Oven Baked Sausages with Tomato and Red Onion

Ingredients: 4 sausages, 2 red onions, 2 garlic cloves, 250 grams roma tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, basil,

Number of persons: 2

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Put in an oven proof dish 4 sausages, 2 sliced red onions and 2 chopped garlic cloves. Turn the oven proof dish about 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove the dish from the oven and add 250 grams roma tomatoes and basil. Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar and place the oven proof dish another 15 minutes in the oven or until the sausages are cooked. Enjoy!

Oven-Baked Chicken Breast with Grilled Pepper and Ricotta

Ingredients: 2 chicken breasts, 1 grilled pepper, 125 grams ricotta, 100 grams bacon,

Number of persons: 2

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Cut 2 chicken breats open. Cut 1 grilled peppers very finely and put it in both chicken breasts. Put on it the ricotta. Fold the chicken breasts and enfold with slices bacon. Place the chicken breasts in an ovenproof dish. Place the ovenproof dish about 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven. We had a salad and potatoes with it.

Oven Baked Chicken with Mushrooms and Bacon

Ingredients: 2 chicken breasts, salt, pepper, 1 1/2 tablespoon mustard, 3 tablespoons tomato ketchup, 200 grams diced bacon, 1 onion, 250 grams mushrooms, 100 ml stock, 50 ml cream,

Number of persons: 2

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Season 2 chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Make a sauce of 1 1/2 tablespoon mustard and 3 tablespoons tomato ketchup, cover the chicken breasts with this mixture. Place the chicken breasts in an ovenproof dish. Bake 200 gram diced bacon crunchy. Add 1 chopped onion and 250 grams sliced mushrooms and stir fry until the mushrooms have softened. Add 100 ml stock and 50 ml cream. Bring to the boil briefly. Pour the mushroom sauce over the chicken breasts. Place the ovenproof dish about 25 minutes in the preheated oven. Serve with a salad and potatoes. Enjoy!

Baked Trout with Shiitake Mushrooms and Tomatoes

Every now and then we come across an unbelievable simple dish that blows our minds. Add to that the fact that it is quick, and healthy, and I can’t think of a better thing to cook for dinner any night of the week. Our Tomato & Olive Penne is a permanent staple in our weekly meal plans, and this recipe will soon be joining it.

We roasted everything at once, just put it in the oven and go relax (see? easy!). While we started out with the asparagus and potatoes underneath the fish in the baking dish, we ended up quarantining the two in separate receptacles. Fish is good, but potatoes that taste like fish didn’t sound quite as appealing.

We love to cook fish, but here in Tennessee the pickin’s are not so great. Too far from an ocean in every direction I guess. Our choices are either frozen or expensive, and it is for that reason that we fall back on better-when-frozen items such as shrimp more often than we do fish.

Every once in a while, though, when we make the trek across town around the vicinity of Whole Foods, well, we decide to treat ourselves. Delicacies such as halibut or tuna are always way out of our price range (even when treating), but trout, well, even at Whole Foods (dubbed Whole Paycheck by some), was a very tidy $4.50 for two fillets. Small fillets, I give you that much, but paired with some garlic roasted potatoes and asparagus, made for a fine meal indeed.

Baked Trout with Shiitake Mushrooms and Tomatoes

Recipe from Epicurious.
Makes 2 servings.

INGREDIENTS
Nonstick cooking spray
2 whole rainbow trout (about 12 ounces each), cleaned, boned, butterflied
OR
2 good sized trout fillets

2 green onions, chopped
2 large fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, caps thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped seeded tomatoes
2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil
Fresh cilantro sprigs

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400°F. Line large rimmed baking sheet with foil; coat with nonstick spray. Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper. Open fish like a book and arrange, skin side down, on prepared baking sheet.

Mix next 5 ingredients in bowl. Sprinkle mixture over fish, drizzle with soy sauce and sesame oil, then top with cilantro sprigs. Bake uncovered until fish is opaque in center, about 20 minutes.

Fried Rice and Baked Wonton Chips

Surprisingly we’d never made fried rice before, so we thought we’d give it a try. We made a vegetarian version of this recipe, omitting the meat. It was decent fried rice, but if we made it again we might try to seek out a different recipe.

Taylor thought the egg was supposed to be scrambled in the rice, rather than before, then removed, cut into pieces, and stirred back in.

Definitely don’t skip the mushrooms, this dish would have been lost without them (though strangely, while I can eat them fine, I can’t stand the smell of them rehydrating.)

We also doubled the sauce (but we tend to do that more often than not).

For the wonton chips – we had some leftover wrappers, and didn’t feel like wasting a quart of oil to fry them. So I cut them into strips, laid them on an oiled baking sheet, and baked them until they got crispy and golden (careful – they go from golden to burnt far too quickly, if anything, err on the side of less-than-golden when you take them out.) Pretty good, not as good as they’d be fried though! But they made for a nice ’scoop’ for the fried rice.

Anyone have a kick-butt recipe for fried rice? This one is more like a nice pat rather than a kick—good but could be so much better.

Fried Rice

Makes 4-6 servings. Recipe from Food Network.

INGREDIENTS
8 dried shiitake mushrooms
3 tablespoons peanut oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten with a pinch of kosher salt
4 scallions (white and green), thinly sliced
1/4 cup minced carrot
1 large clove garlic, minced
Pinch red chile flakes
1 teaspoon minced peeled fresh ginger
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
3 cups cooked long-grain rice
1 cup cooked meat cut in 1/2-inch cubes, such as pork, ham, beef, or chicken (optional)
1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted in a strainer at room temperature

DIRECTIONS
Put the mushrooms in a small bowl and cover with boiling water and soak until re-hydrated, about 20 minutes. Drain, squeeze dry, and cut mushrooms in quarters. Set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the peanut oil in a well-seasoned wok or large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Swirl to coat the pan. Pour in the eggs, swirl the pan so the egg forms a large thin pancake. (Lift the edge of the egg to allow any uncooked egg to run to the center.) As soon as the egg has set, turn it out of the pan onto a cutting board. Cool, cut into 1 inch pieces.

Wipe out the pan with a paper towel and heat the remaining peanut oil over high heat. Add the scallions and carrots and stir-fry for 1 1/2 minutes. Add the mushrooms, garlic, chile, and ginger, stir-fry for 1 minute more. Add the soy sauce, sesame oil and rice and stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the meat, peas, and reserved egg, cook, stirring until heated through, about 2 to 3 minutes. Serve immediately.

Baked Parmesan Basil Fries

I hate deep frying. Not only is it unhealthy, but I hate emptying entire bottles of oil just to fry a few pieces of something. Plus oil spatters and makes me uncomfortable. So there.

While I have yet to replicate a true “twice-fried” french fry in the oven (they never seem to get quite as crispy as you’d like), they do come pretty darn close. So if you don’t mind softer fries, baking them is definitely the way to go. You only need a few tablespoons of oil rather than a few cups, and you can just sit back and wait for them to cook, rather than having to constantly watch as they sizzle (and burn) in hot oil.

If you had a fancy slicer/cutter thing, these would be super quick. But even cutting them by hand they’re still a breeze to make, tasty too!

Baked Parmesan Basil Fries

Makes 4 servings.

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
4 medium red potatoes

DIRECTIONS
In bowl, combine parmesan cheese, oil, basil, and garlic powder. Cut potatoes into 1/4-inch sticks; add to cheese mixture and toss to coat.

Spread evenly on a large cookie sheet or jelly-roll pan coated with nonstick cooking spray, trying to keep all the fries in a single level. Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes, then flip. Bake 20 more minutes or until crisp and tender. Sprinkle with additional parmesan if desired.

Baked Panko Chicken Tenders with Basil Aioli

Call it a random desire to make chicken strips, paired with my gut’s disgust of fried foods, and you get an easy baked variation on a childhood favorite. Crunchy. Flavorful. Delicious. So good, in fact, that chicken just might be making a more regular appearance in our kitchen, but only as panko-crusted tenders.

If you can’t find or don’t want to spend the extra $3 a pound on pre-cut chicken tenders, simply take a whole chicken breast, put it between two layers of plastic wrap, and pound it until it is an even thickness (maybe 1/2″ or so). Then, slice into strips. Voila. It’ll save you a few dollars too – go buy yourself some chocolate or something. :)

This recipe is a guesstimate, as I didn’t really ‘measure’ anything as I worked. I grabbed a few random spices out of our spice drawer, tossed them with some panko breadcrumbs, and repeated a few of the same spices in the aioli. Use any spices you choose, really. Unless you go caking these in dill weed, I can’t see them tasting badly. They would also be delicious served with a honey-mustard dipping sauce, or without any sauce at all (they’re that good).

Best of all, no oil is needed to make these, just a light coating of cooking spray to keep them from sticking.

Baked Panko Chicken Tenders with Basil Aioli

Makes 3-4 servings (ish).

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts or breast tenders
1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons dried basil
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
Cooking spray

For aioli:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
salt and pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350?F. Prepare a baking sheet by covering it with foil and lightly spraying with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a small bowl or shallow dish, season the flour with salt and black pepper, and lightly beat the eggs in another shallow dish. In a third shallow dish, combine panko breadcrumbs with basil, garlic, paprika, cayenne, salt, and pepper.

If using chicken breasts, prepare by putting one breast in between two layers of plastic wrap. Pound to an even thickness of approximately 1/2″. Remove plastic and slice into strips.

Dredge tenders in the flour to coat, shaking off any excess flour. Dip the floured chicken tenders into the egg and then coat the chicken tenders with the breadcrumb mixture. Arrange on baking sheet. Repeat with remaining strips.

Bake chicken tenders for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown, flipping once part way through the cook time.

To prepare aioli, combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Baked Shrimp with Feta

I think we sometimes get too caught up on the stove. Sauteing I mean. Just about everything we eat is cooked in a pan on the stove. Which is why this baked shrimp dish was so refreshing. Yes, there are some parts of it done on the stove, but the magic happens in the oven.

Taylor especially loves this method of cooking because while dinner is finishing up “hands-free” in the oven, he can scrub like a pro and have the entire kitchen spotless before it comes out. Yes, he’s that good. I always joke that my presence in the kitchen messes him up, literally. When he cooks by himself? The kitchen is always sparkling clean by the time (or before) dinner is served. When we cook together? Well, there’s always a few more dishes to be done and they don’t quite get done as efficiently. Oops. I don’t know how he does it – he can have two pots on the stove, something in the oven, and be doing the prep dishes while he manages not to burn anything. I’ve got selective focus. Make me do dishes while I cook and you’ll end up with something overdone and chewy or burnt to a crisp. Mmmm.

We served this dish on a bed of our new favorite starchy side dish – israeli cous cous. My favorite is to cook it with a bit of olive oil, cumin, and cinnamon. Practically candy. Little round balls of pasta-like candy. Orzo would work just fine too.

Baked Shrimp with Feta

Makes 4 servings. Recipe from Cooking Light.

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons bottled clam juice
1 tablespoon white wine
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 450°. Combine lemon juice and shrimp in a large bowl; toss well.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. dd oil to pan, swirling to coat. Add onion to pan; sauté 1 minute. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Add clam juice, wine, oregano, pepper, and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in shrimp mixture.

Place mixture in an 11 x 7–inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle cheese evenly over mixture. Bake for 12 minutes or until shrimp are done and cheese melts. Sprinkle with parsley; serve immediately.