Herb Crusted Chicken Breast over Marinara

Italian food is absolutely delicious and so versatile. Its so hard for me to resist buying all the fresh pasta and different types of sauces from Whole Foods. Since, I am very much trying to keep within my grocery budget, I decided to buy a few just plain ol' marinara sauces and then later on embellish the sauce to give it a fresh taste. Spaghetti or Linguine is a staple for our weekly night dinner but the box of ziti was calling my name. Tonight, I went back to an old classic and made it my way. Last year, I would have topped this off with cheese to make it a chicken parm, because hubby can't eat cheese so I have included some aged parmigiano reggiano in the crust itself which makes this dish lactose free. This is an absolutely mouth watering dish, that can be edited to fit your needs as you go along. I got the idea from Rachel Ray on foodnetwork.com, and made my own modifications from it.

Herb Crusted Chicken Breast













Ingredients:
*Olive oil for frying
*1 1/2 pounds chicken breast
*Salt and pepper to taste
*1 cup all-purpose flour
*2 large eggs, beaten with 1/4 cup water or Milk
*2 cloves garlic, pressed

Breading:
*2 cups Italian style bread crumbs
*1 cup shredded parmigiano reggiano
* 2 tablespoons of dried Italian seasonings
*1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes


Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Place a nonstick cookie sheet in oven with a tin foil liner.Heat 1/2-inch oil in a large nonstick skillet or frying pan over medium to medium high heat. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper and 2 pressed garlic cloves. Place flour in a shallow dish. Beat eggs with water in a second dish along side the flour. In a third dish, combine the breading ingredients. Coat chicken in flour, then egg, then bread and cheese mixture. Cook chicken until deeply golden on each side, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to cookie sheet in preheated oven and finish off for another 20 minutes cooking time. Check on the chicken, if the pieces are thick you may need to leave in there for another 10 minutes extra. I brought the oven down from 300 to 200 and left it in there for another 15 mins. This way my chicken will still be hot when I served dinner Serve chicken with your own pasta and sauce version. Mine is as follows

Simple Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:
*1 bottle of plain marinara sauce
*1 whole peeled & shredded carrot
*1 medium white/red onion, sliced
*2 medium pressed garlic cloves
*any other vegetable (squash, eggplant,mushrooms) will do too
* salt & pepper
* 1 tablespoon oil

Heat oil in a medium sauce pan and sautee garlic and onions for about five minutes or till onions start to soften. Add vegetables and sautee some more. Pour in the marinara sauce and reduce heat to slow. Mix well and heat the sauce till desired temperature to serve over pasta.

Steak and Potatoes

Beef is always part of my weekly menu. However, I mainly make ground beef. Steak is rare in our home. It is fairly easy so as long as you take care to marinate over night. It is my conclusion through the years of cooking meat, that marinated meat tastes even better because the juices have had the chance to soak in.
Part of growing up, beef was never a part of my household. When I came to America, my first taste of beef was a burger. Maybe that is why I feel more comfortable cooking with ground beef, it is just so versatile! So anyway, this is my concoction of different spices that make a fantastic marinade on any steak of your choice!!!



Marinade for Steak
1/3rd cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 medium cloves of garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon of fresh or dried rosemary
Lime juice of one fresh lime
Salt & Pepper to Taste
I bought 4 Round eye steaks (they were tiny)

Mix all above ingredients together. Add Steak. Marinate over night.
Grill steak as to desired taste

Skillet Potatoes
8 medium to small Yukon gold potatoes
1 green bell pepper, cored & diced
1/2 white onion diced
pinch of garlic powder
pinch of paprika
Butter & Salt to taste

In a sauce pan full of boiling water, add the potatoes. Boil approximately 10-12 minutes, or until they are partially tender when a fork is inserted into them. Remove from water, drain and dice. In a skillet heat butter, add bell pepper and onions. Sautee veggie mix till they become soft and onions turn golden. Add diced potatoes, garlic powder, paprika and salt. Mix well. Cook the potatoes till they are a bit more tender (another 7 mins or so). Remove from heat and serve with grilled steak.

Tacos Al Carbon

The reason I love Whole Foods is because of the quality of their meat. I almost never know what I am going to make when I buy different cuts of beef. With chicken, I stock up because its the only meant I feel confident in. I can do anything with chicken and it turns out good. For the better part of my life, I was "beef-free." In restaurants, I would order steaks and in diners, burgers. As the years passed, I attempted to cook it myself. Flank steak is my favorite cut of meat. There is just so much you can do with it. It cooks fast, marinates well and if cooked just right, it will absolutely melt in your mouth. However, I almost wish that I had made this on Sunday instead of Monday. This took longer than I thought it would for a week night. I was in the kitchen for an hour and a half. That is a long time, when you get home at 7pm.

Tacos al Carbon adapted from myrecipes.com

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups thinly sliced red bell pepper (about 1 medium)
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced onion (about 1 medium)
1 (1-pound) flank steak, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
2 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste
4 garlic cloves, minced/I used Garlic Press
8 (6-inch) flour tortillas
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
6 tablespoons fat-free sour cream
Preparation

Marinate the steak first. Rub the Steak with salt, pepper & garlic. Pour lime juice in the mix and rub well. Let marinate for 30-40 minutes. With marinating red meat, the longer the better. I was in a hurry, so I let the steak marinate, while I prepared the rest of the veggies.

Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add bell pepper to pan, and cook 4 minutes. Add onion to pan, and sauté 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Place pepper mixture in a large bowl; cover and keep warm.
Add beef to pan; cook 7 minutes or until desired degree of doneness. Add to pepper mixture. Add chili powder, to bowl; toss to coat.
Heat tortillas according to package directions. Spoon steak mixture evenly over 8 tortillas. Top each taco with about 1 teaspoon cilantro and 2 1/4 teaspoons sour cream.

Spicy Meatballs with Rice Pilaf

"Dinner in 45 mins?" That's the question I ask myself everyday right before I am about to leave work. My husband hates grocery shopping. I on the other hand, absolutely love it. Therefore when I do go food shopping (yes I always drag him with me) I tend to buy in bulk and foresee what can I cook in a jiff when I am bored of eating the regular stuff. The regular stuff for after work dinner has been pasta or tuna. Recently, I grew tired of tuna just as fast as I had fallen in love with it. Also, there are a billion different ways of cooking chicken breast, but it didn't seem interesting enough to satisfy my pallet tonight. Believe it or not, meatballs always present a challenge to me. Even Indian kofta's elude me. Regardless, practice makes perfect. I did not cook the rice below, I bought that pilaf pre-made. Though the meatballs are my creation and much to my happiness, freaking delicious!

Serves 4.
Ingredients:
* 1 lb ground chicken
* 1 medium onion/diced super fine
* 2 medium garlic cloves/pressed with a garlic press
* 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
* 1/4 teaspoon italian seasonings
* 1/3rd cup bread crumbs
* 1 egg
*Salt & Pepper to taste
*Olive Oil

**Rice Pilaf/premade
***Equipment: A grill pan. You can make these anyway you feel like, baked, fried, in sauce.

In a medium bowl mix together all ingredients.


Mix real well. Oil your palm with the olive oil.
Seek a handful of mixed spiced ground chicken between the palm of your hands. Roll the ground chicken and press gently with the pal, to flatten it and make it a bit oval.

Grill on the grill pan approximately 5 minutes atleast on each side. Make sure that they are well done. Mine took more than 5 minutes on each side. I even had to tilt them on their skinny sides just to make sure they cooked all around. I supposed if you used to make these in a sauce, or bake them they would cook evenly. Serve with Rice Pilaf that you enjoy.

Egg Curry

Egg Curry is one of the easiest indian dish to make (along with Chana Masala, a.k.a Chole)My mom is the indian expert here, I merely try to follow in her foot steps. My egg curry has been a mixture of several recipes through the course of ten years. This particular dish tonight was made in a hurry. I had no meat, and barely some vegetables. But I did have eggs, and always keep my indian spice rack nearby.


Egg Curry

Serves 4

4 eggs, boiled and sliced
half can of whole peeled tomtatoes
1 medium red onions sliced
2 medium garlic crushed
1/2 teapsoon ginger
1/3 cup tamarind paste
1/2 tspn turmeric
1 tspn coriander powder
1 tspn red chili powder
1 tspn garam masala
Salt and Pepper to taste
Garnish:
coriander leaves
lemon Juice

Tamarind Paste:
you can either buy this, or make it. I buy the dried tamarind from the indian store. Soak a handful in hot water. After ten minutes, squeeze and mash till the juice is nice and thick. Throw away excess tamarind skin and seeds from the sauce.
Thick juice is the tamarind paste. Set aside.

Sautee sliced onion with crushed garlic in a saucepan till about half way soft. About 5 mins. Gather about 4-5 small whole peeled tomatoes and slice in half. Place the onions and tomatoes in a food processor. Blend the ingredients, but not to a complete sauce. Leave it chunky (thats the way I prefer it). In the same sauce pan, add the ginger, turmeric, coriander, red chili powder and mix well. Add in about 3 tablespoons of some of the tomatoe juice remaining in the can. Mix and sautee all spices togther, till it starts to boil and thicken. Add the onion-tomato mixture. Blend well and mix till it starts to bubble. Add in the tamarind sauce and garam masala (this masala always goes in last because it has a tendency to evaporate rather quickly). Mix well. Add the 4 sliced eggs on top along with about a 1/3 cup of water. Mix all and boil for about five minutes covered.

Garnish with coriander leaves and lemon juice. Serve with fresh rice or bread.

Pot Roast

Its fall. The leaves are changing, the air is getting brisk and its time to put something warm and fulfilling on the dining room table. I had a few ideas that I wanted to make tonight, but there was only one thing that I was absolutely craving. Pot Roast! It had been a year since I last made this dish, and with such a great turn over with the Roshashana Brisket- it seemed like the ideal candidate.

So, off we went. The old Whole Foods by us that used to once be at a walking distance, now is operating within driving distance and is twice the size . I love going to the supermarket. Yeah, I am a weirdo- but nothing thrills me than going to a brand new store, especially when it happens to be your favorite. There were so many different varieties of the same thing. I bought a bag of mixed peppercorns, for something I will definitely try at another date.Their meat market is super fantastic. There were so many different types of fresh meat available Yippeee!!. Anyway, I got home and decided to get cooking right away. Since a pot roast takes a good 2 1/2 hrs to cook, it was exactly 4 pm and I also wanted to cook dessert.

Pot Roast
Serves 4

2 1/2 lb chuck roast
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1/4 cup red wine
1 tablespoon ketchup
2 tablespoons worchestershire sauce
1 whole red onion sliced fine
Handful of baby carrots whole
6 small (tiny, or small red pot.) yukon gold potatoes, quartered
1 cup plum/vine chopped tomatoes
3 small pressed garlic cloves
Salt & Pepper

Pre Heat the oven to 325 degrees

Heat the dutch oven with a little bit of oil. Rub salt and black pepper all over the chuck and then sear it on both sides. About 5 mins on each side. Remove from pan. Throw in the garlic, and then the onions. Sautee the onions with the garlic till the onions are very soft. Mix in the broth, red wine and add the meat back into the pot. Then put in the ketchup & Worcestershire sauce. Mix and let it simmer.Remove from the stove and place right into the oven. Let it cook for 60 mins. Add the potatoes and the carrots. Cook another 50 mins or till veggies are cooked through.