Spinach Balls!

So I was searching for recipes that use vegetable broth since we had some leftover from my husband's chili recipe and I came across these spinach balls from Allrecipes.com.

They looked interesting so I decided to give it a try. I didn't use egg substitute, and just used 2 full eggs.

The balls came out well, but to me, a little bland. I felt they needed either a dipping sauce or an extra spice in the mix like crushed red pepper flakes or paprika or something. But otherwise they were a tasty little side to have with dinner. Or, you can put toothpicks in them and serve them as appetizers!

They were really easy to make but took just a short amount of time because I had to chop the onion. I was able to make these one night after work though, so it wasn't THAT involved.

The recipe is for 8 servings - I halved it as usual.

Ingredients:

2 cups crushed seasoned stuffing
1 cup finely chopped onion
3/4 cup egg substitute (didn't use and used an extra egg instead)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup butter, melted
3 tablespoons reduced sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1 garlic clove, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 (10 ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the first 11 ingredients.

Stir in spinach until blended. Roll into 1-in. balls.




Place in a 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan coated with nonstick cooking spray.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve hot.

Enjoy!

Steak & Mushroom Florentine

Steak & Mushroom Florentine...sounds fancy, right? Well, it could be, but it was a Campbell's recipe I found a little over a year ago, before I started the blog. I hadn't made it again, simply because the recipe got buried in the pile of printed recipes in the cabinet, but it was really good. The spinach part is so deliciously creamy and smooth - we saved some reserve to eat over pasta or rice!!

Anyway, I'm posting it now - and then it will be written up on a recipe card and placed into the nice recipe binder someone gave me as a housewarming gift a long, long time ago!

If I remember...the recipe said prep time is 15 minutes and cook time is 20...I think it took me a little longer than that because I had to chop some ingredients. I think this recipe is good for someone home a few hours before dinner time and can properly prepare, or for a weekend.

I also left out the tomato in the recipe because, well, I do not like tomatoes! I also used frozen chopped spinach (which is always on standby in the freezer) instead of fresh baby spinach leaves.

Now, the recipe...

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 LB beef sirloin steak or beef top round steak, 3/4-inch thick, cut into thin strips
1 small onion, sliced (about 1/4 cup)
4 cups fresh baby spinach leaves
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 cup water
1 large tomato, thickly sliced
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat.

Add the beef and cook until well browned, stirring often. Remove the beef from the skillet. Pour off any fat.

Heat the remaining oil in the skillet over medium heat.

Add the onion and cook until tender-crisp. Add the spinach and cook until the spinach is wilted (or warmed through if using frozen).

Stir the soup and water in the skillet and heat to a boil. Return the beef to the skillet.

Reduce the heat to low. Cook until the beef is cooked through. Serve the beef mixture over the tomato. Season with the black pepper.

**Serving Suggestion: Serve with hot cooked whole-grain egg noodles. (That was from the actual recipe...I served mine with rice pilaf and a side of french cut green beans! Yum!)

Ground Turkey Boats

So, the recipe below is what I consider the "grown up" version of THIS recipe (mushroom mozzarella bruschetta). I used to make the bruschetta all the time when I was a recent (poor) college graduate because it is very cheap to make and it serves you for a couple of meals, especially if you pair it with a half can of soup. (While I provided the link, see below for the recipe I used during my poor recent college graduate days!)

I actually had forgotten about my staple meal ever since I moved from the DC metro area in 2006. But the other week my husband and I had acquired a loaf of whole wheat Italian bread from the "day old" bakery section of the grocery store for a very low price. I was thinking and thinking about what to do with it, and when I typed "Italian bread" into the ingredients list of Allrecipes.com, my old standby came up.

Bingo!! A light went on in my head. I wanted to do something similar, but with a little more substance. Slowly, an idea formed in my head. I also had an unopened container of Philly's brand new product, their cooking creme, in my refrigerator. I got it for 50 cents because there was a $1.50 coupon in the Sunday newspaper one week and the grocery store had it on sale for $2.00. So I figured I would try it out. We bought the savory garlic flavor. I also had some ground turkey. I knew exactly what I was going to do now.

So, here is my recipe:

1/2 pound ground turkey
1/2 loaf Italian bread, sliced again in half lengthwise
1/4 - 1/2 container Philly's Cooking Creme, Savory Garlic (amount depends on how much you want to use)
Chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained
Chopped onion
Chopped bell pepper (any color desired)
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a skillet, saute ground turkey with some salt and pepper until no longer pink. Set aside for a few minutes to cool.

Combine spinach, chopped onions and bell pepper in a bowl. Once manageable, add turkey and combine well.


Spread the cooking cream on the halves of bread. Top with turkey/vegetable mixture.

Sprinkle some mozzarella cheese on top.

Place on baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes until thoroughly heated and cheese is melted on top.


Serve hot and enjoy!

This is such an easy and quick idea to make, especially on a rushed week night. You can always play with the portions to make them smaller. We ate some large pieces because we didn't have a side with them, and they definitely were tasty and filling. It's also a relatively inexpensive meal and easy to interchange ingredients such as ground chicken or beef for the turkey.

Since Philly makes 4 different flavors of their cooking creme right now, you can also play with flavors and ingredients to make your own! I could see using their Santa Fe flavor as a base for a Mexican boat.

The possibilities are endless!


Recipe for Mushroom Mozzarella Bruschetta, my staple as a poor college graduate. This fed me for a few days, especially when paired with soup! Courtesy of Campbell's Kitchen.

Ingredients

* 1 (16 ounce) loaf Italian bread, cut in half lengthwise
* 1 (10.75 ounce) can Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
* 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning, crushed
* 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
* 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
* 1 small red pepper, chopped
* 2 green onions, chopped

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Place the bread on a baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes or until it's lightly toasted.

3. Stir the soup, garlic powder and Italian seasoning in a medium bowl. Stir in the mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, pepper and onions.

4. Spread the soup mixture over the bread to within 1/4-inch of the edges. Bake for 5 minutes or until it's hot and bubbling. Cut each half into 12 slices.

Steak With Parmesan Spinach

This recipe is courtesy of my October 2010 Food Network Magazine!


Don't really have much of a back story for this recipe - it called out to me to make for dinner one night. I love Parmesan cheese so it just made sense to try it out. The steak was pretty good - it was just seasoned with some salt and pepper... and I added a pinch of paprika for something extra. We ended up using some steak sauce just because we aren't the biggest "dry rub" seasoning type people.

But my husband LOVED the Parmesan spinach and I thought it was pretty yummy too!

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds flank steak
Extra-virgin olive oil, for brushing
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 10-ounce packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (I used ground nutmeg)

Directions

Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Pat the steak dry and brush lightly with olive oil. Season with 11/2 teaspoons salt and 2 to 3 teaspoons pepper. Cook, turning once, 10 to 13 minutes total for medium rare. Transfer the steak to a cutting board to rest, about 10 minutes.


Meanwhile, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the flour and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the milk. Return to medium heat and simmer, whisking, until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes.

Stir in the spinach, 1/4 cup water, 1/2 cup Parmesan, the lemon zest and nutmeg and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens and the spinach is tender, about 10 minutes. Thin with water, if needed. Stir in the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan and salt to taste.


Thinly slice the steak and serve with the spinach.

Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Wine Sauce!

And I am back on the bandwagon!! After a few baking mishaps that left me disappointed in my work, I successfully cooked dinner for my husband and I that tasted amazing. I am so proud of it!!

At first I didn't know what to make and I posted my dilemma on my Facebook page (Eating With A). Someone suggested these wonderful sounding Chipotle Chicken Rolls and I am excited to try them but since I don't eat spicy food that often, I think I will save that recipe for the next time we host a party so I can try a little but not waste the food if it is too spicy for me.

So I thought and thought and searched the Internet for ANYTHING to inspire me. I knew I had to use chicken...we have so much in the house right now. So after reading about 100 recipes, I finally came up with a mish-mosh of ideas and went downstairs to test it out...

I came up with chicken breasts stuffed with ricotta cheese, spinach, Parmesan cheese and chopped black olives and topped with a wine sauce. Here are the ingredients and directions:

Ingredients:
6 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, 1/4 inch thick
1/2 cup thawed and drained frozen spinach
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup black olives, chopped finely (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
1 large egg

For Sauce:
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 cup white wine (and another 1/8 cup white wine)
1/2 cup chicken broth (and another 1/4 cup chicken broth)

Steps:
I found making the stuffing for the chicken breasts first was the easiest...in a bowl, I mixed the ricotta cheese and Parmesan cheese, then mixed in the spinach and olives until well combined. Then in a separate bowl I whisked the egg and slowly poured it into the cheese mixture and mixed until completely absorbed into the mixture. After that, I sprinkled some salt and pepper into the mixture and stirred it in for a little extra taste.


Then I got the chicken and laid it on a plate. In the middle of each chicken breast, I spread the stuffing. Then I did the best I could to roll it up so the stuffing stayed inside. I solidified the rolled chicken with some toothpicks.

After all chicken was rolled, I put some olive oil in a skillet and put the chicken rolls inside. After cooking them on each side for 2 minutes, I lowered the heat and covered the skillet, letting it sit for 5-7 minutes to cook through. Then I took the chicken off the heat.


Now it was time for the wine sauce! In a large sauce pan, I put the butter and flour in and cooked that for a minute. I then whisked in 1/4 cup of wine until well blended, and then the remaining 1/8 cup of wine. I then let that reduce for a minute. Then I whisked in 1/2 cup of chicken broth and stirred until completely absorbed - then the remaining 1/4 cup broth.

I reduced the heat and put the chicken rolls into the wine sauce and let it simmer for about 7-10 minutes.


When ready to serve, remove the toothpicks and enjoy!!

This sounds complicated but it wasn't...the hardest part was learning to roll the chicken.

And the wine sauce is SO good that I can see using this on various chicken or fish dishes. It's simple to make and tastes so good!!

Try it out for yourself and see :-)

Chicken and Pasta - simple or not?

Well, I had 2 ingredients in front of me... chicken and pasta. I had to make dinner but wanted to do something different.

What I usually do in these situations is search the Internet to find a few chicken and pasta recipes, get some ideas and then make my own dish.

I found people using chicken broth, cream cheese, spinach, tomatoes, cream soups, etc. I wanted to shy away from the cream soups...generally they are a little fattier and my husband isn't a huge fan (yes, the super skinny one). But the chicken broth and light cream cheese intrigued me. I've never mixed those two ingredients together before. So here is what I made with some other stuff I had lying around my house...

Ingredients:
1 package of chicken tenderloin strips (roughly a pound)
pasta
1 can chicken broth
3/4 package light cream cheese bar
frozen spinach from Trader Joes
frozen shelled edamame from Trader Joes
Italian seasoning
Crushed red pepper flakes
Parmesan cheese as a garnish
a dash of salt

I'm not going to tell you how much pasta to cook. That's your choice. I made enough for 4 servings - dinner and then leftovers.

I poured the chicken broth into a skillet over medium heat and dropped in the tenderloin strips. After about 8 minutes, I dropped in the frozen spinach and edamame. Sure, you can thaw these 2 things and drain them, but I was lazy and needed to cook fast. Then I sprinkled a dash of sea salt over the mixture.

I placed the top of the skillet on and let everything simmer for probably another 8 minutes on medium heat. While that was simmering, I cubed the cream cheese. Once cubed and the spinach looked un-frozen and warm, I stirred in the cream cheese until everything was a nice light green creamy color. I then sprinkled in some Italian seasonings and crushed red pepper flakes and stirred. Top of the skillet went back on and I let everything cook till hot.

When everything was ready, I placed the pasta (I decided to use elbows) into bowls and topped it with the sauce, spinach, edamame and chicken. A sprinkle of shredded Parmesan cheese finished off the dish.

The whole process probably took me about a half hour. Not bad, and I could see preparing this the night before and then popping it in the microwave right after work. My husband said he really enjoyed the dish and I did as well. Good creation, one that will go in our cookbook!