Chicken Breast stuffed with Kale, Cranberries, Apple and Cheddar Cheese

I saw this dinner entree at Costco in the frozen section a couple weeks ago and thought I'd give it a try. The chicken breasts come frozen raw, so you'll need to defrost and then they easily bake at 350 degrees in about 25 minutes. I thought that the stuffed chicken breasts were exceptional. The meat was properly seasoned, moist and the stuffing of kale, cranberries apple and cheddar cheese really worked well. I went back to Costco to get another package and found out they're a seasonal item and sold out for the season :(  Look for these stuffed chicken breasts next year, you'll be happy you did!

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the defrosted stuffed chicken breasts on a non stick baking pan. Bakes for approx 25 minutes. Make sure the chicken breasts are done to 165 degrees. Remove from the oven and cover with aluminum foil and let rest for 5 minutes. Serve the chicken breasts as is, or with your choice of starch and or vegetable. Kick it up a notch by making a simple chicken gravy. 

Ingredients:

1 cup water

2 packets Trader Joe's savory chicken broth 

2 tablespoon Wondra flour

Preparation:

To make the chicken gravy, combine the water, savory chicken broth mix and Wondra flour in a small bowl and mix well. Heat a small 8" saute pan to medium high and add the gravy mixture. Stir continuously and as the gravy heats up to a boil, it will also thicken because of the flour.

Farfalle Pasta with Chicken, Red Onion, Garlic and Arugula

Here's a wonderful pasta dish that is super easy with just a few ingredients. Typically, I'll make a pasta dish like this when I have some left over chicken. I don't know about you, but I've always got left over chicken.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound Farfalle pasta 

1 - 2 tablespoon olive oil

1 cooked diced chicken breast

1 medium rough chopped red onion

1 bunch green onions

4 crushed garlic cloves

Large handful of arugula

Salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese

Preparation:

Take a large stock pot and fill with water. Add 2 tablespoons salt and bring to a boil. Cook the Farfalle pasta according to directions, which is usually 9 - 10 minutes to al dente, firm to the bite. When done, drain reserving 1 cup pasta water.

Take a 12" saute pan and heat to medium. Add the olive oil and red onion. Saute the onion until soft. Add the chicken, garlic and green onion and cook a couple minutes until the chicken is warmed. Add the pasta and arugula and toss to heat. Check the seasoning, add salt and pepper. After a minute or two, add the reserved pasta water and toss. Cook one minute and you're done.

To serve, place a portion of pasta on a serving plate and garnish with grated Parmesan cheese and diced green onions.

Grilled Salmon Tostada Salad

I love the Costco coho salmon, but you always need a plan B because you get so much. This is a nice light grilled salmon tostada salad with a little smashed avocado and sour cream.

Ingredients:

Trader Joe's Flour tortillas

1/2 head shredded ice burg lettuce

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

6 diced green onions

1/2 bunch chopped cilantro

1 large or 2 medium avocado's 

Lite sour cream

Preparation:

First prepare the tostada bowls. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. I've used a lot of different tortilla brands and I highly recommend Trader Joe's. They're healthy, meaning no trans fat and taste great.

Place the tortilla's into the metal mold and bake at 400 degrees for 6 - 7 minutes. At this point, the tostada bowls are almost finished. Take the tostada bowls out of the oven and turn off the oven. Remove the tostada bowls from the metal mold and place them back into the oven directly on the wire rack and cook for another 10 minutes. At this point you will have a wonderful crispy crunchy tostada bowl.

Preheat a stove top grill pan to medium high. Brush some olive oil on each piece of salmon, season with salt and pepper and cook 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, rotate the salmon 90 degrees. This will give the salmon the nice cross hatched grill marks. Cook the salmon for another 4 minutes and turn the salmon pieces and repeat and you're done.

  

Shred the lettuce and place into the tostada bowl. Add some shredded cheese, green onions, cilantro and a few pieces of grilled salmon. Add some smashed avocado and sour cream and garnish with some chopped cilantro. 

Pesto Chicken Sandwich

Whenever I make fresh pesto there's always going to be some left over. Here I'm making a grilled chicken pesto sandwich on crusty Italian bread. The key to this sandwich is keeping it simple with sliced Roma tomato's and arugula.  

Ingredients:

Boneless skinless chicken breast

Sliced provolone cheese

Pesto

Mayo

Roma tomato's

Arugula

Crusty sliced Italian bread

Preparation:

Take the chicken breast and cut in half so the chicken breast is half a thick. Place the chicken breast on your cutting board, cover with plastic wrap and pound the chicken breast so it's about a 1/2" thick. Repeat the process with the rest of the chicken breast pieces.

Heat a stove top grill pan to medium high. Brush some olive oil on each piece of chicken then some salt and pepper and grill for about 5 minutes per side. When the chicken is almost done, spoon on some pesto and add the cheese and let melt.

To assemble the sandwich, toast the sliced Italian bread. Take the bottom piece of toast add some mayo and then the chicken breast. Next, add some sliced tomato's and arugula. Take the top piece of toast and spread on some mayo and place on the sandwich. Cut in half and serve with fries or simple salad.

Sweet Soy Glazed Chicken Breast on Chow Mein Stir Fry Noodles

I'm always on the look out for new products to try. Sometime ago I found this Sweet Soy Glaze from Kikkoman and I use it a lot, love it. In this dish I'm trying these chow mein stir fry noodles from Wel-Pac. The noodles very tasty with a nice bite and was a really good pairing with the Sweet Soy Glazed chicken breasts. 

Ingredients:
Boneless chicken breasts with skin
1 package Chow Mein stir fry noodles
Soy glaze
Sliced green onions

Preparation:

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees. Take the chicken breasts and rinse in cold water and dry with paper towels. Make 3 slits about 1/4 inch deep through the skin on a diagonal. Place the chicken breasts on a baking pan and brush on some Sweet Soy Glaze. Bake for about 20 minutes brushing on some additional Sweet Soy Glaze half way through. 

Once the chicken breasts are cooked, turn on the broiler and cook until the skin turns a dark brown and starts to burn. When done, let the chicken breasts rest 5 minutes before serving.

To cook the chow mein noodles, place the noodles in boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain the noodles and place in a bowl with some canola oil. The oil will keep the noodles from sticking together. Add a little salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, place a portion of chow mein noodles on a serving plate. Place a chicken breast on the noodles and garnish with slice green onions.

Sauteed Green Beans with Garlic and Red Pepper Flakes

Garlic and red pepper flakes are one of my favorite spice combinations. Here I'm using rough chopped garlic that I cooked in the microwave for just 30 seconds with a tablespoon of butter. By briefly cooking the garlic this way, I'm softening the garlic and taking out the raw spicy taste. 

Ingredients:

1 pound green beans

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

6 - 8 garlic cloves very rough chop

Pinch red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Take the green beans and trim off the ends and cut on an angle into 1" to 1-1/2" long. Use the stove top steamer to cook the green beans about 10 minutes. When done rinse in cold water to stop the cooking process.

Take the garlic and rough chop into pretty big pieces. Place the garlic in a small microwave proof bowl with 1 tablespoon of butter and cook in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Heat a 10" saute pan to medium high. Add the olive oil and green beans and toss. Add the garlic, butter and red pepper flakes and toss until well incorporated. Heat to serving temperature. Season with salt and pepper and you're done.

Spaghetti & Spaghetti Squash with Garlic and Red Pepper Flakes

This pasta dish is simple delicious. The classic combination of pasta with garlic and red pepper flakes, but with the sweet nutty flavor of the spaghetti squash. Yum!

Ingredients:

1 medium spaghetti squash

1/2 pound Barilla spaghetti

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 crushed garlic cloves

Pinch red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Take the spaghetti squash and carefully slice in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and place face down on a baking pan. Cook the spaghetti squash for about 30 minutes or until you can easily pass a knife through the squash. Once cooked remove to a plate and let cool. When cool, take a fork and pull out the strands squash. 

Take a large stock pot and fill with water. Add 2 tablespoons salt and bring to a boil. Cook the spaghetti according to directions, which is usually 9 - 10 minutes to al dente, firm to the bite. When done, drain the spaghetti reserving 1 cup pasta water.

Take a 12" saute pan and heat to medium high. Add the olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook the garlic and red pepper flakes for 1 minute. Turn up the heat to high and add the spaghetti squash and spaghetti and toss. Add the cup of reserved pasta water, salt and pepper to taste and toss for 1 minute until piping hot and you're done.

To serve, place a portion of pasta on a serving plate. Add a drizzle of olive oil, some grated Parmesan cheese and garnish with chopped Italian parsley.

Spicey Ramen

I love Ramen, but can you actually buy a packaged product that's any good? Today I'm testing a a product that I bought at Safeway from Nongshim which is their spicy black label premium noodle soup. First, when you make this, only add 1/4 the pepper spice mix, it will be plenty spicy. Overall, I liked the quality of the noodles and the soup was tasty. If you've got a craving for Ramen, this will get the job done.

Ingredients:

1 package Nongshim Ramen

Preparation:

Even thought he product comes in it's own serving container, cook the Ramen in a medium saute pan. Place the dried noodles in a medium saute pan. Fill the container the product came in with water and pour into the saute pan and bring to a boil. Add the flavor packets and about a quarter of the spice mix. You can always add more if you like. Boil until the noodle are soft and you're ready to serve. 

To serve, place the Ramen in a serving bowl and garnish with sliced green onions and chopped cilantro.

   

Sauteed Bok Choy with Chopped Garlic

Here's a quick and tasty vegetable dish that pairs well with sauteed tofu and rice or grilled chicken and noodles.

Ingredients:
1 bunch Bok Choy
4  - 5 rough chopped garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil.
1 tablespoon butter
Garlic salt
Pepper

Preparation:

Take Bok Choy and cut off the bottom part of the stalk and wash in cold water. Slice the stems into 1/2 inch pieces and the leafy parts into bite size pieces.

Heat a 12" saute pan to medium high. Add the olive oil and Bok Choy and saute tossing frequently. Season the Bok Choy with garlic salt and pepper to taste and cook about 5 minutes. Take the garlic and rough chop so it's still in pretty big pieces. Add the garlic to a microwave proof bowl, a tablespoon of butter and cook in the microwave for 30 seconds. Add the garlic to the Bok Choy, toss and you're done.

Pesto Chicken and Couscous

My wife and I were at our friends Jennifer and Bob's for dinner and Jennifer made this wonderful pesto chicken dish. She said it was very easy to make and I thought that it was so good I was going to make it and that she'd find her recipe on my blog very soon. Thanks for the recipe Jennifer!

Ingredients:

Boneless skinless chicken breast

Pesto Sauce. Kirkland makes a nice pesto sauce or make your own.

Fresh pesto sauce; basil, garlic, walnuts, salt and olive oil

1 1/2 cups Israeli couscous

2 cups water

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt

Preparation:

If you're making your own pesto sauce Trader Joe's has the best basil going. Place 2 big handfuls of basil in the food processor. Add 3 or 4 garlic cloves, a couple tablespoons of chopped walnuts, 1/8 cup olive oil  and some salt. Blend until you have a nice smooth pesto sauce.  

Rinse and dry the chicken breasts. Place into an baking dish and season with salt and pepper. Spoon on some pesto sauce, cover and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

To make the couscous, take a medium sauce pan and heat to medium high. Add the olive oil and couscous and toast the couscous to a golden brown. Carefully add 2 cups water, cover and simmer for 5 minutes and then turn off the heat and let rest while your waiting for the chicken to finish cooking 

To serve, place some couscous on a serving plate and add the sliced pesto chicken breast. Garnish with some chopped basil and grated Parmesan cheese.