Daily Archives: September 21, 2011

Oven-Fried Chicken (The Second Time Around), Steamed Squash, Roasted Beets, and a Side Salad

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9-21-11 Dinner Blog

Oven-Fried Chicken (The Second Time Around), Steamed Squash, Roasted Beets, and a Side Salad

If you have noticed, I am a day behind this week.  This is no surprise to me – I always feel a day behind.  But because of today’s extraordinary craziness and mandatory “To Do’s” that were not on my list when I woke up, today’s dinner victory was all the more sweet.  Talk about easy – this one takes the cake!  I just warmed everything up and served. This is the pay off for planning and pre-prep!

I pre-heated the oven, put the chicken on a roasting pan, and just for kicks, sprinkled some more chili powder on half of the chicken, and popped the pan in the oven.

Warming up the Oven-Fried Chicken and Adding a bit of Chili Powder to Half

I got the squash, rest of the beets, greens, and the last of the pineapple and bell peppers out of the refrigerator.  Recall I cooked the squash on Sunday so I just had to warm it up.  I peeled the skin off the beets, cut them and warmed them too.  Then I portioned the greens, pineapple and bell pepper, topped with a bit of the no-oil balsamic vinaigrette.

Within 10 minutes the chicken was heated through, the sides warm and ready, and we sat down to eat!

Oven-Fried Chicken (The Second Time Around), Steamed Squash, Roasted Beets, and a Side Salad

The Verdict

The chili powder didn’t sweeten the deal for my daughter whose rating remained a 7. She reminds me this is not a bad rating, it just means it is not one of my top dishes.  Everyone else’s ratings remained high.  Though the chili powder was a nice change, the kids could only have one piece of chicken before their mouths got too hot. On the other hand, my husband and I really liked the “zip”.  In the future, I may just lightly sprinkle some chili powder on the adult’s portions once they are on the plate.

So you can’t please all of the people all of the time, but you can try to please most of them!

 

 

Recipe

Oven-Fried Chicken, Roasted Beets, Fresh Green Beans and a Side Salad

For 2 Adults and 2 Kids

Recipe can be doubled and served again 2 days later. No need to reinvent this meal!

4-6 Beets

1 Acorn Squash

1.75 lbs Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

1 C Bread crumbs

1/2 C Finely shredded cheddar cheese – I use goat’s milk cheddar

¾ t chili powder

½ t salt

Olive oil or canola oil spray

Water in a small bowl

 

Make ahead of time:

Preheat oven to 400

  1. Wash beets and cut off root and stems
  2. Cover beets in foil
  3. Place beets in a foil lined roasting pan
  4. Cut acorn squash in half the long way, scrape out the seeds and put meat-side down in a roasting pan with 1/2″ of water
  5.  Pop both pans in the oven for 1 hr.
  6. Check for doneness: A fork should pierce the beet easily
  7. Place beets, still wrapped in their foil, in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them
  8. Using a tablespoon, scrape out acorn squash meat and store in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.

 

 

For the Chicken:

Preheat oven to 350

  1. Wash and cut the chicken into smaller pieces
  2. Mix remaining ingredients in a large bowl
  3. Create an assembly line of chicken, water, breading, and a lightly sprayed roasting pan.  (If you are making a double batch you will need 2 roasting pans)
  4. Wet the chicken, dredge in breading and place on roasting pan
  5. Repeat until all chicken is breaded and on roasting pan
  6. Slide into oven and set timer for 20 minutes

 

For the rest of the meal:

  1. Take the beets out of the refrigerator.
  2. Peel off foil and with your fingers peel off beet skin
  3. Slice and place in a microwave-safe bowl
  4. Heat for 1-2 minutes
  5. Warm squash
  6. Set aside for serving
  7. Portion greens on each plate and add whatever salad fixings you have on hand

 

When chicken is ready, portion on each plate and serve. Compare to your favorite chicken nugget and see if we aren’t on to something…

 

 

Shrimp Stir-Fry with Vegetables and Soba Noodles

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9-20-11 Dinner Blog

 

Shrimp, Snow Peas, Tomatoes, Bell Pepper, Green Onions, Pineapple, Soba Noodles, and Ginger Hoisin Sauce in the wok

An Easy Mistake to Make…

I started dinner early – around 3 o’clock when I took the shrimp out of the freezer and thought I would get ahead and make some brown rice for the stir-fry.  I set the rice cooker, put the shrimp in the fridge and left.

It wasn’t until I came home around 5:15 that I realized that I didn’t need brown rice – I was using soba noodles!  Well, now I have a generous portion of brown rice.  I will figure out some way to use it…

An Easy Fix…

Following “6 Steps to Better Stir-Fries”, from Cooking Light’s October 2011 issue, I began dinner prep by taking the shrimp and veggies out of the refrigerator. I rinsed the snow peas and heated water for the soba noodles.  Then I washed and chopped the green onion, tomato, bell pepper, and cut up the pineapple.  Then I made the ginger hoisin sauce, mixing green onions, rice wine vinegar, Braggs Liquid Aminos or low sodium soy sauce, fresh ginger, honey and hoisin sauce.

With my ingredients ready to go, I heated the wok, added 1 T of canola oil down the side of the wok and spread it around. Adding the bell pepper and green onion, I let the veggies sit for a moment and then stirred it around, followed by the snow peas and tomato.

By this time, the water was boiling and I added the soba noodles.  I took the veggies out of the wok, added the shrimp and cooked for about 3 minutes.  Then I put the veggies back in, added the ginger hoisin sauce and the soba noodles that were now cooked.

2 minutes later, I portioned 4 servings topped with pineapple pieces and we sat down to eat!

Shrimp, Snow Peas, Tomatoes, Bell Pepper, Green Onion, Pineapple, Soba Noodles and Ginger Hoisin Sauce

An Easy A

This was a winner!  A 9 all around! Even my toughest critic gave it a 9 and a two thumbs up! The ginger hoisin flavor was really tasty and everyone loved the shrimp. I really liked the soba noodles – a buckwheat noodle, it was a healthy option and a nice change from rice.  The meal was very satisfying.  3 of us had a small second portion, and there were no leftovers!

 

Recipe

Shrimp Stir-Fry with Vegetables and Soba Noodles

For 2 Adults and 2 Kids

 

Ingredients:

1 Package of Soba Noodles

1 Bell pepper

½ bunch green onions

1 Tomato

¼ – 1/3 lb. Snow peas

8 t rice wine vinegar

6 t Braggs Liquid Aminos or low sodium soy sauce

2 t Fresh ginger, chopped

2 t honey

4 t hoisin sauce

1.75 lbs. shrimp

2 T Canola oil

Fresh pineapple cut into pieces

 

Instructions:

  1. Heat water for soba noodles.
  2. Wash and chop bell pepper, green onions, tomato.
  3. Rinse snow peas.  You can substitute with different vegetables: broccoli, mushrooms, edamame, etc.
  4. Combine rice wine vinegar, liquid aminos (or low sodium soy sauce), ginger, honey, and hoisin sauce and set aside.
  5. When water is boiling, add soba noodles per package direction (~6 minutes).
  6. Heat wok and pour 1 T canola oil down the side of the wok and spread the oil around.
  7. Add bell pepper and green onions.  Let sit a moment before stirring.  When beginning to get tender, add tomato and snow peas and cook for 2-3 more minutes.
  8. Remove veggies from heat.  Add one more T of canola oil down the side of the wok, spread it around and cook the shrimp 3-4 minutes or until cooked.
  9. Add the veggies, noodles and ginger hoisin sauce.
  10. Portion a serving on each plate, top with pineapple and serve!