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Creamy chicken parcel

We had guests over at our flat this weekend and I decided to try out a recipe I read in Sainsbury's magazine (when I used to live in Leicester, England).

This recipe is pretty easy to do but my guests were quite impressed I think!
All you need is:

• chicken breast
• a pack of Boursin (if you can't find this typical French cream cheese, you can always use any other type of creamy cheese such as Philladelphia mixed with fresh chives or even some Italian blue cheese. I reckon, it will be as delicious!).
• Parma ham (or Prosciutto or Serrano or Bayonne will do...)
• cherry tomatoes

Spread the underside of a chicken breast with 2 dessertspoons of Boursin.

Wrap the chicken breast in 1 or 2 slices of Parma ham (depending on its size).

Bake in a roasting tin at 180 degres with a handful cherry tomatoes for about 30 minutes and voila:

Friendsgiving

 

This is turkey, mashed potatoes, mushroom business, green bean casserole (made by yours truly), macaroni and cheese and brussel sprouts, though you couldn't tell just by looking at it. (Very little light with a cameraphone.)

More (vegan) macaroni and cheese

Here's a lifestyle tip: If you don't have any butter and milk for boxed macaroni and cheese, use beer instead. Basically, it will make your macaroni taste slightly like beer. Cheers! (Shown is a box of Road's End Organics 123'z for kids Mac & Chreese made with Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat Ale. If you're into Kraft in the blue box and Coors in the color changing can, that would work as well.)

Weeknight Dinner, Part 5

Oh my. I made it. I seriously made it.

I managed to follow a week of dinners without any glitches or spontaneous weeknight dinners with friends. Well, actually, a friend did invite us to dinner and we had to decline. I was committed to finish this personal challenge!

The last meal, on Friday night was spaghetti with sweet potatoes and ricotta.

This was my least favorite dish out of the entire week. Kind of disappointing, since I wanted to leave with a bang.

The pasta was dry, even though I added extra butter and oil into the dish. I was hoping the ricotta would melt more and create some sort of sauce, but nope, it didn't. The flavors of the sweet potato, ricotta and spaghetti were fine, but I personally like more sauce on my pasta dishes.

This week, I was able to broaden my (non-existent) culinary skills and try new flavors. I'm quite happy with all the dishes. Out of all the meals, I liked Monday night's the best. It's something I'd usually cook and maybe that's why I liked it the most.

The article in Real Simple was actually for a month's worth of easy dinners, so technically, I have three more weeks of this, if I really want to step it up. haha. I'll take it one week at a time, for now. :)

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having chinese for dinner. the kids luv it, of course, and i'm pretty fond of it too! :)

Weeknight Dinner, Part 4

My second to last day of this week long dinner challenge! Yay!

Weeknight Dinner, Part 3

I'm half way there! Yay. Wednesday night - roasted pork with Brussels sprouts and apricots.

I like Brussels sprouts. The first time I ever had them was at Houston's in San Francisco. They were so good. I couldn't believe all these years, I was missing out on a yummy vegetable. I tried to cook Brussels sprouts once and it was a disaster. I couldn't even finish it and had to throw it out. The main culprit could have been because I didn't use fresh sprouts. I was crossing my fingers that this dish would turn out good.

I've never cooked pork tenderloin before, so I was excited to cook something new. It took my oven slightly longer (an extra 10 minutes) to cook. I wasn't sure if the pork was thoroughly cooked or not, so I was paranoid that I was going to poison my boyfriend and I. But, I kept checking the meat and it was finally cooked all the way. The pork was extremely tender and moist, no dry meat here! I was pretty proud that I nailed it my first time.

The Brussels sprouts and apricots were a nice compliment to the pork. This time, the sprouts were fresh and delicious.

I wouldn't mind cooking this dish again. Maybe I'll make some sort of apricot sauce for the pork next time.

Related: Weeknight Dinner, Part 1, 2

Tomato and Basil Salad

Ingredients

 

Heirloom tomatoes

Fresh basil leaves

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Salt and Pepper

 

Directions

 

Slice tomatoes ¼ to ½ inch thick.  In the center of the plate stack one slice of tomato and top with fresh basil, repeat two or three times.  Drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the top and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

 

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients

 

2 Butternut Squash

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper

1 medium onion

¼c fresh sage leaves

Nutmeg

Vegetable or Chicken Stock

 

Directions

 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Cut the tops and bottoms off of the butternut squash and peel skin off.  Scoop out seeds and cut into medium dice chunks.  Spread out on a sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Roast in oven for 30-45 minutes or until fork tender.  Meanwhile thinly slice an onion and rough chop fresh sage leaves, sauté in olive oil until translucent.  Remove from pan.  In a blender add some stock with butternut squash, sage and onions.  Blend until smooth.  You will have to do this in several batches.  You may want to add more stock till you get it to desired consistency.  Once it’s all blended reheat on stove top and season with fresh ground nutmeg, salt and pepper. 

 

Serves 4-6

 

Weeknight Dinner, Part 2

Tuesday night was beef and boy choy stir-fry, as part of my challenge to cook every day of the week and to follow a menu in Real Simple magazine.

Another easy recipe to follow, although I accidentally over cooked the bok choy. I was doing too many things at once, there's a reason why most chefs have a mise en place (everything prepped before hand and reachable)!

The flavor of the flank steak was actually pretty good. It was marinated in rice vinegar, soy sauce, ginger and brown sugar. I'd use this marinade again and next time, I won't over cook the veggies! :)

Related: Weeknight Dinner, Part 1