Pasta Primavera

I love this dish! It is originally from the "Cook Yourself Thin" cookbook and TV show that was on Lifetime in 2009. I bought it because there were so many recipes that I wanted to try out! I have made some changes to the dish that make it a little more filling and switched out some vegetables for ones that I like better. I have also added some chicken for extra protein. This can easily be made vegetarian by swapping the chicken stock for vegetable stock and leaving out the chicken. Just skip over the chicken steps and start right in with the asparagus!

I think this dish is pretty easy to make and doesn't require much prep time.

My picture is missing the chicken breasts, but I used 3 large chicken breasts. While starting the rest of the recipe, get a large pot of water boiling to cook the pasta. Once it is boiling and you have added the pasta, cook it about 2/3 of the way (about 6 minutes). Reserve 1 cup of the pasta water and the drain the pasta.

After slicing the chicken up, season with salt, pepper, and garlic and brown it up in a pan with enough olive oil to coat the pan. 

Once it is browned, add about 1/2 cup of white cooking wine. Let the wine cook out for about 4 minutes. Then, transfer to another bowl or dish. 

In the same pan, add the asparagus and 1/4 cup of chicken stock. Cover and cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes so that the asparagus is still crisp. Transfer the contents of the pan into another bowl or dish. 

In the same pan (again!), heat the olive oil and then add the garlic. Brown for about 30 seconds to 1 minute over low heat. I added some red pepper flakes to make it a little spicy!

Add the pasta into the saute pan along with the rest of the chicken stock. Add the asparagus back into the pan...

Along with the spinach and peas. If you need ore liquid you can some or all of the pasta water back into the pan. The reason for using the pasta water instead of more stock or just water is that the starches in the pasta water thicken the sauce as it reduces down during cooking. 

Once the spinach, peas, and asparagus are mixed in and starting to thaw add the chicken and juices back into the saute pan. Reduce the liquid bay half, about 2-3 minutes, and add in the parmesan cheese. 

Bon Appetit!

Pasta Primavera

3-4 large chicken breasts

1/2 cup white cooking wine

salt, pepper, and garlic to season

1 lb. pasta, in any shape (penne, farfalle, or shapes that size work best)

1 bunch asparagus, tough ends cut off and remainder cut into 2-inch sections

15 oz. chicken stock

about 4 tablespoons olive oil

5 cloves garlic

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup frozen spinach or 6 oz. fresh baby spinach

1/2 cup grated or shredded parmesan cheese

This recipe can serve at least four, but probably can feed 5-6 without leftovers.

*A delicious addition are sun-dried tomatoes which can be chopped and sprinkled in right at the end of cooking. I didn't have any so I didn't add them, but I wish I did because I love them!

Baked Parmesan Chicken with Salad

This baked parmesan chicken is a very versatile recipe that my mom usually makes for salads, but can also be eaten with pasta, veggies, with or without a sauce, or anyway you want!

This time we ate it with salad. We start with two to three large chicken breasts sliced and pounded thin. 

The bread crumb mixture contains 1/2 cup plain (or italian or parmesan flavored!) bread crumbs, 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs (we love it extra crunchy!), 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, and 1/2 tsp basil. 

The chicken can be dipped in egg or milk before being dipped in the bread crumbs, but it isn't necessary. Sometimes my mom and I do dip it in liquid first, this time I didn't. 

My mom has devised a way to cook the chicken in the oven without it getting soggy. The chicken is surrounded by heat in the oven and clean-up is easy because of the foil. It doesn't need to be fried on the stove first (but it definitely can be for a browner color).

She stacks a cooling rack with legs on a baking sheet lined in foil.

Baked Parmesan Chicken Recipe

2-3 large chicken breasts

1/2 cup bread crumbs 

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp basil

Mix the last 7 ingredients together and coat the chicken in mixture. Bake at 450 degrees F for about 1 hour, flipping the chicken over halfway through cooking. 

Vietnamese Iced Coffee

Peter has become obsessed with vietnamese iced coffee! He loves it. He has tried every iced coffee that he can get his hands on recently. So today I tried making him some myself!

We went to Lee's Sandwiches to pick up this coffee filter that is traditionally use to make Vietnamese coffee. It was only $3.50! I think that's a pretty good deal. 

I put about 1 tablespoon of coffee grounds into the filter to make about 4 ounces of coffee. I think that was a good ratio, but next time I might run it through the filter an extra time to make it really strong. 

I put about 2 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk into the glass and filtered the coffee directly into it.

I stirred it up and then poured it over ice.

Peter liked it so I think it was a success!

CPK's Kung Pao Spaghetti Copycat Recipe

Peter and I love CPK's Kung Pao Spaghetti so when we found a recipe for it I had to make it. It is spicy, sweet, and delicious! The sauce is really versatile. You can add in any meats or veggies that you like. You can even make it vegetarian by using vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. Peter usually has it with shrimp, but I think I would like it with chicken too. 

First things first, we had to gather our ingredients.

I found this thick spaghetti to use instead of regular spaghetti because I like a hearty pasta. I think it makes it more like the one at CPK because they use thick pasta too. 

Peter, being the wonderful person that he is, chopped the garlic for me. 

It is really important to make sure that the pasta is cooked al dente because nobody likes mushy, soggy pasta. That is one thing that we really enjoy about CPK: their pasta is always al dente.

To make the sauce I mixed together the chicken broth, cornstarch, soy sauce, sherry, red chili paste, sugar, red wine vinegar, and sesame oil. The original recipe called for 1 tablespoon sesame oil and 3/4 cup soy sauce. The sauce had way too much sesame oil for our taste so to make it taste more like the one at CPK I adjusted the amounts of these ingredients below. It was also too spicy for me so I think the next time I make it I will use less of the chili paste.

The next thing to do is saute the garlic in the oil for about 30-60 seconds.

And add the sauce mixture to the pan with the garlic. If using peanuts (we didn't, but next time will) this is when you would add them.

This is where we started getting excited to eat! Bring the sauce to a boil and then let it cook for about 3-4 minutes.

When it is thickened and darker pour the sauce over the cooked pasta. If you want to add chicken, shrimp, or veggies now is the time. If not, then add the sauce about a third at a time because you might not need to use it all. 

Yum!

You can add the green onions to the cooked sauce or top your pasta with them like we did.

CPK's Kung Pao Spaghetti Copycat Recipe:
1 pound spaghetti

1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup dry sherry
3 tablespoons red chili paste with garlic (I would use less, about 1 Tbsp, if you don't like spicy foods, but definitely not eliminate it all together as it would change the taste of the final product)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (can substitute for vegetable, canola, olive, whatever your favorite oil is)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup dry roasted peanuts
1 cup green onions, thinly sliced

Banana Bread Muffins

Yesterday, I made banana bread muffins at work with the girls. We were watching Cupcake Wars when we decided we needed to make something sweet. Since it was the day before Halloween I tried to make it as healthy a cupcake/muffin as I could. So we used up some very ripe bananas we had in the freezer and whole wheat flour. 

These are the ingredients that we used, except the butter that didn't make it into the picture. It was a quick and easy recipe that my 6-year-old was able to help a lot with.

The first thing we did was mix the milk and lemon juice because we didn't have buttermilk. Then we creamed the butter and sugar.

Next, we added the thawed bananas. We mushed them up mixed them in.

Then, we added the eggs and my helper mixed them in. 

This is the dry ingredients we mixed in, just until they were combined. 

This is what it should look like after the sou milk is mixed in. 

I like to make banana bread into muffins because it makes them portable and I can pack them in lunches or take them to the park for a snack.

Our finished muffins! They are soft and delicious.

Banana Bread Muffins:

3/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 overripe bananas

2 eggs

2 cups flour (I used whole wheat)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk plus 2 tsp lemon juice)

The first step, if you don't have buttermilk, is to milk the milk and lemon juice to make sour milk. Then, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the bananas and mix. If you prefer, you can mash the bananas first, but I like to just add them in and and mash them that way. Next, add the eggs and stir in. Mix the dry ingredients separately and add to the wet mixture. Once the dry ingredients are just combined add the buttermilk or sour milk. Bake at 325 degrees F for about 20-25 minutes for muffins or 40-45 mins for loaves. This recipe made 20 muffins for me.

Shish Kabobs: My Family Recipe

Last night Peter and I cooked dinner together! This is one of my favorite meals and I knew he would love it too.

The first step is too cut up the meats you are using into chunks. They should be about 2-3 inch sized chunks. They need to be about the same size so that they cook evenly. You don't want burned and/or raw pieces.

The next step is to mix up the marinade.

These are the ingredients for the marinade. On the left is ginger and the right garlic.

Peter minced them up for me because he is a super helpful boyfriend and he does the parts that I like the least!

We divided the marinade up between the chicken and beef chunks and put them in air tight containers to marinade for about 5 hours. 

After they were done marinating I put them on skewers with onion and bell peppers that I cut into the same sized pieces. I like the flavor that the onion and bell peppers give, but I don't like to eat them. Peter does so I put extra on his. 

I had some zucchini in the fridge so I grilled them too. I think the chunks I cut were a little too big because they didn't cook all they way through. Next time I would cut them a little thinner.

We put the chicken on the grill first because it takes longer to cook than beef. I like it really well done. I know was over-cooked to some peoples' standards, but that's how I like it! I think the chicken cooked for about 30 minutes and I'm not sure how long the beef took. The zucchini only took a few minutes.

This is Peter's dinner. He really like the grilled veggies and refuses to eat brown rice so he had white rice.

And this is mine! I'm going to go have some leftovers now because writing this made me hungry!

Shish Kabob Marinade Recipe:

6.5 oz soy sauce

1 tsp ground ginger (I used fresh and about the same about of minced ginger as garlic)

1 tsp dry mustard powder

2 tsp sugar

4 Tbsp oil (I used grapeseed because it is a healthy, neutral oil)

4 garlic cloves (I used 6 because I love garlic and always used more than a recipe calls for)

Whisk all of the ingredients together and let beef, chicken, or whatever you want to use marinate for 4-6 hours. Any longer than about 8 will ruin your meat. It soaks in the salt from the soy sauce and will be inedible.