Just Make Stuff

Cheesy Chicken and Rice

I make a lot of recipes ahead of time on the weekend. However, if I have an hour on a weeknight, this is super easy to pull together in one pot. 

Cheesy Chicken & Rice

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts 
• Sea Salt
• Olive Oil
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1/2 onion; diced
• 2 cloves of garlic; minced
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 2 teaspoons chicken Better than Bouillon
• 1 cup rice
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 bag frozen vegetables (I often use more and sometimes the whole bag)
• 1 cup shredded cheese (I use the lite three cheese blend from Trader Joe's)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Preheat an oven-safe pan on the stove with a little olive oil. Take chicken breasts, and lay them in a piece of plastic wrap to cover the chicken. Pound the chicken out, just a little, to a uniform thickness. Remove plastic wrap, salt generously and place all three in the pan to brown. Once browned on both sides (just a couple minutes), take chicken out and let it rest on a plate.

Add butter to the warm pan and saute both the onion and garlic until cooked through. Turn the heat on high to get the pan hot as you pour 1 3/4 cups of the chicken stock (reserving a 1/4 cup), stirring to loosen all the bits of browning in the pan. When the stock is simmering, add the Better than Bouillon and stir in. Add rice, milk and frozen vegetables. Return the chicken to the mixture in the pan, cover with the pan lid, and place in the oven for 20 minutes. 

Take the pan out of the oven, add a drizzle of chicken stock if the rice looks dry. You want the rice to look a slightly too moist. Shred the chicken in the pan, stir the mixture and top with shredded cheese. Return the pan to the oven, uncovered, for an additional few minutes (5 to 7) until you see the cheese has lightly browned. Remove from oven and serve immediately.

You can also make this a little lower carb by reducing the rice to 3/4 of cup with then 1 cup of broth with a half cup of milk.

Brown Sugar Dijon Grilled Chicken...

I present to you, yet again, proof that I am the worst food blogger ever. I should have styled a plate or something to create a "pinnable" image of this recipe I concocted over the weekend, but  I decided to snap a photo with my phone and sit down to eat it right away instead. Therefore this chicken might not look like much, but it was surprisingly good.

Brown Sugar Dijon Grilled Chicken

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts; pounded thin
• 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
• 3 garlic cloves, smashed
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper

Flatten the chicken breasts between two layers of plastic wrap. Combine the remaining ingredients, adding as much salt and/or pepper as desired, in a shallow baking dish. Place the chicken in the dish making sure to cover both sides in the mixture. Marinade in the refrigerator for at least three hours. Grill the chicken over low flame until it is cooked through.

This is a small recipe since two chicken breasts will easily feed the three of us dinner, so you can always double or triple the amount. I served the chicken with homegrown, sauteed summer squash with grated parmesan cheese, fresh corn cut off the cob and sauteed in a little butter and we tried this rice dish...which turned out to be really, really good.

Meatloaf Muffins...

This photo is just another example of how I will not be leaving my day job to become a food blogger anytime soon, not that meatloaf is the most photogenic food anyway. It tastes good and that is all that really matters. 

These are basically giant meatballs, but they cook up much faster and have more of that delicious meatloaf crust. The very best part though is the sauce. The sauce recipe comes from an old Chicago high school fundraising cookbook my mom has had forever. 

Ingredients:

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup onion; grated and drained of excess liquid
• 4 garlic cloves; grated
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
• pinch of salt

Sauce Ingredients

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard

Instructions:

Mix together all ingredients and roll into large balls. You can get somewhere between 9 and 12 muffins per pound of meat. Place in a muffin tin sprayed well with cooking spray.

Mix together ingredients for sauce. Put half of the sauce aside to use as an additional topping for the cooked meatloaf. Use the remaining sauce to generously brush onto the meatloaf muffins. These are better when made a few hours ahead and the flavors have a little time to meld. Cook in a 375 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes.

Barbecue Beer Chicken Quesadillas with Gorgonzola and Pineapple

On Sunday night I mentioned having the ingredients prepped to make some sort of dinner resembling this barbecue chicken and pineapple quesadilla recipe. I took the basic idea, but I cooked the chicken up in the crock-pot using something kind of like this crock pot barbecue chicken recipe. Then I decided to add gorgonzola since it's one of my favorite pizzas that we have been eating for a couple years now. Combining a bunch of recipes to make your own concoction is my absolute favorite part of cooking. We have had these for the last two nights and I am officially obsessed. There are a few extra steps to this recipe, but if you make them up in advance it's quick and easy to assemble the quesadillas in between school, meetings, tutoring, coaching, tumbling class and lesson planning.

Barbecue Beer Chicken Quesadillas with Gorgonzola and Pineapple

• 3 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Onion Powder
• Garlic Powder
• Bottle of BBQ Sauce (Garland Jack's Secret Six Sweet Brown Sugar BBQ Sauce)
• 1 bottle beer (Sam Adams Boston Lager)
• Flour Tortillas (Tortilla Land uncooked tortillas from Costco)
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 can pineapple tidbits
• 1/2 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese
• 2 cups shredded cheese (Trader Joe's lite three cheese blend) 

Place chicken in crock pot (we used three breasts), sprinkle generously with onion and garlic powder, pour about 1 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce over the chicken and then pour the beer on top. Cook on low for eight hours. When the chicken is done cooking you shred it all up to use immediately or put it away in the fridge for later. Make sure to drain the pineapple tibits very well to prep for assembling the quesadillas.

Saute onion in a little butter until soft. Place shredded chicken in a saute pan with another 1/2 cup of barbecue sauce to heat it all up. Cook up tortillas or place pre-cooked tortilla on a hot pan with a tiny pat of butter. On half the tortilla sprinkle the chopped onion, well-drained pineapple tidbits, a light sprinkle of gorgonzola cheese, the barbecue chicken and a pile of shredded cheese. Fold the tortilla in half and toast up on both sides. Cut the quesadilla into pieces and dig in.

Honey Lemon Shrimp...

Sean and I went to a cooking demonstration this weekend and learned about grilling shrimp on a Himalayan salt slab. We immediately bought the slab and went in search of shrimp for tonight's dinner. I just decided I actually like shrimp a couple of months ago, so I was eager to figure out how to cook it. I took the recipe from the class, made a couple of adjustments, and found my new favorite dinner.

Honey Lemon Shrimp

3 tablespoons butter

1 small shallot, peeled and finely minced

2 medium garlic cloves, peeled and finely minced

4 tablespoons honey

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 pound large shrimp, cleaned

Sea salt, as needed

In a small saucepan melt butter over medium heat. Add shallot and garlic and cook until softened, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the honey and lemon juice and stir to combine. Taste and season with salt as needed. Pour half the sauce into a small bowl to brush onto the shrimp and leave the remaining sauce in the pan to toss the shrimp when they are finished cooking. 

Heat a grill or saute pan coated with a little olive oil. Place shrimp in the hot pan and brush with the honey lemon sauce. Cook until lightly browned, about 2 to 3 minutes. Using tongs, turn shrimp, brush again with the sauce and continue cooking until the center is slightly opaque, about 2 to 3 minutes more. When the shrimp are done cooking place them in the pan with the sauce to toss them and keep them warm. Serve immediately.

Pineapple Marinated Grilled Chicken...

Sean and I had a mutual friend in college and his mom made amazing, marinated grilled chicken. We have used this recipe countless times over the years and call it Mrs. Benanti's chicken. This is one of Mac's favorites except he once mistakenly called it "Ben Menanchi's Chicken" and the name stuck. We grilled this up for one of the cheerleading team dinners we hosted last fall and I figured calling it Ben Menanchi's Chicken wouldn't make much sense so instead I went this...

Pinapple Marinated Grilled Chicken

• Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
• Italian Dressing...I've always used Wishbone
• Teriyaki Marinade...I get a generic pineapple teriyaki
• Pineapple Juice...usually the little cans that come in a six pack since you don't need that much
• Minced Garlic...for marinades I just use the stuff in a jar packed in oil, but you could always smash some fresh garlic cloves

The ratios are relatively equal for the dressing, teriyaki and pineapple juice and then somewhere between a heaping teaspoon and tablespoon of garlic.

If I were making six boneless, skinless chicken breasts I would probably use a little less than half of a small bottle of dressing, half a bottle of teriyaki and one can of pineapple juice with a couple teaspoons of garlic. Marinating it over night is absolutely necessary and then grill it carefully since it can burn easily.

Honey Balsamic Marinade

I know it's getting close to the end of grilling season for many of you, but that won't be the case for awhile here in Southern California. Over the summer, when we had a meat waiting to be barbecued, I tossed together these ingredients and discovered it makes for some pretty tasty grilled steak. This is my recipe, so please keep in mind all measurements are my best estimate...I'm the worst at keeping track.

Honey Garlic Marinade

Ingredients:

Top Sirloin Steak or desired cut of beef; one pound 

Honey; 3 tablespoons

Balsamic Vinegar; 4 tablespoons

Soy Sauce; 4 tablespoons

Worcestershire Sauce; 4 tablespoons

4 garlic cloves; minced (or 2 tablespoons from a jar of garlic)

Dijon mustard; 3 tablespoons

Instructions:

Place meat into a zip lock bag and add marinade ingredients. Marinade for several hours or over night in the refridgerator and then it's all ready to barbecue.

Beef Burgundy

This is an old photo of a dinner party I had a couple of years ago and Beef Burgundy is on the plate...you're not missing anything by not seeing it up close since it's not the most attractive looking food you'll ever make, but it's SO delicious you won't care what it looks like.

This beef burgundy recipe is one of my very favorites from my mom. You just throw together the five ingredients and wait three long hours as your house is filled with an amazing aroma that makes you just about want to crawl into the oven and start eating.

Beef Burgundy

Ingredients:

2 pounds of stew beef cut up into small pieces
1 can of Cream of Mushroom soup
1/2 a soup can of water
2/3 cup of Burgundy Wine
package of Lipton Onion Soup Mix

Instructions:

Mix together all the ingredients in a 2 quart casserole and cook in and oven for three hours at 325 degrees.

Serve over rice or noodles.

Hamburger Chop Suey

This is one of those recipes my mom would make for us growing up...quick and good.  I substitute beef broth for the 2 cups of water to give it more flavor...oh and I try to get it all made and then let it simmer for the 20 minutes the rice takes to cook so that it's more flavorful too.

 

1 pound ground beef

1 onion chopped

1/2 cup celery

1 tsp beef bullion

2 cup hot water

1/4 cup cold water

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp corn starch

8 oz can sliced water chestnuts

4 c cooked rice

 

Brown beef in skillet with onion and celery. Drain the beef and vegetables of all the fat. Add bullion to hot water or broth and pour into the skillet. Boil then reduce heat.  Drain the can of water chestnuts and add to the skillet. Mix cold water, corn starch and soy sauce together and stir into skillet.  Simmer as it thickens for twenty minutes.