Feta Topped Chicken

Sometimes it is crazy here. Since I like for us to eat dinner as a family, sometimes I need to make something quick. I saw this chicken recipe and I thought maybe the cooking time was off. If the time was correct, then maybe the chicken would be dried out. I will say I liked how the chicken turned out.

The best thing about this recipe is how easy you can adapt it to your preferences. For an example, my husband does not like tomatoes. I topped his chicken with only the cheese. My oldest daughter likes olives so next time hers will be Greek style. My youngest children did not like the cheese but did like the tomato. I liked the original recipe. I prefer to buy the feta cheese in a block and then crumble it. If you need a quick recipe, this is the one I would recommend.

Feta Topped Chicken
4 chicken breast, boneless and skinless
2 Tbsp balsamic vinaigrette dressing
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp thyme
1/8 tsp pepper
1 large roma tomato, cut into 8 slices
1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to broil.
2. Slice your chicken breast in half like butterfly style.
3. Brush each side of the chicken breasts with the balsamic vinaigrette.
4. Sprinkle the chicken with the oregano, rosemary, thyme, and pepper.
5. Place the chicken in an oven proof dish. (I used a Pyrex casserole dish.)
6. Broil the chicken about 4 inches from the top of the oven for 5 minutes.
7. Turn the chicken over and allow the chicken to cook for 5 more minutes.
8. Remove the chicken from the oven and top each piece of chicken with a tomato slice.
9. Sprinkle some feta cheese on each piece of chicken.
10. Broil the chicken for another 3 minutes or until the center of  the chicken internal temperature reaches 170 degrees F.

Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker website.

Did you already know...
-Feta is a brined cheese normally made from sheep or goat's milk.
-The word feta means slice in Greek.
-It is believed the cyclopes in Homer’s Odyssey made feta cheese in his cave.

Football Crackers

My husband loves football. He watches it while he eats his dip and crackers. I decided to give his traditional snack a creative twist. The kids preferred this twist. Can you tell what we will be watching this weekend?

 My oldest daughter is very creative so she took the football themed twist to another level with her background.

Football Cheese and crackers
3 slices of cheddar cheese
1 package of chicken sausage, buffalo style
1 sleeve of crackers
food dye

Directions:

1. Take the cheese and using a biscuit cutter press only half of the cutter into cheese. 
2. Flip the cheese over and cut into the second part of the cheese to form the shape of a football.
3. Cook the sausage according to the directions. Slice the sausage into 1/2 inch circles.
4. Top each cracker with the cheese and sausage. Can add dressing in between each layers to hold the items together.
5. Top the cheese with food dye to look like the stitching of the football if desired.

Recipe adapted from Gimme Some Oven. 

 Did you already know...........
-Football evolved from rugby and soccer.
-In 1869, Yale and McGill played the first game of football.
-In 1892, the first professional football player was paid $500 for one game. 

Enchilada Pie

Since I can make my own tortillas, I can decide the size for the tortillas. Tortillas only seem to come in two sizes at the store, really gigantic or small. For this dish, I made the tortillas to fit my circular baking dish. Isn't that cool? It probably would have taken me just as long to drive to the store to buy the tortillas than just make them. I love my food processor. 

Since it was cold out, I didn't want to go out. I had hamburger in the freezer. Cheese in the refrigerator. I cheated since I had a can of enchilada sauce. I asked my youngest daughter for an onion and garlic. She brought me 3 onions. So, I asked my son to grab me some garlic. He did and showed his sister what garlic looks like. Then he saw I had 3 onions so he ran and grabbed a pair of sunglasses. He is so thoughtful. The sunglasses were too dark to use in the house. Since I only used half an onion, I didn't cry.

Enchilada Pie

4 flour tortillas
1 lb ground hamburger
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and chopped fine
1 garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp ground chili powder
1/2 cup water
1 package of shredded Mexican cheese blend
1 (10 oz.) can of enchilada sauce
salt and pepper for taste
sour cream, scallions, cheese and other desired toppings

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a medium skillet, brown the hamburger over medium heat.
3. Add the onion, peppers, and garlic to the skillet. Cook about 2 minutes.
4. Add the cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Cook about 2 minutes.
5. Add the water and cook for about 5 minutes.
6. In a baking dish, add about 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce to coat the bottom of the dish.
7. Add a tortilla to the dish.
8. On top of the tortilla, add about 1/4 cup of the meat. Spread evenly over the tortilla.
9. Cover with a handful of cheese and then top with 1/4 cup of the enchilada sauce.
10. Repeat the layer until topped with the last tortilla.
11. On top of the last tortilla, cover with the remaining enchilada sauce and top with cheese.
12. Bake the dish uncovered for about 30 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is golden brown.
13. Let cool for about 10 minutes before serving.
14. Serve with desired toppings.

Recipe from Jen of Sweet Morris

 Did you already know...........
-Jalapeño peppers range from green to fully ripen red.
-Jalapeño peppers are originally from Mexico.
-The heat of the jalapeño pepper are from the seeds.
-Jalapeño peppers are a good source of Vitamin K, Vitamin A, and also contains traces of Vitamin E and Vitamin B plus other nutrients.

Stromboli, Mummy style

I love Halloween. When I was in school, the school lunch menu always had scary titles for the month like worms and eyeballs (aka. spaghetti and meatballs). Did your school do that? The school lunch menu that my children have doesn't have any creative scary titles. I don't want them to be missing out so of course we have "scary" tasty meals for the month.

The Stromboli gooey filling

Another reason I think I like Halloween is that it was the month to watch scary movies and scare everyone around you. I know I inherited this from my Dad since he would always scare us. Remember I warned you,  I will scare you if you watch a scary movie with me. I think I am immune to being scared by a scary movie. I can normally predict who will live and who will have to exit the movie early. My husband has banned me from the room while he watches them. One time my Dad's siblings came to visit and they decided to watch a scary movie. My poor husband was scared several times from them plus I helped.

 The mummy wrappings

 To celebrate Halloween I have decided to make a scary Stromboli. I am normally good and try not to buy the little cookbooks found at the grocery store checkout but I can not resist the Halloween ones. So again this year, I broke down and bought the Easy Halloween by Pillsbury. This stromboli recipe was inspired by their Mummy Stromboli. You could use refrigerated pizza dough or crust but I made mine.

Do you like his face?

  
Stromboli, Mummy style  
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb. sweet Italian sausage
1 medium onion
3 clove of garlic
5-6 mushrooms
1 bunch of broccoli rabe
1/4 cup of red peppers
10 pepperoni
1 Pizza dough (see below for recipe)
8 oz. package of Italian cheese blend
3 slices of provolone
additional olive oil for brushing the dough

Directions

1. Heat a skillet with the olive oil over medium heat.
2. Place your dough on a flour surface and roll out. This should only take about a minute to do.
3. Brown the sausage for several minutes.
4. While the meat is browning, chop your vegetables. I chopped mine small except the broccoli rabe.
5. Add the vegetables to the skillet.
6. Chop the pepperoni and add it to the skillet.
7. Stir the skillet mixture every few minutes for five to ten minutes until your sausage is cooked through.
8. Add half the package of cheese to your skillet mixture and stir.
9. (It will look gooey but its good because it will hide some of those vegetables.)
10. Take your dough and roll out into a long rectangle about 7 x 11.
11. Move the dough onto your cookie or pizza sheet.
12. Take scissors and cut about 2 inches into the dough on the long sides of the rectangle. Keep doing this with about a 2 inch space between each cut. Repeat on other side. There needs to be a large space in the middle for the filling.You are basically cutting strips that will wrap around the top of the filling.
13. Place half a slice of provolone down the middle of the dough. The cheese should not be on the sliced dough.
14. Place the skillet mixture down the middle of the dough.
15. Cover with the remaining cheese.
16. Take a strip of the cut dough and pull over the skillet mixture. Alternate pulling the strips over the dough from both sides to make it look like a mummy.

Pizza Dough
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Total Prep Time: 1 hr 10 min

1 1/2 cups water, around 110 degrees F
1 envelope instant dry yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
3 1/2 to 4 cups bread flour, plus more for rolling
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 Tbsp olive oil, plus a little additional
1 tsp oregano
A couple sprigs of rosemary

Directions
1.  Make sure your water if not too hot or too cold for the yeast. I do not use a thermometer but the inside
     of my wrist (like when you check the temperature inside a baby's bottle).
2.  Add the sugar to the water with the yeast. Stir and put aside. I like to do this just to check if the yeast is
     good.
3.  Grease the inside of a large bowl and set aside.
4.  Dust a clean area for rolling and leave some about 1/4 cup of extra flour on the side of the area.
5.  Mix the bread flour and salt in a bowl.
6.  Add the yeast water and the olive oil to the flour. Stir until it starts to clump together or becomes to hard to stir.
7.  Knead the dough together for about 3 minutes. Add the oregano and fresh rosemary and knead for 2 more minutes so the dough comes together and starts look smoother.
8.  Use the reserved flour on the side if the dough is sticky. If the dough becomes too dry, add only a little water.
9.  Add the dough to the greased bowl and flip it. This way both sides of the pizza dough is greased.
10.Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and wait an hour or two. I do spray the plastic wrap with a nonstick before covering the dough.
11.The dough should have doubled in size in one hour. I have let it sat for two hours and it was fine.
12. Punch down and use above.
Recipe adapted from Bobby Flay
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/pizza-dough-recipe/index.html

Did you already know........
-Stromboli are similar to a calzones.
-Stromboli are usually oblong in lenth. Calzone are usually a semi-circle.
-Stromboli originated in Pennsylvania and Calzones are from Italy.