Main Dishes

Main Dish Recipes

Chicken, Spinach & Mushroom Lasagna

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This week was going to be a busy one.  With every other night but Monday being packed with some event, I wanted something to make for dinner on Monday night that would create good leftovers for the week and be quick to reheat.  Lasagna it would be.  And because I like to try new recipes, I tried this one.

It was OK, but Ben agreed that I have a better white lasagna recipe that I’ll probably stick to for now.  This artichoke and mushroom lasagna is pretty spectacular.  You can add chicken to it if you want to, but it doesn’t need it.  It is a great vegetarian dinner option.  I’ve made it for a few guests before and everyone seems to like it…or they’re just being nice!

Anyway, there were some great things about this lasagna.  Melted in to the béchamel sauce is a creamy herb cheese that gives a great lively flavor.  I made the mistake of trying to use 2% milk instead of whole milk in the béchamel, leaving it pretty runny even after baking.  I’m not entirely sure it was just a milk problem, though.  When I’ve made béchamel sauce in the past I’ve always made a butter and flour paste before adding the milk.  This recipe didn’t call for any flour.  I ended up adding some when I saw how thin the sauce was, but it didn’t solve the problem.  So, I made some changes to the recipe below to help others avoid the runny béchamel.

Another change I would make it to cut the chicken into smaller pieces.  I might even suggest shredding it.  The pieces were just a little too big to get a good combination of noodle, mushroom, spinach, chicken and sauce in one bite.

The flavors are wonderful, and I like the combination of ingredients.  I skimped on some of the cheese since I have often found lasagnas a bit too heavy on the cheese, but I might have skimped too much since the layers didn’t hold together well.  It’s hard to tell what this would have been like if the béchamel had been thicker.  It may not need more cheese…but then again it may.  I don’t know for sure.  I would guess that a thicker sauce would mean the same amount of cheese listed would be fine.  But if you like cheese or you just don’t trust me, add more.

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Chicken, Tomato & Zucchini Packets

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One of the best things about this meal, besides being quick and simple, is that it is almost completely free of any kitchen clean up!  By baking the chicken and vegetables in little foil or parchment packages, you don’t have to worry about scrubbing down a pan that is coated with the remnants of roasted vegetables.  It felt so good to just wad up the foil and toss it in the trash!  I am sure Ben was thankful as he is almost always the one who does the dishes after dinner.

So, is this quick, simple and clean-up free meal any good?  I thought so.  The recipe is from Eating Well and is full of vegetables.  I love when a meal is heavy on warm cooked veggies.  Having a salad can be a good way to get your daily amount of vegetables, but it can often become monotonous.  This is a good way to actually incorporate vegetables into your main course instead of having a separate salad with your meal.

I used more tomatoes than called for in the recipe, replaced the cubanelle pepper with an anaheim, and only used one shallot since the ones at the grocery store were monsters!  These guys were huge.  I also made the great error of leaving out the mustard.  This came to my attention as they were coming out of the oven…not the best timing.  So, I just spread some mustard onto the chicken after it was cooked, and all was well.  I am sure it would have been better had I remembered the mustard earlier, but it didn’t ruin dinner.  I served the chicken with white rice, and so the liquid that remained in the packets was a good sauce despite its thin consistency.  Since I had it on hand I used dried thyme, but I think that fresh would give this a much better flavor.

Overall, a good, tasty meal that can be scaled down to make a quick dinner for 2. If you’re like me, finding recipes and cooking for 2 is often a challenge, unless you want leftovers for the rest of the week.  A reviewer on eatingwell.com said she doubled the ingredients and cooked everything in a Dutch oven, so that is another way to go to serve a larger crowd.  Enjoy!

Chicken, Tomato & Zucchini Packets

From Eatingwell.com

Ingredients

  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, (1 1/4-1 1/2 pounds)
  • 2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
  • 2 small zucchini, thinly sliced
  • 2 sweet banana peppers, or cubanelle peppers, cut into 1-inch pieces (I used 1 anaheim)
  • 2 shallots, thinly sliced (I used 1)
  • 1 1/2 cups halved grape or cherry tomatoes
  • 4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  2. For the foil packets you will need 4 pieces of foil, about 18 inches in length.
  3. Place a chicken breast in the center of one piece of foil and spread with mustard.
  4. Toss zucchini, peppers, shallots, tomatoes, oil, thyme, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Place about 1 1/4 cups of the vegetable mixture on top of each piece of chicken.
  5. Close the packet to cover the ingredients. Starting at the top, seal the packet by folding the edges together in a series of small, tight folds. Twist the tip of the packet and tuck it underneath to help keep the packet closed. Place the packets on a large rimmed baking sheet (packets may overlap slightly). Bake until the vegetables are tender and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the chicken registers 165°F, about 25 minutes. (Carefully open one package to check for doneness and be cautious of the steam.) Let the packets rest unopened for 5 minutes before serving.
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Calzones and Cake

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My birthday and our wedding anniversary are exactly one week apart.  This makes the dates easy to remember, but its hard to have  two celebrations so close together.  For my birthday, Ben took me to Boot Hill Saloon in Vega, Texas.  It was a really fun experience and we had a great meal.  If you live in the Amarillo area and haven’t yet been there, then I encourage you to make the trip to Vega.

For our anniversary, we couldn’t decide what to do.  We figured we’d eat at home, so I decided to make something a little out of the ordinary.  I made two different kinds of calzones, and they were both pretty delicious.

The meaty version was a Philly Cheese Steak Calzone.  I grilled a strip steak, sliced it up thinly, sauteed onion and green peppers and topped it all off with provolone cheese.

The veggie version was spinach, cheese and mushroom.  I sauteed the spinach with some garlic and squeezed it dry.  Then I mixed the spinach with ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.  These ingredients alone would be perfect, but I added some sauteed mushrooms.

I tried a new recipe for dough, and I liked it a lot.  It rose well and was incredibly easy to roll out and make the calzones.  The only issue we had was that we had to break out the steak knives to cut through the bottom of the calzone.  Other than that, the dough had a good chew and good flavor.

I doubled the dough recipe and only baked 6 calzones for dinner and for leftovers this weekend.  I made the other 6 dough balls into calzones and froze them to thaw out and eat later.  It is so nice to have homemade meals in the freezer.  As long as you can remember to put them in the fridge the morning before you plan to enjoy them, kitchen time is cut to a minimum….as is clean up!

The recipe for the dough came from My Kitchen Cafe.  It is a French dinner roll recipe used as calzone dough, so I will probably try it for rolls at some point.  You make the dough as you would for the rolls, but divide the dough into about 6 pieces after the first rise for the calzones.

The Philly calzones recipe is also courtesy of  My Kitchen Cafe and the spinach and cheese came from Tyler Florence, although I did make a few changes.  All the recipes are at the bottom of this post.

Now, on to the cake.  I had planned for us to eat my Daring Bakers July dessert for our anniversary.  But when Ben got home from work he had a lovely pink box with him that contained this beautiful cake!

It was such a great surprise.  The cake was made by Cara Linn Cakes in Amarillo.  I took a cake decorating class from her a few months ago.  She is a great teacher, and is incredibly talented.  I am so pleased to have someone like her in Amarillo.  If you are a fan of the Food Network challenges, then you may have seen Alisa Strauss on a few of the cake challenges.  Cara interned for her in New York, before opening her own store.  If you’re not impressed by this, you should be!

The cake not only looked beautiful, it tasted even better.  The cake itself was a dense vanilla that was sweet and delicious, but not a fake sweet like cake mixes and most bakery cakes.  The buttercream was strawberry, that had actual pieces of strawberry in it.  Yum.  The fondant that covers the cake is unique in that it looks smooth and beautiful and it tastes good!  Cara changed my opinion of fondant.

If you are in need of a cake, cupcakes, or other sweet treats, please call Cara.  She was a huge help to my husband when he ordered the cake and she does an incredible job.  The cake classes are well worth your time and money.  I had such a fun time and I learned a lot.  You also get to take your cake creation home!

Read on for the calzone recipes.

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Chicken Sausage and Pepper Kabobs

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Grilling makes almost all foods taste better, and it makes your neighbors jealous.  Last night I made these incredibly simple sausage kabobs and they were delicious.  The recipe is from The Food Network.  Here is the link.

The pesto recipe needed a bit more oil, so I added about 1 tablespoon more than called for.  A little minced garlic also made the pesto extra special.  I left out the cherry tomatoes…because I forgot to buy them despite the fact that they were on my list.  Can pregnancy brain begin this early?  Anyway, I found a yummy red pepper and garlic chicken sausage that was perfect.  The remaining pesto is mixed into plain couscous and is a great dish.  Very simple and clean.  I would maybe add some lemon juice to the couscous to kick up the flavor.

This is a quick, simple, and delicious meal.  It can easily be doubled to feed more people and changed to accommodate what you like…or don’t like.

Chicken Sausage and Pepper Kabobs

Ingredients

  • 1 cup couscous
  • 2 bell peppers (red and yellow), cut into chunks
  • 1 (12-ounce) package chicken sausage (preferably garlic-flavored), cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 large red onion, cut into chunks
  • 1 cup cherry tomatoes
  • 3-4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  • ¼ cup fresh parsley
  • ¼ cup fresh cilantro
  • 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 4 scallions, roughly chopped
  • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

Directions

  1. Soak eight 8-inch skewers in water, at least 15 minutes. Preheat a grill or grill pan to medium high. Prepare the couscous as the label directs.
  2. Meanwhile, toss the bell peppers, sausage, onion and tomatoes in a bowl with 1 tablespoon olive oil; season with salt and pepper. Thread onto the skewers, alternating the sausage and vegetables. Grill, turning, until the vegetables are slightly softened and the sausage begins to brown, 6 to 7 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, puree the parsley, cilantro, garlic and scallions in a blender with the remaining 2-3 tablespoons olive oil, the vinegar and 2 tablespoons water. Season with salt and pepper. Brush the skewers with some of the pesto and continue to cook, turning, until the tomatoes are tender and the sausage is charred, 6 to 7 more minutes.
  4. Toss the couscous with half of the remaining pesto and season with salt and pepper. Serve with the skewers and the remaining pesto, for dipping.
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Tomatillo Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas

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A while back I posted a recipe for chicken enchiladas from Tyler Florence.  They were good, but not the best.  At the beginning of that post I mentioned my all-time favorite recipe for chicken enchiladas, but did not provide it.  What was I thinking?  How could I be so selfish as to say how wonderful something was, but not share it?  I must apologize and make up for it by sharing this incredible recipe with you now.  I made  these enchiladas this weekend and they were a hit  that night for dinner, and last night as leftovers.

There are a few shortcuts to this meal, but the sauce totally makes this dish, so don’t try to use any shortcuts there.  When I have time I boil my own chicken and shred it, but you can save quite a bit of time by shredding the meat from a rotisserie chicken.  I also use a cup of the chicken broth to make the sauce when I boil my own chicken.  This time I used 3 large skinless, bone-in chicken breasts, and that was just enough chicken.  Using pre-shredded cheese is an obvious time saver.  You can put the enchiladas together and refrigerate or freeze them until you want to bake them.  The sauce also freezes well, but freeze them separately and thaw them in the fridge overnight before baking.

You can add more green chiles to kick up the heat, which I usually do.  The cheese is also something you can play with.  More or less is fine, but leave it out entirely and you’ll be sad and sorry.  If you have leftover turkey, then use that in place of the chicken.

This recipe is from Austin, Texas Junior League cookbook, Austin Entertains.  You can purchase it here.  The recipe is below, and just slightly adapted.

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Chicken And Fennel Flatbread Pizza

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Fennel in one of my favorite vegetables.  The flavor of fennel is quite similar to anise, but they are not the same vegetable.  It is delicious raw, sliced in a salad.  It is completely different in flavor when cooked in a casserole, like this potato and fennel gratin which is quite tasty.  It is incredible roasted with other vegetables when the edges get a bit crunchy and caramelized and the flavors mellow.  Fennel leaves look like dill in their delicate, thin, wispy green appearance.  These leaves are used as an herb.  The fennel bulb is used as a vegetable.  Fennel is one of the main ingredients in original absinthe.  I love fennel.

The use of fennel in this recipe is what caught my eye on the Eating Well website.  Yes.  I am posting yet another recipe from the site.  Everything I’ve made so far has been wonderful, so I’ll keep trying things until I hit a bump.  Then I’ll back off, but not until I find something that doesn’t make me want seconds.

These pizzas are not greasy or overly cheesy.  The vegetables add great flavor, and the chicken is much better for you than pepperoni or sausage.  There isn’t any sauce on the pitas, which I thought would make them a bit dry, but they were not even close.  The little bit of cheese goes a long way and you don’t miss the sauce.

I changed the recipe just a bit.  I added salt, pepper and minced garlic to the chicken before cooking it, and I cooked the vegetables and chicken separately.  On two of the pizzas I used feta cheese instead of provolone and sprinkled some red pepper flakes on the finished products.  A combination of provolone and feta would be better since feta doesn’t melt very well.

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Citrus Shrimp & Quinoa Salad with Edamame

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There is new-to-me website that I have been frequenting recently and that I am really liking….eatingwell.com.

Many of the recipes sound not only healthy, but also delicious.  I am anxious to try some of the desserts, like these lemon squares.  Baked goods are not always the easiest to make tasty and healthy, so I’d like to find out if they’ve managed to mix tastiness and nutrition.

Tonight I made these garlic-y citrus shrimp and a warm quinoa salad with edamame and roasted red peppers in a lemony tarragon sauce.  I served this with whole wheat pita bread.  This meal is packed with protein, quite flavorful, fresh and totally satisfying.  I finished dinner feeling full, but full of really good food, so no guilt!

Another plus is that the meal was simple to prep and came together incredibly quickly.  Quinoa is so much better for you than rice, and it takes about the same amount of time as white rice, and half the time of brown rice.  It is similar in texture to couscous, but has a nuttier flavor and is more substantial.  Shrimp is one of the quickest proteins to cook.  A mere minute on each side is all you need, but any more time than that can yield  a shrimp that is overcooked and rubbery in texture.

The only change I would make is to leave out the walnuts.  I didn’t find that they added anything to the salad but crunch and more protein…which we weren’t exactly lacking here.

I will keep you updated as I try more recipes from this site.  I already have another EatingWell dinner planned for later this week; chicken and fennel flatbread pizza.  Yum.

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BLT Mac and Cheese

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This obsession I have with macaroni and cheese may never end.  It is just too good.  How can you not love it?

My most recent mac and cheese adventure was a BLT version with bacon, leeks, tomatoes, colby jack cheese, and a toasted bread crumb topping.  While this did not quite live up to the deliciousness of other macs, it was still very tasty.  I liked the subtle flavor of the leeks, juicy tomatoes, salty bacon and creamy cheese.

The inspiration for this dish came while I was perusing recipes and found a BLT pizza that used arugala as the “lettuce” in the BLT.  I thought it could be changed a bit to make mac and cheese.  I searched BLT mac and cheese and found quite a few recipes, the top result being one from Rachel Ray.  It sounds pretty tasty, and I will probably try it sometime and see how it compares to this one.  She uses cream cheese in her recipe, and does not make a roux at all.  I like making the cheese sauce with the roux, milk and cheese, but maybe she’s on to something with the cream cheese.  I’ll let you know once I try it out.

All the recipes I found had a few basics in common.  All used bacon and tomatoes, of course, most used leeks, and arugala was the lettuce in most recipes that I found.  I could not find arugala at the grocery store, so my leeks became the “L” in this BLT.

Bacon, Leek and Tomato Macaroni and Cheese
  • 1 lb. short tubular pasta, such as penne
  • 12 slices of bacon
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 12 ounces shredded cheese, cheddar, Monterey jack, etc
  • 1-2 garlic cloves, minced
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 2 medium leeks, white and light green parts
  • 4 roma tomatoes
  • ¾ to 1 cup fresh bread crumbs
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Cook the pasta according to package directions, drain and place cooked pasta in a large bowl; set aside.
  3. Cook bacon in a skillet over medium-high heat 8-10 minutes or until crisp. Remove bacon from skillet, leaving drippings in the pan, to paper towel-lined plate to drain and cool.  Chop bacon into ½ inch pieces then place in the large bowl.
  4. Slice leek in half lengthwise, then submerge halves in cold water to rinse out any dirt.  Remove from water, pat dry and slice into ½ inch pieces.  Saute the leeks in the skillet with bacon drippings over medium heat. Cook, uncovered, just until it softens up and place in the large bowl.
  5. Cut tomatoes into ¼ inch slices.
  6. In a sauce pan, melt 4 tablespoons butter. Once it’s completely melted, add the flour and whisk to create a roux.  Allow to just come to a boil and then slowly stir in the milk, then the garlic. Allow the milk to come to a simmer and thicken, whisking frequently to avoid clumps. Once it thickens up to coat the back of the spoon, turn off the heat. Carefully stir in the cheeses until melted. Add the garlic powder and salt & pepper to taste.
  7. Pour the cheese sauce over the pasta and other ingredients in the large bowl and mix well to combine.
  8. Spread half the pasta mixture into a pan, then layer half the tomato slices on top.  Cover with the rest of the pasta, then the rest of the tomatoes.
  9. In a small skillet, melt the 3 tablespoons of butter over medium high heat.  Add the bread crumbs and stir until the crumbs are slightly golden brown.  Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top of the casserole.
  10. Bake for 20 minutes until bubbly and the top has browned slightly.  Let rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.
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Croque Monsieur Mac and Cheese

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Macaroni and cheese has become one of my favorite things to cook and something that I can count on Ben being happy about having for dinner almost 100% of the time.  I love that there are endless options when it comes to this dish.  You can go plain and simple with traditional elbow macaroni and cheddar cheese.  You can mix things up and add chicken or ham for a meaty version.  This one with chicken was great.  Vegetables are another great addition.  This green chile mac and cheese was incredible.  I would like to try a mac and cheese with cauliflower or broccoli sometime.

This recipe pays tribute to the amazing French ham and cheese sandwich of the same name.  I’ve made croque monsieurs and madames and they are both delicious sandwiches, so there was no possible way that this could be anything less than incredible!  It was more than incredible.  It was life altering and something I will definitely make again, but not regularly since gruyere cheese is not exactly cheap.  I think it was something like $13.99 per pound at my grocery store, but can apparently set you back even more if you order it from this artisanal cheese site.  Yikes.  You could use Swiss cheese and it would be just as good.

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Cheryl’s Chicken Fried Steak

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This was not restaurant style chicken fried steak with the thick, crunchy exterior and white cream gravy.  This chicken fried steak had a thinner crust and the gravy was not the thick white kind with specks of peppercorns that I am used to.  The gravy I made has a thinner consistency and a darker caramel color with specks of thyme.  So, this is not exactly what you get when you order chicken fried steak at Lone Star Cafe like I remember getting as a kid.  I remember it looking something like this.I always ordered the kids meal version, or a half order, but it always came out looking huge and daunting.  Somehow I managed to scarf down every bit along with the buttery Texas toast which I used to sop up the extra gravy.  Oh man.  Those were good times.

This chicken fried steak is a bit different.  It is homemade.  It is comforting.  And it is delicious. I got the recipe from a woman I met here in Amarillo.  She grew up here and remembers having this at least once a week if not more often when she was a kid.

This is beef country, people.  A great deal of the economy depends on it.  I wake up on many mornings and can smell the feed lots when I let the dog out.  My grandpa Marvin appropriately calls it the “money smell”.  Texans love their beef, but Amarillo-ans LOVE their beef.  This may be a stereotype, but it’s a stereotype that is true and in no way negative.  Beef is good, and so is chicken fried steak.

The gravy recipe is not all hers, she admits.  She once watched an Alton Brown show where he added fresh thyme to the gravy.  Intrigued, she used it the next time she made her gravy and hasn’t gone back since.  You can’t help but love Alton Brown.  He stays true to what a dish originally was and only adds to it if it really and truly makes it better.  You wouldn’t catch him adding something weird like lavender to a chicken fried steak gravy, but I am sure some ridiculous chef out there has.

Cheryl wasn’t very specific in her measurements, but I think it all turned out OK.  I am a big fan of recipe following, so the term “some flour” kinda freaks me out.  But really when you think about it, the ingredients in chicken fried steak are simple and do not require a lot of measuring.  If it sticks to the steak, then that’s how much you need.  If there are naked spots, then you need more.  Pretty easy.

I served this with mashed potatoes and steamed green beans.  A few slices of buttered Texas toast would have been a good idea, but I was not quite on top of things enough to get Texas toast when I was at the grocery store.

Here is Cheryl’s recipe for the steaks and Alton Brown’s Gravy.

Cheryl’s Chicken Fried Steak
  • 4 pieces of tenderized round steak, pounded thin
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1-2 teaspoons salt
  • 1-2 teaspoons black pepper
  • 2-3 eggs, beaten
  • vegetable oil
  1. Whisk the flour, salt and pepper in a large, wide dish.
  2. Whisk the eggs in a seperate large wide dish.
  3. Dredge steaks in flour, then eggs, then flour once more.
  4. Let the steaks sit for a few minutes while you heat enough oil to cover the bottom of a large skillet over medium high heat.
  5. Cook steaks in oil for about 5 minutes, flip and cook for about 3 minutes more.  Transfer to a plate and keep warm in a 200° oven while you cook the remaining steaks.
Alton’s Creamy Gravy
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
  • salt and pepper to taste
  1. After cooking the steaks, heat the remaining cooking oil and tasty bits left over medium heat.
  2. Whisk in 3 tablespoons of the flour left over from the dredging.
  3. Add the chicken broth and deglaze the pan.
  4. Whisk until the gravy comes to a boil and begins to thicken.
  5. Add the milk and thyme and whisk until the gravy coats the back of a spoon, approximately 5 to 10 minutes. S
  6. eason to taste, with more salt and pepper, if needed. Serve the gravy over the steaks.
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