Posts tagged ‘mushrooms’
How Lazy Can We Get – A Spicy Rant
From the Chicken Entree Category at emealsforyou.com.
Chicken Cacciatore
I think we have hit a new low in laziness. Along with the open the pouch, pour into a pot and heat ” meals” on the market we now have McCormick’s new spice packets. For a couple of bucks you get six small packets; about a teaspoon or less, of six spices with an idea of what to cook using the spices. No measuring needed, simply rip off the back of the packet and you have the spices for the meal. For that $2 you get about 35 cents worth of spices. But hey, look on the bright side, no measuring spoon needed. Just think for a mere $14 a week McCormick will ensure you dump the right amount of their spices into the pot. You still have to brown the meat, add other ingredients and actually cook. I guess I just don’t get it.
Spice up your life; try measuring the spices yourself. The Cacciatore recipe is for a white wine sauce; not the usual red sauce. Give it a try and BTW only 3 spices needed.
Chicken Cacciatore
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 4 |
| Category: | Chicken Entrée |
| Meal: | I Need Comfort Food (Quick Meals Planner) |
| 2 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 4 | lb | chicken, whole, cut up |
| 3 | medium | onion, yellow ,quartered |
| 1 | lb | mushrooms, quartered |
| 8 | cloves | garlic, chopped |
| 0.25 | tsp | oregano, dried |
| 1 | tsp | celery seeds |
| 2 | medium | bay leaves, whole dried |
| 1 | cup | wine, dry white |
| 1 | 15 oz can | chicken broth |
| 0.5 | tsp | salt and pepper to taste |
Brown chicken in oil, add onions, mushrooms and garlic sauté for 3 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, simmer for 30 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.
Note: If you prefer red sauce, add 1 LB diced tomatoes, 2 TB tomato paste and substitute red wine for the white wine.
If you want ideas on what to cook for dinner try our website at emealsforyou.com but you will have to measure the spices yourself.
Quick, Great and Diet Friendly – Chicken Piccata
From the Diet Friendly Category at emealsforyou.com.
Chicken Piccata
Diets don’t work. Eating right works. Week 1 of our attempt to get back into those “regular” clothes again after the holiday onslaught. I took all the butter in the frig and put it in the freezer; we ate our weight in butter with all the meals and desserts last month, so it is off to the Siberia of appliances for the butter that makes all that stuff taste better. We are serious this time.
Our site, emealsforyou.com, has several categories to help us get through our self-imposed tightening of the belt, as it were.The Chicken Piccata below is just one of the many mealplans that we provide to help. In our Careful and Carefree MealPlans we give you 4 weeks of mealplans; including 3 meals a day and 2 snacks. The secret to positive weight loss is in portion control; not is denying yourself really good food. Our WOW (Watching Our Weight) plan helps you prepare great meals, sacrificing nothing in taste, while controlling the portions you prepare.
Our other weight-loss plan is a friendly bet. Four of us each put $50 in a pot and the person losing the largest percentage of body weight by March 1st wins it all. So if you need help planning emealsforyou.com is the answer. If you need more help, get together with some friends and give the bet a try. Who knows, you just may win the money for that smaller wardrobe.
Day 5 Dinner – Chicken Piccata
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 1 |
| Category: | Diet Friendly |
| Meal: | Week 2 (Careful and Carefree MealPlans) |
| 4 | oz | chicken breasts, boneless, skinless |
| 1 | Tb | rice flour |
| 0.5 | pinch | salt, kosher |
| 0.5 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 0.25 | Tb | lemon zest, finely chopped |
| 3 | medium | mushrooms, sliced |
| 1 | Tb | lemon, juice of |
| 4 | oz | chicken broth |
| 0.5 | tsp | capers |
| 0.25 | Tb | cornstarch |
| 0.5 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
| 0.5 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 6 | cup | spinach, fresh baby |
| 1 | Tb | pecans, toasted |
| 0.5 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
| 0.666 | cup | pasta, angelhair, cooked |
Pound chicken breasts in zip-lock baggie to 1/2” thickness, add flour and salt, shake to coat. Heat oil in pan, brown chicken, add zest, mushrooms, and lemon juice. Cook for 3 minutes, add capers and chicken broth reserving 2 oz. Cook for about 7 minutes, until chicken is done. Add remaining chicken stock to corn starch, add to pan, stir. Salt and pepper to taste.
Heat oil in pan, add spinach and pecans, cook until just wilted. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Each serving has 635g calories, 23.7g fat, 60.2g carbs 7g fiber and 44.6g protein.
Plate over cooked pasta.
Recipe of the Week – Grilled Veggie Sandwiches
(From the Vegetarian Entree category at www.emealsforyou.com)
Grilled Portabella Sandwich
Our company arrived in the rain and the rain stayed most of the weekend. We decided that we would have something a little different from the usual fare for lunch on one of the days. As I don’t mind grilling in the rain and cold; I decided to do grilled veggie sandwiches. This is a really easy to prepare lunch and always gets a smile from the guests as it is unexpected and visually attractive.
We grilled portabella mushrooms, red peppers, onions, yellow squash and asparagus. I peeled the asparagus, I always peal my asparagus. It is amazing that this is such filling and satisfying meal, even without meat.
Grilled Veggie Sandwiches
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Vegetarian Entrée |
| Meal: | N/A |
| 1 | large | baguette |
| 0.25 | cup | olive oil, divided |
| 3 | medium | squash. yellow |
| 8 | oz | mushrooms, portabella |
| 1 | 10 oz container | roasted red peppers |
| 1 | medium | onion, red |
| 0.33 | lb | asparagus |
| 1 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
| 8 | oz | cheese, Alloutte |
Cut baguette in half lengthwise and drizzle with 1 Tb of the olive oil. Cut squash, mushrooms and onion in thick slices and place in a large bowl; add the red peppers. Peel asparagus and place in the bowl, add salt and pepper and the remaining oil and stir. Place veggies on a hot grill and grill quickly on both sides, about 4 minutes. Remove veggies from the grill and place in the bowl. Grill the baguette on the grill until just slightly brown. Spread Alloutte on each half of the bread, arrange the veggies on top and cut into pieces and serve.
Recipe of the Week – Beef Stroganoff
(From the Beef category at www.emealsforyou.com)
Beef Stroganoff
I am preparing for a visit this week; my mother-in-law is coming for a quick visit. We are just finishing all the painting and stuff on our new place so the timing is good. As is usual I try to get as much of the cooking, mainly the desserts, prepared in advance. Carrot cake is on the menu and I needed a few things from the grocery so off to the store I went, with a stop to pick up more paint. I know I pontificate on planning meals but occasionally I will find a bargain at the market and slip that into my meal prep for that day. I was looking for some ribs that I could put in the oven and let them cook for the hours of painting I had left but for some reason there must have been “a run” on ribs and not a rib was to be found in the cooler. I did find some beef cubes on sale and decided to make some stroganoff.
This worked out just fine as the longer you cook stew, and stroganoff is basically a beef stew with sour cream added, the better it gets. I decided to make some homemade noodles to go with the stew, added a salad and there you have it a wonderful mid-week meal with the minimum effort.
Beef Stroganoff
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Beef Entrée |
| Meal: | N/A |
| 2 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 3.5 | lb | beef, cubes |
| 8 | oz | mushrooms, quartered |
| 4 | cloves | garlic, chopped |
| 1 | 10.5 oz can | beef consommé |
| 1 | 15 oz can | chicken broth |
| 3 | medium | bay leaves, whole dried |
| 8 | oz | sour cream |
| 2 | Tb | cornstarch |
| 0.25 | cup | water |
| 1 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
Heat oil in a large pot, add beef in batches and brown on all sides. Remove beef, add mushrooms and garlic and sauté for 3 minutes, add beef back to the pot. Add the consommé, the broth and the bay leaves. Simmer for 30 minutes, until beef is fork tender. Mix cornstarch, sour cream and water together and add to the pot. Return the pot to a boil for 3 minutes, until thickened, reduce heat. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Serve over hot, buttered noodles.
Meal Planning – 2 Ways to Answer- How?
(from www.emealsforyou.com/Suzie’s Salisbury Steak)
Many of you look at Meal Planning as if it were a foreign language. It is not your fault, what training did you have? It seemed your mom just put it on autopilot and viola, a complete meal was on the table. You really never paid much attention to how she did this.
In this post I will give you a couple of methods to use to plan your meals; remember the upside of planning is true $$$ savings at the grocery, better food for your family and a better sense of self. I will go to the opposite extremes, you need to find the right mix that works for you.
So let’s discuss what a meal is: first of all let’s try for a balanced meal. We will need an entrée, meat, fish, protein, whatever, some sort of veggie (’cause we really should), and a starch (gotta have those carbs). Some of your meals may contain all of these in one recipe, as in spaghetti with mushrooms.
Method #1 – the “Chinese menu”; one from column A, one from column B and one from column C
This is a lot like the old MadLibs game, pick something and fill in the blanks. Make a list of all the meats you like to cook: chicken, fish, pork, ground beef, etc. On a separate paper make a list of veggies; and on a third make a list of starches, pasta, potatoes, rice, etc. Allow me a quick rant here: you don’t need potatoes with pasta, I see way too many people cooking mac and cheese and then potatoes on the side. Put a veggie into the microwave instead, your thighs will appreciate it.
So here we go: look at your weekly flier from your grocery store. Pick the things that are on sale that you like. Now go to your first list and pick a meat, go to the veggies and pick one or two veggies and finally pick a starch from your list. Write this down and repeat until you have the desired number of meals planned. Now go through your repertoire of recipes and match up the meals with the recipes. Scale the meals to the right number of people and write down a shopping list; this is important so that you don’t get sidetracked at the store. That wasn’t too hard was it?
Method # 2 – “electronic’ meal planning (okay, I’m a little prejudiced here but you may use any meal/ recipe site you like, if you don’t mind chasing them down all over the Internet, unashamed hint: use: www.emealsforyou.com)
So this method starts out the same, scan your local grocery’s sales flier and decide on what you want to buy. Go to the site you like, on www.emealsforyou.com go to Recipe Finder, and type in the meat, gather the recipes and make your decisions, repeat for veggies and starch. Put the recipes in your Favorite Box, use the automatic(Select) button to scale them to the right number of people and print the shopping list.
Once you get the hang of Meal Planning you will find that it takes very little time and the rewards are huge.
Challenge: Plan your meals for 1 month, use either method, come back here and let us know how it worked. Did you save money? Did you feel better about how you were feeding your family? Did your family notice the food? Was your life a little easier?
For those of you who want to try the www.emealsforyou.com method, sign up using EMEALS-48 in the box on the registration for Sponsoring Identifier and you will receive a $5 discount off the 1-year subscription price of $36; that makes it under $3 per month, you should save 10 times that. I promise you will like it.
Recipe of the Week – Chicken Cacciatore
Chicken Cacciatore
(from the Chicken Entree collection at emealsforyou.com)
Growing up in central New Jersey we had many ethnic restaurants to choose from. In Trenton there is a section of town known by the locals as the “Burg”; short for Chambersburg. This area featured an Italian restaurant on just almost every corner. There was one restaurant in the “Burg” named Roman Hall. We would go there with family and friends to enjoy the great comfort meals usually cooked lovingly by the grandmother of the owners. Roman Hall’s specialty was Chicken Cacciatore.
Now, many of you have had cacciatore but I am betting it was chicken smothered in a heavy tomato sauce with black olives. Roman Hall’s was cooked in a white wine sauce with onions and mushrooms and lots of garlic. Traditionally it was served with a side of “pencil points”, penne pasta with tomato sauce. This way you got the best of both worlds, you actually tasted the wonderful stewed chicken in the wine sauce and still got your tomato sauce fix with the pencil points.
I have recreated this great comfort meal for you. Add some “pencil points”, a salad and some warm Italian bread and you have a meal that you will remember for quite a while. If you don’t have a favorite tomato sauce or want to try ours sign on to www.emealsforyou.com to view our scalable recipe. Enjoy!!!
Chicken Cacciatore
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 4 |
| Category: | Chicken Entrée |
| Meal: | I Need Comfort Food (Quick Meals Planner) |
| 2 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 4 | lb | chicken, whole, cut up |
| 3 | medium | onion, yellow ,quartered |
| 1 | lb | mushrooms, quartered |
| 8 | cloves | garlic, chopped |
| 0.25 | tsp | oregano, dried |
| 1 | tsp | celery seeds |
| 2 | medium | bay leaves, whole dried |
| 1 | cup | wine, dry white |
| 1 | 15 oz can | chicken broth |
| 0.5 | tsp | salt and pepper to taste |
Brown chicken in oil, add onions, mushrooms and garlic sauté for 3 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, simmer for 30 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.
Note: If you prefer red sauce, add 1 LB diced tomatoes, 2 TB tomato paste and substitute red wine for the white wine.
This is from the I Need Comfort Food (Quick Meal Planner) meal; for more meal plans and recipes like this go to emealsforyou.com
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