Lemon Garlic Instant Pot Chicken

This is one of those handy Instant Pot recipes that you can do minimal prep and work on other stuff as it cooks. I love that it has no weird or very expensive ingredients, I had everything on hand having just gotten a pack of chicken thighs. No long stirring or baking. One pot does it all. And it was literally finger licking good; the sauce is the bomb! Unless you don’t like lemon; in that case you could simply leave off the lemon; it goes in at the very end but honestly the lemon is what makes it so delectable! I think you could use navel oranges and it might be quite tasty.  Or skip the lemon slices and just use zest and juice for less lemony flavor. I have to say that the garlic complements the lemon and the spices very well. This is that rare case where I find it needs the fresh parsley; it is not just decorative; fresh parsley really adds to the wonderful flavor.

This is a great weeknight meal; add a side salad or a veg and you are set. I used a Wegman’s Rice Pilaf which wasn’t spicy but made an above average accompaniment to the chicken. It is definitely a recipe to hang on to. Winner winner, chicken dinner! Enjoy!

Lemon Garlic Instant Pot Chicken

I know! Way too dark…bad kitchen lighting…. another mediocre photograph but luckily the food in this picture was delicious!

Ingredients:

4 decent sized chicken thighs, remove the skin (Or 6 smaller ones)

Rounded half tsp. garlic powder

Rounded half tsp. paprika

½ tsp. sea salt

¼ tsp black pepper, freshly ground or 1/8 white pepper ground (I was out of black so white worked fine)

2 Tbsp. mild olive oil

1 medium onion cut in long strips

1 medium to large carrot cut in rounds

3 big garlic cloves (or 4 smaller ones)

2 lemons, wash and let dry while you brown chicken

1-3 Tbsp butter

1/3-1/2 cup chicken broth

1 Tbsp corn starch and 1 Tbsp cold water; mixed together in a tiny bowl

2-3 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Directions: Mix the dry spices including salt and pepper and rub over the chicken pieces (could use 6 smaller thighs).  Heat the olive oil and 1 Tbsp. butter in your Instant Pot. Carefully place chicken thighs in and cook 3 minutes on each side. I did 2 at a time as they were too large to all fit. While they brown zest one lemon and then juice it. Slice the other lemon into very thin slices, removing any seeds you see. Chop the parsley and make some rice. I used a Wegman’s rice pilaf. My goddaughter gave me a package of it; has baby garbanzo beans and dikon radish seeds. Cook for the time the box says. It went very well with this chicken. Or plain rice or perhaps noodles?

As you finish the browning place them in a bowl or on a plate. Someone told me to keep moving them every 30 seconds and they won’t stick; it works!  Add the onions to the pan and more butter as needed (up to 2 Tbsp) and cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the carrots and cook one minute. Then add the minced fresh garlic and cook 30 seconds. Add the chicken broth and scrape the pan bottom with a wooden spoon to stir up the browned bits sticking on the bottom so they don’t burn. Add back the chicken pieces. Close up your IP and set it for 9 minutes. When the timer goes off give it 3 minutes to naturally decompress and then lift up the steam button and let it completely de pressurize.  Open and remove the chicken thighs, set it on saute mode. Add the cornstarch slush and stir for one minute. Turn off and add back the chicken pieces, the lemon juice and the zest. Stir and add fresh parsley and stir again. Turn off and serve with rice.

Rice pilaf cooked up and ready to serve. No added ingredients except water. Super easy to make.
I served a side of very thinly sliced zucchini sauteed in butter and olive oil with sliced leeks.

Mom’s Company Casserole

This is something my mom made occasionally. The name is a misnomer as it is very casual and certainly nothing fancy that I would reserve for company. I think of it as more of an easy and tasty casserole that everyone in your family can enjoy. I can’t think when I last made it; perhaps 4-7 years ago? Anyway, I had all the ingredients and had just come across the recipe and so I thought, “Why not?” So, I did and it was very tasty indeed. My mom put some melted butter on before the tomato and meat sauce; I forgot it and honestly don’t think it needs it but add 2 tbsp melted butter at that point if you wish.

I left out the green pepper; didn’t have it and didn’t even remember it in the flavor profile of the casserole. I used spiral pasta as wide gf noodles are impossible to easily find and I didn’t have time to make them. I am sure you could make this with some other ground meat; it would taste different but probably be yummy.

As I show below, I adjusted the amounts of the cheeses and sour cream due to what I had on hand and it was delicious. this flexibility is handy and you can play with the amounts as you need to. I feel that without the scallions it will be rather dull tasting but you could sub in some lightly sautéed chopped onions or scallions. Even sliced and cooked leek would work.

It should feed six hungry folks. I served mine with a green salad on the side. It was a filling meal for sure!.

Apologies for the mediocre pictures; I was in a hurry and didn’t much think about the blog so I barely took any.

Ingredients:

½ lb uncooked wide noodles or spiral shaped pasta

1 Tbsp. olive oil or butter

1 lb of ground beef

16 ounces of tomato sauce

1 beef or veggie bouillon cube

1 cup cottage cheese (I used more – 1 ¼ cup as I had less cream cheese)

4-8 oz cream cheese at room temp (I used 3 oz)

1/4-1/3 cup sour cream (I used heaping 1/3 cup)

1/3-2/3 cup sliced scallions; white and green

1-2 Tbsp. chopped green pepper (optional)

2 Tbsp. melted butter (optional)

Directions: Cook the noodles or pasta according to the directions; I did 2 minutes less that package as I was going to bake this for 45 min. Drain. While it cooks; heat the oil or butter in a large frying pan and brown the meat. Be sure to break up any clumps so it is evenly sized. If there is a lot of fat when you are done; drain most of it off. Then add the tomato sauce and the broken-up bouillon cube; stir to mix.

In a medium bowl blend the two cheeses and the sour cream. Then add the scallions and green pepper.

Heat oven to 375 degrees, middle shelf.  Spray a 2 qt casserole with cooking spray.  Pour in half the noodles. Top with the creamy cheese mixture. Then top with the rest of the cooked noodles.  If you want the butter sprinkle it on now. Top with the tomato meat sauce. You can refrigerate this for up to 48 hours at this point. Bake for 45-50 minutes.  Enjoy!

Refreshing Winter Salad Choices

Winter is not known as the season for great salad but it could be! It has been so cold here in PA I am longing for summer fruits so these winter salads can fill that bill when you are meal planning.

I am giving you two salads for this post plus variations for each. Try your own blends but it is best not to throw everything in the fridge in it.  Try to be selective and highlight one or two ingredients.  Simple salads I like have only three – five ingredients and I use my homemade vinaigrette dressing.   They are pretty healthy and probably fairly low in calories yet high in nutritional value.  These are basic recipes which you can tweak depending on the ingredients in your fridge and pantry.

Here are two versions of my winter salad.  This is a repost from my blog a few years ago. I eat these salads all winter long and think you should too. Recently I bought a few blood oranges and used them in lieu of a navel orange; totally different look but pretty much the same flavor; fun!  Another change is I use cubed papaya in lieu of the orange.  Love that one too.

Super Winter Salad (serves 1)

½ an avocado

1 celery stalk

3-4 leaves of green loose leaf lettuce

2-3 tbsp. fresh pomegranate seeds

Or try this yummy winter salad which shows off citrus flavor and color:

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Citrus Fennel Salad (serves 1)

1 inner stalk of celery cut in 1/3 inch rounds

1 navel orange

¼ cup fennel bulb, cut in ¼-1/3 inch slices

Peel the orange, either by hand or using a paring knife.  Cut across into rounds about ¼-1/3 inch across.  Cut again across into halves.

Fennel has a sweet crunch to it, faintly tasting of licorice, kinda sort of and it marries really well with citrus.  I also like to use blood orange or cara cara navel oranges in this recipe.  Even grapefruit slices are great.  Cara cara oranges have an interesting orange-pinkish cast to the fruit and a lovely sweet flavor.  The local Giant grocery store has them on display right now.  You can also mix two citrus in your salad; a navel and a blood orange.  Fantastic!

Finishing directions for both salads:

Place the salad ingredients in your salad dish; I have some very low sided ceramic bowls I got a long time ago that I love for salad. Then sprinkle the salad with vinaigrette which you just shook up one last time! Please don’t add too much salad dressing or you will have soggy salad, really not a good thing.

Margie’s Vinaigrette

I named this after my older sister who passed away several years ago.  She made fantastic vinaigrette.  Mine is not quite like hers but close enough to masquerade as it.  She would approve….

So, I like to use one of those Good Seasoning’s jars but add my own ingredients, use a pint jar if you like; the main thing is a tight fitting lid. I confess I bought a new jar; it is plastic but what I like is the metal mixing ball in it; mixes my salad dressings to perfection in moments. If you use the Good Seasons one, fill it to the vinegar line with red wine vinegar, please don’t use the cheap store brand (skimpy 1/4 cup).  Then some filtered water to the water line (about 1/3 inch more or two tbsp.). Next I add ½ tsp Dijon mustard, ½ tsp sea salt, ¼ tsp dried oregano, a sprinkle of dried thyme, 1 tsp mayonnaise, ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper, ½ tsp sugar and [optional] one garlic clove (peeled and mashed down a bit to release flavor),. Then add extra virgin olive oil, stop a bit before the oil line and finish it with lighter olive oil (1/2 cup plus one Tbsp. of combined olive oils).  Shake it up really well. Then shake it some more, you need to get the mayo to blend in as completely as possible. It tastes best at room temperature and plan ahead – let it rest for at least an hour before you use it the first time.  Keep it in the refrigerator if there is any left over, lasts like a month in there. The mustard adds snap and the bit of mayo helps the dressing stay emulsified (fully blended) longer than it would without the mayo.  If your salad is delicate and you don’t want as much olive oil flavor use only mild olive oil and skip the EVOL.  If you chill the dressing you will need to let it warm up before using it; ten seconds in the microwave can help with that process.

Note: You could up the nutritional value with a few almonds or walnuts if you like nuts in your salad.

More thoughts: I make any number of salad combos.  Two of my favorite ingredient combinations are: shredded carrot, sliced radishes, chickpeas, romaine and half rounds of European cucumber or a mixture of torn kale leaves, shredded raw Brussels sprouts, scallion rounds and julienned raw summer squash.  Both mixtures are great with this vinaigrette.  Just don’t put more than say five things in any one salad or it will have a mixed up taste.

Last thoughts: I generally avoid tomatoes in winter although some grape tomatoes are pretty tasty; use them if you feel the need for tomatoes.

So, go get your healthy green on and enjoy a fruity salad, even in the winter.

Reposted from February 2015 with minor changes.

Carrot Cake to Splurge On

Everyone thinks of carrot cake as rich and chock full of calories from the raisin packed layers to the thick creamy cream cheese icing slathered on thickly between layers and covering the entire cake. This is an incredibly moist and decadent cake, yet it is gluten free and gets it richness from olive oil, carrots and plump raisins soaked in booze. There is no flour substitution; made entirely with ground almond flour so it is naturally gluten free. It is a single layer and is fairly low in sugar for a cake, and I made a cream cheese icing with less sugar and less cream cheese plus it was a lower fat cream cheese; I just iced the top, so I was able to make less icing and save a few calories. It was definitely enough icing to complement this delightful cake. This version is by Nigella Lawson with a few changes and additions by me. So, all I am thinking right now is why didn’t I make this, years and years ago!

Notes: I didn’t have much rum on hand, so I used some bootleg limoncello I made about 5 years ago to soak my golden raisins in. It really brought the citrus out in this cake. My version used orange zest; I was strangely out of lemons other than ones with their skin already zested for other recipes. The three tablespoons of pine nuts that I toasted and threw into the batter had a big flavor impact. I normally use walnuts in carrot cake, so I now think either is a great way to go; do toast them as it really amps up the nutty flavor.

I wasn’t much thinking about blogging; more about bragging on the deliciousness of this awesome cake and so I took hardly any pictures and none of them are all that decent; I swear that next time I bake it I will take some more pictures of higher value; these sure don’t do this lovely cake justice.

Venetian Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp pine nuts

8 oz coarsely shredded carrots (peel first)

3 oz golden raisins

2 ¼ oz limoncello or rum ( I measured the raisins in a glass measuring cup and added lemoncello to a touch above half way up the raisins )

5 oz sugar

4.5 fluid ounces mild olive oil plus a tad more for greasing the pan

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

9 oz almond flour (not almond meal)

A scant ½ tsp. nutmeg

¼ tsp. cinnamon

The zest of half a good sized lemon or orange plus the juice of said lemon

Frosting

6 oz room temp light cream cheese

2 Tbsp. butter at room temp

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Prep: Toast the pine nuts (or chopped walnuts) in a dry frying pan stirring or tossing constantly; they will burn if you don’t toss and stir and when they are about done pour them in a small bowl; don’t leave them in the (heat off) frying pan; they will burn on the residual warmth of the pan. Let cool. Put the raisins and limoncello in a small saucepan and heat up; then turn down the heat and simmer for 3 minutes. Let cool before using.  Next, peel and grate carrots. I did it by hand with my versatile box grater on coarse side, but you can use a food processor, or a shedder attached to your stand mixer.   I grated them onto wax paper and then weighed it; so much more accurate than saying 3 carrots and hoping it is the right amount. Line a 9-inch round springform pan with parchment paper and oil it with a bit of olive oil. Heat your oven to 350 degrees and make sure your shelf is in the middle.

Cake Directions: Put the almond flour, the two spices in a small bowl and whisk to blend. Put the sugar and olive oil in a large mixing bowl and whisk until it is well blended, light and creamy looking. Add the eggs one at a time mixing well before the next one. Add the vanilla extract, mix briefly. They add the almond flour mix and then carrots and the raisins and liquid clinging to them. Last, add the pine nuts, lemon or orange zest and lemon juice. Blend briefly. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for approximately 35-40 minutes; mine took the full 40 minutes. It should look risen and a cake tester will come out clean. Mine was rather pale so I briefly broiled it; about 2-3 minutes watching constantly; kinda risky but it was just so unbrowned I decided to go rogue and broil my cake for a couple of scary minutes! Let cool 10 minutes. Run a small sharp knife around the edges to free it and remove the ring of the pan. Set it on a cooling rack and cool completely before frosting. I left mine on the metal bottom; you best do the same!

Make the icing; blend the cream cheese and butter until fluffy; add the sugar in half cups or less as you blend. Add the vanilla and beat the frosting until it is fluffy. Frost the top of your beautiful cake. Enjoy!

Lemony Chicken Pasta and Creamy Leek Sauce

I am not the biggest fan of Gordon Ramsey; he is a bit too boisterous, and his food is kinda old school rich with butter and cream and expensive ingredient rich. But I recently saw this article which said he makes this 10 minute recipe every week for his family and decided to give it a try. It was more than 10 minutes for me; more like 20-25 minutes. Still, I loved the crispy sagey breadcrumbs on top and the hint of lemon in the cream sauce. The leeks add an undertone of onionish-ness. A bit rich with cream; I suppose you could try light cream or half and half. I changed the proportions of ingredients just a touch and I used ground chicken as it was on sale this week at Aldi’s. Winner winner chicken dinner; definitely making this again!

So, you can sub in any ground meat; I sure plan to try it with ground turkey as he usually does. The leeks and shallots add a delicate presence that plays so well with the rest of the ingredients. I wouldn’t mess too much with the ingredients if I were you, not the first time anyway.

Creamy Lemon Chicken and Leek Pasta

Ingredients

12 -14 ounces dried penne; I did 12 ounces

14-16 ounces ground chicken or turkey (16 oz for me)

4 Tbsp. mild olive oil, divided

2 banana shaped shallots; minced finely

2-3 leeks; I had one gigantic one; about 2 cups of sliced white parts; I put mine in water to soak for 5 min to get out any grit

3 garlic cloves, minced

6 sage leaves, divided

zest of one lemon

3-4 tbsp. minced parsley

3/4 cup heavy cream

Breadcrumbs: 3 of the above listed sage leaves minced, 6-7 tbsp fresh breadcrumbs; I tore up 2 small slices of gf sourdough bread

2 of the tbsp of olive oil from above

Freshly grated parmesan cheese to serve on top of each plate.

Directions:

First: heat a large pot of salted water for pasta

Do some prep work. Slice up the leeks into 1/3-1/2-inch-wide sections and soak briefly in filtered water to get any grit out. Mince the peeled shallots. I put the peeled garlic through a garlic press.

Heat half the olive oil in a Dutch oven. When close to hot add the shallots and garlic. Cook 2 minutes medium heat. Add the ground turkey or chicken and 3 minced sage leaves. As that cooks add the leeks (drained first!) to boiling water. Cook a minute. Add the pasta to the leeks. Cook as long as package says. I dipped out 3-4 cups of water to decrease the volume, so it returned to a boil super fast (A little trick you might try.)

When the chicken looks done add in the cream and cook on low for a few minutes. Do not boil! While it cooks make the breadcrumbs; put 2 tbsp. oil in a smallish frying pan and when hot add the breadcrumbs and the rest of the minced sage leaves. Stir for a couple of minutes; it will clump up and brown; watch it closely: DO NOT LET BURN! Add the drained cooked pasta and leeks when the pasta is al dente. And the lemon zest. Stir. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley. To plate, put some on your plate/dish, top with freshly grated parmesan cheese and some of the breadcrumbs. Enjoy!!