Cilantro Lime Rice

Cilantro Lime Rice

Adapted from Culinary Hill

Serves 2-4

INGREDIENTS:
2 Cups basmati or long-grain rice
2 ¼ Teaspoons salt, divided
1 bay leaf
1 Teaspoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
2 Tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

DIRECTIONS:
To cook long-grain rice in a rice-cooker, add rice, water (according to manufacturer's instructions), 2 tsp salt, bay leaf, and oil. Close rice cooker, plug in, and turn on. Cook according to manufacturer's instructions.
When the rice is finished, remove bay leaf. Stir in cilantro, lime juice, and lemon juice. Add additional salt to taste. Serve hot or at room temperature.

White Bean Dip

What an easy make ahead dip for parties and a nice change from the sour cream dips! The recipe is adapted from Giada De Laurentiis.

I adapted the recipe with beans seasoned with garlic, rosemary, and sage (Wegman's Tuscan Cannellini Beans). Because the beans were flavored I changed the recipe to only combine the beans (not rinsed, slightly drained), lemon juice, and 1/4 cup olive oil. I used a box of wheat crackers instead of making my pita chips as well.

This recipe can be easily adapted! Alternate flavors to use with the beans include roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, extra garlic, basil, thyme, and more!

White Bean Dip and Pita Chips
Serves: 6 servings (or more depending on how polite everyone is!)

Ingredients
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 cup (loosely packed) fresh Italian parsley leaves
Salt & Black Pepper
Pita Chips/Crackers

Directions
Place the beans, garlic, lemon juice, 1/3 cup olive oil, and parsley in the work bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the mixture is coarsely chopped. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Transfer the bean puree to a small bowl.

Chicken Fajitas

I was looking for ways to change up our regular grilled chicken and this is one of the new recipes that I tried!  This recipe is adapted from Simply Recipes.

It was nice that this whole meal could be prepared on the grill since it has been so hot outside! 

I made a couple substitutes based on what was available in the house. I used lemon juice instead of lime juice, garlic powder instead of garlic cloves, and red pepper flakes instead of jalapeno.

Yum!

Chicken Fajitas

Serves 4

1 pound of chicken breast

3 peppers, sliced into stripes

2 small onions, sliced into stripes

Marinade
2 tbsp lime juice or lemon juice
3 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced or 1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder or 1/4 tsp of cayenne powder and 1/4 tsp paprika
1/2 jalapeno, seeded and minced or 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Butterfly the chicken breast. Put into a pie plate.

Combine all marinade ingredients in a small bowl. Pour over chicken.

Marinade for 1 hour at room temperature or in the fridge for 4-6 hours.

While grill is preheating, put the veggies on a large piece of tinfoil, fold the foil in half. Fold the edges in to form an envelope/packet. Put on the grill for 10 minutes while grill continues to heat.

Grill the chicken for 3-6 minutes per side. Once cooked remove from heat and onto a plate to rest. 

Continue to cook peppers and onions until charred.

Slice chicken and serve on a tortilla.

Lemonade Yogurt Popsicles

Another stolen recipe from Angela! She made these the other night and I had to make them at home! These are very refreshing and tangy!

If you use an ice cube tray: Pour mix into the wells. Cover the top with tin foil and put popsicle stick into each cube hole.

Variations: try using substituting limes or oranges for the lemons!

Lemonade Yogurt Popsicles 
makes about 5 pops

2 lemons, about 1/2 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 vanilla yogurt  (regular or Greek style)
Honey (optional)
Popsicle mold or ice cube tray

Zest the lemons, use only the color part and not the white part underneath.
Juice the lemons.
Mix juice and zest into the yogurt.
Taste, if it is too tart add 1 tbsp of honey until it tastes how you want.
Carefully pour into the molds and freeze 6+ hours

To remove from the popsicle mold: place pop under warm running water for 15-20 seconds and then try to remove. If it doesn't come out put under water and repeat.

Cilantro and Garlic Lemon Pasta

You may have seen my previous post for Garlic Lemon Egg Pasta, and since then I have made this several times. We are trying to use up a big bundle of fresh cilantro - so you will see lots of cilantro in the next few posts! 

The cilantro adds a nice flavor and lightens up this pasta dish! 

Happy eating!

Cilantro and Garlic Lemon Pasta

makes 2-3 servings

1/2 box of pasta noodles
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1/4 cup white or red onion
5 cloves of garlic, smashed in the press
a few dashes of Salt and Pepper
1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
Lemon (1/3 cup lemon juice)
1/2 to 3/4 cup Cilantr, chopped
3 eggs (3 egg whites, 2 yolks), "beaten in preparation for scrambling" 
1/2 bag of baby Spinach

Cook pasta according to directions. Once the pasta is cooked, drain but reserve about a cup or two of the pasta water.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a pan on medium. Add onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Once onion is translucent lower pan to med low and add in eggs, cilantro, and lemon juice. Stir and let the eggs get to a soft scramble stage. Feel free to add in a small bit of butter at this point too. This should get wet puffy egg mixture. Add in spinach and wilt for a minute, it will continue to cook down once you add the pasta. Combine with pasta and add in a little pasta water to thin out the sauce.
Combine with pasta and add the pasta water a little at a time until the sauce is the consistency you want.

Chicken Piccata

Are you ready for some restaurant style chicken piccata? In less than 30 minutes I couldn't believe that I made!  I read a bunch of recipes to determine how I would go about creating this dish.  I looked at Giada de Laurentiis's recipe and this blog.  

This tasted just like from the restaurant and was very straightforward to make.  This will be added to the regular meal rotations, as these are regularly stocked ingredients.

I tried to butterfly the chicken breast, but it wouldn't cut evenly. We had several smaller pieces that I tried to make flatter, but I didn't really understand what I was doing... Next time I will be patient and cut the chicken right. The flour parmesean breading was tasty and was nicely golden once I added in more oil. Before I added more oil the chicken was cooking but not getting any color or looking very moist.

I wanted to have some sort of green vegetable in the dish so I tossed in some arugula leaves at the very end so it would wilt.  This part took maybe 2-3 minutes as leafy greens can overcook very quickly.

I was reviewing recipes and they recommend using either a white wine sauce or chicken broth for making the lemon sauce.  Originally, I was going to use the chicken stock, but at the last minute, I went for the white wine sauce.  It was a great choice!

orig from 5/30/2013
updated 4/3/2015

Enjoy!

 

Chicken Piccata
Serves 2

~2 cups dried pasta
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
3 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup flour
Fresh cracked pepper
4 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup white wine or chicken broth
3 Tbsp lemon juice (or a w hole lemon if you want)
1/4 cup brined capers
Arugula/Spinach

Start to boil the water for the pasta. Cook pasta according to directions.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium high heat.
Cut the chicken breast halves horizontally. Pound flat or butterfly them to about 1/4-inch thickness. 
Mix together the flour, pepper, and grated Parmesan. 
Dredge chicken pieces in the flour mixture, until well coated.
Add the chicken pieces, brown well on each side, about 3 - 5 minutes per side, depending on thickness. Remove the chicken from the pan and reserve to a plate. 
Add the white wine, lemon juice, and capers to the frying pan used for the chicken. 
Reduce the sauce, generally I let it cook until the pasta is done.
Melt in the butter, wilt arugula/spinach. 
Add the drained pasta to the sauce. Plate the pasta and add chicken on the top!

Garlic Lemon Egg Pasta (Carbonara?)

This was a combination from recipes such as Lemon Spaghetti by Gianda De Laurentiis,  Baked Lemon Pasta by the Pioneer Woman, and Spaghetti al Limon by Smitten Kitchen. Additionally I looked at carbonara recipes because I wanted to add some protein to the meal and there were only eggs in the fridge. Since I don't really cook with cheese and there was no bacon... it isn't really a carbonara. But for the sake of this meal - carbonara it is!

We added carrots but some broccoli or asparagus or peas would have been a nice addition. Fresh basil or some parsley would have been great too!

Garlic Lemon Egg Pasta (Carbonara!?)
1/2 box of Pasta
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 tbsp Butter
5 cloves of garlic, smashed in the press
a few dashes of Salt and Pepper
1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
Lemon (1/3 cup lemon juice)
Veggies (optional)
3 eggs (3 egg whites, 2 yolks), "beaten in preparation for scrambling"

Cook pasta according to directions. Once the pasta is cooked, drain but reserve about a cup or two of the pasta water.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a pan. Add 1/2 tbsp of butter. Once melted add salt, pepper, and a few red pepper flakes. Add the veggies and the lemon juice.  Turn frying pan to low. Pour the eggs in the frying pan and stir until it is combined with the butter and oil mix. This should get thicker and all take on the same consistency as it gets scrambled .

Combine with pasta and add the pasta water a little at a time until the sauce is the consistency you want.

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

A big winter storm blowing in up north... So I thought I'd give you guys a new recipe to warm up with! Pretty much this is a chicken noodle soup but with lemon added to the broth. But it is a light meal if you have a bigger lunch and this can be prepared very quickly!

I adapted this recipe from two blogs (Panera's Low Fat Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup and Two Peas and Their Pod) to create the recipe below.

To adjust this to a faster cooking time use precooked chicken (left overs or store bought rotisseree chicken). If you have fresh chicken instead, cook it in the skillet while the onions/carrots/celery are cooking and the broth is starting to come together. This also would have a been a great soup minus the chicken too, just add in some extra veggies and it would be so flavorful!!
 
I didn't have orzo so I broke up some pieces of linguine and used that instead. I had a small bit of broccoli left over so I added that in the pot. Some baby spinach or green beans also could have been a nice addition. I might sub in chickpeas or cannellini beans next time fo the chicken.
 

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

Makes 2-3 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, diced

1 carrot, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch thick

1 celery stalk, thinly sliced

4 cups of chicken broth
Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1 lemon (about 1/3 cup)

1 bay leaf

1 1/2 cups orzo pasta

2-3 cups diced chicken

1 tsp dried flat-leaf parsley

Salt and pepper, to taste

In a large stockpot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Sauté the onion, garlic, carrots, and celery until tender, about 5 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper.

Add the chicken broth, lemon zest, and bay leaf and bring to a boil.

Add the chicken and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Add dried parsley and lemon juice.

Meanwhile, cook pasta separately according to the box directions, and then combine into the soup when serving.

Discard the bay leaf prior to serving. Ladle the soup into bowls and serve!

Pasta with Chicken Sausage, Sun Dried Tomatoes, Zucchini, and Spinach

I was looking for something tasty to make for dinner and I found this recipe. Of course, this is my version of it.

I went to the store and picked up some of the ingredients and got to work!

There aren't always spices on hand when I'm cooking, so my go to trick is to buy Italian chicken sausage. It has all the spices you need!. I purchased some mild chicken sausage, (I used 3 of the 5 in the package) took it out of the casing (because that's what always happens when I try to slice it...) and tossed it into a hot frying pan.

I couldn't find the jars of sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, so I went to the olive bar/salad bar in the grocery store and picked out a few maybe a 1/4 cup and then grabbed 2 cloves of garlic out of the tomato and mozzarella salad mix. This was perfect because I didn't end up with any leftovers! I rough chopped those and added them into frying pan.

Next I sliced up the zucchini into circles and added it to the frying pan. While that is cooking up and being stirred on occasion, I boiled and cooked half a box of pasta.

The pasta and veggies finished cooking around the same time. So I added half a bag of baby spinach and the drained pasta to the frying pan. I added black pepper and some salt to taste.

Now was the really making things up part. I couldn't find the marscapone cheese at the grocery store so I purchase plain Greek yogurt and a lemon. But for the sake of this story, I combined the juice of 1/2 a lemon with the container of yogurt and used half in the dish. I added some pasta water to thin it out as well.

Honestly, I think it would have been just as tasty drizzled with olive oil and lemon. I would try that next time. Others have suggested Parmesan cheese too.

Overall? I loved the meal! I'd make it again, especially since it takes about 20 minutes!!


Pasta with Chicken Sausage, Sun Dried Tomatoes, Zucchini, and Spinach
Makes approx 3-4 servings

Olive oil 
3 mild Italian spiced chicken sausage, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Salt and pepper
1/3 c chopped sun dried tomatoes
1 zucchini, sliced
8 oz baby spinach
8oz of pasta
Lemon juice

Heat oil in a frying pan. Add sausage and garlic. When mostly cooked through add sun dried tomatoes and zucchini.
Meanwhile, cook pasta according to box instructions. Take out 2 minutes early.
When pasta is done add to frying pan with spinach.
Coat with olive oil and lemon juice.

Enjoy!!

Blueberry Muffins

I love blueberries. I remember making "jam" when I was camping with my family, my cousins and I would spend several hours picking berries from the nearby bushes and then mashing them up with a rock. We added sugar packet upon sugar packet in the violet staining, muddled, clumpy mess. Then it would be spooned into a jar and given to our grandmother... who knows if she actually ate it. Honestly, I hope she didn't, I can't remember if we washed the rocks or rinsed them off in the lake before pulverizing the lovely ripe berries.

My grandmother also made the best blueberry pie for my birthday too... So, blueberries have a special place in my heart. I've been looking at different recipes, always searching for that perfectly textured muffin. This is a combination of 2 different recipes.  One is based of Cooks Illustrated (found here) and the other is from The Cookie Scoop blog (found here). 

I really loved the idea of a blueberry compote, (practically blueberry pie filling!), mixed into the muffins, so I wanted to incorporate that step. The recipe called for 1 cup of blueberries with 1 tsp of sugar, heat over medium heat and then mash down as they heat up, let it cook until its reduced by about a 1/4 cup. I just dumped a bunch of berries into the pot, I figured I could use the compote on toast or an English muffin if I had that much left over. I also had a few raspberries that I threw in mix. :) Love berries. I let it cook down until it smelled so yummy and was thick and jam-y. While the berry mixture was cooling I started on my muffin batter. 

I mixed the dry ingredients together and then mixed the wet ingredients in another bowl. Now, muffin batter is very delicate, do not over mix. Mix until JUST combined and not a moment longer. Combine the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients, and add the berries in. 

Spoon the mixture into prepared muffin tins, fill about half way. Then add a spoonful of the compote into the middle, and cover with more muffin batter (until 2/3 filled). These muffins don't rise too much. Bake about 15 minutes or until the tester toothpick comes out clean.  

These are denser muffins, almost a biscuit type texture. Imagine the muffin heated in a pan with some butter?? Yum! And the compote was essentially blueberry pie filling - I would (and maybe did) eat this with a spoon!

Both recipes had glaze or sugar crunch toppings which I didn't do because I lacked the ingredients. 

These muffins freeze well too.

Blueberry Muffins
Makes 9-12 

Ingredients:

Spoon batter & compote into prepared tins

1 1/2 cup frozen or fresh blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg slightly beaten
1/3 cup apple sauce
1/3 cup milk (I used light cream because that was in the fridge)
A few tbs of Lemon juice 

Compote:

Heat 1 cup of berries with 1 tsp sugar on the stove. Mash the berries as they heat up until they are broken down and the mixture is thick and gooey and reduced down to about 1/4 cup. Transfer into a bowl and allow it to cool. (My berries were frozen so it took about 10-15 minutes for this step)

Batter:

Mix sugar, flour, baking powder, salt in a bowl
Combine egg, apple sauce, milk, and lemon juice
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients
Stir in the rest of the berries

Spoon batter into the prepared muffin tins about 1/3 filled, put in a healthy spoonful of the compote, and top with some more batter.

Pop into the 400 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. 

Let cool on a rack!

Enjoy!!