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Unfortunately my diet and exercise regimen has been taking away from my cooking time and variations and because of this I have not blogged nearly frequently enough.  However, today after an intense 60 minutes of plyometrics, well actually about half way through, I started thinking about what kind of chicken we would be having tonight.  We have been eating chicken nearly everyday since the 1st of the year and creativity is the name of the game.  Most nights we just rub something on the chicken breasts, beat em out a bit with the mallet and throw them in the broiler.  Tonight though I got to thinking that we had a little spinach left in the fridge and a little swiss cheese.

Upon further inspection of the fridge and surrounding cupboards I found the rest of my ingredients to make a rather tasty, yet still fairly healthy dinner.

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp pesto
20 spinach leaves stems removed
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tsp grated parmesan
12 postage stamp size slices of swiss cheese
olive oil
salt
black pepper
dried basil leaves

Instructions
I started by combining spinach, garlic (minced), parmesan, 1/4 tsp black pepper and pesto in a mortar and pestle I recently got from Amazon.  I crushed all of these ingredients to a pulp and set aside.  I then poured about a tablespoon of olive oil in a glass baking dish and spread it around.  I proceeded to wash each of the chicken breast, butterfly them open and stuff them with half of pesto mixture and 6 of the pieces of cheese, I then rubbed them with olive oil, closed them up with toothpick sprinkled with salt, pepper and dried basil and placed them in the oven at 400ºF for 45 minutes or until the internal temperature reached 180ºF.  It was a little shy of 45 minutes.

For such an easy and relatively healthy dish it was quite tasty and we will be making it again.

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I have been sitting on a number of recipes for quite sometime waiting for just the opportune moment to make them.  One of these recipes was for Buttermilk Biscuits and I finally got a reason and a chance to make them.  As far as a dish goes they are pretty bland and disappointing, however, as biscuits they are awesome.  The biscuits have just a hint of buttermilk tang and a whole lot of fluffy goodness and when topped with a dab of margarine (butter would also be good, however, I am allergic) and some honey they make a great snack or compliment to a meal.  They would also be great on a pot pie or smothered under a thick layer of sausage gravy.

Ingredients
2 3/4 c flour
1 1/3 c buttermilk
1 egg
2 tbsp plus 2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt (or more to taste)
pinch of baking soda
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp baking powder
2/3 c margarine or butter cut into 1 inch pieces

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375ºF

In a large bowl whisk together dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl whisk together buttermilk and egg.  Cut butter or margarine into dry ingredients until butter or margarine is pea sized.  Stir in buttermilk mixture, until just mixed, do not over mix.

Remove dough to a lightly floured surface, pat to desired thickness (mine was 3/4″).  Use a large glass to cut into rounds.  Place biscuit rounds on a large ungreased baking sheet.

Bake the biscuits until light, fluffy and golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Now if I was feeling ambitious I would make up some sausage gravy for biscuits and gravy in the morning, something tells me it will just be yogurt.

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In our quest to eat way more chicken than any one person should, we have arrived at ways to make chicken number 2.  Southwest Stuffed Chicken, now this is actually a really easy recipe to make.

Ingredients
2 large chicken breasts
1/2 c corn
1/2 c black beans, canned or thoroughly soaked
1/2 c salsa
1 1/2 tsp ground chipotle peppers
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1 c half and half
1 1/2 tsp dried basil
pepper-jack cheese (optional)
sour cream (optional)
cilantro (optional)

Instructions
Mix salsa, corn, beans, 1/2 tsp chipotle, and cumin in a bowl set aside.

Grease a glass baking dish big enough to hold both breasts.

Rinse and dry chicken.  Slice chicken to make a pocket to put stuffing in, don’t slice all the way through.  Spoon in half of stuffing or as much as will fit into each breast, use toothpicks to hold shut and place in pan.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350ºF.

While chicken is backing prepare glaze by combining half and half, remaining chipotle and basil in a small sauce pan.  Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer and cook until reduced by half, stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat and pour over the breasts after 30 minutes in oven.  Bake chicken for 10 more minutes or until the center reaches 160°F.

Serve over rice.  Top with sour cream, cilantro and/or pepper jack cheese.

I served mine over a simple rice made this afternoon in the rice cooker consisting of rice, cumin, garlic, onion, jalapeno, paprika, turmeric and a touch of oil.

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By Posted on Posted in Programming, Projects, Uncategorized No Comments

If you haven’t heard the iPad is a new device from Apple due out in March that is like a giant iPhone or iPod touch, on steroids.  Its like a laptop with no keyboard or mouse, just a touch screen.  You can look at it here.

The iPad looks great, in fact, I want one and will be buying one as soon as it is feasible.  In the mean time I am left to wonder, as a foodie-geek or geek-foodie or food nerd or whatever I am, how will this work as a cookbook?  Will the screen stand up to some abuse?  Can I wipe it off with a rag when I get oil, grease and juices on it?

Starting at $499 it is a rather expensive toy and an even more expensive cookbook but it holds promise if it will stand up to the abuse of living in a kitchen.  In the mean time I have downloaded the SDK and hope to begin plugging away shortly to hook the iPad into my existing recipe database.

Time will tell whether or not the iPad will catch on but with Apple’s cult following surely they will sell millions of these devices in its first year of availability, however, with a  built in stand by battery time of a month it seems that Apple has already counted on these devices not being used daily.  Perhaps CraigsList will end up flooded the used iPads for cheap.

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It has been nearly a month since I last posted and for that I am to blame, we have been on a diet and no matter how much you like chicken it just seems that after a couple days of chicken breasts it gets kinda boring.  Well we have been eating chicken breasts about 5 out of every 7 days since the first of the year and we have found some pretty creative ways to prepare and season them.  I recently also discovered we are not the only one who have been eating chicken day after day, week after week this year, so this shall be post one of an ongoing series on the ways we eat chicken in the Elston household.

Tonight we had Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry over white rice.  The first time we made this dish we did not have any soy sauce and so we had substituted Dale’s Marinade for soy sauce, Dale’s imparts quite a different flavor to the dish than does straight soy sauce, you should try it both ways.

Chicken and Broccoli over White Rice

The recipe we used to create our chicken and broccoli stir fry was derived from several recipes online for chicken and pork stir fry and is as follows:

Ingredients
1 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast (cut into 1/2 inch cubes)
1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
4 tbsp soy sauce
1 c beef broth
2 tbsp white sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
2 tbsp cornstarch
6 c broccoli florets
1 c water
1 tbsp canola oil, divided
3 large cloves garlic, pressed

Instructions
In a medium bowl toss chicken with 2 tablespoons soy sauce and red wine vinegar until evenly coated.  Set aside.  In another bowl combine remaining soy sauce, beef broth, sugar, ginger and cornstarch.

Place broccoli in a large skillet over high heat with water.  Cover and steam until tender.  Drain and transfer to a plate, set aside.

Heat oil in same skillet over high heat until it sends up wisps of smoke.  Add chicken, stir-fry until cooked through.

Return broccoli to skillet and add garlic.  Stir-fry until garlic is fragrant (about 2 minutes).  Pour in broth mixture and cook until thickened, stirring constantly.  Serve immediately over white rice.

In order to the consistently great rice I use a Cuisinart 4 Cup rice cooker with a touch of canola oil in the bottom of the pan and use a 1 to 2 ratio of rice to water and a pinch of salt.  Great stir fry should be accompanied by great rice, every time.

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