Recipe Review

Did anyone try the steak recipe I posted last week? If so, how did it turn out?

Here's another EASY meal that I cook every couple weeks.

Whole Roasted Sunday Chicken x 2
(why not make 2 of them and use the left overs for several other creations? It's just as much work on the front end and then you're set for 2-3 other dinners)

• 2 whole chickens
• 3T kosher salt
• 1 T pepper
• 2 T garlic powder
• Olive Oil

Clean and rinse the chickens and put in a roasting pan. Pat dry with paper towels. Rub outside of birds with olive oil. Mix salt, pepper and garlic powder in a bowl and season birds liberally both inside and out. Toss them in a 350 degree oven for about 2 1/2 hours (more or less depending on how big your bird is) or until the inside reaches 180 degrees. If you don't have a meat thermometer, get one. They make cooking so much easier, and lets face it, who wants salmonila (sp) from their own kitchen?!

Serve one chicken for dinner with roasted red potatoes (cook in the oven for an hour at 350 while chicken cooks) and salad. Yum!

I like to pick the rest of the first chicken and the entire second chicken and make a few of the following creations for dinner the rest of the week:

• Chicken Enchiladas (you'll need enchilada sauce, tortillas, black beans, cheese from the store)
• Chicken, grape and gorgonzola salad with honey mustard balsamic vinigrette (you'll need 1 bag spinach or lettuce salad, 1 bunch grapes, crumbled gorgonzola, honey, balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard (left over from cooking the port sauce for the steaks), olive oil
• Chicken noodle soup (you'll need celery, carrots, onion, chicken broth and egg noodles)
• Chicken ceasar salad (spinach or lettuce salad, parmasean cheese and ceaser dressing)

Let me know what you think and if you tried the chicken! It's yummy.

Recipe Review

Hi All,
I decided to start a new segment on my blog for recipies. As some of you may know, I LOVE to cook. Unfortunately, my meals have gone from quasi-gourmet to can-I-cook-the-entire-thing-during-one-forty-minute-nap. But, I hate to sacrifice quality, so I've found a few recipes that are winners in my house. Most have fewer than 5 ingredients and take less than 30 minutes. I don't have much more time than that to get something prepared and on the table, especially the days when Aaron works late. So, I've decided to to a little recipe review for you other moms out there who are trying to figure out how to do it all. I think most of my readers are either working moms, stay at home moms or just busy ladies in general. So, here you go......

Recipe #1 Seared Fillet of Beef with Port Reduction Sauce.
Outcome: Yummy!
Paired it with: Sauted spinach leaves in garlic oil

• 2 Filet Mignons (or any other cut of beef. I used Rib Eye last night) that are about 1 1/4 inch thick
• 1 cup port
• 2 T. red-wine vinegar
• 1/2 t Dijon mustard
• 2T grated horsradish (or use from a jar)
• 1 1/2 t olive oil

Pat meat dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat oil in pan over medium high heat. Cook meat on 4 minutes each side for medium rare, 5 min on each side for medium/medium well. While steak is cooking, combine all other ingredients and wisk together. After steak is finished, remove from pan and slowly pour liquid mixture down the side of pan (it will splatter like crazy if you just dump it in) and reduce to about half. Pour over steak and serve.

While reducing the sauce, I heated another sauce pan with one clove garlic and about 1 T of olive oil over med-high heat. Dumped in one bag of baby spinach and seasoned with salt and pepper. Saute till wilted and serve along side of steak.

We loved this meal and it took less than 15 mintues from start to table.