Classic Lemon Pepper Chicken

Hey, a new post! It’s been a while. Sorry about that. It’s not that I never cook anymore, but rather that it’s pretty hard to find the time to cook and take pictures and then blog about the experience when you’ve got a baby. Normally, whenever I get a few free minutes, I spend them trying to frantically brush my teeth, clean the dishes, and do whatever else I can do around the house before Baby wakes up or needs my attention again.

But Baby is sleeping peacefully in her crib right now, and the dishes are done (because hubby picked up dinner on the way home), so I’ve got a little time. So I’ll share a super simple recipe that I found and tried out a few days ago.

When I’m strapped for time, baby or not, I look for recipes with few dishes to clean, few ingredients to use, and few steps to go through. This is one of those recipes.

First, start with a little bit of all-purpose flour.

Add a tablespoon of lemon-pepper seasoning, which you bought several years ago for a recipe and have barely touched since, and won’t toss out even though you’re not supposed to hold onto spices for long because hey, there’s nothing wrong with it.

Mix the flour and seasoning up.

Next, prepare some chicken breasts. Mine were big, so I used a big knife to cut them into thinner pieces. I failed at making them similar sizes. Oh well, you win some and you lose some.

Throw some butter in a skillet…

And then, one by one, dip pieces of chicken in the flour. Turn it so it’s coated on both sides.

And drop them in the pan. Don’t overcrowd the pan too much; do the chicken in shifts if you have to (and I had to).

After a few minutes of sizzling, turn the chicken over.

And that’s it! Take it out of the pan when it’s cooked through, and you’re done. Serve with some green beans and potatoes or something like that, and you’ve got a fairly healthy (except for the whole frying-in-butter part) and easy meal.

A nice way to use the chicken breasts that I always seem to have on hand and not know what to do with.

Source: Classic Lemon Pepper Chicken

Bacon Parmesan Pasta

So, it’s been a really long time since I’ve posted! I have a good reason, I promise.

I’m pregnant!

Yep, hubby and I are expecting our first baby right at the beginning of the new year!

This means that pretty much since the beginning of May, I’ve been pretty uninterested in cooking. This is partly because I haven’t had much energy, particularly at the beginning when I would come home from work, lay down on the couch, and fall asleep to Friends reruns. But it’s also partly because I just haven’t been interested in food.

Let me clarify. I have been very, very interested in food like boxed mac and cheese and good old grilled cheese sandwiches made with American cheese singles and white bread. Really, anything that involved cheese. But nothing that required effort.

Poor hubby has endured lots of meals that are thrown together with a jar of spaghetti sauce, a bag of frozen meatballs, and a box of spaghetti.

In the past week or two (I’m well into my second trimester now), I’ve started to get back into cooking, but so far it’s been things I’ve made and blogged about before.

Until tonight! You are finally getting a new post about something I’ve made!

Of course, it was a meal based almost entirely on the fact that I haven’t been to the grocery store lately and didn’t have much to work with. Work with me.

I present: bacon parmesan pasta!

Start off with a chopped onion. I had less than I wanted, but the only other onion I had was pretty old and soft. So this was it. Sorry for the blurry pic.

Next, I pulled some bacon out of the freezer and thawed it. I’d purchased it when I only needed a few strips for a chicken salad, so the rest was up for grabs.

I tried to chop it up with a big knife, but that didn’t work out so well.

So I used my kitchen shears. This is why I’m always on hubby’s case not to use these as general household scissors….

Toss the bacon in a big pan and start frying it up.

After a little bit, I added the chopped onion and a teaspoon or two of minced garlic.

While it cooked up, I opened a can of artichokes and chopped them.

Back to the bacon, because I like to jump around a lot. I spontaneously added some pure maple syrup to the bacon/ onion/ garlic mixture.

Oh, did I mention I’ve been cooking pasta in another pot? No? Well, I have. Problem is, I assumed that two boxes of Wegman’s brand farfalle pasta would have the same cooking time and combined them, only realizing later that they have two different cooking times. Thanks, Wegman’s. So some of my farfalle was cooked better than other farfalle.

So after the pasta is cooked and drained, I added a bit of olive oil and tossed it until coated.

I didn’t want to drain the bacon and lose all the grease (potential flavoring), so I just used a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon and onions straight to the pasta.

Then I opened a can of diced tomatoes and added some.

Next, I added the artichokes.

Finally, seasonings. Some salt…

Some pepper…

Some Italian seasoning…

And some basil…

After I’d stirred it all up, I poured in a little of the bacon grease to give it flavor and body. Not all of it, just some.

Finally, some grated Parmesan cheese. This really should have been fresh, not the stuff in a green plastic can, but oh well. Like I said, this was made with stuff I had handy.

And since I wasn’t following my recipe too closely, I went back and tweaked ingredients after giving it a taste. I added more tomatoes, etc. Finally, it was ready to eat!

Yum!

Quite tasty. Satisfied the pregnant lady’s obsession with carbs, while also giving hubby plenty of bacon. I liked the sweetness of the maple syrup against the savoriness of everything else (that’s totally not a word, by the way). Not the healthiest thing ever, given how much of the bacon fat went into it, but I’m not counting calories right now and I haven’t gained too much weight to date so I can’t say I care too much. It was yummy and it’ll reheat well.

If you’re interested in the original, there it is. It was fairly basic (didn’t have the maple syrup, tomatoes, artichokes, or seasonings), but it’s a good place to start. It was kind of fun to make the dish my own for once, rather than following a recipe to the letter. Enjoy!

Outlaw Potatoes

There’s a little barbecue joint near us.

We’re not sure what it’s called. The owners themselves don’t seem to really know what it’s called, either. In some places, it’s “Taste of Texas,” and in others, it’s “Texas BBQ Joint.” Neither are particularly imaginative, but I don’t really mind because their food is pretty good.

One thing on their menu is a concoction called, “Outlaw Potatoes.” It’s a baked potato smothered in sour cream, cheese, green onions, and either pulled pork or chicken.

This is my own version of it.

I did this first part the night before, since I want dinner to be ready when I got home today and didn’t really want to wait forever. Anyway, last night, I coated russets in olive oil, sprinkled them with coarse kosher salt, and put them in an oven. The foil underneath was to catch oil as it dripped.

After an hour, they were soft when squished, so I took them out, let them cool, and refrigerated them.

Next, I prepared the slow cooker Texas pulled pork. First, put some vegetable oil in the crock pot. I was using brand new measuring spoons because most of mine have mysteriously (and maddeningly) disappeared from my kitchen over the last month or so. I have no idea where they’ve gone and this is driving me absolutely crazy. Two sets, practically obliterated. *sigh*

Next, put a chunk of pork in there. The recipe said to do four pounds, but this piece here was that big and seemed like far too much.

So I cut it in half

And only put half in the crock pot. The other half went in the freezer. I think I’ll be making jambalaya soon with it.

Now for the sauce. Here’s some barbecue sauce (Famous Dave’s, of course).

Normally I like to mix up the sauce separately, but this time around I didn’t want to dirty any extra dishes, so I put it right on the pork.

Then I added some apple cider vinegar.

And chicken broth (I always use reduced sodium, if I can).

We’re just getting started. Here’s a bit of brown sugar added to the pot:

A bit of yellow mustard:

Some Worcestershire sauce:

Some chili powder:

Some dried thyme:

And finally, some minced garlic:

I had waited until this point to mix it together, but now was a good time for that.

Lastly, I chopped an onion and added that.

And with that, I put the lid on it and put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, I took it out and plugged it in.

After I got home from work that afternoon, it smelled amazing. This is what it looked like:

Remarkably fork tender.

Just a few minutes of shredding with two forks, and this is what it looked like.

Now for the assembly. First, I sliced a potato lengthwise, heated it up in the microwave, and pushed the ends toward each other to open it up a bit.

Added some plain Greek yogurt (healthier than sour cream!), shredded cheese, and chopped green onions. They probably would have added crumbled bacon at the Taste of Texas, but I didn’t think it would really add a ton so I didn’t bother.

Then, finally, I topped everything with the pulled pork.

Very delicious.

An easy dinner, and a satisfying one. Very flavorful and filling.

And very easy. Perfect for a weeknight.