Thursday, July 30, 2009

Grilled Green Chile and Cheese Sandwich



My sister moved into my house and I'm thinking it means I might cook more often now that there's someone else around. I had leftover green chiles from last week's Wednesday night dinner, and some leftover havarti cheese, and the perfect recipe came to mind—Pioneer Woman's favorite sandwich. The sandwich consists of green chiles, tomatoes, red onions, and cheese with a sauce made of dijon and mayo. It was pretty delicious. On the side I roasted some sweet potatoes and threw together a salad. For the sweet potatoes, just toss them in olive oil, add a little salt and pepper, and roast for 35 minutes at 375 degrees. Delish!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Wednesday Night Dinner: Southwest Salad and Baked Flautas



Despite its lack of prettiness, it was a pretty delicious and easy dinner. I picked up some fresh tortillas at the farmer's market so it guided my decision to go with a Mexican dinner. I love Southwest salads and then I found a recipe for Black Bean and Green Chile Baked Flautas from For the love of cooking. We also made homemade guacamole.

Here's my Southwest salad recipe and you can find the baked flautas recipe at the link above. The flautas are a great vegetarian recipe too.

Southwest Salad
romaine
spinach
tomatoes
red onions
avocados
corn kernels
black beans
grilled chicken

Toss together and serve with a spicy ranch dressing.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Chicken, Broccoli, and Mushroom Alfredo



I've been a terrible updater, I know. And for those of our readers who don't know, Sarah Michelle's absence is due to the fact that she's working at a camp in Hawaii this summer. I haven't even posted Wednesday night dinner, but there hasn't been much of a Wednesday night dinner recently with people being gone. Brad and I went out for dinner one week, then there was a canceled dinner, then last night, Brad and I went out for dinner again. The Wednesday night dinners will resume eventually. But tonight, I bring you Chicken, Broccoli and Baby Bella Alfredo.

Alfredo sauce is one of those things that should be remarkably easy to make and yet, I have never been satisfied with my alfredo sauce. But my parents are out of town this week and I'm making dinner for my sisters and one of them requested pasta and the other requested white sauce. I didn't love tonight's sauce, but it was my best attempt yet. And when it turned out that I had misjudged how much sauce I needed, I whipped up a terrific bechamel sauce to add to what I had previously made. Winging it for the win.

Recipe:
pasta (I used whole wheat rotini)
chicken breasts
broccoli crowns
sliced baby bella mushrooms
Parmesan cheese, shredded
milk
butter
flour
salt
pepper

Heat olive oil in pan over medium high heat and brown sliced chicken breasts. Remove chicken and add mushrooms and broccoli to pan with a few tablespoons of water. Cook till mushrooms are tender and broccoli is firm, yet tender. Remove from heat. Melt butter in pan, whisk in milk, and then slowly whisk in tablespoon of flour. Sauce should thicken slightly, then whisk in Parmesan. Whisk continuously until cheese melts and sauce is desired thickness. Salt and pepper to taste. Toss in chicken, veggies and pasta.

And if you happen to need a bechamel, because you, like me, don't measure, just whisk together more butter, milk and flour. I start with a tablespoon of flour and add until I reach the desired thickness.