Stuffed Chicken in Puff Pastry -YUM

I have loved puff pastry since I was a kid... but I have never actually cooked with it! I decided to give it a try, it can't be that hard right?? After reading a handful of different recipes for chicken in puff pastry here is what I concocted:

Stuffed Chicken in Puff Pastry

Ingredients:

• (2) Chicken Breasts
• (1) Large Sheet of Puff Pastry (I used Pepperidge Farm)
• (4) oz Cream Cheese
• (4) Slices Bacon Cooked and Crumbled
• Handful of Flat-Leaf Parsley Chopped
• (3) Green Onions Chopped
• (1) Egg (beaten)
• Garlic Salt
• Pepper
• Red Pepper Flakes

Directions:

1. Cook Bacon, let cool and crumble. Place in small mixing bowl
2. Chop Green Onion and Parsley and place in bowl with bacon.
3. Soften cream cheese and add to bowl with bacon, onion and parsley. Add Red Pepper Flakes, Black Pepper and Garlic Salt all to taste. Mix ingredients well.
4. Dry chicken breasts as best you can and cut a slit in each one to insert the cream cheese mixture. (I cut the slit right down the top/center of the breast)
   
5. Stuff Cream Cheese Mixture Evenly between breasts.
6. Puff Pastry: make sure puff pastry is no longer frozen (takes about 40 min to thaw from freezer). FLOUR THE SURFACE you will be using to work with puff pastry (I learned the hard way that wax-paper is an adhesive to puff pastry!!) Roll out the puff pastry sheet and cut in half. (should be a good size to wrap the chicken breasts in)
   
7. Place (1) piece of chicken in the middle of one of the halves of puff pastry. Wrap the puff pastry around the chicken, sealing the edges with the beaten egg. Once chicken is sealed in puff pastry coat the top of the pastry with egg. (this helps to brown it).
   
8. Wrap remaining breast in puff pastry repeating step 7.
9. On a foil covered baking sheet cook chicken in puff pastry for 35 minutes at 400 degrees.

Enjoy!

I forgot to take a photo before I dove into it... so here was a "after" pic

Apple Cake- Perfect for Fall!

I came across this recipe on Pinterest and decided to give it a try because Andrew loves apples... this is definitely a "keeper." =)

Apple Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 2 cups Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped into 1/3-inch pieces

Directions:

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch square baking pan. Dust the pan with flour, or spray with nonstick baking spray with flour.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Gradually add the sugar and beat at medium-high speed until well blended and light, about 2 minutes.

Add the vanilla extract, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating it with the buttermilk in two additions and mixing just until blended (flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour). Stir in the chopped apples by hand with rubber scraper.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes, until it is golden and toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake completely in the pan on a wire rack.

Frost the top of the cooled cake with cream cheese frosting (recipe follows). Cut the cake into squares and serve it directly from the pan.

Store in the refrigerator, loosely covered, for up to 3 days. Bring cake up to room temperature before serving.

Cream Cheese Frosting

3 oz cream cheese (softened)

¼ cup butter or margarine

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar (sifted)

~Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla ‘til light and fluffy. Gradually add powd. sugar and beat ‘til smooth. Ice “cooled” cake.

Kahlua Cake!

I had a recipe exchange last weekend with some girlfriends and WOW... there was some amazing food! I have been talking non-stop about a cake Amy Herring brought to share with us and many people have requested the recipe! Here it is!
Thanks for sharing Amy!!

Kahlua Cake

Shared by Amy Herring

Ingredients

1 Chocolate Cake Mix

1/4 c. oil

2 eggs

1 vanilla pudding

12 oz chocolate chips

1/2 c. kahlua

1 pint sour cream

Mix all ingredients. Cook in a bundt pan @ 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes (until clean with toothpick)

Sprinkle powdered sugar on top if desired once cool.

Marinated & Baked Pork Chops

This is ANOTHER super easy recipe! Harris Teeter had Value Packs of Bone-In Pork Chops on sale... now what are Andrew & I going to do with (8) Pork Chops??? Prep & Vacuum-pack them with this new fabulous & easy recipe!

Marinated & Baked Pork Chops

Ingredients

*I quadrupled the below ingredients for my 8 pork chops and individually packed them in pairs for future dinners*

• 1 tablespoon soy sauce (honestly- I was out of soy so I used Teriyaki and they turned out great)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 2 Bone-In pork chops, trimmed

Directions (if you are going to eat them now)

1. In a bowl, thoroughly blend soy sauce, vegetable oil, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, brown sugar, and ketchup.
2. Place pork chops in a medium baking dish, and spread with the sauce.
3. Bake pork chops 30 minutes in the 350 degree preheated oven. Turn chops and continue baking 15 minutes or until done. * I put the broiler on for about 4 minutes once they were done to thicken the glaze a bit
4. 
   

Directions (if you are going freeze them and eat them later)

1. In a bowl, thoroughly blend soy sauce, vegetable oil, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, brown sugar, and ketchup.
2. Divide Pork Chops however you wish between freezer bags. (I put (2) chops in each bag) Before I put meat in freezer bags I wrote the following directions on each one: 350 degrees 30min/flip/15min (so I wouldn't forget how long to cook them)
3. Pour the sauce over the pork chops, evenly distributing between bags. Close bags, removing air (or vacuum pack them) and coat chops well with sauce.
4. Place in freezer.
5. When you are ready to enjoy these for a meal, take them out of the freezer and place them in fridge overnight to defrost. Dump defrosted chops & sauce in prepared baking dish. Bake pork chops 30 minutes in the 350 degree preheated oven. Turn chops and continue baking 15 minutes or until done. * I put the broiler on for about 4 minutes once they were done to thicken the glaze a bit

ENJOY!

Easy Steak in the CrockPot!

Harris Teeter had New York Strips on sale a couple weeks ago so I bought a pack and prepped them and then vacuum-packed them to save for a rainy day, or should I say... a day that I was working late and didn't feel like cooking! This recipe is SUPER easy and you can use it on any type of beef/steak.... ENJOY!

A-1 and Dijon Steak in the CrockPot

Ingredients:

• Steak (I used (2) New York Strips)
• 2 Tablespoons Dijon Mustard
• 2 Tablespoons A-1
• 1/4 c. white wine (I used red wine bc thats what was opened!)

Method:

Combine Dijon Mustard & A-1 in bowl. Paint mixture onto all sides of each piece of meat.

At this point you can place meat in crockpot and add 1/4 c. wine and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours OR put the sauce-covered meet in a freezer bag or vacuum pack it, throw it in the freezer and take it out in a couple weeks when you need an easy dinner!

I vacuum-packed mine and when we were ready to eat it I just put it in the fridge the night before to defrost a bit, before work the next morning I threw it in the crockpot with the wine and came home to an amazing smelling house!

*If you use more than 2 steaks I would recommend making MORE of the sauce mixture to coat all sides.

Serve with Potatoes or Rice and Vegetable.

Freezer Cooking- Slow Cooker Meals!

**Update 9.2.2012-  Many of the recipes below turned out a bit more "bland" than my husband and I like so at the end of this post I have offered some "additions" to the recipes that you can try if you wish!  Also-- I did a Freezer Cooking #2 post that you should check out that came out better in my opinion and I did a Freezer Cooking #3 "Sauce-A-Palooza"  and a Freezer Cooking #4 "Soups" post also that you may enjoy!     ~ Melissa **

Fall is SUPER BUSY for me at work... and I typically get home late and don't have time to cook (Okay I'll admit it.. I don't FEEL like cooking! ) I LOVE using my crock pot and never thought about pre-assembling meals (until I found PINTEREST) that I could freeze & dump in the crock pot before I head to work in the A.M. There is nothing like coming home to a house that smells like you've been slaving away all day making a gourmet dinner, when in fact the crock pot has done all the work!

Andrew was out of town this weekend so I thought it would be the perfect time to experiment with this whole "Once A Month Freezer Cooking" thing I have read about on Pinterest.com. After some research, and some inspiration from mamaandbabylove.com 's Freezer Cooking poste...I narrowed it down to (5) meals that sounded good (or that I already make in the crock pot on a regular basis) and use them for my 1st experience with Freezer Cooking...

I chose the following:

Savory Vegetable Beef Soup (I make this 3-4 times a winter)
Teriyaki Chicken
Balsamic & Onion Pot Roast
Healthy BBQ Chicken *from mamaandbabylove.com *Stephanie's Goulash *adapted from mamaandbabylove.com *

I printed all of the recipes and made my grocery list. Most of the main staples I had: basil, thyme, salt, pepper, Worcestershire, brown sugar, white sugar, olive oil, garlic cloves, balsamic vinegar, mustard and teriyaki sauce. If you don't have any of these you will need to add to the list below =)

*Please note that all "bags" are 2-4 servings* Adjust ingredients to increase or decrease serving sizes. I figured each of my freezer bags would be dinner plus lunch the next day.

My Grocery List:

Fresh Produce:
(3) Green Peppers
(1) Red Pepper
(1) Zucchini
(1) Red Onion
(1) Bag of Onions (you need approx 8-10 onions)
(1) Bag Potatoes (I bought Red) (You will need approx 14-16)
(1) Large Bag of Whole Carrots (Baby Carrots would work also if you don't feel like chopping- 2 bags of baby carrots would work) I got a bag of whole & a bag of baby.
(1) Bunch of Celery

Meat:
4.5-5Ibs of Chicken Breast (I bought the HT Value Pack)
3-4Ibs of Beef Stew Meat (It was B1G1 at HT today!)
3Ib Chuck Roast (B1G1 at HT today!)
1-1.5Ibs of Ground Beef

Other Groceries:
(2) 20oz cans of Chunked Pineapple
(2) 15 Oz Cans Tomato Sauce
(2) 6oz Cans Tomato Paste
(1) 28oz Can Diced Tomatoes
(1) pack of v8 juice (I buy the 6 pack of cans)
(1) small box Tapioca (I had no clue where to find this in the store-- It's right above the pudding/jello at HT) =)
(2) Boxes Beef Broth (I buy low sodium)
Steak Rub (I bought grill mates in the spice aisle)
(1) bag egg noodles
(1) Bag Frozen Cut Green Beans (you will need 2 cups)

AND DON'T FORGET TO BUY A BOX OF GALLON FREEZER BAGS! I used 8 for this go around...

Okay... Once you get everything home leave it all out on the counter and admire what you are about to do!

First I labeled all of my Freezer Bags with a permanent marker. I wrote on the bag todays date, the meal name and the instructions for the day I will make it. (some of the meals will need beef broth added, water added, sour cream added etc.. so I made note on the actual bag what I needed to do so I don't forget!) I also notated on my bags if the dish was supposed to be served over rice or egg noodles etc..

Teriyaki Chicken (2 Bags)
Savory Vegetable Beef Soup (2 Bags)
Healthy BBQ Chicken (2 Bags)
Stephanie's Goulash/Beef Stew (2 Bags)
--I made the Balsamic & Onion Pot Roast immediately so I won't include this in the instructions, I will post the recipe at the bottom. =)

Next... I started CHOPPING VEGETABLES! (It's not as bad as it sounds!)
As I chopped I placed the correct amount in each bag. (I started with ALL the onions, then did peppers, then potatoes... (see below for instructions).
I lined up all of my freezer bags across the counter and just dumped the correct amount of veggies for each recipe in the respective bags (see below). I never measure anything so I just guesstimate!

After I had the veggies chopped and distributed I tackled the meat... for this round of freezer cooking I only had to cook the ground beef for the vegetable soup... the chicken & beef stew meat stay raw.

For the ground beef.. take (1) chopped onion and (2) chopped garlic cloves and brown them together. If you are feeling super savy you can let the beef brown while you are chopping the veggies! Let cool, instructions below on how to finish.

For the chicken, I washed & trimmed it and left (4) of the breasts whole (for the teriyaki chicken) and the other (4) I cut in half just because I felt like it (for the healthy bbq chicken).

I trimmed the beef stew meat of any fat and also cut it down into smaller cubes.

After placing the meat in the correct bags I added the spices and remaining ingredients.

Here is how it broke down per bag..

Teriyaki Chicken (2 Bags)

• Split a large bag of Baby Carrots between the 2 bags
• Cut Red Onion into Large Chunks and split between the 2 bags
• (1) 20oz can pineapple in each bag (undrained)
• (2) Garlic Cloves chopped per bag
• (2) Chicken Breasts in each bag
• 1/2 cup teriyaki sauce in each bag

*Add 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce to mixture. Cook on HIGH for 4 hours or LOW for 8 hours. Serve over Rice.

Savory Vegetable Beef Soup (2 Bags)

• Chop (1) Onion and Chop (2) Cloves of Garlic- Brown in Pan with the Ground Beef- once cool divide mixture between bags
• (2) whole carrots chopped per bag
• (2) celery stalks chopped per bag
• (3) Red Potatoes chopped per bag
• (1) can v8 split between bags
• (1) 28oz can diced tomatoes SPLIT between bags
• (1) cup frozen green beans in each bag
• (1/2)TBSP Worcestershire per bag
• (1/2) cup Beef Broth per bag
• (1) TBSP Parsley per bag
• (1) tsp Basil per bag
• 1/2 tsp Thyme per bag
• (1/2) tsp salt per bag
• (1/2) tsp pepper per bag
• (1) TBSP Sugar per bag

*Place in Crockpot with 1.5 cups of water and 15 oz Beef Broth. Cook on LOW 8 Hours.

Healthy BBQ Chicken (2 Bags) * from mamaandbabylove.com *

• (2) Green Peppers Cut into Slices split between 2 bags
• (1) Red Pepper Cut into Slices-split between bags
• (1) Zucchini Chopped and split between bags
• (3) Onions Chopped and split between bags
• (6) Red Potatoes Chopped and split between bags (you can also use Sweet Potatoes)
• (4) Garlic Cloves Chopped & Split Between bags
• (4) Chicken Breasts Split between bags (I cut each breast in half again)
• (1/2) TBSP Quick Cooking Tapioca per bag
• (1) 15 oz can of Tomato Sauce Split Between bags
• (1) TBSP of Brown Sugar per bag
• (1) TBSP Worcestershire per bag
• (1) TBSP Mustard per Bag
• (1/4) tsp Salt per bag

Cook on HIGH for 4 hours or LOW for 8 hours. Serve over Rice or Egg Noodles.

Stephanie's Goulash/Beef Stew (2 Bags) *adapted from mamaandbabylove.com *

• (1) Green Pepper Chopped split between bags
• (1) Chopped Onion per bag
• (2) Carrots Chopped per bag
• (2) Chopped Garlic Cloves per bag
• (3) Ibs Beef Stew Meat Split Between Bags
• (1) 6oz can Tomato Paste per bag
• (2) tsp Paprika per bag
• (1/4) tsp Black Pepper per bag

*Cook for 4 hours on HIGH or 8 hours on LOW in a slow cooker. Add (1/2) Cup of Sour Cream about 10 minutes prior to serving. Serve over Egg Noodles.


Once ALL INGREDIENTS are in freezer bags push all of the air out of them and seal. Lay bags flat so they freeze flat. Stack in Freezer... once they are frozen you can re-arrange to best suit your freezer space. Take meal out of freezer the night before you want to put it in slow cooker so it thaws a bit.

Here is the Balsamic & Onion Pot Roast Recipe... I went ahead and made it for dinner instead of freezing it: http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2007/01/how-to-make-pot-roast-in-crockpot.html

There is a TON of shredded beef leftover... I will probably make the leftovers into Sandwiches or Beef Enchiladas later in the week!

Since all of the meals are in the freezer... freezing... as I cook them this month I will let you know what I think of the taste (I guess I should say that I will let you know what the husband thinks of them!!)

If anyone else happens to try them let me know what you think!

If you have any questions about this post let me know.. Being my first time doing this it might be a bit hard to follow... I tried to translate it best I could from what I actually did today in the kitchen!

Thanks for reading and Good Luck!

~Melissa



*** UPDATE: 9.2.2012:  The Healthy BBQ Chicken, Teriyaki Chicken and Goulash were the ones that were a bit bland for my husband and I's tastes! I would just recommend adding some spices into each one! For the teriyaki chicken you can add in brown sugar, garlic salt and soy sauce to add a little more flavor. To the BBQ Chicken- I just added some actual bbq sauce out of the bottle to the recipe and to the Goulash I added some basil, oregano, worcestershire and beef broth. This helped a little with the flavor! =)

Last-Minute Bruschetta Dip!

I was craving my mom's good ole' spaghetti recipe so I whipped up a pot of the sauce and Kelly, Will and Harper came over to enjoy some good "comfort food" with us! I realized I didn't have anything for an appetizer so I emptied out the fridge and came up with a "Bruschetta Dip!" I warned Kelly and Will that this was a test kitchen recipe before they tried it... and everyone gave it their stamp of approval! I didn't really measure anything but I will do my best in sharing the recipe:

Last-Minute Bruschetta Dip

INGREDIENTS

• 2 Large Ripe Tomatoes (mine were from Freida's garden and were AMAZING! Thanks Freida!)
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
• Balsamic Vinegar (approx 1 Tbs)
• Olive oil (approx 1/2 Tbs)
• Freshly ground black pepper (dash)
• Shredded Mozzarella Cheese (1/8 cup)
• Fresh Basil or Dried Basil (whatever you have) approx 1-2 tsp
• (1) Block of Cream Cheese softened

METHOD

1 Spread softened block of cream cheese in a round pie plate evenly.

2 Dice tomatoes and place in small mixing bowl. Add balsamic vinegar, olive oil, chopped garlic, black pepper and basil. Mix well and let sit 10-15 minutes and "marinate". (Taste mixture to make sure it has a nice flavor--add more of ingredients if need be)

3 Spoon mixture over cream cheese evenly. (I tried not to reserve some of the juice so the dip wouldn't be too runny.)

Serve with wheat thins, bagel chips or ritz crackers!

Enjoy!