Recipe: ANOTHER Orzo Chicken Dish

The spinach looks quite wilted, but it still tastes good!

This was another Instagram recipe I found online, this time from Neill, the "in vs. out" nutritionist. Again, very easy to make since you just put everything together in a casserole dish and mix!

Ingredients:

▪️200g orzo - 1.5 cups

▪️500g raw chicken - I did three large chicken thighs

▪️300ml chicken stock - 10 fl. oz

▪️1 diced red pepper

▪️190g reduced fat red pesto - I used green pesto from Aldi

▪️1 handful chopped spinach

▪️1 diced onion

▪️100g sundried tomatoes

▪️200g light Philadelphia cream cheese - 7 ounces (I used a full brick; why leave over 1 ounce?)

▪️Salt - pepper - paprika - oregano

Directions

1. Mix all of the ingredients in a 13x9" casserole dish. 
2. Cover and bake for 45 mins at 350˚ F. 

Seriously, that's it! I tried to do the conversions for you to make it easier. I didn't have everything (I had two tiny peppers that I used, and I used regular cream cheese), and I probably could have used a second jar of pesto. But even then, I was really happy with how this dish came out, and even happier about how easy it was to make! You really can't beat it!

(I think this recipe is better than the previous orzo chicken dish I made, but that's probably because of all the cream cheese!)

Recipe: Zucchini Lasagna

I had one cup of cottage cheese left over after making cottage cheese ice cream (that recipe here). So I looked up recipes that only needed one cup, and I found this one on the Taste of Home website. So I went to Aldi, bought all the other ingredients I didn't already have at home, and I tried it!

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground beef (90% lean)
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 can (15 ounces) tomato sauce
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup 2% cottage cheese
• 4 medium zucchini (about 1-3/4 pounds)
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (additional cheese optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. In large skillet, cook and crumble beef with onion over medium-high heat until meat is no longer pink, 5-7 minutes. Stir in seasonings and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil; simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. In a bowl, mix egg and cottage cheese.
2. Trim ends of zucchini; cut lengthwise into 1/4-in.-thick slices. Toss zucchini with the flour. Layer half the slices in a greased 13x9-in. baking dish. Top with cottage cheese mixture and half the meat sauce. Add remaining zucchini slices; sprinkle with any remaining flour. Spread with remaining meat sauce; sprinkle with 1 cup mozzarella cheese.
3. Bake, uncovered, until heated through, about 40 minutes. If desired, sprinkle with additional cheese. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

I have two main concerns with this recipe. The first is the flour: what is it for? For the first batch of zucchini, the recipe says to "toss" the veggies in the flour, but for the second layer, it just says to sprinkle them. So I wasn't sure how covered the zucchini truly needed to be. In the end, I just sprinkled all of them. I wonder if the flour was supposed to absorb some of the wetness of the vegetables? If that is the intended purpose, I think salt would work better, like when you are making eggplant parmesan: you cover them eggplant discs in salt to dry them out. In the end, the dish was quite wet, so I did something wrong.

My second concern was that the last step says to bake the casserole uncovered the whole time. But the cheese on top got burnt! I would recommend covering with aluminum foil for the last 10-15 minutes so this doesn't happen. It just doesn't look good when there's a burnt layer of cheese on top :(

I think this recipe is okay, but I have made many other meat-and-veggie casseroles that have Italian inspiration that are better than this one. I'd recommend this eggplant casserole or this chicken alfredo casserole instead!

Recipe: Easy Breakfast Egg Muffins

 

I love these reusable silicone muffin tin liners I found on Amazon!

My husband had tried making these previously (without spraying the muffin tins or using liners, so THAT was fun to clean up...), so I tried making them myself. As soon as I googled "egg muffins," this is the first recipe that showed up. And since it had the word "easy" in the title, I knew it was meant for me.

Ingredients

• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 bunch green onions, chopped
• 8 large eggs
• 2 ¾ ounces fully-cooked bacon pieces (such as Oscar Mayer®)
• ¼ cup whole milk
• 1 pinch garlic powder, or to taste
• 1 pinch onion powder, or to taste
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• ½ (8 ounce) package shredded mild cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Gather all ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray.
2. Place bell peppers and green onions into a large bowl.
3. Add eggs, bacon, milk, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper.
4. Sprinkle cheddar cheese into the bowl and whisk until incorporated.
5. Pour mixture equally into the prepared muffin cups.
6. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving.

I left a lot of this out. I only used one bell pepper (orange, for that matter), I don't eat bacon, and I didn't bother with the garlic powder/onion powder/salt. I also have 2% milk at home, so that's what I used. I did have green onion, but I also had some white onion that I added in, too. 

This really IS an easy recipe: mix everything together, pour it into muffin tins, and bake! I love the convenience both for making these but also for eating/packing to-go. Now I'll be set for a while when I need to pack breakfast for work! (yes, I get into the office before 7:30am, so I eat my first meal of the day at my desk...). 

Recipe: Chocolate Banana Applesauce Cake

 

It looks red, but that's just the lighting! These really just look like brownies.

I had two ripe bananas that were starting to go brown, so I knew I had to bake something with them. I had found this recipe a while back (I'm not sure where I saw it) from the Mom on Timeout blog. I already had the rest of the ingredients, and it sounded delicious, so I thought I'd give it a go.

Ingredients

• 2 bananas (very ripe)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup applesauce (no sugar added)
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Spray 8x8-inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
3. Mash bananas in a medium size bowl.
4. Stir in sugars, applesauce, water, and vinegar until thoroughly combined.
5. Stir in flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt just until combined.
6. Fold in 1/3 cup of chocolate chips.
7. Pour batter into prepared dish.
8. Sprinkle remaining chocolate chips on top.
9. Bake for 33-37 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.
10. Let cool, slice and serve.

I didn't think about it while I was making it, but as long as the cocoa powder and chocolate chips don't have any milk in them, this recipe is vegan! So that's good to know for future reference. I think my only complaint with this recipe is that it doesn't state whether or not the brown sugar should be packed. I'm guessing not because the recipe doesn't list it (so I didn't), but I'm not sure if that's right. But I baked mine for 33 minutes and it was DONE. 

This cake tastes like chocolate banana bread (which I've made before), just with a hint of apple flavor thrown in. It's an easy recipe, which I love, but I guess I was hoping it might taste more like cake. Maybe it's because there's no icing? I don't dislike it, but I also wasn't blown away. And it was kind of dry... Meh, there's better out there.

Recipe: Chicken Broccoli Skillet Dinner

 

I love the Crazy for Crust e-newsletter: Dorothy Kern has so many great recipes! While I mostly look at her desserts, I thought this recipe for a chicken broccoli skillet meal looked good. So I thought I'd try it!

Ingredients

• 8 ounces whole wheat egg noodles or any pasta
• 3 cups broccoli florets or more, if desired
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ½ medium yellow onion diced
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 10.5 ounce can cream of mushroom soup (see note)
• ½ cup nonfat milk
• ½ cup shredded parmesan cheese use fresh not from the green canister
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• Salt and more pepper to taste
• 2 cups cooked chicken see note

Instructions

• Bring water to boil in large skillet (you can also do this in a separate saucepan). Cook noodles according to package directions adding the broccoli to the pan when there is about 3 minutes of cooking time left for the noodles. Cook until both are cooked, drain and set aside.
• Using the same pan, heat the olive oil. Cook the onion and garlic until onions are translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add the soup, milk, parmesan, and pepper. Whisk or stir to combine. Add the chicken to the pan to heat it through then add the noodles and broccoli to the pot. Stir to combine.
• Add more shredded parmesan for serving, if desired.

Notes

1. I used Campbell’s Healthy Request condensed soup, use what you prefer. You can also use cream of chicken or cream of potato soup in place of the cream of mushroom.
2. You can also use rotisserie chicken in this recipe in place of my instant pot shredded chicken.
3. If you are using FRESH chicken that is not already cooked: dice chicken into small bite sized pieces. After the noodles and broccoli have been removed from the pan, add 1 tablespoon olive oil to the pan. Add the chicken and cook, searing on both sides, for about 5-10 minutes (depending on size of chicken pieces) then remove to a plate. You want the chicken almost cooked at that point. Continue the recipe to make the sauce then return the chicken and any accumulated juices to the pan and let finish cooking in the sauce.

I appreciate the details and notes Dorothy puts in her recipes. I did cook the pasta in a different pot (I used Banza, a chickpea pasta, to be healthy, but the texture leaves something to be desired.), and I cut chicken breasts into smaller pieces and cooked them in the air fryer first. I also used cream of chicken soup as she suggests for an alternative, since Steve doesn't like mushrooms. 

I eye-balled the measurements for the broccoli and chicken, and I probably had too much of both, because I could barely fit everything in my largest walled pan! Or maybe that just means I need to get a proper wok :)

While the recipe is easy to make, I didn't find it very flavorful or saucy (and again, that could have been because of the proportions of my ingredients). If I made it a second time, I might use TWO cans of the soup, and perhaps some more cheese (Can you ever have too much cheese? I think not.). Certainly worth a try!

Recipe: Orzo Chicken Dish

 

I feel like I am finding all my recipes from Instagram these days. I had this one on my list for a long time, and I finally made it!

Recipe (4 servings):

🍝 200g Orzo
🐔 320g Cooked chicken (420g raw)
🧀 150g Boursin cheese
🧀 50g Parmesan cheese
🍅 500g Cherry tomatoes
🥬 200g Spinach
🫗 400ml stock
🧂 Salt, pepper

1. Boursin in the middle, combine and mix everything except the Parmesan.

2. Cover and bake at 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit) for ~35 mins.

3. Remove foil, add Parmesan and bake for a further 5-10 mins uncovered

4. Leave 5 mins to cool

Now, of course the first thing I had to do was convert grams to cups, since I don't have a kitchen scale (who has time to weigh their food before they eat it?). But after that, this is a pretty easy recipe, since you just put everything together in one casserole dish.

My only issue is that the recipe isn't totally clear on whether you should mix the Boursin cheese in or leave it in the middle. After trying it, I should have mixed the Boursin in more, because that was the yummiest part! And instead of Parmesan on top, I used shredded mozzarella, which I think made the dish a little creamier. 

This is an easy dish to make using ingredients I always have in the house. I will definitely make this again!