Chicken Cordon Bleu

So I haven't posted in a while because I have to be honest 1. I haven't tried very many new reicipes since Thanksgiving and 2. the ones I have tried haven't been all that great. But this one was definetly a winner. Eli said it was the best I have made in a while.

Prep Time:10 Min
Cook Time:35 Min
Ready In:45 Min
Yields 4 servings

Ingredients
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
6 slices Swiss cheese
4 slices cooked ham

1 egg
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat a 7x11 inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Pound chicken breasts to 1/4 inch thickness. (I used a hammer since we are lacking a meat tenderizer). Sprinkle each piece of chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Bath chicken in egg wash. Place 1 cheese slice and 1 ham slice on top of each breast. (I went to the deli and got four slices of each from the deli) Roll up each breast, roll in bread crumbs, and secure with a toothpick. Bake for 20 minutes with foil covering, take off foil and bake until golden brown (about 15 minutes). Remove toothpicks, and serve immediately with rice and sauce (1 can cream of chicken, 1/2 cup sour cream, lemon juice).

*if you need a visual go to youtube and "how to make chicken cordon bleu" and there are some videos on how to wrap it etc.

Spinach salad

Studying for the NCLEX has made me realize that the answer to all nutrition questions is "green leafy vegetables." Therefore, we made a New Year's commitment to eat more spinach. This is my new favorite salad. (who knew making dressing was so easy!)

Serving size 6

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 bunch spinach, rinsed and torn into bite-size pieces
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese(I use feta)
2 tomatoes, chopped (optional)
1 avocado - peeled, pitted and diced
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

Dressing

2 tablespoons red raspberry jam (with seeds)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/3 cup walnut oil
freshly ground black pepper to taste
salt to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Arrange walnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet. Toast in oven for 3-5 minutes, or until nuts begin to brown.
In a large bowl, toss together the spinach, walnuts, cranberries, blue cheese, tomatoes, avocado, and red onion.
In a small bowl, whisk together jam, vinegar, walnut oil, pepper, and salt. Pour over the salad just before serving, and toss to coat.

Grilled Mahi Mahi and CousCous

This is easily my new favorite thing to make. I like to buy the mahi mahi bag of fish at Costco and keep it for fish tacos, so I looked up a recipe on the Food Network, then modified it to fit me and make it SUPER easy.
(hopefully we'll have a photo coming soon... I made it last night and it was super cute but I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture)

THE COUSCOUS
2 cups chicken broth or water
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup couscous
2 scallions, sliced on an angle
1 carrot, shredded or grated
1 navel orange, peeled and chopped

Boil the first four ingredients. When it comes to a boil, remove from heat and stir in the couscous. Let sit for ten minutes. Stir in the last three ingredients.
(they also have stuff like some raisins, which I never have so I skip)

THE "SALSA"
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
dash of ginger
1/4 cucumber, seeded, peeled and chopped
couple shakes of chives

Originally, this was a mango salsa, but since mangoes are expensive and rarely in season, I just omitted it. Instead, I mix this stuff all in with the couscous, since it all gets mixed up on my plate anyways.

THE FISH
2-3 mahi mahi steaks (3 because usually I eat one and Brad eats 2)
olive oil
salt
pepper
lime

Heat a grill pan/electric griddle to high. Drizzle oil over fish, rub in s&p, drizzle lime. Cook about 5 minutes on each side, or until fish is opaque.


I usually start the couscous, grill the fish, and cut up the "extras" while those two get going. Seriously, this can be done in as short as 15 minutes. It's good, and adds a nice mix-up from boring everyday same-o same-o.

pesto pizza.

need something ready in less than 30 minutes? this is your answer.

1. preheat oven to 450F.
2. slice a loaf of crusty french bread in half lengthwise (separate the top and the bottom). the one i used is "la brea bakery" that many grocery stores bake fresh daily (smiths, whole foods, costco). place halves on a sturdy jelly roll pan or cookie sheet.
3. mix 1/3 C prepared pesto (also can be purchased at a grocery store near you including sunflower market or costco) and 2 tsp minced garlic.
4. spread pesto mixture evenly on both halves of the bread.
5. top pesto bread with rotisserie chicken (my favorite is the one at costco for $4.99) and diced tomatoes.
6. sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
7. cook in oven for 10-15 minutes or until cheese starts to become golden.
8. slice with your favorite bread knife and EAT.
mm, delicious.

Zucchini Bread

So in my attempt to broaden my limited cook book I joined allrecipes.com, and now receive an email each day with a new recipe. I like this website because people rate the recipes and leave comments on how to make them better. (If you ever get a recipe off of here, make sure you read the comments because some of the changes are essential to the success of the recipe. I learned this the hard way on one recipe). I got an email for this zucchini bread recipe and saw that it has 5 out of 5 starts with over a 1,000 people rating it. Figured it must be pretty good. Eli says says its gets 5 stars.

For the recipe click here

Or here it is with my comments:

Servings: 2 regular bread size loafs (I halved the recipe and only made one because there is no way Eli and I can eat two). Oh other cool thing about allrecipes.com, it lists the serving size, but you can change them and it recalculated the recipe numbers for you. In the past I have totally messed up on a recipe because I forget I am halving or doubling and add too much or too little of one ingredient.

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

I changed the sugar to only two cups and used half white sugar and half brown sugar (someone suggested it on a comment) and I think it turned out yummy with that. I could just taste a little bit of the brown sugar in there. Other suggestions included, using 1 1/2 cups white flour and
1 1/2 cups wheat flour. Also use 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup apple sauce. I am definitely going to try these out next time now that I know I like the recipe.
Lastly, I used a medium to large zucchini (medium to large for a store bought zucchini, not like those crazy sized ones you can grow in the garden) and it made about a 1 1/2 cups grated zucchini. Just add as much zucchini as you like. This is a recipe you can play around with. I just used the cheese size grater for grating since I had no idea and I think it was a good size. Also, I didn't have the nuts which I am sure would have been great, but it is still very good without.

DIRECTIONS
1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes (mine was the full 60), or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

P.S. If you haven't tried Whitney's wheat bread recipe. You have to! Changed my life. I am now making it once a week and not buying bread. So easy and so worth it.

wheat bread.

okay, i know what you are thinking.
"bread?!...i thought we were only posting simple recipes for two."
you can do this recipe. promise. its only 7 ingredients and it only takes 6 minutes to combine them. and the results are well worth the whole process. there is nothing like hot, fresh, homeade bread. tastes best with butter, butter and honey, or peanut butter. also good for grilled cheese, paninis, etc in the days following. it does make 3 loaves so if you won't consume that much bread in about 3-4 days, i suggest freezing a loaf or giving one away. also, you can buy wheat flour in a grocery store or in bulk (sunflower market in orem has it). if you get really into it, then you can buy a wheat grinder and make your own wheat flour--this was actually one of my bridal gifts and i totally love it.

Victoria’s Six-Minute Magic Bread
Put the following into the bowl of your Kitchenaid or Bosch mixer, in this order:
2/3 cup sugar or honey (either works fine)
2 tsp. salt
3 cups hot water from the tap
1 cup canola oil (or butter–if it is cold, cut it up first)
4 cups whole wheat flour (from about 2 cups whole wheat)
6 cups white flour
2 tbsp. active dry yeast
Mix all ingredients in your mixer using the dough hook attachment for six minutes. Meanwhile, warm your oven slightly (I turn mine on for 2-3 minutes). Check your dough. It should be pulling away from the sides of the bowl. If it is too sticky, add a little flour, until it comes to the right consistency. Don’t make it too stiff, or your bread will be dry.
Butter a large bowl. Turn dough into the buttered bowl, and then turn it over to coat both sides in butter. Cover with a kitchen towel and place in your warm oven (make sure the oven is turned off, and that it is not too hot... you don’t want to kill the yeast). Set the timer for one hour and twenty minutes.
After one hour and twenty minutes, form the dough into three loaves and place in lightly buttered loaf pans. The way I like to form my loaves is to press them with my hands into a rectangle that is the width of the long end of the bread pan (about 9 inches) and about twice that long. Then I roll the rectangle up, making sure to leave no air pockets (which turn into holes in your bread), and placing the roll in the pan seam-side down. One advantage of this method is that if you want to add a sprinkle of cinnamon and brown sugar before rolling it up, you can do so. This makes really beautiful round-top bread.
Place the loaves back in the warm oven and cover them with the towel again. Set the timer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take the towel off. The loaves should be rounded about an inch above the top of the loaf pans. If they are not, give them another five minutes. Then turn on the oven to 350 degrees (you don’t need to preheat). Set the timer for 30 minutes again. After 30 minutes, remove the bread from the oven, and immediately turn the loaves out of the pans and place upright on a cookie cooling rack to cool completely. Any loaves that you don’t eat immediately hot from the oven with butter and honey, you can place in plastic bags, but only when they are completely cool.
To make white bread, rather than wheat, just use white flour in place of the wheat. You might adjust the second rise time to about 25 minutes, as the white loaves tend to rise a little faster. You may also use just a pinch less yeast for white loaves.

buffalo chicken wraps.

gives you the yummy flavor of buffalo wings without all the calories. it is fast, easy, and easy to make for 2 or 10.

2 tablespoons hot pepper sauce
3 tablespoons white vinegar, divided
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound chicken tenders
2 tablespoons reduced-fat mayonnaise
2 tablespoons nonfat plain yogurt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
4+ tortillas
4+ romaine lettuce leaves
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup diced tomato

Whisk hot pepper sauce, 2 tablespoons vinegar and cayenne pepper in a medium bowl.
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Cut chicken into chunks and cook until cooked through and no longer pink in the middle. Add to the bowl with the hot sauce; toss to coat well.
Whisk mayonnaise, yogurt, pepper and the remaining 1 tablespoon vinegar in a small bowl. Stir in blue cheese.
Let everyone assemble their own wraps.
Mm, yummy.