Chicken and Prosciutto...how can you go wrong?

You can't, not with this recipe!

I have had a hankering for food loaded with calories and fat these days. I searched through my recipes and found one that sounded fairly simple and yet satisfying, and oh was it ever. I had made it once a long time ago, much to the delight of Matt and his friend that was over for dinner that evening. It's got great flavor and as the chicken roasts in the oven, the apartment has a wonderful smell, and we can't wait to eat dinner!

CKS note: I couldn't find zuchinni at Trader Joe's, so I used winter squash instead and it tasted equally as good as the zuchinni.

Chicken with Prosciutto and Zuchinni

Ingredients

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (or 2 large ones cut in half)
1/4 teaspoon each, salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
8 slices prosciutto
lemon juice
2-3 small zuchinnis, sliced into half moons

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Wash chicken and pat dry. Sprinkle one side with salt and pepper. Heat up oven-safe skillet on medium-high and add 1 tablespoon of the oil. When ready, add the chicken season side down season the side facing up with salt and pepper. Cook for 2-3 minutes per side. ONce both sides are cooked, bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until chicken is cooked all the way through.

Meanwhile, in another skillet, add rest of olive oil, and when ready, add proscuitto and cook for 1-2 minutes per side or until crisp. Transfer to plate. Add zuchinni and garlic, and cook until vegetables are very tender. Once you remove the chicken from the oven, transfer zuchinni, garlic, and prosciutto to skillet with the chicken. Sprinkle lemon juice on top, and then divide among plates.

Gourmet Done Family Style

Unique. Delicious. Comforting.

What a fun twist on your ordinary meatloaf. I have to say, what first attracted me to this recipe was not the meatloaf itself, but the red wine currant sauce drizzle over the top of it. If that doesn't scream fancy restaurant I don't know what does. But if sweet dark glazes are not to your liking, this turkey meatloaf stands well on it's own. There wasn't a person at gaming group last night who didn't express overwhelming satisfaction with the meal.

This recipe is super simple to assemble and makes ample proportions. The recipe even includes instructions for freezing half and baking again at a later date if 10 servings is too much all at once. I used a good quality free range ground turkey for the meat. If you cannot find sun-dried tomato sprinkles, just dice up some sun-dried tomato halves found in the dried fruit section of your grocery store. Do not use sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil or it will make your meatloaf too greasy. Also, be sure to use a meat thermometer to make sure that the ground turkey gets cooked all the way through. We enjoyed this with a nice green salad on the side and french baguette slices dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Sun-Dried Tomato Meat Loaf with Red Currant-Wine Sauce


Red currant jelly and wine make a quick, rich sauce that is a nice change from the typical ketchup topping. Serve with mashed potatoes. If you decide to freeze one of the meat loaves for later, make half the amount of red currant-wine sauce now and half when you bake the frozen meat loaf.


Meat loaf:
Cooking spray
3 (1-ounce) slices white bread
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup (4 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
1/3 cup sun-dried tomato sprinkles
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 1/2 pounds ground turkey breast
2 large eggs

Sauce:
1/2 cup red currant jelly
1/4 cup dry red wine
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 400°.

Coat 2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans with cooking spray; set aside.

To prepare meat loaves, place bread in food processor; pulse 10 times or until coarse crumbs form. Combine breadcrumbs, onion, and next 7 ingredients (onion through eggs). Divide meat mixture in half. Press each portion into prepared pans.

Bake at 400° for 55 minutes or until a meat thermometer registers 180°.

To prepare sauce, combine jelly, wine, and flour in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil; cook 5 minutes or until jelly melts.

To freeze unbaked meat loaf: Prepare through Step 3. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing to remove as much air as possible. Wrap with heavy-duty foil. Store in freezer for up to 2 months.

To prepare frozen unbaked meat loaf: Thaw completely in refrigerator (about 24 hours). Preheat oven to 400º. Remove foil; reserve foil. Remove plastic wrap; discard wrap. Cover meat loaf with reserved foil; bake at 400º for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 45 minutes or until a meat thermometer registers 180º. Prepare half of red currant-wine sauce; serve over meat loaf.

Yield: 10 servings, 5 per pan (serving size: 5 ounces meat loaf and about 1 tablespoon sauce)

CALORIES 271 (19% from fat); FAT 5.6g (sat 2.8g,mono 1.6g,poly 0.5g); PROTEIN 35.2g; CHOLESTEROL 122mg; CALCIUM 193mg; SODIUM 435mg; FIBER 0.8g; IRON 2.3mg; CARBOHYDRATE 18.4g

Cooking Light, MARCH 2003

Slow-cooked goodness

When living in Los Angeles, there's not many opportunities to use your slow-cooker as it just heats up your home further. When we lived in Seattle, I used at least once a week. Not only did it help warm up the kitchen but it made our home smell so good.

This week it's been very cold (for us Angelinos) and so when meal planning this week I threw in a slow-cooker recipe. It was a bit of a challenge as my slow-cooker cookbook is filled with high calorie and high fat recipes, based mainly of creamed soups and/or milk. I did find one, however, that intrigued me, and there was no cream or tomatoes! Bonus! Extra bonus was it only took 2 hours to cook so I could make it after I got home from work. It was very filling and only 192 calories per serving, I felt really good about my healthy and tasty recipe choice. This one is definitely going in the "make again" pile.

Sausage and Wild Rice Casserole

Ingredients:

1 package long grain and wild rice mix with seasoning packet
3 sausage links (I used pre-cooked ones from Trader Joe's), cut up
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
2-2 1/2 cups water

Brown sausage, onions, and celery, and put into slow cooker. Add rice and seasoning packet, then pour in water. Cook on LOW for 2-3 hours, or until water is gone and rice is tender. Serves 3-4.

Iron Chef Extension

Congratulations to everyone who submitted a recipe for the first Iron Chef Challenge. Iron Chef Camille, Iron Chef Lena, and Iron Chef Kevin all deserve a round of applause for their fantastic cuisine creations.

Today was the last day to get in your recipes for Battle Potato. However, I am going to be the first to break my own rule and turn my recipe in late. Haha. It's good to be a moderator! Granted, I've already started my recipe but it's a 24 hour project and won't be completed until tomorrow. So, for those Iron Chefs who still want to submit for Battle Potato, you can have until the end of the weekend to submit your recipe and I'm going to shift the timing for future challenges so that they can end on a weekend instead of weeknight for those chef's whose weekday schedules are a little tight. (Not that I have any excuse right now!)

Gnocchi with Venetian Sauce

Greetings,

Potatoes were an interesting choice. I had fun trying to figure out what I could do that was simple, but all from scratch. In general I try to cook with the freshet ingredients as possible. I think it makes the dishes that much better.

When I first started to make gnocchi I thought it was going to be difficult. It is really very simple. As a side note, the dough doesn't keep very well after you make it. I tried. Oops.

As far a sauce goes, I don't use store bought any more. It is too easy to make your own, and more fun. This sauce is best served the day you make it, but my other red sauces you can freeze. Well, enough talk here it is.

Gnocchi with Venetian Sauce

2 Medium Sized Russet Potatoes

¼ cup flour

Pinch Nutmeg

Bring pot of water to a boil. Scrub potatoes and boil until fork tender, around 30-45 min. Drain, peel and put the potatoes into a large bowl, careful their hot. Make sure you get all the skin and discolored pieces out otherwise your gnocchi will look odd. Stir in the flour and the nutmeg. You are going for an easy to handle dough. However, too much flour will render the potatoes tasteless. Kneed the dough on a lightly floured surface for a couple of minutes. Break off a small piece and roll into a cylinder. Cut it into 1 inch pieces. If you want you can roll the pieces on the back of a fork to get the lines, but it will not effect the flavor. Place the pieces on wax paper until ready to cook.

In the meantime bring another pot of water to boil. There should be enough water for the gnocchi to swim and not touch the others. When boiling, drop a few bits of gnocchi into the water. They will cook faster than you think. Leave them in the water for about a minute after they have risen to the surface. Scoop out with a slotted spoon onto plates.

Sauce:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 tbls butter

4 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped

1 large shallot, finely chopped

Crushed Red Pepper to taste

1 cup dry white wine

1 cup veggie stock

1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes (I use Muir Glen)

Handful fresh basil, rolled and sliced

Heat a sauté pan with 2-3 tbls olive oil and the butter over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Add red pepper flakes and shallots. Saute for 2-3 minutes. Add wine and reduce by half, about 2 minutes. Add stock and tomatoes. Saute until sauce is as thick as you desire, 3-5 minutes or so.

Spoon sauce over gnocchi and top with basil, fresh ground black pepper, kosher salt, and fresh Parmesan cheese.

Slainte,

Kevin

Hearty and Heart Healthy

Yesterday was a dismal dreary day with lots of rain and a freezing cold house with a heater on the fritz. It made for perfect timing to try out this new soup recipe I've been meaning to get to for a couple of weeks now. I got everything started around 4:30 so by the time Don walked in the house around 5:00 he got hit with all of the awesome aromas of the smoky bacon, caramelized onions, roasted chicken, and reduced port broth. Served along side some garlicky lemon steamed broccoli spears and the fresh banana bread I baked that day, this meal really hit the spot. Healthy though it is, do not be fooled. The wild rice in this recipe makes it more filling than you can possibly imagine. And it was a very nice and subtle change to have a chicken soup recipe with a red wine base for once. This is definitely going in the folder of make again recipes. I can't wait to have the leftovers for lunch today. Additionally, I have enough leftover meat from the roast chicken I bought for this that I can use it to make my barbecue chicken pizza recipe again tonight. Hooray for double duty meals!

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup




6 cups water
2 cups uncooked wild rice
3 thick-cut bacon slices, chopped (about 3 ounces)
5 cups thinly sliced red onion (about 1 large)
1/4 cup port or other sweet red wine
6 cups Brown Chicken Stock
3 cups shredded roasted chicken breast (about 1 pound)
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Bring 6 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan, and stir in wild rice. Reduce heat; simmer, partially covered, 35 minutes or until rice is tender. Drain and set aside.

Place bacon in an 8-quart stockpot over medium heat. Cook 10 minutes or until bacon begins to crisp, stirring frequently. Add onion; increase heat to medium-high. Cook 10 minutes or until golden brown, stirring frequently. Add port, and simmer 8 minutes or until port evaporates. Add stock; simmer 5 minutes. Stir in rice, chicken, and remaining ingredients, and simmer 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1 1/4 cups)

CALORIES 345 (24% from fat); FAT 9.3g (sat 3.1g,mono 3.8g,poly 1.6g); PROTEIN 27.5g; CHOLESTEROL 63mg; CALCIUM 36mg; SODIUM 283mg; FIBER 3.9g; IRON 1.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 37g

Cooking Light, JANUARY 2003

Brown and Mushy

Question: What's brown and mushy and has spots all over?
Answer: An overripe banana.

One of the many things I admire about my friend Katy is her economical and spontaneous creativity in the kitchen for creating pantry recipes (a.k.a. using up items she already has on hand.) While I am great at hunting for recipes and good at following a plan, I am terrible at letting leftover items go to waste that do not have a pre-designated purpose. So I am very proud of myself this week for taking three rotten bananas and turning them into the ultimate treat -- Banana Bread -- instead of throwing them in the trash like I normally would.

Below is the quick and simple recipe I followed courtesy of Simply Recipes. The banana bread made a delicious accompaniment to the soup I served for dinner last night and a nice breakfast treat this morning served with hot coffee. Next time I think I will add some chopped walnuts for a little extra crunch.

Banana Bread

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Simply Recipes http://www.simplyrecipes.com