Saturday, September 14, 2013

My Yummy in Your Tummy: A Steaming Bowl of Tortilla Soup!

My Yummy in Your Tummy: A Steaming Bowl of Tortilla Soup!: Well, it's been a while. So sorry. I have been busy cooking and eating and baking and eating and eating and eating and cooking and eatin...

My Yummy in Your Tummy: Best Corn Chowdah Evah!!

My Yummy in Your Tummy: Best Corn Chowdah Evah!!: It's hard to believe that I have not shared a recipe for far too many months now. I could tell you I have been busy cooking, but it'...

My Yummy in Your Tummy: Fabulous fajitas!

My Yummy in Your Tummy: Fabulous fajitas!: With a 4th little monkey added to the mix these days, dinner has to be fast (and possibly made while baby-wearing!) while still healthy and ...

My Yummy in Your Tummy: Simplest Salmon

My Yummy in Your Tummy: Simplest Salmon: I am getting better at making dinners that can be cooked easily and quickly while baby-wearing little D! Yesterday I went to the grocery sto...

My Yummy in Your Tummy: Garlicky Gingery Green Beans

My Yummy in Your Tummy: Garlicky Gingery Green Beans: This super simple, healthy and yummy side dish sure has a lot of Gs! This would go great with any main dish and takes less than 15 minutes t...

My Yummy in Your Tummy: Love me some lemon chicken

My Yummy in Your Tummy: Love me some lemon chicken: As I was preparing my menu for our pre-fast dinner on Erev Yom Kippur/Kol Nidre, I wanted something light, filling and yummy. Oh, and it had...

Garlicky Gingery Green Beans

This super simple, healthy and yummy side dish sure has a lot of Gs! This would go great with any main dish and takes less than 15 minutes to prepare from start to finish. Luckily my kids love every vegetable, and I would say that green beans (string beans) are one of their favorites but yet they also love broccoli, Brussels sprouts, snap peas, cauliflower, peas...yep, pretty much every veggie! Sometimes we just steam string beans or eat them raw, but this is a really great way to dress these up and make a good side dish.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 lbs string beans, cleaned and trimmed (can be made with any amount of beans, just adjust seasonings)
  • 1-2 tablespoons EVOO
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced or grated
  • kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
DIRECTIONS:
  • Bring 8 cups/2 quarts of water to a boil in a skillet
  • While water is coming to a boil, prepare an ice bath by filling a large bowl with ice and water
  • When water comes to a boil, add the beans and blanch for 3-4 minutes
  • Remove from water and immediately place beans into the ice bath, which will shock them and stop the cooking process, keeping them bright green and crunchy
  • Drain beans in a colander
  • At this point, you can go to step 2 of the recipe or you can prepare them up to 3 days in advance and keep them in a Ziploc bag in the fridge until ready to use
  • Warm olive oil in a large skillet, add garlic and saute 1 minutes, but don't brown garlic
  • Add ginger to pan and cook another minute
  • Add the beans, season with salt and pepper, and saute for a few more minutes. If you like them very well done then continue to cook until desired tenderness
Eat and enjoy! 

Love me some lemon chicken

As I was preparing my menu for our pre-fast dinner on Erev Yom Kippur/Kol Nidre, I wanted something light, filling and yummy. Oh, and it had to go well with Mimi's kasha varnishkas (kasha and bowties for any non-Eastern Europeans!!) My mom has made a version of Ina Garten's Lemon Chicken (http://m.foodnetwork.com/recipes/535857) many times, and I like it but wanted to make it my own. I didn't have boneless breasts with skin, I don't like oregano, I don't have time to zest and I wanted a stronger lemon flavor! So I made my version of this dish and it was SO yummy! I used boneless/skinless breasts and boneless/skinless thighs and it came out so great. It also reheated well, as I prepared it earlier in the day then just left it covered on the stove until it was time to reheat and serve for dinner. Oh, and it did go great with the kasha afterall, as well as garlicky gingery string beans, strawberry applesauce, brisket, and homemade challah. Hope you have as yummy of an experience as we did!

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 lbs boneless skinless breasts
  • 2 lbs bonless skinless thighs (or any combination of one or the other)
  • 1/2 cup EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) plus more for browning chicken
  • 2/3 cup dry white wine (I used a cheap chardonnay but use what you like to drink or have open)
  • 9 cloves of garlic, minced or grated
  • 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (hold the seeds!)
  • 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves, chopped (hold stems and strip leaves off backwards-great trick!)
  • kosher salt (it's all I use)
  • black pepper
  • 1 lemon


DIRECTIONS:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Heat 2-3 tablespoons of EVOO (separate from the 1/2 cup) in a large skillet. Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper and add to skillet. Brown on one side about 5 minutes or until a nice golden color develops, then flip the pieces over and brown on the other side. If your skillet is not big enough to do all the chicken in a single layer then separate into 2 batches so the chicken has room to brown-you don't want it to steam. You are not cooking the chicken here, just want to brown it to seal in juices and give nice color to chicken, otherwise chicken will be too "white" in the finished dish." Remove chicken and set on cookie sheet.
  • Combine EVOO, wine, garlic, lemon juice, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a glass bowl and whisk well.
  • Add chicken pieces to a large baking dish and pour the sauce over the chicken.
  • Cut the lemon into 8 wedges and place among the chicken pieces.
  • Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes or until chicken is done. Serve hot or reheats beautifully, just let cool then cover and reheat when ready to serve. The sauce would be delish over egg noodles, rice, potatoes, kasha varnishkas (yummy!)...
Eat and enjoy!