Portobello Mushroom Dijon Chicken

I feel like I haven't cooked all week. I have, but it's just been such a busy week between work and home that I haven't had that night where I get lost in my kitchen. It doesn't help that my kitchen is covered with work materials and getting space on the counter to cook is a feat to accomplish at the moment.

But tonight, I needed to cook. I've been wanting to dice some garlic all week and tonight I finally got my chance.

Kevan has been working really hard on the kitchen and he has the crown molding installed on over half of the cabinets! I walked in the door tonight and just about started crying. We've been working on this kitchen (along with a million other projects at the same time - that's how we roll...) for a year at this point. Just about to the day. But you know the story, two overachievers, two kids, two careers, 1 dog and a million projects... doesn't let projects happen very fast. I can't wait to show it to you! We're hoping to have it done in the next two weeks before Kevan goes back to work. We're down to the final stages so hopefully that happens.

Here's a preview of what we've been slaving over...



So tonight, I pushed aside paint cans, levels, nail guns, crayons, artwork sent home from school and god knows what else and I got to cooking.

I like to buy the split chicken breasts because I have to work a little harder to get the meat off of the bone and that makes me feel like I deserve a good meal just a little bit more. I also like that it's cheaper. A lot cheaper. But I started thinking tonight that maybe it really isn't cheaper considering the weight of the bone and skin that you pay for. Who knows. I'll keep buying my split chicken breasts because it makes me happy. The end.

Once the breasts were ready, I put them in a pan with some Pam on low/medium heat and let them cook.


Then I diced up a yellow onion, a large portobello mushroom and a nice clove of garlic and dropped that into a pan and drizzled some Extra Virgin Olive Oil over it and set it up on just under medium heat.


While I had a minute there, I grabbed a loaf of light rye bread and split it in half. I cook 1/2 at a time, so the other 1/2 went into the freezer for another night. On the side that I was working with, I added another glove of garlic (but I love garlic. 1/2 a clove would have worked just fine), dried oregano, dried parsley, dried basil and then put some Parmesan cheese on top and plopped that into the oven to brown.


Going back to the pan with my onion/mushroom/garlic mixture, I added in about 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream and a couple of squirts of dijon mustard. I've used both generic and Greeeeey Poooouuupooooon and honestly think that it turns out the same regardless of the cost of the mustard. Score 1 for the cheap guys. I love a rich dijon flavor, so I stir about 3 - 4 squirts of mustard to my mixture.


The chicken could easily be chopped up and added into the sauce and the whole dish could be served over some brown rice or some pasta depending on whether you have a rockin' side dish to serve with it or not.


Voila.

Portobello Mushroom Dijon Chicken

• Chicken Breasts
• 1 onion
• 1 large portobello mushroom
• 3-4 squirts of dijon mustard (I'm pretty technical)
• 2 gloves garlic (1 sauce and 1 bread)
• rye or french or italian or any bread
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1. In first pan, cook chicken breasts in lightly oiled pan.
2. In second pan, saute portobello mushroom, onion and garlic in Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or butter if you'd prefer that)
3. Add butter, dried oregano/basil/parsley, Parmesan cheese and garlic to bread and stick into oven.
   
4. Once ingredients in second pan are fully sauteed, add in 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (you could probably use 1/2 and 1/2 or milk for a lighter version) and squirts of dijon mustard. Let liquid reduce by 1/2 or to a consistency that works for you.
   
5. Serve over chicken once that's fully cooked and chuck some bread on the side.
   

mmmmmmmmm...... I love cooking.

Sun dried Tomato Artichoke Caper Chicken

So if you're looking for a blah chicken recipe, this ain't it.

We had a friend come into town for the night last night and I wanted to cook up something truly spectacular to make up for the fact that I still can't remember what the bleu cheese recipe that I've been meaning to whip up is. So I searched around on all recipes and found a good starting point and then I embellished.

It wasn't necessarily that I meant to embellish. It was more that I just wasn't paying attention to directions (I rarely do) and ended up just winging it.

Man. It turned out.

I would have taken a picture but that would have entailed using my hands for something other than shoving food into my mouth, and that wouldn't have been polite to my dinner guests.

So here's how it all started......

I grabbed two bowls from the cabinet and cracked an egg into one and dropped some flour, basil, oregano, sea salt and then pepper into the other.

Then I breaded up the chicken. I've heard people say the best way to do that is to just use one hand for the egg part and then one hand for the flour part so that you don't mix the two. That doesn't make sense to me because it seems so much easier to just stick a fork into my breasts and plop them into the egg and then the flour. Easy Peasy.

Then I took those boobs and plopped them into a frying pan. I started off just using Pam but then decided against it and so I dumped a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the pan and sauteed them.



Once the chicken breasts were done cooking, I dumped some chicken broth in (literally... I rarely measure), squeezed 1 lemon into the pan also and turned up the stove to get a nice boil going.





At this point I had a knock out-drag down fight with Colton over the other lemon. I won. And by winning, I mean that I didn't end up with lemon squeezed all over my kitchen or nice living room couch. 1 small step for mothers everywhere.

I let the chicken soak in the lemon/broth mixture for about a minute completely by accident because I wasn't thinking clearly. I was supposed to take them out first, but I actually think that by letting them cook for a little while in that juice it really locked in a lot of great flavor and moisture. It's a mistake that I'll make again!!

After about a minute, I took the chicken out of the pot and set it aside. This gave me time to have a couple sips of my beer and strain all of the lemon seeds out of my broth. Then I dropped in a can of drained un-marinated artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes and a lot of capers.

I kept that mixture boiling to cook down some of the liquid and started another pot to cook up some campanelle pasta (my all time favorite pasta) because at this point, I realized that this would make an amazing pasta sauce. And as a carb addict, I just can't say no to pasta. It's just not humanely possible. I can quit smoking, but I can not quit carbs. Not even going to try. (This might hinder my size 2 hopes for my Miami trip in May...maybe)

It was at this point that I realized I hadn't put any fresh garlic into my pasta. And considering I had just purchased a 5 gallon bag of garlic (m'kay, maybe not really 5 gallons, but large regardless) to cook with that was just unacceptable. So I smooshed all the fixin's of my sauce over to one side of the frying pan to make some room for some quick garlic. I read on Pioneer Woman that the best way to get a garlic clove out of it's shell is to smash it under some canned goods and I couldn't agree more.

The garlic went right into that empty corner of the pan and cooked up for about a minute and then I mixed it up with the rest of the dish.

Voila. Mix it all together with the pasta. Serve it up with a nice Caesar Salad on the side and some fresh Parmesan cheese and just enjoy.

This is going to be a regular dish in our family because it was fun to make and tasted amazing. I love that there was 1 pan to clean up and then the pasta pot. Super easy. But honestly, one of my favorite things about this dish was that it was super easy to make and it's the type of dish that you can make while you're chasing a child in circles around your house trying to take back a lemon and you don't have to worry about it. I love meals that don't require constant attention.

Here's the simple Breakdown, I promise it's super easy:

Sun dried Tomato Artichoke Caper Chicken
-1 egg
-flour
-basil
-oregano
-sea salt
-pepper
-chicken breasts
-chicken broth
-fresh lemon
-can of artichoke hearts
-sun dried tomato (the ones that are in liquid, not the dried ones)
-fresh garlic clove
-chicken broth
-capers

1. Crack egg into a bowl and beat
2. Mix enough flour to coat your chicken with a couple of shakes of sea salt, pepper, basil, oregano in another bowl.
3. Heat up your frying pan and start dippin the chicken boobs.
4. Once the chicken is seared on one side, flip over and sear the other side.
5. Add in enough olive oil to slightly coat the bottom of the pan and cook chicken until done.
6. Pour chicken broth into pan until chicken is 1/2 covered, squeeze a lemon in on top and turn up to medium high heat. Let chicken soak while it starts to boil.
7. Set chicken aside and add artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes and capers into frying pan. Let the liquid reduce by half.
8. Start boiling the water for your pasta in a pasta pot. Once you have a nice rolling boil, add your pasta in. Cook desired length.
9. Once liquid is reduced, push artichoke, sun dried tomatoes and capers over to one side and throw some fresh garlic to cook in the sauce for about a minute. This gets rid of the strong raw garlic flavor. Once the garlic looks browned, mix sauce all together.
10. Serve it.... Eat it and Weep baby... Eat it and weep.



And I have to say Thank You to my amazing friend Kat for doing the dishes!!!

Chicken Taco Quesadilla

I'm exhausted tonight after all of the heavy eating yesterday. It takes some serious effort and willpower to remove yourself from the amazing Chili Cream Cheese dip (scroll down for this recipe) and steer yourself to the veggie platter so that you could graze with a tad bit less guilt.

Plus it doesn't help that I've purchased all of the ingredients for an amazing dinner for about a month now, and then once it comes time to cook said dinner... I can't remember what it was supposed to be.

I know that it involves heavy cream, bleu cheese, onions, chicken, chives but I just can't remember exactly what it was. It's like that annoying name on the tip of your mouth that just hangs out on your tongue for about a month. It will come to me.

But until it does. I've got to improvise.

Going grocery shopping would also help make cooking dinner easier.

But alas, that hasn't happened either. Our fridge is so empty that Kevan was thinking about sending out an S.O.S.

So tonight I went for the easy way out.

Chicken Taco Quesadilla

• Cook up some chicken in a pan and then shred or chop up
• Add some taco seasoning to the chicken and add a little water
• Combine Mexican Cheese, refried beans, black olives and your fabulous Taco Chicken together. I didn't have the energy to make some Mexican Rice but it would have been much better. (Here is the recipe I use for Mexican Rice It happens to be another amazing dish that I made last week. Mexican Lasagne)
• Throw into the microwave for 1 minute per quesadilla to melt the cheese
• Put in a preheated oven set at 350 for 10 minutes until the quesadilla is just the way that you like it. I love it reaaalllly crispy. I like to put tin foil down on the racks and add my quesadilla on top.
• Once your your 'dilla is done cooking, take it out and slice that baby up.
  
• Now it's time for the fixin's. I'm a huge fan of salsa and sour cream combined. It makes me a happy person. So my quesadillas are usually soaked in those. You could probably say that I have Salsa Sour Cream for dinner with a side of Quesadilla.
  

The best part about this meal is that the kids absolutely love it and cleaning up after I'm done cooking is as easy as tossing the tin foil and popping our plates in the dishwasher. Fantastic.


Chili Cream Cheese Dip
This is a really hard one to make, so bear with me. Our friend Candace brought this to the super bore yesterday and it was hard to not just in and start swimming in it.

• Pop the top on a can of store bought chili and drop it into a crockpot
• Toss in 8 oz of cream cheese. I like the Neufunzichichihavenocluewhatit'sreallycalled cheese because it's got less fat in it and still manages to taste good.
  
• stir serve with some chips.