Adventures in Cooking - Sauteed Chicken w/Roasted Lemons and Wilted Spinach

Today was the latest installment of Adventures in Cooking, with a recipe I picked up from the WineInsiders.com Facebook page.  It sounded good, so I thought I would give it a shot today, with a few tweaks of course!

The recipe link above called for capers and olives.  Now I don't like olives, and I didn't feel like capers tonight, so I skipped both.  I had chicken tenders (as opposed to breasts) handy, so I used those instead.  With three eaters, two packs almost disappeared quickly!  I used gluten free bread crumbs in the part when called for, and they didn't toast up very well, but still did ok.  I also used the bread crumbs instead of flour on the chicken.  Since I did a double pack of the tenders, I used the whole can of chicken broth, which was about a cup and a half in all.  Otherwise, I pretty much just followed the recipe.  I think it took closer to 45 minutes as I did it, but that was still pretty close to the time called for. I will say it made the kitchen pretty darn smoky...I think it was the toasting of the bread crumbs, but let's just say it's a good thing it was nice enough to have the windows open!

Leftovers were at a minimum, so I took that as a sign of approval!  I'd make this again, especially as we're moving into the warmer weather, as it had a nice light flavor and sauce.  Paired with the spinach and wild rice, this one is chalked up as a success!

Adventures in Cooking - Asparagus, Chicken & Pasta

It's been a while since I've done an Adventure in Cooking, sticking to the old standbys lately (aka I've been lazy).  The last two nights though, I've stepped outside the box.  Last night I did our family version of Swiss steak (which if anyone is interested is easy as pie) and tonight I decided to tackle a new recipe I got via email today: Asparagus, Chicken and Pecan Pasta (sans Pecans). 

What you see above is what's left after dinner tonight...so it makes a good amount (and I only used 8 oz of pasta vs the 16oz it called for!).  I did a few "tweaks" to work with what we had in the house...two roasted red peppers instead of a red pepper, gluten free quinoa rotelle pasta instead of penne, some celery, no pecans, and a blend of shredded pizza cheese & mozzarella because I was out of Parmesan.  I browned up about 14 oz of Bare Chicken tenders (love that brand), followed the rest of the recipe, and ended up with a fairly quick, but very good, dinner! 

Tonight's adventure has me thinking I need to do these more often.  Lately all we eat are variations of stir fry, risotto, roast and soup/grilled cheese.  Luckily, we both really like all of these, but every once in a while, some variety is a good thing.  These adventures should also be a good chance for me to find some recipes that go along with my goal of doing at least one meatless dinner a week (seafood isn't considered meat for this).  I have to start watching my cholesterol (I shouldn't be old enough for that) and I figure one meatless night a week will help with that!

A Gluten-Free Thanksgiving

The holidays are always challenging fir me when it comes to food...generally involving failed attempts not to overeat each meal.  However, since I've had to start watching/avoiding my gluten intake, holidays pose an additional challenge.  With that in mind, I owe a big thanks to my friend Amanda over at Stitch to Stitch, who directed me over to The Thrifty Mama who had a link to a helpful guide for the upcoming holidays.  There I found a coupon code for a free download of the ebook: Jules' Gluten Free Thanksgiving. 

It's a book, it's free, and it'll help with a gluten free holiday...what more can you ask for!?  Even if you yourself aren't gluten-free, your friends or family may have this on their do-not-eat list.  The book provides lots of recipes and ideas for the holiday meal (and surrounding meals) that provide options for all.  Check it out here and use the coupon code "thanks10" through October 14 to download your free copy.

Adventures in Cooking - Quinoa Salad and Salmon Patties

Tonight was an adventure in cooking, the first I've done in a while.  I have issues with gluten, and for a while now I've been wanting to try a Quinoa salad, a gluten-free grain.  Quinoa is a small grain, similar in some ways to cous cous, but it's gluten-free,   Except for not giving myself quite enough time, it turned out really well, and was really simple.

The Quinoa salad was essentially just Quinoa, prepared as directed, and vegetables.  While it was cooking, I sauteed up some broccoli and chopped carrots with a bit of Mrs. Dash lemon pepper seasoning.  Once done, I let all these cool for a bit and dumped them in a bowl and put in the refridgerator.  While cooling, I boiled up an ear of sweet corn, which I cut off the cob and added to the salad.  After about 15 minutes, I added some tomato-basil feta cheese to the salad, a dash of olive oil and some Kraft Olive Oil & Parmesan salad dressing (to taste).  Served over a leaf of Romaine lettuce, it turned out to be really good, and nice and cool on a hot summer night.

With the salad tonight we added a Chipotle Salmon Pattie that I'd picked up at Hy-Vee.  They were ok, and a good complement to a healthy meal, but I think for the leftover salad I'm going to saute up some shrimp and add them to the salad for a one dish meal.  This was definitely one adventure in cooking I plan to repeat.