It can be tough to prepare a side dish to go with your dinner on busy weeknights. It’s just one more step you probably don’t want to deal with when you get home and you just want to eat. But this recipe for Asparagus with Tomato and Feta is so simple, you can easily make this delicious side to go with sauteed chicken breasts or seared salmon in no time!
This side can be made in about 15 minutes and cooks in the oven, leaving the stovetop free for you to cook the rest of your meal.
I love comfort food dishes, but they can take quite a bit of time to make. And sometimes after a long day, all you want is a comforting meal without having to put forth all that effort and time. This recipe for a deconstructed chicken pot pie from Cooking Light uses rotisserie chicken meat to speed up the process without taking away from the overall taste of a traditional pot pie. The “crust” is actually a round of puff pastry that is baked separately in the oven to stay crispy.
This recipe takes about 35 minutes to make so you can have this comfort food even on busy weeknights!
Ingredients:
2 sheets frozen puff pastry dough, thawed
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
2 cups unsalted chicken stock
1 1/2 cups chopped skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken breast
So sorry for the lack of posts! I just moved and finally dug out my pots and pans, spices, and pantry items and am ready to get cooking again! Because unpacking is still taking up most of my nights, expect a few quick recipe posts in the coming days. I thought I’d get started with my favorite meal: salmon! This recipe for Spice Roasted Salmon takes just fifteen minutes!
This recipe from Cooking Light is so simple but packs a ton of flavor. The salmon is sprinkled with garam masala, a spice mixture commonly used in Indian cooking. The ingredients can vary, but typically include ground pepper, cumin, cloves, and cardamom. There is a slight heat to garam masala, so the salmon is topped off with a cooling yogurt mixture.
February is Heart Health Month, which brings awareness to heart disease, the leading cause of death for men and women, and how to prevent it. A simple way to keep your heart healthy is to maintain a healthy diet, filled with fruits and vegetables (It is recommended that you eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily), as well as choosing foods low in saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol and high in fiber.
Salmon’s omega-3 fatty acids help to reduce blood pressure and blood clots. Having two servings of salmon a week can reduce your risk of having a fatal heart attach by up to one-third! (You can read more about it here).
Raspberries have 4 grams of fiber per half cup, with 25% of your daily recommended amount of vitamin C and manganese. (More info here.)
Driscoll’s sent me a few coupons so that I could add some yummy raspberries to recipes throughout February. Their raspberries are certified by the American Heart Association and have received the trusted Heart-Check Mark as a heart-healthy food.
Not only is this recipe a great way to keep your heart healthy, it can also be made in under 20 minutes!
I’ve been in a bit of a cooking rut lately (which is why I haven’t posted many recipes recently). Work has been busy which means that by the time I get home, I just want to eat something quickly with little effort. So I started researching 20 minute meals that are really simple to make, as long as I can get to the supermarket!
Working late really messes with my dinner making plans. When I get home later than expected, I can’t justify making a big meal, mainly because I’m already hungry and just want to eat as soon as possible. This recipe for Chicken and Guacamole Tostadas is perfect for nights like that, it uses shredded rotisserie chicken so that the recipe comes together in no time!
You’ll still notice that the photos are, well, crummy. I was super hungry and had to eat ASAP; the tostadas looked so good!
Ingredients:
1 ripe peeled avocado
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons finely chopped tomato, divided
3 tablespoons minced fresh onion, divided
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
the juice of 2 limes, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for garnish
I am seriously starting to think that Cooking Light has a way to read my thoughts. It’s like they know exactly what ingredient I want to work with next, or a particular product I might be craving, like this recipe for Stuffed Chicken and Herb Gravy. And I don’t mind that one bit.
The latest issue has a recipe for Stuffed Chicken and Herb Gravy with Creamy Polenta that upon seeing in the magazine, I immediately put on my boots, coat, hat, scarf, gloves, etc. etc. and headed for the supermarket, despite the slippery and freezing walk I had ahead of me (it’s a whopping 5 blocks away, but I still managed to almost fall a good 3 times). And I have to tell you, it was worth it.
(I posted this photo to Instagram before I left for the supermarket. hehe)
Chicken breasts stuffed with prosciutto and provolone, over creamy polenta, topped with an herb gravy… What’s not to like? The recipe suggested making it with bacon green beans, but we had some Brussels sprouts in the freezer that I wanted to use so I substituted them in instead.
Ingredients:
CHICKEN AND GRAVY:
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2 very thin prosciutto slices (about 1/2 ounce), halved
4 (2/3-ounce) slices reduced-fat provolone cheese
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons minced shallots
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1 1/2 cups unsalted chicken stock, divided
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon
POLENTA
2 cups 1% low-fat milk
1/3 cup unsalted chicken broth
1/2 cup uncooked polenta (I just used yellow corn meal)
There are some really fantastic sounding recipes in this cookbook. Just look at how I tabbed this book trying to decide which to make for this post!
Included in the cookbook, which features 120 recipe, are:
Forbidden Rice with Hearts of Palms, Mushrooms and a Jalapeno Vinaigrette
Bay Shrimp with Cannellini Beans dressed in Shallots and Cayenne Pepper
Red Miso Short Rib Braise
Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake
Unique Lemonade concoctions like Peach Ginger, Pear Basil, and Cantaloupe Sage
With descriptions like that, I have to point out that these recipes are surprisingly unfussy and manageable to make at home. I decided to make the salmon because 1. it sounds delicious and 2. I have never poached fish before and I love trying out new techniques.
This recipe takes about 40 minutes from start to finish so it is great for a special weeknight dinner (or as a mid-week pick me up!) I changed the ingredients ever so slightly so to see the original, check out the cookbook, available in stores now!
This post brought to you by Campbell’s Dinner Sauces. Weekend-worthy dinners with only weekday-level effort needed! Learn more at https://www.campbell.com/sauces.
There are a bunch of reasons why people are not too keen on cooking, especially on weeknights. Not having enough time, the convenience of just ordering food, and the stress of having all of the right ingredients on hand, and the fear of messing up the recipe are common reasons.
Campbell’s has a new line of products out that alleviate a lot of the above issues: Campbell’s Skillet Sauces and Campbell’s Slow Cooker Sauces. The idea is brilliant, the sauce needed to make a delicious meal is already prepared for you. You just add your protein of choice! To learn more about the sauces, check out their interactive Facebook app that gives more information about both the Skillet and the Slow Cooker Sauces.
Because the sauces are already prepared, your cooking time is minimal. Most of the flavors would be amazing with sauteed chicken breasts, with a meal on the table in under 20 minutes! As a member of the DailyBuzz Brand Ambassador Program, I was given the chance to work with some of these new Campbell’s sauces, which are currently available in supermarkets, typically in the Gravy or Boxed Dinner Kit aisles.
I had a tough time choosing which sauce I wanted to feature on here so expect some of the other sauces to show up in the future. I decided to go with the Thai Green Curry sauce because a homemade curry can be quite time consuming, so it is super convenient to have a pre-made version.
I thought I’d snazz up my quick weeknight meal option by adding a few ingredients to the sauce that still cook up quickly: green beans and red peppers. I also used shrimp as my protein of choice. You can purchase shrimp in your supermarket in the frozen aisle. Look for the peeled and deveined ones, but be sure to grab uncooked shrimp. Shrimp cook up so quickly, and by purchasing the already cleaned ones, you’ll save yourself a bunch of time.
The Thai Green Curry Sauce includes lemongrass, basil, coconut milk, cilantro, and a subtle heat from jalapenos. There is enough sauce for 4 servings, and has just 70 calories a serving.
A few weeks back I was invited to go to a super cool event hosted by Goose Island Beer. The last week in September was Goose Island Migration Week in Philadelphia and one of the events was a Painting and Tasting at New Deck Tavern. While sipping on Goose Island’s delicious beer, a painting instructor guided us through painting a Goose Island themed painting!
Creativity is not my strong suit. I can’t sing, dance, act, play an instrument… you get the idea. So I was excited and somewhat intimated by this whole process. But it was awesome. And here’s the end result!
Me, my friend Ericka, and our works of art
Please ignore that my oranges look like peaches. And that my goose on the glass looks more like Nessie. I’m still pretty jazzed with how it turned out! Ericka’s turned out great! I tried to switch it with mine before she signed it, but alas.
The Process
The feature of our painting was a glass of Goose Island Sofie in its signature glass. Sofie is a Belgian Style farmhouse ale (Saison) that is aged in wine barrels with orange peel.
This beer is SO good. I first heard of it through my sister who just loves Sofie, but this was the first time I had ever had it. After the event, I couldn’t stop thinking about Sofie so I picked up a four pack the next day! I wanted to use Sofie in a recipe and highlight the citrus notes in it, so I used this recipe I found from Cooking Light that makes a honey-beer sauce to serve with chicken. I marinated the chicken in orange juice prior to cooking to emphasize the orange peel flavor of the Sofie beer.
Ingredients:
1 cup fresh orange juice (~2 oranges)
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
.Pizzas are a great weeknight meal option; it’s easy to make it out of products in your pantry and can be customized for whatever you’re in the mood to eat that night (or what you need to clean out of the fridge!) There is a pizza place near me in Philly called Nomad Pizza that has one of my favorite pizzas: their Truffle Pecorino pizza. The pizza is topped with cheese, garlic, shiitake mushrooms, truffle oil, and a runny egg.
I wanted to try out a version of this pizza for myself. I used a mixture of baby bella, maitake, and shiitake mushroom caps and made a quick garlic truffle oil to drizzle on for extra flavor to make this recipe for Wild Mushroom Truffled Pizza Topped with Runny Eggs.
Ingredients:
1 store bought pizza dough
1/4 cup olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon, divided
2 garlic cloves crushed
a drizzle of white truffle oil
1 package of sliced shiitake mushroom caps
1 package of sliced baby bella mushrooms
1/4 cup maitake mushrooms (or any wild mushroom you prefer)
salt and pepper, to taste
4 oz ricotta
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
4 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
4-6 oz brie (I used Champignon German Brie with mushrooms)
2-4 oz Boschetto al Tartufo (Boschetto with Truffles) – you can also just use any mild cow cheese you’d like
I live near-ish Kennett Square, PA, the “mushroom capital of the world.” For the last 28 years, Kennett Square has hosted an amazing Mushroom Festival the first weekend following Labor Day. I love this festival. There are cooking demonstrations, contests, farm tours, and of course, a ton of mushroom filled dishes. But honestly the best part of the festival is the ability to stock up on all different kinds of mushrooms.
Beef and Mushrooms are really wonderful together, which is why you see them paired so often. To get the most flavor out of these ingredients, I wanted to sear steak (I used filet tail), cook the mushrooms in the same pan, and then make a sauce with some of the browned bits left in the pan.
I made this one-pot dish in a new offering from Calphalon and Williams-Sonoma: the Elite Nonstick line of pans. I received a 3-piece set which includes a 10″ Fry Pan and a 3 quart Saute Pan with a lid. These are some snaz-zy pans. I literally swooned when I opened them up. There are a bunch of great qualities to these pans that make them perfect for this recipe. The Elite Nonstick line of cookware has a textured sear nonstick surface, which seals in flavor when browning or searing. The pans are metal-utensil safe, so you can use your metal whisk or spatula without scratching the cookware. The cookware is also dishwasher safe, making cleanup a breeze.
Source: Williams-Sonoma.com
Elite Nonstick just launched on Williams-Sonoma.com on September 12 and will be available in Williams-Sonoma Stores on September 27. The cookware is sold as an 11-piece set, or as individual pieces. But I am excited to announce that Calphalon is giving one I Can Cook That reader a 10″ Elite Fry Pan, valued at $150! I’ll have more on the giveaway at the end of this post.
Source: Williams-Sonoma.com
So let’s see what these awesome pans can do! I used the 3 quart saute pan for this recipe.
One of my earlier posts on this blog was a chicken piccata recipe. I used to make chicken piccata probably once a week, because it was one of the only recipes I knew! But since I’ve committed to learning how to cook, I haven’t made it in probably 2 years (there are so many recipes I have to try, I rarely go back to my previous go-to recipes). So I decided to revisit the recipe with a few tweaks.
I’ve seen commercials for Land O Lakes Sauté Express products and just loved the idea. The Sauté Starters, made with butter, olive oil, and spices, are an easy way to cook up chicken or fish effortlessly. The Sauté Express Sauté Starters are specifically made for cooking on a stovetop and are portioned out in one ounce servings, enough to cook two chicken breast or fish fillets. So I thought the Garlic & Herb Sauté Express would be great in chicken piccata.
Because I use the same pan to both make the sauce and cook my chicken, my piccata is browner than most you’ll find in restaurants. So I apologize for the presentation. But trust me, the flavor makes it worth it!
Ingredients (serves 4):
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon ground pepper
1 lb chicken tenderloins (about 8 pieces)
2 squares Garlic & Herb Sauté Express, divided
1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
1/3 cup white wine (whatever you have around the house)
I realized a few days ago that I rarely make steak. I tend to gravitate towards fish and shellfish recipes because they are usually so simple and quick to prepare on weekdays. But grilled steak is also a really great quick option, especially on hot days when you don’t want to use your stove. (Are you seeing a theme in my posts recently? My apartment is on the top floor and it gets quite warm up there in the summer months so my stove gets a break for the most part from June to August.)
The latest Cooking Light had a recipe for a simple grilled sirloin steak served with a really beautiful mango chile salad. The whole recipe from start to finish took less than 30 minutes, perfect for a weeknight!
Ingredients (serves 4):
1 pound sirloin steak, trimmed
1 teaspoon olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
The juice of one lime
1 medium ripe mango, peeled and diced (I used a Haden mango)
1 red jalapeno pepper, seeded and roughly chopped (you can use green if you can’t find red)
I (like most people, I’m sure) cook mostly things I want to eat. Every now and then, I will get a special request and will go outside my comfort zone (like this Meatloaf recipe, or this Sriracha Deviled Eggs recipe) but when it comes to a weeknight dinner, I’m really selfish about what I cook. So I thought it might be nice if I finally made something that was up my boyfriend’s alley more so than mine.
Don’t get me wrong, I still like what’s going on in this recipe. I just don’t usually make meals with sausage. But I was reminded of this recipe for Clams with Spicy Sausage as a suggestion to make on World Oceans Day as a Perfect Protein blogger (more information on that in my post on Thai Coconut Mussels), which was June 8. So. Um. I’m a little late. But this recipe is too tasty not to share!
This recipe can be found in the book The Perfect Protein: The Fish Lovers Guide to Saving the Oceans and Feeding the Worldand is from the ultimate seafood chef, Eric Ripert. This man knows his fish; one of his restaurants, Le Bernardin is known as a seafood mecca. But this recipe is really easy to make and cooks quickly, making it perfect for weeknight meals. I altered the recipe slightly but the gist is still the same.
