Ravioli in Leftovers

On Wednesday, while my daughter was in dance class, I recycled the leftover chicken stuffed with broccoli from Williams' on Monday night into a fabulous ravioli with cream sauce dish.

I started by heating two tablespoons butter over low in my Le Creuset skillet. When it melted, I whipped in two tablespoons of flour my stirring it around with the bottom of a plastic measuring spoon. Then I added one cup half and half and one cup 2% milk, a pinch of nutmeg and a pinch of four color peppercorn. I used a wooden spatula to stir until it boiled.

Separately, I prepared one bag of Wegmans Ravioli Florentine. I always get raviolis with green vegetable matter inside. It's an easy way to increase our vegetable content.

I chopped the remaining chicken breast until the chicken, broccoli and ham were all diced into small pieces. Then, I added this to the cream sauce and let it simmer. I added the cooked ravioli and let it soak over very low heat, stirring frequently, until everyone came home from dance class.

Creamsicle Frozen Yogurt

Based on my recipe for creamsicle smoothie today I combined in the ice cream machine:

About two cups vanilla yogurt
About one cup strong orange juice
About three tablespoons half and half
About one-half shot Bols Blue Curacao (to keep it from freezing solid like an Italian ice)

Tasted pretty good in liquid form. We'll see when the ice cream maker finishes with it.

And it's green...

Another crustless quiche

I had some milk product, some eggs and some cauliflower that needed using up, so I made a crustless quiche.

So:

• 5 large eggs
• 1 cup fresh half and half
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1/2 head cauliflower
• 3 strips morningstar vegetarian bacon
• 1.5 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
  
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon parsley
• about 2 ounces cheddar cheese

Beat the eggs and the milk products with the parsley. Preheat oven to 425. Heavily butter a deep-dish pie pan. In a skillet, combine oil, bacon, cauliflower and herbs/spices and cook briefly until they smell good.

Add to bottom of pie dish. Add cheddar, in crumbles. Pour egg mixture over top. Place in oven for 20 minutes, reduce heat to 300 and cook at least another half an hour until eggs set and toothpick in center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes.

Pepper Ranch Chicken with French Butter Cream sauce (kind of)

I started this meal with some frozen corn, prepared with no butter or sauce. I also used canned whole potatoes which I cooked in olive oil, low sodium soy sauce (about 50/50 each) and seasonings... in this case I used It's a Dilly. Normally I would use straight dill. You can also use parsley.

The chicken is a variation of Rosemary Pepper Chicken, a French recipe. This is the rosemary chicken recipe as I found it on the Internet about a year ago:

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons cracked pink peppercorns
3 tablespoons cracked green peppercorns
2 skinless boneless chicken breast halves
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup butter, divided
1 clove garlic, pressed
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary

1. Mix together peppercorns and spread over both sides of the chicken breasts. Pound with a tenderizing mallet until they are half as thick as before.
2. Melt half the butter over medium high heat. Fry chicken breasts about five minutes per side. Remove chicken to serving dish and keep warm.
3. Stir in the remaining butter, cream, rosemary and garlic into the skillet mixing it into the juices from the chicken. Simmer for five minutes, stirring constantly. Pour over chicken and serve.

My variations:
I always used four color peppercorns in a grinder. I also never seem to have the rosemary so I substitute whatever seasoning I have on hand. Tonight I used organic ranch dip mix. And I don't use chicken breasts, I use tenders. Oh, and I used half and half not cream. But I did use real butter!

Chai

I wanted something different so I tried my darneddest to make something as yummy as Oregon Chai. I think I did it. I put two Celestial Seasoning Honey Vanilla White Tea Chai tea bags in a big old mug and poured in 32 ounces of boiling water. Then, I left it sit, covered for about ten minutes. Then I took a teaspoon of honey and put it in the bottom of a glass. I added half a mug (about 4-6 ounces) of the tea. Then I added a couple tablespoons of half and half and topped the mug with about 4 ounces of one percent milk. I loved it, and I even served some to my daughter. She loved it too and said I should save some for Daddy.

Omelets

I've finally caught the plague the rest of the family has been carrying around for two weeks. And we had a snow storm. So, for dinner tonight, I made ham-cheddar-mozzarella-broccoli omelets and my husband made homemade french fries.

We went to Sam's Club last night and spent about $50, our first grocery expenditure for March. 4 pounds of cheddar, 2 lbs of colby jack, 18 Egglands Best eggs, Cool Ranch Doritoes, tortilla chips, and Puffs plus... Pet supplies... but that's an additional $20. Oh! And multigrain crackers. I think that's the grand tally. No... wait... I also bought a 12-pack of Dannon Natural Yogurt. (As opposed to unnatural yogurt.)

Mystery Curry Quiche

We started a quiche for lunch to use the leftover peas and carrots from my mother-in-law's dinner last night. We used a store-bought pie crust (and I often skip the crust as it's not really necessary). The recipe is a variation of the Betty Crocker's Quiche Lorraine and can be found under the Quiche link if not under Betty Crocker or French.

Today we pressed the crust into the dish, added the veggies and some grated parmesan and chunks of monterey jack (because it does not shred/grate). These were the only cheeses in the house. For spices, I added some four-pepper blend, about a teaspoon of garlic powder a dash of curry, and a dash of cumin. And I used 1.5 cups of half and half since I didn't have heavy cream. The recipe calls for two cups of the cream. I've found that other milk products can be substituted for the cream, but it will take longer to cook if you use the full amount they suggest.

This certainly turned out to be my prettiest quiche, and the curry added just the right flavor for the peas and carrots. 

Crustless Broccoli Cheese Quiche

My house smells incredible right now because I have a quiche in the oven. I have to work until seven tonight, so I opted to make a quiche this morning for my family to reheat for dinner. The original recipe is for Quiche Lorraine and comes from my Betty Crocker cookbook. I adapted it, as always. I don't use the crust, simply for ease. It's not necessary and I don't often go through the effort of making a pie crust. I sometimes buy pre-made crusts for pot-pies or quiche. But lately, it didn't seem worth the extra calories or carbohydrates.

My daughter had an apple, chocolate soy milk and a gingerbread cookie for breakfast. I had a piece of pumpkin waffle with peanut butter and Nutella. I'm not sure what we'll have for lunch... It's just the two of us today.

Crustless Broccoli Cheese Quiche

Grease deep dish pie pan. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

1.5 cups half and half (it's supposed to be 2 cups heavy whipping cream, but I didn't have any);

About 1.5 cups fresh broccoli;

garlic pepper;

1 cup shredded cheese (I used leftover Italian blend and some asiago);

5 medium eggs

In pie dish, dump broccoli, sprinkle garlic pepper and cover with cheese. Mix eggs and cream in separate bowl. Pour over broccoli. Cook at 425 for 15 minutes then lower heat to 300 and cook another 30 minutes until texture firms. Stand about ten minutes before serving.

Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas

 After a long weekend working on my take-home final (I spent 15 hours at the computer), I recycled that store-bought chicken my mother-in-law presented as dinner Friday. Yesterday, my daughter spent the day with a friend (meals included) and more or less lived on Christmas cookies and then we had Taco Bell for dinner when she arrived home early and unexpected. 

For breakfast, we had gingerbread man (nothing healthy there) and gave the daughter some apple juice and cheddar cheese. By lunch, I had the final complete and emailed off to my French professor so I thought I'd treat the family to a real meal.

My husband bought cream cheese while Christmas shopping yesterday so that's the only item for this recipe that came from outside the house. They turned out a tad saucy but that's because I put in too much liquid. (I'll explain as I progress here.) It was so yummy my daughter asked for seconds and we didn't have any more burrito shells thawed so we poured the sauce over tortilla chips for her. That suited her just fine. The leftovers I will use as sauce for spaghetti, since it's so juicy and protein rich.

This recipe is adapted from a free Kraft cookbook I picked up at the grocery store during the 1992 Olympics. Their recipe is from the Champion Chicken chapter. Creamy Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas. Now, as usual, I veered greatly. I don't think I can post the original recipe without confusing what I made. So, I'm posting mine.

Use Up that Gross Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas

1 clove garlic, sliced; 

1 tablespoon butter; 

1 teaspoon olive oil; 

leftover chicken; 

1/4 cup half-and-half; 

1 can petite diced tomatoes (and the liquid);

1 teaspoon spicy Indian chili powder; 

1 teaspoon ground cumin; 

1 teaspoon basil; 

8 oz cream cheese; 

3 oz mild cheddar; 

3 oz extra sharp cheddar; 

about 1 cup fresh broccoli; 

tortillas

In a fairly large saucepan, heat oil, butter and sliced garlic over medium-low. After a minute or two, when the aroma begins, add the half and half and spices. Cook for a couple minutes. Add tomatoes (if you don't want it as juicy as mine, pour off the liquid first). Add broccoli, chopped as small as possible. Add cream cheese and cook over medium for about five minutes. After the cream cheese melted, I added my chicken into the pot, but you can leave the chicken plain and pour the sauce over it. I like giving the chicken a chance to absorb the flavors. After a few minutes, add the cheese. When cheese melts, dish onto tortillas and serve.