Pesto Chicken and Veggies

I always struggle to prepare vegetables. I don’t know what to do with them besides put them on a tray with dip. During my daily stroll through the popular recipes on Tasty, I stumbled on a video about prepping meals ahead that yielded a dish I could easily make for dinner.

The recipe
Weekday Meal-prep Pesto Chicken and Veggies from tasty.co.

Ingredient changes
Other than making half the recipe, the only change I made was swapping out the poisonous, awful tomato for delightful, yummy red and yellow bell peppers.

Ease (or not) of prep
The worst part of prepping this dish was chopping everything. Chopping chicken, chopping ends off beans, chopping peppers. I think I just hate cutting boards.

I also added a step to my prep. Someone in the comments of the recipe mentioned that you should blanch your beans before throwing them in the pan so I looked up a video for instructions and did that.

From chopping ingredients to sitting down to eat, it probably took about 45 minutes. It’s no chicken-dumped-in-the-slow-cooker but it’s no 3-hour-lasagne-rolls either.

The Boyfriend Test: Pass
Jeff really liked it (who’s surprised?). He loves beans so there was no way he wouldn’t devour this. As is occasionally the case, he got my last few bites as well.

Picky Eater Test: Soft pass
Generally speaking, I liked this dish. Chicken good, peppers good, beans good, however; I find pesto sauce can be hit and miss for me and I didn’t like it here. I don’t have a specific criticism of it, i just found it kinda meh. The next time I make this dish (which I imagine I’ll do more often when beans are in season and I can get fresh local ones), I’ll try a different sauce. Maybe a teriyaki or marinara. This is the sort of dish I’ve been wanting to make so I’m going to work on perfecting it.

Chicken-Stuffed Peppers

I am the kind of person that does not enjoy plain, raw vegetables. Jeff is the kind of guy that can just go to town on a vegetable plate and completely ignore the dip; it’s infuriating. I want to eat more vegetables but smothering them with dip seems counter productive. Thus, I went looking for a stuffed pepper recipe. I was keen to find one with chicken rather than beef because I try to not go too nuts with the red meat.

The recipe
Dila’s Chicken-Stuffed Peppers from allrecipes.com.

Ingredient changes
I was making these as a side rather than a main dish so I halved the recipe and made only two. Also, as I was chopping the cilantro, I felt like the whole bunch was a lot so I used only half.

Ease (or not) of prep
This recipe was pretty straightforward – cook chicken, chop stuff, grate cheese. I’d say it took about 25 minutes to put together, so I suppose I can’t really complain (oh no, what do I do now?).

The Boyfriend Test: Pass
Jeff said he really liked his. He scooped all the filling out and then ate the pepper like an apple, which amused me as I, a huge prude apparently, carefully used my fork and knife to cut slices out of mine.

Picky Eater Test: Soft fail
I plan to make these again with a couple big differences so, while I enjoyed the stuffed pepper idea, I did not like this recipe at all. My main issue was the cilantro. I was right to cut half of it out because it still overpowered the flavour. I don’t use a lot of fresh herbs when cooking so the smell of cilantro really surprised me as I chopped it. I found it smelled like soap, almost chemical, and I was immediately turned off. I figured it would change a bit in the dish but I was wrong. I ate as much as I could while trying to pick around the cilantro but I gave about half of mine to Jeff. I was really disappointed; I so wanted to enjoy this. Next time I make it, I will use spinach instead. That may also solve the second problem I had, which was that the recipe did not yield enough filling. I’m guessing this has something to do with using half the cilantro but I’m surprised it made that much of a difference.

I’m going to look around at other stuffed pepper recipes and see what looks good. I can easily replace beef with chicken so I’ll likely try that before I get too experimental with my cooking. I’m not that fancy just yet.

Super Bowl Sunday!

Disclaimer: I don’t like sports. I don’t mind the occasional live game but I don’t enjoy watching sports on TV. I know, I know, I’m a bad little Canadian who doesn’t like hockey but… *shrug emoji*. With that said, Jeff wanted to invite my folks over for the game so I agreed and told my mom to bring her crochet. I also wore the only sports apparel I own – a Blue Jays tank top, just to elicit an eye roll from my stepdad (mission accomplished). This was one of the rare occasions when I looked forward to making food and I had a couple ideas in mind. The Awkward Yeti has a comic that brilliantly sums up how I feel about the Super Bowl:

Buffalo Chicken Cheese Dip

Jeff’s sister-in-law makes this every time the family gets together. She gave me the recipe some time ago but it took me forever to make it. I’ve made it twice in the last three weeks even though it has one of the worst steps I’ve ever performed when cooking.

The recipe
– 2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
– 1/2 cup Ranch dressing
– 3/4 cup Franks Read Hot sauce
– 2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
– 2 8oz packages cream cheese

Boil chicken until fully cooked. When finished, shred chicken into small bits (Don’t chop. I used a cheese grater or a fork and knife). Soften cream cheese. Add Ranch dressing, hot sauce, shredded cheese, and chicken. Mix well. Bake at 350º for 20 minutes. Serve with Tostitos Scoops.

Ingredient changes
This dip is easy to eat a lot of so I used reduced sodium old cheddar cheese and light cream cheese.

Ease (or not) of prep
Remember how I mentioned this dip has one horrible step? That would be shredding chicken. What the crap is that?! Either you stand there with a knife and fork pulling it apart or you use a cheese grater, which works faster but not necessarily better. It took me at least half an hour to do this! Jeff’s sister-in-law has started using a KitchenAid standing mixer but I found that made the chicken too fine so I guess I can’t complain when I do it the hard way. Regardless, shredding chicken is for the birds *smug emoji*.

Boyfriend Test and Picky Eater Test: SCORE!
Jeff said the dip turned out just like Stacey’s and he ate a quarter of the dish himself so he’ll never go hungry when I make it. I am not a fan of spice so it took me a couple tries to get used to this dip but I really like it. The predominant flavours are chicken and cheese so the spice is not overpowering. The fact that I have to shred chicken by hand means I won’t make this terribly often but I’ll gladly make a meal of it when it’s on the menu at Stacey’s house.

Mozarella Sticks

The recipe
Homemade Mozzarella Sticks from allrecipes.com.

Ingredient changes
Jeff and I were the only ones eating these so I made less than the recipe called for. I used 6 cheese sticks (cut in half), 1 egg, 1 cup milk, and 1 cup bread crumbs to make 12 mozzarella sticks.

Ease (or not) of prep
Put bread crumbs in a baggie? Easy. Mix egg and milk? Simple. Wrap cheese in egg rolls wrappers? Piece of cake. Deep fry? Good thing my mom was here!

I don’t have a deep fryer so we used an old pot. My mom my pretty nervous about not having a deep fryer so when the oil crackled loudly, she removed it from the heat to calm it down. In the end, we and the kitchen survived unscathed so we must have done something right.

The Boyfriend Test: Pass (the ball!)
Jeff enjoyed these quite a bit. He said the were cooked perfectly. Really though, you can’t offend Jeff with breading and cheese.

Picky Eater Test: Soft pass
I found the egg roll wrapper a genius way to stop the cheese from exploding but I also found there to be a bit too much of it once it’s rolled up. The outside was crunchy and the inside was soft but not unpleasantly so. Next time I make these, I’ll fuss with them a bit and try to cut away the excess. I’ll also go a little overboard on the breading because I didn’t find them to be overly flavourful. My next mission will be to find a good dip to accompany them.

Taquitos (sort of?)

My mom threw some ingredients together and this is what came out. I use the term ‘taquitos’ loosely because I’m not sure how they’re actually made since this and the ones Jeff gets from 7 Eleven are my only experiences with them (and those 7 Eleven ones are dubious at best).

The recipe
– 1/4 cup finely chopped white onion
– 1/2 cup finely chopped assorted peppers
– 1/2 cup cooked chicken
– 1 tbsp scallions
– 2 cloves fresh garlic
– Joseph’s Lavash wraps (or whatever wraps you prefer)
– shredded cheese, whatever kind and amount you prefer

Sautée ingredients in frying pan on medium heat, greased with your choice of olive oil or cooking spray. Simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently.

Roll mixture into wraps with cheese. Stick rolls with toothpicks to keep them closed. Dribble tops with tomato sauce or salsa and sprinkle with a bit of cheese. Bake at 400º for 10 minutes. Serve with sour cream.

Ease (or not) of prep
Of all the things we made, this was probably the easiest, even though it had the most steps. No shredded chicken or threat of burning down the kitchen so that’s a win.

The Boyfriend Test: GOAL!
Jeff actually likes the taquitos that sit on those spinning heat trays at 7 Eleven so he loved the superior homemade version. I like recipes like this where I can easily kick up Jeff’s with spicy salsa or sriracha while leaving mine nice, plain, and pain-free.

Picky Eater Test: Pass
I only tried a bite because I was pretty full of dip by this point, but they were quite good. They were flavourful and, as with all the dishes we made, cheesy, so I was happy.

My mom also brought a veggie platter but, as you can see in the picture, most of that foolishness is still on the table. For dessert, we had a fruit plate. There’s still a lot of dip left over but Jeff and I will make short work of that. Don’t ask me what teams were playing or who won, but feel free to ask me about any of these recipes!

What are your favourite party foods? Any recipes out there I should try next time?

Chicken Teriyaki with Rice

If I can make a meal in less than half an hour, then I want to make that all the time. Chicken Teriyaki with rice is something I have been making for years so it’s not a new recipe I found online (or one for which I bothered my grandmother) but I want to write about it because it’s so easy, I can’t even be grumpy about it!

The recipe
– 2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts (chopped into bite-sized pieces)
– 1 bottle VH Teriyaki stir fry sauce
– salt and pepper to flavour
– 2 cups Minute Rice white rice
– All you really need to do is dump all this in a slow cooker, stir it every hour or so, and cook it for 4 hours on high, 8 hours on low. I layer my chicken pieces, then add salt and pepper, then pour in a layer of sauce. I do it this way to ensure maximum chicken coverage with the sauce so the pieces are full of flavour when finished.
– When the chicken is almost done, prepare Minute Rice on the stove top.
– Pile rice onto plates and pile chicken on top of rice. Use spoon to pour sauce from the slow cooker over the chicken and rice as per the diner’s preferences (Jeff wants his plate to look like soup while I prefer just a couple scoops of sauce).

Ingredient changes
Every now and then I use a honey garlic or a General Tao sauce but I’m sure any of those VH stir-fry-like sauces would work. You could also use any other kind of rice; I prefer Minute Rice because of the aforementioned minute prep time. I’ve thought of trying other kinds but I know some take a long time to make so I’ve avoided them for that reason only.

Ease (or not) of prep
Depending on how much chicken I use, this takes no more than 30 minutes, including cooking rice. I’m a bit fussy about cutting fat off my chicken so if you aren’t that picky, it would take even less time. I’m sorry I have no picture for you; the one I took looks terrible, so just imagine a bed of white rice and perfectly cooked chicken bites and a cascade of delicious sauce. Mmm… looks good, right?

Boyfriend Test and Picky Eater Test: Solid pass
Jeff loves it because it’s flavourful, I love it because it’s flavourful anad easy. One might say it’s our flavourite! *nudge nudge* See what I did there? …I’ll show myself out.

Chicken Primavera Pasta

M&M Food Market (a store that sells pre-made frozen meals) used to have this amazing Chicken Primavera Pasta dish that took no more than 10 minutes to make and I LOVED it. Recently they rebranded the company and revamped a bunch of their dishes and unfortunately, this was one of them. I went looking for a similar recipe, hoping to find something just as good and just as easy.

We prepared this last Saturday so it was the first dish on our “cook more” mission that we did together. Jeff makes pasta exactly right (never ever over-cooked) so I chopped all the veggies and sliced the chicken.

The recipe
Garlic Chicken Primavera from tasty.co. The picture looked very similar to the one from M&M’s so I didn’t even look at the other search results.

Ingredient changes
I used a tablespoon or so more olive oil because I used my biggest pot and I needed to cover the bottom to more effectively cook the chicken. I replaced the tomato with red pepper and the asparagus with broccoli in an attempt to make this recipe more closely resemble the M&M’s dish. Also because Jeff and I both hate tomatoes (yes, we will eat ketchup, yes, we will eat tomato-based sauces, no, we will not eat tomatoes if they resemble their original form).

Ease (or not) of prep
From chopping and slicing to boiling pasta to dumping everything in the same pot, I’d say this took about 45 minutes to prepare, which isn’t too bad. I try to make a habit of washing, chopping, and portioning vegetables the day I buy them so, in the future, I’ll make a dish of these veggies so when we decide to make it again, I can skip this step. It’s more of a time reallocation than a time saver, but it’s like how on cooking shows they have little dishes with all their ingredients – anything to make actual cooking faster.

Boyfriend Test: Pass with flying colours
After a couple bites, Jeff turned to me and said, “of the food we’ve had so far, this is my absolute favourite.” He also ate it like someone was going to take it from him so it must have been good.

Picky Eater Test: PASS PASS PASS!
It’s not the same as the M&M’s one I was attempting to recreate… it was better! The vegetables were lightly cooked so still crunchy and flavourful, the garlic wasn’t overpowering, and you can’t go wrong with Parmesan cheese. It’s worth every minute it took to make it and I’m pretty sure that’s what we’re having for dinner again this weekend. One change: I’m putting Jeff on chopping duty too.