Marinated Italian Garlic Chicken

Marinated Italian Garlic Chicken

1/2 cup Miracle Whip Salad Dressing (Regular or Light)

1/2 cup Italian Dressing

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. ground cayenne or red pepper

Will easily marinate ~6 chicken breasts. 

Grill as usual

The Professional

Amatuer hour is over. Brought in the big guns this weekend to show me how its done, and a quick guest blog.

MAMA! says -

Pops and I had the pleasure of helping Alex move into his new apartment in Atlanta where he will also be starting his “big boy” job soon as a Structural Engineer. And we all say YAY! As everyone knows, moving can work up quite an appetite and can also leave you with food in the pantry and refrigerator that you don’t know what to do with. My mama always taught me never to be wasteful and boy has that stuck with me. Because of that, I love to see what I can throw together with things on hand. So, that was my mission…to use up the leftovers. And this is easy to do, especially with pasta. Really. Read on and see what I came up with.

First of all, here are all the ingredients I used.

I cut up 3 chicken breasts that were left in the freezer.

I sliced a green pepper and cut grape tomatoes in half. I must confess these items I picked up at the grocery store.

Then, I began cooking the chicken in some olive oil and garlic in a skillet and sprinkled some oregano for seasoning.

I added the green pepper. Onion, mushrooms, or zucchini would be good to add here too, BUT those I didn’t have.

Then I added a jar of leftover vodka pasta sauce and simmered about 10 minutes.

Just before serving I threw in the sliced tomatoes. You do not want those to cook to mush.

During this time, I was cooking the pasta so it would be done at the same time. Timing of everything getting done at the same time may be challenging for some. All I can say is practice makes perfect.  
 

I wanted a salad and threw together something easy and delicious using a salad kit I found on “Manager Special” at Kroger’s, my “go to” store. Since I love a good bargain, finding those stickers always brings me great joy. I added fresh strawberries and blueberries to the spinach kit, which makes for a very healthy and yummy side to the pasta.   

Voila! Here is the finished meal ready to eat after a long day of moving in “hotlanta”. I grated some fresh parmesan on top of the pasta that was left from the fridge too. I have a garden at home and the cucumbers are plentiful right now and I share them with everyone I see, including Alex. As another side, I sliced and marinated a cucumber in red wine vinegar and sugar, which is something I learned from my mama growing up when we had a bounty of garden cucumbers. You can use regular vinegar too, but since I found the other in the pantry, well then, that’s what we used.      

 

Hey friends and family, Alex would love visitors at his new Atlanta apartment. I bet he would whip up something yummy for you in the kitchen too.

 

 

MAMA's performance: A+

She wins, she always does!

How not to Stir Fry

You would think stir fry would be easy and would be good every time. Well I figured out the trick to screwing it up. Fact #1. Thin sliced chicken does not need to be cooked in a crock pot. It's thin, it's a quick cook, 6 hours in a crock pot renders that nice dry, leftover, reheated chicken taste no buddy loves. Fact #2. If at first you don't use enough seasoning / Worcestershire sauce, soaking it does not make it better. Fact #3. Brown rice with assorted veggies boil in a bag + steamed broccoli can in fact disappoint. An all around lack luster effort.

Personal performance: D-

:(

Enchiladas, si

After a long lay off, finally strapped my apron back on this eve. I tried my hand at one of my favorites by Mom.

Always have to utilize the crockpot when you can. I spiced up the chicken prep a touch by adding some chicken broth, red pepper, some left over taco seasoning and some onions to let the chicken thighs bath in.

 Turn this

into this. BAM.

*Note: Did not fry tortillas for a few seconds until limp, tortillas are already limp. #confused.

Personal performance: B

Per always, Mom wins. Nothing to complain about. But nothing too exciting either.

Tacos

Don't worry hungry readers, I'll feed you... So I got a crock pot in the fall thinking it would make meals far easier. Turn it on when I leave, dinner ready when I get home. Well, turns out that is true. What is also true is it takes a lot of thinking ahead and planning. Ergo, it doesn't get used all that much. But, it did get dusted off for some chicken tacos this eve.

1.25 lb boneless/skinless chicken thighs

Can of diced green chilies

Can of cannellini beans (drained)

2 tbsp of taco seasoning

HEY MOM! I bought the 1.25oz package of  package taco seasoning, do I use the whole thing? (keep in mind, I'm no fool, tbsp is a volume - oz is a mass, even if you get the app, those don't convert)

"Umm, open the package and measure out 2 tbsp ..... ??"

Ohhhhh. Good point.

THANKS MA!

Pile it all in and cook on low for 6 hours

I didn't make it home until 10 hours later. This is when Mom would usually call me saying "can you turn off the crock pot please". But one perks of buying the $45 crockpot over the $30 is it's got a built in "can you turn off the crock pot please - but keep it warm too" function. So I made it home, pulled out the chicken, gave it a shredded, mashed the beans (no idea why, just following instructions), added rice, Monterrey Jack cheese, splash of hot sauce and...

Personal performance: A

Actually very good. No real complaints. If I had more fixings they could of been my first A+. I'm real concerned how the chicken is going to hold up to the reheat though.

Make-shift Bayou Stew

Buckle up hungry readers, we have reached stage 2 cooking. Now usually the number 1 rule when requesting recipes from MOM is 5 ingredients or less - I'm poor but more importantly expertly frugal. Well tonight's meal does not apply...

Not only is that 14 over the legal limit but the spice count alone blows a .08... But after 3 years behind the wheel of these pots and pans I have actually amassed a spice rack that can handle this bad boy.

The problem was with poor planning is I didn't have onions or the can o' stewed tomatoes. Not a problem, very overrated ingredients anyways. Now there are few things I like more than some good Momma Made Jambayla....

Personal performance:B+

For a spur of the moment dish, job well done. A small part of me definitely resides in the Bayou though. I have a gift for making it just hot enough so that the sinuses begin to drip.

The Sequel

So if you recall 'what's for dinner?' last Monday, same answer tonight. A sequel can never be a carbon copy though. You have to mix it up, take a few risks, see what happens.

HEY MOM! Is olive oil still the trick for frying pan chicken if you go with some fiery 5 pepper seasoning?

"Yes, olive oil is magic. Always works."

Ok. What about throwing some black beans into the mix with the broccoli & squash?

"If you have spicy chicken to go with it that should be fine."

THANKS MA! 

As you might expect with a sequel... It's never as good as the original. Stick with the original recipe. 

Lessons learned: just because you need to get rid of an ingredient, doesn't mean you can toss it into your dish. 

Personal performance: C-

The black beans worked, but not well. Just did too much. Turned the plate into a mound of mushy mess. 

Chx-Parm

Got another quick and easy.

Dice up some chickens

Quick egg dip, Italian bread crumb slather and hot olive oil bath

Boil some noods

Add some sauce, mozzarella & stinky cheese (if you like), 400 covered for 15, uncovered for 10.

Enjoy! Don't worry MOM, I got this one...

Personal performance: A

Suggestion: dicing up the chicken was nice for eating but made prep twice as hard.

What's for dinner?

Quick fix stir fry tonight. Seasoned down some chicken cutlets with 'chicken' seasoning, cooked in olive oil. Added in some cooked broccoli & yellow squash to get my veggies in. Mixed in some white rice as the finisher.

Personal performance: A-

Excellent flavor and portioning. Chicken was a little tough. HEY MOM! How come?

Who's on dish duty?