Bruschetta Chicken Piccata

So two of my favorite dishes are blended together in this Recipe: Chicken Piccata and Bruschetta. The picture above shows the tomatoes I used, which were a mix of heirloom and some from coworkers (which means I have no idea what type they are). I was amazed by the flavor of the heirloom tomatoes, they are amazing! I also used two cloves of garlic and some basil from a coworker.

I took all of the tomatoes, washed, seeded, and chopped them. Then I chopped the basil, minced two cloves of garlic, and added about a tablespoon of salt. Afterwards I mixed all the ingredients and let them sit in the fridge so the flavors could marinate.

As they marinated, I used two tablespoons of the "dressing" leftover from Friday as a base to cook the chicken in on medium high

Then I baked the  chicken in a preheated oven at 350 with 1 cup of white wine, 1/2 squeezed lemon, 1/2 tbsp of lemon zest, 1 cup of chicken broth, and 1 tablespoon of the leftover oil

oh. yeah.

I also made green beans, which looked good after I had blanched them and stir fried them in a little bit of the oil, but they weren't very good :(

They weren't exactly the freshest and I thought I could still use them, but alas, they were no good.

So back to the chicken, I baked it on 350 for 25-30 minutes or until white, then I topped them with the bruschetta topping.

It was amazing! It was a small dinner because I didn't make pasta with it, but it was a small healthy dinner that I greatly enjoyed!

Arroz Con Cheating

So for my birthday my mother purchased some seasonings and things from Williams Sonoma for me. One of which was an Arroz con Pollo Starter. Since I had a wonderful friend visiting from Charleston, South Carolina for the weekend, I decided to cook dinner one night for her and a few amazing friends.

The issue was, it was over 100 degrees outside and my kitchen is far from our AC Unit. So I decided to cheat so I could avoid the hot kitchen as much as possible. So after a long visit at my local farmer's market, I brought (among other things) some serious fruit, a wonderful small loaf of zucchini chocolate chip bread, and some goat cheese. This way, I could have a couple cold dishes, and one hot dish that wouldn't require me to be standing in the kitchen for a long period of time.

Thus creating the night's menu.
Dinner:
- Salad
- Arroz Con Pollo
- Fresh fruit & zucchini chocolate chip bread for dessert

Round One: Salad

The salad was somewhat basic, made up of organic romaine lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, and red onions. I added one medallion of goat cheese which seemed more than enough for this salad. I also made a light oil/garlic dressing. It is very garlicky, so if you prefer a less pungent garlic flavor, feel free to cut the amount of garlic in half.

Salad Dressing:
-1/4th cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves of minced garlic
- 1/2 tablespoon of sea salt
- 2 teaspoons for Penzey's Tuscan Sunset dressingg

Directions:
- put all ingredients in a microwaveable bowl (yes, I said it)
- microwave on medium for 20-30 seconds, to ensure that all of the flavors will marry
- let it cool to room temperature

Now for about 2 cups of salad, I put about 2 teaspoons of dressing on top. This makes the salad very light, yet flavorful.

Now I have a lot of dressing left over, which is fine because I will be using it later for a different version of bruschetta.


Round Two: Arroz Con Pollo (Williams Sonoma Style)

For the first time in easily two years, I followed (almost) every direction for this recipe. I also decided to shred the chicken instead of serve it in pieces on top of the rice.

 I did it according to oven directions which were hard to find (they were on the top of the can, but you had to peel them off)
Directions:
 -Preheat oven to 350
-Take one 3-4lb chicken, cut up into eight peices (well, i used 4 pounds of split chicken breasts)
- brown in 1tbsp olive oil then remove from pan.
-Add 1 cup of long grain rice, cook for two minutes on medium high.
- Add Arroz Con Pollo starter , 1.5 cups of chicken broth
- cook for two minutes
- Add chicken
- place in oven for 20-30 minutes, then add 2 cups of frozen peas (didn't actually do that either)
- cook for another 15 minutes
- serve immediately (or, do it my way, which was to peel chicken off the bones, remove skin, and shred the chicken. Then serve)

It was really good, but it was one of those meals where I felt as if I could have made the same starter with a can of tomatoes and extra garlic. And a lot less oil. Seriously Williams Sonoma, gourmet does not mean I have to feel Ginormous afterwards.

Round Three: Fruit Salad & Zucchini Bread
Honestly, I cut all the fruit first because I like my fruit salad freezing cold. I just added things I found in my fridge and in a couple cans to make the salad as colorful as possible.
Directions:
- 1/4th Watermelon, cut from rind and cut in 1 inch pieces
- 1 can organic pineapples, drained (Greedy Cook's Tip: keep the juice for yourself!)
- 1 can organic mandarin oranges, drained (keep the juice for a delicious, well, juice!)
- 1/2 honeydew, cut from rind and cut in one inch pieces
- 1/4th cup of fresh mixed berries (strawberries and blueberries were in mine)

I don't hate on canned fruit, Especially those Mandarin Oranges!

Without the canned fruit, my salad would look like this

Bam! Now that is some serious color! And deliciousness, I might add.

So mix all the ingredients and keep cold until ready to serve. Once everyone finished a small fruit salad bowl, I came out for one more treat:

Yes it was delicious. I always buy a small loaf of bread from the farmer's market because, well, I am horrible at baking. I have so many stories of how I begin to bake something and it will go terrible wrong. Cooking is an art, and Baking is a science. And oh my how I am horrible at science.





Hope you enjoyed my incredibly long post! And as for Williams Sonoma, you get three stars. Five for flavor, but negative two for having half of your "starter" made of oil.

Grilled Whole Wheat Bruschetta

Yesterday one of my coworkers left me with a bunch of delicious basil (since I myself have killed every basil plant I've ever tried to grow) and another coworker left an entire bin of roma tomatoes at work for all of us to sift through. 

Since I had some organic whole wheat bread, I thought Bruschetta would be the perfect dinner after playing some racquetball with a friend and going on a short run to get ready for half-marathon training (which I am totally scared about for no reason!)

So I chopped up 

-three pounds of  seeded roma tomatoes

 -two cloves of garlic

-10 big basil leaves

And added half a tablespoon of salt for this

Then I took 

- 1/4th a loaf of whole wheat bread and cut the slices in half

and put them on a hot grill pan with olive oil spray

Then I grill each side for about two minutes on medium high

And top each with about a tablespoon of bruschetta mixture

Then I realized Adam had made me a small grass-fed steak the night before, which was perfect for thinly slicing and then topping under the second batch of bruschetta (hey, I was sharing with my Racquetball buddy)

According to Sparkpeople, one serving (which is half of each plate, because one serving is my whole dinner)

412 calories

11 grams of fat

and about one and a half servings of vegetables

Yum!

New Post, New me, Summer 2011

I know, I deleted all my previous posts. My plan is to start over. Let's not put my life on here. Instead, let's just put my first love: Food. We'll attempt healthy for the most part, but otherwise, just my recipies, just my food, and keep it simple.

I am going to be running and working out too. So I'll add more on here as that goes along, since I will be TRAINING FOR A HALF MARATHON! :)

So exciting!

Enjoy, friends and fellow bloggers.