Chicken Chow Mein

It has been quite some time since I have posted some new recipes.  I got a new job at the beginning of this year and it has been keeping me quite busy! I have been traveling a lot less with the new position so I have had quite some time to experiment with different recipes.  We have been trying to eat healthy and tried a lot of new recipes.  I will work on getting all of them posted.

For now, here is a recipe that I made when I was looking for something different.  We had been eating a lot of meat/seafood and veggies and I wanted to do something different.  This was a recipe that we had everything for in our house and it was super quick and easy!  The sauce isn't too overpowering  which is nice!  Enjoy!

Simple Chicken Chow Mein

INGREDIENTS
2 (3 oz.) packages ramen noodles, seasoning packets discarded
1 medium yellow onion
2 medium carrots
1 crown broccoli
1/2 cup sugar snap peas
2 large chicken breasts (1 lbs), cut into cubes
1 clove of garlic, chopped
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. olive oil
¼ cup soy sauce
3 tbsp  Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp ketchup
A dash of hot sauce of your choice

DIRECTIONS
Add 1 tbsp. olive oil and chopped garlic to a large skillet, bring to medium heat. Add chicken to skillet and sauté on medium heat.  While chicken is cooking, prepare ramen noodles according to package instructions.  Remove noodles from the heat when thy are slightly undercooked, strain and set aside.  Once chicken is lightly browned, remove from skillet and set aside.

In the same large skillet, bring the remaining 1 tbsp. of olive oil to medium heat.  Add all vegetables to skillet. While vegetables are cooking, quickly mix up the chow mein sauce.  In a medium bowl, olive oil, soy sauce, Worchester sauce, ketchup, and hot sauce.

After vegetables are lightly browned (about 5 minutes), add chicken and ramen noodles to the skillet, then pour chow mein sauce over the mixture.  Sauté chow mein for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Enjoy!

Original recipe from here

Chicken and Avocado Enchiladas

I'm not a big fan of Mexican food because I don't eat too many cheeses, or beans, or rice really...so as you can imagine, that tends to limit my options to quesadillas  for the most part.  Recently, we went to a local Mexican restaurant in Buckhead  called Taxco (I would definitely recommend it!) and was feeling adventurous and ordered an enchilada.  I was so pleasantly surprised with it that I was determined to find a recipe I loved to make at home.  After much searching, I found the perfect recipe, and I must say it is one of my favorite recipes I have made.  I think the best part for me was the use of avocado because it is my latest obsession when it comes to food!  It is a great "comfort food" but surprisingly healthy!  With the use of a ton of avocados, switching the sour cream with Greek yogurt, and cutting the original recipes cheese measurement in half, while also using whole wheat tortillas made it full of flavor but quite healthy!  I promise you that there was plenty of cheese to go around, because the Greek yogurt and avocados make the sauce so creamy!  It makes 8 enchiladas so as you can imagine it is A LOT of food!  Hopefully the left overs are just as amazing as the meal was because we will be eating round two for lunch!  Enjoy!

Chicken and Avocado Enchiladas with Creamy Avocado Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 cup chicken broth
• 7 oz. salsa verde
• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
• 2 avocados
• 2 clove garlic
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 handful fresh cilantro
• 1/2 lime, juice
• 4 cups cooked shredded chicken
• 2 avocados, diced
• 1 red onion, diced
• 1 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 cups monterey jack cheese, shredded
• 8 (7 inch) tortillas

Directions

1. Puree the chicken broth, salsa verde, Greek yogurt, avocados, garlic, salt and pepper, cilantro and lime juice in a blender or food processor.
2. Meanwhile, saute onion until soft.
3. Mix the half of the sauce with the shredded chicken, diced avocado, red onion onions and half of the cheese.
4. Coat the bottom of a large baking dish with some of the sauce, wrap the chicken and avocado mixture in the tortillas and place them in the dish.
5. Top the enchiladas with the remaining sauce and cheese and bake in a preheated 350F oven until the cheese has melted and the sides are bubbling, about 20-30 minutes (I like my tortilla crispy on the ends so I tend to bake on the longer side).  

Original recipe adapted from here.

Whole Wheat Ravioli from Scratch...

So I got a pasta maker a while back and had used it a couple of times, but it had been quite some time since I had used it.  I was feeling inspired to make ravioli after I looked into the pantry and saw we didn't have any pasta.  We had planned on making stuffed shells but I just didn't feel like leaving the house to get pasta, so it was an easier decision to make it!  I am so glad I did because it turned out amazing.  So, here we go.

Start off by making the pasta dough...I love whole wheat flour so that's what I made!

Whole Wheat Pasta Dough
Ingredients
2 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. sea salt
2 beaten eggs
1/3 cup water
1 tsp. olive oil
Directions:
First mix the flour and salt together in a bowl and make a little”pit”  in the middle.  Beat your eggs in a separate bowl, then pour them into the flour mixture. Add the water and olive oil. Stir well until the ingredients are mostly combined. Dump it out onto a floured surface and knead it a little bit to get the ingredients combined well.

The dough is very thick!

Once the dough was made, I put together the pasta roller and rolled out thin sheets of pasta.  The thickness will differ depending on how dry your dough is.  Play around with the thickness of your pasta roller and get the thinnest sheets possible to make the ravioli.

I have a ravioli tray to make the ravioli, so below you will see some pictures of the process. Start by placing one layer of the dough onto the ravioli tray.  We made ours with ground pork that was sauteed before hand and fresh mozzarella. You can really put whatever you want in the ravioli so be creative!

Place about a tablespoon of filling into the tray.

 Place another sheet of rolled out dough over the layers than press the edges together to make the ravioli to press out.

 Out come beautiful raviolis!

 After you are done making the ravioli (I made about 30 or so) it is time to cook them.  Boil the ravioli for about 5-8 minutes until fully cooked.

 We served them with Trader Joe's pasta sauce, and it was amazing!

Enjoy :)

Feta Stuffed Buffalo Chicken Meatballs with Mac and Cheese Quinoa

Anything with Buffalo Chicken automatically becomes Joe's favorite food, no joke.  He loves actual buffalo chicken, buffalo chicken dip, buffalo chicken sandwiches, etc.  I am quite indifferent to it because of two reasons.  I don't like spicy foods, and normally buffalo chicken is made with blue cheese, which I also don't particularly enjoy.  So, a lot of times recipes are modified, so that Joe can enjoy his buffalo chicken, and I can eat dinner.  This is one where it was easy to modify.  These meatballs can be stuffed with just about anything so if you like blue cheese, go for it!  The dressing is also put on after the meatballs are baked, so I left some meatballs out of the sauce when I was tossing them in a bowl.  That way both of us were happy, and quite frankly, both of us thought it was an amazing recipe!

We had this with Mac and Cheese baked quinoa which was absolutely amazing.  The quinoa can be made any way you would like flavor wise.  I added spinach because that is one of the only cooked veggies I eat, but I am sure that adding broccoli or another vegetable would be just as amazing!  So, with that, below are two recipes that I absolutely love and they will definitely be repeated at our house!

Feta-Stuffed Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

Ingredients:
1lb ground chicken breast
1/4 small red onion, grated or minced
2 gloves garlic, microplaned or minced
1 egg white
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
2 tablespoon powdered Ranch Dip mix
4oz block feta cheese, cut into 1/2” cubes
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup buffalo wing sauce

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Stir together red onion, garlic, egg white, bread crumbs, and ranch dip mix in a large bowl. Add ground chicken then mix until just combined. Divide mixture into quarters, then each quarter into 4 balls. Press a cube of feta into the center of each ball then close mixture around cheese to seal. Place meatballs onto a non-stick sprayed cooling rack set on top of a baking sheet, then bake for 16-18 minutes, or until cooked through.
2. Meanwhile, melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat then add buffalo wing sauce and stir to combine. Add cooked meatballs to skillet then use a spoon to coat in sauce. Place a lid on top and turn heat to low to keep warm. Note that these are amazing without the sauce if you are not a buffalo sauce fan!

Spinach Mac and Cheese Quinoa

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups quinoa, rinsed and drained
• Veggies of your choice (optional)
• good pinch of salt
• a few grinds of seasoning salt
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 1/2 cups grated cheese, I used a mixture of cheddar, Italian, Swiss, and Mozarella
• 1/4 cup panko
• 8 oz. spinach (or any other veggie)

• Directions

  Lightly saute any veggies you would like in this dish.  Cook quinoa to packaged instructions until fully cooked. (About 15 minutes) Preheat oven to 350 F. Coat 13x9 inch dish( or 8 individual ramekins) with cooking spray. Whisk together eggs and milk in large bowl. Fold in quinoa mixture and cheese. Stir very well and let some of the cheese melt.  Add veggies if you would like.  Transfer to prepared baking dish and if using Panko Crumbs or Bread crumbs add now and bake 30-35 mins, until bread crumbs are browned. 
  
  
  
  
•  

Spinach and Sun Dried Tomato Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

This week I was at home again all week so we had some amazing home cooked meals.  We didn't try anything new since I kept the menu up to Joe to make.  I wanted him to pick some of his favorites that he doesn't have when I am traveling since they may take longer to bake.  One of both of our favorite meals is stuffed pork.  There are so many ways to make stuffed pork and they all seem to turn out amazing since the pork soaks up some of the flavor.  This one is a healthier version and keeps the cream cheese to a minimum to make sure that we keep the meal fairly healthy.  It is still amazingly creamy and one of our favorite meals! So...here we go...

Spinach and Sun Dried Tomato Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic
10 oz. spinach
4. oz sun-dried tomatoes
4 oz. feta cheese
4 oz. cream cheese
1/2 c. Greek yogurt

Pork tenderloin (2-3 lbs)

Directions:

For the stuffing, with a little olive oil, saute garlic and chopped spinach until nearly cooked through. add sun-dried tomatoes. remove from stove when the spinach is cooked to your liking. in a separate bowl, mix goat cheese, cream cheese, and sour cream together until smooth. add the spinach + sun-dried tomatoes to your creamy mixture.

Cut your tenderloin open so it lies flat, rather than as a roll.  Pat the pork dry with a paper towel, then place on a baking sheet. Spread the filling across the pork, then roll the tenderloin up like a jelly roll, keeping the mixture enclosed. Secure the pork with toothpicks or cotton strings.  Brush the top of the pork with olive oil, and lightly sprinkle salt and pepper atop.  Bake at 400 degrees, until the internal heat of the pork is 155 degree.

Spinach Artichoke Turkey Lasagna

This past Sunday we had a lot of time on our hands and I wanted to make sure that Joe had a lot of food for the week before I hit the road.  The plan was to make lasagna earlier in the week, but it never really happened because it is quite a time consuming process.  So, Sunday was the perfect time!  The nice thing about lasagna is that you can assemble it and set it in the fridge for quite some time before having to bake it.  While making brownies for Joe, I assembled the lasagna since he was out and about getting the cars washed and running some errands.  So, we may have had an early dinner, but this was seriously one of the best lasagnas I have made.  I mean who doesn't love spinach artichoke!  You get so many vegetables in your lasagna and putting ground turkey in the recipe made it flavorful but not overwhelming with meat!  So, here we go with one of my favorite recipes that will be repeated (once Joe gets over having to eat it all week because I left to travel in the wonderful state of Texas).

Spinach Artichoke Turkey Lasanga

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup diced onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

8 oz ground turkey (or chicken!)

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

coarse salt and fresh black pepper

2 (14 ounce) cans (or frozen) artichoke hearts, well-drained

2 cups ricotta Cheese

2 1/2 cups fresh shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

1 beaten egg

1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley

2 bags of frozen spinach

1 pound lasagna noodles, preferably fresh or whole wheat

Sauce:

4 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups whole milk

dash of nutmeg

1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

coarse salt and fresh black pepper

Instructions

1. In a large skillet heat the olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the onion, garlic, turkey/chicken, Italian seasoning and season well with salt and pepper.
2. Cook, stirring often until turkey/chicken is cooked through. Cut the artichokes in half and then in half again, dry off any moisture with paper towels. Stir them into the turkey/chicken and cook 2 - 3 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
3. In a large mixing bowl combine the ricotta, 1 + 1/2 cups of the mozzarella, the egg and parsley.
4. Make stacks out of the spinach leaves and cut them into thin strips (chiffonade). Mix them into the ricotta mixture - it will be thick.
Make the sauce:
5. In a large, heavy duty saucepan melt the butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour and cook 3 - 4 minutes, whisking often. Slowly whisk in milk, turn heat up and bring to a simmer.
6. Maintain a simmer for 4 minutes, stirring often. Turn heat down to low and stir in nutmeg, Parmesan cheese and a pinch or two each of salt and pepper, continue stirring until cheese is melted. Remove from heat.
7. If using dried noodles cook according to package directions.
Assemble the lasagna:
8. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 13-inch casserole pan.
9. Add a very thin layer of sauce over bottom of the pan, then a layer of noodles covering the bottom completely from edge to edge. Spread 1/2 the ricotta mixture evenly from edge to edge then top with 1/3 of the turkey/chicken mixture followed by 1/3 of the sauce.
10. Cover the filling with another layer of noodles followed with the remaining 1/2 of ricotta, 1/3 of the chicken/turkey and 1/3 of the sauce.
11. Cover with another layer of noodles followed by the remaining sauce, the remaining chicken/turkey mixture and the 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese.
12. Bake 45 - 50 minutes until bubbly and hot in the middle. If the top starts to get too brown tent with aluminum foil. Allow to set 5 - 10 minutes before cutting into squares and serving.

Spinach Artichoke Turkey Lasagna!