What's For Dinner Wednesday--Chicken Stuffed Apples

Source: Everything Healthy Casserole Cookbook by Kris Widican

6 large baking apples
3 T lemon juice
1 C crushed croutons
2 C diced cooked chicken
1/2 C dried currants
1/4 C finely chopped walnuts
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp thyme
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 C butter, melted
1 C chicken broth, divided
1/2 C apple juice

1. Preheat oven to 400 F and spray a 2 quart casserole dish (with lid) lightly with nonstick spray.  Cut the apples in half and remove cores.  Carefully remove the apple flesh, leaving a 1/2" shell.  Chop the removed flesh and place in a medium bowl, then stir in 2 T lemon juice..  Brush the apple shells with remaining 1 T lemon juice

2. Add the croutons, chicken, currants, walnuts, salt, thyme, pepper, butter, and 3 T chicken broth to the chopped apples and mix gently, but thoroughly.

3. Cut a thin slice off bottoms of the apple shells so that they will sit without tipping.  Divide the chicken mixture evenly among the shells and arrange in prepared casserole dish.

4. Pour the remaining chicken broth and apple juice into the dish and cover.  Bake for 35-45 minutes, basting apples occasionally with the liquid in the dish, until apples are tender.

I was pleasantly surprised by the final product of this recipe, though my presentation could use some work.  I thought it was really, really good and I especially liked the apple shell.  I just wished that I would have hollowed more out so that I could have more filling.  And the chicken could have used some spices.  But other than that, really good.  I didn't have any currants, so I omitted that.  And I only put in a little bit of walnuts.

Nutrition Breakdown:
Calories (two halves of apple): 267
Fat: 12 g
Protein: 9.2 g
Carbohydrates: 33 g
Sugar: 23 g

What's For Dinner Wednesday--My Go To Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

I had another recipe lined up this week, but Wade's grandma passed away earlier today and he was spending the evening with family.  It just doesn't seem the same to make something new for just me, so I heated up some leftover spaghetti sauce and thought I'd share that.  First though, a story...

Spaghetti and us have a very turbulent relationship.  It started at the very beginning of us--10 years ago when we pledged our undying love to each other for eternity.

My mom has an awesome spaghetti sauce recipe that I loved growing up.  Our first week married, Wade requested spaghetti for dinner one night and I obliged.  The sauce took some time, and while he liked it, he wasn't thrilled with it.  I made it again the next week when he requested spaghetti for dinner...again.  After the fourth week in a row of luke-warm receptions to my mom's spaghetti sauce recipe, I finally demanded some answers: (a) what exactly don't you like and (b) are we destined to eat spaghetti once a week for the rest of our lives?

He answered with (a) the meat and (b) yes.  Apparently, growing up, Monday night was ALWAYS spaghetti night at Wade's house.  ALWAYS.  And while we ate spaghetti maybe once a month growing up, his family lived for Monday nights.

For the first five months, I tried my darnedest to make this a happy memory--sans meat in the sauce--for our family too.  But one night, about the second or third month we were married, I cheated and opened a can of the cheap spaghetti sauce and got better raves than I had for my previous eight or nine attempts.

After five months, I threw in the pasta spoon.  I could not stomach the idea of any more spaghetti.  It was gross.  Nasty.  And I kept with that resolution up until about three months ago.  I removed spaghetti from the meal rotation--except for the rare occasion--until we had kids.  Then it made it's way back in the form of the go-to meal that everyone (but me) seemed to really enjoy.  It allowed me a night to take off from cooking, more or less, and I also got to eat something of my own that no one else wanted to.

And slowly, we started eating it once a week or every ten days.

Stop judging.

But some nights I didn't want to make another meal for just me and I would end up with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Finally, I realized I needed to find a compromise on good spaghetti sauce that doesn't come out of a jar so I, too, could partake in this low-maintenance meal.

Enter Doug from Toastmasters.  I mentioned my love-hate relationship with spaghetti one night in a speech and he emailed me his recipe.  At first glance, it was daunting.  I'm suppose to cook it in a crock pot?  Who thinks that far ahead that they're having spaghetti?  So I tried it one evening in a saucepan.  And guess what?  It worked!

Hallelujah!

So without further ado, here's the recipe:


1 lb. mild Italian sausage (I prefer ground beef because it's healthier and I think it tastes better, but Wade prefers the sausage.  If I make it with ground beef, I'll just add it to a small pan of sauce for me and he eats his meat-free.)
2 x 28 oz. cans crushed tomatoes
2 medium onions
2 garlic cloves
1 x 6 oz can tomato paste
2 Tbsp. parsley
1 bay leaf
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. cold water
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
DIRECTIONS
Brown sausage and place in slow cooker. Dice onions and add to meat with
tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, parsley, bay leaf, sugar, basil, salt, pepper,
oregano and stir. Cook on low for 8 hours to 10 hours. (Or in a saucepan.  I haven't tried it in a crockpot yet, though I'm sure it would be 10x better in the crockpot.  I just cook it as mentioned and then let it simmer while the noodles are cooking).  One-half hour before
serving, dissolve cornstarch in water and stir into sauce. Turn cooker to high.
Cook noodles and serve.

This makes a lot of sauce and only two of eat our noodles with sauce, so I freeze the leftovers for the next go round.  I usually reserve spaghetti night for Toastmaster night and Wade will usually just open a can of sauce, so this sauce only comes out if I'm around to eat it too.

What's For Dinner Wednesday--Smothered Pork Chops

I do like me some pork chops.  Unfortunately, there are only so many ways to eat pork chops.  Here's another way to add to the repertoire.  Recipe is courtesy of The Food Network

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons onion powder
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 pork chops, 3/4-inch thick, bone-in
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup buttermilk 
• (I didn't have any buttermilk so I made a buttermilk substitute.  Pour 1 T white vinegar or lemon juice into a liquid measuring cup.  Add enough milk to reach 1 C.  Let sit for 5 minutes.  Use as much as the recipe calls for.)

Put the flour in a shallow platter and add the onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne, salt, and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly. Pat the pork chops dry with paper towels to remove any moisture and then dredge them in the seasoned flour; shaking off the excess.

Heat a large saute pan or cast iron skillet over medium heat and coat with the oil. When the oil is nice and hot, lay the pork chops in the pan in a single layer and fry for 3 minutes on each side until golden brown. Remove the pork chops from the pan and add a little sprinkle of seasoned flour to the pan drippings. Mix the flour into the fat to dissolve and then pour in the chicken broth in. Let the liquid cook down for 5 minutes to reduce and thicken slightly. Stir in the buttermilk to make a creamy gravy and return the pork chops to the pan, covering them with the sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes until the pork is cooked through.

I thought this was really tasty.  It was quick and easy to throw together using stuff I already had (minus the buttermilk, though that was an easy fix).  Yay for another good recipe.

What's For Dinner Wednesday--Beef Stew

Full disclosure: This wasn't the meal I made this week.  I made a pot roast.  But, part of why I chose the recipe for pot roast that I did was because it looked a lot like this amazing stew I made for A's birthday back in November.  It sort of fell flat on that count, so I'm going to post the beef stew recipe instead.

3 pounds stew meat, cubed

1/4 C flour

1/2 tsp salt

3 T olive oil

1 C baby carrots

4 large potatoes, cubed

1 T parsley

1 tsp black pepper

2 C boiling water

1 package onion soup mix

3 T butter

3 onions sliced

1/4 C red wine (calm down.  It was cooking wine).

1/4 C warm water

2 T flour

1. Place meat in a large plastic bag. Combine 1/4 cup flour with 1/2 teaspoon salt; pour into the bag with the meat, and shake to coat.
   
2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add stew meat, and cook until evenly browned on the outside. Transfer to a slow cooker along with the carrots, potatoes, parsley, and pepper. In a small bowl, stir together 2 cups of boiling water and dry soup mix; pour into the slow cooker.
   
3. In the same skillet, melt butter and saute onions until softened; remove to the slow cooker. Pour red wine into the skillet, and stir to loosen browned bits of food on the bottom. Remove from heat, and pour into the slow cooker.
   
4. Cover, and cook on High for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to Low, and cook for 6 hours, or until meat is fork tender. In a small bowl or cup, mix together 2 tablespoons flour with 1/4 cup warm water. Stir into stew, and cook uncovered for 15 minutes, or until thickened.
   
   This definitely had some prep work at the beginning, but it was so worth it.  Kinda wish the pot roast would have tasted like this.  

What's for Dinner Wednesday--Penne Sardi

Yay for new recipes!

I asked Wade what he'd want for New Year's Eve dinner if he could have anything.  He immediately said Penne Pasta Sardi from Biaggi's, an Italian restaurant found at the Gateway.

I googled it--yay for the internet--and luckily, someone had done all the dirty work for me.

http://www.whitewaxflower.com/2011/05/biaggis-penne-sardi-copycat-recipe.html

One day, I aspire to be one of those people that can take a taste of a dish at a restaurant and then go home and recreate it.  Until then, I'm glad that there are people out there that can do it.

So, if you want pretty pictures, head over there.  Otherwise, I'll tell you what I did here.

First, I had to make the bread crumb topping.  I took 3 pieces of bread and broke them up into pieces.  Then I put it into the blender and blended it until it was only crumbs, but not superfine, because they'll only burn.

Next, I had to brown the bread crumbs.  I added garlic, garlic powder, oregano, parsley flakes, onion salt and onion powder in with the bread crumbs.  I didn't measure out the amounts, just shook the bottles and tasted the crumbs until I thought they tasted good.

I spread the bread crumbs in an 8 x 8 pan and put them in the oven set at 200 degrees.  The recipe said to stir them every three minutes for about 10 minutes and they'd be done, but after 15 minutes, I had to turn on the broil for just a few minutes to get them toasty enough.

The next step took the most time, but probably made the dish.  Melt 3 Tablespoons of butter in a pan on the stove.Take a medium onion and cut it into thin slices.  Add about a cup of mushrooms and add the onions and mushrooms to the pan.  Salt and stir.  Salt some more and stir again.  Keep cooking over VERY low heat until the onions go from being stiff and white to clear and flimsy to brown and syrupy.  This process takes about 45 minutes so don't fret when it doesn't happen right way.

Next step is the sauce.

2 1/2 C heavy cream or half and half (I went all out and used heavy cream)
1 C butter (yep.  That's right.)
1 1/4 C mozzarella cheese
5 T grated parmesan cheese
1 C sun-dried tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter and cream together in a large sauce pan, and bring almost to a boil but not quite.  Stir in the cheeses until they're melted followed by the tomatoes.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Set aside.

*a sidenote about the tomatoes.  The only sun-dried tomatoes I could find were found in the canned tomato aisle packed in oil.  They were tomato halves.  I just threw them in.  I would suggest washing the tomatoes and then chopping them up into more bite-happy pieces.

Cook a bag of penne pasta according to the package directions.  Drain the pasta and put it into a bowl.  Add the sauce and the carmelized onions and mushrooms and another 1/2 cup of mozzarella and stir it up.  Put it in a baking dish, top it with more mozzarella cheese and layer the top with the bread crumbs.\

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, checking occasionally to make sure the bread crumbs aren't burning.

*Another sidenote: I also added grilled chicken to the pasta.  I just grilled some chicken and cut it up into bite-size pieces and added it with the sauce and onion/mushroom mixture.

I got rave reviews on this dish from both Wade and our friends we had over for NYE.  It really wasn't that hard to create either, as long as you leave enough time to not rush the onions and mushrooms.  Maybe not the healthiest dish, but for special occasions, it was perfect.