Chicken with Walnuts & Spinach

This is one of my absolute favorite recipes.

I came across it a few years ago and have frequently referred to it on Prevention.com. But recently when I tried to access it, the website had undergone some updates, and the URL I had bookmarked no longer worked. I ultimately found it again, but I decided to save my favorite recipes where I know I can access them!

This recipe is very forgiving. I have had success with dehydrated onion. I typically use frozen spinach. I use whatever cheese I have on hand -- most often cheddar. And the amounts I use vary. I've accidentally burned the walnuts and overcooked the chicken, but surprisingly this gave it a good flavor (and dinner wasn't ruined). It also freezes very well. I could eat it every day for dinner, I think.

Chicken with Walnuts & Spinach
serves 2-4
cooking oil
1/3 c chopped onion (or about 1 Tbsp dehydrated onion)
1 c walnut pieces, chopped (I like to use my food processor)
1 c baby spinach, chopped (frozen spinach works fine & thaws in the skillet)
1/2 c grated provolone (or whatever cheese you like -- I usually use cheddar)
4 thin-sliced boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I just take 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts and slice them myself!)

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. 
2. Heat about 1 Tbsp oil in medium skillet over medium-low heat. Add onion and half of the chopped walnuts and cook a few minutes, stirring often. Add spinach. Cook until wilted (or thawed), about 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in cheese.
3. Put remaining walnuts in a shallow bowl. 
4. Spread out chicken on a cutting board or baking tray, and sprinkle with ¼ tsp each salt and black pepper. Divide spinach mixture among chicken slices and roll up to enclose. 
5. Coat chicken with a little oil and roll in remaining nuts (I pour some oil into a pyrex baking dish, roll the chicken in it, then in the walnuts, and place it in the pyrex to bake). 
6. Bake until chicken is cooked through, 30 to 35 minutes. 

Curried Chicken, Lentils & Rice

In an attempt to eat a healthier diet, I've been trying some new recipes lately. I was seeking lentil recipes when I came across this one. Although the original recipe is missing some information, I made some guesses and have come up with a dish that I like quite a bit.

The combination of spices in this turns out a pretty hot dish. I've played around with it a little (I think the ginger is what really gives it its kick, along with the chili flakes) but have not yet successfully toned it down (I have only made it about 3 times). So, if you don't like spicy, you might want to skip this recipe.

Curried Chicken, Lentils & Rice

2-3 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion (I've used a handful of dehydrated onion)
1 Tbsp. curry powder
1 Tbsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 cup brown lentils
3/4 cup rice (I've used long-grain white rice; the original recipe suggests Basmati, I bet brown rice would be pretty good)
1/2 cup minced carrot (I've used a small handful of dehydrated carrots)
1/4 tsp. red chili flakes
2 cups chicken broth/bouillon
~1 lb. chicken breast, cut to about 1" cubes
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 cups chopped fresh spinach leaves (optional; it's good with it, but if you don't have spinach, it's fine without)

1. Combine olive oil, onion, curry powder, ginger and cumin in a saucepan. Sauté on medium-high heat 4-5 minutes until onions are transparent. 
2. Add the lentils, rice, carrot, and red chili flakes, stirring to coat with spice mixture. Pour in chicken broth. Turn heat down, cover, and simmer about 15 minutes. Check occasionally to be sure it is not dry; you can add water about 1/4 cup at a time if it looks too dry.
3. In the meantime, stir-fry chicken cubes in a separate pan with a little bit of oil until cooked through. Season to taste with salt, pepper, perhaps some garlic powder.
4. Add cooked chicken and lemon juice to saucepan with rice and lentil mixture. Cook another 5-10 minutes, covered, until rice and lentils are done.
5. Remove from heat; stir in chopped spinach leaves. Cover and let sit 5-10 minutes, until spinach has wilted.
6. Serve hot. The original recipe calls for serving with a minted yogurt garnish.

Spinach dip in a Sourdough bread bowl

For the Bradshaw Family Christmas party this year, we were assigned to bring an appetizer. After mulling over our options, we settled on spinach dip, one of my favorite dishes.

I headed to the local Walmart figuring I would find the little soup mix box with the recipe on the side. They didn't have it. I picked up the Great Value brand Onion Soup mix and figured I could make it work. I knew I also needed spinach, mayo, sour cream, and water chestnuts, based on prior experiences with spinach dip, so I grabbed these items and headed home. Oh, and also some sourdough. A boule and a square (for dipping).

Fortunately, I found this recipe online using the onion soup mix. It's basically the same as the more well-known Knorr recipe, except with a different flavor soup.

Spinach Dip
1 10-oz package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 c mayonnaise
1 packet onion soup mix
1 1/2 c sour cream (about 16 oz.)
1 can water chestnuts, drained and diced

1. Thaw and drain spinach. I pour the spinach into a colander and let lukewarm water run through it in the sink until it is no longer icy. Squeeze water out of spinach. I also find it helpful to chop the spinach a little extra.
2. Mix sour cream and mayonnaise.
3. Add onion soup mix and stir to combine.
4. Add spinach and water chestnuts and continue to mix until well dispersed.

Spinach dip is especially yummy and pretty when presented in a sourdough boule. You will need to cut out the top and middle of the bread boule to turn it into a bread bowl. This is accomplished by taking a knife and carefully slicing into the top of the bread, being sure not to cut through the bottom. You have to use your hands to pull the inside of the bread out, and then continue to shape the inside so it can hold the max amount of dip.

For our party, I doubled the amount of dip (still using only one can of water chestnuts). I cut the sourdough boule insides, and the sourdough square loaf, into small cubes (~ 1-2"). Not all of the dip fit into my bread bowl so I kept the extra in a separate bowl. The idea is to use the small bread cubes to dip into the spinach dip, and at the end you can also eat the bread bowl (of course!).

Spinach stuffed pasta

This is our new favorite dish:

I altered this recipe I found for spinach stuffed shells. Although this dish is a little bit time consuming because of the various steps, it's easy enough for us to put together, even on a busy weekday.

Spinach Stuffed Pasta Shells
                   yields about 4 servings, or the equivalent of a 9*13 baking dish
6 oz. Jumbo shells (we buy the 12 oz. Great Value brand at Walmart and use half a box)
1 jar (about 2 cups?) Marinara/pasta sauce of your choice (we like Del Monte Sweet Basil, but lately Thomas has been making his own pasta sauce starting with a can of stewed tomatoes)
1 c ricotta cheese OR cottage cheese (whatever's cheaper!)
~1/2 lb mozzarella cheese, grated
1 egg
grated Parmesan to taste
6-8 oz. frozen spinach, rinsed to thaw and drained (either one box or 1/2 a 16 oz. bag) (I imagine you could use fresh spinach too, but we haven't tried this)

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Boil pasta per package directions. You'll want it cooked, but not mushy; maybe a little past al dente.
3. In the meantime, combine ricotta, mozzarella, egg, Parmesan, and spinach. This will be your pasta filling. 
4. Spread a little bit of your pasta sauce around the bottom of a glass baking dish (9x9 works, but 9x13 is easier).
5. Once pasta is cooked, drain in a colander. Rinse lightly to cool (but take care not to break the pasta).
6. Spoon cheese/egg mixture into each shell pasta, roughly 3 Tbsp per pasta. Place stuffed pasta into baking dish, on top of the sauce in the bottom. 
7. Once all pasta shells are stuffed and placed into baking dish, pour remainder of pasta sauce over shells. Cover with foil and bake for about 40 minutes. Serve hot!

FREEZING INSTRUCTIONS:

Line your baking dish with foil, so you can remove the food to a freezer bag once solid. Freeze prior to baking. Thaw overnight IN THE BAKING DISH, after removing from freezer bag/plastic wrap, before baking at 375°F for about 40 minutes.

If making a large batch to freeze, these ratios work for 3, 9*13 baking dishes:

24 oz Jumbo shells

about 2, 24-oz jars sauce

24 oz (1 ½ c) cottage cheese/ricotta

1 ½ lbs mozzarella cheese, grated

3 eggs

Parmesan to taste

18-20 oz frozen spinach, rinsed to thaw and drained

Italian Wedding Soup

For our wedding, we actually had some Italian soup... but it wasn't this. It was minestrone... delicious minestrone made by my family's former neighbor Julie. ;o)

Anyway, we tried this recipe a while back for Stracciatella. I found the recipe in a cookbook I got from my mom for Christmas 2008 called Eating Better. It's a cool book because the recipes have been submitted by Home Economics & Family and Consumer Science (FACS) teachers. Thus you can trust them to be pretty doable and usually tasty.

This is a nice light soup that would be best served as an appetizer. If I were to make it again, I would probably try to stir more while adding the egg, as the egg in our soup was pretty chunky.

Stracciatella (Italian Wedding Soup)
3 1/2 cups chicken broth (I think I upped this to 4 cups, so I could use 4 bouillon cubes)
1 lb fresh spinach, washed and chopped (I had a pre-washed bag of spinach and I dumped the whole thing in as is)
1 egg
1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese (you can probably cut down on this if I recall correctly)
1 Tbsp flour
salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring 1 c of chicken broth to a boil.
2. Add spinach and cook down until soft but still bright green. The spinach will look like a lot at first but after a few minutes you will wonder where it went!
3. Remove spinach with a slotted spoon and set aside. I put all of it in a bowl - you will add it back later.
4. Add the remaining 2 1/2 - 3 cups broth to pot and bring to boil. 
5. Beat egg lightly, add 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and flour.
   When broth is boiling, pour in egg mixture, stirring constantly until egg "cooks into rags" as the book says... I pictured egg drop soup from a Chinese restaurant but this is not what mine looked like; again, I probably should have stirred faster or something.
6. Add the spinach back in. Season to your liking (including with the additional Parmesan cheese)

Serves 4-6 according to the book, but I think we finished this much on our own for dinner. If you are serving it with something else (pasta?) you could stretch it further.

Seder and Passover Feast

Although we are not Jewish, we enjoy learning about the traditions and symbolism found in Judaism (and other religions, for that matter). Because it is Passover week, we decided to have a small get-together with our friends to learn about and try the Seder plate fare and some interesting Passover-friendly recipes from a book we found at a garage sale last summer (The Passover Table by Susan R. Friedland). We and our friends tried our hand at the recipes shared below. Thank you Shari & Lisa for cooking and bringing the cake and cutlets!

We did run into some hiccups while getting this all together. For instance, because we live in an area with an overwhelmingly high population of Latter-day Saints, we had a difficult time finding matzos and matzo meal. We found some matzo meal at Macey's, but realized after purchasing it that it was "not for Passover use" because it had not been processed appropriately for Passover. We ended up making our own matzo bread to use with our Seder and in the Matzo Chicken Pie recipe because we did not find any at the stores we went to. In the end, our matzo-stuff was not Passover-kosher according to the Jewish traditions, but we figured it was the best we could do, all things considered.

We started our meal with a Seder plate, discussing the symbolism of each item as we ate.

Seder plate

•  "Karpas" symbolizes new growth of spring = parsley (this is dipped into salt water/vinegar, which represents the tears shed by the enslaved Israelites)
• "Maror" symbolizes intense bitterness of slavery = horseradish (we dipped our matzo in horseradish sauce)
• "Charoset" represents the mortar the slaves prepared for the building of the pharoahs’ cities and pyramids = 1 lb apples, diced ; 1 1/4 c walnut halves, chopped ; 3/4 Tbsp ground cinnamon ; 3-5 Tbsp light grape juice
• "Zeroah" represents the Paschal lamb sacrificed at the temple, which represents the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ = roasted lamb (we put ours in the oven with parsley, onions, and lemon juice at 400°F for 15 minutes and then turned it down to about 350°F for about 35 minutes)
• "Baytzah" symbolizes mourning for the temple; also a symbol of a festival offering brought to the temple on Pesach = roasted egg

lamb, prior to roasting

Matzo bread
3 units flour to 1 unit water (3 cups flour to 1 cup water yields about 4 medium matzos)

1. Combine flour and water. Mix and knead into a dense dough. 
2. Roll out to 1/8" thickness or so. Thicker will be more bready, thinner yields more cracker-like matzo. 
3. Poke lots of holes with a fork and bake in a hot oven (450°F or more, as hot as your oven gets without broiling) for a few minutes - until cooked through and possibly browning.

The dough is a little difficult to roll out

Lots of holes!

 Matzo Balls
4 eggs
1/2 c water
1/4 c oil
1 tsp salt
pepper
1 c matzo meal

1. Beat eggs. Add water, oil, salt, and pepper, and mix well. Add matzo meal and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.
2. In a large pot, bring some water to a boil. With moist hands, form small (1") balls from mixture and drop them into boiling water.
3. Simmer all matzo balls, covered, for about 30 minutes until done. Remove with a slotted spoon into a large bowl.
4. Serve in chicken soup. We served ours in chicken broth made from bouillon.

We got this recipe on the back of the Streit's Matzo Meal box - it was pretty similar to other recipes we'd seen.

matzo meal added to egg mixture

all mixed together

These expand a lot when cooking - these were just taken out of the boiling water

served in chicken broth

Mina de Pesah - Matzo Chicken Pie
vegetable oil for frying
2 c chopped onions
2 Tbsp minced garlic
1 1/2 c mushrooms
3 c cooked chicken (about 14 oz)
salt
pepper
1 c chopped parsley
5 eggs, lightly beaten
5 to 6 matzos
1 c chicken stock

1. Heat oil in large skillet. Sauté onions and garlic until soft and translucent. Add mushrooms and continue to cook until they are soft too. 
2. Let cool. Add chicken, salt, pepper, parsley, eggs.
3. Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray baking dish with cooking spray.
4. Soak matzos in chicken stock until moist. I neglected to complete this step because I could not think of a way to soak them. I instead began layering them and poured some stock over each matzo, but this did not work that well. If I make this again I will place them on a cookie sheet and soak them therein.
5. Layer matzos and chicken-vegetable mixture like a lasagna: matzos, mixture, matzos, mixture, matzos. 
6. I also did not do this: pour 2 tsp oil over the top and bake for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with another bit of oil and bake for another 15 minutes. (The top matzo on mine was very, very dry... doing this might have remedied that problem).
7. Let cool 10 minutes, then serve.

Onions, garlic, mushrooms

Plus eggs, parsley, chicken

Layered using homemade matzos

Vegetable cutlets (side)
1 1/2 to 2 c minced red or yellow peppers or a mixture of both
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 c grated carrots (about 4 carrots)
1/2 lb raw spinach, cleaned, trimmed, chopped (2 tightly packed cups)
1 lb (3 medium) potatoes, boiled and mashed (2 c)
6 Tbsp grated raw onion (1 large)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 tsp salt
pepper
1 c matzo meal
vegetable oil

1. sauté the peppers in the olive oil until soft
2. add all of the remaining ingredients except vegetable oil and let mixture stand for 30 minutes or overnight, refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before continuing
3. either fry or bake: 
1. fry by heating 1/4 inch of vegetable oil in large skillet. Form each patty with about 1/4 c of the mixture. Flatten slightly and fry in batches for about 6 minutes on one side, 3-4 minutes on the other side. Drain on paper towels.
2. bake by putting patties on lightly greased baking sheet and place in preheated 350°F oven for about 10 minutes; turn over and bake another 7 to 10 minutes
4. serve warm

These are yummy - not sure how to describe them, though.

Walnut cake (dessert)
9 eggs at room temperature, separated
1 c sugar
2 c walnuts, ground to a powder
2 Tbsp matzo cake meal (we used matzo meal and it worked fine)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

1. preheat oven to 350°F. Dust two 9x3-inch loaf pans with a little extra cake meal and set aside
2. with an electric mixer, beat egg yolks until pale in color. Beat in sugar 2 Tbsp at a time, beating well after each addition
3. combine nuts with matzo cake meal. Stir into yolks along with vanilla.
4. beat egg whites with salt until they are stiff but not dry. Fold them gently and carefully into the batter
5. turn the batter into the prepared pans and smooth the top. Bake 30-40 minutes, or until cake shrinks away from side of pans and cake tester comes out clean. Let cool on rack.

This cake was surprisingly light and sweet - do not be afraid if/when the cake caves in.

 oxox

Ready for another heart-stopper?!

So, as you may or may not have realized, we like bacon around here! (Quiche, bacon-wrapped eggs, bacon pizza...)

This time, we may have gone over the top. Just keep in mind that the Bacon Explosion was somebody else's creation! :o) And don't worry... we kept it a balanced meal. Scroll down for the Strawberry & Spinach Salad.

Bacon Explosion

2 lbs bacon strips
2 lbs Italian sausage
barbecue sauce

See the Bacon Explosion website for more detailed directions.

1. Weave about half of the bacon together on a baking dish.
2. Add any spices you want to add.
3. Spread sausage over bacon mat.
4. Cook the rest of the bacon to your liking. Crumble it up and put it on top of the sausage.
5. Add barbecue sauce.
6. Roll up the sausage with the bacon pieces inside.
7. Conclude assembly by rolling up bacon weave around sausage creation.
8. Now, you can either barbecue this as suggested in their website, or you can bake it like we did. We set the oven at around 250 degrees (F) and let it cook for about 2 hours.

Please dispose of the grease safely. You will end up with... A LOT! Let it cool before you pour it into a container to throw away. Please don't pour it down your sink... this will cause problems for you!

Strawberry & Spinach Salad

1 bunch of spinach
1 pound of strawberries
about 1/2 cup walnuts
about 2-3 Tablespoons sugar
salad dressing of your choice - we used Brianna's poppyseed dressing but this would be great with a vinaigrette.

1. Rinse spinach and take stems off. Keep the leaves; dry them and place them in your salad bowl.
2. Rinse strawberries. Remove leaves and slice.
3. Chop/crush walnuts. You'll want them to be in small pieces. They garnish this salad.
4. Heat sugar in small sauce pan. Once it is liquid, QUICKLY add walnuts, stirring, and remove from heat. Now you have caramelized walnuts.
5. Add strawberry slices and caramelized walnuts to spinach. Dress with dressing of your choice. Enjoy!

We devoured our Bacon Explosion with the Strawberry & Spinach salad and some mashed potatoes to make it a balanced meal.

Our nieces, Lydia and Ruby, really loved this dinner!

 oxox