Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Tonight was Menu Planning night for the week. But instead of going to the grocery store after the girls were in bed, I took an opportunity to go before dinner. But I didn't have anything planned or prepped and I walked in the house with all the groceries with t-minus 30 minutes until our very prompt 5:30 dinner. I walked in, popped 4 potatoes in our convection oven, quickly put away the groceries with hubby and whipped together a fast cheesy bechamel sauce to make this fast and tasty dinner.
-Amanda

Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli stuffed Potatoes

4 baking potatoes
3 slices of bacon
2 tbsp flour
1.5 cups of milk
3-4 oz cheese
1 cup frozen broccoli
1 cup shredded leftover chicken

Bake your potatoes in a convection oven at 400 for 35 minutes (yeah, dinner was a bit late tonight.) Or you can microwave them. A regular oven you'd probably have to add another 10 minutes to the baking time.

Cut up bacon into thin strips and cook it in a small pot over medium high heat. Stir frequently until crispy. Remove the bacon but leave the grease. You need about 3 tbsp of grease, if you don't have enough add some butter or other oil. Sprinkle in flour and whisk for a few minutes. Add milk and continue to whisk until sauce starts to thicken. Add shredded cheese. Stir until cheese is melted and remove from heat. Steam broccoli in another pot or in the microwave. In a small bowl, add shredded chicken, broccoli and enough cheese sauce to coat. Reserve the rest of the cheese sauce to pour on top of potatoes. Cut potatoes open, dallop with butter and salt. Smoosh in cheesy chicken broccoli. Pour extra sauce on top and then sprinkle reserved bacon. Enjoy!

Easy Roast Chicken

Best ever Roast Chicken. Juicy and succulent. This is a free range chicken and they are known for being a bit more tough than the poor little chickens that don't get any exercise. But if you cook them low and slow, they are moist and perfect. I got this recipe from Nourished Kitchen, and I've made it several times. I never have slowed down to take a photo though because we all devour it so quickly! Since it takes a few hours to cook, your house smells heavenly. I don't take the time to truss up my chicken, so it doesn't look as fancy. This time I seasoned it with butter, orange and rosemary (and salt and pepper). In the past I've just done butter, salt and pepper and it's been super good too.
-Amanda

Easy Roast Chicken

1 Free Range Chicken
few tbsp of butter
salt and pepper
any other seasonings you want

Wash up your chicken and pat it dry. Smear butter all over and under the skin between the skin and breast meat. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper and any other seasonings you want. I cook mine in a stonewear casserole pan with a lid, I think the stonewear keeps an even temperature. Eitherway, make sure you have a lid or at the minimum foil. Cover and cook for 3 hours at 275 degrees. Low and SLOW. Then uncover and cook at 375 for 30-45 minutes to get the browned affect. Delicious! 

What's for Dinner at my house: Coconut Lime Shrimp

This was a sort of strange dish I concocted. It did not get raving reviews from the family so I won't post the recipe. Everyone did eat it though, even while sort of complaining about it. I actually liked it and went back for seconds. Basically I sauted some shrimp, red bell pepper and garlic and set it aside. Then I mixed part of a can of coconut milk, lime juice, chicken stock, a bit of fish sauce and arrowroot and simmered until thick. Then I added chopped and steamed cauliflower and the shrimp back in. It looked like shrimp and grits, but had a coconut-lime flavor. Anyway, it's what we had for dinner, I guess they can't all be winners!
-Amanda

Grain Free BLT

 

For me, a BLT (Bacon, Lettuce & Tomato) Sandwich is comfort food. Of course, since I usually don't like tomatoes, I'd normally just fix me a BL. But I do like cooked tomatoes, so today when making this sandwich, I took the time to grill some cherry tomatoes while the bacon was cooking. Using homemade "bread" and homemade mayo made with healthy fats makes this a pretty awesome, nutrient dense sandwich!  For the bread, I borrowed the Paleo Bread recipe from Elana's Pantry, but instead of cooking it up as a loaf, I made savory pancakes out of it. They came out so delicious!

-Amanda

Paleo (Grain Free) Pancake Bread

1 ½ cups almond flour
2 tablespoons coconut flour
¼ cup golden flaxseed meal
¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
5 eggs
¼ cup coconut oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Mix the almond flower, coconut flower, flaxseed meal, salt and baking soda together. Melt coconut oil, if your oil is solid and whisk it together with the eggs, honey and apple cider vinegar in a second bowl. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry. Ladle about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of batter on a medium heat griddle. I found I need to smoosh the batter down a bit with my ladle and even finger tips, because it was pretty thick. When the first side sets, flip over and cook the second side. Let cool on a cooling rack and store in a zip bag in your fridge.

Fried "Rice"

I'm so funny about carbs lately. One day they are fine and the next I'm all about eliminating them. Overall, I'm definitely trying to reduce the amount of carbs, especially grains. The more I read about wheat the more concerned I get. The wheat we eat today is not the same wheat our great grandparents ate. It physically is a different plant not by natural selection, but by genetically modifying the plant to something a lot of people think is not truly digestible for humans. And as for other grains, like rice, I hear conflicting things about too! Only eat brown rice, wait! Too much phytic acid, white rice is actually better. But white rice is more processed, eat brown! And back and forth. Anyway, all this is to say, that I am trying to make more recipes that are grain free, and this is my latest addition.

Using a trick I've read about here and there on the internet I decided to try a "rice" replacement, you take cauliflower and pulse it in your food processor raw until it makes small rice sized pieces. Then you steam it and use it in place of rice. Everyone in the family ate this meal last night, it was really good! And I did not taste a strong cauliflower presence. While I'm not a huge fan of substituting an ingredient, using a whole food like this didn't bother me. The meal may or may not feel like Fried Rice to you, but it was still a good bowl of American-Asian flavored vegetables and ham!
-Amanda

Fried "Rice"

1 large head of cauliflower
1 tsp soy sauce
2 carrots
1 cup of peas
1/2 cup bean sprouts
5-6 button mushrooms
4-5 oz ham
2 eggs
2 green onions
2 tbsp lard
1 tbsp butter

sauce:

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 freshly grated garlic clove
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp fish sauce
2 tbsp arrowroot powder

Pulse cauliflower in a food processor until you get rice sized crumbles. I found doing 1/3-1/2 of the head at a time gets the best results. Place in a bowl and put a pat of butter and a 1 tsp soy sauce. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 2-3 minutes. Set aside.

In a large skillet, heat lard. Chop carrots to bite size pieces and start cooking them in the skillet on med-high heat. Add mushrooms, peas, bean sprouts and ham. Beat eggs with a tbsp of water and  pour them in a smaller non-stick skillet on high heat. You don't want them to scramble, but make more like an egg pancake. When it starts to brown, flip it over. Remove from heat to a cutting board and cut into strips. Reserve.

Mix together sauce in a small bowl with a whisk. Taste and adjust to your preferences. Add steamed cauliflower to vegetables and add the sauce. Pour sauce over vegetables and stir gently until thickens. Add eggs and mix together. Last add chopped green onions.

This post is linked using The Healthy Home Economist Monday Mania.

What's for Dinner Tonight: White Bean Chicken Chili

Friday night I made some homemade tortillas and reserved some for today. Sunday night I sat my beans out to soak. Monday I cooked the beans, put some in the refrigerator for this recipe and then I stored the rest away in the freezer for future meals. This afternoon I'm making a roasted salsa for tonight's meal and I'll ferment some for a Taco Salad meal later in the week. But for dinner tonight, with a bunch of thought and love put together, I'm making a White Bean and Chicken Chili.

Easy Cheese Bacon Chicken

File this recipe/idea under easy, fast and tasty! It was perfect for tonight where I didn't want to do anything super complicated. Took less than 10 minutes to assemble and then it cooked in the toaster oven for another 20 minutes, not even having to heat up the entire house with my big oven. Win/win!
-Amanda

Easy Cheesy Bacon Chicken

Chicken tenders (or chicken breasts cut into thin strips)
1 piece of bacon per chicken
1 slice of cheese (I used colby jack) per chicken
avocado

Salt and pepper each chicken breast. Wrap with bacon and place in a very hot skillet for about 3 minutes per side. If you are using an oven proof skillet, top each chicken with cheese and place in the oven to cook all the way through and cheese gets bubbly and browned at 350 for 20 minutes. I transferred my chicken to a small brownie pan (one layer of chicken) and cooked it in my toaster oven for the same heat and time. Serve with sliced avocado and homemade ranch dressing to dip!