Week 17~ Chicken Cordon Bleu

I had been making cordon bleu the same way for a long time. I found this recipe and loved it! The fresh mushrooms really make the sauce delicious. You could also make this ahead of time, and then bake it when you are ready. This is really good!!
The best advice I can give is make sure the chicken is thin so you can easily roll it and be sure to use toothpicks to hold them together.

4 boneless chicken breasts
8 slices deli ham
8 slices swiss cheese
1 cup flour
2 eggs/ 2 TBS water
1-2 TBS oil for sauteing

Cut the chicken breasts in half so you have 8 thin pieces. In the center of each breast, place 1 piece of ham and  one piece of swiss cheese. Roll up each chicken and secure with two toothpicks.
Beat the eggs/water in a bowl and spread the flour with a little black pepper on a plate. First coat the chicken lightly with flour, then dip in egg wash and then dredge in flour again.
Heat skillet on medium-high. Add oil and saute the chicken rolls until golden brown. Place these in a casserole.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For the sauce you will need:

2 TBS butter
10 ounces of fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup chopped onion
one-10 oz. can cream of mushroom soup
milk for thinning
3 TBS Sherry

Heat skillet again saute mushrooms and onion in the butter/ Stir in soup and heat until bubbly. Add milk to desired consistency. Stir in Sherry.

Pour sauce over chicken and bake for 30-35 minutes. Serve over rice or pasta.

Week 17~ Lemon Pork Chops

Here's an easy, versatile recipe that I actually took from a crockpot cookbook. Decided it could also be made on the stovetop. Brown pork chops and place all ingredients in the crock, or follow my stove top version below.

Ingredients:
1 TBS vegetable oil
4 boneless pork chops
1-  8 oz can tomato sauce
1 onion, quartered and sliced
1 green bell pepper, cut into strips
1 TBS lemon-pepper seasoning
1 TBS Worcestershire sauce
1 lemon, quartered


Heat oil in a skillet and saute the onion and pepper; remove from pan. Brown the pork chops on both sides. In a separate bowl, mix tomato sauce, lemon-pepper, worcestershire sauce and the juice from lemon quarters.

Return pepper and onion to skillet and top with sauce mixture. Simmer on low, approx 30 min. This was very good over rice!

Week 15~ Jalapeno Poppers

I have had somewhat of a lull in trying new recipes! Since my oldest son wanted to try another recipe from his Sriracha cookbook, we tried one over the weekend! It's a fun appetizer, I think even non- pepper lovers should try these! You can adjust the sriracha to how spicy you want them, since you are de-seeding the peppers.

Here's what you need:

Approx 2 dozen jalapeno peppers
16 oz cream cheese
2 TBS sriracha sauce
1 lb center cut bacon

First, clean the peppers and cut in half lengthwise.

Then mix the cream cheese with the sriracha sauce. Fill each pepper with cheese mix.

Wrap each pepper with half a piece of bacon. ( after having tried this, we all agreed they could have had more bacon, esp since these peppers were very large!) Secure with a toothpick.

We used a cooling rack between the peppers and cooking sheet to let the bacon drip through.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Let the torture begin! These smell amazing while baking.

Week 12~ Pork Chop Marinade

So I am sooooooooooo excited to start trying new BBQ recipes, salads......all the yummy things that the nicer weather will bring!! Bye bye crockpot. LOL

Try this! I marinated my pork chops overnight and they were amazing!!!

4-6 boneless pork chops

1/2 cup orange juice        1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 cup lime juice             1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 TBS sugar                    1 TBS wine vinegar
1 Tsp sea salt                  1 clove garlic
1/2 TBS pepper              2 TBS green onion
1/2 tsp cumin                  1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp thyme                  1 dried red chile, finely chopped
1/4 c olive oil

I placed the boneless pork and all the spices in a ziplock bag, and marinated all night.

Grilled this and it was so full of flavor!!

Week 12~ Festive Chicken with Asparagus

Asparagus lovers, its in season!!! Try this recipe, you won't be disappointed. :D

4-6 boneless chicken breasts
2 TBS all purpose flour
3 TBS canola oil
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 pound asparagus


~ coat chicken with flour. preheat oven to 37 degrees. using canola oil in a skillet, cook chicken until lightly browned.

~ in a 3 Qt casserole, mix the wine, feta cheese, undiluted cream of chicken soup, and a little pepper. arrange the chicken in the mixture, covering the chicken with some of it.

~ bake for 30 min uncovered.

~ add the cleaned asparagus to the casserole and cover tightly with foil. bake another 15-20 minutes.

This is so simple and delicious!! ENJOY !!

Week 11~Penne Pasta w/Eggplant

So I realized I have not put ANY good italian recipes on my blog!! I have been so busy trying new things, I forgot to share with you something I stumbled across last summer while reading a magazine on the beach! SIGH.

I tried this new marinara after making my sauce basically the same way for years. This is really, really good......and easy.......and healthy!

It makes a good amount, so I can always freeze some for later.

1/4 cup olive oil                                    1/4 cup fresh oregano (approx 1/8 dry)
2 lg onions, finely chopped                    2 cans crushed tomatoes
2 medium carrots, finely chopped          2 cans whole plum tomatoes
8 cloves garlic

My secret is chopping the onions and carrot in my mini food processor. Gets the pieces nice and small so you would not even know there is carrot in the sauce!!

After you finely chop your carrots and onions, add to your olive oil in a skillet. Saute this until tender, approx 15-20 minutes.
Add garlic, oregano and cook for 2 minutes.
Then add your plum tomatoes .. I actually use a potato masher to crush them :) and the other canned tomato.
Bring to a boil, then simmer for at least an hour.

For the eggplant variation:

Dice one medium eggplant into cubes. Saute in olive oil with pepper 12-15 minutes until golden brown and tender. Add two cups of the above marinara sauce and remove from heat. Add 1/2 cup basil.

Top with fresh mozzerella! Enjoy over penne pasta.

Week 10~ Braised Chipotle Beef

So I keep trying to move away from crockpot recipes, but it was a lousy 43 degrees yesterday. Ugh. I am soooo ready for warmer weather! This was a spicy, fragrant way to make beef in the crockpot! This one is a keeper for sure.

3 pound chuck roast, cut into 2 inch cubes
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 TBS vegetable oil
1 large onion cut into 1 inch pieces
2 red bell peppers, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 cloves garlic
1 TBS chipotle chili powder ( can substitute conventional chili powder)
1TBS paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
1 TBS ground cumin
3 TBS tomato paste
1 cup beef broth
1~ 14 oz can diced tomatoes, drained

1~ pat the beef dry with paper towels, and season with black pepper. Heat 2 TBS of oil over medium high heat. Cook beef in skillet and brown on all sides, transfer to crock pot.

2~ add remaining oil to skillet and saute onions, then bell pepper, and garlic, just until softened.

3~ stir in chili powder, paprika, oregano, cumin, tomato paste. Transfer to crock pot.

4~ stir beef broth and diced tomatoes in skillet to scrape up any bits from seasonings. Pour over beef in crockpot. Cook on low 7 hours or until the beef is tender.

Server over hot cooked rice.

I could not find chipotle powder at our local farmers market, but did find dried chipotle. (they are jalapenos)
To be sure they wouldn't be too hot, my assistant (hubby) de-seeded them first, then we chopped them up really fine. Only used one and it was plenty hot!