Parmesan chicken tenders

Parmesan oven baked chicken tenders.

I picked up some chicken breasts at the store the other day. They were huge! I tried cooking one whole but I ended up completely drying it out because I kept worrying that it wasn't cooked through.

For the second chicken breast I decided to cut it into smaller pieces and make some chicken tenders. 

Parmesan chicken tenders are best enjoyed dunked in your favorite marinara sauce.

Parmesan chicken tenders
 Serves 1


Ingredients:

1 chicken breast cut into long pieces
1 cup of bread crumbs
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 tsp. of ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. of salt
2 Tbsp. of Miracle Whip
 
Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Wash the chicken breast and pat dry with paper towels. Set out two plates. Place the Miracle whip on one. Mix the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper and place on the second dish. 

Cut the chicken breast into long strips. Take each strip and coat with the Miracle Whip and then roll in the bread crumb mix, making sure it is well coated. Shake off any excess bread crumbs and lay the tender on a baking sheet. 

When you have finished coating all of the tenders, place the pan in the oven. After 8 minutes, carefully turn the tenders over being careful not to knock off the breading.  Cook for another 8 minutes or until they are cooked through.

Use your favorite marinara sauce for dipping. 

Enjoy! 

Taste test

I am happy to report that I successfully completed the eating down of my pantry and refrigerator.

What did I do to celebrate? I went shopping, of course!

I picked up two containers of my latest obsession: Blood orange sorbet.

I decided it would be fun to do a taste test.

First the ingredients:

La Copa Loca Blood Orange Sorbet: water, frozen blood orange puree, syrup, sugar, dextrose emulsifier, guar seed, carob seeds, stabilizer


Ciao Bella Blood Orange Sorbet: water, organic evaporated cane juice, blood orange concentrate, lemon juice, blood orange oil, pectin, natural coloring

Which one won the taste test? Hands down, the Ciao Bella Blood Orange Sorbet won first place. 

The sorbet tastes bright and clean with tons of blood orange flavor coming through. I loved it!

The La Copa Loca, while it tasted OK, it did have a funny aftertaste to it. I am guessing that's from the carob seeds?

So, if you are looking for some really delicious and refreshing sorbet, I highly recommend Ciao Bella Blood Orange Sorbet.

And I picked up some lunch:

This wrap was simple and very yummy.

Happy Sunday all!!

Crab egg florentine

Crab egg florentine with lime mustard hollandaise.

I woke up this morning wanting Eggs Benedict but the pickings are pretty slim in my cupboard and fridge at the moment so I made some substitutions.

The dish started with a layer of cooked quinoa.

Then I layered on a big handful of fresh spinach.

Next came a generous layer of canned crab meat.

Everything was topped with one perfectly poached egg.

Lastly, the star of the show appeared!

Lime mustard hollandaise sauce.

This was a very comforting and delicious breakfast.

Lime mustard hollandaise sauce

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of unsweetened soymilk
1/4 cup of water
1 Tbsp. of Earth Balance spread
1/2 Tbsp. of all purpose flour
2 Tbsp. of nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp. of yellow mustard
The juice from 1/2 of a small lime
a pinch of garlic powder
a pinch of onion powder
a pinch of salt
ground black pepper to taste

Instructions:

Melt the Earth Balance spread in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add in the flour and stir until the roue slightly darkens then add in the water and soymilk.

Add the rest of the ingredients and let the sauce come up to a simmer. Stir frequently. When the sauce starts to thicken turn the heat to low. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

You had me at pasta and bacon

Pasta with bacon and watercress.

Ever have one of those work days when you do a huge amount of work and then feel like you produced a huge amount of crap?

I had one of those days last night. I was up all night writing. I wrote a lot of pages.

But at 5am when I was taking the dogs for a long walk, all of the work I did last night seems awful, without merit and will never see the harsh fluorescent lights of a book store.

I am sure it is just because I am way too over tired and I should sleep.

But at 6am I was starving so I made some pasta.

I cooked the pasta according to the package directions. While that was boiling away I pulled out two pieces of bacon out of the freezer and set them sizzling in a skillet.

When the pasta was cooked al dente I drained it and set it aside. When the bacon was nice and crispy I pulled it out of the pan and let it dry on paper towels.

I drained off most of the bacon fat and tossed the pasta back into the skillet along with one clove of garlic, minced, the bacon and 1 cup of watercress.

Just so you know, I added 1/2 a piece of bacon to my dish – the dogs got to enjoy the other 1 1/2 pieces

When everything was warmed through, I plated the pasta and added a generous shaving of Parmesan on top.




Happy Friday!

Everyone in the pool dumpling soup

This was one of those thrown together soups that came out incredibly tasty!
I put six cups of water in a sauce pan and set it to boil. Then I added in the following ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
a handful of spinach
broccoli florets
2 Tbsp. of miso paste
1/4 cup of vegetable broth
2 Tbsp. of packaged coleslaw mix
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp. of cumin
1/2 tsp. of garlic powder
1 Tbsp. of nutritional yeast
a pinch of salt
ground black pepper to taste
I let the soup simmer until it was reduced by half then I broke out my favorite dumplings.


Chicken dumplings.



The dumplings made the soup.



Night all!

Mini fry bread

I felt very Little House on the Prairie (or possibly something out of the Grapes of Wrath) this morning as I made my first attempt at making fry bread.
The dough is incredibly simple and I adapted a recipe I found here.


The dough is really sticky so I flattened each piece out with some flour.

My first few attempts turned out awful. I didn’t have the oil hot enough and then it got too hot.
But on the fifth try it started to come together.



The dough doesn’t have much flavor on its own which is probably why people sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar.
How did I eat them? Topped with homemade hummus and cucumber slices, of course!


The fry bread turned out wonderful, crunchy on the outside and light and airy in the middle.
And my homemade hummus tastes even better the second day



Happy Thursday everyone!

Tasty hummus rolls

Today I had this to work with:

Cumin, limes, tahini, garbanzo beans, rice and nori.

I was pretty pleased with my efforts which resulted in this:

Tasty hummus rolls.

I put one cup of rice to simmer in a soup pot on the stove. Then I started to create my hummus.

The following ingredient went into a bowl:

1 15oz can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed.

3 Tbsp. of nutritional yeast

1/4 tsp. of cumin

1 tsp. of garlic powder

2 tsp. of tahini

2 tsp. of Miso Mayo

1/4 tsp. of olive oil

1/2 cup of water

2 pinches of salt

black pepper to taste

The juice of two limes

I used my immersion blender until the hummus was smooth.

Then came the assembly:

A line of hummus, a sprinkle of paprika and some spinach leaves.

If a little comes out the end that is OK!



I finished them off with a sprinkle of paprika. Don’t they look pretty?



These would be a great lunch to take to work. Just make two rolls and leave them whole. It is much less messy to just munch from one end to the other rather than having them cut up.

The perfect combo

An over-easy egg on a bed of sautéed spinach and sweet potato home fries.

This may not be the perfect breakfast combo for most people but it is for me. I especially love the egg mixed with the garlicky spinach.



What I am noticing about Windows Live Writer is that it is more difficult to include captions to the pictures. I am sure it is just a feature I haven’t discovered yet but if anyone knows how – please tell me!!

Since this happens on a regular basis, you will not be shocked to find out that I had run out of kibble this morning. I needed to use one very large sweet potato in my pantry so the dogs enjoyed sweet potato puree for breakfast.

Sweet potatoes with Bulgarian yogurt, Kyo-Green and Udo’s oil.

For my breakfast, I sautéed up a handful of spinach with two, yes two, cloves of garlic minced with a few drops of olive oil. This is one of my favorite ways to enjoy spinach.

And I saved a few of the sweet potato pieces and browned them up in a skillet with a dash of soy sauce.

So even though the potatoes look slightly charred – it is just the soy sauce glaze which gives the sweet potatoes a nice salty coating.

And I also enjoyed a perfectly ripe kiwi. Gotta have that vitamin C!

I am going to dig through my dwindling supplies and see if I can come up with a fun idea for dinner.

Happy Wednesday!

Sweet and sour pork stir fry for one

Sweet and sour stir fry.

Anyone who has been reading this blog for any length of time will not be surprised that this was my breakfast this morning.

I had a moment last night when I was staring at contents of my freezer (which by the way is STILL 3/4 full) it occurred to me that a pork chop would be awesome for breakfast as long as it included sweet and sour sauce.

The pork chop went into a hot skillet, browned on both sides and then 1/2 cup of veggie broth and 1 Tbsp. of soy sauce went into the pan and I cooked it (covered) for another 7 minutes.

I really can't stand any tendon or fat texture in meat (I've been that way since I was a little kid) so I cut off the fatty bits.  I wonder if anyone else does this??

The dogs got to enjoy the parts I cut out :-)

Veggies and meat ready for stir frying.

This dish turned out stunning, incredible, delicious and possibly a life changing meal. I kid you not.

 
When I order sweet and sour dishes in restaurants the sauce is always way to sweet for my tastes. This sauce turned out more tangy than sweet which I loved!

I enjoyed this blissful meal with a big mug of green tea.

Make this meal as soon as possible. You will love it!
  
Sweet and sour pork stir fry

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1 pork chop, 1 1/2" thick
1/2 cup of broccoli florets
1 cup of packaged coleslaw mix
2 button mushrooms, sliced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 cup of vegetable broth
1 Tbsp. of soy sauce
1/2 tsp. of grape seed oil

Sweet and sour sauce:
1/2 cup of pineapple chunks with juice
2 Tbsp. of rice wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. of vegetable broth
1 1/2 Tbsp. of raw honey
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. of ketchup
1 tsp. of corn starch

Instructions:

Put a skillet on medium-high heat and add in the grape seed oil. When the pan is hot, add in the pork chop and cook on each side until nicely browned. Then add in the broth and soy sauce, cover the pan and let cook another 7 minutes or until cooked through.

Let the meat rest for 10 minutes and then cut into medium sized cubes.

While the meat rests, toss all but the cornstarch into a sauce pan over low heat. When the sauce begins to simmer, mix the corn starch with a little bit of water and add this mixture to the sauce. Stir occasionally until the sauce become thick and glossy. Take it off the heat and set it aside.

Wipe out the skillet and put it back on medium-high heat. Add in the oil and when the pan it hot, add in the veggies. Stir constantly until the cabbage has wilted but the broccoli is still bright green. Add back in the pork and add 3/4 of the sauce and stir to combine.

Serve the sweet and sour pork over a bed of rice. Drizzle the rest of the sauce over the top.

Enjoy!

Cheesy cream corn (dairy free)

 

 

 

This is not really a full post – I am just trying out Windows Live Writer for the first time.

*Fingers crossed* that it comes out looking normal.

 

 

This afternoon I boiled one ear of corn for ten minutes, sliced off the kernels when it was cool and added it into a nutritional yeast cheese sauce.

I garnished it with a healthy sprinkle of paprika.

 

 

This dish was sinfully delicious. I will admit to eating the whole bowl.

No recipe today but I will be making it again and I will be sure to post one then.

Eek going to go try posting this now…

The perfect summer dish

Watercress salad with white peaches and watermelon.

This salad is the perfect summer dish. 

I mixed together 1 cup of watercress with two cups of red leaf lettuce and tossed everything with my new favorite dressing:

The peppery bite of the watercress went really well with the sweetness of the peaches and watermelon. 

This was a very light and refreshing salad. I will be sad when summer ends and this endless supply of juicy fruit ends.

Some creamy goat cheese would have been great in this salad but I resisted the urge to run to the store to pick some up.  And, yes, the eating down my pantry project continues...