Chicken Cutlets with Bacon, Rosemary, and Lemon

Wednesday night, Kate and Spencer came over to have dinner with us and to celebrate my birthday a little early.  They are moving to Michigan next week and will miss out on our other birthday plans.  They brought a delicious green salad that had lots of cheese, bacon bits, romaine lettuce, and red bell pepper, tossed with croutons and a vinaigrette.  Additionally, we had whole wheat couscous and the following main dish.

I was soo hungry that I forgot to take a photo until I was almost done eating.

CHICKEN CUTLETS WITH BACON, ROSEMARY, AND LEMON
- from Cook's Country magazine

Ingredients:
5 slices bacon, chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
4 garlic cloves, sliced thin
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions:
1. Fry bacon in large skillet over medium-high heat until crisp, about 5 minutes. Transfer bacon with slotted spoon to plate lined with paper towels. Spoon off all but 2 tablespoons bacon fat.

2. Meanwhile, place flour in shallow dish. Season chicken with salt and pepper, dredge in flour, and shake to remove excess. Add butter to reserved bacon fat in skillet and heat over high heat, swirling to melt butter. When foam subsides, reduce heat to medium-high and cook chicken until browned on both sides, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to plate, leaving fat in skillet and over loosely with foil.

3. Reduce heat to medium and add garlic, rosemary, and pepper flakes.  Cook until garlic is browned and crisp, about 2 minutes. Add broth and lemon juice, scrape up browned bits from bottom of skillet with wooden spoon, and simmer until slightly thickened, about 4 minutes.

4. Return chicken and bacon to pan and simmer, turning chicken once or twice, until sauce is thick and glossy, 2 to 3 minutes. Adjust seasonings and serve.

Notes: 
1. I used chicken tenderloins instead of full breasts.  They cooked evenly and were very tender and delicious.  The only downside is that it takes longer to cook them.  I ended up adding more butter and bacon grease to get through all of the tenderloins.  

2. It is best to not have to clean puke off of your kitchen floor while the bacon is crisping.  It really makes it difficult not to burn it.  How is it that I can offer this advice?  Well, Kyle choked on a tortilla chip while in the kitchen and proceeded to puke ALL OVER THE FLOOR.  Yes, ALL OVER IT.  I managed to clean up the chunks just in time to wash my hands and prevent the bacon from burning.  After the bacon crisis was over, I was able to wet swifter the floor.  Then, Ben went to work with the Clorox wipes.  Ugh...it definitely delayed the meal.  
 

 

April 11, 2012- Chicken and Prosciutto Salad

Yes, I know it has been months since I last posted. My excuses? Difficult pregnancy and an active toddler. I think that is plenty justification for my absence. I have no expectation or hope of maintaining a daily blog like I used to. But, I do think I will use this blog to highlight exceptional new recipes we have tried. For example, I prepared a Chicken and Prosciutto Salad with Arugula and Asiago, from Cooking Light magazine, last night and it was delicious! Here's the recipe:

Chicken and Prosciutto Salad with Arugula and Asiago

Ingredients

2 (1-ounce) slices sourdough bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Cooking spray

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided $

2 ounces very thin slices prosciutto, chopped

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 (5-ounce) packages baby arugula

1 1/2 ounces Asiago cheese, shaved and divided (about 1/3 cup)

6 ounces shredded skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken breast

1 cup grape tomatoes, halved

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 425°.

2. Place bread cubes on a baking sheet, and lightly coat with cooking spray. Add basil and garlic powder; toss well. Place bread mixture in preheating oven; bake for 8 minutes or until crisp.

3. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 teaspoon oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add prosciutto; sauté 4 minutes or until prosciutto is crisp. Drain on paper towels.

4. Combine remaining 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons oil, juice, and salt in a small bowl; stir well with a whisk. Place arugula, half of cheese, and juice mixture in a large bowl; toss well to coat. Divide arugula mixture evenly among 6 plates; divide chicken, prosciutto, tomatoes, remaining cheese, and croutons evenly over salads.

Note:
The recipe is designed to make 6 servings.  I modified it for 2, making it a main dish rather than a side salad.  I basically used the same amount of chicken, croutons, prosciutto, and cheese as called for in the recipe and only served 2. I used less arugula, dressing, and tomatoes than the recipe called for.

July 20, 2011- Impossible Taco Pie

Our church is a sponsor of Family Promise, an organization which helps homeless and low-income families achieve sustainable independence.  This week we hosted a family of 7-- mom, dad, 4-yr-old girl, 3-yr-old boy, 1-yr-old boy, and twin 2-month olds.  I cannot even imagine having that many children, let alone having them all under the age of 4 and without a home to take care of them in.  This family from Eritrea, a country just North of Ethiopia, was very happy and friendly, despite their difficult situation. I have to admit that I had not heard of the country before this week.  

Katie and I, along with our friend Nancy and her niece, provided dinner for this family at the church tonight.  I made two Impossible Taco Pies.  The five adults and four children consumed 1.5 of the pies I made.  Guess what Katie and I will be eating tomorrow night? :)  Nancy made a wonderful salad of mixed greens, tomatoes, pumpkin seeds (also called pepita), avocados, and peaches.  The dressing for the salad was delicious too, but I can't tell you what it was made of.  She also made a divine chocolate cake with fresh ginger in it.  Topped with fresh, homemade whipped cream, that cake was a winner. 

After the meal concluded, the kids ran around, played, danced, and colored together for more than an hour.  It was great to see Katie playing with them.  She desperately wanted to be included and didn't want to go home. 

July 19, 2011- Marinated Flank Steak

Katie and I went to Jen, Andy, and Jackson's house for our PEPS gathering tonight.  Since we hosted last time, we didn't have to take anything for the meal this time.  Jen marinated and grilled flank steak that was tender and full of flavor.  She mentioned that the marinade recipe included soy sauce, garlic, cumin, and several other ingredients I don't remember now.  We also had a caesar salad, a couscous salad, and peach cobbler with ice cream along with the meal.  Yum!  

July 14, 2011- Rotisserie Chicken & Salad

I had planned on buying a rotisserie chicken at Fred Meyer on Monday, but we were there too early to get one.  We went to Safeway, which is a bit closer to our house, to pick one up this afternoon after Katie's nap.  It was a fantastic chicken.  Much better than Fred Meyer's if you ask our family.  The chicken was moist and full of flavor.   It was definitely worth the extra dollar or two it costs to buy the Safeway chicken instead of the Fred Meyer one.  I served a salad made of butter lettuce, raspberries, and glazed walnuts for our side dish.  Katie had chicken and raspberries.

After dinner,  I removed and shredded the remaining meat from the chicken bones.  I'll end up using that in a meal tomorrow. 

July 6, 2011- Baja Citrus Chicken

If you've read my  blog for a while, you know that we use Grill Mates marinade seasoning packets frequently.  The packaging for each variety lists two or three proteins that the flavors will work best with.  I usually don't sway from that list.  But, tonight I decided to try the Baja Citrus marinade on chicken tenderloins.  It was pretty good.  I don't prefer it to some of the other flavors, but it was just fine.  I marinated the chicken for two hours before broiling it.  I made a salad of butter lettuce, sliced strawberries, glazed walnuts, and poppy seed dressing for our side.  It is such a great summer salad. 

June 27, 2011- Chicken Strips and Fruit Salad

A few weeks ago I bought a new kind of chicken strip for Katie.  The strips seemed to be restaurant styled, which Katie usually likes.  The instructions said they could be baked or microwaved.  Well, each attempt to microwave them has resulted in very rubbery chicken that she hasn't eaten.  Tonight I decided to bake them for the whole family.  The chicken was much better baked than nuked.  I suppose I knew that already, but I am glad they were good baked.  

I made a fruit salad of pear, banana, raspberries, mandarin oranges, and grapes for our side dish.  Katie had oranges and grapes.  She is quite fickle about her bananas.  She has never eaten them pre-sliced. She went straight from mashed to whole.

June 22, 2011- Cheeseburgers & Hotdogs

We were planning on going to the home of our friends for dinner tonight, but they had to postpone due to a schedule conflict.  So, we ate hot dogs and left-over cheeseburgers with fruit salad for dinner.  I put frozen raspberries, green grapes, bananas, pears, and mandarin oranges in the fruit salad.  It was quite delicious!  

By the way, Mom and Dad, we've used up the last of the raspberries from last year's harvest:) 

June 21, 2011- BBQ Chicken

Ben and I had left over barbecued chicken breasts and a side salad for dinner.  The salad ingredients were romaine lettuce, diced fresh red bell pepper, sliced mushrooms, and a Parmesan and roasted red pepper dressing.  Katie ate the ham out of a sandwich and peas out of the pods.  In the past she has eaten the peas and then moved on to the pods.  Not tonight.  The pods were out.  Oh well, at least she was eating vegetables!

June 20, 2011- Impossible Taco Pie

We had the pleasure of taking dinner to our friends Mike, Naomi, and Oliver this evening. They welcomed Liam into their family on the 7th, and our PEPS group has been taking them meals every couple of days. What a sweet baby Liam is:)  We took two Impossible Taco Pies with us.  We shared one with them tonight and left one with them to eat another time.  We had a salad with romaine lettuce, tortilla strips, Mexican cheeses, and spicy ranch dressing on the side.  I took ham sandwiches, string cheese, and applesauce for Katie and Oliver to eat.  Neither of them ate very much.  Of course, that meant that Katie had to eat once we got home. 

June 16, 2011- Barbecued Chicken

Feeling a little better today, I decided to make the barbecued chicken I didn't make yesterday.  I rubbed four boneless, skinless chicken breasts with our standard bbq rub.  After brushing a little vegetable oil on the grill grates, I cooked the breasts for 10 minutes over Medium Direct heat.  I flipped them after 5 minutes.  At the end, I brushed on barbecue sauce while grilling a couple more minutes. Just now, as I was looking for the post on how to make the bbq rub, I remembered that we usually bbq chicken that is bone-in and skin-on.  That would explain why this chicken was more dry that usual.  The flavor was great, just missing a little moisture.   

I fixed a spinach salad with diced red pepper and a parmesan, roasted red pepper dressing to go with the chicken.  It was quite tasty!

June 8, 2011- Mesquite Pork Chops

Ben worked later than normal tonight, so I fed Katie before he got home.  She had a slice of left-over pizza for her meal.  Ben and I ate broiled pork chops that I marinated in Grill Mates Mesquite Marinade.  I usually overcook meat.  So, it was high praise when Ben said they couldn't have been cooked better:)  We had a side caesar without croutons to go with the pork chops. 

The best part of the meal was when Katie, who was watching "The Voice" in the den, came running in and said she needed a microphone.  I jumped up, pulled my mic from the closet, told her not to drop it or hit it on anything, and let her go.  She held it up to her mouth, humming and dancing along with the singers.  When each song ended, she would run into the dining room shouting "I did it!"  How awesome!  I love that little girl:)

By the way, "The Voice" is a fantastic new singing competition on NBC.  Far better than American Idol in my opinion. 

June 7, 2011- Roasted Garlic Mahi Mahi

We had sea salt and roasted garlic mahi-mahi with a salad for dinner tonight.  We've had this fish several times and love it.  The fillets come pre-marinated, individually vacuum sealed, and frozen from Costco.  I simply line a cookie sheet with foil, place the fillets on the foil, and bake in a pre-heated oven for 25 minutes.  The result is a delicious fillet of fish.  Tonight, I let the fish cook an additional 5 minutes since Ben was still on his way home.  It definitely dried out more than normal, but still tasted great.  

I planned on making a spinach salad with strawberries, glazed walnuts, and poppy seed dressing, but found that my strawberries were too past their peak to use.  The green grapes I used as a substitute were pretty good with the other ingredients.  I still prefer the berries, but it is nice to know I have other options.  Katie ate a few bites of fish along with several grapes for dinner.  I bet she wakes up hungry tomorrow morning.

Monday, 5/2/2011

Katie and I did our weekly grocery shopping this morning, including a trip to Costco.  Later in the month we will be hosting a potluck at our house, and are going to be grilling hotdogs and hamburgers.  I don't want to have to make the hamburger patties myself, so I bought a package of pre-made, frozen burgers.  Knowing that we won't need 25 for the potluck, I decided to grill up a couple for our dinner tonight.  Well, they are not as good as our burgers.  They were pretty bland in fact.  Next time, we will definitely have to add some salt and pepper to the burgers while they cook.  I'm sure they can taste better than they did tonight.  We had a caesar salad on the side. 

Sunday, 5/1/2011

My plan was to make a taco salad for dinner.  The plan went a bit sour when I realized I only had half a packet of taco seasoning in the pantry.  Since the ground beef was already browning in the skillet, I had to improvise.  I added chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, cummin, salt and black pepper.  And then, I doubled it.  The result was a decent substitute.  It was lacking something, but was definitely edible.  While a taco salad was my original plan, we ended up having taco meat with cheese melted on top with a simple iceberg lettuce salad with chipotle ranch dressing on the side. 

Saturday, 4/30/2011

My parents and I got so much accomplished today!  It rained this morning, so we couldn't do much outside.  While mom and I played with Katie, my dad started to organize and clean out the garage.  He took a trip to the local building materials donation shop to get rid of light fixtures we no longer needed.  When he was done organizing, he had given us back three feet of space from side to side in our garage.  Whoo hoo!  When the rain stopped, my mom and I set out to weed the terrace to make room for the raised beds.  Katie spent her time watching Toy Story on my iPod in her stroller.  It's the only movie I have in a digital format, and she loves it.  The iPod gave my mom and I enough time to fill our yard waste bin with extra debris ready to go in next week's bin.  Dad got the structure for the two beds built today.  We'll mix the soil and fill them tomorrow.  

Katie and I picked Ben up at the airport this afternoon.  Katie ran to him, hugged and kissed him, and told him she loved him.  What a happy reunion!  We then met my parents at Anthony's Home Port in Des Moines for dinner.  Katie and my dad had fish and chips.  Ben had steak and coconut prawns.  He was really disappointed in the steak.  While cooked perfectly, it was lacking flavor.  The prawns and his caesar salad were excellent.  My mom and I started with spinach and bacon salads, topped with dill vinaigrette.  The salad was delicious!  I really wish I knew how to make that dressing.  Yum!  We also each had halibut for our main dish.  Mine was pan fried and her's was oven baked.  Both were perfectly tasty.  Dinner with my family-- what a wonderful way to finish a day.  

Friday, 4/29/2011

For Christmas my parents gave me two raised garden beds.  My parents drove over this evening to spend the weekend with us and build the beds.  I'm really excited to see how much I can grow during the summer.  I was busy cleaning and preparing the house for their arrival today, and didn't want to dirty dishes for dinner.  I chose to make a large green salad with some left-over Easter ham on the side for my dinner.  I ate right out the bowl I mixed it in. 

It was so nice to be able to stay with my parents until Tuesday morning this week and then have them visit us this evening.  It has been wonderful for Katie to get to spend so much quality time with them. And, it has really made Ben's time away go much more quickly than usual. He comes home tomorrow, and I can't wait to see him! 

Thursday, 4/28/2011

Our friends Laura and David invited Katie and me to have dinner with them at their new home tonight.  We got a tour of their home and a slinky demonstration while dinner was cooking.  Laura made chicken cacciatore--chicken braised in a tomato-based sauce with onions, garlic, and white wine.  It was my first time having that dish, and I was not disappointed.  It was delicious and seemed relatively easy to make.  Laura was kind to make a dish that was low in carbs to help me out.  I made a green salad with mushrooms and diced bell peppers to go with the meal.  

I brought peas, carrots, and chicken for Katie's dinner.  I forgot to bring her booster seat, so she was a wiggle wart throughout the meal. After we ate, Katie, Laura, and I went to our church choir practice.  The best part of the rehearsal was when Katie decided it was time to start singing.  She stood under the alter and sang at the top of her lungs with the choir.  She wasn't saying any words, but was giving the big "ah" her best.  What a delight to see her starting to "sing."  I wonder how long it will be before she can carry a tune;)

Wednesday, 4/27/2011

Katie and I made it to the grocery store this morning and stocked the fridge for the rest of the week.  I pan fried a pound of chicken tenderloins.  I heated a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil in a skillet, seasoned the chicken with a lemon, sage seasoning salt, and then fried the chicken until a little brown on both sides.  Katie had some of the chicken with carrots and sugar snap peas for dinner.  I cut up the chicken into a green salad with mushrooms, orange bell pepper, and Italian dressing.  It was pretty darn good for a green salad. 

Tuesday, 4/26/2011

Katie and I drove home this morning.  She did remarkably well on the drive.  Between her books and toys, she was calm for the first three hours.  She started to get restless when we had about 100 miles left in the trip.  I gave her my iPod and let her watch Toy Story for the rest of the trip.  Ben called from Europe the last ten minutes of our trip.  How nice to end our trip talking with him:)

I didn't want to go to the grocery store and then make dinner tonight.  Katie and I went to Endolyne Joe's for dinner instead.  I had a chicken caesar salad and ordered mini corn dogs and a fruit bowl for Katie.  She quickly got to the hot dogs inside the corn and proceeded to put too much in her mouth.  After that first bite, I deconstructed each corn dog, separating the dogs from the corn.  She gobbled down the hot dogs and pretty much left the corn alone.  Too bad I'm not eating many carbs these days.  The corn part looked delicious!