And Then There Was This...

You can't always walk into the kitchen and come out with something that you are proud of.  I have to admit that when picking out this recipe,  Gnocchi with Zucchini Ribbons & Parsley Brown Butter, I assumed it was going to be good and that I wouldn't have any issues making it.  Doesn't the title make it sound like a worry free night?  Boil some pasta, cut some zucchini and cover it all in a butter sauce.   

The first thing I had to learn how to do was use a mandoline.  It's never a good idea to let me be around sharp objects.  I'd already been cut once by this mandoline when washing dishes while it was in the sink.  Anthony demonstrated how to use it and I was able to make a few zucchini ribbons with it, but it still made me nervous so I let him make the majority of the ribbons.

The other prep was easy enough chopping shallots and halving cherry tomatoes. 

First you need to boil water for your gnocchi.  I used the packaged kind you find in the pasta aisle.  You could also use frozen.  Then melt the butter in a pan and cook until it's just starting to brown.  Next add the shallots and zucchini.  After adding the zucchini ribbons they just seemed too big for the pan so I sliced them all in half.  The recipe doesn't say to do this, but I couldn't see myself eating pieces of zucchini that big in pasta. 

Once that is soft add the tomatoes, salt, nutmeg and pepper, cook for another 2 minutes.  Stir in the Parmesan cheese (I used the shake kind from Wegman's) and parsley.  Put the gnocchi in and mix until coated. 

Final Product:

(Doesn't this look like a squishy mess?!)

My thoughts:  While this was an easy recipe to make.  The zucchini came out mushy.  I like a more crisp zucchini.  So everything was the same texture...soft. It really needed something in there that would make a little crunch.  This is not something I plan on trying again.  I just don't feel like it's that good of a recipe to start with.

This was supposed to be another budget meal.  Let's see how much it cost:

Items I already had:  butter, nutmeg, salt, and pepper

Gnocchi/$2.79
2 Shallots/$0.41
2 Zucchini/$1.94
Cherry Tomatoes/$3.69
Parsley/$0.75 (split in half with another meal)
Parmesan Cheese/$2.89

Total/$12.47 

I feel like this wasn't really a good deal.  The cherry tomatoes where just too expensive.  Although when you really think about $12.47 for a dinner for two (with enough leftovers for one person's lunch) is pretty damn cheap.  To compare:  when we go out to dinner we typically spend between $40-50 on a dinner for two.  Even buying a pizza would have been more expensive.  You can see the benefit of cooking at home when you think about it that way. 

Next Up:  One Dish Haddock and Rice Pilaf



 

Bacon Wrapped Chicken

Day 19-Did my kitchen depression carry on? Yes and no. I did want to get into the kitchen and cook last night, but only because I wanted to get it over with. The passion is gone people, at least for this week. Being the amazing person I am, I carried on with cooking as planned. No take out tonight! I had a feeling this meal was actually going to taste pretty good so that was the goal that I kept looking towards in order to get through the process.

I wanted to make something with bacon in it this week to honor Anthony, my bacon fanatic husband. I came across a recipe for Bacon Wrapped Chicken on Taste of Home. This is a pretty fattening recipe so if you are looking for something dainty and healthy check out my other posts. Last night I still really didn’t have a side dish in mind for this chicken. I bought some zucchini at the store on Sunday, so I needed to do something with that. I looked through the cupboards and found a partially used box of plain couscous. Perfect! Since I was flying by the seat of my pants with this one, I asked Anthony what I should add to zucchini sautéed in olive oil. He said it would probably only need some onion sautéed with it. Onion! My mortal enemy. Why do we always need to use it?! But alas I decided that would be the best option.

Did I mention this recipe is quick? It’s great for a weeknight dinner. So I started getting the chicken ready. I pounded the chicken out until it was pretty thin. Then I took the chive and onion cream cheese and spread it onto each chicken breast. I think I went a little overboard and could probably use a little less cream cheese next time. Then for whatever reason the recipe says to put a few dabs of butter on top of the cream cheese, so I did. Anyone know what that would be for?? I’m not sure it’s necessary, since I can’t figure out what the butter’s purpose is. Don’t forget some salt after you add the butter. Once that is finished, you roll the chicken breasts and wrap one piece of bacon around each one. Place the chicken breasts seam-side down on a greased baking pan. Pop them in the oven at 400 degrees for 35 minutes.

After the chicken was in the oven I chopped up the zucchini and onion. Once the chicken had been cooking for a bit I started sautéing the zucchini and onion in olive oil. But as is typical with my brain it must have shut down and I put the zucchini and onions in the pan at the same time. Oops! Not a huge ordeal, the onion just didn’t cook the way I really wanted it to. I added some salt and pepper to the vegetables. Once the veggies were nicely sautéed I started the couscous. I love couscous, it cooks so fast! Yay!

Now the chicken is ready to be put under the broiler for 5 minutes. I had to go to the bathroom at this point in the process, so I left the kitchen for a few seconds. Next thing I know the smoke detector is going off. I tell Anthony to deal with it since I was in the bathroom. He comes into the kitchen and checks the chicken and says he saw a fire in the oven. So he shut the oven off and apparently everything was all better. I did notice that there was bacon grease splattered on the oven door, but I never saw a fire just a little smoke inside the oven. If only one person see's the fire, then the fire doesn't exist. Right?

The couscous was mixed into the zucchini and onion mixture, with a tablespoon of olive oil. Looking good, if I do say so myself. The chicken smelled and looked pretty good too. I’m not a good chicken cooker. Chicken makes me nervous, since I’ve gotten food poisoning twice from chicken. Never any cooked at home though, so that makes me feel a bit better about the situation. Plus this chicken was on “fire” so it must be done!

Final Product:

All of this tasted good to me! No complaints. I think I could have done without the extra grease sitting under the chicken. A broiler pan might be the better pan to use next time. When eating the chicken with each bite you get some of the cream cheese goodness and the bacon flavor. Anthony added some parmesan cheese to the top of the couscous and it was the perfect addition. Yum! As far as I know Anthony also liked this meal, but since I’m not sure if he is telling me the truth I’m suspicious!

Totals: 10 minutes prep, 40 minutes cooking time, 1 baking pan.

Next up: Grilled Salmon Bacon and Feta Packets with Kale Chips

Sausage and Zucchini Rice

Day 3-The mood in the kitchen was not a good one. I was frustrated almost from the start. As I was taking out the ingredients, I was getting mad at them. Some examples of my anger: pine nuts (why do I have to toast you? why can’t I buy you already toasted?), zucchini (how the heck do I cut zucchini? why did I pick a recipe with a vegetable in it?), parmesan (I wish I didn’t feel that buying the already grated was a such waste of money!), and onion (AGAIN!!!! WHY?!!!). Am I the only person that feels like this?

I guess 3 days of having to cook is 1 too many for me. The pine nuts ended up a little too toasty. I chopped the onion and decided to call Anthony (my husband, he is allowing me to us his name) in and have him show me how to cut the zucchini. I was a bit spastic (by spastic I mean mad and lacking patience) and ended up having to cut the second one on my own (I couldn’t quite grasp how to make zucchini square, but does it really matter what it looks like? Isn’t taste the important factor?). After butchering the second zucchini and grating the dang parmesan, I was ready to cook.

The recipe originally calls for white rice and hot Italian sausage, but I like to make things a little healthier and more nutritious. So, I substituted the white rice for brown and the Italian sausage for poultry sausage. Once I got the rice started, I moved on to the sausage. The sausage out of the casing felt and looked icky. Trying to crumble it into the pan was useless; all I ended up doing was squashing it a bit. As it was cooking I tried to break the sausage up like ground beef, but it wasn’t as easy. I finally accomplished it. Next it was time to take the sausage out and throw the zucchini in. Now I’ve eaten zucchini plenty of times, but never cooked it. So I know basically what it should feel like when it’s done. This was only supposed to take 4 minutes (are they crazy?!), it ended up taking around 10 minutes. Maybe it was my terrible cutting of the zucchini, but I still don’t think it would only take 4 minutes to get it tender.

Then the recipe gets even screwier. The sausage needs to go back into the pan (with the zucchini) with 1 cup of chicken broth and ½ cup of water. After pouring in the chicken broth, there was no way I was adding the water. It would have been a watery mess. I thought 1 cup of broth might have been overkill. Once that is heated through you add the rice (the rice also took longer to cook then what the recipe said). Maybe that’s why you need the chicken broth, but definitely DO NOT use the water. It would end up too wet.

Final Product:

Overall thoughts about the recipe: The brown rice and poultry sausage were great changes to the recipe. Who cares how the zucchini is cut as long as it’s all roughly the same size. DO NOT use the water. Buying Parmesan cheese already grated is still a waste of money. And give yourself more time then what the recipe says, in case your rice and zucchini do not cook as fast as the recipe says.

I would definitely cook this again. I loved how it tasted. Yum! It felt pretty healthy too, minus the butter. Although I think the butter is part of the reason it tasted really good.

Totals: 25-30 minutes prep time, 30-40 minutes cooking time, 2 pots.

I’m giving myself a break tonight and not cooking. We will be having frozen pizza. Rochester pizza and people from New Jersey do not mix. It’s been decided in our household that we would much rather eat frozen pizza, than have any pizza in the area delivered to us. The crust is way too thick and the sauce is too sweet. There will be more on the pizza topic later.

Where to find the Sausage and Zucchini Rice Recipe-

http://www.rachaelraymag.com/Recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipe-index/dinner-recipes/Sausage-and-Zucchini-Rice