruit. She makes a smoothie practically every day and each time it comes out different, yet totally delicious! She often will add powdered milk to get the calcium in there, but we obviously don't do that.

So tonight, I made the smoothie, but wanted to try sneaking in some zucchini...and it worked! It did taste a little "green" but it was sweet and Keara had 3rds, so at least I knew she was getting full servings of fruits and veggies for dinner. Here's the smoothie we had tonight. Nothing is exact, and everything can be substituted for other things. Add more bananas or less juice to reach your desired consistency. Also, add powdered milk, flax seed oil, wheat germ, or whatever odd things you want to to suit your fancy. I know fruits have a lot of natural sugars, but I love giving my girls a delicious treat that has no added sugar or any other added ingredients. Just straight fruit! I took the leftovers and poured it into our popsicle molds. Keara's so excited to have that tomorrow!

MILKLESS FRUIT SMOOTHIE

2 cups apple juice

2 frozen bananas

1/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrate

1/2 cup blueberries

1/2 cup raspberries

1/2 cup zucchini, grated

Blend it all up and serve!

Three More Recipes

I have three more recipes to share. They are on opposite sides of the spectrum, but each holds its own charm.

*****

The first I actually got off a gal's website where she is trying to make something in her crockpot every day of 2008 without repeating anything. Since I love my crockpot and how it takes so much time out of dinner, I perused her site and found this recipe. As you know, Braden and I are trying to like fish, so I'm willing to try just about anything.

CROCKPOT PESTO FISH

1-2 lbs white fish
Bottled pesto
Shredded parmesan cheese
Aluminum foil

Spread a layer of foil on the counter top. Put a piece of fish in it. Cover it with a spoonful of pesto and sprinkle on some cheese. Fold over the foil to create a little packet. Put the packet in the Crockpot. Continue to layer in the foil packets until you run out of fish. Do not add water. Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours. Check it after 3 hours. The fish is done when it is fully white and flakes nicely with a fork.

Verdict: This was good. Considering I don't really like fish, I ate the entire thing. Braden, on the other hand, likes fish even less tham me and he still didn't like this. But, if we're going to eat fish again, I will probably try this recipe again. He also says the picture looks like someone's lung, so sorry if it looks too gross to eat.

*****

This recipe is a variation of one I found on allrecipes.com. Braden LOVES fried chicken. I do not. It's not that I don't like the chicken part, it's that I don't like the fried part. So, if he's lucky, I make fried chicken once a year. Because I knew he would really love it if I made it, I was looking for a recipe that used less oil. I also wanted a better "crust" on the chicken. This is what I found with the changes I made. I also have an eggless option, which was really good.

FRIED CHICKEN

30 Saltine Crackers
2 Tbs Flour
2 Tbs dry potato flakes
1 tsp season salt
½ tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic salt
½ tsp paprika
2 eggs
¼ cup flour
3 chicken breasts, pounded and cut into strips
¼ cup oil (truly)

Place crackers in a large resealable plastic bag or food processor; seal bag and crush crackers until they are coarse crumbs. Add flour, potato flakes, seasoned salt, pepper, garlic salt, and paprika to crumbs and mix well. Beat eggs in a shallow dish or bowl; pour crumbs in another bowl; heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Pour ¼ cup flour into resealable plastic bag and put all chicken strips in the bag and shake until well coated. One by one, dredge chicken pieces in egg, then dip in crumbs to coat. Reduce heat to medium and cook coated chicken in skillet for 15 to 20 minutes, turning frequently, until golden brown and juices run clear.
For eggless: Dip floured chicken in ranch dressing or other sauce and then coat with crumbs.

Verdict: Excellent! Oh so good. And beautiful too. The coating was perfect and delicious. Braden really enjoyed it the next 2 days for lunch by putting a couple strips on a hamburger bun with some pickles so it was like his favorite sandwich at Chik-fil-A.

*****

We were invited to our neighbor's for dinner last week (where they made the most amazing ribs...I'll get the recipe). They asked us to bring dessert. I have this thing about going to people's houses for dinner. If they ask me to bring something, I think I should put in as much effort as they are going to put into the dinner. I think it's tacky to show up to a big Sunday dinner with a plate of cookies, especially if they are store-bought. So, I'm going to make pies, cakes, or something beyond ordinary. Well, I needed something simple and cheap but fun, so I came up with this.

ANGEL FOOD PUDDING CAKE

1 Angel Food cake (from a mix, homemade, or store bought), cooked and cooled

1 pkg instant pudding, any flavor, made according to directions on package

2 cups whipped cream (I used whipping cream, but you could use cool-whip. I think Dream-whip would be too soft)

Fruit

Hershey chocolate bar

Powdered sugar

Cut the cake in half, horizontally. Place the bottom half on serving plate. Divide the pudding into two portions, one being about 2/3 and the other about 1/3 of the total. Divide the whipped cream the same way. Mix 2/3 pudding with 1/3 cream (in other words, this mixture will be predominantly pudding). Spread mixture over top of the bottom layer of cake. Top pudding with fruit of your choice. Place the top half of the cake on pudding/fruit. Mix 1/3 pudding with 2/3 cream (to make a predominantly cream based frosting). Spread this over the entire cake as a frosting. Grate the chocolate bar to create shavings or curls. Sprinkle over top of cake. Dust with powdered sugar.

Verdict: This was delicious. It looks good, tastes good, but even looks like it takes a ton of time when it doesn't. Also, it doesn't have a lot of fat or calories, depending on what you put in it. Ours was banana pudding and bananas, because that's what we had on hand. But we're looking forward to trying white chocolate pudding and raspberries. Mmmm. My sister made a chocolate variety last night, so I can't wait to hear how it turned out. Oh, and as you can see in the picture, I swirled in some chocolate angel food batter before I baked it. All I did was take a tablespoon or so of unsweeted cocoa powder and mixed it in about 1 cup of batter. Then I swirled it in the cake. It was a great addition. It made it taste like a very light non-donut boston cream donut.

Another Great Recipe

The other night, we had "Crepes" on the menu. But I felt like I was copping out by making just fruit filled crepes. I really wanted to find a recipe like my sister-in-laws great spinach filled crepes, just without the spinach. I had broccoli and wanted something that used that. But I found nothing. So I made it up. I got this crepe recipe off allrecipes.com and it's the best crepe recipe I've had. The filling is a variation off a filling my sister introduced us to. Rolled in the crepe, it is delicious!! Try it if you want and let me know what you think!

Savory Broccoli Chicken Crepes

Crepes:

4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/3 cup milk
2 Tbs butter, melted
1 cup flour
2 Tbs sugar
½ tsp salt

Whisk or blend all ingredients together until smooth. Grease pan or griddle with a little oil or butter. Cook 3 Tbs per crepe on medium heat 1-2 minutes on each side or until golden.

Filling:

8 oz cream cheese
2 Tbs cream or milk
Salt and Pepper to taste
½ tsp oregano
½ tsp basil
¼ tsp garlic salt
1-2 Tbs parmesan cheese (grated or shredded)
1 cup cooked and diced chicken (small but not too small)
1 cup steamed and chopped broccoli

Melt cream cheese and milk over medium heat. Add salt, pepper, oregano, basil, garlic salt, and parmesan cheese. Stir well. Add chicken and broccoli and cook until heated thru. Fill crepes, wrap and serve.