Chicken Tenders

Back in college, when my food budget was about $20/week, I discovered this recipe for chicken tenders. Andy and I would make it on an occasional Saturday night as our splurge meal. But even now that I can afford a decent dinner, I still love making these tenders.

First, I bought a package of chicken tenderloins (or if you want, you can buy a package of skinless, boneless chicken breasts and just cut them into halves or thirds). Then, I sandwich the chicken between two sheets of plastic wrap, spaced about 2-3 inches apart. Now the fun part: pound the chicken to flatten it until it's about 1/4 inch thick. You can use a meat tenderizer if you want, but I just use a bottle. It works the same for me. Just be careful not to pound the chicken too hard, because it flattens very easily.

Next, get your breading ingredients ready. I set up a breading assembly line with one plate of flour, one bowl of whisked eggs, and one plate of breadcrumbs. This part is kind of messy, so it's nice if you have someone helping you out so that you can wash the breading gunk off your hands occasionally. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over the flattened chicken tenders, then coat one tender in the flour, coat with the scrambled eggs, and finally coat with the breadcrumbs.

You should end up with a nice, breaded tender, as seen above (although after a couple tenders, your hands get really gunky). Now, in a 12-inch skillet, heat a few tablespoons of canola oil with a couple tablespoons of butter over medium heat, and add some tenders to the skillet. Fry about three minutes on each side, and set on some paper towels to drain.

Like most fried foods, these tenders are best eaten fresh. If you have to reheat this, try reheating it for a few minutes in the oven at 350F. It just doesn't taste that good when it's microwaved. I serve this with a lemon wedge squeezed on top and some honey mustard (the only one I buy is Ken's Honey Mustard Salad Dressing, because I like it sweet). Enjoy!

Quick Breakfast: Hearty Steel-Cut Oats

Like most people, I usually don't have time in the morning to cook a fresh, healthy breakfast. I either eat a quick bowl of cereal or nothing at all. Until I found out about steel-cut oats. Unlike instant oatmeal, steel-cut oats take about 30 minutes to cook, but the difference in flavor makes up for the extra cooking time. The oats are a little puffy and they pop right in your mouth. I usually make a large batch of oats on the weekend, and then pop it into the microwave for a good, quick breakfast during the rest of the week.


To start with, I add four cups of milk to a pot and heat over medium heat (to prevent burning the milk on the bottom) until boiling. Don't turn your back on the milk or you'll end up running over to the stove to prevent the milk from foaming up and boiling over the edge of the pot (as seen on my wooden spoon). The recipe on the box says that you can either use milk or water, but I use milk to add some protein and make my breakfast more filling.

Next, I add one cup of the steel-cut oats, turn down the heat to low, and let the oats and milk simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Since I used milk, I really had to scrape the bottom of the pot to prevent the milk from scalding on the bottom. But even if it does, it's no big deal. You just end up with funny looking orange chunks of milk in the oatmeal when you're done (but they're perfectly edible).

After 30 minutes, the oatmeal will have thickened and will be deliciously creamy. I didn't add any sugar or anything else to the oats, because I like to leave them in the fridge as they are and add sugar right before I reheat my bowl of oats. My favorite ingredient to add to my oats is a ripe, mushed up banana. Andy likes to add brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. I tried adding a little jam once, but it made it too sweet for my tastes.

This dish is perfect for all of the lazy weekday cooks like me. I never have enough time in the morning for anything, but at least I can still have a hot, healthy breakfast.

Takeout: Crab Cakes and Sweet Sesame Seed Bread

One of the things that I love about living in New England is all the excellent seafood available up here. Just recently I even boiled my first lobster from the local Winter Farmer's Market (and no, it didn't scream or make any sort of noise). Recently, a Hannah Foods market opened up just down the street and they have the most delicious crab cakes I've ever tasted, served with a citrus remoulade sauce.

Every Friday, I treat myself to a few crab cakes and a lemon-lime Maine Root soda. (Hannah is also the only place I've found that carries this flavor--it's so yummy!)

At the market, they were also running a special on a sweet sesame seed bread. The bread itself tasted like naan, because it was soft and chewy, and it was topped with honey and dusted with sesame seeds. The honey had crystallized in a couple places, which made the bread even better. It was perfect as a dessert, especially served with some fruit, because it was sweet, but not too heavy. Plus, the sesame seeds added a very nice contrasting flavor to the sweetness of the honey.

Black Bean Turkey Chili

I've never been a big fan of chili, mostly because I don't like pinto beans or peppers. But when I saw a recipe for black bean chili, I decided to give this meal a try. Plus, it's a perfect meal to eat during these last few cold days of winter. This chili would still be good even if the turkey was left out as a vegetarian option.

I started by chopping up three shallots. I got hooked on using these instead of regular onions because they're smaller and easier to work with and they chop up very nicely. When they're cooked just right, they melt in your mouth.

Of course, chopping shallots and onions is serious business. So I use Andy's ski goggles to get the job done, so I don't end up looking like I've just watched a few Lifetime movies.

I minced 4-5 cloves of garlic, since I'm such a big garlic lover. Then I warmed about two tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat and I added the shallots and garlic to the pot. (Side note: if you ever cook with olive oil, just use the cheap store brand instead of the expensive stuff. Save the better stuff for adding to meals after they've already been cooked, since the cooked oil loses a lot of its delicate flavor.) I stirred it all up until the shallots were translucent and everything was fragrant. It made my kitchen smell wonderful!

I added a little more than a pound of ground turkey and browned it, then I added three cans of undrained black beans.

Then I added one giant can of crushed tomatoes, some chili powder, oregano, chives, and some apple cider vinegar and stirred everything up. (Check out that Cooking Action Shot I got with Andy's camera!) Then I covered the pot and turned the heat to low and simmered the chili for about an hour.

I really enjoyed making this recipe because I don't have a crockpot and this recipe was simple enough and flavorful enough that I didn't even need one. The apple cider vinegar really balanced out the chili powder flavor very well and I ended up with a delicious chili that wasn't too spicy or peppery.

Recipe: Black Bean Turkey Chili

Ingredients

2 T. olive or canola oil
3 shallots, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb (approx.) ground turkey
3 14-oz. cans black beans, undrained
1 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 T. chili powder
1 T. oregano, dried
1 T. chives, dried
2 T. apple cider vinegar

Warm the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic to the pot, cook until shallots are translucent. Add turkey and brown, then add beans, tomatoes, spices, and vinegar and stir. Cover pot, turn down heat to low, and simmer for at least one hour, until the flavors combine.

Serving suggestions: topped with cheddar or served with a side of jasmine rice.

(Adapted from this recipe.)

Caprese Salad & Pesto Sandwich

I was inspired to make this sandwich because I'm always looking to add more vegetarian options to my diet, and I had a mid-winter craving for some simple summer food.

I made some pesto this past summer, but instead of basil leaves, I used garlic scapes (the flowering part of the garlic plant). It added a lot of flavor to the pesto, like a garlic-buttery taste. The pesto freezes excellently, so this summer I'm going to make sure to stock up on plenty of garlic scapes. (I got mine from the excellent farmers at Meadow's Mirth, which is an excellent organic farm if you're in the area.)

Anyway, I haven't used up much of my pesto this winter. I spent a good portion of the summer freezing my vegetables and sauces so that I would have something to cheer me up in the winter, but instead I have a whole freezer of great food that I haven't used yet.


Originally, I wanted to use ciabatta rolls, but the local supermarket has excellent onion rolls and the extra flavor went really well with the caprese salad. I also bought some small tomatoes and a roll of mozzarella cheese. I sliced a few thick slices of each, spread some thawed pesto sauce on my onion roll, and stacked the tomato on top of the mozzarella.

The sandwich turned out really well. The oil from the pesto soaked into the bread, and the tomato and mozzarella didn't get squished out of the sandwich when I was eating it. This is a nice sandwich to prepare for a bag lunch. I just sliced up some mozzarella and tomatoes ahead of time, put a few slices in a tupperware container, put a little pesto in small container, and bagged up a sliced roll. (I know refrigerating tomatoes takes a lot of the flavor out, but the pesto I used was flavorful enough to make up for it.)

This sandwich was definitely a refreshing change from my usual turkey-and-cheese. And now I can finally start to whittle away at my frozen leftovers!