Those Enchiladassss

Forgive me blog friends, for I have committed not one but TWO blogging sins. 

1) I promised this post yesterday and then bam ... life. 

2) For your post photo, I am including a screenshot (above) of a video from my Snapchat feed. Super fancy, eh?

Well, here's the scoop. I made this Sunday night dish and we demolished more than half of it, and only after posting the video were people saying "recipe please!!! recipe please!!!" and by then it was impossible to snag a decent photo of the dish or the scrappy looking leftovers.

But the enchiladas were amazing, and it would frankly be just mean to keep the recipe from y'all. So here goes!

O M G Enchiladas

makes 6

6 flour tortillas

3 cups pulled rotisserie chicken (our grocery store has the chickens $4.99 on Sundays)

1 can Canellini white beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 large white onion, sliced thin

1/2 cup sour cream

Small can of green chiles

Green enchilada sauce

White shredded cheese (I used a mozzarella/provolone combo)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Begin by sauteeing the onion (use most, reserving some aside for the topping) in some olive oil over medium heat. Once softened, add in the drained white beans, can of green chiles, rotisserie chicken, and sour cream. Stir around until everything is warm, mixed, and creamy. Add in some of the white shredded cheese and stir some more. Remove from heat. 

Coat an 11x13 glass pan with cooking spray and divide the creamy chicken and bean mixture into 6 tortillas. Roll them up and lay in the pan, topping with extra sliced onions and then pouring the large can of green enchilada sauce over top. 

Bake for 10 minutes, then add lots of shredded white cheese on top, and bake for 10 minutes more. If desired, broil for a few minutes at the end to get the cheese golden brown and super bubbly. 

We served with Mexican rice and it was delicious! Like, really really realllllly delicious. 

Supper Club Finds: Rosé and Ground Mustard Dressing

The other day was apparently, um, National Rosé Day.

You didn't know?! (me neither)

Well, apparently, it's the second Saturday in June. Mark your calendars for 2018, people. And bloggers -- GET. ON. IT. At least, get on it better than I did this year. How did I miss this? Well, apparently it was created in 2014 by a Rosé manufacturer. So yes, this is definitely the "Hallmark Holiday" of the wine world. 

Oh well. I'll embrace it. Le duh. 

At supper club the other night, I actually had a DELICIOUS rosé and I was like "Lori. Please tell me this isn't a forty dollar wine. Because I want it in my house" and a quick google search shows it's around $15? Totally doable. 

We all had a wonderful time per usual and really enjoyed the iPhone self-timer more than adult women should. It's so fun though! I love my friends!

Lori made a grilled chicken salad with THE BEST grain mustard vinaigrette. She'd just come back from Charleston where she sweet-talked the chef into sharing the recipe. And then she shared it with us. Secret's out! Now, this does make 1.5 liters ... picture a two liter Coke bottle. That size, y'all. So be prepared to scale it down or at least be ready to share some in a mason jar with some neighbors or co-workers.

In the salad was arugula and mixed greens, pine nuts, sliced almonds, sunflower seeds, and pepitas (pumpkin seeds) with grilled chicken on top and a buttered roll on the side.

Grain Mustard Vinaigrette

1 cup white balsamic vinegar

5 Tbsp Colmans mustard powder (see below)

4 Tbsp whole grain mustard

2.5 cups canola oil

2 Tbsp honey

2 Tbsp minced shallots

1 Tbsp minced garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

Water as needed

Mix all together and enjoy!

PS: The Colman's mustard powder can be found HERE on Amazon. Cute canister!

Ain't No Thing But A Chicken Wing

Monday night, we had garlic parmesan wings for dinner and they were really, really tasty. It was also the first time I'd cooked wings for us on a weeknight, so it was a nice little way to shake up the routine.

photo source: delish.com

I found the recipe via Pinterest, natch, and I had all of the ingredients already on hand. Big win.

So, from Delish.com (original recipe here), here you go!

G A R L I C   P A R M E S A N   W I N G S 

INGREDIENTS
2 lb. chicken wings
1/2 stick butter, melted
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. dried parsley
1 1/2 c. freshly grated Parmesan, divided
kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS
Place chicken wings in a large slow-cooker. In a large bowl, mix together butter, garlic, parsley, and 1 cup Parmesan and season with salt and pepper. Pour mixture over chicken wings and stir to coat. Cover and cook on high until cooked through, 2 1/2 to 3 hours (April's note: I put them in on low for 6 hours). Heat broiler. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and pour wings onto them. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan and broil until crispy, 5 minutes (April's note: I did about 3 minutes on one side, then turned them over and added a little extra Parm, and then three minutes on the other side.)

I made coleslaw to serve alongside the wings and also tossed some carrot sticks in olive oil, cumin, salt and pepper and roasted them until they were as close to sweet potato fries as they'd ever get. They will still taste like carrots, but they are a nice sub for the fries! The kids love them, too.

Let me know if you make these wings. It's a super inexpensive dish to make, too!

Easy Salad Recipe: Chipotle Wedge Salad

A weeknight salad is a win in my books for a few reasons:

+ cheap

+ healthy(ish)

+ fresh

+ ingredients can be prepared/chopped during naptime

+ fast to put together after the kiddos are in bed

Recently we had these wedge salads which were delicious!

I started off by doing some naptime prep-work. I browned a pound of organic grass-fed ground beef from Aldi, adding in a few sprinkles of cumin and ground chili powder for a little flavoring. I also chopped some olives and quartered a head of lettuce.

One quarter of the head of lettuce went in one bowl, one in the second bowl, and I stuck these bowls in the fridge to chill.

When it came time to serve, I filled the empty part of the bowls with the cold ground beef and some additional toppings (chopped red onion and a mixture of black beans and tomatoes I had from the night prior). On top of the salads went the shredded cheese, black olives, sour cream, and chipotle tortilla strips -- another great Aldi find. 

To chow down, we mixed our bowl ingredients all together and topped with a little organic chipotle ranch from Aldi which was SO tasty. 

Ranch, cheese, tortilla strips ... that's why I said "healthy(ish)" :) 

But it definitely was a delicious salad! Total win in my books. 

Mediterrean EASY Supper Idea

Last night's dinner was super delish, and I had a little help from my friends.

My friends being Yafo Kitchen, my newest lunch obsession spot in South Park.

You see, I had lunch there with some girlfriends yesterday and I was so consumed with eating every morsel of my chicken hummus bowl and all of the warm pita wedges that I didn't put much of a dent in the cucumber tomato salad (leave it to me to prioritize the bread and meat and eat the veggies last). So I asked for a little box to take it home. And look at the topping it made for our chicken entree last night!

I took chicken breast tenderloins from Trader Joes, marinated them early in the day with spices and olive oil, and then simply cooked them on my grill pan (THIS is the exact one I have if you're in the market -- priced well and great, heavy quality). While those were cooking, I was roasting broccolini (also from Trader Joes) in the oven at 400 degrees. It was simply coated with olive oil and a few shakes of garlic powder.

When the chicken was done, I spooned the cold tomato and cucumber salad right over top. The broccolini came out of the oven and I added some shakes of parmesan and a lemon wedge. The simplest dinner yet healthy and delicious. 

If you want to recreate the salad, I scouted out this one on Pinterest that looks really close.

You could also scoop this mixture into phyllo cups with feta cheese or put it in a whole wheat wrap with some sliced steak and a schmear of hummus. Delicious. 

Oh, and PS ... you think I told Ian that the salad topping was from a restaurant? Heck no! Sweet thing thinks that I made it from scratch, and I certainly don't feel the need to correct that!

Reenergized For Dinner (Easy Swap Outs For Kitchen Happiness)

Yesterday I was battling a slight cough and a runny nose (and sneezing -- the worst) and dinner prep was just about the last thing on my mind. I was really dreading it. I had three chicken breasts thawed out in an 8x8 Pyrex and I just thought to myself that I'd end up throwing a bunch of random fridge/spice cabinet ingredients on top and calling it a day. You know, some random vinaigrette, a few splashes of balsamic, oregano, salt, pepper, some garlic ... nothing earth-shattering and nothing exciting, either.

Then Ian came home from hosting a luncheon at a medical office and he had leftover containers of sauces from Viva Chicken. If you know Viva Chicken, then you know that their sauces are basically liquid gold. It was my first time trying them even though I'd heard so many great things!

And BAM -- I was completely reenergized for dinner!

I ended up doing a simple oven-baked chicken entree, coating the chicken in an egg wash first and then dipping them in a mixture of bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. They were simple but so delicious topped with the sauces.

So, this morning between 2 and 4 when I was wiiiiiiide awake from this cold again, and I was thinking of blog post ideas, I thought -- why not pass along some ideas that may reenergize you in the kitchen, too. We all need a little boost sometime!

IF YOU HAVE CHICKEN BREASTS:

+ Put them in the crockpot for 6-8 hours on low or until they shred apart with a fork. Stir in cream cheese. Use this creamy chicken to make soft tacos, or pair with an enchilada kit for a delicious dinner. Serve with refried black beans.

+ Bread them, bake or pan-fry then, and make this copycat Chick-fil-A sauce. Serve with a fruit salad and slaw.

+ Marinate in a vinaigrette dressing of your choice, grill them, slice them and buy an Asian chopped salad kit. Toss all together. Add in some broken up raw ramen noodles (yep, the $.19/pack kind) to toss in for crunch.

IF YOU HAVE A PORK TENDERLOIN:

+ Put it in the crockpot for 6-8 hours on low or until it shreds apart with a fork. Stir in your favorite barbecue sauce. Serve with Southern sides like coleslaw, baked beans, mac and cheese, or cornbread. Delicious pulled pork.

+ Bake it in the oven, slice it, lay it on a platter, and drizzle with easy homemade tomato jam.

+ Grill it and then make these delicious looking Cuban sliders.

IF YOU HAVE GROUND BEEF: 

+ Brown in a saucepan and make baked tacos. Serve with cilantro lime rice. Extra lime wedges for me!

+ Make this meatloaf and sub out the preserves for orange marmelade (trust me). Mashed potatoes or mashed cauliflower as a side.

+ Make homemade pizzas and top them with browned ground beef, pepperjack or mozzarella cheese, yellow pepper slices, and caramelized onions.

/ / / 

I hope this post helps spur some new ideas for you in the kitchen! 

Please let me know if you like this type of post. :) 

A Simple Dinner Recipe: Parmesan Coated Chicken and Kale

Recently we had a dinner that was so delicious but also insanely easy to put together.

I don't know about you, but the chicken breasts at our grocery store are HUUUGE (I know, I know, I should be buying them organic, and maybe they wouldn't be so freakishly humongus. humongous. humungous. How ever do you spell that weird word!? Second way's gotta be right?).

The two chicken breasts below are actually just one large boneless skinless breast cut in half horizontally!

To lift each chicken breast off the bottom of the dish for cooking, I placed sliced red onions on the base of the dish. The onions cooked so nicely and were a great side but also played an important role in the cooking process. Almost like baking on a roasting pan.

The chicken breasts themselves were coated on each side with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a hefty shake of parmesan cheese. The powdery kind from the shaker can. Dried oregano went on top of the entire dish. 

I roasted the parmesan chicken and red onions at 375 until the chicken was golden brown and the onions were nice and soft. 

In my dutch oven, I had kale simmering for a loooooong time. 

After washing my kale and cutting it into strips, I added it to the dutch oven along with chicken broth, salt, pepper, and apple cider vinegar. Brought it to a boil then simmered. 

Right before serving, the kale got a nice dash of hot sauce as well.

Texas Pete is my hot sauce of choice, in case you were wondering.

Ian's a Crystal man, but, you know ... I'm the cook. 

So, delicious, easy, and ... did I forget to mention inexpensive?!

The red onion was already in my fridge. As I mentioned, this was just one chicken breast, halved. And the bunch of kale was not much more than a dollar. 

Can't beat a dinner like that!

Full-Of-Meat Monday

Meatless Monday is so very hip, and those of you who participate in it are doing it right.

But today I've got a salad for you that is topped with a big honkin' pile of pulled pork ... and it's good.

One of our favorite takeout spots in town has a menu item called Jaco Pulled Pork Salad. Ian and I pick them up a lot. They're huge, not the cheapest, and topped with these delicious fried crispy tortilla strips. You can pretty much taste the oil in the tortilla strips when you bite down in them.

The other night I set out to make a copycat version of the recipe that was a little cheaper and (egads) a little healthier, too. Adios, fried tortilla strips.

Here's how I built these salads for us:

+ Romaine lettuce, cut into strips and washed

+ Chopped cucumbers

+ Sliced black olives

+ Chopped grape tomatoes

+ Pickled jalapeno slices

+ Cheddar cheese

+ Chipotle Ranch dressing (we used Harris Teeter's HT Traders brand)

+ Pre-made guac on top (from those single-serving cups ... I got mine at Aldi)

And of course, hiding under the guac, dressing, and cheese (did I dare call this healthy?!) is pulled pork that I made in the crockpot. All I do to make this is take a seasoned pork loin and drop it in the crockpot on low until it shreds apart with two forks. You can season however you like if you buy the unseasoned kind. Half a packet of taco seasoning would be perfect for this dish.

This salad was quite tasty. I may have to redact my mention of it being healthy because look at that OMGdressing! 

So while it may not play nicely with the whole "Meatless Monday" theme, it is a way to start off your week with a salad, which always feels like a good choice to us. It's like a smart little dinner cleanse after a weekend of pizza, Chinese, and burgers!

For more of my "What's for dinner?" posts, click here. 

Grilled Romaine - A Simple And Great Summer Side

Ian bought a three-pack of romaine hearts last week which was ... super random?

We already had two other kinds of lettuce in the fridge -- organic mesclun mix (my choice) and iceberg lettuce (his choice). So, when I opened the crisper and saw the romaine, I was just like -- okay. We have too many lettuces in this teeny home.

We were grilling out burgers the other night, and I remembered that I'd recently seen a recipe for grilled romaine. A quick Google search, and we had a great and easy side dish!

You'll want to cut your lettuce in half and then put all of your good seasonings on the cut side (flat side).

Drizzle them generously with olive oil and shake on steak seasoning.

On to a hot grill they go, cut side down, for five minutes.

You'll know they are done when they are nicely charred and wilted.

Served alongside burgers and a fresh fruit salad, this was a great way to get in some greens!

AND, a great way to put a dent in the plethora of lettuces in our fridge. 

"Steak Dinner"

Ian and I always laugh at the term "Steak Dinner." You know how people use it to describe a really shi-shi night out ... like "Oooh, he took me to a Steak Dinner."

What is a Steak Dinner?
Is any dinner a Steak Dinner if you order steak?
What if your partner orders shrimp? Has he/she ruined it?

I'm so confused.

REGARDLESS.
I cooked a great Steak Dinner here at home the other night.
Here's the recipe.

I preheated the oven to 400 degrees and set a burner to medium high. I rubbed two steaks (sent to us from Omaha Steaks from my beautiful Aunt Karen) with my favorite steak seasoning from Aldi. A container is $0.99 and it's seriously the best.

I browned some butter in a cast iron skillet on the stovetop and seared each side until it was nice and golden brown.

Then, into the oven the whole cast iron skillet went for eight minutes. Next time I will probably start checking them at 6-7 minutes ... just depends on how done you like your steak.

Roasted cabbage was an easy side for this meal. It was left over from the other night so I just reheated it in the oven in foil, but basically you just cut cross-sections of your cabbage, lay on a foil-lined baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and shake on MORE of that steak seasoning (we seriously use it all the time) and roast until browned and softened. 

Also, I firmly believe that if you lay your meat over a vegetable like I did above, it looks totally restaurant-worthy. Try it!

And lastly, for our salad, I used the failproof trick of making sure it contains FCN ... a fruit, a cheese, and a nut. In this case I went with diced apples, sliced almonds, and goat cheese. I made a vinaigrette from blood orange olive oil and red wine vinegar. 

And that's a wrap! An easy dinner, healthy too.

Our fancy schmancy STEAK DINNER.

A Quick Recipe Post

Popping in today to tell you something that may help you in menu-planning this week ... that Mississippi Roast I posted about recently (here)?

Well, it is JUST as good (if not better) with chicken thighs! I used this recipe and the chicken was just falling off of those thigh bones. Absolutely delicious.

So, grab your sodium-laden packets and heat up that crockpot the next time you see chicken thighs on sale at the grocery store. This cut of chicken is already so inexpensive to begin with -- you could easily make this entire entree for about $3.00! 

Baked Fajitas // Easy Recipe

Recently a girlfriend told me about an oven-baked fajita recipe that her family has been enjoying. She's a shrimp-loving vegetarian, and this dish allows her to easily fill her fajitas with shrimp and veggies while her manly man gets his red meat fix.

The recipe is from Budget Bytes and you can find it HERE.

The recipe serves 4, but I ended up just baking half of it and freezing the other half (uncooked). I thought it would make a wonderful dish to have on hand once the new baby is here and time in the kitchen is a little more limited. All I'll have to do is thaw it and bake it ... as long as I have two tortillas and a lime on hand, I'm set! We were slap out of sour cream the other night, but that would have been an awesome addition. Or guac. Yes, GUAC!

So, if you haven't already done your grocery shopping for the week, check out the recipe and enjoy!

My Supper Club Menu: Roast, Cauli Mash, Green Beans, PIE.

Last Thursday night, it was my turn to host Supper Club at our house. This group of girls and I have been getting together since 2004 ... yes, coming up on our twelve year anniversary! 

When our group first started getting together, I was young (22) and learning my way around the kitchen. Now I am old as sin (34) and still learning my way around the kitchen. But one thing I've gathered for sure in these twelve years is that it is NOT fun to play hostess and be chained to your oven or stovetop while everyone is having fun and mingling without you. So my menus have changed from highly-involved (think: sauteeing) to very low-touch (think: crockpot). 

Here's what I served last Thursday night. Everyone who came brought a bottle of wine but I handled appetizers, entree, sides, and dessert. 

For appetizers, I had a simple little cheese, salami, and olive board. Take a sneak peek, by the way, at that divine cutting board. I'll be sharing the source for it on Friday!

The cheese I served is an inexpensive but truly yummy Aldi find. It's the dill havarti block and it's $2.99. You just can't beat that. I also had butter crackers, wasabi crackers, red pepper flake jumbo olives (from the olive bar at Harris Teeter -- my favorite olive beside castelvetranos!), and sliced salami. 

(I know I may get some questions about that awesome cow cheese marker I have. It came in a set as a gift from my middle sister. I can't find it online at all! But if you are looking for a similar type of cheese marker to designate your cow/sheep/goat cheeses, HERE is a fun porcelain set on Amazon Prime and HERE is a cute hand-stamped option on Etsy).

Another really easy appetizer is the pre-made mushroom profiteroles that I love. They are from my grocery store, Harris Teeter, and found in the frozen area where you'd buy the little stuffed quiche shells. They are Harris Teeter's HT Traders brand. 

I took a page from one of my favorite bloggers, Samma from Spice And Sass, and went with the old-school, sodium-laden way of making the infamous Mississippi Roast. I used two beef tenderloin roasts for our group and had PLENTY left over. I was eating leftovers for days, and not complaining a bit about it. I served these with some white dinner rolls for anyone who wanted to sop up those yummy juices. 

The perfect accompaniment was the cauliflower mash that I love to do. I just steam a bag of garlic-seasoned cauliflower, pour it over a half of a block of lowfat cream cheese, add some salt and pepper, and mash it all together with a potato masher. A little bit of shredded cheese (any kind) gets added in to the mix, more cheese and paprika on top, and bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melty and bubbly around edges. Embarrassingly easy but a crazy hit. I doubled the recipe this evening and made it in a 9x13. We had very little remaining, and I think it was just out of courtesy. Nobody wanted to take the last two bites. 

Lastly, I just made some green beans that I simmered for a while in salty seasonings and a little bit of olive oil. 

And for dessert, as I mentioned last week, we had Chess Pie! You can find that recipe here. 

Dinner was simple, yet the girls said it was the best dinner served within the last year at Supper Club (!!!!!!). What a true compliment! I'll take it. 

And for those of you who love hearing about the cost of hosting, this was a truly economical meal. I already had the salami and crackers on hand. The olives were pay-by-the-pound and I'm pretty sure it was around $2 for them. The cheese, as I mentioned, was $2.99 at Aldi. The beef tenderloin roasts I got were on BOGO sale so I got both for around $14 total. Seasoning packets, butter, and pepperoncinis were all from Aldi, super inexpensive. The cauliflower steam bag is typically on sale for $2.28 at Harris Teeter (Birds Eye is the brand). The green beans come frozen in a bag at Aldi and I love them because they are nice and skinny and long. I think that makes them seem a lot more gourmet than anything you'd find in a can :)

If I had to estimate, I probably had $30 in the dinner total. Definitely an inexpensive way for feeding seven girls!

Barbecue (Not Really Barbecue) Shrimp Recipe

Last night we had a really good dinner which met my three favorite cooking criteria: Easy. Fast. Delicious.

This shrimp dish is one that my mom would make for us often, and the spicy buttery broth that the dish creates is perfectly sopped up with some toasted French bread.

I put together the shrimp entree yesterday afternoon, placed the lid on top of the Pyrex, and then just broiled it for 15 minutes once Camille went to bed. 

Here's my mom's version of the recipe, with relatively few measurements. I'll do my best to describe how much I used, but this is definitely a dish that will turn out deliciously even if you eyeball the ingredients!

Barbecue Shrimp

1 lb shrimp, in shells

Olive oil

Cracked black pepper

Salt

Juice from one lemon

Tabasco or Texas Pete

Worchestershire Sauce

1/2 stick butter, cut in pats

Place shrimp in shells in an ovenproof dish (I used an 8x8 glass dish). Drizzle shrimp with olive oil. Add pepper over all of the shrimp until they are black, then add more pepper. Stir around to coat. Add salt, juice from one lemon, and cover the shrimp well with hot sauce and worchestershire sauce. Place pats of butter all over the top of the dish.  Broil 10-15 minutes or until done. Serve with crusty bread for dipping in the broth!

I served this with sauteed green beans (olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder) and roasted cabbage slices (olive oil, steak seasoning). 

I had about 15-16 shrimp in the dish and it served two of us really well. Since shrimp doesn't reheat really well, I aimed for us to have no leftovers. I used the frozen bag of jumbo shrimp from Aldi which is just $5.99, thawed them under running water from the sink, and they were deliciously large and plump! 

So, why in the world is this dish called Barbecue Shrimp when the word "barbecue" for me conjures up the idea of a thick brown sauce over pulled pork? Apparently the original recipe has Creole roots, so I'll just go with the New Orleans folks here and agree that it's Barbecue Shrimp. 

(But shhhh ... if I had to rename it, the moniker would somehow capture the spicy, peppery, buttery broth that makes this dish stand out!)

Italian Caper Chicken Recipe (My Go-To)

If you ever want to make chicken piccata (my FAVORITE chicken dish) but just feel "meh" about all of the steps involved, and maybe a lack of multiple lemons is holding you back, then I have a recipe you will likely get excited about. 

This dish is for caper lovers. That's your warning. If you could snack on them by the handful, like me, then prepare to jot this recipe down!

Italian Caper Chicken

serves 4

2 whole boneless skinless chicken breasts, split into halves

1/3 - 1/2 cup capers, drained

juice of one lemon*

flour for dredging

olive oil or butter for pan-frying

Cut each chicken breast again to make eight thin pieces. To do this, place your palm onto one and then, with a large, sharp knife, butterfly the chicken breast until you get two thinner pieces. Heat a wide frying pan with just enough oil or butter to cover the bottom of the pan. Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour and pan fry in the oil, on medium to medium-high heat, turning until each side is golden brown. When the chicken is almost done, toss the capers onto the chicken, sprinkle the lemon juice on top and cover until the chicken is completely cooked. 

You may notice that I added an asterisk above to the juice of one lemon. When I decided to make this Sunday night, I didn't even have ONE lemon on hand! I did have some pulpy orange juice, however, so I subbed a few tablespoons of that instead, and it gave the dish the perfect citrusy flavor.

This is definitely a favorite chicken dish in our home, and I hope you'll share your thoughts with me if you decide to make it as well!