Recipe: Italian Chicken Panini PLUS Tomato Soup!

Man, it has been a long time since I posted a new recipe. I haven't been making as many new things lately though - random experiments but nothing worth sharing.

Today though, I have a recipe that I came up with completely from scratch and got completely positive reviews from my family. 

Italian Chicken Panini

Ingredients:
(To make 5 paninis)

5 chicken breasts, cut and trimmed

Olive oil
Basil/Italian seasoning

1 loaf of french or italian bread.
Garlic butter (either homemade or bought)

1-2 tomatoes

Spinach

5 thick slices of provolone cheese

Recipe:

Prepare the chicken first as follows: 

Pour some oil into a frying pan and allow pan to heat up.

Place as many chicken breasts as you can in pan and sprinkle with basil and seasonings (I actually was using basil-infused oil so I didn't need extra seasons).

Cook chicken until no longer pink on inside. 

Set aside/keep warm while you cook the rest of the chicken.

Prepare your paninis as follows:

Cut the bread into 1/4 inch slices (or as thick as you want to get 10 slices).

Slice your tomatoes and place 2 slices per sandwich on top of 1 slice of bread.

Next add provolone cheese.

Then chicken, followed by spinach.

Place 2nd slice of bread on top and spread with the garlic butter.

Place butter side down on  your panini press, and spread some butter on the exposed side.

Allow to cook until cheese is melted and bread is golden brown.

Remove from press and serve.

I made a delicious homemade tomato-basil soup to go with these paninis and they tasted so perfect together. I highly recommend trying them both. You can also add other things to your paninis, such as mushrooms, onions, peppers, etc. 

I think the biggest shocker of the evening was when my dad said "This is delicious". He NEVER says that about my cooking, so I think I must have done something right.

What's your favorite type of panini? 

~Lisa

PS: It was really hard to photograph these !

Recipe: Eggplant and Quinoa Parmesan

If you're like me, you've probably had (and loved) any kinda of chicken parmesan. If you're also like me, you have probably never, or seldom, had eggplant parmesan. Well, yesterday I was able to score a nice pile of fresh picked farm eggplants for about $4.00 - a total steal - and knew I wanted to make eggplant parm.

The next question was, how did I want to do it? I wanted something different and healthy. Pasta just wasn't going to cut it this time. So I turned to my tried and true favorite - quinoa. I have never had quinoa with marinara sauce before, but after tonight it's safe to say I will be eating it this way a lot more often.

Eggplant - Quinoa Parmesan

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa, cooked with garlic and basil (for cooking directions, this is my tried and true favorite tutorial).

2 small (or 1 large) eggplant, sliced and dried. (once again, see this tutorial on how to dry your eggplant)

1 - 1.5 cups of breadcrumbs (I actually made my own!)

1 large egg

1/2 - 1 cup milk 

1/2 standard jar of your favorite marinara sauce

1 package of shredded mozzarella cheese

Desired seasonings - basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, garlic, etc

To cook eggplant:

1)Preheat oven to 425

2) Mix your egg and milk together in a small bowl. Have another bowl prepared with the breadcrumbs

3) Get a cookie sheet and spray/rub with olive oil

4) Dip your eggplant slices in the egg/milk then breadcrumbs then place on pan.

5)Once all eggplant is dipped, place in oven and bake 10-15 min (until crispy)

6) Take out of oven, do your best to turn over the slices and bake for another 5 min.

To prepare the dish:

1) Prepare your qunioa and eggplant. To save time, you can actually do these at the same time.

2) Once eggplant and qunioa are ready, begin preparing the casserole. Lower oven temp to 375. 

3) In a rectangular pan, spray with oil and then add a thin layer of marinara. Season the marinara if desired. 

4) Now layer in your quinoa. Don't expect it to layer perfectly - odds are the quinoa and sauce will end up mixing together. That's ok :) 

5) Place cooked eggplant on top, in a single layer if possible. 

6) Pour more sauce on top, as much as desired. 

7) Cover the pan and cook for 10-15 min, or until hot all the way through.

8) Remove from oven and sprinkle with cheese and more seasonings. Place back in oven and cook uncovered for 5 more minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

9) Remove from oven, let stand for a bit and then serve. It's best with steamed veggies, like broccoli or asparagus.  

Normally I'd give the nutritional info, but this one is a bit harder with all it's components. Just take my word that it tasted amazing!

I think the thing I like the most about this dish is that, although I used a few tutorials to make the components, I came up with the idea from complete scratch. And it turned out so amazing. I definitely am glad I took the time to dry out my eggplant, that helped it so much.  I bet this would be amazing with parmesan cheese added also, or layered like lasagna, or if the eggplant was mixed with the quinoa. Man, the possibilities are endless here!

What a fun experiment. I can't wait to do more. 

~Lisa 

Recipe: Baked Chicken with Herbed Mushroom Gravy (and gnocchi!)

I come bearing yet another recipe from my "More with Less Cookbook" that I tried this past week. I was flipping through pages and stumbled upon this one. I think what drew me in was that my mom makes a very similar dish at home, using cream of mushroom soup. The idea of making my own "gravy" was really intriguing and I knew I had to try it. 

The nice thing about this book is how simple the recipes really are and how well they explain everything. I am hoping to do a review here in a few weeks with more information. The muffins in the last post also came from this book, fyi.

Baked Chicken with Herbed Mushroom Gravy
(Shown served with gnocchi and green beans)

Ingredients:

Sauce:

4 Tbsp Margarine

1/4 c chopped mushrooms

1 Tbsp chopped onion - I used dried onion flakes

4 Tbsp Flour (you can alter the thickness by adding more or less flour and margarine)

1/4 tsp salt

1 c milk

Chicken:

1 lb chicken (I used boneless breasts, but you may use what you prefer)

1 1/4 c of the sauce (1 batch basically)

1 tsp lemon zest

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp basil

1/4 tsp oregano

Any other seasonings you prefer - I added thyme

Recipe:

To make the sauce:

In a saucepan, add the margarine, mushrooms and onion. Saute until mushroom are fairly cooked.

Add in the flour and salt and stir and cook until bubbly.

Add milk with a whisk and cook just until it's thickened and smooth.

To make chicken:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Place cleaned chicken in a glass pan (I used a 9x9 square).

Combine the mushroom sauce with the rest of your ingredients and poor over the chicken.

Bake uncovered for an hour and 15 minutes. 

Serve with desired sides. It tastes really good with cooked gnocchi!

Nutrition Info:

(serving size - 1/4 lb chicken, 4 serving per recipe)

313 calories

11 gram fat

3 gram sat fat

11 gram carbs

4 gram sugar

37 gram protein

This was a super delicious dish, and the addition of the herbs and lemon to the sauce made it so amazing - I never would have thought to have done this. If you are too scared to try making the sauce from scratch (But come on! It wasn't that hard) you can buy a can of cream of mushroom soup instead.  I am sure it will taste good regardless.

Have a great weekend all.

~Lisa

Recipe: Pineapple-Coconut (whole wheat) Muffins

Tonight's recipe is one that I tried about a year ago and never got around to making again. I popped open my cookbook tonight and decided to give it another go.

Pineapple-Coconut Muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup white flour

1 cup wheat flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 honey (or sugar...if you must)

1/4 softened margarine

1 large egg

1 cup crushed pineapple with juice

1/4-1/3 cup shredded coconut

coconut sugar (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees

In a bowl sift/stir together the flours, baking powder and salt. Set aside

Mix the honey and margarine in a separate bowl and once mixed add the egg.

Beat well and then stir in the pineapple and coconut.

Mix the wet ingredients with the dry and stir just until the flour is moist.

Fill your muffin tins 2/3 of the way full and sprinkle with coconut sugar.

 Bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove from tin as soon as they are ready. 

Best served warm. :) 

Nutrition Facts:

Serving size - 1 muffin

114 calories

1 g fat

4738 mg sodium

24 g carbs

8 g sugar (but remember, it's from the honey and pineapple)

3 g protein

The coconut was something I added to the recipe, and I replaced the sugar with honey. I think I could have baked mine a bit longer (I just did 15 min) but we will see when they cool. Overall, these turned out much better than the last time.  I bet there are lots of other things you could add to amp up the flavor!

~Lisa

Recipe: Sweet Potato with Onion and Dill

I have another quick and healthy meal to share with you today. A friend turned me onto the idea of sweet potato with dill about a year ago and ever since I've been experimenting with it. Tonight I want to share my experiment.

Sweet Potatoes with Onion and Dill

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced/chopped

1/4-1/2 large white onion, chopped

Dill seasoning*

Small amount of olive oil 

*You can used dried or fresh. Or a mixture. I have a special blend I bought that has dill, parsley, caraway, lemon, and garlic in it.

Instructions:

Spray/sprinkle pan with olive oil. 

Add your potatoes and onion to the pan and begin to sautee

Once it starts cooking, add the seasoning and any extra oil you desire

Stir frequently. Sweet potatoes do take a while to get tender, and it's up to you how soft you want them. 

When done, serve as a side or main dish. I really like them with pork chops, or as pictured with an egg/cheese burrito. 

Nutrition:

Serving size: 1 potato and 1/2 onion

232 calories

2g fat 

80 mg sodium

49 g carbs

15 g sugar (mostly natural from potato)

6 g protein

These are so tasty, I find myself desiring them quite frequently. What do you normally do with your sweet potatoes?

~Lisa

Whole Wheat Honey Pancakes

It's been awhile since I updated on here again, but I have good excuses. Moving to Texas is the main one. 

But seriously, I have a back stock of things I have been meaning to post so hopefully I can get back into it again. For today I want to share with you a variation on one of my mom's recipes. These are definitely one of my favorite breakfast foods when I am in the mood to exert the effort to make them! 

Whole Wheat Honey Pancakes 

Ingredients:

(this is for a single batch, I generally double the recipe)

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup white flour

1 Tbsp honey (can add more to taste)

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 large egg

1 cup milk (can add more or less depending on how thick you like yours)

2 tsp oil (or melted butter)

Toppings of choice! 

Instructions:

Combine dry ingredients first, then add the wet ingredients. Stir just to mix. 

Let sit a few minutes for the baking powder to rise (thus making fluffier pancakes)

Turn your griddle onto high (or your stove/pan). Pour mixture onto surface once hot. Size doesn't matter, but since the dough tends to be thick, watch out because they can get really dense if you made too big!

Cook evenly on both sides then remove from heat and enjoy!

I highly recommend topping these with real maple syrup or natural honey. They're even better with bananas and raisins :) 

Alterations:

If you wish, you can change your flour amounts around. I like to do 1/2 cup wheat, 1/4 cup white, and 1/4 cup oatmeal. You can also do 3/4 wheat and 1/4 white, or try other flours also!

They taste really good with mix-ins, like raisins! I bet they'd be amazing with chocolate chips also.

Experiment and have fun. No matter how you like your pancakes, I am sure they'll be delicious!

Nutritional Info: 

(per serving.  One serving - approx 2 large pancakes)

445  calories 

19g fat 

865 mg sodium

56 g carbs

15 g sugar (Before syrup/toppings)

15 g protein

So not the greatest, but way better (ingredient wise anyway) than standard pancakes.

Happy Monday everyone!

Wednesday Recipe: Easy Breakfast Scramble

It seems like a good time to share another yummy recipe I concocted with you guys! 

As we all should know, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And also that time when we are supposed to eat the most of our calories (but I bet most of us don't actually do that!). So I have been messing around with changing my breakfast meals up and came up with this super simple breakfast egg scramble that I find both delicious and easy!

Easy Breakfast Scramble

Ingredients:2 large grade A eggs (or whatever eggs you have in the cabinet).

Milk to taste (I generally just use a tablespoon)

Organic Spinach (about 1/4 - 1/2 cup)

Grated Cheddar Cheese (about 1/4 cup)

Organic Baby Tomatoes (about 4 - 5, cut in half)

Whatever other things you want to mix in. I have used ham/lunchmeat and fresh pepper before.

Cooking spray (to spray the pan, if needed)

Instructions:

Spray your pan, and add the 2 eggs plus the milk. Turn the burner onto high and watch for it to begin cooking.

Stir eggs as they cook and turn down heat if needed.

Once they start to fluff up, begin adding other ingredients (generally, it's best to wait until eggs are all but done)

After adding ingredients, continue cooking so that cheese melts and veggies get cooked/warmed a bit. 

Transfer to plate, sprinkle with extra cheese if desired, and enjoy!

Even better with a bowl of cereal and fresh fruit!

Nutritional Info:
(per serving; one serving - 1 recipe)

256  calories 

16 g fat (mostly from eggs)

302 mg sodium

8 g carbs

7 g sugar 

19 g protein

This is really one of my favorite things to make on the weekends for breakfast. It's so simple and so fast. And tastes so good. And the cleanup is easy also. I hope you have a chance to try it - let me know if you find any yummy ingredients!

~Lisa 

Product Review: The Veggetti

Disclaimer: I am not getting paid/compensated for this review. It is all a matter of personal opinion and I by no means am endorsing the product.

Today, I wanted to take a moment to share with you a cool kitchen gadget I impulse bought invested in this past week. Every time I go into Walmart (which isn't often, trust me), I see this product by the checkouts and finally just decided to buy one.

Introducing the Veggetti! This cool little funnel like contraption claims it will turn vegetables into spaghetti like strands. I have tried zucchini 'pasta' once before and loved it. Plus the idea of pasta without the carbs had me intrigued.

So I decided to make zucchini pesto pasta this week for my lunches - what better way to try it out then with the main vegetable it emphasizes?

Upon opening up the package and reading the instructions, we learn that it has two sides, one for thin noodles and one for thick. I decided to try the thick side for yesterday's lunch. The instructions are fairly simple: Place your vegetable in the hole for the desired side and twist. The noodles will come out the slot on the side. You will likely have to pull them apart with your hands a bit, but for the most part it's fairly simple to use.

Once your vegetable gets low, it comes with a pusher/lid to help finish the rest off, but of course that still doesn't get the very bottom. So I ended up with an end cone of zucchini that I couldn't make noodles with. Instead of throwing away, I just cut it up and added it to my other vegetables. 

The instructions also say that once you finish up the whole vegetable you should bunch it up and cut it all in half to make it more manageable, but I found that it was fine long also. 

After you have finished up your noodles, there are several things you can do with them. You can eat them raw (like on salads and such), boil them like pasta, or stir fry/saute them. I decided to just boil mine like pasta. The best part is that you don't have to boil for more than 2-3 minutes, which is nice. 

While those were boiling, I cooked up some chicken and other veggies. I decided to top the noodles with those and some homemade pesto sauce (recipe to come soon!). 

Overall, I think that I will continue to use this for a while. I do like that I can make low carb lunches so easily, and still get filled up. I want to try it with marinara sauce - pesto didn't go quite so well with it all. My only quam it that little end piece. I also am not sure how this cleans up (my mom did the dishes that night so I'll have to ask her). 

Lisa's Review:

All points out of 10 (1 lowest)

Usefulness: 9

Ease of use: 7

Price Point: 5 ( $14.99 at Walmart is a bit steep to me)

Clean up: 5 (may change after I mess with it more)

Tastiness: 10 ( I would def add seasoning to the water!)

Would I buy this again?: Yes, if it were cheaper. 

I hope you enjoyed this review. Feel free to ask any and all questions you have about this product. It may seem like a gimmick, but it really is a cool little gadget for all those vegan/paleo/vegetarians/dieters out there. 

~Lisa

Healthy(er) Chocolate Coconut Cake

About a month ago I was in my local health food store and found an organic cake mix on a clearance rack. Given my obsession with all things chocolate, I decided to pick it up. It's been sitting in the pantry since, mostly because I have been just too busy to care. But I had last Friday off, and decided to see what I could come up with.

Healthy(er) Chocolate Coconut Cake

Ingredients:

1 chocolate cake mix ( I bet it would work with any kind, but why not go organic? I used Madhava)

1 cup coconut milk (or whatever amount the box calls for)

1/2 cup coconut oil (or whatever amount the box calls for)

3 eggs (or whatever amount the box calls for)

Instructions:

Preheat oven according to box. For mine, it's 325.

If needed, melt your coconut oil in the microwave (no more than 30sec should do it). 

After you have the melted oil, mix all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Make sure you get it mixed really good so the oil doesn't separate.

Pour into a greased cake pan. (I greased my pan with more coconut oil)

Bake as instructed, for mine it was 35 minutes

Allow to cool at least 10 minutes before removing from pan (if you plan to remove from pan). 

Allow to cool at least an hour before frosting.

So frosting is another story. I mean, what's the point of a "Healthy" cake if you buy that hydrogenated, trans-fat laden Pillsbury frosting at the grocery store?  I went in search of the perfect frosting for this cake and struck gold.

Chocolate/Coconut Frosting:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup dutch cocoa powder

1/4 cup coconut oil (softened)

1 Tbsp raw honey or pure maple syrup

1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

pinch of sea salt (although I did not use this because we didn't have any)

Instructions:

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl and pour/spread over cooled cake. 

Top with shredded coconut, sea salt, strawberries, fruit, etc. 

I think my favorite part of this cake was eating it. After refrigerating for a bit to stiffen the frosting, it became more like a dense chocolate bar and less like a cake. It has so much texture and flavor. My sister says she thinks it really tastes like coconut. Even my dad liked this, and he's usually only into traditional recipes.  In my book, that's a seal of approval. Just watch out - coconut oil has quite a bit of saturated fat, the good kind, but still. Overall, I think I will probably find myself making most of my cake mixes (organic or not) this way again. I wonder what vanilla would taste like?

~Lisa

Citrus Chicken with Garlic-Parm Potatoes and Steamed Greenbeans

I have decided to start a new on the whole food blogging thing. I've been doing so many different things in my kitchen lately that it just makes sense.

Expect lots of great things to come! Including, but not limited to, recipe sharing, cooking/kitchen tips, food reviews and my ramblings about all things foodie.

Let's start with a recipe!

Citrus Rubbed Chicken

(served with garlic-parm potatoes and steamed organic green beans)

This is a recipe I found via pinterest. For the original, visit Eatsy. 

Ingredients:

Chicken pieces, at least the equivalent of a whole chicken, but you can generally fit two whole chickens in a large pan. I used Simple Truth free range chicken, but you can use any you like. 

1 tablespoon of salt (we just used the basic table salt)

2 teaspoons of paprika (or more/less to taste)

1 teaspoon black pepper (or to taste)

2 lemons (to zest and juice)

1 large orange (to zest and juice)

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees

Mix together your citrus zests with the paprika, salt and pepper. Combine well. It will be a bit "sticky"

Clean your chicken and place in a baking pan. It will cook better if the pan is packed pretty full. 

Apply your zest mixture to the top/sides of your chicken. Rub in the best you can. 

Cut the lemons and orange into wedges, and squeeze a bit of juice over the top of the chicken. Place the wedges in the pan and under the chicken for added flavor.

If desired, let the chicken marinate for an hour or so.

Roast your chicken in the oven at 400 degrees for about an hour, or until it is no longer pink all the way through (165 degrees is a good temperature). The fuller the pan, the longer it will take to cook (ours took about 90 minutes).

Remove from oven and let it cool a bit before serving.

The chicken should juice up pretty well as it cooks, this juice is great spooned on top as you eat, as well as squeezing more oranges/lemons on top.

Nutrition info:

(per serving, serving size: 1/4 chicken)

44 calories 

1 g fat

18 mg cholesterol

2546 mg sodium

91 mg potassium

2 g carbs

2 g fiber

0 g sugar (unless you count small amount from juicing)

7 g protein

13% daily vitamin a

15% daily vitamin c

2% daily calcium

4% daily iron

If you're looking for a great full meal, I highly recommend my go-to Parmesan potatoes recipe. If you use fresh grated parm and good quality olive oil, they turn out superb. For veggies, you can't go wrong with organic steamed green beans or broccoli.

I hope you enjoyed my first new post. I can't wait to share more amazing food adventures with you all!

~Lisa