Tag: healthy

Sweet and Spicy Breaded Chicken

Snow days make me want to cook!! Something about being cooped up that pushes me into the kitchen everytime. So for dinner tonite a sweet and spicy breaded baked chicken breast.

This is a no dredge recipe making it even easier! No messy dunking and breading just a crispy coating full of flavor!

Here’s what you need:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp spicy bbq rub

1 Tbsp butter

1c. Panko bread crumbs

3 Tbsp sour cream

Sweet Hot honey to taste

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425°F

In a microwave safe bowl add butter and melt in microwave about 20 seconds. Add 1 Tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper, panko crumbs, and bbq seasoning. Stir mixture together. Set aside.

Rinse chicken and pat dry on paper towel. Add the additional one Tbsp. Of olive oil to a glass baking dish coating the bottom of the pan. Add chicken. Spread sour cream onto the chicken and top with crumbs mixture pressing it lightly onto the chicken.

Bake 20-25 minutes until chicken is cooked through and crumb topping is golden brown.

Drizzle with honey and serve! Enjoy!!

Spicy Sausage with Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli

There’s just something about a really good pasta dish on a cool fall night that just hits the spot. I recently found a new favorite fresh pasta at a local Kroger grocery store and put it to great use in this flavorful dish!

Below is a photo of the pasta, the one shown is cheese ravioli, and the one I used in this dish was actually a spinach and ricotta ravioli of the same type. Although I believe either would taste great in this recipe, and the colored stripe in the pasta makes it pretty too!

This pasta paired with a spicy sausage and light delicious sauce really hit the spot!

Here’s what you need:

1pkg spinach and ricotta ravioli

1lb spicy sausage

1 roma tomato chopped

1 sm bunch of green onions chopped and separated into greens and whites.

1 clove garlic finely chopped

1 lemon quartered

2Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp sour cream

Salt and Pepper

Cook Ravioli according to package directions, drain reserving 1/4c. of pasta water.

Heat a small amount of oil in a medium sized pan add sausage, onion whites, and garlic cook on med-high heat ubtil sausage is browned and cooked through. Add 2 Tbsp butter, sour cream and pasta water. Squeeze half of the lemon over top and add tomatoes. Stir well, and simmer until thickened.

Top ravioli with sausage mixture, plate and top with onion greens. Enjoy!!

Simple Beef Stew

Doinner doesn’t havw to be difficult, with complicated ingredients, and 9000 steps to be delicious. Tonight I made a simple beef stew with dumplibgs and on this chilly drizzly day it was perfection!

Here is what you need:

1lb stew beef

2-3cup potatoes cubed

6 carrots sliced

1 medium onion chopped

1 packet McCormicks beef stew seasoning

2 Tbsp Olive oil

3c. Water

2 Tbsp flour

2c. Bisquick mix

2/3 c milk

Salt and pepper

In a large stock pot heat oil and brown beef stew meat. Season with salt and pepper add seasoning mix, flour, and water. Stir well. Add potatoes, onion, and carrots. Cover and cook on medium low heat for 1 hour.

Mix bisquick mix and milk together spoon on top of stew cover and cook 30minutes until dough puffs up and springs back when touched. Spoon into a bowl and serve hot! Enjoy!!

Tuscan Sausage Spaghetti

Spaghetti is a pretty regular occurance at our house it’s quick easy and can serve a large group when we need it to! So I prepared a variation on traditional spaghetti with this Tuscan Sausage version that includes red peppers and just a little tuscan spicy heat! Enjoy!

1lb spicy sausage casing removed

1 medium red bell pepper thinly sliced

1 md yellow onion thinly sliced

4 servings spaghetti noodles

2 tsp spicy tuscan seasoning

1 Tbsp chicken boullion

1 tbsp butter

1 can crushed stewed tomatoes

1/4c. Parmasan cheese

2 tsp. Parsley chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot boil water seasoned with a little salt, once boiling add pasta and cook 9-10 minutes until soft. Drain pasta reserving 1c. of pasta water

While pasta is cooking, In a large sauce pan add 1Tbsp butter melt, and add onions, red peppers, and a tsp. of spicy tuscan seasoning. Cook until crisp tender 3-4min. Add sausage and cook crumble into pieces as it cooks. Once meat is cooked through add tomatoes, 1 tsp tuscan seasoning. Heat through add 3/4 c pasta water and chicken boullion. Allow to simmer until thickened.

In a large bowl combine pasta, and sauce. Toss to coat add 1/2 of the parsley and half of the parmesan cheese and stir into mixture. Add additional pasta water if too thick. Salt and pepper to taste. Coat noodles well. Plate up and add additional parmesan cheese and parsely as desired!

Light and Fresh Fish Taco

I’ve been searchong for some new healthy dinner options. I feel like I’ve had dinner on loop lately. So last night I started back to through the loop woth tacos…but decided at the last minute instead to make this a lighter and tad healthier by using fish as the primary protein instead of the usual ground beef. I have to say it was a delicious change of pace and I’m so glad I decided to change things up!

Here is what you need!

1lb. Fresh cod

3Tbsp butter

2 lg cloves garlic

Zest of one lime

2 Tbsp lime juice

2 Tbsp chicken taco seasoning, I use McCormicks brand.

1/4 c. Cilantro or curly parsley

Shredded lettuce

Shredded cheddar cheese

Cubed avocado

Fresh pico de gaillo

Flour tortillas

In a large sauce pan melt the butter add the garlic and fish. Cook on medium high heat 3 minutes each side. Once you turn the fish add lime zest juice seasoning and cilantro using spatula cut fish into chunks and stir the ingedients around in the pan till coated. Turn down heat and layer fish in the tortilla with any of the additional ingredients you prefer. Enjoy!

Stuffed Peppers, Deconstructed

Have you ever really wanted something to eat but then you remember all of the extra work it takes to make that particular dish so you decide it’s not worth the time. I have several recipes that are like this. Lasagna for example, and in tonight’s case stuffed bell peppers. I love stuffed peppers and there are lots of different ways to make them, but they are a lot of work! Prep and cook the filling, stuff them, top them, and bake em up! It’s a lot of steps!

So tonight I made a deconstructed skillet version of stuffed peppers that are so delicious!

Here’s what you need:

1.5lb lean ground beef or venison

3 bell peppers cut into strips

1 md onion chopped

1pkg pre-cooked brown rice

1can diced tomato

1Tbsp worchestishire sauce

1tbsp onion powder

1tbsp garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

1c. Sharp white cheddar cheese shredded

In a hot skillet cook peppers and onions until tender crisp remove and set aside. Brown your ground meat in the same skillet add seasonings, rice and tomato’s cook on med-high heat for another 2-3 minutes add peppers and onions and continue to cook for another ,3-4min. Top with cheese and bake in the oven for approximately ,5minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve hot! Enjoy!!