Chicken Cordon Bleu (my version)

This dish was quick, easy, and made the house smell delicious. Oh, and it tasted good. :)

Ingredients:

*Four chicken breasts, cut in half to make 8 thin breasts (or you can pound the four breasts flat, but that takes work)

*salt and pepper

*Canadian bacon (one slice per chicken breast)

*One fresh mozzarella ball, sliced

*1 T butter

*1 cup panko bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and grease a glass baking dish.

Grind salt and pepper lightly on each side of each chicken breast.

Place a slice of Canadian bacon on each breast, then top with a slice of mozzarella.

Fold the breast in half, then secure with a toothpick.

Place a small amount of butter on the top of each breast, then place baking dish in oven for 2-3 minutes, or until butter is completely melted.

Remove dish from oven, sprinkle panko crumbs over the chicken, the place back in the oven for 35-40 minutes.

Check to make sure chicken is no longer pink, and serve immediately.

I served it with brown rice and a summer salad. (Mostly) healthy and simple! :)

Savory Split-Pea Soup

And you thought pureed veggies were only for babies. This soup is scrumptious and extremely healthy, and you will want a second bowl, I promise!

I was wandering through the bulk section at Whole Foods last week, and decided to fill up a bag with French split peas. I didn't know what I would do with them, but I figured I could make something yummy and full of vitamins.

I googled split pea soup recipes, but every recipe I found would have required another trip to the store. So, I took some tips from allrecipes.com, and came up with my own recipe using ingredients from my fridge. It didn't take long at all, and we will be having leftovers tomorrow night. YUMMY! (and I'm not a huge fan of soup in general).

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups split peas (soak them in a big pot of water overnight first, so this is 1 1/2 cups SOAKED peas)

2 or 3 T olive oil

1 cup of organic celery, finely chopped

1 cup of organic red and green peppers, finely chopped

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 cup frozen chopped spinach

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 container (four cups) of organic beef broth

1 T Herbes de Provence

A few grinds of black pepper

A few grinds of salt

Put the veggies (celery, onion, and peppers) into a food processor and pulse a few times (or chop by hand).

Drizzle olive oil into a large pot on the stove over medium/high heat, and then add chopped veggies and garlic. Saute for a few minutes, then add Herbes de Provence and stir.

***Keep toddler entertained with a few bowls, cups, spoons, and the extra peas.***

Pour beef broth into the veggie mixture and continue to stir. Add peas and spinach, and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low, and cook for about an hour and a half, stirring every 10 minutes or so. After an hour, turn off the heat, and let soup sit for 30 minutes with the lid on the pot.

Pour soup into a food processor, and turn it on for about 10-15 seconds. That's it. Now enjoy with some crusty French bread. Mmmmm...

Meatloaf Muffins with Garlicky Parmesan Mashed Potatoes

*I need to preface this by saying that my toddler deleted a few of the photos I took earlier this evening, so the ones I am left with won't do this yummy meal justice.*

I had a freezer of ground beef to work with, along with a bag of potatoes. I decided to make meatloaf for dinner since it sounded like the perfect antidote to this frigid weather. I remember hearing someone talk about making them as "muffins", so I thought I would give it a try.

I used:

2 lbs grass fed organic ground beef

2 organic eggs

1 cup panko bread crumbs

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup organic ketchup (not the high fructose corn syrup stuff)

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 tspn salt

1 tspn ground black pepper

1 tspn onion powder

1 tspn garlic powder

I put everything into my large food processor and did an initial blend, then decided it would be better to transfer everything to a large ziplock bag and mix it that way. You can skip the food processor and just go for the ziplock. As long as I don't have to directly touch the meat with my fingers, I'm good. :) (I used my mini-food processor for the onion. I hate chopping veggies by hand.)

Grease a muffin tin, and add an even amount of the mixture to each spot (I can't think of the name of it, but the hole where you stick the muffin mix is what I'm referring to). :)

Place the muffin tin in a 450 degree oven, and bake for about 20-25 minutes. Then switch the oven to broil, and broil them for 3-4 minutes to get a crispy top.

That's it! They are so easy to make, and so delicious; my favorite combination! Enjoy them with...

Garlicky Parmesan Mashed Potatoes

I used:

4 large baking potatoes, each cut into about 8-10 chunks (leave about half of the skin on)

2/3 cup Greek yogurt

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup milk

2/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1 T garlic powder

1 tspn salt

1 tspn ground black pepper

Boil the potatoes for about 25 minutes. Add the cheese and butter first so they melt a little, then mix everything else in, blend together with a hand mixer, and enjoy!

One of My Favorite Dishes~~Enchiladas!

This is a recipe I have been making for years, and every time I make it I change it up a bit. I usually use ground turkey (which I did this time), but the enchiladas are also delicious with shredded or chopped chicken, or ground beef. I also sometimes saute the veggies in butter (this time onions, tomatoes, green chilies, and black beans), but I left out the butter this time.

The best tortillas I have found at the store are the handmade ones from Trader Joe's. They have flour ones and whole wheat ones. This time I used the flour ones. They are so so good!

Ingredients:

1-1.5 lb lean ground turkey

1/2 t ground cumin

1/2 t garlic powder

1/2 t onion powder

Trader Joe's Flour Tortillas

Trader Joe's Enchilada Sauce

One can Trader Joe's Organic Black Beans (I often use dried beans, but they take more preparation)

One small can green chilies

One small/medium tomato, chopped (not too fine)

One small onion, chopped (not too fine)

1/2 cup salsa

1 1/2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

Brown the ground turkey. Drain if necessary.

Add the chopped onion and tomato to the ground turkey, and cook on medium heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the can of black beans (if using dried black beans, add them when you add the onion), and the can of green chilies. Stir for another minute while cooking on medium heat.

Stir in the Greek yogurt and salsa and continue to cook on low heat.

Fill one tortilla at a time with a large spoonfull of the mixture, about 2/3 cup, and sprinkle cheese on top of the meat mixture. Wrap the tortilla closed, and place it on one end of a greased glass baking dish. Do the same 4-5 more times, depending on how full each tortilla is and how many will fit in the dish.

Pour the bottle of enchilada sauce over the enchiladas, and bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. After 20 minutes, remove the enchiladas from the oven, sprinkle the remaining cheese over them, and bake for another 7-10 minutes.

Enjoy!