Chicken and Rice

What a duo! You can make it any way you'd like. Tonight... I was bored and not really in the mood to cook. Thought I'd make brinner but didn't feel like waiting forever for the homefries to cook so... chicken it was. From a bag, too!

Yes, I use the frozen chicken breasts from the freezer isle most times. Only because I always forget to defrost the meat for dinner and around 6 o'clock, I'm going O.M.G.! lol

Tonight, I decided to make it simple and sweet and believe me, it was. Made some steak fries for my son and boyfriend (picky eaters) and cut the frozen chicken breasts into strips. Soaked in water to defrost a bit while the small amount of oil in the skillet heated up. Dredged in flour seasoned with salt and cooked until crispy and golden brown.

In the meantime, I whipped up some Jasmine rice and was thinking this was a little too boring. So I added a couple tablespoons of Oyster Sauce and Hoisin Sauce I had in the fridge to some chopped up pieces of chicken strips in the skillet, poured over my hot rice and well... it was deelish.

Couldn't keep a steady hand taking the pic because I was starving! :)



and now... to watch my housemate prepare Thanksgiving pies, cakes, and a ton of other treats and savory goods. ... all the while with a grrrreat attitude!

The great attitude:



don't worry, only one of those is for me lol

Dinner at Adrian's

Tonight, I took a shot at making some pork and beef meatballs and baking a cake from scratch. Well, I'm lying because I've made bunt cakes and cheesecakes and such but a cake cake, no.

Here's my meatballs with Mostaccioli pasta... topped with a homemade Ragu and Alfredo sauce.



My Meatball Recipe

2 tbsp olive oil
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork or italian sausage
1 large egg
1/2 c. plain bread crumbs
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp dry basil or freshly cut (or... 2 tbsp dry basil if you love it like I do!)
clean hands

Preheat oven to 400. Combine ingredients well. Shape 3 tbsp of meat into a ball and place on cookie sheet brushed with olive oil in rows. Bake at 400 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until juices run clear. Don't mess up like I did and over cook them by 15 minutes... you will be sorry! Serve with favorite pasta and marinara or white sauce. In this house, we love both! I'd tell ya my ragu recipe now but you'll have to wait. I'm tizzired.... and...

I'm lazy. I didn't make any steamed veggies or bread or nothing! Just pasta and meat! (sigh) It's not like I did a whole lot today besides sit here with a bunch of back pain. It didn't stop the craving for cake, however.

Having a craving for coconut, I found out that most everyone in the house liked coconut, too! Woohoo! There's a lot of people who don't like it. I only know because I made these awesome cupcakes for some coworkers several years ago and the ones topped with coconut were the only ones left!

Even so, I went for it. I nabbed this recipe from the Barefoot Contessa on Foodnetwork.com after reviewing a few recipes from Paula Deen, Alton Brown and The Neely's... this looked like what I wanted.

Coconut Cake

Well, it wasn't.

The whole family loved it but I thought that some of the reviews were right... it was just yellow cake with coconut on top! Yes, indeed. Next time, if there is a next time, I'll add coconut extract instead of almond. I guess for the time of night and the sweet tooth that was about to get ugly, it supressed the craving and terrifying outburst.

I think I'll try the Neely's coconut bunt cake next.

Here's the pictures from my attempt at the cake. I used my macro lens, available light and hand held it! I wish I had a prettier kitchen with better lighting. :)

White Lasagna

Well, I was in the mood for lasagna after my son came home with a Garfield book. You know, that cat loves lasagna. And I do, too as a matter of fact! However, some of my housemates aren't really into cooked tomatoes so I decided to go hunting for a white sauced recipe. After looking at a Rachel Ray recipe and another one I found on Cooks.com, I thought I might as well just make my own my own way, since I am the queen of alfredo sauce! And besides, both the Rachel Ray and Cooks.com recipes looked kinda grodilicious aka not so good. I figured since I make a killer alfredo sauce, I could do this!

Here's the official Adel recipe...this is super easy and it doesn't take too long to make. An hour total, once you get your groove. It was delicious, too! My roomie and I were all Mmm MM mmm MMMm mm the entire way through!

White Lasagna with Chicken and Baby Spinach



Did you know that you can make this out of all organic ingredients!? Oh yes, baby!
Also, if you choose to use low fat ricotta, knock yourself out! I won't judge you. :)

You will need...

9 lasagna noodles, cooked
3 chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
1 large bag of fresh baby spinach
1 tsp. fresh chopped or dry basil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 stick cold butter
2 cups fresh or pre-grated parmesean cheese
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
32 oz. ricotta cheese
salt and pepper
pinch of nutmeg
1 egg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

The Chicken Mix



9 lasagna noodles
3 chicken breasts, cut into pieces
1 large bag of baby spinach
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp. fresh chopped basil (or dry)
1 tbsp. olive oil

Get the water on the stove for the noodles while you're cutting your chicken, garlic and herbs. Heat a medium size skillet on medium. Add olive oil, allow to heat up for a few seconds. Add minced garlic to pan, sautee for about 30 seconds. Stir in chicken pieces and cook on medium/med-low heat for 10 minutes or until cooked through. Stir in baby spinach and basil. Allow to cook down for 2 minutes. Turn off skillet and set aside.

The Cheese Mix


32 oz. Ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup grated parmesean cheese
salt and pepper
pinch of nutmeg

In a bowl or mixer, combine cheeses, egg, nutmeg and a few dashes of salt and pepper. Ok, maybe a few more dashes of salt and pepper! Set aside and get ready to make some awesome alfredo sauce!

The Sauce


1 3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 stick unsalted butter COLD
1 c. grated parmesean cheese
salt and pepper to taste

This is my special alfredo sauce. Now that I've shared the recipe with you, I must kill you!

Ok, I won't but just know that it takes love to make this. You can't make this with hate. And you can't substitute a jar of alfredo sauce for this taste. It just doesn't cut it! That stuff is nasty anyway!

Don't mess up and buy the wrong parmesean (for spaghetti). This is the real deal here. You can grate it yourself or buy it prepared. If you have garlic salt and don't feel like mincing fresh garlic, it works great as a backup for seasoning the sauce.

Ok ok ok... here's how you make it.

Heat a medium sauce pan on medium. Take one tablespoon of the cold butter and melt in the pan, add minced garlic and sautee for just a moment, 30 seconds. Stir in the cold pint of whipping cream and allow to slowly heat. Once cream is a bit steamy, add the rest of the stick of butter to the pan and allow to melt on it's own. No need to stir. But keep an eye on it! Once the butter is melted, gradually whisk 1 cup of grated parmesean cheese and whisking quickly in between. The key to a good creamy sauce is to whisk until the cheese isn't visible any longer on the whisk! The sauce should be good and bubbly by now, so turn it down to low until ready to serve. If you find it's overflowing during cooking, turn it down just a tad or lift it up from the heat for a second. This stuff burns easily so look alive!

And now... putting this baby together!

In a 9x13 inch baking dish, spread a few tablespoons of sauce in the bottom of the pan, then layer 3 noodles across. Layer/Spread half of the ricotta cheese mix. Then add all of the chicken and spinach mixture, spread evenly, top with a bit of mozzarella cheese and drizzle 3 tablespoons of sauce. Layer another 3 noodles across, spread the remaining ricotta cheese and most, but not all of the rest of the parm and mozzarella. Layer 3 more noodles and top with 6 more table spoons of sauce and the last bit of parm and mozz. Save the remaining sauce (if any) for drizzling on top of the cut lasagna pieces for serving.

Now, bake this bad boy at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes or until hot, bubbly and screaming!

Allow to rest for 5 minutes before cutting. It's best to precut the pan for servings in case you have a bunch of knuckleheads living with you. Serve with a smile and don't forget to drizzle some alfredo sauce on it... that's If you didn't eat it all with a piece of bread while you were waiting for the lasagna to bake! haha!