I will return

I know I've been a terrible awful blogger lately. It's been nonstop nonstop nonstop over here. Starting Friday night I've been home just long enough to sleep. Not so much time for cooking or blogging. And when I do cook it's something completely uninspired.

Take this dish for example. I took some onions and sauteed them, and then added sauerkraut and knockwurst and steamed the whole thing together. Fancy? No. Easy? Yes. Incredibly phallic? But of course.

So I apologize, but I promise when I have some time I'll catch you up with something far better than knockwurst with sauerkraut.

You might not feel it now

This is the week of miserable meals in Thathouse. I'm beyond exhausted and Thatboy has been gone all week. When he finally got home I decided to throw to something together. I was planning on making eggs, and he was planning on eating on the road - so we were both surprised to realize he'd be home for dinner.

I still wanted my eggs, so I figured I'd throw them over some sandwhiches - kind of like a strata of sorts. This features Jalapeno bread that we picked up this weekend on our way to go apple picking. We went with my friend Cops And Robbers and she made us pull over at a bakery. She began rhapsodizing about loaves of bread, pointing out her favorites, and so of course I had to bring some home for us. DH has been eating slice after slice ever since.

Building off that, I thought cheese would be a good addition. Everyone likes jalepenos and cheddar! So in they went. And then some chicken for good measure. (Don't worry, I'm about to move on to non-chicken dishes tomorrow!) Pour some egg, mushrooms, and beautiful green onions I picked up from the farmer's market. No real recipe, just stack and bake in at 350 for 45 minutes.

All my little plans and schemes

This was a total and complete flop. I thought it would turn out colorful and delicious, with all those vegetables, but instead it turned out blah. Baked chicken topped with green onions, lemon juice, carrots, and tomatoes. It sounds good right?

Well it wasn't. I'm not sure if it was the veggies I chose, or the fact that I didn't add butter. But whatever it is this was not my favorite meal. Oh well, you live and you learn!

Dear Sir

You may remember that I made baked chicken earlier this week that got rave reviews. I wanted to see if I could improve that dish, or fancy it up a bit. I know I also told you about the wonders of cheese, but as klassy as cheese is, it's not really fancy. For fancy, you have to turn to wine. The French just have a way with things. I mean take your basic baked chicken and add some wine and ooo-lah-lah!

"I Can't Believe He Loves It" Chicken with Wine

• 1 chicken breast
• 2 Tbsp butter, melted
• salt
• pepper
• paprika
• garlic salt
• 2 Tbsp white wine
  

1. Preheat oven to 350. Coat chicken in melted butter and sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic salt.
   
2. Place chicken in shallow baking dish.
   
3. Bake 30 minutes. Then flip and cook another 15-20 minutes.

I'd like to be

I'd like to be truly impressive and enthrall everyone with fabulous dinners that feed exactly the right amount and never leave leftovers. I'd like to tell you that food never goes bad in my fridge. I'd like to tell you that I have every ingredient in hand when I begin a dish. However, each of those statements is an out and out lie. Instead I'll tell you about dinner the other night.

DH and I had been out all day. I had forgotten to take the chicken out of the freezer on at least two occasions. When we got home in the late afternoon I finally remembered and pulled a chicken breast from the freezer...and then we sat on the couch and opened a bottle of wine. Before we knew it, it was after 8pm and I hadn't even begun to make dinner and that bottle of wine was gone and one of his wine bottle friends had taken his place.

So I went to go make dinner, chicken tacos. Only to realize I had no lettuce and no cheese. While Thatboy could probably do without lettuce, he's pretty adamant that his tacos have cheese. So I started digging through the fridge. I found a bag of shredded cabbage I used for one of our lunches earlier this month, and then I found my mozzarella/cheddar string cheese and voila. Dinner was born! Luckily no matter how dire the circumstances I always have salsa on hand and really, what more do you need?

Clean Out the Fridge Tacos

• 1 chicken breast
• 8 corn tortillas
• any kind of lettuce/cabbage/spinach - something green and leafy
• 1 tomato, diced (or any other veggie that's taking up space in your fridge or counter)
• cheese
• 4 Tbsp. salsa

1. Cook chicken your favorite way possible. I cut mine into strips and sauteed it stovetop because it was late and I was hungry.
2. After chicken is cooked, heat tortillas, one at a time in the skillet (about 30 seconds each side).
3. Double up the tortillas and place chicken down center. Top with your shredded leafy green and diced veggie, shredded cheese and a tablespoon of salsa.

Serves 2.
Each serving has:

Calories		547.1
Total Fat		13.8 g
	Saturated Fat	6.9 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	2.0 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	1.1 g
Cholesterol		98.4 mg
Sodium		714.2 mg
Potassium		785.1 mg
Total Carbohydrate		55.2 g
	Dietary Fiber	8.5 g
	Sugars	0.9 g
Protein		50.6 g

Hoping to take you away

Do you know how to make chicken into the ultimate comfort food? Well do you know how to get a non-veggie lover to beg for more broccoli? I'll give you the secret. It's cheese.

Cheese makes everything better. I think it's because of all the yummy fat that is basically what cheese is. It goes straight to the stomach and coats it with happiness. The warmth of melty cheese is one of the best kinds of warm - so long as it doesn't burn your mouth off. One bite of anything covered in cheese makes you almost want to purr, doesn't it? Think about it - cheese on nachos, dips, chicken, veggies, potatoes - are you drooling yet?

The nice thing about melting cheese on veggies and chicken is, you don't need to use a great cheese, like I would recommend in most recipes. This dinner actually came about because I had the leftover velveeta from the mac and cheese. See how resourceful I am. Next week I'll tell you about the dress I made from curtains.

Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli

• 1 lb chicken tenders
• 1 head of broccoli
• 4 oz Velveeta cheese
• 2 Tbsp milk
• seasoned salt

1. Preheat oven to 425. Place chicken tenders on foil lined pan and bake 10 minutes.
2. While chicken is baking, steam broccoli.
3. Melt Velveeta in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir in steamed broccoli, milk, and a dash of seasoned salt.
4. Spoon cheese and broccoli over chicken and cook for another 5 minutes.

Serves 2.
Each serving has:

Calories		455.4
Total Fat		19.6 g
Cholesterol		126.5 mg
Sodium		1,343.5 mg
Potassium		1,090.4 mg
Total Carbohydrate		27.9 g
Protein		43.5 g

This dog is gonna get you

Can I just brag for one quick minute? As you may recall, I've told you before about Thatdog's "poor me" act when he's dropped off for daycare. Well, the times they are a'changing my friends. In times past, we've been very worried about leaving Thatdog when we go on vacation. When we get back, he's anxious, gaunt, throwing up, constipated, and extremely clingy. The staff reports that he doesn't eat or sleep while he's there.

We've been lucky enough to have great friends who watch him when we go away for short periods of time. He LOVES them and when we pick him up, he's in much better shape. Heck, he runs to their door when we drop him off. But I hate to burden someone else with him when we go away for a long time, so last month we made a reservation for him to stay at his new daycare place. He's never spent the night there, so we we're a little nervous.

When we picked him up, he was normal. He'd eaten almost all his food while we were gone, wasn't clingy, wasn't anxious, and he had a very good report from the staff. It was a miracle. I really adore this place.

We dropped him off for daycare for the first time since we've been back, and I thought it was going to be back to the same old "DON'T LEAVE ME" act. But yesterday as I handed him over, he didn't even look back as he was brought back to play with his friends. No flat belly, no scared ears, no nothing. And when Thatboy went to pick him up, he said Thatdog didn't want to leave! I am so proud of my little boy. He's growing up SO fast. (And I'll leave out the story where he rolled himself off the bed last night - he'd want it that way).

Mushroom Chicken

• 1 chicken breast
• 2 tsp plain yogurt
• 4 tsp sour cream
• 1 can mushrooms

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease shallow baking dish and lay chicken in dish. Season chicken with salt, pepper, and paprika.
2. In a small bowl, mix yogurt and sour cream. Cover chicken with this mixture.
3. Top with mushrooms and bake 30 minutes.

Serves 2.
Each serving has:

Calories		166.3
Total Fat		2.8 g
Total Carbohydrate		4.2 g
Protein		30.5 g

We've been friends for oh so long

Even though most of you I have never met. I think by now many of you already know my quirks in the kitchen. My likes, dislikes, rants and raves.

You know I tend to bake and not fry.
You know I'm partial to chicken.
You know I tend to go for easy over fancy.

Which is why this new KFC commercial drives me BONKERS. Maybe you've seen it? A family goes to the supermarket with the plan to try and make dinner for under $10. They can't do it. It's IMPOSSIBLE! So they go to KFC. Seriously? SERIOUSLY???? You can't make dinner for under $10? You don't already own flour? There are no spices in your house? What did you eat yesterday? Look, I get that eating out for some is a way of life. Not everyone likes to cook and it is quick - but DON'T try to tell me the reason you eat out is because it's cheaper.

In discussing this on my cooking board, my favorite comment in response to this commercial came from Catarina:

"when comparing the cost of cooking vs dining out, i also like to take into account the health factor.

like: eating at home, fake-fried chicken (baked, less fat, etc.) = $20 (or however much), but eating at KFC = $10 plus $100/month for high cholesterol meds from 45+"

My reaction to this commercial is to make my very own KFC (Kate's Frito Chicken) and show just how cheap this meal can be.

Chicken drumsticks: $3.00 for a pack of 5 drumsticks

nonfat plain yogurt: already had in the house, free

Fritos: $1.29 for a bag

chili powder: already had at home, free

salt: already had in the house, free

macaroni and cheese: leftover from earlier this week, free

So total cost for this dinner? $4.29

KFC (Kate's Fried Chicken)

• 4 drumsticks
• 2 Tbsp plain yogurt
• 1 cup crushed Fritos
• 1 tsp chili powder

1. Preheat oven to 375. Spread yogurt on drumsticks.
2. In a small bowl, combine fritos, chili powder, and a dash of salt.
3. Roll chicken in mixture.
4. Grease a shallow baking dish and lay chicken in the dish. Bake for 40 minutes until chicken is crispy.

Calories		116.0
Total Fat		4.3 g
	Saturated Fat	0.9 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	0.5 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	0.7 g
Cholesterol		47.7 mg
Sodium		99.7 mg
Potassium		140.1 mg
Total Carbohydrate		4.7 g
	Dietary Fiber	0.6 g
	Sugars	1.0 g
Protein		13.9 g

Just to reach you

As much as Thatboy is a good sport about eating everything I make, he has very simple tastes. Whenever I "take the night off" and make something easy and unexciting, downright boring he raves and tells me its his favorite thing ever. Like this baked chicken. There is nothing special about this baked chicken. For pete's sake, it doesn't even use any fancy spices!

And yet, he insists it's the best chicken he ever ate. It's his favorite. He pushed aside his beans and chips so he could get at the chicken faster. And those beans and chips? My way of dealing with stale tortilla chips. I JUST opened the bag and the first chip out of it was stale. So what do you do? Turn them into nachoes. You don't even notice stale chips when they're all soft and mushy from hot beans. Heat some refried beans and add cheese, tomatoes, and chips and just stir stir stir.

"I Can't Believe He Loves It" Chicken

• 1 chicken breast
• 2 Tbsp butter, melted
• salt
• pepper
• paprika
• garlic salt

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheet with foil.
2. Coat chicken in melted butter and sprinkle with salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic salt.
3. Bake 30 minutes. Then flip and cook another 15-20 minutes.

I can't sleep

I am soooo tired! For some reason I'm just not sleeping well lately....well, until the morning. Somehow I forgot to set my alarm this morning for my run and all of a sudden I had a doggie wake up call. "Moooooooooom, you have to get up! I missed my run, I don't want to miss my walk too!" And when I finally got up I was rewarded with a stuffed toy dropped beside my head. Guess I was a good girl.

I was SUCH a good girl, I decided to reward myself with some mac and cheese tonight. I worked backwards for a change. What goes well with mac and cheese? Barbeque. So barbeque chicken it was. Neither of these has a "real" recipe. For the mac and cheese I just make macaroni and then add cubes of velveeta cheese. Because really, velveeta is the only cheese to use when making mac and cheese.

I could have taken the easy way out with the barbeque chicken, I always have store bought sauce in the fridge. It's good for so many things. But if you want to jazz up your store bought sauce a bit, here's a tip: add some brown sugar, melted butter, salt and pepper. It'll make your sauce so sweet and rich. And I love sweet barbeque sauce.

While for most people barbeque is actually...um...barbequed.....I tend to do most of my barbequing in the oven. I coat my chicken or ribs in sauce and bake them in the oven. It makes it easy to enjoy year round!