The Healthy Kitchen: Chicken Burger Cauliflower Gnocchi Skillet

This was surprisingly good and pretty healthy. It is loaded with veggies and protein. 

I revamped a Hamburger gnocchi skillet meal.

The Ingredients:

1 Tbsp butter

1 bag of cauliflower gnocchi

1 lb ground chicken

1/4 c diced onion

1 tsp garlic

1 1/5 -2 Tbsp Meehans chicken seasoning

1/2 tsp salt

1 zucchini chopped

1 can rotel

1 C chicken broth

1/3 C shredded cheese

The Recipe:

Melt the butter in a covered skillet. Add gnocchi and brown on both sides then set aside.

To the skillet add the chicken, onion, garlic, seasoning and salt. Cook until no longer pink. 

Add the zucchini, rotel, broth, and the gnocchi. Cook until bubbly. Then lower until the broth minimizes. 

Add the cheese and combine until melted.

The Sweet Kitchen: Browned Butter M&M Blondies

 It's not often I made a regular sweet recipe and usually that occurs when I am baking for other people. Of course, I have to taste test! I made these browned butter M&M blondies for my friend Lori to celebrate her birthday. 

Browned butter is a new favorite ingredient to use especially in baking. It gives everything such amazing flavor and it so easy to do. You just cook the butter the recipe calls for on the stove until the butter turns an amber color and has a nutty or caramel smell. Just be careful not to overcook it. Then let it cool for 20 minutes before adding it to the recipe including all the brown bits at the bottom of the pan. Thats all the good flavors. 

So first preheat the oven to 350 degrees then go ahead and brown the butter and set it aside. While it is cooling it a great time to gather all of your ingredients you will need. 

The Ingredients:

3/4 C of browned butter cooled

1 C brown sugar

1/2 C sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 C flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 C mini M&Ms

2/3 C semi sweet chocolate chips

The Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and brown your butter. 

Grease a 9x13 pan. 

Combine the cooled brown butter, brown sugar, and sugar and mix until combined. 

Add in the eggs and vanilla and mix to combine. 

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. 

Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and mix until combined. 

Fold in 1/3 C of M&M's and the chocolate chips

Place batter in the prepared pan and smooth the top so the batter touches the edges.

Press in the remaining 1/3 C of M&M's into the top of the batter. 

Bake for 23-25 minutes until golden brown. This will still feel a bit soft but toothpick inserted should come out clean. 

Cool completely and cut into squares.

The Meatless Kitchen: Tex Mex Quinoa Three Ways!

 I needed a quick lunch the other day, so I made a big batch of Tex Mex Quinoa. Basically, a bunch of veggies and beans tossed with seasoned quinoa. This is meatless so would be great if you are omitting meat. I cooked a cup of quinoa in chicken broth with some seasoning. I used Adobo seasoning in this. Then I threw the veggies in a casserole dish to heat up in the oven. I used a can of drained black beans, a can or Rotel, green chiles, and black olives all drained and topped with some gouda cheese. For lunch that day I just had it in a bowl. 

Today though I'm going to show you three ways you can use that mixture in different meals. 

Meal 1: Tex Mex Quinoa Tacos

Just add the mixture to a soft shell or hard shell taco. Add any toppings you'd like (cheese, lettuce, jalapenos, sour cream). I added some salsa to the mixture and topped with some pepperjack cheese. Be prepared this is a bit of a messy taco. 

Meal 2: Tex Mex Quinoa Nachos

Just lay a bed of tortilla chips on the plate and top with the quinoa mixture. Top with any additional topping you would like (lettuce, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, etc). Use the tortilla chips to scoop up the quinoa mixture. I used quinoa chia seed tortilla chips. 

Meal 3: Tex Mex Quinoa Enchiladas

This was by far my favorite of the three. The enchilada sauce really added some flavor. So, for this I took the base quinoa mixture and added a couple tablespoons of the enchilada sauce. Then built the enchiladas. 

               

I used low carb tortillas and put in 2 TBSP of the quinoa mixture and rolled the enchiladas and placed them in a greased casserole dish. fold side down. Some of the mixture will fall out the sides that's ok just push it back in if you can. Once all the enchiladas are in the pan, pour the rest of the can of enchilada sauce over all the enchiladas. I made 6 enchiladas if you are making more you will need a 2nd can of sauce. I then shredded some pepperjack cheese and covered the enchiladas. I baked in a preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until the sauce is bubbly and the cheese is melted. Cheddar cheese or Monterrey jack would be good in this as well. I would like to try this again with corn tortillas and green enchilada sauce, but this was very good. 

A great option for a meatless yet filling meal. You can do a trio meal like I did, or you can try a single meal option. 

The Italian Kitchen: Baked Feta and Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes and Italian Sausage

I've seen this recipe around and thought I would finally try it. I, of course, made some changes. Next time, I would like to try the Boursin version. It was good a bit unexpected. It was a bit tangier than expected, I believe from the Feta.

The Ingredients

2 pints of cherry tomatoes

1 block Feta cheese

1/2 C olive oil

3 cloves of garlic

Salt 

Pepper

Pasta of choice

Ground Italian sausage

Oregano

Basil

Pizza party seasoning

The Recipe

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In baking dish layer the  cherry tomatoes and top with half of olive oil and seasonings. 

Add the Feta block in the middle of the baking dish and top with remainder of olive oil and seasonings.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until the tomatoes break up and Feta melts. Mash to combine. I also used an immersion blender to really combine it well. 

While the Feta is cooking, cook your meat and pasta. Once the Feta is done, add the pasta and meat to the sauce. 

Garnish with parmesan, basil, or oregano. 

You could also add some veggies like broccoli or spinach if desired. 

The Soup Kitchen: Nacho Soup with Chochoyotes

The soup of the week is Nacho Soup with chochoyotes aka Mexican dumplings. All the flavors of nachos in a soup. The first step is to cook your ground beef. My favorite meat to use is actually ground beefalo. I also add the diced onions and diced green peppers at this step. Then you will add this to your slow cooker.

The Ingredients:

1lb been ground cooked and drained

1 C green bell pepper diced

1 C onion diced

3 cloves minced garlic

1 jalapeño seeds removed 

10-12 oz frozen corn

15 oz black beans drained and rinsed

1 can rotel

1 1/2 tsp chili powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp crushed red pepper

3 1/2 C beef broth

8oz shredded cheese- cheddar, pepperjack, or monterrey jack

1 C heavy cream

3-4 TBSP flour or masa harina

The Recipe:

Add all ingredients up to the broth to the slow cooker and cook on Hi for 4 hours or low for 8. This is also when I added the frozen chochoyotes.

Once done add cheese, and make a slurry with the flour and heavy cream and add.  Cook for an additional 30 minutes.

Chochoyotes recipe:

For the chochoyotes, you will need 1 c masa harina, 1 tbsp oil, seasoning of choice I used cilantro 1 TBSP, and 3/4 - 1 C of warm water. Mix all together until the consistency of play dough. Spoon small bits up and form into balls and push thumb to make an indention. You can put right in soup or you can freeze in a flat layer to be used later. Once frozen can transfer to ziploc bag. Tip: I used a spaghetti spoon to spoon up a melon baller would work to I think.

Note: don't add the dumplings until the last 10 min. Otherwise, they basically break down and become a thickener. It will still taste good but there will be no dumpling.

Garnish with cheese, peppers, onions, cilantro, or tortilla chips.