Spanish Chicken with Chorizo and Potatoes

I found this on Pinterest and made it last night.  One of the nice things about Pinterest is you get to see pictures and links of what your friends have found that you might not ever have been introduced to.  I repinned this from Leslie Simons.  We started following each other's Pins, so thanks Leslie for the introduction to this great recipe.

Spanish Chicken with Chorizo and Potatoes.

  Yummy comfort food that the whole family loved.  Another benefit is this one is very easy to make.  You pretty much throw it all together in a casserole dish and put it in the oven.  Very minimal prep, just a little chopping.   Life is Great originally posted this picture, but the recipe is from Nigella Lawson.

Life is Great

Nigella

I'm not sure what country the recipe is from because the measurements were in kg. and the oven heat was in Celsius?  I baked it at 375 degrees convection bake for an hour and broiled it for a couple minutes at the end to crisp up the chicken skin.  I used a pound of baby red potatoes because our grocery store didn't have baby goldens.  Next time I will use linguica sausage instead of chorizo.  The chorizo was delicious, but our brand crumbles apart into small pieces.  If you look at the picture, their chorizo stays in chunks. 

The combination of the orange peel, oregano, and spicy sausage made the whole house smell yummy!

This one's a keeper and I'll definitely make it again.

Tried any new recipes lately?

Thanks for checking it out.

Chicken Sorrentino- My Gluten Free Version

Casey was watching the Cake Boss cook Chicken Sorrentino on the food network and decided she wanted to make it. She called her friend Maddie who also loves to cook and enlisted the help of Cami to make this recipe.  I bought all the ingredients and they got to work.  Here is the original recipe for  Chicken Sorrentino.

Together they can make anything in the kitchen. 

I decided to come up with a gluten free version of the original Cake Boss recipe and it turned out awesome.  We all helped out.

It was fun!

You start by marinating the chicken. 

We have found the recipe is much better if you pound the chicken to about a quarter of an inch thick before marinating.  It's much easier to serve, it's easier to layer evenly, it's more tender, and it's easier to eat if you pound it first.

It's not pounded in this picture.  This was our first attempt at this recipe. 

 It's so good we've made it three times now.

We are growing eggplant, but ours aren't ready yet so we had to buy one.

You'll need some of this too.

The recipe calls for making your own bread crumbs, but the girls used pre-made ones from the store.

The Changes I Made To This Recipe Are As Follows:

Whether you are making the original version or the gluten free version (GFV) you need to pound the chicken to a quarter inch thickness.  The girls used pre-made bread crumbs.

To Make It Gluten Free.

* I replaced the pasta with fresh spinach.

* I eliminated the flour completely.

* I replaced the bread crumbs with Almond Flour.

Here the girls are battering the eggplant slices in flour, egg, and bread crumbs.  Everyone washed there hands with soap before starting, just in case you were wondering? 

For the gluten free version I dipped the eggplant in egg and battered them in seasoned Almond Flour.
I added the garlic and the seasoning the bread crumbs called for into the Almond Flour.




Here the girls are starting the layering of the Chicken Sorrentino
The recipe calls for a bottom layer of pasta.

Add the sauce and cheese.

I switched out the pasta for spinach to make the GFV.
The second time I made this I tried it with gluten free rice pasta for this layer, but I like the spinach better.



Next the girls layered the chicken, prosciutto, eggplants, sauce, and cheese.

For the GFV I layered the chicken, prosciutto, eggplant, sauce, and cheese.  This picture shows the un pounded chicken.  The next two times I've made this I pounded it.







Don't add too much sauce at this point in the GFV.  The spinach "sweats" and there isn't any pasta to absorb the extra moisture.  I serve it with extra sauce after baking.



GFV



Original Recipe.

mmm good.
Serve with extra sauce on the side.

My husband eats gluten and he likes this GFV better.  Don't think he's just telling me what I want to hear.  He's from New York and he ALWAYS tells me exactly what he thinks.  No sugar coating it in our house.

The girls said the original recipe is delicious too.

Do you cook with your kids?  I would love to hear your stories.  Do you eat gluten free?  I would love to hear about your favorite recipes.

Thanks For Checking It Out.

Veggies Your Kid's Will Eat.

We all want are kids (and husbands) to eat more veggies and less junk?  This is how I make brussels sprouts and cauliflower.  They gobble it up like it was chocolate chip cookies!  OK, I might be exaggerating a tad, but my family loves veggies this way. 

Our meals have evolved into the veggies as a main course and the protein as the side.  This has been a process that my kids probably aren't even aware of?  Sometimes we moms have to be sneaky and stealth like.

Raw or lightly steamed is nutritionally preferable,
but if my kids won't eat them that way what good is it? 

I'm not sure where I got this from?  Sorry I can't credit the source.  I think I saw it on a cooking show, not sure, but we've been cooking veggies this way for years.

I use my pre-cut frozen garlic to speed up the prep. for the veggies on week nights when we have soccer or volleyball practice.

I thinly slice a head of Cauliflower and spread it out on a cookie sheet. 

I toss is with the chopped garlic (the more the better, but we are garlic freaks), and a couple tablespoons of grape seed or olive oil.  We have a family of four.  This always looks like way too much, but the cooking shrinks it.  Sprinkle with some sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and some red pepper flakes if you like it hot.

 

Roast at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Toss after ten minutes to roast evenly.  I have a convection oven, so if you don't you might have to cook these a little longer.

The edges should be lightly crisp and browned.

 The only bad thing about this is I love leftovers and we never have any! 

My family gobbles it up!

This works great for brussels sprouts too.
 I chop them in a food processor, cook them the same way as the cauliflower, and finish them off with some chopped pecans or walnuts.

How do you get your family to eat more veggies?

Thanks for checking it out.

Chicken Milanese Rughetta

I got this recipe out of a House Beautiful Magazine. Click here
for the recipe.
This is one of my mid. week go-to recipes. It's delicious as is but I made a few changes to it to make it even healthier. The recipe calls for Panko style bread crumbs. You can buy them in the Asian section of your local grocery store. I use Almond Meal Flour on my chicken breast for a gluten free option instead of Panko. You can buy Almond Flour at Trader Joe's or any health food store. I didn't have time to go to Trader Joe's. I found it at my local grocery store.

No Gluten

This is what the recipe calls for.

I pound the chicken breast until it's about an half inch thick. I use dried basil instead of rosemary (the recipe calls for rosemary) because the favor was too overpowering for my kids. I like it both ways. My family likes the basil better. I also switched out the olive oil to cook the chicken breast to either coconut oil or grape seed oil. Both coconut oil and grape seed oil are healthier cooking options than olive oil. They have a higher flash point and stay stable at higher cooking temperatures. You will use less oil when cooking. You can't tell the difference in taste. I finish the recipe off with olive oil for the dressing.

This is how I serve it with tons of fresh arugula and cherry tomatoes on top of the chicken breast. The veggies are the main dish and the protein is the side dish. You can't see it, but there is a piece of yummy chicken under all those veggies. I also made a side of oven roasted peppers and red onion. I roast the peppers and onion at 350 degrees for about 20 min. with some salt and pepper and a little grape seed oil.

Quick, Yummy, and Healthy!

The Perfect Valentine's Day Dessert

My friends know I'm not a big dessert maker or eater, but my family is. My husband in particular loves sweets and his favorites are anything that contain chocolate and orange. He has no problem finishing a sleeve of Girl Scout cookies in one sitting. He runs just about every day and still has six pack abs. so he can get away with it. I on the other hand can't and so I don't indulge in sugar very often.

My Sister-In-Law gave my a subscription of Bon Appetit Magazine for my birthday (Thanks Sandy!). I received my first issue this last week and decided to try a new recipe. I haven't tried any new recipes lately. It seems I've been going to my old favorites. Things are getting a little boring in the kitchen.



I love to cook and I make home cooked meals for my family about six out of seven days of the week. The main reason I don't make many desserts is because baking requires exact measurements. I rarely measure when I cook, thus baking is a challenge for me. I get distracted while I'm baking with laundry, the phone, TV, kids, the dog, etc., it doesn't take much. I sometimes think I have A.D.D. or maybe it's too much exposure to spray paint fumes? I forget if I'm on one teaspoon of sugar or two, two cups of flour or three? I have to really concentrate. When I saw this recipe containing orange and chocolate, I knew I wanted to try and make it for my family. This is what I tried,

Bitter Sweet Cocoa Souffle's with Orange Blossom Cream.

Click Here for the recipe.

OK I ate one and it was sooo good! Decadent warm gooey chocolate with cool orange whipped cream. Yum!

The only change I made was the substitution of Orange Extract instead of Orange-Flower Water. I couldn't find Orange-Flower Water at our grocery store.

Orange Extract


Blend the whipping cream, orange extract, sugar and orange peel.

Orange Whipped Cream

Pour this into a ramekin and refrigerate.

I had an extra one. Here it is uncooked and made two days ago.

Not only do they taste delicious, they can be made ahead of time and popped in the oven while you're clearing your Valentine's table of dishes.

Here is the same one pictured fresh out of the oven.

Make an indentation for the cream.

I added some orange peel on top, but I think the color is clashing with the pink plate, oh well.

They are worth the calories.

Bon Appetit!

Happy V Day!

Fun Things We did On Vacation

The kids went back to school today. We had a very nice winter break enjoying our home town of San Diego for the Holidays.

Santa brought me some new volleyballs so I played when our games didn't get rained out.

We celebrated Christmas Eve at our house this year.

We spent time with family. Here are the girls with their cousins Jake and Sam. They are all getting so big.

The girls got ipads for Christmas.


Thank you Grammy and Bucky!

We enjoyed the local food at one of our favorite breakfast places,

Hash House A Go Go.

If you go, be prepared to wait. It's a pretty popular place.

The portions are huge!

This is there house special Eggs Benedict with red pepper cream sauce.

Come hungry.

The wait is more fun when you come with friends.

Cami and Ellie are best buddies.

We spent New Year's Eve at the Mendler's house and we all did a

"Polar Bear Plunge" into their freezing pool at midnight to celebrate the New Year!

Go Maddie!

It was in the low 40's that night and the pool was not heated. The Spa was, so we had a warm place to go after our "ice bath."

Kristy and Don made a delicious meal as always.

To see the amazing dessert Kristy made click here

I took the girls ice skating.

Here's Casey zooming around the ice.

Maddie and Cami.

They always have fun together.

The girls took there last horseback riding lesson last week. They have been riding for about a year and a half. Unfortunately the fees will triple for 2011 and it's not in our budget anymore.
Here is Casey with her favorite horse Duck. Not his real name, but they nicknamed him "Duck" because he is so tall you have to duck when he goes under a tree.

Casey will miss his sweet, gentle nature.

Here is Cami's favorite horse Possum. He looks like someone splattered paint all over him. It's called a bird catcher pattern. When I first saw him I asked Cami who painted him? It was a sad day when we had to quit.

Casey's club team won two tournaments during December and they are preparing for State Cup. Our first game isn't in Lancaster for a change, yeah!

NADO GU13

No soccer for for Cami right now. She is recovering from Osgood Schlatter's. It's a knee injury to the growth plate that is a result of rapid growth. She grew three inches in three months and is still growing. Right know we have her swimming and hopefully she will be back on the soccer field soon.

Soccer games are a family affair.

We make them family outings and we love going to the kid's games.

Looking back at our break I see a re-occurring theme, eating and playing!

I like it!

I hope you and your family had a great winter break too!