The post title was tonight's dinner. Aaron and I both thought this was a tasty and filling meal. The kids thought the chicken was overspiced but good without as much seasoning, and they both ate the potatoes and green beans. Well, Ellie mostly ate her green beans and devoured the potatoes. Caleb declared the potatoes too sweet until he tried a regular-sized bite at which point he said "these aren't sweet!" Right... cooking for my kids has taught me not to take anything judgment too seriously.
The baked chicken is a big success for me as it is 3 PointsPlus and tasty!! The Dijon potatoes are similar to a recipe from my mom, so they are another comfort food. The green beans were not exciting - just reheated from our freezer and added a touch of butter for the adults. Ellie asked to eat "just butter." After explaining butter's role as a condiment, she said "I'M SAD!!!" *shrug* It's hard to be 2.
Baked Chicken
From Weight Watchers - 3 PointsPlus per serving
Ingredients:
1 spray cooking spray
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, four 4 oz. halves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper, freshly ground
1 tsp. olive oil
2 tsp. lemon juice, or more to taste
2 tsp. rosemary, fresh, chopped
2 tsp. parsley, fresh, chopped
1/4 c. fat-free chicken broth
1/2 medium lemon, quartered (for garnish)
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400. Coat a small, shallow roasting pan with cooking spray.
Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper. Transfer chicken to prepared pan and drizzle with oil; sprinkle with lemon juice, rosemary and parsley. Pour broth around chicken to coat bottom of pan.
Bake until chicken is cooked through, about 30 to 35 minutes. Garnish with fresh lemon and serve. Yields 1 chicken breast half per serving.
Notes/Changes:
I didn't have a lemon for garnish, and I used dried herbs. I probably could have used a bit less seasoning, but I like herbs and spices.
Dijon-Roasted New Potatoes
From Weight Watchers - 4 PointsPlus per serving
Ingredients:
1 spray cooking spray
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. olive oil
3/4 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 pounds uncooked new potatoes, red or white, quartered or halved
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425°F. Coat a 9- X 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together mustard, oil, paprika, salt, thyme and pepper; add potatoes and stir to coat.
Transfer potatoes to prepared baking dish and roast 15 minutes; stir and roast until tender on inside, about 15 to 20 minutes more. Yields about 1 1/4 cups per serving.
Notes/Changes:
If your potatoes do not get crispy enough, coat them with cooking spray and then bake them for a few more minutes.
Instead of Dijon, I used a spicy deli mustard. I also just used regular baking potatoes, maybe Yukon Gold or Russet? I definitely recommend cutting the potatoes to a biteable size, in our case this was quartering.
Showing posts with label potatoes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label potatoes. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Back to Cooking
For several days after Thanksgiving, I really didn't feel much like cooking. I like cooking - A LOT - but I needed a break. We lived on leftovers and quick meals for a few days, but now I feel like I'm ready to rejoin the world of cooking.
This weekend Aaron made latkes, the traditional potato pancake associated with the holiday of Hanukkah/Chanukah/choose your favorite spelling and move on. Hanukkah is called the festival of lights since we Jews light a 8 branch menorah (candelabra) + the helper candle (shamash) in honor of a mythic miracle of oil for the Holy Temple's menorah lasting much longer than predicted. The actual story of Chanukah has to do with a battle of cultures and religions, but this blog is about food and not religious history, so back to food. In honor of the supposed miracle, we Jews eat a lot of greasy food during the 8 days of Chanukah.
Aaron makes some of the BEST latkes I've ever had. He of course does not cook with a recipe, but he does stick to a formula - one onion for every two potatoes. Most recipes I've read suggest one onion for four potatoes, and I don't find this formula as flavorful. In addition to the grated onions and potatoes, Aaron adds enough egg to make the vegetables stick together. It looks fairly soupy before he fries it. After he fries a batch, he puts the latkes on paper grocery bags in a dish in the oven to stay warm and drain. Let me try explaining this more like a recipe. :)
Aaron's Latkes
Ingredients:
Potatoes
Onions
For every 2 potatoes, 1 onion
Eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
Cooking oil of your choosing (Aaron likes peanut oil)
Instructions:
Grate potatoes and onions, preferably with a food processor since it is quicker and less dangerous. Put grated potatoes and onions in a large mixing bowl. Begin to add beaten eggs until you have a fairly soupy mixture. It won't be a liquid, but it is somewhat pourable. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Prepare a baking dish such as a 13 x 9 Pyrex and preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Cut some brown grocery bags to line the baking dish and eventually to layer between rows of latkes.
Heat oil on a griddle or in a large skillet. You will want to heat a shallow pool of oil and consider having a pan lid nearby in case of grease fire. Aaron has yet to cause a grease fire, but other family members seem to be prone to latke fire starting. Scoop potato mixture on griddle into 3-4" diameter "blobs"/pancakes. Fry for several minutes on each side. As the latke fries on the first side, you can test its "flippability" with a very flat spatula after a few minutes. Latkes are ready to flip when they do not threaten to fall apart when you touch them with a spatula.
When latkes are fried, remove them from heat and transfer to your prepared baking dish. Keep dish in oven while you cook remaining latkes. Make sure to put a layer of paper bag between the rows of latkes. After you have made all the potato mixture into latkes, serve latkes warm with applesauce and/or sour cream.
Speaking of applesauce, I made a cranberry applesauce which complemented the latkes rather nicely. My usual applesauce recipe follows:
Ingredients:
8-9 apples, cored and sliced, possibly peeled
1 c. water
cinnamon (optional)
Instructions:
Combine ingredients in large pot. Bring to boil. Continue boiling/simmering until apples are mashable (10 minutes?). Mash with potato masher or immersion blender.
For cranberry applesauce, I added just under 3 cups of fresh cranberries. The resulting sauce was quite red, a bit tart but still sweet enough that the kids really enjoyed it.
More cooking coming as our week starts again!
This weekend Aaron made latkes, the traditional potato pancake associated with the holiday of Hanukkah/Chanukah/choose your favorite spelling and move on. Hanukkah is called the festival of lights since we Jews light a 8 branch menorah (candelabra) + the helper candle (shamash) in honor of a mythic miracle of oil for the Holy Temple's menorah lasting much longer than predicted. The actual story of Chanukah has to do with a battle of cultures and religions, but this blog is about food and not religious history, so back to food. In honor of the supposed miracle, we Jews eat a lot of greasy food during the 8 days of Chanukah.
Aaron makes some of the BEST latkes I've ever had. He of course does not cook with a recipe, but he does stick to a formula - one onion for every two potatoes. Most recipes I've read suggest one onion for four potatoes, and I don't find this formula as flavorful. In addition to the grated onions and potatoes, Aaron adds enough egg to make the vegetables stick together. It looks fairly soupy before he fries it. After he fries a batch, he puts the latkes on paper grocery bags in a dish in the oven to stay warm and drain. Let me try explaining this more like a recipe. :)
Aaron's Latkes
Ingredients:
Potatoes
Onions
For every 2 potatoes, 1 onion
Eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
Cooking oil of your choosing (Aaron likes peanut oil)
Instructions:
Grate potatoes and onions, preferably with a food processor since it is quicker and less dangerous. Put grated potatoes and onions in a large mixing bowl. Begin to add beaten eggs until you have a fairly soupy mixture. It won't be a liquid, but it is somewhat pourable. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Prepare a baking dish such as a 13 x 9 Pyrex and preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Cut some brown grocery bags to line the baking dish and eventually to layer between rows of latkes.
Heat oil on a griddle or in a large skillet. You will want to heat a shallow pool of oil and consider having a pan lid nearby in case of grease fire. Aaron has yet to cause a grease fire, but other family members seem to be prone to latke fire starting. Scoop potato mixture on griddle into 3-4" diameter "blobs"/pancakes. Fry for several minutes on each side. As the latke fries on the first side, you can test its "flippability" with a very flat spatula after a few minutes. Latkes are ready to flip when they do not threaten to fall apart when you touch them with a spatula.
When latkes are fried, remove them from heat and transfer to your prepared baking dish. Keep dish in oven while you cook remaining latkes. Make sure to put a layer of paper bag between the rows of latkes. After you have made all the potato mixture into latkes, serve latkes warm with applesauce and/or sour cream.
Speaking of applesauce, I made a cranberry applesauce which complemented the latkes rather nicely. My usual applesauce recipe follows:
Ingredients:
8-9 apples, cored and sliced, possibly peeled
1 c. water
cinnamon (optional)
Instructions:
Combine ingredients in large pot. Bring to boil. Continue boiling/simmering until apples are mashable (10 minutes?). Mash with potato masher or immersion blender.
For cranberry applesauce, I added just under 3 cups of fresh cranberries. The resulting sauce was quite red, a bit tart but still sweet enough that the kids really enjoyed it.
More cooking coming as our week starts again!
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Thanksgiving - Mustard Potatoes
One type of potato is never enough, especially if a key member of the family refuses to eat sweet potatoes. My mom gave me this recipe, and it's a winner.
Mustard Potatoes
Serves at least 6
Ingredients:
6 medium red potatoes, rinsed and quartered
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. Dijon/spicy mustard
1 Tbsp. rosemary
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
black pepper to taste
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 and spray a baking dish. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. When potatoes are well covered with other ingredients, transfer to baking dish. Bake in oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until potatoes are fork tender.
Notes/Changes:
I cooked this dish rather inconsistently this year. The oven temperature was set for the turkey, at 325. The potatoes looked done after an hour or so, but I still found a few quarters that were not so well cooked. The ones which were cooked enough were quite tasty.
Mustard Potatoes
Serves at least 6
Ingredients:
6 medium red potatoes, rinsed and quartered
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. Dijon/spicy mustard
1 Tbsp. rosemary
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
black pepper to taste
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 and spray a baking dish. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. When potatoes are well covered with other ingredients, transfer to baking dish. Bake in oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until potatoes are fork tender.
Notes/Changes:
I cooked this dish rather inconsistently this year. The oven temperature was set for the turkey, at 325. The potatoes looked done after an hour or so, but I still found a few quarters that were not so well cooked. The ones which were cooked enough were quite tasty.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Zucchini-Potato Pancakes... Sort of
We've eaten this recipe before, but I don't see a recipe on my blog for it. Hmph. Laziness is keeping me from posting the details of the recipe. The gist of it is that you shred equal parts potato and zucchini, add egg, onion/scallion, tarragon, salt and pepper. Lightly fry as pancakes. It's a variation on latkes, and the last time I remember our making this, they were GREAT!
Tonight was a more frustrating experience. Tasted great but more trouble than they were worth. I should have had another meal of the pumpkin soup. :P Since the recipe is a Weight Watchers recipe, it doesn't call for much egg. I ended up adding eggs, which of course means that the ones I made are not 2 points per serving (a serving being 2 pancakes). So much for that controlling my food thing. Even after adding the egg to make the mixture hold together, the pancakes were still pretty flimsy when I would flip them. In other words, what started as a pancake which looked like it would hold its shape ended up being a pile of shredded vegetables. I had a plateful of fallen pancakes before Aaron came home.
Fortunately, I had not exhausted the supply of "batter" by the time he arrived. I handed over my spatula and refused to do any additional work on the dinner. Aaron asked if I wanted a different job, and I angrily refused that too since I had been listening to increasing levels of whine from a certain adorable 2.5 year old for the previous hour. While Aaron saved dinner, I watched the end of Toy Story with Caleb.
All of this frustration does have a happy ending. Caleb ate many of the pancakes, which is not terribly surprising. Ellie ate more than one serving, which is a huge surprise, and had applesauce (another surprise as she has been rejecting applesauce this month). And she looked at me in the middle of dinner, and unprompted said "This is EXCELLENT!" in a perfect imitation of her brother's usual food praise.
Tonight was a more frustrating experience. Tasted great but more trouble than they were worth. I should have had another meal of the pumpkin soup. :P Since the recipe is a Weight Watchers recipe, it doesn't call for much egg. I ended up adding eggs, which of course means that the ones I made are not 2 points per serving (a serving being 2 pancakes). So much for that controlling my food thing. Even after adding the egg to make the mixture hold together, the pancakes were still pretty flimsy when I would flip them. In other words, what started as a pancake which looked like it would hold its shape ended up being a pile of shredded vegetables. I had a plateful of fallen pancakes before Aaron came home.
Fortunately, I had not exhausted the supply of "batter" by the time he arrived. I handed over my spatula and refused to do any additional work on the dinner. Aaron asked if I wanted a different job, and I angrily refused that too since I had been listening to increasing levels of whine from a certain adorable 2.5 year old for the previous hour. While Aaron saved dinner, I watched the end of Toy Story with Caleb.
All of this frustration does have a happy ending. Caleb ate many of the pancakes, which is not terribly surprising. Ellie ate more than one serving, which is a huge surprise, and had applesauce (another surprise as she has been rejecting applesauce this month). And she looked at me in the middle of dinner, and unprompted said "This is EXCELLENT!" in a perfect imitation of her brother's usual food praise.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Colcannon - Food of MY people
Aaron called me from his consulting job one afternoon and told me he had an idea for dinner. He saw what his colleague was eating it and wanted me to make the same. His colleague was eating colcannon, a traditional Irish dish. I'm part-Irish, and it has simple ingredients, so I figured why not? I'm so glad we tried this!
I started with this recipe from AllRecipes.com and made some changes
Colcannon - Variation #1
Ingredients:
2 1/2 pounds potatoes, NOT peeled, quartered/eighthed
4 slices of turkey bacon
1 bunch of kale, stemmed and chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 stick (8 Tbsp. - we don't have milk on hand usually, so I substitute butter)
1/4 c. butter, melted (yes, in addition to the stick)
Instructions:
After cleaning and cutting potatoes, put potatoes in large pot with water to cover. Boil until very tender, easy to mash.
Place bacon in skillet. Cook over medium heat until browned. Set bacon aside to dry on plate, leave drippings in skillet. Crumble bacon after it has cooled and dried. With the drippings, saute onion and kale until kale wilts. Putting a lid on the skillet will help vegetables cook more quickly.
Drain the potatoes, mash with the 1 stick of butter. Salt and pepper to taste. Fold in the bacon, kale, and onion. You can transfer to a serving bowl if you like. Make a large well in the center and pour the 1/4 c. of melted butter in well. Serve immediately.
Colcannon - Variation #2
Ingredients:
2 1/2 pounds potatoes, NOT peeled, quartered/eighthed
4 slices of turkey bacon
1/2 bunch of kale, stemmed and chopped
1/4 head of cabbage, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 stick (8 Tbsp. - we don't have milk on hand usually, so I substitute butter)
1/4 c. butter, melted (yes, in addition to the stick)
Instructions:
See above. Saute cabbage with kale and onions.
I made Variation #2 when we had both kale and cabbage to eat. That is, it would have gone bad and wasted had we not eaten it. I also decided to double the recipe when I had 2 greens, mostly because I wanted to get through the greens but also because I know the leftovers are awesome. *grin*
The kid review is mixed. The first time I made this, they really enjoyed it - especially the bacon. The second time, they were both overtired and had a hard time eating anything. Ellie still showed excitement at the bacon, and Caleb professed love for "cold cannon," but I can't say either of them ate a large amount the second time. Still I think you should try it. Most kids seem to like mashed potatoes, and these are only slightly dressed up.
I started with this recipe from AllRecipes.com and made some changes
Colcannon - Variation #1
Ingredients:
2 1/2 pounds potatoes, NOT peeled, quartered/eighthed
4 slices of turkey bacon
1 bunch of kale, stemmed and chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 stick (8 Tbsp. - we don't have milk on hand usually, so I substitute butter)
1/4 c. butter, melted (yes, in addition to the stick)
Instructions:
After cleaning and cutting potatoes, put potatoes in large pot with water to cover. Boil until very tender, easy to mash.
Place bacon in skillet. Cook over medium heat until browned. Set bacon aside to dry on plate, leave drippings in skillet. Crumble bacon after it has cooled and dried. With the drippings, saute onion and kale until kale wilts. Putting a lid on the skillet will help vegetables cook more quickly.
Drain the potatoes, mash with the 1 stick of butter. Salt and pepper to taste. Fold in the bacon, kale, and onion. You can transfer to a serving bowl if you like. Make a large well in the center and pour the 1/4 c. of melted butter in well. Serve immediately.
Colcannon - Variation #2
Ingredients:
2 1/2 pounds potatoes, NOT peeled, quartered/eighthed
4 slices of turkey bacon
1/2 bunch of kale, stemmed and chopped
1/4 head of cabbage, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 stick (8 Tbsp. - we don't have milk on hand usually, so I substitute butter)
1/4 c. butter, melted (yes, in addition to the stick)
Instructions:
See above. Saute cabbage with kale and onions.
I made Variation #2 when we had both kale and cabbage to eat. That is, it would have gone bad and wasted had we not eaten it. I also decided to double the recipe when I had 2 greens, mostly because I wanted to get through the greens but also because I know the leftovers are awesome. *grin*
The kid review is mixed. The first time I made this, they really enjoyed it - especially the bacon. The second time, they were both overtired and had a hard time eating anything. Ellie still showed excitement at the bacon, and Caleb professed love for "cold cannon," but I can't say either of them ate a large amount the second time. Still I think you should try it. Most kids seem to like mashed potatoes, and these are only slightly dressed up.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)